Mother Jones
This story was originally published by Hakai Magazine and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The Cook Islands’ main harbor is a small indentation in the island of Rarotonga, which is the most developed of the nation’s 15 islands, yet still the kind of place where you give directions in mango trees and neighbors, […]
Mother JonesFlorida Governor Ron DeSantis has built his political brand on attacking “wokeness” and refusing to back down—his super-PAC is even called Never Back Down—but his support for Florida’s new education standards that include the claim that slavery helped African-Americans develop skills for their “personal benefit” is testing how well those two strategies can co-exist. The […]
Mother JonesLegal challenges to Donald Trump keep piling up, but despite his best efforts, the former president’s attempts to use the legal system to target his enemies keep coming up short. His latest defeat comes from a federal judge in Florida—a Trump appointee no less—who dismissed a defamation lawsuit Trump had filed against CNN for its […]
Mother JonesThe extraordinary heat stifling the country—and much of the globe—this summer continued to grind on Saturday, with nearly one-third of Americans under some type of heat advisory or warning. But GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville (Ala.), whose previous work experience before being elected in 2020 was as a college football coach, mocked the idea anyone might […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by High Country News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Just inside the rolled-up door of a pumphouse garage, Cole Benak pulled on a pair of black Nitrile gloves. Outside, morning sunshine warmed the quiet wooded hillside. From the room next door, three massive water pumps whined, pushing thousands […]
Mother JonesThe damage from the rollback of a key pandemic-era measure that provided healthcare for low-income Americans continues to unfold. Nearly 4 million people are no longer covered by Medicaid, the Washington Post reports, with many of those dropped for administrative reasons despite still qualifying for coverage. The report is based on a new analysis from […]
Mother JonesElon Musk might not be able to effectively manage Twitter, build a Hyperloop, or fly a rocket into space without exploding. But at least the business that brought him global fame and wealth can deliver on its core promises, right? Wrong. A new Reuters report calls into question Tesla’s ability to do the one thing […]
Mother JonesGreta Gerwig’s Barbie movie starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling has been smashing box-office records left and right. It brought in $162 million during its opening weekend—the biggest debut of the year—and became the best-selling Monday ever for Warner Bros. I just watched the film described in the Atlantic as “a charming blockbuster adventure about the tribulations […]
Mother JonesThe New Federal State of China, a conspiracy theory-promoting group launched in 2020 by Steve Bannon and exiled Chinese mogul Guo Wengui, who the Justice Department has indicted for running a massive fraud scheme, held its gala third-anniversary event in June. Among the mostly Chinese emigres at the event were some notable House Republicans. Fabulist and […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Across the United States, more and more companies are pledging to zero out their greenhouse gas emissions using “voluntary carbon offsets”—credits that represent some amount of climate pollution that’s either prevented or removed from the atmosphere. These credits, bought and sold on […]
Mother JonesFrom the water, the White River canyon was a scene worthy of Ansel Adams. Swallows darted in and out of mud houses packed on the underside of the soaring sandstone cliffs. A lone elk wandered the hillside, while sheep noshed along the water, tended by a man on a horse striking an iconic Western pose […]
Mother JonesSince the 2020 election, GOP-controlled state legislatures have enshrined Donald Trump’s Big Lie by giving partisan actors unprecedented control over how elections are run and how votes are counted. According to the Voting Rights Lab, 29 states have passed 73 new laws impeding the administration of fair elections with efforts that include state legislatures seizing […]
Mother JonesFormer President Donald Trump told a maintenance worker at his Mar-a-Lago club to “delete security camera footage at the Mar-a-Lago Club to prevent the footage from being provided to a federal grand jury,” a new indictment charges. The new superseding indictment filed Thursday by special counsel Jack Smith in Florida says that on June 27, […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Wired and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. It turns out that eating ivermectin is good for something after all. If you’re a deer, that is. And if the goal is to kill the ticks that are biting you—ticks that carry diseases that threaten humans. The antiparasitic drug, which […]
Mother JonesUpon learning that Florida’s new K-12 curriculum standards require teaching middle-schoolers that enslaved people “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit,” I tweeted, facetiously, “Hey, this slavery thing sounds swell! A great learning experience—with free room and board.” The “personal benefit” provision was one of two stunningly tone-deaf requirements related […]
Mother JonesOn Wednesday, a House Oversight subcommittee held a highly anticipated hearing on “unidentified aerial phenomena” (UAP)—more commonly known to the public as UFOs. Though Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) explained in his opening remarks that “we’re not bringing little green men or flying saucers into the hearing,” the hearing still got pretty…far out. The subcommittee heard […]
Mother JonesA plea deal between President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and the Justice Department after a years-long investigation—and that Republicans have attacked as too lenient—hit an unexpected bump on Wednesday when the federal judge overseeing the case questioned the agreement. Hunter Biden last month agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax crimes of failing to […]
Mother JonesIt happened again. A high-profile right-wing figure had to fire a staffer for connections with Nazi stuff. On Tuesday, according to Axios, the DeSantis campaign communications staffer Nate Hochman, somewhat famous as a rising intellectual on the right, was fired for creating a video with the Black Sun (also known as the Sonnenrand), a popular neo-Nazi symbol. […]
Mother JonesThe 2024 presidential election cycle has begun, and the white working class once more has commanded the spotlight. Pollsters obsess over how their economic struggles and resentments influence their political choices. Democrats and Republicans jockey to win their favor, each promising— through different cultural and political appeals—to address their individual and collective needs while igniting a new […]
Mother JonesThe 2024 presidential election cycle has begun, and the white working class once more has commanded the spotlight. Pollsters obsess over how their economic struggles and resentments influence their political choices. Democrats and Republicans jockey to win their favor, each promising— through different cultural and political appeals—to address their individual and collective needs while igniting a new […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Tucker Carlson may be gone from Fox News, but his spirit of climate denialism lives on in his replacement, Jesse Watters. On Monday, Fox debuted Watters’ show—Jesse Watters Primetime—at 8 p.m. That’s the old timeslot of Carlson, whom Fox […]
Mother JonesIn October, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on a core recourse for protecting disabled people’s civil rights: The ability to sue private businesses for inaccessibility under the Americans With Disabilities Act. Inaccessibility isn’t just discriminatory—it can also impact disabled people’s quality of life. If an online portal for a private hospital doesn’t work with screen readers, […]
Mother JonesIn October, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on a core recourse for protecting disabled people’s civil rights: The ability to sue private businesses for inaccessibility under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Inaccessibility isn’t just discriminatory—it can also impact disabled people’s quality of life. If an online portal for a private hospital doesn’t work with screen readers, […]
Mother JonesIn early July, CNN’s Abby Phillip confronted Republican presidential candidate and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy about his position on birthright citizenship, the constitutional principle derived from the 14th Amendment that makes it possible for children born in the United States to automatically become citizens. When asked if he would end that long-standing tradition, Ramaswamy said […]
Mother JonesEditor’s note: The below article first appeared in David Corn’s newsletter, Our Land. The newsletter comes out twice a week (most of the time) and provides behind-the-scenes stories and articles about politics, media, and culture. Subscribing costs just $5 a month—but you can sign up for a free 30-day trial of Our Land here. Please check it out. With Oppenheimer, director Christopher Nolan […]
Mother JonesOn Tuesday, a federal judge in California delivered a blow to the Biden administration’s efforts to manage migrant arrivals at the US-Mexico border. Judge Jon S. Tigar of the District Court for the Northern District of California blocked a controversial rule that severely restricts asylum for most migrants, requiring that they seek protection in third […]
Mother JonesTouring Yellowstone on an e-bike seems preferable to using a car. But can e-bikes actually hurt the environments they allow us to explore? In 2019, near the end of the Trump administration, then–Interior Secretary David Bernhardt instructed national parks to allow e-bikes wherever traditional bikes were allowed. The nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) […]
Mother JonesPresident Biden on Tuesday officially designated national monuments to honor Emmett Till, who was killed at the hands of white supremacists and galvanized the civil rights movement, and his mother Mamie Till-Mobley. The move comes as conservatives around the country work to control, sanitize, and erase critical moments in Black history from public schools. “At a time when […]
Mother JonesAfter weeks of intense negotiations and practice picket lines, the Teamsters union has reached a preliminary five-year contract agreement with UPS, averting a potentially economically devastating work stoppage at the world’s largest package courier company. The tentative contract includes wage increases, the end of mandatory overtime on drivers’ days off, and the elimination of a […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Minerva Contreras can’t keep up with the bills. Recently, after a series of extreme heatwaves in California forced her family to run the AC, her monthly electricity costs rose to about $500. Her water bill averages around $100, but because the water is […]