Mother Jones
Out of the four criminal cases that Donald Trump faces, the one scheduled to begin on Monday in a New York City courtroom is not the prosecution that most addresses the threat he posed (and still poses) to American democracy. But it carries powerful symbolism, for of all Trump’s cases, this one reminds the nation […]
Mother JonesEveryone seems to be talking about saving democracy this year. “American democracy, that’s what the 2024 election is all about,” Joe Biden has emphasized, painting the threat of Donald Trump’s return to power as the central issue in the 2024 campaign. “We have to prove that our model isn’t a relic of history.” But the […]
Mother JonesEveryone seems to be talking about saving democracy this year. “American democracy, that’s what the 2024 election is all about,” Joe Biden has emphasized, painting the threat of Donald Trump’s return to power as the central issue in the 2024 campaign. “We have to prove that our model isn’t a relic of history.” But the […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. With just two weeks left until the Democratic primary for western Pennsylvania’s 12th congressional district, climate and environmental groups have overwhelmingly endorsed the anti-fracking incumbent, Rep. Summer Lee. One of the only contested Democratic congressional primaries in the state, the […]
Mother JonesDespite Elon Musk’s enshittification of Twitter, to borrow a term from the novelist and culture critic Cory Doctorow, his rebranded social media platform is still useful to journalists like me to communicate with certain people and to promote good stories, even if its algorithm now seems to further reward clickbait, disinformation, and right-wing trolls. But […]
Mother JonesIn 2007, after Paul Ross Evans pleaded guilty to leaving a bomb outside of a women’s health clinic in Austin, he assured the judge: He never meant for anyone to get hurt. “Except,” he clarified, “for the abortionists.” For almost two centuries, the moniker “abortionist” has branded those who help terminate pregnancies as illegitimate, dangerous, […]
Mother JonesFamine is likely already underway in parts of Gaza, Samanta Power, the top US humanitarian official, said publicly for the first time on Wednesday. While testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Power, administrator of USAID and former US Ambassador to the UN, said that officials have “credible” information that famine is occurring in northern […]
Mother JonesAre you better off now than you were when Donald Trump was president? That’s a dumb question for Republicans to pose, because the answer by most measures would be, “Oh, heck yes!” But plenty of people feel otherwise, either because they are down a right-wing rabbit hole or because the poorer half of the population […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. A group of advocates and Democratic senators gathered in Washington, DC, on Tuesday to decry utilities’ practice of spending customers’ money to advance a pro-fossil fuel agenda. “Americans are already paying the price of climate change,” said Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) at […]
Mother JonesAllen Weisselberg, the longtime chief financial officer for former president Donald Trump’s company, was sent to jail for five months on Wednesday morning. Weisselberg was taken into custody after pleading guilty to perjury, admitting that he lied under oath during Trump’s civil fraud trial last fall. Weisselberg worked for Trump for more than 30 years, […]
Mother JonesShortly after the Arizona Supreme Court upheld a Civil War-era, near-total ban on abortion on Tuesday, Republican Senate hopeful and former gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake blasted the decision as “out of step with Arizonans.” She declined, however, to explain the apparent about-face. Two years ago on the gubernatorial campaign trail, Lake eagerly praised the 1864 […]
Mother JonesDostie Farm, an organic dairy in Fairfield, Maine, was thriving until one day in October 2020 when owner Egide Dostie Jr. got a call from Stonyfield, his exclusive buyer. Something was off with the farm’s milk: Tests had found that it contained three times the state’s allowable level of perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, one of the class […]
Mother JonesThis story is adapted from Ari Berman’s new book, Minority Rule: The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People—and the Fight to Resist It, which will be published April 23. A day ahead of the third anniversary of January 6, President Joe Biden traveled to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania—where George Washington encamped during the Revolutionary War—before […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Canada’s National Observer and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. A plan to charge Toronto homeowners and businesses for paved surfaces on their properties is creating a public backlash, a deluge of negative international media attention and even derisive comments from Donald Trump Jr. The outcry reached such a crescendo last week, […]
Mother JonesThe United States on Tuesday rejected charges that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in its war against Hamas. “We don’t have any evidence of genocide being created,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee in a hearing. Austin told the committee that President Biden’s recent efforts to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin […]
Mother JonesOn Tuesday, the Arizona Supreme Court upheld a 1864 abortion ban, making nearly all abortions in the state illegal and potentially criminalizing healthcare providers with up to five years in prison. The justices said that after the fall of Roe a Civil War-era law, that existed before Arizona became a state, took precedence over a 15-week […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. On March 18, 2022, scientists at the Concordia research station on the east Antarctic plateau documented a remarkable event. They recorded the largest jump in temperature ever measured at a meteorological center on Earth. According to their instruments, the region […]
Mother JonesForbes’ annual list of the 400 richest Americans debuted in 1982 with shipping magnate Daniel Ludwig in the top slot. Ludwig’s wealth, the magazine reported, was $2 billion (about $6.3 billion in today’s dollars). That only 13 billionaires graced the first Forbes 400 now seems almost quaint. Who could have imagined billionaires would quickly subsume the […]
Mother JonesIn a few hours, millions of people across North America will seize the rare opportunity to (hopefully safely) observe a total solar eclipse, when the moon covers the sun and darkens the skies for a few minutes. The Great American Eclipse will stretch from Mexico through parts of Texas all the way to Maine and into Canada, drawing […]
Mother JonesDonald Trump wants to pretend he isn’t to blame for the devastating consequences of overturning of Roe v. Wade—even as he boasts about being responsible for the momentous Supreme Court decision. In a more than four-minute-long video released on Truth Social this morning the presumptive Republican nominee attempted to clarify his nebulous stance on abortion rights. It […]
Mother JonesI am still suffering from Trump-era-induced brain melt. But even against the uncontrolled spigot of dumb that produced my malady, one especially dumb moment stands out: former President Donald Trump’s peek at a solar eclipse. As I wrote at the time, it was a deeply Trumpian incident that, true to character, defied both science and […]
Mother JonesGoogle “America’s Best Idea” and you’ll find there’s a clear frontrunner: our national parks. The United States has 63 now, including southern swamps and deep mountain canyons and forests of saguaro cacti, a collection of beloved landscapes that stretches, to quote the familiar song, “from sea to shining sea.” But America’s preeminent property rights activist, […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In response to growing pressure to address the plastic pollution crisis, Amazon has been cutting down on plastic packaging. Last July, the company said it used 11.6 percent less plastic for all of its shipments globally in 2022, compared to 2021. Much of […]
Mother JonesGeorgia could become the next state to end the subminimum wage for disabled people, a widespread and now widely opposed exception to minimum wage laws that extends to some 40,000 workers with disabilities—and the first state where such an initiative would be led by Republicans. 16 states have passed bills to end or reform the […]
Mother JonesIt seems like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott could use a dictionary. Why? Because on Sunday, the Republican went on Fox News and accused President Joe Biden of “using illegal immigrants as political pawns.” And given his own record, it is unclear if understands what the word means. Chessboards aside, Oxford Languages says a pawn is “a person […]
Mother JonesWorld Central Kitchen founder José Andrés said called for a “deeper” outside investigation of the airstrike that killed seven aid workers for his organization this week, and reiterated his claim that his colleagues were “deliberately attacked” and “targeted.” In an exclusive interview that aired Sunday on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” Andrés said he […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. When Maggie Reddy was growing up on the eastern coast of South Africa in the 1990s, the tiny oceanside town where her family lived offered just two recreational options for children: the library and the beach. […]
Mother JonesWhen Caitlin Clark’s historic college career reaches its finale following Sunday’s NCAA championship game vs. undefeated South Carolina, the WNBA will welcome her and her legions of young fans with open arms. Jersey sales, ticket sales, and endorsements will bring in millions of dollars for the team that drafts her—and for the league itself. This […]
Mother JonesWhen Americans of a certain age hear the word “paraquat,” the first thing that might leap to mind is Mexican weed. That’s because, in the late 1970s, the United States government thought it would be a good idea to pay the Mexican government to spray this potent herbicide on marijuana fields south of the border. […]
Mother JonesAre Russian military defectors spies? War criminals? Or heroes? That’s one of the central questions of this week’s episode of Reveal, which follows the dramatic journey of an officer who deserted the Russian army, fled the country, and now lives in exile. This week, Associated Press reporter Erika Kinetz examines the costs of people who […]