Donald Trump, a twice-impeached (for now!), twice-arrested former president, remains the GOP voters’ top choice to be commander-in-chief. They do not appear bothered by the fact that Trump has been found liable for sexual abuse, nor do they seem to care that he faces 37 federal charges related to his tendency to store classified documents […]
As my colleague Isabela Dias observed yesterday, Republican presidential hopefuls spent the first anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade kowtowing to the religious right, attempting to outdo one another with deeply anti-abortion rhetoric. But as the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s keynote speaker, it was Donald Trump who took center stage. The […]
This story was originally published by Yale Environment 360 and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. For decades, there have been reports of the deforestation in Africa. And they are true—the continent’s forests are disappearing, lost mainly to expanding agriculture, logging, and charcoal-making. But the trees? Maybe not, according to new satellite data analyzed […]
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. It’s been nearly two years to the day since a freak heat wave obliterated temperature records across the Pacific Northwest. Portland reached a blistering 116 degrees on June 28, 2021, with the heat melting streetcar power cables, buckling pavement, and killing an […]
For GOP presidential hopefuls, the weekend that marked the anniversary of the Supreme Court Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade presented an opportunity to demonstrate just how opposed to abortion they were. At the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference on Friday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, […]
Months of growing tensions between Vladimir Putin, Russia’s military, and the private mercenary Wagner Group fighting for Russia in Ukraine have escalated into a full-fledged crisis. Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the Wagner chief who has become known as “Putin’s chef” over his lucrative catering business deals with the Kremlin, claimed on Friday night that the Russian military had attacked […]
On Friday, the US Supreme Court delivered a ruling that allows the Biden administration to reinstate a policy that sets priorities for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) regarding arrests and deportations. In an 8-1 decision on the United States v. Texas case, the justices concluded that the states challenging the government’s policy didn’t have standing […]
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. As the United States tries to meet its climate goals and address environmental justice issues, cutting greenhouse gases alone might not help communities of color dealing with air pollution. In some cases, it might even hurt them, according to a new study […]
No Labels, the political outfit preparing to run a “unity” ticket in 2024 that Democratic strategists and Never-Trump Republican operatives fear will siphon votes from President Joe Biden, is what’s known as a dark-money group. Unlike political parties, political action committees, and House, Senate, and presidential candidates, it is not required to reveal who is […]
Gov. Ron DeSantis is, famously, on a crusade to transform Florida’s education system into one that projects his own ideology. What’s taken up fewer national headlines is that one of the institutions standing in the way has been the accrediting body for Florida’s institutions of higher education. On Thursday, DeSantis ratcheted up the power struggle by […]
Before debris was discovered on Thursday, Titan, the submersible that took tourists to view the wreckage of the Titanic, the looming tragedy was fodder for widely-enjoyed, if often macabre, internet content. Some Twitter users ripped jokes about the rich getting their just desserts. Others intently scanned social media for updates. And bettors saw an opportunity. Since […]
This story was originally published by Slate and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Eighteen years ago, discarded plastic was common on the streets of Bengaluru, India. Strong winds carried loose plastic bottles and packaging, which piled up in drains after the rain. Indumathi, who uses only her given name, remembers the scene well, […]
As a Black teenager growing up in Wilson, North Carolina, in the 1950s, Milton “Toby” Fitch Jr. wanted to swim in the Olympic-sized pool on the prosperous East side of town—a pool that only white people could use. Like so many places in the Jim Crow South, Wilson, a tobacco town of roughly 50,000 people […]
Some of you have powerful memories of Daniel Ellsberg. You remember the incredible impact he had on the way Americans thought about the war in Vietnam when he leaked the Pentagon Papers back in 1971. My memory is different. It’s from just four weeks ago, when—in hospice care, knowing he had only weeks to live—he […]
On Wednesday, an Atlanta city clerk approved a referendum petition from opponents of the Public Safety Training Center—now perhaps better known as “Cop City”—which is slated to be built on 100 acres of forest in a neighboring part of DeKalb county. If organizers are able to get roughly 75,000 signatures in the next 58 days, […]
It took more than a month to pin down Megan Jeyifo, the executive director of the Chicago Abortion Fund (CAF), for an interview. She’s been understandably busy, growing CAF from an organization that served roughly 30 Illinois residents monthly in 2016 into one of the largest independent abortion funds in the nation. These days, upwards […]
In her 32 years as an advanced heart failure and transplant cardiologist, Mary Norine Walsh has seen very sick patients and many deaths. “We’re not like orthopedists who only see one in their entire career,” says Walsh, a physician at a Catholic hospital system in Indianapolis and the former president of the American College of […]
This story was originally published by The Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. A groundbreaking climate trial came to an early close on Tuesday as lawyers on each side presented a very different picture of who can be held responsible for the climate crisis. Attorneys representing the lawsuit’s young challengers […]
For Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), calling attention to women’s health isn’t new. While campaigning for Senate in 1992, Murray said she would ask all Supreme Court nominees their positions on “personal and civil liberties”—and vote against anyone who didn’t support abortion rights. This was just months after Planned Parenthood v. Casey was decided, which […]
For Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), calling attention to women’s health isn’t new. While campaigning for Senate in 1992, Murray said she would ask all Supreme Court nominees their positions on “personal and civil liberties”—and vote against anyone who didn’t support abortion rights. This was just months after Planned Parenthood v. Casey was decided, which […]
This just in: The scientists have solved it. After a millennium of taunting young biologists and philosophers as Plutarch pondered: “Which was first, the bird or the egg?” the great chicken and egg debate is perhaps coming to a close. The chicken (or, rather its amniote ancestor) has beat the egg. Obviously, eggs of some form or another […]
Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee are waging war on Washington, DC’s traffic laws. In their proposed spending bill for fiscal year 2024, House Republicans tacked on several policy riders that would alter laws in the nation’s capital. Most of the riders are standard conservative fare: repealing DC’s Death with Dignity Act, banning needle exchanges, […]
The primary reason people become unhoused in California is unaffordable housing, including due to loss of income, according to a study released Tuesday. Around a third of the United States’ unhoused population—some 170,000 people—lives in the state. The University of California, San Francisco, Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative interviewed more than 350 unhoused people about the factors […]
John Durham—the special counsel who was appointed by then-Attorney General Bill Barr to investigate the FBI’s investigation of the Trump-Russia scandal and who utterly failed to produce evidence it was a hoax—testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. In doing so, he made false statements to Congress. He might even have lied. Durham spent […]
Watching the political developments in Brazil from the United States for the past several years has often felt like a kind of Groundhog Day series of parallel events—just with different languages and a two-year gap. Far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s rise to power in 2018—he became known as the “Trump of the Tropics”—followed the election of […]
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The makers of Roundup, the world’s top weedkiller, will pay $6.9 million for violating an agreement with the state of New York to stop making false claims about the safety of its best-selling herbicides. Bayer and Monsanto, which was acquired by […]
The patients at Juana Duran’s maternity clinic are terrified. Many are undocumented, and, according to Duran—an administrative staffer at the Florida facility—they are worried that a new law championed by Gov. Ron Desantis could put them at risk of deportation when they give birth. “I know my people,” says Duran. “They are scared.” At the […]
This article was produced in partnership with the nonprofit newsroom Type Investigations, with support from the H.D. Lloyd Fund for Investigative Journalism. Any woman who works in the maritime industry will remember where she was when she read about Midshipman X. This was the pseudonym used by a student at the US Merchant Marine Academy […]
Ten years ago, Marilyn Muller began to suspect that her kindergarten daughter, Lauryn, was struggling with reading. Lauryn, a bright child, seemed mystified by the process of sounding out simple words. Still, the teachers at the top-rated Massachusetts public school reassured Muller that nothing was wrong, and Lauryn would pick up the skill—eventually. Surely they […]
Hunter Biden has agreed to a plea deal with federal prosecutors, finally ending a five-year investigation into the 53-year-old’s failure to pay $1 million in federal taxes and his illegal purchase of a firearm, according to news outlets. After a probe overseen by the Trump-appointed US Attorney of Delaware, the current president’s son was charged […]
This article was produced as a collaboration between Bolts and Mother Jones. On June 25, 2019, in a nightclub in Woodside, Queens, public defender Tiffany Cabán claimed election night victory as the borough’s newest District Attorney. Backed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cabán—a queer Latina woman from Richmond Hill, Queens, who ran on ending mass incarceration and the war on […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Trillions of dollars of subsidies for fossil fuels, farming, and fishing are causing “environmental havoc,” according to the World Bank, severely harming people and the planet. Many countries spend more on harmful subsidies than they do […]
In September 2017, the Social Security Administration sent Gabriel Burgos’ family a letter warning that their income would be cut in half. Gabriel—a Brooklyn high schooler who lived with his mother, Marlena, and father, Jorge, in a public housing apartment—had recently turned 18. That meant the end of the monthly check he got because of […]
Immigrant soldiers have served in every significant US conflict since the Revolutionary War, but their presence in the military is often overlooked. When sociologist Sofya Aptekar went searching for immigrant veterans to interview for her new book, Green Card Soldier: Between Model Immigrant and Security Threat, many workers in veteran support offices told her they […]
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Morgen Bromell, a web designer in Brooklyn, had plans to visit their cousin in Los Angeles at the end of the summer, but last week air quality in New York City was so bad they […]
Newly obtained records from the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (MOHELA) show that executives and employees at the student loan servicer are surprised and dismayed at their company’s central role in the lawsuit before the Supreme Court that seeks to undo Biden’s student debt cancellation plan. MOHELA has never been a party to the lawsuit, […]
Evictions are rising rapidly as pandemic-era moratoriums have ended nationwide. Citing data from the Eviction Lab, AP reports that some cities have seen eviction filings rise 50 percent higher than they were before Covid. “Across the country, low-income renters are in an even worse situation than before the pandemic due to things like massive increases […]
Former Vice President Mike Pence said on “Meet the Press” Sunday that “Women pastors have had a big impact” on his family—but refused to say any more in their defense as Southern Baptist churches have recently moved to expel churches that include women in church leadership. WATCH: Fmr. VP @Mike_Pence says women ministers "had a […]
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. This story was co-published with Sojourners, a nonprofit publication covering faith, politics, and social justice. Rabbi Dean Shapiro recalls considering the future as he looked down at a baby’s head while giving her a Hebrew name and welcoming her into the […]
The city of Minneapolis is asking a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit against the police officer who killed Amir Locke during a February 2022 raid that sparked protests. Locke, a 22-year-old Black aspiring musician, was sleeping on a couch in his cousin’s Minneapolis home, a handgun at his side, when SWAT officers entered without […]
After George Floyd’s murder in 2020, Native Americans stood beside Black protesters in Minneapolis and called for changes to policing. Now, the Justice Department is highlighting how the city’s cops have been racist against them, too. On Friday, the department released a blistering report showing that for years, the Minneapolis police have discriminated against Native […]
Keri Blakinger, a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, hardly owns any furniture. She likes it that way, preferring to sleep on the floor rather than a cushioned mattress, and to keep her clothes permanently in suitcases. It’s not that she can’t afford a bed or dresser: Her career has taken off in the last […]
This story was originally published by Hakai Magazine and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. This article is also available in audio format. In a narrow aisle of shelves packed with cardboard boxes, Jørgen Peder Steffensen grins like a mischievous child unwrapping a holiday present as he pulls out a plastic-wrapped hunk of ice from […]
An overwhelming majority of UPS union workers voted Friday to authorize the right to strike, raising the possibility that the world’s largest package company could cease deliveries in the US as early as August 1. TEAMSTERS AUTHORIZE STRIKE AT UPS pic.twitter.com/AmO2pjKt3v — Alex Press (@alexnpress) June 16, 2023 The Teamsters union, which represents more than […]
After a two-year Department of Justice investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department—that involved a review of thousands of documents, incident files, body-worn camera videos, and department data—Attorney General Merrick Garland revealed his findings today. They were damning. If you look at “MPD as a whole,” Garland said in Minneapolis, there were clear “systemic problems.” The conclusion […]
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) knows that his political theater deploring the alleged abuses of the January 6 prosecutions is incomplete without the presence of a bona fide convict. “I did nothing wrong,” said John Strand in his testimony at a “field hearing” Gaetz staged at the US Capitol Visitor Center on Tuesday—coincidentally the same day […]
This past December, as my mailbox overflowed with screener DVDs of prestige films and television shows designed to capture my vote for the Writers Guild of America Awards, I did what any respectable resident of cozy season would do: I pressed play on Partner Track, a playful romantic comedy series that the Netflix algorithm had […]
The summer of 2020 was hot, explosively so in Portland. Following the murder of George Floyd, few cities erupted as furiously and as long as Portland did. Knowing that protesters on both sides weren’t necessarily keen on the media—particularly photographers—Rian Dundon immersed himself in the thick of the action with an unobtrusive point-and-shoot digital camera. […]
In the lead-up to his recently announced presidential run, Gov. Ron DeSantis ramped up Florida’s use of the death penalty and shepherded through two laws expanding capital punishment. The moves, part of a broader attempt to appear tough on crime, have helped turned the state into an executions epicenter. The latest planned killing is set for Thursday […]
There is no better representative of the moral slide of the Republican Party in the Trump years than House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. This congressman from California, as the ranking House Republican, excoriated Donald Trump after the January 6 insurrectionist assault on the Capitol, declaring that Trump “bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob […]
Thousands of Reddit communities went dark this week to protest the webforum giant’s money-making plans. Ahead of an expected IPO later this year, the company’s CEO announced it would start charging for access to its application programming interface. APIs are a common feature of web platforms, essentially letting anyone peer more deeply under the hood. They […]
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the Indian Child Welfare Act, the landmark 1978 legislation aimed at preventing Native foster children and adoptees from being separated from their families and tribes. The ruling in Haaland v. Brackeen represents a victory for Native tribes, who argued that the case threatened the basic tenets of Native sovereignty, […]
This story was originally published by Slate and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. As the Russia-Ukraine War rages on, its most devastating impacts are adding up and extending far beyond Eastern Europe. Last week offered an extremely grim example: The Kakhovka Dam, perched on the Dnieper River in Kherson province, was blown up on […]
More than five years ago, the MeToo movement exploded and our culture shifted. But what actually changed? This project seeks to reexamine the era by asking how it will alter the lives of the next generation. Last fall, Olivia Krupp, a student journalist at the University of Arizona’s newspaper, The Daily Wildcat, wrote a profile of campus […]
More than five years ago, the MeToo movement exploded and our culture shifted. But what actually changed? This project seeks to reexamine the era by asking how it will alter the lives of the next generation. Last fall, Olivia Krupp, a student journalist at the University of Arizona’s newspaper, The Daily Wildcat, wrote a profile of campus […]
More than five years ago, the MeToo movement exploded and our culture shifted. But what actually changed? This project seeks to reexamine the era by asking how it will alter the lives of the next generation. One of the consequences of the revelations that many prominent men behaved poorly in private was a very public effort to […]
More than five years ago, the MeToo movement exploded and our culture shifted. But what actually changed? This project seeks to reexamine the era by asking how it will alter the lives of the next generation. Nikita Mitchell is the chief strategy officer of Me Too International, an organization founded by activist and advocate Tarana Burke in 2006 to […]
More than five years ago, the MeToo movement exploded and our culture shifted. But what actually changed? This project seeks to reexamine the era by asking how it will alter the lives of the next generation. In 2012, when Evelyn Yang was pregnant with her first child, she was sexually assaulted by her OB-GYN, Dr. Robert Hadden, […]
MeToo was made up of millions of personal stories. There were the bombshell revelations about celebrities, politicians, and the powerful. But the core of the movement felt closer: posts from our neighbors, our teachers, our acquaintances, ourselves. Millions of voices rising into a crescendo screaming, “Enough.” Enough of the old ways, bad habits, and ignorance […]
More than five years ago, the MeToo movement exploded and our culture shifted. But what actually changed? This project seeks to reexamine the era by asking how it will alter the lives of the next generation. “During my four years at Los Gatos High School, I could name five well-known students who had raped young women at […]
More than five years ago, the MeToo movement exploded and our culture shifted. But what actually changed? This project seeks to reexamine the era by asking how it will alter the lives of the next generation. During a 1999 weeks-long expedition to Antarctica with her adviser, Boston University professor David Marchant, Jane Willenbring says she […]
More than five years ago, the MeToo movement exploded and our culture shifted. But what actually changed? This project seeks to reexamine the era by asking how it will alter the lives of the next generation. When Phoebe Bridgers recounted a relationship that she felt was unequal in her song “Motion Sickness,” it was only a few months before the […]
More than five years ago, the MeToo movement exploded and our culture shifted. But what actually changed? This project seeks to reexamine the era by asking how it will alter the lives of the next generation. In the fall of 2017, it felt for a moment that all of our lives would change for the better. It’s strange […]
The Republican queen of flip-flopping is at it again. Shortly after Donald Trump became the first former US president to get indicted on federal charges, Nikki Haley joined prominent Republicans to rail against the charges. “The American people are exhausted by the prosecutorial overreach, double standards, and vendetta politics,” she complained on Twitter. But three […]
In his brief tenure, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) has touted a signature piece of legislation to show his New Right bonafides: The Railway Safety Act of 2023. A bipartisan bill, co-authored with fellow Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, the legislation would implement new regulations in order to prevent another catastrophic train derailment like the one that occurred […]
No Labels is a political outfit that hails political centrism, calls for bipartisanship, and is considering running an independent ticket in the 2024 presidential election that could end up spoiling President Joe Biden’s reelection bid. On its website, the group urges politicians and citizens to eschew the “extremists on the far left and right,” and […]
This story was originally published by Yale E360 and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In downtown San Francisco, in a cavernous garage that was once a Honda dealership, a gleaming white-and-blue appliance about the size of a commercial refrigerator is being prepared for transport to a hotel in Los Angeles. There, this unit, […]
In his first speech following his arrest on Tuesday, Donald Trump hit on a series of talking points. Hunter Biden and Burisma. Hillary Clinton’s emails. Bill Clinton’s sock drawer. But for people who watched the speech on Fox News—MSNBC and CNN refused to air it—one moment stood out. The network showed a split-screen shot of […]
On the eve of his 77th birthday, Donald Trump arrived in Miami federal court on Tuesday, marking the former president’s second surrender in a little over two months after he pleaded not guilty to hush money charges back in April. He will soon head to his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club where, as he did […]
Donald Trump is struggling to find a lawyer…again. According to reports from the Washington Post, the ex-president, who’s facing 37 charges related to allegations of mishandling classified documents, spent most of the day before his arraignment searching for an advocate to take his case. Several high-profile Florida attorneys have declined the task, after two lawyers—Jim Trusty […]
How long is this going to last? The Republican Party just cannot stop excusing Donald Trump’s wrongdoing. It happens again and again. Trump engages in serious misconduct, and the base of the GOP and most of its prominent leaders accept or ignore the transgression. Or issue an indefensible defense. Even if they recognize a particular […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In the scramble before the recent end of Texas’s legislative session, a must-pass bill was amended to impose new costs upon renewable energy. This came amid a barrage of anti-solar and wind power measures pushed forward by Republicans to reshape a […]
After spending the weekend publicly screeching about the 37-count criminal indictment over his mishandling of classified documents, former president Donald Trump is set to be arraigned at a federal courthouse in Miami tomorrow. The appearance will mark Trump’s second surrender in a little over two months. Once the arraignment wraps up, the former president—just as he […]
The latest indictment against Donald Trump marks an unprecedented moment in American history. But for some, the history-making federal charges over his mishandling of classified documents also carry an element of comeuppance, as the same Republicans who railed against Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server now complain that a “miscarriage of justice” has […]
Editor’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. On Thursday, Pat […]
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. California lawmakers are weighing a bill that would reach well beyond the state’s borders by forcing large companies in the state to detail their greenhouse gas emissions—even those of their suppliers. The bill, which cleared the state Senate on May […]
You know US politics have changed drastically when someone as conservative as North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis (R) gets censured by his own party for not being extreme enough. In 2007, as a member of the state legislature, Tillis tried to stop North Carolina from apologizing for a racist massacre that happened in 1898 and […]
Bad news for drivers hitting the road this summer on the East Coast. On Sunday morning, a tanker fire beneath a Philadelphia overpass for I-95 caused a big section of the northbound highway to collapse, leaving at least seven miles of one of the nation’s busiest interstates closed in both directions for the foreseeable future. […]
Former attorney general Bill Barr said Sunday morning that he believed that Donald Trump is in real trouble with the latest indictment against him for mishandling classified documents. “I was shocked by the degree of sensitivity of these documents and how many there were, frankly,” Barr told Fox News’ Shannon Bream. “If even half of […]
This story was originally published by Wired and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Every living thing spreads an invisible signature across its landscape, whether it’s a badger ambling through the grass, an oak growing in the forest, or an eagle soaring overhead. Fur, feathers, skin cells, spores, pollen—all of it is loaded with […]
In the wake of his federal criminal indictment, Donald Trump dropped a new video on Truth Social on Saturday. And it is cringey-as-hell. The two-minute spot, complete with gauzy, quasi-cinematic shots of the ex-president walking away from his helicopter like an action hero, is pretty standard messianic Trump fare. But here’s the weirdest part, reported […]
Ted Kaczynski, known widely as the Unabomber, was found dead in his prison cell Saturday morning, according to the Associated Press, which cited a spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons. The 81-year-old, who was serving a life sentence in Colorado, had been moved to a North Carolina medical facility due to poor health. The cause […]
Reality Winner, the first person to be prosecuted in violation of the Espionage Act under the Trump administration, said she was “blown away” by the voluminous detail found in the 49-page indictment against the former president in the sprawling Mar-a-Lago documents scandal. The former intelligence contractor and Air Force linguist made the comments in a […]
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Carolyn McGrath thought she was ready for her testimony in front of the New Jersey Department of Education. An art teacher, she had dressed in a jaunty polka-dot blouse and chunky green necklace, and had a written statement prepared in favor of […]
On Thursday, the Supreme Court issued a landmark 7-2 ruling affecting millions of aging and disabled people: Providers of federally funded health services like Medicaid or Medicare, the court ruled—such as public and private nursing homes—can be sued by individuals for failures and lapses in care. Following the death of 85-year-old Gorgi “Jorgo” Talevski in October […]
As the ramifications of Donald Trump’s historic federal indictment over his mishandling of classified documents rapidly unfold—and stunning details continue to emerge—I feel compelled to pause and turn your attention to page 12 of the 37-count criminal indictment against the former president to note: This is repulsive. Here you will set your eyes on a hideous Mar-a-Lago […]
The federal indictment of Donald Trump and his valet Waltine Nauta on 38 counts of retaining and withholding national security information, conspiring to obstruct justice, and lying to the FBI that was unsealed today is historic…and wild. It shows Trump at his Trumpiest, scheming to cheat, evading responsibility and accountability, lying, and apparently breaking the […]
On Wednesday, Donald Trump became the first former president to face a federal indictment. Today, federal prosecutors released a scathing indictment outlining charges stemming from Trump’s decision to bring classified documents with him to his Florida estate after his term as president ended. The 37 charges brought by a grand jury include conspiracy to obstruct […]
The Supreme Court’s surprise ruling upholding the use of the Voting Rights Act in cases challenging political maps is likely to affect the 2024 elections and beyond—though how big the impact will be depends on how quickly courts across the country move in multiple cases challenging racial gerrymandering schemes. Thursday’s opinion in Allen v. Milligan came out […]
As Donald Trump prepares to fight his second indictment in two months—the latest stemming from Department of Justice allegations that he mishandled classified documents after leaving office—he seems to be facing a major, self-inflicted problem. Multiple news outlets are now reporting that they have obtained the transcript of an audio recording that appears to capture […]
Like many households over the past year, Jose and his family were being squeezed by rising costs. “Everything is going up,” he said. “The food. The cost of day care.” To free up space in their budget, they turned to a company promoted by their apartment complex: Flex. A booming tech startup based in New […]
This article originally appeared in The Globe and Mail. John Vaillant’s latest book is Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast. We weren’t a week into May before 30,000 people had been evacuated because of dozens of fast-moving wildfires in Alberta. Structure losses were mounting, and politicians were trotting out words like “unprecedented.” Unprecedented? Where were they in 2017, […]
Former President Donald Trump wrote on his social media site today that he has been indicted for a second time, this time for taking classified documents with him to Florida when he left office in January 2021. The New York Times confirmed the indictment. It is the first federal indictment of a former president. “I have been […]
Yesterday, I asked Mother Jones readers how they were handling the wildfire smoke that has blanketed the East Coast. Several readers mentioned that they had moved away from the West in recent years to escape the problem, only for poor air quality to visit them again in places like Virginia and Wisconsin. But what most stood out to […]
George Santos, the lying and indicted GOP congressman from Queens, New York, has steadfastly refused to say where he was on January 6, 2021, while pro-Trump rioters were attacking the US Capitol to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory. He was filmed that day in the VIP section for the Donald Trump rally […]
Large swaths of the United States are buried under a blanket of smoke, with some states facing the worst air pollution in decades. Virginia is no exception; state officials have warned that the air quality is too hazardous for public exposure. But while Virginians breathe in toxic wildfire smoke this week, state regulators appear more […]
On April 21, during a panel discussion with the mayors of the US four largest cities organized by the African American Mayors Association, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said, “The city is being destroyed by the migrant crisis…that’s going to undermine every agency in our city.” A couple of days earlier, Adams had complained during […]
In a major and surprising victory for voting rights, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that a redistricting map passed by Alabama lawmakers diluted the power of Black voters, affirming the constitutionality of a key remaining part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Alabama has a Black population of 27 percent, but just one […]
In early 2023, California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a “state of emergency” after multiple “atmospheric river systems” slammed the state. The storms flooded highways, caused mudslides, and toppled trees. Newsom’s declaration expedited the response. Police evacuated some senior citizens from parts of the East Bay. Counties and cities distributed sandbags. Crews erected walls to prevent […]
In early 2023, California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a “state of emergency” after multiple “atmospheric river systems” slammed the state. The storms flooded highways, caused mudslides, and toppled trees. Newsom’s declaration expedited the response. Police evacuated some senior citizens from parts of the East Bay. Counties and cities distributed sandbags. Crews erected walls to prevent […]