Three months after Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y) was indicted on 13 criminal counts, House Democrats plan to introduce legislation to formally censure the scandal-ridden New York Republican on Monday. The measure, which follows an unsuccessful effort to expel Santos, is unlikely to pass the GOP-majority House. But a censure would force individual Republicans to go […]
In May 2019, when Missouri banned abortions at or after eight weeks of pregnancy, abortion-rights advocates decided to put the issue to voters. Under their state constitution, they could hold a referendum on the new law, if they could gather enough signatures by a late-summer deadline. Missourians—not their representatives in the legislature—would be able to […]
No Labels, the self-professed centrist group that is preparing to possibly run its own presidential candidate in 2024, says it is not a political party. That means it does not have to reveal the donors that have pumped tens of millions of dollars in recent years into its coffers. Parties must disclose their funders; nonprofit […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Mild El Niño climatic conditions brewing in the Pacific Ocean will strengthen throughout the year, with an outside chance of a record-breaking event that will further turbocharge already sweltering temperatures around the globe, scientists have forecast. Last month saw a “weak” […]
Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic has won 23 Grand Slam tournaments and the past four straight men’s single’s titles at Wimbledon. He hadn’t lost a match on Wimbledon’s center court since 2013—until Sunday, that is, when 20-year-old Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz beat him 6-4 in the fifth set despite having little experience playing on grass. The […]
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis raised $20 million in the first six weeks of his official campaign for the GOP presidential nomination. He had nearly 100 people on his campaign staff, and yet, he continues to badly trail the front runner, former President Donald Trump. Even in Florida, where DeSantis was reelected in 2022 in a […]
Chris Christie made the rounds on the Sunday morning talk shows this weekend, ramping up attacks on former President Donald Trump as he continues his own latest bid for the GOP presidential nomination. The pugnacious former New Jersey governor seized on comments Trump made Saturday night at the Turning Point USA conference in Florida, where […]
This story was originally published by Yale Environment 360 and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Few people know the deep ocean as intimately as Lisa Levin, an ecologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Not content with doing pure science, Levin, who has participated in more than 40 oceanographic expeditions, co-founded the Deep-Ocean […]
The grim records keep tumbling: This June was the warmest month on record. This weekend, Death Valley, California, could tie or set the record for the hottest temperature reliably recorded on Earth. In Canada, record-breaking fires continue to burn. “The extreme weather—an increasingly frequent occurrence in our warming climate—is having a major impact on human health, […]
New York Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu set WNBA and NBA records Friday during All-Star Weekend’s three-point contest—a feat that basketball legend Steph Curry on Twitter celebrated as “RIDICULOUS!” The 25-year-old point guard landed all but two of 27 possible shots for a total score of 37 out of 40—outscoring Curry’s single-round NBA record of 31 points, and […]
The conspiracy theorist, anti-vaxxer, and longshot Democratic presidential nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed at an Upper East Side press event this week that COVID-19 may be a genetically engineered bioweapon that was “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people, reports the New York Post. The same press dinner had already gone viral […]
This story was originally published by Slate‘s Future Tense partnership and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In August 2021, forest range officer Remya Raghavan caught three people carrying wild boar meat in the Wayanad forest of Kerala, a state in southern India. Possessing wild animal meat is a crime under the country’s 1972 Wildlife […]
For nearly a year, many people with ADHD and ADD in the United States have struggled to get the medication they’ve been prescribed to manage their condition. Those difficulties stem from a shortage that started with the stimulant Adderall and its generics, then trickled to methylphenidate and lisdexamfetamine, also known as Ritalin and Vyvanse. These […]
When George Santos, the indicted but still-in-office Republican congressman from Queens, New York, recently filed the campaign finance report for his reelection effort, there was something unusual about it: Of about 50 total contributors, the document listed about three dozen contributors spread across the country who mostly have Chinese names and who had each maxed […]
The rapid ascent of Threads has forced a key question facing any potentially successful social platform: “What’s the far-right going to do with this one?” And with 100 million users joining in just five days—due, in large part, to how the Meta-owned messaging service lets users port their Instagram follows—the issue has come to the fore […]
On Tuesday, nonprofit organization Disability:IN released its annual “Best Places to Work” Disability Equality Index, which grades how well companies prioritize and accommodate disabled employees. One company that earned a perfect score: Amazon, which has been accused of disability discrimination by state agencies and current and former staff. Disability:IN, formerly the US Business Leadership Network, started more than […]
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. It was co-published with Climate Desk partner Wired. With his electric Kia EV6 running low on power, Sky Malcolm pulled into a bank of fast-chargers near Terre Haute, Indiana, to plug in. As his car powered up, he peeked at nearby chargers. […]
The famed physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, so-called Father of the Atomic Bomb and alleged national security risk, has been portrayed in fictionalized film and TV dramas for more than 75 years, long before director Christopher Nolan placed him at the center of his new biographical thriller. The renditions include actor Sam Waterston’s much-honored depiction […]
One of the dumber news stories of the past few weeks has been the talk of a fight—presumably live, televised, and in a cage—between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. I don’t blame you if you’ve scrolled past any mention of this story. It is one of the best examples of the devolution of American culture […]
In the three months since announcing his bid to become the next president of the United States, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has largely stayed in his lane of conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine nonsense. But we have also seen some stranger moments, including a video of a shirtless Kennedy working out in jeans and a belt […]
The FDA just made the Pill a heck of a lot easier for Americans to access. On Thursday, the agency approved Opill, a progestin-only birth control pill, for over-the-counter use, making a daily oral contraceptive available without a prescription for the first time in the United States. The decision removes a significant barrier—the need to […]
In April, bestselling children’s book author Shannon Hale published book number 10 in her acclaimed Princess in Black series. For those who don’t have an elementary schooler in their lives and therefore may not be as familiar with the series as I am, here’s the gist: Prim Princess Magnolia lives in a charming castle doing […]
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Heat waves can delay flights and melt airplane tarmac, but Amazon won’t let them hinder Prime deliveries. Extreme heat and unsafe working conditions under the merchant giant have now spurred drivers to unionize. In Southern California, 84 delivery drivers joined the International Brotherhood of […]
Back in April, when Manhattan prosecutors charged Donald Trump with falsifying business records, the MAGA faithful who protested outside the courthouse included some with legal issues of their own. Followers of the exiled Chinese mogul Guo Wengui, who had been arrested a few weeks earlier on fraud charges, were there. Fabulist Congressman George Santos (R-N.Y.)—who at […]
Almost exactly a year ago, when NASA released the first photos from the James Webb Space Telescope, President Biden declared in a speech, “These images are going to remind the world that America can do big things, and then remind the American people, especially our children, that there’s nothing beyond our capacity.” I agree with […]
On Tuesday, the Department of Justice reversed itself and said it would not oppose a lawsuit filed in federal court by writer E. Jean Carroll against former President Donald Trump for defamation. The trial is set to begin in January 2024. The lawsuit accuses Trump of defaming Carroll when the former president called her a […]
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. A landmark decision by the Supreme Court to end the use of race-based affirmative action in college admissions could impede federal efforts to reduce the nation’s persistent economic, environmental, and health disparities, one of President Joe Biden’s top political […]
In a heated interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Sen. Tommy Tuberville claimed that it’s just “some people’s opinion” that white nationalists hold racist beliefs. On Monday night, when Collins pressed the Alabama Republican on his previous comments about white nationalists serving in the US military, Tuberville doubled down, saying they have every right to serve…as long as they’re […]
Is No Labels becoming radioactive within the Democratic establishment? Two prominent, Washington, DC-based consulting firms that are run by Democrats and that have done significant work in recent years for the self-professed centrist outfit will now not discuss their relationship with the group or say whether they are still on the No Labels payroll. No […]
Is No Labels becoming radioactive within the Democratic establishment? Two prominent Washington, DC-based consulting firms that are run by Democrats and have done significant work in recent years for the self-professed centrist outfit will now not discuss their relationship with the group or say whether they are still on the No Labels payroll. No Labels […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The list of countries calling for a pause on deep-sea mining continued to grow this week ahead of a key moment that mining companies hope will launch the fledgling industry, and its opponents hope could clip its wings, perhaps for good. Ireland and […]
A Nebraskan mother accused of giving her 17-year-old daughter abortion pills and helping her bury the remains of the fetus pleaded guilty on Friday to violating a 2010 state law that makes it a crime to provide an abortion after 20 weeks of gestation. Jessica Burgess, 42, now faces up to two years in prison—as does […]
A Wisconsin 16-year-old died this month from injuries sustained from an “industrial accident” while working on a sawmill, in a startling reminder of the rise of child labor in dangerous occupations throughout the country. Officials announced today they are investigating. A cause of death has not been released. Department of Labor statistics show a steady uptick in child […]
Once the coronavirus made its human debut, it wasn’t long before scientists found the virus in our poop. Fecal samples from the earliest patients, including the first known case in America, revealed people were shedding the virus not only from their noses and mouths, but also through their excrement. This would turn out to be […]
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. At the end of May, Brazilian lawmakers approved legislation that would invalidate Indigenous land claims and open protected Indigenous lands to mining, road-building, agriculture, and other extractive industries. The legislation was overwhelmingly endorsed in the nation’s conservative-dominated lower house and has now […]
The Republican Party of Iowa announced on Saturday that they had landed on January 15, 2024 for its first-in-the-nation presidential caucus. That happens to be Martin Luther King Jr. Day: the sole federal holiday honoring the legacy of a Black individual. After a chaotic caucus in 2020, in which technology glitches led to delays in […]
US-China relations have long been tenuous, and the last two years have been no exception. There was the US diplomatic boycott of Beijing’s 2022 Winter Olympics. In August, China fired ballistic missiles after Nancy Pelosi—at the time, the Speaker of the House—visited Taiwan. Then in October, the US Commerce Department placed sweeping restrictions on China […]
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was designed to help member countries rebuild and bolster security after World War II through something called “collective defense.” In essence, an attack against one member is considered an attack against all members: Everyone in NATO is supposed to rally as if it were their own country being attacked. For […]
An early morning shooting left nine people injured in Cleveland, Ohio on Sunday. Cleveland Police say they responded after gunfire near the block of West 6th Street and Johnson Court—a downtown intersection surrounded by clubs, bars, and a liquor store—at around 2:30 a.m. They arrived to find nine people injured, according to Cleveland 19 News. […]
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Month-old kittens scamper around, tumbling into one another on the grass. A black-and-white border collie, Maggie, nestles against the side of a farmhouse and nurses a puppy. Beef cattle graze on the hillside behind the house, which has been vacant […]
Earth’s average temperature hit an unofficial record high on Tuesday, according to the University of Maine’s climate data website Climate Reanalyzer: 62.9 degrees Fahrenheit (17.18 degrees Celsius). It wasn’t a fluke. The temperature hit the same reading on Wednesday. Then on Thursday, the average surpassed the brand new record, hitting 63 degrees Fahrenheit. Until last week, […]
Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors can to go into effect—at least for the time being. In late June, a district court had halted a ban on minors receiving care such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy on the grounds that the restrictions in the bill, which Tennessee’s Republican Governor Bill Lee […]
Two and a half years after January 6, lawyers who helped former president Donald Trump use lies about election fraud to try to retain power are finally starting to face sanctions for their actions. On Friday, a legal ethics committee recommended that Rudy Giuliani, who helped Trump’s legal efforts following election day in 2020, be […]
Over the last two years, Republican state politicians have done their best to wipe out access to gender-affirming medical care for trans adolescents. In a flurry of lawmaking—coordinated by conservative Christian legal groups and think tanks, and backed by fringe doctors and activists who deny that anyone is truly transgender—a whopping 20 states have passed […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Solar power cells have raced past the key milestone of 30 percent energy efficiency, after innovations by multiple research groups around the world. The feat makes this a “revolutionary” year, according to one expert, and could accelerate the rollout of solar […]
In May, Starbucks abruptly shuttered a unionized store in Ithaca, New York. This week, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled that Starbucks had violated federal labor law and ordered the company to reopen the store. The College Avenue store, near Cornell University, was one of three Ithaca stores that closed after workers unionized, a […]
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva campaigned on a promise to stop the deforestation of the Amazon that had accelerated under former president Jair Bolsonaro. The early results are promising. Deforestation dropped 33.6 percent during the first six months of Lula’s term, according to government satellite data released this week. The new data present […]
Tracie Bernardi Guzman felt betrayed by her governor. Back in 2018, Bernardi Guzman had shared her story with Ned Lamont, the Democrat who, at the time, was running to be Connecticut’s chief executive. She told Lamont about the two decades she’d spent in prison—and about her suicide attempt in her fifth out of seven years in […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. A constitutional legal strategy is gaining traction as a way to potentially help bring about climate justice, boosted by a recent high-profile trial in which 16 young plaintiffs spoke movingly about how the climate crisis has affected their lives. That […]
In MAGA World, Karoline Leavitt is a rising star. A former Trump White House staffer, she won national notice last year when, at just 25 years of age, she captured the GOP nomination for a New Hampshire congressional seat. In April, she was hired as a spokesperson by Trump’s SuperPAC. But earlier this year, her […]
In MAGA world, Karoline Leavitt is a rising star. A former Trump White House staffer, she won national notice last year when, at just 25 years of age, she captured the GOP nomination for a New Hampshire congressional seat. In April, she was hired as a spokesperson by Trump’s super-PAC. But earlier this year, her focus […]
Last Friday morning, at the beginning of a hot June day in Philadelphia, I walked through a phalanx of about a hundred protesters in order to make my way to the Joyful Warriors Summit, the annual convention of the parents’ rights group Moms for Liberty. It was early in the day, but the bass from […]
From February to April, four men were found dead in Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas. The Austin Police Department said these were all accidental drownings, caused by a combination of alcohol and easy access to the lake, which can be challenging to see at night. At the time, I’d heard faint rumors of a […]
The same day Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Daniel Penny with manslaughter for choking to death Jordan Neely—a homeless man who’d been acting in a way Penny perceived as threatening—Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) recorded a podcast. Elites, he told listeners, were making the common man fearful of defending himself while allowing criminals to roam […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. More than 1,500 lobbyists in the US are working on behalf of fossil-fuel companies while at the same time representing hundreds of liberal-run cities, universities, technology companies and environmental groups that say they are tackling the climate crisis, the Guardian can […]
Why the hell did President Joe Biden nominate a one-time protector of war criminals to a top administration post? On the Monday before July 4—a black hole day for news—the White House let drop the word that it was appointing Elliott Abrams to the bipartisan US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. The commission’s job is […]
The largest American labor strike in over 60 years looks increasingly likely: Early this morning, negotiations between UPS and the Teamsters broke down, according to a press release from the union. In June, about 97 percent of the UPS rank-and-file voted to authorize a strike if the contract negotiations did not result in a new […]
How did you spend your Fourth of July? I spent a considerable amount of time in the ocean, floating above the hum of anxieties, both personal and existential, that typically soundtrack my days. But outside the cocoon of cool waves, those gentle swells that numb the pain of existence, the earth around me apparently experienced its […]
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Oil and gas companies in West Texas released hundreds of tons of toxic gases into the air last week as a record-breaking heatwave drove pressure inside pipelines and compressors to dangerously high levels. One company, Houston-based Targa Resources, […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Some of the world’s best-known climate campaign groups have taken millions of dollars in donations from a foundation run by billionaire hedge fund bosses whose investment fund has invested in fossil fuel companies, the Guardian has learned. Groups including the European […]
Three Massachusetts-based civil rights groups are challenging donor and legacy admissions at Harvard University, arguing that the practice gives an unfair boost to mostly white students whose family members are either alumni or wealthy donors. The complaint comes days after the Supreme Court’s decision ending affirmative action in higher education. The 31-page complaint, filed with the […]
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. This Fourth of […]
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Pastor Philip Schmitter waited more than 20 years for the Environmental Protection Agency to do its job. In 1992, he’d filed a civil rights complaint to halt the construction of a power station that would spew toxic lead into the air of […]
For nearly 30 years, federal law has banned people who have domestic-violence restraining orders from possessing guns. It’s a sensible policy reflecting a set of stark statistics: Women whose abusers have access to guns are 5 times more likely to be killed than those whose partners don’t have guns available. About a third of female […]
Earlier this year, Abby Grossberg, a producer for Fox News, filed a pair of explosive lawsuits against the network, Tucker Carlson, and a group of other producers. Grossberg, who worked for Carlson’s show, claimed that Fox’s lawyers coerced her to give false testimony in the now-settled defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox. She […]
On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3, along the usual lines, that a one-woman graphic design business in Colorado could not, theoretically, be forced to make a wedding website for a same-sex couple. The designer in question, Lorie Smith, wanted to put a statement on her website stating that she would not create websites “promoting and […]
This story was originally published by Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The reporting was supported by a grant from the Pulitzer Center. Comau Fjord is a sliver of sea framed by thickly forested mountain slopes. Melting glaciers peek between the crags. Waterfalls tumble down mountainsides, […]
Today, the New York Times released a damning investigation under the headline: “Everyone Knew the Migrant Ship Was Doomed. No One Helped.” It reveals the extent to which Greek authorities ignored the plight of the Adriana, the ship whose sinking last month led to the deaths of more than 600 people. The Times found that dozens […]
On Saturday afternoon, Teamsters president Sean O’Brien delivered an update on the UPS contract negotiations that could lead to the company’s workers striking next month. O’Brien stressed at a press conference that if UPS doesn’t concede to the union’s demands “we will put 340,000 strong Teamsters on the streets until we get what we want.” […]
This week, former Vice President Mike Pence made a surprise trip to Ukraine, where he met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The trip draws a contrast between himself and fellow presidential candidates like Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, who’ve been skeptical of the United States’ involvement in Ukraine. Pence is the first Republican presidential candidate to meet […]
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. A global increase of extreme precipitation, well outside the range of natural variability, has been well-documented by scientists. It’s one of the hallmarks of human-caused global warming, and new research published this week in Nature shows that high-elevation areas, including most […]
After the Supreme Court threw out his debt relief plan earlier in the day, President Joe Biden promised in a White House speech Friday afternoon to pursue a different legal strategy for canceling student debt. “I believe the court’s decision to strike down my student debt relief program was a mistake, was wrong,” he said. […]
Within 24 hours, two rulings from the nation’s highest court—one striking down the use of race-conscious college admissions, and the second gutting Biden’s student debt cancellation plan—rolled back years of progress towards greater economic justice and educational opportunity for students of color. In these rulings, the Supreme Court has all but ensured the deepening of racial […]
North Carolina, once an “abortion destination” for women throughout the South, will prohibit abortion after 12 weeks’ gestation starting July 1. On Thursday, a federal judge allowed most of the law to go into effect as the court considers the measure. The ruling did temporarily block a provision requiring abortion doctors to document the existence […]
Perhaps it was foolish of me to assume that Aaron Rodgers’ keynote talk at last week’s Psychedelic Science 2023 conference in Denver—titled “How Psychedelics Can Unlock Elite Performance”—would touch on any actual neurological mechanisms at play. I had guessed that it might delve into the complex, controversial, but real science of how psychedelics can help […]
The Supreme Court struck down on Friday the Biden administration’s plan to wipe out more than $400 billion in student loans for about 40 million Americans. The plan, announced last August, would have canceled up to $10,000 in debt for low- and middle-income borrowers, and double that amount for borrowers from the poorest backgrounds. The […]
The Supreme Court on Friday allowed certain businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ people, creating a large loophole in federal and state civil rights laws that have protected Americans for decades. Justice Neil Gorsuch authored the opinion for the court’s conservative justices, who made up the 6 vote majority. The court’s three Democratic-appointed justices dissented. The […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Small island nations would rather fight than flee, but rising sea levels have prompted apocalyptic legal discussions about whether a state is still a state if its land disappears below the waves. The Pacific Islands Forum, which represents many of […]
Advice columnist E. Jean Carroll’s yearslong court battle to hold the man who sexually abused her legally accountable has been extraordinary in many ways. First, because that abuser is former President Donald Trump, who used all the power of his office, from the Secret Service to the Department of Justice, in various attempts to shrug off […]
On Thursday morning, the decades-long conservative crusade to upend affirmative action proved successful. In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled against the use of race-conscious admissions, finding such programs at the University of North Carolina and Harvard University to be in violation of 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. In the majority opinion, Chief Justice Roberts railed […]
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority banned race-conscious admissions policies at colleges and universities on Thursday, ruling that using race as an admissions factor violates the Constitution’s equal protection clause. The decision invalidates the University of North Carolina and Harvard’s systems for making up their student body, and will, more broadly, make higher education whiter and […]
The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the use of race in college admissions at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, dealing a potentially lethal blow to affirmative action programs in colleges throughout the country. The decision, which civil rights groups say effectively bans affirmative action, a policy widely viewed as an “irreplaceable tool” […]
The Supreme Court ruled today in a 6-3 decision that the use of race in college admissions violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and thus is unconstitutional, dealing a serious blow to affirmative action measures used by colleges to create diverse student bodies and remedy past discrimination against minorities. “Many universities have […]
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. When Dulce Ortiz wants to enjoy the beauty of Lake Michigan, walk in a green space, or see and touch the water, she has to leave her neighborhood, even though the second-largest of the Great Lakes is in her backyard. Ortiz lives […]
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Between 2015 and 2020, Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples, along with small, local communities in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, gained legal recognition to more than 247 million acres of land—an 85 percent increase. That’s according to a new report from Rights […]
On Tuesday, Breitbart published a long report exposing racist and anti-semitic text messages from Pedro Gonzalez, a somewhat well-known writer who contributes to Newsweek and is an editor at Chronicles magazine—a paleoconservative publication loosely on the New Right. From afar, that might seem odd. Breitbart? Calling someone else (and specifically another figure on the right) racist? The publication […]
A group of American influencers is in hot water for attempting to frame the controversial fast fashion giant Shein, which has been plagued by accusations of using forced labor, as an ethical brand during a recent sponsored trip to the company’s Guangzhou, China factory. “They only invited people with zero critical thinking,” one critic sounded […]
I get the sense that former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, along with other candidates of her ilk, find themselves most relevant when they’re sparking outrage. One of her recent nuggets of outrage-bait? Taking aim at Barack Obama, a president who hasn’t been on a ballot in over a decade. Last week, in an op-ed […]
When Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced his bid for the presidency at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel on April 19, 2023, he pledged to a cheering crowd to “end the corrupt merger of state and corporate power that is threatening now to impose a new kind of corporate feudalism in our country; to commoditize our […]
This story was originally published by Hakai Magazine and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Around the world, communities are bracing for sea level rise: the Netherlands is stabilizing its dikes, Senegal is relocating neighborhoods, and Indonesia is moving its entire capital city. These projects are hefty, expensive, and slow. But they may need to pick up the […]
If you’re like me, you associate pork with the deliciousness of bacon. But lurking behind the pleasure lies something much less savory to think about: the risk of another pandemic. That’s because humans and pigs easily swap influenza viruses. Worse still, pigs can also pick up influenza strains that circulate among birds, whose viruses aren’t […]
In a hugely significant opinion on Tuesday, the Supreme Court rejected the “independent state legislature” theory pushed by Republicans that would have given state legislatures virtually unchecked power to draw new redistricting maps and pass restrictive voting laws with little to no review by state courts or other entities. “The Elections Clause does not vest […]
Editor’s note: This essay is anonymous in order to protect the writer from potential reprisals. Тhe coup that didn’t happen began on Friday night and ended by Saturday night. Various Telegram channels reported 15 Russian servicemen dead; a plane, a few helicopters, and an oil storage facility destroyed, bridges dismantled, roads dug up…and the only […]
This story was originally published by Canada’s National Observer and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. One sunny Saturday morning in Newmarket, Ontario, about an hour’s drive north of Toronto, a wok of pork bones and water slowly rises to a boil on the shiny black range of Rebecca Cui’s electric stovetop. When the […]
On a warm Friday afternoon in February, Bianca Austin waits in her Airbnb in Gulfport, Mississippi, for a new friend to come by. “Hey, girl!” she says, jumping up from her chair as Katrina Mateen walks through the front door in a trenchcoat, her face framed by big sunglasses and a sparkly baseball hat. They […]
Last fall, many union railroad workers in the United States did not have paid sick days. Now, more than sixty percent of them do, Reuters reports. It has been a process of slow, piecemeal wins over many months—and a testament to the continued push of high-profile politicians like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont). Last December, railroad workers […]
After signing one of the most draconian anti-immigrant laws in the country last month, 2024 presidential hopeful and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has turned his attention back to the US-Mexico border. Over the weekend, DeSantis joined Fox News’ Bill Melugin for a boat tour and helicopter ride over the Rio Grande in Texas for a […]
This was a historic week for climate litigation. Tuesday marked the closing arguments in Held v. Montana, a lawsuit brought by sixteen young people arguing that the state’s fossil fuel friendly legislation is at odds with an environmental rights clause in the Montana constitution. It’s only the third climate-related lawsuit to go to trial, and the first lawsuit focusing […]
This story was originally published by The Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Amid a dangerous heatwave that has brought blistering temperatures across Texas, the state’s governor signed a law last week eliminating local rules requiring water breaks for workers. The measure, which will take effect later this year, will nullify ordinances enacted […]
As the international community sorts through the fallout of the short-lived rebellion by Russia’s powerful Wagner Group mercenary force—the most significant challenge to Vladimir Putin’s regime in more than two decades—some are apparently unimpressed by the stunning events. In fact, according to Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo, the White House and the State Department have collaborated in […]