After Florida GOP chair Christian Ziegler was accused of sexual assault last week, the backlash against him was swift. Florida Governor and presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis, a former Ziegler supporter, said at a press conference last Thursday, “I don’t see how he can continue with that investigation ongoing given the gravity of those situations.” On […]
When the super PAC supporting Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign released its first ad touting the former Republican South Carolina governor, the spot led with her service as United Nations ambassador during the Trump administration. Opening with a shot of Haley at the UN, the 30-second ad declared, “Nikki Haley fought America’s enemies at the UN […]
When the super PAC supporting Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign released its first ad touting the former Republican South Carolina governor, the spot led with her service as United Nations ambassador during the Trump administration. Opening with a shot of Haley at the UN, the 30-second ad declared, “Nikki Haley fought America’s enemies at the UN […]
Early one morning in 2015, FBI agents stormed the home of Xiaoxing Xi and arrested him at gunpoint. As his wife and daughters stood in shock, officers handcuffed the Temple University physics professor and jailed him for allegedly leaking confidential technology to China. The case fell apart four months later, when it turned out that […]
Early one morning in 2015, FBI agents stormed the home of Xiaoxing Xi and arrested him at gunpoint. As his wife and daughters stood in shock, officers handcuffed the Temple University physics professor and jailed him for allegedly leaking confidential technology to China. The case fell apart four months later, when it turned out that […]
The United States guarantees 7.2 million students with disabilities an equal education. But the system is broken. For this package, we spoke with students, parents, teachers, and advocates about the dire state of—and efforts to fix—programs for students with disabilities. You can read all the stories here. Zachary did not want to do the crabwalk. […]
The United States guarantees 7.2 million students with disabilities an equal education. But the system is broken. For this package, we spoke with students, parents, teachers, and advocates about the dire state of—and efforts to fix—programs for students with disabilities. You can read all the stories here. In the early 2010s, after working as an […]
The United States guarantees 7.2 million students with disabilities an equal education. But the system is broken. For this package, we spoke with students, parents, teachers, and advocates about the dire state of—and efforts to fix—programs for students with disabilities. You can read all the stories here. In the early 2010s, after working as an […]
The United States guarantees 7.2 million students with disabilities an equal education. But the system is broken. For this package, we spoke with students, parents, teachers, and advocates about the dire state of—and efforts to fix—programs for students with disabilities. You can read all the stories here. For the past nine years, Janet Kim has […]
The United States guarantees 7.2 million students with disabilities an equal education. But the system is broken. For this package, we spoke with students, parents, teachers, and advocates about the dire state of—and efforts to fix—programs for students with disabilities. You can read all the stories here. For the past nine years, Janet Kim has […]
In the United States, about one in six children have a developmental disability. Federal law guarantees them an equal education. But students, parents, teachers, and advocates say the system is broken. There are 7.2 million students with disabilities in the United States. This package explores how our country’s education system underserves them—and the fight to […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Wealthy nations should divert five percent of their military budgets to climate finance, advocates argue. The call comes as global leaders at COP 28 in Dubai gather for a special-themed day on “relief, recovery, and peace” on Sunday, marking the first time climate-fueled […]
The United States guarantees 7.2 million students with disabilities an equal education. But the system is broken. For this package, we spoke with students, parents, teachers, and advocates about the dire state of—and efforts to fix—programs for students with disabilities. You can read all the stories here. When Shiloh told me about being restrained by […]
The United States guarantees 7.2 million students with disabilities an equal education. But the system is broken. For this package, we spoke with students, parents, teachers, and advocates about the dire state of—and efforts to fix—programs for students with disabilities. You can read all the stories here. We asked our readers for stories about their experiences […]
The United States guarantees 7.2 million students with disabilities an equal education. But the system is broken. For this package, we spoke with students, parents, teachers, and advocates about the dire state of—and efforts to fix—programs for students with disabilities. You can read all the stories here. We asked our readers for stories about their experiences […]
The United States guarantees 7.2 million students with disabilities an equal education. But the system is broken. For this package, we spoke with students, parents, teachers, and advocates about the dire state of—and efforts to fix—programs for students with disabilities. You can read all the stories here. “What did you learn today?” Kary asks her […]
Matt Rife ends his new comedy special, Natural Selection, with a literal mic drop. It’s a bold move considering the special, released on Netflix November 15, garnered almost immediate criticism for being misogynistic, ableist, racist, and generally unfunny. Rife, 28, began doing standup in his teens, eventually finding success on the hip-hop comedy improv show Wild […]
One of the most prominent Democratic Party-aligned law firms, Elias Legal Group—led by noted election lawyer Marc Elias—has waded into the legal battle surrounding the proposed ballot referendum for Atlanta’s Public Safety Training Center (PSTC), better known as “Cop City.” On Monday, the Vote To Stop Cop City Coalition—the organization leading the campaign to place […]
When Claire first got an appointment with the famous surgeon, she couldn’t believe her good luck. At 37, she had suffered from excruciating, heavy periods for more than two decades with little help from doctors, even after she finally was diagnosed with endometriosis, a condition where tissue that resembles the lining of the uterus grows […]
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. For now, it’s only a gaping hole in the ground, 100-by-100 feet, surrounded by farm machinery and bales of hemp on a sandy patch of earth on the Lower Sioux Indian Reservation in southwestern Minnesota. But when construction is complete next April, […]
Will the Sackler family finally begin paying out a multibillion settlement to cities, states, tribes, and individuals reeling from the opioid epidemic? The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Monday in a case that could decide. And Americans who lost loved ones to overdoses are not all in agreement on the desired outcome, partly […]
After disgraced Rep. George Santos was expelled from Congress on Friday for alleged ethics violations, including spending donor money on Botox treatments, the writers of Saturday Night Live wasted no time roasting him. The show led off with a news conference by Santos, played by Bowen Yang, on the steps of the US Capitol. “I’m being […]
The Biden administration pledged on Saturday to phase out coal power plants alongside dozens of other countries, a change that would go a long way toward curbing global warming. US Special Envoy John Kerry announced that the United States would join 56 other nations in the Powering Past Coal Alliance, a group launched by the […]
This story was originally published by Undark and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Twice a year, members of a subspecies of red knots—salmon-colored sandpipers—migrate thousands of miles between their wintering grounds in northern Mexico and breeding sites in the Arctic tundra, encountering myriad obstacles along the way. Thought to migrate during both day and night, brightly […]
In late October, a federal court ruled that Georgia’s electoral maps violated the Voting Rights Act by discriminating against Black voters. US District Court Judge Steve Jones ordered the state’s GOP-controlled legislature to draw new congressional and state legislative maps that would result in new majority-Black districts. But instead of boosting Black representation, Republicans released […]
The Biden administration announced an ambitious new plan on Saturday to dramatically curb methane emissions, the second biggest cause of global warming after carbon dioxide. It would require oil and gas producers to detect and fix leaks of methane for the first time. The announcement came as the United Nations hosted the Cop28 climate summit […]
Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled on Friday that Donald Trump does not enjoy immunity from criminal prosecution for his role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election. “Defendant’s four-year service as Commander in Chief did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens,” Chutkan […]
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The United Nations says the ongoing PFAS contamination of the Cape Fear watershed in North Carolina violates residents’ right to a clean and safe environment, and it has urged the Environmental Protection Agency to hold the polluters accountable. Its declaration marks the […]
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Tuesday in Moore v U.S., a case that nominally involves the right of the US government to tax a couple, Charles and Kathleen Moore, on foreign corporate profits they have yet to receive. Sounds arcane, but the case, bankrolled by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, could potentially neuter […]
On Friday, the United Nations held a panel on issues impacting the disabled community—ahead of its International Day of People with Disabilities, which falls on December 3. One increasingly urgent topic of discussion: Climate change. “The specific long-term consequences of climate change on persons with disabilities are poorly understood and usually overlooked,” said a moderator with […]
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. Nikki Haley served six years as governor of […]
Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the US Supreme Court, has died at the age of 93. O’Connor slipped away from public life in 2018 when she announced that she had been diagnosed with early dementia. This is the same disease that had prompted her to retire from the court in 2006 […]
After two indictments, a scathing House Ethics report, and countless scandals, George Santos has finally been expelled from the US House of Representatives. On Friday, in a 311-114 vote, the House removed the disgraced New York Republican, making Santos the sixth member of the House to be expelled in US history. “It’s over,” Santos reportedly told […]
Every so often, the spiritual center of the internet shifts, as the locus where online culture is shaped and incubated before rippling out into the wider world cycles to a new home. Today, that shift is happening again, with Telegram taking the main stage. In recent years, the messaging app and digital platform has recurringly […]
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In the arcane and often seemingly impenetrable bureaucracy of the US government, few agencies have as broad of a mandate to keep the American people safe as the Food and Drug Administration. In addition to protecting members of the public […]
As Ohio’s Secretary of State, Frank LaRose is responsible for overseeing state election laws. But as he seeks the Republican nomination for a US Senate seat in 2024, LaRose has not complied with a federal law requiring US House and Senate candidates to submit information about their income and assets. And this has heightened a […]
Where to even begin? The investigative journalism outlet Florida Center for Government Accountability has a story today alleging that Christian Ziegler, the chair of the Florida GOP, sexually assaulted a woman. This would be enough to attract attention, but this woman was allegedly having a ménage à trois with him and his wife Bridget, the erstwhile crusading […]
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of Texas heard arguments in a suit brought by the Center for Reproductive Rights challenging the state’s abortion ban—the case could have ripple effects across the country as state courts wrestle with exceptions to abortion bans after the fall of Roe. The Center for Reproductive Rights, representing 20 patients and […]
Henry Kissinger’s death at 100 on Wednesday, after a storied career drenched in blood and unchecked war crimes, has sparked both dutiful tributes and notes of justified revulsion from around the world. But in one corner of the internet, merchants of corporate aspiration have been activated, celebrating what appear to be random encounters with the former […]
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Diplomats, academics, and activists from around the globe will gather yet again this week to try to find common ground on a plan for combating climate change. This year’s COP, as the event is known, marks the 28th annual meeting […]
Do not speak ill of the dead. That’s an honorable admonition. But what of the truth? When a person dies, should he be remembered accurately? That question is acutely posed by the demise of Henry Kissinger. The veteran diplomat passed away on Wednesday at the age of 100, leaving behind a long legacy that includes […]
One helpful characteristic of Covid, if there is such a thing, is that those who become infected shed the virus through their poop. Over the last few years, public health officials capitalized on this fact, and built a system to track Covid levels across the country using our sewage. Now, nearly four years after the […]
Former Minneapolis city council member Don Samuels, one of the primary challengers to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), mentioned a reason he thinks she’s unfit for office: Omar is allegedly “not cute enough.” During his appearance last week on “The Break Down,” a weekly politics podcast, one of the co-hosts asked Samuels to elaborate on his […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Saudi Arabia is driving a huge global investment plan to create demand for its oil and gas in developing countries, an undercover investigation has revealed. Critics said the plan was designed to get countries “hooked on its harmful products.” Little […]
For the first time in its two-decade history, Americans for Prosperity Action—an influential conservative organization backed by Charles Koch—has weighed in on the GOP presidential primary, crowning Nikki Haley as the best candidate to beat Donald Trump. “She has what it takes to lead a policy agenda to take on our nation’s biggest challenges and help […]
As the author of a book about runaway wealth in America, I’ve thought a fair bit about the Giving Pledge, the exclusive do-gooder club Bill and Melinda French Gates launched in 2010 with their pal Warren Buffett and 37 other billionaires, all vowing to give away the majority of their fortunes. Now that the pledge […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The United States is poised to extract more oil and gas than ever before in 2023, a year that is certain to be the hottest ever recorded, providing a daunting backdrop to crucial United Nations climate talks that hold the hope […]
The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas will be extended for an additional two days in the Gaza Strip, a spokesperson for Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Monday morning. The State of Qatar announces, as part of the ongoing mediation, an agreement has been reached to extend the humanitarian pause for an additional two days […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Like many community-based solutions, the community lighthouse network in New Orleans can be traced back to a crisis moment when people realized that something had to change and they—not elected officials—would have to make it happen. “For [Hurricane] Ida we were […]
This story was originally published by The Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Coal-fired power plants killed at least 460,000 Americans during the past two decades, causing twice as many premature deaths as previously thought, new research has found. Cars, factories, fire smoke, and electricity plants emit tiny toxic air pollutants known […]
Three students of Palestinian descent were shot and wounded in Burlington, Vermont, after a white man confronted the group Saturday night, shooting them at least four times, police said. Police said the gunman, who has not been identified or apprehended, shot the men “without speaking.” The victims are all 20 year old men; two of […]
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday announced the release of 13 Israeli citizens and four Thai citizens, the latest group of hostages to be freed in the four-day agreement between Israel and Hamas to pause fighting. The freed hostages include Abigail Idan, a dual American and Israeli citizen, who turned four […]
As George Santos stares down an all but certain expulsion from Congress, the disgraced New York Republican came out swinging against his congressional colleagues, accusing some of having committed felonies and others of “getting drunk every night” while planning to sleep with lobbyists. “Within the ranks of the United States Congress, there are felons galore,” Santos […]
Retail workers are walking out during the busiest shopping day of the year, Black Friday, leveraging a weekend of huge profits for retailers to demand better pay and working conditions. Amazon workers in more than 30 countries are striking this weekend as part of the worldwide “Make Amazon Pay” campaign, protesting the retailer’s labor practices, low wages, and […]
Open one social media platform and you’re hit with a fake video; open another and you’re hit with bigotry. Open a news article, and you’ll find some victims “killed” but others “dying.” Each account of events in Israel and Palestine seems to rely on different facts. What’s clear is that misinformation, hate speech, and factual distortions are running rampant. How do we […]
After one year, with more than 2,500 lawsuits filed, New York’s Adult Survivors Act expired Friday. The act lifted the statute of limitations for civil claims by adult sexual assault survivors, providing New Yorkers a one-year “lookback window” to sue their offenders or the institutions that enabled them. For the last year, survivors’ high-profile cases against […]
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In the beginning, parking lots were created to curb chaos on the road. But climate change has turned that dynamic on its head. Since the 1920s a little-known policy called parking minimums has shaped a large facet of American life. In major […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Elon Musk was once lauded as a sort of green Tony Stark—the genius inventor who leads a double life as superhero Iron Man—for single-handedly tackling the climate crisis one Tesla at a time, helping to forge a clean energy future and […]
Open one social media platform and you’re hit with a fake video; open another and you’re hit with bigotry. Open a news article, and you’ll find some victims “killed” but others “dying.” Each account of events in Israel and Palestine seems to rely on different facts. What’s clear is that misinformation, hate speech, and factual distortions are running rampant. How do we […]
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Fossil fuel and chemical company interests are out in force at the United Nations meeting in Nairobi, where delegates from about 170 countries are negotiating the potential terms of a global treaty to reduce plastic pollution. The Center for […]
Open one social media platform and you’re hit with a fake video; open another and you’re hit with bigotry. Open a news article, and you’ll find some victims “killed” but others “dying.” Each account of events in Israel and Palestine seems to rely on different facts. What’s clear is that misinformation, hate speech, and factual distortions are running rampant. How do we […]
Henry Ford may be known for revolutionizing the automobile industry, but there’s another thing he mass produced: antisemitism. That’s one thing my colleague Dan Schulman explains in his new book, The Money Kings: The Epic Story of the Jewish Immigrants Who Transformed Wall Street and Shaped Modern America. The book tells the Gilded Age saga […]
Hamas and Israel will free hostages and prisoners in a deal brokered by American, Qatari, and Egyptian officials that will include a four-day ceasefire to allow more humanitarian aid to reach Gaza, officials announced late Tuesday. The negotiations come after six weeks of brutal fighting that has killed more than 11,000 Palestinians—more than half of whom […]
“I know you don’t like to admit it,” New York Mayor Eric Adams told reporters last month. “But I know you get on your knees and pray every night, ‘Thank God Eric is the mayor of our city.'” Chuckling with smug self-satisfaction, Adams delivered these remarks roughly two weeks before federal authorities raided the home […]
One last-minute round-trip flight from Biloxi, Mississippi, to Cancún, Mexico, runs about $171 USD; three nights at a three-star hotel there can cost as little as $129. A three-day car rental in the resort town rings in at just $20 per day. And the price for one surgical abortion at MSI Reproductive Choices’ Cancún clinic […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The largest of the yachts in Monaco’s harbor were worth more than the annual GDP of some small island states. But few of the customers touring their decks seemed to care that buying the former would help drown the latter. “I […]
On Tuesday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court heard arguments in a landmark case challenging heavily gerrymandered state legislative districts. The court’s decision could lead to fairer maps in 2024, which voting rights activists say will go a long way toward restoring representative democracy in one of the country’s most important battleground states. Even before it was heard, […]
Before Donald Trump became president and presided over some of the most draconian anti-immigrant policies in recent memory, he laid out his vision for the United States. In August 2016, he was still a candidate and during a campaign stop in Phoenix, Arizona, he delivered a speech focused on immigration. “On day one,” he announced, […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The richest one percent of humanity is responsible for more carbon emissions than the poorest 66 percent, with dire consequences for vulnerable communities and global efforts to tackle the climate emergency, a report says. The most comprehensive study of global climate […]
Open one social media platform and you’re hit with a fake video; open another and you’re hit with bigotry. Open a news article, and you’ll find some victims “killed” but others “dying.” Each account of events in Israel and Palestine seems to rely on different facts. What’s clear is that misinformation, hate speech, and factual […]
In 2013, an Indiana woman showed up at an emergency room suffering from severe vaginal hemorrhaging. At first, Purvi Patel denied she had been pregnant. But, eventually, Patel told doctors she had a stillbirth. The hospital staff did not believe her. So, her doctor—a member of the anti-abortion American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists—called […]
In recent months, Ron DeSantis has received a load of bad press focused on his slippage in the 2024 polls, shake-ups within his organization, and less-than-stellar campaign finances. Yet the Florida governor is one of the most prodigious political cash-chasers in recent US history. When he successfully ran for reelection in Florida in 2022, DeSantis, […]
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. On a 20-acre parcel outside the tiny Southern California town of New Cuyama, a 1.5-megawatt solar farm uses the sun’s rays to slowly charge nearly 600 batteries in nearby cabinets. At night, when energy demand rises, that electricity is sent to the […]
Open one social media platform and you’re hit with a fake video; open another and you’re hit with bigotry. Open a news article, and you’ll find some victims “killed” but others “dying.” Each account of events in Israel and Palestine seems to rely on different facts. What’s clear is that misinformation, hate speech, and factual […]
In the days after the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, some legal experts began to speculate that a little-known constitutional provision might be used to block President Donald Trump from ever serving a second term. The 14th Amendment, passed after the Civil War, included a portion, called Section 3, that was designed to keep […]
‘Tis the season for politicians to spend an hour in front of cameras with turkeys. Two turkeys from a Hormel subsidiary in Minnesota were apparently shipped to Washington D.C. in a stretch black Cadillac Escalade for their White House pardoning ceremony. At a library in the tiny Texas city of Van, the mayor appointed a […]
In the spring of 1966, as college students protesting the Vietnam War organized teach-ins to educate their peers on the war, the poet Robert Bly knew they needed backup. “If you went to an audience [at that time],” he told an interviewer in 1970, “I’d say 90 percent would be in favor of the war and […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Forest conservation and restoration could make a major contribution to tackling the climate crisis as long as greenhouse gas emissions are slashed, according to a study. By allowing existing trees to grow old in healthy ecosystems and restoring degraded […]
At a summit in Bahrain on Saturday, a US official stated that far more humanitarian aid would be allowed into Gaza if Hamas released the hostages it is holding. In doing so, Brett McGurk, the White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, effectively conceded that Israel is subjecting the people of Gaza […]
On Wednesday, Elon Musk endorsed a post on his social media platform that accused Jews of pushing “dialectical hatred against whites” and failing to realize that the “hordes of minorities” who were “flooding their country” didn’t actually like them. “You have said the actual truth,” Musk wrote, replying to the post. Nearly two hours later, […]
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said on Saturday that Israel is only allowing “half of the daily minimum” amount of fuel needed for humanitarian operations in Gaza. Israel’s decision to allow in any fuel followed weeks of delay and pressure […]
This story was originally published by Atlas Obscura and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. On a hillside in Utah’s Fishlake National Forest is a tree, and if you listen very carefully, this aspen is talking to us. This one plant actually looks like a forest of 47,000 genetically identical trees, which are effectively branches […]
The Center for American Progress has now said the word that the Biden administration and most Democrats in Congress have been most unwilling to utter since Israel began to bomb Gaza: ceasefire. In a significant development, CAP—perhaps the most influential think tank within the Democratic establishment—published an article on Friday asking the Biden administration and Congress to “urge an […]
In the fables of environmentalism, lawyers are heroes. They invented the legal theories and mustered the facts to stop countless dams, mines, timber sales, and other harmful projects. But somewhere along the line, environmentalists stopped treating litigation as a tool and started behaving as if it’s an end in itself—an end to be preserved even […]
In 2019, when Tracy Droz Tragos started filming Plan C, her new documentary about a network of activists and medical providers helping Americans access abortion pills—which are approved by the FDA but restricted in some states—she knew some people might see it as a touchy subject. But she didn’t expect she’d have to fight to […]
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. When data scientist Xaio Wu arrived at Stanford University for his postdoctoral fellowship, California was coming off a record-breaking wildfire season. In 2020, nearly 9,900 fires had burned more than 4.3 million acres of land in the state, killing dozens of people […]
The tweet that got Michael Eisen fired as editor-in-chief of a prestigious science journal seems less provocative with each passing day. On October 13, less than a week after Hamas’ cold-blooded rampage near the Gaza-Israel border, satirical news outlet the Onion posted a brief article on X, headlined, “Dying Gazans Criticized For Not Using Last Words to Condemn […]
The United Auto Workers union, in a closely watched vote, has officially ratified its deal with General Motors, bringing the months-long saga of history-making strikes to a close. On Thursday, the union posted the final results, showing that approximately 55 percent of the 36,000 GM union members voted in favor of the deal, according to Forbes. […]
On Thursday, Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) became the first Jewish congressperson to join the congressional call for a ceasefire in the war in Gaza. A first-term representative, Balint made history last year as the first woman and LGBTQ person to represent Vermont in Congress. Her call for a ceasefire comes one week after activists from […]
I watch the news for a living and come across moments of political dysfunction at a regular clip. So, I was not shocked to learn that Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who until last month was second in the presidential line of succession, shoved a congressman in a “clean shot to the kidneys.” Nor was I […]
The bizarre saga of George Santos as a member of the US House of Representatives is heading toward its finale. One way or another. On Thursday morning, the New York Republican and champion liar announced that he will not seek reelection. This came after the release of a humiliating House Ethics Committee report—which itself might […]
Five years ago, Mother Jones broke a wild story: A mysterious Scotland-based shell company had paid a GOP-linked American lobbyist to help a presidential candidate in Albania court support from the Trump administration—and the money was apparently tied to Russia. Now a new piece of the puzzle has materialized. In 2017, Nick Muzin—a former aide […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The state oil company of the United Arab Emirates, whose CEO will preside over imminent UN climate negotiations, has the largest net-zero-busting expansion plans of any company in the world, according to new data. Sultan Al Jaber is the chief executive […]
Allie Phillips, a 28-year-old running as a Democrat for the Tennessee House of Representatives in District 75, has told her abortion story countless times. She has explained it to her followers on TikTok, to the lawyers helping her sue her state over restrictions to reproductive care, and to the lawmakers who failed her. In November 2022, Phillips […]
Allie Phillips, a 28-year-old running as a Democrat for the Tennessee House of Representatives in District 75, has told her abortion story countless times. She has explained it to her followers on TikTok, to the lawyers helping her sue her state over restrictions to reproductive care, and to the lawmakers who failed her. In November 2022, Phillips […]
More than 130 former Obama campaign staffers have sent the ex-president a letter demanding he “leverage” his influence with President Joe Biden and other elected officials to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and broker the return of hostages, the Intercept reported Tuesday. “You always called on us to be courageous in reaching our […]
Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) became Speaker of the House less than a month ago. Since then, a national audience has become aware of a slew of questionable remarks, associations, and policy positions: The congressman has been criticized for blaming school shootings on no-fault divorces; he has been critiqued for working hand-in-hand with legislators like Rep. Marjorie […]
Facebook, under the premise of so-called free speech, has long allowed politicians to lie on its platforms. But after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, the company appeared to issue somewhat of a mea culpa. Perhaps, as my colleague Pema Levy wrote at the time, Meta executives were finally willing to recognize that […]
Back in mid-2021, when it was clear that conservatives were mobilizing against the Covid vaccines, I remember asking a prominent doctors’ group if they were worried that their attacks on the new shots would undermine confidence in routine childhood vaccinations—the kind that prevents potentially deadly, contagious childhood diseases like measles, polio, and whooping cough. They […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. China and the US have pledged to work together more closely to fight global heating, declaring the climate crisis “one of the greatest challenges of our time,” hours before a key meeting in San Francisco between Joe Biden and […]