A version of 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. Last month, when MAGA luminaries Tucker Carlson, Megyn […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Americans do not care about the climate crisis, only economic issues: That’s the message some wonks have put forth in the past year, as the Trump administration has dismantled environmental protections. But the shift away from climate is misguided, an influential group of progressives […]
In 2002, journalist Vicky Ward—then a writer for Vanity Fair magazine—was assigned to investigate a mysterious New York City financier named Jeffrey Epstein. During her reporting, she stumbled upon sexual abuse allegations against Epstein by Maria and Annie Farmer, whose account was ultimately cut from Ward’s piece, titled “The Talented Mr. Epstein.” That decision sparked […]
Lisa Jo Chamberlin, who spoke to a Mississippi reporter in January about her experiences as the only woman on the state’s death row and her allegations of cruel and unusual punishment behind bars, now says that after speaking to the press, she faced targeted retaliation by prison officers for having gone public about her concerns, […]
The US Department of Agriculture has spent the past week notifying people that the country is (allegedly) overrun by individuals who are fraudulently claiming SNAP benefits, while (allegedly) driving luxury vehicles.  “In just ONE state, 14,000 individuals receiving SNAP benefits were driving LUXURY VEHICLES!” Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins posted on X last week. The […]
On April 14, I created a free account on ChatGPT and asked for some help. It resisted me at first, but after some pushing the responses turned shocking. During a conversation lasting about 20 minutes, OpenAI’s chatbot gave me extensive advice on weapons and tactics as I simulated planning a mass shooting. ChatGPT delivered these […]
The traditional western format has long featured the “Cowboys vs. Indians” archetype. These are often tales of good vs. evil, where a gun-slinging cowboy leaves a trail of dead, “savage” Indians in his wake as he traverses the wild American West. But what if the cowboys were also Indians? This is the question that Métis […]
At a fundraiser in early January, Nevada Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo outright admitted to donors he wasn’t the most inspiring candidate. “I am not enough of a motor—uh, a motivator—as a governor candidate to get them off the couch,” he said on a recording obtained by the Nevada Independent. “We have a couple ballot initiatives […]
“Who would you never invite back to the Met Gala?”  That’s what Late Late Show host James Corden asked Anna Wintour, then-editor-in-chief of Vogue, in 2017, during a game called “Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts.” “Donald Trump,” the fashion executive answered, to thunderous applause. And although neither Trump nor his immediate family have […]
For a little while, crypto mogul Justin Sun represented everything the digital currency industry could want from Donald Trump. But Blockchain Camelot is over, and the dueling lawsuits are here. Sun, a Chinese-born crypto-billionaire known for his antics—he is the guy who paid $6.2 million for a banana duct-taped to a wall at Art Basel—was […]
This is a story about how we—you and us here at Mother Jones—beat Jeff Bezos. Let me explain. Remember the moment, a couple of months back, when Stephen Colbert was at a loss for words: “I don’t even know what to do with this crap,” he said on his show, before crumpling up a memo […]
The Supreme Court on Monday temporarily reinstated a Food and Drug Administration rule allowing the abortion pill mifepristone to be prescribed via telemedicine and dispensed through the mail.  The order, by Justice Samuel Alito Jr., paused a ruling by the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that sought to block nationwide access to mifepristone by cutting […]
Last Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT.) released a report showing just how intensely the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights has failed students. The report found that there were zero resolution agreements in 2025 “involving sexual harassment, sexual violence, seclusion or restraint, racial harassment, or discriminatory school discipline.” Overall, just one percent of complaints submitted […]
This 18-second clip of Bernie Sanders went viral over the weekend. It’s not because, at 84-years-old, he demonstrates near-perfect form. Or because he drains four consecutive shots. Or even because he ends the whole thing with a characteristically grumpy “that’s it!” before stopping. It’s because on that Minnesota basketball court, in town to stump for […]
When distinguished guests and A-listers gather tonight for this year’s Met Gala, two new faces will greet them on the receiving line: Lauren Sánchez Bezos and Jeff Bezos, both of whom will be at Monday’s event as honorary chairs, in addition to their roles as lead sponsors. The appointment, which prompted a small outcry and […]
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Every spring, Florida’s Miccosukee Tribe observes its corn dance season on lands the tribe holds as sacred within the fragile Everglades. But this year’s festivities are different because of the migrant detention site that now looms among the tribal […]
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Since President Donald Trump took office, the Securities and Exchange Commission has made it harder for small and activist investors to raise concerns through the government filing system known as EDGAR. Now they’re pushing back with their own alternative platform, which they […]
As peace talks with Iran continue to stall, the Trump administration announced on Friday an additional $8.6 billion in fast-tracked weapons sales to Israel, Qatar, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. Secretary of State Marco Rubio justified the deal under an “emergency provision” allowing arms to be sold without the congressional approval nominally required for […]
Donald Trump’s plans to remake parts of Washington, DC, are much bigger—and more expensive—than originally planned. A top Trump fundraiser is now asking for donations to a nonprofit that will support a proposed massive sculpture garden, as well as the remodeling of a central DC golf course.  Last year, dump trucks carrying demolition waste and […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Looking out to sea from the grey sandy beaches of Santa Marta, on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, it is never hard to spot evidence of the country’s thriving fossil fuel export trade. Oil tankers ride at anchor on the horizon, and […]
It’s become a familiar refrain: something awful happens in the world, and a member of the commentariat asks, “Where are the student protests? Or did those only happen when Biden was president?” Deprived of student targets, they are forced to post ad infinitum about Hasan Piker. Who wouldn’t be bitter? The consistent thread is that […]
Last fall, hundreds of activists from all over the world crowded onto several dozen boats and set sail for Gaza. Their goal: Break through Israel’s blockade of the territory and end one of the worst humanitarian crises on the planet. They thought that by sharing their journey through social media, they could capture the world’s […]
Update, May 2: Mifepristone manufacturer Danco Laboratories asked the US Supreme Court on Saturday to block the Fifth Circuit’s ruling, saying it “injects immediate confusion and upheaval into highly time-sensitive medical decisions.” A second company, GenBioPro, filed a similar appeal. A federal appeals court packed with conservatives has handed abortion opponents a major victory against […]
After last month’s No Kings protest, Indivisible, the group that describes itself as a pro-democracy, anti-authoritarian people-powered movement, joined May Day Strong’s actions to take a page out of Minnesota’s one-day strike playbook from this past January. On its surface, Indivisible’s participation appears to be a slight pivot, engaging in more disruptive labor-directed actions. But […]
Matt Multari has been driving for Amazon—and organizing with the Teamsters—for about a year and a half. His days are mostly spent delivering packages. But he thinks of his role as a worker-organizer as something much more historically significant than just maximizing delivery efficiency.  “After the Assyrians lost their state, they survived in their homeland […]
On Friday, Nebraska became the first state to enact Medicaid work requirements, mandatory for states with Medicaid expansion due to Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Notably, the state did it seven months before the deadline. Now, around 70,000 adults below the age of 65 in Nebraska who have Medicaid through its expansion could risk […]
Fresh on the heels of a lackluster Mar-a-Lago “luncheon” party for his struggling $TRUMP meme coin, President Donald Trump appears ready to launch his next crypto-coin-for-exclusive-access project: Trump Coin Club. In the wake of the Mar-a-Lago bash, the official $TRUMP coin website was updated with a new offer. The details are sparse but apparently meant […]
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Since the start of his second term last year, President Donald Trump has sought to weaken the federal foundations underpinning American science, slashing or stalling research funding, firing or pushing out thousands of scientists, canceling grants for ideological reasons and shuttering research facilities across the country. […]
In April, the MAHA Mom Coalition, an organization that claims it advocates for “parental rights, holistic health, clean food & water, and medical freedom,” put out an unusual call. They wanted to talk to the farmers who’d been finding mysterious boxes of ticks in their fields—farmers and boxes that, by every available indication, don’t seem […]
Affordability is the new buzzword. It’s yapped by politicians and pundits across the spectrum. It’s as popular as a new TikTok dance. And it’s genuinely an important and mobilizing concept. But the truth is, it doesn’t really capture what’s ailing us. What makes this moment unique is insecurity. Struggling with bills isn’t new to most […]
On Friday, International Workers’ Day, tens of thousands of people across the US will walk out of school, skip work, and refrain from shopping as part of a nationwide economic blackout against President Donald Trump’s agenda. Organizers with the May Day Strong coalition, a coalition of labor unions and community groups, are helping oversee more […]
Did you know there is a second-term Republican congressman from North Carolina named Chuck Edwards who owns six McDonald’s franchises? I certainly did not. Neither, for that matter, did his constituent, Leslie Boyd—until she received a letter notifying her that she was now banned from all of them. The Assembly‘s Jessica Wakeman has the full […]
It has always perplexed me that the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP)—known colloquially as food stamps—doesn’t allow recipients to use the benefit to purchase hot food items at grocery stores. Bread, steak, fish, potato chips, bananas and nearly every other food item lining the shelves? Sure. The ready-made rotisserie chickens, mac-and-cheese, or mashed potatoes on […]
Daniel Reilly takes 19 pills in the morning and 13 at night. He lives with hemophilia and HIV, which he contracted in the 1980s. No one expected him to live this long. In most respects, that’s a blessing—the product of generations of extraordinary medical advances. But it also means there are entire medical specialties he […]
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court dealt a death blow to the country’s most important civil rights legislation, the Voting Rights Act of 1965—the law that defeated Jim Crow. For 100 years, from 1865 to 1965, Black people were systematically and actively excluded from participation in American democracy through racial violence, but more commonly through race-neutral […]
OpenAI admitted it had to develop a specific instruction in the code of its latest model of ChatGPT to stop it from repeatedly referencing “goblins, gremlins, and other creatures.” In an explanation posted Wednesday, the company said the “strange habit” came from its chatbot personality feature—specifically for users who chose the “Nerdy” personality. According to […]
In a brief ruling late Wednesday, a Texas appeals court panel declined to immediately turn over Infowars, the conspiracy empire founded by Alex Jones, to a receiver, pending further court proceedings. That receiver had previously signed a deal with the satirical news site The Onion to take over Infowars’ physical and intellectual property; the emergency […]
Over the last few months, Trader Joe’s has pulled thousands of cases of focaccia bread and frozen fried rice from its shelves for potentially having fragments of metal or glass, respectively. If that makes you a little nervous about stocking up on other TJ favorites like cookie butter and Everything But the Bagel crackers, you’re […]
Dr. Richard Pan is no stranger to blood. As a pediatrician, he was trained for its inevitability. But unlike your average medical professional—and despite his approachable and buoyant demeanor—he’s had menstrual blood launched at him in protest. He’s been assaulted on the street by a person livestreaming the attack on Facebook. He’s been the subject […]
The Supreme Court’s Republican-appointed majority would have you think that its latest gerrymandering decision is a mere tweak to the legal rules governing political map drawing. No doubt hoping for mild headlines, the court’s 6–3 opinion framed its holding as hewing to “the plain text” of the Voting Rights Act and “consistent with” the 15th […]
Increasingly desperate negotiations. A plea from the president himself. An eleventh-hour sleight of hand, followed by a surprise vote in the dead of night.  Over the past month, chaos has unfolded on Capitol Hill as House Republicans fracture over a central question: Should the federal government need a warrant to spy on US citizens? According […]
In an outcome that was widely expected, the US Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that New Jersey’s efforts to investigate an anti-abortion crisis pregnancy center for allegedly misleading consumers violated the First Amendment. In a 9–0 decision, the justices said a sweeping subpoena by the state’s then-attorney general, Matthew Platkin, seeking information about donors to First […]
For the first time since the US began bombing Iran two weeks ago, our military leadership testified before a congressional committee today. The main takeaway: there is no real plan for ending this war. But there is a plan for giving the Pentagon more money.  At today’s House Armed Services Committee hearing, Secretary of War […]
A version of 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. In what might be the ultimate encapsulation of […]
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ mapmaker doesn’t want you to know who helped gerrymander Florida. That was one of the most significant takeaways from Jason Poreda’s testimony Tuesday before the Florida legislature. Poreda, a senior official in DeSantis’ governor’s office, told lawmakers during a special session that he was responsible for drawing a proposed new map that […]
The Supreme Court’s six-to-three Republican-appointed majority issued a staggering ruling on Wednesday essentially killing the remaining protections of the Voting Rights Act, dealing a death blow to the country’s most important civil rights law. The majority opinion by Justice Samuel Alito in Louisiana v. Callais strikes down the creation of a second majority-Black congressional district […]
Remember “the most transparent administration in history”? That’s what Donald Trump promised at the beginning of his second term, and it’s been going about as well as the rest of his promises. The ongoing Epstein files debacle is the most glaring example, but contempt for the public’s right to know reaches far deeper in this […]
Victims of the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting and their families sued OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, in US district court in San Francisco on Wednesday, claiming various negligence, product liability, and other violations. The civil complaints are the latest in a wave of litigation against OpenAI alleging that its globally popular chatbot, ChatGPT, helped […]
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Sweeping changes underway at the federal agency tasked with protecting the nation’s forests could result in the loss of more than a century of critical historical documents, conservationists warn.  The US Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service announced a major restructuring at […]
In May 2016, Elon Musk did something out of character that he has now spent years of his life trying to undo: He made what he believed to be a charitable donation.  The world’s richest man is also among its stingiest. Musk’s private foundation often doles out less than the minimum percentage required by law. […]