By now, it looks like appearing on national television and refusing to commit to certifying the 2024 general election results is a requirement for Trump vice-presidential hopefuls. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.)—all of whom are among the possible candidates, NBC News reported last week—have all failed to answer “yes” when television hosts have […]

For weeks preceding President Biden’s commencement speech on Sunday at Morehouse College—a historically Black men’s college in Atlanta—students and faculty opposed his appearance, alleging that the president should not be the guest of honor given his ongoing support for Israel’s war in Gaza.  As student protests swept through other colleges and universities, even forcing the cancellation […]

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.  While the Gulf of Mexico is a region known for oil, it’s also home to something far less expected. Nestled among offshore oil platforms, about 150 miles from Houston, is one of the healthiest coral reefs in the world: the Flower Garden […]

“I just want to share what I have discovered about my son’s circumstances that led him to this horrific, indescribable crime. I hope that my hindsight will be your foresight.” I’ve been thinking about Chin Rodger’s words a lot lately. Chin is the subject of Mark Follman’s wrenching Mother Jones cover story about the massacre that […]

This story was originally published by Undark and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In 2020, the Wisconsin city of Appleton brought No Mow May to the United States. Each spring, by temporarily forgoing mowing and letting residential lawns grow with flowers, residents could support bees and other insect pollinators, proponents claimed. Indeed, they even […]

Something curious has happened since the Supreme Court handed down the Dobbs decision in June 2022: More people have obtained abortions, despite increasing barriers to access. That’s one of the central findings of a new report released Tuesday, which found that there were nearly 86,000 average abortions per month in 2023, compared to about 82,000 a […]

On Thursday, purportedly on the advice of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott formally pardoned Daniel Perry for his 2020 murder of Garrett Foster at a Black Lives Matter protest in Austin. I say “purportedly” because Abbott never waited for the board before passing judgment in the case; he […]

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. A “deal” allegedly offered by Donald Trump to Big Oil executives as he sought $1 billion in campaign donations could save the industry $110 billion in tax breaks if he returns to the White House, an analysis suggests. The fundraising dinner held last […]

North Carolina Republicans are pushing legislation that would remove the state’s health exemption to laws banning masks in public, citing protestors’ wearing them in pro-Palestine campus rallies. If the state GOP’s “Unmasking Mobs and Criminals” bill passes, North Carolina would become the first in the country since 2020 to make it illegal to avoid infectious […]

A Columbia protester detained as part of the city’s crackdown against the Gaza Solidarity Encampment says that during her arrest and processing she was forced to take off her hijab—a violation of a New York Police Department policy and another instance of a high-profile problem for the department. The account of the protester, a Columbia student who wished […]

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court allowed a lower court decision requiring a second majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana to move forward for the 2024 elections, handing down a rare victory for minority representation that also boosts Democrats chances of retaking the House of Representatives. The case, Landry v. Callais, took a convoluted path to the high […]

Ten years ago, a 22-year-old murdered six college students in a suicidal rampage near Santa Barbara, California. Those students were Weihan Wang, Cheng Hong, George Chen, Katherine Cooper, Veronika Weiss, and Christopher Martinez. Many others were injured and traumatized in the attack. It was a horrific event that has, in some ways, been poorly understood by the […]

along the coastal 101 in brilliant blue, the bright May sky beginning to soften toward sunset. Chin Rodger felt a lift of optimism as she exited the freeway and arrived at a sushi restaurant tucked away in the tony town of Montecito, where she greeted her 22-year-old son, Elliot. He looked well. He wore a […]

Editor’s note: It is hard to briefly summarize the poignancy, vulnerability, and harrowing beauty of Another Word for Love, an exceptional new memoir from the journalist and podcaster Carvell Wallace, who infuses vignettes of his hardscrabble journey from boyhood to middle age with philosophical ruminations on culture; family, love, sex, inner torment, and just about […]

This story was originally published by High Country News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The North Cascades elk herd is a cluster of some 1,600 animals whose domain, like so many habitats, is riven by a highway. From 2012 to 2019, Washington state records show, at least 229 elk were killed by cars along a […]

Almost as predictably as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, the rich grow richer. “Wealth concentration in a few hands is the single most enduring economic pattern across all poli­ties from Mesopotamia to the present—rarely interrupted, and then only for brief intervals,” the political scientist Jeffrey Winters, who studies oligarchies […]

Erstwhile GOP presidential candidate and current vice-presidential hopeful Ben Carson has joined right-wing peers like Speaker of the House Mike Johnson in supporting the end—or at least the rolling back—of no-fault divorce laws across the nation.   “For the sake of families,” the former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development wrote in his book, The […]

Where to begin?  The most obvious place is with another cup of coffee, and November’s election.  This is Mother Jones, after all, and doing investigative journalism that can advance democracy and justice is why we exist and what we’ve been doing for 48 years. You can bet we have much to say (and report on) […]

After officials repeatedly warned that they would consider stopping the flow of weapons to Israel if it pressed forward with a ground invasion into Rafah, the Biden administration announced it would nonetheless attempt to send more than $1 billion in additional weapons to Israel, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday night, citing congressional officials. The […]

Growing up, Myles Markham always felt like an outsider. Markham was multiracial in small, mostly white Florida towns. And they were queer. “I was swimming in water that told me that who I was, what I was, needed to change if I wanted to be safe,” they say. “I really believed, ‘I am a problem. I […]