This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Donald Trump’s push to repurpose the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) amid funding cuts and staffing losses poses a huge threat to water safety and environmental advances in one of the big environmental success stories in the US […]

After a French court found far-right leader and former presidential frontrunner Marine Le Pen guilty of embezzlement on Monday—a conviction that will bar her from holding political office for five years—some of President Donald Trump’s closest allies are boosting baseless conspiracy theories alleging that Le Pen’s conviction is part of a global scheme to keep […]

“I need to talk for just a minute or two about my opponent,” Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Susan Crawford tells a crowd of supporters in Kenosha. “Elon Musk.” It’s become her signature line. And it was particularly apt for her to deliver on Friday, March 28, the same day Musk announced that he would hold […]

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. President Donald Trump appears to be serious about getting the federal government out of disaster response. Earlier this week, his secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem, said in a Cabinet meeting that she would move to “eliminate” the Federal Emergency […]

Last Thursday night, I attended a cocktail party in the penthouse apartment of an Austin, Texas, highrise. Through floor-to-ceiling glass windows, we watched dusk settle over the rainy sweep of the city, from the bars below us to the university campus, to the downtown skyline, studded with construction sites. As the first guests began to […]

President Donald Trump has repeatedly teased running for a third term in violation of the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, which limits presidents to two terms. Until now, it has been unclear whether he was making such comments seriously. But in a phone call with Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker of NBC News on […]

One of the most powerful people in the White House remained obscure to most Americans since the start of Trump’s second presidency, until Saturday night. Susie Wiles, the secretive White House chief of staff and former Trump campaign manager, gave what she called her “first and probably only” sit-down television interview to President Donald Trump’s […]

This story was reported by Floodlight, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powerful interests stalling climate action. Barn Raiser is a nonprofit newsroom covering rural and small-town America. The US Department of Agriculture announced late Tuesday it will release previously authorized grant funds to farmers and small rural business owners to build renewable energy projects—but only if they […]

On Friday, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to lift a lower court ruling blocking the mass deportation of thousands of detained Venezuelan migrants under the controversial Aliens Enemies Act of 1798, claiming in a filing that it has a “rigorous process” for identifying gang members. However, Mother Jones‘ reporting suggests that the Trump […]

Elon Musk has already spent more money—$20 million and counting—to flip the Wisconsin Supreme Court than any individual donor in the history of US judicial races. His tactics go well beyond the usual campaign spending. First, he offered to pay voters $100 each for signing a petition from his America PAC opposing “activist judges.” Even […]

Robert F. Kennedy’s Jr. war on vaccines just landed another major blow as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services successfully forced one of the nation’s top vaccine officials out of his position. Dr. Peter Marks, who was given the choice by HHS officials to either be fired or step down as […]

At 18, Jack Morris was convicted of murdering a man in South Los Angeles and sent to prison for life. It was 1979, and America was entering the era of mass incarceration, with tough sentencing laws ballooning the criminal justice system. As California’s prison population surged, so did prison violence. “You learn that in order […]

This story was originally published by Slate and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Once upon a time, not long ago, Elon Musk was worried sick about climate change. Stopping it became an overarching career mission, reflected in both his business decisions and everyday actions. He gave the electric vehicle industry a jolt after taking […]

On Tuesday afternoon, a federal judge in New York’s Northern District heard opening arguments in the case of Momodou Taal v. Trump. Neither party was present in the courtroom—in large part because Trump’s Department of Homeland Security has been trying to find Taal for days, reportedly staking out his home and entering his university’s campus. […]

Amid intense outrage over the arrest of Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts student who was ambushed and detained by plainclothes federal immigration officers this week, Marco Rubio appeared gratified. “We revoked her visa, it’s an F-1 visa, I believe,” the secretary of State told reporters at a press conference in Guyana on Thursday when asked about […]

On Thursday, the federal Department of Health and Human Services moved, through a department-wide restructuring order, to eliminate the Administration for Community Living (ACL), a subsidiary established in 2012 to support disabled and aging people—part of a broader series of cuts that will see the firing of some 10,000 HHS staff. HHS’ press release on […]

Rebecca Denison expected to have a short life. She’d acquired HIV as a college student in the 1980s, she told the audience at an infectious disease conference in San Francisco earlier this month, and got an official diagnosis in 1990. “Back then,” she said matter of factly, “it was understood we were all going to […]

This story was originally published on the author’s substack, Field Notes with Alexander C Kaufman, to which you can subscribe here. Last week, Greenlanders trudged through snow and ice to cast ballots in their most closely watched parliamentary elections in modern history—possibly ever. Just two months earlier, Donald Trump had returned to power, vowing to achieve what American presidents […]