Mother Jones
Farmers Are Collateral Damage in Trump’s Iran War
- Title
- Farmers Are Collateral Damage in Trump’s Iran War
- Runtime
- 2:10
- Date posted
- 6 months ago
- Description
- You might have sticker shock in the bread aisle later this year.
Why? Fertilizer.
70 percent of American farmers can’t afford enough fertilizer to plant all their crops.
That’s because about a third of the planet’s nitrogen fertilizer, the most widely used in global agriculture, must pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
Thanks to Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu’s war on Iran, that waterway is essentially still closed to most ships.
It’s been described as a “slow-moving food crisis”: when farmers can’t buy fertilizer, they don’t plant as much, and months on, that shows up in scarcer, pricier food.
- Title
- Scientology’s pursuit of the youth
- Runtime
- 2:59
- Date posted
- 6 months ago
- Description
- You may have seen groups of young people on TikTok filming themselves “speed-running” Scientology buildings—seeing how deep inside they can get before being thrown out.
This isn't the ideal outreach method for Scientologists – the church has accused these young people of trespassing and harassment. But the church is far from denouncing TikTok. Since early 2025, some of their centers' TikTok accounts became especially active, pumping out social videos about the church's, often using popular songs and trending audio, presenting a more approachable, amiable, and youthful face for the church.
But according to ex-members and journalists, the strategy is not working. “Young people who are not Scientologists really see Scientology as an object of ridicule,” said Tony Ortega, a journalist who’s been covering the church for more than 30 years.
Read more: https://bit.ly/3PM5vW0
- Title
- One Congresswoman’s Scary Yearlong Fight for Justice After Standing Up to ICE
- Runtime
- 24:55
- Date posted
- 6 months ago
- Description
- ► For more, visit Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/
It’s been just over a year since Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), a sitting member of Congress, showed up to Delaney Hall, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, to do her job.
Members of Congress have the statutory right to conduct unannounced oversight visits at ICE detention centers across the country, and McIver had done it before.
But this time was different.
Things turned chaotic. ICE flooded the facility with agents. The mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, was arrested. And McIver, a first-term Congresswoman, left that day, about to face two federal felony counts and a misdemeanor, for “forcibly impeded and interfered with federal officers,” according to the charges.
For the past year, McIver, who has pleaded not guilty, has been fighting the case, running to keep her seat in Congress, and making the argument t...
- Title
- Can this Republican withstand Trump’s wrath?
- Runtime
- 2:56
- Date posted
- 6 months ago
- Description
- Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie has always been a pain in the ass. Whether it’s arguing with his high school physics teacher about standing up in class or voting against his own party in Congress, he’s done things his own way.
That defiant streak may end up costing him his seat. Donald Trump has set his sights on making this Massie’s last term, forcing him into a primary against the president’s hand-picked candidate, Ed Gallrein.
So what did he do to earn this ire? First, he worked with Democrats to force the Justice Department to release the Epstein files. Then, he voted against Trump’s One Big Beautiful bill, calling it a “debt bomb.” Finally, he accused Trump of striking Iran when there was no imminent threat.
Over the past year, the MIT-educated engineer has been the lone Republican in Congress willing to challenge a vengeful president. Now he’s locked in a nasty and expensive primary. But the election results may have a...
- Title
- Your Favorite Park Could Be Surrounded by Data Centers
- Runtime
- 2:27
- Date posted
- 6 months ago
- Description
- ► For more, visit Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2026/05/data-centers-prince-william-gateway-virginia-manassas-battlefield-park/
For the past few years, developers in Northern Virginia have been trying to push through the world’s largest data center project to date.
If built, the Prince William Digital Gateway would be roughly the size of 61 Pentagons spread over 2,100 acres. A good chunk of that acreage abuts the Manassas National Battlefield Park, a historic area where two major battles of the American Civil War took place.
Legendary documentarian Ken Burns, neighbors, and more came out to protest the gargantuan tech project. And to learn the outcome of this cage match royale, listen to Lauren Ober's story on Reveal, available wherever you get your podcasts.
Listen: https://revealnews.org/podcast/data-centers-northern-virginia-manassas-ai-sam-altman/
#datacenters #virginia #ai
...
![ChatGPT Gushed Shocking Advice as I Simulated a Plan for a Mass Shooting [HORIZONTAL VERSION]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Tem6zGQx1Q0/1.jpg)
- Title
- ChatGPT Gushed Shocking Advice as I Simulated a Plan for a Mass Shooting [HORIZONTAL VERSION]
- Runtime
- 9:00
- Date posted
- 6 months ago
- Description
- ► For more, visit Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/
Editor's note: This is the same as our recent video "Chilling: I Simulated Planning a Mass Shooting with ChatGPT," however we reformatted it to be viewed horizontally.
On April 14, journalist Mark Follman created a free account on ChatGPT and asked for some help. It resisted him at first, but after some pushing the responses turned shocking. OpenAI’s chatbot soon gave him extensive advice on weapons and tactics as he simulated planning a mass shooting.
ChatGPT delivered these responses with lots of encouragement—and it kept going even after Mark talked of emulating the Uvalde mass shooter’s choice of weapon, asked about livestreaming with a body camera and using hollow-point bullets, and focused on defending against return gunfire from police.
Eventually, its safeguards appeared to kick back in and it stopped cooperating. But by then ChatGPT had showered him with a...
- Title
- Why the Next President Could Finally Be Elected by the Popular Vote
- Runtime
- 1:58
- Date posted
- 6 months ago
- Description
- Something big happened in Virginia last month that you probably missed.
On April 13, Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed a bill making Virginia the 18th state to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
That’s an agreement among states to elect the president by the popular vote rather than the Electoral College.
The compact goes into effect when enough states sign onto it and reach a total of 270 electoral votes—the number needed to elect the president.
With Virginia’s support, states in the compact now have 222 electoral votes. And the results of the midterms could push the popular vote effort over the top.
If Democrats take control of state governments in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, or Arizona, and legislatures in those states adopt the compact, that would put it over 270.
That means there’s actually a chance the president could be elected by the popular vote in 2028 instead of ...
- Title
- Republicans want minority rule—and they'll reinvent Jim Crow to get it.
- Runtime
- 2:39
- Date posted
- 6 months ago
- Description
- Republicans want minority rule—and they'll reinvent Jim Crow to get it.
- Title
- Blame John Roberts For Destroying the Voting Rights Act
- Runtime
- 3:00
- Date posted
- 6 months ago
- Description
- ► For more, visit Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/
The recent Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais that effectively killed the last remaining provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was authored by Justice Samuel Alito.
But it represents the life's work of Chief Justice John Roberts.
The Roberts Court has now gutted the Voting Rights Act on three different occasions, and Roberts wrote or joined every one of those opinions. And that's not an accident.
Roberts has been trying to kill the Voting Rights Act for more than 40 years, and it looks like he's finally succeeded.
Watch our new video to understand how Roberts has steadily worked to destroy the VRA and what can be done to fight back:
#politics #voting #supremecourt
--
For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/
Facebook: https://w...
- Title
- State Rep. Justin Jones Burns a Paper Confederate Flag in Protest
- Runtime
- 0:27
- Date posted
- 6 months ago
- Description
- The mood on the ground in Tennessee today.
- Title
- TN Voters Kicked Out From Watching Their Rights be Stripped Away.
- Runtime
- 1:33
- Date posted
- 6 months ago
- Description
- Tensions flared on Thursday as the Tennessee state legislature cleared the public gallery of spectators amid the Republican push to redraw the state’s lone Democratic district.
Mother Jones’s Garrison Hayes has been on the scene covering the developments and filed this video as protesters were ejected and the crowd yelled, “Whose house? Our house!”
“Your racist maps won't silence us,” said Jess Williams, a director at The Equity Alliance in Nashville. “We're going to continue to fight. This is just the beginning. You haven't seen or heard the last of us yet.”
- Title
- TN Voter Protests: "This Is the Bigotry We've Come to Expect"
- Runtime
- 1:13
- Date posted
- 6 months ago
- Description
- ► For more, visit Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/
Impassioned protests erupted on Wednesday in Nashville as Republicans in Tennessee raced to slice up their state's sole Democratic district covering the majority-Black city of Memphis.
Mother Jones’s Garrison Hayes is on the ground at the State Capitol covering the upheaval. He spoke with State Representative Justin Pearson, a Democrat, amid the din of protesters who had arrived to voice their disdain during proceedings, shouting, “Hands off Memphis!” (Check out Garrison's earlier video today, and stay tuned for more.)
Pearson emphasized the historic gravity of the move. "This isn't coincidental or accidental," he said. "They're coming for Black political power in Tennessee and Mississippi and Alabama and Louisiana. We're seeing the greatest purge of Black power since the era of Reconstruction."
--
For more award-winning independent reporting, vis...
- Title
- The Secret Plan to spray glyphosate (aka Roundup) all over our forests
- Runtime
- 2:59
- Date posted
- 6 months ago
- Description
- This spring, federal agencies plan to spray glyphosate—the world's most controversial and widely-debated weedkiller—across thousands and thousands of acres of public land. Land where families camp, hikers explore, hunters pursue game, and children swim in mountain streams. And almost no one knows it's happening, reports @natethecurious.
Glyphosate, introduced by agri-giant Monsanto in 1974, has been classified as a probable carcinogen by the World Health Organization. Bayer, the multinational conglomerate that acquired Monsanto in 2018, is now on the hook for over $12 billion in legal settlements and payouts to thousands of people who claim Roundup gave them cancer and other serious illnesses. Scientists have also linked the chemical to decimated Monarch butterfly populations, mass frog die-offs, and widespread ecological damage.
And yet in February, President Trump signed an executive order declaring glyphosate critical to national security, invoking the ...
- Title
- Tennessee rushes new redistricting battle
- Runtime
- 0:54
- Date posted
- 6 months ago
- Description
- The Republican-controlled Tennessee legislature convened a three-day special session this week to redraw district maps, following last week’s landmark Supreme Court decision gutting the Voting Rights Act.
At stake could be the fate of a single Democratic-held district in Memphis. Republicans are racing to enshrine changes before the August primaries, and the Republican Governor of Alabama is currently pursuing a similar strategy.
The recent Supreme Court ruling effectively neutralized Section 2 protections against racial gerrymandering, opening a new front in the redistricting wars.
Mother Jones’s @garrisonh is on the ground in Nashville covering the ensuing debates and protests. He spoke with Democratic Caucus Chairwoman @londonlamartn, a state senator representing Memphis, who called the move “downright racist.”
“This is one of the most egregious acts the legislature will ever take,” she told Hayes. “They are delibera...
- Title
- “We Could See the Largest Drop in Black Representation Since the End of Reconstruction.”
- Runtime
- 5:40
- Date posted
- 6 months ago
- Description
- “We could see the largest drop in Black representation since the end of Reconstruction."
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 tricks like poll taxes and grandfather clauses. Governments across the country also used redistricting to dilute the Black vote without ever having to talk about race explicitly.
That’s what Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, enacted federally, went after: The slippery tricks deployed to destroy the political power of Black folks and other people of color—especially in the South.
And the Supreme Court just took us right back to that time.
The majority opinion in the...
- Title
- So that royal visit is going...well? 😬
- Runtime
- 0:30
- Date posted
- 7 months ago
- Description
- The United Kingdom’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla are on a kind of diplomatic Cirque du Soleil mission to their former colony right now, trying to ease tensions between the two historic allies.
Especially front-of-mind: Can the King smooth over Britain’s lack of support for Trump’s war on Iran—a stance for which Prime Minister Keir Starmer has received several bouts of Trumpian invective. The president loves the royals and all that pageantry, and there’s been no shortage of it since they touched down at Joint Base Andrews yesterday: hats, bees, bands—they’re getting the works.
Trump’s love of all this stuff is clear. So much so that he couldn’t resist musing on his family’s affection for the Royal Family during an event today on the South Lawn of the White House.
“Any time the Queen was involved at a ceremony or anything, my mother would be glued to the television,” he told his guests, referring to his mother, Mary A...
- Title
- Trailer: Our Big New Roundup Investigation Just Dropped
- Runtime
- 3:00
- Date posted
- 7 months ago
- Description
- When the Forest Service sent a routine letter about wildfire recovery in, one word buried in the text stopped me cold: herbicides.
This spring, federal agencies plan to spray glyphosate—the world's most controversial and widely-debated weedkiller—across thousands and thousands of acres of public land. Land where families camp, hikers explore, hunters pursue game, and children swim in mountain streams. And almost no one knows it's happening, reports Nate Halverson.
Glyphosate, introduced by agri-giant Monsanto in 1974, has been classified as a probable carcinogen by the World Health Organization. Bayer, the multinational conglomerate that acquired Monsanto in 2018, has now paid over $12 billion in legal settlements to thousands of people who claim Roundup gave them cancer and other serious illnesses. Scientists have also linked the chemical to decimated Monarch butterfly populations, mass frog die-offs, and widespread environmental destruction.
...
- Title
- The Secret Plan to Cover the World in Herbicide
- Runtime
- 21:50
- Date posted
- 7 months ago
- Description
- ► For more, visit Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/
When the Forest Service sent a routine letter about wildfire recovery in, one word buried in the text stopped me cold: herbicides.
This spring, federal agencies plan to spray glyphosate—the world's most controversial and widely-debated weedkiller—across thousands and thousands of acres of public land. Land where families camp, hikers explore, hunters pursue game, and children swim in mountain streams. And almost no one knows it's happening.
Glyphosate, introduced by agri-giant Monsanto in 1974, has been classified as a probable carcinogen by the World Health Organization. Bayer, the multinational conglomerate that acquired Monsanto in 2018, has now paid over $12 billion in legal settlements to thousands of people who claim Roundup gave them cancer and other serious illnesses. Scientists have also linked the chemical to decimated Monarch butterfly populations, mass frog die-offs, an...
- Title
- Catholics welcome everyone, but can they handle JD Vance?
- Runtime
- 2:56
- Date posted
- 7 months ago
- Description
- JD Vance – along with some other Catholic neophytes – have had a lot to say in recent weeks about their newfound religion. And it’s rubbing some cradle Catholics the wrong way.
- Title
- Some Democrats Want to Cancel Hasan Piker. Hasan Piker Doesn’t Think They Can.
- Runtime
- 2:32
- Date posted
- 7 months ago
- Description
- Recently, Hasan Piker has been taking hits from all sides. He doesn’t seem to mind.
“All these fascist forces in this country are screaming from the rooftops. They took a 90-10 issue and chose to be on the 10 percent side of this 90-10 issue…It's going to backfire on them, which it did, which is why they then started trying to shift the narrative that Hasan is dangerous in many other different ways,”
Piker continued, “We're on the fourth week now. Like, why are you still talking about me? I'm irrelevant. Give it up.”
Watch the full interview for more with Hasan Piker.
- Title
- Hasan Piker’s Pick for California Governor? Maybe a Billionaire.
- Runtime
- 2:58
- Date posted
- 7 months ago
- Description
- Did Hasan Piker just soft endorse billionaire Tom Steyer?
“Tom Steyer could be a very interesting governor for the state,” the prolific streamer and political commentator said.
He and Garrison Hayes sat down to talk about politics and his perspective on the 2026 gubernatorial race in California. His top pick—for the time being at least—might surprise you.
“I talked to Tom Steyer, I interviewed him, and, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think he's the most interesting candidate with viability right now,” said Piker.
Find the full interview on our YouTube channel or at MotherJones.com.
- Title
- Will Democrats Ever Win Over Hasan Piker?
- Runtime
- 2:40
- Date posted
- 7 months ago
- Description
- Mother Jones’ Garrison Hayes played a little game with prolific streamer Hasan Piker: A 2028 candidate rapid-fire yes, or no.
“Oh my God. JD Vance? No, I will never vote for a Republican, ever,” Piker cried, after one round.
But his response for Democrats wasn’t much rosier.
“Cory Booker?... No. Absolutely not.”
“You've been consistently critical of Democrats. What will it take for Democrats to win over Hasan Piker?” Garrison asked.
“Oof! So much,” Piker responded.
Watch the full interview on our YouTube channel or at MotherJones.com.
- Title
- Hasan Piker: The Left's Biggest Problem—or Its Best Shot?
- Runtime
- 38:36
- Date posted
- 7 months ago
- Description
- Hasan Piker's name is everywhere.
Not because he won an election or passed legislation. Not because he's a big sports star or an astronaut. It's because he won't stop yapping—and scores of people won’t stop listening. Depending on who you ask, he's either one of the most dangerous voices in American politics—or one of the most honest.
Piker, an avowed Marxist, is among the loudest voices on the American left. His megaphone is a Twitch stream where he spends roughly eight hours a day, seven days a week, breaking down political news to an audience that skews young and male. He's blunt, frequently crass, and deeply influential. There seems to be a profile of him every other day. (One such New York Times headline: "A Progressive Mind in a Body Made for the ‘Manosphere’".) Time named him on its Top 100 Creators list.
All of this is why certain factions of the Democratic Party have spent the last several weeks trying to make him a liability...
- Title
- Pope Leo: “I have no fear” of Trump
- Runtime
- 1:12
- Date posted
- 7 months ago
- Description
- Following an extraordinary attack against Pope Leo XIV that featured President Trump insulting the Catholic leader as “weak on crime” and “terrible,” Leo told reporters on Monday that he was not afraid of the Trump administration.
“I have no fear of the Trump administration, or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do,” Leo said en route to Algeria for a papal visit to Africa.
“We are not politicians,” he continued. “We don’t deal with foreign policy with the same perspective he might understand it. But I do believe in the message of the Gospel, as a peacemaker.”
Leo’s defiant message came after Trump issued a lengthy, ego-driven rant against the pope on Sunday, claiming that Leo would not have been elected had it not been for Trump’s presidency. “If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican,” he wrote.
The president then posted a biza...
- Title
- It's getting frostier in the MAGA-friendly Pentagon press room
- Runtime
- 2:21
- Date posted
- 7 months ago
- Description
- A prickly exchange between Pete Hegseth and a reporter last month was notable, considering that the current Pentagon press pool is almost entirely made up of right-wing outlets who typically provide overwhelmingly pro-Trump coverage. It was inevitable, then, that one day those reporters and influencers and others in the MAGA-flavored press would be called upon to cover an actual news event that does not always reflect favorably on the president. With the invasion of Iran, that day has arrived.
- Title
- After a wrongful deportation, a judge ordered her return home
- Runtime
- 3:12
- Date posted
- 7 months ago
- Description
- ► For more, visit Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/04/a-judge-ordered-her-return-after-a-wrongful-deportation-now-comes-the-hard-part/
Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez recalls the 40 days she spent in Mexico as a dark time. After more than 27 years in the United States, her country of birth no longer felt like home. At 42, Estrada Juarez found herself needing help with the smallest things, grocery shopping, for instance, or riding the bus. Worst of all, she was missing the most important person in her life: her US citizen daughter Damaris Bello.
“There were some moments where it was even hard for me to breathe,” Estrada Juarez said during a video call last week. “We’ve never been apart so much; we’ve always been together.”
In February, Estrada Juarez was wrongfully deported to Mexico despite having protection under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that shields undocumented immigrants bro...
- Title
- Trump is turning America into a monument to himself.
- Runtime
- 3:00
- Date posted
- 7 months ago
- Description
- No sitting American president has ever put his name on US currency. That will change later this year when bills bearing Donald Trump’s signature start to roll out.
President Trump is engaged in a personal branding campaign unlike anything in the history of the American presidency. More than a dozen symbols of national life now bear his name or face, from a government prescription drug website to the national parks pass. And he shows no signs of stopping. There’s going to be a new “golden fleet” Trump class of Navy warships and the F47 fighter jet—named after the 47th president. A bill was introduced last year to add his face to Mount Rushmore, over engineers' warnings that this would permanently damage the monument.
In fact, Trump is using the full power of the presidency to try and get his personal brand on as much of American public life as possible. He reportedly offered to unfreeze billions in federal infrastructure funding if Senator Chuck Schum...
- Title
- We Asked the White House If Trump Was Considering Nuking Iran. Its Response Was Chilling.
- Runtime
- 1:49
- Date posted
- 7 months ago
- Description
- From our reporter, Noah Lanard:
President Donald Trump is threatening that a “whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if there is no deal to open up the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday night.
The president’s increasingly apocalyptic rhetoric has led to even right-wing figures like Tucker Carlson raising alarms about the potential of a nuclear strike against Iran. In response to those concerns, I asked the White House on Tuesday morning if the president is mulling the use of nuclear weapons.
Six minutes later, the White House declined to rule out the use of nuclear weapons. Instead, an unnamed press official directed me to Trump’s post, which says a “whole civilization” will “probably” be wiped out today.
In a follow-up, I said our article would note that “the White House press office declined to comment on whether the president is considering a nuclear attack on Iran.” The White House then ...
- Title
- See Photos From NASA’s First Moon Mission Since 1972
- Runtime
- 1:51
- Date posted
- 7 months ago
- Description
- NASA just released the first photos taken by astronauts aboard Artemis II-- the first crewed mission to the moon since 1972. The images show Earth from space, in one photo swathed in clouds and in another almost obscured in darkness.
The four-person crew includes pilot Victor Glover, the first Black astronaut to travel to deep space, and mission specialist Christina Koch, the first woman on a lunar mission. On Day 6 of their 10-day journey, they'll loop around the far side of the moon without landing and continue home.
“You look amazing. You look beautiful,” said Glover looking back at Earth in an interview with CBS News. “From up here you also look like one thing… No matter where you’re from or what you look, like we’re all one people.”
Back on Earth, NASA's future is less certain. The White House has proposed cutting the agency's science budget by 47%, and for the first time in 40 years, NASA has not committed to starting any new s...
- Title
- Pam Bondi committed herself to Trumpian theatrics—and lost the job anyway
- Runtime
- 0:37
- Date posted
- 7 months ago
- Description
- It turns out that in Trumpworld, you’re only as good as your least bad congressional performance.
Of all the rot that flowed from Pam Bondi’s tenure leading the Justice Department under Donald Trump’s second term, the one that will be remembered beyond this political moment is likely to be her February 2026 hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, writes Inae Oh.
It was there that the attorney general, now former, approached congressional oversight like a vulgar cage fight.
“You’re a washed-up, loser lawyer,” Bondi told Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the committee. “You’re not even a lawyer.”
Coming from the highest law enforcement officer in the country, the taunt was absurd, the stuff of reality television theatrics intended to please our reality television president. It was easy to see why. Bondi was testifying before Congress about the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files, a ...
- Title
- Olympic sex testing was born in fascism. Has anything changed?
- Runtime
- 2:54
- Date posted
- 7 months ago
- Description
- Nazi-era fears about gender gave rise to sex testing. Now, the policy is resurfacing.
On March 26, the International Olympic Committee announced that all athletes competing in women’s sports will be required to undergo genetic eligibility testing. Claiming to be concerned with “fairness” and “the protection of the female category,” the IOC aims to ban transgender women from future Olympic games by screening for the SRY gene, which is usually found on the Y chromosome. The 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles will be the first games with this policy in effect.
For queer historian and writer Michael Waters, the IOC’s announcement elicited a feeling of déjà vu: The institution has employed similar gender verification rules before—only to abandon them amid public backlash. In his 2024 book, The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports, Waters traces the history of trans athletes in the early 20th century, showing how a ...
- Title
- This man's great-grandfather made millions of people Americans
- Runtime
- 7:14
- Date posted
- 7 months ago
- Description
- ► For more, visit Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/mojo-wire/2026/04/birthright-citizenship-supreme-court-wong-kim-ark-norman-wong/
Today, as the Supreme Court heard oral arguments over the future of birthright citizenship, the justices kept returning to one name: Wong Kim Ark.
Wong was born around 1870 in San Francisco's Chinatown, the son of Chinese parents who had settled in the United States. As a young man, he traveled to China, and when he tried to come home, he was stopped at the Port of San Francisco. He was denied entry on the grounds that he wasn't a US citizen because of his Chinese descent and his parents' status as non-US citizens.
His community in Chinatown pooled resources and hired lawyers. Their argument was straightforward: Under the 14th Amendment, Wong was a citizen. His parents' immigration status had nothing to do with it.
In 1898, the Supreme Court agreed. And for over a century since, Wong Kim Ark...
- Title
- The Pentagon just had its largest spending spree ever recorded
- Runtime
- 2:39
- Date posted
- 7 months ago
- Description
- Tens of thousands of dollars for a handmade Japanese flute.
More tens of thousands for fruit basket stands.
Even more tens of thousands for sushi prep tables.
While four million Americans face losing food assistance, the Pentagon recently had its largest single-month spending spree ever recorded. And they're still asking for more.
- Title
- “Pissed off” Angelenos show up for the third No Kings march
- Runtime
- 1:55
- Date posted
- 7 months ago
- Description
- Mother Jones reporter Rachel de Leon visited the protesters in North Hollywood to hear their thoughts on the second Trump administration.
- Title
- California Marchers' Demand: A World Worth Living In
- Runtime
- 2:45
- Date posted
- 8 months ago
- Description
- "I'm out here mostly trying to advocate for my future... to stop this current generation from messing it up for us and trying to make the world that I'm going to grow up into one that it's worth living in."
Senior Editor Michael Mechanic spoke with Californians who turned out for the No Kings march in Oakland. They had many concerns to share.
- Title
- Minnesota has a lot of reasons to show up to protest. Here's what they told us.
- Runtime
- 1:45
- Date posted
- 8 months ago
- Description
- "I feel like a physical presence is going to do more than just bitching about it online."
Mother Jones Senior Reporter Dan Friedman was out in St. Paul, Minnesota as what's estimated to be over 100,000 people showed up for the twin cities' No Kings march.
- Title
- My Biggest Fear. My Greatest Hope. We Asked Protestors at No Kings in NYC.
- Runtime
- 2:57
- Date posted
- 8 months ago
- Description
- "Too many people are dying and too many people are in cages."
Executive editor James West asked people at the No Kings rally in New York: What is your biggest fear and greatest hope right now? Their answers may surprise you.
- Title
- Retired Army Veteran Has a Message You Need to Hear
- Runtime
- 1:46
- Date posted
- 8 months ago
- Description
- "Hey Stephen Miller, fucking retire, man!"
Our DC Bureau Chief David Corn caught up with a retired army veteran at the No Kings march in Washington. He had a strong message for those in uniform now.
- Title
- SPOTTED: Donald Trump makes an appearance at No Kings in DC
- Runtime
- 0:19
- Date posted
- 8 months ago
- Description
- Donald Trump made an appearance in DC!
- Title
- St. Petersburg, Florida, shows out for "No Kings"
- Runtime
- 1:56
- Date posted
- 8 months ago
- Description
- "I don't want us to burn in hell harder than we already are."
Mother Jones reporter Laura Morel is out in St. Petersburg, Florida, speaking with residents who are showing out for Saturday's "No Kings" protest.
- Title
- Inside the ICE Operation at Houston’s Airports
- Runtime
- 3:00
- Date posted
- 8 months ago
- Description
- Like many Americans, Amanda Moore spent a lot of time this week in Houston's airports. For much of the past year, Moore has reported on the federal law enforcement agencies that President Donald Trump has deployed to cities around the country. So when Trump announced he was sending in ICE to—supposedly—help deal with the hours-long airport security lines caused by the partial government shutdown, she set out to learn what the agents were really up to.
As it turns out, the answer was often: not much. The ICE agents were "sometimes discouraging people from cutting in line, or ushering people up escalators," Moore reports in a new video for Mother Jones. "Other times, they're just sitting around chatting with each other."
Early Friday morning, the Senate voted to restore funding to the Department of Homeland Security, but so far, House Republicans are refusing to go along. Meanwhile, Trump is claiming he will unilaterally pay TSA agents, even without congress...
- Title
- "WATCH AND SEE": Al Gore's Rallying Cry Ahead of Saturday's No Kings Protests
- Runtime
- 3:16
- Date posted
- 8 months ago
- Description
- Twenty years after An Inconvenient Truth made a devastating case for climate action, American leadership on the issue has all but vanished. But former Vice President Al Gore, the film’s crusading star, hasn’t given up hope.
In a sit-down interview with Reveal’s Al Letson this week, Gore returned to a familiar theme from across his career in activism: people-powered change. “Sometimes the time frames, the time cycles, take a little bit longer than we're comfortable with,” he admitted. “But I do believe in the resilience of American democracy, and I say all the time that political will is a renewable resource. It is.”
He cast the interview as a rallying cry ahead of this weekend’s No Kings events—nationwide protests against President Donald Trump’s sweeping consolidation of federal power. His message for those in the MAGA movement who have embraced what Gore has called authoritarianism was blunt: “There is a feeling on the part of some that...
- Title
- Meet the Programmer Who Wants to Fight ICE Using Your Phone
- Runtime
- 2:17
- Date posted
- 8 months ago
- Description
- Austin launched StopICE in February 2025, one of a constellation of digital tools that emerged in response to federal agents terrorizing communities. Users can text in sightings of ICE, which are then blasted out to other nearby users. This is legal: “Reporting on the activities of law enforcement is fully protected by the Constitution,” says Eric Goldman, who co-directs the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University. “If the government is doing something in a public space, we’re allowed to report it, monitor it, catalog it, complain about it, protest it.”
Nevertheless, the Trump administration has declared war on ICE-spotting apps.
Austin saw this crackdown coming. It’s why he designed StopICE as a text-based web service, not a downloadable app, which meant it survived this purge. “I built it this way for a reason,” he says. “I knew DOJ and DHS was going to pressure service providers to remove the apps.”
- Title
- Exclusive: Al Gore Blasts Trump for "Astonishing Mistake" on Iran
- Runtime
- 3:00
- Date posted
- 8 months ago
- Description
- Former Vice President Al Gore delivered a blistering rebuke of President Trump’s war on Iran this week in his first wide-ranging comments on the escalating crisis, calling Trump’s lack of planning “an astonishing mistake” born of arrogance and corruption. "I never would have believed that any president would do even one-tenth of the atrocious things Donald Trump has done," he said.
In an exclusive sit-down with Reveal host Al Letson for an upcoming episode of More To The Story, a visibly angered Gore argued that the president had brushed aside decades of war planning for just such a scenario. The energy crisis unfolding in the Strait of Hormuz has "been the number one question for all the war games and plans for 50 years almost," Gore told Letson. "President Trump said, 'Don't worry about it. They'll surrender before that comes into play.' Well, that was an astonishing mistake of the kind that you really do not want the president of your country to make because it...
- Title
- Trump Wants $200 Billion for Bombs. Here’s What That Could Buy Instead.
- Runtime
- 2:45
- Date posted
- 8 months ago
- Description
- 7 years of free school lunches. 3 years of Medicare dental coverage. 2,000 Trump heads on Mt. Rushmore. That's what $200 Billion could buy.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth justified reports that the Pentagon is requesting $200 billion in additional funding to pay for its offensive in Iran, where, as of this writing, more than $18 billion has already been spent to kill thousands, with no end in sight.
Here at Mother Jones, we started to wonder: If the Trump administration weren’t so hellbent on “death and destruction,” at a moment rife with rising inflation and recession concerns, what else could $200 billion deliver? A lot, it turns out. We broke down a few line items.
- Title
- Trump wants to turn your news into state propaganda
- Runtime
- 2:47
- Date posted
- 8 months ago
- Description
- The goal is obvious: Turn independent news outlets into state propaganda machines.
Amid surging oil prices and an unpopular war of choice in Iran, FCC Chair Brendan Carr is threatening not to renew broadcasters' licenses for "running hoaxes and news distortions." His Saturday post on X warns broadcasters they "have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up."
Carr's post came in response to a Truth Social message from Trump, which focused on war coverage by outlets like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. (Unlike TV networks, newspapers don't hold FCC licenses.)
The broader context is clear: Trump and his administration are trying to coerce independent outlets into parroting the government line.
Trump's post fixated on a Wall Street Journal report that five refueling planes were damaged in an Iranian strike on a Saudi air base. The more fundamental issue is that Trump appears stuck in a poorly planned war of...
- Title
- Can a lump of coal be…cute? The Trump administration thinks so
- Runtime
- 2:47
- Date posted
- 8 months ago
- Description
- Can a lump of coal be…cute?
Apparently, the Trump administration thinks so. Meet Coalie, the googly-eyed cartoon mascot the government recently appointed as the official “spokes-piece-of-coal” for America's energy agenda.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum debuted the character on social media next to a cartoon version of himself wearing a "Mine, Baby, Mine" hat. The internet was not charmed. Within hours, Coalie had been recast as an avatar of black lung disease and photoshopped handing out inhalers to children.
But Coalie is just the latest in a long line of figures deployed by controversial industries- from cigarettes to plutonium- to make dangerous things seem lovable. It all raises the question of what happens when cuteness replaces accountability.
- Title
- The Senate begins debate on the SAVE America Act
- Runtime
- 1:58
- Date posted
- 8 months ago
- Description
- Instead of addressing the issues that Americans actually care about, Senate Republicans are spending the next week or more attempting to make it harder to vote.
On Tuesday afternoon the Senate began debating the SAVE America Act, which voting rights advocates describe as the worst voter suppression bill that Congress has seriously considered passing.
Trump calls the bill his “No. 1 priority” and claims it will “guarantee the midterms” for Republicans.
It won’t. The centerpiece of the bill is a “show your papers” requirement mandating proof of citizenship, such as a passport or a birth certificate, to register to vote.
That could impact Republican-leaning constituencies more than Democrats.
The ten states with the lowest levels of passport ownership all voted for Trump. Sixty-nine million women who took their partner’s last name and do not have a birth certificate matching their legal name could find it h...
- Title
- The Battle Over Solar on Farmland
- Runtime
- 2:06
- Date posted
- 8 months ago
- Description
- Agrivoltaics—solar on farmland—is either a green revolution or a poison pill for good land. It depends which farmers you ask.
After seeing dueling signs on a road near his home, environmental journalist Henry Carnell spoke to two Oregon farmers that are diametrically opposed about the future of agrivoltaics.
The idea of integrating solar farms with agriculture was first conceived in the 1980s by a pair of German researchers as a way to alleviate poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. The plan never panned out, but about a decade ago, scientists in Japan reconsidered the technology as a potential player in the urgent push to decarbonize the world economy. Over the past decade, it has spread rapidly across the globe.
As of 2024, the last year for which statistics are available, there were more than 600 agrivoltaics sites in the United States producing 10 gigawatts of energy, enough to power 7.5 million homes—double the capacity of just four years befo...
- Title
- This Oscar-Winning Doc Says Now’s the Time to Resist
- Runtime
- 3:00
- Date posted
- 8 months ago
- Description
- ► For more, visit Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/
“Sometimes it is difficult to notice when fascism is knocking on your doorstep.”
Pavel Talankin is a teacher from a small mining town in Central Russia. He spent two and a half years documenting how his school was conscripted into Putin’s war propaganda machine for the Oscar-nominated documentary, Mr. Nobody Against Putin.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, his school changed almost overnight– teachers ordered to deliver government scripts and students marched through military drills. Talankin was required to film it all as the school videographer, and what he witnessed made him want to walk away from his job entirely. Instead, he connected with documentary director David Borenstein, and together they turned his footage into a feature film.
Borenstein said Talankin “wanted to show how quickly totalitarianism can take over a school, a workplace, a government, and how...
