This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Campus organizers at three universities filed legal complaints on Monday arguing that their schools’ investments in planet-heating fossil fuels are illegal, the Guardian has learned. The students from Columbia University, Tulane University, and the University of Virginia each wrote to the attorneys general of their respective states calling on them to scrutinize their universities’ investments. They accuse their universities of breaching the Uniform Pru ..read more

This story was produced by Floodlight, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powerful interests stalling climate action. In 2018, the Akron, Ohio-based utility FirstEnergy donated $2.5 million to a Republican Governors Association-affiliated dark money group backing GOP nominee Mike DeWine in a competitive race for Ohio governor, according to newly released records. The records show FirstEnergy’s extensive behind-the-scenes work to get DeWine elected. “This Fall Governor race is very important to FirstEnergy from both a legislative and regulatory perspective and getting Mike across the fi ..read more

When House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) emerged onto the steps of Columbia University’s Low Memorial Library on Wednesday afternoon, he was greeted with a deafening sound: hundreds of booing students. Johnson had just emerged from meetings with Jewish students at the university to discuss what he, other Republicans, and some Democrats allege is rising antisemitism on campuses nationwide. Columbia, specifically, has become the epicenter of a politicized fight over the policing of mostly peaceful pro-Palestinian protesters, after CU President Minouche Shafik ordered the NYPD to sweep a ..read more

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that presented the grim reality of the post-Roe v. Wade world the justices have created. Without a constitutional right to abortion, states are forcing women into grave yet preventable health crises by denying them emergency abortion care. And yet, it appeared that less than half the courtroom acknowledged that reality. The case arises from Idaho’s extreme abortion ban, which does not contain an exception to preserve the health of the pregnant person. The Biden administration sued, alleging that Idaho’s ban conflicts with a federal ..read more

In a little-noticed court filing earlier this month, federal prosecutors described Steve Bannon as a “co-conspirator” in a massive criminal fraud and racketeering case against a flamboyant, far-right Chinese fugitive, compounding the legal headaches of the former Donald Trump adviser. FBI agents in March 2023 arrested Guo Wengui, a self-styled anti-Chinese government activist Bannon once advised, charging him and two associates with using a series of fraudulent investment opportunities to defraud thousands of Guo’s supporters in the Chinese diaspora of more than $1 billion. Guo used the procee ..read more

Last November, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the most powerful pro-Israel lobbying group in Washington, announced a $100 million effort to unseat members of Congress who vocally supported calls for a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. AIPAC and its allies have flooded the spring and summer primaries of Cori Bush, Jamaal Bowman, and Ilhan Omar, and Summer Lee with pro-Israel opponents, limitless spending, and inflammatory rhetoric. Last night, Lee, the first Black woman elected to Congress from Pennsylvania, won her reelection campaign handily, fending off a challen ..read more

It’s been said so often it’s almost become a cliché: Donald Trump poses a threat to American democracy. But his authoritarian impulses and hate-encouraging demagoguery are far from the only peril for the nation. Conservatives and Republicans for years have been striving on multiple fronts to weaken democracy by suppressing voter rights and pushing for other measures—such as gerrymandering and placing election boards under partisan control—that undermine majority rule. No journalist has been a better chronicler of this nefarious crusade than Ari Berman, the national voting rights correspondent ..read more

The Supreme Court on Wednesday will consider its third major abortion case in two years—and the third brought with the help of a legal nonprofit attempting to infuse American life with its far-right brand of Christianity. Not only is the group, Alliance Defending Freedom, behind legislation to ban abortion, it is also increasingly representing state governments in their efforts to protect and enforce the bans. The result is an ethically fraught arrangement that puts legal representation of the public in the hands of a religious organization that hauls in more than $100 million per year in ..read more

The Supreme Court on Thursday will hear arguments over former President Donald Trump’s unprecedented and novel theory that former presidents are immune from criminal prosecution for anything that involved alleged “official acts” while in office. But this long-shot theory was only one component of Trump’s overall legal strategy; his main goal was to delay his criminal trial for trying to overturn the 2020 election. And in that effort, the justices have already given him what he wants. Special Counsel Jack Smith brought a four-count indictment against Trump last August for his attempt to subvert ..read more

Jaelyn was 19 weeks and five days into a much-wanted pregnancy when the cramping began—slowly at first, then in an insistent rhythm that signaled she was in labor. Several excruciating hours later, emergency doctors delivered a heart-wrenching diagnosis. The amniotic sac was protruding from her cervix; her baby was doomed. “There’s nothing we can do,” Jaelyn recalled the on-call OB-GYN telling her, “because if we try to push it back in, it’s very likely you’re going to get an infec­tion. And the baby will die. And it puts you at risk too. So, we have to see this thing through.” Overwhelmed, Ja ..read more