July 14, 2018

Scottish Police Search for an Anti-Trump Paraglider

A Greenpeace demonstrator breached a no-fly-zone, buzzing the president’s viewing of Friday’s sunset.

A Greenpeace demonstrator flies over the Trump Turnberry golf resort.John Linton/AP

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Scottish police are looking for information about the pilot of a Greenpeace paraglider who flew an anti-Trump banner within 100 yards of the president.

Assistant Chief Constable Mark Williams of Scottish police told the BBC that the protestor had put themselves in “grave danger” by breaching a no-fly zone that had been established over the Trump Turnberry golf resort.

“On this occasion we could assess the situation and we realized there was no direct threat to the president, however it’s absolutely something that is very serious,” Williams said, adding that an investigation remains ongoing.

The aircraft carried a banner reading “Trump: Well Below Par” in protest of his his environmental and immigration policies, according to Greenpeace.  The Associated Press reported the organization said it called in notice of the flight 10 minutes ahead of time.

The police search comes as an estimated 10,000 people took part in Edinburgh demonstrations against the president, and as others staged creative acts of protest just outside Trump’s resort. Scottish police have said 5,000 officers, at a cost to U.K. taxpayers of $6.6 million, could be involved in security for Trump’s golf weekend.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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