The president made me do it
 THE BIG STORY
They said Trump told them to attack the Capitol. Judges are keeping them in jail anyway.
In the minds of some of those charged in the Jan 6. Capitol riots, hundreds of rioters descended on the Capitol because former president Donald Trump told them to do it.
That includes Jacob Chansley, the "QAnon shaman" who left a note for then–vice president Mike Pence on the Senate dais that read "justice is coming." His lawyer argued he wouldn't have gone to the Capitol "but for the specific words of the then-President."
Many are using this argument to get out of jail while they await trial. But over and over again, judges aren't buying the argument that a person charged with joining the riots is less of a danger to society now because they were simply following the president's orders at the time.
In some cases, the defense completely backfired, with judges essentially asking: If you can't make good decisions for yourself, why shouldn't you wait in jail until your trial?  BuzzFeed News; Getty Images STAYING ON TOP OF THIS
US officials have discussed asking Mexico to do more to stem the tide of immigrants ahead of Kamala Harris's meeting
According to government documents we obtained, US officials have discussed asking Mexico to commit to implementing measures to decrease the number of immigrants trying to cross the southern border.
The discussion comes just ahead of Friday's meeting between Vice President Kamala Harris and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The proposals that have been discussed include Mexico officials prioritizing repatriating adults turned back by US border officials under a controversial Trump-era policy, and increasing apprehensions of immigrants moving through their country to an average of 1,000 per day. SNAPSHOTS
Biden is going to scrap a Trump-era plan to force immigrants to submit eye scans, voice prints, and DNA. Immigrants who have received some benefit, like a green card or work permit, would have had to submit their biometric data at any point up until becoming a US citizen.
A sixth-grade girl shot two students and an employee at a school in Idaho. All three victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were expected to recover, a hospital official said. A teacher disarmed the student and detained her until law enforcement arrived and took her into custody.
Facebook is worried Starbucks may delete its page over hateful comments. The social media company is scrambling to prevent Starbucks from leaving its platform, after the world's largest coffee company said it was dismayed by hateful comments left on its posts about racial and social justice issues. MAGIC MUSHROOMS
This scammer is twisting science in a scheme to save the world
As far as solutions to the climate crisis go, Joseph Kelly's is pretty convenient, really. Take a special blend of fungi that's packaged in a cute orb, dissolve it in water like a bath bomb, and spray it once on your lawn to boost its ability to suck carbon dioxide from the air.
In a Kickstarter campaign for his company NetZero that launched in January, Kelly says a single orb "helps you easily capture one ton of CO2" in your lawn every year for at least a decade. The big promise: Lawns, he claimed, could capture 20% of US emissions — bigger than the carbon footprint of the entire agricultural sector.
Except, as you can imagine, it's too good to be true. Kelly has peddled dubious science. He told the Securities and Exchange Commission and investors that he had possible deals in the works with many big companies looking to cut their carbon footprints — but several of them told BuzzFeed News they have no record of even talking to him.
The real Joseph Kelly is no climate hero. He's a charismatic but vindictive huckster who has spent more than a decade in a vicious cycle of rebranding himself. Read Zahra Hirji's deep dive into the scams of Joseph Kelly. TIME TO CHILL Unwind with these weekend longreads
I'm a woman of color. Why do I ignore that when it comes to my mental health? Estelle Tang writes about a new crop of mental health Instagram pages that "tailor mental health ideas for children of immigrants, and question and contextualize concepts like resilience, ambition, and love for people who have not always seen their cultural specificities addressed in such a way."
Shrill's final season is a satisfying exploration of fat-shaming. The third and final season of Shrill is here. As Lauren Strapagiel writes, the season works because the show's protagonist isn't someone to pity or designed to make you feel better about your own body.
How trans and nonbinary actors are revolutionizing audiobooks. With a small but growing number of YA titles featuring transgender and nonbinary characters, the demand for voice actors that reflect those identities is increasing. Carve out a little time to be grateful for how far you've come, Elamin 📝 This letter was edited and brought to you by Elamin Abdelmahmoud and BuzzFeed News. You can always reach us here.
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