In Denver, e-bike vouchers have been a smashing success. Every other month, Denverites can snag $300 discounts on e-bike purchases and $500 on e-cargo bikes, with higher rebates offered for low-income cyclists. The available vouchers are typically snatched up in minutes. On Sunday, the first warm spring day in Denver, the transformative effects of the […]
It’s been nearly three weeks since Yanping “Yvette” Wang was arrested and charged with helping her boss—exiled Chinese mogul Guo Wengui—orchestrate a $1 billion international fraud scheme. Her attorneys are still struggling to get her out of jail. Wang, according to her lawyers, has a mysterious benefactor willing to assist in that effort. A “very […]
Jurors in federal court won’t get to hear if Leonardo DiCaprio remembers Britany Spears jumping out of a cake at a birthday party for a mysterious Malaysian Hollywood financier who has since been accused of playing a leading role in a massive corruption and money laundering scheme. DiCaprio testified Monday in the trial of former Fugees member Pras […]
On December 12, 2020—a day after the US Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit filed by Texas that sought to void the presidential election results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—the Wisconsin Supreme Court heard a separate challenge by Donald Trump’s campaign that aimed to throw out 221,000 votes cast in the state’s two most Democratic […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. An eminent Harvard environmental law professor’s links to the fossil fuel industry are under scrutiny from colleagues and students after she was awarded a prestigious research grant to investigate corporate climate pledges. Jody Freeman, founding director of Harvard’s environmental and energy […]
Former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson announced Sunday that he will seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. “I’m convinced that people want leaders that appeal to the best of America, and not simply appeal to our worst instincts,” 72-year-old Hutchinson said during an interview on ABC with John Karl. “I believe I can be that […]
Senator John Fetterman (D-Pa.) entered Walter Reed Hospital for clinical depression in mid-February. Six weeks later, he returned home on Friday. In a CBS Sunday Morning interview with anchor Jane Pauley, filmed two days before he was discharged, 53-year-old Fetterman opened up about what led him to seek treatment. “I had stopped leaving my bed,” […]
The New York Times boasts around 9.3 million global subscribers and 54.9 million followers on Twitter. But as of Sunday, America’s paper of record no longer has a verification check-mark on the increasingly tumultuous social media platform that Tesla-titan Elon Musk purchased in October 2022 for $44 billion. In March, Twitter announced it would begin […]
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. As the world increasingly turns toward natural climate solutions like reforestation and grassland restoration to sequester carbon, it may be overlooking a crucial ally: animals. Protecting existing populations and restoring others to their natural habitats often improves the natural capture and […]
On February 16, John Fetterman, the first-term Democratic senator from Pennsylvania, checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to receive treatment for depression. Fetterman, who defeated Republican Mehmet Oz in one of last fall’s tightest and most expensive races, had been in office for a little more than a month and was still […]
The coronation next month of Kaiser Wilhelm’s and Tsar Nicholas II’s distant cousin, Charles Philip Arthur George, as King of England is a big event, but it is not such a big event that people are afraid to turn it down. As my colleague Inae Oh noted in February, “Some of the United Kingdom’s biggest […]
Almost immediately after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced that he had indicted ex-president Donald Trump, Republican critics settled on a company line. Trump’s impending arrest was, in the words of Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt, “some Third World Banana Republic lunacy and a very, very dangerous road to go down.” Schmitt should probably ask […]
It was a grim but not terribly surprising coincidence. Last Monday morning, just a few hours after the Washington Post published a new series on the popular semiautomatic rifles known as AR-15s, a suicidal 28-year-old used one to murder three children and three adults at a Nashville elementary school. It was the sixth mass shooting […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. A handful of weary residents gathered at the windowless Randolph church to mull over the latest effort by an electric utility to expand its power station—a polluting gas-fired plant next door to the community that the state regulator has blocked […]
Last week, a bill introduced by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) received a hearing. For some congresspeople, this would not be news. For Boebert it is: In her first term, she sponsored 41 pieces of legislation—one set out to impeach President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris; another to require the Department of Homeland Security […]
Starting tomorrow, states will begin to terminate health care coverage for people who no longer qualify for Medicaid, marking the end to a pandemic-era rule that automatically renewed coverage for Medicaid recipients even if they were no longer eligible. An estimated 15 million Americans, a majority of whom are low-income, are expected to lose their health insurance […]
A federal district court judge in Texas has gutted a core healthcare protection that Americans have enjoyed for more than a decade: a government mandate guaranteeing cost-free preventative services. Under the ruling, cancer screenings, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for preventing HIV, and care for pregnant people may soon become a lot more expensive. The Biden administration […]
The generations-old debate over reparations for the descendants of enslaved Black people has fascinated me for my whole adult life. I’ve been to town halls, film screenings, and public hearings on the topic. Recently, my fascination took me on a trip to San Diego, where I took a front-row seat to one of history’s most […]
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Last summer, a “Chicago Against Cop City” Twitter account was created and began sharing information about a campaign unfolding some 700 miles away. Its first tweet, posted on July 18, promoted a talk at a community bookstore on Chicago’s west side […]
Guns don’t kill people. Trans people do. That’s the absurd claim that a wave of conservatives are making following conflicting reports about the gender identity of the Nashville shooter who killed three nine-year-olds and three adults at a private Christian school on Monday. “How much hormones like testosterone and medications for mental illness was the […]
In November 2021, Victoria Conklin, a 23-year-old shift supervisor at a Starbucks near Buffalo, was talking to Rossann Williams, then the company’s president of North American retail. Workers at three nearby stores had recently petitioned to become the chain’s only unionized locations in the United States, but Conklin’s hadn’t. Williams wanted to keep it that […]
A version of this article was originally published on the author’s website. In November 2019, not long before the pandemic put the kibosh on indoor socializing, my wife and I had some friends over for dinner and what turned out to be a fateful game of Yahtzee. Monopoly has a bit of strategy, whereas Yahtzee […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. An investigation by conservationists has found evidence that deep-seabed mining of rare minerals could cause “extensive and irreversible” damage to the planet. The report, published on Monday by the international wildlife charity Fauna & Flora, adds to the growing controversy that surrounds proposals […]
On the morning of January 23, Jean Faulk opened her inbox to find an email labeled “urgent” from her principal at Bayshore High School in Bradenton, Florida. “Based on clarifications from the state in December, teacher-created classroom libraries fall under what the state is defining as library material,” Wendell Butler Jr. wrote to his staff […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. A mammoth meatball has been created by a cultivated meat company, resurrecting the flesh of the long-extinct animals. The project aims to demonstrate the potential of meat grown from cells, without the slaughter of animals, and to highlight the link […]
Some three months after New York published its exhaustive guide on the meritocracy-bending phenomenon, nepo babies roared back into the discourse last week with the unexpected arrival of Romy Mars. But some two thousand miles west from where the teenage daughter of Sofia Coppola and Thomas Mars was TikToking her pasta alla vodka prep, another […]
Last Wednesday, less than two weeks before the city’s mayoral election, Denver’s East High School experienced its third shooting of the school year. Almost immediately, Terrance Roberts was getting dozens of texts. The 46-year-old mayoral candidate posted to his Facebook page: “I just heard there was just another shooting at East High School while at Denver […]
This story was originally published by Slate and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Two years ago, US Reps. Earl Blumenauer and Jimmy Panetta introduced the Electric Bicycle Incentive Kickstart for the Environment Act, or the EBIKE Act, which proposed giving Americans up to $1,500 off the price of a new e-bike. The bill would’ve […]
A year ago, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a sharply controversial bill restricting discussion of LGBTQ issues in public schools, claiming it would fight “indoctrination.” The legislation, known as the “Parental Rights in Education Bill” was dubbed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Its supporters argued that its scope was limited: It banned […]
The race to fill an open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court—and determine ideological control of the highest court in one of the country’s most important swing states—has more than doubled the national record for judicial election spending. Over $31 million has been spent to date on advertising ahead of the April 4 election, whose […]
The Republican Party has a problem: Individual freedom for women to choose how they handle their reproductive health is wildly popular with voters. In last November’s midterms—the first general election since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade—supporters of reproductive rights won every abortion-related state ballot measure, even in red states. Concerns over abortion rights […]
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Making the case that their local government was built on a culture of white supremacy, Black residents of St. James Parish in the heart of Louisiana’s “cancer alley” have filed a federal lawsuit claiming land-use and zoning policies illegally […]
An Idaho hospital is ending its labor and delivery services in the wake of a Texas-style, near-total abortion ban signed into state law last year. Citing the state’s “legal and political climate,” Bonner General Health plans to stop delivering babies and providing other obstetrical services in mid-May, according to a press release. While the release doesn’t […]
To an American viewer, the current protests over raising France’s retirement age might look a little quaint: the country that once beheaded members of its aristocracy still gets in a tizzy when its president wears an expensive watch. In January, When President Emmanuel Macron revealed his plan to raise France’s minimum retirement age from a relatively young […]
A powerful tornado ripped through rural Mississippi last night, killing at least 24 people and injuring dozens more. The tornado hit Rolling Fork—a town with a population of less than 2,000, and the supposed birthplace of Muddy Waters—particularly hard when it rolled through at about 8 p.m. local time Friday night. Nearly a third of […]
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In Utah, protests that hinder the functioning of fossil fuel infrastructure could now lead to at least five years in prison. The new rules make Utah the 19th state in the country to pass legislation with stiffer penalties for protesting […]
On Saturday, the first rally of Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign will take place in Waco, Texas. The significance will not be lost on many of his supporters: The event coincides with the 30th anniversary of the FBI’s disastrous 51-day siege of David Koresh’s Branch Davidian complex. That siege ended on April 19, 1993, when FBI agents filled […]
What if the United States government banned every single social media app? Not just TikTok. All of them. Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter–sayonara. It may sound ludicrous, but if you apply the logic behind the kinds of questions posed at Thursday’s House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on the data security risks and alleged harm to children posed […]
The law enforcement officials who raided the Ohio home of Afroman during a raid last year are suing the rapper after he used footage from the police search in music videos and on social media. A copy of the complaint, obtained by VICE News, claims that the seven Adams County Sheriff’s officers suffered “emotional distress” from Afroman’s […]
Last week, I wrote about the far-right groups accusing Sarasota Memorial, a public safety-net hospital in Florida, of mistreating Covid patients. Despite a painstaking review showing that the hospital’s Covid outcomes have exceeded national standards, the groups—helmed by former Trump administration national security advisor Mike Flynn, QAnon adherents, and a key orchestrator of the January […]
When President Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill in 2021, he committed $1.2 trillion to rebuilding the nation’s roads and bridges. The president spearheaded one of the biggest investments in infrastructure in decades: more than $42 billion for broadband equity, $30 billion for public transportation, and $148 billion for national highways. But as the 2024 […]
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In 1849 and 1868, the Navajo Nation signed two treaties with the United States. The treaties created a reservation that would serve as a “permanent home” for the Navajo so long as the tribe allowed settlers to live on most of […]
With a possible indictment of Donald Trump, it’s a good moment to review how the porn-star-hush-money caper may make him the first president or ex-president ever to be charged with a crime. Such a refresher reminds us just how tawdry the Trump world has been, and it provides a cast of characters beyond Michael Cohen, […]
We’ve all been there. You sign up for a gym membership or online delivery service. You eventually lose interest or start tightening your budget, so you try to cancel. Yet, despite it only taking two clicks to sign up, the company requires you to call a hotline in order to escape. The result could end […]
For nearly a year, the rapper Young Thug has been behind bars in Fulton County, Georgia. The 31-year-old, born Jeffery Lamar Williams, is facing charges that could send him to prison for twenty years. Widely considered one of the most stylistically innovative rappers of his generation, Williams has been charged, along with 27 others, with […]
This story was originally published by Wired and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The wave of avian influenza H5N1—which so far has hit 76 countries, triggered national emergencies, and created the worst animal-disease outbreak in US history—keeps roaring through wild birds and commercial poultry. More than 140 million poultry worldwide have died from the […]
This would be so much easier if we could make up donors from whole cloth, like George Santos may have done. Or if we impersonated a YouTube executive to sing our praises on a Zoom call, and raked in $83 million (but maybe minus being arrested for fraud in the end). Imagine if a billionaire […]
In preparation for the likely event that he may soon become the first-ever former president to get indicted, Donald Trump apparently wants to go big. I’m talking handcuffs, a perp walk, the typical hallmarks of a theatrical court appearance. That’s the latest, at least, from new reports on Trump’s frame of mind as the Manhattan […]
George Santos, the first-term Republican representative from New York, may go down as the most famous fabulist in the history of Congress. In the run-up to his election last year from a district that includes parts of Long Island and Queens, he claimed to be a successful businessman, a college volleyball star, and the Jewish […]
This story was originally published by Undark and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. To jumpstart a paltry market for recycled plastic, governments across the globe are pushing companies to include recycled materials in their products. Last year, the United Kingdom introduced a tax on manufacturers that produce or import plastic packaging containing less than 30 percent recycled […]
LaKeith Smith was 15 years old when he and four other Black teens broke into an empty house in Millbrook, Alabama, to steal an Xbox and other gaming equipment in 2015. The police arrived, and an officer shot and killed Smith’s 16-year-old friend A’Donte Washington, allegedly after Washington ran toward the officer with a weapon. […]
When I arrived at Trump Tower on Tuesday afternoon, a man was heckling one of the only Trump supporters who’d shown up to protest a potential indictment of the former president—who had posted on his platform Truth Social to “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK” after warning he would be arrested in connection with an investigation of […]
Surveillance footage from the Virginia psychiatric hospital where 28-year-old Irvo Otieno died on March 6 shows a group of sheriff deputies and medical staff piling on top of a handcuffed Otieno in the final moments before his death. According to Otieno’s family, Otieno had been experiencing a mental health crisis. Seven deputies and three hospital employees […]
Hours after the arrest last week of fugitive Chinese mogul Guo Wengui at his Upper East Side penthouse apartment in the tony Sherry-Netherland Hotel, a two-alarm fire broke out there. New York authorities are investigating what caused the blaze, which news reports said began while Guo was in custody and FBI agents were searching his […]
Despite the paintings of shirtless saints and Jesus statues with abs, sex and Christianity are not known to mix. When they do, it’s either because someone is breaking a rule or it’s within the strict confines of marriage. But what happens when your marriage is also sexless? Guilt and a sense of duty have put Mamacruz, […]
This article was published in partnership with The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. Sign up for their newsletters, and follow them on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. For four years, while incarcerated in Maryland state prison, Alphonso Taylor, 49, said he was the only deaf man in his unit. […]
This piece was published originally by Capital & Main. Last May, the National Toxicology Program (NTP), a federal research agency, was set to release its eagerly awaited report into the cognitive and neurodevelopmental impacts on humans from fluoride exposure. The report was anticipated for several reasons, including its review of studies linking fluoridated water to cognitive harm in children. Water […]
his story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Scientists have delivered a “final warning” on the climate crisis, as rising greenhouse gas emissions push the world to the brink of irrevocable damage that only swift and drastic action can avert. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), made […]
Amid pressure to denounce a New York prosecutor who might soon indict Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis has finally decided to weigh in on the hush-money case swirling around the former president. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, DeSantis insisted, is a politically motivated “Soros-funded prosecutor” seeking to weaponize his office against a political enemy. But almost immediately after […]
Matthew Desmond, the 43-year-old Princeton sociologist whose last book, Evicted, won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction, is back with another one, Poverty, by America, that’s bound to generate fruitful debate—and perhaps even inspire some of us to get off our asses and tackle this scourge once and for all. “In a nutshell, poverty […]
Before there was Donald Trump’s Big Lie, there was George W. Bush’s Big Lie. Twenty years ago this week, Bush and his sidekick Vice President Dick Cheney launched a war against Iraq. They greased the way to this tragic conflagration with the false claims that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein possessed an arsenal of weapons of […]
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. A new study finds that houses within a half-mile of a utility-scale solar farm have resale prices that are, on average, 1.5 percent less than houses that are just a little farther away. The research from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory […]
When Donald Trump announced that he expects to be arrested on Tuesday, he called on supporters to take to the streets. “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!” he wrote. Trump’s rhetoric spurred the Manhattan district attorney—who is reportedly conducting a criminal investigation of the former president—to promise security measures. It’s still unclear what any such MAGA […]
As a leading contender for Republican presidential nomination next year, Ron DeSantis has the ability to force the rest of his party to quickly take sides on political fights. That’s what happened this week, after the Florida governor described the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a “territorial dispute” in which the United States does not […]
History has shown that when Donald Trump calls for protests, violence may be around the corner. So when the former president lashed out at the Manhattan prosecutor’s office on Saturday, District Attorney Alvin Bragg had to prepare for the worst. “Our law enforcement partners will ensure that any specific or credible threats against the office […]
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. It’s not surprising that gigantic states like Texas and California are among the heaviest hitters in generating electricity from wind and solar. But what if we look at generation per square mile of land? Then, the leader is Iowa. Iowa […]
Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon signed a bill Friday prohibiting abortion pills, making it the first state to ban abortion medication independent of an overall ban on abortion. Separate legislation, which Gordon did not sign but allowed to become law, put a near-total abortion ban into place. The majority of abortions are performed with medication. Wyoming’s only […]
Donald Trump and his family members accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gifts from foreign leaders as they travelled the world and welcomed dignitaries to the White House. But according to a new report from Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, the former president and his family failed to properly report many of those gifts, […]
Former president Donald Trump posted on his social media platform early Saturday morning that he expects to be arrested on Tuesday in New York City—and that he wants his followers to protest. Trump has been under investigation in multiple jurisdictions around the country for years. But action seems near, as this week it was reported […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The world is facing an imminent water crisis, with demand expected to outstrip the supply of fresh water by 40 percent by the end of this decade, experts have said on the eve of a crucial UN water summit. Governments must […]
Before last year, the public monthly board meetings of the board of Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Sarasota, Florida, were sleepy affairs, typically drawing just a handful of attendees. The hospital, a 98-year-old public healthcare system that serves more than a million patients a year, was considered a crown jewel of the community: A highly rated […]
In late November 2021, Steve Bannon appeared in a live broadcast on GTV, a media outlet that he’d helped his friend Guo Wengui launch a year earlier. Bannon used the appearance to celebrate HCoin, a supposed cryptocurrency that Guo was selling. The currency, Bannon said, was a “monumental” and “extraordinary” success. Bannon also hailed the Himalaya […]
Two days after Virginia deputies were charged with second-degree murder for the killing of a Black man at a state mental hospital, the victim’s family made their first public appearance on Thursday, having viewed the footage of his death. On March 6, seven Henrico County officers allegedly smothered 28-year-old Irvo Otieno, who was handcuffed, shackled, […]
Last week, Silicon Valley Bank, one of the most prominent banks used by the venture capital and startup sectors, collapsed. SVB’s rapid crash—the largest such failure since the 2008 financial crisis—grabbed headlines and generated concern: How could a bank with nearly $210 billion in assets fall apart in just a matter of days? And, perhaps […]
During the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, people in tech started to realize something: a lot of people really don’t like them. Since the bank started to buckle late last week, tech luminaries have taken time out of their busy schedules of doing innovation to tweet about how everyone rooting against a bailout of Silicon Valley […]
Hungary, the landlocked Central European country of about ten million people, has become an unusual role model for US conservatives, with Tucker Carlson describing it as a place “with a lot of lessons for the rest of us.” Since 2010, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has transformed the democratic country into a right-wing autocracy, or in his […]
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. High-income countries have long sent their waste abroad to be thrown away or recycled—and an independent team of experts says they’re inundating the developing world with much more plastic than previously estimated. According to a new analysis published last week, United […]
On a Saturday in early October, Rasheem Carter, a 25-year-old Black man visiting rural Taylorsville, Mississippi, for work, called his mother in a panic. Some white guys were following him in three trucks, he said, and yelling racial slurs. He feared they would hurt him. His mother, Tiffany Carter, who lived two hours away in […]
Guo Wengui, an erratic Chinese exile who has a close relationship with Steve Bannon, was arrested Wednesday and charged with running a massive scheme to defraud an international coterie of online fans out of more than $1 billion. According to a federal indictment unsealed this morning, Guo, who also uses the names Miles Guo and […]
Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, is a 52-year-old Swiss-Italian with dark eyebrows and an intensely round, perfectly bald head, like a soccer ball that had a dream of becoming an accountant. He splits his time between Zurich, Doha, and anywhere in the world that wants him—a stadium ribbon-cutting in Mauritania; a second-division match in […]
When I visited my cousin Beija in Munich last summer, her boyfriend, Julius, told me he was in his second year of surgery residency, and I was surprised by how well rested he looked. He and Beija had just returned from a boozy wedding over a long weekend, and as we watched soccer, ate schnitzel […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Joe Biden continues to confound on the climate crisis. Hailed as America’s first “climate president,” Biden signed sweeping, landmark legislation to tackle global heating last year and has warned that rising temperatures are an “existential threat to humanity.” And yet, on […]
For weeks, abortion rights advocates have been waiting for a potential bombshell: A conservative federal judge in Texas is expected to effectively outlaw the most popular method of abortion nationwide. Now, the day may finally be here. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Donald Trump appointee affiliated with the religious right, scheduled a hearing in the lawsuit challenging […]
In late 2021, parental rights candidate Glenn Youngkin secured his stay at Virginia’s Executive Mansion with a push from devoted “mama bears”—a group of, yes, mothers, who were angry about a perceived threat of government overreach and ideological indoctrination in schools. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis counts on his army of Moms for Liberty to propel his […]
The state of Ohio is suing Norfolk Southern over the company’s train derailment in East Palestine last month, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced Tuesday. “This derailment was entirely avoidable,” Yost said at a press briefing Tuesday, “and I’m concerned that Norfolk Southern may be putting profits for their own company above the health and safety […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Our planet faces “phosphogeddon,” scientists have warned. They fear our misuse of phosphorus could lead to deadly shortages of fertilizers that would disrupt global food production. At the same time, phosphate fertilizer washed from fields—together with sewage inputs into rivers, lakes and […]
Since late January, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have been loudly protesting an impending judicial overhaul by the nation’s new right-wing government. The most controversial part of proposal gives the Knesset, Israeli’s parliament, the power to overrule supreme court rulings with a simple majority vote. Which means the nation’s top court would be unable to […]
Silicon Valley Bank collapsed on Friday amid a bank run. The reasons are complex, even for those well-versed in the jargon of finance. (I am not.) The gist is that the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates in hopes of taming inflation. That requires banks to pay higher rates on their deposits. But since SVB’s […]
President Biden on Monday approved a massive oil drilling project in Alaska that environmentalists and Native American communities warn could pose significant climate and health risks. The Willow Project, a 30-year-long development, is predicted to pump 280 million metric tons of climate pollution, the equivalent of running 2.5 coal plants for the same amount of […]
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Wastewater treatment plants are typically overlooked when it comes to reducing greenhouse gasses, but new research from Princeton University reveals the plants emit twice as much methane as previously thought. Methane is a particularly potent greenhouse gas and the treatment plants […]
Last week, Donald Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he could have stopped the invasion of Ukraine by allowing Russia to “take over” parts of Ukraine. “I could have negotiated. I could’ve made a deal to take over something,” Trump said in a radio interview Monday. “There are certain areas that are Russian-speaking areas, […]
Tonight, the Oscars and finally, I hope, the end of Tár—a movie I hated. It is nominated for six awards, including Best Picture. Before this is over, I want to say one last time: This movie is middlebrow crap. In this turgid, conservative (politically, yes, but aesthetically, truly a conservative film) our main character, Lydia […]
Mike Pence is fighting to avoid testifying before a grand jury investigating January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. He blew off the congressional committee that looked into the matter, too. But the former vice president was willing to talk about the attack Saturday night at a white-tie dinner for politicians and journalists in Washington. “President Trump […]
This story was originally published by Wired and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The biodiversity crisis is a math problem. Unlike most math problems, however, this is one where getting hung up on the precise numbers can lead you astray. Maybe 1 million species are at risk of extinction. Or if you’re going by […]
On Friday, regulators shut down Silicon Valley Bank, one of the most prominent banks in Silicon Valley’s venture capital and startup hub. The bank’s collapse, the largest such failure since the 2008 financial crisis, has roiled the tech industry, in part because many venture capitalists and startups had millions in the bank coffers. The fate of […]
It’s another week in Washington, which for Rep. George Santos, means another week contending with new claims of wrongdoing and criminal activity. “I’m innocent,” Santos said, rejecting the latest allegations on Friday. “I never did anything of criminal activity and I’m no mastermind of anything.” So what is Santos vehemently denying this time? Could it be […]
A federal judge on Friday said that the infamous 2005 Access Hollywood tape recording of Donald Trump bragging that his celebrity allows him to “grab” women by the “pussy” can be used in writer E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit against the former president. Judge Lewis Kaplan also rejected Trump’s request to block two other women […]
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Last month, Eugene became the first city in Oregon to pass an ordinance requiring new residential buildings to be fossil fuel-free. But the policy may never go into effect—not if the natural gas industry gets its way. Ever since the electrification ordinance passed, […]
What if there is nothing to panic about? This week, three conservative school board members in a rural Colorado district threatened to resign because of critical race theory. Not because they fear it. But, instead, because they’re sick of the fear-mongering about it. The three board members in Elizabeth, Colorado (population: 1,675), say that critical […]
On Thursday, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin appeared on CNN for an education-themed town hall with Jake Tapper, where concerned citizens directly asked the Republican, a likely contender for the party’s presidential nomination, questions on everything from the state’s gun laws to artificial intelligence in classrooms. In typical Youngkin fashion, he tap danced around most of […]