Today's Liberal News

Biden’s Climate Goals Rest on a 71-Year-Old Defense Law

Sign up for The Weekly Planet, Robinson Meyer’s newsletter about living through climate change, here.A legal relic dating back to the Korean War has become one of the White House’s most important tools to pursue its climate goals.On Monday, the White House announced that it was invoking the Defense Production Act to boost manufacturing of certain technologies that will be essential for decarbonization, such as solar panels, heat pumps, and transformers for the electrical grid.

Is This the End of the George Floyd Moment?

Since the massive nationwide protests that erupted in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd, the debate over crime and public safety in the Democratic Party has been dominated by urgent calls for reforming police departments and confronting entrenched racial inequities in the criminal-justice system. History might record yesterday’s elections in San Francisco and Los Angeles as the end of that moment.

“Intensify the Search”: Journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous Expert Bruno Pereira Missing in Brazil

British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira have still not been found, after being reported missing Sunday in one of Brazil’s most remote areas of the Amazon. The pair were traveling across the region to interview Indigenous leaders patrolling the area for illegal miners and fishers for Phillips’s upcoming book. “We know that they had been receiving threats.

Indigenous Amazon Leader, Excluded from Summit of Americas, Urges Leaders to Protect Rainforest

The Biden administration has denied members of an Indigenous delegation from the Amazon rainforest entry at this week’s U.S.-hosted Summit of the Americas. Meanwhile, President Biden agreed to meet with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who told Biden he would only attend the conference if he was guaranteed immunity from criticism on his systematic destruction of the Amazon rainforest, among other policies.

Billionaire Democracy? San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin Ousted in Recall & L.A. Mayor Race Heads to Runoff

Progressive San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin was ousted by voters Tuesday in a special recall election, after facing well-funded tough-on-crime attacks by the real estate industry. “He made enemies with very, very deep pockets,” says Lara Bazelon, professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law and chair of Boudin’s Innocence Commission, who describes the primary challenge as a “perfect storm” to take down Boudin.

News Roundup: Proud Boys indicted for seditious conspiracy; Jan. 6 committee prepares for hearings

Five top members of the far-right group Proud Boys have now been indicted for seditious conspiracy as a result of their actions in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection; the charges indicate that prosecutors believe they can prove that at least some members of the violent crowd planned their actions as means of overthrowing the United States government.

This week will also see the first public hearings of the House select committee investigating the Jan.

Ukraine update: Russia attempting to take remaining villages north of Siverskyi Donets River

On Tuesday, the situation in Severodonetsk continues to be volatile, but the latest reports have the city more or less split down the center. Ukrainian forces control the industrial area on the west, as well as outlying villages and the southern edge of the city near the bridge to Lysychansk. Russia is positioned in the northern area and fighting with Ukrainian forces in the east.

Democrats land a high-profile recruit to take on a freshman Republican in south Florida

Democratic state Sen. Annette Taddeo announced on Monday that she’d drop her bid for governor and would instead seek to run against freshman GOP Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar in south Florida’s 27th Congressional District. Republicans made this seat several points redder in redistricting, shifting it from a 51-48 win for Joe Biden to a 50-49 margin for Donald Trump, but it remains one that Democrats are eager to target.

BTS Gets It

The White House briefing room hadn’t been packed like this in ages. That’s what journalists kept saying last Tuesday, as more than a hundred of them squeezed into the room, cradling their cameras and murmuring sorrys every time they bumped into one another. South Korean media outlets jockeyed for space alongside the usual American networks. A few people joked that the huge crowd was there for Brian Deese, the National Economic Council director, who was also scheduled to speak.

We Don’t Know Neptune at All

You don’t really hear about Neptune, do you?Not as often as the other planets, certainly. Space robots regularly provide snapshots of the surface of Mars and the clouds of Jupiter. Mercury is a frequent scapegoat for astrology-minded folks having a bad day (even though Mercury being in retrograde is actually just an optical illusion in our night sky). For 13 whole years, the Cassini spacecraft orbited Saturn before plunging into the planet, ending its glorious streak of observations.

Our First Encounter With T. Rex

The money had come fast. As a young man from humble stock, he had toiled away at an entry-level job in telecommunications. Now, as his ambition rode the wave of new technology, a small opportunity had turned into unimaginable riches. What to do with so much wealth? Restless and bursting with pride, and perhaps a tinge of guilt for his good fortune, the multimillionaire transformed into a titan of science.

The Indian Action Blockbuster That Should Make Hollywood Jealous

I can think of two action films from the past decade that involved a stunt in which an actor throws an entire motorcycle at someone. The first is the 2015 Marvel sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron. Captain America (played by Chris Evans), battling bad guys in a snowy forest, does a flip with his bike and flings it at an armored tank.