Today's Liberal News

Biden Vows to Cut Emissions, But U.S. Continues to Subsidize Fossil Fuels Amid Climate Crisis

The White House convened a virtual summit on the climate crisis this week, with 40 leaders representing the world’s major economies pledging cuts to greenhouse gas emissions. President Joe Biden said the U.S. would cut its emissions by at least 50% below 2005 levels by the end of the decade — nearly double the target set by the Obama administration six years ago. Biden’s pledge fulfills “a basic requirement of the U.S.

“He’s Going to Be So Missed”: Funeral Held for Police Shooting Victim Daunte Wright in Minneapolis

Mourners gathered in Minnesota Thursday for the funeral of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man who was shot dead by a white police officer during a traffic stop in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center. Daunte’s mother, Katie Wright, fought back tears as she remembered her son. “When he walked in the room, he lit up the room. He was a brother, a jokester, and he was loved by so many. He’s going to be so missed.” We air excerpts of Wright’s funeral service.

Youn Yuh-jung Knows How to Win

When she took the stage to accept the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress last night, Youn Yuh-jung claimed something else, too: her name. The South Korean actor said it clearly for everyone watching and then noted how often it is mispronounced. “Tonight, you are all forgiven,” Youn said cheekily—effectively pardoning Brad Pitt, who had made such a mistake when he announced her victory.

India Is a Warning

India considered itself to be “in the endgame” of the pandemic just a few weeks ago. Now it is the global epicenter. The country recently surpassed the devastating milestone of more than 345,000 new COVID-19 cases in a single day, the biggest total recorded globally since the pandemic began.

Renaming schools to address racist history is a transformative act

This story was originally published at Prism. 

By Sravya Tadepalli

In the face of rising white nationalism and protests for racial justice, calls for schools to confront the white supremacist legacies of their namesakes have taken on new urgency. Many school districts have used renaming processes to denounce white supremacy and publicly memorialize the achievements and contributions of marginalized people.

Nuts & Bolts: Inside a Democratic Campaign—when to let others talk instead of your campaign

If you have ever given money to a Democratic campaign, you will likely receive an email in the follow-up cycle asking for more funding. You can receive it off and on forever, from candidates you know and don’t know. For the most part, campaigns choose to automate these emails, using a digital contractor to help design and schedule them. The emails can be set around fundraising dates, days of the week, and frequency.

Celebration

Grace Schulman’s poem is a “celebration” of springtime, a season that can in itself feel like a hopeful celebration of warmth, light, and life. Schulman describes newly blooming nature as full of motion, as though every flower, tree, and creature were waking up and dancing: The hostas unfurl, the tulips gaze feverish, the oaks raise up their leaves.But the joy is tinged with loss. The changing seasons mark the passage of time, marching forward to an inevitable end point.

The Danger of Shortchanging Parents

In 1920, following the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted women the right to vote, the lawyer and feminist Crystal Eastman turned her attention to the future. The new goal of the feminist movement, she argued, should be to ensure that women are free to pursue careers outside of child-rearing—but also to guarantee that if women chose to focus on parenting, their labors would be “recognized by the world as work, requiring a definite economic reward.