curated news excerpts & citations
Rebecca Solnit: The Paris climate treaty changed the world. Here’s how
Today marks the 10th anniversary of the Paris climate treaty, one of the landmark days in climate-action history. Attending the conference as a journalist, I watched and listened and wondered whether 194 countries could ever agree on anything at all, and the night before they did, people who I thought were more sophisticated than me assured me they couldn’t. Then they did. There are a lot of ways to tell the story of what it means and where we are now, but any version of it needs respect for the complexities, because there are a lot of latitudes between the poles of total victory and total defeat.
(Rebecca Solnit more…)
Rebecca Solnit: Between the Best and the Worst: Some Thoughts on Not Surrendering
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electrek: Global EV sales jump 21% in 2025 as Europe surges and the US stalls
EV and battery supply chain research specialists Benchmark Mineral Intelligence reports that 2.0 million electric vehicles were sold globally in November 2025, bringing global EV sales to 18.5 million units year-to-date. That’s a 21% increase compared to the same period in 2024.
Europe was the clear growth leader in November, while North America continued to lag following the expiration of US EV tax credits. China, meanwhile, remains the world’s largest EV market by a wide margin.
(electrek more…)
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Shanley Hurt: The Uncompensated Cost of Doing Nothing
What One Rural Hospital Reveals About a National Crisis
…Before we go any further, let’s clear up some misinformation with a brief installment of “ACA Changes for Dummies.” Contrary to the rumors, the Affordable Care Act is not “ending.” It’s a permanent law. What is expiring are the enhanced premium tax credits; unless, of course, Congress decides to remove its collective head from its collective…well, you know.
…Meanwhile, as congressional lawmakers continue to debate these extensions to no real effect, families are left agonizing over impossible choices: make the car payment or insure their children? Feed the household or pay the deductible? For many, it now seems more rational to keep a roof over their heads and risk medical debt rather than risk owing the federal government. In today’s healthcare landscape, debt to a hospital almost feels like the better option.
But the buck doesn’t stop with families. We haven’t even begun to reckon with what this means for the healthcare system itself. Hospitals and healthcare providers are projected to face an estimated $7.7 billion increase in uncompensated care costs in 2026, as more Americans become uninsured and unable to pay for services they nonetheless still need. Add to that a collective loss of more than $32 billion in revenue from reduced health spending, and the broader economic consequences become impossible to ignore: a projected loss of nearly 350,000 jobs nationwide.
To understand what that actually looks like; not in theory, but in real life; let’s take a trip to rural America. On the Southern Oregon Coast, nestled between fir trees and sandy beaches, sits Bay Area Hospital (BAH). It primarily serves Medicare and Medicaid patients, programs that reimburse hospitals well below the actual cost of care: about 56 cents on the dollar for Medicaid and 82 cents for Medicare. Pair that with sharply rising operating expenses; a 40% increase in costs between 2020 and 2024; and you have a hospital already operating on the edge. The expiration of ACA subsidies doesn’t push it closer to the cliff; it shoves.
(Shanley Hurt more…)Crooks & Liars: Trump Attacks Reporter Asking About Soaring Health Ins Costs
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OU Daily: OU Faculty Senate raises concerns with policy suspending faculty members who receive student complaints
Emails reveal OU Faculty Senate is working to challenge the formalization of a policy by university leadership to suspend any faculty member who receives a student complaint.
According to an email obtained by the Daily, the OU Faculty Senate learned during its monthly meeting Monday that it is now university policy to give paid suspension to any faculty member against whom a student has filed a complaint.
(OU Daily more…)
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Dan Friedman: I Asked the Pentagon About Pete Hegseth’s Mentor. Then the Threats Started.
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Trump’s Pentagon wants reporters to be not just docile recipients of the administration’s preferred narratives but active propagandists. That is a direct attack on the free press. It is also an insidious danger. It threatens to make us bad at our jobs. It can be harder work to treat people whom we cover critically like complete human beings, people who deserve empathy and a real chance to explain themselves. If the department yanks credentials for tough reporting, if a press secretary just attacks a story without engaging with questions, and if inquiries draw personal attacks, why give spokespeople, or the officials they work for, any opportunity to respond at all?
(Dan Friedman more…)
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Crooks & Liars: Trump Admin Sued For Putting Snoozy’s Face On Natl Parks Pass
It sure looks like the National Parks Service broke the law by putting Trump on its America The Beautiful annual passes.
(Crooks & Liars more…)
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Norman Eisen, and Gabriel Lezra: Trump & Cronies Top 10 Worst…Presidential Profiteering Scandals
No president in American history has profited off the presidency the way Donald Trump has—and it’s not close. In his first term, he benefited to the tune of millions of dollars in shady schemes, such as foreign governments using his properties for their events. But his second term has been orders of magnitude worse, as we document in this second installment of our series on Trump’s Top 10 Worst.
- Trump’s Qatari Boeing
- World Liberty Financial
- The Meme Coin Grift
- Trump’s Foreign Real Estate Boom
- The USD1 Binance-UAE Deal
- Justin Sun’s “Investment” in Trump Crypto
- Tom Homan’s $50,000
- The $300 Million Ballroom Boondoggle
- The Executive Branch Club
- Amazon Prime Video Presents: Melania
(Norman Eisen, and Gabriel Lezra more…)
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Victor Davis Hanson: Debunking Pearl Harbor Revisionism
(Victor Davis Hanson more…)
GriftMatrix
Trump Action Tracker
Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Department’s Anti-Voting Shift
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Trump Pardons Database
Project 2025 Tracker
DOGE Tracker
ProPublica: Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Wired: 6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties
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