THE BIG STORY

Global climate talks end in disappointment

I normally wouldn’t lead a newsletter with a story about what didn’t happen, but in this case, it feels irresponsible not to. The global climate talks ended in Madrid, Spain, on Sunday after a grueling all-night negotiating session. The result? Officials pushed the most difficult issues to next year. Again.

Among the most tense discussions: countries left most vulnerable by climate change clashed with the United States and other large polluters about reversing course on climate pollution and paying for the crisis.

The standstill comes at a time when disasters and rising seas are already wreaking havoc and experts agree time is running out for countries to stave off a warmer, worse future.

In 2015, nearly every country signed on to the Paris agreement, agreeing to limit future warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius. But since then, President Donald Trump announced he planned to withdraw the US from the agreement, and climate negotiators have struggled to figure out how the accord will work when it takes effect in 2020.

👉End of the decade: temperatures rose, sea levels rose, Arctic sea ice disappeared. Here are six depressing climate change records we broke in the 2010s.

Allison Joyce / Getty Images

STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

You don’t know Bernie: A close look at Bernie Sanders’ campaign

Sen. Bernie Sanders has been a heavyweight in the race for Democratic candidate since the launch of his campaign. His run in 2016 built a foundation, and in this year’s race, he’s picked up where he started.

Our reporter Ruby Cramer has been following the Sanders campaign for months, and she just filed an extraordinary and thorough look at the very DNA of his bid for the presidency.

From the piece: “Bernie Sanders is trying to change the way people interact with private hardship in this country, which is to say, silently and with self-loathing….He is imagining a presidential campaign that brings people out of alienation and into the political process simply by presenting stories where you might recognize some of your own struggle.”

Scott Heins / Getty Images

IMPEACHMENT TODAY

Given your history. Today on our daily impeachment podcast: party like it's 1787. Before the House makes history by voting on Trump’s impeachment, let’s go back in history to discuss how the framers of the Constitution thought about impeachment. Listen and subscribe.

SNAPSHOTS

The Supreme Court handed President Trump another temporary win in his effort to hide financial records. The justices said Trump’s records can remain under wraps while the Supreme Court hears three cases to keep them hidden from prosecutors in New York, and Congress.

Police are seeking a man who allegedly trashed a California synagogue. City of Beverly Hills Police are looking for a man who allegedly vandalized a local synagogue, ransacking the interior and destroying religious relics. The vandalism, which was discovered at Nessah Synagogue, is being investigated as a hate crime.

The new UK Parliament has a record number of women MPs and is the most ethnically diverse ever. The UK's general election led to a record 220 women MPs, with one in 10 MPs from a non-white background.

A 13-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with the stabbing of a Manhattan student in a park. Tessa Majors, a freshman at Barnard College, was killed while walking through a park, when three teens attempted to rob her. A 13-year-old was reportedly arrested on trespassing charges in a building near the park. His statements led investigators to the other suspects, one of whom is a 14-year-old.

An 8-year-old girl had a terrifying exchange with a stranger after he hacked her family’s Ring camera. Alyssa LeMay knew someone was watching her because the blue light from the Ring camera in her bedroom was blinking. Then a stranger’s voice said “hello there,” and told her to go call her “mommy” the n-word.

GROUNDED

The “badass” Afghan pilot who went massively viral is now living in exile. She just wants to fly again.

Niloofar Rahmani shot to fame in 2013 after she became the first woman to pilot a fixed-wing jet in Afghanistan’s air force. She quickly became a symbol: Look at what the women of Afghanistan can do.

She started the decade being feted as global feminist icon. She’s ending it with her dreams in tatters: Rahmani has been accused of acting improperly for an Afghan woman, and she and her family received hundreds of death threats, forcing her to flee Afghanistan.

Rahmani’s story doesn’t take place in a vacuum — she’s testament to the cost born by the women in Afghanistan whom the West has elevated as feminist heroes

Now, as the US negotiates with the Taliban in hopes of a peace deal, women’s rights have been largely ignored, and women across the country face an uncertain future.

Shah Marai / Getty Images

MIND BLOWN

This dedicated science professor has gone super viral for his incredible stunts in class

David Wright has been teaching at Tidewater Community College in Virginia since 1974. He’s something of a legend at the school.

Part of the reason this is the case is because he’s managed to make physics incredibly fun for people who are otherwise intimidated by it. Rather than solve math problems and discuss scientific principles, Wright is a firm advocate for demonstrating the wonders of science through action.

One of his students posted a tribute to Wright, and it went wildly viral, and it’s all so lovely.

Spend a few minutes concentrating on gratitude,

Elamin