When Ellen first moved from New York to Los Angeles, she decided not to own a car as a “test”, she says. “I grew up without car culture in Vancouver, and I wanted to try it out for a year.”

Five years on, she still has no plans to buy one. “It’s certainly a stereotype that you can’t not drive [in LA], but a lot of people do get around without them. I sometimes dream of getting one for road trips, but I think I’ll just rent for now.”

…while some cities with world-class public transport are debating how to tackle the stubborn minority of journeys still made by car, others – particularly in the US – have become so dependent on driving that opting out is almost impossible.

From connecting commuter suburbs to persuading royals to use buses, here are four expert-backed ways for tackling car culture.

1. Expand and improve public transport

1. Share space with pedestrians and cyclists

1. Focus on suburbs

1. Understand why people drive

Tennessee’s Republican-dominated legislature passed redistricting maps on Thursday, eliminating the state’s one Democratic, Black-majority congressional district a week after the US supreme court effectively gutted a major section of the Voting Rights Act.

The move cracks Tennessee’s ninth congressional district, which covers Memphis, into three pieces, each of which contains almost exactly a third of the city’s Black voters. The new maps mean that all nine of Tennessee’s congressional districts are Republican-leaning.

“…everyone around the world can suddenly see the utter folly of relying on a fuel that not only is destroying the planet’s climate, but also that can be bottled up behind a 20-mile-long waterway. Sunlight has to travel 93 million miles to reach the Earth, but none of those miles go through the Strait of Hormuz,” says [activist Bill] McKibben. “That makes it a very appealing alternative, especially now that it’s cheaper than burning coal and gas and oil.”

A pair of progressive Democrats unveiled a bill on Tuesday that would raise the federal minimum wage to $25 per hour, considered the bare minimum a single adult needs to meet the cost of living in much of the US.

The Living Wage For All Act is the first bill to be introduced by the newly sworn-in Rep. Analilia Mejía (D-NJ), who won a special election earlier this month after helping to lead the fight for a $15 minimum wage in her home state of New Jersey.

On Monday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he had become “disillusioned” with the U.S. and Israel over the war on Iran, and said the Trump administration is being outwitted and “humiliated.”

Chancellor Friedrich Merz: “The Americans clearly have no strategy. And the problem with conflicts like this is always that you don’t just have to go in, you also have to get out again. We saw that all too painfully in Afghanistan for 20 years. We saw it in Iraq. … An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian state leadership.”

The case in front of the [US Supreme] court centers on whether Bayer, the German company that now owns Monsanto, can be shielded from lawsuits that have been filed in state courts over claims that the company failed to warn consumers about the cancer-causing effects of glyphosate.

The Trump administration's decision to back the pesticide maker in the case, coming on the heels of an executive order supporting the expansion of domestic production of glyphosate, has angered the MAHA movement…

Just last month, leading scientists in the field of environmental health issued a consensus statement, saying that glyphosate can cause cancer and called for urgent action. Bayer disputes this.

Donald Trump has wielded the full might of his administration to crush the progress of clean energy, which he has called a “scam” and “stupid”. But there are signs this assault is not going to plan.

In March, the US generated more of its electricity from renewable sources such as solar and wind than it did via gas, the first time clean energy has surpassed the planet-heating fossil fuel for a full month nationally, according to data from the Ember thinktank.

While this was just one month, it follows a record 2025 for renewable energy. The pipeline of new power coming online in the US is overwhelmingly green this year, too, with 93% of all electricity capacity added in 2026 set to come from solar, wind and batteries. Just 7% will come from the fossil fuels that are dangerously overheating our world.

Labor unions, democratic organizations and community groups are organizing an economic blackout this year to commemorate May Day, International Workers Day, inspired by the economic blackout in Minnesota during the massive ICE operation in the state.

May Day Strong events are being planned across the US, with organizers calling for “no school, no work, no shopping”, in protest of government policies they say put billionaires’ needs above those of workers.

“May Day has to become bigger in this moment,” said Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union and Illinois Federation of Teachers. The unions have backed the economic blackout planned for May Day. “This is about building a more popular united front.”

][Pope] Leo wears the shoes of the fisherman, not the black Florsheim models that Trump insists his underlings wear…

…The most despised American in the world cannot bear the judgments of the most admired American in the world.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday once again suggested the international community should show gratitude for President Donald Trump’s illegal war with Iran, which has led to a global oil supply shock and created the potential for food shortages in the coming months.

Speaking with reporters at the Pentagon, Hegseth defended the president’s decision to launch a war of choice with Iran that so far has cost US taxpayers an estimated $60 billion.

Nearly half of children in the United States are breathing dangerous levels of air pollution, according to a new report, as experts warned Donald Trump’s expansive rollback of protections will make the situation worse…

…The report further found that communities of color are disproportionately exposed to unhealthy air. As a result, they are more likely to live with one or more chronic health conditions that make them more vulnerable to pollution, including asthma, diabetes, and heart disease…

…Since returning to office last year, the Trump administration has initiated at least 70 actions to roll back environmental and climate protections. Among them is the loosening of regulations on power plants that limit mercury and other hazardous air toxics.

The single-day protest on 1 May is taking its cue from the massive day of action that shut down Minneapolis in January by asking Americans not to shop, work or go to school. Rallies, marches and teach-ins will also take place across the country.

“The labor movement in our country cannot advance while ignoring the assault on democracy,” said Neidi Dominguez, founding executive director of Organized Power in Numbers and executive team member of May Day Strong.

“And the pro-democracy movement can’t ask working people to defend abstract principles while they can’t afford housing, paying bills or accessing healthcare. We need a national movement that does both…”

Oil price spikes caused by the US and Israel’s war in Iran are straining the pocketbooks of ordinary citizens the world over. But a new study shows that even in normal times, dependence on fossil fuels poses a tremendous financial cost while a small group of companies reaps the rewards.

The report published by the environmental group 350.org on Tuesday found that people around the world are subsidizing the fossil fuel industry to the tune of $12 trillion per year, a cost of about $1,400 for every person on Earth…

…In addition to calling for an immediate end to both the war in Iran and Israel’s war against Lebanon, 350.org called on governments around the world to tax the industry’s wartime windfall profits and put the money toward lowering the energy bills of ordinary families.

The group also called to replace fossil fuel subsidies with household support and subsidies for cheaper renewables, which it says will be resistant to the shocks that oil and gas regularly face.

Amnesty International has released its annual global human rights report, describing the leaders of Israel, Russia and the United States as “voracious predators” intent on economic and political domination.

The report comes as Hungary’s newly elected Prime Minister Péter Magyar declared that his government would be legally obligated to detain Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he enters Hungarian territory while still subject to an International Criminal Court arrest warrant.

Idaho was one of the states to roll back abortion rights after the US Supreme Court overturned the Roe decision in 2022. That’s not to say abortion rights are unpopular in Idaho—60 percent of voters favor them—but Idaho Republicans have total control of state government…

…That leaves voters the option of citizens initiative…and barring any further Republican attempts to scupper the initiative, voters are likely to restore abortion rights in November.

A bill banning anyone born after 2008 from buying tobacco in the UK has completed its progress through parliament in a move that ministers hope will create a “smoke-free generation”.

Under the tobacco and vapes bill anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 will never be able to be legally sold tobacco across the UK, in an effort to save lives and reduce the burden on the NHS.

Last year 219 people were seriously injured on Seattle streets, the majority of whom were driving or passengers, and around a third were pedestrians…As for deaths, 27 people died in traffic collisions last year, and the majority (18) were people walking.

People on Seattle streets interact with Vision Zero projects everyday: dozens of “No Turn on Red” signs, increased intersection visibility, and speed humps.

Advocates testified before [Seattle city] council members that they already know where the problem is…“And the ingredient that’s been missing has not been a lack of ideas or commitment from Seattle Department of Transportation, it’s been a lack of political will.”

Burning wood for power generation can be worse for the climate than burning gas, even when the resulting carbon dioxide emissions are captured and stored, new research has shown.

The findings cast doubt on plans by several governments, including the UK, to offer subsidies or other financial support for carbon capture attached to wood-burning power.

When the Democratic party’s governing body adjourned its meeting on Saturday in New Orleans, supporters of Palestine and an end of the genocide in Gaza had few reasons to celebrate. The Democratic National Committee had refused to give any ground to the large majority of the party’s voters with distinctly negative views of Israel…

…But the DNC continues to operate as if fully sealed off from the party’s voters on such matters. When the national meeting got under way on Thursday, the party’s resolutions committee proceeded to quickly discard a pair of resolutions critical of Israel…

..,The Democratic National Committee is a powerful model of what ails the party leadership at a time when the US-Israel alliance has been rampaging through the Middle East, terrorizing millions of people while leaving deaths and injuries and colossal destruction in its wake.