President Joe Biden will highlight climate commitments made by his administration and announce new federal funding for climate resilience projects as part of a three-day trip to the Bay Area in Northern California that begins Monday, according to a White House official.

Each week on the Zero podcast, Bloomberg Green’s Akshat Rathi invites guests working at the forefront of climate

The illegal party drug MDMA – also known as ecstasy – may have led to an astonishing turnaround for a former white supremacist, according to one study. The man, referred to only by his first name, Brendan, took MDMA in February 2020 as part of an University of Chicago research project about whether the drug increased the pleasantness of social touch, Rachel Nuwer, author of new book I Feel Love: MDMA and the Quest for Connection in a Fractured World, wrote for the BBC. Brendan had become indoctrinated into white supremacy while at university in Illinois and gone on to become active within extremist circles, even attending the infamous 2017 rally in Charlottesville and taken on midwestern leadership roles within his organisation. After using MDMA and filling out the standard questionnaire at the end of the study, run by psychiatry and behavioral science professor Harriet de Wit, he added in bold letters: “This experience has helped me sort out a debilitating personal issue. Google my name. I now know what I need to do,’” Ms Nuwer reported. Upon googling his name and realizing his connection to white supremacy, the researchers contacted Brendan to ensure his cryptic message did not refer to violence or other worrying behaviour – but he told a research assistant: ‘Love is the most important thing. Nothing matters without love,” Ms Nuwer wrote. Prof de Wit, speaking to the author nearly two years later, still expressed astonishment at the results. “Isn’t that amazing?” she said. “It’s what everyone says about this damn drug, that it makes people feel love. To think that a drug could change somebody’s beliefs and thoughts without any expectations – it’s mind-boggling.” The use of MDMA and psychedelics such as psilocybin – the hallucinogenic component in magic mushrooms – is gaining traction in the medical community, showing promising results for the treatment of disorders such as PTSD and alcoholism. Brendan later told the author that the MDMA “helped me see things in a different way that no amount of therapy or antiracist literature ever would have done. “I really think it was a breakthrough experience,” he said, while explaining that many white supremacists had used MDMA previously and the drug alone was unlikely to spontaneously change minds. Ms Nuwer’s new book explores the uses of MDMA and whether it could “transform people’s beliefs too”. “MDMA does not seem to be able to magically rid people of prejudice, bigotry, or hate on its own,” she wrote. “But some researchers have begun to wonder if it could be an effective tool for pushing people who are already somehow primed to reconsider their ideology toward a new way of seeing things. While MDMA cannot fix societal-level drivers of prejudice and disconnection, on an individual basis it can make a difference. In certain cases, the drug may even be able to help people see through the fog of discrimination and fear that divides so many of us.” Read More Oregon's magic mushroom experiment steps toward reality Psychedelic drugs to treat depression without causing hallucinations may finally be near ‘Mystical’ experience using psychedelics may improve mental health, study reveals Dealer who bought 100,000 paracetamol he thought were diazepam given away by blue lips Psychedelic drug trip improves symptoms of depression for six months, breakthrough study finds Trump can’t bully his way out of his latest legal woes | Andrew Feinberg The 25-year-old party chairwoman who wants to turn North Carolina blue Trump floats special counsel conspiracy as he claims Fox abandoned ‘King’ of Maga

Abortion will remain legal in Iowa for up to 20 weeks after the state Supreme Court on Friday declined to lift a block on a six-week ban.

President Joe Biden on Friday is marking one year since the passage of the first major gun safety legislation in a generation during a summit in Connecticut, as gun violence reaches record levels in the United States and additional congressional action remains stalled.

An executive order designed to protect people providing and receiving gender-affirming care was signed by New York City mayor Eric Adams on Monday. Executive Order 32, signed in celebration of Pride, prevents the use of city resources to investigate, detain or prosecute anyone providing or receiving care. It’s a measure similar to one cities have taken to try to protect abortion rights after the reversal of Roe v Wade. New York as a state has not passed any restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors, which remains legal across the Northeast. But Mr Adams’s measure comes at a time when the transgender community has been under a sustained attack from Republican party officials who have introduced more than 400 bills in state legislatures targeting LGBT+ people so far this year. Twenty states have already passed laws limiting or banning gender-affirming care for minors, with more states actively considering bans. “As states across the nation continue their onslaught of attacks on our LGBT+ neighbors, New York City is doing what we have always done — standing up for justice and against discrimination,” Mr Adams said in a statement on the executive action. “This executive order reaffirms the fact that hate has no place in our city and that all people deserve the right to gender-affirming care and protection against prosecution for being who they are.” The spirit of Mr Adams’s order is aligned with advisories from a number of major medical associations like the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, which have said that gender-affirming care is safe and can be lifesaving. The number of people who transition and express regret about it later is believed to be at or less than one percent. For some of them, the regret was temporary. Some see attacks on gender-affirming care for children as part of a broader assault on the bodily autonomy of people who are not cisgender men. A number of the states that have passed bans on gender-affirming care have also passed limits or effective bans on abortion care. Some people in such states have been forced to move to other areas without such restrictions. New York is a place of particular import for the LGBT+ movement, as it is the site of the Stonewall riot and one of the country’s largest and most visible LGBT+ communities. It’s annual Pride parade is set to take place on 25 June. Read More Republicans in Oregon Senate end six-week walkout that blocked bills on abortion, trans health care Texas family moves so trans teen can escape anti-LGTBQ laws: ‘I’d rather be out than dead’ US prepares for potential end of Roe v Wade - live When will there be a Roe v Wade decision? Why these prosecutors are refusing to enforce anti-abortion laws

A top renewable power trade group on Thursday endorsed rigorous requirements for a new hydrogen tax credit that

While much of the country spent the week fixated on a former president and his indictment related to alleged mishandling of classified documents, parts of the American right were more consumed by fear of transgender rights.

The National Music Publishers’ Association sued Twitter Inc. Wednesday, alleging it violates the copyright of songwriters by using

Millions of borrowers may learn soon whether they could receive up to $20,000 in debt relief under President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness program. The fate of the debt cancellation program lies with the Supreme Court, which is expected to rule in late June or early July.

AFC Capital Partners secured $300 million in anchor funding led by the United Nations-backed Green Climate Fund, and

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden welcomed LGBTQ Americans to the White House on Saturday for a picnic and concert to commemorate Pride Month.