"Code red for humanity"

The new UN climate report paints a bleak picture. Legal battles over red states’ laws against mask mandates have begun; the new UN climate report paints a bleak picture. Tonight's Sentences was written by Gabby Birenbaum. TOP NEWS Anti-mandate governors [A woman and her daughter walk to school]( Brittany Murray/MediaNews Group/Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images - State politics are playing out in school districts as public school students return to classrooms this month — in Arizona and Florida, for example, it is illegal to impose a mask mandate in schools, while in California and Illinois, masks are a requirement by state law. [[WSJ / Ben Chapman and Cameron McWhirter](] - One of the biggest conflicts is taking place in Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott, by executive order, banned mask mandates in schools. But the Dallas and Austin school districts have decided to ignore that, requiring masks anyway, and multiple groups have sued Abbott over the order. [[Texas Tribune / Brian Lopez](] - With children under 12 unauthorized to receive the vaccine and the delta variant surging, Dallas schools’ superintendent said the situation is sufficiently urgent that masks are necessary. The school district could be subject to a fine for making that decision. [[Dallas Morning News / Corbett Smith and Talia Richman](] - Florida and Arizona have similar laws to Texas, and school districts in Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Phoenix, and Tucson have similarly ignored them and imposed mandates. Lawsuits against the anti-mandate laws themselves and the school districts’ mandates have followed. [[NYT / Giulia Heyward](] - In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis has said school districts that violate the order will see their superintendents and school board members’ salaries docked or withheld. Covid cases among Florida children have risen 137 percent over the past month. [[Daily Beast / Francisco Alvarado](] - Laws in Arkansas, South Carolina, Iowa, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and Utah also bar school districts from requiring masks. [[Forbes / Alison Durkee](] - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that students over age 2 should wear masks indoors and schools should maintain three feet of distance between students. [[NPR / Vanessa Romo](]  [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( The UN’s bleak climate report - Yesterday, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a damning report, finding that human-caused global warming has affected every inhabited place on Earth and that some changes are already irreversible. [[Vox / Umair Irfan and Rebecca Leber](] - Calling the situation a “code red for humanity,” the IPCC warned that the Paris climate agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius will require immediate and large-scale action, and predicted the threshold would be crossed in the 2030s. [[Euronews](] - The report found carbon pollution to be the key culprit in global warming, and said cutting greenhouse gas emissions significantly would be the only way to curb the rise in global temperatures. Each fraction of a degree of continued warming brings more heat waves, droughts, floods, hurricanes, weather whiplash, and sea level rise. [[CNN / Brandon Miller](] - Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere today are higher than they have been at any point in the past 2 million years. [[CBS News / Jeff Berardelli](] - The report lays out five potential scenarios for climate action. The most aggressive, rapid one, where the world reaches net-zero emissions, would bring warming back below 1.5 degrees by the end of the century. The worst-case scenario, where the world doesn’t act much, would lead to 3 to 6 degrees of warming and catastrophe. [[NYT / Henry Fountain](] MISCELLANEOUS New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he will resign amid allegations of sexual harassment by multiple women, meaning Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul will become New York’s first woman to hold the office. [[NYT / Luis Ferré-Sadurní and Michael Gold](] - The Senate passed the bipartisan infrastructure bill. [[Politico / Burgess Everett and Marianne Levine](] - The US military will require its members to receive a Covid-19 vaccine. [[AP / Lolita C. Baldor](] - Prince Andrew is being sued by a woman who says he forced her to have sex with him while she was under age 18 and in the control of Jeffrey Epstein. [[BuzzFeed News / Stephanie K. Baer](] Support our journalism Reader contributions help keep Vox and newsletters like Sentences free for all. Support our work from as little as $3. [Contribute $3]( VERBATIM "This situation and moment are not about the facts. It's not about the truth. It's not about thoughtful analysis. It's not about how do we make the system better. This is about politics and our political system today is too often driven by the extremes." [[New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, on the investigation that found he sexually harassed multiple women, while announcing his resignation](] LISTEN TO THIS [Were the Olympics worth it?]( The pandemic Olympics have come to an end. NPR’s Tom Goldman provides a highlight reel and an evaluation from Tokyo. 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