Get the current time with timezone-aware datetime objects. These are two utility functions to get the current time in a timezone-aware datetime in UTC or the local timezone. Python 3.9+ has finally started to get smarter about timezones. BUT, it's still a fairly arcane process to get the current time with a timezone.

time tricks.py

import datetime 

def utcnow():
    """Return a timezone-aware now, in UTC.
    """
    return datetime.datetime.now(datetime.timezone.utc)


def tznow():
    """Return a timezone-aware now, in the local timezone.
    """
    return datetime.datetime.now(datetime.datetime.now().astimezone().tzinfo)