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The Washington Post
Ocean warmth sets record high in 2021 as a result of greenhouse gas emissions
The warmth of the world’s oceans hit a record. Again.
A new analysis, published Tuesday in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, showed that oceans contained the most heat energy in 2021 since measurements began six decades ago — accelerating at a rate only possible because of human-emitted greenhouse gases.
Since the late 1980s, Earth’s oceans warmed at a rate eight times faster than in the preceding decades.
“When you have this long-term upward trend, you’re getting records broken almost every year, and it’s this monotonous increase,” said John Abraham, a co-author of the study and a professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. “We’ve built up so much greenhouse gas that the oceans have begun to take in an increasing amount of heat, compared to what they previously were.”
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol requested Wednesday that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) voluntarily provide information about his communications with … Donald Trump and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. […]
McCarthy is the latest Republican House member whose cooperation has been requested by the panel. Letters were sent recently to Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania. Both have said they do not intend to cooperate.
Toronto Star
‘Tired of being quiet,’ Joe Biden tells his party’s senators to pick a side
U.S. President Joe Biden delivered a speech in Atlanta on Tuesday about the grave threat to the U.S. system of democracy from what Biden called voter suppression and election subversion. This is a moment, and an issue, he said, by which leaders will be judged by history.
“Do you want to be on the side of Dr. (Martin Luther) King or George Wallace?” he asked. “Do you want to be the side of Abraham Lincoln or (Confederacy president) Jefferson Davis? This is the moment to decide to defend our elections, to defend our democracy.”
It was strident, stirring, persuasive, passionate. […]
“I believe that the threat to our democracy is so grave that we must find a way to pass these voting rights bills,” Biden said. If the legislation is blocked by a filibuster, he went on, “we have no option but to change the Senate rules, including getting rid of the filibuster for this.”
Bloomberg
Schumer Maps Gambit to Get Voting Bill to Senate for Debate
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says he will try to break a logjam on two Democrat-drafted voting rights bills and begin debate on the Senate floor this week, but Republicans could still block a final vote on the measure.
The move comes as Democrats in the chamber continue a long-shot bid for an elusive agreement to change the filibuster rules and get the legislation to President Joe Biden’s desk.
Schumer told all Senate Democrats he plans to use a procedural gambit to prevent Republicans from blocking the beginning of debate. The House will first pass legislation that combines two bills that were held up in the evenly divided Senate in 2021 and then send them to the Senate, which can use the legislation to bypass the typical 60-vote threshold to proceed.
Schumer pointed out Republicans can still scuttle it later before a vote on final passage.
Almost All Teens Needing ICU Care for Covid Are Unvaccinated
Almost all teenagers who needed intensive care for Covid-19 were unvaccinated in a study that bolsters the use of the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE shot in youths.
The vaccine prevented 98% of ICU visits and 94% of Covid-related hospitalizations in the real-world study of more than 1,000 adolescents ages 12 to 18 in 23 states published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Minneapolis, St. Paul to require vaccine proof to get into bars, restaurants
Minneapolis and St. Paul will require customers to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test to enter restaurants, bars and other entertainment venues, marking some of the most aggressive steps the Twin Cities have taken to curb the spread of the virus.
The action comes as officials are trying to temper a spike in infections and hospitalizations fueled by the fast-spreading omicron variant, which is causing staffing shortages across industries.
"This is a critical next step to avoid closures," Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said at a virtual news conference alongside St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and other officials. "We want to stay open, and we need to stay safer."
Los Angeles Times
As hospitals reel, California tells coronavirus-positive medical workers to stay on the job
Daylong waits in the emergency room. No one to answer the phones. No one to take out the trash. And more patients arriving each day.
That’s the scene playing out at some hospitals across Southern California as the Omicron-fueled surge of COVID-19 contributes to a crippling shortage of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers. While Omicron is causing significantly fewer serious illnesses than last year’s winter surge, the unprecedented number of people becoming infected has left the medical infrastructure on edge. […]
“The situation just feels so hopeless,” said Erin McIntosh, a rapid-response nurse at Riverside Community Hospital.
They were born after U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq. Now they face a bleak future
He was 9 years old and needed a pencil. He ran down the road to a shop on the corner. He knew the neighborhood, the familiar faces; his friend was the shop owner’s son. But what Amir Jewi didn’t know was that the man sitting outside in the car was an Islamic State suicide bomber.
The ground shook, the car was hurled into the air. Shrapnel scythed in all directions, turning the intersection into a tangle of perforated corpses and singed flesh. A placard of a cleric shielded Amir from the blast. He lived. The shop owner’s son didn’t, another child folded into the carnage of a Baghdad afternoon. The blood was washed away, and life went on, as it did time and time again, in the Amin al-Thaniya neighborhood.
Amir recounted the story with little emotion one recent afternoon during class at the Sharqiya Preparatory School for Boys in Baghdad’s Karada neighborhood. The bombing was another episode in the deadly lottery he had always faced; a legacy of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that had defined his life even before it began.
The New York Times
Consumer prices popped again in December, casting a shadow over the economy.
Inflation climbed to its highest level in 40 years at the end of 2021, a troubling development for President Biden and economic policymakers as rapid price gains erode consumer confidence and cast a shadow of uncertainty over the economy’s future.
The Consumer Price Index rose 7 percent in the year through December, and 5.5 percent after stripping out volatile prices such as food and fuel. The last time the main inflation index eclipsed 7 percent was 1982.
Policymakers have spent months waiting for inflation to fade, hoping supply chain problems might ease and allow companies to catch up with booming consumer demand. Instead, continued waves of the coronavirus have locked down factories, and shipping companies have struggled to work through extended backlogs as consumers continue to buy foreign goods at a rapid clip. Forecasters expect price gains to weaken this year, but how quickly that will happen is unclear, posing a big economic policy question for Mr. Biden and the Federal Reserve.
Texas Monthly
A Forgotten Oil Well Births a 100-Foot Geyser in West Texas
In the flatness of the southern half of Crane County, where a clump of mesquite trees can count as a landmark, you can see a new hundred-foot column of salt water from five, maybe ten miles away. It shoots into the air under extraordinary pressure, as if someone had aimed a fire hydrant straight at the sky. Beginning on New Year’s Eve or in the early hours of 2022, an estimated 25,000 barrels of briny water has emerged from the earth with a dull roar each day, turning the surrounding West Texas landscape white with salt and other minerals.
Even so, as is often the case in the Permian Basin, what’s happening above ground is far less interesting than what the hell is going on underground. “I’ve never seen anything like that in West Texas,” says Bruce K. Darling, a former exploration geologist for Pennzoil who is now a hydrogeology consultant in Austin. “That’s definitely not natural pressure.”
There is no natural aquifer within hundreds of miles capable of shooting water skyward like this, and the source of the blowout was initially a mystery… The water had already turned the land marshy…
On Monday of this week, one part of the mystery was solved. Researchers digging through the state archives discovered a 1,390-foot-deep dry hole that was drilled at the geyser’s location by Gulf Oil in 1948. In 1957, the well was plugged and forgotten.
The Denver Post
Hundreds of Marshall fire victims hear cleanup plans from Louisville, Boulder County officials
Victims of the Marshall fire in Boulder County last month must navigate cleanup and demolition efforts for their properties and throughout their neighborhoods before broaching the topic of rebuilding, county and Louisville officials say.
If they do want to build again, many will likely have to start from scratch, Chad Root, building design official for Louisville, said during an informational online call Tuesday. Only physical copies of designs were used for homes built in the 1980s or 90s and most of those were discarded after 180 days.
Victims can still ask city and county officials to see if design plans for their homes – the fire destroyed 1,084 in the county – remain, but officials have not yet been able to find a single set, Root said.
The Columbus Dispatch
Redistricting: Ohio Supreme Court strikes down state House and Senate maps
The Ohio Supreme Court struck down GOP-drawn state House and Senate district maps as unconstitutional gerrymandering in a 4-3 decision Wednesday, sending the maps back to the drawing board.
Advocates of redistricting reform hailed the decision as a resounding victory for Ohio voters who overwhelmingly approved changes to the state constitution to limit partisan line-drawing in 2015.
“This ruling sends a clear message to lawmakers in Ohio: they may not put politics over people," said attorney Freda Levenson, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, who argued for opponents of the maps.
The Raleigh News & Observer
NC can go ahead with political maps, court rules in win for GOP ahead of 2022 midterms
North Carolina’s new political districts do not violate the state constitution, a panel of three judges ruled unanimously Tuesday.
The GOP-drawn maps would give Republicans a built-in advantage in future elections — but none of the reasons why challengers said the maps are unconstitutional stand up to legal scrutiny, the judges ruled. […]
Their ruling upheld both the congressional map — which is expected to give Republicans a 10-4 advantage among North Carolina’s 14 U.S. House of Representatives seats in a 50-50 election — and the maps for state legislature, which are expected to produce strong Republican majorities even if Democrats win the majority of the vote.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Pa. House approves proposed congressional map as court challenges loom
The Pennsylvania House has advanced a new congressional map that nonpartisan analysts say has a clear Republican advantage, but its fate remains unclear as a court-mandated deadline looms.
The map, which will help determine the balance of power in Washington, passed with support from all but two of the chamber’s Republicans and from none of the Democrats. It now goes to the state Senate for consideration.
While the proposal fulfills four basic fairness criteria embraced by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, redistricting reform groups said it does not reflect the partisan makeup of the state — a sticking point for Gov. Tom Wolf, who has final say over the map.
The Atlantic
It’s Not Just Manchin: The 49 other Senate Democrats are making a reckless climate gamble too.
There is only one climate-change story that really matters in the United States right now. It is that, nearly a year after President Joe Biden took office, the Democratic Party has still not passed the great substance of its climate policy through Congress. Every day that goes by, the party takes another step toward political catastrophe and planetary misgovernance. Time is running out. By the end of the summer, the midterm campaigning season will begin in earnest and the window to pass major legislation will have closed.
It is really that simple. Given the United States’ importance in the global economy—it is the second-largest emitter of carbon pollution annually, and one of the planet’s biggest producers of oil and natural gas—its ability, or lack thereof, to pass climate policy will set the standard for the rest of the world.
Vox
The Supreme Court takes up a case, brought by Ted Cruz, that could legalize bribery
The details of Federal Election Commission v. Ted Cruz for Senate, a case that the Supreme Court will hear next Wednesday… concerns federal campaign finance laws, and, specifically, candidates’ ability to loan money to their campaigns. Candidates can do so — but in 2001, Congress enacted a provision that helps prevent such loans from becoming a vehicle to bribe candidates who go on to be elected officials. Under this provision, a campaign that receives such a loan may not repay more than $250,000 worth of the loan using funds raised after the election.
When a campaign receives a pre-election donation, that donation is typically subject to strict rules preventing it from being spent to enrich the candidate. After the election has occurred, however, donors who give money to help pay off a loan from the candidate effectively funnel that money straight to the candidate — who by that point could be a powerful elected official.
A lawmaker with sufficiently clever accountants, moreover, could effectively structure such a loan to allow lobbyists and other donors to help the lawmaker directly profit from it. […]
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) wants the Supreme Court to strike down the limit on loan repayments to federal candidates. That decision could potentially enable any lawmaker to make a high-dollar, high-interest loan to their campaign, and then use that loan as a vehicle to funnel donations directly into their pocket.
NPR News
Clyde Bellecourt, co-founder of the American Indian Movement, dies of cancer at 85
Clyde Bellecourt, one of the most significant Native American leaders in the struggle for civil rights, died in Minneapolis on Tuesday night, his son Wolf confirmed to Minnesota Public Radio.
Bellecourt was 85 and had been battling prostate cancer.
Bellecourt, who was born and grew up on the White Earth Indian Reservation, co-founded the American Indian Movement in 1968. It began as a local organization in Minneapolis and over decades has expanded to advocate for Native civil rights across the United States and Canada and around the world. AIM says that today, it represents over 375 million Indigenous people worldwide.
Vice
My Dad Attacked Cops at the Capitol Riot. I Turned Him In.
On January 5 last year, Guy Reffitt, a member of the Texas Three Percenters militia, packed his AR-15 rifle and a Smith & Wesson pistol into his wife’s car and set off on the 1,300-mile journey from Wylie, Texas, to Washington, D.C.
The next day, armed with the pistol, he attended the “Stop the Steal” rally in front of the White House, then marched with the crowd over to the U.S. Capitol Building, where he allegedly charged at police officers with such force that they had to fire projectiles and use pepper spray to hold him back. […]
When he returned to Texas, according to prosecutors, he delivered an ominous threat to his son Jackson, 18, and daughter Peyton, 16, about what would happen if they told anyone what he’d done: “If you turn me in, you’re a traitor, and you know what happens to traitors… Traitors get shot.”
What he didn’t know was that his son had already turned him in.
The Guardian
Nato chief warns of ‘real risk of conflict’ as talks with Russia over Ukraine end
Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said there is “a real risk for a new armed conflict in Europe” after talks between alliance members and Russia ended with no signs of progress towards defusing the crisis over Ukraine. ”.
The Russian deputy foreign minister, Alexander Grushko, emerged from the four hours of talks renewing Moscow’s threat that it would take military steps if political measures were not enough to “neutralise the threats” it says it faces. His remarks came only days after his fellow Russian diplomat, Sergei Ryabkov, had assured reporters Russia had no intention of invading Ukraine.
Grushko said he had told Nato representatives that “further sliding of the situation could lead to the most unpredictable and most severe consequences for European security”.
US hit by 20 separate billion-dollar climate disasters in 2021, Noaa report says
The US was battered by 20 separate billion-dollar climate and weather disasters in 2021, one of the most catastrophic climate years on record which led to at least 688 deaths, according to the annual report of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).
Damage from the year’s 20 most costly disasters, which included thousands of wildfires burning across western states, frigid temperatures and hail storms in Texas, tornadoes in the south-east, and tropical storms saturating the east coast, totaled around $145bn.
This makes 2021 the third costliest extreme weather year on record, with four tropical storms – Elsa, Fred, Ida and Nicholas – accounting for just over half the total price tag.
EuroNews
UK PM told to resign after admitting he attended party during lockdown
Boris Johnson has apologised over a party held at Downing Street during the first coronavirus lockdown, as he faced MPs at Prime Minister's Questions.
In a heated session in parliament on Wednesday, opposition Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called on Johnson to resign.
Some Tory MPs, including Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, have also agreed that the prime minister needs to step down. […]
Starmer described Johnson's response as "offensive to the British public", who were obeying lockdown rules while the prime minister and his staff were "hosting boozy parties in Downing Street". He accused Johnson of "lying through his teeth" and called on him to "do the decent thing, and resign".
Anti-vaccine protesters try to storm Bulgarian parliament building
Anti-vaccine protesters have clashed with police in Bulgaria as they tried to storm the parliament building.
The violence erupted at a protest rally on Wednesday organised by a nationalist group that is fiercely opposing the Bulgarian government’s anti-virus measures.
A heavy police presence prevented protesters from entering the building in Sofia and a number of people were detained. Several others, including police officers, were injured during the clashes before the building was cordoned off.
BBC News
Brazil rains: Minas Gerais hit by deadly landslides and floods
Landslides and flooding caused by torrential rains have killed at least 15 people in south-eastern Brazil, officials say.
The victims died between Sunday and Tuesday in Minas Gerais state, where rivers have overflowed, leaving towns partially submerged.
More than 28,000 people have had to leave their homes. Authorities are monitoring dams that could burst, as more downpours could affect the hardest-hit areas. […]
Meteorologists say the excessive rain was a result of a summer phenomenon - the South Atlantic Convergence Zone (SACZ) - that causes heavy rainfall. Belo Horizonte saw 241.7mm (9.5 inches) of rain in 72 hours, when the average for the entire month of January is 329mm.
MercoPress
Heat wave could raise temperatures to nearly 50ºC in South America
An unprecedented heat wave is going through South America and some cities in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay have been forecast to be looking out for temperatures around 50ºC, it was reported, while 40ºC seems to have become the new normal.
Buenos Aires and Montevideo reached that mark Tuesday, while the city of San Antonio Oeste, in Argentine Patagonia, had registered 42.8ºC on Monday. For the Argentine capital it was the highest temperature since 1995. The National Weather Service (SMN) also said the city was facing its fourth hottest day in 115 years, or since records began to be archived in 1906.
According to MetSul, a meteorology company from Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, some areas in Argentina are expected to reach between 45ºC and 47ºC, while Uruguay will face temperatures between 41ºC and 43ºC.
The Hindu
Threat remains in eastern Ladakh: Army chief
As India and China held the 14th round of the Corps Commander talks on Wednesday, Army Chief Gen. Manoj Naravane said that while there has been partial disengagement in eastern Ladakh, the threat has by no means reduced and the Army has bolstered its position “manifold” in the last year and half. He also said the new Chinese border law that came into effect on January 1 is unlikely to have any military ramifications and if any the Army is adequately prepared to handle it.
“Force levels are more or less the same and from our side enhanced. Threat assessment and internal deliberations have resulted in re-organisation and re-alignment of forces, in keeping with the Army’s mandate, of ensuring our territorial integrity. And this also caters for the major augmentation that has taken place in the PLA forces and their infrastructure,” Gen. Naravane said at the annual press conference ahead of the Army Day which was held in virtual format for the first time.
South China Morning Post
Taiwan’s F-16V crash signals pilot training and fatigue problems, analysts say
The crash of one of Taiwan’s most advanced fighter jets during a routine drill on Tuesday points to problems with pilot training and fatigue from responding to repeated sorties by the PLA, analysts said.
The F-16V jet crashed into waters east of Taiwan soon after take-off from Chiayi Air Force Base, according to the island’s air force.
Searchers have recovered some wreckage of the aircraft’s fuselage but the pilot, 28-year-old Captain Chen Yi, is still missing.
Space.com
James Webb Space Telescope begins lining up its golden mirrors
Just weeks after the excitement of launch, the James Webb Space Telescope is already seeking focus in space.
Engineers are beginning alignment procedures for the recently unfolded 18-segment massive golden mirror. The work will eventually get these individual reflectors working as a single focusing device, NASA officials wrote in a blog update posted on Wednesday (Jan. 12).
The procedure began with engineers commanding 132 actuators that will move and position the primary mirror segments and the secondary mirror, just to make sure everything was responded as expected. The team also ensured the actuators are working to guide Webb's fine steering mirror, which will be used during the image stabilization process.
Tech Xplore
US to hold largest-ever offshore wind farm auction next month
The US government announced Wednesday it will auction more than 480,000 acres off the coasts of New York and New Jersey to build wind farms as part of its campaign to supply renewable energy to more than 10 million homes by 2030.
Offshore wind developers will bid February 23 on six areas in the New York Bight—the most lots ever offered in a single auction—which could generate between 5.6 to seven gigawatts of energy, enough to power two million homes, the Interior Department said.
Ars Technica
FTC has a “plausible claim” that Facebook is an illegal monopoly, judge says
The Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust suit against Facebook may proceed, a federal judge has ruled. The company had filed a motion to dismiss the case, which the judge denied.
US District Judge James Boasberg had invited the FTC to refile the case after throwing out its initial attempt when he found it lacking. “Second time lucky?” Boasberg wrote in yesterday’s opinion. Apparently.
“The core theory of the lawsuit remains essentially unchanged,” he said of the FTC's refiling. “The facts alleged this time around to fortify those theories, however, are far more robust and detailed than before, particularly in regard to the contours of Defendant’s alleged monopoly.”