Tonight’s collection of news stories awaits your comments. Everyone is encouraged to share their 2¢ or articles, stories, and tweets. This is an open thread.
Los Angeles Times
Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer to retire, giving Biden his first appointment
Justice Stephen G. Breyer, the Supreme Court’s 83-year-old liberal pragmatist, plans to retire this year, clearing the way for President Biden to make his first appointment to the high court. […]
Biden has pledged to appoint the first Black woman to the court, and the leading candidates are Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, 51, and California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger, 45. […]
The timing of his departure was probably affected by the Democrats’ narrow hold on control in the Senate. By leaving well before the 2022 midterm election, Breyer ensures Democrats will have plenty of time to replace him before the election, when Republicans hope to recapture control of the Senate.
U.S. refuses to budge on Ukraine in response to Russian demands
With tensions rising over a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration on Wednesday rejected Moscow’s main demands for easing the crisis, dampening hopes that diplomats can find a peaceful resolution to the standoff.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken told reporters that in a letter delivered Wednesday, the U.S. rebuffed Moscow’s insistence that NATO pledge to never admit the former Soviet republic into the transatlantic alliance and to halt troop deployments in Eastern Europe.
“We make clear that there are core principles that we are committed to uphold and defend — including Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and the right of states to choose their own security arrangements and alliances,” Blinken said during a news conference at the State Department, alluding to whether Ukraine can apply to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Biden administration cancels leases for controversial copper-nickel mine near Boundary Waters
The Biden administration on Wednesday canceled two federal minerals leases for the proposed Twin Metals copper-nickel mine in northern Minnesota, likely killing a project widely condemned for being too close to the pristine Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
The huge underground mine would have tapped major reserves of copper and nickel — minerals key to a low-carbon economy — but also posed serious risks of contaminating the many waters surrounding it with sulfide and toxic heavy metals. Polls showed many Minnesotans did not support creating an industrial operation at a gateway to the country's most visited wilderness.
The boreal outback covers more than 1 million acres, a maze of forested lakes and streams and wetlands where motorized boats are not allowed.
The U.S. Department of Interior issued its legal determination Wednesday. Two lawsuits challenging the legality of the minerals leases in Washington, D.C., courts will likely be dismissed. The two minerals leases were essential for Twin Metals, a subsidiary of Chilean copper mining giant Antofagasta, to develop the mine — its first major effort outside Chile.
Bloomberg
Schumer Eyes 30-Day Timeline for Confirming Breyer Replacement
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wants to confirm President Joe Biden’s choice to replace Justice Stephen Breyer on an expedited timeline that would take only weeks to finish.
Schumer plans to move Biden’s nominee through the process on a timetable similar to that used by Republicans to confirm Justice Amy Coney Barrett in 2020, according to a person familiar with his plans. She was confirmed 30 days after … Trump made the nomination.
“We want to move quickly,” Schumer told reporters in New York. “We want to get this done as soon as possible.”
Powell Opens Door to Faster Rate-Hike Path to Curb Inflation
Jerome Powell made clear the Federal Reserve would act as needed to cool the hottest inflation in almost 40 years, endorsing interest-rate liftoff in March and opening the door to more frequent and potentially larger hikes than anticipated.
Stressing uncertainty on the economic outlook, including the risk that price pressures could fail to abate as forecast, the Fed chair told reporters on Wednesday that policy must be “nimble” to confront risks to its mandate for price stability and maximum employment. Investors took the comments to mean the Fed would be more aggressive in tightening than previously expected.
Vox
Stephen Breyer’s retirement puts the spotlight on Joe Manchin — again
As furious as Democrats might be at Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), they really do still need him. […]
But Democrats are optimistic. Manchin has voted for every lower court judge Biden has nominated so far, including now-DC circuit court judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who is often mentioned as a possible choice for Breyer’s seat. Manchin also voted for two of Trump’s three Supreme Court nominees — Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh — so he can argue he is simply being bipartisan by supporting Biden’s pick as well. (Manchin voted against Amy Coney Barrett, but said that was because of the rushed process of her nomination.)
They likely won’t get a clear answer anytime soon. Manchin’s typical practice is to wait until very late to announce his voting intention on controversial bills or nominees. (Infamously, he waited to announce his support of Kavanaugh until just minutes after Kavanaugh locked down the Republican votes he needed to be assured of confirmation.)
ProPublica
EPA Takes Action to Combat Industrial Air Pollution
The Environmental Protection Agency launched sweeping changes this week to address long-standing problems brought to light by ProPublica’s reporting on industrial air pollution. Shortly after the November publication of our investigation, administrator Michael S. Regan toured some of the largest toxic hot spots identified by our analysis and said the agency was consulting ProPublica’s work as it considered reforms. On Wednesday, Regan announced the EPA’s next steps, which include a significant expansion of air monitoring in some of the most polluted neighborhoods in the country and a new wave of unannounced inspections of polluters.
“We are going to keep these facilities on their toes so that they’re doing their due diligence all the time and not just when there’s a planned inspection,” he said. “Being on the ground, seeing the situation for myself, and talking directly with community members, it is startling that we got to this point.”
The Oregonian
Bill would allow Oregonians to pump their own gas while keeping attendant service
The Oregon Legislature will again consider giving the state’s drivers the option to pump their own gas. House Bill 4151, filed ahead of the legislative session that begins Feb. 1, would allow gas stations to offer self-service pumps alongside pumps staffed by a station attendant.
Oregon is one of only two states in the U.S. that don’t allow self-service gas pumps, although the state relaxed those rules for some rural counties in 2015, allowing customers to pump their own gas at night…
Gas station owners and the legislators sponsoring the bill said the workforce shortage from the pandemic…
Business Insider
Dominion says there's no 'realistic possibility' that it'll settle its lawsuits
Dominion Voting Systems said this week in a court filing that there was no "realistic possibility" that it would settle its $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and the pro-Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.
The company made its position clear in a new filing Monday night as part of the company's lawsuits against the trio for pushing an array of conspiracy theories about the election-technology company's role in the 2020 election.
"Given the devastating harm to Plaintiffs, the lack of remorse shown by Defendants, and the fact that many of them continue to double down on their lies, Plaintiffs do not believe any realistic possibility of settlement exists," lawyers for the company wrote in the filing.
The Dallas Morning News
Top Oath Keepers’ ex says he has violent rages; judge says he’ll stay in custody in Capitol attack
A federal judge in Plano has agreed with prosecutors that Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes should remain behind bars for his alleged role in plotting a military-style attack against the government at the U.S. Capitol.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Kimberly Priest Johnson wrote Wednesday in her order that the evidence against Rhodes was strong, including his use of “armed groups” to support and “further escalate” the violent siege of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Johnson also cited in her order Rhodes’ access to “substantial weaponry;” his ability to finance a “future insurrection;” and his “continued advocacy for violence against the federal government.” Rhodes, she wrote, also is a risk due to his “technical savvy, military training and familiarity with encrypted communication.”
Many donors who donated to embattled Texas AG Ken Paxton’s campaign remain a mystery
[Texas] Attorney General Ken Paxton recently announced a hefty $2.8 million campaign haul, showing the competition he can still raise big bucks while under FBI scrutiny.
But where most of the money came from is a mystery. Paxton has yet to name all his campaign donors, despite a deadline last week that required disclosure.
Among the missing are those who paid up to $50,000 to rub elbows with Paxton and … Donald Trump at a fundraiser in December. Entry to the private reception, held at Trump’s swanky Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, started at $1,000.
Arizona Republic
Sen. Mark Kelly 'does not support the censure' of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema
Sen. Mark Kelly broke his silence over the censure of his Democratic colleague Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, with a campaign spokesperson saying he disagreed with it and she should not be singled out over her opposition to changing the Senate’s filibuster rules.
"Senator Kelly does not support the censure,” Sarah Guggenheimer of the Kelly campaign told The Arizona Republic Tuesday.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Raphael Warnock has amassed a $23M war chest for Senate reelection bid
Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock raised more than $9.8 million in the last three months of 2021 and will end the quarter with roughly $23 million in cash on hand for a reelection battle that could decide control of the U.S. Senate.
Warnock’s latest fundraising report exceeded his last record-breaking haul, which amassed $9.5 million between July and September. His campaign said he collected contributions from 130,000 donors in his latest report, which spans October to December.
The Washington Post
U.S.-backed Syrian forces announce defeat of Islamic State in prison standoff
The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said Wednesday that it had regained control of a prison for Islamic State militants in a northeast Syrian city, ending a days-long standoff that drew U.S. ground troops into the fray and exposed the jail’s vulnerability to attack.
The siege of Ghwaryan prison in Hasakah began late last Thursday, as Islamist militant fighters set off a car bomb that prompted some prisoners to riot and overpower their guards, believing that the attackers had come to free them, said officials from the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF.
Climate change could make weather harder to predict
New research raises the uncomfortable possibility that climate change will not only make weather more severe but also harder to predict, potentially giving us less time to prepare for extreme floods, storms and heat waves in the years to come.
While scientists have long wondered whether climate change would affect forecasting, this appears to be the first study to probe for an answer. Its findings, though far from conclusive, suggest that rising temperatures could reduce how far meteorologists can see into the future.
“It seems that colder climates are just inherently more predictable than warmer ones,” said Aditi Sheshadri, an atmospheric scientist at Stanford University and lead author of the paper.
The Daily Beast
Florida Shock Jock in Matt Gaetz Circle Pleads Guilty
“Big Joe” Ellicott, a former Florida shock jock with potentially key information about the sex trafficking ring involving Rep. Matt Gaetz, has pleaded guilty in federal court, The Daily Beast has learned.
Ellicott is the long-time best friend of corrupt Florida tax official Joel Greenberg, who was Gaetz’s wingman in the underage sex operation, according to several sources with direct knowledge of their relationship. Last year, The Daily Beast revealed that Ellicott knew intimate details about the teenage girl who was paid for sex by the group—and actually texted what essentially amounted to a confession that they were scrambling to try and coverup details about their sex with a 17-year-old from the feds.
NPR News
A California redwood forest has officially been returned to a group of Native tribes
A conservation group is returning guardianship of hundreds of acres of redwood forestland to a coalition of Native tribes that were displaced from the land generations ago by European American settlers.
Save the Redwoods League purchased the 523-acre area (known as Andersonia West) on the Lost Coast of California's Mendocino County in July 2020. It announced on Tuesday that it had donated and transferred ownership of the property to the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, a consortium of 10 Northern California tribal nations focused on environmental and cultural preservation.
The forest will be renamed "Tc'ih-Léh-Dûñ" — which means "fish run place" in the Sinkyone language — as "an act of cultural empowerment and a celebration of Indigenous resilience," the league said in a release.
AP News
Americans’ trust in science now deeply polarized, poll shows
Republicans’ faith in science is falling as Democrats rely on it even more, with a trust gap in science and medicine widening substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic, new survey data shows.
It’s the largest gap in nearly five decades of polling by the General Social Survey, a widely respected trend survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago that has been measuring confidence in institutions since 1972. […]
Science used to be something all Americans would get behind, Rice University historian Douglas Brinkley said.
“But we now see it falling prey to the great partisan divide,” he said. “The world of science should be a meeting house where right and left can agree on data. Instead, it’s becoming a sharp razor’s edge of conflict.”
Indonesia’s sinking, polluted capital is moving to new city
Jakarta is congested, polluted, prone to earthquakes and rapidly sinking into the Java Sea. Now the government is leaving, and moving the country’s capital to the island of Borneo.
President Joko Widodo envisions the construction of a new capital as a panacea for the problems plaguing Jakarta, reducing its population while allowing the country to start fresh with a “sustainable city” that has good public transportation, is integrated with its natural environment and is in an area that’s not prone to natural disasters.
CBC News
93 potential burial sites found near former B.C. residential school
A survey of a small segment of the land surrounding a former B.C. residential school has identified 93 sites of "potential human burials," according to representatives of a nearby First Nation.
The chief and council of Williams Lake First Nation (WLFN) revealed on Tuesday preliminary findings of their investigation into St. Joseph's Mission Residential School and nearby Onward Ranch, based on a probe of 14 out of 470 hectares that have been identified as areas of interest.
Whitney Spearing, who led the investigation team, said the 93 sites were identified using ground-penetrating radar, along with aerial and terrestrial LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) sensors. She said some may be connected to a known historical cemetery, but 50 appear to have no association with it.
Spearing added that while the 93 sites show "reflections" that suggest human burials, the only way to confirm that would be through excavation.
The Hindu
Flypast and State tableaux mark R-Day celebration at Rajpath
India celebrated its 73rd Republic Day across the country on Wednesday with the annual parade held at Rajpath here showcasing the nation’s cultural diversity and military might with a series of tableaux and cultural performances.
For the second consecutive year, the celebrations were held without a chief guest due to the pandemic, which has seen a surge in cases of the Omicron variant. However, sanitation workers, frontline workers, auto rickshaw drivers, construction workers and labourers who prepared the majestic tableaus were among special guests invited this year to the Republic Day parade.
Al Jazeera
Sudanese protest against UN talks to resolve post-coup crisis
Sudanese pro-military demonstrators have taken to the streets of the capital, Khartoum, to protest against a UN attempting to resolve a political crisis that has been marred by a wave of bloody protests since a military coup in October.
An AFP news agency reporter said that thousands rallied on Wednesday outside the office of UNITAMS, the United Nations mission which launched talks with Sudanese factions this month.
At Oslo talks, West presses Taliban on rights, girls education
Western diplomats have told the Taliban that humanitarian aid to Afghanistan will be tied to an improvement in human rights, according to reports emerging as meetings with a Taliban delegation wound up in Oslo, Norway.
Closed-door meetings were held during the Taliban’s first official trip to Europe since returning to power in August. Following the talks, the Taliban delegation left Norway late on Tuesday without making any final statements.
EuroNews
Polish activists condemn abortion law after death of another pregnant woman
Human rights activists have slammed Poland's new abortion restrictions after the death of another pregnant woman. The family of a 37-year-old -- known as Agnieszka T. -- say she died of sepsis, related to a foetal illness.
Agnieszka T. arrived at hospital with stomach pains while pregnant with twins, her family say. One of her foetus' died on 23 December, but doctors had waited to see if they could save the second foetus, they added.
"The extraction of the dead foetus was not allowed because Polish law strictly forbids it," they wrote on Facebook.
Deutsche Welle
Holocaust Remembrance Day: There must never be another Auschwitz
Over 40 members of his family died in Auschwitz. The president of the European Rabbinical Conference, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, shares his memories with DW ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27.
The horror of Auschwitz is part of Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt's family history. In an interview with Deutsche Welle, the 58-year-old describes the fate of his ancestors and has recommendations for the generations to come…
It's the problem of the Holocaust. It's the numbers. You know, people listen to my 'half-million children and six million human beings,' and it's a number which does not register with normal people. However, when you tell people here, you know, here's my great grandfather was killed here and I think the mother and the brothers, sisters of my grandfather. Those victims are getting names; those victims are getting faces, and each one had its own life.... that ended abruptly through this killing machine in Auschwitz.
The Guardian
Honduran president’s fall from grace poised to end in US indictment
long a paved road that climbs the hillside to Celaque Mountain national park in south-western Honduras, one-room shacks are overshadowed by high-walled mansions – including the homes of President Juan Orlando Hernández and his political allies.
Local people say the results of Hernández’s eight years as president are on full display.
“He worked hard for his own good – not for the good of the people,” said Jesús Martínez, 68, a farmer resting in the picturesque colonial park in the center of Gracias.
“The people continue in calamity, and he’s leaving as a millionaire.”
Rocketing demand for fossil fuels could deal blow to climate goals, report says
Global oil prices have climbed to $90 a barrel, which could tempt investors to pile more cash into long-term fossil fuel projects, dashing the world’s hopes to limit carbon emissions in line with climate targets and wasting billions in investment, according to a report.
Recent price rises could mean more potential projects appear to be lucrative investments in the short-term, the report by the financial thinktank Carbon Tracker says. But the analysis suggests demand for fossil fuels could begin to dwindle by the time these projects begin, creating “a nightmare scenario” for investors and climate campaigners.
Demand for oil and gas has rebounded strongly as the global economy bounces back from the economic slowdown triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, leading to a global gas supply crunch and rocketing energy market prices.
The Rolling Stone
Neil Young Pulls Music from Spotify, Blasts It as the ‘Home of Life-Threatening’ Covid Lies
Spotify has begun to remove Neil Young’s music following the rocker’s protest of dissemination of Covid-19 misinformation on the streamer’s Joe Rogan’s podcast. Both Young, who shared a letter on his website, and Spotify confirmed the news in separate statements.
On Monday, Young posted a since-deleted letter on his website addressed to his management and record label demanding his music be removed from Spotify, noting that the company can have “Rogan or Young. Not both.” The Wall Street Journal first reported the news that Spotify will take down Young’s catalog. Spotify begun to remove Neil Young’s catalog Wednesday evening.
The Atlantic
Is Old Music Killing New Music?
Old songs now represent 70 percent of the U.S. music market, according to the latest numbers from MRC Data, a music-analytics firm. Those who make a living from new music—especially that endangered species known as the working musician—should look at these figures with fear and trembling. But the news gets worse: The new-music market is actually shrinking. All the growth in the market is coming from old songs.
The 200 most popular new tracks now regularly account for less than 5 percent of total streams. That rate was twice as high just three years ago. The mix of songs actually purchased by consumers is even more tilted toward older music. The current list of most-downloaded tracks on iTunes is filled with the names of bands from the previous century, such as Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Police.
Ars Technica
Fabs stretched thin as chip shortage shrinks inventories to just 5 days
US chip supplies are close to the breaking point as a new survey reveals diminished inventories and overstretched fabs.
The numbers put the chip shortage in stark relief. In 2021, companies that purchase semiconductors had less than five days of inventory on hand as opposed to the 40 days of inventory they had in 2019, according to a survey of more than 150 companies conducted by the US Department of Commerce. At the same time, demand was up 17 percent. Many of the companies surveyed said that demand exceeded their internal forecasts.
“We aren’t even close to being out of the woods as it relates to the supply problems with semiconductors,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on a press call Tuesday. “The semiconductor supply chain is very fragile, and it’s going to remain that way until we can increase chip production in the United States.”