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Overnight News Digest: Climate change chickens come home to roast [1]
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Date: 2022-07-20
Los Angeles Times
Biden announces executive action on climate amid pressure to declare emergency
President Biden announced new executive orders on Wednesday that are designed to bolster offshore wind energy programs and help communities adapt to extreme heat — the first in a series of actions he is expected to take to confront climate change. The actions, which Biden laid out during a speech at a closed coal-fired plant in Somerset, Mass., that is in the process of being converted into a facility to promote offshore wind power, include $2.3 billion in resilience and infrastructure funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help heat-ravaged communities grapple with record-setting temperatures The funding will help states expand cooling centers for millions of Americans enduring scorching weather.
The Washington Post
Extreme heat prompts alerts in 28 states as Texas, Oklahoma hit 115
Extreme temperatures haunted two continents on Wednesday, with more than 100 million people in the United States facing excessive heat conditions and a heat wave that had scorched Western Europe taking aim at Central Europe. As 100-degree temperatures became uncomfortably routine on both sides of the Atlantic, President Biden said climate change presented a “clear and present danger” to the world. But days after suffering a major setback in Congress on his climate policies, he limited his announcements to a measure expanding offshore wind energy projects, while promising other, unspecified actions down the road. “Let me be clear: Climate change is an emergency,” Biden said in a visit to Somerset, Mass. “In the coming weeks I’m going to use my power to turn these words into formal, official government actions. When it comes to fighting climate change, I will not take no for an answer.”
CNN
China endures summer of extreme weather as record rainfall and scorching heat wave cause havoc
Towns and farmlands inundated by floods, homes and roads buried by landslides, crops withering under scorching heat, hazmat-suited Covid workers collapsing from heatstroke. Since summer began, scenes of devastation and misery have been playing out across China as the world’s most populous nation grapples with an unrelenting torrent of extreme weather emergencies. Scientists have been warning for years that the climate crisis would amplify extreme weather, making it deadlier and more frequent. Now, like much of the world, China is reeling from its impact.
BBC News
Wildfires rage in Greece, Spain and Italy as heatwave moves across Europe
Wildfires are raging across Europe, where a heatwave has intensified drought conditions. Though temperatures have cooled in France and the UK, firefighters are still tackling blazes in Greece, Spain and Italy. The fires in France's badly hit south-west have started to be brought under control. And as the heatwave moves north-east, low water levels are hampering transport on rivers in Germany. Heatwaves have become more frequent, more intense, and last longer because of human-induced climate change. The world has already warmed by about 1.1C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.
The Guardian
UK must learn to live with extreme weather, says cabinet minister
The UK must learn to live with extreme weather, a minister has said, as the government was accused of going missing “while Britain burns”. Hundreds of firefighters battled fires across England as temperatures surged to a historic high of 40.3C on Tuesday. More than 60 homes were destroyed in wildfires, and fire services faced what was described as their busiest day since the second world war. Kit Malthouse, the Cabinet Office minister, said… “Britain may be unaccustomed to such high temperatures but the UK, along with our European neighbours, must learn to live with extreme events such as these… the impacts of climate change are with us now.”
Mother Jones / The Guardian
Climate Protesters Smash Windows at Rupert Murdoch’s UK Headquarters
Extinction Rebellion protesters have smashed windows at the London headquarters of Rupert Murdoch’s media company, in protest at his outlets’ coverage of the climate crisis. Activists targeted the News UK building next to London Bridge station early on Tuesday morning, destroying glass panels and putting up posters reading “tell the truth” and “40 degrees = death” next to the entrance used by journalists at the Sun and the Times.
Reuters
U.S. existing home sales slide again; prices hit fresh record high
U.S. existing home sales fell for a fifth straight month in June to the lowest level in two years, as fast-rising interest rates and record-high selling prices make buying a home too expensive for a growing share of American households. Mortgage interest rates have soared as a result of the Federal Reserve's stiff rate hikes to try to tame high inflation […] Home resales, which account for nearly 90% of the residential real estate market, dropped 14.2% on a year-on-year basis. The decline brought June's sales rate to below the pace that prevailed in 2019 before the pandemic. That was not enough to stall the relentless increase in selling prices, however. The median existing house price climbed 13.4% from a year earlier to an all-time high of $416,000 in June. It was the 23rd straight month of double-digit annual price gains, the longest such run since the late 1970s.
Bloomberg
Americans Who Can’t Afford Homes Are Moving to Europe Instead
More Americans are relocating to Europe, driven across the Atlantic by the rising cost of living, inflated house prices, a surging dollar and political rancor at home. Italy, Portugal, Spain, Greece and France are among the most popular destinations. […] Retirees and the wealthy have traditionally been the prime American buyers of real estate in Europe. But relatively cheap housing — particularly in smaller cities and towns — and the rise of remote work have made the continent alluring to a wider range of people, including those who are younger and find themselves priced out of the housing market at home. Growing crime rates in some US cities and political divisions have also led Americans to look across the pond for a quieter lifestyle, buoyed by a euro that just dropped to parity with the US dollar for the first time in more than 20 years.
EuroNews
EU must cut gas use by 15% this winter over Russian disruption fears, Commission says
The European Commission urged member states on Wednesday to reduce their gas use by 15% from August 1 of this year until 31 March 2023 to ensure they can cope in the event of a total gas cut-off from Russia. The voluntary measure is part of the highly-anticipated Save Gas for a Safe Winter plan presented in Brussels over worries that the EU will struggle to not only fill in gas storage capacities before the onset of winter but also fail to secure enough additional supplies to fill in the gaps during the colder months.
Science
Half of Americans anticipate a U.S. civil war soon, survey finds
Violence can seem to be everywhere in the United States, and political violence is in the spotlight, with the 6 January 2021 insurrection as exhibit A. Now, a large study confirms one in five Americans believes violence motivated by political reasons is—at least sometimes—justified. Nearly half expect a civil war, and many say they would trade democracy for a strong leader, a preprint posted today on medRxiv found. “This is not a study that’s meant to shock,” says Rachel Kleinfeld, a political violence expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who was not involved in the research. “But it should be shocking.” […] Although almost all respondents thought it’s important for the United States to remain a democracy, about 40% said having a strong leader is more important. Half expect a civil war in the United States in the next few years. (The survey didn’t specify when.)
USA Today
Merrick Garland: Nothing to prevent investigating Trump or anyone else for Jan. 6 attack
Attorney General Merrick Garland reiterated Wednesday he would pursue investigations into the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, by following the facts and the law, after some advocates worried a recent memo signaled he would avoid investigating … Donald Trump. “No person is above the law in this country,” Garland said. “I can’t say it any more clearly than that. There is nothing in the principles of prosecution and any other factors which prevent us from investigating anyone – anyone – who is criminally responsible for an attempt to undo a democratic election.”
The Washington Post
Even a day after Jan. 6, Trump balked at condemning the violence
One day after the last rioter had left the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, … Donald Trump’s advisers urged him to give an address to the nation to condemn the violence, demand accountability for those who had stormed the halls of Congress and declare the 2020 election to be decided. He struggled to do it. Over the course of an hour of trying to tape the message, Trump resisted holding the rioters to account, trying to call them patriots, and refused to say the election was over, according to individuals familiar with the work of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack. The public could get its first glimpse of outtakes from that recording Thursday night, when the committee plans to offer a bold conclusion in its eighth hearing: Not only did Trump do nothing despite repeated entreaties by senior aides to help end the violence, but he sat back and enjoyed watching it. He reluctantly condemned it — in a three-minute speech the evening of Jan. 7 — only after the efforts to overturn the 2020 election had failed and after aides told him that members of his own Cabinet were discussing invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office.
NBC News
Secret Service was told at least once before Jan. 6, 2021, to preserve texts
A senior Secret Service official said agency employees received two emails — at least one prior to Jan. 6, 2021 — reminding them to preserve records on their cellphones, including text messages, before their devices were essentially “restored to factory settings” and texts were lost as part of a planned reset and replacement program across the agency. The senior official said employees received a third email on Feb. 4, 2021, instructing them to preserve all communications specific to Jan. 6. At that point, several Congressional committees had asked for Secret Service communications from the day of the insurrection on the Capitol.
The Hill
Democrats want Biden to go scorched-earth on GOP
[…] Democrats are tired of being stomped on by the opposition. They hate the public perception of President Biden as a president in peril. And the conservative Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is pushing them past their limits. […] “This is a time to say ‘We’ve had enough. [Republicans] are taking away every freedom we’ve had and we’re full of rage,’ ” said one Democratic strategist. “This isn’t the time to say we’re the honorable party, because that clearly isn’t working.” […] Lis Smith, a Democratic strategist who served as a communications adviser to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg during his presidential campaign, said Democrats have to present the midterms as a choice between their party “trying to bring relief to the American people” and a GOP “trying to take away freedoms, like a woman’s right to choose.”
The New York Times
Intelligence Agencies Say Russia Election Threat Persists Amid Ukraine War
Top national security officials warned on Tuesday about the continuing threat of election interference from abroad, emphasizing that Russia could still seek to meddle or promote disinformation during the 2022 midterm races even as it wages war in Ukraine. “I am quite confident the Russians can walk and chew gum,” Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, said during a cybersecurity conference in Manhattan, where he spoke alongside Gen. Paul M. Nakasone, the head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command. […] “The Russians are trying to get us to tear ourselves apart,” Mr. Wray said. “The Chinese are trying to manage our decline, and the Iranians are trying to get us to go away.”
The Kyiv Independent
Inside Ukraine’s covert operation to take out elite Wagner Group mercenaries in Donbas
Not all of Ukraine’s attacks on Russian positions end up circulating on social media like the recent strikes on what Ukraine says are over 30 Russian ammunition depots in the occupied east and south. There are other, much more discrete operations that Ukraine carries out deep into Russian-occupied territories. Among these low-profile operations was the destruction of a Wagner Group base 45 kilometers east of the front line in Russian-occupied Kadiivka in Luhansk Oblast in early June. […] Some Ukrainians who remained in Russian-occupied territories have been helping to identify Russian troops, equipment, bases, and depots…
Stars and Stripes
Army barracks in Germany is ground zero for flow of West’s weapons to Ukraine
The push to get Western arms into the hands of Ukrainian troops begins here, on the fourth floor of an old Patch Barracks conference hall that has turned U.S. European Command into a nerve center. […] The reason is “a lack of air support superiority from the Russians,” said Rear Adm. R. Duke Heinz, EUCOM’s top logistician and head of a special task force coordinating efforts to get arms into Ukraine. To date, more than 66,000 tons of weaponry have made their way to Ukraine via secret routes. The task force, known as the EUCOM Control Center Ukraine, has been at the center of it all.
Deutsche Welle
Kremlin seeking to annex more territory, US says
Russia is making preparations to annex further Ukrainian territory, according to US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby. "Russia is laying the groundwork to annex Ukrainian territory that it controls in direct violation of Ukraine's sovereignty," Kirby told journalists late Tuesday. "Russia is beginning to roll out a version of what you could call an annexation playbook, very similar to the one we saw in 2014," he said in reference to the annexation of the Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula by Russia forces at that time. Moscow has labeled its attack on Ukraine a "special military operation" to guarantee its security. In recent months, Russia has concentrated its efforts on the eastern Donbas region.
The Print
‘Go, Ranil, go’: Protesters voice ‘disappointment’ as Wickremesinghe elected Sri Lanka’s President
Chants of “Go, Ranil, go” were heard in Colombo as Sri Lanka’s parliamentarians elected Ranil Wickremesinghe to the country’s highest office, and protesters voiced their anger. Wickremesinghe — hitherto the acting President and former prime minister — was elected to serve for the remainder of ex-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s term (until 2024) by MPs in the country’s Parliament Wednesday. The results were out by 1pm in Colombo. MP Namal Rajapaksa — a former minister and the son of former President and PM Mahinda Rajapaksa — was among the first to congratulate Wickremesinghe, whose perceived closeness to the Rajapaksas had led protesters to demand his resignation as PM, storming his office and attacking his home.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Federal court says Georgia’s anti-abortion law can now be enforced
A federal appeals court on Wednesday allowed Georgia’s restrictive abortion law to take effect, an outcome that’s been expected since the U.S. Supreme Court in June overturned Roe v. Wade, which had guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion for nearly 50 years. The panel of appeals judges sent the case back to a federal district judge and instructed him to reverse his 2020 ruling and allow the law to take effect. In a follow-up order, the panel lifted the district judge’s ban, allowing the law to take effect immediately. “We vacate the injunction, reverse the judgment in favor of the abortionists, and remand with instructions to enter judgment in favor of the state officials,” Chief Judge Bill Pryor of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in his order.
Federal News Network
USPS scales back next-gen fleet plans, commits to more electric vehicles
[…] USPS announced Wednesday that it will, for now, only plan to buy the 50,000 next-generation delivery vehicles (NGDVs) it ordered in March, the minimum outlined in its contract with Oshkosh Defense. The agency, however, now ensures that no less than 50% of those custom-built vehicles will be electric vehicles. The agency, in its contract award to Oshkosh Defense, expected to purchase up to 165,000 next-generation vehicles, and committed to making electric vehicles comprise at least 10% of its next-generation fleet. The agency, in a notice expected to be published in the Federal Register on Thursday, said its higher commitment to electric vehicles “reflects the favorable cost-benefit impacts expected from the changes to both our operational strategy and our acquisition planning horizon.” […] USPS expects at least 40% of the 84,500 total vehicles it’s now forecasted to purchase — the 50,000 next-generation delivery vehicles, plus the 34,500 commercial off-the-shelf vehicles — will be electric.
The Dallas Morning News
House Democrats move to ban some semiautomatic weapons in wake of mass shootings
House Democrats were poised Wednesday night to advance a new ban on certain types of semi-automatic rifles they say are appropriate for war zones but have no place on American streets. The House Judiciary Committee was considering legislation that would ban semi-automatic rifles and pistols that can accept a detachable magazine and feature particular kinds of grips, stocks and barrels. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., described such guns as “assault weapons” and said that a similar ban adopted in 1994 saved countless lives before Republicans successfully pushed to let it expire a decade later.
AP News
Pressure on Senate GOP after same-sex marriage passes House
The Senate unexpectedly launched a new push Wednesday to protect same-sex marriage in federal law after a surprising number of Republicans helped pass landmark legislation in the House. Some GOP senators are already signaling support. The legislation started as an election-season political effort to confront the new Supreme Court majority after the court overturned abortion access in Roe v. Wade, raising concerns that other rights were at risk. But suddenly it has a shot at becoming law. Pressure is mounting on Republicans to drop their longstanding opposition and join in a bipartisan moment for gay rights. […] The Democratic leader marveled over the House’s 267-157 tally, with 47 Republicans — almost one-fifth of the GOP lawmakers — voting for the bill late Tuesday.
ABC News
Senators reach deal to clarify 1887 law at center of Jan. 6 attempt to overturn election
[…] A bipartisan group of senators has quietly reached agreement on a sweeping effort to overhaul the very law at the heart of the former president's effort -- the Electoral Count Act of 1887 -- and was set to unveil a bill Wednesday. The ambiguous 19th century law attempts to prescribe both the process by which the Electoral College selects the president and vice president and how Congress then counts those votes. […] The new legislation, the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 (ECRA), would enshrine the vice president's "ministerial" role rendering that person powerless to alter the electoral count; dramatically raise the number of congressional objectors required to challenge a state's results to 20%, or one-fifth of members, in both chambers -- a jump from the current requirement of one in each house; clarify that states may not select electors after Election Day; and dictate what happens if an alternate slate of electors is presented to Congress, according to a one-sheet released from the group.
NPR News
Documents detail the secret strategy behind Trump's census citizenship question push
[The Trump] administration spent years trying to add a census citizenship question as part of a secret strategy for altering the population numbers used to divide up seats in Congress and the Electoral College, internal documents released Wednesday by the House Oversight and Reform Committee confirm. Long kept from the public, the Trump administration memos and emails were disclosed by lawmakers following a more than two-year legal fight that began after Trump officials refused to turn them over for a congressional investigation. Citing the "exceptional circumstances" of the case, the Biden administration, which inherited the lawsuit last year, agreed to allow House oversight committee members and their staff to review the documents. […] "Today's Committee memo pulls back the curtain on this shameful conduct and shows clearly how the Trump Administration secretly tried to manipulate the census for political gain while lying to the public and Congress about their goals," says Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York, who chairs the House oversight committee and introduced the bill, in a statement. "It is clear that legislative reforms are needed to prevent any future illegal or unconstitutional efforts to interfere with the census and chip away at our democracy."
Houston Chronicle
Court blocks new restrictions on voters’ assistants in Texas
Texans who assist voters with disabilities or those with limited English to fill out their ballots will no longer face felony charges if they go beyond simply helping the person mark or read them. The provisions were part of the controversial elections bill passed by the Republican-majority Texas Legislature last year, Senate Bill 1. A federal judge overturned the law’s provisions regarding voter assistance earlier this summer, and the Texas attorney general’s office declined to challenge it.
E&E News
Biden administration reverses Trump’s Endangered Species habitat rule
The Fish and Wildlife Service today formally reversed a key Trump administration Endangered Species Act rule, erasing a regulation that made it easier to shrink critical habitat. In a highly anticipated move that pleases environmentalists, the federal agency announced that the rescinding of the critical habitat rule will be published tomorrow in the Federal Register… “This rule will allow our biologists to ensure critical habitat designations contribute to the conservation of ESA-listed species,” Fish and Wildlife Service Director Martha Williams said in a statement, adding that “today’s action helps the Service implement the ESA in ways that support sound science and citizen participation.” The Federal Register publication starts a 30-day countdown to the time when the rule rescission takes effect.
The Seattle Times
Washington tribes to get $50M to restore Puget Sound
Tribes in Western Washington will receive $50 million in federal funding from the infrastructure bill, effectively doubling support for restoration and protection of Puget Sound. The Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday in Sequim that it will give the money over the next five years to the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, which supports 20 treaty tribes. Previously, the EPA provided the commission with $50 million over 10 years to support habitat restoration, infrastructure updates, water quality, commercial fisheries, flood protection and climate resiliency.
The Independent
Prosecution rests case in January 6 contempt trial accusing Steve Bannon of ‘thumbing his nose’ at Congress
US District Judge Carl Nichols opened the contempt of Congress trial of former Trump advisor Steve Bannon with a warning: “I do not intend this to become a political case, a political circus, a forum for partisan politics." Instead, the 14-person jury would be tasked with a more bureaucratic subject matter: whether Mr Bannon, a former top White House and campaign ally, willfully ignore the deadline to answer a subpoena from the January 6 investigative committee in Congress. […] Prosecutors… argued Mr Bannon clearly flouted the committee’s requests, ignoring straightforward deadlines and the official process to raise confidentiality objections. […] “This case is not about what happened on January 6,” assistant US attorney Amanda Vaughan said in her opening statement on Wednesday. “This case is about the defendant thumbing his nose at the orderly processes of our government.”
Politico
Covid cases are skyrocketing again. States have no new plans.
State health officials are out of ideas. They’ve told people to wear masks, socially distance and avoid crowds. They’ve reminded people about the availability of life-saving therapeutics. They’ve pleaded with people to get vaccinated and boosted. As the latest and most transmissible Covid-19 variant has sent case numbers skyward, with hospitalizations and deaths also rising, the response from state officials has been largely muted, a concession to the reality that their messages rarely resonate and that most people — even, and sometimes especially, politicians — are ready to move on. […] While BA.5, which is now responsible for at least 78 percent of U.S. infections, is the most contagious and most immune-evading strain of Covid-19 to date, doctors have not yet seen an uptick in serious illness caused by the disease. […] Still, the surge has alarmed Biden health officials, who have spent recent weeks trying to determine how much more BA.5 could drive up hospitalizations.
Missouri Independent
Eric Greitens gives closed deposition in child custody case
Former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens was in a closed courtroom with his ex-wife Sheena Greitens for more than seven hours Wednesday in their child custody case, and both declined to talk about what was said when pressed by reporters afterwards. It was the first time Eric Greitens made statements under oath about the child and spousal abuse charges made by his ex-wife in a March affidavit and the first time Sheena Greitens has been cross-examined about those allegations. […] In addition to allegedly abusing his children, Sheena Greitens alleged Eric Greitens knocked her down and confiscated her cell phone, wallet and keys during a 2018 argument so she would be “unable to call for help or extricate myself and our children from our home.”
The Atlantic
This Court Has Revealed Conservative Originalism to Be a Hollow Shell
When Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the Supreme Court in 2020, conservatives celebrated that “there are now four avowed originalists on the Court.” To those on the right, the latest version of the Roberts Court had the potential to be the greatest originalist Court in history. But this term’s biggest decisions show how wrong those conservatives were—even as they got all the results they wanted. Although conservative originalists have for years been touting their method as restrained, sensible, and tightly tethered to constitutional text and history, this term blew away such pretenses. If this is the great conservative originalism, then those professing it have finally and conclusively revealed it to be what many skeptics already considered it: a hollow edifice designed to hide an ugly and aggressive ideological agenda. This is a radical Court dominated by conservatives who treat the past practices of state legislatures as determinative of the Constitution’s meaning, warping the broadly worded language that was meant to enshrine fundamental principles of liberty and equality in our national charter. This is a Court that insists it is following history and tradition where they lead, while cherry-picking the history it cares about to reach conservative results. These are damning moves for conservative justices who pride themselves on fidelity to the Constitution’s first principles.
Vox
The UK’s next prime minister will be one of these two people
The United Kingdom is one step closer to getting a new prime minister. The Conservative Party has narrowed the contest to two finalists who will compete to take over leadership of the Conservative Party, and of the United Kingdom, from Boris Johnson. Members of the Conservative Party will decide between Rishi Sunak, former the chancellor of the exchequer (fancy name for finance minister) who helped kick off the Cabinet rebellion against Johnson that prompted his resignation; and Liz Truss, the foreign secretary. Sunak is expected; he had led voting among members of Parliament throughout all the early rounds of voting.
Ars Technica
Amid infant formula disaster, Juul fiasco, FDA seeks outside review
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