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Overnight News Digest July 31, 2022 [1]

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Date: 2022-07-31

NPR

Windy, hot conditions fuel the explosive growth of fires in California and Montana

YREKA, Calif. — Major wildfires in California and Montana grew substantially as firefighters protected remote communities on Sunday as hot, windy weather across the tinder-dry U.S. West created the potential for even more spread. The McKinney Fire was burning out of control in Northern California's Klamath National Forest as erratic lightning storms swept through the region just south of the Oregon state line, said U.S. Forest Service spokesperson Adrienne Freeman. "The fuel beds are so dry and they can just erupt from that lightning," she said. "These thunder cells come with gusty erratic winds that can blow fire in every direction. The blaze exploded in size to more than 80 square miles (207 square km) just two days after erupting in a largely unpopulated area of Siskiyou County, according to a Sunday incident report. The cause was under investigation. A second, smaller fire just to the west that was sparked by dry lightning Saturday threatened the tiny town of Seiad, Freeman said. About 400 homes were under threat from the two California fires.

NPR

China backs away from growth goal, sticks to virus controls

BEIJING — China's leaders effectively acknowledged the struggling economy won't hit its official 5.5% growth target this year and said Thursday they will try to prop up sagging consumer demand but will stick to strict anti-COVID-19 tactics that disrupted manufacturing and trade. The announcement after a Communist Party planning meeting reflected the high cost President Xi Jinping's government has been willing to incur to stop the virus in a politically sensitive year when Xi is widely expected to try to extend his term in power. The party promised to "strive to achieve the best results" in the second half. It didn't directly address the growth goal but dropped references in earlier statements about targets, effectively acknowledging the economy will fall short after growing just 2.5% over a year ago in the first half. "Policymakers implicitly walked back from the original growth target," said Larry Hu of Macquarie Group in a report. "It means that they no longer view 5.5%, or even 5%, as achievable for this year.”

The Guardian

Australian property prices tumble at rates not seen since GFC

Australia’s property prices are falling at rates comparable to the onset of the global financial crisis or the 1980s downturn as higher interest rates deflate demand. Sydney’s drop, though, is already more precipitous than those earlier eras. In July alone, dwelling values fell 1.3% on average nationally, marking a third consecutive monthly decline according to CoreLogic, a property data firm. Five of the nation’s eight capitals reported falls, with Sydney down 2.2% and Melbourne retreating 1.5% while prices in Brisbane, Canberra and Hobart were also starting to slide. “We’re definitely seeing housing prices falling quite rapidly at the national level, on par with the GFC,” said Tim Lawless, CoreLogic’s research director. For Sydney, though, values are down 5.2% from January’s peak, or deeper than the 3.9% drop at the start of the GFC in 2008. “Even going back to the early 1980s, it wasn’t going down as rapidly as this,” he said.

Deutsche Welle

Taiwan not on US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Asia itinerary (We have enough wars going right now.)

The office of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement on Sunday highlighting countries and places that would be visited during a congressional delegation's trip to the Indo-Pacific region, with there being no mention of Taiwan on the itinerary. "Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leading a Congressional delegation to the Indo-Pacific region, including visits to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan," her office said in a press release. The statement went on to say: "The trip will focus on mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance in the Indo-Pacific region." The all-Democrat delegation includes Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Gregory Meeks and members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Armed Services Committee. On Sunday, spokesman for China's air force, Shen Jinke, was quoted by state media as saying that Beijing "will resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Deutsche Welle

Brazil: Petition in 'defense of democracy' receives 500,000 signatures

A presidential election is just two months away, and some fear President Jair Bolsonaro's utterances mean he might not accept the result if he loses. More than half a million people have signed a petition in "defense of democracy" in Brazil by Sunday in response to President Jair Bolsonaro's attacks on the country's electoral system. "We are going through a moment of great peril for normal democracy, a risk for the republic's institutions and insinuations about not respecting the election results," the petition's authors wrote, without ever mentioning Bolsonaro. Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva maintains a wide lead over Bolsonaro ahead of October's presidential election. Bolsonaro has repeatedly attacked the country's electronic voting system, questioned the nation's top electoral court, and insisted that he will only lose re-election if there is mass voter fraud

Reuters

After starting New Mexico fire, U S asks victims to pay

TIERRA MONTE, N.M., July 31 (Reuters) - After the U.S. government started the largest wildfire in New Mexico's recorded history in April, it is asking victims to share recovery costs on private land, jeopardizing relief efforts, according to residents and state officials. The blaze was sparked by U.S. Forest Service (USFS) prescribed fires to reduce wildfire risk. The burns went out of control after a series of missteps, torching 432 residences and over 530 square miles (1373 square km) of mostly privately owned forests and meadows, much of it held by members of centuries-old Indo-Hispano ranching communities. "Today I'm announcing the federal government's covering 100% of the cost," President Joe Biden said during a visit to New Mexico in June. Biden was announcing a disaster declaration that covered debris removal and emergency protective measures. But federal cost-sharing statutes on other federal relief programs are limiting Biden's authority and exposing holes in the government safety net meant to help survivors and restore landscapes.

New York Times

A Town’s Housing Crisis Exposes a ‘House of Cards’

HAILEY, Idaho — Near the private jets that shuttle billionaires to their opulent Sun Valley getaways, Ana Ramon Bartolome and her family have spent this summer living in the only place available to them: behind a blue tarp in a sweltering two-car garage. With no refrigerator, the extended family of four adults and two young children keeps produce on plywood shelves. With no sink, they wash dishes and themselves at the nearby park. With no bedrooms, the six of them sleep on three single mattresses on the floor. “I’m very anxious, depressed and scared,” said Ms. Bartolome, who makes her living tending to the homes of wealthy residents but cannot afford even the cheapest housing in the famous ski-and-golf playground.Resort towns have long grappled with how to house their workers, but in places like Sun Valley those challenges have become a crisis as the chasm widens between those who have two homes and those who have two jobs. Fueled in part by a pandemic migration that has gobbled up the region’s limited housing supply, rents have soared over the last two years, leaving priced-out workers living in trucks, trailers or tents.

Washington Post

At last, an easier way to prepare for a colonoscopy

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