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Overnight News Digest: Turkeys terrorize Massachusetts town [1]
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Date: 2022-11-24
Anchorage Daily News
Mary Peltola, a Democrat and the first Alaska Native elected to Congress, on Wednesday won reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives. She will now serve a full two-year term after she prevailed in an August special election to serve out the final months of the late Rep. Don Young’s term. […] Peltola held hands with her husband, Gene “Buzzy” Peltola Jr., as she watched a livestream of the state Division of Elections announcing results, projected onto a screen at a watch party in downtown Anchorage. Supporters applauded and cheered loudly when her win was announced.
Hakeem Jeffries’s ascent to Democratic leader, explained Vox To get a sense of how Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) would approach the job of House minority leader, look no further than his work on the 2018 First Step Act, his supporters say. Jeffries was a lead House sponsor of that bill, the most significant criminal justice reform to pass Congress in years. To get it done, he collaborated with a wide spectrum of Democrats, the Trump administration, and Republican co-sponsor Rep. Doug Collins. Jeffries’s willingness to work with all of these groups and weigh their input ensured the measure ultimately came to fruition, according to other House members. “He was able to negotiate first within the party itself,” Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), a co-sponsor of the bill and a Jeffries ally, told Vox. “And then was able to work out a deal with the Republicans.” Whether Jeffries, 52, is able to establish that same consensus within a divided Democratic caucus will determine just how successful he is in this job. ‘He kind of amps them up’: ‘Kevin’ the ringleader as turkeys terrorize Massachusetts town The Guardian It’s the time of year when millions of turkeys across the US might justifiably fear for their safety, but in one Massachusetts town the birds have turned the tables, ganging up to “terrorize” residents with pecks, kicks and loud clucking. People in Woburn, north-west of Boston, have been subjected to a barrage of attacks and intimidation by a group of five wild turkeys, with the situation forcing some to take up improvised weapons and residents reporting being trapped in their homes. The turkeys, led by a male bird nicknamed Kevin, arrived two years ago. Initially the birds were docile, but as time passed they have become ever more pugnacious, leaving Woburners fearful for their safety and forced to adapt their behavior. “They don’t let you out of your house,” said Meaghan Tolson, who lives in Woburn and has named the turkeys. “They peck at cars, they stop traffic. They go after kids on bikes. If you’re walking or jogging, or anything like that, they come for you.” Thanksgiving After Fleeing the Taliban By Isabel Fattal, The Atlantic In August of last year, the Afghan journalist Bushra Seddique, now a 23-year-old editorial fellow at The Atlantic, fled Kabul, smuggling her laptop past the Taliban and leaving members of her family behind. I called Bushra, now living in the Washington D.C., area, to talk about her first Thanksgiving at home in the U.S. Isabel Fattal: Where were you this time last year? Bushra Seddique: Last Thanksgiving—my first Thanksgiving—I was in a refugee camp in Indiana. One of our Afghan friends had an American friend, and that American friend gave him a big cooked turkey with stuffing and all the sides. He brought the turkey to the room we were living in. We asked what it was, and he told us about this big American holiday. There were maybe 25 people in that room. We all sat together and ate the turkey and all the stuffing. It wasn’t baked; I think it was fried. It was really good. Isabel: What do you think of Thanksgiving? Bushra: Among all the American holidays, I’ve liked Thanksgiving the best. It doesn’t matter who you are—you all sit at one table, praying for what you’re thankful for. We all do this in different religions, but Thanksgiving gives it a name and a day to do that. I feel blessed, sitting around with different people, praying for what you have. For 17 years, this roving Thanksgiving feast has welcomed refugees to the Denver area Colorado Public Radio News Mohammad Saighani remembers the fall and winter of last year as one of the most chaotic times of his life. The 30-year-old and his brother, a government worker for Afghanistan’s now-fallen Ministry of Economy and Public Health, were among the final wave of people to evacuate the country during the United States’ military withdrawal. When violence broke out at the airport in Kabul, Saighani suffered a stab wound on his right leg. That didn’t stop him from earning asylum status and flying out on a military plane. He spent a few weeks living in Germany, then Washington D.C., then Wisconsin before finally resettling in Aurora in November 2021. Now, a year later, he was dressed up in a clean suit, hugging and greeting friends at his first Thanksgiving meal. “Hello, and thank you,” he said while holding a plate in line at a buffet, taking scoops of rice and Afghan naan. A pair of Georgia Supreme Court orders jostle pre-runoff landscape
CBS News
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are spending Thanksgiving on Nantucket with other members of their extended family, as per their family's tradition. The Bidens, along with their two-year-old grandson Beau, visited firefighters at a Nantucket firehouse to thank them for their hard work. The White House said they called service members from each branch of our military who are stationed around the world. Mr. Biden spoke briefly to reporters at the firehouse, saying, "I'm sick and tired of these shootings" when asked about the Virginia Walmart shooting. He called for stricter gun laws and said "I'm going to try" when asked if he would try to pass gun legislation before Republicans take control of the House of Representatives in January.
The Oregonian
The Oregon Firearms Federation, along with the Sherman County sheriff and a Keizer gun store owner, late Wednesday night filed an emergency motion seeking to bar Oregon’s gun control Measure 114 from taking effect Dec. 8. On Thursday morning, U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut scheduled a hearing on the motion for Dec. 2, six days before the measure is scheduled to take effect. The firearm federation’s motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction follows less than a week after the three plaintiffs filed their initial lawsuit in federal court, arguing the measure is unconstitutional. They contend the measure, which bans the sale, transfer or purchase of magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds and requiring a permit to purchase a gun, violates the Second Amendment right to bear arms.
The Washington Post
[…] Less than six weeks before the conclusion of the committee’s work, [Rep. Liz] Cheney’s influence over the committee’s final report has rankled many current and former committee staff. They are angered and disillusioned by Cheney’s push to focus the report primarily on former president Donald Trump, and have bristled at the committee morphing into what they have come to view as the vehicle for the outgoing Wyoming lawmaker’s political future. Fifteen former and current staffers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, expressed concerns that important findings unrelated to Trump will not become available to the American public. […] Potentially left on the cutting room floor, or relegated to an appendix, were many revelations from the Blue Team — the group that dug into the law enforcement and intelligence community’s failure to assess the looming threat and prepare for the well-forecast attack on the Capitol. The proposed report would also cut back on much of the work of the Green Team, which looked at financing for the Jan. 6 attack, and the Purple Team, which examined militia groups and extremism. […] Cheney spokesman Jeremy Adler issued a blistering statement Wednesday to The Washington Post in response to the criticisms. […] “Some staff have submitted subpar material for the report that reflects long-held liberal biases about federal law enforcement, Republicans, and sociological issues outside the scope of the Select Committee’s work. She won’t sign onto any ‘narrative’ that suggests Republicans are inherently racist or smears men and women in law enforcement, or suggests every American who believes God has blessed America is a white supremacist.”
Reuters
Power was gradually being restored to Ukrainian cities including the capital Kyiv on Thursday, a day after Russian missile strikes caused Kyiv's biggest outages in nine months of war. Regional authorities said 25% of homes in Kyiv were still without electricity but the water supply had been restored in some areas and would start working in other areas later on Thursday. In a big improvement from Wednesday, when authorities said power was lost across the entire Kyiv region, public transport was operating in the capital, with buses replacing trams to save power.
The Guardian The residents of Kyiv taking shelter in their local “invincibility station” were well aware that their own morale has become the central battlefield of the war, and it is not territory they are prepared to concede to Vladimir Putin. The insulated grey tent set up on a street corner in the Pecherskyi district of Kyiv, one of thousands established around the country this week, was offering electricity, warmth, tea and sandwiches after the latest Russian onslaught. “It’s like 24 February, when the invasion started, and the beginning of March, when people really came together,” said Maryna Honcharova, who was bundled up in a winter coat in the middle of the tent. If this was Putin’s grand plan for grinding down the will of the people, she added, it had backfired. “It just makes the anger towards Russia grow stronger. We just curse and hate Russia more.” A 'barbed wire curtain': Poland fortifies border with Russia Deutsche Welle Poland has begun building a razor wire fence along its 210-km-long border with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad to keep out migrants from the Middle East and North Africa and give locals a greater sense of security. Krzysztof Zajaczkowski's farm is just 400 meters (437 yards) from the border separating Poland and Russia. From the window of his home, the mayor of the village of Wilkajcie can see the letters of a yellow sign that reads "National border" in Polish. The spruce forest beyond the sign is on the territory of the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. Until the end of November 2022, it will still be possible to walk across the grass right up to the actual borderline. After that, the route will be blocked by a barbed-wire fence made of razor wire on the Polish side of the frontier. Olivia Pichardo is the first woman to make the roster of Division I baseball team
NPR News
When Brown University's baseball season starts in February, one of the players taking the field will make history. Olivia Pichardo, a first-year student from Queens, N.Y., will be first woman on the roster of a Division I college baseball team in the U.S. "It's kind of crazy to know that I'm living out my dream right now and my ideal college experience that I've always wanted, so that's really cool," Pichardo said in a media release. She said being named to the team is surreal, as it has been her goal since eighth grade to continue playing baseball in college. […] "It's a workout common for baseball and allows us to evaluate athleticism and arm strength, as well as both offensive and defensive skills," said Brown baseball head coach Grant Achilles. "Olivia put together the most complete walk-on tryout I have seen from a player since becoming a head coach."
San Francisco Chronicle
The California Air Resources Board hasunveiled a new version of its highly anticipated strategy for battling climate change, setting more ambitious targets for cutting greenhouse gases and scaling up controversial projects that capture carbon. If adopted by the air board at its Dec. 15 meeting, the plan would radically reshape California’s economy, alter how Californians’ vehicles, buildings and appliances are powered, and ultimately serve as a blueprint for other states and countries to follow. […] The staff’s final draft plan adds bolder commitments, reducing oil use by 94% from 2022 levels by 2045 — up from a goal of 91% in the September version of the plan. The plan also sets a more aggressive goal of cutting carbon emissions 48% below 1990 levels by 2030 — up from the 40% by 2030 required under state law. Net-zero emissions would be achieved in 2045.
E&E News
Renewables are on track to generate more power than coal in the United States this year. But the question is whether they can grow fast enough to meet the country’s climate goals. Supply chain constraints and trade disputes have slowed wind and solar installations, raising questions about the United States' ability to meet the emission reductions sought by the Inflation Reduction Act. The Biden administration is banking on the landmark climate law cutting emissions by 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. Many analysts think the United States will ultimately shake off the slowdown thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act's $369 billion in clean energy investments.
Bloomberg News
Europe’s hottest summer on record likely resulted in more than 20,000 excess deaths in France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, according to official data.[…] Europe experienced the hottest summer on record for the second consecutive year in 2022, according to the EU’s Earth observation agency Copernicus. Climate change made the heat wave that struck the UK in June at least 10 times more likely, according to World Weather Attribution, a group of scientists that conducts rapid analysis on how the warming of the planet influences extreme weather events. The new UK heat record of 40.3C (104.5F) was set on July 19 and broke by 1.6C the previous high mark set in 2019. Forty-six UK weather stations recorded new highs that month.
Los Angeles Times
As California awakens to the worsening risk of extreme climate events, researchers are shedding new light on last year’s anomalous and extreme Pacific Northwest heat wave. One study published this week said such heat waves could become 20 times more likely to occur if current carbon emissions continue unabated. Another said they may also be nearly 10 degrees hotter. The nine-day event in late June and early July 2021 seared parts of Northern California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, where Canada saw its highest temperature on record, 121.3 degrees. The heat wave claimed hundreds of lives, sparked several devastating wildfires and killed an estimated 1 billion sea creatures. Such an event would have been “virtually impossible” in the 1950s, but atmospheric warming has already increased its probability to about a 0.5% chance per year, according to one study out of Columbia University, published Thursday in the journal Nature Climate Change. Should warming surpass 2 degrees Celsius — the upper limit set by the International Panel on Climate Change — that probability could soar to a 10% chance per year as soon as 2050.
Mongabay
As politicians, activists and journalists celebrated the historic breakthrough to create a loss and damage fund at COP27 and bemoaned the failure to call for a phase-down of fossil fuels, few noticed that the summit took a step — albeit a very controversial one — toward preserving forests and other ecosystems via pledges made by carbon-polluting countries and companies trying to meet their climate goals. Decisions issued at COP27 set a timeline to implement all parts of Article 6 of the Paris agreement, which regulates carbon trading between the parties, as well as non-market investment in conservation. Also included in those decisions is a verification mechanism that could see countries sell “sovereign carbon credits” for preserving ecosystems. With an area the size of Ireland deforested globally last year, it’s a pressing issue. […] “It is too optimistic to say that this is a victory for forests,” said Diego Pacheco Balanza, Bolivia’s lead negotiator and a key voice on Article 6. “We are opening several venues for supporting forests financially to help keep them alive, but those are resisted by developed countries. They only want to push the commodification of forests, which of course is a fatal scenario.”
The Washington Post
In her 60 years of life in the Amazon, Antonia Franco dos Santos has never had much money. Food was sometimes scarce. But never in the forest, with its heavy rains and endless rivers, had she known a life without water — not until she moved to this city along the southern crest, where her reserves are now down to the last gallon and the deliveryman is nowhere to be seen. “He’ll come,” Franco says, looking into the distance. “He will.” It hasn’t rained in more than a month, and probably won’t for another. The community pond that Franco and her neighbors used during the rainy season has dried to a muddy puddle. A water hole they’ve dug in desperation hasn’t conserved a drop. And inside her wooden shack this Monday morning is a stack of dishes, unwashed; a pile of clothes, unwashed; and an infant great-grandchild named Samuel. He needs a washing, too. For Franco, this makes three drought-racked years in a row, living in a landscape she never imagined: an Amazon gone dry.
CNC News
Major spending increases and policy changes by the federal government to protect and rebuild wild fish stocks in Canada have resulted in little improvement, according to the 2022 Fishery Audit released this week by environmental group Oceana Canada. In its sixth annual audit, Oceana says fewer than one third of wild marine fish stocks in Canada are considered healthy and most critically depleted stocks lack plans to rebuild them. "We're seeing a disturbing lack of change in our marine fish populations despite the investments in rebuilding. We haven't seen the needle move at all and that's really concerning," Oceana science director Robert Rangeley told CBC News. […] The audit says 72 per cent of DFO's management documents do not formally consider climate change and that needs to change.
Iran International Thursday was another action-packed day for Iran, with protesters across the country out in solidarity with Kurdish cities, and UN Human Rights Council’s rapprochement of the Islamic Republic. Following calls for nationwide protests on Thursday in support of the residents of Kurdish-majority areas, people in many cities held protests Thursday evening to show their solidarity. People in several neighborhoods in the capital Tehran and several other cities such as Esfahan, Karaj, Oroumiyeh, Kermanshah and Hamedan held gatherings and chanted slogans against the Islamic Republic. Kurdish-majority cities have been scenes of the regime’s brutal crackdown since at least last week. Thursday was also the day for funeral services and mourning ceremonies for dozens of people killed in the past few days. Footballer arrested as UN rights body votes to investigate Iran's crackdown on protests SBS News An outspoken Kurdish-Iranian football player was arrested on Thursday, the same day the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) vowed to undertake a high-level investigation into the deadly crackdown on demonstrations in Iran. […] Voria Ghafouri, a former member of Iran’s national football squad, was arrested for "insulting the national team" and "propaganda against the system", according to the official IRNA news agency. […] Ghafouri, who played 28 times for Iran, was arrested after a training session with the Foolad Khuzestan Football Club. Abortion rights: French parliament votes to include right in constitution Euronews Lawmakers in France's lower house of parliament voted to include abortion rights in the country's constitution, the first step in a lengthy legislative process. The National Assembly voted with 337 lawmakers in favour and 32 against. The measure was proposed in reaction to the United States' recent Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe v Wade, a case dating back to 1973 that legalised abortion nationwide. "This terrible regression demonstrates that when it comes to the right of women to dispose of their bodies, nothing is ever certain," the French proposal says, referring to the US case. China GDP: one-fifth of economy is under lockdown, and analysts expect it to get much worse
South China Morning Post
With China reporting record numbers of Covid-19 cases, more than a fifth of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) is now under lockdown – on par with the economic impact of Shanghai’s shutdown in April, according to a new report. The renewed virus curbs have once again put the spotlight on the delicate balance Beijing is trying to strike between easing its zero-Covid policy to help the economy and reining in new outbreaks across the country. Some 21.1 per cent of China’s total GDP is now under lockdown, up from 9.5 per cent a month ago, according to a Nomura report published on Thursday. Covid-19 cases surged to 31,444 on Wednesday, surpassing the previous high of 29,317 in mid-April, when Shanghai was under a citywide lockdown.
BBC News
Spectators at Rome's ancient gladiator arena, the Colosseum, may have enjoyed snacks of olives, fruit and nuts, archaeologists have found. Food fragments of figs, grapes, cherries, blackberries, walnuts and more have been unearthed at the site. Archaeologists also found the bones of bears and big cats that were probably used in the arena's hunting games. The discoveries were made by archaeologists examining the 2,000-year-old landmark's sewers. Relics like these provide a snapshot into the "experience and habits of those who came to this place during the long days dedicated to the performances", said Alfonsina Russo, Director of the Colosseum Archaeological Park.
AFP
In an old courtyard-style mansion in the Old Medina of Casablanca, tourists are flocking to experience the spirit of Humphrey Bogart's iconic fictional nightclub, 80 years after the classic wartime film Casablanca hit the silver screen. The Moroccan port city entered the cultural imagination of the United States at a key point in World War II, thanks to the moody romance starring Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund and Bogart as Rick Blaine. […] Several decades after the release of the film, former US diplomat Kathy Kriger opened a real-life "Rick's Café" in Casablanca itself, as a tribute to the film. Complete with cocktails and piano, the venue is modelled on Blaine's eponymous bar, and became an instant hit with tourists when it opened its doors in 2004.
Nature
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has produced the most detailed information ever on an exoplanet, making it the world we know most about after the eight major planets of our Solar System. Observations of the planet, called WASP-39b, reveal patchy clouds, an intriguing chemical reaction in its atmosphere, and provide hints about its formation. “We’ve studied lots of planets before,” says Laura Kreidberg, director of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg, Germany, and part of the observation team, which posted five papers on their observations on the arXiv preprint server on 22 November. “But we’ve never seen a data set like this.” WASP-39b is a ‘hot Jupiter’ located 215 parsecs (700 light-years) from Earth. The gas giant is about one-third the mass of Jupiter and more similar in composition to Saturn. It orbits its host star in just four Earth days and is eight times closer to it than Mercury is to our Sun, making it incredibly hot at nearly 900ºC. This proximity and its consequent brightness makes the planet inhospitable to life as we know it, but made it the “perfect target” for JWST to observe early in its life and test its exoplanet capabilities, says Kreidberg.
Ars Technica
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