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Overnight News Digest: Real ID deadline pushed back again [1]
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Date: 2022-12-05
C/NET
There's a term for this remarkably rapid turnaround in weather patterns that an increasing number of scientists have begun to use, both in the mainstream media and academic publications: weather whiplash.
Then, in the middle of June, the annual monsoon rains thankfully arrived to douse the fires. But they stayed a couple months longer and dumped nearly twice as much moisture as the previous year (or the year before that). In fact, we were still seeing some monsoon pattern precipitation several weeks later than normal.
In northern New Mexico, the year began with months of unseasonal heat, dryness and extreme wind that fueled the largest wildfire of the year in the lower 48 states. It burned through 340,000 acres of the Sangre de Cristo mountains and destroyed or damaged over a thousand homes and other structures.
I've lived in the high desert of the southwestern US most of my life, primarily in New Mexico and Colorado. In those four decades, I've never seen it as dry here as in 2022. In all that time, I've also never seen it as wet as this year.
BBC
In his video address late on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes had also hit electricity supplies in neighbouring Moldova.
Ukraine says it shot down 60 of the 70 missiles fired by Russia. Moscow says it hit all 17 of its targets.
But the strikes, which came nearly two weeks after the last, may have done less damage than on previous occasions.
Significant disruption to the power grid was reported, mainly in the east. In the south, Odesa was without power. Ukraine says four people were killed.
Russia has fired a barrage of missiles at targets across Ukraine for the eighth time in eight weeks.
BBC
In Port-au-Prince you cannot see the boundaries, but you must know where they are. Your life may depend on it. Competing gangs are carving up the Haitian capital, kidnapping, raping, and killing at will. They demarcate their territory in blood. Cross from one gang's turf to another, and you may not make it back. Those who live here carry a mental map, dividing this teeming city into green, yellow, and red zones. Green means gang free, yellow can be safe today and deadly tomorrow, and red is a no-go area. The green area is shrinking as heavily armed gangs tighten their grip. Armed groups control - and terrorise - at least 60% of the capital and its surroundings, according to Haitian human rights groups. They encircle the city, controlling roads in and out. And the UN says the gangs killed almost 1,000 people here between January and June of this year.
NPR
A gunfire attack on two electrical substations in rural North Carolina has left tens of thousands of people without power, schools closed, a curfew imposed, and authorities investigating what they say was an intentional, criminal attack. As the outages continued into Monday, questions persisted about who carried out the attack and what could have been their motive in knocking out power to Moore County and its 100,000 residents. "What happened here Saturday night was a criminal act, and federal, state and local law enforcement are actively working to bring those responsible to justice," said Gov. Roy Cooper at a Monday press conference.
NPR
The U.S. Supreme Court heard more than two hours of arguments Monday in a constitutional test of state public accommodations laws that protect same-sex couples from discrimination. Four years ago, the high court side-stepped the issue in a case involving a Colorado baker who refused to make custom wedding cakes for same-sex couples. But on Monday the question was back again. On one side is the state of Colorado, which like 29 other states, requires businesses that are open to the public to offer equal access to everyone, regardless of race, religion, and sexual orientation, and gender. On the other side are business owners who see themselves as artists and don't want to use their talents to express a message they disagree with. Challenging the law is Lorie Smith, a custom web designer who is opposed to same-sex marriage. "I want to design for weddings that are consistent with my faith," she says.
Reuters
Dec 5 (Reuters) - Elon Musk’s Neuralink, a medical device company, is under federal investigation for potential animal-welfare violations amid internal staff complaints that its animal testing is being rushed, causing needless suffering and deaths, according to documents reviewed by Reuters and sources familiar with the investigation and company operations. Neuralink Corp is developing a brain implant it hopes will help paralyzed people walk again and cure other neurological ailments. The federal probe, which has not been previously reported, was opened in recent months by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Inspector General at the request of a federal prosecutor, according to two sources with knowledge of the investigation. The probe, one of the sources said, focuses on violations of the Animal Welfare Act, which governs how researchers treat and test some animals.
Reuters
WASHINGTON, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Chinese hackers have stolen tens of millions of dollars worth of U.S. COVID relief benefits since 2020, the Secret Service said on Monday. The Secret Service declined to provide any additional details but confirmed a report by NBC News that said the Chinese hacking team that is reportedly responsible is known within the security research community as APT41 or Winnti. APT41 is a prolific cybercriminal group that had conducted a mix of government-backed cyber intrusions and financially motivated data breaches, according to experts.
The Guardian, UK
Rishi Sunak is to drop compulsory housebuilding targets to see off an embarrassing backbench rebellion, prompting criticism he is putting party unity over the national interest. The capitulation, which comes in the middle of a national housing crisis, will spark fresh concerns that the prime minister is too weak to take on unruly Conservative backbenchers. It followed up to 100 Tory MPs threatening to back an amendment that would in effect force the government to abolish the target of building 300,000 homes a year in England. Instead, the target will be “advisory” and councils will be allowed to build fewer homes if they can show hitting it would significantly change the character of an area, an exemption expected to particularly apply to rural and suburban communities.
The Guardian, UK
Farmers are urging the government to include hedge creation in its nature-friendly farming subsidy scheme in an attempt to increase biodiversity. Details about the post-Brexit replacement for the EU’s common agricultural policy have been scarce, with land managers simply told they would get payments for providing “public goods” such as protecting nature. More than 1,100 farmers surveyed by Farmers Weekly, on behalf of CPRE, the countryside charity, revealed a lack of funding was by far the biggest obstacle to planting and maintaining hedgerows. Wildlife and nature corridors are seen as the greatest benefit of hedgerows by almost nine in 10 farmers. Other perceived benefits include providing shelter or shade for crops or livestock and a home for pollinators and pest predators.
The Guardian, US
Texas’s top elections official resigned Monday after an intense year of trying to reassure election skeptics, navigating the rocky launch of new voting laws that resulted in thousands of discarded mail ballots and overseeing a limited audit of the 2020 election. Secretary of state John Scott, who was appointed by Republican governor Greg Abbott, came under immediate scrutiny from the moment he took the job in October 2021. He was briefly part of former president Donald Trump’s legal team that challenged the results of the 2020 election but said upon taking the job in Texas that he did not dispute that Joe Biden was the winner. Right away, Scott was tasked with trying to give Texas voters confidence in election results and the ability to cast a ballot after Republicans passed a sweeping new voting law just weeks before his appointment. But those efforts got off to a bumpy start during Texas’s first-in-the-nation primary as voters struggled to navigate new mail voting requirements, resulting in counties throwing out nearly 23,000 mail ballots.
The Guardian, US
Donald Trump failed to disclose a $19.8m loan from a company with historical ties to North Korea, while he was the US president, according to a new report. Documents obtained by the New York attorney general, and reported by Forbes, on Sunday indicate a previously unreported loan owed by Trump to Daewoo, the South Korean conglomerate. Daewoo was the only South Korean company allowed to operate a business in North Korea during the mid-1990s. Forbes revealed that Trump’s relationship with Daewoo is at least 25 years old. At one point, Daewoo partnered with Trump on a development project near the United Nations headquarters in New York City, Trump World Tower. Trump and Daewoo continued to do business together, including using Trump’s name on six South Korea-based properties from 1999 to 2007, according to the magazine.
The Guardian, Australia
Planes are Daniel Duggan’s passion. His professional life has been spent flying military aircraft and training others. His social media is filled, almost exclusively, with videos of aircraft from around the world. But a man so often untethered to the ground has now spent 45 days in segregated and high-security custody in New South Wales. He still does not know the charges against him. The arrest of Daniel Edmund Duggan, an Australian citizen and former US Marines fighter pilot, on secret charges is a “politically motivated injustice”, his wife has said, arguing her husband is a “victim of the United States government’s political dispute with China”.
The Guardian
A royal commission may be unable to fully scrutinise the commonwealth ombudsman’s crucial role in the robodebt saga unless the watchdog voluntarily agrees to cooperate. The ombudsman’s actions were brought into focus on Monday when the inquiry heard Department of Human Services (DHS) legal branch official Michael Robinson believed the department had the chance to “effectively co-write” a key report the watchdog was preparing on the robodebt scheme. There has been no confirmation the ombudsman’s office will provide “information voluntarily” after the royal commission heard in late October there was no “indication” it would do so. The ombudsman’s office says it can’t be compelled.
Al Jazeera
A price cap set by the Group of Seven (G7) as well as an outright ban by the European Union on Russian seaborne oil came into effect on Monday as the two blocs try to reduce the Kremlin’s ability to continue financing the war in Ukraine. On Friday, the G7, EU and Australia agreed to set a limit on the price of Russian oil at $60 per barrel. Back in May, the EU announced a ban on Russian seaborne crude oil. The 27-member bloc also said a ban on imports of refined petroleum products will be enforced from February 5. The ban covers more than two-thirds of Russian oil imports coming into the EU, according to European Council President Charles Michel. He referred to this ban as a symbol of EU unity and said in a tweet that it puts “maximum pressure on Russia to end the war”.
Al Jazeera
Doha, Qatar – The sighs of relief were drowned out by sheer ecstasy and delirium inside Al Thumama Stadium when Morocco narrowly edged out Canada in their last group match. It was not just a win but Morocco’s progress to the last 16 of a World Cup, only the second time the team has achieved in six attempts. Can the team beat Spain on Tuesday and do what it has never done before – reach a football World Cup quarter-final? “This team is making the hearts of all Moroccans beat as one. The pride, excitement – and fear – this is something we’ve not seen since 1986,” Yasmina Bennani, a Moroccan supporter in Qatar, told Al Jazeera. No member of the current squad was born in 1986 when Morocco last reached the last 16
South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa took last-minute legal action on Monday against a bombshell report by a parliamentary commission of inquiry, which says he may have committed criminal wrongdoing. The parliamentary report claims there was preliminary evidence for gross misconduct and possible violation of the constitution by Ramaphosa. The report also says the head of state allegedly violated an anti-corruption law. Ramaphosa filed the case to the National Constitutional Court, aiming to have the report, which sparked speculation about a possible impeachment, "reviewed, declared unlawful and set aside," according to papers made available to the media by his spokesman. The South African president also called for any potential impeachment process to be blocked, stressing that "any steps taken by the National Assembly pursuant to the report are equally unlawful and invalid." Ramaphosa's spokesman Vincent Magwenya described the report as "clearly flawed." Independent legal experts also criticized the report as being based largely on unverified information and hearsay.
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