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Overnight News Digest: ‘Originalism Is Going to Get Women Killed’ [1]
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Date: 2023-02-09
Mike Pence subpoenaed by special counsel overseeing Trump probes: Sources
ABC News
Former Vice President Mike Pence has been subpoenaed by the special counsel overseeing probes into … Donald Trump, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. It's not immediately clear what information the subpoena from special counsel Jack Smith is seeking, but it follows months of negotiations between federal prosecutors and Pence's legal team. […] The move will be seen as a major escalation of Smith's probe into efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the election, and suggests that Smith's investigation has entered a more advanced stage.
Deutsche Welle
The death toll from the earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria earlier this week rose to more than 20,000 on Thursday, as rescuers scrambled for survivors trapped beneath the rubble in freezing winter conditions. The quake was one of the deadliest across the world in more than a decade, with more than 17,134 confirmed deaths in Turkey and another 3,162 in Syria. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the city of Gaziantep, where 944 of over 6,400 buildings were destroyed. The Turkish government admitted on Wednesday that the country's disaster response could have been better. […] The US Agency for International Development (USAID) said an initial $85 million (€79 million) package for emergency relief would go to partners working on the ground in Turkey and Syria.
I can't return to Ukraine 'without results', Zelenskyy says during Brussels visits
EuroNews
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in Brussels on Thursday to meet with European Union leaders as they gather for a summit. The Belgian capital is the third stop in the Ukrainian President's whirlwind European tour. […] During his trip to Brussels, Zelenskyy delivered a speech to European lawmakers in which he said his country is defending the "European way of life" and focuses on shared values. He later addressed all 27 leaders of the EU to express his "gratitude" for the support given up to now and during a press conference reiterated his call for more weapons, including long-range missiles, and his wish for a fast accession into the EU.
Full List of Republicans Backing Matt Gaetz's Resolution to End Ukraine Aid
Newsweek
Florida Representative Matt Gaetz is introducing a House resolution to end U.S. military and financial aid to Ukraine co-sponsored by 10 other House Republicans. In the "Ukraine Fatigue Resolution," Gaetz calls for the United States to "end its military and financial aid to Ukraine and urges all combatants to reach a peace agreement." […] These are the 10 House Republican co-sponsors of the bill: Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Rep. Mary Miller of Illinois, Rep. Barry Moore of Alabama, Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, and Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana.
Russia attacks east Ukraine as milestone nears; Kyiv seeks arms
Al Jazeera
Russia appeared to make marginal territorial gains in Ukraine’s eastern regions during the 50th week of the war, as it threw new recruits into the front lines to probe defences with widely dispersed attacks, sometimes with devastating casualties for its troops. “We’ve observed that the Russian occupation forces are redeploying additional assault groups, units, weapons, and military equipment to the east,” Ukrainian military intelligence representative Andriy Chernyak told the Kyiv Post on February 1. […] Ukrainian troops appeared to have lost ground at the northern end of the 800km (500-mile) front, in Kharkiv – ground they had won back in a sweeping counteroffensive last September – where Russian forces claimed to have captured the settlements of Synkivka and Dvorchine.
Biden’s Top Russia Adviser Departs as Ukraine Conflict Drags On
Bloomberg
[…] Eric Green, special assistant to the president and the NSC’s senior director for Russia and Central Asia, is leaving the post as he prepares to retire from the foreign service after more than three decades. “Eric has been absolutely central to our efforts here at the NSC in leading the charge to hold Russia accountable and support Ukraine. His insights & actions have proven pivotal time and again, and I’m immensely grateful for his service,” said White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in a statement. […] Green had already extended his detail from the State Department once at the White House’s request, according to a White House official.
Brazil agencies launch raid against illegal gold miners in Yanomami lands
Reuters
Brazil's environmental and indigenous agencies have launched an enforcement operation in the Amazon rainforest to expel thousands of illegal gold miners blamed for causing a humanitarian crisis among the Yanomami people, officials said on Wednesday. Armed agents of the government's environmental protection agency Ibama, deployed by helicopter and motor boat since Monday, have arrested and removed dozens of miners in Brazil's largest indigenous reservation on the northern border with Venezuela. […] "Not a moment too soon. Get the miners out – and keep them out!" said Survival International. The indigenous rights NGO said the miners devastated the territory and caused a catastrophic health crisis that has killed hundreds of Yanomami, especially children, from preventable diseases and malnutrition,
‘Monster profits’ for energy giants reveal a self-destructive fossil fuel resurgence
The Guardian
While 2022 inflicted hardship upon many people around the world due to soaring inflation, climate-driven disasters and war, the year was lucrative on an unprecedented scale for the fossil fuel industry, with the five largest western oil and gas companies alone making a combined $200bn in profits. […] Exxon, the Texas-based oil giant, led the way with a record $55.7bn in annual profit, taking home about $6.3m every hour last year. California’s Chevron had a record $36.5bn profit, while Shell announced the best results of its 115-year history, a $39.9bn surplus, and BP, another London-based firm, notched a $27.7bn profit. The French company TotalEnergies also had a record, at $36.2bn. When the 2022 results for all publicly traded oil and gas companies are tallied the total profits are expected to exceed $400bn, “a number we’ve never seen before, and one that was built off the backs of working families who were victimized by oil and gas executives’ greed”, according to Claire Moser, deputy executive director of the US activist group Climate Power.
Fall in petrol use in gas-guzzling US heralds shift for global markets
Financial Times
[…]The 8.78mn barrels a day of petrol consumed in the US last year was 6 per cent lower than record volumes sold before the coronavirus pandemic. Consumption will continue to decline in 2023 and 2024, the US Energy Information Administration forecast on Tuesday. US petrol accounts for about 9 per cent of global oil use. The prospect of stagnant or falling demand holds broad implications for energy markets and carbon emissions. “The consensus is we are not going to get back to pre-Covid levels of consumption,” said Robert Campbell, head of energy transition research at consultancy Energy Aspects. “That matters because US gasoline is the world’s largest single market for an oil product. It dwarfs any other national gasoline market in the world.” […] Gallup poll . The decline is largely due to less driving in cities, where working from home remains popular. About half of US employees in jobs that could be carried out remotely were working on a hybrid basis last year, according to a recent
Houston is one of the only cities where most greenhouse gas emissions come from traffic
Houston Chronicle
It may come as no surprise to anyone who has spent time on Houston’s roads at rush hour that just over half of all the city’s reported greenhouse gas emissions come directly from traffic. This is the greatest share among the largest U.S. cities that volunteered emissions information to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). The data was collected by survey in partnership with CDP and ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, and contains self-reported amounts of methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide as well as other notable greenhouse gasses and carcinogens. The data is broken out by 51 categories submitted by more than 1,100 cities, states and municipalities around the world.
It doesn’t take that many electric cars to improve public health
Vox
During his State of the Union address this week, President Joe Biden highlighted tax credits for EVs as a key plank in his strategy to corral climate change. Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States… But switching from hydrocarbons to electrons has immediate benefits for the environment too, which in turn can improve public health. […] A study published earlier this month in the journal Science of the Total Environment found that in California, every 20 zero-emissions vehicles per 1,000 people in a given zip code led to a 3.2 percent drop in the rate of emergency room visits due to asthma. What’s interesting here is that the researchers found this by studying actual air pollution levels and health outcomes rather than using models and simulations. These are not hypothetical benefits in the future; they’re happening now.
How India is battling deadly rain storms as climate change bites
Nature
The rains did not let up all summer in 2018. By 14 August, most reservoirs had filled up and the people had grown weary of the monsoon. That day, Eby Emmanuel’s phone started buzzing repeatedly with messages from neighbours warning that the Meenachil River was overflowing. He realized areas downhill could flood in hours, endangering a hamlet of 90 poor families living on the sandy riverbank. […] The extreme rains of 2018 spurred Emmanuel and a team of community members to create an early-warning system for floods — a project that is unusual in South Asia because it was developed and funded by local residents, say researchers who have advised on the effort. It consists of a network of improvised rain and river gauges along the 75-kilometre Meenachil River. Schoolchildren, teachers and other residents take measurements daily, and even hourly during a storm. Using their knowledge of the local conditions and a growing data set, Emmanuel and his team issue flood alerts through community groups on the messaging service WhatsApp, and have earned widespread recognition for their efforts. It’s a system that the India Meteorological Department (IMD) simply cannot compete with — for now — because it is difficult to issue flood warnings at such local scales, say researchers. In terms of early warnings, “we will need to wait for that golden period somewhere in the far future”, says Roxy Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune, who is the scientific adviser for the community group.
Ron DeSantis once expressed support for privatizing Social Security and Medicare giving his rivals an opening
CNN
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis expressed support for privatizing Medicare and Social Security during his first campaign for Congress in 2012, giving political rivals who have pledged to protect the programs an opening to attack him ahead of DeSantis’ expected run for president in 2024. … Donald Trump and Democrats have already signaled plans to weaponize DeSantis’ comments against him, should he announce for president, and subsequent votes in Congress for non-binding budget resolutions that privatized Medicare and raised the retirement age to 70. A CNN KFile review of comments from DeSantis’ 2012 congressional campaign found he repeatedly said he supported plans to replace Medicare with a system in which the government paid for partial costs of private plans or a traditional Medicare plan. In one interview with a local newspaper, DeSantis said he supported “the same thing” for Social Security, citing the need for “market forces” to restructure the program.
Biden Finds a Political Foil as He Warns of Social Security and Medicare Cuts
The New York Times
President Biden traveled to Florida on Thursday afternoon with a political gift he had not been expecting before Tuesday night’s State of the Union speech. The perfect foil. Republican outbursts during his address to Congress — and Mr. Biden’s real-time exchange with heckling lawmakers about the fate of Social Security and Medicare — gave him exactly that, and he eagerly tried to use the episode to his advantage on Thursday in an event before a small audience of supporters here. Standing in front of two huge American flags and a sign that said “Protect and strengthen Medicare,” the president made clear he relishes the fight on the issue. “I guarantee it will not happen,” Mr. Biden said of cuts to the entitlement programs. “A lot of Republicans, their dream is to cut Social Security and Medicare. Well, let me say this: If that’s your dream, I’m your nightmare.”
Elon Musk fires a top Twitter engineer over his declining view count
Platformer
On Tuesday, Musk gathered a group of engineers and advisors into a room at Twitter’s headquarters looking for answers. Why are his engagement numbers tanking? “This is ridiculous,” he said, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the meeting. “I have more than 100 million followers, and I’m only getting tens of thousands of impressions.” One of the company’s two remaining principal engineers offered a possible explanation for Musk’s declining reach: just under a year after the Tesla CEO made his surprise offer to buy Twitter for $44 billion, public interest in his antics is waning. Employees showed Musk internal data regarding engagement with his account, along with a Google Trends chart. Last April, they told him, Musk was at “peak” popularity in search rankings, indicated by a score of “100.” Today, he’s at a score of nine. Engineers had previously investigated whether Musk’s reach had somehow been artificially restricted, but found no evidence that the algorithm was biased against him. Musk did not take the news well. “You’re fired, you’re fired,” Musk told the engineer.
Man who carried a Confederate flag in the Capitol on Jan. 6 is sentenced to 3 years
NBC News
A Delaware man who carried a Confederate flag through the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot was sentenced to three years in prison on Thursday. Kevin Seefried, 53, was convicted on five charges stemming from his participation in the riot, including obstruction of an official proceeding — the joint session of Congress that was working to certify the Electoral College vote that day. The government had sought a 70-month sentence for Seefried, while his lawyers asked for one year in prison. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump-appointed judge who oversaw the trial, told Seefried it was "shocking" and "outrageous" that he brought a Confederate flag into the Capitol. He also criticized Seefried for using the flag to jab at a Black U.S. Capitol Police officer during the confrontation in the building.
Bob Iger announces 7,000 job cuts at Disney, signals ‘significant transformation’
Los Angeles Times
Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger said Wednesday that the Burbank company will shed 7,000 jobs in an effort to save $5.5 billion in costs, marking some of the steepest reductions in the company’s history and the latest sign of Hollywood’s retrenchment. The belt-tightening underscores the extraordinary difficulties Disney and other media giants face as they reckon with the realities of streaming economics — which have proved more vexing than many anticipated — and the challenges facing Iger, who took over from ousted CEO Bob Chapek in November. Disney is facing pressure to control costs and boost profits as it continues to lose money from its key streaming business, which includes Disney+.
Florida House OKs state takeover of Disney’s Reedy Creek
Orlando Sentinel
The Florida House voted 82-31 to reorganize the Reedy Creek Improvement District, removing the Walt Disney Co.’s control of the quasi-governmental agency it’s managed for more than five decades. The measure was one of several bills in the two-week special session meant to provide legislative cover for actions DeSantis took that are being challenged in state and federal courts. […] Under the bill, Disney’s handpicked board of supervisors would be replaced by five supervisors appointed by DeSantis and confirmed by the Senate. The other main change is renaming Reedy Creek to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.
Supreme Court justices discussed, but did not agree on, code of conduct
The Washington Post
The Supreme Court has failed to reach consensus on an ethics code of conduct specific to the nine justices despite internal discussion dating back at least four years, according to people familiar with the matter. It remains an active topic at the court, these people said, and the court’s legal counsel Ethan Torrey prepared a working document of issues for them to consider. There is no timeline for the justices to act, however. Those familiar with the matter spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the situation. […] In recent years, there were bipartisan efforts in Congress to require a code of conduct and enhance financial disclosure requirements for justices… But some on the right now attribute the increased scrutiny of the court to the simple fact that a conservative supermajority is swiftly changing its jurisprudence on controversial issues. That would likely inhibit any move in Congress to either try to enact a Supreme Court-specific code of conduct or demand the court enact one itself.
Originalism Is Going to Get Women Killed
The Atlantic
American law has not historically been good to women, and whatever progress there once was is now vulnerable to regression. This return is being midwifed into the world by the theory of constitutional interpretation known as originalism—the idea that a law’s constitutionality today is dependent on the Constitution’s purported “original public meaning” when the relevant constitutional text was enacted. Its adherents market originalism as fair and free from favor or prejudice—but its effects are not and will not be fair at all. By its very nature, originalism threatens women and other minority groups who were disempowered at the time of the Constitution’s adoption. We must instead develop a new constitutional interpretative method that protects all Americans as equal members of our democratic society. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals demonstrated as much when it relied on originalism in United States v. Rahimi, a case about a law restricting the gun rights of domestic-violence offenders, last week. The central legal issue in Rahimi was not whether protecting women and children from gun violence is good; the court conceded that it is. Rather, the question before the court was whether protecting women and children from gun violence is constitutional. And the court concluded that it is not. A three-judge panel unanimously ruled that the Second Amendment was violated by a federal statute that made possessing a gun unlawful for a person who is subject to a restraining order in protection of an intimate partner or child. Its explanation for this dangerous ruling was a straightforward application of originalism. The Founders mentioned a right to keep and bear arms in the Constitution. They did not, however, mention women, who are disproportionately victimized by domestic violence. And although today’s lawmakers may care about women’s rights, they cannot deviate from the Founders’ wishes without a formal constitutional amendment. This will almost assuredly have very real, potentially fatal consequences for women in America: The presence of a gun in a domestic-violence situation increases the risk of femicide by more than 1,000 percent. Originalism is going to get women killed.
American Dream For Rent: Investors elbow out individual home buyers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
[…] Long the bedrock of family wealth for the middle class, single-family homes have been snatched up in the thousands by private equity firms and publicly traded companies, converted into rental properties and bundled into complex investment vehicles. These firms did not create Atlanta’s affordability crisis. A generational housing shortage, inflated construction costs and a surge in consumer demand have all contributed to the historic rise in prices. But a growing body of evidence leaves little doubt that the flood of cash from investors has exacerbated it. “They go after every listing under $500,000 … it’s like clockwork,” said Maura Neill, a realtor in Alpharetta. “The property gets listed and, sight unseen, they make offers within an hour.” […] Armed with billions of dollars in cash, bulk buyers have accumulated more than 65,000 single-family homes across the Atlanta metro area over the last decade, an AJC data analysis found. Geographically, the investor purchases form a ring around all but the wealthiest neighborhoods in the metro area, blanketing the core counties and far-flung suburbs in every direction. But disproportionately, investors buy in places with entry-level homes and in communities of color, a pattern that experts say is likely to exacerbate the racial wealth gap.
Texas Military Department says it needs $460 million more to keep border mission afloat this year
Texas Tribune
The Texas Military Department’s chief told Senate budget writers Thursday it will cost $459.3 million to keep thousands of active-duty troops on Gov. Greg Abbott’s highly touted border security mission through the end of August, while also acknowledging that the agency is reducing the number of troops on the mission. Maj. Gen. Thomas Suelzer, who leads the agency, revealed the latest funding gap in the current fiscal year while also asking the Senate Finance Committee, which writes the state budget, for $1.8 billion to keep the Texas National Guard on the border mission for the next two-year budget cycle, which starts in September. […] At the current troop level, the mission is costing the military department between $92 million and $101 million per month since January, Suelzer said.
US says China balloon could collect intelligence signals
AP News
The China balloon shot down by the U.S. was equipped to detect and collect intelligence signals as part of a huge, military-linked aerial surveillance program that targeted more than 40 countries, the Biden administration declared Thursday, citing imagery from American U-2 spy planes. A fleet of balloons operates under the direction of the People’s Liberation Army and is used specifically for spying, outfitted with high-tech equipment designed to gather sensitive information from targets across the globe, the U.S. said. Similar balloons have sailed over five continents, according to the administration. […] Jedidiah Royal, the U.S. assistant defense secretary for the Indo-Pacific, told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee that the military has “some very good guesses” about what intelligence China was seeking. More information was expected to be provided in a classified setting.
Angry senators grill Pentagon officials over Chinese spy balloon response
CNBC
The U.S. Senate held its first public hearing on the Chinese spy balloon Thursday, at which visibly angry lawmakers grilled four Defense Department officials about when the military learned of the balloon and why they waited a week to shoot it down. “I don’t want a damn ballon going over the United States when we could’ve taken it down over the Aleutian Islands,” said Sen. Jon Tester, the Montana Democrat who chairs the Appropriations Subcommittee that conducted the hearing. Officials said the balloon first entered U.S. airspace off Alaska on Jan. 28, where it was immediately detected by NORAD, the joint U.S.-Canadian air defense system. “As an Alaskan, I am so angry,” said Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski. “Alaska is the first line of defense for America... It’s like this administration doesn’t think that Alaska is any part of the rest of the country!” she shouted.
House passes bill to end COVID vaccine requirement for foreign air travelers
The Hill
Legislation that would eliminate a requirement that most foreign travelers arriving in the U.S. be vaccinated against COVID-19 passed the House Wednesday. Under the requirement imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), all adult visitors who are not citizens or permanent residents of the U.S. are required to show proof of COVID vaccination before boarding their flight to the country. The legislation passed on a mostly party-line vote of 227-201. Seven Democrats joined all Republicans voting in favor.
Half of nation's students fell behind a year during COVID-19 pandemic.
USA Today
Half of the nation's students began this school year a full year behind grade level in at least one subject because of COVID-19 pandemic disruptions, new national data from the federal Education Department shows. It's as if students are doing the 2021-22 school year all over again. "We're seeing that they're starting the school year off about the same as they were last year," Rachel Hansen, a statistician for the National Center for Education Statistics, said Tuesday. "And I think overall, it means that we've got a long road ahead of us in trying to get kids to get back to grade level."
Secret Russian Mission to Shield Putin From ‘Dwarf’ Insults Exposed
The Daily Beast
Russia’s federal media watchdog has a secret team of people tasked with protecting Vladimir Putin’s ego—and alerting the president’s spooks should there be any online mentions of him as a “bald dwarf,” Hitler wannabe, or a “thief.” That’s according to the independent outlet iStories, one of several news organizations to reveal the surreal findings of a leak from Roskomnadzor this week. The agency was targeted by a group of Belarusian hackers late last year that said they had breached an internal network and made off with a ton of data from a division tasked with “regulating” the media. That data was subsequently handed over to independent Russian journalists who released their investigations this week.
Why don’t identical twins have the same fingerprints? New study provides clues
Science
No two fingerprints are exactly the same. […] The uneven surfaces of fingers improve grip and are found in humans and climbing species, such as koalas and chimpanzees. They also help us feel the difference between textures. Fingerprints form relatively early in fetal development, starting around the 13th week of gestation with the formation of indentations in the fingertips called primary ridges. These ridges develop into three main patterns: symmetrical, circular arrangements called “whorls”; longer, curved patterns called “loops”; and triangular ridges known as “arches.” Scientists have identified several genes that influence which patterns end up in a person’s fingerprint, but the biochemical mechanisms that drive the formation of these ridges have proved elusive. To shed light on this mystery, Denis Headon, a geneticist at the University of Edinburgh, and colleagues sequenced the RNA inside the nuclei of human embryonic fingertip cells to identify the genes being expressed during development. (The embryonic tissue came from people who terminated their pregnancies in the United Kingdom.) Those genes unearthed three different signaling pathways—families of proteins that carry instructions between cells—that each play a role in directing the growth of skin on the fingertips. Genes involved in two of these signaling pathways, known as WNT and BMP, are expressed in alternating stripes of cells in the developing fingertips, creating what will ultimately become the grooves and bumps of the fingerprint. A third factor, EDAR, is expressed alongside WNT in the developing grooves.
Mysterious Russian satellites are now breaking apart in low-Earth orbit
Ars Technica
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