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Overnight News Digest April 24th 2025 [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-04-24
Scientists discover surprising predator that could replace toxic pesticides: 'We hope to ... complement other control methods'
Scientists may have found a new weapon in their fight against an invasive insect species in an unexpected place: stink bugs. According to SciTechDaily, Penn State researchers were investigating the spotted lanternfly, an invasive species of insect that has been wreaking havoc in the American agricultural landscape, when they learned that they could have a new ally in the fight. It comes in the form of predatory bugs that are already native and present in the areas where the lanternfly is particularly prevalent. Specifically, Carolina and Chinese mantises and soldier bugs, a form of stink bug native to North America, are particularly adept at hunting and killing the pest.
x "Solar electricity production in Europe during the first quarter of 2025 was up by over 30% from the same months in 2024, setting the stage for full-year record performance from the region's solar farms." — Justin Mikulka (@justinmikulka.bsky.social) 2025-04-23T16:06:29.177Z
DNC gives David Hogg an ultimatum
The Democratic National Committee is going to force David Hogg to decide: Get out of the primary game or lose his DNC post. During a member call on Thursday, DNC Chair Ken Martin is expected to announce a proposal to change the party’s rules to mandate all DNC officers stay neutral in all Democratic primaries, according to a person directly familiar with the plan and granted anonymity to describe private discussions. The move comes after Hogg pledged last week to spend millions of dollars funding challenges to “asleep-at-the-wheel” Democrats in primaries, igniting a firestorm inside the DNC. The proposal, if passed at the DNC’s August meeting, would effectively force Hogg to decide whether to step away from his DNC vice chair position or wall himself off from the group he co-founded, Leaders We Deserve, which has pledged to spend $20 million on challenging Democratic incumbents in safe blue seats.
I am with David Hogg
And Rachil is on it!
x Rachel Maddow is spot-fucking-on: After Trump's first 100 days, not only has any doubt been erased that he is a fascist authoritarian dictator-wannabe copying the playbook of the Third Reich, but we've also verified his utter incompetence. Simply put, Trump sucks at EVERYTHING. pic.twitter.com/8fxGKdzhp9 — Bill Madden (@maddenifico) April 24, 2025
Our galactic neighbor Andromeda has a bunch of satellite galaxies — and they're weirdly pointing at us
Our neighboring Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31, or M31) appears to sport a lopsided arrangement of satellite galaxies that defy scientific models, stumping astronomers who are also trying to figure out why so many of this galaxy's family members point in our direction. All but one of M31's brightest 37 satellites are on the side of the Andromeda spiral that faces our Milky Way galaxy – the odd one out being Messier 110, which is easily visible in amateur images of the Andromeda Galaxy. "M31 is the only system that we know of that demonstrates such an extreme degree of asymmetry," Kosuke Jamie Kanehisa of the Institut für Physik und Astronomie at Universität Potsdam in Germany told Space.com. According to cosmology 's standard model, the universe is filled with vast clouds of dark matter . Within these clouds, large galaxies such as Andromeda and our Milky Way grow — and they grow by merging with myriad smaller dwarf galaxies that have been pulled in by the gravity of the dark matter. The dwarf galaxies that we see around large galaxies today are the leftovers of this formation process. According to this picture of "hierarchical growth," these dwarf satellite galaxies should be spread randomly around larger galaxies. However, that's not quite what astronomers are finding.
x 🚨🚨🚨BREAKING NEWS: Was just passed this from a fellow service academy grad. A Coast Guard Academy graduate posted this. They are reporting that ICE entered base housing and took a USCG spouse. I can’t confirm this but I’m calling for answers from the Coast Guard and Congress. This is unacceptable. — Fred Wellman (@fpwellman.bsky.social) 2025-04-25T00:09:33.009Z
Malaysia Airlines eyes new Boeing jets should China reject them
Malaysia Airlines' parent company, Malaysia Aviation Group, is talking to Boeing about acquiring new jets that become available if Chinese airlines stop taking deliveries, its managing director told Malaysian state news outlet Bernama. Boeing appears to be returning some of its 737 MAX jets to the U.S. from China, where it had placed them ahead of delivery to Chinese customers. Neither Boeing nor China has commented on why the jets are returning, and it is not clear which party made the decision. Malaysia Airlines did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. If Boeing delivery slots become available as a result of the tariff war between the United States and China, MAG views this as a window to secure earlier-than-expected deliveries, Bernama reported MAG's Izham Ismail as saying.
That’s a BFD for Boeing, China has rejected 130 aircraft over tariffs worth 13 billion!!
x Always keep watch. Eventually the aliens will slip up and do something unhuman a little too nonchalantly. Then we'll know. 👽🛸 Yesterday, the lifeform we call "Elly De La Cruz" forgot himself and took flight to catch this baseball. 😮 — Codify Baseball (@codifybaseball.bsky.social) 2025-04-21T22:39:50.128Z
Dengue fever on the rise in the US - with Florida and California the potential hotspots for outbreaks
Federal health officials are warning that cases of the mosquito-borne dengue fever are on the rise this year ahead of the summer travel season. Transmission of the viral infection remains high in the U.S. and its territories, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said In an alert. Residents in California and Florida need to be the most concerned as their states typically have the most cases in a given year. “Spring and summer travel coincide with the peak season for dengue in many countries, increasing the risk of both travel-associated and locally acquired cases in the United States,” the agency warned. The potentially deadly illness is caused by the bite of infected mosquitoes. Although many people who are bitten recover in just a week, severe cases can lead to internal bleeding and death for approximately one in 20 people.
Footage Of NASA Firing Up Artemis Moon Rocket Engine For 550 Second Test
The Space Launch System rocket's RS-25 engine was fired up for the “final round of certification testing ahead of production of an updated set of the engines," according to NASA. The test occurred at the space agency’s Stennis Space Center. Credit: NASA Stennis Space Center
the above is a video
Teen charged with allegedly starting massive New Jersey wildfire
A 19-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of starting a massive New Jersey wildfire that has consumed at least 15,000 acres and continued to burn Thursday, authorities said. In a statement released Thursday morning, New Jersey officials, including Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer, announced the arrest of Joseph Kling of Waretown, New Jersey, on charges of aggravated arson and arson in connection with the wildfire that ignited early Tuesday. Kling was arrested after investigators determined the fire to be "incendiary by an improperly extinguished bonfire," according to the statement. In a criminal complaint filed in the case, authorities alleged that Kling "did purposely start the fire with the purpose of destroying or damaging any forest, specifically by lighting a bonfire off Jones Road in Waretown ... and leaving it unattended causing a wildfire."
x Harvard scientist Kseniia Petrova has been in ICE custody for about two months. Her colleague and friend Leon Peshkin says her case is causing some scientists to reconsider working in the U.S. — NPR (@npr.org) 2025-04-24T19:45:58.090Z
Scientists make stunning discovery while studying material thought to be useless waste: 'There's huge volumes of this stuff all over the country'
Researchers recently uncovered a treasure trove of rare earth elements — crucial materials for everything from smartphones to wind turbines — in waste left over from burning coal. A 2024 study led by scientists from the University of Texas at Austin estimated there's $8.4 billion worth of rare earth elements in U.S. coal ash. This diamond-in-the-rough discovery could reduce dependency on foreign sources for the valuable materials, as Interesting Engineering reported in March. Squeezing additional value from waste can help address another problem: Conventional mining for the critical materials has high monetary, social, and environmental costs. In comparison, the rare earth elements in coal ash have been separated in advance via coal-burning from the ore that normally contains them. This means it can take less energy to refine the materials, per IE.
Judge blocks parts of Trump’s overhaul of US elections, including proof-of-citizenship requirement
A federal judge on Thursday blocked the Trump administration from immediately enacting certain changes to how federal elections are run, including adding a proof-of-citizenship requirement to the federal voter registration form. President Donald Trump had called for that and other sweeping changes to U.S. elections in an executive order signed in March, arguing the U.S. “fails to enforce basic and necessary election protections" that exist in other countries. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sided with voting rights groups and Democrats to grant a preliminary injunction to stop the citizenship requirement from moving forward while the lawsuit plays out.
The world's biggest companies have caused $28 trillion in climate damage, a new study estimates
The world's biggest corporations have caused $28 trillion in climate damage, a new study estimates as part of an effort to make it easier for people and governments to hold companies financially accountable, like the tobacco giants have been. A Dartmouth College research team came up with the estimated pollution caused by 111 companies, with more than half of the total dollar figure coming from 10 fossil fuel providers: Saudi Aramco, Gazprom, Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, National Iranian Oil Co., Pemex, Coal India and the British Coal Corporation. For comparison, $28 trillion is a shade less than the sum of all goods and services produced in the United States last year. At the top of the list, Saudi Aramco and Gazprom have each caused a bit more than $2 trillion in heat damage over the decades, the team calculated in a study published in Wednesday's journal Nature. The researchers figured that every 1% of greenhouse gas put into the atmosphere since 1990 has caused $502 billion in damage from heat alone, which doesn't include the costs incurred by other extreme weather such as hurricanes, droughts and floods.
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