(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Overnight News Digest: Punxsutawney Phil is clueless [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-02 Phil's prediction is in: six more weeks of winter Punxsutawney Spirit Those who braved the cold of a February morning at Gobbler’s Knob hoping for a promise of relief from the icy chill ultimately walked away disappointed Thursday, when Punxsutawney Phil — Seer of Seers, Prognosticator of Prognosticators — proclaimed that six more weeks of winter awaited his adoring public. […] Another special guest was Josh Shapiro, making one of his first public appearances after taking office as Pennsylvania’s governor a few short weeks ago. He brought his family to see the sights as well. Punxsutawney Phil is clueless, say meteorologists and computers — not to mention the trends Philadelphia Inquirer […] As for the subsequent 5½ weeks, however, science and the trends of this winter and recent ones suggest that while groundhogs are known for their acute vision, Phil was seeing things. After assessing conditions in the tropical Pacific, assorted oscillations, and suites of computer models, the government’s Climate Prediction Center has the odds favoring a mild February just about everywhere east of the Mississippi, with its recent update expanding the zones of warmth. Only the western third of the country is in the cool zone. It should be noted that the feds in the past have shown a certain animosity toward America’s most famous rodent. Given his questionable record — wrong about 60% of the time in the last decade nationally, 50% in Philly — they suggest that perhaps Phil should stick to dirt-digging. U.S. House votes to remove Rep. Omar from Foreign Affairs Committee Minneapolis Star Tribune U.S. House Republicans wielded their power Thursday to oust Rep. Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee, seizing on past controversies stirred by the Minnesota Democrat as reasons to stop her from returning to the prized slot. She lost the post in a 218 to 211 vote after a contentious floor debate. "My leadership and voice will not be diminished if I am not on this committee for one term," Omar said on the House floor before voting started. "My voice will get louder and stronger." Republicans have long targeted Omar, a Muslim woman and refugee who made history as the first Somali-American elected to Congress. […] No Democrats voted to oust Omar on Thursday. Justice Dept. and Pence discussing a consensual FBI search of his home The Washington Post Federal law enforcement officials are in discussions with former vice president Mike Pence’s legal team to perform a consensual search of his Indiana home to ensure there are no additional classified materials on the property, according to a person familiar with the matter. An exact date for the search has not been set, the person said. The search follows revelations last week that the former vice president handed over to the FBI “a small number” of documents bearing classified markings that his lawyers discovered at his home. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema pulls in cash from Wall Street, real estate titans as she mulls reelection bid CNBC Sen. Kyrsten Sinema raked in campaign cash from corporate leaders at the end of last year as she prepared for a potential high-stakes 2024 reelection bid in the battleground state of Arizona. […] Real estate and private equity leaders, who have long helped to fill Sinema’s campaign coffers, contributed to a healthy cash haul for the senator in the final months of last year. As Sinema considers whether to launch a bid for a second Senate term, the senator’s campaign entered 2023 flush with cash, with $8.2 million on hand, according to a new Federal Election Commission filing. Suspected Chinese spy balloon found over northern U.S. NBC News The U.S. military has been monitoring a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been hovering over the northern U.S. for the past few days, and military and defense leaders have discussed shooting it out of the sky, according to two U.S. officials and a senior defense official. “The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now,” Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told NBC News. “We continue to track and monitor it closely.” “Once the balloon was detected, the U.S. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information,” Ryder said. US secures deal on Philippines bases to complete arc around China BBC News The US has secured access to four additional military bases in the Philippines - a key bit of real estate which would offer a front seat to monitor the Chinese in the South China Sea and around Taiwan. With the deal, Washington has stitched the gap in the arc of US alliances stretching from South Korea and Japan in the north to Australia in the south. The missing link had been the Philippines, which borders two of the biggest potential flashpoints - Taiwan and the South China Sea. The deal, which in part reverses the US' departure from their former colony more than 30 years ago, is no small matter. US embassy in Solomon Islands reopened in bid to challenge China’s influence AFP via Alarabiya News The United States reopened its embassy in the Solomon Islands Thursday after a 30-year hiatus, part of a bid to counter China’s growing influence in the South Pacific. Re-establishing the diplomatic outpost was a renewal “of our commitment to the people of Solomon Islands and our partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. The US closed its embassy in the capital Honiara in 1993 after the end of the Cold War led to a reduction in diplomatic posts and a shift in priorities. Intelligence warns Russia preparing for ‘massive offensive’ to capture Donbas by March The Kyiv Independent Ukraine’s intelligence warned on Feb. 2 that Russia was redeploying additional assault groups and military equipment ahead of “a massive offensive” to capture Donbas, an industrial heartland comprising Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, by March. The stark warning comes as Russian forces claimed to be advancing toward the embattled city of Bakhmut in the northern part of Donetsk Oblast and toward the town of Vuhledar, near the Russian-occupied Donetsk city, over the past few days. Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov and the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces issued similar warnings on Feb. 1, each saying that Russia appeared to be preparing for a major offensive. EU readying more sanctions against Russia Deutsche Welle European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Kyiv on Thursday ahead of an EU-Ukraine summit hosted by the war-torn country. "Good to be back in Kyiv, my 4th time since Russia's invasion.... We are here together to show that the EU stands by Ukraine as firmly as ever. And to deepen further our support and cooperation," she wrote on Twitter. Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy thanked the EU for its support, including for its membership bid to the bloc, saying that "pan-European integration strengthens our ability to protect life." However, he also expressed disappointment that the pace of EU sanctions against Moscow had "slightly slowed down" in recent months. Senators call on Biden to delay F-16 jet sale to Turkey until Finland and Sweden allowed into NATO CNN A bipartisan group of senators urged President Joe Biden to delay the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey until Turkey agrees to allow Sweden and Finland to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The letter comes at a time when Sweden and Finland are waiting for Turkey to approve their admission to NATO, of which Turkey is a member. Congressional sources previously told CNN that the Biden administration was preparing to ask lawmakers to approve the sale of F-16s to Turkey, which would be among the largest arms sales in years. The group of 27 senators wrote in their letter on Thursday, however, that Congress “cannot consider future support for [Turkey],” including the sale of the F-16 jets, until Turkey “completes ratification of the accession protocols.” Breathless oceans: Warming waters could suffocate marine life and disrupt fisheries Science […] Climate change is leaching oxygen from the ocean by warming surface waters. Two other climate-related threats to the seas—ocean acidification and marine heat waves—get more attention from scientists and the public. But some researchers believe deoxygenation could ultimately pose a more significant threat, making vast swaths of ocean less hospitable to sea life, altering ecosystems, and pushing valuable fisheries into unfamiliar waters. As global warming continues, the problem is sure to get worse, with disturbing forecasts that by 2100 ocean oxygen could decline by as much as 20%. Sharks—fast-moving fish that burn lots of oxygen, sit at the top of food chains and crisscross huge ocean expanses—should be sensitive indicators of the effects. Nearly 14,000 Nigerians take Shell to court over devastating impact of pollution The Guardian Nearly 14,000 people from two Nigerian communities are seeking justice in the high court in London against the fossil fuel giant Shell, claiming it is responsible for devastating pollution of their water sources and destruction of their way of life. The individuals from the Niger delta area of Ogale, a farming community, lodged their claims last week, joining more than 2,000 people from the Bille area, a largely fishing community. In total 13,652 claims from individuals, and from churches and schools, are asking the oil giant to clean up the pollution which they say has devastated their communities. They are also asking for compensation for the resulting loss of their livelihoods. Their ability to farm and fish has been destroyed by the continuing oil spills from Shell operations, they claim. Shell… argues that the communities have no legal standing to force it to clean up. Shell reports record profits as energy prices soar after Russia's invasion of Ukraine NPR Energy giant Shell has reported its highest annual profits in the company's 115-year history, after energy prices soared due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. London-based Shell's profits for 2022 were almost $40 billion, twice those reported for 2021, at a time of continued political debate about more targeted taxation on energy companies. As U.K. households struggle thanks to elevated energy prices and correspondingly high inflation, Shell's announcement will fuel fresh demands that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's government ratchet up a kind of "windfall" tax on such profits. The E.U. approved such a windfall tax in September. Amazon reports net loss of $2.7 billion for 2022 The Seattle Times In a year that ended with drastic cost-cutting measures — from ending experimental projects to cutting 18,000 jobs — Amazon reported a net loss of $2.7 billion. That’s compared with a net income of $33.4 billion in 2021. Amazon has attributed losses to its investment in Rivian, an electric vehicle startup that has struggled with production delays and market upheaval. On Wednesday, Rivian said it was cutting 6% of its workforce, or about 840 jobs from its 14,000 staff count. Ford posts $2 billion loss in 2022 The Detroit News Ford Motor Co. posted a $2 billion net loss last year, down from 2021's $17.9 billion in profits that had been bolstered by gains on the automaker's investment in electric-vehicle startup Rivian Automotive Inc. The Dearborn automaker's 2022 earnings were hit by a $7.4 billion mark-to-market net loss in Rivian and a $2.7 billion impairment from its investment in autonomous company Argo AI, which was dissolved into Ford and partner Volkswagen AG. Still, Ford is expected to pay its hourly workers profit-sharing payouts averaging $9,176 compared to $12,750 at rival General Motors Co. Black lawmakers want Biden to push for police reform during State of the Union USA Today Congressional Black Caucus members met with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris Thursday afternoon to renew a stalled police reform effort, days after video showed Memphis police officers brutally beating Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, who later died. The Black Caucus pushed Biden to speak on reviving police reform legislation during the State of the Union Feb. 7 and share information on results from past executive orders on police reform. “The death of Tyre Nichols is yet another example of why we need action," said Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., chairman of the CBC, during the meeting, according to a pool report and a White House email about the meeting. First sweeping federal gun crime report in 20 years released AP News The most expansive federal report in over two decades on guns and crime shows a shrinking turnaround between the time a gun was purchased and when it was recovered from a crime scene, indicating firearms bought legally are more quickly being used in crimes around the country. It also documents a spike in the use of conversion devices that make a semiautomatic gun fire like a machine gun, along with the growing seizure of so-called ghost guns, privately made firearms that are hard to trace. […] The report shows 54% of guns that police recovered in crime scenes in 2021 had been purchased within three years, a double-digit increase since 2019. The quicker turnaround can indicate illegal gun trafficking or a straw purchase — when someone who can legally purchase a gun buys one to sell it to someone who can’t legally possess guns. The increase was driven largely by guns bought less than a year before, it said. It’s now legal for domestic abusers to own a gun in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi Vox A panel of judges on an exceedingly reactionary federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that the federal law prohibiting individuals from “possessing a firearm while under a domestic violence restraining order” is unconstitutional. Under Judge Cory Wilson’s opinion in United States v. Rahimi, people with a history of violent abuse of their romantic partners or the partners’ children now have a Second Amendment right to own a gun, even if a court has determined that they are “a credible threat to the physical safety of such intimate partner or child.” The immediate impact of this decision is that Zackey Rahimi, who “was subject to an agreed civil protective order entered February 5, 2020, by a Texas state court after Rahimi’s alleged assault of his ex-girlfriend,” may not be convicted of violating the federal ban on gun possession by domestic abusers. The GOP Can’t Remember Why It Took the Debt Ceiling Hostage Intelligencer @ NY Magazine Hostage taking is, traditionally, a means to an end. A criminal organization wants to earn fast cash, so it kidnaps the child of a business tycoon. Or a militant group wants some of its members released from prison, so it seizes a government building. Maybe some of the individuals involved are sadists or psychopaths who get a kick out of threatening people’s lives. But their ultimate aim isn’t to terrorize; the ransom is the point. House Republicans, however, appear to be nontraditional hostage takers. Instead of formulating demands and then contriving a hostage situation in order to get them met, Kevin McCarthy’s caucus has formulated a hostage situation and is now scrambling to come up with some demands. The party knows it wants to threaten to trigger a global financial crisis unless Joe Biden gives them something. But they don’t actually know what that thing is. In recent days, the White House has reiterated its unwillingness to negotiate over a debt-ceiling hike. Its reasoning is simple: Everyone involved recognizes that raising the debt ceiling merely authorizes the executive branch to honor spending commitments that Congress has already made, and that failing to do so would have disastrous consequences for the American people. U.S. transfers Pakistani Guantanamo Bay detainee Khan to Belize Reuters Majid Khan, a Pakistani man who has described in graphic detail his torture by the Central Intelligence Agency in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, has been transferred from the Guantanamo Bay U.S. detention facility in Cuba to Belize, the Pentagon said on Thursday. Khan, 42, admitted in 2012 to conspiring with members of the al Qaeda Islamist militant organization responsible for the 2001 attacks to commit murder as well as providing material support for terrorism and spying and had been serving as a government witness since, according to U.S. officials. Migrant flows plummet across Texas-Mexico border. Is success for Biden’s policy in sight? The Dallas Morning News A month after President Joe Biden’s administration said it was expanding its humanitarian parole program for migrants from certain countries, Mexican officials warn it’s too early to claim success, even as the number of migrants reaching the border has plummeted. In an interview with The Dallas Morning News, Roberto Velasco, a top diplomat and chief of the North America bureau at the Mexican Foreign Ministry, highlighted the drastic drop – as much as a 97% decline – in the number of migrants journeying through Mexico from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti. Biden announced on Jan. 5 that the U.S. government is expanding humanitarian passage monthly for as many as 30,000 people from those four countries. But people from those countries who cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally will be turned away. When will COVID stop being a global emergency? Nature The World Health Organization (WHO) says that the COVID-19 outbreak will probably stop being a global emergency soon — but we’re not there just yet. After a meeting of its emergency committee on 27 January, the WHO said this week that it still considers the outbreak what it calls a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), but that the COVID-19 pandemic is at an inflection point — meaning that high levels of immunity to the virus SARS-CoV-2 are beginning to limit its impact and reach. The agency said that nations must remain vigilant, however, and laid the groundwork for administrative changes to keep pressure on the virus in a post-pandemic world. Many researchers agree with the WHO’s assessment. “The WHO can’t say that the public-health emergency is over when you’ve got millions of cases and you’ve got thousands of deaths a day,” says Salim Abdool Karim, an epidemiologist who advises the South African government on COVID-19 and directs the Durban-based Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa. For instance, China has seen a surge in infections and deaths across the country since it lifted its zero-COVID policy at the end of last year. Bird flu keeps spreading beyond birds. Scientists worry it signals a growing threat to humans, too CBC News As a deadly form of avian influenza continues ravaging bird populations around much of the world, scientists are tracking infections among other animals — including various types of mammals more closely related to humans. Throughout the last year, Canadian and U.S. officials detected highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu in a range of species, from bears to foxes. In January, France's national reference laboratory announced that a cat suffered severe neurological symptoms from an infection in late 2022, with the virus showing genetic characteristics of adaptation to mammals. Most concerning, multiple researchers said, was a large, recent outbreak on a Spanish mink farm. This Woman Wants to Destroy Your Lawn DownEast Heavy-duty pickups roared past Heather McCargo’s Prius as she pulled onto the shoulder of Route 11A, in Springvale. It was a cool, clear July day, and the 62-year-old founder of the nonprofit Wild Seed Project stepped out to wait for the dozen or so field-trippers she’d come to guide through a forested preserve called the Harvey Butler Rhododendron Sanctuary. As they gathered, another pair of visitors strode out of the woods, chatting, one of them referring to the place as “a secret garden.” McCargo was quick to set the record straight — the Butler Sanctuary is no garden. “Those aren’t planted,” she told everyone. Indeed, she said, the parcel contains some of the only rhododendrons in Maine that were not deliberately grown. It’s what biologists call a refugium, a relic population that clawed its way north after the last ice age, isolated from its relatives flourishing in the hills of southern Appalachia. “That is the native, wild, big-leaf rhododendron!” McCargo said, her voice peaking in an excitable pitch. “It’s stunning!” An hour later, she’d led her crew to the preserve’s namesake stand, a patch of lanky shrubs with shiny, dark, evergreen leaves and clusters of fragrant white flowers. “Rhododendron maximum,” McCargo said, reverently. She explained that most garden-variety rhododendrons, the ones decorating suburban lawns, have been cross-bred with Asian species to create hybrids that blossom in every color under the sun. “The hybrid ones don’t support our fauna the way these do,” she said, pointing to a flower just beginning to unfurl, filled with bumblebees. “We should be planting these in our gardens.” How 2 Oregon brothers’ efforts to mitigate food waste created the beloved tater tot OPB News When brothers Golden and Francis Nephi “Neef” Grigg began renting a frozen foods plant in the tiny Idaho border town of Ontario, Oregon, in 1949, they were hoping to expand their existing frozen corn business to include potatoes. Little did they know they’d taken the first step toward creating Oregon’s prodigal spud: the tater tot. A few years after the Griggs converted the flash-freezing plant to a potato-processing facility, the building’s owners went under. The Grigg brothers bought the building they’d been renting out of foreclosure, and in 1952 the company known as Ore-Ida was born. In the 1950s, frozen foods were selling like hotcakes. Ore-Ida was the top producer of frozen corn in the country, and French fries were already proving a sound investment. Corn was fairly straightforward, but the downside to processing potatoes was that it was tricky to separate the fries from the scraps — and there were a lot of scraps. US still has the worst, most expensive health care of any high-income country Ars Technica [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/2/2150791/-Overnight-News-Digest-Punxsutawney-Phil-is-clueless Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/