Tonight’s news awaits your comments. Everyone is encouraged to share their 2¢ or articles, stories, and tweets. Old school formatting for the OND tonight. This is an open thread.
Election 2024
- CNBC: President Joe Biden’s team is successfully recruiting some former donors to Nikki Haley’s campaign. Harry Sloan, former chairman of MGM, “is among at least half a dozen former Haley bundlers who have decided to help Biden”.
- AP News: Biden promotes plan to lower housing costs while courting Latino voters in Nevada and Arizona. “Biden flew to Las Vegas to promote his administration’s housing policies, including new proposals to eliminate various fees to lower costs for homeowners and renters… Biden is also emphasizing his pro-union, pro-abortion rights message during the trip.”
- Pew Research: Online opt-in polls can produce misleading results, especially for young people and Hispanic adults. “For example, in a February 2022 survey experiment, we asked opt-in respondents if they were licensed to operate a class SSGN (nuclear) submarine. In the opt-in survey, 12% of adults under 30 claimed this qualification, significantly higher than the share among older respondents. In reality, the share of Americans with this type of submarine license rounds to 0%.”
Crime
Migration
- Al Jazeera: ‘Horrific’: US Supreme court allows Texas to detain, deport migrants. “The United States Supreme Court has lifted a pause on a controversial law that allows Texas state authorities to detain and deport migrants and asylum seekers, a measure critics have dubbed the ‘show me your papers’ law… The administration of President Joe Biden has challenged SB4 on the grounds that the law is unconstitutional.”
Climate / Environment
- NPR News: More than 150 of D.C.'s cherry trees have to go as water rises. “The trees will be cut down later this spring as part of a project to rebuild and raise the seawalls around the basin… The land around the basin… is sinking… by about five feet over the past century. At the same time, the water level has gone up by more than a foot because of climate change.”
- Mongabay: Fanned by El Niño, megafires in Brazil threaten Amazon’s preserved areas. “Record-breaking fires have flared up across the Amazonian state of Roraima, in northern Brazil, amid one of the worst droughts in 25 years… repeated droughts and fires associated with the effects of climate change are making the rainforest vulnerable, especially in degraded and fragmented areas.”
- BBC News: Giant redwoods: World’s largest trees 'thriving in UK'. “The trees, which were first brought to the UK about 160 years ago, are growing at a similar rate to those found in their native range in California.The scientists believe the UK trees are also outnumbering the ones in the mountains of Sierra Nevada.”
- Common Dreams: As World Saw Hottest Year on Record, Corporate News Cut Coverage. “Last year featured not only what scientists worldwide confirmed was the hottest year in human history but also a 25% drop in corporate broadcast networks' coverage of the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency”.
- Zurich: The endangered axolotl: A symbol of biodiversity and hope. “There are millions of axolotls around the world. Sadly, most of them live in pet shops and home aquariums… In the wild, however, axolotl numbers are very low, which means the ‘Mexican walking fish’ is classified as critically endangered. This extinction crisis is another example of the destruction of our planet’s biodiversity – the life support system for humanity.”
- Nature: Bird-flu threat disrupts Antarctic penguin studies. “A deadly strain of bird flu circulating worldwide is disrupting research in Antarctica and could lead to the cancellation of some projects to study penguins, seals and other animals next year.”
Infrastructure
- Minneapolis Star Tribune: A new plan for Midwest power lines could cost $23 billion. The plan would “upgrade the regional electric grid with more than a dozen transmission lines across the Upper Midwest” and “state utility regulators and several major power companies are calling for even more transmission capacity to help the region grapple with major challenges like rising demand for power and the shift away from fossil fuels”.
- The Economist: Amtrak’s ridership is touching record highs. “The world’s biggest economy has fewer miles of electrified railway than Iran… In the latter half of last year, ridership was just 3% below its levels in 2019—previously the firm’s best-ever year… Through his infrastructure law of 2021 President Joe Biden… put aside $66bn for investment in passenger-rail infrastructure… But investment spending must be re-authorized in 2026” and “House Republicans proposed a 64% cut to Amtrak’s day-to-day budget” making investments pointless.
- CNN: Cyberattacks are hitting water systems throughout US, Biden officials warn governors. “Cyberattacks are hitting water and wastewater systems “throughout the United States” and state governments and water facilities must improve their defenses against the threat, the White House and Environmental Protection Agency warned US governors on Tuesday.”
Gaza
Ukraine
- Times of London: Ukraine digs in with dragon’s teeth as Russia’s glide bombs take toll. “Along the road to Kupiansk, where the booms of artillery echo and smoke rises in the air, Lemur, an infantryman, gives his bleak assessment of the battle. ‘Fucking awful,’ he says, glancing back in the direction where the Russian army is trying to break through. ‘We can barely hold the line, let alone move forward. We are losing so many people, there are so many bodies we can’t even bring them all back.’”
- Reuters: Ukraine's survival in danger, Pentagon chief warns. “Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday warned that Ukraine's survival was in danger and sought to convince allies that the United States was committed to Kyiv, even as Washington has essentially run out of money to continue arming Ukrainian forces. Republican House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson has so far refused to call a vote on a bill that would provide $60 billion more for Ukraine…”
China
- New York Times: Secretary of State Blinken Warns China Against Armed Attack on Philippines. “ He said “that an ‘armed’ attack against Philippine vessels in the South China Sea would trigger a mutual self-defense pact between Washington and Manila… Blinken gave no indication that recent Chinese provocations — which include ramming Philippine vessels and blasting them with water cannons — crossed the threshold of ‘armed’ attacks.”
- NPR News: Hong Kong passes a new security law that toughens punishment of dissent. “Hong Kong lawmakers have passed new national security legislation that carries severe punishment for a broad range of offenses, including life imprisonment for acts deemed to be insurrection.”
Brazil
Labor
- Washington Post: Opinion: The case for a 32-hour workweek with no loss in pay. “Although it is rarely discussed in the media, the Senate overwhelmingly passed legislation to establish a 30-hour workweek in 1933. While that legislation ultimately failed because of intense opposition from corporate America, a few years later President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act into law and a 40-hour workweek was established in 1940. Unbelievably, 84 years later, despite massive growth in technology and worker productivity, nothing has changed.”
- BBC News: Job boards are rife with 'ghost jobs'. “While the listings may be old, job seekers generally still assume companies are actively hiring for the roles. The truth is more complicated. Some of these are simply not-yet-removed adverts for jobs that have been filled – but some were never meant to be filled at all… More than 40% of hiring managers said they list jobs they aren't actively trying to fill to give the impression that the company is growing. A similar share said the job listings are made to motivate employees, while 34% said the jobs are posted to placate overworked staff who may be hoping for additional help to be brought on.”