Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame, jck, and JeremyBloom. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time.
BBC
Entire UK facing gales and downpours as Storm Isha blows in
Almost the whole of the UK is under weather warnings as strong winds from Storm Isha sweep in.
Met Office amber warnings for all areas except London and parts of the South East are in place until 06:00.
Gusts of up to 80mph (128km/h) are expected, posing a risk to life. The Met Office said it was rare for all of the UK to be under such an alert.
A red warning for gusts of up to 100mph in parts of northern Scotland is also in place until the early hours.
It warns of a "short spell of extremely strong winds leading to danger to life, structural damage and disruption" in an area stretching from Thurso and Wick in the north, Fraserburgh and Peterhead to the east and Cromarty and Nairn in the west.
BBC
Nearly 90 dead after fierce winter storms strike US
Nearly 90 weather-related deaths have been recorded across the US after the country was pummelled by ferocious winter storms for the past week.
The deaths include at least 25 in Tennessee and 16 in Oregon, which remains under a state of emergency following severe ice storms.
Tens of thousands of people also remain without power across wide swathes of the country.
Icy conditions are expected to continue until the middle of the week.
A total of 89 weather-related fatalities have been recorded across the country over the past week, according to a tally maintained by CBS, the BBC's US partner.
While the death toll has been greatest in Tennessee and Oregon, fatalities have also been reported in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Washington, Kentucky, Wisconsin, New York, New Jersey and elsewhere.
In one incident in Portland, Oregon last Wednesday, three people were electrocuted to death when powerful winds caused a power line to fall and strike the vehicle in which they were travelling. A baby who was in the vehicle survived.
NPR
As Houthi attacks on ships escalate, experts look to COVID supply chain lessons
An upsurge in attacks on commercial ships by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in the Red Sea threatens to disrupt the global supply chain as vessels are forced to reroute around Africa to avoid the conflict zone. Normally, about 15% of the world's trade passes through the Red Sea, and delays and escalating insurance costs are hitting industries such as petroleum, food and electronics.
Manufacturers have already experienced some problems in getting parts to assembly floors, and both Tesla and Volvo last week blamed the Red Sea troubles for delays at plants in Europe.
But shipping industry experts hope lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Suez Canal disruption in 2021 and Somali pirate attacks more than a decade ago will help mitigate widespread problems this time, should the conflict widen in the Red Sea.
NPR
Tens of thousands protest in Germany against the rise of the far right
BERLIN — Tens of thousands of people protested the far right in cities across Germany on Saturday, attending events with slogans such as "Never Again is Now," "Against Hate" and "Defend Democracy." The large crowds were the latest in a series of demonstrations that have been gaining momentum in recent days.
The demonstrations came in the wake of a report that right-wing extremists recently met to discuss the deportation of millions of immigrants, including some with German citizenship. Some members of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, were present at the meeting.
Police said a Saturday afternoon protest in Frankfurt drew 35,000 people. Demonstrations in Stuttgart, Nuremberg and Hannover, among other cities, also drew large crowds.
Reuters
Exxon files lawsuit against investors' climate proposal
HOUSTON, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp
(XOM.N), opens new tab on Sunday filed a complaint in a Texas court seeking to prevent a climate proposal by activist investors from going to a vote during the company's shareholder meeting in May.
This is the first time Exxon is seeking to exclude a shareholder proposal by filing a complaint in court. The case was assigned to a judge with a track record of ruling in favor of conservative causes.
Exxon says the investors are "driven by an extreme agenda" and that their repeated proposals do not serve investors’ interests or promote long-term shareholder value.
Investors led by U.S. activist investment firm Arjuna Capital and shareholder activist group Follow This are asking Exxon and other oil majors to adopt tighter climate targets.
They want Exxon to set so-called Scope 3 targets to reduce emissions produced by users of its products. Exxon is the only one among the five Western oil majors which does not have such targets.
Reuters
West stands to lose at least $288 bln in assets if Russian assets seized -RIA
Jan 21 (Reuters) - Russia's state RIA news agency said on Sunday it had calculated that the West stood to lose assets and investments worth at least $288 billion if it confiscated frozen Russian assets to help rebuild Ukraine and Moscow then retaliated.
After President Vladimir Putin sent forces into Ukraine in February 2022, the U.S. and its allies prohibited transactions with Russia's central bank and finance ministry, blocking around $300 billion of sovereign Russian assets in the West.
Russia has accused Washington of trying to strong-arm countries in Europe, where most of the Russian assets are, into signing up to similar measures, and the Kremlin has said that Moscow has a list of U.S., European and other assets that would be confiscated if Western countries press ahead.
RIA cited data which it said showed that direct investment by the European Union, the G7 nations, Australia and Switzerland in the Russian economy at the end of 2022 totalled $288 billion.
CNN (Fingers crossed)
A new weather pattern will replace the arctic air with heavy rain, ice and significantly warmer weather this week
CNN —
Warmth is set to thaw parts of the United States following frigid weekend temperatures – but the warmer air will bring a risk of ice and flooding for some states, and another crippling winter storm is set to hit portions of the Plains and South into Monday.
A series of winter storms this month have killed at least 82 people in 13 states. The death toll climbed on Sunday after emergency management agencies in Oregon, Mississippi and Tennessee reported additional weather-related fatalities.
Now a series of fronts and low-pressure systems are working together to bring warmer air and tropical moisture into the eastern half of the US this week.
The arctic chill will be ending, and cities will begin warming up, with some seeing daily high temperatures increase by close to 30 degrees over the course of three or four days.Temperatures will be significantly above average by the end of the week, with highs Thursday reaching the upper 60s to low 70s throughout the Southeast and temperatures in the 50s as far north as New York.
Washington Post
How the polar vortex could bring winter back with a vengeance
Over the past week, Arctic cold has swallowed much of the nation’s heartland. Thirty states were included in alerts for dangerously low temperatures and wind chills, with readings dropping to minus-16 in Kansas City, 1 degree in Oklahoma City, minus-10 in Chicago and minus-27 in Bismarck, N.D. Snow cover reached its greatest mid-January extent over the contiguous United States in the last 20 years.
After one more frigid weekend, temperatures are about to spike 30 to 40 degrees, rising above freezing and inducing an abrupt thaw over the Ozarks, southern Plains and Mid-South. The northern Plains will see highs spike 15 to 20 degrees above normal by Tuesday.
There are two polar vortexes in the Northern Hemisphere: one in the lower atmosphere, or the troposphere (sometimes called the “circumpolar vortex”), and one higher up in the stratosphere. The stratospheric one is stronger and is present each winter as cold, dense air sinks and spirals near the North Pole. The stronger the vortex, the faster it spins and the more bottled-up the cold air is over the high latitudes.
But if something disrupts the polar vortex, it can be knocked off-kilter. Imagine a spinning top; if you jiggle the table, it might wobble out of control. If the polar vortex weakens, it can no longer contain the cold air — and pockets of frigid Arctic chill crash south over North America.
Deutsche Welle
Ukraine updates: Donetsk reports 27 dead in market shelling
Denis Pushilin, the Russian-installed head of the Donetsk region, said that at least 27 people were killed and 25 more injured after Ukrainian forces shelled the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
The toll was revised late Sunday to 27 people who were killed in attacks from the 25 that Pushilin stated earlier. Officials said the shells had been fired by the Ukrainian military and had hit a market area.
Pushilin described it as a "horrific" artillery strike on a civilian area, adding that another strike in a separate neighborhood in the city had also killed at least one person.
Ukrainian forces have not commented on the attack and DW could not independently verify the claims.
Both Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of a sharp escalation on civilian areas over the past two months. The frontlines of the war remain largely static.
Donetsk is one of the four partly-occupied regions of Ukraine that Russia unilaterally recognizes as a republic within its territory, a move many observers say violates international law.