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The crew of the Overnight News Digest consists of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, jeremybloom, Magnifico, annetteboardman, eeff, rise above the swamp, Besame and jck. 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.
double the amount of signatures needed to put the pro-abortion constitutional amendment on the 2023 statewide ballot. “This is a historic day for Ohio and for reproductive freedom. We cannot thank our volunteers enough for this herculean grassroots effort to ensure patients and doctors, not government extremists, are in control of making private medical decisions,” Lauren Blauvelt and Kellie Copeland of Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom said in a statement on Wednesday. “Fortunately, the Ohio Constitution gives us the ability to take this popular issue directly to the people.”
Cleveland.com reported that more than 59 percent of Ohio’s registered voters support making abortion a protected right in the state. Among women, more than 63 percent support protecting their bodily autonomy at the state level, while nearly 55 percent of men support enshrining abortion.
The ballot measure will put “a fundamental right to reproductive freedom” in the state constitution. “We are poised to put abortion rights in the hands of the voters, and we’re excited to announce this first victory on that,” reproductive rights organizer Sri Thakkilapati said at a press conference on Wednesday.
We have just experienced the hottest day ever recorded on Earth – for the second day in a row. The average global air temperature recorded 2 metres above Earth’s surface hit 17.18°C (62.92°F) on 4 July, according to data from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and compiled by the University of Maine.
The new record outstrips the previous high of 17.01°C (62.62°F) set on 3 July. It makes 4 July the hottest day ever on Earth since records began.
Before that, the next highest-temperature on record was recorded jointly in August 2016 and July 2022, when average global temperatures reached 16.92°C (62.46°F).
The two consecutive days of record-breaking global heat confirms scientists’ warnings that 2023 is likely to be one of the hottest years on record, as the twin effects of climate change and a warming El Nino climate pattern drive temperatures to new highs.
China is expected to double its wind and solar capacity by 2025, and achieve the goal of producing 1,200 gigawatts (GW) of solar and wind energy generation by 2030, five years ahead of schedule, a new report has found. Such an outstanding fact prompts reflections on the main trends in the development of the Chinese electric power industry.
Simple calculations showed that even with the annual commissioning of 570 GW of wind and solar power capacities achieved in the previous Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), China will reach 1200 GW of capacity in 2026, four years earlier than planned. An idea of the scale of new capacity additions can be seen by comparing the total installed wind and solar capacity in the top six countries following China, which was 537 GW in 2020.
According to the National Development and Reform Commission, a new model based on large-scale "clean energy bases" will be applied to accelerate the commissioning of fresh wind and solar capacities. By 2025, these bases, located in deserts and other barren lands, will host about half of the new wind and solar power plants.
Two transparency bills in the California legislature would require corporations to disclose more information about their emissions and their efforts to fight the climate crisis. The oil and gas industry is spending millions to kill them.
The bills would force large companies that do business in California to report all of their emissions and also require firms that buy or sell carbon offsets– which represent a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions – to disclose more information in an effort to crack down on bogus climate claims. Both measures have momentum but could be blocked by moderate Democrats historically aligned with corporate interests.
...The Western States Petroleum Association, a trade organization, opposes these bills and has already spent $2.38m on lobbying and advocacy groups this year.
This summer, like last summer, Texas has battled a brutal heat wave that regularly reaches triple-digit temperatures. This summer, like last summer, the heat wave triggered record levels of energy demand. This summer, like last summer, there have miraculously been no rolling blackouts; in fact, this year, the state’s grid operator has so far asked for just one day of voluntary energy conservation.
And this summer, like last summer, renewables have been the heroes of the story — yet they remain curiously vilified by politicians in the Lone Star State.
In recent years, renewable energy has been ramping up across Texas. The state has rapidly increased solar capacity, for instance, enabling as much as 16,800 megawatts of solar power to be produced on the grid as of the end of May. That’s roughly six times the capacity that existed in 2019 (about 2,600 megawatts), according to data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s grid operator.
The Biden administration gave a green light Wednesday to the largest-ever offshore wind project the U.S. has yet approved, paving the way for dozens of turbines that could eventually power hundreds of thousands of New Jersey homes.
The approval of Ocean Wind 1′s plan for construction and operations is a milestone for the project, which has faced fierce opposition from Republican lawmakers and residents in New Jersey. The project would be the state’s first utility-scale offshore wind farm and could power as many as half a million homes with clean energy, according to Orsted, the Danish energy company developing the project.
“The announcement of Ocean Wind 1’s Record of Decision today represents a pivotal inflection point not just for Orsted, but for New Jersey’s nation-leading offshore wind industry as a whole,” said New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a proponent of offshore wind energy, in a release.
As talks between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP continue this week, actors are getting a head start on picket planning should negotiations end in a stalemate at midnight on July 12 and lead to a double strike alongside the Writers Guild.
It comes after SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP agreed Friday to extend their current film and TV contract to allow bargaining on a new deal to continue. We hear there have been talks over the weekend as well as on Monday.
If SAG-AFTRA members, who voted 98% in favor of authorizing a strike if leadership fails to reach an acceptable deal, do agree to strike, they are expected to hit the streets on the morning of Thursday, July 13.
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN in May that the party is concentrating on a relatively small number of races where its chances of victory are greatest: Montana, Ohio and West Virginia — states where former President Donald Trump won by eight percentage points or more in 2020 — and Pennsylvania, where party operatives believe former hedge fund CEO Dave McCormick, who lost last year’s primary to Mehmet Oz, could make a formidable challenger to Democratic Sen. Bob Casey.
The rest of the map is at risk of becoming irrelevant.
“I don’t think anyone sees a real possibility for us in Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada of winning those races,” said a Republican who has worked on Senate races and requested anonymity to speak candidly, referring to three presidential swing states where Republicans should, theoretically, be in contention.
McConnell, always known for choosing his words carefully, left the impression the party was all but giving up in some perennial battlegrounds, either because their benches are too MAGA or because McConnell can’t find the recruits that fit his preferred profile — a boardroom Republican with a business or military background who also has millions available to self-fund a campaign.
The cocaine that Secret Service agents found at the White House over the weekend was discovered in the West Wing lobby where guests enter before taking private tours, according to the Secret Service, providing new insight into the discovery of the controlled substance.
White House staff are authorized to give West Wing tours to visitors who go through background screenings before being allowed on the White House campus. Guests and staff are subject to metal-detector screenings when they enter the White House premises.
Visitors enter the White House at the White House lobby, a high-traffic area where they are asked to leave their cellphones in small boxes.
...Space Weather Physicist Tamitha Shov said on Twitter the July Fourth flare is moving faster and will catch up with Sunday's flare creating a "1 2 punch."
...Recently, Space Weather Prediction Center scientist Mark Miesch put together a timelapse showing the Sun's increasing activity.
"Although the Sun is no more active than in previous generations, our society has changed. With our increasing reliance on electric power, global telecommunications, satellite navigation and aviation, we are more sensitive than ever to the Sun's changing moods," Miesch said in a statement. "Stay tuned for more fireworks as we approach yet another solar maximum in 2024."
Fans often ask R&B singer and actor Jill Scott why she doesn’t sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at sporting events.
The reason: She knows a completely different anthem would leave her lips, Scott told an audience during a March show in her hometown of Philadelphia.
The anthem she’s referring to is one that she wrote as a teenager living in north Philadelphia, a biting critique of racial inequality in America. And after more than 30 years, she performed her rewrite while touring this year. The neo-soul icon gave the highest-profile performance of the anthem so far Saturday at Day 2 of the 2023 Essence Fest in New Orleans. In front of a packed Caesars Superdome audience — where the festival celebrating Black artists and Black women has taken place since 1994 and has drawn crowds of nearly half a million — Scott belted out her remixed anthem. She received ovations and applause from the arena and gained buzz across social media.
What are YOU singing about tonight? Tell us in the comments!