The Guardian, US
The US has announced nearly $1bn in grants to replace diesel-powered school buses with electric and lower-emitting vehicles.
The Environmental Protection Agency will disburse funds to 280 school districts serving 7 million children across the country in an effort to curb harmful air pollution and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“Today we’re once again accelerating the transition to electric and low-emission school buses in America, helping to secure a healthier future where all our children can breathe cleaner air,” the EPA administrator, Michael Regan, said in a statement.
Diesel emissions have been linked to higher rates of asthma, cancer and school absenteeism. Communities of color and people living in low-income neighborhoods are more likely to suffer from higher rates of air pollution.
This is an open thread where everyone is welcome, especially night owls and early birds, to share and discuss the happenings of the day. Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
BBC
The Republican Party of Florida has fired its chairman, Christian Ziegler, as police investigate a sexual assault allegation against him.
Monday's vote to oust him was held in private, and was overwhelmingly against keeping him on, according to US media.
Mr Ziegler is accused of raping a woman with whom he and his wife had a prior consensual sexual relationship.
He has not been charged with a crime, denies rape allegations and had refused to resign despite pressure from allies.
BBC
Alaska Airlines placed restrictions on the Boeing plane involved in a dramatic mid-air blowout after pressurisation warnings in the days before Friday's incident, investigators say.
The jet had been prevented from making long-haul flights over water, said Jennifer Homendy of the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
The NTSB also says the missing section of plane has now been found - in the back garden of a Portland teacher.
No-one was hurt in Friday's drama.
NPR
Severe weather is already battering parts of the U.S. or will in the coming hours and days, meteorologists say.
From blizzard conditions in the Southwest to more precipitation in the Northeast, people across the country are bracing for bad weather and, in some cases, extreme conditions that could hamper travel.
Here's what's happening throughout the U.S.:
A blizzard pummeling the Great Plains began Monday morning
The National Weather Service says a cyclone that developed over the Great Plains early Monday could drop up to 2 inches of snow per hour in some places and make it risky to travel.
NPR
At least 21 people were injured — 14 transported by MedStar to local hospitals — after an explosion at a downtown Fort Worth hotel Monday afternoon, according to first responders.
A MedStar spokesperson confirmed at least one person was in critical condition, four had serious injuries and the sixteen other had minor injuries. One person self transported to John Peter Smith Hospital with minor injuries.
The explosion occurred at the Sandman Signature Hotel, 810 Houston St. in downtown Fort Worth and caused a two-alarm fire.
Reuters
NEW YORK, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Wayne LaPierre ran the National Rifle Association (NRA) as "Wayne's World" for decades, a lawyer for New York state said at the start of the gun rights group's corruption trial, three days after LaPierre suddenly resigned as chief executive.
New York Attorney General Letitia James had sued the NRA and its longtime leader in August 2020, saying the group diverted millions of dollars to fund luxuries for top officials, including travel expenses for LaPierre to several resorts.
Reuters
WASHINGTON, Jan 8 (Reuters) - NASA is set to delay its next few missions to the moon under a key program as technical hurdles mount with the various spacecraft it intends to use to get there, according to four people familiar with NASA's plans.
The U.S. space agency is expected to announce the plans on Tuesday after spending months tracking progress with contractors and considering changes to the Artemis program, a multi-billion dollar effort that includes returning the first astronauts to the moon since the last Apollo mission in 1972.
Reuters
Jan 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a request by Elon Musk's X Corp to consider whether the social media company, formerly called Twitter, can publicly disclose how often federal law enforcement seeks information about users for national security investigations.
The justices declined to hear X's appeal of a lower court's ruling holding that the FBI's restrictions on what the company could say publicly about the investigations did not violate its free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.
The Guardian
Sales of CDs rose last year for the first time in two decades, helping to lift the UK’s total spending on music to the highest level since the days when Destiny’s Child, Limp Bizkit and David Gray were topping the album charts.
The value of all music sales – including spending on streaming, vinyl, CDs and downloads – rose 9.6% in 2023 to reach £2.2bn, just 0.08% shy of the record 22 years earlier, according to the Digital Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA).
The biggest-selling album was The Weeknd’s The Highlights, although
Taylor Swift’s album releases dominated the market, while the best-performing track was Miley Cyrus’s Flowers.
Sales of CDs rose 2%, as a result of price inflation and the success of more expensive exclusive albums being snapped up by music buffs, some of whom are opting for the still relatively cheap CD format instead of, or as well as, vinyl.
Al Jazeera
Hundreds of patients and staff are reported to be missing from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza, which is struggling to cope amid intense air strikes across the enclave.
The majority of medical staff, as well as around 600 patients, have been forced to leave the complex to unknown locations with no information of their whereabouts, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations (UN) reported on Monday.
The two institutions note chaotic scenes as the remaining staff at the hospital continues to try to cope with an influx of injured people as “heavy Israeli bombardment from air, land, and sea intensified across much of the Gaza Strip”.
Staff from the WHO and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) visited the only functioning hospital in the governorate of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza on Sunday. They noted that intense bombing had driven many to seek medical help at Al-Aqsa.
Deutsche Welle
Images of farmers driving their huge tractors in long convoys along highways, blocking traffic at crossroads to protest against government policies are being shared millions of times on social media in Germany these days. Communications consultant Johannes Hillje describes this as part of a "strategic battle fought by right-wing extremist media-makers."
Far-right activists have rallied behind the farmers' protest on platforms such as Facebook, TikTok and X. And their comments are seen to be deliberately fanning the flames.
The far-right populist Alternative for Germany party (AfD) is using the protests on its many social media channels to attack the ruling center-left coalition government of Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) and express solidarity with the farmers protesting against the cuts in subsidies for agricultural diesel.
The crew of the Overnight News Digest consists of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, jeremybloom, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Rise above the swamp, Besame and jck. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) eeff, 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.