These are some of the stories in tonight’s digest:
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US military explosives vanish, emerge in civilian world
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New data suggests 1 in 44 US children affected by autism
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Charges weighed for Michigan shooting suspect’s parents
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Blinken warns Russia of ‘severe costs’ if it invades Ukraine
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Delhi shuts schools after court warning to curb pollution
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Renewable energy has ‘another record year of growth’ says IEA
- A Florida Trump Supporter Has Been Arrested For Voting Multiple Times
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Island turns into open-air lab for tech-savvy volcanologists
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'Magic dirt': How the internet fueled, and defeated, the pandemic's weirdest MLM
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The Underwater ‘Kites’ Generating Tidal Electricity As they Move
Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, 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.
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.
AP News
US military explosives vanish, emerge in civilian world
The Marine Corps demolition specialist was worried — about America, and about the civil war he feared would follow the presidential election.
And so, block by block, he stole 13 pounds (6 kilograms) of C4 plastic explosives from the training ranges of Camp Lejeune.
“The riots, talk about seizing guns, I saw this country moving towards a scary unknown future,” the sergeant would later write, in a seven-page statement to military investigators. “I had one thing on my mind and one thing only, I am protecting my family and my constitutional rights.”
His crime might have gone undetected, but authorities caught a lucky break in 2018 as they investigated yet another theft from Lejeune, the massive base on coastal North Carolina. In that other case, explosives ended up in the hands of some high school kids.
Carlos Santana has heart procedure, cancels December shows
Carlos Santana has successfully undergone a heart procedure and is canceling several Las Vegas shows planned for December.
In a video message released Wednesday, Santana said he asked his wife to take him to the hospital on Saturday because of an issue with his chest.
“I’m going to be taking time off for a little bit to make sure that I replenish and rest,” Santana said.
Michael Vrionis, president of Universal Tone Management, said the 74-year-old guitarist underwent an “unscheduled heart procedure,” but gave no specifics.
New data suggests 1 in 44 US children affected by autism
New autism numbers released Thursday suggest more U.S. children are being diagnosed with the developmental condition and at younger ages.
In an analysis of 2018 data from nearly a dozen states, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that among 8-year-olds, 1 in 44 had been diagnosed with autism. That rate compares with 1 in 54 identified with autism in 2016.
U.S. autism numbers have been on the rise for several years, but experts believe that reflects more awareness and wider availability of services to treat the condition rather than a true increase in the number of affected children.
A separate CDC report released Thursday said that children were 50% more likely to be diagnosed with autism by age 4 in 2018 than in 2014.
Lawyers allied with Trump ordered to pay $175K in sanctions
Nine lawyers allied with former President Donald Trump were ordered Thursday to pay Detroit and Michigan a total of $175,000 in sanctions for abusing the court system with a sham lawsuit challenging the 2020 election results.
The money, which must be paid within 30 days, will cover the legal costs of defending against the suit, which were more than $153,000 for the city and nearly $22,000 for the state.
U.S. District Judge Linda Parker, who agreed to impose sanctions in August, rejected most of the attorneys’ objections to Detroit’s proposed award, but she did reduce it by about $29,000. Those sanctioned include Sidney Powell, L. Lin Wood and seven other lawyers who were part of the lawsuit filed on behalf of six Republican voters after Joe Biden’s 154,000-vote victory over Trump.
Charges weighed for Michigan shooting suspect’s parents
A prosecutor on Thursday repeated her criticism of the parents of a boy who is accused of killing four students at a Michigan school, saying their actions went “far beyond negligence” and that a charging decision would come by Friday.
“The parents were the only individuals in the position to know the access to weapons,” Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald said. The gun “seems to have been just freely available to that individual.”
Ethan Crumbley, 15, has been charged as an adult with two dozen crimes, including murder, attempted murder and terrorism, for a shooting Tuesday at Oxford High School in Oakland County, roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Detroit.
Four students were killed and seven more people were injured, including a student who remained in critical condition.
WTA President and CEO Steve Simon did not set out to lead the way for how sports should confront China when he announced that the women’s tennis tour would suspend tournaments there because of concerns about former Grand Slam doubles champion Peng Shuai’s well-being.
And based on initial reactions Thursday to the WTA’s groundbreaking stance, including from the International Olympic Committee — which is set to open the Beijing Winter Games in two months — along with the men’s tennis tour and International Tennis Federation, no one seems too eager to follow suit with the sorts of actions that would come with a real financial hit.
“I’m not looking to send a message to any other sport bodies or influence their decisions or evaluate their decisions. This is a WTA decision that affected the WTA athlete and our core principles,” Simon said in a video call with The Associated Press on Wednesday. “And I think it goes beyond that, into obviously something very, very sensitive on a worldwide basis for women, in general. So as the leading women’s sports organization, and having a direct effect on this, we’re focused on that.
Capitol riot committee has interviewed 250 people so far
The House committee investigating the Capitol insurrection has interviewed about 250 people so far, its chairman said Thursday, a staggering pace over just five months as lawmakers work to compile the most comprehensive account yet of the violent attack and hold public hearings next year.
Members and staff have conducted the interviews in private, and most witnesses have appeared voluntarily. The committee has subpoenaed more than 40 people, and lawmakers say that only two have defied outright their demands. The investigation began in late July.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., disclosed the number of private interviews as he tried to make the case at a House hearing for contempt charges against Jeffrey Clark, a former Department of Justice official who championed then-President Donald Trump’s efforts to reverse the 2020 election that Joe Biden won.
Al Jazeera News
Blinken warns Russia of ‘severe costs’ if it invades Ukraine
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned Moscow of the “severe costs and consequences” it would pay if it invaded Ukraine, urging his Russian counterpart to seek a diplomatic exit from the crisis.
Blinken on Thursday delivered the warning to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at what he called a “candid” meeting in Stockholm, Sweden. He announced that it was likely that Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin would speak soon.
“I made very clear our deep concerns and our resolve to hold Russia responsible for its actions, including our commitment to work with European allies to impose severe costs and consequences on Russia if it takes further aggressive action against Ukraine,” Blinken told a news conference after the meeting.
Son of Panama’s ex-president pleads guilty in US corruption case
The son of Panama’s former president Ricardo Martinelli has pleaded guilty to money laundering as part of a massive corruption scheme involving Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht, United States prosecutors said.
Luis Enrique Martinelli admitted to conspiring with his brother Ricardo to establish offshore bank accounts “to receive and disguise over $28m in bribe proceeds”, the US Department of Justice said in a statement on Thursday.
“To advance the scheme, Luis Enrique Martinelli agreed with others to cause the wiring of the Odebrecht bribe funds into and out of the United States, and used some of the proceeds of the scheme to purchase a yacht and a condominium in the United States,” the statement reads.
Delhi shuts schools after court warning to curb pollution
India’s capital territory Delhi has ordered the closure of schools and colleges until further notice from Friday after the Supreme Court criticised the state government for reopening educational institutions despite “very poor” air quality.
The Delhi government last week decided to reopen schools and colleges after closing them for nearly 15 days due to a spike in air pollution.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court, which is hearing a public petition over the government’s inability to cut air pollution, expressed its dismay over the decision by Delhi authorities to reopen schools and colleges and gave authorities 24 hours to reduce smog levels.
Common Dreams
Since Congress Lifted Crude Export Ban in 2015, US Has Dropped 'Climate Bomb' on World
After Congress lifted a ban on crude exports in late 2015, oil and gas production in the Permian Basin soared while domestic consumption remained flat—leading to a massive build-out of pipelines and other infrastructure that culminated in the U.S. "flooding global markets" with fossil fuels at the expense of humanity, in general, and vulnerable Gulf Coast communities already overburdened by pollution, in particular.
"Port Arthur, and the entire Gulf Coast, has become a sacrifice zone."
That's the focus of the third chapter of The Permian Basin Climate Bomb, a six-part multimedia report by Oil Change International, Earthworks, and the Center for International Environmental Law. The latest installment, released Wednesday, shows that the drilling and fracking boom that turned this area in the U.S. Southwest into "the world's single most prolific oil and gas field" over the past decade was not driven by rising domestic demand, but by a surge in exports after 2015.
Between 2015 and 2020, U.S. oil consumption actually declined by 7%. There was no corresponding decrease in extraction in New Mexico and Texas, however. Instead, fossil fuel production in the Permian Basin increased by 135% during the same time period.
The Guardian
Renewable energy has ‘another record year of growth’ says IEA
It has been another record year for renewable energy, despite the Covid-19 pandemic and rising costs for raw materials around the world, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
About 290GW of new renewable energy generation capacity, mostly in the form of wind turbines and solar panels, has been installed around the world this year, beating the previous record last year. On current trends, renewable energy generating capacity will exceed that of fossil fuels and nuclear energy combined by 2026.
New climate and energy policies in many countries around the world have driven the growth, with many governments setting out higher ambitions on cutting greenhouse gas emissions before and at the Cop26 UN climate summit in Glasgow last month.
‘Like putting a lithium mine on Arlington cemetery’: the fight to save sacred land in Nevada
On a windy afternoon in northern Nevada, where her family has lived for generations, Daranda Hinkey stood before one of the largest lithium deposits in the world – the place where, as she puts it, “there’s so much lithium it makes people foam at the mouth,” she says.
The area is known as Peehee Mu’huh – or Thacker Pass – and while it could be a lucrative resource for companies hoping to cash in on the electric vehicle revolution (lithium can be used to power rechargeable batteries), Hinkey and her peers say large-scale mining operations could irreversibly damage one of her community’s most sacred sites.
“It’s like putting a lithium mine on Arlington cemetery. It’s just not fair,” she said.
Hill Reporter.com
A Florida Trump Supporter Has Been Arrested For Voting Multiple Times
The plan kind of backfired on Paxton, though. He was mocked by fellow Attorney General of Pennsylvania. And the first bounty paid out by the Texas Republican went to a poll worker who turned in a person who voted for Trump multiple times.
And now, a woman in Florida has been arrested for voting multiple times. While it was not disclosed who she voted for, her Facebook page makes is pretty clear that she’s a fan of Donald Trump.
Joan Halstead, a 72 year old resident of the Villages was arrested on Monday and charged with casting more than one ballot in an election.
The registered Republican posted about Trump days before Joe Biden’s inauguration, “You don’t have the balls to share because you’re afraid to offend your snowflake friends. His list of accomplishments, even while being persecuted daily, are amazing.”
ESPN
MLB, MLBPA fail to reach new labor agreement; league in 1st lockout since 1990
Major League Baseball locked out its players early Thursday morning, certifying the game's first work stoppage in more than a quarter-century after months of talks yielded little progress toward a new labor contract.
The long-anticipated lockout, which the league told the players' union it would initiate once the previous collective bargaining agreement expired after 11:59 p.m. ET Wednesday, ends the transaction frenzy that led up to its imposition and sends the industry into a dark period with scant light in sight.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred expressed disappointment in the lockout but said he believes it is "the best mechanism to protect the 2022 season."
Phys.org
Climate modeling confirms historical records showing rise in hurricane activity
When forecasting how storms may change in the future, it helps to know something about their past. Judging from historical records dating back to the 1850s, hurricanes in the North Atlantic have become more frequent over the last 150 years.
However, scientists have questioned whether this upward trend is a reflection of reality, or simply an artifact of lopsided
record-keeping. If 19th-century
storm trackers had access to 21st-century technology, would they have recorded more storms? This inherent uncertainty has kept scientists from relying on storm records, and the patterns within them, for clues to how
climate influences storms.
A new MIT study published today in Nature Communications has used climate modeling, rather than storm records, to reconstruct the history of hurricanes and tropical cyclones around the world. The study finds that North Atlantic hurricanes have indeed increased in frequency over the last 150 years, similar to what historical records have shown.
Ocean plastic is creating new communities of life on the high seas
Coastal plants and animals have found a new way to survive in the open ocean—by colonizing plastic pollution. A new commentary published Dec. 2 in Nature Communications reports coastal species growing on trash hundreds of miles out to sea in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, more commonly known as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch."
"The issues of
plastic go beyond just ingestion and entanglement," said Linsey Haram, lead author of the article and former postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC). "It's creating opportunities for coastal species' biogeography to greatly expand beyond what we previously thought was possible."
Gyres of ocean plastic form when surface currents drive plastic pollution from the coasts into regions where rotating currents trap the floating objects, which accumulate over time. The world has at least five plastic-infested gyres, or "garbage patches." The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, between California and Hawai'i, holds the most floating plastic, with an estimated 79,000 metric tons of plastic floating in a region over 610,000 square miles. While "garbage patch" is a misnomer—much of the pollution consists of microplastics, too small for the naked eye to see—floating debris like nets, buoys and bottles also get swept into the gyres, carrying organisms from their coastal homes with them.
Island turns into open-air lab for tech-savvy volcanologists
They come with eagle-eyed drones and high-precision instruments. Aided by satellites, they analyze gas emissions and the flows of molten rock. On the ground, they collect everything from the tiniest particles to "lava bombs" the size of watermelons that one of nature's most powerful forces hurl as incandescent projectiles.
Scientists from around the world are flocking to La Palma, one of Spain's Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, to take advantage of a volcanic
eruption happening just an hour's drive from an international airport and the safety of being able to work under the escort of military brigades. They are applying cutting-edge technologies to scrutinize a rare volcanic eruption from the land, the sea, the air—and even space.
As in the two dozen other major live eruptions across the planet, from Hawaii to Indonesia, the ultimate goal on La Palma is to use a unique window of opportunity to better understand volcanic eruptions: how they form, develop and, even more crucially for the islanders, how and when they end.
Medicalxpress.com
Researchers carry out the first head-to-head comparison of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines
In the first head-to-head comparison of the effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, researchers examined the electronic health records of veterans who had received each vaccine. Both vaccines were highly effective in preventing COVID-19 outcomes such as documented infection, hospitalization, and death.
However, the Moderna vaccine was found to offer an increased level of protection, including a 21% lower risk of documented infection and 41% lower risk of hospitalization, according to the research team, whose findings were published on December 1, 2021, in the New England Journal of Medicine.
"Both vaccines are incredibly effective, with only rare breakthrough cases," said Dr. J.P. Casas, a member of the research team made up of experts from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Brigham and Women's Hospital. "But regardless of the predominant strain—Alpha earlier and then Delta later—Moderna was shown to be slightly more effective," said Casas, an epidemiologist and associate professor with Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School and executive director of the VA's Million Veteran Program for genetics and health research.
USA Today
Today's date is rare: It reads the same way forward, backward and upside down
Dec. 2, 2021, written out numerically as 12/02/2021, is a palindrome because it reads the same backward as it does forward. But what makes Thursday's date extra uncommon is that it can also be read upside down just the same.
If you drop the slash marks from today's date and punch it into an analog calculator, you'll get the same image no matter which way you view it: upside down or right sideup.
Tyler Roney, a meteorologist in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, displayed the ambigram on Twitter, but it might require you tilting your head to the side or flipping your phone upside down to see it both ways.
DW.com
Newly discovered dinosaur had 'blades' on tail
A new species of dinosaur that was discovered in Chile had a tail never seen in prehistoric fossil remains before, scientists announced on Wednesday.
Paleontologists said the exciting fossil find shows how much is left to uncover about the giant (and also not so giant) creatures who roamed the Earth millions of years ago.
What do we know about the new species?
The new species, dubbed "stegouros elengassen," has been puzzling researchers since its remains were found three years ago in Chile's Patagonia.
The dinosaur's fossils indicate it lived around 72 million to 75 million years ago, scientists said in a study published in the journal Nature.Scientists were able to recover around 80% of the animal's remains.
this next story? $110 bucks for a bag of magic dirt!
NBC News
'Magic dirt': How the internet fueled, and defeated, the pandemic's weirdest MLM
The social media posts started in May: photos and videos of smiling people, mostly women, drinking Mason jars of black liquid, slathering black paste on their faces and feet, or dipping babies and dogs in tubs of the black water. They tagged the posts #BOO and linked to a website that sold a product called Black Oxygen Organics.
Black Oxygen Organics, or “BOO” for short, is difficult to classify. It was marketed as fulvic acid, a compound derived from decayed plants, that was dug up from an Ontario peat bog. The website of the Canadian company that sold it billed it as “the end product and smallest particle of the decomposition of ancient, organic matter.”
Put more simply, the product is dirt — four-and-a-half ounces of it, sealed in a sleek black plastic baggie and sold for $110 plus shipping. Visitors to the Black Oxygen Organics website, recently taken offline, were greeted with a pair of white hands cradling cups of dirt like an offering. “A gift from the Ground,” it reads. “Drink it. Wear it. Bathe in it.”
Good News Network
The Underwater ‘Kites’ Generating Tidal Electricity As they Move
If there’s plenty of sky, but little sun; plenty of wind, but little land, where can the Faroe Islands look for renewable energy?
The answer is obvious, owing to their Viking origins: Sea Dragons.
The Sea Dragon is a unique form of kinetic energy generated by the movement of the tides. 40 meters below the surface, they are underwater kites or gliders that have a 16-foot wingspan and swim in a figure of eight position along with the tide, generating enough energy to power 50-70 homes.
Home to just 50,000 people, the Faroe Islands is a self-governing Danish archipelago that lies between Iceland and Shetland—and one would think it would be an easy enough place to reach a zero-emissions target.