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Overnight News Digest for January 10, 2024 (Hunted becomes the Hunter edition) [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-01-10  

In a time of rank partisanship, lawmakers may reach a deal to extend key tax credits for families and businesses. Two years after the expiration of the expanded child tax credit, a pandemic-era policy that temporarily but dramatically lowered child poverty rates, federal lawmakers are close to a bipartisan deal that may reinstate some version of the credit. Leaders of the tax-writing committees in the House and Senate are working on a deal to expand the existing child tax credit in exchange for extending certain business tax credits, including a popular credit related to research and development that expired at the end of 2022. Punchbowl News reported on Tuesday that the tax deal on the table may end up in the $50 to $80 billion range. A source familiar with negotiations told me that the leaders of the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee had not yet agreed to a final number, but that it would likely be a multiyear deal, rather than making the credits permanent. But the road ahead is anything but smooth, as this potential deal arises during a particularly busy and politically fraught legislative period. With so many other pressing agenda items currently under consideration in Congress—such as keeping the government funded—it is unclear whether this tax deal will be approved in a timely manner.

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.

An increasing number of lawmakers acknowledged Wednesday that another stopgap funding bill will be needed to avert a government shutdown, the same day a small group of conservatives in the House tanked a procedural vote in a sign of GOP opposition to a new spending deal. ...Sen. John Kennedy (La.), top Republican on the subcommittee that oversees funding for the Department of Energy and other agencies, said Wednesday that appropriators “can’t do anything” until they receive another set of numbers setting the levels for each of the 12 bills. “I think everybody’s working hard to come up with those numbers. Nothing’s really easy around here right now,” said Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), another appropriator, adding he thinks the “only way” to prevent a shutdown next week is “to have a CR.” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) previously said he would not approve another short-term CR. But he also appeared not to rule out the option this week if Congress needs more time to finish its funding work. ...Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the upper chamber’s No. 2 Republican, suggested a stopgap heading into the “March time frame” as a potential option to buy appropriators enough time to conference the legislation, while also noting ramped talks around a foreign aid package.

Hundreds of soldiers patrolled near-deserted streets in Ecuador's capital Wednesday after the government and drug mafias declared war on each other, leaving residents gripped with fear. The small South American country has been plunged into crisis after years of growing control by transnational cartels who use its ports to ship cocaine to the U.S. and Europe. President Daniel Noboa, 36, gave orders on Tuesday to "neutralize" criminal gangs after gunmen stormed and opened fire in a TV studio and bandits threatened random executions of civilians and security forces. Less than two months after taking office, he declared the country in a state of "internal armed conflict." The crime gangs also declared war on the government when Noboa announced a state of emergency following the prison escape on Sunday of one of Ecuador's most powerful narco bosses.

x Today, Rep. Mace said that she takes great pride in her work on the Civil Rights Subcommittee. Rep. AOC then reminded her that she led the elimination of that subcommittee. pic.twitter.com/EQJ0HPRke5 — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@RepAOC) January 10, 2024

Plus Power’s Kapolei battery is officially online. The pioneering project is a leading example of how to shift crucial grid functions from fossil-fueled plants to clean energy. x A genuine piece of good news: a giant battery has replaced Hawaii's final coal power plant. https://t.co/7B4wDNbYYX — David Roberts (@drvolts) January 10, 2024 Hawaii shut down its last coal plant on September 1, 2022, eliminating 180 megawatts of fossil-fueled baseload power from the grid on Oahu — a crucial step in the state’s first-in-the-nation commitment to cease burning fossil fuels for electricity by 2045. But the move posed a question that’s becoming increasingly urgent as clean energy surges across the United States: How do you maintain a reliable grid while switching from familiar fossil plants to a portfolio of small and large renewables that run off the vagaries of the weather? Now Hawaii has an answer: It’s a gigantic battery, unlike the gigantic batteries that have been built before. The Kapolei Energy Storage system actually began commercial operations before Christmas on the industrial west side of Oahu, according to Plus Power, the Houston-based firm that developed and owns the project. (The company just had the good sense to wait to announce it until journalists and readers had fully returned from winter holidays.)

Microplastics in our steak and tofu are washed down with nanoplastics from bottled water. If we are what we eat, there’s growing evidence to help explain how nanoplastics and microplastics are in our blood, in our intestines and in some of our organs. x Plastic is everywhere, including in our food and bottled water | Ars Technica https://t.co/ATCO4CsYkd — Zula (@ZulaQi) January 11, 2024 Two new studies published this week shed further, and alarming, light on all the tiny plastic particles that people are consuming every day. A liter of bottled water may contain nearly a quarter million pieces of the smallest particles of plastic. These nanoplastic particles are so small, scientists have found, that some pass through intestines and lungs or make their way into human blood and placental fluid. The bottled water study, done by researchers at Columbia and Rutgers Universities, was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Also published Monday, in the journal Environmental Pollution, was a paper from scientists at the University of Toronto and the Ocean Conservancy, which found that nearly 90 percent of 16 different kinds of protein commonly eaten by people, including seafood, chicken and beef—and even plant-based meat alternatives such as tofu and veggie burgers—contain microplastics.

x Every Congressional session we get a new pin - it's our ID on the floor for the next 2 years. Today we're getting a new pin, half way through the term because the @HouseGOP didn't like the color. Big congrats to them on their first tangible accomplishment of the 118th. — Sean Casten (@SeanCasten) January 10, 2024

James Meadway is an economist who is not at all impressed with economics. Formerly an adviser to John McDonnell when he was Labour shadow chancellor, Meadway has plenty to say about what mainstream economics gets wrong. But one of his central gripes is the way it treats the environment. “We cannot simply pretend that … the entire ecological crisis is a separate and distinct thing from what’s happening in the economy,” says Meadway, who now works on climate finance. And yet that is precisely what happens. This critique informs the podcast, Macrodose, which Meadway presents and which has recently turned one year old. Its tagline is “Your weekly fix of climate economics”. Every Wednesday, in 15 minutes or so, Meadway analyses the key economic stories of the week. Part of the aim is to make economics more accessible because, he says, it is often thought of as something so difficult that “you have to be really clever to do it”. Macrodose also grew out of Meadway’s increasing frustration with how the environment was either neglected altogether or mishandled by economists. What you have is reporting on these extreme weather events, he says, gesturing to one side, and then separately, motioning “over here”, the discussion around what’s going on in the economy.

A new study asked thousands to evaluate the accuracy of news articles — both real and fake — by doing some research online. But for many, heading to Google led them farther from the truth, not closer. When it comes to digital spreaders of misinformation, social media platforms typically get the brunt of the blame. After all, they’re the places with the black-box algorithms, the propagandist bots, and the partisan screamers. On social media, we can watch the bad information spread, in real time. Social media is, at least metaphorically, a passive experience — a place where the news finds you. But what’s the most enraging thing your uncle can say at Thanksgiving, right after he tells you about how the Rothschilds are behind an army of Colombians set to invade Idaho next week? “I’ve done my own research on this.” x "A new study asked thousands to evaluate the accuracy of news articles — both real and fake — by doing some research online. But for many, heading to Google led them farther from the truth, not closer."



So much for "do your own research."https://t.co/soJPBMnCeY — David Roberts (@drvolts) January 9, 2024 … And the results? They weren’t great for Team Search Engine: Taken together, the five studies provide consistent evidence that SOTEN increased belief in misinformation during the point in time investigated. In our fifth study, which tested explanations for the mechanism underlying this effect, we found evidence suggesting that exposure to lower-quality information in search results is associated with a higher probability of believing misinformation, but exposure to high-quality information is not. How much of a difference did SOTEN make? Study 1 found that asking people to research a false claim led to “a 19% increase in the probability that a respondent rated a false or misleading article as true,” compared to people who did no research at all.

x Humpback Whales work collaboratively to make Fibonacci Spiral bubble net.



Recorded by Piet van den Bemd.https://t.co/qL43h3Rro2 — Blue Planet Society (@Seasaver) January 6, 2024

While there is no shortage of complicated questions to ask about the universe, sometimes it's fun to go back to basics. In that spirit, here's the answer to a question people have asked time and time again on the Internet: "If there's no oxygen in space, how is the Sun on fire?" First off, there is molecular oxygen in space – just not a lot of it. It has been found in molecular form in a few places, including the Orion Nebula and the Rho Ophiuchi cloud, and the galaxy named Markarian 231. Even in the Orion Nebula, it is scarce, and it is definitely not the reason why the Sun "burns", because it doesn't. Earth is the only place in our solar system where we know that there is fire. In fact, it is the only place in the universe where we are sure that fire exists, and yes, that includes stars and the Sun. To have fire, you need free atmospheric oxygen. Without it, combustion simply cannot take place, and for sustained combustion, experiments show that an atmospheric volume of around 16 percent O 2 is required. Despite being the third most abundant element in the universe behind helium and hydrogen, free molecular oxygen has only been found in abundance on Earth, where our atmosphere is 21 percent oxygen.

What are you thinking about tonight? Tell us all about it in the comments!

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.

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