Important Takeaways:
- New York state will fine fossil fuel companies a total of $75 billion over the next 25 years to pay for damage caused to the climate under a bill Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law on Thursday.
- “New York has fired a shot that will be heard round the world: The companies most responsible for the climate crisis will be held accountable,” New York Senator Liz Krueger, a Democrat who co-sponsored the bill, said in a statement.
- The law is intended to shift some of the recovery and adaptation costs of climate change from individual taxpayers to oil, gas and coal companies that the law says are liable. The money raised will be spent on mitigating the impacts of climate change, including adapting roads, transit, water and sewage systems, buildings and other infrastructure.
- Fossil fuel companies will be fined based on the amount of greenhouse gases they released into the atmosphere between 2000 and 2018, to be paid into a Climate Superfund beginning in 2028.
- It will apply to any company that the New York Department of Environmental Conservation determines is responsible for more than 1 billion tons of global greenhouse gas emissions.
- Repairing damage and adapting for extreme weather caused by climate change will cost New York more than $500 billion by 2050, Krueger said in her statement.
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Important Takeaways:
- Lawmakers on Friday passed a motion to impeach Han Duck-soo, who is also the prime minister, after he resisted pressure to appoint three justices to fill vacancies on the Constitutional Court.
- It marks the first time an acting president has been impeached in South Korea and comes less than two weeks after President Yoon Suk Yeol was suspended from his duties after his failed attempt to impose martial law shook the nation.
- Han’s impeachment vote came as the Constitutional Court opened hearings on Yoon’s impeachment over his short-lived attempt to reinstate military rule this month. The court has six months to decide whether to uphold Yoon’s impeachment or reinstate him.
- Impeaching the prime minister requires a simple majority in parliament, but the ruling party claimed that the voting results were invalid and filed an injunction against Han’s impeachment, arguing that the two-thirds majority needed to impeach a president should also apply to acting presidents.
- Han said he respected the parliament’s decision and would wait for the Constitutional Court’s ruling on whether to confirm his impeachment.
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Important Takeaways:
- The National Weather Service is predicting waves twenty to thirty feet high through December 29.
- As a result, a high surf warning is in effect, just days after dangerous surf caused the collapse of the Santa Cruz Wharf.
- While the larger waves may be further off the coast, the churning can quickly hit rocks and beaches, pulling people out to sea.
- First responders warn: never turn your back on the ocean.
- Pacifica Pier was closed on Thursday due to the dangerous surf.
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Important Takeaways:
- Arriving deputies located a victim, Melinda Irizarry, who was stabbed multiple times and was then transported to an area hospital.
- She underwent emergency surgery for a ruptured lung and suffered stab wounds to the chest, arms, legs and abdomen, according to the affidavit.
- Authorities identified 22-year-old Brianna Alvelo as the delivery driver and suspect in the case, according to the affidavit.
- Officials say that Irizarry placed an order at Marcos Pizza Shop and 30 minutes later the suspect believed to be Alvelo arrived at their motel with the order, which totaled $33.10.
- Irizarry handed the suspect a $50 bill and requested change, however, to which she was told it was store policy not to provide change, the affidavit said.
- After getting smaller bills to fulfill the order, Irizarry ended up giving the driver a $2 tip. After the incident, Irizarry told deputies the driver “rolled her eyes and walked away without saying anything,” according to the affidavit.
- Officials said Alvelo allegedly later returned to the victim’s motel room with an unknown male suspect — who was armed with a firearm — and “forced their way into the room.”
- Alvelo, who deputies say was armed with a knife, attacked the victim and stabbed her 14 times, according to the affidavit.
- Police say items were also taken from the motel room in the invasion.
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Important Takeaways:
- Zapeta-Calil, 33, is accused of setting fire to an unidentified woman who was asleep on an F train approaching the Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn early Sunday.
- Zapeta-Calil allegedly ignited her clothes and “fanned the flames” with a shirt as the fire engulfed her, according to police testimony in a complaint filed in Brooklyn Criminal Court.
- The New York City Office of the Medical Examiner classified the victim’s death as a homicide, attributing it to “thermal injuries” and “smoke inhalation.”
- “Her life mattered, and we believe that we can do something and that anyone can participate, and that is the power of prayer,” Rev. Kevin McCall, founder of the Crisis Action Center, told the outlet.
- An undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, Zapeta-Calil was deported in 2018 and later reentered the US illegally, according to federal immigration authorities.
- The US Border Patrol encountered Zapeta-Calil in Sonoita, Arizona, on June 1, 2018, issuing him an expedited removal order. He later unlawfully reentered the US at an unknown date and location.
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Important Takeaways:
- Congress revoked an additional $20 billion from the Internal Revenue Service last week when lawmakers averted a government shutdown, a cut that may undo many of President Joe Biden’s efforts to improve customer service at the tax agency and train fresh scrutiny on wealthy tax cheats.
- Biden and congressional Democrats gave the IRS $80 billion in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, but Congress rescinded $20 billion as part of a 2023 budget deal. Shortly afterward, Republicans vowed they’d be back for more IRS cuts.
- And because of the way lawmakers extended government funding into March, an additional $20 billion in cuts came automatically.
- When Congress approved a stopgap funding bill, called a continuing resolution, all the existing policy from the previous fiscal year was carried forward unless new text was specifically added to the bill to change it.
- There was no language in the bill to undo last year’s cut, so it repeated in the new law.
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Important Takeaways:
- God’s truth is reaching new eyes, with Bibles reportedly flying off shelves this year.
- In fact, Bible sales are up 22% this year through the end of October when compared to last year’s sales during the same time period, making for “a golden age of Bible publishing,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
- And here’s why this figure matters. U.S. book sales were up less than 1% during that same period, meaning the Bible’s growth in sales far outpaced what was happening more generally in the print literary space.
- In the first 10 months of 2024, 13.7 million copies were sold, with still two months left to count.
- So, why the increase, you ask? It seems chaos and uncertainty in the world, among other factors, could be turning people back to the Lord.
- One bookstore manager told the outlet she’s seeing many first-time buyers come in looking for the Scriptures — people she said are on a quest for “hope.”
- Young people, in particular, could be looking for answers to some of life’s tough questions, especially as cultural confusion grows.
- And nearly half of Gen Z said the Bible has transformed their lives. Among older Gen Z adults aged 18-21, 49% reported this transformation, with 52% of those aged 22-26 stating the same.
- “They’re leaning into the Bible,” Plake said. “They’re really trying to engage in their faith and they are kind of a bright hope for us as a young generation of American adults.”
- Other recently released data shows the full power a regular connection with God can have on a young person’s life. It will be interesting to see if the trend continues in 2025 — and beyond.
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Important Takeaways:
- Wild Felid Advocacy Center in Shelton is working closely with public health officials to monitor workers and animals after the presence of bird flu (HPAI) was confirmed in some big cats at the sanctuary, per a statement on its website.
- The center confirmed in a Friday Facebook post that the virus had killed five African servals, four bobcats, four cougars and two Canada lynx. One Amur/Bengal tiger, a Bengal cat, an African caracal, a Geoffroy’s cat and a Eurasian lynx also died of bird flu.
- “We are heartbroken to share that animal health officials have confirmed the presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) among over half of our wild felids as of December”
- The cause of the outbreak was not immediately known, but the center noted on Facebook that bird flu “spreads primarily through respiratory secretions and bird-to-bird contact and can also be contracted by carnivorous mammals that ingest birds or other products.”
- Cats “are particularly vulnerable to this virus, which can cause subtle initial symptoms but progress rapidly, often resulting in death within 24 hours due to pneumonia-like conditions,” the post added.
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Important Takeaways:
- Police said the incident was related to a family dispute.
- Phoenix police said the evening shooting happened at around 9:45 p.m. at an airport restaurant that is outside the security checkpoints in Terminal 4.
- An adult female and two adult males were shot, leaving the female with injuries police describe as life-threatening. The two men were in stable condition and expected to survive, police said in a statement. The man hospitalized with at least one stab wound was in stable condition.
- The group of people all knew each other and had a physical fight that led to one of them to pull a gun, police said.
- “I do believe that this was a family dispute that escalated,” Phoenix police Sgt. Mayra Reeson told reporters.
- After the gunfire, a man and a girl were detained in an airport parking garage nearby.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Israeli strikes followed several days of Houthi launches setting off sirens in Israel.
- The strikes, carried out over 1,000 miles from Jerusalem, came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “the Houthis, too, will learn what Hamas and Hezbollah and Assad’s regime and others learned” as his military has battled those more powerful proxies of Iran
- The Israeli military in a statement said it attacked infrastructure used by the Iran-backed Houthis at the international airport in Sanaa and ports in Hodeida, Al-Salif and Ras Qantib, along with power stations, asserting they were used to smuggle in Iranian weapons and for the entry of senior Iranian officials.
- Israel’s military added it had “capabilities to strike very far from Israel’s territory — precisely, powerfully, and repetitively.”
- Israeli airstrikes in Yemen on Thursday targeted the Houthi rebel-held capital and multiple ports, while the World Health Organization’s director-general said the bombardment occurred nearby as he prepared to board a flight in Sanaa, with a crew member injured.
- “The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few meters from where we were — and the runway were damaged,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said
- Israel’s army later told The Associated Press it wasn’t aware that the WHO chief was at the location in Yemen.
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