Important Takeaways:
- The shelves and prices at your local grocery store could look a little different soon.
- The Colorado River, which provides water for about 15% of our country’s agriculture, is shrinking, and the current agreement that divvies up the water usage ends in 2026.
- The Imperial Valley in Southern California relies 100% on the Colorado River for its water.
- This valley receives less than three inches of rain a year, yet still produces about two-thirds of the country’s winter produce.
- Farmers in the valley say the shrinking water levels and competing interests over river usage will badly impact the nation’s food supply.
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Important Takeaways:
- Fears are growing over the spread of a violent Venezuelan gang across the US, with experts warning the mobsters could have a foothold in more than half the country by February next year.
- It emerged earlier this month that Tren de Aragua, which has been dubbed the ‘epitome of evil’ and ‘MS-13 on steroids’, is already operating in 18 states.
- This includes some of the most remote corners of America in Colorado, North Dakota, Montana, Nevada and Wyoming. The bloodthirsty criminals also maintain strongholds in major cities across Texas as well as New York and Chicago.
- Known as TdA to law enforcement, the gang originated in a Venezuelan prison.
- Members of the South American mafia have since crept into the US via the southern border, hidden among the one million Venezuelan migrants who have entered the country under the Biden administration.
- They can often be identified by telltale tattoos, including a train (‘tren’ is Spanish for train), a crown, a clock and an AK-47.
- Earlier this year, Daily Mail revealed how the gang set up its new headquarters in the Mexican city of Juarez on the US border, just across from El Paso, Texas.
- And startling police investigations have showed how the mob is behind a spiraling crime wave across America, with gangsters accused of murders, violent attacks on cops and sex trafficking.
- A Venezuelan dissident running for office in Salt Lake City, Utah, has warned that the gangsters have been linked to at least two separate crimes in the state – including an alleged prostitution ring and shooting.
- Carlos Moreno told the New York Post: ‘Our law enforcement people are not ready. They are not ready yet to face these kinds of gangs in Utah because the way that they do things are totally different than criminals here in the United States.’
- ‘That’s why people right now are very afraid,’ he added.
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Important Takeaways:
- Israel conducted a commando raid on an underground Iranian missile production facility near the city of Maysaf in Syria in early September, the Jerusalem Post learned in later September, but was only allowed to confirm now after KAN News was permitted to publicize the IDF officially taking credit late Sunday.
- That a raid took place, but without Israeli confirmation, was first reported by Axios on September 12, with the Post receiving secret confirmation shortly after, but not permission to publicize the information.
- It appears that Israeli censor and secrecy rules regarding operations in Syria have become more flexible given the huge increase in IDF operations in Syria since the fall of the Assad regime.
- With the fall of the regime, information security officials likely view any threat of retaliation from Syria as being at a much lower risk level.
- The raid targeted two significant sites, which were the Syrian defense industry’s Scientific Studies and Research Center and the underground missile production facility run by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
- The decision to carry out the strike was believed to be influenced by concerns over the ongoing war, along with the potential risk that the Iranian missile factory would begin mass-producing missiles.
- …weapons were reportedly intended to be used as a supply for Hezbollah.
- The operation occurred approximately 200 kilometers from Israeli territory and was deemed urgent to prevent the facility from reaching full production capacity.
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Important Takeaways:
- The 10 costliest climate disasters in 2024 racked up damage totaling more than 200 billion US dollars, Christian Aid has warned.
- A report from the charity on hurricanes, floods, typhoons and storms influenced by climate change warns that the top 10 disasters each cost more than 4 billion US dollars in damage (£3.2 billion).
- The figures are based mostly on insured losses, so the true costs are likely to be even higher, Christian Aid said…
- The single most costly event in 2024 was Hurricane Milton, which scientists say was made windier, wetter and more destructive by global warming, and which caused 60 billion US dollars (£48 billion) of damage when it hit the US in October.
- That is closely followed by Hurricane Helene, which cost 55 billion US dollars (£44 billion) when it hit the US, Mexico and Cuba just two weeks before Milton in late September.
- The US was hit by so many costly storms throughout the year that even when hurricanes are removed, other storms cost more than 60 billion US dollars in damage, the report said
- The 10 costliest climate disasters of 2024 were:
- – US storms, December to January, more than 60 billion US dollars;– Hurricane Milton in the US, October 9-13, 60 billion US dollars (£48 billion);– Hurricane Helene in the US, Mexico, Cuba, 55 billion US dollars (£44 billion);– China floods, June 9-July 14, 15.6 billion US dollars (£12.4 billion);– Typhoon Yagi, which hit south-west Asia from September 1 to 9, 12.6 billion US dollars (£10 billion);– Hurricane Beryl, in the US, Mexico and Caribbean islands from July 1-11, 6.7 billion US dollars (£5.3 billion);– Storm Boris in central Europe, September 12-16, 5.2 billion US dollars (£4.1 billion);– Rio Grande do Sul floods in Brazil, April 28-May 3, 5 billion US dollars (£4 billion);– Bavaria floods, Germany, June 1-7, 4.45 billion US dollars (£3.5 billion);– Valencia floods, Spain, on October 29, 4.22 billion US dollars (£3.4 billion).
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Important Takeaways:
- A quarter century ago, prompted by a spate of abandoned babies in Houston, this state became the first in the country to pass a safe haven law allowing parents to relinquish newborns at designated places — without questions or risk of prosecution. Yet “Baby Moses” surrenders remain rare in Texas, and another series of abandoned infants since spring in the Houston area has prompted much soul-searching.
- In June, a baby boy was left next to a clothing donation bin on the city’s southeast side and a baby girl in some bushes in Katy, a western suburb. Both were saved.
- By August, two other babies had been found: in an industrial ditch in north Houston and in a trash truck’s compactor in a far northwest neighborhood. Both were dead.
- The latest occurred just before Christmas at a Whataburger in San Antonio.
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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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