WTF Just Happened Today

Monday, November 7, 2022

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1/ Earth is on track to see its 5th or 6th warmest year on record in 2022, with global average temperatures currently running about 1.15°C above the preindustrial average. “We just had the 8 warmest years on record,” the World Meteorological Organization said, calling its latest State of the Global Climate report a “chronicle of climate chaos.” The agency noted that “the warming continues” with accelerating sea level rise, record-breaking glacier melting, and extreme weather. Temperatures in Europe have increased at an average rate of 0.5 degrees Celsius per decade over the past 30 years – more than twice the global average. (Bloomberg / Washington Post / Axios / CBS News)

2/ U.N. Secretary General António Guterres called for the creation of a “climate solidarity pact” between rich and poor nations to meet the Paris Agreement’s target and limit the severity of global warming. Earth is losing “the fight of our lives,” Guterres said in opening remarks at the annual U.N. climate conference, known as COP27. “We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator. Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish.” The Guterres called for China and the U.S. – the world’s two biggest polluters – to cooperate, saying they have a “particular responsibility to join efforts to make this pact a reality. This is our only hope of meeting our climate goals.” (NPR / Axios / New York Times / Washington Post / CNN / Axios)

3/ More than 41 million pre-election ballots have been cast across 47 states, but Republicans in at least three battleground states have sued to disqualify thousands of mail ballots. In Pennsylvania, thousands of ballots have been set aside because the voter neglected to put a date on the outer envelope. While in Michigan, the Republican nominee for secretary of state filed a lawsuit seeking to toss absentee ballots not requested in person by Detroit voters. And in Wisconsin, some mail ballots won’t be counted if the required witness address is not complete. Pre-election voting, however, has been ahead of 2018 levels in states where data is available for the last three cycles. (CNN / Washington Post)

4/ A Russian oligarch known as “Vladimir Putin’s chef” admitted that Russia had interfered in U.S. elections and would continue to do so. “Gentlemen, we have interfered, are interfering and will interfere. Carefully, precisely, surgically and in our own way, as we know how to do,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said. In 2018, special counsel Robert Mueller charged Prigozhin with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. for his role in financing the Internet Research Agency, a “troll factory” in St. Petersburg that used social media to spread fake news during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaig...

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