Blizzard conditions disrupt travel across Northern and Central Plains
Nearly 1 million people across the Northern and Central Plains were under blizzard or ice storm warnings Tuesday as heavy snow, freezing rain and powerful winds created treacherous road conditions that forecasters said could last through early Wednesday. A blizzard warning affecting more than 550,000 people in parts of five states — Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming — would be in effect until early Wednesday morning. Some areas could receive as much as 6 inches of snow and wind gusts of up to 60 mph, the National Weather Service said.
A record-breaking warm, snowless winter confounds Midwesterners
A high of 54 degrees made this Christmas Day the warmest on record in the Minneapolis area, according to the National Weather Service. Across much of the region, people contended with a string of days heading into the new year that felt like a mild autumn. In northern Minnesota, emergency personnel have warned people to stay off lakes, which are covered by an unusually thin layer of ice. Milwaukee, which has recorded seven days above 50 degrees so far this month, is on track for its warmest December and its warmest year on record, according to the weather service.
A natural gas project is Biden’s next big climate test
On a marshy stretch of the Louisiana coastline, a little-known company wants to build a $10 billion facility that would allow the United States to export vast stores of liquefied natural gas. But opponents of the project, known as CP2, say it would be harmful to the people who live in the area as well as to the fragile ecosystem that supports aquatic life in the Gulf of Mexico. In the coming months, the Energy Department is expected to rule on whether the export terminal is in the “public interest,” a subjective determination that could have far-reaching consequences for the country’s natural gas industry.
Serious medical errors rose after private equity firms bought hospitals
The rate of serious medical complications increased in hospitals after they were purchased by private equity investment firms, according to a major study of the effects of such acquisitions on patient care. The study, published in JAMA on Tuesday, found that in the three years after a private equity fund bought a hospital, adverse events including surgical infections and bedsores rose by 25% among Medicare patients when compared with similar hospitals that were not bought by such investors. Researchers also saw a slight decrease (of nearly 5%) in the rate of patients who died, which could be attributed to a shift toward healthier patients admitted to the hospitals.
A new tax on imports and a split from China: Trump’s 2025 trade agenda
Former President Donald Trump is planning an aggressive expansion of his first-term efforts to upend America’s trade policies if he is reelected, including imposing a new tax on “most imported goods” that would risk alienating allies and igniting a global trade war. While the Biden administration has kept tariffs that Trump imposed on China, Trump would go far beyond that. Trump has said he would “enact aggressive new restrictions on Chinese ownership” of a broad range of assets in the United States, bar Americans from investing in China and phase in a complete ban on imports of key categories of Chinese-made goods like electronics, steel and pharmaceuticals.
Earth was due for another year of record warmth. But this warm?
Earth is finishing up its warmest year of the past 174, and very likely the past 125,000. This year’s global temperatures did not just beat records. They left them in the dust. From June through November, the mercury spent month after month soaring off the charts. December’s temperatures have largely remained above normal. But as extreme as this year’s temperatures were, 2023’s heat was within the range projected by scientists’ computational models, albeit on the high end. “I’m not willing to say that we’ve ‘broken the climate’ or there’s anything weird going on until more evidence comes in,” said Andrew Dessler, an atmospheric scientist at Texas A&M University.
Israel moves to limit visas for U.N. employees
Israel said Tuesday that it would stop automatically issuing visas to United Nations employees, an escalation of tensions over the war in the Gaza Strip. Instead, Israel will consider each visa on a “case-by-case” basis, a government spokesperson said at a news conference. Asked for clarification, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the government used to approve visa applications by U.N. personnel almost immediately and that that would no longer be the case. The Israeli government has rejected the U.N.’s calls for a cease-fire.
By wire sources