Good morning.
Ohio voters yesterday rejected a proposal that would have made it considerably harder to amend the state constitution in a major win for reproductive rights and democracy advocates in the state.
The result means that Ohio will keep its current process for amending the state constitution in place. The procedure first requires voters to collect a certain number of signatures from at least 44 of the state’s 88 counties to send an amendment proposal to the ballot and then a simple majority to pass it.
Issue 1, the proposal under consideration, would have made both of those steps harder. It would have required voters to collect signatures in all 88 counties and then required a supermajority of 60% to pass it.
It was the first time since 1926 that Ohio voters had cast ballots on a proposed constitutional amendment in August. Republicans, who control the state legislature, rushed the measure to the ballot in an effort to make it harder to pass a referendum to protect abortion rights, set for this fall. With a little over half of the vote counted, the “no” vote led 59% to 41%.
What did Joe Biden say? The US president said of the result: “democracy won”.
What did the campaigners say about the result? Dennis Willard, a spokesperson for One Person One Vote, the coalition that opposed Issue 1, said: “Today is a huge victory for the people of Ohio. Majority rule still stands in Ohio. The people’s power is preserved because people like you showed up and overwhelmingly defeated Issue 1.”
Fears over Antarctic sea ice as yearly ozone layer hole forms ‘very early’
The hole in the ozone layer has begun to form early this year, prompting warnings that a larger-than-average hole may further warm the Southern Ocean while the level of Antarctic sea ice is at a record low.
Satellite data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts suggests the hole has already begun to form over Antarctica.
Dr Martin Jucker, a lecturer at the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, said the hole usually began forming at the end of September, peaking in October before closing in November or December. “Starting in August is certainly very early,” he said. “We don’t usually expect that.”
The ozone hole is usually smaller during El Niño years, but modelling by Jucker and collaborators, including Chris Lucas of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, has suggested it will be larger than usual in 2023, due to long-lasting atmospheric changes after the undersea Tonga volcano explosion in January last year. The modelling has not yet been peer-reviewed.
What usually happens? The Antarctic ozone hole is an annual thinning of the stratosphere’s ozone layer, which has a high concentration of ozone molecules that absorb ultraviolet radiation from the sun. The hole has been “healing” over time, since the 1989 Montreal protocol eliminated 99% of ozone-depleting chemicals, such as chlorofluorocarbons. Ozone levels over the Antarctic are expected to bounce back to 1980 levels by 2066.
More than 1m acres of Indigenous land flooded by dams, new study finds
More than 1m acres of tribal land – an area larger than the state of Rhode Island – have been flooded by dams, compounding centuries of land seizures and forced displacement by settler colonials and the US government, research has found.
Land has always been central to Indigenous culture, sovereignty and prosperity, while land dispossession has been a mainstay strategy used to divide and disempower communities, by depriving Indigenous people of clean water, traditional food sources, spiritual connections and economic opportunities.
The study, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, is the first attempt to calculate the amount of land lost by Indigenous Americans due to the construction of dams that re-engineered America’s rivers and lakes to store, divert and control waterways.
By overlaying geospatial data on tribal land boundaries with the reservoirs created by 7,900 major dams, researchers at Penn State and Arizona University found that 1.13m acres of tribal land – an area larger than Great Smoky Mountains national park, Grand Teton national park, and Rocky Mountain national park combined – has been submerged underwater. The true figure is likely to be significantly higher, as reservoir data for tens of thousands of smaller dams is not available.
Why is the study important? “This is the first study to quantify tribal land flooded by dams, which is an overlooked and additional source of Native land dispossession,” said the lead author Heather Randell, the assistant professor of rural sociology and demography at Penn State University. “There was a lot of immediate trauma caused by the flooding and many long term impacts for tribal members that continue today.”
In other news …
The Fulton county district attorney investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state of Georgia is expected to present evidence to a grand jury and ask it to return indictments as early as next Tuesday, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Two Ukrainian combat drones headed for Moscow were shot down, Russian officials said this morning, the latest attack targeting the capital. The Moscow mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said on Telegram: “Two combat drones’ attempt to fly into the city was recorded. Both were shot down by air defense.”
An international row is growing between the Philippines, the US and China over a rusting ship that has been turned into a crucial military outpost in the South China Sea. The dilapidated second world war-era ship was deliberately run aground in 1999 by the Philippines, and a small contingent of troops continue to stay on board to stake the country’s claim in the highly disputed water.
The musician Tory Lanez was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Tuesday for the shooting of fellow artist Megan Thee Stallion in 2020. Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, was found guilty in December 2022 of three felonies related to the shooting, which left his fellow artist injured in the foot.
Don’t miss this: Hell in a ham milkshake – I tried to make eight dishes from The Bear. It nearly broke me
For those who haven’t seen The Bear, it follows the lauded prodigy Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), an award-winning chef who returns to Chicago to take ownership of his late brother’s ailing sandwich shop, writes Chris Godfrey. The FX on Hulu show was a surprise hit last year, each episode an elegantly constructed panic attack portraying the mania of Carmy’s kitchen, as he wrestles with trauma, talent and dysfunction. Both seasons come with an exceptional ensemble cast, a banging soundtrack and food that’s always on point. From the Original Beef’s signature sandwich to the mortadella cannoli and a Boursin omelette, I set out to achieve culinary genius – without Carmy’s training, talent or experience. Recreating said food turns out to be a gargantuan task.
Climate check: Recovery of Great Barrier Reef stalls as scientists point to bleaching, disease and starfish attacks
A recovery in the number of corals growing on the Great Barrier Reef over recent years has paused, with government scientists blaming bleaching, disease and attacks by starfish. Results from the latest annual surveys of more than 100 individual reefs show a small drop in coral cover over the northern and central parts of the reef over the past year. The Great Barrier Reef – the world’s biggest coral reef system – faces an uncertain future as the ocean continues to accumulate heat caused by the burning of fossil fuels. That heat has caused a series of mass coral bleaching events over the reef, including four in the past seven years, that can weaken corals and affect their ability to reproduce. The report said: “The effects from the 2022 bleaching event, the fourth in seven years, caused some coral loss on some reefs. It is likely that those corals which survived bleaching have been affected by reduced growth and reproduction.”
Last Thing: Texas woman mowing lawn attacked by snake and hawk – at the same time
A Texas woman is rattled but recovering after being viciously attacked by a snake and a hawk at the same time. Peggy Jones, 64, was mowing her lawn with her husband in Silsbee, Texas when a large snake fell from the sky and landed on her. The snake, which had been dropped by a hawk, wrapped itself around her arm – and was then promptly joined by the hawk, which was keen to retrieve its lunch, and began to attack Jones, The Silsbee Bee reported.
Jones told the paper: “I was violently shaking my arm to try and get the snake off. He just wrapped and squeezed tighter and tighter … The hawk was darting in and out grabbing for the snake,” Jones said. “His wings were slapping me while he was clawing at the snake and that is where the deeper cuts and rips came from.” Jones was immediately taken to the emergency room by her husband after the bizarre incident. She said the doctor asked her if she was on drugs after hearing her story.
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