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Missteps by Republicans, independents lead to midterm woes
A comprehensive national poll of voters, AP VoteCast, found that nationwide, Republican House candidates won the support of 38 percent of independent voters in last month’s midterm elections. The lackluster performance by independents helps explain why Republicans flipped only nine House seats. The party’s paltry majority in the House of Representatives has raised questions about its ability to govern. Some GOP strategists said it suggested that messages that resonated during the party’s primary campaign, including sharp criticism of President Joe Biden, were less effective in the general election. The reason, they say, is that independent voters are looking for more than just the opposition.
Thousands lost as flight cancellations
Thousands of travelers were stranded at U.S. airports on Monday as a wave of flight cancellations – many of them operated by Southwest Airlines – scuttled vacation plans and kept families out of the busiest and most stressful travel of the year Go home one of the time periods. Cancellations and delays a day after Christmas left people sleeping on airport floors, standing in hours-long customer service lines and waiting on the tarmac for hours on end. These issues may linger into Tuesday and later in the week. As of Monday evening, about 2,600 U.S. flights scheduled to depart on Tuesday had been cancelled, including 60% of all Southwest flights.
4th Washington state substation damaged
A fourth substation in Washington state was damaged late on Christmas, temporarily cutting power to homes in Caposing and Graham. As of 7 a.m. Monday, more than 10,500 Puget Sound Energy customers in the area were without power. The Pierce County Sheriff’s Office said the suspect broke into a fenced-in area and damaged equipment, sparking the fire. The fire was extinguished and power was later restored, but no suspects have been taken into custody. The attack comes as federal officials warn that the U.S. power grid needs better security measures to prevent domestic terrorism and after a massive power outage in North Carolina earlier this month will take days to fix.
Ukraine FM targets February peace summit
Ukraine’s foreign minister has said his country wants a summit to end the war, but he does not expect Russia to attend, a statement that makes it difficult to foresee the devastating invasion ending anytime soon. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told The Associated Press that his government hopes to hold a peace summit at the United Nations within two months, with Secretary-General António Guterres as mediator. Kuleba told The Associated Press that Russia must face a war crimes court before his country talks with Moscow, but that other countries should be free to negotiate, like the grain deal between Turkey and Russia.
New signs point to rapid spread of COVID in China
The intensity and scale of the country’s first national outbreak has remained largely a mystery since China abandoned its restrictive “zero COVID” policy about two weeks ago. Now, images are emerging of the virus spreading like wildfire. In recent days, estimates of COVID-19 reported by three cities in one province have far exceeded official statistics. For example, at a news conference on Sunday, an official in Zhejiang Province, a province of 65 million people, estimated that daily COVID cases there had surpassed 1 million. Those numbers contrasted sharply with those from China’s National Health Commission, which on Friday reported about 4,000 COVID cases across the country.
Japan heavy snow kills 17, dozens injured
Snow has hit swathes of Japan since last week, killing 17 people and leaving hundreds of homes without power. A powerful winter front has dumped snow along the northern coast since last week, stranded hundreds of cars on highways, delayed delivery services and killed 11 people on Saturday. Snowfall over the Christmas weekend led to more casualties, following last week’s heavy snowfall, bringing the death toll to 17 and injuries to 93 as of Monday morning, the Fire Department said on Monday. Many of them fell while snow was being removed from roofs, or were buried under thick roof snow.
via wired source
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