Short Takes – 11-13-23

How Ukraine, With No Warships, Is Thwarting Russia’s Navy. NYTimes.com article (free). Pull quote: “Despite having no warships of its own, Ukraine has over the course of the war shifted the balance of power in the naval conflict. Its use of unmanned maritime drones and growing arsenal of long-range anti-ship missiles — along with critical surveillance provided by Western allies and targeted assaults by Ukraine’s Air Force and special operations forces — have allowed Ukraine to blunt the advantages of the vastly more powerful Russian Navy.”

Mike Johnson Faces MAGA Fury. Newsweek.com article. Click-bait headline, no outraged quotes in the story. Pull quote: “In a Friday report from The Washington Post, Johnson, who has publicly and privately been urging members to conduct a thorough and fair investigation with no predetermined outcome, indicated in a closed-door meeting with House GOP moderates this week that there is insufficient evidence at the moment to move forward with formal impeachment proceedings.”

Icelandic Town Evacuated as Earthquakes Portend Volcanic Eruption. NYTimes.com article. Pull quote: “The Icelandic Meteorological Office, the country’s weather service, said it was not possible to say when and where magma would reach the surface of the town of Grindavik, but it warned that “the likelihood of a volcanic eruption occurring in the near future is deemed considerable.””

The sun is blinding us to thousands of potentially lethal asteroids. Can scientists spot them before it's too late? LiveScience.com article. Pull quote: “But with both NEO Surveyor and NEOMIR years away from seeing the light of day, astronomers will continue to rely on the best ground-based methods available to parse the mysteries of the sun. Even with these spacecraft operational, a small percentage of near-sun asteroids will likely remain undetectable, Conversi said. Fortunately, the risks of a deadly impact remain low, and will hopefully only lower as astronomers gather more and better information.”

Democrats Signal Openness to Plan to Avert Shutdown as Republicans Balk. NYTimes.com article. Pull quote: “Given Republican resistance to the legislation and Democratic queasiness about helping with the procedural effort, the Republican leadership took steps late Monday to bring the spending bill to the floor under a procedure that skirts the need for the initial procedural vote. Instead, the bill would be brought up under a shortcut known as a suspension of the rules, but it would require a two-thirds majority, or 290 votes, to pass. The last stopgap bill averting a shutdown was passed under the same process on Sept. 30.”