Vox Sentences - California's winter storm

A powerful storm inundates California; the WHO warns of a highly transmissible new Covid variant.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Jariel Arvin.

California storm brings floods and power outages

David McNew/Getty Images

• A winter storm brought damaging winds and excessive rainfall to California this week, with more on the way. [AccuWeather / Alex Sosnowski]
• It’s the latest “atmospheric river”— a long channel of moisture originating in the Pacific Ocean — to inundate the state since New Year’s eve. [Associated Press / Olga R. Rodriguez]
• Much of the ground is saturated and unable to absorb more water, causing floods and downing trees weakened by years of drought. [New York Times / Shawn Hubler, Soumya Karlamangla, Mike Ives, and Jacey Fortin]
• While the rain has brought some relief to dry areas, experts say it won’t be enough to end California’s multi-year drought. [KTLA / Alix Martichoux]
• High surf warnings are in effect for parts of Southern California until Friday. Officials have asked some Los Angeles County residents to prepare for evacuations amid the risk of mudslides. [Los Angeles Times / Alexandra E. Petri and Salvador Hernandez]
• Over 100,000 residents across the state were without electricity late Thursday afternoon. [CNN / Nouran Salahieh, Holly Yan, and Allison Chinchar]

📍 If you read just one story

Vox’s Ben Jacobs explains four ways Kevin McCarthy’s quest to become the Republican House speaker could end. [Vox / Ben Jacobs]

New Covid variant XBB.1.5

• The WHO on Wednesday warned about the increase in cases of the highly transmissible omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant in Europe and the northeastern United States. [Politico / Carmen Paun]
• The strain became the most dominant in the US in December, accounting for 40 percent of cases. It has spread to at least 29 countries. [CNN / Brenda Goodman]
• So far, there’s no evidence that the new variant causes more severe illness; experts expect bivalent vaccines and prior exposure will help fight the virus. [Atlantic / Katherine J. Wu]
• However, health officials said the global community must better track emerging variants, to avoid sudden spikes in infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. [Washington Post / Andrew Jeong]

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Thursday, Rep. Kevin McCarthy lost more bids for House speaker despite offering further concessions to the party’s right-wing flank. [Vox / Andrew Prokop]

• The USDA has approved the world’s first vaccine for bees — a new tool for curbing disease that’s wiping out hives and threatening food pollination. [Guardian / Oliver Milman]
• Amazon announced it’s cutting 18,000 employees due to economic uncertainty. It’s the most layoffs at a major tech company amid a wave of firings in the sector. [Wall Street Journal / Dana Mattioli and Jessica Toonkel]
• The Federal Trade Commission has proposed banning noncompete clauses, which could lead to more choice and better pay for the American workforce. [Vox / Sara Morrison and Rani Molla]

“We are not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination. We are basically in the eye of the storm right now.”

[Brian Ferguson, of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services / NYT]

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Guest host Sigal Samuel talks with philosopher and author Martha Nussbaum about her new book, Justice for Animals. Nussbaum discusses several ethical, legal, and metaphysical theories for how humans should treat other animals, and offers her own distinct new approach.

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