 Colorado Fire burning along Highway 1 The wildfire burning along the Big Sur coastline in California, reported in the Palo Colorado Canyon area late Friday night, is 20% contained after blackening 1,000 acres. Over 120 fire personnel have responded to contain the fire, which caused evacuations and closed scenic Highway 1. More: - Helicopter and air tanker crews were deployed to assist in containing the fire, which according to earlier estimates was spread across 1,500 acres.
- Improved aerial mapping led to the lower estimated acreage.
- Around 500 individuals were ordered to evacuate by the Monterey County Sheriff's Department.
- No injuries have been reported so far.
- Cal Fire officials claim the winds and low humidity helped the fire to rage through the night.
- Cal Fire Assistant Chief George Nunez is of the belief that the continued drought led to the wildfire, which is uncommon so close to the coast this time of year.
- Vice President Kamala Harris announced $600M in federal funding on Friday to aid the state's recovery from last year's series of wildfires.
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Russia is planning to install a pro-Russian leader in Ukraine, according to the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office of the U.K. The British foreign office’s statement named former Ukrainian MP Yevhen Murayev as a potential candidate. More: - Four other former Ukrainian officials were also named in the document as having reportedly maintained ties with Russian intelligence services.
- Serhiy Arbuzov, First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine (2012 to 2014) and acting Prime Minister in 2014.
- Andriy Kluyev, First Deputy Prime Minister (2010 to 2012) and Chief of Staff to former Ukrainian President Yanukovich.
- Vladimir Sivkovich, former Deputy Head of the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council (RNBO).
- Mykola Azarov, former Prime Minister of Ukraine (2010-2014).
- British Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab warned of imposing severe economic sanctions on Russia if it placed pro-Russian leaders in the Ukrainian administration.
- Although the U.K. has been aiding in re-building Ukraine’s navy and training Ukrainian armed forces since 2015, Raab said it would be “extremely unlikely” that Ukraine would receive help from British troops, as troops will not be dispatched considering the country was not a NATO ally.
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 Representatives of the Taliban arrive in Norway on Saturday Three days of discussion commenced between the Taliban delegation, Western government officials, and Afghan civil society representatives in Norway on Sunday. Afghani acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi is leading the delegation. More: - This is the delegation’s first trip to Europe since taking over the country in August.
- They had already visited Russia, Iran, Qatar, Pakistan, China, and Turkmenistan.
- Taliban representatives will meet Afghanistan’s women’s rights activists and human rights defenders on the first day of the closed-door event.
- The U.S. State Department announced its delegation led by Tom West, Special Representative for Afghanistan, will discuss the establishment of a political system, humanitarian and economic crises response, counterterrorism concerns, and education for girls and women.
- Afghan Foreign Minister Muttaqi is expected to stress the release of nearly $10B in assets seized by the Western countries.
- The UN did liquidate some assets and allowed the Taliban administration to pay for imports.
- However, the UN has stressed the need for immediate interventions to help the starvation-prone Afghan children and citizens living below the poverty line.
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 Planned electricity capacity additions in 2022 Good news: The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that solar will account for 46% of the new utility-scale electricity generating capacity added in 2022. The U.S.’s solar generating capacity is expected to grow by 21.5 gigawatts (GW) in 2022. More: - The planned new capacity would outnumber the 15.5 GW of solar capacity added last year.
- Texas will account for the majority of projected solar additions in 2022, accounting for 28% or 6.1 GW of the national total.
- California will add the second-highest capacity at 4.0 GW, accounting for ~18%.
- Texas will also add over half of the anticipated wind capacity expansion for 2022.
- 17% of the energy capacity additions will be of wind power.
- Last year, the U.S. added a record-high 17.1 GW of wind capacity.
- In 2022, another 7.6 GW of wind capacity is expected to come online.
- The surge in solar power additions can be attributed to lower battery storage prices and the addition of value through regional transmission organization (RTO) marketplaces.
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The USS Cole, a guided-missile destroyer of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet in the Middle East, last Tuesday found 40 tons of urea fertilizer on a stateless sailboat that was traveling from Iran to Yemen. The same vessel was seized last year off the coast of Somalia and found to be carrying weapons, including assault rifles and rocket launchers. More: - Earlier this week, the Navy handed over the vessel, cargo, and crew to Yemen's coast guard.
- The confiscated cargo of urea fertilizer, known to be a key ingredient in improvised explosive devices, was likely to have originated from Iran to assist Houthi rebels in Yemen.
- Houthi rebels backed by Iran have been fighting a Saudi-led military coalition for control of Yemen since 2015.
- Yemen's rising conflict and drug trafficking in the region have forced U.S. and U.K. authorities to increase patrolling and seizures of contraband in the area.
- The British Royal Navy's HMS Montrose seized $26M worth of illegal drugs weighing 2,295 pounds from a vessel sailing through the Gulf of Oman on Jan. 15.
- The confiscated drugs included heroin, methamphetamine, hashish, and marijuana.
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 Jean-Jacques Savin in his canoe 'Audacieux' The 75-year-old French explorer Jean-Jacques Savin was found dead at sea. Savin was attempting to cross the Atlantic Ocean, a feat he had previously completed in 2019 in a large barrel. Portuguese maritime officials discovered his 8-meter-long (26-feet) canoe overturned off the Azores. More: - The Azores are a chain of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean where Savin was scheduled to stop to fix issues with his canoe after he reported difficulties with his solar power on Wednesday.
- Savin reported facing strong winds, which made his journey longer by 900km (560 miles) the same day through a Facebook post.
- The following night, he triggered two distress beacons.
- Savin, a former military paratrooper, set off from Portugal on New Year's day with an aim to cross the ocean on his canoe named "Audacieux," a journey that was estimated to take three months.
- The circumstances behind his untimely death have yet to be determined.
- The adventurer successfully traversed the Atlantic in a barrel-shaped orange capsule in 2019, completing a 122-day expedition utilizing only the sea currents to propel it across the water for 2,800 miles (4,500 kilometers).
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- The U.S. is reportedly preparing for the immediate evacuation of its diplomats from Ukraine as fears of potential Russian invasion loom. Two options – authorized or ordered departure – are being considered.
- Bitcoin slid to $34,020 at 05:15 ET, losing almost 50% of its value since its record high of $69,044 in Nov. 2021.
- German Navy Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schoenbach resigned after saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin deserves respect and claiming Ukraine would never win Crimea back from Russia.
- Saudi Arabia lifted its in-classroom tutoring ban for elementary and kindergarten students after a two-year remote learning period.
- New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern imposed the highest level of COVID-19 restrictions and canceled her wedding in light of the rising number of Omicron variant cases in the country.
- The Lamizana Sangoule military barracks in Burkina Faso were taken over by mutinous soldiers seeking better working conditions and manpower in their fight with Islamic militants.
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Visualization of the day 
Motion of solar system planets relative to Earth
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 |  | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot. | | | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford. | |
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