Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame, jck, and JeremyBloom. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time.
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Chicago Sun-Times: Failing furnaces, frozen pipes, dead car batteries make surviving the cold no snap by Kaitlyn Washburn
As the news of the looming deep freeze came last week, Kris DeVries started worrying about her 30-year-old furnace.
It managed to keep up with the cold weather until Monday, when the aging furnace finally gave out, and the temperature in her Orland Park home dropped.
“It felt inevitable. In the back of my mind, I knew my days were numbered,” DeVries said.
A technician with Four Seasons Heating, Air Conditioning, Plumbing and Electric came out and assessed the furnace Monday. He said he could come back and replace it the next day.
DeVries slept that night with an electric blanket, two regular blankets and two space heaters. She woke up Tuesday morning to a 50-degree house.
“It was a painful price to pay, but it needed to be done,” DeVries said.
DeVries was not alone. As temperatures continue to hover around zero in the Chicago area, residents have been struggling to keep their homes warm and their cars operating.
The New York Times: The House G.O.P.’s Incredible Shrinking Majority by Carl Hulse
When Republicans assumed control of the House early last year after winning a narrow majority in the 2022 midterms, Representative Earl Blumenauer, a veteran Democrat from Oregon, made a bold prediction: His party had a slight chance of reclaiming power before the next election — through sheer attrition.
Republicans commanded just a thin edge over Democrats, 222 to 213, Mr. Blumenauer reasoned, and typical turnover in recent years suggested that could shrink further. Plus, a certain new Republican representative from New York by the name of George Santos did not seem likely to survive a cascade of ethics issues and criminal charges.
Still, Mr. Blumenauer’s prognosticating seemed more like liberal wish-casting given the dominoes that needed to fall to fulfill it. A year later, though still highly unlikely, it suddenly doesn’t seem all that far-fetched.
Day by day, thanks to a combination of coincidence, scandal, health issues and political turmoil, the G.O.P. majority keeps getting smaller.
The Washington Post: Shooter charged with 50 federal hate crimes in Colorado LGBTQ+ club killings by Daniel Wu
Federal prosecutors charged a mass shooter with 50 hate crimes Tuesday in a 2022 attack at a Colorado LGBTQ+ nightclub that killed five people and wounded more than a dozen.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Colorado charged the shooter with 50 hate-crime counts, including five of killing with a firearm. The shooter also faces 24 counts of the use of a firearm to commit a crime after the November 2022 Club Q attack.
Anderson Lee Aldrich is already serving the first of five consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole after
pleading guilty in state court to five counts of murder and 46 counts of attempted murder, one for each person who was in the Colorado Springs club. The shooter pleaded no contest in June to two state hate-crime charges as part of an agreement with prosecutors, who had brought more than 300 criminal counts against Aldrich, who identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns.
The shooter killed five people: Club Q employees Daniel Aston, 28, and Derrick Rump, 38; and patrons Raymond Green Vance, 22, Kelly Loving, 40, and Ashley Paugh, 35.
NBC News: Mississippi slaughterhouse is directly responsible for death of migrant teen who was sucked into machinery, OSHA says by Laura Strickler
A Mississippi slaughterhouse that supplies chicken to Chick-fil-A is directly to blame for the death of a 16-year-old worker who was sucked into equipment in July and killed within minutes, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Tuesday.
OSHA, an agency within the U.S. Labor Department, said that it had cited Georgia-based Mar-Jac Poultry for 14 serious violations and proposed more than $200,000 in fines.
“Mar-Jac Poultry is aware of how dangerous the machinery they use can be when safety standards are not in place to prevent serious injury and death. The company’s inaction has directly led to this terrible tragedy, which has left so many to mourn this child’s preventable death,” OSHA Regional Administrator Kurt Petermeyer said.
Duvan Pérez, the 16-year-old worker, was cleaning the deboning area of the Hattiesburg plant when his hand got caught and his body was pulled into the machinery. OSHA officials say that while a Mar-Jac manager was supervising in and around the area prior to and during the accident, "procedures were not utilized to disconnect power to the machine."
Guardian: ‘France to stay France’, says Macron, as he lays out vision to counter far right by Angelique Chrisafis
Emmanuel Macron wants to regulate French children’s screen time, test compulsory school uniform, and is not against all primary schoolchildren having to learn the national anthem, he has told a press conference, promising a “common sense” France.
The French president, who is trying to limit the potential gains of the far right in the European elections, set out his vision for the coming years focusing on law and order, education and pro-business policy, days after appointing France’s youngest ever prime minister, Gabriel Attal.
Macron said his plans were for “France to stay France”. He focused on low- to middle-income voters’ struggle to live well, and promised to boost businesses by reducing red tape, as he sought to move on from last year’s contested
pension changes and
immigration law.
BBC News: Israel Gaza war: Deal reached on aid to Gaza, including to hostages by Henri Astler
Israel and Hamas have reached a deal to allow more humanitarian aid into war-ravaged Gaza, Qatari mediators say.
They say that under a deal brokered by Qatar and France, medicines will be given to hostages held by Hamas.
In return Israel will allow more basic supplies into Gaza. Conditions in the territory are dire after more than three months of Israeli bombardment.
Meanwhile the US says it is hopeful that further talks could lead to the release of more hostages.
The US Middle East envoy has been in Qatar to discuss the possibility of such a deal, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Tuesday.
El País in English: Argentina’s Javier Milei travels to Davos to present his ultraliberal experiment at the World Economic Forum by Constanza Lambertucci
On Monday, Javier Milei began his first official trip abroad since assuming the presidency of Argentina on December 10. The far-right leader will attend the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland) to present his government program and hopes to meet with world leaders. As of Monday, the Casa Rosada — Argentina’s seat of government — had only confirmed the Milei will be meeting with Kristalina Georgieva, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which unlocked $4.7 billion in funds for Argentina last week.
Milei took off on Monday at 7 p.m., local time, on a commercial flight that will land in Frankfurt, Germany. The president will arrive in Davos on Tuesday after another flight and a road trip. On Wednesday, he will speak at the summit together with the World Economic Forum’s former chairman, Klaus Schwab. Milei will present his government program, which he began to implement last month. It includes severe cuts to the public sector and more than a thousand measures to deregulate the economy and modify the Argentine state. Some of the regulatory changes and repeals were imposed by a decree that is being questioned in the courts. Other measures will have to go through Congress, which has begun to debate the package. Some sectors of the opposition are willing to support the plan, but none will approve it without changes, as the government wants.
Try to have the best possible evening everyone!