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Overnight News Digest January 12, 2025 [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-01-12
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 (RIP), 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 since 2007, 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. Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
BBC
India races to prepare world's largest religious gathering
Authorities in India are racing against time to get the city of Prayagraj ready to host the Hindu festival Kumbh Mela, described as humanity's biggest gathering. About 400 million pilgrims are expected to attend the 45-day spectacle, which is so large it can be seen from space. The event - held once every 12 years - starts on Monday and over the next six weeks, the devout will bathe at Sangam - the confluence of India's most sacred Ganges river with the Yamuna river and the mythical goddess Saraswati. The first major bathing day, Tuesday, will see ash-smeared naked Hindu holy men with matted dreadlocks, known as Naga sadhus, take a dip in the northern Indian city at dawn. "We have laid 650km of temporary roads and set up tens of thousands of tents and toilets. More than 100,000 people, including over 40,000 police and security officials, are working round-the-clock to make it a success," Mr Chaturvedi said.
Landlords ripping off LA fire victims, says Selling Sunset star
Landlords have been illegally raising prices due to the Los Angeles wildfires, says Selling Sunset star Jason Oppenheim. The LA property mogul, who owns the luxury real estate brokerage at the centre of the Netflix reality show, said one client had been asked for thousands over the original asking price to rent a home - despite California's anti "price gouging" laws. It comes as LA officials warned anyone caught "taking advantage" of the disaster by scamming or burgling wildfire victims would be prosecuted. Thousands of people have lost homes in LA and displaced victims say they are facing sky-high rental prices and hotel fees. Meanwhile Mr Luna, the county sheriff, said there had so far been approximately 29 arrests amid the fires, including a man posing as a firefighter to burgle a home. He said police were "eager to prosecute" anyone who had "taken advantage of our residents during this very difficult time" and specifically warned against "white collar" scams. On Saturday, police in LA said the number of arrests for looting was "continuously growing".
Vance surfaces.
AP News
Vance says Jan. 6 participants who committed violence ‘obviously’ shouldn’t be pardoned
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President-elect JD Vance says people responsible for the violence during the Capitol riot “obviously” should not be pardoned, as President-elect Donald Trump is promising to use his clemency power on behalf of many of those who tried on Jan. 6, 2021, to overturn the results of the election that Trump lost. Vance insisted in an interview on “Fox News Sunday” that the pardon question is “very simple,” saying those who “protested peacefully” should be pardoned and “if you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.” He later said there was a “bit of a gray area” in some cases. “The president saying he’ll look at each case (and me saying the same) is not some walkback,” Vance said. “I assure you, we care about people unjustly locked up. Yes, that includes people provoked and it includes people who got a garbage trial.”
Raw Story
'We will raise hell': MAGA activists 'swearing vengeance on J.D. Vance' for new 'betrayal
Donald Trump's number two has found himself to be the number one target of faithful members of the MAGA movement, including Jan. 6 rioters. "Telling your own supporters that the election was stolen and then not giving them a pardon or commutation after you sent them into what you call a 'fedsurrection' and 'trap' is a betrayal.” "J6 defendants and family members are swearing vengeance on JD Vance if all of the J6 defendants are not saved. And they are right to do it," he said on X.
AP News
US to return $52.8 million in seized assets linked to Nigeria’s former oil minister
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The United States announced Friday that it would be returning $52.88 million in seized assets to Nigeria as part of a yearslong corruption probe against former oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke and associates, according to a joint statement by Nigeria’s minister of justice and the United States government. It marks the first repatriation of assets linked to Alison-Madueke, who served as Nigeria’s oil minister from 2010 to 2015. She rose to prominence as a powerful figure under former President Goodluck Jonathan, and became the first female president of the oil alliance OPEC. The seized assets, including a superyacht and prime real estate in New York and California, were confiscated in 2023 by U.S. authorities during Alison-Madueke’s trial. Although she has consistently denied any wrongdoing, Nigeria’s anti–graft agency has secured court orders seizing houses, cars and jewelry in Nigeria, which it claims were proceeds of corruption connected to the former minister and her associates.
The Guardian
Gaza death toll 40% higher than official number, Lancet study finds
Research published in the Lancet medical journal estimates that the death toll in Gaza during the first nine months of the Israel-Hamas war was about 40% higher than numbers recorded by the Palestinian territory’s health ministry. The peer-reviewed statistical analysis was conducted by academics at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Yale University and other institutions, using a statistical method called capture-recapture analysis. The researchers sought to assess the death toll from Israel’s air and ground campaign in Gaza between October 2023 and the end of June 2024, estimating 64,260 deaths due to traumatic injury during this period. The study said 59.1% were women, children and people over the age of 65. It did not provide an estimate of Palestinian combatants among the dead.
Al jazeera
Israeli siege of north Gaza leaves 5,000 dead, missing after 100 days
The Israeli military siege on the northern Gaza Strip has left about 5,000 Palestinians dead or missing after 100 days of brutal attacks that have only intensified amid talks of a potential mediated agreement between Israel and Hamas. Another 9,500 Palestinians were injured as a result of the Israeli military operation in the north that was launched in early October, a medical source told Al Jazeera on Sunday. Gaza’s Government Media Office on Sunday described the Israeli siege as “the most horrific form of ethnic cleansing, displacement and destruction” that has affected hundreds of thousands in the war-ravaged area.. “We are seeing Palestinians being systematically targeted in every single place across the Gaza Strip. It doesn’t matter where you are – if you’re in a school, a shelter, a makeshift camp or even a hospital,” she said.
NPR
People are rushing to install solar panels before trump becomes President
The solar power industry is growing fast, accounting for more than half of all new electricity on the grid last year. But soon President-elect Trump and fellow Republicans in Congress may try to reduce or eliminate government incentives that have driven much of that growth. That has potential customers who want to install solar on their homes worried about the future of an existing 30% federal tax credit. Some are responding by rushing to install solar now, before the credit can be eliminated. Solar installers face even more uncertainty with threats of increased tariffs that could make panels and other equipment more expensive. Companies that install solar panels say doubts about the tax credit's future, and other actions Trump may take after January 20th, are affecting their business. Some installers say they are drafting multiple business plans hoping one will help them respond.
Reuters
Biden calls for immediate ceasefire in call with Netanyahu, White House says
US national security adviser says parties very close to deal
Biden calls surge in humanitarian aid to Gaza
Netanyahu thanked Biden for lifelong support of Israel, White House says Joe Biden spoke on Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said, as U.S. officials race to reach a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal before Biden leaves office on Jan. 20. WASHINGTON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - U.S. Presidentspoke on Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said, as U.S. officials race to reach ahostage and ceasefire deal before Biden leaves office on Jan. 20. Biden and Netanyahu discussed efforts underway to reach a deal to halt the fighting in the Palestinian enclave and free the remaining hostages there, the White House said in a statement after the two leaders spoke by telephone. Biden "stressed the immediate need for a ceasefire in Gaza and return of the hostages with a surge in humanitarian aid enabled by a stoppage in the fighting under the deal," it said. Netanyahu updated Biden on progress in the talks and on the mandate he has given his top-level security delegation now in Doha in order to advance a hostage deal, Netanyahu said in a statement.
Al Jazeera
Trump ally Steve Bannon blasts Elon Musk as ‘truly evil’ in MAGA split
United States President-elect Donald Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon has promised to have Elon Musk “run out” of the White House, in the latest escalation of tensions within the MAGA (Make America Great Again) populist movement. In an interview with an Italian newspaper, Bannon said he had made it his personal mission to ensure Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, does not have access to Trump’s incoming administration and is treated “like any other person”. “He is a truly evil guy, a very bad guy. I made it my personal thing to take this guy down. Before, because he put money in, I was prepared to tolerate it – I’m not prepared to tolerate it any more,” Bannon told the Corriere della Sera newspaper, excerpts of which were republished over the weekend by Bannon’s former media outlet Breitbart News.
USA Today
'Buy us!': Greenlanders shocked, intrigued, bewildered by Trump zeal for Arctic territory
Orla Joelsen wants to Make Greenland Great Again but is pretty sure ditching Denmark and allowing the Arctic territory to be annexed by a superpower is not the best way to go about it. President-elect Donald Trump is not the first American leader to promote the idea of buying the U.S.'s strategically located northern neighbor, which is rich in minerals and oil, for security reasons. President Harry Truman offered $100 million − about $1.3 billion today − in gold bullion for the world's largest island in the post-World War II era. "It's shocked us," Joelsen, a native Greenlander who works as a prison official in the island's capital Nuuk, said by telephone. "We need to talk about the independence of Greenland from Denmark. But not like this." Joelsen's prisons job falls under the authority of Denmark's justice department.
Washington Post
A rare look at NASA’s next sharp-eyed space telescope
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