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Overnight News Digest February 9, 2025 [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-02-09
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
China's tit-for-tat tariffs on US take effect
China's tit-for-tat import taxes on some American goods are coming into effect on Monday, as the trade war between the world's two biggest economies escalates and US President Donald Trump threatens to hit more countries with tariffs. Beijing announced the plan on 4 February, minutes after new US levies of 10% on all Chinese products came into effect. On Sunday, Trump said he would impose a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminium imports into the US, with a full announcement to come on Monday. Speaking to reporters on Air Force One en route to the Super Bowl, he also said he was planning reciprocal tariffs on other nations - but did not specify which ones would be targeted. China's latest tariffs on US goods include a 15% border tax on imports of US coal and liquefied natural gas products. There is also a 10% tariff on American crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine cars.
BBC
How Spain's economy became the envy of Europe
"There was a moment during Covid when I thought 'maybe tourism will never, ever be like it was before'," says Elena Mirón, a local guide dressed in a fuchsia-coloured beret who is about to lead a group across the city. "But now things are very good and I feel this year is going to be a good year, like 2023 and 2024. I'm happy, because I can live off this job I love." Spain received a record 94 million visitors in 2024 and is now vying with France, which saw 100 million, to be the world's biggest foreign tourist hub. And the tourism industry's post-Covid expansion is a major reason why the eurozone's fourth-biggest economy has been easily outgrowing the likes of Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom, posting an increase in GDP of 3.2% last year. By contrast, the German economy contracted by 0.2% in 2024, while France grew by 1.1%, Italy by 0.5%, and the UK by an expected 0.9%. This all helps explain why the Economist magazine has ranked Spain as the world's best-performing economy.
NPR
Buffy Sainte-Marie stripped of prestigious Canadian honor
The Canadian government has stripped Buffy Sainte-Marie of one of the country's highest honors, after a 2023 news report found she had fabricated claims of Indigenous ancestry. Best known for her 1964 anti-war anthem "Universal Soldier," and for co-writing the Academy Award-winning song "Up Where We Belong," Sainte-Marie received the Order of Canada in 1997 for her services to Indigenous Canadians. According to the entry about her in the Canadian Encylopedia, Sainte-Marie has identified as Cree from the Piapot First Nation in Saskatchewan since the early 1960s and has long been recognized as a major Indigenous artist. But a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation investigation in 2023 shed doubt on the singer's claims of Indigenous ancestry. The team said it tracked down the performer's American birth certificate, which stated she was born Beverly Jean Santamaria, in Massachusetts, to white parents.
AP
Trump administration orders consumer protection agency to stop work, closes building
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop nearly all its work, effectively shutting down an agency that was created to protect consumers after the 2008 financial crisis and subprime mortgage-lending scandal. Russell Vought, the newly installed director of the Office of Management and Budget, directed the CFPB, in a Saturday night email confirmed by The Associated Press, to stop work on proposed rules, to suspend the effective dates on any rules that were finalized but not yet effective, and to stop investigative work and not begin any new investigations. The agency has been a target of conservatives since President Barack Obama pushed to include it in the 2010 financial reform legislation that followed the 2007-2008 financial crisis. The email also ordered the bureau to “cease all supervision and examination activity.” On Sunday, administration officials also said that the CFPB’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. would be closed the week of Feb. 10 through Feb. 14, according to an email obtained by The Associated Press. No reason was given for closure.
The Guardian
Trudeau says Trump is serious about wanting to annex Canada
Donald Trump’s recent fixation on absorbing Canada is “a real thing”, Justin Trudeau has told business leaders, warning that the US president wants access to his northern neighbour’s vast supply of critical minerals. The outgoing prime minister was in Toronto for a hastily called summit of business and labour leaders, seeking to coordinate a response Trump’s looming threat of a 25% tariff on all Canadian imports. Earlier this week, Trump backed away from tariffs that would have devastated Canada’s economy, granting one of his country’s largest trading partners a 30-day reprieve for further negotiations. But he has continued to mock Canadian sovereignty, repeating his description of the country as the “51st state” on social media and repeatedly calling Trudeau “governor” instead of prime minister. “They’re very aware of our resources, of what we have and they very much want to be able to benefit from those,” he said. “But Mr Trump has it in mind that one of the easiest ways of doing that is absorbing our country.”
The Guardian
Kurdish officials fear Islamic State revival as US aid cuts loom
Kurdish officials have warned of an Islamic State resurgence if US foreign aid cuts take effect on Monday, which would cripple essential services for tens of thousands of people detained in tented camps in north-east Syria, including suspected members of IS and their families. The sudden cessation of services prompted panic in the camps after aid workers failed to turn up for work. Three days later, Blumont was given a two-week waiver to the aid cuts, which unless extended, will expire on Monday. “We have no idea what will happen tomorrow. It seems as if even the provision of bread will be halted,” said Jihan Hanan, the director of al-Hol camp. It is unclear what will happen on Monday when the brief waiver given to Blumont, which provides the bulk of services in al-Hol, expires. Camp officials are hoping for an 11th-hour exemption from Donald Trump’s 90-day global aid freeze, but have been given no assurances from the US administration.
USA Today
Trump announces plan to stop making new pennies, citing production costs
President Trump announced Sunday that he is telling the Treasury Department to stop minting pennies, ending a 233-year run of the 1-cent coin. The penny, one of the first coins made by the U.S. Mint after its establishment in 1792, now costs more than two cents to produce, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site shortly after departing the Super Bowl game in New Orleans. “For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful!” Trump wrote. “I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies.” The penny has been in the crosshairs of Trump officials since he took office. Last month, DOGE, the department run by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, said that producing 4.5 billion pennies in Fiscal Year 2023 cost taxpayers more than $179 million.
Washington Post
In Idaho, a preview of RFK Jr.’s vaccine-skeptical America
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