(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Overnight News Digest February 23, 2025 [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-02-23

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.

The Guardian

Trump administration eliminating 2,000 USAid positions in US, notice says

The Trump administration on Sunday said it was placing all but a handful of USAid personnel around the world on paid administrative leave and eliminating about 2,000 of those positions in the US, according to a noticesent to agency workers and posted online. “As of 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday, February 23, 2025, all USAid direct hire personnel, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and/or specially designated programs, will be placed on administrative leave globally,” the notice said. “Concurrently”, the notice added, the agency is “beginning to implement a Reduction-in-Force” affecting about 2,000 USAid personnel in the US. On Friday, a federal judge cleared the way for the Trump administration to put thousands of USAid workers on leave, a setback for government employee unions that are suing over what they have called an effort to dismantle it.

The Guardian

Texas measles outbreak grows to 90 cases, worst level in 30 years

The measles outbreak in Texas has grown to at least 90 cases, reaching historic levels, according to officials. Since late January, 90 cases of measles have been identified in the South Plains region, the state’s department of state health services (DSHS) reported Friday. At least 16 patients have been hospitalized as a result. The majority of reported measles cases were in children and teenagers; minors between the ages of five and 17 accounted for 51 cases. Childrenunder four made up 26 cases. Most patients’ parents either had chosen to not immunize them against the highly contagious illness through vaccines meant to prevent the potentially deadly illness and its spread. A DSHS spokesperson told ABC News that the latest outbreak is the worst officials have seen in 30 years.

NPR

Center-right opposition wins German election, with the far right coming in 2nd

BERLIN — Germany's conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz won a lackluster victory in a national election Sunday, while the Alternative for Germany doubled its support in the strongest showing for a far-right party since World War II, projections showed. Chancellor Olaf Scholz conceded defeat for his center-left Social Democrats after what he called "a bitter election result." Projections for ARD and ZDF public television showed his party finishing in third place with its worst postwar result in a national parliamentary election. Merz said he hopes to put a coalition government together by Easter. But that's likely to be challenging. The campaign was dominated by worries about the years-long stagnation of Europe's biggest economy and pressure to curb migration.

NPR

Israel delays Palestinian prisoner release; moves tanks into West Bank

TEL AVIV, Israel — In a significant disruption of the Gaza ceasefire deal, Israel is delaying the release of hundreds of Palestinian detainees and prisoners after Hamas released Israeli hostages in ceremonies Israel called humiliating. An official familiar with the matter, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said it was Israel's attempt to extend the current phase of the ceasefire before it expires in one week and to seek the release of more hostages. The Prime Minister's Office declined to comment. Israel's military is also intensifying an offensive against a Palestinian militant stronghold in the occupied West Bank, deploying tanks there for the first time in more than two decades. Hamas called the prisoner release delay a ceasefire violation, and rejected Israel's accusation.

Deutsche Welle

Spain busts South American sex-trafficking pipeline

Police in southeastern Alicante, Spain, on Sunday announced the arrest of 48 individuals as well as the rescue of 48 women, mostly from Colombia and Venezuela, during a series of raids on eight properties, including three brothels. "The victims, mainly of South American origin, were lured to Spain with bogus job offers," said police. The ringleaders, a Spanish man and two Colombian women, are said to have abducted more than 1,000 women over the past year. The women arrived in Spain to work in the cleaning and beauty sectors but instead "they were taken to clubs where they were sexually exploited," said police. In the end, they lived as prostitutes at a network of premises disguised to look like boarding houses or hostels. Police say they closed down three strip clubs and seized 17 properties, as well as confiscating weapons, €150,000 ($157,000) in cash and blocking bank accounts containing €938,000.

Al Jazeera

Some US agencies tell federal workers to ignore Musk email

Several US federal agencies told employees not to respond to a demand by President Donald Trump’s adviser Elon Musk to list their accomplishments in the last week or be fired. Federal agencies gave the memo on Sunday, a day after Musk’s team sent an email to hundreds of thousands of federal employees giving them about 48 hours to issue their reports. Musk leads the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which in the first weeks of Trump’s administration has laid off more than 20,000 workers and offered buyouts to another 75,000, across large segments of the United States government. Following Musk’s move, Trump administration-appointed officials at the FBI and State Department sent their staff emails telling them not to respond outside their chains of command, in a possible sign of tension between allies of the Republican president and the world’s richest person in his campaign to cut down the government’s 2.3 million member civilian workforce.

Reuters

Trump to name FBI chief Patel as acting ATF director, source says

WASHINGTON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will name newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel as the acting head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Saturday. Patel, a Trump loyalist, will run the FBI, the nation's most prominent law enforcement agency, at a time of growing upheaval while also leading the ATF, which enforces U.S. gun laws. Patel, who has received support from the Gun Owners of America lobby group for championing gun rights, would be expected to lead an overhaul of the agency, shifting its focus away from regulating firearms. During his presidential campaign, Trump accused the ATF of being heavy-handed with gun owners and revoking licenses on frivolous grounds.

Raw Story

'Domino effect' of Trump policies to spread pain nationwide: economists

CNBC is reporting that President Donald Trump and X owner Elon Musk's cuts to the federal workforce may amount to "the biggest job cut in U.S. history" that could also hurt the U.S. economy as a whole. Depending on different variables, experts who spoke with CNBC estimate that hundreds of thousands of federal workers could soon be unemployed, which would be a significant negative economic shock felt throughout the entire country. Callie Cox, the chief market strategist at Ritholtz Wealth Management, wrote last week that cuts of this magnitude would bring real economic pain, and not just to places like Washington D.C. but to communities throughout the United States where federal workers are located."We may soon find out the hard way that people drive the U.S. economy," she warned.

Washington Post

HUD cuts expected to worsen America’s housing crisis, staffers say

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/23/2305775/-Overnight-News-Digest-February-23-2025?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/