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.
It had almost started to fade.
Victors valiant. Conqu’ring Heros. Champions of the West.
Words that had once invoked so much, slowly dulling to a blunt edge. They certainly hadn’t lost all their shine, but the punch those lauded lyrics packed was perhaps no longer the same. The antiquated Michigan football program had stumbled its way into the new millennium.
No Big Ten Championships since 2004, a 3-17 record against Ohio State in the 21st century, a 6-12 bowl game record and a 2-4 finish in a rock bottom 2020 season.
But by 2023, everything had changed.
Asked by some to step down, Jim Harbaugh doubled down. Jeered for being antiquated and old, the Wolverines went full bore — full Big Ten. Starting in 2020, they built from the lines out, establishing a dominant ground-and-pound style that harkened back to football of old. Even as Michigan fell in two difficult CFP semifinal losses, something had changed within the storied walls of Schembechler Hall.
If they were going to go all the way, it was only going to happen one way.
The Pentagon’s disclosure that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin developed serious complications after a prostate removal procedure highlights the prevalence of prostate cancer, especially among Black men, and an uncommon consequence of a surgery to treat it.
Urologists interviewed by The Washington Post said the fact that Austin received surgery backs up the Pentagon’s assertion that his prognosis is “excellent” because it is not typically performed on people whose cancers have spread.
“In almost all likelihood, those patients who can be operated on are going to have no near-term probability of death from the cancer itself,” said Oliver Sartor, an oncologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., who specializes in prostate cancer.
The Pentagon described the procedure as “minimally invasive.” It can be performed using robotic equipment without making a large incision in the patient’s body.
NBC News: At least 4 dead as the U.S. is battered by rain, snow and tornadoes by Patrick Smith, Marlene Lenthang, and Dennis Romero
At least four people were dead and hundreds of thousands were in the dark as stormy weather covered much of the nation Tuesday.
Powerful storms charged across the nation and brought snow, rain, wind, thunder or cold, sometimes in combination, to the Pacific Northwest, Plains, Gulf Coast, South and Mid-Atlantic on Tuesday.
In all, 164 million Americans were under winter weather alerts that ranged from freeze warnings to tornado warnings. Large swaths of the nation were under winter weather advisories — which alert residents to freezing rain and other possible hazards — or winter storm warnings, which precede a few inches or more of snow or sleet.
Even Hawaii was contending with messy weather, as the Maui County Emergency Management Agency said flash flooding was ongoing and rain was coming down at times at 1 inch per hour. The agency said a high wind warning for the Big Island of Hawaii would remain in effect overnight.
The New York Times: Appeals Court Seems Skeptical of Trump’s Immunity Claim by Alan Feuer, Charlie Savage, Eileen Sullivan, and Glenn Thrush
A federal appeals court expressed deep skepticism on Tuesday about former President Donald J. Trump’s claim that he is immune from charges of plotting to subvert the 2020 election, suggesting that it is unlikely to rule in his favor on a central element of his defense.
As Mr. Trump looked on, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit peppered his lawyer D. John Sauer with tough questions about his assertion that his client could not be prosecuted for actions he took while in the White House. The judges seemed incredulous when Mr. Sauer said a president could use the military to assassinate a political rival and be shielded from prosecution unless the Senate first convicted him at an impeachment proceeding.
At another point, Judge Karen L. Henderson, the panel’s sole Republican appointee, seemed to reject a central part of Mr. Trump’s argument: that his efforts to overturn his loss to Joseph R. Biden Jr. cannot be subject to prosecution because presidents have a constitutional duty to ensure that election laws are upheld.
“I think it’s paradoxical to say that his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed allows him to violate the criminal law,” Judge Henderson said.
Guardian: Armed gang storms Ecuador TV station as state of ‘internal armed conflict’ declared by Dan Collyns and Tom Phillips
Heavily armed gangsters have stormed the studio of a major television station in Ecuador during a live broadcast, prompting the country’s president to declare a state of “internal armed conflict” amid a series of seemingly coordinated attacks across the South American country.
Police special forces later arrested all the masked gunmen who invaded the headquarters of the TC Televisión network in Ecuador’s largest city, Guayaquil, at about 2pm local time on Tuesday.
Toting pistols, shotguns, machine guns, grenades and sticks of dynamite, a number of men overran the studio during the El Noticiero news programme. With the cameras broadcasting live, the men could be seen on camera while some employees lay down on the floor and someone was heard yelling “Don’t shoot!” before the signal was eventually cut.
BBC News: Gabriel Attal: Macron's pick for PM is France's youngest at 34 by Hugh Schofield
Gabriel Attal has been named France's next prime minister, as Emmanuel Macron aims to revive his presidency with a new government.
At 34, he is the youngest PM in modern French history, outranking even Socialist Laurent Fabius who was 37 when he was appointed by François Mitterrand in 1984.
Mr Attal replaces Élisabeth Borne, who resigned after 20 months in office.
Throughout that time she struggled with a lack of a majority in parliament.
Gabriel Attal, who is currently education minister, certainly makes an eye-catching appointment.
He will now have the task of leading the French government into important European Parliament elections in June.
His rise has been rapid. Ten years ago he was an obscure adviser in the health ministry, and a card-carrying member of the Socialists.
He will also be the first openly gay occupant of Hôtel Matignon. He has a civil partnership with another Macron whizz-kid, the MEP Stéphane Sejourné.
British Foreign Minister David Cameron has said he is worried that Israel’s war on Gaza may have included breaches of international law, and while the advice he received so far was that Israel was compliant, there were questions to answer.
Speaking to the British parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday, Cameron said some of what he had seen during the war in the besieged Palestinian territory was “deeply concerning”.
Asked during a question-and-answer session with lawmakers if Israel could be “vulnerable to a challenge” from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague over whether its actions were proportionate, Cameron said the stance was “close to that”.
While the former prime minister did not directly answer questions about whether he had received legal advice that Israel might have broken the law, he said some incidents had raised questions over whether there had been breaches.
Detroit Free Press: Wolverines bring home national championship to fans: 'We completed the mission' by Miriam Marini and Kylie Martin
Under freezing rain and a black sky, a sea of hundreds of fans patiently waited to greet their Victors.
For the first time since 1997, the University of Michigan Wolverines won the national championship in a faceoff against the University of Washington Huskies. The victors received a more-than-warm welcome, despite the miserably wet weather for fans honored to have witnessed the historic moments.
"All glory to God," coach Jim Harbaugh said in his first words to the crowd after the cheering calmed. "It was a mission, it had lofty aspirations and high goals and we never lost sight of those goals. We never lost sight of the mission and we completed the mission."
In response to Harbaugh's prompting, "Who's doing it better than us?" Wolverines of the past, present, and future stood on the team's practice field and cheered their lungs out, screaming, "Nobody!"
Have the best possible evening everyone and Go Blue!