Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Interceptor7, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame and jck. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck, 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.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
Chicago Tribune: Young people are calling out racism at elite Chicago high schools, seeking reforms in admissions, culture and curriculum: ‘A change needs to happen’ by Sophie Sherry
Amid the summer outcry over racial injustice, young people of color at some of Chicago’s most prestigious high schools started using social media to share their own experiences, challenging administrators early in the new school year to reckon with what the students and alumni say are entrenched cultures of racial inequality.
Students at Walter Payton College Prep, a selective enrollment school on the city’s North Side, founded the Instagram account @bipoc.payton as a space for Black, Indigenous and people of color who go to or attended Payton to tell their stories.
Within a week of its creation in late June, the Instagram page received more than 200 submissions and attracted the attention of more than 1,000 followers.
After the police killing of George Floyd in May, similar accounts were created for institutions across the country, including locally for Jones College Prep, Latin School of Chicago, Francis W. Parker School and St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago and Loyola Academy in Wilmette.
Miami Herald: Gators football season paused after multiple players test positive for COVID-19, report by Jason Dill
University of Florida athletics director Scott Stricklin put the Gators football season on pause on Tuesday after “an increase in positive COVID tests among players this week,” he said in a press release.
Multiple players tested positive for COVID-19, the respiratory illness that’s caused a global pandemic, according to UF’s independent student newspaper, The Alligator.
“Out of an abundance of caution, team activities are paused as of Tuesday afternoon,” Stricklin said in his statement. “Head coach Dan Mullen has been in communication with football players and their parents, and I have had conversations with the Southeastern Conference office, last week’s opponent Texas A&M, and this week’s opponent LSU. These circumstances will be re-evaluated by UF Health and the athletic department’s sports medicine staff Wednesday.”
Arizona Republic: 'This week will go down in history': Phoenix ties record of most days at or over 100 degrees by Jamie Landers
As if 2020 didn't have enough to be remembered by — Phoenix tied its record for most days at or above 100 degrees within a calendar year on Tuesday.
The National Weather Service in Phoenix recorded hitting triple digits just before 3 p.m.
The record of 143 days of 100-plus degree weather was set in 1989.
Not only did Phoenix reach that Tuesday, Sean Benedict, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Phoenix, said the city is likely to surpass it, too.
"We weren't sure we'd see the day, but there is a very, very good chance this week will go down in history," Benedict said.
Philadelphia Inquirer: During Black Lives Matter protests, donations poured in to a Philly community fund. Here’s how the nonprofit distributed the money. By Samantha Melamed
As protests for racial justice seethed through Philadelphia this summer, hundreds of people and businesses across the city simultaneously recognized that backing the movement required more than a window sign or an Instagram post. It also meant giving real, substantive, meaningful support — aka large sums of money.
So, in just a few months, Philadelphia’s Bread & Roses Community Fund, a grant-making organization with a social-justice mission, received as much in donations — more than half a million dollars — as it would normally get for the whole year.
The question was: How to distribute it?
To distribute that windfall in the spirit it was given — as an immediate commitment to anti-racism and solidarity — the nonprofit threw out its normal grant-making process. It didn’t ask for applications or review proposals.
Buzzfeed: Kamala Harris Kept Her Questioning Of Amy Coney Barrett Laser-Focused On Healthcare by Molly Hensley-
WASHINGTON — This time, instead of the sharp, prosecutorial questions that have become her trademark in the Senate, Sen. Kamala Harris said she would “take a moment to talk directly with the American people about where we are, and how we got here.”
Harris turned her questioning of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett Tuesday into a speech defending the Affordable Care Act, encapsulating the unwavering focus on healthcare amidst the coronavirus pandemic from Democrats that has marked Barrett’s confirmation hearings — and Harris and Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.
“Republicans are planning to confirm this nominee as fast as possible because they need one more Trump judge on the bench before November 10th, to win and strike down the entire Affordable Care Act,” Harris said at the hearing, speaking virtually from her office in the Capitol after two Republican members of the Judiciary Committee tested positive for the virus.
Washington Post: Biden and Trump step up their fight for older voters by Sean Sullivan
Joe Biden on Tuesday made his most direct appeal yet to older voters, seeking to lock in support from a group that favored President Trump four years ago but has emerged as one of the most significant groups to potentially shift toward Biden in 2020.
At a senior center in Florida a day after Trump
visited the state, Biden argued that Trump has turned his back on older Americans, citing the president’s widely criticized response to the novel
coronavirus, his attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and his approach to Social Security and Medicare.
“You’re expendable. You’re forgettable. You’re virtually nobody. That’s how he sees seniors,” Biden said in a speech at a community center for seniors in Pembroke Pines, during which he wore a mask the entire time.
New York Times: Coronavirus Reinfections Are Real but Very, Very Rare by Apoorva Mandivilli
Reports of reinfection with the coronavirus evoke a nightmarish future: Repeat bouts of illness, impotent vaccines, unrelenting lockdowns — a pandemic without an end.
A case study published on Monday, about a 25-year-old man in Nevada, has stoked those fears anew. The man, who was not named, became sicker the second time that he was infected with the virus, a pattern the immune system is supposed to prevent.
But these cases make the news precisely because they are rare, experts said: More than 38 million people worldwide have been infected with the coronavirus, and as of Monday, fewer than five of those cases have been confirmed by scientists to be reinfections.
“That’s tiny — it’s like a microliter-sized drop in the bucket, compared to the number of cases that have happened all over the world,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University in New York.
DW: Coronavirus pandemic fuels sharp increase in Japanese suicide rate by Martin Fritz
This year, Japan's news headlines have been increasingly dominated by celebrity suicides: On May 23, it was the death of professional wrestler and reality TV star Hana Kimura, 22, and in July, TV actor Haruma Miura, who was 30. In September, actresses Sei Ashina, 36, and Yuko Takeuchi, 40, also died by suicide.
The recent spike signals a strong shift away from years of declining suicide rates in the country. This July, observers were surprised to see numbers as high as those of July 2019. And in August, which saw around 1,850 suicides, that bottoming out was followed by a 15% increase over the same month the year before.
The Japanese government noted the upward trend — and has increased its annual suicide prevention budget by roughly 40%, to 3.7 billion yen (€30 million / $35 million).
The funds are sorely needed. Many private hotline operators and counsellors were forced to cut back services because of the coronavirus pandemic and many also lack funding while at the same time saying a greater number of people are calling them for help. Experts blame the rise in suicides on the pandemic.
BBC News: Coronavirus: Europe tightens measures amid sharp rise in cases
The Czech Republic is imposing a three-week partial lockdown shutting schools, bars and clubs, as Europe struggles to contain a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases.
The country has the region's highest new infection rate per 100,000 people. Restaurants will be closed and public consumption of alcohol is banned.
In the Netherlands, a partial lockdown was announced, and masks have become compulsory in public indoor spaces.
Meanwhile, hospital admissions are rising fast again in many countries.
President Emmanuel Macron is expected to announce further restrictions in a televised address on Wednesday. Local media reports suggest that cities considered hotspots, including Paris, could face evening curfews.
Don’t forget that Meteor Blades is hosting a Tuesday night owls thread tonight.
Everyone have a great evening!