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.
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Detroit Free Press: GOP members reverse course, vote to certify Wayne County election results by Clara Hendrickson
After what was an unprecedented 2-2 deadlock along partisan lines, with the two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers voting against certifying the county's November election results, the board unanimously voted to certify the results late Tuesday night.
The board also passed a resolution calling on Michigan Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to conduct an independent comprehensive audit of all of the jurisdictions in the county that recorded unexplained discrepancies between the number of absentee ballots recorded as cast and the number of absentee ballots counted.
All four members of the board unanimously supported the certification of the August primary election, which also saw unexplained discrepancies.
After initially voting against certifying the election results, Monica Palmer, the Republican chair of the committee, said she would be open to certifying the election results for some jurisdictions but not Detroit and others that recorded unexplained discrepancies.
Buzzfeed: Trump Fired A Top Election Cybersecurity Official Who Repeatedly Rebuked Baseless Claims Of Voting Fraud by Salvador Hernandez
President Trump fired the country's top cybersecurity official Tuesday after he repeatedly shot down baseless claims of voting fraud during the 2020 election.
Trump announced the firing of Christopher Krebs, the former head of the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, also known as CISA, in a tweet that was itself flagged within minutes by Twitter for pushing false claims of election fraud.
The decision came as Trump continues to refuse to recognize the 2020 results, and Joe Biden's win, while attorneys for his campaign continue to file lawsuits in battleground states that have failed to gain any ground.
Krebs and his agency have repeatedly pushed back against baseless claims of fraud in the election. As recently as early Tuesday, Krebs retweeted an election security expert, writing that claims of election manipulation "have been unsubstantiated or are technically incoherent."
New York Times: Recession With a Difference: Women Face Special Burden by Patricia Cohen
For millions of working women, the coronavirus pandemic has delivered a rare and ruinous one-two-three punch.
First, the parts of the economy that were smacked hardest and earliest by job losses were ones where women dominate — restaurants, retail businesses and health care.
Then a second wave began taking out local and state government jobs, another area where women outnumber men.
The third blow has, for many, been the knockout: the closing of child care centers and the shift to remote schooling. That has saddled working mothers, much more than fathers, with overwhelming household responsibilities.
Reuters: U.S. medical leaders urge Trump to share COVID-19 data with Biden as states tighten limits by Gabriella Borter and Anurag Maan
(Reuters) - The U.S. medical establishment weighed in on the White House post-election transition fray on Tuesday, urging President Donald Trump to share critical COVID-19 data with President-elect Joe Biden’s team or risk needless, deadly lags in tackling the pandemic.
The Biden team has been trying to devise a coordinated national coronavirus strategy, and the open letter from three leading healthcare organizations came as more state and local governments scrambled separately to tamp down a COVID-19 surge threatening to overwhelm hospitals nationwide.
“Real-time data and information on the supply of therapeutics, testing supplies, personal protective equipment, ventilators, hospital bed capacity and workforce availability to plan for further deployment of the nation’s assets needs to be shared to save countless lives,” said the letter, signed by leaders of the American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association and the American Hospitals Association.
The letter was published a day after Biden, the Democrat who won the tumultuous Nov. 3 election that Trump has refused to concede, warned that “more people may die” if the Republican incumbent keeps blocking a smooth succession to the next administration in January.
Washington Post: As Trump’s term nears close, administration announces troop level cuts in Afghanistan and Iraq by Dan Lamothe and Missy Ryan
The U.S. military will halve the number of troops it has in Afghanistan within the next two months, Pentagon officials said Tuesday, as President Trump seeks to move closer to keeping a promise to end wars abroad despite concerns that the decision could undermine negotiations with the Taliban.
Pentagon officials also said they would make smaller cuts in Iraq, where U.S. forces have focused on countering the Islamic State.
“We owe this moment to the many patriots who made the ultimate sacrifice and our comrades who carry forward their legacy,” acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller said at the Pentagon.
Miller said the military will carry out Trump’s orders in both countries by Jan. 15, with troop numbers reduced from about 5,000 to 2,500 in Afghanistan and from about 3,000 to 2,500 in Iraq. Even with the president’s repeated calls over the years to bring American troops home, the United States remains entangled in the wars in the closing weeks of the Trump administration.
Guardian: Italy and Spain report highest daily Covid deaths of second wave by Lorenzo Tondo and Sam Jones
Italy and Spain have both recorded their highest daily coronavirus death tolls of the second wave, reporting 731 and 435 deaths respectively over the past 24 hours.
Italy, the first western country hit by the virus, has logged 46,464 Covid deaths while Spain has logged 41,688.
Such high Italian daily death figures have not been seen since 3 April, when the country was still in lockdown. The Spanish toll is well up on last week’s previous second-wave record of 411 deaths.
The second wave has already killed 9,000 people in Italy, where the alternative approach to a nationwide lockdown has so far shown little success. The number of total infections passed 1m last week and cases are rising at more than 30,000 a day.
BBC News: Thailand protests: More than 40 injured as clashes rock Bangkok
At least 41 people were left injured after clashes between protesters and police in the Thai capital, Bangkok.
Protesters were attempting to reach parliament on Tuesday, where lawmakers were debating possible changes to the constitution.
They hurled smoke bombs and bags of paint at police, who retaliated with water cannon and tear-gas solution.
The proposed constitutional changes have been one of the core demands of the months-long protest movement.
Others included reforms to the monarchy and the removal of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha - a former general who seized power in a 2014 coup.
But the BBC's Jonathan Head, who was at the scene, said many activists were worried that parliament would dismiss most of their demands - in particular, the one calling for reform of the monarchy.
Legislators are expected to vote on whether to accept any of the proposed changes by Wednesday evening local time.
DW: Peru swears in third president in a week amid political upheaval
Francisco Sagasti was sworn in as Peru's new interim president on Tuesday, a week after Congress voted to oust the popular ex-President, Martin Vizcarra.
His removal from office sparked days of violent protests and led to the eventualresignation of Vizcarra's replacement, Manuel Merino.
In his first words as president, the 76-year-old Sagasti paid tribute to two men who were killed following a police crackdown on the protests, which erupted after what many saw as a parliamentary coup.
"We can't bring them back to life," he said, "but we can stop this from happening again."
Sagasti ascended to the position following a vote in Congress, after over 24 hours of the presidential seat being left empty, since his predecessor had no vice-president.
In accordance with the Peruvian constitution, Sagasti will serve as interim president until July 2021 which would have been the end of Vizcarra's mandate.
Don’t forget that Meteor Blades is hosting a Tuesday night owls thread tonight.
Everyone have a good evening!