Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame and jck. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), 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.
Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - General Motors Co said on Monday it was reversing course and will no longer back the Trump administration’s effort to bar California from setting its own emissions rules in an ongoing court fight.
GM Chief Executive Mary Barra said in a letter to environmental groups it was “immediately withdrawing from the preemption litigation and inviting other automakers to join us.”
The about-face came as GM sought to work with President-elect Joe Biden, who has made boosting electric vehicles (EVs) a top priority. The Detroit automaker has laid out an ambitious strategy to boost EV sales and last week said it will increase spending on EVs and autonomous vehicles by 35% from previously disclosed plans.
The announcement reflects Corporate America’s move to engage quickly with the incoming Democratic administration.
C/NET
On Nov. 5, a SpaceX rocket roared into the heavens from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying a boxy, 5,000-pound, antenna-studded satellite toward its destination 12,500 miles away, up in what's known as medium Earth orbit. From that distant vantage point, it'll soon beam signals that will help you find your way to a friend's new house out in the suburbs or a vacation destination six hours down the coast.
If you stop at an ATM along the way to grab some cash, those signals will also help the bank know your withdrawal happened after your direct deposit paycheck refreshed your finances. They'll be a factor, too, in whether your cellphone call to your friend, or the rental agent, goes through without garbling or fading.
Those signals will be coming from a GPS III satellite, the newest member of a constellation of satellites that have become a constant and intimate presence in our daily lives. With GPS III, we're getting not just new boxes in the sky, but a series of upgrades that'll help make the system better for all of us here on Earth. And we'll need it.
C/NET
Netflix’s breakout hit about chess, The Queen's Gambit, is the service's most-watched limited series ever, the company said Monday. Based on Netflix's own yardstick for measuring popularity (see below...), The Queen's Gambit has been watched by 62 million households in its first four weeks of release. A limited series is a show that typically has only one season.
By comparison, that's nearly as many as The Irishman, Netflix's $159 million period epic about the Mafia directed by Martin Scorsese, and Tiger King, its viral docuseries this spring.
BBC
The world's poorest and most vulnerable must not be "trampled in the stampede" for Covid-19 vaccines, the head of the World Health Organization has warned.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said successful vaccines must be distributed equitably and that $4.3bn (£3.2bn) was needed to help fund a sharing scheme.
He said the question was "not whether the world can afford to share... it's whether it can afford not to".
Four vaccines have now reported good results from late-stage trials.
The latest to prove highly effective at stopping people developing Covid-19 symptoms, developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, is much cheaper to produce than two others recently announced, and could have a bigger impact worldwide.
BBC
Former US Secretary of State John Kerry will act as climate envoy when US President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
Mr Kerry was one of several people named for top positions by the Biden transition team on Monday.
It comes as calls are growing for Donald Trump to concede the election.
He has made unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud and is continuing to pursue legal challenges over the result.
Mr Biden is projected to beat President Trump by 306 votes to 232 when the US electoral college meets to formally confirm the winner on 14 December. This is far above the 270 votes he needs.
NPR
President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen to head the Treasury Department, a source close to the transition told NPR on Monday, marking the first time a woman would head the powerful agency.
Yellen would play a leading role in shaping economic policy as the United States continues to dig its way out of the deep hole caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Yellen led the central bank from 2014 to 2018. She also was a top White House economist in the Clinton administration.
She won some backing from Republicans when she was confirmed as Fed chair. She is also popular with progressive Democrats.
NPR
Growing up in segregated Louisiana, Linda Thomas-Greenfield says she learned to face adversity. Now, the career diplomat has been tapped to represent the Biden administration at the United Nations in a moment of renewed racial tensions at home.
"My mother taught me to lead with the power of kindness and compassion to make the world a better place," Thomas-Greenfield wrote on Twitter following Monday's announcement that she will be nominated to the Cabinet-level job, which requires Senate approval. "I've carried that lesson with me throughout my career in Foreign Service — and, if confirmed, will do the same as Ambassador to the United Nations."
NPR
President-elect Joe Biden announced Monday his intent to nominate Alejandro Mayorkas, a Cuban American, to head the government agency that oversees immigration issues, the Department of Homeland Security.
Mayorkas, who would be the first Latino and first immigrant to hold that job, previously was the head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a DHS agency, during the Obama administration, and then deputy secretary of DHS.
Following the announcement, Mayorkas tweeted, "When I was very young, the United States provided my family and me a place of refuge. Now, I have been nominated to be the DHS Secretary and oversee the protection of all Americans and those who flee persecution in search of a better life for themselves and their loved ones."
Reuters
(Reuters) - Apple Inc’s security chief on Monday was indicted on bribery charges as prosecutors alleged he promised a donation of 200 iPads to the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office to secure four concealed-weapon permits for Apple employees.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said a grand jury indicted Apple Chief Security Officer Thomas Moyer, 50, and two officers in the Sheriff’s Office.
The officers were charged with soliciting bribes for issuing concealed carry permits. Carrying concealed firearms in California is illegal without a permit, and county sheriffs have broad discretion over their issuance.
Moyer’s attorney said he was innocent of the charges. Apple said it had conducted its own investigation and found no wrongdoing.
The Guardian
The governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, has warned that the economic cost of a no-deal Brexit would be bigger in the long term than the damage caused by Covid-19.
Bailey said failure to agree to a deal before the Brexit transition expires at the end of December would cause disruption to cross-border trade and damage the goodwill between London and Brussels needed to build a future economic partnership.
Speaking to MPs on the Commons Treasury committee, he said the fallout from the pandemic and the second national lockdown in England was having a much bigger short-term impact on the economy. However, “the long-term effects, I think, would be larger than the long-term effects of Covid. But … it would be better to have a trade deal, yes, no question about it.”
The Guardian
Pope Francis lauded a delegation of NBA players who met him at the Vatican on Monday as “champions” and said he supported their work on addressing social injustice.
Five players – Marco Belinelli, Sterling Brown, Jonathan Isaac, Kyle Korver and Anthony Tolliver – were joined by NBA players’ union executive director Michele Roberts and two other union executives, Sherrie Deans and Matteo Zuretti.
“We’re here because, frankly, we’re inspired by the work that you do globally,” Roberts told the pope during the meeting, which took place in the papal library.
The union said the players spoke about their “individual and collective efforts addressing social and economic injustice and inequality occurring in their communities.” Belinelli addressed the pope in Italian, and the group presented the pope with gifts including a commemorative basketball and an Orlando Magic jersey.
The Guardian
The Covid vaccine developed in the UK by Oxford University and AstraZeneca can protect 70.4% of people from becoming ill and – in a surprise result – up to 90% if a lower first dose is used, results from the final trial show.
The Oxford vaccine is the third to produce efficacy results, following Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna whose vaccines were made with a different technology. Both of those reported almost 95% efficacy and Pfizer has applied for a licence in the US and UK.
While the Oxford results may not immediately look so good, the scientists say they are not comparable, because they have included people who become mildly ill as well as seriously ill, unlike the other two. Their vaccine has some big advantages, because it is fridge-stable so easily transported and used anywhere in the world. It is also substantially cheaper, at about £3 a dose instead of more than £20 for the others.
Deutsche Welle
German Health Minister Jens Spahn told Redaktions Netzwerk Deutschland Monday he had asked the country's 16 regional states to establish coronavirus immunization centers by mid-December, assuming European authorities approved a first vaccine.
"I'd rather have a ready-to-go immunization center that remains inactive for several days than a licensed vaccine that cannot be administered," the minister said, reiterating that vulnerable persons, such as the elderly, would be treated first.
Germany has secured more than 300 million vaccine doses via the European Commission under bilateral contracts and options, Spahn estimated.
"Even with two doses per immunization [of an individual] we would have enough for [Germany's] own population and could share with other countries," Spahn forecast.
Deutsche Welle
There was broad support for the draft bill in a first parliamentary hearing last Friday. "It is time for the right to sexual self-determination to become the focal point when it comes to rape. As a society, we must provide rape victims with the legal protection to which they are entitled," wrote Minister of Justice Nick Hækkerup in his note to Parliament.
Denmark traditionally scores high in gender equality rankings, however sexual violence is widespread and the number of reported cases is low.
In 2018, the Crime Prevention Council estimated that more than 6,700 women were victims of such acts, but only about 1,300 cases were reported to the police, resulting in 69 convictions.
"When talking to survivors, they told us that that the main reason why they didn't report the rape was because of the legal definition," said Helle Jacobsen, a program leader on gender issues with Amnesty International. Since 2017, the NGO, along with local activists' groups and survivors, has been working on raising awareness and pushing for a cultural change.
Al Jazeera
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister has denied reports that a meeting took place between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Israeli officials on Sunday.
“I have seen press reports about a purported meeting between HRH the Crown Prince and Israeli officials during the recent visit by @SecPompeo. No such meeting occurred. The only officials present were American and Saudi,” Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud wrote on Twitter on Monday.
Israeli media reported earlier that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held secret talks in Saudi Arabia on Sunday with Crown Prince Mohammed, also known as MBS.
The reports by Israeli public broadcaster Kan and other outlets came weeks after Israel reached deals to establish relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan.
Al Jazeera
A pair of burned-out tanks now signals the entrance to the Tigray town of Humera, where the streets are lined with rubble and residents remain in shock after an Ethiopian army assault earlier this month.
The conflict between Ethiopia’s federal government and the leaders of the northern Tigray region arrived quickly in the farming town, with artillery barrages bombarding commercial buildings and homes as residents fled or cowered in terror.
A communications blackout and restrictions have made reporting on the conflict difficult, but AFP news agency journalists reached Tigray – the first independent journalists to report from inside the conflict zone since fighting started – and found the scars of conflict everywhere.
“We didn’t expect shelling,” said Humera resident Getachew Berhane, a short, bald 42-year-old in a crisp yellow T-shirt.
HuffPost
Emily Murphy the administrator of the General Services Administration, said the transition between President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden can begin, releasing millions of dollars in funds and clearing the way for a new administration.
“I have dedicated much of my adult life to public service, and I have always strived to do what is right,” Murphy wrote in a letter to Biden on Monday. “Please know that I came to my decision independently, based on the law and the available facts. I was never directly or indirectly pressured by any Executive Branch official — including those who work at the White House or GSA — with regard to the substance or timing of my decision.”
Trump thanked Murphy for her work just moments later.