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.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
Chicago Sun-Times: All Chicago city buildings will soon be powered by 100% renewable energy by Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco
On her fingers, Chicago’s Chief Sustainability Officer Angela Tovar counted the city buildings that will soon source all of their power from renewable energy: O’Hare International Airport, Midway International Airport, City Hall.
Chicago’s real estate portfolio is massive. It includes 98 fire stations, 81 library locations, 25 police stations and two of the largest water treatment plants on the planet — in all, more than 400 municipal buildings.
It takes approximately 700,000 megawatt hours per year to keep the wheels turning in the third-largest city in the country. Beginning Jan. 1, every single one of them will come solely from clean, renewable energy, mostly sourced from Illinois’ newest and largest solar farm. The move is projected to cut the Windy City’s carbon footprint by approximately 290,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide each year — equal to taking 62,000 cars off the road, the city said.
Chicago is among several cities across the country that are not only shaking up their energy mix but also taking advantage of their bulk-buying power to spur new clean energy development.
USA Today: Video shows NYPD officers standing by as woman set aflame burns to death by Eduardo Cuevas
Video of the horrific death on Sunday of a woman set aflame on a New York City subway car appears to show police officers standing by as she burns alive.
In another turn of events, a man who resembles the suspect who lit her on fire, identified as a 33-year-old Guatemalan man in the country illegally, sits on a nearby bench as she burns on Sunday morning. The suspect, Sebastian Zapeta, even appears to fan his jacket at her on the Brooklyn subway platform.
The New York Police Department arrested Zapeta, whom officials said lives at a homeless shelter in Brooklyn, at a different subway station, in midtown Manhattan.
The footage and images captured of the woman burning alive have prompted people on social media to criticize the NYPD for how officers responded to the crime. Police defended officers’ response, beginning when officers patrolling the Stillwell Avenue station smelled and saw smoke coming from the F train.
The New York Times: Will Troubled Police Departments Escape Federal Accountability? By Shalia Dewan
Elected on the heels of global protests over police brutality, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. promised broad reform to American policing.
He pledged to step up the use of the strongest tool for overhauling problem-plagued police departments, beginning sweeping civil rights investigations into a dozen police forces, including in Minneapolis, Trenton, N.J., and Louisville, Ky.
So far, those investigations have produced 551 pages of findings full of shocking examples of brutality, racial profiling, illegal arrests and impunity for officers who had committed misconduct.
But the Justice Department is running out of time to convert those reports into binding plans of action.
NBC News: FDA raises recall alert to highest level on Costco eggs over risk of severe illness or death due to salmonella by David K. Li
Federal food regulators raised their alarm for recalled eggs sold from Costco stores over possible salmonella exposure, reclassifying the targeted product to their highest risk level.
The FDA had previously announced on Nov. 27 that about 10,800 retail units of organic, pasture-raised, 24-count eggs, sold under Costco’s Kirkland Signature brand, were being recalled by New York-Handsome Brook Farms.
But then in an updated notice issued on Friday, the FDA reclassified to recall to a Class I, which the agency calls a "reasonable probability that the use of, or exposure to, a violative product will cause serious adverse health consequences or death."
The targeted egg cartons were sold in 25 Costco stores in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee beginning Nov. 22.
AlJazeera: A fight for holiday equality by Alison Griner
The meeting lasted only an hour. But Reverend Otis Moss Jr emerged with the distinct feeling he had been disrespected.
Only three weeks remained until the Christmas holiday, and Moss had arrived at the Shillito’s department store in downtown Cincinnati with a purpose.
Rising seven floors from the corner of West Seventh and Elm, Shillito’s was the commercial heart of the Ohio city. And Christmas time was its peak season.
Year after year, pedestrians gathered under the sweeping limestone edifice to marvel at its window displays, brimming with twinkling lights and festive tableaus: animated “snow people” skating across a frozen pond, or tiny animals and elves acting out holiday scenes.
The excitement was so great that, for two years in a row, newspapers reported that the “crush of onlookers” created a “human traffic jam” on the pavement.
BBC News: Protests in Syria over Christmas tree burning by Lina Sonja and Jacqueline Howard
Protests have broken out in Syria over the burning of a Christmas tree, prompting calls for the new Islamist authorities to take steps to protect minorities.
A video posted on social media showed the tree on fire in the main square of Suqaylabiyah, a Christian-majority town in central Syria.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the main Islamist faction which led the uprising that toppled President Bashar al-Assad, said foreign fighters had been detained over the incident.
HTS representatives have promised to protect the rights and freedoms of religious and ethnic minorities in Syria.
Footage on social media appeared to show masked men dousing the Christmas tree with an unidentified liquid the night before Christians in Syria prepared to celebrate Christmas Eve. It was unclear whether they were trying to put the fire out or help it spread.
DW: Brazil: Chinese workers found in 'slave-like' conditions
Brazilian prosecutors on Tuesday said that they had rescued over 160 Chinese citizens from "slavery-like conditions."
The workers had been building a factory for Chinese automaker BYD in Camacari in Brazil's northeastern state of Bahia.
Since November, Bahia's Public Works Ministry said it had identified "163 workers who appeared to be in slave-like conditions."
The ministry said that workers were kept in "an alarming situation of precariousness" and subjected to "degrading working conditions."
"In one of the accommodations, workers slept on beds without mattresses and had no wardrobes for their personal effects, which were mixed together with food supplies," the ministry said, adding that there was only one toilet for every 31 workers.
Al Jazeera: Sombre Christmas in Bethlehem amid Israeli killings of Palestinians
With no Christmas tree or decorations adorning the Church of the Nativity, revered as the birthplace of Jesus Christ, holiday cheer was absent in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem on Tuesday.
In central Bethlehem, the Terra Sancta Scout Troop, donning red scarves, marched down the main shopping street where vendors were selling nougat and shawarma.
The sweet sound of children singing Christmas carols filled the air, a sharp contrast to sombre messages on the banners they held: “We want life, not death”, and “Stop the Gaza genocide now!”
For the second year in a row, Christmas festivities in Bethlehem are overshadowed by the war.
Try to have the best possible evening and holiday season even amid so much sadness in the world.
Have a good night!
