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.
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Chicago Sun-Times: Illinois could become first state to decriminalize sex work under proposed law by Sophie Sherry
State lawmakers plan to introduce legislation this week that would make Illinois the first state to fully decriminalize sex work.
Equality Illinois and the Sex Worker Advisory Group, a coalition of Black and Brown current and former sex workers, have spent more than three years advocating for this bill, which aims to reduce threats of violence and create safer conditions for sex workers.
“For over 20 years, I worked as a sex worker here in the city of Chicago, and for over 20 years lived under the fear and threat of violence,” said Reyna Ortiz, chair of the Sex Worker Advisory Group. “By passing this legislation, we will make Illinois a safer place for everyone, especially the most vulnerable in our communities.”
The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Will Guzzardi, D-Chicago, and state Sen. Celina Villanueva, D-Chicago, would remove criminal penalties for adults engaging in consensual sex work, remove arrest and conviction records for sex workers and establish a sex workers’ bill of rights.
The New York Times: Tuesday’s Winds Didn’t Reach Their Predicted Speeds, but Wednesday’s Might by Judson Jones and Amy Graff
Meteorologists get it wrong sometimes.
Thankfully, when they got it wrong this week, it was because the winds were weaker than predicted on Tuesday and no longer met the National Weather Service’s criteria for a “particularly dangerous situation,” which is a rare, high-level warning meant to be used only every few years for the worst possible wildfire conditions of dried vegetation, low humidity and strong winds.
Just a week ago, at the start of a cycle of four Santa Ana wind events that have overtaken the region since then, the forecast warned of a “particularly dangerous” wildfire outlook, with a windstorm of a strength not seen in over a decade. That forecast was realized when the Palisades fire, the Eaton fire and other blazes sent Los Angeles residents fleeing from their homes as a torrent of winds pushed fires raging through their neighborhoods.
Weather Service meteorologists make their forecasts based on a combination of current conditions, historical events and computer weather models. They take all this information in and then forecast what they think is the most likely outcome. There are always outliers, conditions that could occur but are less likely.
Roll Call: Hegseth sticks to script at his confirmation hearing by Mark Satter
Pete Hegseth weathered repeated efforts by Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee to assail his lack of qualifications to lead the Pentagon on Tuesday, buoyed by praise from Republicans of President-elect Donald Trump’s “out-of-the-box” pick to serve as secretary of Defense.
Partisan lines of support and hostility appeared to solidify as Hegseth faced nearly five hours of questions during his confirmation hearing. Democrats focused on his previous derogatory comments toward women in combat, his lack of experience leading a large organization, and the storm of allegations that has dogged him for months.
Republicans on the panel warmed to the combat veteran and former Fox News host. Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who until the hearing had been generally supportive of Hegseth but not ardent, threw his full-throated support behind Hegseth at the hearing’s outset.
“Admittedly, this nomination is unconventional. The nominee is unconventional, just like that New York developer who rode down the escalator in 2015 to announce his candidacy for president. That may be what makes Mr. Hegseth an excellent choice,” Wicker said.
NBC News: SEC sues Elon Musk, alleging failure to properly disclose Twitter ownership by Lora Kolodny and Ari Levy
The SEC filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk on Tuesday, alleging the billionaire committed securities fraud in 2022 by failing to disclose he had amassed an active stake in Twitter, a secrecy that allowed him to buy shares at “artificially low prices.”
Musk, who is also CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, purchased Twitter for $44 billion in late 2022 and changed the name to X the following year. Prior to the acquisition, he’d built up a position in the company of greater than 5%, which would’ve required disclosing his holdings to the public within 10 calendar days of reaching that threshold.
According to the SEC’s civil complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., Musk was more than 10 days late in reporting that material information, “allowing him to underpay by at least $150 million for shares he purchased after his financial beneficial ownership report was due.” Investors may have bid up the stock had they known about Musk’s purchases and interest in the company.
The SEC had been investigating whether Musk, or anyone else working with him, committed securities fraud in 2022 around the Twitter disclosures. Musk said in a post on X last month that the SEC issued a “settlement demand,” pressuring him to agree to a deal, including a fine within 48 hours or “face charges on numerous counts” regarding the purchase of shares.
Guardian: South Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol arrested, investigators say, after hours-long standoff at residence by Raphael Rashid and Justin McCurry
South Korea’s impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol, has been arrested and is to undergo questioning over his ill-fated declaration of martial law last month, anti-corruption investigators said on Wednesday, bringing to an end an early-morning standoff outside his official residence in Seoul.
Yoon remained defiant, however, saying he had agreed to cooperate with anti-corruption authorities to “avoid bloodshed” after the latest chapter in a saga that has rocked South Korean politics and triggered concern among its allies. Yoon said the rule of law had “completely collapsed” after his detention.
“President Yoon has decided to personally appear at the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) today,” his lawyer Seok Dong-hyeon said on Facebook, adding that the impeached leader would also make a speech. Reports said a convoy of vehicles, one of which was presumably carrying Yoon, had left the presidential residence.
AlJazeera: Brazil expresses concern over Meta’s changes to content moderation
Brazilian authorities have expressed “serious concern” over a recent announcement by the social media giant Meta that they will ease their policies restricting incendiary speech and fact-checking.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Brazilian attorney general’s office (AGU) said that it would ask for more information from Meta, adding that the policy change may not comply with Brazilian law.
“Some aspects contained in the Meta document cause serious concern. The changes now reported by Meta, are not in line with Brazilian legislation and are not sufficient to protect the fundamental rights of citizens,” the office said in a statement.
Last week, Meta, which owns platforms like Facebook and Instagram, scrapped a third-party fact-checking programme, on the basis that it had become a “tool to censor”.
The company also indicated it would loosen curbs on rhetoric that could be seen as hostile to groups such as immigrants and LGBTQ people.
El País in English: Maduro warns he is preparing with Cuba and Nicaragua to ‘take up arms’ in the event of an intervention by Florantonia Singer
On the first day of his third term, Nicolás Maduro has warned that he is preparing an armed offensive with Cuba and Nicaragua in response to alleged foreign interventions. “We are preparing ourselves together with Cuba and Nicaragua and together with our older brothers in the world so that if one day we have to take up arms and defend the right to peace and sovereignty, we will fight in an armed struggle and win again. We are not lukewarm leaders, we are the Bolivarian revolution,” he said during the closing of the second meeting of the World Festival of the Antifascist International, whose international delegates filled the seats of many representatives of democratic countries that turned their backs on him during the swearing-in ceremony.
The Chavista leader thus responded to the request made this Saturday by former Colombian presidents Álvaro Uribe and Iván Duque to undertake an international military intervention in Venezuela that would lead to a transition to democracy. “Coward, you come to the front of the troops. I’ll wait for you on the battlefield,” said Maduro, extending his insults against Uribe.
January 10 has become a turning point in the Venezuelan conflict. Maduro was sworn in for a third six-year term without presenting evidence of having won. On the contrary, the opposition has evidence of the victory of Edmundo González Urrutia by a wide margin of votes. The heir of the Bolivarian revolution is going through a new crisis of legitimacy that puts the stability of his government at risk.