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: Judge blocks Trump administration from withholding transportation funds over immigration enforcement by Violet Miller
Illinois, along with 19 other states, won yet another victory in court Tuesday, with a federal judge siding with them and blocking the Trump administration from withholding federal transportation money over cooperation with its nationwide immigration blitzes.
Rhode Island District Judge John R. McConnell issued a permanent injunction barring the Trump administration from withholding the transportation money over “arbitrary and capricious” conditions it set for states to work with feds on immigration enforcement.
In his decision, he said the Department of Transportation “blatantly overstepped” its authority in an attempt to “coerce states into cooperating with federal civil immigration enforcement.”
“The Constitution demands the court set aside this lawless behavior,” the decision reads.
It comes more than a month after Illinois and other states saw another similar court victory after a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from withholding disaster relief from states with “sanctuary laws” on the books.
The New York Times: Live Updates: Mamdani Wins N.Y.C. Mayor’s Race After Highest Turnout in Decades by Nicholas Fandos (pinned)
Zohran Kwame Mamdani, a 34-year-old state lawmaker who transformed himself into an electrifying voice for New Yorkers disillusioned with runaway living costs and a scandal-plagued old guard, was elected the city’s 111th mayor on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.
His victory, stretching from the gentrified corridors of Brooklyn to the working-class immigrant enclaves of Queens, completed one of the most remarkable political upsets in New York history and will soon put a democratic socialist in City Hall.
Mr. Mamdani defeated former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in a rematch of June’s Democratic primary, as New Yorkers soundly rejected a man who was once the state’s most powerful figure for the second time in five months. Curtis Sliwa, the Republican, was in a distant third place, and conceded earlier in the night.
Turnout surged past 2 million voters, the highest level of participation in one of the city’s municipal elections since 1969.
NBC News: Democrat Abigail Spanberger wins Virginia governor's race by Adam Edelman
Democrat Abigail Spanberger has defeated Republican Winsome Earle-Sears to flip control of the Virginia governorship, NBC News projects, setting her up to become the first woman to lead the state.
Spanberger, a former congresswoman, won the race in the blue-leaning state after holding polling and fundraising advantages throughout the campaign. Her victory provides Democrats with a shot of momentum as the party attempts to chart its path forward after its 2024 election defeat.
With 68% of the vote in, Spanberger had 55.6% of the vote, compared to 44.2% for Earle-Sears.
Virginia was one of two states, along with New Jersey, that held the first governor’s races of President Donald Trump’s second term.
Truth is, Governor-Elect Spanberger’s win isn’t the jaw-dropper out of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Neither is this:
It’s the Democratic gains in the Virginia House of Delegates.
NJ.com: Sherrill defeats Ciattarelli in hotly contested N.J. governor’s race by Brent Johnson, Brianna Kudisch, and Jelani Gibson
Democratic U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill was elected New Jersey’s 57th governor Tuesday, defeating Republican Jack Ciattarelli in a bitter, nationally watched race considered an early referendum on President Donald Trump’s second term.
The Associated Press called the race at 9:23, less than an hour and half after the polls closed. With 62% of the precincts, counted, Sherrill had 57% of the vote.
Sherrill, a 53-year-old former Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor, will become just the second woman governor in the state’s 238-year history.
“New Jersey, it is the honor of my life to earn your trust to become this great state’s 57th Governor,” Sherrill posted on X. “I promise to listen, lead with courage, and never forget who I serve.”
The congresswoman, who has promised to be the state’s firewall against Trump, also breaks a 64-year-old streak. It’s the first time since 1961 that one party has won the governor’s office in New Jersey for three straight terms. Sherrill will succeed Democratic Gov.
Phil Murphy, who will leave office in January because the state constitution limits governors to two consecutive terms.
Well… about all I have to say about this is
Or what Moms Mabley said.
The New York Times: California Approves New House Maps in a Major Win for Democrats and Newsom by Shane Goldmacher and Laurel Rosenhall
California voters agreed Tuesday to aggressively redraw the state’s congressional district lines to wipe out as many as five Republican seats, according to The Associated Press, delivering a major victory for national Democrats hoping to wrest control of the House of Representatives in 2026.
Gavin Newsom, the state’s Democratic governor, had championed the ballot measure, successfully selling it as an emergency response to President Trump’s efforts to press Republican states across the country to redraw their own boundaries for political advantage.
It’s now possible that Democrats could hold as many as 48 of California’s 52 seats after 2026, up from the party’s current 43 seats.
Redistricting wars have spread nationwide since the summer, when Republicans carved as many as five new congressional seats for the party in Texas. The passage of new maps in California represents the first and most significant swing back in favor of Democrats.
The Guardian: Pennsylvania keeps three liberal justices, preserving swing-state court control by Sam Levine
Three liberal justices won another 10-year term on the Pennsylvaniasupreme court, giving Democrats a key victory and allowing them to maintain their 5-2 advantage on a vital body that could issue important rulings on abortion and voting rights in an important battleground state in the coming years.
In Pennsylvania, supreme court justices are first elected in partisan elections and then voters get to decide whether to retain them every 10 years in contests that are technically non-partisan. Three justices – Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht – were elected as Democrats in 2015.
Caribbean National Weekly: Hurricane Melissa leaves near J$1 trillion in damage, thousands jobless in Jamaica by Sheri Kae-McLeod
Hurricane Melissa, the strongest storm ever to hit Jamaica, has caused preliminary damage estimated between US$6 billion and US$7 billion—roughly 28 to 32 per cent of the country’s 2024/2025 GDP, or nearly J$1 trillion, Prime Minister Dr. Andrew Holness told Parliament on Tuesday.
Melissa, which slammed into Jamaica’s agricultural heartlands and tourism corridors, has left at least 32 dead in the island nation, while Haiti recorded 43 deaths and 13 missing after days of torrential rain and flooding. In Haiti, rivers overflowed, nearly 12,000 homes were flooded, and communities were cut off from drinking water. In Jamaica, more than 30 communities remain isolated due to damaged roads and bridges.
Holness described the storm as “on the very edge of what is physically possible in the Atlantic Ocean, powered by record sea temperatures,” noting that seismographs hundreds of miles away registered its passage. He warned that short-term economic output could fall by 8 to 13 per cent, particularly in the most affected parishes, and that the costs would push up Jamaica’s debt-to-GDP ratio.
DW: Ukraine: How successful is Russia's offensive near Pokrovsk? By Daria Nynko and Hanna Sokolova-Stekh
The city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region is a hotspot in the war between Russia and Ukraine. For more than a year, there has been heavy fighting at this frontline, which has shifted to the streets in recent months. The Russians gradually trickle into the city, a drone pilot told DW; it was impossible to track all of them. The attackers, the pilot said, were looking for hiding places, waiting for favorable weather conditions and entering the city individually or in pairs, pretending to be civilians and remaining undetected for months.
"According to my observations, infiltration is the main problem. It's very difficult to determine who's the enemy and who's a civilian," said the reconnaissance officer, who is deployed in the region with his Ukrainian unit.
He told DW that the Russian troops were advancing on Pokrovsk with a large number of drones and glide bombs. Using drones, they were setting up ambushes, hampering logistics of the Ukrainian forces and destroying any cover with their bombs.
Ukraine's military currently believes that Russia's army in Pokrovsk has a double advantage, both in terms of numbers and air supremacy. Ukraine was currently unable to counter the multitude of Russian drones.
El País in English: A Hungarian spy scandal in Brussels implicates Viktor Orbán’s EU commissioner by María R. Sahuquillo
Brussels is a city teeming with spies. Russians, Iranians, Israelis, Chinese… They all move about, seeking information within European institutions and NATO, or to obtain intelligence from the hundreds of organizations headquartered in the Belgian capital. Now, a European espionage scandal has rocked the EU and diplomatic circles in Brussels. The European Commission is investigating whether the Hungarian intelligence services worked to recruit a network of spies among European officials. And, above all, whether its current Commissioner for Health and Consumer Affairs, the Hungarian Olivér Várhelyi, was aware of the activities of this network.
Investigators will have to determine whether this network used intelligence agents under diplomatic cover as employees of the Hungarian Permanent Representation to the EU when Várhelyi was its ambassador. The objective would have been to obtain classified documents and sensitive information of interest to the government of nationalist-populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is embroiled in a long-standing dispute with the EU.
Everyone have the best possible evening!
