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.
Chicago Sun-Times: San Francisco sues Chicago food giants over ultra-processed products by Mariah Rush
The city of San Francisco is suing four Chicago-based food giants, as well as other major snack food makers, for manufacturing addictive ultra-processed foods and knowingly sickening consumers.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday by San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu in San Francisco Superior Court, names leading manufacturers such as Chicago’s Kraft Heinz, Mondelez International, Kellanova and Conagra Brands, as well as Post Holdings, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, General Mills, Nestle USA, Kellogg and Mars.
“Our reliance on ultra-processed foods is decades in the making, and we are not going to be able to reverse that overnight,” Chiu said, during a news conference. “This lawsuit should be the beginning of how we ensure accountability.”
Chiu — who stood near a table filled with snacks such as Mondelez’s Oreos and Kraft Heinz’s Lunchables brand — said companies’ products are linked to “serious health conditions and impose enormous costs on millions of Americans.”
Kraft Heinz, Mondelez, Kellanova and Conagra didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The New York Times: Trump Calls Affordability a ‘Con Job’ as His Edge on the Economy Slips by Erica L. Green
President Trump on Tuesday downplayed the cost-of-living pains being felt by Americans, declaring that affordability “doesn’t mean anything to anybody” as his political edge on the economy continues to dissipate.
In remarks during a cabinet meeting, Mr. Trump railed against Democrats who have championed the issue, which helped the party secure several off-year election victories last month and is likely to be a defining topic in the midterms next year.
After ticking off what he claimed were trillions of dollars of investments and other economic accomplishments, Mr. Trump called the issue of affordability a “fake narrative” and “con job” created by Democrats to dupe the public.
“They just say the word,” he said. “It doesn’t mean anything to anybody. They just say it — affordability. I inherited the worst inflation in history. There was no affordability. Nobody could afford anything.”
...man, fuck you let me hush
Mother Jones: Pete Hegseth Finds His Fall Guy by Alex Nguyen
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remains under intense scrutiny following reports that he gave a spoken order to kill survivors of a boat strike, an allegation that has since labeled Hegseth the “Secretary of War Crimes.” But it appears that amid the fallout, Hegseth has found a potential fall guy: Admiral Frank Bradley, the Special Operations commander who oversaw the September 2 strikes.
Here is Hegseth on Monday referring to the September 2 strikes as “the combat decisions [Bradley] has made,” a line many viewed as attempting to directly place blame on a subordinate.
Then again, on Tuesday: “All these strikes, they’re making judgment calls, ensuring they defend the American people,” Hegseth told reporters, saying nothing of his own role in the strikes, which have more generally been likened to extrajudicial killings.
MS NOW: Republican Matt Van Epps wins closely watched special election for Nashville-area House seat by Allison Detzel and Nnamdi Egwuonwu
After a wave of high-profile election losses across the country last month, the GOP notched a much-needed win Tuesday in a closely watched Tennessee special congressional race, padding the party’s narrow House margin ahead of next year’s midterms.
NBC News’ Decision Desk projects that Republican Matt Van Epps beat Democrat Aftyn Behn, a state representative and community organizer, in the special election to represent Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District. Van Epps’ victory will boost Republicans’ advantage in the chamber to 220-213.
Democrats keyed into the race had largely built their expectations regarding its outcome around two possibilities: winning or an over performance by Behn.
The current political environment — one in which Trump faces sluggish approval ratings and Republicans find themselves defending an unpopular agenda — paired with the state’s reputation for low turnout during off-year elections, restored confidence among party members that they could at the very least cut into the double-digit margin Trump won the district by in 2024.
The Guardian: Family of victim in Trump drug boat killings files first formal complaint by Aram Roston
A family in Colombia filed a petition on Tuesday with the Washington DC-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, alleging that the Colombian citizen Alejandro Carranza Medina was illegally killed in a US airstrike on 15 September.
The petition marks the first formal complaint over the airstrikes by the Trump administration against suspected drug boats, attacks that the White House says are justified under a novel interpretation of law.
The IACHR, part of the Organization of American States, is designed to “promote and protect human rights in the Western Hemisphere”. The US is a member, and in March the Trump administration’s state department wrote: “The United States is pleased to be a strong supporter of the IACHR and is committed to continuing support for the Commission’s work and its independence. Preserving the IACHR’s autonomy is a pillar of our human rights policy in the region.”
AlJazeera: ‘No compromise’ on territory after Ukraine talks with US: Russian official by Rory Sullivan
“No compromise” was reached on the crucial issue of control of Ukrainian territory to end Moscow’s war, a Russian official has said, after talks between senior US officials and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner met Putin in the Russian capital on Tuesday, as the United States seeks to broker an end to the deadliest war in Europe since the Second World War.
The discussions lasted almost five hours and ended after midnight. “So far, we haven’t found a compromise, but some American solutions can be discussed,” said top Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov, who attended the meeting.
Although Ushakov described the conversation as “very useful and constructive”, he stressed that “a lot of work lies ahead both in Washington and in Moscow”.
The US delegation had travelled to the Russian capital to discuss a peace plan, which Washington has updated since its earlier leaked 28-point draft was strongly criticised by Ukraine and its allies for favouring Russia.
DW: Has Hong Kong fire triggered 'national security' crackdown? By Wesley Rahn
Tensions are running high in Hong Kong over last week's massive apartment fire in the city's Tai Po district. The blaze killed at least 156 people, with the death toll expected to grow as authorities continue to comb through the burned-out buildings.
The fire at the Wang Fuk Court apartment complex broke out as buildings were being renovated. It eventually spread to seven out of eight apartment towers in the complex.
Authorities have already said they suspect that substandard insulation foam and cheap plastic netting used on scaffolding contributed to the fire. The exact cause has yet to be determined.
As early as September 2024, local residents raised safety concerns about the construction materials being used for the project, but were told they faced a "relatively low" fire risk, the Hong Kong Labour Department told the Reuters news agency.
Fifteen people have already been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter as officials probe the incident. The suspects include several people associated with the renovation contractor.
El País in English: Dmitry Muratov, Russian journalist: ‘Putin has made a mockery of European politicians’ by Sonia Vizoso
Dmitry Muratov, 64, speaks like someone who has just returned from a journey into an undesirable future that now casts a shadow over countries that once thought themselves immune. “I have to warn you that you are currently interviewing an enemy of the state,” says the Russian journalist.
The 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate is referring to the blacklist he has been placed on by Vladimir Putin’s government, the same government that has shut down almost all critical media outlets and imprisoned 48 journalists. Muratov described the democratic dismantling in his country during a lecture at the Auditorio do Mar in Vigo, Spain, where he gave a talk on November 12. Speaking to business leaders, economists, politicians, and bankers attending the Vigo Global Summit, he warned about the new guises under which the same old totalitarianism is advancing around the world. In Russia, “everything is propaganda,” he lamented, adding that when attacks on journalism and the erosion of rights and freedoms began, European authorities chose to look the other way.
Everyone have the best possible evening that you can!
