(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Overnight News Digest November 24, 2024 [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-11-24 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 (RIP), 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 since 2007, 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. BBC Far-right candidate takes shock lead in Romania presidential election A far-right, pro-Russia candidate has taken a surprise lead in the first round of Romania's presidential election, with preliminary results putting his pro-Europe rival in close second. With 96% of votes counted, ultranationalist Calin Georgescu was on 22%, and Marcel Ciolacu, the prime minister, had 20%, according to the Central Electoral Bureau. The strong showing of Georgescu, who has no party of his own, and campaigned largely on the social media platform TikTok, came as the biggest surprise of the election. He is now on track to join Ciolacu in a final run-off for the presidency on 8 December. That would pose a dilemma for the millions of Romanians who voted for other candidates. One option would be to rally round populist Social Democrat Ciolacu, an establishment figure who would continue Romania’s pro-western path. AP News Left-wing opposition candidate wins tight presidential election in Uruguay MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Uruguay’s leftist opposition candidate, Yamandú Orsi, claimed victory in a tight presidential runoff Sunday, ousting the conservative governing coalition and making the South American nation the latest to rebuke the incumbent party in a year of landmark elections. Even as the vote count continued, Álvaro Delgado, the presidential candidate of the center-right ruling coalition, conceded defeat to his challenger. “With sadness, but without guilt, we can congratulate the winner,” he told supporters at his campaign headquarters in the capital of Montevideo “Let’s understand that there is another part of our country who have different feelings today,” he said. “These people will also have to help build a better country. We need them too.” NPR Record number of people to travel for Thanksgiving amid severe weather (Including us) Roads, airports and even cruise terminals could be more crowded this year as nearly 80 million people are expected to travel during Thanksgiving, according to AAA, even as severe weather threatens to disrupt travel. "Americans reconnect with family and friends over Thanksgiving, and travel is a big part of that," Barber said in a statement. "AAA continues to see travel demand soar post-pandemic with our members looking for new adventures and memorable vacations." Last year, an estimated 78 million people traveled more than 50 miles during the Thanksgiving holiday, which AAA considers to be a record that exceeded a forecast of 55 million travelers. The organization says it has been tracking holiday travel since 2000. This year's projections are for a seven-day period from the Tuesday before and the Monday after Thanksgiving — compared to previous years that tracked five days, from Wednesday to Sunday. Christian Science Monitor UN climate talks finally reach deal, hoping for more, settling for less In the wee hours Sunday at the United Nations climate talks, countries from around the world reached an agreement on how rich countries can contribute funds to support poor countries in the face of climate change. It's a far-from-perfect arrangement, with many parties still deeply unsatisfied but some hopeful that the deal will be a step in the right direction. World Resources Institute president and CEO Ani Dasgupta called it “an important down payment toward a safer, more equitable future,” but he added that the poorest and most vulnerable nations are “rightfully disappointed that wealthier countries didn’t put more money on the table when billions of people’s lives are at stake.” Rich countries have agreed to pool together at least $300 billion a year by 2035. It’s not near the full amount of $1.3 trillion that developing countries were asking for, and that experts said was needed. But delegations more optimistic about the agreement said this deal is headed in the right direction, with hopes that more money will flow their way in the future. The Guardian Huge election year worldwide sees weakening commitment to act on climate crisis An unprecedented year of elections around the world has underscored a sobering trend – in many countries the commitment to act on the climate crisis has either stalled or is eroding, even as disasters and record temperatures continue to mount. So far 2024, called the “biggest election year in human history” by the United Nations with around half the world’s population heading to the polls, there have been major wins for Donald Trump, the US president-elect who calls the climate crisis “a big hoax”; the climate-skeptic right in European Union elections; and Vladimir Putin, who won another term and has endured sanctions to maintain Russia’s robust oil and gas exports. “It’s been a bad year for climate and we’ve seen a gradual erosion in the public’s commitment to action for a couple of years now. The paradox is, of course, that major climate events are happening more frequently everywhere, yet people are no longer willing to prioritize this.” The Guardian Ukraine war briefing: Ukraine targeted by nearly 500 Iran-designed drones in a week, Zelenskyy says Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he fears that Ukraine will become “a testing ground” for Russian munitions , with the country being targeted by nearly 500 drones in the past week, as well as more than 20 missiles. Though Russia’s first ever use of the Oreshnik intermediate range ballistic missile on Dnipro on Thursday captured global attention, on Sunday Zelenskyy highlighted the increased level of Shahed drone attacks. Ukraine says Russia has set up two factories to make the distinctive Iran-designed, delta-winged Shahed 136 drones, called Geran-2 by Moscow, about 800 miles from the border in Ukraine. The geopolitical implications of the Ukraine war are rippling through Asia, with claims in the US that China is growing “increasingly uncomfortable” about North Korea’s engagement with Russia. China is unnerved by the growing cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow, Kurt Campbell, the US deputy secretary of state has said, with Beijing fearing the issue may help America form alliances with South Korea and Japan in east Asia. Deutsche Welle Germany's conservatives want to cut benefits for Ukrainians Germany's center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU) — currently leading in polls ahead of the election on February 23 next year — want to cut welfare benefits and get more of the country's 5.5 million long-term unemployed into the labor market. They are also openly questioning whether Ukrainians should receive the standard unemployment benefit, called Bürgergeld ("citizens' income") rather than the lower asylum-seeker benefits. Following Russia's full-fledged invasion of Ukraine, refugees arriving in Germany and were subject to an EU Council Directive for temporary protection in the event of a mass influx of displaced persons for whom the regular asylum procedures do not apply. They were granted temporary residency status and entitled to full social welfare benefits. The CSU's Stephan Stracke, social policy spokesman for the CDU/CSU's parliamentary group, told DW that while anyone fleeing "war and violence" had a right to protection, "This does not mean, however, that there must be an automatic entitlement to the citizen's income in Germany." Instead, Stracke said, newly arrived Ukrainian war refugees should receive asylum-seeker benefits "at first." Al Jazeera Rival sectarian groups agree to seven-day ceasefire in Pakistan Pakistani officials have announced a seven-day truce between rival sectarian groups after days of clashes killed dozens of people in the northwest of the country. The violence between the groups began on Thursday after gunmen attacked civilian convoys, killing at least 40 people, who mainly were Shia Muslims. In retaliation, residents in the area of Kurram targeted Sunni Muslims. Local Shia and Sunni Muslims have engaged in sectarian rivalry for decades over a land dispute in the Kurram district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, near the border with Afghanistan. Following the violence, Muhammad Ali Saif, spokesperson for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government and a member of the mediation team, said on Sunday that both sides had agreed to a seven-day ceasefire. “They will also exchange prisoners and return bodies to one another,” Saif said. Washington Post Musk and Ramaswamy race to build a ‘DOGE’ team for war with Washington Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are interviewing job candidates and seeking advice from experts in Washington and Silicon Valley — pushing a sweeping vision for the “Department of Government Efficiency” past the realm of memes and viral posts into potential rea Tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to lead an advisory panel to find “drastic” cuts to the federal government, the billionaire “DOGE” leaders have spent the past week in Washington and at Mar-a-Lago, seeking staff and interviewing seasoned Washington operators, legal specialists and top tech leaders, according to five people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect private deliberations. Despite the flurry of activity, the effort is regarded as far-fetched by many budget and legal experts who for decades have seen similar efforts founder. N Y Times https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/24/climate/plastic-pollution-south-korea-talks.html? unlocked_article_code=1.ck4.35O4.uMbFqNC8gnEj&smid=url-share shared link The World Seeks an End to Plastic Pollution at Talks in South Korea [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/11/24/2288497/-Overnight-News-Digest-November-24-2024?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/