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: In Chicago, Ukrainian prime minister seeks urgent military aid from Congress, Illinois investment by Tina Sfondeles
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal joined Gov. J.B. Pritzker and White House Ukrainian envoy Penny Pritzker in Chicago on Tuesday to help encourage American investment in Ukraine while continuing to apply pressure on Congress to send more emergency aid to the war-torn country.
Shmyhal said Russia is capitalizing on the lack of American aid to Ukraine, forcing his country’s forces to ration their resources. The prime minister said that four weeks ago he witnessed Ukrainian soldiers using just one to five artillery shells per day along a 20-kilometer stretch of the front lines, while Russians continued to use hundreds of artillery shells per day.
“We deter them, but without revenue it is impossible. So we need this support as fast as possible,” Shmyhal said. “We are very looking for United States support in this unprovoked, illegal Russian aggression.”
U.S House Speaker Mike Johnson this week said he is pushing for an emergency foreign aid package that separates support for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan — as well as humanitarian assistance for Gaza — into four separate bills. House Democratic leaders have signaled support, but on Tuesday wanted assurances that all components of a previously approved Senate bill were included.
Washington Post: Supreme Court divided over key charge against Jan. 6 rioters and Trump by Ann E. Marimow
The Supreme Court appeared deeply divided Tuesday over whether prosecutors improperly stretched federal law to charge hundreds of participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, a decision that will impact those rioters and, potentially, Donald Trump’s election interference trial in D.C.
The court’s conservatives, who make up a majority on the nine-member bench, appeared most skeptical of the government’s decision to chargeparticipants under a law that makes it a crime to obstruct or impede an official proceeding — in this case the joint session of Congress that convened to formally certify Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential victory.
Several, including Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Samuel A. Alito Jr., expressed concern through hypothetical scenarios about giving prosecutors broad power that they suggested would allow the government to target peaceful protesters, disruptive hecklers or someone who pulls a fire alarm to delay a vote in Congress.
“Are all of those federal felonies subject to 20 years in prison?” Gorsuch asked.
More than 350 people have been prosecuted under the statute, which was enacted after the exposure of massive fraud and destruction of documents during the collapse of the energy giant Enron and carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. More than 100 have pleaded guilty to or been convicted under the statute.
New York Times: Johnson’s Plan for Ukraine Aid Meets Republican Pushback, Muddying Its Path by Catie Edmondson
Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday encountered stiff resistance from Republicans as he embarked on a complicated and politically perilous strategy to push legislation through the House to send aid to Israel and Ukraine — all while beating back a threat to his own job.
Mr. Johnson, who has agonized for months over whether and how to advance aid to Ukraine that many in his party bitterly oppose, has settled on a multipart plan that will require everything to go right for him this week to prevail.
It aims to bring together a complicated mix of bipartisan coalitions and allow different factions in the House to register their opposition to pieces of the aid package without sinking the entire thing. And it would ultimately mean cobbling together just enough support from Democrats and mainstream Republicans to pass the legislation amid resistance from hard-right Republicans to Ukraine funding and among left-wing Democrats to unfettered aid for Israel.
Mr. Johnson plans to advance a legislative package that roughly mirrors the $95 billion aid bill the Senate passed two months ago with aid to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and other American allies — but broken down into three separate pieces that would each be voted on individually. There would also be a fourth vote on a separate measure containing other policies popular among Republicans, including conditioning Ukraine aid as a loan.
NBC News: Whistleblower says Boeing should stop production of 787 Dreamliner due to safety issue by Tom Costello and Lewis Kamb
A Boeing engineer-turned-whistleblower who contends that the aerospace giant’s 787 Dreamliner is unsafe to fly due to assembly flaws doubled down on his claims Tuesday, saying that the plane could fall apart and “drop to the ground” midflight unless the alleged safety problems are addressed.
Boeing disputed the claims on Tuesday, saying the plane is safe and the company is “fully confident in the 787 Dreamliner.”
Boeing quality engineer Sam Salehpour spoke to “NBC Nightly News” in his first on-camera interview since raising his allegations publicly last week. He said the company has yet to properly address tiny nonconforming gaps found in multiple planes after two sections of their fuselages were joined together during assembly. Salehpour said such “safety issues” could lead to catastrophic outcomes.
When asked if he would put his own family on a 787 right now, Salehpour didn’t hesitate. “Right now, I would not,” he said.
Salehpour is expected to testify before a U.S. Senate subcommittee Wednesday.
Guardian: The city is a jail’: Haitian journalists get word out about gang violence by Tom Phillips and Etienne Côté-Paluck
Each day, Makenson Rémy wakes in the hush of the night to tell the story of his shattered home town, Port-au-Prince. Each day, he fears he might die. “I am very worried for the city. I am worried for my family. I am worried for myself too, because at any moment I could go out and never come back,” said the Haitian journalist who is responsible for the crack-of-dawn radio broadcasts that help the capital’s jittery residents stay alive.
Rémy uses a motorbike to move around the city, which a gang rebellion six weeks ago has almost entirely cut off from the outside world, gathering information on where is and isn’t safe to tread. As he slaloms through barricaded streets under the cover of darkness, he has witnessed spine-chilling scenes.
On one morning last week, reporting for Haiti’s most popular station, Radio Caraïbes, he encountered “about 30 men with heavy weapons” on the road to the airport, which gang fighters had forced to close at the beginning of the uprising. Farther north, Rémy spotted another mob of gunmen. In the southern suburbs he heard gunshots – the latest disturbance in a criminal insurrection that has forced nearly 100,000 people to
abandon the city and locked the prime minister out of the country.
BBC News: Deadly West Bank settler attacks on Palestinians follow Israeli boy's killing by Hugo Bachega
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a group of Israeli settlers storm a Palestinian village and, captured on CCTV, a masked man sets fire to a car parked in a garage, under the watch of at least three Israeli soldiers.
The incident was part of a rampage by Israeli settlers that, according to local officials, killed four Palestinians over four days.
The violence was triggered by the disappearance of 14-year-old Binyamin Ahimeir, who went missing on Friday after leaving his settler outpost to herd sheep near the Palestinian village of Mughayir, in the Ramallah area.
His body was found a day later, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said he had been killed in a "terrorist attack".
Amid the search for the boy, dozens of settlers, some of them armed, raided Mughayir. They burned homes and cars, and killed a 25-year-old man named Jihad Abu Alia with a shot in the chest, according to Palestinian officials.
El País in English: Latin America: Hotbed of diplomatic strife
The scenes are unprecedented. A group of 12 heavily armed agents forced their way into the Mexican Embassy in Quito, treated the diplomatic corps roughly and forcibly removed former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas, who had been granted political asylum by Mexico. This extreme breach of agreements governing bilateral relations on April 5 has triggered a severe crisis with uncertain repercussions. Mexico has now filed a complaint against Ecuador at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, and seeks a temporary suspension of Ecuador’s membership in the United Nations.
The scenes are unprecedented. A group of 12 heavily armed agents forced their way into the Mexican Embassy in Quito, treated the diplomatic corps roughly and forcibly removed former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas, who had been granted political asylum by Mexico. This extreme breach of agreements governing bilateral relations on April 5 has triggered a severe crisis with uncertain repercussions. Mexico has now filed a complaint against Ecuador at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, and seeks a temporary suspension of Ecuador’s membership in the United Nations.
Meanwhile, Argentine President Javier Milei has had more disputes than agreements with fellow Latin American leaders since taking office last December. In Central America, the Daniel Ortega-Rosario Murillo regime is increasingly isolated, while El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele rancorously defends his Draconian security measures. Latin America is awash in diplomatic strife.
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