Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Man Oh Man, rfall, and JML9999. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke and jlms qkw. The guest editors are Doctor RJ and annetteboardman.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
NPR
The town of Hailey, Idaho, has waited five years to hear news of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's return. In 2009, Bergdahl was captured and held by the Taliban — first in Afghanistan and later, it's believed, in Pakistan.
On Saturday, he was released in a swap for five Guantanamo Bay detainees. Now Hailey, Bergdahl's hometown, is preparing for the next chapter.
On Sunday afternoon, Bob and Jani Bergdahl stood before rows of reporters in an auditorium at Gowen Field in Boise. They had spent the past five years both hoping for and dreading news out of Afghanistan — but finally, the news was good. Jani Bergdahl spoke to her son through the TV cameras: "You've made it," she said. "I imagine you are more patient and compassionate than ever. You are free. Freedom is yours. I will see you soon, my beloved son. I love you, Bowe."
Bob Bergdahl also took this opportunity to speak to his son directly, saying he admired his character and patience during his captivity. "But most of all, I'm proud of how much you wanted to help the Afghan people," he said tearfully, "and what you were willing to do to go to that length."
DW
The release of five Taliban figures in exchange for a captured US soldier is drawing criticism in Washington. Afghanistan expert Anand Gopal tells DW the move increases the chances for successful peace talks.
Anand Gopal: Well, this is the only prisoner of war in the entire 13-year conflict in Afghanistan, and it is one of the last remaining issues to be resolved in terms of the military, because the US military has a motto of not leaving people behind.
More generally, though, you could see this as a possibility of being a confidence-building measure in terms of possible peace talks with the Taliban. What they've been asking for from day one is a prisoner exchange - trading Guantanamo prisoners for Bergdahl. And this has been tried for a couple of years, and has failed. You could see this as a breakthrough - in fact, as the first step in the possibility of starting peace talks.
Reuters
The Afghan president is angry at being kept in the dark over a deal to free five Taliban leaders in exchange for a captured U.S. soldier, and accuses Washington of failing to back a peace plan for the war-torn country, a senior source said on Monday.
The five prisoners were flown to Qatar on Sunday as part of a secret agreement to release Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who left Afghanistan for Germany on the same day.
The only known U.S. prisoner of war in Afghanistan, Bergdahl had been held captive for five years.
"The president is now even more distrustful of U.S. intentions in the country," said the source close to President Hamid Karzai's palace in Kabul, who declined to be identified.
"He is asking: How come the prisoner exchange worked out so well, when the Afghan peace process failed to make any significant progress?"
Karzai has backed peace talks with the hardline Islamist Taliban movement, which ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001 and has fought a bloody insurgency since then against U.S.-led forces in the country.
BBC
A US soldier freed after five years in Taliban captivity is in stable condition in a US military hospital in Germany, officials have said.
Sgt Bowe Bergdahl, 28, is being treated after his release on Saturday in exchange for five senior Afghan Taliban figures held at Guantanamo Bay.
The prisoner swap has been criticised by Republicans who warn it could put Americans at risk in the future.
And they say the White House flouted the law governing Guantanamo transfers.
It is unclear how long Sgt Bergdahl will remain in hospital, where he is receiving treatment for "dietary and nutrition needs", the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center wrote in a statement.
On Monday, White House press secretary Jay Carney dismissed the criticism, saying the exchange "was absolutely the right thing to do".
"The United States does not leave our men and women behind in conflict," Mr Carney said.
Think Progress
Less than forty-eight hours after securing the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for five Taliban detainees held at Guantanamo, Republicans in Congress and conservatives in media began attacking the deal. In doing so, they are refusing to accept the reality of the situation on the ground in Afghanistan and the way wars end.
The United States is engaged in an armed conflict in Afghanistan against al Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces authorized by Congress under the 2001 Authorizations to Use Military Force. It is remains controversial whether this armed conflict extends beyond Afghanistan and the border regions of Pakistan, but what is not in doubt is that of the enemy forces party to this conflict, the Taliban is confined to Afghanistan and Pakistan. President Obama recently announced that the combat role for the United States in the armed conflict in Afghanistan will end this year and all participation will completely cease by 2016.
When wars end, prisoners taken custody must be released. These five Guantanamo detainees were almost all members of the Taliban, according to the biographies of the five detainees that the Afghan Analysts Network compiled in 2012. None were facing charges in either military or civilian courts for their actions. It remains an open question whether the end of U.S. involvement in the armed conflict in Afghanistan requires that all Guantanamo detainees must be released. But there is no doubt that Taliban detainees captured in Afghanistan must be released because the armed conflict against the Taliban will be over.
Reuters
(Reuters) - Republican lawmakers angered by a White House deal to swap five Taliban prisoners for a captured U.S. soldier in Afghanistan on Monday demanded hearings over why the Obama administration reached the agreement without consulting Congress.
Adding to criticism of the decision to negotiate the release of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl were accusations by some soldiers who served with him that they consider Bergdahl a deserter who cost the lives of several comrades.
The State Department has said it considered Bergdahl "a member of the military who was detained while in combat" and the administration says members of Congress were briefed for years on efforts to free the Idaho native.
...
Texas Representative Mac Thornberry, vice chairman of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, said: "The president violated a provision of law in not giving Congress advanced notice. And while you can always argue that, 'well, this was an emergency, he needed to act quickly,' this pattern of violating the law is also a danger to national security."
White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said briefings for members of Congress about Bergdahl had included the potential exchange for five Taliban militants. McDonough said the deal "should not have been a surprise" to lawmakers.
The Guardian
Chris Christie’s New Jersey administration awarded a $105.6m public subsidy to a property venture involving a close friend and financial backer of the governor, after state law was amended to enable the project to qualify for the money.
The venture, in one of the state’s poorest cities, appears potentially lucrative for the friend, Jon Hanson, a wealthy real estate tycoon who headed the fundraising operations for Christie's election campaigns, chairs a policy commission for the governor, and is a longstanding Republican donor.
Under the plans, Hanson’s real estate company will develop a hotel and an office building near a hospital in the city of Paterson in a “joint venture” with a non-profit organisation. Hanson’s firm will end up owning the $53m office building, which could be worth millions of dollars a year in rental revenues.
The site is located outside a city zone in which businesses were originally eligible for the state funding program. It did not appear to meet the usual requirements for creating jobs and future tax revenues that were placed on other projects that were seeking the funding.
The Guardian
The US supreme court on Monday declined to review a lower court’s order requiring a New York Times reporter to testify in a criminal case against a former source, deepening the court’s silence on the question of protections for journalists and confidential sources.
The move set up a showdown between the courts and reporter James Risen, who has said he will go to prison rather than testify in a case against Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA officer. Sterling is charged with violating the Espionage Act by allegedly leaking information about a top secret operation to damage Iran’s nuclear program. Risen described the plot, known as Operation Merlin, in a 2006 book.
"I will continue to fight," Risen said in an email to Poynter after the decision was announced.
The rejection of the case by the supreme court marked the latest in a series of refusals by the high court to consider the question of a reporter’s privilege to avoid testifying in order to protect source confidentiality. Lawyers for Risen, who won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on warrantless government wiretapping, had argued that “the current state of the law is confused” and urged the court to intervene.
NPR
"Welcome to Cigna," said the letter, dated May 16, on behalf of my new employer, the Kaiser Family Foundation. The letter also said the insurer was placing me on a one-year waiting period for any pre-existing conditions.
Seriously? Wasn't the health law supposed to end that?
"We have reviewed the evidence of prior creditable coverage provided by you and/or your prior carrier and have determined that you have 0 days of creditable coverage," the letter said.
So it was really odd that I received that notification the same day as another letter — also dated May 16 and also from Cigna — on behalf of my now-former employer, NPR. It was a "Certificate of Group Health Plan Coverage," noting that I had been covered continuously for at least the past 18 months — in other words, creditable coverage that prevents insurance companies from imposing limits on pre-existing conditions. (It's more like 10 years, but who's counting.)
"This letter will serve as your certification of prior coverage with CIGNA HealthCare," the second letter said. "If you have just changed coverage to another CIGNA HealthCare product, you may disregard this certificate."
NPR
Federal laws that were meant to prevent the international use of chemical weapons can't be applied to a woman who tried to poison her husband's mistress, the Supreme Court has ruled. Carol Anne Bond had smeared toxic chemicals in the hopes that the other woman would develop a rash.
The Supreme Court ruled that the federal law shouldn't have been used to prosecute Bond, as her actions were forbidden under state or local laws. The opinion was written by Chief Justice John Roberts.
"In sum, the global need to prevent chemical warfare does not require the Federal Government to reach into the kitchen cupboard, or to treat a local assault with a chemical irritant as the deployment of a chemical weapon," Roberts wrote. "There is no reason to suppose the Congress — in implementing the Convention on Chemical Weapons — thought otherwise."
The case was argued back in November. Here's our summary, from NPR's Washington Desk:
NPR
It took Harriette Thompson more than seven hours to run a marathon Sunday in San Diego. But that was awfully good, considering she's 91 and recovering from cancer.
In fact, she beat the previous record for women 90 and up by two hours and 45 minutes. She also became the second-oldest woman to complete a marathon in U.S. history, according to the running site Competitor.com.
She told the Charlotte Observer before the race that the only time she feels her age is after running a marathon.
"Lots of times, I see young girls coming in and limping, hardly able to move," she said, "and I think, 'Well, that's pretty good that I don't feel that bad.' "
Thompson finished Sunday's race in 7 hours, 7 minutes and 42 seconds. It was her 15th marathon in 16 years. She started running the San Diego race at age 76, missing only last year's because of oral cancer.
Thompson has been battling skin cancer recently. She told reporters she had undergone nine radiation treatments in 11 days, the last one coming just a month before the race. She wore bandages and tights to cover wounds left by the treatment.
Reuters
U.S. manufacturing activity accelerated in May and construction spending rose for a third straight month in April, suggesting economic growth was regaining steam in the second quarter.
The economy sank in the first quarter under the weight of a brutally cold winter and a slow pace of restocking by businesses. But businesses appear to rebuilding inventories, with new orders at factories hitting a five-month high in May.
"It points to an acceleration in economic activity. We expect GDP growth to pick up meaningfully this quarter, with the pace of growth rising to around 4.0 percent," said Millan Mulraine, deputy chief economist at TD Securities in New York.
The Institute for Supply Management said on Monday its index of national factory activity increased to 55.4 in May from 54.9 in April. The ISM had earlier mistakenly reported the index fell to 53.2 in May. A reading above 50 indicates expansion.
Reuters
President Barack Obama's decision to reduce U.S. troop numbers in Afghanistan means a NATO plan to train Afghan security forces throughout the country is guaranteed to last only until the end of next year, the U.S. ambassador to NATO said on Monday.
Obama last week outlined a plan to withdraw all but 9,800 American troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year and to pull out the rest by the end of 2016, ending a more than decade-old combat role triggered by the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
The plan foresees a cut in the U.S. troop presence to about half of the 9,800 number by the end of 2015, when U.S. forces will pull back from provincial bases to Kabul and Bagram, the largest U.S. base to the north of the capital.
McClatchy DC
MIDDLETOWN, N.Y. — A second-grader furrows her brow, searching her keyboard to find that funny number sign for her password. A third-grader holds her Chromebook aloft, hoping to speed the connection to a wireless router. A high school teacher puts his iPad in a drawer, having wasted precious minutes taking attendance on a new system with no success.
Educational technology, for all its potential, is riddled with glitches and startup pains, especially when you’re among the first to trade pencils for tablets. Yet some pioneering school leaders insist that thrusting schools into the digital Petri dish is imperative for students’ success.
These leaders _ from places such as Overland Park, Kan., and Middletown, N.Y. _ risk upsetting staff and budget watchdogs by following their conviction that innovation with technology can help teachers target learning and help students master basic skills. They forge ahead, piloting programs, building digital curricula, enabling enthusiastic teachers and dragging the reluctant ones into the new age.
LA Times
TThis progressive and expensive city struck a blow against rising income inequality Monday when the City Council voted unanimously to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, the highest municipal minimum of any metropolis in the country and the rallying cry of fast-food workers and union organizers nationwide.
With the council chambers standing-room-only and supporters waving signs declaring “Seattle needs a raise” and “$15 good work Seattle,” council members approved the new ordinance, which will go into effect on April 1, 2015, and be phased in over the next three to seven years depending on the size of the business.
In a controversial late addition to the original regulation, employers will be allowed to pay a lower training wage to teenagers.
“Having a first city go to $15 is a big step,” said Ken Jacobs, chairman of the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education. “It breaks open that discussion elsewhere. I think we’re likely to see other cities follow suit…. We’re seeing a breakthrough to minimum wages at a level that weren’t considered possible just a couple of years ago.”
Reuters
Russia gave Ukraine a breathing space on Monday in a multi-billion-dollar gas dispute but balanced the concession with fierce denunciations of Kiev and NATO, while fighting raged all day in eastern Ukraine.
Russia accused NATO of whipping up dangerous tensions near its borders and encouraging Ukraine to use force against pro-Russian separatists. At a tense meeting in Brussels, the alliance urged Moscow to stop arming the rebels.
In the eastern city of Luhansk, Ukrainian border guards said a pro-Russian militia had attacked one of their posts with automatic weapons and grenade launchers in the early hours, triggering a prolonged battle about which both sides gave conflicting information.
Ukraine and its Western allies accuse Moscow of fuelling the pro-Russian uprising that threatens to break up the former Soviet republic of 45 million people. Russia denies orchestrating the unrest, and says Ukraine's attempts to end it by military force are making the situation worse.
Al Jazeera
Heavy fighting is raging in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, apparently between the armed group Ansar al-Sharia and irregular forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar, a former army general.
Witnesses said on Monday that gunfire, which began the day before, could be heard across the city, particularly coming from a special forces army base in a western suburb of Benghazi.
At least seven people have died and about a dozen more have been wounded in the fighting, news agencies reported.
Haftar is campaigning to rid Libya of fighters that he says the federal government has failed to control.
Suleiman El Dressi, a Benghazi resident in the area of the clashes, told Al Jazeera that two people had been killed as a result of explosions there.
"Residents are at home and they are very scared, waiting for the clashes to be over," he said.
"Central government cannot control anything happening here, in the east [of the country], they are hopeless and useless."
Al Jazeera
Malawi newly elected president has said his country will look for "new friends" in countries such as China and Russia.
Peter Mutharika said on Monday that economic stability and national unity would be the focus of his government.
"We will continue with traditional relationships, but we are now looking for new friends in emerging economies such as Brazil, China, India, South Africa and Russia," Mutharika said.
Mutharika, who takes power in one of the world's poorest countries where 40 percent of the budget comes from aid, said the donor nations were "welcome to stay".
His inauguration ceremony on Monday, at a stadium in the commercial capital Blantyre, was boycotted by outgoing president Joyce Banda.
The former leader had sought to annul the May 20 vote because of what she said were irregularities and had called for another election in which she said she would not participate.
A court said her move was invalid.
Mutharika said he regretted Banda's absence, saying she had declined to come here and hand over power to me.
DW
Once banned newspapers from the West Bank and East Jerusalem are back on news stands on Omar Al Muhktar Boulevard, a main shopping street in Gaza City. Seven years after Hamas violently secured power in the Gaza Strip, the government is permitting the sale of pro-Fatah papers - a first step on a long path to reconciliation between the two rival Palestinian parties.
It's been five weeks since the two groups signed a reconciliation agreement in Gaza. Now most local residents are eager for news on the formation of the new interim government. "Inshallah" (God willing, it will happen) is heard frequently around town these days. However, many Gazans are also worried about whether the government can address their pressing everyday concerns alongside tackling the thorny reconciliation process.
Spiegel Online
Before the European Parliament election last month, voters were told the poll would also determine the next Commission president. In a silent putsch against the electorate, Angela Merkel is now impeding the process. She fears a loss of power and Britain's EU exit.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel had hardly begun her speech last Friday before she got right to the point. With her hands set on the podium in front of her in the Regensburg University auditorium, she said: "I am engaging in all discussions in the spirit that Jean-Claude Juncker should become president of the European Commission." German news agency DPA immediately sent out a headline reading: "Merkel: Juncker To Be EU Commission President."
The Guardian
Thousands of people dressed in white, carrying white balloons and waving white handkerchiefs, have been parading down the main streets of Tampico, Mexico, recently. But these people weren’t part of a local carnival, art event or other joyous celebration. They have taken to the streets in a desperate call for help.
So-called “ultra-violence” has converted Tampico – a lush, tropical city on the Gulf of Mexico with a population of 300,000 and falling – into a Gotham-like nightmare. In the last couple of weeks, shoot-outs on crowded streets in broad daylight have resulted in 25 deaths. A gas truck was set on fire at the main entrance to the city. A grenade was thrown into a bar (it didn’t explode); another bar was sprayed with machine-gun fire. A much-loved locale that sold tortas de la barda (a sandwich made with ham and beans) was burnt to the ground. Fires were lit in a gas refinery. A sales lot of new cars was torched.
Tampico’s air has long been blackened by smoke from the city’s three major oil and gas refineries, but these days the dark smoke hovering over the city testifies to the presence of an all-out gang war. Tampico is one of Mexico’s most violent cities in one of its most violent states, Tamaulipas.
BBC
King Juan Carlos of Spain has announced his intention to abdicate, after nearly 40 years on the throne.
"A new generation must be at the forefront... younger people with new energies," the 76-year-old king said in a televised address.
His son, Crown Prince Felipe, 45, will take over the throne.
For much of his reign, Juan Carlos was seen as one of the world's most popular monarchs, but recently many Spaniards have lost confidence in him.
His reputation has been tarnished by a long-running corruption investigation into the business dealings of his daughter and her husband.
King Juan Carlos, 76, has had health problems in recent years
Support for the king fell further when it was discovered he had been on a lavish elephant hunting trip to Botswana in April 2012, in the middle of Spain's financial crisis.
Al Jazeera
Rural schoolteacher turned rebel commander Salvador Sanchez Ceren has been sworn in as president of El Salvador.
Sanchez Ceren, 69, promised to govern "with honesty, austerity, efficiency and transparency" at the inauguration ceremony on Sunday attended by leaders from 13 countries.
"After long years of fighting for justice and democracy in my country, I receive the presidential sash with humility and profound respect, with a commitment to exercise the presidency for all Salvadorans," he said.
Sanchez Ceren belonged to the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) and rose to become one of the rebel group's top commanders, under the nom de guerre Leonel Gonzalez, during the country's bloody 1979-1992 civil war.
He was elected president on March 9, defeating the conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) party candidate Norman Quijano by less than a quarter of a percentage point.
THE ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE, HEALTH AND TECHNOLOGY
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The Guardian
The Obama administration unveiled historic environment rules cutting carbon pollution from power plants by 30% on Monday, spurring prospects for a global deal to end climate change but setting up an epic battle over the environment in this year's mid-term elections.
The new rules, formally announced by the Environmental Protection Agency, represent the first time Barack Obama, or any other president, has moved to regulate carbon pollution from power plants – the largest single source of carbon dioxide emissions that cause climate change.
The EPA said the regulations, which would cut carbon pollution from power plants 30% from 2005 levels by 2030, would “fight climate change while supplying America with reliable and affordable power”.
The EPA administrator, Gina McCarthy, said the new rules would be critical to Obama's efforts to deliver on his promise – to Americans and the international community – to fight climate change.
"The EPA is delivering on a vital piece of President Obama's climate action plan by proposing a clean power plan that will cut harmful carbon pollution from our largest source – power plants," she said in a statement.
The Guardian
Digital police from across the globe have claimed success in disrupting a criminal operation running one of the most aggressive computer viruses ever seen, known as CryptoLocker.
The UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) has warned British internet users that they have a two-week window to protect themselves from the malware, after working with the FBI, Europol and other law enforcement bodies to weaken the global network of infected computers.
The CryptoLocker software locked PC users out of their machines, encrypting all their files and demanding payment of one Bitcoin (currently worth around £300) for decryption.
It’s believed CryptoLocker, which the FBI estimated acquired $27m in ransom payments in just the first two months of its life, has infected more than 234,000 machines.
A chief suspect from Russia has been identified, but is still at large, Troels Oerting, head of Europol's European Cyber Crime Centre (EC3) told the Guardian. He said other arrests related to the operation were “in progress”.
NY Times
Does handwriting matter?
Not very much, according to many educators. The Common Core standards, which have been adopted in most states, call for teaching legible writing, but only in kindergarten and first grade. After that, the emphasis quickly shifts to proficiency on the keyboard.
But psychologists and neuroscientists say it is far too soon to declare handwriting a relic of the past. New evidence suggests that the links between handwriting and broader educational development run deep.
Children not only learn to read more quickly when they first learn to write by hand, but they also remain better able to generate ideas and retain information. In other words, it’s not just what we write that matters — but how.
NY Times
DURHAM, N.C. — Before scrubbing in on a recent Tuesday morning, Dr. Selene Parekh, an orthopedic surgeon here at Duke Medical Center, slipped on a pair of sleek, black glasses — Google Glass, the wearable computer with a built-in camera and monitor.
He gave the Internet-connected glasses a voice command to start recording and turned to the middle-aged motorcycle crash victim on the operating table. He chiseled through bone, repaired a broken metatarsal and drilled a metal plate into the patient’s foot.
Dr. Parekh has been using Glass since last year, when Google began selling test versions of its device to thousands of handpicked “explorers” for $1,500. He now uses it to record and archive all of his surgeries at Duke, and soon he will use it to stream live feeds of his operations to hospitals in India as a way to train and educate orthopedic surgeons there.
“In India, foot and ankle surgery is about 40 years behind where we are in the U.S.,” he said. “So to be able to use Glass to broadcast this and have orthopedic surgeons around the world watch and learn from expert surgeons in the U.S. would be tremendous.”
USA Today
WASHINGTON — The United States seized a global network of computer servers known as Gameover Zeus Botnet used by cyber-criminals to spread malware viruses and steal millions of dollars from businesses and consumers, the Justice Department announced Monday.
U.S. and foreign law enforcement agents in a separate action seized the computers that distributed malware known as "CryptoLocker" that freezes access to computer files until victims pay a ransom.
More than $100 million in losses were attributed to the schemes, which infected hundreds of thousands of computers, including a Massachusetts police department that paid a $750 ransom to restore its access to investigative files, digital mugshots and other administrative documents.
CNET
Zilch.
That's exactly what anyone tuning in to Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference for any product announcements got on Monday. New MacBooks? Sorry. A new iPhone? Nope. That fabled iWatch? Please.
But that didn't mean Apple came to its big spring show empty-handed. The company actually managed to jam in a good amount into its breezy, surprisingly funny, two-hour presentation. True to its developer audience, it focused on its OS X Yosemite desktop operating system and iOS 8 mobile software.
CNET
Tucked among Apple's slew of announcements at this year's WWDC was a quick rundown of HomeKit, a new platform for the connected home that developers can find baked into iOS 8.
This announcement confirmed recent reports that Apple was setting its sights on bringing order to the Internet of Things -- though, like some had predicted, it wasn't as much of a splash-inducing cannonball into the smart home's swimming pool as Google's $3.2 billion acquisition of Nest and its Learning Thermostat was.
With no hardware announcement, and only a smart home-focused portion of its new developer tools instead of a more consumer-facing app, Apple's HomeKit announcement arguably reaffirms the kind of piecemeal approach to the smart home that iOS users already work with.
As subtle as it might seem, I still think HomeKit will be a smart home game changer. Here's why:
Healthy competition with Google is a very good thing.