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.
BBC
Kurdish forces 'break IS hold on Mosul dam'
Kurdish forces in northern Iraq are in near complete control of Iraq's largest dam after ousting Islamic State (IS) militants, Kurdish officials say.
Ground forces supported by US air strikes launched the operation to take Mosul dam on Sunday morning.
Kurdish sources said they were still trying to clear mines and booby traps from the area round the dam, a process which could take several hours.
The strategically important facility was seized by IS militants on 7 August.
It supplies water and electricity to northern Iraq and there had been fears the IS militants could use it to flood areas downstream.
Al Jazeera America
Ebola virus threatens Liberian slum after residents raid quarantine center
Liberian officials said Sunday that they feared Ebola could soon spread through the capital's largest slum after residents raided a quarantine center for people with suspected infections, freeing patients and stealing items that include bloodstain sheets and mattresses.
The raid in the West Point slum of Monrovia occurred late Saturday and was led by residents angry that patients were brought from other parts of the capital to the holding center, said Tolbert Nyenswah, assistant health minister. It was not immediately clear how many patients had been at the center.
West Point residents went on a "looting spree," stealing items from the clinic that were likely infected, said a senior police official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the press. The residents took mattresses, sheets and blankets that had bloodstains, which could spread the deadly virus.
According to Agence France-Presse, at least 17 patients infected with Ebola were unaccounted for after the raid.
The AFP’s report also indicated that the men who had broken into the center believe the Ebola outbreak is a fiction.
Al Jazeera America
Environmentalists split over green group's fracking industry ties
In 2012, when Ohio’s Senate passed a controversial hydraulic fracturing bill that was supported by the oil and gas industry, environmental groups lined up against it, saying it would endanger public health. But during hearings on the bill, it gained one seemingly unlikely supporter: the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), one of the nation’s largest green groups.
The bill supported renewable energy development but it also contained several items other environmental groups said were giveaways to the industry: It allowed fracking companies to keep private the chemicals they used in fracking, changed the required distance for contamination testing around a well from 300 feet to 1,500 feet, and prevented doctors from sharing information that might be considered trade secrets, even if it was in the interest of public health.
The group’s support for the bill highlighted a growing divide in the environmental movement, especially when it comes to natural gas. As fracking has expanded to dozens of states across the country, environmentalists have essentially been split into two camps: those who believe the process must be stopped at all costs, and those who believe drilling is inevitable, and so it’s better to work with industry on making it safer for the environment. But a new report critical of that latter group suggests that at least in some cases, environmental organizations’ work with the industry may cross ethical lines, and at worst become tacit support of industry-backed positions.
Raw Story Check the photo, srsly.
Dubai deports world’s most pierced man because he practices ‘Black Magic’: report
Rolf Buchholz, the world’s most pierced man, has been barred from Dubai, where he was turned back at the airport on his way to a hotel appearance, a newspaper reported on Sunday.
Airport officials gave no reason for refusing entry to the 53-year-old German, who sports 453 piercings plus two horns on his forehead, local daily Al-Emarat Al-Youm said.
They put him on a flight to Istanbul, it said.
A spokesman for the hotel where Buchholz was scheduled to appear said its management had failed “despite all its attempts” to win permission for him to enter the emirate, the report added.
Dubai is considered the most open of the conservative Gulf monarchies.
Vowing never to return to Dubai though his luggage was still there, Buchholz said on Twitter: “At the end I got an answer why I can’t enter Dubai.
“The immigration thought I am Black Magic.”
Raw Story
Mexico protests Texas border deployment: It ‘does not contribute in any way’ to solving problem
Mexico’s foreign ministry late Friday protested Texas Governor Rick Perry’s deployment of National Guard troops to the southern US border to halt the surge of child migrants.
Mexico “reiterates, in a firm and categorical way, its rejection of this measure,” read a statement from the foreign ministry.
“No circumstance at all or change in border security exists that justifies this measure taken by the state.”
The troop deployment “does not contribute in any way to solving the immigration problem,” and is inconsistent with US-Mexico talks aimed at “building a modern, prosperous and safe border,” the statement read.
On Thursday Perry deployed some 1,000 National Guard troops to the border with Mexico.
National Guard troops are soldiers under the authority of the state governor. They cannot detain undocumented migrants, which is a federal responsibility, but they can take over some duties that allows more US Border Patrol agents to monitor the borderline.
CNN
Chadian troops rescue 85 Nigerian hostages from Boko Haram
Kano, Nigeria (CNN) -- Chadian troops have rescued 85 Nigerians kidnapped last week by the Islamist terror group Boko Haram, security and human rights sources in Nigeria said Saturday.
Dozens of Boko Haram insurgents stormed the Doron Baga fishing and farming village on the shores of Lake Chad late Sunday through Monday and took away 97 young men and boys plus several women, residents said. The raiders killed 28 residents and burned scores of homes, according to residents.
The hostages were loaded onto motorboats and ferried into neighboring Chad, with residents saying they feared the hostages would be forcefully conscripted as foot soldiers.
Chadian security officials reported intercepting a convoy of buses carrying 85 Nigerians" believed to have been kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists from Baga," a Nigerian security source said.
"The convoy being led by six Boko Haram gunmen was stopped on the Chadian part of the border along Lake Chad for routine checks and the huge number in the convoy raised suspicion," said the source, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak on the issue.
An official of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in Maiduguri confirmed the rescue of the 63 male and 22 female hostages.
C/Net
Tesla Model S now has infinite-mile warranty
Want.
Tesla Motors has extended the drive unit warranty of its Model S vehicle to match that of its battery, meaning both components of the all-electric sedan now have eight-year, infinite-mile warranties.
The Model S drive unit for the 85kWh model, prior to the warranty extension, came with a four-year, 50,000-mile warranty, while Tesla owners had the option of extending that to an eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty for $4,000. With the new warranty changes, Tesla will now service Model S units' battery packs and drive units within eight years of purchase for free and regardless of mileage.
It is unclear whether the warranty extends to Tesla's lower-end, 60kWh model. CNET has reached out to the company to confirm the limitations of the new warranty.
"In hindsight, this should have been our policy from the beginning of the Model S program," CEO Elon Musk wrote on the company's website. "If we truly believe that electric motors are fundamentally more reliable than gasoline engines, with far fewer moving parts and no oily residue or combustion byproducts to gum up the works, then our warranty policy should reflect that."
As Tesla gears up its Fremont, Calif., factory to produce both more of its $70,000-plus Model S sedans and its forthcoming Model X SUV, the car maker is going to great lengths to maintain its strengthening reputation, one tied to an ever-climbing stock price floating near an all-time high of $262. That means calming critics that have begun to clamor about the car's uncomfortably high number of service needs.
N Y Times
Lost in Translation: Germany’s Fascination With the American Old West
ADEBEUL, Germany — Hans Grunert is no stranger to requests from Native Americans regarding the display of sacred items among the headdresses, moccasins, jewelry and hundreds of other artifacts at the Karl May Museum, housed in a faux-log cabin behind a stately 19th-century villa in this eastern German town.
Since the museum’s opening in 1928, a Blackfoot medicine man has held a smoke ceremony for the peace pipe collection, and Lakota have made recommendations on how to display the contents of medicine bags in a way that appeases the spirits.
“We have always been concerned about the sacred objects, and careful that our displays respect native peoples’ wishes for their treatment,” said Mr. Grunert, the curator of the collection of 840 Native American artifacts from the late 18th to early 20th centuries.
But he never thought anyone would take offense at the collection of mostly Native American scalps, including one said to have been acquired by a German member of the Barnum & Bailey Circus for $100 and three bottles of liquor. That is, until the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians sent a letter in March demanding that their ancestors’ remains be returned for burial.
Hans Grunert, the curator of the Karl May Museum in Radebeul, Germany. Credit Gordon Welters for The New York Times
“Up to now, scalps have always been considered war trophies,” Mr. Grunert said.
The Guardian
James Risen calls Obama 'greatest enemy of press freedom in a generation
The New York Times reporter James Risen, who faces jail over his refusal to reveal a source and testify against a former CIA agent accused of leaking secrets, has called President Barack Obama “the greatest enemy of press freedom in a generation”.
Speaking to his colleague Maureen Dowd, Risen accused the president of aggressively pursuing journalists, including himself, who report sensitive stories that reflect poorly on the US government.
Risen faces jail over his reporting of a botched intelligence operation that ended up spilling nuclear secrets to Iran. The Justice Department has long been seeking to force him to testify and name the confidential source of the account, which is contained in his 2006 book State of War.
Risen recently failed in an attempt to have the supreme court review an order for him to testify, and acknowledges that he has exhausted all his legal options against the Justice Department’s pursuit of him under the controversial Espionage Act. In the face of incarceration that could come as early as this autumn, he is resorting instead to journalistic defiance.
The Guardian
Police tell Detroiters to buy guns in city riven by race issues and crime
Detroit police chief James Craig – nicknamed “Hollywood” for his years spent in the LAPD and his seeming love of being in front of the camera – has repeatedly called on “good” and “law-abiding” Detroiters to arm themselves against criminals in the city.
His words have not fallen on deaf ears.
Patricia Champion, a 63-year-old lifelong Detroiter, a grandmother and retired educator, decided to get her concealed pistol license -- a CPL -- two years ago after her son said he was increasingly worried for her safety. Champion, a resident of northwest Detroit, mostly keeps her gun, a 9mm Glock 19 that set her back $600, in her house.
“That’s why I got it: because I’m going to be in the house. Now, if somebody chooses to come in and I didn’t invite you, between the Glock and the dog, you’re gone. If one doesn’t get you, the other one will.”
“The police are not going to protect you when something is being perpetrated on you. They may turn up after the fact and run after that person, but you have to protect yourself,” Champion says.
What could possibly go wrong?
Sydney Morning Herald
Pro-Beijing demonstrators march in Hong Kong
Hong Kong: Tens of thousands of people marched under a blistering sun in Hong Kong on Sunday to express their opposition to a pro-democracy movement that has threatened to bring Asia's biggest financial centre to a standstill if the government does not open up the nomination process for electing the city's top leader.
Protesters, many waving Chinese flags, streamed into Victoria Park in mid-afternoon before a planned march, and the contrast with a rally held July 1 by pro-democracy organisers was stark. Many, if not most of the participants in Sunday's rally, were born in mainland China. Most were organised into groups corresponding to Chinese hometowns, schools or, in some cases, employers, easily identifiable with their matching T-shirts and hats. Middle-aged and elderly people dominated Sunday's march, while young people dominated last month's march.
In speech, too, they often employed the political lexicon of China's ruling Communist Party. Typical was Kitty Lai, an investment adviser wearing an orange T-shirt and a baseball cap emblazoned with the logo of the Hong Kong Federation of Fujian Associations, a group that represents people who hail from the coastal province across from Taiwan. She said shutting down the Central business district would cause chaos.