Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Doctor RJ, rfall, JML9999 and Man Oh Man with guest editors annetteboardman and Chitown Kev. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke 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 12:00AM Eastern Time.
Special thanks to JekyllnHyde for the OND banner.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
Al Jazeera America
SZEGED, Hungary — Hungary closed the main entry point on its border with Serbia on Monday after a record number of refugees surged into the country, racing to enter the European Union amid a dramatic tightening of border security.
Workers also rushed to complete a 13-foot-high steel fence on the Hungary-Serbia border as police rounded up arriving refugees and ushered them onto waiting trains and buses that took them directly to the Austrian frontier.
At around 4:30 p.m. local time, police blocked the rail line that for months has been the main unofficial border crossing in the area. Scores of refugees quickly gathered at the police cordon, unsure what would happen next, as a police helicopter circled low overhead. It was not immediately clear if police would re-open the crossing, or seek to seal it completely, but they directed refugees to a nearby official border crossing, where they would be registered.
Spiegel Online
Evrim, a refugee from the ravaged Syrian city of Aleppo, has wrapped herself in a wool blanket, her red sweatshirt no longer offering sufficient protection against the cold. The young woman with dyed-blonde hair would rather spend the night in front of Vienna's Westbahnhof Station than sleep in an emergency shelter. She is planning on taking the very first train to Germany the next morning.
"We heard that Germany has closed the border," Evrim says. But she doesn't really want to believe it. She heard the news from Mohammed, who is also from Aleppo and is part of the group of 15 Kurds from Syria she is traveling with. The group coalesced on the refugee trail, which leads from Turkey across the Western Balkans to Hungary and beyond. Mohammed, for his part, heard the news from a British journalist who had interviewed the group in the early evening right after they crossed into Austria from Hungary. "Maybe he misunderstood (the journalist)," Evrim says.
The Guardian
Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, has cut a chequered figure this summer: scorned for taking Greece to the wall, and praised for welcoming large numbers of Syrians to Germany. But nowhere and at no time has she been more of an enigma than she was in Vienna’s central station on Monday where crowds of refugees struggled to reconcile how the same “Mama Merkel” had opened Germany’s borders one week, and closed them again barely eight days later – leaving those at the station stranded.
“She said she will bring big boats from Turkey to rescue Syrians!” said Maria, a Syrian who fled the bombs of Damascus six weeks ago. “And now why has she closed the border?” asked Maria’s daughter.
Reuters
Two decades of frontier-free travel across Europe unraveled on Monday as countries re-established border controls in the face of an unprecedented influx of migrants, which broke the record for the most arrivals by land in a single day.
Germany's surprise decision to restore border controls on Sunday had a swift domino effect, prompting neighbors to impose checks at their own frontiers as thousands of refugees pressed north and west across the continent while European Union ministers argued in Brussels over how to share the burden.
Austria said it would dispatch its military to help the police carry out checks at the border with Hungary after thousands of migrants crossed on foot overnight, filling up emergency accommodation nearby, including tents at the frontier.
New York Times
BERLIN — Austria, Slovakia and the Netherlands introduced border controls on Monday, as Germany’s decision over the weekend to set up checks began to ripple across a bloc struggling to deal with the influx of migrants coming to the Continent.
In Hungary, the authorities said that a near-record 5,353 migrants had crossed into the country from Serbia before noon on Monday — even as Budapest continued to seal off that border with the construction of a 109-mile fence made with razor wire.
Around 50 police officers, wearing riot gear and equipped with pepper spray, converged Monday afternoon on the train tracks linking the villages of Roszke, Hungary and Horgos, Serbia, which thousands of migrants had used to cross in recent days. An official in a bright yellow jacket turned away migrants seeking to enter Hungary.
BBC
EU interior ministers meeting in Brussels have agreed in principle to relocate 120,000 asylum seekers around the 28-nation bloc.
However, there was no agreement on a plan for mandatory quotas which some states are strongly opposed to.
Earlier, more European countries introduced temporary border checks, hours after Germany imposed controls on its border with Austria.
Tough new border controls come into force in the next hour in Hungary.
On Monday, police in Hungary completed a fence designed to stop thousands of migrants who have been crossing the border from Serbia.
The new laws allow police deployed along the border to arrest anyone considered an illegal immigrant or who tries to breach the new fence.
Reuters
A Northern California wildfire ranked as the most destructive to hit the drought-stricken U.S. West this year has killed one woman and burned some 400 homes to the ground, fire officials said on Monday, and they expect the property toll to climb.
The so-called Valley Fire erupted on Saturday and spread quickly to a cluster of small communities in the hills and valleys north of Napa County's wine-producing region, forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents.
An elderly, disabled woman who was unable to flee her home as flames bore down on Saturday evening died as it burned to the ground.
"The resident was apparently unable to self-evacuate and responders were unable to make it to her home before the fire engulfed the structure," said Lake County Sheriff's spokesman Lieutenant Steve Brooks.
Al Jazeera America
Editor’s note: This four-part series, reported and published with the Houston Chronicle, examines the impact of Uber, the app-based ride-hailing service, on America’s fourth-largest city.
HOUSTON — On June 23, the app-based car service Uber sent a media blast aimed at area customers: “Get your paws on a puppy!” Animal lovers could choose a temporary “puppies” option in their Uber app and pay a small fee (donated to charity) to have “15 minutes of puppy cuteness” delivered to their offices. It was a masterful move for a company that has been lauded as innovative and disruptive.
The pups made for a novel public relations stunt, but Uber wasn’t lacking in supporters before its canine deliveries. The company’s business model of taxi by smartphone anytime, anywhere had already won it passionate advocates around the country who helped advertise the service by word of mouth in the early days and signed petitions demanding that city governments not shut the app down later on.
The Guardian
A professor was killed in his office at Delta State University in Mississippi, an official said on Monday, and the campus remained on lockdown with the shooter still believed to be on the loose.
Bolivar County deputy coroner Murray Roark said the dead man was in his mid-50s and was killed inside an office in Jobe Hall. He said officials are withholding his name for now.
University spokeswoman Jennifer Farish said she was not yet able to identify the dead person, saying it was still an “active situation”. It’s unclear whether anyone else was wounded.
The lockdown began about 10.45am local time, with the university advising students, faculty and staff to take shelter and stay away from windows.
The Guardian
“You’re terminated”? “You won’t be back”? “Hasta la vista, job seeker”?
Arnold Schwarzenegger is to replace Donald Trump as the host of the NBC reality show Celebrity Apprentice, the network has announced.
One is an actor turned politician turned actor again; the other is a real estate mogul turned reality TV star who is currently polling in first place for the Republican presidential nomination.
“Arnold Schwarzenegger is the epitome of a global brand in entertainment and business, and his accomplishments in the political arena speak for themselves,” NBC said in a statement on Monday.
Schwarzenegger, star of such films as The Terminator and True Lies, served as California governor from 2003 to 2011. Since leaving office, he has returned to acting, most recently in Terminator Genisys.
The network cited Schwarzenegger’s “personal passion for the format” in helping producer Mark Burnett choose him to take over from Trump. “The Celebrity apprentice … will be back!” it said.
The Guardian
Relatives paying their first visit to the site of the killing of an unarmed black man by police in North Carolina were greeted by a sign attacking civil rights activists as racists and ordering them to “leave our neighborhood alone”, according to family representatives.
Jonathan Ferrell’s mother and brother travelled on Monday to Bradfield Farms, in the eastern suburbs of Charlotte, to lay a wreath on the spot where the 24-year-old former Florida A&M University football player was fatally shot by a police officer two years ago.
According to a family spokesman, before the Ferrells arrived at the site of the shooting a wooden placard was placed nearby. It displayed a message in white paint that said: “We reject your racist attitude … leave our neighborhood alone!”
NPR
When Michael Brown was shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., last August, his death set off riots and violence — and posed deep questions about race relations in America. The Ferguson Commission, appointed by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, was tasked with finding some answers.
The commission set out to examine racial and economic gaps through the St. Louis region, and come up with policy recommendations. In their final report, the commission provides an unvarnished look at how a racially divided St. Louis underserves the African-American community.
BBC
Organisers of the Miss America pageant have apologised to actress Vanessa Williams, 32 years after she was forced to hand back her title.
Williams was the first black woman to be named Miss America in 1983 but resigned after a magazine published nude photos of her without her consent.
"I want to apologise for anything that was said or done," said Miss America CEO Sam Haskell.
A tearful Williams called the statement "unexpected" and "beautiful".
Now 52, she has forged a career as an actress, with major roles in Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives.
Reuters
The county clerk from Kentucky who was jailed after refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples said Monday on her return to work she will not block her deputies from issuing them but will not authorize them personally, as one couple celebrated a coming marriage.
Shannon and Carmen Wampler-Collins received a marriage license late Monday morning from a deputy clerk as friends and family gathered in the clerk's office chanted "love has won" and demonstrators opposed to gay marriage shouted in the background.
The couple, now 45 and 46 years old, respectively, had a commitment ceremony 20 years ago and have two sons. They legally changed their name years ago.
NHK World
Mount Aso on Japan's southwestern island of Kyushu erupted on Monday morning.
The Meteorological Agency said the eruption occurred at 9:43 AM.
The Agency has raised its alert level for the area by one notch to level 3 on a scale of 5. Level 3 means 'do not approach the volcano.'
Agency officials said black smoke rose as high as 2,000 meters. They observed large rocks flying near the eruption point.
The officials are calling for caution against falling rocks and pyroclastic flows in areas near the crater.
DW
Australia has kept with recent political tradition by dumping a prime minister who was still in office. In replacing Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull has become the fourth Australian premier in just over two years.
It is history repeating itself, but this time on the other side of the political fence: Tony Abbott's ouster cannot fail to bring to mind Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's fall from power at the hands of his deputy Julia Gillard in 2010 ahead of elections, and then Rudd's tat-for-tat action in wresting the post back from Gillard just months before the 2013 polls won by Abbott.
Indeed, Abbott achieved victory in that election largely on hopes that his Liberals could provide a stable alternative to the bitterly divided Labor Party.
Those hopes have now been dashed. But though Monday's unceremonious dumping of gaffe-prone Prime Minister Tony Abbott may have come as a surprise to many, it had been in the offing ever since February of this year, when Abbott, after surviving another leadership challenge, asked his colleagues to give him six months to improve his public popularity ratings.
DW
Russian President Putin's ruling party swept the governor's seat in all 21 regions along with 11 regional legislatures in local and regional elections. An independent polling monitor said the results were predetermined.
United Russia - the ruling party of President Vladimir Putin - dominated regional and local elections on Sunday.
The party won the governor's seat in all 21 regions where elections were held, along with 11 regional legislatures.
Results released on Monday show that only one of the 21 candidates put forth by United
Russia pulled less than 50 percent of the vote.
The opposition party RPR-Parnas only gained approval to contest the regional parliament in largely rural Kostroma, where it gained less than 2 percent of the vote.
Reuters
Russia has positioned about a half dozen tanks at an airfield at the center of a military buildup in Syria, two U.S. officials said on Monday, adding that the intentions of Moscow's latest deployment of heavy military equipment were unclear.
Moscow has come under increased international pressure in recent days to explain its moves in Syria, where the Kremlin has been supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a 4-1/2-year war.
The Pentagon declined to directly comment on the Reuters report, saying it could not discuss U.S. intelligence. But a spokesman said recent actions by Moscow suggested plans to establish a forward air operating base.
The Guardian
At least two Mexican tourists were among 12 people killed in Egypt when they were hit by an airstrike after straying into a restricted area where the military was conducting an operation to eliminate terrorists, it has emerged.
Survivors of the attack on Sunday said they were bombed by military helicopters and an aircraft while they stopped for a break in Egypt’s vast western desert, which borders Libya and is a haven for smugglers.
Mexico’s foreign ministry confirmed that at least two of the dead were Mexican nationals; security and judicial forces in Egypt told Reuters that eight Mexicans had been confirmed killed. Ten other people were wounded in the attack, at least six of them Mexicans. They are being treated at a hospital in suburban Cairo.
The Guardian
At least 34 people, including 15 babies and children, drowned when their overcrowded boat capsized in high winds off a Greek island on Sunday, the latest asylum seeker tragedy at sea.
The deaths came as Athens angrily defended its handling of the mounting refugee crisis in Europe and appealed for more help.
Four babies and 11 young children – six boys and five girls – were among those on the stricken wooden boat when it sank off the Aegean island of Farmakonisi.
The Guardian
Brazil’s government has announced spending cuts and tax increases totaling 65bn reais ($16.9bn) as it races to close a budget deficit that led to a downgrade of the country’s credit rating last week.
The biggest item was the revival of the unpopular CPMF tax on financial transactions that will raise 32bn reais next year if it passes a congress opposed to new taxation.
The drastic spending cuts hit health and low-cost housing programs, investments in infrastructure, agricultural subsidies as well as salaries and bonuses for government employees.
THE ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE, HEALTH AND TECHNOLOGY
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Al Jazeera America
The U.S. Navy has agreed to limit its use of sonar and other training that inadvertently harms whales, dolphins and other marine mammals off Hawaii and California in a settlement with environmental groups approved Monday.
A centerpiece of the agreement signed by a federal judge in Honolulu includes limits or bans on mid-frequency active sonar and explosives in specified areas around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California, Earthjustice attorney David Henkin said. But some of the training will continue.
Sonar at a great distance can disrupt feeding and communication of marine mammals, and it can cause deafness and even death at a closer distance, Henkin said. Four dolphins died in 2011 in San Diego when they got too close to an explosives training exercise, he said.
Climate Central
When California officials went out on April 1 this year to measure the amount of snow that had accumulated on mountain slopes over the winter, they were met with bleak scenes of dried, brown grass. The snowpack was so bad — a measly 6 percent of normal — that there was nothing like it in the 120 years of records.
A new study using data from the growth rings of trees in the area finds that this surreal snowpack was even rarer than that: It is “an unprecedented event over the past 500 years,” study author Valerie Trouet, a University of Arizona dendrochronologist, said.
As temperatures in California, like the planet as a whole, continue to rise, such meager snowpacks will happen more often. Increased warmth means more precipitation falls as rain instead of snow and causes what snow there is to melt earlier.
This situation can lead to droughts, such as the devastating one plaguing the state now, and that has led to terrible wildfires, like the Valley Fire that is tearing through part of Northern California. And a warmer, less snowy future has major implications for how California, and the West more broadly, manages its water, experts said.
“We should be prepared that these [snowpack] levels are going to become more frequent,” Trouet said.
NPR
By now, surely you've heard of the Mediterranean diet.
It's a pattern of eating that emphasizes fish, nuts, legumes, fruits, vegetables and olive oil — lots of olive oil.
The evidence of its benefits has been piling up. For instance, a 2013 study in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that the diet can protect against heart disease. Another study published earlier this year revealed it can help fend off memory loss.
Now, researchers say that eating a Mediterranean diet supplemented with four tablespoons per day of extra-virgin olive oil reduces the risk of breast cancer.
"We found a strong reduction in the risk of breast cancer," says Miguel Martinez Gonzalez, an author of the study and a leading researcher on the preventive health effects of the Mediterranean diet at the University of Navarra in Spain.
NPR
Are you not getting enough sleep, or are you getting too much? If your answer to either of these questions is "yes," you may be at risk of heart disease.
Just the right amount of good-quality sleep is key to good heart health, according to researchers at the Center for Cohort Studies at Kangbuk Samsung Hospital and Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine in Seoul, South Korea. Poor sleep habits may put you at higher risk for early signs of heart disease, even at a relatively young age.
The researchers studied more than 47,000 young and middle-aged men and women, average age around 41, who answered questions about how long and how well they slept.
Then they had tests to measure their cardiovascular health. Early coronary lesions were detected by measuring the amount of calcium in the arteries of the heart. Stiffness of arteries was measured by the speed of blood coursing through the arteries in the upper arm and ankle.
C/NET
The new iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus are seeing robust initial demand, Apple said Monday.
Apple on Saturday began taking preorders for its latest iPhones, allowing consumers to lock in their purchases in advance of the actual launch date of September 25. The starting moments weren't entirely smooth: Some online sites, such as Apple's own online store, were unavailable for roughly the first hour.
But despite any technical issues, orders apparently have been flying.
C/NET
To the tech entrepreneurs who've set up shop on the Silicon Prairie, there's no better place to be.
Silicon Valley ideas get meshed with Midwestern values, resulting in a low-key and collaborative community of startups in Minnesota that stands in sharp contrast to the in-your-face, cutthroat lifestyle in California.
Entrepreneurs are also convinced they have a better chance to get funding because there are fewer businesses to compete with for investors. The number of tech startups in the North Star State has doubled in the past five years, to more than 500, with venture capitalists investing almost $600 million in 2014 in companies 5 years old or younger.
Vox
Many of the world's most important farming regions can't rely on rain alone to water all their crops. So they also pull freshwater from underground aquifers that have slowly filled up over many thousands of years. Notable examples include the Central Valley in California or the Indus Basin in Pakistan and India.
The problem is that these underground aquifers take a long, long time to recharge. So if farmers are drawing water faster than it gets replenished, the basins will eventually run dry. This is a looming concern in California right now, as farmers dig deeper and deeper for groundwater to cope with the ongoing drought. But for a look at how bad things can really get, check out Saudi Arabia.