Welcome to Overnight News Digest, where the usual crew, consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Man Oh Man, side pocket, rfall, and JML9999, alumni editors palantir, Bentliberal, Oke, Interceptor7, jlms qkw, and ScottyUrb, guest editors annetteboardman and Doctor RJ, and current editor-in-chief Neon Vincent, along with anyone else who reads and comments, informs and entertains you with tonight's news. 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.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
From the New York Times: How to Grill
Grilling food over an open fire is one of life’s great pleasures, at least if you set yourself up for success. Here’s our guide to the fundamentals and a handful of techniques to master, whether you’re a beginner or an advanced cook, using either a gas or charcoal grill. We'll show you how to achieve the perfect grilled steak or tender barbecued chicken. Get ready to get cooking with fire.
Equipment
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There are myriad folk tales out there about how to tell if meats are done, but the sure-fire way to do it is with a digital instant-read thermometer, an invaluable tool for grilling.
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Have a pair of tongs and a big spatula or fork on hand to move things around over the heat. Cheap kitchen towels or washable oven mitts also come in handy.
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If you don’t have a side table on your grill, it’s a good idea to set one up, so you can have everything you need to cook close at hand, especially if you’re grilling pizza or a dish with toppings.
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The best time to clean your grill is when you’re done cooking and the grates are still warm. The best tool for the job is a simple wire brush. Use the back of your spatula to scrape the bulk of the crud into the fire, then use the brush to scrub the grates clean.
From the Washington Post: An American GI defected to North Korea. Now his sons are propaganda stars.
Their names are Ted and James, and they look like the kinds of men you might bump into on the streets of Richmond, Va., where their father was born.
But they’re speaking perfect North Korean and wearing badges of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, the first two leaders of North Korea, over their hearts. Oh, and the younger one, James, is a captain in the North Korean army.
They’re the Pyongyang-born sons of James Joseph Dresnok, the former American GI who defected to North Korea in 1962 when he was stationed in South Korea after the war.
And they’ve just appeared in an extraordinary video published online by Minjok Tongshin, a pro-Pyongyang news service based in the United States that runs the kind of stories that wouldn’t look out of place in North Korea’s official media.
From BBC News: US nuclear force 'still uses floppy disks'
The US nuclear weapons force still uses a 1970s-era computer system and floppy disks, a government report has revealed.
The Government Accountability Office said the Pentagon was one of several departments where "legacy systems" urgently needed to be replaced.
The report said taxpayers spent $61bn (£41bn) a year on maintaining ageing technologies.
It said that was three times more than the investment on modern IT systems.
The report said that the Department of Defence systems that co-ordinated intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear bombers and tanker support aircraft "runs on an IBM Series-1 Computer - a 1970s computing system - and uses eight-inch floppy disks".
"This system remains in use because, in short, it still works," Pentagon spokeswoman Lt Col Valerie Henderson told the AFP news agency.
From the Los Angeles Times: Nearly half of U.S. households would struggle with an unexpected $400 expense, Fed study finds
Shedding light on the precarious economic state of many American families, theFederal Reserve said Wednesday that nearly half of U.S. households reported they would have trouble meeting emergency expenses of just $400.
In addition, the Fed found that 22% of workers were juggling two or more jobs last year, higher than what government jobs data would suggest. And nearly one out of three Americans said that they have no retirement savings or pension.
These findings were part of the Fed's "Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. households in 2015." Overall, the survey-based study said the financial health of families continued to show mild improvement last year, with 69% of respondents saying they are "living comfortably" or "doing OK." That is up 4 percentage points from 2014 and up 6 points from 2013, when the survey began.
From Vox: Why Bill Cosby's defense strategy is a problem for rape victims everywhere
Bill Cosby is standing trial in Pennsylvania for sexual assault, and a preliminary hearing Tuesday revealed just how ugly that trial could get.
Andrea Constand is so far the only one of Cosby's nearly 60 alleged victims who is seeing her day in court, for a 2004 incident where she says Cosby drugged and raped her. Some women simply didn't want to press charges; others want to but can't because the statute of limitations has run out.
Cosby's defense team strategy is simple, Kenneth Lipp reports for the Daily Beast: "discredit Constand by questioning her behavior after the alleged rape."
From Vice News: How Living at an All-Male College Made Me a Sexist Douchebag
It's been a sobering couple of weeks for colleges in Sydney, Australia. First, students at Wesley College came under fire for harassing sex workers and publishing a slut-shaming journal. Then St. Andrews College was laid out for aweekly radio broadcast that recounted hookups and personal stories, including the alleged sexual assault of a student.
As someone all too familiar with stories like these, these sorts of headlines don't stir outrage or incredulity. More so, it's surprise. I'm surprised that of all the depraved shit that goes down in colleges, only a handful of stories come out.
I spent 18 months at the University of Queensland's all-male King's College. There, flippant sexism and collective shaming was the norm, almost identical to the sad culture unearthed in Sydney. In fact, it may have been even worse.
From The Atlantic: A Shocking Find In a Neanderthal Cave In France
In February 1990, thanks to a 15-year-old boy named Bruno Kowalsczewski, footsteps echoed through the chambers of Bruniquel Cave for the first time in tens of thousands of years.
The cave sits in France’s scenic Aveyron Valley, but its entrance had long been sealed by an ancient rockslide. Kowalsczewski’s father had detected faint wisps of air emerging from the scree, and the boy spent three years clearing away the rubble. He eventually dug out a tight, thirty-meter-long passage that the thinnest members of the local caving club could squeeze through. They found themselves in a large, roomy corridor. There were animal bones and signs of bear activity, but nothing recent. The floor was pockmarked with pools of water. The walls were punctuated by stalactites (the ones that hang down) and stalagmites (the ones that stick up).
Some 336 meters into the cave, the caver stumbled across something extraordinary—a vast chamber where several stalagmites had been deliberatelybroken. Most of the 400 pieces had been arranged into two rings—a large one between 4 and 7 metres across, and a smaller one just 2 metres wide. Others had been propped up against these donuts. Yet others had been stacked into four piles. Traces of fire were everywhere, and there was a mass of burnt bones.
These weren’t natural formations, and they weren’t the work of bears. They were built by people.
From Reuters: States ratchet up transgender battle with lawsuit against U.S.
Officials from 11 U.S. states sued the Obama administration on Wednesday to overturn a directive telling schools to let transgender students use bathrooms matching their gender identity, decrying the policy as "a massive social experiment."
Ramping up the simmering battles over contentious cultural issues in America, the states, led by Texas and most with Republican governors, accused the federal government of rewriting laws by "administrative fiat."
"We are willing to fight this all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to," Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told reporters in Austin.
Amid a national debate on transgender rights, President Barack Obama's administration on May 13 told U.S. public schools that transgender students must be allowed to use the bathroom of their choice, upsetting Republicans and paving the way for fights over federal funding and legal authority.
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley signed into law Wednesday legislation banning almost all abortions after 20 weeks. The measure was passed by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature earlier this month and makes South Carolina the 17th state to pass similar abortion restrictions; 13 of those states have bans already in effect and several others are making their way through the court system.
The 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling granted women nationwide the right to obtain abortions, but allowed for state restrictions after viability, or the point during a pregnancy at which the fetus could conceivably survive outside the uterus. At the time, the court placed viability between about 24 and 28 weeks. Anti-abortion activists often cite the scientifically suspect theory that the fetus can feel pain at 20 weeks as the rationale for the earlier legal cutoff.
It will become illegal for women in South Carolina to get an abortion after 20 weeks starting on July 1. Doctors performing the procedure later than the new cutoff face fines and up to three years in prison for a violation.
From Raw Story: White football players brutally raped black teammate during racist assault in HS locker room: police
Three white high school football players from Dietrich, Idaho have been charged in the brutal sexual assault of a black teammate, The Washington Post reports. The alleged assault took place on October 23rd last year in the men’s locker room at Dietrich High School. Law enforcement officials allege that one of the football players restrained the victim while another shoved a coat hanger up his rectum and another repeatedly kicked the coat hanger.
Two of the alleged perpetrators, 18-year-old John R.K. Howard and 17-year-old Tanner Ward, are being charged as adults. An unnamed 16-year-old football player is being charged in the case as a juvenile. Howard has not yet filed a plea in the case and it isn’t yet known whether Ward has filed a plea, the Post says.
The unidentified victim’s family also filed a $10 million lawsuit earlier this month alleging that this vicious sexual assault was the culmination of a harassment campaign against him. The family alleges that his teammates would regularly insult him with racially charged terms and the suit alleges he was regularly called “‘Kool-Aid’ ‘chicken eater’ ‘watermelon’ and [the N-word],” the Post reports.
From ABC News: The Weeknd, Belly Cancel Kimmel Performance Because of Trump
R&B singer The Weeknd and rapper Belly have canceled their performance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" because Donald Trump was set to appear on the episode.
The Oscar-nominated musicians were slated to record their performance Wednesday in Los Angeles for the late-night ABC show. Belly said he canceled because he didn't want to share a stage with Trump and disagrees with the presumptive Republican presidential nominee's views and beliefs.
"I feel like the way I was raised was to be able to see through all the titles in this world — from religion to race," Belly said in a statement. "I just didn't want to feel like I was a part of a celebration for somebody who has beliefs that majority of us don't agree with."
From Rolling Stone: Stephen King, Cheryl Strayed Sign Open Letter Condemning Donald Trump
Stephen King, Wild author Cheryl Strayed, Junot Diaz, Michael Chabon and Jennifer Egan are among the 400 writers who have lent their name to an online letter condemning Donald Trump. In "An Open Letter to the American People" on Lit Hub, the authors write that they "oppose, unequivocally, the candidacy of Donald J. Trump for the Presidency of the United States."
The letter explains why the authors – as well as 8,000 additional petition signers – oppose the mogul's candidacy. "Because the rise of a political candidate who deliberately appeals to the basest and most violent elements in society, who encourages aggression among his followers, shouts down opponents, intimidates dissenters and denigrates women and minorities, demands, from each of us, an immediate and forceful response," they write.
Other authors to sign the open letter include Ed McClanahan, Jonathan Lethem, Dave Eggers, Amy Tan, Richard Russo, Phillip Lopate, Ann Packer and hundreds more.
From Entertainment Tonight: Johnny Depp and Amber Heard to Divorce: A Timeline of Their Relationship & Troubled 1-Year Marriage
After one year of marriage, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard are calling it quits.
On Monday, three days after Depp's mother died, Heard, 30, filed divorce papers citing irreconcilable differences and asking for spousal support from the 52-year-old Pirates of the Caribbean star, ET can confirm.
The couple's relationship had its fair share of ups and downs, from their on-set meeting in 2009, through their four years as a couple, beginning in 2012.
From the A.V. Club: Ghostbusters, Frozen, and the strange entitlement of fan culture
It’s probably safe to say that James Rolfe does not consider himself a sexist. Rolfe, apparently better known as the “Angry Video Game Nerd,” has bravely crossed over from the world of video game crit into a broader discussion about movies via his internet-famous video wherein he announces his intentions to not see or, as such, review the upcoming remake of the 1984 film Ghostbusters. For many people, the decision not to see a particular film does not require a lengthy video announcing that intention (if it did, just imagine how many minutes of internet video would have been dedicated to Norm Of The North). But the 2016 version ofGhostbusters is different.
What makes it different may vary from viewer to viewer. For a lot of observers, it looks like a vocal group of male fans throwing fits because this Ghostbusters will star four funny women instead of four funny men. For Rolfe and others, it’s the “fan” part of that equation, rather than the “male” part, that inspires such passionate outrage. As Rolfe explains in his video, he is a huge fan of the originalGhostbusters movie. The idea that it would be remade and/or rebooted, especially without heavy involvement from the original cast and filmmakers, bothers him as a fan—not, it’s implied, as a man.
This idea—that it’s good taste and faithful fandom, not sexism, that fuels backlash against an unreleased, as-yet-unseen movie based on nothing more than a trailer—has been capably refuted elsewhere. What interests me about Rolfe’s response is the way it reflects modern fan culture, and what might be dubbed the fanification of everything. The simultaneous rise of comic-book movies and the internet has certainly brought a fair amount of formerly nerdy pursuits into the mainstream. But while it’s beloved by plenty of nerds, and has plenty of Dan Aykroyd-penned mythology in its genesis and background details, Ghostbustershas never been a particularly niche interest. During its initial release, it became one of the highest-grossing comedies of all time. It’s still pretty high on the inflation-adjusted list, rendering it about as obscure as Beverly Hills Cop or Home Alone. (The unadjusted list was recently topped by the new Star Wars movie, the ultimate “nerdy” pursuit that happens to be wildly popular in just about every demographic.)