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.
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From the A.V. Club: Clint Eastwood thinks the “pussy generation” needs to “fucking get over” racism
At the 2012 Republican National Convention—the place where America formally met a plucky young boy named Mitt Romney and walked away thoroughly unimpressed—Clint Eastwood stole the show by making a totally bizarre speech involving an empty chair that was meant to represent President Obama. It was, in a word, bananas.
Weirdly, though, Eastwood was nowhere to be seen at the 2016 Republican National Convention, even though his “empty chair” shtick wouldn’t have been nearly as ridiculous as some of the other stuff that went down that week. Thankfully, Esquire sat down with Eastwood and picked his brain about both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, so now we don’t need to wonder where he stands on the coming election. Naturally, he seems to prefer Donald Trump.
Eastwood says that Trump is “onto something,” with that something being that “secretly everybody’s getting tired of political correctness.” He says we’re living in a “pussy generation” now because “everybody’s walking on eggshells” and “accusing people of being racist.” Eastwood admits that Trump has “said a lot of dumb things,” but when he was a kid, “those things weren’t called racist,” so everybody just needs to stop making a big deal out of these dumb things and “fucking get over it.”
Despite all of that, Eastwood doesn’t seem like a huge fan of Trump in general, but he’d still never support Clinton. He says she’d be “a tough voice to listen to for four years,” adding that he doesn’t like that she’s going to maintain a lot of Obama’s policies. Mostly, though, he doesn’t like that she has “made a lot of dough out of being a politician,” which is something that he doesn’t think Ronald Reagan ever would’ve done.
From the Washington Post: GOP reaches ‘new level of panic’ over Trump’s candidacy
Turmoil in the Republican Party escalated Wednesday as party leaders, strategists and donors voiced increased alarm about the flailing state of Donald Trump’s candidacy and fears that the presidential nominee was damaging the party with an extraordinary week of self-inflicted mistakes, gratuitous attacks and missed opportunities.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus was described as “very frustrated” with and deeply disturbed by Trump’s behavior over the past week, having run out of excuses to make on the nominee’s behalf to donors and other party leaders, according to multiple people familiar with the events.
Meanwhile, Trump’s top campaign advisers are struggling once again to instill discipline in their candidate, who has spent recent days lurching from one controversy to another while seemingly skipping chances to go on the offensive against his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
“A new level of panic hit the street,” said longtime operative Scott Reed, chief strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “It’s time for a serious reset.”
From BBC News: One dead, five injured in central London knife attack
A woman has died and five others were injured in a knife attack in Russell Square, central London.
Police were called at 22:33 BST on Wednesday to reports of a man injuring people with a knife.
One of the victims, a woman in her 60s, was treated at the scene but was pronounced dead a short time later.
A 19-year-old man was arrested at 22:39 after a Taser was discharged by an officer. The Met said mental health was a "significant factor" in the events.
Scotland Yard's assistant commissioner for specialist operations, Mark Rowley, said one woman and four men had suffered various injuries in the attack.
From CNN: DC transit police officer charged with aiding ISIS
In the first case of a US police officer charged with aiding ISIS, a Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority cop was arrested Wednesday for providing material support to ISIS, the Justice Department announced.
Nicholas Young was arrested by the FBI on Wednesday but was on law enforcement's radar since 2010, according to an affidavit released with Young's arrest.
There was no evidence of any threat to the DC Metro system. Young will make his first appearance in court later Wednesday, according to two law enforcement officials.
He would be the first police officer in the United States arrested and charged with supporting ISIS.
From the New York Times: How a Secretive Branch of ISIS Built a Global Network of Killers
Believing he was answering a holy call, Harry Sarfo left his home in the working-class city of Bremen last year and drove for four straight days to reach the territory controlled by the Islamic State in Syria.
He barely had time to settle in before members of the Islamic State’s secret service, wearing masks over their faces, came to inform him and his German friend that they no longer wanted Europeans to come to Syria. Where they were really needed was back home, to help carry out the group’s plan of waging terrorism across the globe.
“He was speaking openly about the situation, saying that they have loads of people living in European countries and waiting for commands to attack the European people,” Mr. Sarfo recounted on Monday, in an interview with The New York Times conducted in English inside the maximum-security prison near Bremen. “And that was before the Brussels attacks, before theParis attacks.”
The masked man explained that, although the group was well set up in some European countries, it needed more attackers in Germany and Britain, in particular. “They said, ‘Would you mind to go back to Germany, because that’s what we need at the moment,’” Mr. Sarfo recalled. “And they always said they wanted to have something that is occurring in the same time: They want to have loads of attacks at the same time in England and Germany and France.”
From the Los Angeles Times: Tesla Motors posts $293.2-million loss for second quarter
Tesla Motors Inc. posted a second-quarter loss of $293.2 million Wednesday — only the latest challenge faced by Elon Musk’s electric-car company, which is grappling with a new car model, a government safety probe and a controversial merger.
The most recent in a string of quarterly losses was much worse than Wall Street expected for the company, which is ramping up production of its Model X sport utility vehicle and making plans for its Model 3 mass-market sedan. Tesla’s mainstay car is the Model S sedan.
Tesla’s revenue rose 33% from a year earlier to $1.27 billion, but its operating expenses jumped 34% to $512.8 million.
On a conference call with analysts, Musk said early snags in building the Model X were mostly behind the company and that “I feel we’re in a good place at this point.”
The company delivered fewer vehicles than projected during the last several months, something Musk had attributed to parts shortages and "hubris in adding far too much new technology" to the SUV.
From CBS News: Japan: North Korea missile launch an "unforgivable act of violence"
A medium-range ballistic missile fired Wednesday byNorth Korea flew about 620 miles and landed near Japan's territorial waters, Seoul and Tokyo officials said, one of the longest flights by a North Korean missile.
The U.S. Strategic Command said North Korea fired two presumed Rodong missiles simultaneously, not just one. The command said initial indications were that one of the missiles exploded immediately after launch, while the second was tracked over North Korea and into the Sea of Japan.
North Korea has recently claimed a series of technical breakthroughs in its goal of developing a long-range nuclear missile capable of reaching the continental U.S. South Korean defense officials say North Korea doesn't yet have such a weapon, but some civilian experts believe the North has the technology to mount warheads on shorter-range Rodong and Scud missiles that can strike South Korea and Japan.
From The Guardian: Supreme court blocks order to let transgender student use boys' bathroom
The supreme court on Wednesday blocked a court order giving a transgender student access to the boys’ bathroom at his Virginia high school, in what is the high court’s first ruling on an increasingly contentious topic.
The ruling permits the Gloucester county school board to continue barring Gavin Grimm, a trans boy, from using the boys’ restroom until the supreme court decides whether or not to hear Grimm’s challenge to the school board.
The decision is a major setback for the teenager and will bar him from using the bathroom consistent with his gender identity when he begins his senior year of high school.
In April, Grimm
won a key victory before the fourth circuit court of appeals that granted him access to the boy’s bathroom.
From Vox: My daughter has Down syndrome. Would I "cure" her if I could?
Why is Down syndrome scary?
Is it because the extra genetic material in every cell of her being has caused harm or suffering? Is it because she deviates from a norm of human development, and society cannot accept her? Or is her bewilderment the answer to the question, the indication that fear itself is a puzzling response to this condition that affects hundreds of thousands of adults and children around the globe?
Ethicists, theologians, and medical doctors have all answered some version of those questions over the years. Some see Down syndrome as a biological problem, a birth defect in need of fixing. Others see Down syndrome as a naturally occurring condition with its own possibilities and limitations.
These two perspectives may soon have practical implications: New research on the brains of people with Down syndrome is raising the possibility of treatment for some of its cognitive effects. The question becomes: As a parent, should I pursue treatments for my daughter, or do I embrace her just as she is?
From Vice: How Scared Should I Be of Meteors?
If you look up at the night sky in the next couple of weeks, your odds are much better than usual of seeing a shooting star or two or seven. That's because we Earthlings are at a point in our annual trip around the sun that takes us through the debris field left by a comet called Swift-Tuttle, which was last seen in 1992. When chunks of that debris hit our atmosphere, they turn into a multi-week light show we call the Perseid Meteor Shower. This is going to be one of the most active Perseid showers in recent memory, making this the most wonderful time of year for your nerdy uncle who spent all that money on time-lapse photography gear.
But like many of the known objects whizzing around our solar system, Swift-Tuttle has a tiny, tiny chance of hitting Earth at some point. That makes the Perseid Meteor Shower a beautiful but horrifying reminder that a high-velocity space rock could take out our little Horton Hears a Who speck. And since its an inanimate object, it wouldn't even give a fuck.
Human extinction wouldn't even require a "Texas-sized" chunk, like the one that probably K.O.-ed the dinosaurs. In fact it's thought that something 60 miles across would probably be enough to extinct humanity, so an object about the size of Jamaica should more than do the trick. But even smaller meteors injure people, and might even kill them. So are collisions with objects from space such a serious danger that building Ned Flanders-style backyard shelters might actually be a rational move?
I took my anxieties to Paul Chodas, who manages NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Just like C-3PO, he told me the odds of a dangerous encounter with an asteroid, but unlike Han Solo, my spaceship (Earth) probably isn't at any real risk at all.
From The Atlantic: What Happens When a Revolution Loses Its Leader?
What happens when a band of loyal revolutionaries loses its leader?
They hold a meeting.
“Today is not about venting our frustration about the campaign. It’s not about which candidate is better or whether it’s better to stay home,” a young Frenchman named Raphael said solemnly. “This is about what’s next.”
And what’s next, for this group, is translating Bernie’s progressive revolution into local politics. A young, black man wearing a “Paid Sick Days for All” shirt stepped forward and introduced himself as Jeremiah Lowery. “I believe we can make D.C. one of the most progressive cities in the world!” he said, to cheers.
But first, the group set some guidelines so the brainstorming session wouldn’t get out of hand, writing them down with a Sharpie marker on a piece of paper taped to the wall:
- Stay focused
- Stay motivated/constructive
- Respectful
- Open-mindedness
- Continue to be inclusive
From io9: Report: Warner Bros. Turned Suicide Squad Into a Mess in Its Panic Over BvS Criticism
The early reviews are in—and many are lambasting Suicide Squad for being a tonal mess. A new report released by The Hollywood Reporter today claims to have the answer as to how that came about, and it apparently has a lot to do with audiences’ less-than-stellar reaction to Batman v Superman.—and WB’s worried reaction to that.
The extensive report—sourced through comments from unnamed Warner Bros. insiders, so grain of salt, etc.—cites a bevy of stresses about the production of the movie, from an alleged rush to meet its August 2016 release date to a supposed concern about David Ayer’s ability to handle an effects-driven summer blockbuster.
But worries about the approach Ayer was taking with the film apparently got even more heated when Warner Bros. were blindsided by the vicious critical response to Batman v Superman earlier this year:
A source with knowledge of events says Warners executives, nervous from the start, grew more anxious after they were blindsided and deeply rattled by the tepid response to BvS. “Kevin [Tsujihara, Warner Bros. CEO] was really pissed about damage to the brand,” says one executive close to the studio. A key concern for Warners executives was that Suicide Squad didn’t deliver on the fun, edgy tone promised in the strong teaser trailer for the film. So while Ayer pursued his original vision, Warners set about working on a different cut, with an assist from Trailer Park, the company that had made the teaser.