Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Doctor RJ, Magnifico, annetteboardman and Man Oh Man. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) wader, 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 12:00 AM Eastern Time.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
Washington Post: Obama tours flood-damaged Baton Rouge region, pledges to keep focus on victims by Ashley Kusick and Greg Jaffe
BATON ROUGE — President Obama toured a flood-damaged neighborhood here Tuesday and urged Americans to rally behind residents, many of whom have complained in recent days of feeling forgotten.
The floods that hit the Baton Rouge region killed 13 and have been described as the worst natural disaster in the United States since Hurricane Sandy in 2012. But they have not received as much news coverage as that crisis.
“Sometimes, once the floodwaters pass, people’s attention spans pass,” Obama said. “This is not a one-off, this is not a photo-op issue . . . this is how we make sure a month from now, three months from now, six months from now, people are still getting the help they need.”
So far, more than 100,000 people in Louisiana have applied for federal assistance. The government, meanwhile, has set aside $127 million to help those displaced find temporary housing, pay for home repairs and collect flood insurance. But the president cautioned that federal relief alone wouldn’t be enough to replace the losses.
Before leaving Baton Rouge, Obama also met with the family of Alton Sterling, a black man fatally shot by police in an incident that reignited the debate over policing and race in America, as well as with the families of slain and injured officers of the Baton Rouge Police Department and East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office, White House officials said.
Mic.com: A Muslim cafe owner in New York responds to robbery in the most heartwarming way possible by Sarah Harvard
After his coffee shop Cocoa Grinder was robbed, Abdul Elenani didn't call local law enforcement. Instead, as a Muslim, he looked to Prophet Muhammad for inspiration.
In a big panel window of his Brooklyn, New York, coffee shop, Elenani posted an open letter to the robber, IlmFeed reported. In the letter, Elenani said he forgave the robber if he needed to commit the robbery for survival.
"If the money you stole was to better you and your family's living, then I forgive you," Elenani wrote. "If it was stolen for you to go out there and ruin yourself and health, I still forgive you and ask of you to fix yourself."
The letter was filled with sentiments of mercy and forgiveness for the robber, but more importantly, it finished off with two powerful quotations from Prophet Muhammad.
New York Times: Abu Zubaydah, Tortured Guantánamo Detainee, Makes Case for Release by Scott Shane
WASHINGTON — Over 14 years in American custody, Abu Zubaydah has come to symbolize, perhaps more than any other prisoner, how fear of terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks changed the United States.
He was the first detainee to be waterboarded, and his brutal torture was documented in a Senate report. He is among those held without charges and with no likelihood of a trial. The government long ago admitted that he was never the top leader of Al Qaeda it claimed he was at the time of his capture in 2002, but it insists that he may still be dangerous.
In all that time, Mr. Zubaydah, now 45, had never been seen by the outside world. That changed on Tuesday, as his calm face was beamed via video feed from the Guantánamo Bay military prison to a Pentagon conference room.
In a long-postponed hearing, he argued, through a statement read by a uniformed soldier, that he posed no threat and should be released. A profile prepared by the Defense Department, also read aloud, concluded with unsettling ambiguity that he “probably retains an extremist mind-set.”
The occasion was Mr. Zubaydah’s first appearance before a Periodic Review Board, convened under the military detention system to determine whether a prisoner would pose a danger if released.
BBC: Russian hackers 'targeted New York Times'
The FBI is investigating whether Russian hackers have carried out a series of cyber attacks on the New York Times, officials have told US media.
They believe Russian intelligence could be behind the hack, which targeted individual reporters, according to Associated Press.
Investigators do not believe the newspaper's whole network was affected, according to the official.
A Times spokeswoman said no internal systems had been affected.
"We have seen no evidence that any of our internal systems, including our systems in the Moscow bureau, have been breached or compromised," she said.
CNN first reported the story and said the intrusions go back months.
It's not clear what the motive is or how many reporters are affected.
There is a suspicion that the same hackers who recently infiltrated Democratic Party organisations are "probably" responsible, reports ABC News.
In June, hackers breached Democratic National Committee computers and made public embarrassing emails that showed the Democratic leadership favouring then candidate Hillary Clinton ahead of her rival Bernie Sanders.
Vox: How the first liberal Supreme Court in a generation could reshape America by Dylan Matthews
Odds are that very soon, the Supreme Court will become something it hasn’t been in nearly 50 years: made up of a majority of Democratic-appointed justices.
Ever since Abe Fortas’s resignation in 1969, the Court has either been split down the middle or, more often, made up primarily of Republican appointees. Some of those Republican appointees nonetheless turned out to be liberals, but even taking that into account, the Court hasn’t been majority liberal since 1971, when William Rehnquist and Lewis Powell joined.
That hasn’t stopped the Court from evolving in a progressive direction at times. In 1973, GOP appointee Harry Blackmun authored Roe v. Wade, drawing only two dissents; from 1996’s Romer v. Evans to 2015’s Obergefell v. Hodges, Anthony Kennedy and the Court’s liberals steadily expanded the rights of LGBTQ Americans.
But for the most part, over the past half-century liberals have been playing defense as an organized and well-planned movement of conservatives has limited the scope of rights trumpeted by liberals, expanded the power of the state in criminal justice, and issued more business-friendly rulings on campaign finance and regulatory issues.
Matthews’ is a very long read but it is well worth it to be reminded of the stakes in the upcoming presidential election.
Sky News: Meet The Civic-Minded US Prison Inmates Ready To Vote In Election by Amanda Walker
There are 2.3 million prisoners in the US. Nine hundred of them are in Maine State Prison where we have been given rare access.
Inmates here are among a tiny minority who enjoy an unusual privilege.
They have been sentenced for a range of crimes - multiple murders, drink driving, sexual assault, corporate fraud.
We are shown around tiny cells that some spend up to 23 hours a day in.
Others enjoy relative freedom and interaction.
What they have in common is that come November, they will all be able to cast a vote.
Prisoners are banned from voting in all but two states - Maine and Vermont.
But it is safe to say that neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton will walk these halls on their campaign trails.
Fusion: Why are there so many queer and trans kids in the criminal justice system? by John Walker
Contrary to the common refrain of “it gets better,” a new report finds that the unique challenges facing LGBTQ and gender-nonconforming youth actually make them more susceptible to engagement with our justice system when compared to their straight, cisgender peers, particularly among queer and trans youth of color.
Twenty percent of young people in the American juvenile and criminal justice systems identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or gender-nonconforming, according to a report co-authored by the Movement Advancement Project (MAP) and the Center for American Progress (CAP). Eighty-five percent of those young people are also people of color. This figure is troubling, and disproportionate to the 7–9% of young people who identify as LGBTQ or GNC in the general population.
Naomi Goldberg, MAP’s Policy & Research Director who served as lead author of “Unjust: How the Broken Juvenile and Criminal Justice Systems Fail LGBT Youth,” told me that there is no one specific cause for this overrepresentation.
Rather, there are a host of factors ranging from anti-LGBTQ stigma and unsafe schools to the racially discriminatory enforcement of laws that work together to make it all the more likely that young LGBTQ people, especially those who are also people of color, will enter our justice systems in the first place.
Good luck on hearing anything about this from the Human Rights Campaign...they’re probably busy planning the next cocktail party.
Chicago Tribune: NLRB rules that grad students are employees, opens door to unionization by Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz
The National Labor Relations Board ruled Tuesday that grad students who work as teaching and research assistants at private universities are employees covered by federal labor laws, a major decision that opens the door for graduate students across the country to unionize,
The 3-1 decision — which stems from a petition filed by a group of graduate students at Columbia University in New York who wished to join the United Auto Workers union — reverses a 2004 decision involving Rhode Island's Brown University that had held that grad students are not employees because they are primarily students.
Matilda Stubbs, who is pursuing her doctorate in anthropology at Northwestern University, said she was "thrilled and encouraged" by the ruling after years of organizing efforts at the school have faltered. The option to form a union has been important to her so that student teachers can bargain for better health coverage, more assistance for students with dependents and to generally have a voice in decisions about their working lives.
"Having our multiple statuses — as students and as employees — established and clarified better enables everyone (students, employees, faculty, administration) to prevent and address workplace-related issues," Stubbs wrote in an email. "This is a positive move for all parties involved."
Bloomberg: The Biggest Hurricane Threat to U.S. Is the System With No Name by Brian D. Sullivan
The Atlantic system that could cause the most storm damage to the U.S. is the one that doesn’t even have a name.
A tropical wave a few hundred miles east of the Leeward Islands has caught meteorologists’ attention not for what it is but what it could become: a tropical storm or hurricane threatening the U.S. East Coast from South Carolina to Florida on Sunday or Monday. If it gets that far, it will be named Hermine.
A storm heading west will be closely watched because Florida is the second-largest producer of orange juice behind Brazil. If the system approaches the Gulf of Mexico, it could force the evacuation of oil and gas rigs, curtailing energy production and potentially boosting prices.
“Yes, Hermine is the main concern,” said Jeff Masters, co-founder of Weather Underground in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “It is definitely a threat to be a hurricane hitting the U.S. early next week.”
The Gulf accounts for about 17 percent of U.S. crude oil production and 5 percent of natural gas output. More than 45 percent of petroleum refining capacity and 51 percent of gas processing is along that coastline.
AFP: Strong 6.2 quake hits central Italy: USGS
A 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit central Italy in the early hours of Wednesday morning and was felt in Rome some 150 km (90 miles) away, the United States Geological Survey and AFP journalists said.
The shallow quake struck 10 kilometres southeast of Norcia, a town in the province of Perugia in the southeast of Umbria, at around 03.30 am local time (0130 GMT) according to the USGS.
USGS's PAGER system, which predicts the impact of earthquakes, has issued a red alert -- suggesting significant casualties and damage based on previous quake data.
Reuters: North Korea fires submarine-launched ballistic missile toward Japan by Ju-min Park and Jack Kim
North Korea fired a submarine-launched missile on Wednesday that flew about 500 km (311 miles) toward Japan, a show of improving technological capability for the isolated country that has conducted a series of launches in defiance of UN sanctions.
The missile was fired at around 5:30 a.m. (4:30 p.m. ET) from near the coastal city of Sinpo, where satellite imagery shows a submarine base is located, officials at South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Defence Ministry told Reuters.
The projectile reached Japan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ), an area of control designated by countries to help maintain air security, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported.
The distance of the flight indicated the North's push to develop a submarine-launched missile system was paying off, officials and rocketry experts said.
North Korea's "SLBM (submarine-launched ballistic missile) technology appears to have progressed," a South Korean military official told Reuters.
The launch comes two days after rival South Korea and the United States began annual military exercises in the South that North Korea condemns as a preparation for invasion, and has threatened retaliation.
Guardian: Black woman inundated with racist abuse while tweeting for @Ireland by Bonnie Malkin
A black British woman who was chosen to tweet from the @ireland account for a week has been subjected to a barrage of racist abuse, forcing her to take a break from Twitter.
Michelle Marie took over the account – which is curated by a different Twitter user in Ireland each week – on Monday. She introduced herself as a mother, blogger and plus-size model.
Originally from Oxford in England, she wrote she had settled in Ireland and “it has my heart”.
However, just hours after taking over the profile – which is followed by nearly 40,000 people – the abuse began.
At this time, at least two of the accounts from which racist tweets were sent have been suspended. In the meantime, Michelle Marie seems to have returned to tweeting a little bit.
Aljazeera: Europol uncover major online child abuse network
A major operation against distributors of child sexual abuse images online has resulted in the arrests of 75 suspects across 28 European countries.
Code-named "Operation Daylight", the investigation has resulted in 207 criminal cases, Europe's policing agency Europol said on Tuesday.
"We know that individuals are abusing online platforms and networks to distribute child sexual abuse material and we are determined to target them and bring them to justice," Steven Wilson, head of Europol's European Cybercrime Centre, said in a statement.
Operation Daylight was launched last year after Swiss police notified Europol after uncovering a vast network of criminals involved in the sexual exploitation of minors online.
"Europol received the information in June 2015 from the Swiss authorities and disseminated intelligence packages in July 2015. Based on that intelligence, separate investigations were initiated in the concerned countries," Tine Hollevoet, a spokesman for Europol, told Al Jazeera.
So far, some of the 75 arrested suspects have been prosecuted, and the investigation was still ongoing, Europol said.
BBC: Go-getters in the ghettos: The bright side of France's migrant suburbs by Henri Astier
Like many French rap stars, Mokobe has drawn inspiration from growing up in one of the bleak "banlieues" (suburbs) where immigrants make up a large part of the population.
One of 15 children of West African parents, he remembers bunk beds gradually filling up the bedroom until the window could no longer be opened. New arrivals then had to sleep in the living room of their flat on the south-eastern fringes of Paris.
"We used to tell each other stories at night," the 40-year-old recalls. "I've always liked living in a housing estate because we're on top of each other. Mixing and sharing are part of life there."
Mokobe, who has filled venues from Chad to California over a two-decade career, believes his banlieue roots have given him an edge as a performer.
This picture belies the image of the ethnic hinterland of French cities as ghettos. The country often stands accused of failing to integrate migrants, leaving them to fester in crime-ridden poverty.
I’m still not quite sure how I feel about this story; as with stories of “ghettos” here in America (or the favelas in Brazil) this story seems to place a bit too much emphasis on the success stories and not enough on the very real obstacles to be overcome...or vice versa.
Reuters: Brazil didn't mess up Games, nor did it make most of them by Daniel Flynn
As the Olympic hoardings are taken down in Rio de Janeiro and the Carnival atmosphere subsides, there is relief that cash-strapped Brazil avoided making a mess of the Games but also a nagging suspicion it did not make the most of them either.
Brazil overcame fears over the Zika virus, a painful recession that left government coffers bare, and the suspension of its president just three months before the opening ceremony of the first Games in South America.
Two years ago, a senior member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) warned that Brazil's preparations were the worst he had ever seen.
Yet a last-minute scramble meant that venues and a new metro line to the Olympic Park were ready in time. Security fears, which prompted the deployment of 85,000 police and security for the Games, were also proved wrong - there was no major attacks of the kind seen recently in Europe.
Yet in terms of the long-term benefits to residents and the image of Rio to the outside world, the Games could have been so much more.
"If we're content to call the absence of catastrophe an Olympic success, then I suppose it was a success but if that is the case we are setting the bar too low," said Jules Boykoff, a professor at Pacific University in Oregon and author of a book on the political history of the Games.
"From the point of view of the lives of ordinary people in Rio, it was not a successful Games. It was a massively missed opportunity."
Ultimately, whether Brazil has “made the most of” hosting The Olympic Games remains to be seen; there are models that Rio de Janeiro can follow; the questions are whether Brazil will have the money or the political will to get it done. I would like it if the International Olympic Committee could be reeled in as far as their grifting is concerned; it has already started in Tokyo, Japan, host of the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Deutsche Welle: China's confusing media ties with Australia by Helen Clark
The "Global Times" (GT), a subsidiary of the "People's Daily" and the Chinese Communist Party's official newspaper, recently opined that Australia is a paper cat unworthy of the more usual title of paper tiger. However, it didn't end there. "Australia's power means nothing compared to the security of China. If Australia steps into the South China Sea waters, it will be an ideal target for China to warn and strike," the paper wrote.
This was in retaliation for Foreign Minister Julie Bishop's vocal support of the result of the Hague's Permanent Court of Arbitration's finding against China over the so-called nine-mile dash in the South China Sea that has interfered with Philippine fishing rights.
However, only a few months ago Bishop hosted Liu Qibao, head of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) central propaganda bureau. At the same time a deal was announced between the People's Daily and Fairfax Media. Each month "The Sydney Morning Herald," "The Age" and "The Australian Financial Review" will run an eight-page print-only liftout called China Watch. Sky News and the Australia China Research Institute, headed by former Labor Foreign Minister Bob Carr, also signed deals.
While this may come across as something of a conflicting strategy it's not that far-fetched and is part of a new approach. "I think (foreign) reporters just love juicy quotes and GT is very good at that. China Daily, Xinhua and PD (the People's Daily) are boring in that regard... I think GT editors have good tabloid instinct and they are good at playing this game. Their semi-automomous status gives them 'plausible deniability,'" Peter Cai, a research fellow at Australian foreign policy think tank the Lowy Institute, told DW. Calling for a strike on Australian vessels in South China Sea waters certainly got coverage.
Mashable: Simone Biles' fierce beach photo started an internet conversation on the male gaze by Sophie Hirsh
After the Olympics competition ended, a few of Team USA's gold medal-winning gymnasts took a well-deserved beach day in Rio.
When Simone Biles shared a shot of herself and teammates Madison Kocian and Aly Raisman displaying their strong gymnast abs, a Twitter conversation erupted, proving that women are subject to the male gaze no matter their accomplishments.
In response to a tasteless tweet commenting on the Rio beach pic, this EPIC shade was posted and mentioned in the Mashable story.-kb
Guardian: Truman Capote's ashes go up for auction in LA: 'I think he would love it' by Rory Carroll
Truman Capote is to have a final, macabre whirl of celebrity by having his ashes auctioned off in Los Angeles – starting price $2,000.
The remains, contained in a carved Japanese box, will go on the block in September, 32 years after Capote’s death.
Whether the author of In Cold Blood would appreciate his ashes being sold off in cold commerce is an open question, but the man flogging them has no doubt.
“With some celebrities this wouldn’t be tasteful, but I know 100% he would love it,” Darren Julien, president of Julien’s Auctions, told the Guardian. “He loved to create press opportunities and to read his name in the paper. I think he would love it that he’s still grabbing headlines today.”
The ashes are part of the estate of Joanne Carson, the late wife of former Tonight Show host Johnny Carson, who died last year. Carson was a close friend of Capote and hosted him at her Bel-Air mansion, where he died of liver disease in 1984, aged 59.
The estate’s executors were unsure what to do with the ashes, but after some ethical deliberation they decided to include them in the 24 September auction, Julien said.
The Hollywood Reporter: Ronald Reagan Biopic Finds Director (Exclusive) by Paul Bond
A biopic of Ronald Reagan that will take him from teenager to his presidency has found its director in Sean McNamara, who helmed 2011's Soul Surfer and recently finished The King’s Daughter with Pierce Brosnan and William Hurt.
The independent movie, dubbed Reagan, is written by Howie Klausner, who wrote Space Cowboys for Clint Eastwood in 2000.
The filmmakers have yet to cast President Reagan, but as a young man he’ll be played by David Henrie, best known as the Disney Channel star of Wizards of Waverly Place opposite Selena Gomez.
Robert Davi, best known for his work in Goonies, License to Kill and Die Hard, has signed on to play Leonid Brezhnev, who led the Soviet Union from 1964-1982.
Reagan will tell of the 40th president’s life as chronicled by a KGB agent who was assigned to follow him during the early days of the Cold War, when the future president was vehemently anti-Communist while running the Screen Actors Guild.
The Detroit News: Manuel: Harbaugh ‘worth everything we pay him’ by Angelique S. Chengelis
Ann Arbor – Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel believes football coach Jim Harbaugh is “worth everything that we pay him.”
Manuel offered that response Tuesday during a round table with media in regard to Harbaugh’s generous contract addendum revealed last week. He received in June a $2 million insurance payment, and will receive another at the end of the year, and his annual compensation is now a hair below Nick Saban's at Alabama.
Harbaugh was to make $5 million this year, but now Michigan will loan him an additional $4 million this year and $2 million the next five years to pay the life insurance policy.
Saban's annual compensation is $7.09 million.
Harbaugh, entering his second season at Michigan, has rejuvenated the program and fan base with a 10-3 season last fall, and his entertaining ability to sub-tweet with the best of them.
He clearly is the most recognizable individual at Michigan.
University of Michigan football is the closest thing that I acknowledge to being a religion for myself; nothing compels me to put my hand over my heart as much as “Hail to the Victors.” It’s that way because...it simply is. (Sending a special shout-out to San Francisco 49er owner Jed York...)
Finally, we all need to laugh, at times, and New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait serves up the goods.
Plus, I’m a sucker for a good headline and this one is hard to beat!
New York magazine: Mass Lesbian Farm Infiltration Is Obama’s Best Scheme Yet by Jonathan Chait
Barack Obama is nearing the finish line of a presidency filled with accomplishments ranging from death panels to FEMA camps to the importation of Sharia law. Year eight is a natural time for Obama to unveil the most deviously brilliant plot of them all: mass lesbian infiltration of the agriculture sector. The Department of Agriculture has cleverly designed this scheme as an innocuous outreach summit to LGBT Americans living in rural areas. But Rush Limbaugh has exposed the administration’s true intentions, which are nothing less than a full-scale assault on the last bastion of red-state America.
Here’s how it works. “Rural America happens to be largely conservative. Rural America is made up of self-reliant, rugged individualist types,” explains Limbaugh. (Farmers are “self-reliant” because, even though their sector is technically the recipient of heavy federal subsidies, they are overwhelmingly white.) Obama has a plan to attack them:
They are trying to bust up one of the last geographically conservative regions in the country; that’s rural America … So here comes the Obama Regime with a bunch of federal money and they’re waving it around, and all you gotta do to get it is be a lesbian and want to be a farmer and they’ll set you up … apparently enough money it make it happen, and the objective here is to attack rural states.
Don’t forget that Hunter is hosting an open thread for night owls this evening.
Everyone have a great night!