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 (RIP), 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.
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Reuters
A former senior U.S. law enforcement figure said on Monday she warned President Donald Trump's White House in January about then-national security adviser Michael Flynn because she feared he could have been open to blackmail by Russia.
Sally Yates, who was briefly the acting U.S. attorney general earlier this year, told White House counsel Don McGahn on Jan. 26 that Flynn had not been telling the truth about his contacts with Russia's ambassador to Washington.
Yates, originally appointed by former President Barack Obama's administration, said she feared Moscow could try to blackmail Flynn because it also knew he was not being truthful about conversations with Ambassador Sergei Kislyak about U.S. sanctions on Moscow.
Flynn, a retired general who advised Trump's election campaign, has emerged as a central figure in probes into allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and possible collusion between Trump's campaign and Moscow. Russia has repeatedly denied any such meddling.
Yates told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing she had been concerned that "the national security adviser essentially could be blackmailed by the Russians."
"Logic would tell you that you don't want the national security adviser to be in a position where the Russians have leverage over him," she said.
Trump waited more than two weeks after the warning before firing Flynn for failing to disclose the content of his talks with Kislyak and then misleading Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations.
US NEWS
Bloomberg
Charles Munger, the vice chairman at Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said the leaders of his political party risk going too far in their efforts to reduce oversight of banks.
“My fellow Republicans -- the ones taking away all this regulation of major finance -- I think that’s bonkers,” Munger, 93, said Monday on CNBC.
Munger is known for his outspokenness, and some of his views contrast with those of Buffett, a Democrat. For instance, Munger supports a plan by President Donald Trump’s administration to encourage companies to bring back funds that have been kept overseas where they avoid U.S. taxes. However, the Berkshire executives agreed in the televised joint interview Monday that the U.S. would benefit from a government system that offers health care for all.
Buffett and Munger have been saying for years that the financial system benefits when government oversight prevents excesses. The issue took on added urgency after the financial crisis prompted Congress to pass the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, tightening regulation. Trump, a Republican, has called the legislation a “disaster,” saying he believes it has made it extremely difficult for businesses to get loans.
The Guardian
More than 20 states have proposed bills that would crack down on protests and demonstrations since Donald Trump was elected, in a moved that UN experts have branded “incompatible with US obligations under international human rights law”.
The proposed laws would variously increase the penalties for protesting in large groups, ban protesters from wearing masks during demonstrations and, in some states, protect drivers from liability if they strike someone taking part in a protest.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said more than 30 separate anti-protest bills have been introduced since 8 November in “an unprecedented level of hostility towards protesters in the 21st century”. Their introduction comes amid a huge increase in activism and engagement, much of it inspired by Trump’s election to the presidency.
The ACLU and the National Lawyers Guild have said many of the bills are likely unconstitutional. “The proposed bills have been especially pervasive in states where protests flourished recently,” said Vera Eidelman, who works in the ACLU’s speech, privacy and technology project.
The Guardian
The Environmental Protection Agency has “eviscerated” a key scientific review board by removing half its members and seeking to replace them with industry-aligned figures, according to the board’s chair.
Scott Pruitt, the EPA administrator, has chosen not to renew the terms of nine of the 18-member board of scientific counselors, which advises the EPA on the quality and accuracy of the science it produces. The group, largely made up of academics, is set to be replaced by representatives from industries that the EPA regulates.
Deborah Swackhamer, chair of the board, said that with other planned departures, the panel was left with five members, including her, in the midst of an EPA hiring freeze.
“The committee has been eviscerated,” she told the Guardian. “We assumed these people would be renewed and there was no reason or indication they wouldn’t be. These people aren’t Obama appointees, they are scientific appointees. To have a political decision to get rid of them was a shock.”
The Guardian
Barack Obama warned Donald Trump in November against hiring Michael Flynn, who was forced to resign as national security adviser over his contacts with Russia after less than three weeks in office.
The outgoing president issued the warning when the two men met in the White House two days after Trump’s election victory.
The White House spokesman, Sean Spicer, acknowledged that Obama had expressed misgivings about Flynn, a former general, but said it was a general criticism.
“It’s true that President Obama made it known that he wasn’t exactly a fan of Gen Flynn’s,” Spicer said, but added such remarks were unsurprising as Flynn had been an outspoken critic of the Obama administration’s policies. He said Flynn’s security clearance had been renewed in April 2016, and the Obama White House had not stepped in to revoke it.
Flynn was appointed head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in 2012 but was fired two years later, reportedly over dissatisfaction over his management style and temperament. Reports on Monday attributed to Obama officials differed on whether the concerns voiced by Obama were linked to his DIA performance or because of his Russia links. Flynn had received income from RT in 2015, a state-run television channel formerly known as Russia Today, which he did not initially declare.
The Guardian
The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, signed a so-called sanctuary cities ban on Sunday, in a ceremony staged without advance warning and shown on Facebook Live.
The measure lets police ask during routine stops whether someone is in the US legally and threatens sheriffs with jail if they do not cooperate with federal immigration agents.
The new law was blasted by opponents as the country’s toughest on immigrants since Arizona’s crackdown in 2010. Opponents vowed to challenge it in court.
Critics said Abbott signed the bill when and how he did in order to avoid protesters. A spokesman for the governor, John Wittman, said Abbott chose to sign the bill on social media because that’s “where most people are getting their news nowadays”.
The law allows police to inquire about the immigration status of anyone they detain, a situation that can range from arrest for a crime to being stopped for a traffic violation.
Reuters
The Utah mansion where convicted pedophile and polygamous religious sect leader Warren Jeffs once lived is being purchased by one of his former wives, who hopes to make it a tourist attraction and home for people who have left the church.
The house and adjacent buildings are part of a walled compound that straddles two blocks in the town of Hildale, a twin border community with Colorado City, Arizona, where many members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints lived.
Jeffs, 61, was the spiritual head of the breakaway sect, which the mainstream Mormon Church has condemned for promoting marriage between young girls and older men. He is serving a life sentence in a Texas prison for sexually assaulting two underage girls he had married.
Photos of the sprawling mansion, whose estimated value is $1.2 million, reveal its 41 bedrooms, meeting and prayer rooms, dining rooms and two commercial-size kitchens.
Brielle Decker, who said she was forced to be the 65th of Jeffs' 79 wives when she was 18 years old, is hoping to buy the mansion for a reduced price.
"Everything would flourish more if this thing was turned into something good," said Decker, who escaped from the FLDS five years ago. "That's my main goal.”
Vox
The Trump administration’s release of a tax plan — or, at least, a one page summary of its goals for tax policy — has drawn renewed attention to the president’s refusal to release his own tax returns. How much would the president personally benefit from his proposal to abolish the Alternative Minimum Tax? How much does he stand to gain from a reduced 15 percent rate on certain business income?
House Democrats have proposed a number of measures that would make the president’s tax returns public, but the Republican majority has blocked these efforts (despite defections by two of their members). With the president unlikely to release his returns and Congress unlikely to force him to, state lawmakers are looking for creative ways to compel disclosure of the president’s tax filings.
One such strategy, which state lawmakers in New York are pursuing, would lead to the immediate release of President Donald Trump’s state tax returns. A bill pending in Albanyleverages the Empire State’s unique position as the sitting president’s lifelong home. It would require the state’s tax authority to publish any New York state returns filed by the president, the vice president, and all statewide elected officials. That bill would apply to returns filed in the past five years as well as all New York state returns filed by those officeholders in future years.
Vox
Police and experts have widely known for 45 years that it shouldn’t be done. Yet late last month, the act cost a 15-year-old boy his life.
In April, a police officer, responding to a call about a house party, shot at a moving car and killed the front-seat passenger, 15-year-old Jordan Edwards. The officer, Roy Oliver, has already been fired and charged with murder, although there are still a lot of lingering questions about what happened.
But one thing we’ve known for decades is that this kind of shooting simply shouldn’t happen, because police officers should almost never shoot at moving vehicles. That’s been the policy in New York City, the country’s biggest local police department, for 45 years — and experts widely argue that it should be the policy for all police departments.
The argument for the change is straightforward: Shooting at a 4,000-pound vehicle is an ineffective way to stop it. Not only is the officer likely to miss the target (because real life isn’t Call of Duty), but she may actually hit someone else entirely. And if the officer gets or remains in front of the moving car in the course of shooting, she could get hurt even if she hits the driver.
WORLD NEWS
Agence France Presse
Emmanuel Macron won warm backing from his European allies on Monday after his resounding victory in France's presidential election but the focus at home shifted to whether he can govern the country without a traditional party.
At 39, the former investment banker will become France's youngest-ever president when he is inaugurated next weekend after crushing far-right leader Marine Le Pen on Sunday.
Although the centrist politician faces a huge task ahead to unite a fractured and anxious country, his win has been greeted with relief by EU leaders and financial markets.
"Emmanuel Macron carries the hopes of millions of French people and also many in Germany and across Europe," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters.
Fervently pro-European Macron is hoping to re-energise the Franco-German engine at the heart of the 28-member bloc, which is seen as critical now that Britain is set to leave.
"We Germans must now help him," Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said.
At his victory party outside the Louvre on Sunday, the classical music lover walked on to the stage to the strains of "Ode to Joy", the anthem of the EU, rather than France's La Marseillaise.
Final results showed Macron won a higher-than-expected 66.1 percent of the vote against 33.9 percent for Le Pen, which many of her allies view as a disappointment.
Agence France Presse
France's incoming president Emmanuel Macron has an ambitious economic agenda and a favourable economic environment and business leaders' backing in his favour -- but can he bring change?
Even if the world's sixth-biggest economy is still weighed down by fundamental weaknesses, it has been enjoying a breath of fresh air recently.
Growth is on the up, private sector activity is expanding, consumer sentiment is positive and even unemployment appears to be heading downwards, despite a small rise in March.
Macron has proposed cuts to France's heavy burden of state spending and wants to loosen the rigid labour laws that many believe push up joblessness and hobble investment. He also wants to extend social protection to the self-employed.
Hardly surprising then that Macron's victory over far-right candidate Marine Le Pen on Sunday is being hailed by advocates of liberalist economics, free trade and European integration.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Macron "carries the hopes of millions of French people and also many in Germany and across Europe".
- "Market-friendly, pro-reform" -
Deutsch Welle
After the latest regional elections in Schleswig-Holstein, no party has emerged with an absolute majority. Coalition negotiations are underway. Here's an overview of which coalitions can be formed in German politics.
Once the campaign dust has settled on every German election, either at state or national level, the political parties, who have spent the previous months pulling apart each other's policies and casting aspersions on the credentials of each other's candidates, have to find a way to make friends.
These tortuous negotiations can take several weeks and culminate in a "coalition contract" that sets out the political agenda, including specific legislative goals, that will determine the next few years. The parties take these agreements very seriously - but they also occasionally provide a good excuse to break campaign promises: "Sorry, our partners wouldn't allow that into the deal!"
Below are the most common options, with a few caveats regarding coalition-willingness: the right-wing nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) is currently seen as a pariah for all the other parties, both at state and national level, while the other parties have so far only found the stomach to accommodate the socialist Left party in some states.
Al Jazeera
A new deal on "de-escalation zones" in Syria , which came into effect on Saturday in an effort to reduce violence in the war-torn country, has been received with mixed reactions by residents of the affected areas.
While some were optimistic that it would benefit civilians, others expressed doubt over its sustainability.
"Some parts of this deal could be good for us," Ammar, a resident of Eastern Ghouta, told Al Jazeera. "It has been a long time for us trying to create safe zones, something the whole world has failed to do. If this is actually serious, so much will change for us here. We need help.”
The deal, which was signed by Russia , Turkey and Iran in Astana, calls for a cessation of hostilities between rebel groups and forces fighting on behalf of the Syrian government in four de-escalation zones located mainly in opposition-held areas of the country. The four zones cover areas in the provinces of Damascus, Idlib, Latakia, Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Deraa and Quneitra.
The areas include Eastern Ghouta, western areas of Aleppo province, northern areas of Hama province, Rastan and Talbiseh in northern Homs province, and parts of Deraa and Quneitra provinces.
Al Jazeera
Israeli ministers have approved a controversial bill that will downgrade Arabic as an official language and define the country as the "national home of the Jewish people".
The Haaretz newspaper reported on Sunday that if the bill were to become law, Arabic would no longer be an official language and would instead be defined as having special status.
In the bill, Hebrew is defined as the "national language", which would become part of the country's so-called basic law, which is similar to a constitution, it said.
The legislation still has to go through further drafting by the justice ministry and pass several votes in parliament.
Critics have described the proposed legislation, which also declares that the "right to self-determination" in Israel is "unique to the Jewish people", as impinging on the rights of its Arab minority, who make up some 20 percent of the 8.7 million population.
Defining Israel as the "national home of the Jewish people" has also raised concerns among rights activists and others worried over discrimination and attempts to further mix religion and state.
Spiegel Online
When it's not going well, even the smallest things go pear-shaped. Like a waiter in the SPD party headquarters dropping a tray full of glasses and bottles. Sunday night was an extremely bitter evening for the Social Democrats and for the party's chancellor candidate Martin Schulz. And he wasn't in the mood to deny it either. "I am incredibly frustrated," he said from the stage in Berlin.
His frustration stems from the results of the state election in Schleswig-Holstein, in which the SPD received 27.2 percent, far behind the 32.0 percent received by Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats. The SPD had hoped that the Sunday vote would lend Schulz's candidacy a bit of momentum as the national campaign heats up ahead of the Sept. 24 general election. Instead, though, the center-left party finds itself facing the question of whether it can actually win elections under Schulz's leadership. Or whether the significant jump in the SPD's poll numbers following the announcement of Schulz's candidacy in January was little more than a chimera. After all, the state vote in Saarland five weeks ago also ended in disappointment for the Social Democrats.
Reuters
The largest global banks in London plan to move about 9,000 jobs to the continent in the next two years, public statements and information from sources shows, as the exodus of finance jobs starts to take shape.
Last week Standard Chartered (STAN.L) and JPMorgan (JPM.N) were the latest global banks to outline plans for their European operations after Brexit. They are among a growing number of lenders pushing ahead with plans to move operations from London.
Goldman Sachs (GS.N) chief executive Lloyd Blankfein said in an interview on Friday that London's growth as a financial center could "stall" as a result of the upheaval caused by Brexit.
Thirteen major banks including Goldman Sachs, UBS (UBSG.S), and Citigroup (C.N) have given an indication of how they would bulk up their operations in Europe to secure market access to the European Union's single market when Britain leaves the bloc.
Talks with financial authorities in Europe have been underway for several months, but banks are increasingly firming up plans to move staff and operations.
"It's full speed ahead. We are in full motion with our contingency planning," said the head of investment banking at one global bank in London. "There's no waiting."
Although the moves would represent about 2 percent of London's finance jobs, Britain's tax revenues could be hit if it loses rich taxpayers working in financial services.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies - a think tank focused on budget issues - said in a report on Thursday the rest of the population will have to pay more if top earners move.
The exact number of jobs to leave will depend on the deal the British government strikes with the EU. Some politicians say bankers have exaggerated the threat to the economy from Brexit.
Reuters
Canada escalated a trade dispute with United States by making threats Washington called inappropriate in part because Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is under pressure to secure support in a key region ahead of the country's 2019 elections.
Washington last month slapped tariffs on timber imports, alleging they are unfairly subsidized, prompting Trudeau to say he was considering a ban on exports of U.S. coal through Pacific ports.
As well as lumber, the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has targeted Canadian dairy farmers, while Boeing Corp (BA.N) launched a trade challenge against Montreal-based planemaker Bombardier Inc (BBDb.TO).
All three are vital to the economy of Quebec, Canada's second most-populous province. And Quebec is seen as vital to Trudeau's hopes of maintaining a strong grip on power in a national election set for October 2019.
As contentious talks on renegotiating NAFTA draw ever closer, Trudeau has little choice but to defend dairy farmers and offer help to the lumber industry, even though that is likely to prompt fresh U.S. challenges.
"Quebec is the key," said one senior Liberal organizer.
The predominantly French-speaking province holds 78 of the 338 seats in the House of Commons and Liberals acknowledge they need to win extra seats there to offset expected losses elsewhere in 2019.
THE ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE, HEALTH AND TECHNOLOGY
Climate Central
NOAA climatologist, said in an email. With eight months left, though, it is unclear whether 2017 will stay warm enough to ultimately beat 2012 as the hottest calendar year for the Lower 48.
“I think that the potential development of the El Niño and how the drought conditions expand or intensify going into summer will be the two things to watch on determining how warm 2017 ultimately ends up being,” Crouch said. The current forecast slightly favors the development of El Niño in late summer or fall.
Fourteen states along the southern tier of the country and up the Ohio Valley are record hot for the year so far, with another 17 states having a top 5 warmest year through April. Numerous cities in those states, including Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Miami and Charleston, S.C., are also running record hot so far in 2017, according to the Southeast Regional Climate Center. Only the Pacific Northwest had temperatures at or below average for the year.
During April, the eastern half of the country was the center of warmth, with the West Coast running closer to average. North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio all had their hottest April. Several other states surrounding that area had a top 5 warmest April.
Climate Central
The event is one of many in recent years that underscore the often overlooked flood threat that remains to communities even when levees are in place, experts said, particularly when the levees aren’t well maintained and communities lack the funds to fix them.
Not only that, but the extensive use of levees to control floodwaters can actually exacerbate flooding when they fail, as they did in Pocahontas. And the problem is only likely to get worse as climate change continues to cause more and heavier downpours.
As the atmosphere warms from the continued accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, it is able to hold more moisture, making heavy downpours more common. The top 1 percent of such downpours have increased by 60 to 80 percent in Arkansas since the 1950s, according to a Climate Central analysis.
Of the seven biggest flood crests along this stretch of the Black River, four have happened within the last 10 years.
Thousands of miles of levees stretch across the U.S., built to keep swollen waterways from inundating towns, farmland and critical infrastructure. But, as the residents of Pocahontas, Ark., found out this week when drenching rains caused the Black River to overtop and breach the local levee system, living behind a levee is not an absolute guarantee of protection.
The river’s waters rushed over the earthen berm, spreading out over six miles and sweeping into homes, turning roads into rivers and likely causing millions of dollars in damage.
NPR
For 51 years, a small federal program has been paying scientists to keep American waterways healthy. It's called Sea Grant — part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — and President Donald Trump"s proposed budget for next year would eliminate it.
Sea Grant funds support more than 800 projects around the country. To find out what would be lost if it's defunded, let's start in a yard next to the Severn River in Maryland. It's my yard. There's a white tube sticking up from the ground. The ubiquitous icon of suburbia — the septic tank — lies underneath.
A lot of septic tanks break down, often invisibly, and what's inside pollutes waterways. Even properly functioning tanks leak a little. When they do, some of the sewage inside seeps invisibly downhill to, in my case, the Severn River. Once pollutants are in the river, it's really hard to tell where they came from. Is it from fertilizer? Livestock waste? From burning coal or gasoline? Sewage treatment plants? Or from the ubiquitous septic fields in suburban America?
NPR
There's more grim news about inequality in America.
New research documents significant disparities in the lifespans of Americans depending on where they live. And those gaps appear to be widening, according to the research.
"It's dramatic," says Christopher Murray, who heads the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. He helped conduct the analysis, published Tuesday in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Health experts have long known that Americans living in different parts of the country tend to have different lifespans. But Murray's team decided to take a closer look, analyzing records from every U.S. county between 1980 and 2014.
"What we found is that the gap is enormous," Murray says. In 2014, there was a spread of 20.1 years between the counties with the longest and shortest typical lifespans based on life expectancy at birth.
In counties with the longest lifespans, people tended to live about 87 years, while people in places with the shortest lifespans typically made it to only about 67, the researchers found.
MEDIA
Reuters
Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc (SBGI.O) said on Monday it would buy Tribune Media Co (TRCO.N), one of the largest U.S. television station operators, for about $3.9 billion, giving Sinclair a greater foothold in big broadcast markets like New York and Chicago.
Shares of Tribune, which operates 42 U.S. television stations, rose 5.2 percent to $42.42. Sinclair shares fell about 3 percent to $35.90.
A recent U.S. Federal Communications Commission vote to reverse a 2016 decision limiting the number of television stations some broadcasters can buy helped pave the way for the deal.
Sinclair may still have to sell certain stations such as St. Louis and Salt Lake City in order to comply with FCC regulations, Chief Executive Chris Ripley said on a conference call.
The sale will mark the end of a long road for Tribune, whose name was long intertwined with the city of Chicago, where the Chicago Tribune newspaper was founded more than 150 years ago. The company once owned the Chicago Cubs baseball team.
The sale comes after a decade of turmoil for the company, which was acquired by real estate mogul Sam Zell and then by private equity firms. It emerged from bankruptcy in late 2012 and completed a spinoff of its newspaper assets in 2014 into a company now known as Tronc Inc (TRNC.O).
NPR
James Patterson has a long history of collaboration. Of his dozens of books, the blockbuster thriller writer has written at least 50 — yes, five-zero — with the name of a co-author emblazoned on the cover.
Still, it's fair to say none of them has the resume of the fiction novice he's teaming up with now: former President Bill Clinton.
"Working with President Clinton has been the highlight of my career, and having access to his first-hand experience has uniquely informed the writing of this novel," Patterson said in a statement released by publisher Penguin Random House.
"I'm a story-teller," Patterson continued, "and President Clinton's insight has allowed us to tell a really interesting one. It's a rare combination — readers will be drawn to the suspense, of course, but they'll also be given an inside look into what it's really like to be President."
The former president, for his part, said he drew on his experiences in office for the book, called The President Is Missing, naturally.