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, planter, JML9999, 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.
BBC
Manchester attacks: MI5 probes bomber 'warnings'
MI5 is to hold an inquiry into the way it dealt with warnings from the public that the Manchester suicide bomber, Salman Abedi, was a potential threat.
Whitehall officials have acknowledged the security service was examining what assumptions had been made about the 22-year-old before last Monday's attack.
It later emerged it was alerted to his extremist views on three occasions.
Fourteen locations are being searched by police and 13 men remain in custody on suspicion of terror offences.
The latest person to be arrested was a 19-year-old man in the Gorton area of Manchester on Sunday. A 25-year-old man was held earlier in the Old Trafford area of the city.
MI5 has launched a "post incident investigation" into how the Manchester bomber was overlooked, while a separate report is being prepared for ministers and those who oversee the work of the service.
A Whitehall official said previously that Abedi was one of a "pool" of former subjects of interest whose risk remained "subject to review" by the security service and its partners.
BBC
N Korea fires Scud missile into sea, its third test in three weeks
North Korea has fired a short-range ballistic missile, the third apparently successful test in as many weeks.
The Scud flew about 450km (280 miles) before landing in Japanese waters, prompting Japan to lodge a protest.
Observers say the tests indicate the North is making progress towards missiles capable of carrying warheads.
The North has repeatedly defied a UN resolution banning all nuclear and missile activity, and has ramped up its tests in recent months.
The US Pacific Command said the missile was launched from Wonsan in North Korea and flew for about six minutes before landing.
Japan's chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters that the missile landed in an area between Japan's Sado and Oki islands, in their exclusive economic zone.
Raw Story
Defense Secretary Mattis Warns of ‘Catastrophic’ North Korea War
War with North Korea would be “catastrophic” and the “worst kind of fighting in most people’s lifetimes,” Secretary of Defense James Mattis said. Amid rising rhetoric and increasingly frequent missile tests from the isolationist North Korea, President Donald Trump has warned that a “major, major conflict” was a possibility.
Related: North Korea Could Soon Strike U.S. Homeland With Nuclear Weapon, Leading U.S. Intelligence Official Warns
Speaking to CBS’ Face the Nation Sunday, Mattis detailed the repercussions if that scenario was to come to pass.
“A conflict in North Korea would be probably the worst kind of fighting in most people's lifetimes,” he said in his first official interview as defense secretary. "The North Korean regime has hundreds of artillery cannons and rocket launchers within range of one of the most densely populated cities on Earth, the capital of North Korea.
He added: “This regime is a threat to the region, to Japan and South Korea and in the event of war they would bring danger to China and to Russia as well. But the bottom line is it would be a catastrophic war if this turns into a combat if we're not able to resolve this situation through diplomatic means.”
BBC
The women accused of killing Kim Jong-nam
The murder of Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of North Korea's leader, is likely to go down as one of the most notorious in history. Two women are now facing trial in Malaysia for it. Nga Pham of BBC Vietnamese and Rebecca Henschke of BBC Indonesian piece together their story.
The CCTV footage from the departure lounge of Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur International Airport is unforgettable. A middle-aged man is approached from behind by two women who execute the most peculiar of manoeuvres, apparently wiping his face with vigour.
Authorities say that was the moment that VX nerve agent, a deadly substance banned by the UN as a weapon of mass destruction, was used to murder Kim Jong-nam.
The women are Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 25, and Vietnamese national Doan Thi Huong, 28 and they are set to appear at a court in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.
As the women bounded up to Mr Kim, they were being watched by a group of seated North Korean men, thought to have been their "handlers", who subsequently boarded flights to various destinations.
BBC
Portland attack: $600,000 raised for 'heroes' killed defending Muslim teen
More than $600,000 (£468,000) has been raised for the families of the three US men attacked while defending a Muslim teenager and her friend on a train.
Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche and Ricky John Best were killed and Micah David-Cole Fletcher was severely injured in Portland, Oregon on Friday.
They all intervened after a man launched into a verbal tirade against the teens, one wearing a hijab.
The suspect, Jeremy Joseph Christian, was later arrested.
The 35-year-old is due to appear in court on Tuesday, charged with two counts of aggravated murder, attempted murder, intimidation and being a felon in possession of a restricted weapon.
The FBI said it was still unsure if Mr Christian - who allegedly said "all Muslims should die" during the attack - will face charges for hate crime.
Meanwhile, Mr Fletcher continues to recover after sustaining a knife wound to his neck that his mother said was "a millimetre" from his jugular vein.
The Guardian
Portland attack: Donald Trump called on to make statement about double murder
Pressure is mounting on the US president, Donald Trump, to make a comment on the racist attack in Portland, Oregon that left two men dead.
Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, 23, and Rick Best, 53, were fatally stabbed on Friday while intervening to stop a racist attack on a Muslim teenager on a commuter train.
The pair have been honoured as heroes by Portland’s mayor and the FBI, but the president has remained silent, despite tweeting 10 times on Sunday on topics ranging from healthcare to fake news.
Pleas are now mounting on social media for Trump to make a statement on the attack, which was carried out by a suspected white supremacist.
Dan Rather, the veteran American journalist, led the charge on Facebook, calling on Trump to acknowledge the “brave Americans who died at the hands of someone who, when all the facts are collected, we may have every right to call a terrorist”.
Reuters
Trump attacks 'fake news' following Kushner reports
U.S. President Donald Trump attacked the news media and dismissed leaks from the White House as "fake news" on Sunday, following reports his son-in-law tried to set up a secret channel of communications with Moscow before Trump took office.
Shortly after Trump's remarks on Twitter, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly made the rounds of Sunday television news shows to praise any so-called back channel communications, especially with Russia, as "a good thing."
The Republican president returned to the White House after a nine-day trip to the Middle East and Europe that ended on Saturday to face more questions about alleged communications between Jared Kushner and Russia's ambassador to Washington.
"It is my opinion that many of the leaks coming out of the White House are fabricated lies made up by the #FakeNews media," Trump wrote in a series of Twitter posts on Sunday.
The White House faces mounting questions about potential ties between Russia and Trump's presidential campaign, which are also the subject of criminal and congressional investigations. Trump officials were preparing to establish a "war room" to address an issue that has begun to dominate his young presidency.
Aides said Trump was expected to meet with lawyers as early as Sunday, the New York Times reported.
Raw Story
Military expert urges Trump’s national security advisor to quit ‘for the good of the country and yourself’
Writing at Politico, military affairs specialist and journalist Thomas Ricks urged President Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor, H.R. McMaster, to walk away from his job because he does damage to his reputation every time he covers for the scandal-plagued White House.
Ricks begins by admitting that he initially hoped to see “mature, thoughtful people” join the administration for the good of the country, but after watching McMaster debase himself over the past week, defending Trump handing over classified intel to the Russians, he has had a change of heart.
“On the president’s first foreign trip, McMaster has continued to defend Trump, for example, expressing over the weekend a lack of concern about reports that Trump’s son-in-law and confidant Jared Kushner sought to establish a secret, back-channel line of communication to the Russian government that would be hidden from the U.S. national security apparatus,” Ricks wrote. “‘We have backchannel communications with a number of countries,’ McMaster said during a press availability in Italy. ‘What that allows you to do is communicate in a discreet manner, so I’m not concerned.’”
“Really?” Ricks asks. “There’s no way that would be kosher. And so I fear that McMaster has confused protecting the president with protecting the country.”
The Guardian
Floods and landslides in Sri Lanka kill at least 150 people
Landslides and floods in Sri Lanka have killed at least 151 people and the country faces the risk of more mudslides as torrential rains continue.
More than 100 people are still missing after the worst rains in the Indian Ocean island since 2003. The state-run National Building Research Organization warned people in seven out of the country’s 25 districts on Sunday to evacuate from unstable slopes if rains continued for the next 24 hours.
The meteorology department of Meteorology said there could be heavy rainfalls of above 100 millimetres in central Sri Lanka within the next 36 hours.
The death toll has risen to 151, while 111 people are still reported missing and 95 injured, according to the state-run Disaster Management Center. Nearly 500,000 people have been affected by the disaster, the worst since the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, and the downpours have displaced more than 100,000.
Washington Post
Both Indianapolis 500 drivers in fiery, highflying crash somehow walk away
Scott Dixon and Jay Howard avoided serious injury in a spectacular crash — or what Dixon labeled “a wild ride” afterward — during the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday.
The crash occurred on Lap 53 when Howard’s car bounced off the outside wall, apparently crushing his right front suspension. Dixon then went over the top of Howard’s car as he tried to get past and he became airborne, crashing into the safety fencing. A photographer behind the fencing appeared to suffer minor injuries.
Dixon, a 36-year-old driver from New Zealand, told ABC after being checked out by medical personnel that he was “just a little beaten up” in the crash. Later, he felt some discomfort in his left ankle and was wearing a walking boot. “It was definitely a bit of a rough ride. I’m bummed for the team, you know. … Glad everybody was okay. Definitely a wild ride for sure.”
INDIANAPOLIS — At the end of 500 miles around Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it was a former Formula One driver who took the checkered flag.
He even drove for Andretti Autosport.
It just wasn’t Fernando Alonso.
Takuma Sato became the first Japanese winner of the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday when he denied Helio Castroneves a record-tying fourth victory as the two traded the lead in the closing laps.
C/Net (autoplay)
A rare event that stopped an ancient war comes to the US soon
Over 2,600 years ago this Sunday, on May 28, 585 B.C., the sight of a total solar eclipse is said to have suddenly stopped a battle between the Medes and the Lydians in what is now Turkey. This year the anniversary comes as Americans prepare for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to watch as the same phenomenon roll across the skies of the contiguous United States on August 21.
During the course of the last few millennia, humanity has learned enough about the universe to understand the temporary blotting out of the sun is caused by celestial geometry rather than an omen sent from the gods.
The ancient interpretation was sure fortunate for those soldiers fighting in what's come to be known as "The Battle of the Eclipse." When the eclipse passed over the battlefield, the warring kings took it as a sign from the gods that they should knock it off. The fighting ceased without a decisive victory for either side, ending 15 years of war just like that.
Ancient Greek historians say the eclipse was actually the first such event to be predicted in advance, in this case by the philosopher Thales.