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 (RIP) 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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The Guardian
As Puerto Rico came into view below, passengers on the JetBlue aid flight from New York fell silent as the scale of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Mariabecame apparent: the usually verdant mountains were brown and barren, and the bright blue water offshore was dotted with large aid ships.
A member of the flight crew addressed the passengers: “I understand what you’re feeling might be overwhelming, but Puerto Ricans are resilient.”
Before the plane touched town, that same crew member said “Puerto Rico se levanta” – Puerto Rico rises up. His voice broke. The passengers clapped, cried and whistled.
The flight carried emergency responders and journalists – but also ordinary Puerto Ricans, desperate to return home to an island still reeling from the disaster.
Even though Puerto Rico is now largely without electricity, running water is a luxury and mobile phone reception is no longer taken for granted, demand for plane tickets is high.
NPR
On the side of a busy expressway in northern Puerto Rico, dozens of cars stand in a line, parked at careless angles off the shoulder. Drivers hold their phones out of car windows; couples walk along the grass raising their arm skyward.
This is not a picturesque stretch of road. It's about 90 degrees out, and the sun is beating down relentlessly. All you can hear is the rumble of cars and trucks passing by, sometimes dangerously close. Then, inside a Ford Escape near the edge of the highway, Casandra Caba exclaims, "Look!"
Smiling, she holds up her iPhone screen, showing an alert from the messaging app WhatsApp. "I just got a message from a cousin in the Dominican Republic."
Hurricane Maria destroyed large swaths of Puerto Rico's infrastructure when it hit the island last week. Among other things, it wiped out cell service. The island was totally incommunicado — but signals are starting to trickle back in some places, like this stretch along Expressway 22 on the island's northern side.
US NEWS
Agence France Presse
Anthony Weiner, the disgraced former US congressman and estranged husband of one of Hillary Clinton's closest aides, was sentenced to 21 months in prison on Monday for sexting a school girl.
The 53-year-old had pleaded guilty in May to sending explicit photographs and messages to a 15-year-old high school student last year as his wife worked on Clinton's presidential campaign.
The one-time rising star in the Democratic Party and former candidate for New York mayor must now surrender to prison authorities on November 6. He was also sentenced to three years supervised release.
"The crime I committed was my rock bottom," the father of one told the court, reading from a prepared statement and breaking down in tears.
Agence France Presse
US President Donald Trump denied stoking racial tensions Monday, insisting his charged comments that prompted a wave of symbolic protests by NFL players were about patriotism.
After his verbal attacks on black athletes led players across the country to kneel in solidarity during the US national anthem at games over the weekend, the besieged US president played defense on Twitter.
…
Keeping the issue alive for a fourth day, Trump on Monday insisted "The issue of kneeling has nothing to do with race. It is about respect for our Country, Flag and National Anthem. NFL must respect this!”
...
He pointed to support from racecar fans.
"So proud of NASCAR and its supporters and fans. They won't put up with disrespecting our Country or our Flag - they said it loud and clear!"
But driver Dale Earnhardt took to Twitter to quote former president John F Kennedy: "All Americans R granted rights 2 peaceful protests Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
The Guardian
Senate Republicans are offering new deals to key lawmakers in the hope of forcing through repeal of the Affordable Care Act that would slash the government’s spending on healthcare for poor and disabled Americans.
Republican support for the so-called Graham-Cassidy health bill, which would repeal the ACA, better known as Obamacare, appears to remains soft at best after a weekend when senators expressed doubt about the legislation even as it was being revised behind the scenes.
The Senate must vote on a bill before a Saturday deadline if Republicans are to pass it with a simple majority, but critics, led by Senator John McCain, are concerned that usual due process has been ignored.
The bill is set to have its only public hearing at a Senate committee on Monday afternoon and its cost and consequences will be subject to only a “preliminary analysis” from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.
The Guardian
Hillary Clinton hoped to wear white on election night, a tribute to the suffragettes and the sweep of political history. Instead, as she wrote in her new book, the white suit stayed in her garment bag as she donned the gray and purple garment she had intended for her first trip to Washington as president-elect.
Given the opportunity to make history by electing the first female president, women didn’t take it. And ironically, the women who bore the most resemblance to Clinton – white, heterosexual and married – were less likely to vote for her.
Many had expected Clinton to rally women, the same way Barack Obama rallied black voters in 2008 – and if she had, she would have handily trumped Donald Trump. But while Obama won 95% of the black vote, Clinton won just 54% of women – a percentage point less than her male predecessor atop the Democratic ticket. Among white women in particular, she fared even worse: a slim majority voted for Trump.
Reuters
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court canceled oral arguments scheduled in October to decide the legality of President Donald Trump’s previous travel ban, signaling the court might dismiss the case.
The Court acted after the White House announced on Sunday it was replacing the temporary executive order with a more tailored ban on eight countries that legal experts said could be harder to fight in court than the prior ban.
The Guardian
The latest Republican bill to repeal Obamacare appears doomed to fail after a key senator came out strongly against it within minutes of an analysis which said the plan would strip health insurance from “millions” of Americans.
Moments after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released a partial analysis of the Republicans’ plan, Maine Senator Susan Collins announced she would not vote for the bill, and called it “deeply flawed”.
The CBO said it was unable to provide its customary detailed estimate because it lacked time to examine the legislation, but said “millions fewer” people would have insurance because of large cuts to Medicaid (a health insurance program for the poor), lower subsidies for individuals who buy insurance, and a lack of penalties for people who prefer to go without insurance.
Collins said the bill would have a “substantially negative impact on the number of people covered by insurance”.
The estimate, which says the bill would cut the US budget deficit by $133bn, comes as Senate Republicans hoped to push through a health reform bill this week.
WORLD NEWS
Agence France Presse
Iraq's Kurds defied widespread opposition to vote Monday in a historic independence referendum, sparking fresh tensions with Baghdad, threats from Turkey and fears of unrest.
The vote in the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq and some disputed areas is non-binding and will not lead automatically to independence, but is seen by the Kurds as a major step towards a long-cherished dream of statehood.
Voters flocked to the polls, eager to show off their ink-stained fingers after casting their ballots, and an overwhelming "Yes" outcome is expected.
Polling stations closed at 7:00 pm (GMT) after voting was extended for an hour. Results were expected within 24 hours.
The vote took place peacefully and in a festive atmosphere, but signs of potential trouble mounted as the day progressed.
In Baghdad, which has declared the vote unconstitutional, lawmakers demanded the government send troops to disputed areas where the referendum was taking place.
Deutsche Welle
After the last Bundestag election four years ago, it was nearly Christmas before the German government finally took shape. Coalition negotiations and the formation of a Cabinet can take place over many weeks — it took 86 days back in 2013. Ultimately, parties with differing platforms and priorities will have to negotiate with each other until a joint government program is in place. And that can take time.
Coalition talks could well be lengthy this time around as well. Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic and their Bavarian Christian Social Union sister party (CDU/CSU), the Greensand the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) have differences on several points. Will Santa Claus or the Bundestag's first "Jamaica coalition" come first? The answer is still in the stars, but all three parties have signaled their willingness to compromise before the first round of negotiations. For Merkel, it is about forming a stable government. If no CDU/CSU-Greens-FDP coalition were to come to fruition, all eyes would be on the Social Democrats (SPD), who would then be asked to reconsider their "no" to a new edition of the so-called grand coalition.
Deutsche Welle
North Korea's foreign minister struck back at the US president on Monday, in the latest of a series of heated comments that have raised concerns over the prospects of nuclear warfare between Pyongyang and Washington.
"The whole world should clearly remember it was the US who first declared war on our country," Ri Yong Ho told reporters outside the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
"Since the United States declared war on our country, we will have every right to make countermeasures, including the right to shoot down United States strategic bombers even when they are not inside the airspace border of our country."
Ri was referring to Trump's tweet over the weekend, where, in response to Ri's address before the General Assembly on Saturday, he posted that the North Korean regime "won't be around much longer.”
Spiegel Online
The one side says things like: "We will hunt them down. We will hunt down Ms. Merkel or whoever else and we will take back our country and our people." That is what Alexander Gauland, the self-proclaimed guardian of the German people, said shortly after 6 p.m. Sunday evening when the first exit polls were made public.
The other side strikes a different tone: "We had hoped for a slightly better result." That is what Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday evening. She also said she "wasn't disappointed." It was a unique display of exceedingly unsuccessful political dissembling.
The Guardian
Spain’s attorney general has refused to rule out the possibility of arresting the Catalan president, as the region’s pro-sovereignty government prepares to defy Madrid by holding an independence referendum on Sunday.
José Manuel Maza said that Carles Puigdemont could face action for disobedience, breaching public duties and misuse of public funds for proceeding with the poll after Spain’s constitutional court suspended the hastily passed legislation underpinning the vote.
Maza said the regional president could be arrested for misuse of public funds as the crime carries a jail sentence. On Monday, he told Onda Cero radio that although such a move had not been judged “timely” as yet, adding: “It’s a decision that’s always available.”
THE ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE, HEALTH AND TECHNOLOGY
Al Jazeera
China has unveiled the world's fastest passenger train, which will travel at up to 350 kilometres per hour, shaving 30 minutes off the journey time from the Chinese capital, Beijing, to Shanghai.
The new service, called Fuxing, was launched in Beijing on Thursday.
Despite the decreased travel time, experts are raising questions about the economic benefits of the new project.
"The purpose of raising the speed is mainly symbolic," Zhao Jian, economics professor and commentator, told Al Jazeera.
"The train is the fastest in the world, which implies the strength of Chinese train technology and science," he added.
North Carolina’s hog industry has been the subject of litigation, investigation, legislation and regulation. But are its health and environmental risks finally getting too much?
The Guardian
Rene Miller pokes a lavender-frocked leg out of her front door and grimaces. It’s a bright April afternoon, and the 66-year-old Miller, with a stoic expression and a dark crop of curls, braces herself for the walk ahead.
Her destination isn’t far away – just a half-mile down a narrow country road, flanked by sprawling green meadows, modest homes and agricultural operations – but the journey takes a toll. Because as she ambles down the two-lane street, stepping over pebbles and sprouts of grass, the stench takes hold, an odor so noxious that it makes your eyes burn and your nose run. Miller likens it to “death” or “decomposition” to being surrounded by spoiled meat.
As bad as it is today, she says, it’s nothing compared with the way it is on a muggy afternoon in August, when the stink hovering in the stagnant, humid air can nearly “knock you off your feet”.
Reuters
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Shares of Apple Inc dipped on Monday and flirted with correction territory following a report that the company had told suppliers to scale back shipments of parts for its upcoming iPhone X.
Digitimes, citing unnamed sources, reported that Apple suppliers were shipping just 40 percent of the components originally ordered for the premium phone, which goes on sale in early November.
That added to concerns on Wall Street about demand for Apple’s new devices after the launch on Friday of the iPhone 8, a less expensive model than the iPhone X, drew smaller crowds than previous launches.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
NPR
It looks like a fairy tale palace.
With its pink stucco walls and massive coral stone terraces, the Vizcaya Museum & Gardens is a beloved South Florida landmark that has drawn Miamians for 60 years. But since getting blasted by Hurricane Irma, the estate more resembles the part in the fairy tale after an evil spell is cast, and the forest overgrows the castle.
Downed mangroves, palms, live oaks and gumbo limbos lie everywhere — all part of the lush native forest surrounding this Italianate villa perched on the bay. Their shattered branches still impede the drive to the mansion and grounds.
"You couldn't even get through here four days ago," says Charlotte Donn, marketing and public affairs director at Vizcaya. She's been cutting up branches, carting them off and escorting visitors to see the damage.
NPR
An estimated 4 percent of Americans have food allergies, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has concluded that allergies are a growing public health concern. But diagnosing allergies can be tricky, and kids can outgrow them, too.
Now, a new study sheds light on the effectiveness of a test called a food challenge to determine whether a person can tolerate a food they once reacted to.
Jula Cieciuch, a fifth-grader who lives in Telluride, Colo., recently took a food challenge to find out if she was still allergic to eggs.
When she passed, she was ecstatic. After years of avoiding all foods with eggs, she was a bit shocked. "For so long, it was: You can't eat this. You can't eat this," Jula says. " I was very emotional!"
She's also outgrown allergies to walnuts and almonds. "It's a huge relief ... it has really opened up her diet — a lot," her mom, Kendall Cieciuch, told us. Once you can eat eggs, you can eat cakes and breads and frittatas, and lots of other baked goods.
Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission belatedly found out in August, about three months after being confirmed, that hackers breached the regulator’s database of corporate announcements in 2016, according to prepared congressional testimony seen by Reuters on Monday.
The SEC’s enforcement staff and inspector general’s office have launched internal investigations into the breach and whether hackers illegally traded on non-public information they stole from the EDGAR filing system, Jay Clayton will tell the Senate Banking Committee at a hearing on Tuesday.
Clayton became chairman of the SEC in May. The breach was first detected in 2016.
ENTERTAINMENT AND SPORTS
Vox
Headed to the movie theater? These are the 13 best movies playing in theaters in the US right now.
This list is updated each Friday, as necessary, and organized alphabetically.
A movie is eligible if it's in wide release (meaning it's playing in theaters nationwide) or in limited release in a major market (typically New York and Los Angeles). Films that have screened at festivals are not eligible until they are released in theaters. Not all films are showing in all cities, so check IMDB for your local listings.
A thoughtful statement ...
A master of race baiting overreaches.
Vox
Millions of Americans are facing desperate conditions in Puerto Rico, congressional Republicans are mounting a last-ditch effort to enact billions of dollars in health care cuts, and the president of the United States is spending his Monday morning tweeting about flags and NASCAR.
Nominally, the topic is President Trump’s request that NFL owners fire players who kneel or otherwise engage in silent acts of political protest during the singing of the national anthem at games. Since NFL owners rather clearly can’t do this under the terms of the league’s collective bargaining agreement with its players, the whole thing makes no sense, and the stakes are essentially nonexistent.
But in a larger sense, Trump isn’t fighting to try to put a stop to NFL protests. He’s fighting for the sake of having a fight. Trump does not seem to enjoy talking about public policy, as conventionally understood, and is loath to see American politics portrayed as largely consisting of a series of concrete disagreements about various tax, budgetary, and regulatory matters. Instead, he likes the idea that politics is a zero-sum culture war — one that’s largely, though not entirely, about race — and he’s willing to push those levers however hard he needs to in order to make sure they dominate the public debate, even if doing so pushes him at times to unpopular, ridiculous, or untenable positions.
The Guardian
Star Trek posits a future of feminism, political rapprochement between generations-old enemies and the pursuit of racial equality. But it’s also only as progressive as its writers think their audience is. Maybe that’s why the latest version, Star Trek: Discovery, is more depressing than it probably intends to be.
It’s not bad at all. In fact, the new show probably has a genuine star on its hands in Sonequa Martin-Green, the first woman of color to act in the role of series protagonist. She is preceded in the position by both a woman – Kate Mulgrew, who led the good ship Voyager – and another person of color – Avery Brooks, hero of Deep Space Nine – by more than two decades, so she is asked to prove herself a bit less than she might be otherwise, and she is often the anchor that keeps Discovery from drifting off into the shallows of artificially high stakes, over-explained backstory, and tertiary plot threads that pervade so much contemporary sci-fi.
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