The Overnight News Digest is a nightly series dedicated to chronicling the eschaton. Please add news or other items in the comments.
It was just before noon in Moscow on March 10, 2016, when the first volley of malicious messages hit the Hillary Clinton campaign.
The first 29 phishing emails were almost all misfires. Addressed to people who worked for Clinton during her first presidential run, the messages bounced back untouched.
Except one. […]
But there were signs of dishonesty from the start. The first document Guccifer 2.0 published on June 15 came not from the DNC as advertised but from Podesta’s inbox, according to a former DNC official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
The official said the word “CONFIDENTIAL” was not in the original document.
Guccifer 2.0 had airbrushed it to catch reporters’ attention.
House Republicans revise tax bill, makes it less generous
House Republicans on Friday quietly made changes to their far-reaching tax overhaul: Now its tax cuts would be less generous for many Americans.
A day after the GOP unveiled its plan promising middle-class relief, the House’s top tax-writer, Rep. Kevin Brady, released a revised version of the bill that would impose a new, lower-inflation “chained CPI” adjustment for tax brackets immediately instead of in 2023. That means more income would be taxed at higher rates over time — and less generous tax cuts for individuals and families.
The change, posted on the website of the Ways and Means Committee, reduces the value of the tax cuts for ordinary Americans by $89 billion over 10 years compared with the legislation released with fanfare Thursday.
As wages rise, middle-class taxpayers would have more of their income taxed at the 25 percent rate instead of at 12 percent, for instance.
The Daily Beast
Pentagon Frees Marine General from Guantanamo Bay
Marine Brigadier General John Baker is no longer the 42nd Guantanamo Bay detainee. But that doesn’t mean his unexpected conviction in the Gitmo war courts is overturned.
Shortly before attorneys for Baker arrived in federal court to seek the Marine general’s freedom, military commissions convening authority Harvey Rishikof ruled that Baker does not have to serve his remaining 19 days of confinement at his Guantanamo Bay quarters. […]
Even though he is, for now, convicted for contempt of court, Baker will largely continue in his responsibilities overseeing military commissions attorneys for the detainees.
Jenna Abrams, Russia’s Clown Troll Princess, Duped the Mainstream Media and the World
Jenna Abrams had a lot of enemies on Twitter, but she was a very good friend to viral content writers across the world. […]
“To those people, who hate the Confederate flag. Did you know that the flag and the war wasn’t about slavery, it was all about money,” Abrams’ account tweeted in April of last year.
The tweet went viral, earning heaps of ridicule from journalists, historians, and celebrities alike, then calls for support from far-right users coming to her defense.
That was the plan all along.
Congressional investigators working with social-media companies have since confirmed that Abrams wasn’t who she said she was.
Her account was the creation of employees at the Internet Research Agency, or the Russian government-funded “troll farm,” in St. Petersburg.
The Washington Post
Trump administration releases report finding ‘no convincing alternative explanation’ for climate change
The Trump administration released a dire scientific report Friday calling human activity the dominant driver of global warming, a conclusion at odds with White House decisions to withdraw from a key international climate accord, champion fossil fuels and reverse Obama-era climate policies.
To the surprise of some scientists, the White House did not seek to prevent the release of the government’s National Climate Assessment, which is mandated by law. The report affirms that climate change is driven almost entirely by human action, warns of a worst-case scenario where seas could rise as high as eight feet by the year 2100, and details climate-related damage across the United States that is already unfolding as a result of 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit of global warming since 1900.
“It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century,” the document reports. “For the warming over the last century, there is no convincing alternative explanation supported by the extent of the observational evidence.”
Trump breaches boundaries by saying DOJ should be ‘going after’ Democrats
[Moron] Trump on Friday repeatedly called on the Department of Justice and FBI to investigate his Democratic political opponents, a breach of the traditional executive branch boundaries designed to prevent the criminal justice system from becoming politicized. […]
Trump has long been irritated, and at times outright angry, with Attorney General Jeff Sessions for refusing to prosecute Clinton and for not better protecting him from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s wide-ranging probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, the president’s advisers have said.
Trump made his displeasure clear in a Thursday radio interviewon “The Larry O’Connor Show.”
“You know, the saddest thing is, because I am the president of the United States, I am not supposed to be involved with the Justice Department. I’m not supposed to be involved with the FBI,” Trump said. “I’m not supposed to be doing the kind of things I would love to be doing and I am very frustrated by it.”
Bowe Bergdahl, the former hostage who pleaded guilty to desertion, avoids prison
Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who in 2009 walked off a U.S. military outpost in eastern Afghanistan and spent the next five years in enemy captivity, was sentenced Friday to a dishonorable discharge from the Army but will avoid prison time. […]
It also was overshadowed by President Trump’s accusation that Bergdahl is a traitor who should be executed. Bergdahl’s defense seized on those remarks, arguing they compromised his right to a fair hearing. [Army Col. Jeffery R.] Nance indicated earlier this week that Trump’s statements could result in a less severe sentence. […]
Two experts who debriefed Bergdahl testified that his detailed recollections of militant procedures and observations of the prisoner network system was a “gold mine” of intelligence that greatly enhanced understanding of how the Haqqanis operate. Bergdahl’s meticulous notes detailing his cage design and the other restraint methods his captors used helped contribute to U.S. doctrine and procedures of escaping and surviving enemy captivity, one expert said.
Longtime Trump bodyguard to face questions about 2013 Moscow trip
The House Intelligence Committee has called former longtime bodyguard Keith Schiller to appear for an interview Tuesday as part of its probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Investigators plan to press Schiller about allegations in the 35-page dossier that Russian officials obtained compromising information about Trump’s personal behavior when he visited Moscow for the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, according to people familiar with the investigation.
The Guardian
European arrest warrant issued for ex-Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont
A Spanish judge has issued an international arrest warrant for Catalonia’s ousted president a day after she jailed eight members of the region’s separatist government pending possible charges over last week’s declaration of independence.
In the latest twist in Spain’s worst political crisis in four decades, a national court judge on Friday issued a European arrest warrant for Carles Puigdemont in response to a request from state prosecutors.
Puigdemont flew to Brussels earlier this week with a handful of his deposed ministers after Spanish authorities removed him and his cabinet from office for pushing ahead with the declaration despite repeated warnings that it was illegal.
Prosecutor seeks to investigate Afghan war crimes allegations – and claims of US torture
The chief prosecutor of the international criminal court is seeking approval to investigate allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan, including possible torture by US forces and the CIA.
If authorised, the investigation would also look at crimes allegedly committed by armed opposition groups, such as the Taliban, and Afghan government forces.
The ICC chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said in a report last year that the US military and the CIA may have committed war crimes by torturing detainees in Afghanistan between 2003 and 2014.
Bannon and Republican House campaign leader declare truce
Steve Bannon, head of conservative news site Breitbart.com, and Steve Stivers, the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), agreed on Friday that a legislative fix to grant legal status to undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children “would tear apart the party and hurt Republican candidates in 2018”, according to a source familiar with the meeting. […]
It marks a significant split between the approaches of House Republicans and Senate Republicans towards Bannon, who was fired from the role of White House chief strategist in August but continues to be an influential figure in Republican politics.
ESPN
NFL owners called for depositions, cellphone records in Colin Kaepernick collusion case
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Houston Texans owner Bob McNair, among others, will be deposed and asked to turn over all cellphone records and emails in relation to the Colin Kaepernick collusion case against the NFL, a league source told ESPN's Adam Schefter.
Other owners as well as team and league officials also will be deposed in relation to the case, the source said. ABC News reports that other owners to be deposed include the Seattle Seahawks' Paul Allen and the San Francisco 49ers' Jed York.
Seattle Times
Amazon chief Jeff Bezos cashes in $1 billion in stock
Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos unloaded more than $1 billion in Amazon stock this week, his most valuable stock sale to date, after the online retailer’s shares hit record highs.
The sale, conducted during the last three days as part of a preset trading plan, saw the world’s richest man sell 1 million shares in the company he founded, netting $1.09 billion. […]
The Amazon founder has been selling stock at a regular clip in part to fund his other ambitions. He said last year that he sold about $1 billion in stock a year to fund Blue Origin, his Kent-based space company. Since early 2008, Bezos has sold Amazon shares valued at $6.8 billion, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Los Angeles Times
In Wal-Mart shooting, armed shoppers hinder police investigation
Most shoppers crouched behind checkout counters or bolted toward the back exit. But as a gunman fired inside a Wal-Mart store in a Denver suburb, some patrons took a more defensive approach: They grabbed their own guns.
They were the proverbial “good guys with guns” that gun rights advocates say have the power to stop mass shootings.
But police in Thornton, Colo., said that in this case the well-intentioned gun carriers set the stage for chaos, stalling efforts to capture the suspect in the Wednesday night shooting that killed three people.
Trump administration asks Supreme Court to punish ACLU lawyers who helped teen migrant get abortion
In a highly unusual move, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court on Friday to discipline lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union because they helped a 17-year old migrant obtain an abortion two weeks ago.
The move escalates a legal battle over abortion that arose when Trump administration officials refused to allow the young woman to leave a refugee center with a guardian to see an abortion provider. Administration officials insisted the government need not “facilitate” abortion by allowing her to leave their custody in South Texas.
Reuters
Manafort money laundering charge in Russia probe may face challenges
When the lawyer for the former campaign manager of President Donald Trump attacked the money laundering charge brought against his client as flimsy, some legal experts say he may have pinpointed a potential weakness in the indictment by U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller.
Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates both pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges that they failed to disclose they were lobbying for pro-Russia former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich between 2006 and 2015 and laundered tens of millions of dollars by funneling the money through dozens of companies, partnerships and bank accounts.
In a court filing on Thursday, Manafort defense lawyer Kevin Downing said the money laundering count, the most serious facing his client with a 20-year maximum sentence, was based on a “tenuous legal theory” tying it to his failure to register as a foreign agent of the former Ukrainian leader.
U.S. carries out first strikes against Islamic State in Somalia
The United States carried out its first air strikes against Islamic State militants in Somalia and killed “several terrorists,” the U.S. military said on Friday.
The Pentagon’s Africa Command said the first strike was carried out at midnight local time (2100 GMT, Thursday) and another one at 11 a.m. on Nov. 3.
“Several terrorists” were killed, the military said in a statement, adding that the strikes were conducted in coordination with Somalia’s government.
Promote peace, China's Xi tells soldiers at first overseas base
Troops serving at China’s first overseas military base, in the Horn of Africa country of Djibouti, should help promote peace and stability, President Xi Jinping told them in a video chat, encouraging them to promote a good image.
China formally opened the base in August on the same day as the People’s Liberation Army marked its 90th birthday. It is China’s first overseas naval base, although Beijing officially describes it as a logistics facility.
Djibouti’s position on the northwestern edge of the Indian Ocean has fueled worry in India that it would become another of China’s “string of pearls” military alliances and assets ringing India, including Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
BBC News
German police find 'WW2 bomb' was a huge zucchini
A German man feared a monster courgette he found in his garden was an unexploded World War Two bomb and called the police.
The 5kg (11-pound) courgette had probably been thrown over a hedge into the 81 year old's garden, police said.
Luckily no evacuation was required in Bretten, a town near Karlsruhe in south-west Germany.
The 40cm (16-inch) vegetable - also called zucchini - "really did look like a bomb", police said.