Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Interceptor7, Magnifico, annetteboardman and Besame. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Man Oh Man, wader, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular community featureon 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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Washington Post
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the president’s daughter and son-in-law, brought in at least $82 million in outside income while serving as senior White House advisers during 2017, according to financial disclosure forms released Monday.
Trump earned $3.9 million from her stake in the Trump International Hotel in Washington and more than $2 million in severance from the Trump Organization, while Kushner reported over $5 million in income from Quail Ridge, a Kushner Cos. apartment complex acquired last year in Plainsboro, N.J.
The filings show how the couple are collecting immense sums from other enterprises while serving in the White House, an extraordinary income flow that ethics experts have warned could create potential conflicts of interests.
US NEWS
Bloomberg
President Donald Trump’s brewing trade spat with Mexico could bring even more problems to the already depressed American dairy industry.
Earlier this month, Mexico slapped duties of 25 percent on some U.S. cheese products. The tariffs came as part of a package of
fines in retaliation to Trump’s tariffs on Mexican steel and aluminum. The move could lead to lower shipments and weigh on prices for processors, according to a Rabobank report emailed on Monday. U.S. dairy producers count on Mexico to buy more than a quarter of their cheese exports.
“If these tariffs remain in place for over six months, cheese producers will need to work hard to find new markets, and dairy producers may see their milk prices coming in a little lower,” Tom Bailey, a dairy analyst at Rabobank, said in the report. “Longer term, potential implications for U.S. dairy exporters may be detrimental.”
The Guardian
Donald Trump’s administration announced on Monday that it will order US immigration courts to stop granting asylum to victims of domestic abuse and gang violence who come to America seeking safety.
Attorney general Jeff Sessions signaled that he would issue a directive to immigration judges on Monday. The policy is expected to affect tens of thousands of migrants fleeing violence in Central America and seeking to claim asylum in the US.
The move represents a dramatic shift and another hostile turn in America’s immigration system and marks the latest action by the Trump administration sharply to restrict immigration and the way the laws are used. The president and his administration have been sharply criticized in recent weeks for a new “zero tolerance” policy that has separated families upon arrival at the US-Mexico border.
Sessions signaled that the shift was imminent while addressing an annual training conference for the hundreds of US immigration judges on Monday. “Asylum was never meant to alleviate all problems, even all serious problems, that people face every day all over the world,” he told the group.
The Guardian
A jogger in Oakland has been caught on camera trashing a homeless man’s belongings in the latest viral incident to spark debate about gentrification and racism in California.
Video spread on social media over the weekend showing the jogger rifling through a local homeless man’s possessions in a public park, dumping blankets into a lake and carrying property to a nearby trash can as a group of onlookers tried to stop him.
“I’m picking up trash, what do you want me to do? Look at this,” the man said in the video, which was captured by JJ Harris, an Oakland film-maker and photographer. “It’s disgusting.”
In an interview Monday, Harris said: “I was just completely taken aback ... This is a homeless man’s stuff – a guy who is always peaceful, never causing trouble, always giving you a smile. That he would do this to another human being, the lack of compassion is astonishing.”
Reuters
ZTE Corp’s (000063.SZ) settlement with the U.S. Commerce Department that would allow China’s No. 2 telecommunications equipment maker to resume business with U.S. suppliers was made public on Monday, days after the company agreed to pay a $1 billion fine, overhaul its leadership and meet other conditions.
But the ban on buying U.S. parts, imposed by the department in April, will not be lifted until the company pays the fine and places $400 million more in escrow in a U.S.-approved bank, the agency said.
ZTE (0763.HK) did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.
ZTE, whose survival has been threatened by the ban, secured the lifeline settlement from the Trump administration on Thursday.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said on Sunday that President Donald Trump agreed to lift the ban as a personal favor to the president of China.
Reuters
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday revived Ohio’s contentious policy of purging infrequent voters from registration rolls in a ruling powered by the five conservative justices and denounced by liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor as an endorsement of the disenfranchisement of minority and low-income Americans.
In a 5-4 decision in the closely watched voting-rights case, the high court overturned a lower court’s ruling that Ohio’s policy violated a 1993 federal law enacted to make it easier to register to vote. All four liberal justices dissented, and top Democrats said the decision will boost what they called Republican voter-suppression efforts. But other states may now follow Ohio’s lead.
Voters purged from registration rolls who challenged the policy in the Republican-governed state argued that the practice illegally erased thousands of voters from registration rolls and disproportionately impacted racial minorities and poor people who tend to back Democratic candidates.
NPR
The Obama-era federal regulations known as net neutrality are done – at least for now. Though whether anything will change depends on where you live, and what internet service providers choose to do with their newfound freedom.
The net neutrality rules were approved in 2015. Companies couldn't pay service providers like Verizon or AT&T extra to make their site or app load faster for internet users, and ISPs couldn't block or throttle content and data, as long as it was legal.
But Trump's pick to run the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai, called those rules "heavy-handed" and vowed to end them. His order, touted as promoting investment and broadband deployment, loosens the FCC's regulation of ISPs, and instead gives the Federal Trade Commission jurisdiction to enforce violations. Pai says this system lets the FTC focus on "the bad apples" and allows other players "thrive in a free market."
WORLD NEWS
Agence France Presse
Normally a conciliatory, charming figure, Justin Trudeau is being forced to transform himself into a kind of "Captain Canada" in order to fight a trade war with Donald Trump that has the potential to be as destructive as it is surprising.
A boxing enthusiast who dons his gloves to work off the stress of the job in his rare free time, the Canadian prime minister will have to carefully measure his punches against the US leader, who publicly accused him of weakness and dishonesty after the meeting of the G7 nations in Quebec at the weekend.
Trudeau triggered Trump's fury when he said that citing US national security interests as justification for slapping tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum exports was "insulting.”
Agence France Presse
Spain offered Monday to take in a ship stranded in the Mediterranean with 629 migrants aboard after Italy and Malta refused to let the vessel dock in their ports.
The ship Aquarius warned that fresh food and drink supplied by the Maltese navy on Monday would only last until Tuesday.
The migrants, including pregnant women and scores of children, were saved by the French charity SOS Mediterranee on Saturday.
Malta and the new populist government in Italy each refused to take the migrants in, accusing each other of failing to meet their obligations.
The refusal to accept the Aquarius in Italy was the first major anti-migrant move since far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini took office this month.
Salvini tweeted "VICTORY" after two days of confrontation with Malta over the migrants ended with Spain's offer of help.
Deutsche Welle
Germany's Angela Merkel sharply criticized Donald Trump's decision to retract his endorsement of the G7 communique. The German chancellor said the EU would continue preparing countermeasures to US metal tariffs.
Germany's Angela Merkel on Sunday chided US President Donald Trump's decision to retract his endorsement of the G7 communique via Twitter, insisting that Germany is determined to stick to it.
In her first interview since the contentious two-day G7 summit in Canada, Merkel told German broadcaster ARD that Trump's "withdrawal via Twitter is of course sobering and a little depressing." The chancellor also announced that the European Union would forge ahead with countermeasures to Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs.
"We won't let ourselves be ripped off again and again," Merkel said, taking on an unusually combative tone. "Instead, we act then too." The bloc is expected to announce its countermeasures to US tariffs on July 1.
Al Jazeera
Eyad Bani-Melham views $2.5bn as small change.
"Jordan's budget deficit is huge," says Bani-Melham, a lawyer in Jordan's capital, Amman. "This new money is not going to make a difference."
For Bani-Melhem, a pledge by Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to provide Jordan with $2.5bn in aid is not going to solve the kingdom's unemployment problem, nor will it achieve social justice.
"When we took to the streets, we demanded social change and called for a system overhaul - we were not asking our country to plead for financial support," he said.
Al Jazeera
Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of three Chilean bishops, including the controversial Juan Barros of Osorno, following a child sex abuse scandal in the South American country which has come to haunt his papacy.
In an unprecedented move, all of Chile's 34 bishops offered to resign en masse last month after attending a meeting with the pope over allegations of a cover-up of sexual abuse.
The mass resignation of an entire delegation of bishops is almost unheard of, having last happened two centuries ago.
A Vatican official said Monday's move represented a first step towards re-ordering the battered Roman Catholic Church in Chile and that the pope was still considering the positions of the other prelates.
Al Jazeera
The government of Qatar is taking the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) over what it described as human rights violations, according to the official Qatar News Agency (QNA).
The move on Monday comes a year after the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting "terrorism".
Doha has repeatedly rejected the allegations as "baseless".
"As set forth in detail in Qatar’s application to the International Court, the UAE led these actions, which have had a devastating effect on the human rights of Qataris and residents of Qatar," the government said in a statement on Monday.
THE ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE, HEALTH AND TECHNOLOGY
Agence France Presse
Global warming is expected to make vegetables significantly scarcer around the world, unless new growing practices and resilient crop varieties are adopted, researchers warned on Monday.
By the end of this century, less water and hotter air will combine to cut average yields of vegetables -- which are crucial to a healthy diet -- by nearly one-third, said the report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A 7.2 Fahrenheit (4 Celsius) increase in temperature, which scientists expect by 2100 if global warming continues on its current trajectory, reduces average yields by 31.5 percent, said the report.
"Our study shows that environmental changes such as increased temperature and water scarcity may pose a real threat to global agricultural production, with likely further impacts on food security and population health," said lead author Pauline Scheelbeek of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The Guardian
Scott Pruitt, the seemingly immoveable administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has an eclectic, almost itinerant, taste in corruption scandals.
Pruitt is best known for the ethical quagmires in this administration, shared with other Trump cabinet members, such as indulging in taxpayer-funded first class travel and spending much of his time playing an amenable host to corporations he is meant to regulate.
But the former Oklahoma attorney general’s appetite for controversy has also taken him in some daring and innovative new directions, offering up a smorgasbord that includes demanding his bodyguards drive him in search of his favourite moisturizing lotion, spending $1,500 on 12 pens, and bulldozing mere perceptions by literally living at an energy lobbyist’s apartment.
Pruitt’s tastes have a darker side, however, such as the revelations that he signed off on improper pay raises for favoured staff and has overseen an operation that physically bars journalists from covering his public genuflection for businesses. Not to mention that he has allegedly wreaked revenge upon colleagues who questioned his spending habits.
The Guardian
Florida officials confirmed on Saturday divers had found the body of a woman who was killed by an alligator while walking her dogs near a lake in south Florida. The 12ft 6in alligator involved was captured and killed.
In a statement, the Florida fish and wildlife conservation commission said: “The victim of this tragic incident has been identified as Shizuka Matsuki, 47 years of age, of Plantation, Florida. This tragedy is heartbreaking for everyone involved, and our sincere condolences go out to the family and friends of the victim at this time.”
A necropsy on the alligator that was captured in Silver Lakes Rotary nature park in Davie on Friday found a human arm in its stomach, the Sun-Sentinel reported. Search teams were then able to enter the lake and locate Matsuki’s body.
NPR
Baobab trees — ancient, otherworldly behemoths with bulbous trunks that splinter into a constellation of spindly branches — are some of Africa's most iconic living things.
Until late last year, the Platland tree in South Africa, also known as Sunland, was their queen. It was the continent's biggest baobab, at 111 ft. around, 62 ft. high and more than 1,000 years old. It had a cavernous central hollow that hosted a fully functional cocktail bar with seating for 15 people.
Beginning in Spring 2016, the tree began to split apart. By November 2017, it had crumbled completely.
The bar's owners blamed rot caused by heavy rain and threw a barbeque to honor its passing.
NPR
The student comes in for a pregnancy test — the second time she's asked for one in matter of weeks.
She's 15. She lives with her boyfriend. He wants kids — he won't use protection. She loves him, she says. But she doesn't want to get pregnant. She knows how much harder it would be for her to finish high school.
At many schools, she would have gotten little more than some advice from a school nurse. But here at Anacostia High School in Washington, D.C., she gets a dose of midwife Loral Patchen.
Patchen asks her bluntly, what is she going to do about it? Because one of these days, the test is going to show a positive.
NPR
There's more rain falling on some parts of the U.S. than there used to be, and many towns just aren't ready for the flooding that follows.
Ellicott City, Md., is one such community. Nestled in a valley west of Baltimore, the town was founded in 1772, and some Revolutionary War-era buildings still house businesses along the narrow main street in historic downtown. It also sits at the confluence of three streams.
That downtown was largely destroyed by a flash flood in 2016. Main street was a raging river, tearing off awnings and sweeping away cars and dumpsters. Two people died.
It took millions of dollars and more than a year of work to rebuild. Then, on Memorial Day weekend this year, just as many businesses were reopening, the same thing happened. A thunderstorm dropped about 8 inches of rain in three hours, the road became a river, and a man was killed.
SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
Just for fun:
From the New York Times 6/7/2018
If the strapping chestnut colt Justify wins the Belmont Stakes on Saturday to become just the 13th horse in history to claim horse racing’s Triple Crown, two of the three groups that have an ownership stake in the horse’s breeding rights will be front and center during the celebration.
WinStar Farm, one of North America’s leading thoroughbred racing and breeding operations, owns 60 percent of Justify’s breeding rights. China Horse Club owns 25 percent. A third group, a secretive entity that holds the remaining 15 percent, will remain out of the spotlight because it vigorously avoids any public attention. It is a company controlled by top employees of the billionaire investor George Soros.
Mr. Soros’s connection to Justify, which was not previously reported, has garnered little notice in the sport despite the horse’s rousing success in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes because his group tries to operate almost invisibly. Several officials, who sit atop one of the biggest owners in stallion equity in the world, declined to comment about Mr. Soros’s involvement in horse racing through his fund.
Agence France Presse
The World Cup big guns limbered up on Monday ahead of the tournament opener in Russia while brash underdogs Australia warned Euro 2016 finalists France to brace for an early shock.
As the atmosphere built before Thursday's curtainraiser between the hosts and Saudi Arabia, Argentina star Lionel Messi and his teammates and France's talent-studded squad including Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe were put through their paces.
World champions Germany, seeking to equal Brazil's record of five World Cup wins, will land in Russia on Tuesday, along with Gareth Southgate's youthful England side.
Brazil and Neymar arrived in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in the early hours in buoyant mood after hammering Austria 3-0 in their final warm-up match on Sunday.
The Guardian
After last year saw Kevin Spacey making a litany of bad jokes, this year’s celebration of Broadway was a kinder affair with a theme of inclusivity throughout.
Was it really only been a year since Kevin Spacey took the stage of the Beacon Theater making jokes about closets and beards and Hillary’s emails? Well, time flies when you’re trying to satisfy art, commerce and Nielsen ratings. Last night’s Tony awards, relocated to Radio City Music Hall, were a kinder, humbler, and more satisfying affair, often rewarding local heroes over big names and big box office, reasserting Broadway as a community rather than just a loose assortment of sequins.
The evening’s most poignant moment didn’t include any stars at all. It was a surprise performance by the Marjory Stoneman Douglas drama club, survivors of the February shooting, singing Seasons of Love. Even the imperious Glenda Jackson loved it. So that’s how you measure, measure a year.