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, Besame and jck. 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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US NEWS
NPR
The U.S. Army issued a tweet ahead of Memorial Day weekend with a question for service members and veterans: "How has serving impacted you?"
Among the thousands of responses: harrowing tales of trauma, depression and sexual assault.
In a thread, an Army tweet that preceded the question featured a video by Pfc. Nathan Spencer, a scout with the Army's First Infantry Division.
In the video, Spencer says, "To serve something greater than myself. The Army's afforded me the opportunity to do just that, to give to others, to protect the ones I love, and to better myself as a man and a warrior.”
Soon after the U.S. Army tweeted its question, thousands of responses began flooding in. Many people tweeted about the positive impact military service had on their lives, but others posted stories of post-traumatic stress disorder, illness and suicide brought on by experiences ranging from seeing loss of life to sexual assaults in the military.
One man responded, "How did serving impact me? Ask my family." He wrote of a "Combat Cocktail" which included "PTSD, severe depression, anxiety. Isolation. Suicide attempts. Never ending rage."
New York Times
On HBO, Instagram — even Fox News — aspirants are having a meta debate: How do you counterprogram a reality-TV president?
You can’t miss the peak of Beto O’Rourke’s 2018 Texas Senate campaign in HBO’s “Running with Beto.” Maybe you’ve already seen it, on your phone or in a Facebook post: Mr. O’Rourke responding passionately to a question about N.F.L. players taking a knee to protest racism and police brutality.
When the former congressman begins his answer, our vantage point is in the room with him. But then the film’s perspective pulls back to the frame where it mattered most — the screens of social media apps, where the video racked up views and praise, visualized here in Likes and adulatory tweets that flutter onto the screen like a hosanna of rose petals, leading in turn to a slew of TV bookings.
That election was barely half a year ago, but the elegiac, fly-on-the-wall film, airing Tuesday, already feels like a document of another era. Since his much-covered near miss in November, Mr. O’Rourke has joined the teeming race for the White House, his story line being rewritten from Great Resistance Hope to vision-questing presidential Pippin, climbing on countertops to search for his corner of the sky.
But “Running with Beto” — a special about a social-media-driven campaign, co-produced by the Dem-friendly polititainment empire Crooked Media — is also an example of the very of-the-moment challenge of running for office in the Trump era. To pitch yourself as a president, you must first prove yourself as a show.
Washington Post
As the first state trial of the opioid epidemic begins in Oklahoma on Tuesday, families that have lost loved ones to opioid overdoses see a chance to hold drug companies accountable after years of waiting for recompense.
Gail Box will be following the trial closely, but she won’t be at the courthouse in Norman, the city where she last spent time with her son Austin in May 2011, when he graduated from the University of Oklahoma. Five days later, he was unconscious in a hospital after an overdose, with five different prescription painkillers and an anti-anxiety drug in his bloodstream. He died the same day. He was 22 years old.
“I just cannot go there,” she said of the town where her son played middle linebacker for the Sooners. “It is too painful for me to go there.”
Box is convinced that a stiff financial penalty against drug companies will provide accountability for her son’s death, as well as providing the treatment and other services substance users need.
The Guardian
As Democrats and Republicans look to galvanize their base ahead of the 2020 election, a slew of state laws barring access to abortion have thrust the issue into the national spotlight and set up a potential court battle that could hold consequences for an entire generation.
With the new laws facing legal challenges that could ultimately land in the supreme court, social issues and the judiciary loom heavily in a campaign season that has so far has centered on the economy and the character of President Donald Trump.
Top Republicans have distanced themselves from
a law in Alabama that effectively outlaws abortion and includes no exceptions for victims of rape or incest. But the governor of Missouri signed
a similar bill into law on Friday. It bans abortions after eight weeks of pregnancy and also has no rape or incest exemptions.
Democrats have placed the issue squarely at the center of their agenda, in hope of widening the gender gap between the parties and energizing progressive voters around reproductive rights.
DW News
Austrian lawmakers voted for a no-confidence motion against Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's government, marking the end of his People's Party's hold on power.
The far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) — Kurz's former coalition ally — joined center-left Social Democrats and the leftist environmentalist Jetzt (Now) party in the motion against both Kurz and his government.
Kurz's caretaker minority government, including experts and senior public servants, was sworn into office last week.
The liberal NEOS party voted against the motion, saying it preferred to avoid further political instability.
Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen will now be expected a appoint a chancellor to form a government capable of garnering parliament's support until the next national election, slated for September.
Kurz held an election rally less than three hours after the vote, and promised he would stand again. "I am still here," he told supporters. "They cannot stop the change we have started."
DW News
The far-right AfD has emerged as the strongest political party in Germany's formerly communist East. With the Greens winning big among young, urban voters though, the East-West divide looks set to deepen further.
In Sunday's European Parliament elections, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) won 11% of the vote in Germany — almost 2% less than the right-wing populists scored in federal elections in 2017.
Although the party finished in fourth place nationally, it fared far better in Germany's formerly communist eastern states.
In Saxony and Brandenburg, the AfD beat Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) into second place. In Thuringia, it was only 2% behind. Worringly for Merkel, all three states go to the polls once more in regional elections in autumn.
Al Jazeera
Glasgow, United Kingdom - While the Eurosceptic Brexit Party emerged as the clear winner in the United Kingdom's branch of the European elections, voters in Scotland sent a clear message of their own.
As the Brexit Party, established only weeks ago by the ardent anti-European Union Nigel Farage, the former head of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), swept the board in England and Wales, the pro-EU Scottish National Party (SNP) topped the poll in nearly every constituency in Scotland.
Amid a slump in support for Scottish Labour - once the party of dominance in Scotland - the SNP secured three of the six allocated Scottish seats in the EU-wide European vote.
First minister and SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, celebrated her pro-independence party's "historic" victory in the poll, and maintained that Scotland had "rejected Brexit again" as it increased its seat representation by one.
Al Jazeera
A delegation of Taliban officials led by the group's chief negotiator is set to meet Afghan politicians in Moscow this week, officials said on Monday, as fighting continues in Afghanistan and the United States pursues a peace dialogue with the group.
The Taliban is to attend a conference marking a century of diplomatic relations between Afghanistan and Russia on May 28, followed by discussions with Afghan politicians about the future of the country on the 29th, the group said in a statement.
The 14-member Taliban delegation is led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in what will be his first international trip since being freed from a Pakistani prison last October to head the group's negotiating team in Doha, Qatar.
Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai will be in the Russian capital his spokesman said
Reuters
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel moved closer towards a new election on Monday as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to form a government after last month’s national ballot remained deadlocked.
In a preliminary vote, parliament decided to dissolve itself. In order to disperse and set an election date, legislators would still have to hold a final vote, likely to take place on Wednesday.
Netanyahu, who heads the right-wing Likud party, has until 2100 GMT on Wednesday to put a government together, after being delegated the task by President Reuven Rivlin following the April 9 poll.
In a televised address following the initial vote in parliament, Netanyahu pledged to continue pursuing coalition talks and said a new vote would be unnecessary and costly.
“A lot can be done in 48 hours,” he said. “The voters’ wishes can be respected, a strong right-wing government can be formed.”
Cnn
Another mountaineer has died after summiting Mount Everest, bringing the death toll for the 2019 climbing season to 11 people.
American Christopher John Kulish, 61, died on Monday after reaching the top of Everest on the Nepalese side of the mountain in the morning, Meera Acharya, the Director of Nepal's Tourism Department told CNN.
While descending, he was strong and safely reached the South Col (situated at an altitude of around 7,900 meters, or 25,918 feet) late Monday evening before he suddenly passed away, she said.
Also on Monday, an Austrian family confirmed the death of one of their relatives. Sixty-four-year-old Ernst Landgraf died on Thursday, hours after fulfilling his dream of scaling Everest, according to his obituary and funeral announcement placed by his family.
BBC
Austria's parliament has removed Chancellor Sebastian Kurz from office in a special parliamentary session.
His previous coalition ally, the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), and the opposition Social Democrats (SPÖ) backed the no-confidence motions.
The FPÖ had become embroiled in a political scandal caused by a secret video, which ended the coalition.
Austria's president named Vice Chancellor Hartwig Löger as the interim leader.
In a televised address, President Alexander Van der Bellen said the constitution mandated all offices must be filled "even in a transitional period" and asked for some ministers to stay in office until transitional replacements could be found.
Mr Löger - a member of Mr Kurz's centre-right People's Party (ÖVP) and the country's finance minister - will serve until a new transitional government can be appointed ahead of elections expected in September.
He was appointed vice-chancellor days ago after the previous holder of the office, FPÖ leader Heinz-Christian Strache, was sacked over the secret video.
The president will formally remove the government from office at 11:30 local time (09:30 GMT) on Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH, TECHNOLOGY
Climate Central
Mike Friel of Tucson has suffered from breathing problems his whole life — a consequence of being born with cystic fibrosis. His first hint of asthma came at age 5, when he started wheezing. His family moved to Arizona in the 1970s when he was 14, with hopes that the dry air would alleviate his symptoms.
For decades it seemed like the right move, until about four years ago when Friel’s asthma started acting up.
“I’ve had trouble sometimes where you just can’t breathe,” said Friel, who is now 56. “You feel like your lungs have turned to wood or something.”
Sometimes, ozone pollution in the air makes his asthma worse, he said.
“The ozone is like a molecule that can definitely get into your chest, way down into your lungs,” he said.
Hundreds of rivers around the world from the Thames to the Tigris are awash with dangerously high levels of antibiotics, the largest global study on the subject has found.
Antibiotic pollution is one of the key routes by which bacteria are able develop resistance to the life-saving medicines, rendering them ineffective for human use. “A lot of the resistance genes we see in human pathogens originated from environmental bacteria,” said Prof William Gaze, a microbial ecologist at the University of Exeter who studies antimicrobial resistance but was not involved in the study.
The rise in antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a global health emergency that could kill 10 million people by 2050, the UN said last month.
The drugs find their way into rivers and soil via human and animal waste and leaks from wastewater treatment plants and drug manufacturing facilities. “It’s quite scary and depressing. We could have large parts of the environment that have got antibiotics at levels high enough to affect resistance,” said Alistair Boxall, an environmental scientist at the University of York, who co-led the study.
The Guardian
The US recorded 60 new measles cases last week, taking confirmed cases for the year to 940, the worst outbreak since 1994 and since measles was declared eliminated in 2000, federal health officials said on Monday.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a 6.8% increase in the number of measles cases in the week that ended 24 May, in an outbreak that has reached 26 states. The agency has been providing weekly updates.
Experts warned that the outbreak is not over as the number of cases edges closer to the 1994 total of 958. That was the highest number since 1992, when the CDC recorded 2,126 cases.
Public health officials have blamed the measles resurgence on the spread of misinformation about vaccines, which a vocal fringe of parents opposes, believing, contrary to scientific studies, that ingredients in them can cause autism.
Although the virus was eliminated from the US in 2000, meaning it was no longer a constant presence, outbreaks still happen via travelers coming from countries where measles is still common, according to the CDC.
OBITUARIES
NPR
Legendary Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr died Sunday in Birmingham, Ala. He was 85 years old.
Starr, who played for the Packers from 1956 to 1971, was the first quarterback in history to win five NFL championships. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977.
In a statement on the team website, Green Bay Packers historian Cliff Christl wrote that Starr was "maybe the most popular player in Packers history."
Starr is known widely for one particular performance, in the NFL championship game many call the most storied-ever Packers victory.
It was New Years' Eve, 1967, and the temperature was minus 15; thus, the game was called the "Ice Bowl." The Packers were playing the Dallas Cowboys. With 16 seconds left, the Packers were down by three, and the ball was at the 1-yard line.
On a personal note:
I’m having some issues connecting to the internet with my 2012 MacBook Pro. I have to sit inches from the router. I’ll be gone for the next 2 weeks so I won’t be able to take it to the Apple store for a wifi check. Hopefully, when I return I can get it fixed. Meanwhile I wonder if someone would volunteer to be on call for Monday the 10th of June. My computer might be in the shop and I haven’t learned to copy and paste on my iPad or phone. jck is doing next Monday’s edition. Thanks.