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
BuzzFeed News
A massive blackout hit Manhattan's Upper West Side just before 7 pm on Saturday, leaving tens of thousands of New Yorkers in the dark.
The outage halted subways and cut power to elevators, street lights, and the iconic billboards in Times Square. Around 72,000 customers were affected for about three hours, Con Edison said in a press release, and the company told The New York Times that the outage was due to a problem at a substation — but that the cause would not be clear until an investigation was completed.
People flooded into the streets, some passengers in downed subway cars and elevators were stuck for a time, and traffic went to an even slower-than-usual crawl.
Still, resilient New Yorkers knew how to make the most of a dark situation.
Since the outage happened an hour before curtain time for many Broadway shows, from "Hamilton" to "The Lion King," theaters had to cancel — leading to sidewalk performances from wildly talented cast members trying to cheer up their disappointed audiences and passersby.
Like André De Shields, who plays Hermes in "Hadestown," who sang a blackout-themed impromptu number based on “Road to Hell,” the Broadway show’s opening song.
The Guardian
Donald Trump aimed a controversial attack at “the Squad” on Sunday, saying the four progressive Democratic congresswomen who have clashed with their own party establishment should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came”.
“You can’t leave fast enough,” he added.
Trump did not name his targets but the high-profile members of “the Squad” are Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York; Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts; Rashida Tlaib of Michigan; and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
Only Omar, who is from Somalia, was not born in America. Pressley is African American, Tlaib was born to Palestinian immigrants and Ocasio-Cortez comes from a New York-Puerto Rican family.
Tlaib responded by saying Trump “needs to be impeached”.
Bernie Sanders was among those who called the attack racist.
“When I call the president a racist,” the Vermont senator wrote, “this is what I’m talking about.”
Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement: “If Trump shouted the same thing at a Muslim woman wearing hijab in a Walmart, he might be arrested.”
AFP
Thousands of undocumented immigrants waited in uncertainty Sunday, fearful of nationwide raids that President Donald Trump said would lead to a wave of expulsions.
Even as news media said the raids were underway, Trump added to the divisive debate on migration, suggesting on Twitter that some Democratic women Congresswomen should "go back" to their countries of origin.
Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were expected to conduct raids in at least 10 major cities, with plans to arrest about 2,000 undocumented migrants who entered the United States recently.
Matthew Albence, ICE's acting director, would not confirm any operational details on Sunday but defended the need for the raids.
"We are doing targeted enforcement actions against specific individuals who have had their day in immigration court and have been ordered to be removed by an immigration judge," he told "Fox News Sunday."
"We are merely executing those judges' orders."
NPR
Police say they are searching for the "person or persons" responsible for the death of Sadie Roberts-Joseph, a prominent community activist in Baton Rouge, La. and the founder of the city's African American history museum.
Roberts-Joseph, who was 75, was discovered on Friday afternoon in the trunk of a car about three miles from her home. Police did not explain what led them to the car where they found her body. According to the Associated Press, investigators are waiting for a coroner to determine a cause of death.
Roberts-Joseph was a respected civil rights leader in Baton Rouge. In 2001, she founded the Baton Rouge African-American History Museum, which according to its website, features exhibits of African art, and tells the stories of minority inventors. It also includes displays of historical artifacts from the civil rights era, including a 1963 bus used during the civil rights boycotts in Baton Rouge.
WORLD NEWS
The Guardian
A journalist who Boris Johnson secretly discussed helping a friend to have beaten up has demanded an apology from the Conservative leadership candidate as he stands on the brink of Downing Street.
Stuart Collier, the journalist who was at the centre of the incident nearly 30 years ago, said Johnson was not fit to be prime minister.
In 1990, Johnson was secretly recorded agreeing to provide the address of the News of the World reporter Stuart Collier to his friend Darius Guppy, who wanted to arrange for the journalist to have his ribs cracked as revenge for investigating his activities.
The discussion never came to fruition, while Guppy ended up being jailed for a separate £1.8m fraud and Johnson later dismissed the call as a joke. But after being tracked down by the Guardian, the retired reporter said he had been so disturbed by the “Guppygate” incident he had told his wife to be careful answering the front door.
While Collier learned of the call after the fact, he was sufficiently unsettled by the discovery to worry for his family’s safety, he said. The 69-year-old called on Johnson to apologise to him and his wife over the incident, which he said had left her frightened at home with their then young son, Ross. He said he thought it was “disgraceful” Johnson could become prime minister and he should “definitely apologise”.
DW News
Germany, France and Britain have called for "responsible" action to reduce tensions between Tehran and the United States. Iran has breached the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal by raising limits on uranium enrichment.
Three key European powers on Sunday called for ways to stop the escalation of tensions and to resume dialogue over Iran's nuclear program.
In a joint statement released by the Elysee Palace on France's Bastille Day, the leaders of Britain, France and Germany said "the moment has come to act in a responsible way" to avoid the 2015 nuclear deal falling apart.
"The risks are such that is is necessary that all the parties take a pause and think about the possible consequences of their actions," the statement added.
DW News
German Chancellor Merkel and other European leaders have highlighted their shared defense potential on Bastille Day amid rifts with the US. Troops from 10 countries participated in the annual Paris parade.
Key European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte joined French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday to commemorate France's national holiday, Bastille Day, which marks the July 14, 1789 storming of the Bastille fortress in Paris during the French Revolution.
Troops from 10 countries took part in the European Intervention Initiative (EI2) and paraded down the Champs-Elysees. A total of 4,000 military personnel, 69 military airplanes and 39 helicopters were involved in the display.
Heads of state and government from Belgium, Estonia, Finland, the Netherlands and Portugal also joined Merkel and Macron in the reviewing stand.
Merkel walked with Macron to salute war veterans after the parade without incident. The chancellor had been seen to tremble at three official events in Berlin in recent weeks. Merkel celebrates her 65th birthday on Wednesday.
Al Jazeera
"Passionate", "brave" and "a shining star who was a force for good" - these were just some of the tributes that poured in for Canadian-Somali journalist Hodan Nalayeh, who died on Friday during a 14-hour hotel siege in Somalia's port city of Kismayo.
The 43-year-old, who was pregnant, was killed in an al-Shabab-claimed attack along with her husband, Farid Jama Suleiman, a year after she moved to Somalia from Canada with a mission to showcase the east African country's rich culture and natural beauty.
As the founder of Integration TV, Nalayeh used the hashtags #SomaliaSuccess and #SomaliPositivity to post videos on YouTube of Somali youth and female entrepreneurs, as well as share pictures on Twitter of her travels in the country, including the fishermen of southern Ilisi Island and camel herders in Las Anod, the northern city where she was born.
Al Jazeera
China’s military has recently carried out air and naval drills along its southeast coast, the defence ministry has said, in an announcement that came after Beijing demanded the cancellation of a potential arms sale from the United States to self-ruled Taiwan.
In a brief statement on Sunday, the ministry described the exercises as "routine arrangements in accordance with annual plans for the military".
It said they were held in "recent days".
On Friday, China said it would impose sanctions on US firms involved in a deal to sell $2.2bn worth of tanks, missiles and related equipment to Taiwan, saying it harmed China's sovereignty and national security.
BBC
South Africa's former President, Jacob Zuma, is due to give evidence this week at a commission set up to investigate "state capture" during his time in office.
The term "state capture" has become a buzzword - shorthand for the multiple scandals that plagued the Zuma administration and eventually brought it down.
What is state capture?
State capture describes a form of corruption in which businesses and politicians conspire to influence a country's decision-making process to advance their own interests. As most democracies have laws to make sure this does not happen, state capture also involves weakening those laws, and neutralising any agencies that enforce them.
ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY
Climate Central (July 10, 2014)
Across the world, it’s been another summer of blistering heat.France endured record-shattering temperatures up to 114.6°F (45.9°C), while parts of India and Pakistan approached 122°F (50°C). And in the U.S., heat waves have broiled the West, Midwest and East. Intense heat is getting worse with climate change, as even small increases in average temperature can greatly magnify extremes. This week, we explore how the annual totals of extremely hot days have changed in your local area.
Of the 244 cities analyzed, 75% have recorded an increase in extremely hot days since 1970. Though the definition of “extremely hot” varies from 70°F in Anchorage to 110°F in the Desert Southwest, these local thresholds are being crossed more often from Alaska to Arizona. The largest change by far has come in Miami, which now sees 75 more days above 90°F (on average) than it did in 1970. But 7 of the top 10 changes have occurred in Texas—all showing more than a month of additional extremely hot days. These findings match our analysis on summer temperature trends: southern summers are heating up fast!
Heat extremes have serious health consequences. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, extreme heat is the deadliest of all weather-related hazards. Reducing the human-caused emissions that warm our climate would limit these deaths, as the Fourth National Climate Assessment makes clear. If emissions continue unchecked, 49 large U.S. cities could see more than 9,000 additional premature deaths per year by the end of this century. But if the world makes significant emissions cuts— roughly in line with the Paris Agreement pledges—more than half of those deaths could be avoided.
AFP
Tropical Storm Barry buffeted the US state of Louisiana on Sunday, bringing more heavy rain and possible tornadoes to the region even as it weakened.
After briefly becoming the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, Barry was downgraded to a tropical storm after making landfall on Saturday. It nevertheless moved insland with a serious punch.
While there were few indications yet of widespread flooding, Louisianans kept a wary eye on several rivers and canals being pushed to their limits by the torrential rainfall and by flooding upstream.
Rain fell in New Orleans, the state's biggest city, on Sunday but there was little wind. Flights in and out of the city's airport resumed after all were canceled on Saturday.
Thousands of people had abandoned their homes and tens of thousands lost power.
Fears that the levee system protecting New Orleans could be compromised eased after the Army Corps of Engineers voiced confidence that it would hold, but Mayor LaToya Cantrell urged residents not to be complacent.
DW News
Monsoon-triggered floods and landslides have killed at least 85 people in South Asia in the past few days. Almost 870,000 people have been affected by floods in India's northeastern state of Assam.
The death toll from floods and landslides caused by two weeks of torrential monsoons in South Asia has reached 85, officials and news sources reported on Sunday. In Nepal alone, up to 50 people were said to have died in floods and landslides caused by monsoon rains across the country, while dozens more were missing.
Nepal's weather department issued a high alert for the southern Koshi River and sent SMS warnings to people in the area. "Our first priority is lifesaving rescue," Nepalese Home Ministry official Umakanta Adhikari told the AFP news agency, "and all our resources have been deployed."
In Bangladesh, at least 16 people have been killed in lightning strikes, flooding and landslides. The country's weather agency warned of further landslides and urged locals to move to safe locations.
The Guardian
The founder of the online classifieds site is a survivor from the era of internet optimism. He has given significant sums to protect the future of news – and rejects the idea his website helped cause journalism’s financial crisis
As the Craig in Craigslist, the free online noticeboard that changed everything, Craig Newmark can surely get his hands on just about anything. His new home in Greenwich Village, New York, contains everything from an ancient Roman mosaic to 18th-century British portraits to Simpsons figurines to artworks by his beloved Leonard Cohen. But something is missing. Something vital.
“We’re low on bird seed now,” Newmark observes anxiously. “That’s a crisis.”
The scale and scope of the crisis become evident when you understand Newmark’s ornithological obsession. During an hour-long conversation, his eye keeps wandering to the small garden where morning doves, house sparrows, cardinals, blue jays and “a hopefully limited number of pigeons” come and go. Just last night he installed a webcam so he can watch them all remotely. For good measure, there are numerous photos of birds on the walls and a papier-mache model, made by his 11-year-old nephew.
NPR
People across southern Louisiana are spending the weekend worried about flooding. The water is coming from every direction: the Mississippi River is swollen with rain that fell weeks ago farther north, and a storm called Barry is pushing ocean water onshore while it drops more rain from above.
It's a situation driven by climate change, and one that Louisiana has never dealt with, at least in recorded history. And it's raising questions about whether New Orleans and other communities are prepared for such an onslaught.
"It is noteworthy that we're in our 260th day of a flood fight on the Mississippi River, the longest in history, and that this is the first time in history a hurricane will strike Louisiana while the Mississippi River has been at flood stage," said Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards in response to a question about climate change at a Friday news conference.