Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame, jck, and JeremyBloom. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, 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.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
Chicago Sun-Times: Exclusive details about City Hall's Chicago Democratic convention obligations by Lynn Sweet
An agreement between City Hall, the Democratic National Convention Committee and the Chicago 2024 Host Committee, obtained by the Sun-Times, reveals for the first time details about the city’s obligations when it comes to security, transportation and more for the August event.
The agreement for the 2024 Democratic National Convention was signed on April 12, 2023, when the Democratic National Committee announced Chicago’s winning bid.
The Sun-Times obtained the agreement, which was not made public, through the Freedom of Information Act. It is one of several separate contracts with local government entities covering services needed for the convention, being held Aug. 19-22 at the United Center and McCormick Place.
The New York Times: Willie Mays, Electrifying Ballplayer of Power and Grace, Dies at 93 by Richard Goldstein
Willie Mays, the spirited center fielder whose brilliance at the plate, in the field and on the basepaths for the Giants led many to call him the greatest all-around player in baseball history, died on Tuesday. He was 93.
At his death, which was announced by the San Francisco Giants on social media, he had been the oldest living member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. He died in Palo Alto in the assisted living facility he lived in, said Larry Baer, the president and chief executive of the Giants.
In 22 National League seasons, with the Giants in New York and San Francisco and a brief return to New York with the Mets, preceded by a 1948 stint in the Negro leagues, Mays compiled extraordinary statistics. He hit 660 career home runs and had 3,293 hits and a .301 career batting average.
But Mays did more than personify the complete ballplayer. An exuberant style of play and an effervescent personality made him one of the game’s — and America’s — most charismatic figures, a name that even people far afield from the baseball world recognized instantly as a national treasure.
The Washington Post: Senators press Boeing CEO on safety, production breakdowns by Lori Aratani
A Senate committee report Tuesday said Boeing lost track of hundreds of substandard aircraft parts, eliminated quality inspectors and put manufacturing workers in charge of signing off on their own work, findings lawmakers said belied the company’s assurances that it prioritizes safety.
Senators released their highly negative portrayal — which was based on a raft of whistleblower complaints and previously undisclosed government findings — only hours before Boeing’s chief executive Dave Calhoun publicly sought to defend the company before the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
It was Calhoun’s first appearance before Congress since the in-flight door panel blowout aboard a 737 Max jet in January, which did not substantially injure anyone but rattled faith in the aerospace giant’s manufacturing and brought new legal and political scrutiny.
CNN: Texas megachurch accepts senior pastor’s resignation after allegations of ‘inappropriate relationship’ with a minor by Jillian Sykes
A Dallas-area megachurch accepted the resignation of senior pastor Robert Morris on Tuesday after allegations of a past inappropriate relationship with a 12-year-old surfaced last week.
In a statement obtained by CNN affiliate WFAA, the Board of Elders of Gateway Church said that prior to June 14, they didn’t have all the facts of the abuse.
The board said it has retained a law firm to conduct an independent review of the report of past abuse to fully understand the events that took place from 1982-1987.
“The elders’ prior understanding was that Morris’s extramarital relationship, which he discussed many times throughout his ministry, was with ‘a young lady’ and not abuse of a 12-year-old child,” the statement reads.
“Even though it occurred many years before Gateway was established, as leaders of the church, we regret that we did not have the information that we now have.”
The Washington Post: As Kyiv celebrates first Pride since invasion, LGBTQ+ troops demand equality by Siobhán O’Grady and Kostiantyn Khudov
Pride in Ukraine is no longer just about defending and celebrating the right to love whom you choose. Like everything else here, it’s also about resisting Russia.
A Pride march in Kyiv on Sunday — the first since Russia’s 2022 invasion — and a host of other events this month across the country are intended as a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ukrainians want to live in a country with Western freedoms — not Russian-style repressions. The events are also protesting Ukraine’s own policies, which advocates say perpetuate the marginalization of LGBTQ+ people, including soldiers who risk their lives for Ukraine’s future.
Mariia Volia, 31, a radio specialist now serving in the 47th Brigade in the Donetsk region near the eastern front, has spent nine years fighting for her country. She believes so strongly in Ukraine’s survival that she legally changed her last name to the Ukrainian word for liberty.
But as a lesbian, she — and other LGBTQ+ soldiers — doesn’t qualify for the same rights and benefits as heterosexual troops.
Guardian: Israeli foreign minister says decision on all-out war against Hezbollah is near by Peter Beaumont
The Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, has said a decision on an all-out war with Hezbollah was coming soon, as Israel generals announced late on Tuesday that they had signed off planning for an offensive into Lebanon.
The escalating rhetoric came after the release of video footage from a Hezbollah surveillance drone’s overflight of the northern city of Haifa, which included images of sensitive sites and civilian neighbourhoods.
The broadcast of the footage was widely interpreted as a thinly veiled threat against Haifa and comes as cross-border exchanges continue between the two sides. Last week northern
Israel was hit by the heaviest Hezbollah barrage of the war after the Israeli killing of a senior Hezbollah commander.
DW: North Korea's Kim greets Russia's Putin at Pyongyang airport
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin to Pyongyang in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Putin and Kim met on the runway at the capital's airport before sharing a limousine ride towards the city center with a large police escort.
As North Korean state media outlet KCNA described it in English, the two leaders were able to share their "pent-up inmost thoughts" during this conversation and agreed to deepen the two countries' relations.
KCNA called the two countries' partnership an "engine for accelerating the building of a new multi-polar world" and said Putin's visit demonstrated the strength of the ties.
Putin also issued a presidential order before departing Moscow declaring his intention to sign a "comprehensive strategic partnership treaty" with North Korea while in Pyongyang.
Have the best possible evening everyone!