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.
Hindustan Times
Over 15 people, including priest, killed in ‘terrorist acts’ in Russia
More than 15 people, including policemen, an Orthodox priest and civilians, were killed, and several others were injured in an attack by terrorists in Russia’s southern republic of Dagestan on Sunday. The attacks were reported in churches, synagogues and a police traffic stop in the cities of Derbent and Makhachkala - which are about 120 km apart, the Russian authorities said.
Dagestan's interior ministry on Sunday said that a group of armed men shot at a synagogue and a church in the city of Derbent, located on the Caspian Sea in Russia, following which both the structures caught fire. Several pictures on social media showed large flames and plumes of smoke billowing heavily out of a series of windows.
BBC
At least 1,301 people died during Hajj - Saudi Arabia
At least 1,301 people died during Hajj, Saudi Arabia says, mostly unauthorised pilgrims who walked long distances in intense heat.
This year's pilgrimage took place during a heatwave, with temperatures at times exceeding 50C (122F).
More than three-quarters of those who died did not have official permits to be there and walked under direct sunlight without adequate shelter, the official Saudi news agency SPA said.
Some of those who died were elderly or chronically ill, the agency added.
Health Minister Fahd Al-Jalajel said efforts had been made to raise awareness about the dangers of heat stress and how pilgrims could mitigate this.
Health facilities treated nearly half a million pilgrims, including more than 140,000 who did not have a permit, he said, and some were still in hospital for heat exhaustion.
BBC
One million under flood warnings as heavy rain hits US Midwest
More than a million people are under flood warnings in the upper US Midwest on Sunday after days of heavy rain that forced evacuations and rescues in several states.
The hardest hit have been Iowa and South Dakota, where some rivers reached record-high levels.
At least one person died in the floods in South Dakota, said the state's governor Kristi Noem.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds called the floods “catastrophic” and has declared a state of disaster in 21 counties.
Drone footage posted by regional officials show homes and buildings almost completely submerged, with only rooftops visible.
Other states with regions under weekend flood warnings include Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin.
A flood warning means that flooding is either imminent or ongoing.
The Guardian
Series of US mass shootings brings weekend of death and mayhem
A series of mass shootings rocked the US early on Sunday, leaving at least one dead and 34 others wounded in just four cases reported in New York, Alabama, Missouri and Ohio.
The shootings came amid a broader spate of recent mass shootings, including the one at an Arkansas grocery store on Friday that left four dead and nine wounded – as well as another at a nightclub in Kentucky on Saturday that killed one and injured seven.
The violence brought the number of mass shootings in the US so far this year, as of Sunday, to more than 240 – an average of more than one daily, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
The non-partisan archive defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more victims are wounded or killed.
NPR
A Roman beach destroyed by Mount Vesuvius is open to the public for the first time
Big news for history buffs and the morbidly curious: An ancient Roman beach is now open to the public for the first time since it was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
The beach at the Herculaneum archaeological park, located in the southern Italian region of Campania, opened on Wednesday after a multi-year restoration project.
Herculaneum — named for the Greek god Hercules — is believed to have been founded by the Oscans in the 7th century BC and dominated by Rome in 90 BC. Its location on Italy's west coast and mild climate made it a popular resort town for Rome's patrician families.
It was much smaller (both demographically and geographically) than the city of Pompeii, about 10 miles to the south. Both were destroyed in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, buried by clouds of ash and volcanic debris that preserved them in place for centuries.
Park director Francesco Sirano said in a news release that the conservation work aimed to reduce the risk of flooding, restore the original level of the beach and bring back sand, to "let everyone walk on the beach again."
Deutsche Welle
Will climate change make insurance too expensive?
"Basically, if there is more damage, someone has to pay for it," said Ernst Rauch, a climate expert with Munich Re, a major reinsurance company. Either insurance companies, the state, or the person who suffered the damage must foot the bill.
The logic behind insurance is that many people sign up, but only a few suffer losses and receive compensation. If a growing number of people are hit by losses, however, insurance companies will pass on the risk and increase premiums for insurance holders.
As some previous extreme events have proven too costly to cover, insurance companies have in turn passed on some of their risk to what are known as reinsurers. Munich Re is one of these companies. It has been studying the effects of climate change for around 50 years with regard to their consequences for their own business.
Other parts of the world (than California) have also been hit by increasingly extreme weather events that cause serious destruction, and Germany is no exception. It experiences floods, storms, droughts and fires. The German Meteorological Service warns that such extreme events will grow more frequent, resulting in even greater destruction, affecting more and more people.
"The amount of insured damage resulting from natural disasters now annually totals around $100 billion worldwide, " Rauch told DW. "Eighty to 90% of these damages are weather-related."
Al Jazeera
Xi eyes military supremacy as he reorganises China’s armed forces
China has been giving the democratic island of Taiwan – and the rest of the world – an indication of its growing military prowess in recent months.
In the run-up to Taiwan’s elections in January, the island’s information sphere was bombarded with coordinated cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns.
Following the inauguration of the Taiwanese government last month, Chinese military might was on full display as the Chinese armed forces surrounded Taiwan in two days of drills during which Chinese state media released an animated video showing missiles raining down on major Taiwanese cities.
After the exercises, a Chinese military spokesperson said the country’s armed forces remained fully prepared, highly vigilant and ready to take resolute action when it came to Taiwan.
But: Last week, Xi told a military conference that there were “deep-seated problems” throughout the armed forces and change was necessary.
Al jazeera
Texas woman charged after ‘attempting to drown’ Palestinian child
A woman from Texas has been charged with attempted murder after she tried to drown a three-year-old Palestinian girl, according to United States media reports, citing local police.
According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Texas), the accused, 42-year-old Elizabeth Wolf, attacked the girl at the swimming pool at her family’s apartment complex. The child’s mother and six-year-old brother were also present.
Local Euless police arrived at the scene and arrested Wolf for public intoxication, news reports said.
“We are American citizens, originally from Palestine, and I don’t know where to go to feel safe with my kids. My country is facing a war, and we are facing that hate here,” CAIR quoted the child’s mother as saying
Reuters
Russia offers to help Vietnam develop nuclear energy, RIA reports
June 24 (Reuters) - Russia offered to help Vietnam develop nuclear power plants during President Vladimir Putin's trip to Hanoi, Alexei Likhachev, head of the Russian state nuclear firm Rosatom told RIA agency in remarks published on Monday.
Likhachev, who was part of Putin's entourage during his
visit to Vietnam last week, said that he had made the offer to Vietnam Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.
"We offered all possible options for co-operation... in my conversation with the prime minister of Vietnam," RIA cited Likhachev as saying.
Vietnam has no nuclear power plants and scrapped plans to build its first two nuclear power plants in 2016 following the Fukushima disaster in Japan and due to budget constraints.
Washington Post
How California’s $100 billion surplus became a ‘budget emergency
Two years ago, California was so flush that Gov. Gavin Newsom was moved to make a bold declaration about the state’s estimated $100 billion budget surplus.
“Simply without precedent,” the Democratic leader said, announcing the good news in May 2022. “No other state in American history has ever experienced a surplus as large as this.
”But fast-forward to 2024 and the situation has swung wildly in the opposite direction: The state — still the wealthiest and most populous in the nation — is facing a nearly $50 billion budget shortfall in the coming fiscal year, testing its commitment to an increasingly liberal agenda advanced in recent years.
The crunch is forcing Newsom, seen as a top 2028 presidential candidate, to declare a statewide fiscal emergency, dip into rainy-day reserves and make painful cuts that could put him at odds with staunch allies and temper the ambition of his most sweeping policy goals as he seeks to address pressing problems like homelessness and affordability.