BBC
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the strike which killed scores of displaced Palestinians in Rafah on Sunday was a "tragic mishap", amid growing international condemnation of the blast.
At least 45 people were killed according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Hundreds more were treated for severe burns, fractures and shrapnel wounds.
Speaking in the Israeli parliament, Mr Netanyahu said it was vital that Israel took "every precaution possible" to protect civilians caught up in the fighting in Gaza.
But he insisted the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) used their "best efforts not to harm those uninvolved" in the conflict and vowed to keep fighting against Hamas.
“I don’t intend to end the war before every goal has been achieved," Mr Netanyahu said during his address, which was interrupted by occasional heckles from family members of hostages taken by Hamas during the 7 October attack in southern Israel.
The crew of the Overnight News Digest consists of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, jeremybloom, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Rise above the swamp, Besame and jck. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) eeff, 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.
Kyiv Post
President Volodymyr Zelensky signed legislation into law on May 17 that would allow certain categories of convicted prisoners or those accused of crimes and held in pre-trial detention to volunteer to serve in Ukraine’s Armed Forces in exchange for the chance to be granted parole upon completion of their service.
Minister of Justice, Denys Maliuska, confirmed in an interview with The New York Times on Friday, May 24 that approval had been given for the first 350 or so prisoners to be released in the first week since the law came into force. He also said that more than 4,000 of the around 20,000 inmates that were likely to be eligible, had put their names forward for consideration and were currently being assessed.
Le Monde
In the winter of 1988, Brice Lalonde made his first official trip outside Europe to Boulder, Colorado, in the United States. In this pristine setting where the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains, the newly-appointed French secretary of state for the environment took part in a conference organized by the American weekly magazine Time. There, he rubbed shoulders with Al Gore, future American vice president and fervent environmentalist, as well as eminent scientists from all over the world gathered to find solutions to a problem that was emerging in the public and political debate: climate change.
A few months earlier, the US had suffered a historic heatwave and NASA's chief climatologist, James Hansen, had alerted Congress to the reality of man-made global warming. Time awarded its Person of the Year award to a planet, "The Endangered Earth," illustrating its cover with a globe wrapped in plastic and rope created by the artist.
Yahoo News
More than five weeks remain before summer’s official start, but preparations for extreme heat have been underway for many months in parts of the country hit hard by last year’s sweltering conditions.
“We prepare for heat year-round in Phoenix,” Mayor Kate Gallego said. “It’s something that we know is coming, so we have to think about it even on the coldest day of the year.”
But last summer was especially severe — Phoenix, for example, endured 31 consecutive days of high temperatures at or above 110 degrees Fahrenheit, the city breaking a previous record of 18 days set in 1974. At least 645 people in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, died from heat-related causes in 2023, a 52% increase over the previous year, according to the county's Health Department.
BBC
At dawn on Friday 12 April, Israeli teenager Benjamin Achimeir walked out from his settler outpost in the occupied West Bank, with a flock of sheep, and disappeared.
Achimeir, 14, had been living and working on a tiny farm outpost near his family's settlement, Malachei HaShalom - one of nearly 150 Israeli settlements in the West Bank regarded as illegal under international law.
The young teenager was murdered that morning out on the pasture, according to Israeli police, but it would be 24 hours before his body was found. When the flock of sheep returned to the farm without him, a massive search began, involving the Israeli police, military, air force, intelligence services and thousands of volunteers from the settler community.
For some, it was not enough. At 08:30 on Saturday, Elisha Yered, a former spokesman for MP Limor Son Har-Melech and extremist settler suspected in the murder of a Palestinian man last August, posted in a WhatsApp group for settlers.
[…]
The message also contained a list of meeting points. Hours later, a similar message would circulate in the settler groups but with fire emojis attached to each location, as well as calls from individual settlers to "eliminate the enemy", "exterminate the beasts", and - referring to a nearby Palestinian village - "let all of Duma burn".
Al Jazeera
At least 21 people have been killed in a series of powerful storms that swept across the central and southern United States, leaving a trail of destruction and devastation.
The storms caused deaths in the US states of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kentucky, just north of an oppressive, early season heatwave setting records from south Texas to Florida.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency early on Monday after tornadoes ripped through the state.
“It was a tough night for our people,” Beshear said on social media platform X, later adding in a press briefing that “devastating storms” had hit almost the entire state.
The governor said “at least a few” tornadoes touched down in Kentucky over the weekend, including one that travelled on the ground for about 65km (40 miles). Officials said 100 state highways and roads were damaged by the storms.
Al Jazeeera
The “competent authorities” are investigating the death of a member of an Egyptian security team in a shooting near the Rafah border zone, Egypt’s military spokesperson says.
Earlier on Monday, Israel’s military said it was also investigating reports of an exchange of fire between Israeli and Egyptian soldiers near the crossing between Egypt and the besieged Gaza Strip.
“The competent authorities in the Egyptian Armed Forces are investigating a shooting incident near the border strip in Rafah, which has led to the death of one of the personnel securing the area,” Egyptian Colonel Ghareeb Abdel Hafez Ghareeb said on X, formerly Twitter.
Israel seized control of the vital Rafah border crossing from the Palestinian side of the border this month as it launched a long-threatened military offensive in the overcrowded area, drawing strong criticism from the international community, including Egypt.
Deutsche Welle
North Korea said a rocket that it launched to carry a spy satellite into space exploded mid-air on Monday.
"The launch of the new satellite carrier rocket failed when it exploded in mid-air during the flight of the first stage," the deputy director general of Pyongyang's National Aerospace Technology Administration said in a report carried by state media.
An "expert review concluded that the cause of the accident was the operational reliability of the newly developed liquid oxygen and oil engine," the report added.
The launch followed just a few hours after North Korea issued a warning saying it would try to launch a satellite by June 4. The country successfully launched its first spy satellite last November, following two other fiery crashes in 2023.
Footage broadcast by Japanese network NHK showed what appeared to be a flaming projectile in the night sky.
Deutsche Welle
French President Emmanuel Macron said authoritarianism posed a serious threat to Europe's future in a speech delivered in the eastern German city of Dresden on Monday.
The French president pointed to the rise of far-right political parties as one key source.
"Everywhere in our democracies these ideas thrive, pushed by the extremes and in particular the far right. This ill wind is blowing in Europe, so let us wake up," Macron said.
Citing the ongoing war in Ukraine, Macron said that Europe is at a crossroads.
He made this point by speaking in German — a gesture that was met with applause from the large audience.
"Europe is a history of peace, prosperity and democracy," he said, adding that this was all was under threat if leaders did not act.
"Europe is a guarantor of peace. For many of us, this argument long sounded outdated, but war rages again in Europe."
The Guardian, UK
Bronze age burial mounds, Roman roads and deserted medieval villages are among almost 13,000 previously-unknown ancient sites and monuments that have been discovered by members of the public in recent months, it will be announced this week.
Truck drivers and doctors are among more than 1,000 people who participated in Deep Time, a “citizen science project” which has harnessed the power of hobbyists to scour 512 sq km (200 sq miles) of Earth Observation data, including high-resolution satellite and lidar – laser technology – imagery.
Participants were searching for ancient features across three distinct landscapes: an area of the Peak District spanning Derbyshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire; Wallington in Northumberland; and Purbeck and Studland in Dorset.
They have found 262 possible Bronze age barrows and three Roman roads, among other discoveries. The project is a partnership between DigVentures, an archaeology social enterprise, and the National Trust, which owns and manages large areas of those landscapes.
The Guardian, Australia
Some of the best-known waste companies in New South Wales are among those that broke safety rules that led to potentially contaminated soil fill being supplied to backyard landscapers, schools, childcare centres and parks across the state.
As part of an investigation into soil contamination, Guardian Australia can reveal that Bingo Industries, Aussie Skips Recycling, Benedict Recycling and KLF Holdings breached state regulations for testing a type of cheap soil made from recycled construction and demolition waste.
The fill – known as “recovered fines” – is used in place of virgin materials in construction projects, and in public spaces such as sporting fields, but is also sold directly to consumers for home landscaping by landscape and garden stores.
Some waste companies also sell the fill in bulk directly from their facilities.
NPR
A job posting that included race and citizenship requirements — and the stipulation, “Don’t share with candidates” — has resulted in settlement agreements between Virginia-based IT staffing firm Arthur Grand Technologies Inc. and the U.S. government.
Under the arrangement, Arthur Grand will pay a civil penalty of $7,500, along with a total of $31,000 to 31 people who complained about the posting. The company — which is minority-owned and a federal contractor designated a disadvantaged business — will also be monitored to ensure compliance with anti-discrimination laws.
NPR
A large swath of the eastern U.S. is bracing for severe weather as the Memorial Day weekend comes to a close. Deadly storms over the long weekend also knocked out power to hundreds of thousands across the South and disrupted holiday travel at busy airports in the northeast.
Severe storms were expected to stretch from Alabama to upstate New York on Monday evening, according to the National Weather Service. Forecasters said the storms could lead to intense rainfall in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, with flash flooding possible. Hail, heavy winds and tornadoes are also possible from northeast Maryland to the Catskill Mountains of New York, according to the NWS.
Washington Post
Jamie Lafollette found out State Farm was dropping her policy from reading the news.
After she saw a story about the insurer pulling out of Santa Cruz County, her longtime home, she called her agent to confirm that her plan would lapse — setting off a desperate search for a replacement policy that is ongoing.
“Our first quote came in at over $10,000 a year, and that was bare bones coverage,” she said. “And then I kept pressing, contacting other brokers … contacting all these weird companies you’ve never heard of.”
But those quotes were even higher, coming in between $17,000 and $25,000, she said.