I'm Chitown Kev and I'm substituting for regular OND editor maggiejean tonight. (I will also be substituting for maggiejean next Monday, July 27.)
OND is a 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 12:00AM Eastern Time.
Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Doctor RJ, rfall, JML9999 and Man Oh Man. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke and jlms qkw.
Feel free to share some articles and stories of your own in the comments.
The Guardian: Raising of Cuban flag in Washington signals restoration of US-Cuba relations
Diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba have been officially restored, with Cuba’s foreign minister taking the hugely symbolic step of raising his country’s flag at a newly designated embassy in Washington later on Monday.
Bruno Rodríguez, visiting the US capital for the first time in his life, conducted the ceremony at the mansion which has not functioned as an embassy for more than 50 years.
He was scheduled to attend the State Department for what both sides said would be “substantive” discussions with the secretary of state, John Kerry. The two top diplomats were set to appear together at a joint press conference.
At the flag-raising ceremony, Rodríguez said the restoration of US-Cuba relations would only make sense if the US lifted its comprehensive trade embargo and returned to Cuba the US naval base at Guantánamo Bay.
“The historic events we are living today will only make sense with the removal of the economic, commercial and financial blockade, which causes so much deprivation and damage to our people, the return of occupied territory in Guantánamo, and respect for the sovereignty of Cuba,” Rodríguez said
The Cuban flag being added to the display in the US State Department Monday July, 20.
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Associated Press: UN endorses Iran nuclear deal with 6 world powers by Edith M. Lederer
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council on Monday unanimously endorsed the landmark deal to rein in Iran's nuclear program and authorized measures leading to the end of U.N. sanctions, but also approved a provision that would automatically reinstate the harsh measures if Tehran reneges on its promises.
European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels immediately followed suit, endorsing the agreement between Iran and six major powers and taking the first step to lift EU sanctions.
President Barack Obama told reporters he hopes the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress, where there is strong opposition to the deal, will pay attention to the "broad international consensus," stressing that the deal is "by far our strongest approach to ensuring that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon."
But House Speaker John Boehner accused Obama of "ignoring the concerns of the American people" by allowing "such a consequential vote" to go ahead in the U.N. just 24 hours after submitting the agreement to Congress, which has 60 days to consider it. "This is a bad start for a bad deal," he said.
While sharp differences remain between the United States and Iran, ambassadors from both countries called the agreement an important achievement for diplomacy.
AlJazeera: How calling 911 can punish a domestic violence victim by Sarah Hoye
For months, Lakisha Briggs lived in fear. When police responded to a call at her home after her boyfriend became violent, she said they warned her: two more calls and there would be trouble.
A nuisance ordinance allowed the city to revoke a landlord’s rental license if tenants called 911 three times, making the home a three-strike property. In turn, landlords threatened tenants who called for help too many times with eviction.
In the weeks that followed, Briggs’ boyfriend would commit his most violent act yet.
“It got real bad,” Briggs said. “I was hit with a porcelain ashtray on the right side of my head. And then, he took a piece of the ashtray and slit my neck.”
After the warning from police, Briggs was so afraid to call for help she even pleaded for neighbors that night not to call the police out of fear of losing her home. With wounds too grave to ignore, that night she was airlifted to a nearby trauma center.
Facing homelessness, Briggs decided to fight back. She partnered with the ACLU, filing a federal lawsuit against the city in 2013. The following year, Norristown settled, agreeing to pay $495,000 and even repealing its ordinance.
Associated Press: Greek banks reopen but cash limits remain and taxes soar by Derek Gatopoulos and Nicholas Paphitis
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek banks reopened Monday for the first time in three weeks, but strict limits on cash withdrawals and higher taxes on everything from coffee to diapers meant the economic outlook for the recession-battered country was far from back to normal.
There were hopeful developments: The cash-strapped nation got a short-term loan from European creditors to pay more than 6 billion euros ($6.5 billion) owed to the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank. Non-payment of either would have derailed Greece's latest bailout request.
But for most Greeks, already buffeted by six years of recession, Monday was all about rising prices as tax hikes demanded by creditors took effect.
Dimitris Chronis, who has run a small kebab shop in central Athens for 20 years, said the higher tax rates could push his business over the edge.
"I can't put up my prices because I'll have no customers at all," lamented Chronis, who said sales have already slid by around 80 percent since banking restrictions were imposed on June 29.
"We used to deliver to offices nearby, but most of them have closed. People would order a lot and buy food for their colleagues on special occasions. That era is over."
There are few parts of the Greek economy left untouched by the steep increase in the sales tax from 13 to 23 percent. The new rates have been imposed on basic goods, from cooking oil to condoms, as well as to popular services, such as taxi rides, eating out at restaurants and ferry transport to the Greek islands.
Reuters: Hillary Clinton pledges bigger rewards for corporate whistleblowers by Jonathan Allen
U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton would increase the incentives for corporate whistleblowers to come forward to report financial misconduct, she said on Monday.
Answering questions from voters in an online chat, Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, said she would increase the maximum amount of money a whistleblower can be rewarded so such incentives "are actually effective."
Whistleblowers who expose wrongdoing under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act cannot be rewarded more than $1.6 million, an amount Clinton should be "sharply increased," her campaign staff said soon after in an email to reporters.
"While this represents a large sum in real dollars, it pales in comparison to pay levels within the financial sector," the campaign's statement said, and so the cap was not a big enough incentive for finance workers to risk lucrative careers by reporting wrongdoing
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Associated Press: Turkey suspects Islamic State behind bomb that killed 31 by Desmond Butler
ISTANBUL (AP) -- Authorities suspected the Islamic State group was behind an apparent suicide bombing Monday in southeastern Turkey that killed 31 people and wounded nearly 100 - a development that could represent a major expansion by the extremists at a time when the government is stepping up efforts against them.
Turkish officials vowed to strike back at those behind the attack in the city of Suruc targeting a group of political activists who wanted to help the shattered Syrian city of Kobani, a bombing that turned a moment of hope into a scene of horror.
"We are face to face with a terrorism incident," Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said. "We have the willpower to find and certainly punish those who are responsible."
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but a senior government official told The Associated Press that Turkey suspected the IS group was behind the blast as retaliation for Turkey's steps against the militants.
The midday explosion took place as the Federation of Socialist Youths was wrapping up a news conference on plans to help rebuild Kobani, a witness said.
The Guardian: Anthony Kerr's estate paid $2.5m over North Carolina inmate's death
North Carolina’s public safety department has said its adult correction division reached a $2.5m settlement with the estate of a man with mental illness who died of thirst after being held in solitary confinement for 35 days.
A statement issued on Monday announced the agreement with the estate of Michael Anthony Kerr.
Records show the 54-year-old inmate was twice cited for violations by prison staff for flooding his cell weeks before his death. Kerr was found unresponsive in the back of a prison van after being driven three hours from the Alexander correctional centre in Taylorsville to a mental hospital at Raleigh’s central prison.
AlJazeera: North Carolina police officer to face trial for killing unarmed black man
Jury selection is set to begin Monday in the manslaughter trial of a North Carolina police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man in one of a series of killings that have sparked a fresh debate on race and justice in the United States.
The case dates back to the pre-dawn hours of Sept. 14, 2013, when a 24-year-old former Florida A&M football player, Jonathan Ferrell, wrecked his car and went looking for help in a subdivision outside Charlotte, provoking a 911 call from a young woman who was surprised to find him knocking on her door in the middle of the night and feared a home invasion.
Three Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers responded and when Ferrell approached them, officer Randall Kerrick fired 12 shots at the man, 10 of which hit, killing him.
Attorneys for Kerrick, who is white, contend that Ferrell had ignored orders to stop approaching the officers and to lie on the ground. The other two officers involved in the case, who are black and were more experienced than Kerrick, did not draw their weapons.
Associated Press: Another month, another global heat record broken-by far by Seth Borenstein
WASHINGTON (AP) — Earth dialed the heat up in June, smashing warm temperature records for both the month and the first half of the year.
Off-the-charts heat is "getting to be a monthly thing," said Jessica Blunden, a climate scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. June was the fourth month of 2015 that set a record, she said.
"There is almost no way that 2015 isn't going to be the warmest on record," she added.
NOAA calculated that the world's average temperature in June hit 61.48 degrees Fahrenheit (16.33 Celsius), breaking the old record set last year by 0.22 degrees (.12 degrees Celsius). Usually temperature records are broken by one or two one-hundredths of a degree, not nearly a quarter of a degree, Blunden said.
And the picture is even more dramatic when the half-year is considered.
The first six months of 2015 were one-sixth of a degree warmer than the old record, set in 2010, averaging 57.83 degrees (14.35 Celsius).
The old record for the first half of the year was set in 2010, the last time there was an El Nino — a warming of the central Pacific Ocean that changes weather worldwide. But in 2010, the El Nino petered out. This year, forecasters are predicting this El Nino will get stronger, not weaker.
"If that happens, it's just going to go off the charts," Blunden said.
June was warm nearly all over the world, with exceptional heat in Spain, Austria, parts of Asia, Australia and South America. Southern Pakistan had a June heat wave that killed more than 1,200 people — which, according to an international database, would be the eighth deadliest in the world since 1900. In May, a heat wave in India claimed more than 2,000 lives and ranked as the fifth deadliest on record.
Reuters: Japan ratchets up criticism of China in revised defense paper by Tim Kelly
Japan ramped up its criticism of China's land reclamation and offshore platforms in disputed seas on Tuesday in a hastily revised annual defense report.
The 500-page white paper, approved by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government, for the first time includes satellite images of Chinese man-made islands in the South China Sea.
China claims most of the 3.5 million sq km (1.35 million sq mile) South China Sea, with the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also staking claims.
Japan has no claim in the South China Sea but is in dispute with China over small islands in the East China Sea.
After hawkish members of Abe's party complained that the report was too soft on China, the Defense Ministry appended a demand for China to halt construction of platforms in the East China Sea that it began two years ago.
"We have confirmed that China has started construction of new ocean (exploration) platforms and we repeat our opposition to unilateral development by China and call for a halt," the ministry said.
The paper outlining Japan's defense posture and perceived threats comes after its lower house of parliament last week passed legislation that for the first time since World War Two would allow Japanese soldiers to fight overseas.