Welcome to Overnight News Digest, where the usual crew, consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors maggiejean, wader, Man Oh Man, side pocket, rfall, and JML9999, alumni editors palantir, Bentliberal, Oke, Interceptor7, jlms qkw, and ScottyUrb, guest editors annetteboardman and Doctor RJ, and current editor-in-chief Neon Vincent, along with anyone else who reads and comments, informs and entertains you with tonight's news. 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 12:00AM Eastern Time.
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From The New York Times: Dennis Hastert Sentenced to 15 Months, and Apologizes for Sex Abuse
J. Dennis Hastert, once among the nation’s most powerful politicians, was sentenced on Wednesday to 15 months in prison for illegally structuring bank transactions in an effort to cover up his sexual abuse of young members of a wrestling team he coached decades ago. In a hearing that was by turns harrowing and revelatory, Mr. Hastert publicly admitted for the first time to abusing his athletes, was confronted in emotional addresses by one of the former wrestlers and the sister of another, and faced a long, scathing rebuke from the judge.
Mr. Hastert, 74, who made an unlikely rise from beloved small-town wrestling coach in Illinois to speaker of the House in Washington, sat slouched in a wheelchair in a federal courtroom here as a judge announced that he was rejecting pleas for probation from Mr. Hastert’s lawyers, as well as prosecutors’ endorsement of a shorter prison stay. While the sentencing hearing was, technically, about a violation of banking rules and regulations, the proceedings focused squarely on the underlying reason for Mr. Hastert’s puzzling bank withdrawals — his abuse of young wrestlers who had viewed him as a role model.
“The defendant is a serial child molester,” said Judge Thomas M. Durkin of Federal District Court, as Mr. Hastert sat impassively, often staring downward, hands crossed on his lap. He added, “Some actions can obliterate a lifetime of good works. Nothing is more stunning than having ‘serial child molester’ and ‘speaker of the House’ in the same sentence.”
From The Guardian: Donald Trump unveils 'America first' foreign policy plan
Donald Trump promised to save “humanity itself” on Wednesday, arguing he would “shake the rust off America’s foreign policy” if elected president with an unashamedly self-interested approach to world affairs.
The businessman tried to claim the mantle of Ronald Reagan as he made claims to be developing a foreign policy strategy that would “endure for several generations” by seeking peace through strength.
In his first major policy address since becoming frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, he also foreshadowed his likely campaign attacks against Hillary Clinton by holding her and Barack Obama jointly to blame for “reckless, rudderless and aimless foreign policy” in the Middle East … He criticised the establishment approach from both parties, with remarks in which he:
- Redoubled his criticism of Nato’s “outdated mission”, claiming US allies were “not paying their fair share”;
- Said he would hold summits with Russia and China shortly after assuming power and seek to regain their “respect” by showing his strength;
- Said Nato should instead upgrade its “outdated mission” to “confront shared challenges like migration and islamic terrorism;
- Claimed there there were “scores of recent migrants inside our borders charged with terrorism”, claiming “for every case known to the public there are dozens and dozens more”;
- Promised to use 3D printing, artificial intelligence and cyber warfare to help rebuild US military strength.
From The Daily Beast: Pay-to-Play Cop Bob Bates Found Guilty in Fatal Shooting of Black Man
Bob Bates was a wealthy insurance executive turned volunteer cop when he killed an unarmed black man in Tulsa. The grandpa deputy claimed he mistook his gun for a Taser when he delivered the fatal blast.
On Wednesday, a jury found him guilty of manslaughter.
The jury took three hours to convict Bates of second-degree manslaughter after a nearly two-week trial. The 74-year-old faces up to four years in prison.
Bates was a reserve deputy with the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office when he shot Eric Harris, 44, during a sting operation last year—an incident that made national news amid other police-involved shootings of minority suspects.
From the Washington Post: Teen with realistic BB gun shot by Baltimore police officer
A plainclothes Baltimore police officer shot and wounded a 13-year-old boy who ran from police Wednesday as he carried a BB-gun replica of a semiautomatic handgun on the first anniversary of rioting that swept west Baltimore, police officials said.
The teen is expected to survive wounds to his lower extremities, Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said at a news conference.
Two intelligence detectives were driving on a street and saw the teen walking with what looked like a handgun, and the officers approached him.
“They identified themselves as police officers to this young man, [and] the young man took off on foot with the gun in his hand,” Davis said.
The officers chased him for about 150 yards to the area of the unit block of Asquith Street where one of the officers fired. The gun mimics a Beretta semiautomatic pistol and Davis defended the officers’ actions.
From BBC News: US mother accidentally shot dead by two-year-old son
A two-year-old boy has accidentally shot and killed his mother in the US city of Milwaukee after finding a gun in the back of their car.
The woman, Patrice Price, had been driving a car owned by her security guard boyfriend who had left his gun in the car, her father Andre said.
Milwaukee police said she was shot once in the back while driving on a local highway on Tuesday morning.
Also in the car were Price's mother and her other son aged one.
Mr Price said she also had an older daughter, and described Patrice as "hardworking".
"Now I don't have her no more. My chest has been hurting," Mr Price told Milwaukee station WISN.
From Reuters: Paris attacks suspect Abdeslam extradited to France, under formal investigation
Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam was placed under formal investigation on terrorism and murder charges in France on Wednesday after his extradition from Belgium, and he promised to talk to judges during his next hearing, his French lawyer said.
A Belgium-born Frenchman, Abdeslam is believed by investigators to be the sole survivor among a group of Islamist militants who killed 130 people in a spate of shootings and suicide bombings in Paris on Nov. 13.
"The investigation will determine to what degree he was involved in the acts ... for which he has been put under investigation," lawyer Frank Berton said after an initial hour-long hearing.
"He stayed silent today but said he would talk at a later stage," Berton said, adding that the next hearing was set for May 20. Abdeslam did not speak on Wednesday because he was tired after a "quite rough" extradition, Berton said.
From the Financial Times: Labour MP suspended after anti-Semitic social media posts
The Labour party responded to charges of anti-Semitism on Wednesday by suspending Naz Shah, an MP, for suggesting a policy of “transportation” for Israeli citizens to the US as a “solution for the Israel-Palestine conflict”.
Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour party, has been repeatedly accused in recent months for failing to take a sufficiently tough line against anti-semitism and acted against Ms Shah only after coming under intense political pressure.
David Cameron, the prime minister, said it was “quite extraordinary” that she had not been suspended and found support from Mr Corbyn’s own benches, with Labour MP Lisa Nandy suggesting that Ms Shah should be suspended “pending an investigation”.
“I made clear my view to the leader’s office that we should suspend anybody who makes anti-Semitic remarks, in line with our policy, and investigate,” Ms Nandy told the BBC’s Daily Politics . But Mr Corbyn initially said that the remark, made in 2014, was in the past. He said: “What Naz Shah did was offensive and unacceptable. I have spoken to her and made this clear. These are historic social media posts made before she was a member of parliament.”
From Hitfix: Film Casting May Reveal Who Negan Killed on 'The Walking Dead'
Much digital ink has been spilt discussing how was on the receiving end of Negan’s bat in the final moments of this year’s The Walking Dead. Several frontrunners emerge as the likely victim, including Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Abraham (Michael Cudlitz). But if AMC is staying as true to the source material as possible, the only person it should be is Glenn (Steven Yeun). After the irritating fake-out death earlier in the season, fans weren’t wanting to entertain the idea they’d gone through all that handwringing over Glenn’s fate for nothing.
But perhaps we did.
Earlier this week THR reported that Steven Yeun joined the cast of sci-fi flick Okja, directed by Boon Joon-Ho (Snowpiercer). Okja sounds appropriately bonkers. Starring Seohyun An as a girl who befriends Okja, a genetically manufactured pig, the plot follows her mission to retrieve her now giant pig after he is kidnapped by the corporation that created him. It sounds like dystopian Clifford: The Big Red Dog.
The only problem is the film is already in production. Co-stars Tilda Swinton, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Paul Dano are currently on set. As of this writing, the cast is in Seoul, but other filming locations will include the U.S. and Canada. The Walking Dead is set to resume production on May 2. This makes the timeline for Yeun…interesting.
From ESPN: Source: NFL thinks time for Tom Brady settlement talks has passed
The NFL doesn't see any need to reopen settlement talks with New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and the NFL Players Association regarding Brady's four-game suspension, a league source told ESPN's Adam Schefter.
The source said the NFL doesn't believe the NFLPA or anyone from Brady's camp has provided a reason to renew settlement discussions after the suspension was upheld by a federal appeals court earlier this week. The league believes the time for those talks has come and gone, the source said.
The league and attorneys for the NFLPA engaged in talks for several months last summer in an attempt to reach a settlement in Brady's appeal of the suspension for his involvement in the Deflategate scandal.
They could not come to an agreement, and on Sept. 3, U.S. District Court Judge Richard M. Berman overturned the suspension.
From ABC News: Tennessee Governor Signs Religious Counseling Bill Into Law
Tennessee's Republican governor said Wednesday that he signed a bill into law that allows mental health counselors to refuse to treat patients based on the therapist's religious or personal beliefs.
"As a professional I should have the right to decide if my clients end goals don't match with my beliefs — I should have the right to say somebody else can better serve them," Gov. Bill Haslam said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. "Lawyers can do that, doctors can do that. Why would we take this one class of professionals and say you can't do that?"
The American Counseling Association called the legislation an "unprecedented attack" on the counseling profession and said Tennessee was the only state to ever pass such a law. Opponents say the legislation is part of a wave of bills around the nation that legalizes discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people.
Haslam said he consulted several counselors on both side of the issue and that they all told him that "this isn't about taking on or not taking on LGBT clients, because even the ones who said they think the bill is needed said they never actually turned someone down for this reason."
From Vice: Why Millennials Aren't Fucking
In one study, Dr. Jean Twenge, a professor and researcher at San Diego State University, found that millennials reported fewer sexual partners than Gen-Xers and even baby boomers did at the same age. And a 2015 report from the Center For Disease Control found that fewer 15- to 19-year-olds reported experiencing sexual intercourse than in previous generations. The decline was significant in both genders, but particularly among men.
I am a millennial, so I fit into this framework too. But the latter study points to the possibility that sexual activity among millennials is continuing to trend downward for the younger half of the generation, meaning younger millennials (like my cousin) are even less sexed than older millennials (like me).
A friend of mine, who is 29, recently told me about a high school memory: She had sucked a guy's dick, consensually but begrudgingly, because she felt like she was falling behind her peers. She just wanted to get it over with. I felt similarly about nearly every developmental stage of my life—that it was coming too late—which seems absurd in hindsight.
My cousin, my 20-year-old sister, and their friends don't seem like that. I think of them as a new prototype—kids who are, on the surface at least, so much more self-assured than we were at their age. And if they're having less sex, then maybe it's because they're better adjusted to the pressures of early adulthood. Are we in an era, I wondered, where young men and women think of sex without judgment but don't feel pressure to have it?
From the Wall Street Journal: Facebook Revenue Soars on Ad Growth
Facebook Inc. reinforced its standing as a mobile-advertising powerhouse, nearly tripling its quarterly profit at a time when its Silicon Valley rivals are underperforming.
The social network on Wednesday said advertising revenue jumped 57% in the first quarter to $5.2 billion from $3.3 billion. Mobile ads, which command a higher price than those shown on desktops, accounted for roughly four-fifths of that revenue.
“Businesses are no longer asking if they should market on mobile, they’re asking how,” Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said in an interview. “This is a shift that we think we’re very well-positioned to take advantage of and build on.”
Facebook’s user ranks grew to 1.65 billion from 1.44 billion in the first quarter last year. The company derived more revenue from each of them—an average of $3.32, compared with $2.50 a year earlier.
From USA Today: Apple shares plunge 7% on first drop in iPhone sales ever
Apple's streak of iPhone-powered sales ended Tuesday when the company reported its first quarterly sales drop in more than a decade. The news sent Apple's (AAPL) stock into a tailspin with shares plunging 6.5% to $97.55 in late trading Wednesday.
CEO Tim Cook signaled a saturated smartphone market would keep a lid on sales, although he suggested the company's new entry-level smartphone, the SE, promised to eventually goose sales among Android switchers and in emerging markets such as China and India.
"The SE is attracting two types of customers, who want the latest tech in a more compact package, and there are more than we thought in that category. And those who want an iPhone but couldn't afford the entry price (before)," Cook told analysts. "We're excited where this can take us."
Sales dropped 13% to $50.6 billion Apple said late Tuesday. Profits were $10.5 billion, or $1.90 per diluted share, down 22% from $13.6 billion ($2.33 per diluted share) last year.
From CBS News: SpaceX plans unpiloted Mars landing as early as 2018
SpaceX plans to launch an upgraded Dragon capsule on an unpiloted test flight to Mars as early as 2018, the company announced Wednesday. NASA will provide "technical support," the agency said in a statement, in exchange for "valuable" entry, descent and landing data.
Using a powerful, as-yet-untried Falcon 9 heavy-lift booster, the "Red Dragon" spacecraft, a variant of the crew ferry craft SpaceX is developing to carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station, presumably would land on the red planet using eight Super Draco engines.
The engines are designed to help a station-bound crew escape a malfunctioning booster during the climb to space or to descend to a powered landing back on Earth at the end of a mission. "Planning to send Dragon to Mars as soon as 2018," SpaceX said in a company tweet. "Red Dragons will inform overall Mars architecture, details to come."
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has long supported the eventual colonization of Mars and has made no secret of his plans to eventually send spacecraft to Earth's neighbor. Wednesday's announcement marked the first time the company has said when the first attempt might be made.
From Vanity Fair: Tinder’s New Group-Date Feature Reveals Which of Your Friends Are on Tinder
On Wednesday, Tinder announced it would be unveiling yet another world-changing feature to its dating and hookup app: a group-dating feature. Tinder Social, as it’s being called, is currently being tested in Australia, but it will be rolled out internationally in the future. Instead of one-on-one dating, the new feature requires you to gather a group of your Tinder-using friends, and swipe through other groups of Tinder-using friends, until you find a match. “You can then chat with your group matches or see their status to find out what they’re up to and where everyone’s headed," Tinder explains in a blog post. "Whether you’re looking for groups you share common interests with, or you’re looking for a completely new adventure, Tinder Social is a better way to go out with friends," the post continues. It’s unclear what the “new adventure” is that Tinder refers to—perhaps it looks like two groups of friends uncomfortably standing around at a bar, every person individually swiping through Tinder on their own phone and not speaking.
Early Tinder Social users have made a discovery even more uncomfortable than the premise of going on a group date with a bunch of people you and your friends collectively deemed passable on Tinder: the group feature shows a list of your Facebook friends that use Tinder, and lets you see their profiles. Business Insider talked to some early Tinder Social users who said the feature isn’t opt-in—it’s automatically activated. When someone adds you to their list to make a group for Tinder Social, others can see you in the group, and can see that you’re an active Tinder user.
For some people, this might not be a big deal, but it’s easy to see how it could cause some issues. If you’re in a relationship and don’t use Tinder anymore, for example, but you haven’t deleted your account, your profile still very much exists, even if you’ve deleted the app from your phone. Others, understandably, have a reasonable expectation of privacy and want the dating app to value discretion.
From E! Online: The Real Reason Why Beyoncé Made Lemonade
It was a project that ran the risk of becoming a breakup album; but it managed to transition into so much more and, in the end, told a story of love and hope, of betrayal and sorrow, of trusting your instincts, of denial. Sprinkled throughout is a generous measure of gut-wrenching devotion and enduring love proving it's possible to weave the pieces of a broken heart back together again.
Jay Z has been fully on board with how Beyoncé has chosen to deal with her hurt. "He is fully supportive. He understands the reasoning," another insider tells us. "This is part of the process of being transparent. And they have healed. He has been very humble about the experience. Beyoncé is the love of his life and he will do what it takes.
"Jay was involved in the creation of Lemonade and knew every song Bey was going to release. He knew the lyrics; he knew the implications. He had to approve the songs before release. Jay is a very smart businessman...Bottom line is that they are both really smart and they both saw dollar signs."
From The Hollywood Reporter: Prince Death: Painkillers Found in His Possession (Report)
Prescription painkillers were allegedly found in Prince’s possession when he died in his house in Minnesota, NBC News reported Wednesday.
According to the report, officials have yet to say what role, if any, those medications may have played in his death.
The investigating county sheriff is seeking help from the Drug Enforcement Administration to determine where the medications came from and what prescriptions Prince had obtained, federal law enforcement officials told NBC News.
The legendary singer was found dead alone at his home and recording studio, Paisley Park, on April 21 at age 57. The autopsy was completed the following day and officials determined that there were "no obvious signs of trauma" and "no reason to believe at this point that this was a suicide."
From Pitchfork: What Will Happen to Prince's Estate? His Former Lawyer Has Some Ideas
On Tuesday, Prince's sister, Tyka Nelson, filed court documents saying the music icon died without leaving a will. The legal paperwork raised questions about the fate of Prince's estate, which includes his famous "vault" of never-before-heard music. Along with Nelson, Prince's only surviving full sibling, the filing also named five half-sibling as heirs. As The New York Times reports, half-siblings are the same as full siblings under Minnesota law, so the stage may be set for an extended bummer of a family feud.
The uncertainty around Prince's business affairs after his death last week at age 57 is all the more remarkable considering his career was marked by constant battles for creative (and financial) control. What's at stake is no small sum: Forbes Magazine's last annual estimate of Prince's annual pre-tax earnings, in 2005, was $49.7 million. And he has sold more than 650,000 albums and 2.8 million tracks in the U.S. alone since his passing, according to Nielsen data cited by the Times.
Today, a suburban Minneapolis judge agreed that Prince had no will and, as his sister requested, appointed an affiliate of Minnesota-based Bremer Bank as "special administrator" for Prince's estate. For a sense of what that means and what the future may hold for the Purple Rain legend's music, Pitchfork spoke today with Monica McCabe, an entertainment and intellectual property lawyer who previously represented Prince. As administrator of the estate, she says, "the bank may have control of Prince's assets"—among them, that trove of unreleased records.
From The Atlantic: Why Would a Teacher Cheat?
It was almost exactly a year ago that 11 former Atlanta educators were convictedof conspiring to tamper with thousands of students’ test scores. The cheating scandal, which led to years of prison time for some of the offenders, has grown to symbolize the ills of America’s emphasis on standardized testing. Tell teachers their salaries are tied to test scores and, the thinking goes, they’ll do whatever it takes to ensure those scores are up to par—even if that means fudging the numbers. Even if that means hurting student achievement.
A state investigation concluded in 2011 that many of the Atlanta students whose scores were falsified by nearly 200 teachers were consequently excluded from remedial education they otherwise needed. And a later Georgia State University study, published last May, found that the tampering had negative long-term academic impacts for those kids, particularly in language arts. “When test results are falsified and students who have not mastered the necessary material are promoted, our students are harmed, parents lose sight of their child’s true progress, and taxpayers are cheated,” Nathan Deal, the governor of Georgia, said in a statement announcing the findings of the state’s probe.
Deceptive scoring practices can be found in schools across the country, and they seem to be growing in popularity in an era that places heavy emphasis on standardized testing. But rarely do those practices involve the kind of cheating that happened in Atlanta, where teachers were caught erasing and changing students’ answers. Instead, they’re typically a lot more subtle—a teacher turning a blind eye to a few errors, for example, or grading an open-ended response leniently—and a lot less selfish. And it turns out that this kind of manipulation might even benefit kids.
From Vox: Watch the first trailer for ‘Snowden,’ a new political thriller about the NSA leak
It's been three years since Edward Snowden leaked crucial NSA documents for all the world to see, revealing a widespread and deeply involved surveillance program that has changed the way many Americans think about their government. The situation hasn't at all resolved — Snowden is still living/hiding in Russia to avoid extradition to the US — but that still hasn't stopped director Oliver Stone from making a thriller about it.
Enter Snowden, Stone's upcoming political thriller about the leak and its consequences. The first full trailer — which dropped on April 27 — provides our first look at Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Snowden, who's portrayed here as a combination of The Social Network's Mark Zuckerberg and a marble-voiced Jason Bourne.
Meanwhile, Zachary Quinto takes on the role of the Intercept's Glenn Greenwald (whom Snowden first entrusted with the NSA information) while Shailene Woodley sits in the background as Snowden's encouraging girlfriend Lindsay Mills and Nicolas Cage spits fire as some unnamed government official, which seems about right.
From Variety: Will Ferrell to Play Former President Ronald Reagan in New Movie
Having already famously portrayed former President George W. Bush in various comedy sketches,Will Ferrell is now setting his sights on another former commander in chief.
Sources tell Variety Ferrell is attached to star as President Ronald Reagan in the Black List script “Reagan.”
Penned by Mike Rosolio, the story begins at the start of the ex-president’s second term when he falls into dementia and an ambitious intern is tasked with convincing the commander in chief that he is an actor playing the president in a movie.
The script was so popular following its announcement on the Black List, an annual catalog of the top unproduced scripts in Hollywood, that a live read was done recently done in March starring Lena Dunham and John Cho.
From /Film: Marvel Studios and ‘Doctor Strange’ Screenwriter Defend Ancient One Casting
Marvel’s decision to cast Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One in Doctor Strange was always bound to attract controversy. The character is an Asian man in the comics, so putting a white woman in the role led to complaints about whitewashing. But the Doctor Strange team is standing by its choice. Last week Swinton went on record insisting that there were “very good reasons” for the change, and now Doctor Strange screenwriter C. Robert Cargill and Marvel Studios have weighed in as well.
Here’s how Swinton explained the change:
The script that I was presented with did not feature an Asian man for me to play, so that was never a question when I was being asked to do it. It all will be revealed when you see the film, I think. There are very great reasons for us to feel very settled and confident with the decisions that were made.
In an official statement to Mashable, Marvel defended its decision:
Marvel has a very strong record of diversity in its casting of films and regularly departs from stereotypes and source material to bring its MCU to life. The Ancient One is a title that is not exclusively held by any one character, but rather a moniker passed down through time, and in this particular film the embodiment is Celtic. We are very proud to have the enormously talented Tilda Swinton portray this unique and complex character alongside our richly diverse cast.
Cargill offered a more comprehensive response during an appearance on Double Toasted (via ScreenRant):
The thing about the Ancient One is it is Marvel’s Kobayashi Maru. There is no other character in Marvel history that is such a cultural landmine, that is absolutely unwinnable. Like, I’ve been reading a bunch of people talking about it and the really frustrating thing about it this week is that most of the people who have thoughts on it haven’t thought it all the way through and they go, ‘Why didn’t they just do this?’ And it’s like, I could tell you why. I could tell you why every single decision that involves the Ancient One is a bad one, and just like the Kobayashi Maru, it all comes down on which way you’re willing to lose.
The Ancient One was a racist stereotype who comes from a region of the world that is in a very weird political place. You know, he originates from Tibet, so if you acknowledge that Tibet is a place and that he’s Tibetan, you risk alienating one billion people who think that that’s bullshit and risk the Chinese government going, ‘Hey, you know one of the biggest film-watching countries in the world? We’re not going to show your movie because you decided to get political.’ If we decide to go the other way and cater to China in particular and have him be in Tibet. […] If you think it’s a good idea to cast a Chinese actress as a Tibetan character, you are out of your damn fool mind and have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about.
From Entertainment Tonight: Chris Evans Can’t Keep His Eyes Off Elizabeth Olsen’s Cleavage in Funny ‘Captain America’ Red Carpet Pics
Eyes up here, Captain America! Chris Evans couldn’t keep his eyes off one (or two) of his Captain America: Civil War co-stars at the London premiere of the action flick on Tuesday night.
Evans was photographed staring at Elizabeth Olsen’s exposed cleavage, seemingly mesmerized. Olsen, who plays witch Wanda Maximoff in the Avengers films, wore a stunning white gown with a plunging neckline.
Though the photos say otherwise, Evans recently opened up on Anna Faris’ podcast about his favorite female body part.
"I'm way, way, way more of an a** man, clearly more of an a** man,” hedeclared at the time. “Just everyone knows. I like butts."
From Cosmo: A Pair of Gay Vultures Adopted an Egg Abandoned By Its Mother
Isis and Nordhorn, two vultures at the Tierpark Nordhorn Zoo in Germany, will soon (maybe) be proud parents to a lil' baby vulture featherball. Isis and Hordhorn are a gay couple, though, in what German newspaper Der Speigel calls a "committed relationship," and they've adopted the egg after it was abandoned by its mother.
According to German news agency DPA, the egg was found on the ground in the vultures' enclosure after being dropped there by its mother, Lisa, who was just like 'nah no thanks' to the prospect of motherhood. "Lisa had made no attempt to build a nest,"Nordhorn zoo spokeswoman Ina Deiting said. After leaving the egg in an incubator for a while, zookeepers decided to give it to Isis and Nordhorn, who'd already built a tastefully-decorated nest. One of the couple immediately sat on it — which is a good thing, because it keeps the egg warm.
Listen, parenting isn't for everyone, so we respect the fact that Lisa might have wanted to spread her wings. The good news is that this little egg has found itself a happy home! That said, the bad news is that it might not actually be fertilized, so Isis and Nordhorn's nesting might be for nothing.