Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, interceptor7, Magnifico, annetteboardman and Besame. And jck. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) wader, palantir, JML9999, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Man Oh Man, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke 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.
BBC
Assange used Ecuador's embassy for 'spying', says president
Julian Assange used the Ecuadorian embassy in London as a "centre for spying", the country's leader has said.
Lenin Moreno also said no other nation had influenced the decision to revoke the WikiLeaks founder's asylum, which he said followed violations by Assange.
Speaking to the Guardian, President Moreno claimed Ecuador's old government provided facilities within the embassy "to interfere" with other states.
Assange's lawyer had earlier accused Ecuador of "outrageous allegations".
President Moreno - who came to power in 2017 - said of the decision to end Assange's seven-year stay in the embassy: "Any attempt to destabilise is a reprehensible act for Ecuador, because we are a sovereign nation and respectful of the politics of each country."
He added: "We can not allow our house, the house that opened its doors, to become a centre for spying." The president also made references to Assange's apparently poor hygiene following allegations made by Ecuador's interior minister, Maria Paula Romo.
BBC
American Airlines extends Boeing 737 Max flight cancellations
American Airlines is extending the cancellation of its Boeing 737 Max 8 flights from June until mid-August.
The move is to "provide confidence" to customers during the peak summer travel season, the airline said in a letter.
Last month, 737 Max aircraft were grounded worldwide following fatal crashes involving Ethiopian Airlines and Indonesia's Lion Air.
Boeing is developing new software for the jet's anti-stall system, which has come under scrutiny since the crashes.
Senior officials at American Airlines said they were "confident" that the Boeing upgrade would be approved by US aviation regulators before 19 August, despite its decision to ground its fleet of 24 planes until then.
The cancellations will affect up to 115 flights a day, Reuters news agency reported.
Al Jazeera
Iran suffers '$2bn in damages' as flood toll continues to rise
Floods in Iran have killed 76 people and caused more than $2.2bn in damages in recent weeks, with flood warnings still in place for large swaths of the country.
Six more people were confirmed dead in the country's south, according to a new toll published on Sunday.
"With the death of five people in the Khuzestan province and another person in Ilam province, the death toll has now reached 76," since March 19, a statement by the coroner's office said.
The two southwestern provinces are the latest to be overwhelmed by floods that first hit the northeast of the usually arid country, forcing hundreds of thousands to evacuate from cities and villages.
Officials have again issued flood warnings for the east of Iran, with heavy rains that began on Saturday forecast to continue.
Al Jazeera (Breaking!)
Removal of fuel at Fukushima's melted reactor begins
The operator of the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant has begun removing fuel from a cooling pool at one of three reactors that melted down in the 2011 disaster, a milestone in the decades-long process to decommission the plant.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) said on Monday that workers started removing the first of 566 used and unused fuel units stored in the pool at Unit 3.
The fuel units in the pool located high up in reactor buildings are intact despite the disaster, but the pools are not enclosed so removing the units to safer ground is crucial to avoid disaster in case of another major quake.
Tepco said the removal at Unit 3 would take two years, followed by the two other reactors.
Al Jazeera
Venezuela’s Guaido calls for nationwide protests
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido is in the oil-rich state of Zulia, where there have been demonstrations against power outages and water shortages.
Guaido, who is recognised by the United States and 50 other countries as Venezuela's legitimate leader, is trying to organise nationwide protests against President Nicolas Maduro.
His trip came as President Maduro called on more than two million army and militia members to defend his government.
The Guardian
Red Cross aid to Venezuela to triple as Maduro stance softens
The International Committee of the Red Cross is to triple aid to Venezuela, a day after the crisis-riven country’s leader approved the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
The organisation announced the increase in the face of mounting calls for the UN to recognise the scale of the crisis facing Venezuela, and amid continued moves by the Trump administration to persuade other countries to back its calls for the removal of President Nicolás Maduro.
With the health system in collapse, and food and electricity shortages now commonplace, the Maduro government has been accused of deliberately minimising the scale of the problems facing the country even as millions have fled over its borders.
A joint report last week by Human Rights Watch and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health urged the UN to take a lead in what it described as a “complex humanitarian emergency” that demanded a “full scale” international response.
The 71-page report documented rising maternal and infant deaths, the unchecked spread of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles and diphtheria, and sharp increases in the transmission of malaria, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases.
The Guardian
Europe urged to reject US Middle East plan if it is unfair to Palestinians
High-ranking former European politicians have condemned the Trump administration’s one-sided Israel-Palestine policy and called in a letter for Europe to reject any US Middle East peace plan unless it is fair to Palestinians.
The letter, sent to the Guardian, the EU and European governments, was signed by 25 former foreign ministers, six former prime ministers, and two former Nato secretary generals.
“It is time for Europe to stand by our principled parameters for peace in Israel-Palestine,” read the letter, calling for a two-state solution in which Israel and Palestinian states live side by side.
Europe, it said, should reject any plan that does not create a Palestinian state alongside Israel with Jerusalem as the capital for both countries.
“Unfortunately, the current US administration has departed from longstanding US policy,” it said, criticising Donald Trump’s 2017 recognitionof “only one side’s claims to Jerusalem”.
Reuters
Finnish Social Democrat leader Rinne declares victory in election (Good news)
HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland’s leftist Social Democrat party (SDP) leader Antti Rinne has declared victory in Sunday’s general election, after partial results showed his party winning by a tight margin with 17.8 percent.
The nationalist Finns Party was in second place with 17.6 percent, after more than 97 percent of votes were counted.
“For the first time since 1999 we are the largest party in Finland ... SDP is the prime minister party,” Rinne said.
Reuters
Iraq unearths mass grave of Kurds killed by Saddam
SAMAWA, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq must never forget Saddam Hussein’s crimes or allow his party to return, President Barham Salih said on Sunday after attending the unearthing of a mass grave of Kurds killed by the former leader’s forces three decades ago.
The grave, found in the desert about 170 km (106 miles) west of the city of Samawa, contained the remains of dozens of Kurds made to “disappear” by Saddam’s forces, Salih’s office said.
They were among up to 180,000 people who may have been killed during Saddam’s “Anfal” campaign that targeted Iraqi Kurds in the late 1980s when chemical gas was used, villages were razed and thousands of Kurds were forced into camps.
“He killed them because they did not accept the continuation of this regime, because they wanted to live a free and dignified life,” Salih, a Kurd, told a news conference at the grave site. “He brought them to Samawa to bury them but our people in Samawa embraced them,” Salih added. Iraq’s southern provinces are predominantly inhabited by Shi’ite Arabs, who also suffered oppression and mass killings under Saddam, a Sunni Arab.
Raw Story
Top Democrat demands ‘boss of everybody’ Stephen Miller appear before Congress and explain the chaos he is creating
Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) was sharply critical of President Donald Trump adviser Stephen Miller for creating chaos at the border with his immigration policies.
Speaking with host Jake Tapper, Nadler scorched Miller for Trump’s declaration that he would start dumping immigrants in sanctuary cities, saying the Trump aide needs to appear before Congress and explain what exactly the administration is attempting to accomplish.
“If someone requests asylum, there should be a place for that person to stay while that request is adjudicated,” Nadler began. “Nor is it right for the president to use immigrants or people claiming political asylum as pawns in a fight against political opponents. He shouldn’t use them as what he imagines as retribution to political opponents in various areas — it’s another misuse of presidential power against the law.”
“We heard several weeks ago from whistle-blowers that Stephen Miller proposed this before we heard about it from any other source,” he continued, his voice rising. “Probably Stephen Miller, who seems to be the boss of everybody on immigration, ought to come before Congress and explain some of these policies.”
Buzzfeed
A Pilot's Death Was Likely Caused By His Large Dog In The Plane's Passenger Seat
Federal investigators believe that a small plane crash in 2017 that killed a pilot was likely caused by the pilot's decision to fly with his large dog in the two-seat plane.
The 90-year-old pilot, Jerry Naylor, was flying a light sport airplane with his dog sitting in the right passenger seat when the plane crashed in a cornfield while landing at a Monticello, Iowa, airport. Naylor died in the in July 2017 crash, and his dog survived.
Naylor's son, David Naylor, told investigators that his dad loved to fly with his dog — a female labradoodle.
David said that the dog had behaved very well during previous flights. On a couple of occasions, the dog had moved her paws to his father's lap when the airplane neared an aerodynamic stall — which is when the plane stalls after a steep climb — David told investigators.
David said his father did not have any medical concerns and that he routinely flew the light sport airplane with his dog.
Washington Post
Officials urge caution as storm warnings hit region
The storm system that sowed death and destruction across the South earlier in the weekend plowed toward the Washington region Sunday, with a first wave that prompted tornado warnings and a potential second wave that stoked even greater fears.
For about 15 minutes on Sunday evening, the National Weather Service placed parts of Frederick County and nearby Maryland jurisdictions under a tornado warning.
Before it expired at 6:45 p.m., it gained considerable attention.
Citing the warning, issued for an area around Urbana in Frederick County, one on-air forecaster urged via Twitter: “GO TO BASEMENT NOW!”
Warnings call for action. They usually are issued after a tornado has been spotted by eye or radar.
Even before the warning was issued, most of the Washington region, including the District, was placed under a tornado watch. Tornado watches mean conditions are favorable for thunderstorms that can produce tornadoes.
The Guardian
Man sues parents for throwing out porn collection
An Indiana man is suing his parents for getting rid of his vast pornography collection, which he estimates was worth $29,000.
The 40-year-old man last week filed a lawsuit in federal court in Michigan, where he moved in with his parents in 2016 following a divorce.
He says that when he moved out 10 months later, they delivered his things to his new home in Muncie, Indiana, but that his 12 boxes of pornographic films and magazines were missing. His parents admit they dumped the porn, which included titles such as Frisky Business and Big Bad Grannys [sic].
The man filed a complaint with police but the Ottawa county prosecutor declined to press charges. The lawsuit includes an email excerpt from the man’s father, who told his son, “I did you a big favour by getting rid of all this stuff.”
The man is seeking triple financial damages of roughly $87,000.