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.
BBC
Sudan crisis: Chaos at port as thousands rush to leave
Port Sudan is rapidly becoming a crucial hub in the midst of Sudan's violence. The BBC's Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet joined the latest evacuation mission to Jeddah.
In the dead of night, as HMS Al Diriyah approached Sudan's coast, Saudi officers flicked on sweeping search lights to secure safe passage for their warship into a harbour rapidly transforming into a major evacuation and humanitarian hub in Sudan's deepening crisis.
Even at 2am two other hulking vessels were also anchored offshore at Port Sudan, its largest port, waiting their turn in this international rescue effort.
"I feel so relieved but also so sad to be part of this history," Hassan Faraz from Pakistan told us, visibly shaken.
Many fear there is no way out. Port Sudan is packed with people who have less lucky passports, including Yemenis, Syrians and Sudanese.
Some 3,000 Yemenis, mainly students, have been stuck for weeks in Port Sudan. "The Saudis are rescuing some Yemenis but they're nervous about accepting large numbers," admitted a security adviser trying to help them find a way back to their own war-torn country.
BBC
Ludhiana gas: Mystery leak kills 11 in Indian city
At least 11 people have died following a gas leak in northern India.
Women and children are among those who died in the port city of Ludhiana in Punjab state. Several people were found unconscious in their homes.
The area was sealed off and residents were evacuated after many reported breathing difficulties. Four are being treated in hospital.
The source of the leak is not clear so far. One official suggested that gas may have spread from manholes.
PTI news agency quotes Ludhiana Deputy Commissioner Surabhi Malik as saying: "We are going to collect samples from manholes. It is quite likely that some chemical reacted with methane in manholes."
Rajinder Pal Kaur Chhina, a local legislator, told Reuters news agency that the incident had happened near a milk shop. "People who came to buy milk in the morning, fell unconscious outside," she said.
NPR
Authorities are offering $80K for information about the suspected Texas shooter
Authorities in southeast Texas are offering a $80,000 reward for any tips that lead to the capture of 38-year-old Francisco Oropesa, who police say shot five people to death in a home early Saturday morning and then fled the scene.
During a press briefing on Sunday afternoon, law enforcement officials said they had no leads on Oropesa's whereabouts but that more than 250 officerswere working to track him down.
"We're asking everyone for your help so we can bring this suspect — or this monster, I will call him — to justice," said FBI Houston special agent in charge James Smith.
Smith said investigators didn't have any tips about Oropesa's location and didn't know whether he was still in the area. "Right now we're running into dead ends," he said.
NPR
Pranksters posing as Ukraine's president tricked the Fed chair into a phone call
WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chairperson Jerome Powell was tricked into an extended phone call in January with Russian pranksters posing as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during which Powell appeared to discuss the economic impact of interest rate hikes.
Videos of the phone call have been posted on social media. In one clip, Powell says a "recession is almost as likely as very slow growth" this year. Powell has said before that the Fed's rapid series of rate hikes in the past year would slow the economy and even potentially cause a recession.
A spokesperson for the Federal Reserve said "the video appears to have been edited, and I cannot confirm it is accurate."
"Chair Powell participated in a conversation in January with someone who misrepresented himself as the Ukrainian president," the spokesperson said.
The Guardian
Japan approves abortion pill for the first time
The abortion pill is to become available in Japan for the first time after the health ministry approved a drug used to terminate early-stage pregnancies.
Abortion is legal in Japan up to 22 weeks, but consent is usually required from a spouse or partner, and until now a surgical procedure had been the only option.
The ministry said in a notification to healthcare officials on Friday it had approved a drug made by Linepharma.
The British pharmaceutical company filed its product, a two-step treatment of mifepristone and misoprostol, for approval in Japan in December 2021.
Similar medication is available in many countries including France, which first approved the abortion pill in 1988, and the US, where it has been available since 2000. The approval of the pill to end pregnancies up to nine weeks follows a ministry panel endorsement, which was postponed for a month as thousands of public submissions were made.
The Guardian
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ‘not planning’ to run for Senate seat in 2024
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will not run for a seat in the US Senate next year, according to her office, clearing the way for incumbent New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat, to run for re-election unopposed by the progressive congresswoman.
“She is not planning to run for Senate in 2024. She is not planning to primary Gillibrand,” Lauren Hitt, Ocasio-Cortez’s spokesperson, told Politico.
Gillibrand, who launched her re-election campaign in January for a third Senate term, was widely believed to be facing a number of potential challengers in the state primary, including Ocasio-Cortez.
The announcement follows indications from other New York progressives, including Mondaire Jones and representatives Jamaal Bowman and Ritchie Torres, that they are not considering a challenge.
New York Democrats were hit hard in the midterm elections last year and the loss of four seats to Republican candidates is widely blamed for the party losing control of Congress. Avoiding an acrimonious challenge from the progressive wing of the party, and concentrating on recovering the 2022 losses, is considered to be Democrats’ political priority.
Al Jazeera
Erdogan says Turkey has killed suspected ISIL leader
Turkish intelligence forces have killed the suspected leader of the ISIL (ISIS) group, Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced.
Erdogan said Turkish intelligence had been monitoring the alleged leader of the hardline group for a long time before launching their operation.
“This individual was neutralised as part of an operation by the Turkish national intelligence organisation in Syria yesterday,” Erdogan said in an interview with TRT Turk broadcaster on Sunday.
“We will continue our struggle with terrorist organisations without any discrimination,” the president added.
Syrian local and security sources said the raid took place near the northern Syrian town of Jinderes, which is controlled by Turkey-backed rebel groups and was among the worst-affected areas in the February 6 earthquake that hit both Turkey and Syria.
There was no announcement from ISIL (ISIS). The Syrian National Army, an opposition faction with a security presence in the area, did not immediately issue any comment.
Deutsche Welle
The World Wide Web turns 30
1989 was a year of revolutions. While in Germany the wall was coming down, another history-making development was taking place inside the mind of a man called Tim Berners-Lee.
The British physicist at the renowned CERN research institute in Geneva, Switzerland, was bothered by the infamous communications chaos between various institutes and projects at CERN.
The 34-year-old wrote out a summary of his idea for a solution. "Vague, but exciting," was the response of his boss at the time.
Too vague, apparently — and so at first, nothing happened. But Berners-Lee kept working on his idea. And slowly, the individual components of what would become the World Wide Web took shape: URLs for web addresses had to be created, HTML to describe the pages as well as the first web browser.
The result was revealed to the global public exactly 30 years ago: On April 30, 1993, the researchers at CERN launched the World Wide Web and it was the beginning of the stellar rise of the internet.
And now, the next stage of the internet is starting to emerge — artificial intelligence (AI).
Just a few months ago, AI chatbot ChatGPT launched a flurry of discussion and debate. As the internet turns 30, AI could be the thing to shape its future.
"As an AI-based language model, I can't say with certainty whether ChatGPT is the future of the internet, because the future of the internet depends on many factors and is constantly changing," the software said of itself when asked by DW.
Reuters
Air defence systems repelling Russian missile attacks in Kyiv region, officials say
May 1 (Reuters) - Air defence systems were repelling missile attacks in the early hours on Monday in the Kyiv region, local authorities said, after air raid alerts were issued throughout all of Ukraine by emergency services.
"Air defences are at work!" Kyiv's regional administration wrote on the Telegram messaging app, after reports of explosions heard in the region.
"Keep calm! Stay in shelters until the air alarm goes off!"
Ukrainian media also reported blasts in the Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy regions.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the reports ot blasts.
L A Times
Projected losses from a major California earthquake soar. What’s behind seismic inflation? SAN FRANCISCO —
The expected annual cost from earthquake damage for California is climbing sharply amid an increase in property values and better understanding of how soft soils could result in greater damage during shaking.
California is projected to lose an average of $9.6 billion a year from earthquake damage, the new estimates show. That’s a 157% increase from the last estimate, in 2017, when the price tag was $3.7 billion a year, according to a new report from the U.S. Geological Survey and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“In any given year a big earthquake strikes ... you can easily anticipate a $100-billion loss,” USGS research structural engineer Kishor Jaiswal, the principal investigator for the report, told The Times.
According to the new report, Los Angeles and Orange counties share the highest price tag of any metro area in the nation, with a combined projected average annual loss of $3.3 billion a year. In second place is the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley metro area, with a projected loss of $1.8 billion a year.