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, sometimes09OP0az 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.
We begin with the Orca War, with this from Vice:
Humans want to see the whales fight back, but scientists say they're probably not in their revenge era, or "orcanizing" after all.
Orcas are acting weird. Off the coast of Gibraltar, sailors say they’re “attacking” sailboats—specifically, slamming the sides of boats and pulling off rudders—rendering the vessels helpless in the water. Around U.S. shores, they’re showing up in unusual numbers this summer in Monterey Bay and off the coast of Nantucket.
All of this has Instagram’s most prolific Canva slideshow artists and ecosocialist Twitter meme accounts very excited, and it’s an appealing idea: At first glance, nature sure does seem to be fighting back, defending itself after decades of abuse by the shipping, fishing, and military industries. Killer whales have a lot to be bitter about, and few humans would fault them for plotting revenge.
And from the Washington Post (video):
Orca attacks near the Strait of Gibraltar have been on the rise since 2020. One captain who has been attacked twice says the orcas are becoming "more strategic."
And from NBC News:
Welcome to the "orca wars" era of social media.
By Kalhan Rosenblatt
Where were you when the "orca wars" began?
That's the question posed by many on social media after incidents of orcas seemingly attacking and sinking boats were reported off the southwestern tip of Europe in May. Since 2020, interactions between orcas and humans has increased, and despite the alleged attacks on vessels, no human injuries or deaths have been reported.
More below the fold…
From euronews:
The so-called Leopard tanks turned out to be merely farming equipment
Leopard 2 tanks are some of the most advanced and powerful military vehicles out there. Dozens have been provided by NATO countries to help Ukraine.
Did Russia recently destroy eight German-made Leopard tanks while Ukraine carries out a counteroffensive?
That’s what the Ministry of Defence in Moscow announced, claiming a grainy black-and-white video as proof.
From Al Jazeera:
The Russian president touted his country’s resilient economy despite sanctions and said Ukraine’s forces stood ‘no chance’ of winning the war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has praised his country’s economic strength despite the imposition of tough international sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine, called Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “disgrace” to the Jewish people and said Kyiv had no chance of winning the war.
From France24:
The Louvre in Paris is hosting some of Ukraine’s most treasured works of art that were secretly evacuated from Kyiv to shield them from the war. Their exhibition at the world’s best-known museum highlights the role played by culture and heritage as Ukraine resists Russian attempts to deny both its past and present.
From the BBC:
Russia has already stationed a first batch of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Vladimir Putin says.
Russia's president told a forum they would only be used if Russia's territory or state was threatened.
The US government says there is no indication the Kremlin plans to use nuclear weapons to attack Ukraine.
From CBS News:
At least 78 people have died after a ship carrying hundreds of migrants capsized off the Greek coast. Reports suggest there could have been between 400 and 750 people on board. Greek authorities have now arrested nine Egyptian nationals in connection with the illegal voyage. The BBC's Sofia Bettiza has the latest.
From the NY Times:
When the party of the country’s political rock star, former Prime Minister Sanna Marin, lost in April, a center-right party’s power rose.
Finland’s main conservative party announced a new coalition government on Friday after weeks of negotiations, in a deal that moves the country firmly to the right and follows a pattern of similar political shifts elsewhere in Europe.
Petteri Orpo, leader of the center-right National Coalition Party, would become prime minister under the coalition, which includes the right-wing nationalist Finns Party.
From CNBC:
Key Points
- The Bonn Climate Change Conference, which wrapped late Thursday, prepares decisions for adoption at the COP28 summit in the United Arab Emirates later this year.
- For many at the two-week-long event, the lack of progress on issues such as climate finance and the pace of carbon pollution cuts left much to be desired.
- U.N. Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell nevertheless struck an optimistic tone about the potential for progress in the coming months.
From The Guardian:
Wooden artefacts dating from 15th century and bought from indigenous people were treated with pesticides while in museum
Germany has returned two wooden masks of the indigenous Kogi community to Colombia but conceded that wearing the sacred artefacts in ceremonies may come with a health risk because they were treated with toxic pesticides during their time in German museums.
The masks, which date back to the mid-15th century and have been held in ethnological collections in Berlin for over a century, were handed over to Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, by his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier at a ceremony in Berlin on Friday.
From CNN:
Jack Guy and Nadine Schmidt
Archaeologists have found an octagonal sword dating from more than 3,000 years ago at a burial site in the state of Bavaria, southern Germany.
The sword is so well preserved that it still gleams, according to a statement from the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments.
From the NYTimes:
Fifty million cubic feet of rock came to rest just shy of Brienz and its schoolhouse.
After decades of threatening to tear off and plummet down the slope, obliterating the homes below, the mountainside near the village of Brienz, in central Switzerland, finally collapsed. Geologists had predicted in May that the long-feared landslide was imminent, and the authorities evacuated the village’s roughly 85 residents. On Friday, the experts were proved right: A portion of the mountain gave way.
From euronews:
By Jorge Liboreiro
Germany and France, the largest economies of the European Union, continue to be at odds over the reform of the bloc's fiscal rules.
Berlin is rallying allies to push for uniform standards that can improve compliance while Paris advocates flexibility to give highly indebted countries greater room for manoeuvre.
Under current rules, member states are required to keep their budget deficits under 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) and their public debt levels below 60% in relation to GDP — thresholds that many governments exceed after years of intense spending to cushion a succession of overlapping crises.
From The Local (France):
A rare 5.8 magnitude earthquake hit large parts of western France on Friday evening, with the seismology bureau BCSF calling it "very strong" amid reports of damage to buildings.