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.
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Chicago Sun-Times: Northwestern community, Evanston residents react to firing of football coach Pat Fitzgerald amid hazing allegations by Jacqueline Germain
Northwestern University students on Tuesday generally agreed with the firing of football coach Pat Fitzgerald amid hazing allegations that continue to rock the football team and campus community.
Fitzgerald was initially suspended for two weeks without pay by university President Michael Schill. After the Daily Northwestern student newspaper reported details of the alleged hazing, Schill said he ‘‘may have erred’’ with the punishment and went on to fire Fitzgerald.
Students, meanwhile, are wondering what will happen next, how the football program and culture may be redefined and how the larger conversation surrounding hazing in college athletics might shift.
Malik Rice, 19, from Atlanta, is a rising Northwestern sophomore, studying political science and law. He believes there’s always been a culture of hazing in college athletics, notably football, so he was not too surprised by the allegations.
WESTON, Vt. — Intense flooding across Vermont trapped residents in their homes, washed out roads and set off widespread rescue efforts, a crisis that officials warned would continue at least through the week’s end.
More than 100 people had been rescued statewide by Tuesday morning, while crews on boats and in helicopters searched for others who were stranded in the rural, mountainous state, officials said. Rescuing those who were trapped was expected to take several days, state authorities said, and they feared that more rain starting Thursday could bring further devastation.
Flash floods Monday from heavy rainfall turned to river flooding Tuesday as the rain stopped and rivers across the state rose, including in the state capital, Montpelier, and throughout the Green Mountains. Some surpassed major flood stage at record-breaking levels, and a few dams neared capacity, including in hard-hit Montpelier.
New York Times: Four Pages Found in a Couch Are Ruled Aretha Franklin’s True Will by Ben Sisario and Ryan Patrick Hooper
More than four years of family conflict over the estate of Aretha Franklin ended Tuesday when a Michigan jury decided what her family could not — which of two hand-scrawled wills represented the famed singer’s true wishes for how to divide her estate.
After a two-day trial in a probate court in Pontiac, Mich., a six-person jury decided after less than an hour of deliberation that a four-page document written by Franklin in 2014 — and discovered under a couch cushion at her home, months after Franklin’s 2018 death — should serve as her will.
The verdict resolved the biggest problem that had been hanging over Franklin’s estate, and sets in motion a plan for how income and assets from her estate should be divided.
“We just want to exhale right now,” Kecalf Franklin, one of the singer’s four sons, said outside the courtroom. “It’s been a long five years for my family and my children.”
Guardian: Trump not entitled to immunity in Carroll defamation lawsuit, DoJ says by David Smith
The justice department has reversed its position on defending Donald Trumpin a lawsuit brought by the writer E Jean Carroll, paving the way for a possible trial in January.
The department said in a court filing on Tuesday that it could no longer conclude Trump was acting in his capacity as president when he made allegedly defamatory statements about Carroll in 2019.
The former Elle magazine columnist alleges that she was sexually assaulted by Trump in a New York department store in 1996, a claim that he dismissed as “a complete con job”.
Carroll, 79, has already won a second case against Trump over comments he made after he left the White House. In May, a New York jury found that Trump was liable for sexual abuse and defamation, and ordered him to pay her $5m in damages.
CNN: Georgia grand jury handling potential indictments in Trump 2020 probe is sworn in by Marshall Cohen and Maxime Tamsett
Atlanta (CNN) — The Georgia grand jury that is expected to consider charges against former President
Donald Trump and his Republican allies for trying to overturn the 2020 election was sworn in Tuesday after a three-hour selection process in Atlanta.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, an elected Democrat, launched the investigation in early 2021 after Trump tried to overturn his defeat in the Peach State with a public and private pressure campaign targeting Georgia election officials, the governor, lawmakers and prosecutors.
A special grand jury previously heard testimony from 75 witnesses, including Trump advisers, his former attorneys, White House aides, and Georgia officials. That panel issued a redacted report with charging recommendations, which will soon be weighed by the new grand jury, potentially as soon as next month.
Two grand jury panels were picked Tuesday at the Fulton County Superior Court. Each panel includes 26 participants: 23 grand jurors and three alternates. These grand juries will meet separately, twice a week, for two months.
BBC News: Nato summit: Allies refuse to give Ukraine timeframe on joining by James Landale and James Gregory
Nato states have said Ukraine can join the military alliance "when allies agree and conditions are met" after President Volodymyr Zelensky criticised the "absurd" delay to accession.
In a communique, Nato said it recognised the need to move faster but would not be drawn on a timeframe.
Earlier Mr Zelensky said there seemed to be "no readiness" to invite Ukraine to Nato or make it a member.
He is now in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, where the summit is happening.
Kyiv accepts it cannot join Nato while it is at war with Russia but wants to join as soon as possible after fighting ends.
But Mr Zelensky, tweeting before Mr Stoltenberg's comments, said that the lack of an agreed timeframe meant his country's eventual membership could become a bargaining chip.
DW: Japan, South Korea report North Korean missile launch
Japanese and South Korean officials reported a potential ballistic missile launch from North Korea on Wednesday morning.
"North Korea fired an unidentified ballistic missile into the East Sea," South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said, referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.
Japan's Coast Guard and Defense Ministry made similar statements.
The Japanese Coast Guard said the missile appeared likely to land about 550km (340 miles) east of the Korean peninsula at around 11:13 a.m. local time (0213 UTC).
The South Korean military said that it was a long range missile.
AlJazeera: Thousands mourn Srebrenica victims as tensions mount in Bosnia
The remains of 30 victims of the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been laid to rest as thousands of people commemorated its anniversary against a backdrop of surging tensions.
Twenty-eight years after they were murdered, 27 men and three teenage boys only recently identified through DNA analysis were buried at a vast and ever-expanding cemetery just outside Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia on Tuesday.
Relatives of the victims can bury only partial remains of their loved ones because they are typically found scattered over several mass graves. Such was the case for Mirsada Merdzic, who buried her father on Tuesday.
“Only very few bones of his were retrieved because he had been found [in a mass grave] near the Drina River,” she said while huddling next to a casket shrouded in a green burial cloth. “Maybe the river washed him away.”
Everyone have the best possible evening!