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: Chicago’s ‘bikeability’ is behind the curve in recent cycling studies by Kaitlin Washburn
Chicago has work to do to make its city streets more friendly to cyclists, according to two recent studies of how accessible cities are by bike.
One of the studies ranked 50 U.S. cities by their “bikeability” and put Chicago in the middle of the pack.
Chicago ranked 20th in the report published last month by Clever, a real estate website. Minneapolis came in first place, followed by Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco. The least bike-friendly city was Memphis, Tennessee.
The metrics Clever used to rank the cities included how “bikeable” the metro area is based on Walk Score’s bike score, the ratio of bike trails, bike shops, bike rental shops and bike shares per 100,000 residents; how many cyclists were involved in fatal car crashes in 2021 and the percentage of bike commuters.
New York Times: Ohio Voters Reject Constitutional Change Intended to Thwart Abortion Amendment by Michael Wines
Ohio voters rejected a bid on Tuesday to make it harder to amend the State Constitution, according to The Associated Press, a significant victory for abortion-rights supporters trying to stop the Republican-controlled State Legislature from severely restricting the procedure.
The abortion question turned what would normally be a sleepy summer election in an off year into a highly visible dogfight that took on national importance and drew an uncharacteristically high number of Ohio voters for an August election.
Initial results showed the measure losing by a roughly 3 to 2 margin.
The contest was seen as a major test of growing efforts by Republicans nationwide to curb voters’ use of ballot initiatives, and a potential bellwether of the political climate in next year’s national elections.
Washington Post: The $5 trillion pandemic safety net changed lives. Now it’s over. by Kyle Swenson
Brittany Irick had been living in the shelter now for 188 days, squeezed into a bedroom with her two little boys and sharing a shower, kitchen and laundry room with strangers.
Now she sat alone in her unit’s shared common room at Martin’s House and Barn in Ridgley, Md. The overhead lights were off. She could hear her boys — 5 and 10 — playing from behind the closed bedroom door. It was too hot to be outside. She worried the heat might be triggering her youngest son’s asthma, but Irick knew changing the thermostat meant navigating the preferences of the other nine adults and 14 children who called the shelter home.
Hearing another cough, Irick considered — and not for the first time — that one more day here was more than she could handle.
The 28-year-old scrolled her phone for the numbers that the staff had sent her for potential apartments. Dialing, she considered the half-dozen she had toured or submitted applications for in the last week.
NBC News: Supreme Court allows Biden to regulate ‘ghost guns by Lawrence Hurley
A divided Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Biden administration to enforce regulations to clamp down on so-called ghost guns — firearm-making kits available online that people can assemble at home.
The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, in a brief order put on hold a July 5 ruling by a federal judge in Texas that blocked the regulations nationwide.
The vote was 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts and fellow conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining the three liberal justices in the majority.
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, commonly known as ATF, issued the regulations last year to tackle what it claims has been an abrupt increase in the availability of ghost guns. The guns are difficult for law enforcement to trace, with the administration calling them a major threat to public safety.
Guardian: Brazilian president Lula pledges ‘new Amazon dream’ at rainforest summit by Tom Phillips
The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has vowed to haul the Amazon out of centuries of violence, economic “plundering” and environmental devastation and into “a new Amazon dream”, at the start of a major regional summit on the world’s largest rainforest.
Addressing South American leaders gathered in the Brazilian city of Belém, Lula offered a bold blueprint for the future of the Amazon, a 6.7m sq km region that is home to nearly 50 million people spread across eight countries and one territory.
The Brazilian leftist promised to repair his country’s environmental and international reputation after four “disastrous” years under his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, during which the rainforest and Indigenous communities came under growing attack. “Thankfully … we have managed to
turn this sad page in our history,” said Lula, who took power in January after thwarting Bolsonaro’s re-election plans.
AlJazeera: Italy shocks banks with 40 percent windfall tax for 2023
Italy has dealt a surprise blow to its banks and sent shock waves across the sector in Europe by setting a one-off 40 percent tax on profits reaped from higher interest rates, after reprimanding lenders for failing to reward deposits.
Sharply higher official interest rates have yielded record profits for banks, as the cost of loans has soared while lenders have held off paying more on deposits.
Countries such as Spain and Hungary have already imposed windfall taxes on the sector and others may now follow suit.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government floated the idea earlier in the year, but appeared to have cooled on the plan.
A senior banking executive said lenders had been ready for “the chopping block, but then the axe didn’t come down”.
BBC News: Portugal battles wildfires amid third heatwave of the year by Christy Cooney & Alison Roberts
Firefighters in Portugal are battling to contain wildfires engulfing thousands of hectares amid soaring temperatures.
Around 800 personnel attended a fire near the southern town of Odemira overnight on Monday, with more than 1,400 people having to evacuate.
At least nine firefighters have been injured tackling the fires.
Temperatures in excess of 40C (104F) are expected to hit much of the Iberian peninsula this week.
Three major fires that scorched hundreds of hectares in Spain over the weekend have been brought under control, but weather alerts remain in place across much of the country.
In Portugal, Monday saw a temperature of 46.4C (116F), the hottest of the year so far, recorded in Santarém.
Everyone have the best possible evening!