Welcome to Overnight News Digest where the usual crew, consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Man Oh Man, side pocket, rfall, and JML9999, alumni editors palantir, Bentliberal, Oke, Interceptor7, jlms qkw, and ScottyUrb, guest editors annetteboardman and Doctor RJ, and current editor-in-chief Neon Vincent, along with anyone else who reads and comments, informs and entertains you with tonight's news. 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 12:00AM Eastern Time.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
From the A.V. Club: Luke Skywalker has a question in newly revealed Last Jedi footage
“Who are you?” According to reports from a meeting of Disney shareholders, these are the first words spoken onscreen by Luke Skywalker in more than three decades. (In a canonical Star Wars film, that its. Skywalker has presumably not been under a gag order in the many Star Wars parodies and fan films produced in the time since Return Of The Jedi.) As reported by the Los Angeles Times’ Daniel Miller, Luke’s query to Rey (Daisy Ridley) was one of several snippets of Star Wars Episode VIII—The Last Jedi screened for shareholders today, footage that also included glimpses of Chewbacca, General Leia Organa, Finn, an X-Wing that’s seen better days, and the environmentally diverse landscapes of a galaxy far, far away.
From The Huffington Post: Mark Hamill Returns As Donald Trump The Joker To Read Wiretap Tweets
In a new audio clip, the “Star Wars” star read the president’s baseless claims that former President Barack Obama had ordered wiretaps on Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign. Hamill performed the tweets in the style of the Caped Crusader’s arch-enemy “The Joker.”
It’s the character that Hamill himself voiced in the animated Batman series.
From the Boston Globe: American women go on strike to highlight their clout
American women stayed home from work, zipped up their wallets, wore red and joined rallies across the country to demonstrate their economic clout Wednesday as part of International Women’s Day events around the globe.
The Day Without a Woman protest in the U.S. was put together by organizers of the vast women’s marches that were held coast-to-coast the day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
About 1,000 people gathered on Fifth Avenue in the shadow of New York’s Trump Tower to demonstrate on International Women’s Day.
Women dressed in red waved hand-made signs with messages that included: ‘‘Resist like a girl.’’
From Entertainment Weekly: This Week's Cover: Thor gets a makeover in Ragnarok first look
Sometimes even superheroes need makeovers. And let’s face it: Thor’s hair was always a little too Nelson-circa-1990. So in Thor: Ragnarok, out Nov. 3, audiences will see the Norse god get his signature blond locks shorn. “It was nice not to have to sit in the makeup chair for that hour each morning,” Chris Hemsworth says. “It felt like a rebirth for me as the actor but also as the character.”
Marvel’s third solo outing for Thor is a fresh start in more than just follicular ways. “I have a belief that if you’re lucky enough to get to part 3 of a franchise, it is your obligation not to fall to threequel-itis,” says Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige. The latest entry finds Thor battling not only the Goddess of Death, Hela (Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett), but also his frenemy the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) when the pair find themselves on a desolate planet called Sakaar.
When Hela is accidentally unleashed from her prison, she is not psyched. “She’s been locked away for millennia getting more and more cross, and then, with a mistake, she gets unleashed and she ain’t getting back in that box,” says Blanchett, who worked with legendary stuntwoman Zoë Bell (Grindhouse) and learned the Brazilian martial art capoeira to prep for the role. Her attack on Thor sends him to Sakaar where he is forced to become a gladiator and realizes he’s no longer super special. “[Sakaar is] basically where every wormhole across the universe dumps out its trash, so you get people from all walks of life with all sorts of incredible abilities and powers,” Hemsworth explains. “No one cares what prince or king Thor may have been in another world. Also, his strength is pretty easily matched with those he finds himself amongst.” Case in point: Sakaar’s most successful (and popular) fighter is The Hulk.
From the New York Times: C.I.A. Scrambles to Contain Damage From WikiLeaks Documents
The C.I.A. scrambled on Wednesday to assess and contain the damage from the release by WikiLeaks of thousands of documents that cataloged the agency’s cyberspying capabilities, temporarily halting work on some projects while the F.B.I. turned to finding who was responsible for the leak.
Investigators say that the leak was the work not of a hostile foreign power like Russia but of a disaffected insider, as WikiLeaks suggested when it released the documents Tuesday. The F.B.I. was preparing to interview anyone who had access to the information, a group likely to include at least a few hundred people, and possibly more than a thousand.
An intelligence official said the information, much of which appeared to be technical documents, may have come from a server outside the C.I.A. managed by a contractor. But neither he nor a former senior intelligence official ruled out the possibility that the leaker was a C.I.A. employee.
From the Washington Post: Doctors, hospitals and insurers oppose Republican health plan
Major associations representing physicians, hospitals, insurers and seniors all leveled sharp attacks against the House GOP’s plan to rewrite the Affordable Care Act on Wednesday, as some Republicans publicly questioned whether the measure can clear the House of Representatives.
While industry groups warned that the proposal could leave vulnerable Americans with fewer protections than they now have, GOP leaders pressed ahead, bringing legislation before two key committees that are expected to approve the bills by week’s end. They were also working in concert with the White House to win over conservatives, who have complained that the proposal preserves too much of the current law.
The flurry of activity — including an evening meeting between President Trump and leaders from five skeptical conservative groups — created new uncertainty about the viability of Republicans’ signature promise to repeal and replace Obamacare.
From Lifehacker: Here’s How Many iPhones You’ll Need to Not Buy in Order to Afford Health Care
Yesterday, House Republicans released their replacement for the Affordable Care Act. And today, Representative Jason Chaffetz said that people could afford the bill’s more expensive premiums by choosing to “invest in their own health care” rather than buying the latest iPhone.
If the bill becomes law, a lot of people would get less generous subsidies to help them afford insurance. On the other hand, we would all be allowed to save more of our own money in a Health Savings Account. That’s nice, but it’s no substitute for insurance. Here’s how Chaffetz sees us coming up with the money to invest:
Americans have choices, and they’ve got to make a choice. So rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and want to go spend hundreds of dollars on that, maybe they should invest in their own health care.
Nevermind that smartphones are especially important for lower-income folks as a way to find jobs and do other essential tasks. Let’s say we’re all buying so many shiny new iPhones that we can forgo a few of them to afford our health care. Here’s how many you’ll need to not buy ...
From Vulture: The First Poster for Game of Thrones Season 7 Delivers Fire and Ice
As Spring arrives, HBO is here to remind you that winter is most definitely coming, and it’s going to hit hard. The first post for Game of Thrones season 7 has been unveiled in advance of a of SXSW panel in which showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss will join cool best friends Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner to dish about Westeros for festival attendees. There isn’t much going on in this first piece of key art, but it does give us ice and fire, tipping off the epic clash that is posed to ensue between the Night King and the Mother of Dragons.
From Kotaku: Ask Dr. NerdLove: I Cheated And My Husband Might Never Forgive Me
Hey Doc,
Long time reader, first time desperate emailer.
In the third year of my marriage to my husband, I slept with his best friend. It wasn’t emotional. It happened once and was a culmination of several factors (finding my worth through the male gaze, thinking that I needed to test his love for me by hurting them, several other small reasons that don’t really matter in the end). I told my husband a day or two later. We stopped communicating with his friend but my husband stayed with me.
Fast forward to present day- we’re on our 13th year of marriage, have a 7 year old son, and a nice, comfortable, loving life together. I can say without hesitation that we are BOTH very happy with each other.
Recently I’ve been trying to lose weight but keep emotionally self-blocking/sabotaging my efforts. While talking with a friend to work out the whys I hit upon the fact that I was afraid that if I lost weight and started feeling good about myself I would be tempted to cheat again. I also realized that as the circumstances that led to the cheating are changed (and, more importantly, I myself have as well) I could confidently say that it wouldn’t ever happen again no matter the circumstances. It was a revelation to me that I was not the same person I was back then and in my excitement at my insight I told him all this. We tell each other everything so it seemed like the most natural thing.
He accepted this information with a sort of... angry amusement. He told me that A) every year in the ‘anniversary month’ of my cheating he becomes very angry with me and, looking back, I remember Octobers being a tough month for us but never really registering that it’s a yearly occurrence. I did know that in our worst fights I could see the unspoken anger at my betrayal in his eyes which he also confirmed. B) He says that he still hates his former friend with a depth of anger and force that is rare for my sweet, goofy husband. I pointed out that I, as his wife who made a vow to him, am the worse of the two and that it seemed unfair to hate a friend for sleeping with his wife and not hate the wife. He agreed that it was strange but simply said that’s how he felt.
I feel like, given his reaction, he hasn’t moved on. I understand we can’t go back to how it was before but at the same time, I’d like to do what I can to lessen his hurt. I’d thought time would help at least a little with that, but apparently I was wrong. Is there anything I can do to help him or should I just leave it alone?
Thanks,
13 Years
From /Film: ‘Love Actually 2’ First Look: Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Rowan Atkinson & More Are Back
Last month, the day after Valentine’s Day, we learned that the ensemble romantic comedy Love Actually was getting a sequel. Sort of. Instead of being a feature film reunion, the cast of the film from director Richard Curtis was reuniting for a short film in honor of the charitable initiative by Comic Relief known as Red Nose Day.
The Love Actually sequel is called Red Nose Day Actually, and the short is in production right now and will debut later this month on TV. For those who can’t wait to get a glimpse of the sequel, Red Nose Day program director Emma Freud has been on set, and she’s revealed out first look at the returning cast. There’s Hugh Grant, who is still Prime Minister and still married to the lovely Martine McCutcheon, Liam Neeson and his much older son played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster, and Rowan Atkinson who is still taking his sweet time at the check out counter.