Stories tonight:
- Deadly street protests over Iran water shortages
- Afghanistan curfew imposed as Taliban militants advance
- Record-Breaking Flooding In China Has Left Over One Million People Displaced
- Tunisia president sacks government, sparking jubilation on streets
- Fauci says health officials considering mask guidance revision for vaccinated
- Kidnappers release another 28 abducted children in Nigeria
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India monsoon death toll rises as search for missing continues
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Italy: Wildfires rage through Sardinia, forcing evacuations
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Cars, pavements washed away as Belgian town hit by worst floods in decades
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U.S. General Won’t Commit to Ending Airstrikes on Taliban
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Temporary or not, inflation is rattling restaurants and broader economy
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 Rise above the swamp. . 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.
Since 2007 the OND has been 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
Deadly street protests over Iran water shortages
Security forces in Iran's southwest Khuzestan province have been firing bullets at people protesting due to severe water shortages.
The shortages are happening in one of the country's hottest regions, where temperatures can reach 50 degrees Celsius.
Iran has called claims of a crackdown on protesters, by the UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet, "false accusations".
But the protests have developed into dissent against the government, the country's Supreme Leader and have spread to different cities.
BBC
Afghanistan curfew imposed as Taliban militants advance
The Afghan government imposed a month-long curfew across almost all of the country on Saturday in a bid to stop the Taliban from invading cities.
Fighting between the Taliban and Afghan government forces has increased over the past two months as international troops pull out of the country.
The militant group is thought to have captured up to half of all territory.
As US forces have withdrawn, the Taliban has made rapid gains, retaking border crossings and rural areas.
There are concerns that with peace talks moving slowly, the focus of fighting will increasingly turn to more heavily populated urban centres.
That has prompted a top American commander to say the US will continue carrying out airstrikes in support of Afghan troops. General Kenneth MacKenzie said a Taliban victory was not inevitable.
But he did not say if the strikes would continue beyond the end of the US military mission on 31 August.
NPR
Record-Breaking Flooding In China Has Left Over One Million People Displaced
XINXIANG, China — First the sky darkened. Then came the rain — for three straight days.
Inside her restaurant, Wang Ana barricaded the doors in an effort to stop water from seeping in. When that didn't work, she grabbed her young son and a broom handle, using it to steady the two of them as they waded through the chin-high floodwaters back home.
"We could only hold on to each other," says Wang, a resident of Zhengzhou, the capital city of central Henan province and home to approximately 12 million people.
Starting last Tuesday, storms dropped the equivalent of one year's worth of water on the city in a 72 hour period before moving northward, flooding large swathes of Henan province in China. Authorities say the rains have displaced more than a million people and at least 63 people dead in what should have been – in theory – once-in-a-thousand-year floods.
Al Jazeera
India monsoon death toll rises as search for missing continues
More than 135 people have died from flooding and landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains in India, with rescuers searching for dozens more missing on Sunday.
The country’s western coast has been inundated by torrential rains since Thursday, with the India Meteorological Department warning of further downpours over the next few days.
In Maharashtra state, 114 people have been killed, including more than 40 in a landslide that hit the hillside village of Taliye, south of Mumbai, on Thursday.
Villager Jayram Mahaske, whose relatives remained trapped, told the AFP news agency that “many people were washed away as they were trying to run away” when the landslide hit.
It flattened dozens of homes in a matter of minutes, leaving just two concrete structures standing and cutting off the power supply, local residents told AFP.
The Guardian
Tunisia president sacks government, sparking jubilation on streets
Tunisian president Kais Saied has suspended parliament and dismissed prime minister Hichem Mechichi after a day of protests against the ruling party brought the country’s political crisis to a head.
Cheering crowds quickly flooded the streets of the capital Tunis after Saied’s announcement on Sunday, celebrating and honking car horns in scenes that recalled the 2011 revolution that brought democracy and triggered the Arab spring protests that convulsed the Middle East.
“We have been relieved of them,” said Lamia Meftahi, a woman celebrating in central Tunis after Saied’s statement, speaking of the parliament and government.
“This is the happiest moment since the revolution,” she added.
State television showed pictures of Saied joining the crowds in the street in central Tunis early on Monday that was celebrating his decision to oust the government.
The Guardian
Fauci says health officials considering mask guidance revision for vaccinated
Anthony Fauci, the White House chief medical adviser, said on Sunday top US health officials were discussing whether to revise mask guidance for Americans vaccinated against Covid-19.
“This is under active consideration,” Fauci told CNN’s State of the Union, though he also emphasized that local governments can issue their own rules under current guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Los Angeles county and St Louis, Missouri, have reinstated indoor mask requirements and other cities are weighing whether to do the same.
After a significant drop in Covid-19 cases because of the national vaccine campaign, infections are rising in all 50 states and Washington DC. The increases are highest in states with large groups of unvaccinated people. More than 610,000 have died from Covid-19 in the US.
Al Jazeera
Kidnappers release another 28 abducted children in Nigeria
Gunmen who seized 121 students at a high school in northwestern Nigeria in early July have released another 28 teenagers, a school official said.
The attackers stormed Bethel Baptist High School in northwestern Kaduna State on July 5, abducting students who were sleeping in their dorms.
The kidnapping was the latest by heavily-armed gangs, known locally as bandits, who have long plagued northwest and central Nigeria by looting, stealing cattle and abducting for ransom, but have lately targeted schools and colleges.
Joseph Hayab, one of the senior officials at Bethel Baptist High School, told AFP news agency on Sunday that 28 students had been released and were reunited with their parents.
“The bandits released them yesterday (Saturday) and we were able to send out church buses to go to where the captors dropped them to pick them up,” he said.
Deutsche Welle
Italy: Wildfires rage through Sardinia, forcing evacuations
Tens of thousands of acres have gone up in flames in what Italian officials called "an unprecedented disaster." Spain and France were also battling wildfires.
Wildfires raged through the Italian island of Sardinia on Sunday, forcing emergency services to evacuate almost hundreds of people from their homes overnight.
Several aircraft have been deployed to put out what the Nuova Sardegna newspaper called an "enormous fire" that has been destroying fields in the island since Saturday.
Firefighters have battled to put out the blaze fanned by southwesterly winds and which, according to authorities, has already ravaged 10,000 acres (4,000 hectares) around the historic central-western area of Montiferru.
The island's governor, Christian Solinas, said around 50,000 acres of vegetation had gone up in flames, destroying several houses and killing animals.
Nearly 1,500 people were evacuated across Sardinia, broadcaster Rai News reported on Sunday.
There were no reports of anyone being killed or injured by the fire.
Reuters
Cars, pavements washed away as Belgian town hit by worst floods in decades
BRUSSELS, July 25 (Reuters) - The southern Belgian town of Dinant was hit by the heaviest floods in decades on Saturday after a two-hour thunderstorm turned streets into torrential streams that washed away cars and pavements but did not kill anyone.
Dinant was spared the deadly floods 10 days ago that killed 37 people in southeast Belgium and many more in Germany, but the violence of Saturday's storm surprised many. "I have been living in Dinant for 57 years, and I've never seen anything like that," Richard Fournaux, the former mayor of the town on the Meuse river and birthplace of the 19th century inventor of the saxophone, Adolphe Sax, said on social media. Rainwater gushing down steep streets swept away dozens of cars, piling them in a heap at a crossing, and washed away cobbles stones, pavements and whole sections of tarmac as inhabitants watched in horror from windows.
New York Times
U.S. General Won’t Commit to Ending Airstrikes on Taliban
KABUL, Afghanistan — The top American general overseeing operations in Afghanistan declined to say Sunday night whether U.S. airstrikes against the Taliban would end Aug. 31, the date previously given by officials as a cutoff for such attacks.
Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the head of United States Central Command, refused to commit to ending the United States last remaining military leverage over the Taliban: airstrikes.
The insurgents’ recent advance across Afghanistan has resulted in the capture of over half the country’s districts, and now threatens its major cities.
Afghan forces have so far not been able to contain the Taliban since it intensified its military campaign May 1, with the country’s military ceding large swathes of territory, at times without a fight.
Washington Post
Temporary or not, inflation is rattling restaurants and broader economy
Only once in six years had Mark Maguire raised prices at his North Dallas restaurant.
Then, some of his employees, no doubt noticing the banners touting $1,000 signing bonuses at other eateries, demanded higher wages. And his suppliers hiked the cost of chicken, beef and cooking oil.
Maguire’s costs rose so much so fast that he has had to rewrite his menu prices twice since March. Whether additional increases will follow depends upon a complex interaction of food supplies, labor availability and a shape-shifting virus.
“It’d be foolish for me to believe we’ve seen the worst of it,” he said. “I don’t want to let my mind think about this becoming a long-term deal.”
Neither does the Federal Reserve or the Biden administration, which both insist the inflationary squall will pass before it unhinges the recovery. On Monday, President Biden called rising prices “temporary” and said his plans for infrastructure spending and pro-competition regulation would drive prices down in the long run.
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