Subbing for maggiejean tonight.
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.
- Some stories for tonight:
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James Webb telescope takes super sharp view of early cosmos
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World Population Day: India will overtake China in 2023, says the UN
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A new bill could help protect the census after Trump-era interference
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Victoria defies health advice for mask mandate as new Covid wave worsens nationwide
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Iran to supply Russia with hundreds of combat drones, US says
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US tourist injured falling into Mount Vesuvius crater after taking selfie
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Oil could surge by 40% to around $140 per barrel if a proposed price cap on Russian oil is not adopted.
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Putin expands fast-track Russian citizenship to all of Ukraine
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Most Democrats Don’t Want Biden in 2024, New Poll Shows
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China beats competition to secure Zimbabwe lithium source
BBC
James Webb telescope takes super sharp view of early cosmos
(This article has links for tomorrow’s viewing)
The first full-colour picture from the new James Webb Space Telescope has been released - and it doesn't disappoint.
The image is said to be the deepest, most detailed infrared view of the Universe to date, containing the light from galaxies that has taken many billions of years to reach us.
US President Joe Biden was shown the image during a White House briefing.
Further debut pictures from James Webb are due to be released by Nasa in a global presentation on Tuesday.
"These images are going to remind the world that America can do big things, and remind the American people - especially our children - that there's nothing beyond our capacity," President Biden remarked.
"We can see possibilities no-one has ever seen before. We can go places no-one has ever gone before.”
BBC
World Population Day: India will overtake China in 2023, says the UN
India is set to become the world's most populous country next year, overtaking China with its 1.4bn people, according to UN figures.
By this November, the planet will be home to 8bn.
But population growth is not as rapid as it used to be.
It is now at its slowest rate since 1950 and is set to peak, says the UN, around the 2080s at about 10.4bn though some demographers believe that could happen even sooner.
But the population of the world is expanding unevenly.
More than half the growth we will see in the next 30 years will happen in just eight countries - the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania.
At the same time, some of the world's most developed economies are already seeing population decline as fertility rates fall below 2.1 children per woman, which is known as the "replacement rate". In 61 countries, the report says, populations will decline by at least 1% by 2050.
NPR
A new bill could help protect the census after Trump-era interference
A bill introduced Monday in the U.S. House of Representatives could help the 2030 census and other upcoming national head counts avoid the years of meddling by former President Donald Trump's administration that dogged the country's most recent tally.
If it becomes law, the bill would put up additional roadblocks against any attempt by an administration to interfere with the next once-a-decade census, which is used to divvy up political representation and federal funding to communities across the U.S.
The proposal led by Rep. Carolyn Maloney — a Democrat from New York who chairs the House Oversight and Reform Committee that helps oversee the Census Bureau — comes after the Trump administration raised the risks of an incomplete and inaccurate count of the country's population in 2020 with its failed push for a previously untested census question about U.S. citizenship status and installation of political appointees with no obvious qualifications at the bureau, among other extraordinary moves.
The Guardian
Victoria defies health advice for mask mandate as new Covid wave worsens nationwide
The Victorian government has ignored health advice calling for mask mandates in schools, early childhood and retail settings amid a warning that hospitalisations during the current wave of Covid and flu infections may exceed earlier peaks.
As Covid reinfection rates rise nationwide, Victoria on Tuesday joined Queensland in encouraging residents to don masks without requiring them to do so.
Meanwhile, residents in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia who test positive to Covid will now be exempt from testing and isolating for only four weeks rather than 12, following Australian Health Protection Principal Committee advice delivered on Friday.
The federal health minister, Mark Butler, on Tuesday said Covid cases were unlikely to peak nationally for at least four weeks during this third wave of infections.
“All of the modelling indicates that case numbers and hospitalisations have further to go over probably the next four to six weeks,” he told Melbourne’s Radio 3AW on Tuesday.
The Guardian
Iran to supply Russia with hundreds of combat drones, US says
Iran is planning to supply Russia with hundreds of weapons-capable drones for use in Ukraine, according to a top US official.
Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, said the information received by the US supported views that Russia’s heavy bombardments in Ukraine, which have led it to consolidate gains in the country’s east in recent weeks, were “coming at a cost to the sustainment of its own weapons”.
“The Iranian government is preparing to provide Russia with up to several hundred UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles], including weapons-capable UAVs, on an expedited timeline,” Sullivan said.
“Our information further indicates that Iran is preparing to train Russian forces to use these UAVs, with initial training sessions slated to begin as soon as early July.”
Sullivan said it was not clear whether Iran had delivered any of the drones to Russia yet.
He noted that Iran’s drones had been used by the Houthi rebels in Yemen to attack Saudi Arabia.
The Guardian
US tourist injured falling into Mount Vesuvius crater after taking selfie
An American tourist sustained minor injuries after he fell into the crater of Mount Vesuvius as he scrambled to retrieve his phone.
The 23-year-old and his family reached the 1,281m-high (4,202ft) summit of the volcano towering over the southern Italian city of Naples after bypassing a visitor turnstile and proceeding along an out-of-bounds path.
The man was taking a selfie, according to local press reports, when his phone slipped out of his hand and into the mouth of the volcano. He then descended into the crater in an attempt to get his phone back, only to fall several metres after losing his balance.
Vesuvius guides were first on the scene and abseiled into the crater to pull him out. Police attended the scene and a mountain rescue helicopter was launched to assist the rescue operation.
The man was treated for cuts and bruises on his arms and back.
The tourist and his three relatives face charges after being reported by police for the invasion of public land.
Reuters
Failure to implement Russian oil price cap could jack up oil prices
TOKYO, July 12 (Reuters) - The global price of oil could surge by 40% to around $140 per barrel if a proposed price cap on Russian oil is not adopted, along with sanction exemptions that would allow shipments below that price, a senior U.S. Treasury official said on Tuesday.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will discuss implementation of the U.S. price cap proposal and global economic developments with Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki when they meet later on Tuesday, the official said.
Al Jazeera
Putin expands fast-track Russian citizenship to all of Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree expanding a fast track to Russian citizenship to all citizens of Ukraine, a document published on the government’s website showed.
Until recently, only residents of the self-proclaimed breakaway territories of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) in eastern Ukraine, which Russia seeks to “liberate” from Kyiv’s control, as well as the Russian-occupied regions of Kherson and Zaporizhia, were eligible for the simplified procedure.
Between 2019 – when the procedure was first introduced for the residents of Donetsk and Luhansk – and this year, more than 720,000 residents of the rebel-held areas in the two regions – about 18 percent of the population – have received Russian passports.
In late May this year, three months after Russia invaded Ukraine, the fast-track procedure was also offered to residents of the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions. A month ago, the first Russian passports were reportedly handed out there.
New York Times
Most Democrats Don’t Want Biden in 2024, New Poll Shows
President Biden is facing an alarming level of doubt from inside his own party, with 64 percent of Democratic voters saying they would prefer a new standard-bearer in the 2024 presidential campaign, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll, as voters nationwide have soured on his leadership, giving him a meager 33 percent job-approval rating.
Widespread concerns about the economy and inflation have helped turn the national mood decidedly dark, both on Mr. Biden and the trajectory of the nation. More than three-quarters of registered voters see the United States moving in the wrong direction, a pervasive sense of pessimism that spans every corner of the country, every age range and racial group, cities, suburbs and rural areas, as well as both political parties.
Only 13 percent of American voters said the nation was on the right track — the lowest point in Times polling since the depths of the financial crisis more than a decade ago.
Deutsche Welle
China beats competition to secure Zimbabwe lithium source
A major mining company in Zimbabwe has agreed to start shipping a lithium-containing rock called spodumene concentrate from its facilities to China next year.
Lithium deposits are a cornerstone to a shifting market for EV technology. This has prompted an increase in demand for production at mines in Zimbabwe, home to large deposits of the element.
Zulu lithium mines is a subsidiary of Premier African Minerals. The company's chief executive, George Roach, told the Reuters news agency on Monday that the firm selected Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean Technology Co. from a number of Chinese, European and Australian investors.
"At one point, I was involved with 11 separate negotiations with people all wanting Zulu," Roach said. "It was a very intense period."
Suzhou has agreed to invest $35 million (€34.71 million) in the construction of a pilot plant at the Zulu mine, which will help the facility produce up to 50,000 tones of lithium-containing rocks annually. This new investment sets the company on the path to achieving vertical integration of the lithium battery supply chain.