Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, annetteboardman, jck, Rise above the swamp, and Besame. Alumni editors include (but are not limited to) Man Oh Man, wader, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), ScottyUrb, Interceptor 7, Neon Vincent, 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.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
We begin with this from CNN:
CNN)Two years ago, forecasters in the UK conducted an interesting thought experiment: What will our forecasts look like in 2050?
The
climate crisis is
pushing weather to the extreme all over the world, and temperatures in the
northern latitudes have been particularly sensitive to these changes. So meteorologists at the UK Met Office -- the official weather forecast agency for the UK -- dove in to the super long-range climate models in the summer of 2020 to see what kind of temperatures they'd be forecasting in about three decades.
And from Reuters (link takes you to a video):
- WMO issues warning on air quality in towns and cities
- UK declares first red heat warning for Monday, Tuesday
- Wildfires ablaze in France, Spain and Portugal
LEIRIA, Portugal/LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) - Hundreds more people were evacuated from their homes as wildfires blistered land in France, Spain and Portugal on Friday, while officials in Europe issued health warnings for the heatwave in the coming days.
More than 1,000 firefighters, supported by water-bomber aircraft, have battled since Tuesday to control two blazes in southwestern France that have been fanned by scorching heat, tinder-box conditions and strong winds.
And the other side of the coin comes from the NY Times:
Europe’s largest economy and key energy hub still depends on gas supplies now ensnared in conflict. Here’s how Germany is preparing and what is at stake.
Russian natural gas has fired the furnaces that create molten stainless steel at Clemens Schmees’s family foundry since 1961, when his father set up shop in a garage in the western part of Germany.
It never crossed Clemens’s mind that this energy flow could one day become unaffordable or cease altogether. Now Mr. Schmees, like thousands of other chieftains at companies across Germany, is scrambling to prepare for the possibility that his operations could face stringent rationing this winter if Russia turns off the gas.
And one good news story about people and the natural world from NBC in New York:
Watch This INCREDIBLE Rescue of Baby Elephant and Mother in Thailand | NBC New York
A newly released video shows a team of volunteers, veterinarians and other park staff trying to rescue a baby elephant and its mother after they fell into a utility hole in Thailand's Khao Yai National Park.
From the Honolulu Star Advertiser (AP):
TOKYO >> Toyota’s flagship model in Japan, the Crown, is going on sale around the world for the first time, including in the U.S.
“I’m so excited to announce today that this new Crown family of vehicles will be offered not just in Japan but globally for the very first time,” its Chief Executive Akio Toyoda told reporters Friday.
From Reuters:
BEIJING, July 15 (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Xinjiang this week, making his first trip in eight years to the once-restive northwestern frontier region where the United States has accused China of genocide against the mostly Muslim Uyghur minority.
Reporting by Yew Lun Tian Editing by Tony Munroe and Nick Macfie
From the NY Times:
High unemployment, a housing market in crisis and sluggish consumer spending during lockdowns are putting pressure on Beijing in a year when officials are focused on projecting stability.
When countries around the world have stumbled in the face of pandemic headwinds, China has often stood apart, seemingly impervious to financial pressures that undermined growth.
But now, dragged down by its commitment to curbing the spread of Covid-19 with widespread lockdowns and mass quarantines, China has suffered one of its worst quarters in years, threatening a global economy heavily dependent on Chinese factories and consumers.
From the Associated Press:
By KRUTIKA PATHI, KRISHAN FRANCIS and BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s prime minister was sworn in Friday as interim president until Parliament elects a successor to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled abroad and resigned after mass protests over the country’s economic collapse.
Lawmakers were to convene Saturday to begin choosing a new leader who would serve the remainder of Rajapaksa’s term, which ends in 2024.
From ABC News:
Sri Lanka’s opposition leader, who will seek the presidency next week, is vowing to “listen to the people” who are struggling through the island nation’s worst economic crisis
By KRUTIKA PATHI Associated Press
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- Sri Lanka’s opposition leader, who is seeking the presidency next week, vowed Friday to “listen to the people” who are struggling through the island nation’s worst economic crisis and to hold accountable the president who fled under pressure from protesters.
In an interview with The Associated Press from his office in the capital, Sajith Premadasa said that if he wins the election in parliament, he would ensure that “an elective dictatorship never, ever occurs” in Sri Lanka.
From CBS News:
Dmitry Rogozin, the bellicose director of the Russian space agency Roscosmos who has railed against NASA and its western space allies over sanctions imposed in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, is stepping down under orders from President Vladimir Putin, the Russian news agency Tass reported Friday.
Rogozin, who once derisively joked that NASA would need trampolines to get its astronauts to space without Russian help and who later said the United States would need "broomsticks" to reach orbit without Russian rocket engines, will be replaced by Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov.
From CNN:
New York (CNN Business)American and Russian astronauts will once share space aboard the same spacecraft after NASA and its Russian counterpart, Roscosmos, reached a ride-sharing agreement Friday following months of back-and-forth discussions.
Two seats on two separate launches of Russia's Soyuz spacecraft have been reserved for NASA astronauts, with the first slated to take off from Russia's Cosmodrome launch site in Kazakhstan this September. And Russian cosmonauts will join at least two future SpaceX mission to the International Space Station, marking the first time a Russian has boarded one of SpaceX's relatively new Crew Dragon spacecraft.
From the Associated Press:
MOSCOW (AP) — A court in Russia’s far east on Friday handed a rare acquittal to a feminist artist who was charged with disseminating pornography after she shared artwork online depicting female bodies.
The charges against activist Yulia Tsvetkova, 29, in the far eastern city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur had elicited international outrage, with human rights groups linking her prosecution to the Kremlin’s aggressive promotion of “traditional family values.” Russia’s most prominent women’s rights groups have faced crackdown in recent years.
From Al Jazeera:
Thousands have been arrested on charges related to demonstrating, forcing many to find new ways to protest.
By Niko Vorobyov
On the first night of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, protesters in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Saratov and other major Russian cities protested and chanted “No to war!”.
By the following evening, about 1,900 people had been detained across the country.
From the BBC:
Italian prime minister offers resignation after coalition falls apart
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has tendered his resignation after populist coalition partner Five Star withdrew its support in a confidence vote.
From CNN:
By Nadine Schmidt, CNN
Berlin (CNN)One of postwar Germany's most publicized terrorism trials concluded Friday as a former German soldier was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison for plotting a
far-right attack on senior politicians while posing as a Syrian
refugee.
The 33-year-old former army officer -- identified as Franco A. in accordance with German privacy laws -- was charged with posing under a false identity as an asylum seeker in 2017 and planning an attack that he apparently hoped would be blamed on refugees and migrants.
From Reuters:
- No clear front-runner in race to succeed Boris Johnson
- Ex-finance minister Sunak won first two lawmaker votes
- Sunak and foreign minister Truss clash over tax
- Outsider Tugendhat viewed as best performer by public
LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) - British foreign minister Liz Truss clashed over tax policy with former finance minister Rishi Sunak on Friday, as the five remaining contenders to be Britain's next prime minister went head-to-head in the first of three televised debates.
Additional reporting by William James; editing by John Stonestreet and Jonathan Oatis
From the Independent:
Candidates for prime minister and leader of the Conservative party were asked if they thought Boris Johnson was honest during the leadership debate on Channel 4 on Friday (15 July).
And one final one from Reuters:
DAKAR, July 15 (Reuters) - Egypt has told the United Nations it will temporarily suspend the activities of its contingent in a Mali peacekeeping mission, citing increased attacks on its peacekeepers who escort convoys supplying U.N. bases, a U.N. spokesperson said on Friday.
Reporting by David Lewis and Bate Felix; Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols in New York Editing by Hugh Lawson and Susan Fenton
From the BBC:
A man acquitted over the bombing of a 1985 Air India flight has been killedin a suspected targeted shooting in Canada, police say.
Ripudaman Singh Malik was shot dead in his car in Surrey, British Columbia, and police found a burnt-out vehicle nearby.
Mr Malik denied involvement in the terror attack that killed 329 people.