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:
- Tesla ordered to recall more than a million US cars
- Ukraine war: 'What's happening in Russia now is total fear'
- Iran’s president says Mahsa Amini death must be investigated as protests grow
- China’s former justice minister faces life in prison amid purge of security officials
- After 16 years and 3 convictions, an international tribunal closes down in Cambodia
- COVID raises risk of long-term brain injury, large U.S. study finds
- Facing calls to resign, World Bank's Malpass changes answer on climate crisis
- At least 34 people have died after a boat carrying migrants sank off the coast of Syria on Thursday.
- Russia can use nucs.
BBC
Tesla ordered to recall more than a million US cars
Tesla is recalling nearly 1.1 million cars in the US because the windows might close too fast and pinch people's fingers.
Documents produced by American regulators show the windows may not react correctly after detecting an obstruction.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it is a safety-standards violation.
Tesla says a software update will fix the problem.
The world's largest electric-vehicle manufacturer has had repeated run-ins with federal safety regulators, whom chief executive Elon Musk calls "the fun police".
BBC
Ukraine war: 'What's happening in Russia now is total fear’
In the centre of the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, a large banner is taped to a tall building, above a Ukrainian flag, that reads: "Putin, the Hague is waiting for you."
On city buses, electronic displays flick between announcing their destination and declaring "love" for Ukraine with little hearts.
This week Lithuania - together with Latvia, Estonia and Poland - banned all Russian tourists, arguing they should not be enjoying democracy and freedom in Europe while their government attacks those very values in Ukraine.
The move has raised concerns among Russian opposition activists already abroad.
"It's strange to ban people for being Russian, whether or not they support Putin's regime," argues Anastasia Shevchenko, an activist who spent two years under house arrest for protesting against the Russian president."What is going on in Russia now is like total fear," Anastasia tells me, in Vilnius. "So many people are frightened because we know they can do anything. It's not only prison, or fines: you can be killed or poisoned. It's like a huge prison. All the country."
The Guardian
Iran’s president says Mahsa Amini death must be investigated as protests grow
The death in custody of an Iranian woman that has sparked widespread protests must be “steadfastly” investigated, Iran’s president has said, even as he lamented what he claimed were western “double standards” on human rights.
Ebrahim Raisi told a news conference on the sidelines of the UN general assembly that the death of Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the morality police “must certainly be investigated”.
“I contacted her family at the very first opportunity and I assured them we would continue steadfastly to investigate that incident … Our utmost preoccupation is the safeguarding of the rights of every citizen.” At least 31 people are feared by rights groups to have died in six days of protests, sparked by the death on 16 September of the 22-year-old Kurdish woman.
The Guardian
China’s former justice minister faces life in prison amid purge of security officials
Former Chinese justice minister Fu Zhenghua, who had headed several high-profile investigations into corruption, has been jailed for life for accepting bribes, state media says, as a purge of officials intensified ahead of a key Communist party congress.
Fu, 67, was handed a suspended death sentence that will be commuted to life imprisonment after two years, with no possibility of parole, according to state media on Thursday.
Fu was deputy head of the ministry of public security before becoming justice minister in 2018, and had led many high-profile investigations and crackdowns including an investigation about a decade ago into Zhou Yongkang, a former security tsar and the most powerful official in modern China to be convicted of bribery.
NPR
Boeing will pay $200 million to settle SEC charges over 737 Max crashes
Boeing has agreed to pay a $200 million penalty to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that the company misled investors and the public about the safety of the 737 Max after two of the planes crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people.
The SEC charged the Boeing company and its former CEO, Dennis Muilenburg, with "making materially misleading public statements" following the crashes.
Investigators found that both crashes were caused in part by a flawed automated flight control system called MCAS. The SEC says after the first crash in Indonesia in October of 2018, Boeing and then-CEO Muilenburg "knew that MCAS posed an ongoing airplane safety issue, but nevertheless assured the public that the 737 Max airplane was 'as safe as any that has ever flown the skies'."
"In times of crisis and tragedy, it is especially important that public companies and executives provide full, fair, and truthful disclosures to the markets," says SEC Chair Gary Gensler in a statement.
NPR
After 16 years and 3 convictions, an international tribunal closes down in Cambodia
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — The international court convened in Cambodia to judge the Khmer Rouge for its brutal 1970s rule ended its work Thursday after spending $337 million and 16 years to convict just three men of crimes after the regime cause the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people.
In its final session, the U.N.-assisted tribunal rejected an appeal by Khieu Samphan, the last surviving leader of the Khmer Rouge government that ruled Cambodia from 1975-79. It reaffirmed the life sentence he received after being convicted in 2018 of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Busloads of ordinary Cambodians turned up to watch the final proceedings of a tribunal that had sought to bring justice, accountability and explanations for the crimes. Many of those attending Thursday's session lived through the Khmer Rouge terror, including survivors Bou Meng and Chum Mey, who had given evidence at the tribunal over the years.
Reuters
COVID raises risk of long-term brain injury, large U.S. study finds
CHICAGO, Sept 22 (Reuters) - People who had COVID-19 are at higher risk for a host of brain injuries a year later compared with people who were never infected by the coronavirus, a finding that could affect millions of Americans, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.
The year-long study, published in Nature Medicine, assessed brain health across 44 different disorders using medical records without patient identifiers from millions of U.S. veterans.
Brain and other neurological disorders occurred in 7% more of those who had been infected with COVID compared with a similar group of veterans who had never been infected. That translates into roughly 6.6 million Americans who had brain impairments linked with their COVID infections, the team said.
"The results show the devastating long-term effects of COVID-19," senior author Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly of Washington University School of Medicine said in a statement.
Reuters (About time)
Facing calls to resign, World Bank's Malpass changes answer on climate crisis
WASHINGTON, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Under pressure to resign for declining to say whether he accepts the scientific consensus on global warming, World Bank President David Malpass said on Thursday it was clear greenhouse emissions are causing climate change and defended his record as bank chief.
Malpass sought to restate his views in a note to staff and an interview on CNN International, during which he was asked if he was a climate change denier. His views drew scrutiny after he refused to say during a public event this week whether he believes fossil fuel burning is warming the planet.
"It's clear that greenhouse gas emissions are coming from manmade sources, including fossil fuels, methane, the agricultural uses, the industrial uses, so we're working hard to change that," Malpass said.
Deutsche Welle
At least 34 people have died after a boat carrying migrants sank off the coast of Syria on Thursday.
Samer Qubrusli, the director-general of ports, said survivors said the "boat left Lebanon days ago."
He said rescue operations continued, with one survivor saying the boat carried over 150 people.
Syria's health ministry said 20 survivors were being treated in Basel hospital in Tartus.
Most of the migrants were Lebanese and Syrians, and some were without identification papers.
This was one of the deadliest since many Lebanese, Syrians, and Palestinians have tried to flee crisis-hit Lebanon to Europe.
Lebanon has been in the grips of a severe economic meltdown since late 2019 that has forced over three-quarters of the population into poverty.
Al Jazeera
Russia can defend new regions with nuclear weapons: Medvedev
Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president, has said that any weapons in Moscow’s arsenal, including strategic nuclear weapons, could be used to defend territories incorporated into Russia from Ukraine.
Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, also said on Thursday that referendums being organised by Russian-installed and separatist authorities in large swathes of occupied Ukrainian territory will take place, and that “there is no going back”:
New York Times
Central Banks Accept Pain Now, Fearing Worse Later
A day after the Federal Reserve lifted interest rates sharply and signaled more to come, central banks across Asia and Europe followed suit on Thursday, waging their own campaigns to crush an outbreak of inflation that is bedeviling consumers and worrying policymakers around the globe.
Central bankers typically move slowly. That’s because their policy tools are blunt and work with a lag. The interest rate increases taking place from Washington to Jakarta will need months to filter out across the global economy and take full effect. Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, once likened policymaking to walking through a furnished room with the lights off: You go slowly to avoid a painful outcome.