This is an open thread where everyone is welcome, especially night owls and early birds, to share and discuss the happenings of the day. Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
The crew of the Overnight News Digest consists of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, jeremybloom, Magnifico, annetteboardman, eeff, rise above the swamp, Besame and jck. 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.
John Durham—the special counsel who was appointed by then-Attorney General Bill Barr to investigate the FBI’s investigation of the Trump-Russia scandal and who utterly failed to produce evidence it was a hoax—testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. In doing so, he made false statements to Congress. He might even have lied.
...The Manafort-Kilimnik connection—which the Senate Intelligence Committee report characterized as a “grave counterintelligence threat“—is one of the most serious and still not fully explained components of the Trump-Russia scandal. It belies all the claims of Trump and his crowd that the Russia investigation was nothing but a hoax orchestrated by a nefarious den of anti-Trump vipers within the law enforcement and national security communities. It is inconceivable that Durham is unaware of this troubling link. But by ignoring the well-documented contacts between Manafort and an identified Russian agent and asserting that there was no evidence of interactions between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence, Durham was supporting Trump’s never-ending coverup.
Durham’s investigation and report raised several questions about his aims. Was he running a fair and balanced probe or weaponizing a government inquiry to buttress Trump’s self-serving lies about the Russia scandal? Durham’s false statements to Congress about essential facts provide more reason for suspicion, and they further undermine his credibility. They might even merit their own investigation.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General has launched a criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the destruction of Secret Service text messages that may have been relevant to inquiries about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.
The results of the investigation could be referred to federal prosecutors, the sources said, depending on the results.
The DHS Inspector General informed the Secret Service on Wednesday evening that the investigation is now criminal and that it should halt all internal investigations on the missing text messages, according to a letter detailed to NBC News.
Atlanta's municipal clerk has cleared the way for activists who oppose the city's planned public safety training center to start collecting signatures to put the question to voters.
...What they're saying: Dr. Mariah Parker, who filed the original petition and who appeared as plaintiff in a lawsuit against the city clerk, said the group is grateful that Waldon "fulfilled her legal obligation to recognize our repeated efforts to incorporate her requested changes in a timely manner."
...The big picture: Organizers now have 60 days to collect the signatures of about 70,000 people, or 15% of registered voters who were eligible to cast ballots in the previous election.
Last weekend, Peter Hotez — scientist, pediatrician, vaccine expert — was bringing home a Father's Day cake when he was accosted by two people waiting outside his house. They shoved cell phones in his face and demanded that he debate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the conspiracy theorist and anti-vaxxer running a quixotic campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
...Why would a call to honest, open debate lead to death threats and stalking? After all, in theory, people interested in debate are presumably open to new ideas and learning new things. “Let’s talk” shouldn’t be a reactionary rallying cry for (among others) Nazis.
The problem is, “Debate me” has become a bad faith propaganda tool for the right, designed to legitimize lies and target opponents for harassment. It’s ripped from the right-wing “free speech” playbook, which demands that bad actors deserve access to every platform and every audience — or else.
Antarctica may be in serious trouble. Satellite images show that the amount of sea ice floating around the pristine polar continent remains far below long-term averages despite the south polar region moving into its peak winter period.
Researchers at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) observed with trepidation in late 2022 and early 2023 as satellite images revealed that sea ice attached to the coast of Antarctica had been disappearing month after month at a pace never seen before. And they continued to observe in near horror as this sea ice failed to sufficiently replenish after the colder months arrived. As of mid-June 2023, sea ice extent in Antarctica was about 0.9 million square miles (2.28 million square kilometers) below the average from 1981 to 2010 for that part of the year, according to the U.K. weather authority Met Office, and about 0.4 million square miles (1.15 million square km) below the previous June record low from 2019.
The problem is, as Fretwell said, that "what happens to Antarctica doesn't just stay in Antarctica." The warming polar seas affect weather patterns all over the world and accelerate the melting of Antarctic glaciers that, in turn, will lead to faster sea level rise around the globe.
Climate scientist Ed Hawkins put the idea “a picture is worth a thousand words” into practice back in 2018 when he created the graphics that have become known as “Climate Stripes.” These bar-code-like images turn a location’s annual climate data into rows of colored stripes that show yearly temperature and precipitation compared to the long-term average—red bars for warm years, and blue for cool ones; green for wet years, and brown for dry ones.
Inspired by Hawkins’ images, our collection of Climate Stripes images is based on the NOAA climate record for U.S. states; counties; Washington, D.C.; and selected stations in Hawaii.
- Access the collection through the interactive embedded below.
- Some of the interactive features work within the web page, but for best experience, open the Story Map in a new window. Then use the scroll bar to access the maps.
When California, Arizona and Nevada agreed last week to stop using 3 million acre-feet of Colorado River water — about a trillion gallons — in order to protect their drinking supply, they took aim at one especially thirsty user: hay. So-called “forage crops” like alfalfa and Bermuda grass, which are used to feed livestock, mainly cattle, require mind-altering amounts of water to cultivate. For the next three years, the states agreed to pay farmers who ordinarily grow livestock feed $1.2 billion not to. That alone is estimated to conserve the lion’s share of the trillion-gallon target.
...Alfalfa, meaning “fodder” in Arabic, is the nutrient-rich linchpin of the dairy and beef business. No other field crop produces more protein per acre. But that bounty comes with high water use. Alfalfa has a long growing season — another plus for farmers — a deep root system and a leafy, dense canopy that needs immense moisture to stay green. But that’s not the whole story: A century-old legal doctrine compels farmers to use as much river water as they’re allotted, or else lose access to the unused portion in the future. That perverse incentive, combined with the cheap Colorado River water afforded to many Western water districts, means that wasteful irrigation methods have not gone out of fashion. That includes a technique called “flood irrigation,” which is exactly what it sounds like: watering hundreds of alfalfa acres at a time by briefly flooding the field.
...In fact, much of the Colorado River is exported as hay. Rising demand for dairy products in the Middle East and skyrocketing beef consumption across the globe are driving up the demand; 40% of the alfalfa grown in California in 2020 was shrink-wrapped, containerized, and shipped to cows on the other side of Earth.
It’s not just Proud Boys that Moms for Liberty has allegedly gotten involved with, however. A VICE News investigation has uncovered links between numerous Moms for Liberty chapters and extremist groups like the Proud Boys, Three Percenters, sovereign citizen groups, QAnon conspiracist, Christian nationalists, and in one case, with the founder of the AK-47-worshiping Rod of Iron Ministries church in Pennsylvania. Around the country, Moms for Liberty has formed links with extremist groups and militias, which are joining forces with the “parental rights” group at protests and school board meetings, and in turn pushing the already far-right organization toward even more extreme ideology
“There's an ongoing campaign by these neo-Nazi groups to radicalize some of these more benign patriot MAGA groups—and it's working because I've seen more Nazi content creeping into posts from Moms for Liberty people recently,” a researcher, who is known as Trash City, and who closely tracks Moms for Liberty activity, told VICE News earlier this month.
Earlier this month, a day after former President Donald Trump announced he would speak at the group’s annual summit alongside fellow Republican presidential candidates Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) designated Moms for Liberty as an “anti-government extremist” organization for the first time.
It’s not every day that Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Paul Thomas Anderson team up. But IndieWire has learned they will today: The three directors have scheduled an emergency call with Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav about the layoffs of Turner Classic Movies’ top brass. (UPDATE: Spielberg, Scorsese, and Anderson released a joint statement through Spielberg’s production company Amblin sounding an upbeat note about TCM’s future following multiple conversations with David Zaslav. Read it here.)
...These cuts come as WBD CEO David Zaslav recites what’s become his rosary: He wants Warner Bros. to be a studio for filmmakers. He wants to build bridges with directors who were burned by the previous regime under Jason Kilar, who responded to the pandemic with a unilateral move for day-and-date releases on HBO Max. Warner Bros. Film Group CEOs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy said they hope even to lure Christopher Nolan back to the studio — his work was unaffected by Kilar’s decision, but he was so horrified by the logic that he left Warner Bros., his home of nearly 20 years, to make “Oppenheimer” at Universal.
As logic goes, it’s hard to say that Warner Bros. is the best home for filmmakers when it’s also gutting their favorite TV network — the only one dedicated to celebrating cinematic history (and, incidentally, the greatest linear hub for showing off 100 years’ worth of Warner Bros. artistry). From the gangster movies and Errol Flynn swashbucklers of the 1930s to “The Exorcist” and “Blazing Saddles” in the ‘70s to “The Shining” and “The Color Purple” in the ‘80s and “Goodfellas” in the ‘90s, it’s all on TCM. WBD tapped into that legacy by opening its last investor call with a sizzle reel that started with a clip from Warner Bros.’ crown jewel, “Casablanca.” The studio even premiered a documentary called “100 Years of Warner Bros.” at the Cannes Film Festival this May. How is it not worth investing in the channel that reinforces that legacy 24 hours a day?
Get some sleep… the sun is coming up EARLY tomorrow...