C/Net
It's not your typical social media plea. Joint Base Charleston, a US military base in South Carolina, posted on Facebook and X seeking the public's help to find a F-35B Lightning II jet that went missing Sunday. While the pilot was able to eject, the plane has not yet been found.
The post said that personnel from the base and from Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, also in South Carolina, are responding to the "mishap" involving the jet.
The jet belongs to Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501,
CNN reports. But the Air Force is assisting in the response because the F-35 went down near its base, The
Washington Post reports.
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.
BBC
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the Indian government could be behind the fatal shooting of Canadian Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Mr Nijjar was shot dead outside a Sikh temple on 18 June in British Columbia (BC).
Mr Trudeau said Canadian intelligence has identified a "credible" link between his death and the Indian state.
He raised the issue with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the recent G20 summit, he said.
"Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty," Mr Trudeau said on Monday in the House of Commons.
BBC
Ukraine has filed lawsuits to the World Trade Organization (WTO) against Slovakia, Poland and Hungary over their bans on food imports from Kyiv.
It said such restrictions were a violation of international obligations by Ukraine's EU neighbours.
They say the bans are needed to protect their farmers from cheap imports.
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year all but closed the main Black Sea shipping lanes and forced Ukraine to find alternative overland routes.
That in turn led to large quantities of grain ending up in central Europe.
NPR
The James Webb Space Telescope is the most powerful telescope ever put into space. As such, its helping usher in a new era of astrophysics. Astronomers can now study farther, earlier galaxies than ever before.
"If you were a paleontologist, you would dig deeper and deeper to find the oldest bones. In astronomy, what we do is look at our history," says Jorge Moreno, an associate professor of astronomy at Pomona College. "We have to look back in time, but we don't have a time machine. So what we do is we look at really faraway distances."
NPR
Heading to college is hard for anyone. But have you tried being at least 30 years older than most of your classmates? James Hatch did.
Who is he? Hatch had a career in the Navy — including more than 20 years as a SEAL — before heading to Yale University.
- He was a member of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group and was involved in 150 missions across Iraq, Bosnia, Africa and Afghanistan.
- His military career ended when he was shot and badly wounded in Afghanistan in 2009.
- Now he's studying at Yale as an Eli Whitney scholar, as part of a program for nontraditional students.
Reuters
Sept 18 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Elon Musk to strike a balance between protecting free expression and fighting hate speech at a meeting on Monday after weeks of controversy over antisemitic content on Musk's social media platform X.
Earlier this month, Musk attacked the Anti-Defamation League, accusing the nonprofit that works to fight antisemitism of primarily causing a 60% decrease in U.S. ad revenue at X, without providing evidence.
"I know you're committed to that ... but I encourage and urge you to find a balance," Netanyahu said.
Musk responded by saying he was against antisemitism and against anything that "promotes hate and conflict," repeating his previous statements that X would not promote hate speech.
Reuters
Sept 18 (Reuters) - Ford Motor (F.N) could face a strike in Canada if no agreement is reached by 11:59 p.m. Monday with the union representing about 5,600 Canadian auto workers, just days after workers at one of its U.S. plants went on strike.
On Friday, the United Auto Workers union launched a targeted strike against Ford, General Motors (GM.N)and Chrysler-parent Stellantis (STLAM.MI), targeting one assembly plant at each company.Canadian union Unifor, whose contract with Ford expires at 11:59 p.m. Monday, said "while we remain at the table the likelihood of a strike increases with each passing hour."
The Guardian Australia
A key adviser to the Queensland police on First Nations issues says more urgency is required to fix racism in the ranks, amid concerns the service has failed to address widespread cultural problems exposed by a commission of inquiry.
Christine Thomas, the co-chair of the QPS First Nations advisory group, said the group “holds great concern that little has changed” since last year’s inquiry found a “failure of leadership” had allowed a culture of sexism, racism, fear and silence to take hold unchecked. The government responded by giving police $100m to enact reforms.
“We need to stop approaching this as business as usual and [start] acting with a sense of urgency,” Thomas said, pointing to an “alarming number” of deaths in Queensland police custody this year.
The Guardian UK
People who work remotely all the time produce less than half the greenhouse gas emissions of office workers, according to a new study.
Employees in the US who worked from home all the time were predicted to reduce their emissions by 54%, compared with workers in an office, the study found. But hybrid workers did not reduce their emissions so dramatically, according to the research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
One day of remote work a week reduced emissions by just 2% because energy savings from not being in the office were offset by factors such as an increase in non-commuting travel when working from home. Working remotely two or four days a week reduced an individual’s emissions by up to 29% compared with on-site workers.
The Guardian, International
Protests broke out in the Libyan city of Derna on Monday, with hundreds venting their anger against authorities and demanding accountability one week after a flood that killed thousands of residents and destroyed entire neighbourhoods.
Later in the evening, angry protesters set fire to the house of the man who was Derna’s mayor at the time of the flood, Abdulmenam al-Ghaithi, his office manager told Reuters.
Hichem Abu Chkiouat, a minister in the eastern Libyan government, said Ghaithi has been suspended from his post. The Reuters news agency could not immediately reach Ghaithi for comment.
The Guardian, UK
The promoters of Russell Brand’s standup show have pulled his appearances over the next 10 days, while the actor and comedian’s publisher announced it was “pausing” all future book projects with him.
Brand also failed to appear for his regular 5pm live show on the video platform Rumble on Monday. He used his last appearance on Friday evening to deny the rape and sexual assault allegations against him that were published at the weekend.
The allegations followed a joint investigation by the Sunday Times, the Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches programme.
The Guardian, US
An American citizen freed in a complex exchange deal after being imprisoned for nearly eight years in Iran has urged the Biden administration to launch a “gamechanging global endeavour” to end the Islamic regime’s longstanding practice of holding foreign nationals hostage.
Siamak Namazi, 51, was one of five US citizens released on Monday under the terms of an agreement that saw five Iranians facing charges in the United States granted clemency and Iran being given access to $6bn of previously frozen oil revenues.
The prisoners’ release was hailed by President Joe Biden, who immediately announced fresh sanctions on the hardline former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the country’s powerful intelligence ministry over the still undetermined fate of Robert Levinson, a retired FBI agent who vanished after visiting an island off Iran’s southern coast in 2007.
The Guardian US
One day after the largest climate march since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, hundreds of climate activists blockaded the Federal Reserve Bank in New York to call for an end to funding for coal, oil and gas, with police making scores of arrests.
“Fossil fuel companies … wouldn’t be able to operate without money, and that money is coming primarily from Wall Street,” Alicé Nascimento, environmental campaigns director at New York Communities for Change, said hours before she was arrested.
The action came as world leaders began arriving in New York for the
United National general assembly (UNGA) gathering and followed Sunday’s 75,000-person March to End Fossil Fuels, which focused on pushing Biden to urgently phase out fossil fuels. Monday’s civil disobedience had a different but compatible goal, said Renata Pumarol, an organizer with the campaign group Climate Defenders.
The Guardian US
Indiana’s attorney general, Todd Rokita, is suing the largest hospital system in the state, alleging the mishandling of a case involving a 10-year-old rape victim who got an abortion through one of its doctors – a case that made headlines across the country in the days after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade.
In a lawsuit filed on Friday, Rokita alleged that Indiana University Health wrongly said that Dr Caitlin Bernard, who talked about the 10-year-old’s case to journalists, had not violated patient privacy laws. Indiana University Health had told media outlets that, after reviewing Bernard’s case, it had determined that she had been “in compliance with privacy laws”, according to the lawsuit.
However, the Indiana Medical Licensing Board later found that Bernard had broken patient privacy laws. (The board also concluded that she was fit to practice medicine.)
Deutsche Welle
Israel complained about the presence of German Ambassador Steffen Seibert at a meeting in Israel's Supreme Court. Reform of that institution, sought by the government, is a contetious domestic issue in Israel.
The German Foreign Ministry and chancellor on Monday defended Berlin's ambassador to Israel after a complaint was lodged via Israel's embassy in Berlin against the diplomat.
Israel considered it as interference in internal affairs when German Ambassador Steffen Seibertattended a Supreme Court session in Jerusalem as a spectator last Tuesday.
The complaint from Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen was reportedly through the Israeli ambassador in Berlin, Ron Prosor.
Al Jazeera
A torrent of messages posted online by men promoting the marriage of underage girls and other forms of exploitation following the powerful earthquake in Morrocco has women’s rights activists and organisations on high alert.
Amid the wreckage of the 6.8 magnitude earthquake that hit the Atlas Mountains in Morocco on September 8, an adult man, purportedly a volunteer helping survivors, poses next to a young girl of about 10.“
She doesn’t want to come with me to [Casablanca] but she whispered that when she grows up we will get married,” the man wrote in a caption to his Instagram story with a photo of himself and the young girl.
The crew of the Overnight News Digest consists of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, jeremybloom, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Rise above the swamp, Besame and jck. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) eeff, 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.
