Subbing for annette 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 JeremyBloom. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man (RIP), wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos since 2007, 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.
BBC
Israeli strike kills Hamas commander in occupied West Bank
At least 18 people including several Hamas fighters have been killed in an Israeli air strike in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm, the Palestinian health ministry said late on Thursday.
The Palestinian Authority-run news agency Wafa said the strike had hit a cafe in the Tulkarm refugee camp where many civilians were present.
Hamas confirmed that commander Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi was killed by the strike, who the IDF say attempted a car bombing last month and supplied weapons.
The Israeli military said the air strike was a joint operation with its Shin Bet security service, aimed at killing Oufi and "other significant terrorists". Hamas’s armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, said on messaging app Telegram that seven of its fighters were killed in the attack on the cafe.
AP
A week after Helene hit, thousands still without water struggle to find enough
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Nearly a week after Hurricane Helene brought devastation to western North Carolina, a shiny stainless steel tanker truck in downtown Asheville attracted residents carrying 5-gallon containers, milk jugs and buckets to fill with what has become a desperately scare resource — drinking water.
Flooding tore through the city’s water system, destroying so much infrastructure that officials said repairs could take weeks. To make do, Anna Ramsey arrived Wednesday with her two children, who each left carrying plastic bags filled with 2 gallons (7.6 liters) of water.
Helene’s path through the Southeast left a trail of power outages so large the darkness was visible from space. Tens of trillions of gallons of rain fell and more than 200 people were killed, making Helene the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. since Katrina in 2005. Hundreds of people are still unaccounted for, and search crews must trudge through knee-deep debris to learn whether residents are safe.
AP
81-year-old South Korean falls short in a bid to become oldest Miss Universe contestant
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — An 81-year-old model fell short in her bid to become the oldest Miss Universe contestant after competing in the South Korean pageant against much younger rivals.
Dressed in a beaded white gown, the silver-haired Choi Soon-hwa strutted across the stage and performed in a singing contest at the Miss Universe Korea pageant held Monday at a hotel in South Korea’s capital, Seoul.
She missed out on the crown but did take home the “best dresser” award.
Choi, a former hospital care worker who began her modeling career in her 70s, was announced as a Miss Universe Korea finalist earlier this month along with 31 other contestants.
“Even at this age, I had the courage to grab onto an opportunity and take on a challenge,” Choi told The Associated Press hours before Monday’s pageant.
AP (This is getting a little scary)
Google’s search engine’s latest AI injection will answer voiced questions about video and photos
The latest changes announced Thursday herald the next step in an AI-driven makeover that Google launched in mid-May when it began responding to some queries with summaries written by the technology at the top of its influential results page.
Google is addressing some of those ongoing worries by inserting even more links to other websites within the AI Overviews, which already have been reducing the visits to general news publishers such as The New York Times and technology review specialists such as TomsGuide.com, according to an analysis released last month by search traffic specialist BrightEdge.
Google’s decision to pump even more AI into the search engine that remains the crown jewel of its $2 trillion empire leaves little doubt that the Mountain View, California, company is tethering its future to a technology propelling the biggest industry shift since Apple unveiled the first iPhone 17 years ago.
The Guardian
End of fluoridation of US water could be in sight after federal court ruling
For decades, drinking water fluoridation opponents were often portrayed as a fringe element and conspiracy theorists, but a federal ruling in the US may put an end to the practice and marks a pivotal point in their campaign to convince the public and policymakers of the substance’s dangers for infants’ developing brains.
Armed with a growing body of scientific evidence pointing toward fluoride’s neurotoxicity, public health advocates say the legal win shows they are overcoming “institutional inertia” and the unwillingness of federal public health agencies to admit they may have been wrong.
Cooper pointed to a statement made by an American Pediatric Association official during the court case in which she said she would not oppose fluoridation even if it reduced five IQ points for up to 10% of the population. *
* That happened.
Reuters
U.S. will not renew legal status for hundreds of thousands of migrants
WASHINGTON, Oct 4 (Reuters) - The Biden administration will not renew a temporary humanitarian entry program for hundreds of thousands of migrants with U.S. sponsors who arrived in recent years, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said on Friday.
Some 530,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela have entered the U.S. by air
since October 2022 and received two-year grants under the "parole" program that will begin to expire in coming weeks.
However, many of those migrants could remain in the country under other programs.
The parole program allows migrants with existing U.S. sponsors to enter the country for humanitarian reasons or if their entry is deemed a significant public benefit. It will continue to accept new applications from those abroad.
Reuters
EU presses ahead with Chinese EV tariffs after divided vote
BRUSSELS, Oct 4 (Reuters) - The European Union will press ahead with hefty tariffs on China-made electric vehicles, the EU executive said on Friday, even after the bloc's largest economy Germany rejected them, exposing a rift over its biggest trade row with Beijing in a decade.
The proposed
duties on EVs built in China of up to 45% would cost carmakers billions of extra dollars to bring cars into the bloc and are set to be imposed from next month for five years.
The Commission, which oversees the bloc's trade policy, has said they would counter what it sees as unfair Chinese subsidies after a year-long anti-subsidy investigation, but it also said on Friday it would continue talks with Beijing.
A possible compromise could be to set minimum sales prices.
In a pivotal
vote on Friday, 10 EU members backed tariffs and five voted against, with 12 abstentions, EU sources said.
NPR
In Michigan, Harris hits back against Trump over his electric car attack lines (lies)
FLINT, Mich. – Vice President Harris pushed back against a barrage of attacks from her Republican opponent falsely alleging that she intends to ban gas-powered cars.
“Let us be clear, contrary to what my opponent is suggesting, I will never tell you what kind of car you have to drive,” Harris said at a rally on Friday, countering that former President Donald Trump would hurt the auto industry and the union workers that power it in this critical swing state.
“We will not be gaslighted,” she said.
“We will ensure that the next generation of breakthroughs, from advanced batteries to electric vehicles are not only invented, but built right here in America by American union workers,” Harris said.
Raw Story
'Blow to Trump': Billionaire Trump donor jumps ship with ‘significant' Harris donation
Encouraged by conversations he’s had with Vice President Kamala Harris, a billionaire venture capitalist has pulled his support for Donald Trump – and announced a “significant donation” for his Democratic opponent, according to a new report.
The decision announced Friday by Ben Horowitz and his wife Felicia came three months after he and business partner Marc Andreessen faced criticism when they chose to throw their support to the former president.
But that was before President Joe Biden jolted the race when he stepped aside, and their “great friend” Harris became the Democratic nominee. A report in Axios noted that the donation would come from the couple’s personal wealth – not from the firm.
Washington Post
Extraordinary October heat wave scorches the west through the weekend
Relentless and historic autumn heat is blasting the western United States. Heat alerts from the National Weather Service remain in effect for about 30 million people in portions of California, Arizona and Nevada.
Midsummer-like temperatures have persisted longer than expected in a good chunk of California, where highs near and above 100 remain common in the state’s interior through at least Sunday. Some coastal zones will see daily temperatures rising to around 90 while interior deserts are 110-plus.
