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
Four dead and 18 hurt in Alabama mass shooting
At least four people have been killed and 18 injured in a mass shooting in Birmingham, Alabama, police say.
“Multiple shooters fired multiple shots on a group of people” late on Saturday in the Five Points South area of the city, Birmingham Police officer Truman Fitzgerald said.
Officers found the bodies of two men and one woman at the scene, while a third man later died of bullet wounds in hospital, Birmingham Police said
The culprits are believed to have approached the scene in a vehicle before getting out and opening fire. No suspects have been arrested.
The intended target was among those killed, Mr Thurmond said at a news conference on Sunday.
“It wasn’t the location, it was the person, so wherever the person was was where it was going to take place, wherever they can catch that individual,’’ Mr Thurmond said. "That’s just where they happened to catch them.”
BBC
South America drought brings wildfires and blackouts
Planned power cuts in Ecuador have begun a day early as severe drought disrupts its hydroelectric plants.
The country is suffering its worst drought in 60 years, with no significant rainfall in more than two months.
The government had already announced nightly blackouts across the country from Monday, but 12 provinces had their power cut from 08:00 to 17:00 local time over the weekend.
Several South American countries are currently experiencing their worst droughts on record, which is also fuelling a number of wildfires.
Hydroelectric plants cover 70% of Ecuador's electricity demand, but the water reserves that fuel it have fallen to critical levels.
In Colombia, firefighters are battling dozens of fires, which have so far ravaged almost 11,000 hectares (27,000 acres).
Earlier this week, Peru's government declared a 60-day state of emergency in the jungle regions bordering Brazil and Ecuador which have been worst affected by forest fires.
NPR
Interim NYPD head says federal agents searched, took items from his homes
Thomas Donlon — who only ten days ago assumed command of the NYPD after Commissioner Edward Caban's resignation amid a federal probe — is now the subject of a federal probe himself, according to a statement issued late Saturday night.
"On Friday, September 20, federal authorities executed search warrants at my residences," Donlon said in a statement issued through the NYPD's public information office. "They took materials that came into my possession approximately 20 years ago and are unrelated to my work with the New York City Police Department."
The admission is the latest in a cascade of federal investigations that have engulfed top aides to Mayor Eric Adams and top NYPD officials. Donlon, himself a former FBI agent, was a rare out-of-department appointment, brought in to lead the NYPD amid growing concerns about agency leadership and credibility.
The Guardian
Weather tracker: Shanghai hit by its ‘strongest typhoon in 75 years’
Typhoon Bebinca struck the east coast of China this week, making landfall near Shanghai, a city of almost 30 million people, on Monday. Bebinca developed into a typhoon to the east of the southern Japan islands late last week, before traveling westwards through the East China Sea and making landfall in Shanghai at approximately 7.30am local time (00.30BST).
The Chinese media say it is the strongest typhoon to hit Shanghai in 75 years. Wind speeds were reported to have reached just over 150km/h (about 94mph), making it equivalent to a category 1 hurricane, albeit just shy of a category 2 in strength. Before Bebinca, Shanghai had been hit directly by only two typhoons, one in 1949 and another in 2022, as they usually track further south.
More than 400,000 people were evacuated as China issued a red typhoon warning, with more than a thousand flights cancelled and many roads shut due to flooding and strong winds.
The Guardian
Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy arrives in US on crucial visit to rally support for Kyiv
Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in the US on Sunday for a crucial visit to present Kyiv’s plan to end two-and-a-half years of war with Russia. The Ukrainian president will present his proposals – which he calls a “victory plan” – to President Joe Biden, as well as presidential hopefuls Kamala Harris and Donald Trump and will also attend sessions at the UN general assembly. The visit comes after a summer of intense fighting, with Moscow advancing fast in eastern Ukraine and Kyiv holding on to swathes of Russia’s Kursk region. It also comes as Kyiv has for weeks pressed the west to allow it to use delivered long-range weapons to strike targets deep inside Russia – so far to no avail.
AP News
Homeless encampments have largely vanished from San Francisco. Is the city at a turning point?
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Sidewalks once teeming with tents, tarps and people passed out next to heaps of trash have largely disappeared from great swaths of San Francisco, a city widely known for its visible homeless population.
The number of people sleeping outdoors dropped to under 3,000 in January, the lowest the city has recorded in a decade, according to a federal count.
And that figure has likely dropped even lower since Mayor London Breed — a Democrat in a difficult reelection fight this November — started ramping up enforcement of anti-camping laws in August following a U.S. Supreme Court decision.
“But also, as a business owner, I need clean, inviting streets to encourage people to come and shop and visit our city,” she said.
Advocates for homeless people say encampment sweeps that force people off the streets are an easy way to hide homelessness from public view.
Reuters
Biden to meet Vietnamese president on Wednesday, White House says
WASHINGTON, Sept 22 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden is scheduled to meet Vietnam's President and ruling Communist Party Chief
To Lam on Wednesday, the White House said on Sunday.
Biden has been eager to deepen relations with the strategic Southeast Asian country and manufacturing hub in a bid to counter Russia and China, with which Vietnam also retains ties.
Last September, Biden
visited Vietnam and secured deals on semiconductors and minerals and an upgrade to Hanoi's highest diplomatic status, alongside China and Russia.
Deutsche Welle
Why Meta is now banning Russian propaganda
For European users, everything still looks the same when scrolling their timelines on Instagram, Facebook or Threads. In other parts of the world, this week marked a change: between memes, animal videos and vacation photos, media posts still appear, but no longer include links to content from Russian state broadcaster RT, the Rossiya Segodnya news agency or related brands.
That's because Meta, which owns the aforementioned platforms as well as the WhatsApp messenger, has pulled the plug on these propaganda organs worldwide. The group had already throttled the reach of the platforms shortly after the start of Russia's war of aggression on Ukraine in spring 2022, blocking access from the EU and the UK, for example, following a corresponding request.
"After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets. Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity," Meta announced on September 16.
Deutsche Welle
Oktoberfest: Beer and pretzels in a sustainable package
Around 6 million revelers from across the globe are expected to cram into the beer halls of Munich during the 2024 Oktoberfest, which starts September 21 and continues for over two weeks.
But while the 189th edition of the iconic folk festival will see its boisterous guests drink over 5.6 million liters of beer — sourced from six local brewers — and consume tons of oxen, potato salad and sauerkraut, the event continues to update its image to match the times.
Oktoberfest has long sought to reduce its environmental footprint by embracing clean energy and sorting and recycling its epic waste — even kitchen and food waste is collected separately and composted.
The outsize consumption of alcohol, food and energy at the Munich fairgrounds is balanced by the near exclusive use of renewable electricity created by sun and the wind, while carbon-free biogas also helps to power the event. The festival claims to be on the way to carbon neutrality by lowering the emissions that help fuel climate change.
Disposable, non-recyclable plates and cutlery have been banned since way back in the 1990s, while the sale of drinks in cans is also prohibited — festivalgoers pay a deposit on their glass beer steins, which are washed on return for reuse.
Washington Post
Health system to pay $65 million after hackers leaked nude patient photos
In March 2023, a Pennsylvania woman received a phone call from a health-care executive that left her in disbelief: Hackers had obtained photos of her naked body while she underwent radiation treatments and posted them to a dark corner of the internet..
Lehigh Valley Health Network refused to pay a ransom “in excess” of $5 million to recover the photos and other stolen patient information, but it couldn’t sidestep financial damages from the breach.
The unidentified woman, who is in her 50s and known as Jane Doe, became the lead plaintiff in a class action suing Lehigh for failing to safeguard highly sensitive patient information, including nude photos of hundreds of cancer patients. On Sept. 12, a law firm announced that Lehigh had agreed to pay $65 million to settle the case.
As hackers penetrate American health-care firms with alarming regularity, the episode reveals how cyberthieves are exploiting uniquely sensitive data — with devastating human and financial consequences.
Daily Kos
Anyone Have South African Blizzard on their Climate Change Bingo Card?
No, this isn’t some freakishly early Fall snowstorm somewhere in the Northern Hemisphere; it’s an even more freakish early Spring blizzard in South Africa of all places — between Johannesburg and Durban along the N3 highway, where over 2 meters (6 feet) of snow fell in some places on Saturday. From RBC Ukraine:
Following the exceptionally heavy snowfall in South Africa, roads were closed, and motorists became stranded on the highways.
...
The N3 highway, which connects Johannesburg and Durban, was particularly hard hit. Even detours were impassable, and emergency services struggled to reach people in their vehicles in the areas where the roads were closed.
