These are some of the stories I found for tonight’s digest
- As Russia sees tech brain drain, other nations hope to gain
-
Washington OKs 1st statewide missing Indigenous people alert
-
Judge strikes down parts of Florida election law; cites race
-
UN: Afghans need $4.4bn to have enough to eat
-
U.S. Covid hospitalizations hit new low, falling 32 percent in the last two weeks
-
House votes to cap cost of insulin at $35, heads to Senate
-
Disney Vows To Help Repeal Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' Law
-
Genetic Lineage of Thousand-Year-Old Oak Trees Seed an Experimental ‘Super Forest’
Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, 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.
OND is 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.
AP News
As Russia sees tech brain drain, other nations hope to gain
Russia’s tech workers are looking for safer and more secure professional pastures.
By one estimate, up to 70,000 computer specialists, spooked by a sudden frost in the business and political climate, have bolted the country since Russia invaded Ukraine five weeks ago. Many more are expected to follow.
For some countries, Russia’s loss is being seen as their potential gain and an opportunity to bring fresh expertise to their own high-tech industries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has noticed the brain drain even in the throes of a war that, according to the U.N. refugee agency, has caused more than 4 million people to flee Ukraine and displaced millions more within the country.
Scientists finally finish decoding entire human genome
Scientists say they have finally assembled the full genetic blueprint for human life, adding the missing pieces to a puzzle nearly completed two decades ago.
An international team described the first-ever sequencing of a complete human genome – the set of instructions to build and sustain a human being – in research published Thursday in the journal Science. The previous effort, celebrated across the world, was incomplete because DNA sequencing technologies of the day weren’t able to read certain parts of it. Even after updates, it was missing about 8% of the genome.
“Some of the genes that make us uniquely human were actually in this ‘dark matter of the genome’ and they were totally missed,” said Evan Eichler, a University of Washington researcher who participated in the current effort and the original Human Genome Project. “It took 20-plus years, but we finally got it done.”
South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston wins AP player of the year
Aliyah Boston dominated women’s college basketball on both ends of the court this season.
The junior forward helped South Carolina go wire-to-wire as the No. 1 team in the country, putting up an SEC-record 27 consecutive double-doubles, and she has helped put the Gamecocks two wins away from the program’s second national championship.
Boston was honored as The Associated Press women’s basketball player of the year on Thursday. She is the second player from South Carolina to be recognized with the award, joining former Gamecocks great A’ja Wilson.
“Not often do you get the complete package. I think this recognition is for what she was able to do on both sides of the ball,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “The player of the year is usually for offensive-minded people who think that when you put the ball in the hole, you should be bestowed the player of the year. She’s the full package. Every single day.”
Washington OKs 1st statewide missing Indigenous people alert
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Thursday signed into law a bill that creates a first-in-the-nation statewide alert system for missing Indigenous people, to help address a silent crisis that has plagued Indian Country in this state and nationwide.
The law sets up a system similar to Amber Alerts and so-called silver alerts, which are used respectively for missing children and vulnerable adults in many states. It was spearheaded by Democratic Rep. Debra Lekanoff, the only Native American lawmaker currently serving in the Washington state Legislature, and championed by Indigenous leaders statewide.
“I am proud to say that the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s and People’s Alert System came from the voices of our Native American leaders,” said Lekanoff, a member of the Tlingit tribe and the bill’s chief sponsor. “It’s not just an Indian issue, it’s not just an Indian responsibility. Our sisters, our aunties, our grandmothers are going missing every day ... and it’s been going on for far too long.”
Defense rests in trial of 4 men in Gov. Whitmer kidnap plot
Defense attorneys quickly rested their case Thursday after one of four men charged with plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer repeatedly said “absolutely not” when asked if he had agreed to abduct her before the 2020 election.
Daniel Harris was the only defendant to speak to jurors on the 14th day of trial. It was a risky, dramatic shift following days of testimony from undercover FBI agents, a gutsy informant and two men who have pleaded guilty and pointed fingers at the rest.
Closing arguments were planned for Friday.
Harris, Adam Fox, Barry Croft Jr., and Brandon Caserta are accused of conspiring to kidnap Whitmer from her vacation home in northern Michigan because of their disgust with government and her tough COVID-19 restrictions.
Judge strikes down parts of Florida election law; cites race
A federal judge struck down portions of a Florida election law passed last year, saying in a ruling Thursday that the Republican-led government was using subtle tactics to suppress Black voters.
The law tightened rules on mailed ballots, drop boxes and other popular election methods — changes that made it more difficult for Black voters who, overall, have more socioeconomic disadvantages than white voters, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker wrote in his ruling.
“For the past 20 years, the majority in the Florida Legislature has attacked the voting rights of its Black constituents,” Walker wrote. Given that history, he said, some future election law changes should be subject to court approval
Al Jazeera News
Curfew in Sri Lanka as protesters try to storm president’s house
Police in Sri Lanka have imposed a curfew in the country’s capital following clashes with protesters who tried to storm President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s residence as anger grows over a worsening economic crisis that has resulted in rolling blackouts.
In a statement to the media late on Thursday, Inspector General of Police CD Wickramaratne said the curfew in most of Colombo’s districts would last “until further notice”.
The move came after hundreds of protesters in the capital’s Mirihana district threw stones at and clashed with police earlier in the evening as they pushed through the first line of barricades blocking the road to Rajapaksa’s private residence.
The crowds were chanting “Go home Gota!” and “Gota is a dictator”.
‘I needed to be here’: Indigenous delegates speak their truths
Representatives of the Metis, Inuit and First Nations peoples in Canada travelled to Rome this week at the invitation of Pope Francis to discuss the impacts of Canada’s residential schools.
The federally funded institutions operated from the late 1800s until 1997 with the goal of forcibly assimilating Indigenous children into the mainstream European culture.
Over 150,000 Indigenous children from across the country attended the schools and experienced physical, sexual, emotional, verbal and spiritual abuse. Thousands died while in attendance.
UN: Afghans need $4.4bn to have enough to eat
The head of the United Nations has said that Afghanistan needs $4.4bn to avoid a food crisis in the country, as he launched the UN aid office’s biggest-ever funding drive for a single country.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday that some Afghans have resorted to “selling their children and their body parts” to get money for food, and that nearly all Afghans do not have enough food to eat.
Guterres’s statement was part of a dramatic appeal from the world body to help beleaguered Afghans, whose fate has worsened since the Taliban returned to power last year.
Greenwashing? UN appoints panel to probe firms on climate efforts
The head of the United Nations announced the appointment Thursday of an expert panel led by Canada’s former environment minister to scrutinise whether companies’ efforts to curb climate change are credible or mere “greenwashing”.
Recent years have seen an explosion of pledges by businesses — including oil companies — to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to “net zero” amid consumer expectations that corporations bear part of the burden of cutting pollution. But environmental campaigners say many such plans are at best unclear, at worst designed to make companies look good when they are actually fueling global warming.
“Governments have the lion’s share of responsibility to achieve net-zero emissions by mid-century,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, adding that this was particularly true for the Group of 20 major emerging and industrialised economies that account for 80 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.
More Americans apply for jobless benefits; layoffs still low
More Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, but layoffs remain at historic lows.
Jobless claims rose by 14,000 to 202,000 for the week ending March 26, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The previous week’s tally of 188,000 claims was the lowest since 1969. First-time applications for jobless aid generally track the pace of layoffs.
The four-week average for claims, which compensates for weekly volatility, fell to 208,500 from 212,000 the previous week.
In total, 1,307,000 Americans were collecting jobless aid for the week ending March 19, the fewest since December 1969.
NBC News
5 fetuses found in home of anti-abortion activist, D.C. police say
Police on Wednesday found five fetuses at the Washington, D.C., home of an anti-abortion rights activist who has been indicted in connection with a blockade at a reproductive health care clinic.
The fetuses were found after a tip was given "regarding potential bio-hazard material" at the home where Lauren Handy was reported to be residing, Washington police said. An investigation is underway, and the fetuses have been given to the medical examiner's office.
Handy said outside the home Wednesday that she expected the raid to happen "sooner or later," WUSA-TV reported. Handy, who declined to speak on camera, said "people would freak out when they heard" what was in the evidence bags being taken by police, the station reported.
U.S. Covid hospitalizations hit new low, falling 32 percent in the last two weeks
Covid hospitalizations are at their lowest levels since the U.S. began keeping records at the start of the pandemic, according to an NBC News analysis of data from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Average hospitalizations fell to 16,760, lower than the previous low of 16,808, set before the delta wave in June 2021. Hospitalization figures from the past few days could change as hospitals finalize numbers.
Since March 2020, when HHS began recording hospitalizations, there have been as many as 159,000 hospitalized in a day with Covid, a peak set Jan. 20 during the omicron surge. On average the country has reported 63,000 hospitalizations a day.
ABC News
House votes to cap cost of insulin at $35, heads to Senate
Congress could soon send to the president's desk a bill that would cap the cost of the livesaving drug insulin at $35 per month -- a move that could significantly reduce and rein in out-of-pocket drug costs for millions of Americans with diabetes.
The House approved the bill Thursday by a vote of 232-193, with 12 Republicans joining all Democrats in support.
The bill now heads to the Senate, and it could be taken up in the upper chamber in a matter of weeks if there is bipartisan agreement.
Experts say it costs less than $10 a vial to manufacture, yet there are still American families with insurance paying hundreds of dollars per vial of insulin.
US will require valves on new pipelines to prevent disasters
U.S. officials on Thursday adopted a rule aimed at reducing deaths and environmental damage from oil and gas pipeline ruptures — a long-delayed response to fatal explosions and massive spills that have occurred over decades in California, Michigan, New Jersey and other states.
But safety advocates said the move by the U.S. Transportation Department would not have averted the accidents that prompted the new rule. That’s because it applies only to newly constructed or replaced pipelines — and not to hundreds of thousands of miles of lines that already crisscross the country, many of them decades old and corroding.
The rule requires companies to install emergency valves that can quickly shut off the flow of oil, natural gas or other hazardous fuels when pipelines rupture. It came in response to a massive gas explosion in San Bruno, California, that killed eight people in 2010, and to large oil spills into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River and Montana's Yellowstone River and other spills.
Patch.com News
Disney Vows To Help Repeal Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' Law
After Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 1557 — commonly called the "Don't Say Gay" bill — into law Monday, Walt Disney Co. wasted no time issuing its strongest response yet opposing it.
According to the entertainment company, the bill should have never passed, and Disney now vows to help repeal it.
The controversial Parental Rights in Education bill, called the "Don't Say Gay" law by critics, faces court action by LGBTQ groups and is drawing scrutiny for Disney's role in the state.
NYC 'Worst Landlord' Faces Major Lawsuit By City
Swarms of rats. Lead paint flaking everywhere. No hot water. Rampant fire hazards. Tenants harassed.
These are among 1,900 violations Moshe Piller — a fixture on the city's official "worst landlord" list — let fester in 15 New York buildings, according to a civil lawsuit filed by the city Thursday.
"The Defendants have allowed their buildings to deteriorate to the point where they pose an imminent threat to the health and safety of the tenants and the public," the lawsuit states.
Good News Network
Genetic Lineage of Thousand-Year-Old Oak Trees Seed an Experimental ‘Super Forest’
Oaks with lives stretching back to the founding of modern England are being utilized to create “super forests” that support a new quality-over-quantity reforestation strategy.
The trees, the oldest of which is thought to be 1,046 years old, contain the genetic lineage of multiple shifts in Earth’s climate, and untold episodes of disease, pests, fires, and more, and are thought to be able to pass that information on through their acorns.
At Blenheim Palace and Estates in Oxfordshire, nature has a special role in even a developed area of the country like the southeast. GNN reported last year that a bee expert found 800,000 native honey bees spread across dozens of hives from a species once thought extinct, all sheltering in trees on Blenheim’s measly 400 acres.
Handsome boy