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.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
Chicago Sun-Times: Biden pardons Chicagoan Abraham Bolden, first Black Secret Service agent on White House detail by Lynn Sweet
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Tuesday pardoned Abraham Bolden, the Chicago man who was the first Black Secret Service agent to serve on a White House detail, who maintained charges against him that led to prison time were trumped up.
Bolden “has steadfastly maintained his innocence, arguing that he was targeted for prosecution in retaliation for exposing unprofessional and racist behavior within the U.S. Secret Service,” the White House said in announcing Biden’s clemency actions.
Biden pardoned three people, including Bolden and commuted the sentences of 75 other people serving long sentences for nonviolent drug offenses, who under current guidelines would be serving less time.
Washington Post: About 120,000 pounds of ground beef recalled over E. coli fears by Meryl Kornfield
About 120,000 pounds of ground beef products sold to stores across the country were recalled Monday, federal food regulators announced, warning that contaminated meat could be in people’s freezers.
More than 40 ground beef products that were produced from Feb. 1 through April 8 and sold nationwide may contain bacteria that can cause diarrhea and vomiting, although no cases of illnesses have been reported, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service wrote in a statement. The products from New Jersey-based Lakeside Refrigerated Services bear “EST. 46841” inside the USDA mark of inspection, regulators say.
Inspectors discovered the problem during routine testing of imported products, regulators said, offering no more details about the issue. Lakeside Refrigerated Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Buzzfeed: A Guy Who Left Burnouts On A Pride Mural Has To Write An Essay About The Pulse Nightclub Shooting by David Mack
A Florida man who vandalized an LGBTQ street mural with his truck during a pro-Trump rally last year has been ordered by a judge to write an essay about the Pulse nightclub massacre.
During a hearing Thursday, Judge Scott Suskauer with the criminal court in Palm Beach County ordered 20-year-old Alexander Jerich to write 25 pages about the Orlando shooting that left 49 dead in 2016, court documents show.
Jerich was arrested after he used his father's truck to burn tire marks over the rainbow street mural that had been painted at an intersection at Delray Beach on June 14 last year.
The artwork had been unveiled only two days prior to mark LGBTQ Pride month.
Jerich had been participating in a convoy organized by local Republicans to mark former president Donald Trump's birthday.
New York Times: The new White House Covid czar says avoiding all virus infections isn’t the goal of U.S. pandemic policy. By Noah Weiland
Dr. Ashish K. Jha, the White House’s new Covid-19 coordinator, said on Tuesday that as the United States sees an increase in known coronavirus cases and keeps a watchful eye for new variants, the administration was not seeking to stop every infection.
Making his first appearance at a White House news briefing since he assumed the role earlier this month, Dr. Jha cited the relatively low number of new deaths — though around 300 a day were “still too high,” he added — and hospitalizations at their lowest point in the pandemic. Those tallies, set against the rising number of cases around the country, amounted to a promising “inflection,” he said.
Asked what Americans should make of high-profile people such as Vice President Kamala Harris testing positive for the virus, Dr. Jha said that with such a contagious virus spreading, it would be “hard to ensure that no one gets Covid in America.”
“That’s not even a policy goal,” he said. “The goal of our policy should be: obviously minimize infections whenever possible, but to make sure people don’t get seriously ill.”
Newsweek: How Elon Musk Will Change Twitter, According to Those Close to Him by Ewan Palmer
Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter will improve the platform with his promises to increase transparency on decision making while still implementing some sort of moderation, according to an ally of the billionaire.
Ross Gerber, CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management, and an investor in Tesla and Twitter, believes that Musk's $44 billion purchase of Twitter will ultimately benefit the company and its users, amid concerns about how the world's richest man will oversee the social media site.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Gerber said that Musk decided to purchase Twitter as he only gets involved with projects he feels are "critically important" for society and humanity, and the Tesla and SpaceX CEO will be successful in his bid to revamp the social network.
El País in English: The United States Congress speaks more Spanish than ever by Vicente G. Olaya
The Spanish-speaking community in the United States is growing at the rate of one million people a year. There are now 57 million Americans, out of a total of 331 million, who either understand Spanish or use it as their primary language of communication. The increase is reflected in the government: more and more US politicians are composing internal and external communications in the language. The report by the Hispanic Council, an entity that promotes cultural relations between Spain and the United States, includes the findings from a survey of public communication–including on social networks and in press releases and official documents–of 541 politicians in the US Congress and the Senate since September 2020.
The study, which will be presented next Monday at the Spanish Congress of Deputies, shows that 74 of 441 newly elected US congressmembers issue digital communications in English and Spanish, an 18% increase from 2018. And of the country’s 100 senators, 28 already address their constituents in the language, twice as many as just four years ago. Daniel Ureña, president of The Hispanic Council, explains that “in political terms, the Hispanic community is already the minority group with the greatest electoral weight. Knowing that this vote is increasingly decisive in United States politics, the use of Spanish among representatives of Congress has been increasing.”
BBC News: Ukraine round-up: UN chief appeals to Putin while Russia cuts gas to Poland
It was a day of diplomacy over Ukraine as the UN's Secretary General António Guterres travelled to Russia and met President Vladimir Putin while Russia showed the first signs of following through on threats to restrict gas supplies to EU states.
Mr Guterres made clear the UN considered this an invasion, and said he stood ready to deploy resources to evacuate civilians stranded in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, a hotspot for the conflict where soldiers and civilians have been besieged in a steelworks for weeks.
Mr Putin said fighting had stopped in Mariupol and that Russian soldiers were doing nothing to stop civilians leaving. He accused Ukrainian soldiers of holding civilians as human shields. But Ukrainian defenders have said attacks are continuing and civilians are trapped.
America's top defence official warned the West it had to "move at the speed of war" to support Ukraine's military fight against the Russian invasion. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, a retired four-star general, told a gathering of 40 nations' defence ministers that the coming weeks would be "so crucial for Ukraine".
DW: COVID: Beijing residents stock up as city braces for new wave by William Yang
As the lockdown in Shanghai enters its fourth week, China's capital Beijing is also bracing for a potential surge of COVID-19 cases, as authorities roll out a plan to test 90% of the city's 21 million residents, according to the state-run media outlet Global Times.
Starting from Tuesday, authorities are expected to carry out three rounds of testing across 11 districts in Beijing.
Prior to the city-wide testing, mass-testing already began in Chaoyang district on Monday, where authorities have found 46 cases and more than a dozen residential buildings have been put under lockdown.
Residents told DW that testing sites were set up in each community and that staff from local health authorities had knocked on people's doors to ask them to get tested. "Some larger communities even have two testing sites and all tests were free," said a woman surnamed Lin, who lives in Chaoyang district.
AlJazeera: World military spending tops $2 trillion for first time: SIPRI
The global military expenditure has reached an all-time high, passing $2 trillion in 2021, according to a report by a leading defence think-tank based in Sweden, as spending increased for the seventh consecutive year.
The United States, China, India, the United Kingdom and Russia were the top five defence spenders, together accounting for 62 percent of the global expenditure, according to new data published on Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
“In 2021 military spending rose for the seventh consecutive time to reach $2.1 trillion. That is the highest figure we have ever had,” Diego Lopes da Silva, senior researcher at SIPRI, told AFP news agency.
Despite the economic fallout of the global COVID pandemic, countries around the world increased their arsenals, with global military spending rising by 0.7 percent last year, according to SIPRI.
Guardian: Saudis’ Biden snub suggests crown prince still banking on Trump’s return by Julian Borger
Saudi Arabia appears to be banking on Donald Trump’s return to office by refusing to help the US punish Russia for the Ukraine invasion, and by placing $2bn in a new, untested investment fund run by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
In seeking to persuade Riyadh to increase oil production so as to lower prices by as much as 30%, and thereby curb Russian government revenue, the Biden administration is looking for ways to reassure the Saudi government that it is dedicated to the kingdom’s security.
The White House said on Thursday it was an “iron-clad commitment from the president on down”, and the Pentagon is reported to be working on a draft of a new statement of US-Saudi security arrangements, but observers say it is likely to fall short of the firm guarantees the Saudis and other Gulf states are demanding.
Everyone have a great evening!