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 Rise above the swamp. 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.
Since 2007 the OND has been 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.
- Some stories for tonight:
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Ukraine war: Sweden and Finland confirm Nato plans
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Afghanistan face veil decree: 'It feels like being a woman is a crime'
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It's 19 weeks into the year and America has already seen 198 mass shootings
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G7 warn of Ukraine grain crisis, ask China not to aid Russia
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Saudi oil giant Aramco reports 82% rise in quarterly profits
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Intoxication can be violent crime defense, Canada supreme court rules
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Mexico to boost fertilizer production to support local farmers
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China April property sales plunge 46.6%, fastest since at least 2010
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Zelenskyy says he will call on support from Asia, Africa
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Beach Houses on the Outer Banks Are Being Swallowed by the Sea
BBC
Ukraine war: Sweden and Finland confirm Nato plan
Sweden and Finland have confirmed they will apply for Nato membership in a historic shift that comes as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
In Sweden, the governing Social Democrats said they backed joining the security alliance, paving the way for the country to apply.
The announcement came soon after Finland too formally announced it would apply to join the grouping.
Russia sees Nato as a security threat and has warned of "consequences".
Sweden stayed neutral in World War II and for more than two centuries has avoided joining military alliances.
Finland shares a 1,300-km (810-mile) border with Russia. Until now, it has stayed out of Nato to avoid antagonising its eastern neighbour.
n a statement, Sweden's Social Democrats said they would "work toward" membership, something supported by the public and most opposition parties. A formal application is likely within days.
But the Social Democrats added that they were opposed to stationing nuclear weapons or hosting Nato bases.
BBC (Even worse than our anti-women right wing)
Afghanistan face veil decree: 'It feels like being a woman is a crime'
"It breaks my heart that people in the street were approaching me, asking me to cover my face," says Soraya. "Even the tailor I visited told me to cover my face before I could speak to them."
Soraya, who owns a small business in Kabul, never believed that she would be made to wear a burqa, like the one the Taliban enforced during their first stint in power in the 1990s. But on 7 May women's faces became the latest restriction, after Afghanistan's ruling Taliban announced that women must wear an all-covering veil in public for the first time in decades. Taliban officials described the face veil decree as "advice" but laid out a specific set of escalating steps for anyone not complying.
And when Soraya took her usual trip to the shops in western Kabul this week, something else had changed. Taliban representatives were inside women's clothing shops to oversee what shop assistants were selling and whether the length of the tailor-made outfits was deemed appropriate.
"I was scared," says Soraya.
NPR
It's 19 weeks into the year and America has already seen 198 mass shootings
The 10 people killed, and an additional three injured, make this weekend's racially motivated attack at a Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket the deadliest mass shooting of the year in the United States.
It is also the 198th mass shooting in 2022. With just over 19 weeks into the year, this averages out to about 10 such attacks a week.
The tally comes from the Gun Violence Archive, an independent data collection organization. The group defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are shot or killed, excluding the shooter. The full list of mass shootings in 2022 can be found here.
Prior to the Buffalo attack, the largest-scale mass shooting this year was at a car show in Dumas, Ark., on March 19. That attack killed one person and injured 27.
Mass shootings, as is well known by now, are a common recurrence in the United States. Around this time last year, the U.S. had experienced a similar number of mass shootings: also about 10 a week.
NPR
G7 warn of Ukraine grain crisis, ask China not to aid Russia
WEISSENHAUS, Germany — The Group of Seven leading economies warned Saturday that the war in Ukraine is stoking a global food and energy crisis which threatens poor countries, and urgent measures are needed to unblock stores of grain that Russia is preventing from leaving Ukraine.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who hosted a meeting of top G-7 diplomats, said the war had become a "global crisis."
She said up to 50 million people, particularly in Africa and the Middle East, would face hunger in the coming months unless ways are found to release Ukrainian grain, which accounts for a sizeable share of the worldwide supply.
In statements released at the end of the three-day meeting on Germany's Baltic Sea coast, the G-7 pledged to provide further humanitarian aid to the most vulnerable.
"Russia's war of aggression has generated one of the most severe food and energy crises in recent history which now threatens those most vulnerable across the globe," the group said.
Why your gas costs $6+ :
The Guardian
Saudi oil giant Aramco reports 82% rise in quarterly profits
Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil company, has disclosed an 82% rise in quarterly profits to a new record of $39.5bn (£32.2bn), boosted by an increase in demand and higher crude prices.
The company, which last week overtook technology group Apple to become the world’s most valuable company, said it would pay an $18.8bn (£15.3bn) dividend and hand $4bn (£3.2bn) in bonus shares to its investors after the better-than-expected performance.
Energy companies such as BP and Shell have posted their highest profits in at least a decade as a result of rising commodities prices fuelled by the unwinding of Covid-19 restrictions around the world and sanctions on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.Energy prices have also been driven by strong demand in Asia for gas and a cold winter in 2020 which depleted supplies, leaving stocks low as temperatures dropped in the northern hemisphere last year. Profits have risen despite many groups taking a hit from exiting investments in Russia as Brent crude prices have soared by almost 70% to $107.91 (£87.99) a barrel in March compared with a year before.
The Guardian
Intoxication can be violent crime defense, Canada supreme court rules
Canada’s supreme court has ruled that defendants accused of violent crimes such as homicide and sexual assault can use self-induced extreme intoxication as a defense, striking down a federal law supported by women’s advocacy groups.
The supreme court said on Friday a law passed by parliament in 1995 that prohibits the defense was unconstitutional and violates the country’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“Its impact on the principles of fundamental justice is disproportionate to its overarching public benefits. It should therefore be declared unconstitutional and of no force or effect,” writing for a unanimous supreme court, Justice Nicholas Kasirer said of the law.
“It is critically important to emphasize that today’s decision does not apply to the vast majority of cases involving a person who commits a criminal offence while intoxicated,” he said in a statement.
The court said it is the law in Canada that intoxication short of automatism is not a defense for the kind of violent crime at issue.
Reuters
Mexico to boost fertilizer production to support local farmers
MEXICO CITY, May 15 (Reuters) - Mexico aims to as much as triple its fertilizer production, the government said on Sunday, to support its plan to boost local agriculture production and control consumer price inflation.
The government was investing in existing fertilizer factories, it said in a statement, in line with its bid to lessen reliance on foreign imports and ensure fair prices for staple foods such as corn, rice and beans by increasing production. read more
Consumer prices rose 7.68% in the year through April and in the month alone increased 0.54%, according to non-seasonally adjusted figures posted by the national statistics agency. read more
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, in a series of meetings with producers over the weekend, said a program to provide free fertilizer to farmers would be expanded to several more states, including Campeche, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Veracruz.
Reuters
China April property sales plunge 46.6%, fastest since at least 2010
BEIJING, May 16 (Reuters) - China's April property sales by value fell at their fastest pace in at least 12 years as COVID-19 lockdowns further cooled demand despite more policy easing steps aimed at reviving a key sector of the world's second-largest economy.
In April, property sales by value slumped 46.6% from a year earlier, the fastest pace since at least 2010, and sharply widening from the 26.17% fall in March, according to Reuters calculations based on data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Monday.
In January-April, property sales by value fell 29.5% year-on-year, compared with the 22.7% decline in the first three months.China's property sector, a major economic growth driver, has been in a severe slump since last year after authorities clamped down on debt-laden developers, spooking many would-be home buyers who feared projects would not be completed.
Deutsche Welle
Zelenskyy says he will call on support from Asia, Africa
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he wants to address national parliaments in Africa and Asia as he seeks their support for Ukraine in its ongoing fight against Russia's invasion.
He stressed that his government is doing everything to maintain the world's attention on the conflict.
"Information about our needs should be in the news of all countries that are important to us constantly and every day," he said in his nightly address on Sunday.
Since the start of the Russian invasion at the end of February, Zelenskyy has been addressing parliaments around the world to plead the cause of the Ukrainian people.
"I will definitely continue to address the parliaments of Ukraine's European partner states," he said, adding: "By the way, we are also working to expand the geography of such special speeches in the parliaments of Africa and Asia.”
New York Times
Beach Houses on the Outer Banks Are Being Swallowed by the Sea
RODANTHE, N.C. — Like millions of other people this week, Hien Pham marveled at the online video of the two-story, pea-green beach house as it collapsed into a rising sea, left to bob in the agitated surf like a giant cork.
This particular giant cork, formerly located at 24265 Ocean Drive, was Mr. Pham’s. He had purchased the four-bedroom place in November 2020 for $275,000.
“It’s definitely a feeling that you can’t explain,” said Mr. Pham, 30, a Knoxville, Tenn., real estate agent, in a phone interview. “Just to see something that once was there, and it’s not there anymore.”
Three prime beachfront lots are now empty on Ocean Drive, a small stretch of a charmingly scruffy Outer Banks subdivision called Trade Winds Beaches that has, to the chagrin of its property owners, become a sort of poster neighborhood for sea-level rise — particularly since the video of Mr. Pham’s house, which collapsed Tuesday, was shared widely on social media. The once-generous stretch of beach in front of the houses has largely vanished in recent months, leaving them vulnerable to the destructive power of the Atlantic Ocean.