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:
- French election: Left surge threatens Macron majority in France
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Covid: Dozens of Covid cases linked to Beijing bar
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More than 15,000 sheep drown after live export ship sinks in Sudan
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Hopes fade of finding missing men as Brazilian police report finding ‘apparently human’ material
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More than 50 million people in the U.S. are under excessive heat warnings
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Russia's rebranded McDonald's unveils a new logo, but keeps its name a secret
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Russia destroys bridge over Ukrainian river, cutting escape route
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U.S. gasoline average price tops $5 per gallon in historic first
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High oil, wheat prices to burden Egypt with over $10 billion, finance minister says
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Google Engineer On Leave After He Claims AI Program Has Gone Sentient
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Next Jan. 6 hearings to focus on how Trump’s ‘big lie’ fueled rioters
BBC
French election: Left surge threatens Macron majority in France
French President Emmanuel Macron is at risk of losing his outright majority after a strong challenge from a coalition of left-wing parties in National Assembly elections.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon's left-green alliance finished neck and neck with Mr Macron's Ensemble (Together), in terms of votes cast in Sunday's first round.
The president faces a battle in next week's second round to win 289 seats and keep his majority.
Turnout was a historically low 47.5%.
Within half an hour of the first projection, a sombre Jean-Luc Mélenchon announced his alliance was in the lead: "The truth at the end of the first round is that the presidential party is beaten and defeated." He called on voters to turn out in force next Sunday "to reject definitively the disastrous policies of Mr Macron's majority".
Centrist Emmanuel Macron won a second term in April, but without a majority in the Assembly he will struggle to push through reforms. He intends to raise gradually the retirement age from 62 to 65, while Mr Mélenchon vows to lower it to 60.
BBC
Covid: Dozens of Covid cases linked to Beijing bar
A total of 166 Covid infections in China have been linked to a single bar in the capital Beijing, officials say.
A government spokesman described the outbreak as "ferocious".
All residents living in the area where the bar is located will be tested over the next three days.
The number of infections in the city is low by international standards but high for China, which is the world's only major economy still maintaining a "zero Covid" policy.
The outbreak was traced to a venue called the Heaven Supermarket Bar, in the well-known entertainment area of Sanlitun in Chaoyang district.
Two buildings housing hundreds of people in Chaoyang were put under strict lockdown on Sunday after a positive case was reported, a residential committee worker told Reuters news agency.
Some people in Beijing said they were sent texts telling them to report to authorities if they had recently visited Sanlitun's bars.
The Guardian
More than 15,000 sheep drown after live export ship sinks in Sudan
A ship crammed with thousands of sheep sank on Sunday in Sudan’s Red Sea port of Suakin, drowning most animals onboard but with all crew surviving, officials said.
The livestock vessel was exporting the animals from Sudan to Saudi Arabia when it sank. “The ship, Badr 1, sank during the early hours of Sunday morning,” a senior Sudanese port official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It was carrying 15,800 sheep.”
Another official, who said all crew were rescued, raised concerns over the economic and environmental impact of the accident. “The sunken ship will affect the port’s operation,” the official said. “It will also likely have an environmental impact due to the death of the large number of animals carried by the ship”.
Omar al-Khalifa, the head of the national exporters’ association, said the ship took several hours to sink at the pier – a window that suggested it “could have been rescued”.
The Guardian
Hopes fade of finding missing men as Brazilian police report finding ‘apparently human’ material
Hopes of finding a British journalist and a Brazilian guide faded on Friday as police announced an unsettling development in the search for the two men last seen five days ago on a remote river in Amazonia.
“Search teams found on the river, near to Atalaia do Norte, apparently human organic material,” Brazil’s federal police said in a statement.
Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira were reported missing on Sunday morning after they failed to show up in the town of Atalaia do Norte at the end of a reporting trip near Brazil’s border with Peru.
Police also confirmed blood had been found on a boat belonging to Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, a man police arrested earlier this week in connection with their disappearance.
Although police said they had no evidence directly tying da Costa de Oliveira to any crime, nor even if the blood on the boat was human or animal, the announcement was a blow to hopes the two men, now missing for more than five days, would be found alive.
NPR
More than 50 million people in the U.S. are under excessive heat warnings
More than 25 major cities tied or broke record-high temperatures Saturday, during a dangerous heatwave that enveloped much of the Southwestern United States over the weekend. Approximately 53 million people are still under excessive heat warnings as extreme temperatures begin to shift east.
California's Death Valley, which holds the world record for hottest recorded temperature (134 degrees) set over a century ago, was the hottest place in the country Saturday at 122 degrees. Palm Springs and Phoenix, Ariz., tied for second place Saturday at 114, both cities matching previous record high temps.
Robert Oravec, a lead forecaster with the National Weather Service, said the heat will move away from the Southwest beginning Monday, traveling east towards the Mississippi River Valley over the coming days.
NPR
Russia's rebranded McDonald's unveils a new logo, but keeps its name a secret
What could possibly replace McDonald's iconic Golden Arches? In the case of its Russian replacement, the answer appears to be orange backslashes.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine prompted McDonald's to withdraw from the country after more than 30 years, a process that entailed pausing operations, looking for a buyer and "de-arching" its restaurants.
Last month, it announced that the existing licensee Alexander Govor would acquire its 850 Russian locations and operate them under a new brand — as well as retain and pay its 62,000 Russian employees for at least two years.
The rebranded chain is set to open its first 15 locations in the Moscow region on Sunday, followed by another 200 across the country later this month. And while its new name is still under wraps, it has revealed its colorful new logo. Sistema PBO, which manages the chain, confirmed the design to the state outlet TASS on Thursday.
It depicts a small red circle and two orange lines (aka a burger and pair of fries) against a green background, which the spokesperson said represents the quality of the chain's products and service. Altogether, the three shapes somewhat resemble an abstract letter "M.”
Reuters
Russia destroys bridge over Ukrainian river, cutting escape route
KYIV/LVIV, June 12 (Reuters) - Russian forces have blown up a bridge linking the embattled Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk to another city across the river, cutting off a possible evacuation route for civilians, local officials said on Sunday.
Sievierodonetsk has become the epicenter of the battle for control over Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. Parts of the city have been pulverized in some of the bloodiest fighting since the Kremlin unleashed its invasion on Feb. 24.
"The key tactical goal of the occupiers has not changed: they are pressing in Sievierodonetsk, severe fighting is ongoing there - literally for every meter," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address, adding that Russia's military was trying to deploy reserve forces to the Donbas.
Zelenskiy said the image of a 12-year-old injured in a Russian strike was now the enduring worldwide face of Russia. "These very facts will underscore the way in which Russia is seen by the world," he said.
Reuters
U.S. gasoline average price tops $5 per gallon in historic first
LOL, we here in California are at $7.29, and even more further north.
June 11 (Reuters) - The price of U.S. gasoline averaged more than $5 a gallon for the first time on Saturday, data from the AAA showed, extending a surge in fuel costs that is driving rising inflation.
The national average price for regular unleaded gas rose to $5.004 a gallon on June 11 from $4.986 a day earlier, AAA data showed.
High gasoline prices are a headache for President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats as they struggle to maintain their slim control of Congress with midterm elections coming up in November. Fuel prices have been surging around the world due to a combination of rebounding demand, sanctions on oil producer Russia after its invasion of Ukraine and a squeeze on refining capacity.
Reuters
High oil, wheat prices to burden Egypt with over $10 billion, finance minister says
June 12 (Reuters) - Oil prices staying at $122 per barrel will cost the Egyptian budget $7.2 billion, Finance Minister Mohamed Maiit told CNBC Arabia on Sunday.
Maiit said that higher global wheat prices and pressure on the Egyptian pound would burden the government with an additional $3 billion, CNBC reported.
Egypt has been suffering from a shortage of foreign currency since the coronavirus pandemic chased away many tourists, international portfolio investors withdrew funds and the Ukrainian crisis pushed up commodity import prices.
HuffPost
Google Engineer On Leave After He Claims AI Program Has Gone Sentient
Blake Lemoine reached his conclusion after conversing since last fall with LaMDA, Google’s artificially intelligent chatbot generator, what he calls part of a “hive mind.” He was supposed to test if his conversation partner used discriminatory language or hate speech.
As he and LaMDA messaged each other recently about religion, the AI talked about “personhood” and “rights,” he told The Washington Post.
It was just one of the many startling “talks” Lemoine has had with LaMDA. He has linked on Twitter to one — a series of chat sessions with some editing (which is marked).
Lemoine noted in a tweet that LaMDA reads Twitter. “It’s a little narcissistic in a little kid kinda way so it’s going to have a great time reading all the stuff that people are saying about it,” he added.
Washington Post
Next Jan. 6 hearings to focus on how Trump’s ‘big lie’ fueled rioters
The second public hearing by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection will focus on then-President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen — dubbed the “big lie” — and how those false claims were connected to the pro-Trump mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol that day in a bid to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral college win, lawmakers on the bipartisan panel said Sunday.
In a background briefing with reporters on Sunday night, a select committee aide said the hearing on Monday, led by Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) with an assist from Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), will also dissect the fundraising apparatus that was built around the “big lie” to drive up the post-election cash haul.
“We will reveal information about how the former president’s political apparatus used these lies about fraud, about a stolen election, to drive fundraising, bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars between Election Day 2020 and January 6,” a committee aide said.