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: Stopped in a sweltering Blue Line train, some passengers get out and walk down the subway tunnel to a station by David Struett
Passengers aboard a CTA train stopped for more than an hour at Division Tuesday morning described a sweltering, chaotic scene as power was shut off and workers didn’t answer call buttons inside the cars.
“It was super hot, we were sweaty. People were taking off their masks because it was so hot,” said Isaac Hart, a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. “The person standing next to me was pregnant ... and eventually had to go ask for someone’s seat.”
Finally, several riders left through an emergency door and walked along a concrete step on the side of the subway tunnel to reach a station. By that time, firefighters had arrived to the station. They eventually boarded the stopped trains to check on the passengers.
Officials said no one was transported to hospitals and the trains began to move again shortly after 10 a.m., about an hour after they were stopped as police responded to reports of a person on the tracks.
Texas Tribune: Here’s how Pete Arredondo and other law enforcement differ on what happened during the Uvalde shooting by James Barragan
In the four weeks since a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, law enforcement agencies and state officials have given conflicting accounts of the police response, which has been criticized because officers waited more than an hour to take down the shooter.
At times, officials have had to correct, or completely retract, information they had given the public about the response to the shooting.
At the center of the controversy is Pete Arredondo, chief of police for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, who has been labeled as “incident commander” and criticized by state police for making critical errors. Earlier this month, Arredondo and his attorney gave an exclusive and exhaustive interview to The Texas Tribune detailing what unfolded in the hallway on the day of the shooting and defending his role.
This week, new details emerged about the timeline of events as media outlets including the Tribune reported on surveillance video from the hallways that day and a transcript of officers’ body cameras. In a public hearing to lawmakers Tuesday, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw provided more details about the sequence of events and missed opportunities.
St. Louis Post Dispatch: Greitens says violent video about hunting people was meant to be humorous by Kurt Erickson
JEFFERSON CITY — Former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens hit the conservative talk radio circuit Tuesday, arguing that a campaign video showing him storming a house with soldiers in search of “Republicans in name only” was intended to be a humorous metaphor.
“I don’t think there is a real person in Missouri who thinks about it literally. Not one,” Greitens said in an interview on KFTK (97.1 FM) radio. “What you’re seeing is a tremendous amount of faux outrage from leftists and RINOs.”
The video, released Monday, shows Greitens holding a shotgun and accompanying a team armed with assault rifles and flash grenades as they rush into a house in search of RINOs.
“Join the MAGA crew,” Greitens, a former Navy SEAL, says. “Get a RINO hunting permit. There’s no bagging limit, no tagging limit, and it doesn’t expire until we save our country.”
Boston Globe: Hundreds of dead birds washing up on Martha’s Vineyard by Emily Sweeney
Animal control officials in Tisbury say a strain of bird flu may be responsible for killing hundreds of birds on the island.
Officials wrote in a Facebook post that hundreds of dead cormorants have been washing up all over the island, and animal control officers have collected them and sent them to the state for testing.
“This is extremely dangerous to us as a small island. PLEASE inform your local ACO [animal control officer] if you find any dead birds,” the post said. “MOST IMPORTANTLY: DO NOT TOUCH THEM!!! Keep your dogs leashed if on beaches so they do not get contaminated. Take care when going in water, many are floating in seaweed etc.”
Tisbury Animal Control Officer Kate Hoffman said she and Samantha Gitschier, the assistant animal control officer in West Tisbury, picked up 41 cormorants at Lamberts Cove Beach on Sunday.
“Other ACOs have picked up more,” Hoffman said in an email. “Edgartown picked up a bunch as well on South Beach I believe.”
San Diego Union-Tribune: California survey finds hot-button issues may spark voter turnout in November by Deborah Sullivan Brennan
SAN DIEGO — Despite low turnout in June primary elections, key world events such as abortion rights and the potential for war with Russia could spur greater voter participation in November, according to a voter survey by UC San Diego.
The survey, “Looking Ahead to November; How Will Reproductive Rights, Crime Rates and Top Two Dynamics Shape California’s General Election?” was conducted by researchers with the Yankelovich Center for Social Science Research at UC San Diego, who asked nearly 3,000 Californians this month about their plans and preferences for the November General Election.
The survey, released Tuesday, noted low statewide turnout of about 30 percent in the June primary election. Midterm and primary elections typically have low participation rates, but this year California was well below the 2018 primary, which drew 37.5 percent turnout.
That suggests voter disengagement and apathy, the authors concluded, particularly among those not registered with a political party. Only 45.9 percent of independent voters said they will definitely vote in November, compared to 77.6 percent of Republicans and 73.4 percent of Democrats. Moreover, 11.8 percent of independent voters said they definitely won’t vote, while only 3.6 percent of Republicans and 4.6 percent of Democrats don’t plan on voting.
New York Times: Supreme Court Rejects Maine’s Ban on Aid to Religious Schools by Adam Liptak
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that Maine may not exclude religious schools from a state tuition program, the latest decision by a conservative majority that has increasingly favored the role of religion in public life.
The vote was 6 to 3, with the court’s three liberal justices in dissent.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, said the ruling did not require states to support religious education. But states that choose to subsidize private schools, he added, may not discriminate against religious ones.
In separate dissents, Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Stephen G. Breyer expressed dismay at the direction of the court in taking up matters of religion in the public sphere. Justice Sotomayor said the decision was another step in dismantling “the wall of separation between church and state that the framers fought to build.”
Washington Post: Gun deal in Senate moves closer to reality after key snags resolved by Mike DeBonis and Leigh Ann Caldwell
A tentative deal in the Senate that would toughen federal gun laws and provide billions of dollars in new money to prevent future mass shootings moved closer to reality Tuesday after negotiators settled key disagreements that had delayed the drafting of a bill, putting it on a glide path to be passed into law by the end of the month.
The breakthrough came more than a week after 20 senators — 10 from each party — signed on to a framework agreement that coupled modest new gun restrictions with some $15 billion in new federal funding for mental health programs and school security upgrades.
While agreement from 10 Republican senators on a deal in principle was a clear breakthrough, signaling there could be enough GOP support to beat a Senate filibuster, it did not guarantee that the negotiators would succeed in translating those elements into final text. But with the key disputes resolved, people involved in the negotiations said the text of the bill is set to be released as soon as Tuesday afternoon, with an initial Senate procedural vote coming just hours afterward.
NBC News: Trump team orchestrated 'fake electors' to try to overturn election, Jan. 6 committee details by Jonathan Allen
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump's team orchestrated a plot to overturn the 2020 election by organizing slates of alternate "fake electors" in seven pivotal states, according to testimony and documents presented Tuesday by the House Jan. 6 committee.
During its fourth public hearing, the committee revealed that the fake electors submitted false certifications of Trump victories to the National Archives in hopes of having then-Vice President Mike Pence substitute them for the actual electoral votes that made Joe Biden president.
Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel said in pre-recorded testimony that Trump called her so that one of his lawyers, John Eastman, could outline how the party organization could play its part in trying to certify Trump slates from states that voted for Biden.
A member of the national press.
Mother Jones: A Republican Stood Up to Trump. So Right-Wingers Smeared Him as a “Pedophile.” By Ari Breland
If you didn’t know any better, you could be forgiven for assuming that the far right was waging a campaign to get Merriam-Webster to add “my political enemies” to its list of definitions of “pedophile.”
For years, “pedophile” (often shortened to “pedo”) was used as semi-ironic 4chan shorthand for anyone internet trolls thought was a weirdo. More recently, QAnon’s misplaced “save the children” paranoia has helped this sentiment germinate among the non-4chan normie masses. For a bit, the pedophile accusations were reserved for elite, liberal gatekeepers—the high-profile Democrats featured in John Podesta’s hacked emails, for example. But now, literally anyone who stands even slightly in the way of the right’s agenda might be called a pedophile.
Testifying Tuesday before the January 6 committee, Rusty Bowers—the Republican speaker of the Arizona statehouse—somberly explained how this happened to him after he refused to help Donald Trump overturn Joe Biden’s victory in that state. In response, right-wing protesters began showing up at his home, where he lives with his wife and daughter.
Le Monde in English: Fearing 'total paralysis,' Macron advisers consider dissolution of Assemblée Nationale in a year by Alexandre Lemarié
"It's hell," "hyperviolent," "Dantesque"... Emmanuel Macron's supporters certainly took a beating. They were stunned when the results of the second round of legislative elections were announced, on Sunday, June 19. While the president called on the French to give him a "clear and solid" majority, his coalition Ensemble! collected 246 seats – well short of the absolute majority they held for five years, which requires 289 seats. The score is much lower than expected after the first round, when the pro-Macron side was projected to win 255 to 295 seats, allowing them to hope for an absolute majority like in 2017. In the end, it will be a small relative majority.
It is a huge setback for Mr. Macron, who was penalized by the protest vote, after his re-election to the Elysée, almost two months ago. He now finds himself in a nightmare scenario, unable to implement his policy agenda without enough support in the Assemblée Nationale to pass his bills. His campaign's failure contrasts with the breakthrough of the left-wing NUPES alliance led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, which won 142 seats, and an unprecedented performance from the far-right Rassemblement national (RN), which got 89 seats.
"No one won. But we lost," lamented one member of the majority when the results were announced. "If these results are confirmed, it is far from what we hoped," acknowledged Budget Minister Gabriel Attal, on TF1. "Obviously, we have had better evenings (...) We have disappointed a number of French people, the message is clear," agreed government spokeswoman Olivia Grégoire, on France 2. There were specific defeats fraught with symbolism: Assemblée Nationale President Richard Ferrand was defeated in his stronghold of Finistère, and the leader LRM MPs Christophe Castaner in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. Not to mention the defeats of several ministers, who will now have to leave the government, like the Health Minister Brigitte Bourguignon and Junior Minister for the Sea Justine Benin.
BBC News: Emmanuel Macron a chastened and greatly weakened leader by Hugh Schofield
On the night in April when Emmanuel Macron won his re-election victory, everyone noticed the strange, subdued atmosphere that seemed to surround him.
No flashing smiles, no pumping speech of hope. It was as if he already knew that celebration would be misplaced.
Two months later, we can see that his famous political instincts were once again on the money.
He was right to be cautious. That victory was indeed a high point, but right away he saw its depressing, implicit message - that from high points there is only one way to go, and that is down.
The results of Sunday's legislative election confirm that this second term will be a different beast from the first, with Mr Macron cutting the figure of a chastened and greatly weakened leader.
Instead of being able to rely on (and basically therefore ignore) a compliant legislature, the president now faces a National Assembly which cannot guarantee the passage of his reforms.
Guardian: ‘Like a scene from Titanic’: floods in Assam submerge entire villages by Amrit Dhillon
People living in Assam, in north-east India, are usually stoical about the flooding that occurs to a greater or lesser extent every monsoon season. But this year they say the situation is dramatically worse. “It was like a scene from Titanic,” one man told local media of the rising waters that have flooded all but two of the state’s districts.
In some places entire villages are under water, while across the state 114,000 hectares of crops have been submerged and 5,000 livestock have been washed away. For those that remain, fodder is running out.
Since April, 82 people have died in the rain and landslides, including two police officers who were swept away on Monday as they attempted a rescue.
In the worst-affected areas, life has been reduced to huddling on any tiny patch of raised dry ground that people can find. Families living under tarpaulin tied to bamboo poles are using dwindling supplies of cooking gas to cook basic meals. There is an air of despondency over all that has been lost: furniture, utensils, documents, irreplaceable photos.
DW: First heavy weapons from Germany arrive in Ukraine
The first delivery of heavy weapons promised by the German government had arrived in Ukraine, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Tuesday.
The arrival comes after repeated appeals from Kyiv for better weapons and ammunition as it seeks to hold off Russia's military offensive in eastern Ukraine.
Self-propelled howitzers, the Panzerhaubitze 2000, are the first heavy weapons sent by Germany to arrive in Ukraine.
In May, Berlin pledged to send seven of the artillery systems, adding to five howitzers promised by the Netherlands.
The Panzerhaubitze 2000 are some of the most powerful artillery weapons in the German military's stock. The howitzers can hit targets located up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) away.
Reznikov praised his German counterpart, Christine Lambrecht, and Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren for the shipments.
AlJazeera: Will Gustavo Petro live up to his promises to Colombia’s women? By Kiran Stallone and Julie Zulver
Bogota, Colombia – Colombian women’s rights activist Carmen Garcia has high hopes for her newly elected president, Gustavo Petro.
“I have no words to explain how excited I am. For the first time, our country has made a change. For the first time, women are going to be heard. For the first time, we women who are victims of the armed conflict are going to stop suffering in this [war],” she told Al Jazeera.
Petro, a former M-19 rebel and the first left-wing candidate to win the presidency, made several promises to female voters during his campaign: to recognise unpaid domestic labour, protect them from violence, and enact rural and land reforms to give women better access to ownership.
His running mate, Francia Marquez, a former activist and single mother will become the country’s first Afro-Colombian vice president when the two take office in August.
Garcia lives in Catatumbo, a northern region along Colombia’s border with Venezuela, where she and other women in conflict areas have faced gender-based threats and activists have faced harm and even death.
Everyone have a good evening!