Fill-in for Magnifico tonight.
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:
Capitol riot hearing: Trump accused of 'attempted coup’
Ukrainian casualties: Kyiv losing up to 200 troops a day - Zelensky aide
The creator of the FBI mass shooting protocol is 'shocked' by Uvalde police response
Thailand decriminalizes marijuana, but not the strong stuff
Bolsonaro tilts towards closer Brazil-U.S. ties at unlikely meeting with Biden
China COVID jitters flare up as parts of Shanghai resume lockdown
65,000 year-old ‘Swiss Army knife’ proves ancient humans shared knowledge, research says
BBC
Capitol riot hearing: Trump accused of 'attempted coup'
Former US President Donald Trump orchestrated last year's Capitol riot in an "attempted coup", a congressional inquiry has heard as a prime-time hearing opened into the raid.
Liz Cheney, the Republican vice-chair of the committee, said Mr Trump had "lit the flame of this attack".
Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, said the riot endangered American democracy.
Trump supporters stormed Congress on 6 January 2021 as lawmakers met to certify Joe Biden's election victory.
After almost a year of investigation, the Democratic-led US House of Representatives select committee opened on Thursday evening by showing clips from interviews it conducted with members of Mr Trump's inner circle.
Footage was aired of testimony by former US Attorney General Bill Barr saying the former president's claims that the election was stolen were baseless.
"We can't live in a world where the incumbent administration stays in power based on its view, unsupported by specific evidence, that there was fraud in the election," said the former attorney general.
BBC
Ukrainian casualties: Kyiv losing up to 200 troops a day - Zelensky aide
A senior Ukrainian presidential aide has told the BBC that between 100 and 200 Ukrainian troops are being killed on the front line every day.
Mykhaylo Podolyak said Ukraine needed hundreds of Western artillery systems to level the playing field with Russia in the eastern Donbas region.
He also said Kyiv is not ready to resume peace talks with Moscow.
Ukrainian troops are under relentless bombardment as Russian forces attempt to take control of the whole of Donbas.
"The Russian forces have thrown pretty much everything non-nuclear at the front and that includes heavy artillery, multiple rocket launch systems and aviation," Mr Podolyak said.
He repeated Ukraine's appeal for more weapons from the West, saying that the "complete lack of parity" between the Russian and Ukrainian armies was the reason for Ukraine's heavy casualty rate.
"Our demands for artillery are not just some kind of whim... but an objective need when it comes to the situation on the battlefield," he said, adding that Ukraine needs 150 to 300 rocket launch systems to match Russia - a much higher number than it has received so far.
NPR
The creator of the FBI mass shooting protocol is 'shocked' by Uvalde police response
Every day, new information surfaces about how law enforcement responded to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 students and two teachers dead.
Critics have pointed out failures at nearly every step of that response: the school's resource officer drove by the shooter as he crouched between cars; police waited more than an hour to head into the classroom while the gunman was inside; and the chief of school police showed up without his radio and stopped treating the incident as an active shooter situation.
Katherine Schweit is a former FBI special agent, and created the agency's active shooter program after the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. She's also the author of the book Stop The Killing: How To End The Mass Shooting Crisis.
You know, I'm going to tell you the truth. I was shocked. I was shocked. And at first, it was disbelief. I was like, they can't possibly have had this situation happen there.
NPR
Thailand decriminalizes marijuana, but not the strong stuff
BANGKOK — Thailand made it legal to cultivate and possess marijuana as of Thursday, like a dream come true for an aging generation of pot smokers who recall the kick the legendary Thai Stick variety delivered.
The stated intention of the country's public health minister to distribute 1 million marijuana seedlings, beginning Friday, has added to the impression that Thailand is turning into a weed wonderland.
Some Thai advocates celebrated Thursday morning by buying marijuana at a cafe that had previously been limited to selling products made from the parts of the plant that do not get people high. The dozen or so people who turned up at the Highland Cafe were able to choose from a variety of buds with names such as Sugarcane, Bubblegum, Purple Afghani, and UFO.
Reuters
Bolsonaro tilts towards closer Brazil-U.S. ties at unlikely meeting with Biden
LOS ANGELES, June 9 (Reuters) - Brazil and the United States should forge closer ties after the two countries drifted apart for ideological reasons, Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday at a first official meeting with his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden.
The hastily arranged meeting between the two came together after Biden reached out to Bolsonaro, a populist and admirer of ex-president Donald Trump, as Washington sought to shore up attendance at a summit roiled by a partial boycott.
The two leaders sat in armchairs set slightly apart as reporters entered the room, and appeared to avoid eye contact while listening to each other via translators during their meeting at the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles.
"We have a huge interest in getting closer and closer to the U.S.," said Bolsonaro, who like Biden, largely looked ahead as his fellow leader was speaking.
Reuters
China COVID jitters flare up as parts of Shanghai resume lockdown
SHANGHAI/BEIJING, June 9 (Reuters) - (This story corrects June 9 story to clarify that Minhang will lock down during testing that will happen on Saturday, not from Thursday until the testing is over.)
Shanghai and Beijing went back on fresh COVID-19 alert on Thursday after parts of China's largest economic hub imposed new lockdown restriction and the city announced a round of mass testing for millions of residents.
The most populous district in the Chinese capital, meanwhile, announced the shutdown of entertainment venues, while news of the lockdown of Shanghai's Minhang district, home to more than 2 million people, pulled down Chinese stocks.
The Guardian
65,000 year-old ‘Swiss Army knife’ proves ancient humans shared knowledge, research says
A 65,000-year-old tool – a kind of ancient Swiss Army knife – found across southern Africa has provided scientists with proof that the ancestors of modern homo sapiens were communicating with each other.
In a world first, a team of international scientists have found early humans across the continent made the stone tool in exactly the same shape, using the same template, showing that they shared knowledge with each other.
The artefacts, also known as the “stone Swiss Army knife” of prehistory, were made to a similar template across great distances, the study – published in Scientific Reports – reveals.
These tools were produced in enormous numbers across southern Africa roughly 60-65,000 years ago.