This is an open thread where everyone is welcome, especially night owls and early birds, to share and discuss the happenings of the day. Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
The crew of the Overnight News Digest consists of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, jeremybloom, Magnifico, annetteboardman, eeff, rise above the swamp, 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.
It’s International Women’s day, so… let’s start there!
As the world marks International Women’s Day on Wednesday, the United Nations has warned that the world is 300 years away from gender equality, with hard-won progress toward the goal “vanishing before our eyes.”
...Mahsa Amini’s death unleashed a wave of protests under the slogan “Women, life, freedom,” which came to express decades of discontent not only with the Iran’s veiling laws but with the ruling system itself. Not for the first time in Iran’s history, women have taken an active role in the protests.
… More than a dozen states have banned most abortions since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June — either by prohibiting them completely, with limited exceptions, or after six weeks of pregnancy. Courts have blocked bans in several other states while legal challenges proceed.
...Women remain underrepresented in government — as of January, just 31 countries have a woman serving as a head of state or government, according to U.N. Women, which said the data showed that women “are underrepresented at all levels of decision-making worldwide and that achieving gender parity in political life is far off.”
President Biden delivered a statement on International Women’s Day, using the remarks as a chance to call out a number of countries for repressing women’s rights.
In a statement, Biden said that while Wednesday marks a celebration of the accomplishments and contributions of women and girls around the world, there are still instances of women’s rights in dire conditions in several countries, saying that these ongoing situations are holding back growth in “entire communities.”
Biden called out the repression of women’s rights in Afghanistan and Iran, as well as the violence women are facing amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Despite decades of progress, in far too many places around the world, the rights of women and girls are still under attack, holding back entire communities,” Biden said in his statement. “We see it in Afghanistan, where the Taliban bars women and girls from attending school and pursuing employment.”
Fellow women and feminists, please set down your coffees. Don’t throw them at your laptop, phone, or co-workers who may have thought to show or send you this video! If all you saw was the title and your immediate reaction was rage — it’s okay, I did too (and threatened to throw out any Ford-related thing, including my Ford-bound husband...). Deep breaths. Press play and enjoy a small, thoughtful dose of empowerment this International Women’s Day, and Women’s History Month, cause damnit, we deserve it.
Early this morning, Ford released the ad above for the “Ford Explorer Men’s Only Edition.” Upon first glance, without pressing play, thoughts would rightfully range from “is this for real?” to rolling one’s eyes at the coming of stereotypical heteronormative go-to jokes poking at girlfriends or wives. But this ad isn’t that. No. Ford put together an Explorer “for men” missing a bunch of features and creature comforts, then points out those features are missing because women invented them.
“Introducing the Men’s Only Ford Explorer — with no windshield wipers. No heater. No turn signals? Wait, no rearview mirror? No GPS? Are you kidding?” the increasingly perplexed voiceover says. “Ah, it’s missing all the parts created by women. Wow. Whose great idea was that?”
Under President Hassan Rohani, a relative moderate who was in office from 2013 to 2021, the enforcement of the hijab law was relaxed. But under ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s morality police have become increasingly active and violent in enforcing what the authorities have called the “complete hijab.”
That has fueled growing opposition to the hijab, which has long been a symbol of the state’s repression of women.
… “The [mandatory] hijab is the naked face of all the injustice and oppression women have faced,” Jangravi, who was among women arrested in 2018 for protesting the hijab, told RFE/RL.
Nicole Mann, the first Native American woman in space, reflected recently on her long road to orbit.
Mann, a member of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes in northern California, told the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs last month about the barriers she faced before reaching orbit on SpaceX's Crew-5 mission. It's a common conversation that women, non-binary and other individuals in space still have as the United Nations celebrates International Women's Day today (March 8).
"Inequality does stifle success," Mann said on Feb. 7(opens in new tab), backdropped by flags, colorful balls and research materials on the International Space Station. "To continue breaking down those barriers, we need to communicate. We need to inspire youth. We need to empower them to dream to help them achieve their goals."
Olga Voitekhovich’s cell in a Minsk pre-trial detention centre is ten square metres – and she shares it with 15 other prisoners. She knows its dimensions because she measured it with some thread and a couple of matchboxes. She’s awaiting trial, accused of setting fire to a Belarusian MP’s house in 2021.
...Voitekhovich is set to become one of more than 500 Belarusian women to have been convicted in politically motivated prosecutions since the country’s stolen 2020 elections, in which president Alexander Lukashenka held onto power in a vote marred by fraud and the violent suppression of protests. During those protests, women held a series of peaceful marches and supported protesters.
This week, Voitekhovich stands trial together with her husband and children, who are also accused of tumped-up terrorism charges – a new way of stifling dissent in Belarus.
In happier news… we may not be saddled with the Independent State Legislature farce come December 2024:
The Supreme Court looks increasingly likely to sidestep a clash over an election law that has weighty stakes for gerrymandering and setting election rules.
The justices were headed toward a decision by June in the closely watched appeal from North Carolina Republican lawmakers, who are advancing a sweeping legal theory that would hand near-total authority to state legislatures in regulating federal elections.
...“But if the North Carolina Supreme Court were to overrule the earlier decision, and so that the earlier decision no longer stands, then the Supreme Court could say this controversy is moot and wouldn’t have jurisdiction,” continued Chemerinsky, who suggested the justices will likely hold the case until the rehearing in North Carolina concludes.
In other news…. You may have thought the biggest issue we're facing is climate change. Or fascist threats to democracy. Or inflation. Or Russian Trolls.
Nope. America's biggest problem: Consumer confusion about stuff labeled "Milk" that does NOT come from a cow!
NMPF commended a bipartisan group of senators, led by Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-WI; Jim Risch, R-ID; Peter Welch, D-VT, and Susan Collins, R-ME, for re-introducing the DAIRY PRIDE Act, which would end the problem of consumer confusion of the nutritional content of plant-based beverages the Food and Drug Administration took inadequate steps to remedy last week.
“DAIRY PRIDE is needed more than ever, now that FDA has offered guidance on the labeling of plant-based beverages that, while taking steps in the right direction, ultimately doesn’t remedy the problem it seeks to solve, which is the proven confusion among consumers created when plant-based beverages steal dairy terms to make their products appear healthier than they really are,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation.
“FDA has acknowledged the problem of nutritional confusion without providing a complete solution,” Mulhern said. “DAIRY PRIDE solves the problem by requiring FDA to enforce what its own standards of identity state: that ‘milk’ is a term reserved for animal products and that plant-based drinks or beverages shouldn’t be allowed to use dairy terms in their labeling.”
The Defending Against Imitations and Replacements of Yogurt, Milk, and Cheese To Promote Regular Intake of Dairy Everyday Act” aka DAIRY PRIDE, requires FDA to enforce its standards of identity and would supersede the inadequate solution it offered last week, in which plant-based beverages could call themselves “milk” as long as they clearly state their nutritional differences with real dairy. While the long-awaited guidance acknowledges the need to address consumer confusion, it does not resolve the cause of the problem, which is imitators using dairy terms. The logical solution is to limit dairy terms to dairy products, which DAIRY PRIDE would achieve.
There’s a new climate website in town, called Heatmap. I’m not sure we needed a new climate website (if you haven’t yet, check out the climate website I’ve been editing for 12 years now, RedGREENandBlue). But we’ll see.
For one of their first articles, they’ve actually put forth an interesting proposition: Have we actually hit a climate tipping point in terms of needing to defend the science of climate change?
“Iam increasingly becoming irrelevant in the public conversation,” says Kate Marvel, a climate scientist who until recently worked at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. “And I love it.” A few years ago, she told a panel, half as a joke, that her highest professional ambition was not fame or a Nobel Prize but total irrelevance — a moment when climate scientists would no longer have anything useful to tell the public.
That 2020 dream is now her 2023 reality. “It’s incredible,” she told me last week. “Science is no longer even a dominant part of the climate story anymore, and I think that’s great. I think that represents just shattering progress.”
We were talking about a question, a private heresy, I’ve been musing about for some time. Because it’s not just the scientists who have faded into the background — over the past few years, the role of climate science itself has shifted. Gradually, then suddenly, a field once defined by urgent questions and dire warnings has become practical and specialized. So for the past few weeks, I’ve started to ask researchers my big question: Have we reached the end of climate science?
And a great way to celebrate Women’s Day — one of my favorite cartoonists, Ann Telnaes, has been recognized with one of cartooning’s most prestigious awards:
Judges comments:
Ann Telnaes’ combination of expertly-crafted renderings and sharp wit consistently convey throughout her stunning portfolio.
Ann Telnaes is a maestra of editorial cartooning, and her portfolio here is a tour-de-force…
This groundbreaking work [The Insurrectionists Roll Call] was the judges’ immediate first choice …
Just a reminder — we SHOULD have had ONE woman President by now. But that’s a whole different problem…
How are YOU honoring International Women’s Day? Today AND tomorrow… and tomorrow… and tomorrow!