Subbing for maggiejean, who subbed for me yesterday.
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 JeremyBloom. 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.
BBC
Delhi sizzles as temperatures cross 45C (113 Fahrenheit)
Northern India, including capital Delhi, is reeling under a fierce heatwave with temperatures soaring above 45C over the weekend.
On Sunday, Najafgarh district in Delhi recorded a temperature of 47.8C, the highest in the country this season.
The weather department has said the heat spell is likely to continue this week.
The searing heat comes as India is holding its general election, the results of which will be declared on 4 June.
The IMD has predicted that maximum temperatures in Delhi and other northern cities are likely to hover around 45-46C over Monday and Tuesday.
It has also predicted a fresh heat spell over parts of western and central India over the next few days.
The Guardian
Houston power outages persist amid sweltering heat
Houston in Texas is still grappling with the effects of a massive storm that swept through the US south last week, including widespread power outages that have persisted for days in increasingly hotter weather.
More than 200,000 Houstonians have been without power, and thus air conditioning, for more than four days already, and may have to wait even longer since CenterPoint Energy, the utility company which primarily services the city, has failed to restore power in many parts. Although more than 75% of residents have had their power turned back on, many will still have to wait until at least Wednesday.
The recent bout of severe weather caused major flooding, as well as damage to homes and buildings and killed seven people. The National Weather Service said “heat index values will be approaching/exceeding 100F throughout the week” in south-east Texas.
BBC
What ICC arrest warrants mean for Israel and Hamas
Benjamin Netanyahu responded with fury to the news that he might face an arrest warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
It was "a moral outrage of historic proportions", he said. Israel was "waging a just war against Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organisation that perpetrated the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust."
In a bitter personal attack, Mr Netanyahu said Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) was one of the "great antisemites in modern times."
Mr Khan, he said, was like judges in Nazi Germany who denied Jews basic rights and enabled the Holocaust. His decision to seek arrest warrants against Israel’s prime minister and defence minister was "callously pouring gasoline on the fires of antisemitism that are raging around the world.’
Mr Khan does not make direct comparisons between the two sides, except to lay out his claim that they have both committed a series of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
He also emphasises that this latest war comes in the context of "an international armed conflict between Israel and Palestine, and a non-international armed conflict between Israel and Hamas".
NPR
Biden will name new boss soon to lead 'toxic' FDIC
The embattled chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation says he's prepared to step down, but only after a successor is confirmed by the Senate.
FDIC chairman Martin Gruenberg has been under pressure since a scathing report two weeks ago revealed a toxic workplace environment at the agency, with widespread sexual harassment and discrimination
At a pair of combative Congressional hearings last week, Republican lawmakers called for the chairman's immediate resignation. But some Democrats resisted that, fearing it would leave a Republican vice chair in charge at the agency, which safeguards the nation's bank deposits. That would jeopardize the FDIC's push for stricter capital requirements for banks.
"There must be fundamental changes at the FDIC," Sherrod Brown said in a statement. "Those changes begin with new leadership, who must fix the agency's toxic culture and put the women and men who work there – and their mission – first."
The Guardian
More than third of Amazon rainforest struggling to recover from drought, study finds
More than a third of the Amazon rainforest is struggling to recover from drought, according to a new study that warns of a “critical slowing down” of this globally important ecosystem.
The signs of weakening resilience raise concerns that the world’s greatest tropical forest – and biggest terrestrial carbon sink – is degrading towards a point of no return.
It follows four supposedly “one-in-a-century” dry spells in less than 20 years, highlighting how a human-disrupted climate is putting unusually intense strains on trees and other plants, many of which are dying of dehydration.
In the past, the canopy of the South American tropical forest, which covers an area equivalent to about half of Europe, would shrink and expand in tandem with the annual dry and rainy seasons. It also had the capacity to bounce back from a single drought. But in recent times, recoveries have become more sluggish because droughts are growing more intense in the south-east of the Amazon and more frequent in the north-west.
The Guardian
Microplastics found in every human testicle in study
Microplastics have been found in human testicles, with researchers saying the discovery might be linked to declining sperm counts in men.
The scientists tested 23 human testes, as well as 47 testes from pet dogs. They found microplastic pollution in every sample.
The human testicles had been preserved and so their sperm count could not be measured. However, the sperm count in the dogs’ testes could be assessed and was lower in samples with higher contamination with PVC. The study demonstrates a correlation but further research is needed to prove microplastics cause sperm counts to fall.
Sperm counts in men have been falling for decades, with chemical pollution such as pesticides implicated by many studies. Vast amounts of plastic waste are dumped in the environment and microplastics have polluted the entire planet, from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans. People are known to consume the tiny particles via food and water as well as breathing them in.
Maybe some connection.
The Guardian
Toxic ‘forever chemicals’ ubiquitous in Great Lakes basin, study finds
Toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” are ubiquitous in the Great Lakes basin’s air, rain, atmosphere and water, new peer-reviewed research shows.
The first-of-its-kind, comprehensive picture of PFAS levels for the basin, which holds nearly 95% of the nation’s freshwater, also reveals that precipitation is probably a major contributor to the lakes’ contamination.
“We didn’t think the air and rain were significant sources of PFAS in the Great Lakes’ environment, but it’s not something that has been studied that much,” said Marta Venier, a co-author with Indiana University.
PFAS are a class of 15,000 chemicals used across dozens of industries to make products resistant to water, stains and heat. The chemicals are linked to cancer, kidney disease, birth defects, decreased immunity, liver problems and a range of other serious diseases.
Deutsche Welle
Germany: Trial of far-right coup 'ringleaders' set to begin
The most high-profile of three trials linked to a far-right coup plot begins on Tuesday in a newly erected courtroom on the outskirts of Frankfurt. The defendants are alleged to be the 10 ringleaders of a group led by German aristocrat Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss, and stand accused of preparing to commit high treason and of membership in a terrorist organization.
All the suspects, part of the so-called "Reichsbürger" movement, were allegedly plotting to overthrow the German government. They were allegedly planning to storm the German parliament and detain prominent politicians, including Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz.
The Reichsbürger, or "citizens of the Reich," reject Germany's postwar state, claiming it was installed and controlled by the Allied powers who won World War II.
Police uncovered the suspected plot in a series of nationwide raids on December 7, 2022. Some 25 people were arrested and are now in detention awaiting the upcoming trials. More than 380 firearms were confiscated, along with almost 150,000 pieces of ammunition.
The alleged military arm of this group has been facing court in Stuttgart since April 29. A further eight suspected members of the alleged association will have to stand trial in Munich from June 18.
Al Jazeera
Russian playwright and director go on trial over ‘justifying terrorism’
A Russian playwright and theatre director accused of “justifying terrorism” have told a Moscow court that they are innocent on the first day of their trial over the staging of an award-winning play.
The arrest of director Yevgeniya Berkovich and writer Svetlana Petriychuk in May last year sent shock waves through Russia’s artistic community, which has faced increasing pressure from the Kremlin since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Prosecutors have charged the pair over their play Finist, the Brave Falcon, about Russian women who were lured to marry Islamic State militants in Syria and imprisoned upon returning to Russia. It has been awarded two prestigious Golden Mask awards.
Berkovich, 39, has also written poems criticising Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine.
They face up to seven years in prison if found guilty.
Reuters
Brazil's Amazon fires off to record 2024 start as green union blames firefighting budget cut
SAO PAULO, May 20 (Reuters) - Brazil's Amazon rainforest has experienced its largest blazes on record in the first four months of the year, with the environmental workers union on Monday placing partial blame on lower government spending on firefighting.
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has staked his international reputation on protecting the Amazon rainforest and restoring Brazil as a leader on climate policy.
The Amazon, the world's largest rainforest, is vital to curbing catastrophic global warming because of the vast amount of greenhouse gas it absorbs.
A
record drought in the Amazon rainforest region, driven by the
El Nino climate phenomenon and
global warming, has helped contribute to dry conditions fueling fires this year.
More than 12,000 square kilometers (4,633 square miles) of the Brazil's Amazon rainforest burned between January and April, the most in over two decades of data, according to Brazil's space research agency Inpe. That's an area larger than Qatar, or nearly the size of the U.S. state of Connecticut.
Washington Post
Iran’s president was flying in U.S.-designed helicopter when it crashed
The helicopter that crashed while carrying the Iranian president through mountainous fog was a U.S.-designed Bell 212, according to state media and photographs verified by The Washington Post.
The Bell 212 aircraft is a widely used civilian version of the Vietnam-era Huey military helicopter, operated by armed forces and businesses around the globe. The model is a two-blade twin-engine medium helicopter with up to 15 seats that first flew in 1968, according to Skybrary, an aviation database.
Authorities in Iran have provided little information about the circumstances of the crash that killed President Ebrahim Raisi and eight others but have attributed it to a “technical failure.
Washington Post
The race up a Hong Kong tower covered in 40 feet of steamed buns
(It’s too complicated to explain, but read it for fun)