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Overnight News Digest: The Ukraine offensive has begun [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-06-12
BBC
"Don't call it a counter-offensive," say the Ukrainians. "This is our offensive, it's our chance to finally drive out the Russian army from our land." Alright, but what will it take to actually succeed? First off, let's not get distracted by the recent hard-fought but tiny territorial gains Ukraine has been making as it retakes obscure, half-abandoned villages in the eastern Donetsk and south-eastern Zaporizhzhia regions. After months of stalemate, images of victorious, battle-stained Ukrainian soldiers holding up their country's blue and yellow flag in front of a bullet-ridden building is a welcome morale boost for Ukrainians. But in the big strategic picture, this is a sideshow.
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x This assclown has one hell of a lot of nerve talking about "institutional norms"
The norm is that we don't torture prisoners of war, yet this absolute Nazi sack of war crimes authorized exactly that.
Fuck John Yoo and his opinion.
https://t.co/hfxcFOWf0n — Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) June 12, 2023
BBC
US billionaire philanthropist George Soros has handed over the running of his $25bn (£19.9bn) financial and charitable empire to his son Alex. The Hungarian-born financier said his son had "earned it", in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. Since the 1990s the family's wealth has been directed to support democracy-building in dozens of countries. But in recent years the 92-year-old former hedge fund manager has become the focus of anti-Semitic conspiracies. A Soros spokesperson confirmed to the BBC the details of the interview published on Sunday. George Soros is also one of the largest donors to the US Democratic Party. Alex, a 37-year-old history graduate, is the second-youngest of his five children.
Deutsche Welle
Silvio Berlusconi, a media tycoon and politician, will be remembered for his antics. In 2002, then prime minister for a second time, he held up his pinky and forefinger behind the head of Josep Pique, Spain's foreign minister, during a photo op with EU leaders. In Italy, that gesture is known as "corna" ("horns") and stands for a jilted husband. In 2004, Berlusconi wore a bandana when he welcomed then British Prime Minister Tony Blair for a weekend at his villa in Sardinia. And later, in 2008, he pretended to strangle French President Nicolas Sarkozy during a press conference in Paris. Berlusconi was a big Italian boy, a jokester and a scallywag, a rascal just the way many Italians liked it. He seemed to be a politician who wasn't as stiff as the others, one who could be spontaneous.
Deutsche Welle
French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday welcomed German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish leader Andrzej Duda to discuss plans to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia. The three gathered to talk about military support for Kyiv's counteroffensive and humanitarian aid to the country after the breach of the Kherson region's Khakova dam. What's on the agenda? The three leaders were scheduled to attend a working dinner, with Duda arriving first for talks with Macron before the arrival of Scholz. As well as immediate support for Kyiv, they were expected to talk about security guarantees for Ukraine and make preparations for upcoming EU and NATO summits. Ukraine has been urging NATO members to make concrete progress on its accession to the alliance at the summit. It wants to see an upgrade for the current NATO-Ukraine Commission to a new NATO-Ukraine Council, which would be a joint consultative forum to promote the discussion of security issues.
Al Jazeera
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has responded to an alleged Chinese spying operation based in Cuba, saying it was part of a wider effort by Beijing that Washington has sought to stimy. The statement on Monday comes days after a US official confirmed that China has been operating an intelligence unit in Cuba for years and upgraded it in 2019. Blinken on Monday said the Cuba operation was one of “a number of sensitive efforts by Beijing around the world to expand their overseas logistics basing collection infrastructure” – developments the administration of US President Joe Biden was briefed on upon taking office. Beijing’s aim was to “project and sustain military power at a greater distance”, Blinken said.
Al Jazeera
More than 45 people have been killed in an attack on a camp for internally displaced persons (IDP) in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to the United Nations peacekeeping mission there. The attack, which occurred Sunday evening into Monday morning, is believed to have been perpetrated by fighters belonging to a coalition of militia groups called the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo (CODECO). The fighters massacred vulnerable displaced people at the Lala displacement site in Djugu territory, the UN said.
The Guardian US
The San Francisco lawyer Harmeet Dhillon is a fixture on Fox News who has garnered support from the likes of Matt Gaetz, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham; she also helms a non-profit that appears to have directed more than $1m into her law firm, Dhillon Law Group. Dhillon most recently made headlines when she signed on to represent Carlson in a gender discrimination lawsuit he and Fox News face from former producer Abby Grossberg. She also acted as an attorney for Donald Trumpand former Project Veritas head James O’Keefe, who in 2021 sued Twitter for banning him. Last November, Dhillon was able to mount a serious challenge to Ronna McDaniel for chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC). Archived snapshots of her campaign’s official website touted endorsements from elected officials such as Gaetz and conservative media figures such as Carlson, Ingraham and Jack Posobiec.
The Guardian International
Overdue rains and cooler temperatures have given Quebec fire crews a chance to launch their assault on dozens of wildfires, but the reprieve for one part of Canada comes as fires in the west of the country have once again forced residents to flee their homes. The country has been struggling with an “unprecedented” wildfire season, with nearly 450 forest fires across the country on Sunday, 220 of which were burning out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. In Quebec, crews are hoping to attack dozens of blazes that have been temporarily weakened by favourable weather. “We went from a reactive mode to an offensive mode,” Quebec’s forestry minister, Maïté Blanchette Vézina, said in a weekend news conference.
The Guardian UK
Since Boris Johnson announced on Friday he was quitting as an MP, the condemnation has been widespread – and not just from his own party. A number of Conservatives have expressed anger, relief or both at his departure from parliament – some in coded words, others more directly. Rishi Sunak When it comes to honours and Boris Johnson, Boris Johnson asked me to do something that I wasn’t prepared to do, because I didn’t think it was right.That was to either overrule the Holac [House of Lords appointments] committee or to make promises to people. Now, I wasn’t prepared to do that. As I said, I didn’t think it was right. And if people don’t like that, then tough.
The Guardian International
Sweden’s players had to “show their genitalia for the doctor” at the 2011 Women’s World Cup to prove they were women, the team’s centre-back Nilla Fischer has revealed. In her new book – I Didn’t Even Say Half Of It – Fischer, who played 194 times for her country, described the process, which was conducted by a female physiotherapist on behalf of the doctor, as humiliating. The gender tests were carried out around the 2011 tournament in Germany after protests from Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana relating to allegations that the Equatorial Guinea squad included men. “We were told that we should not shave ‘down there’ in the coming days and that we will show our genetalia for the doctor,” Fischer writes.
The Guardian Australia
When Victoria’s mental health royal commission made landmark findings of systemic human rights breaches in 2021, there was little that surprised Anna*. At the time of the inquiry’s hearings, Anna had numerous stints in the psychiatric wards of Victorian public hospitals. She said the experiences were “dehumanising” and often chipped away at her will to live. Once, when suicidal, she was handcuffed in a police van and later tied down to a hospital bed with restraints. “I chewed my way through the restraints in front of two security guards who were laughing at me,” she said.
NPR
Former President Donald Trump is expected to appear in a Miami courthouse on Tuesday following last week's unsealing of a federal indictment accusing him of mishandling classified documents. Trump is facing 37 federal charges, including obstruction and unlawful retention of defense information. Federal prosecutors say Trump illegally stored dozens of highly sensitive documents everywhere from bathrooms to ballrooms at his Florida resort, refusing to return them to the FBI and National Archives. Trump's appearance at the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse on Tuesday will mark his second appearance as a criminal defendant. He was also arraigned in a New York courthouse in April on charges of falsifying business records related to hush money payments.
USA Today
WASHINGTON – It was a Friday night when Hunter Biden arrived at his parents’ Delaware home for what he had been told would be a family dinner. But as soon as the drug-addicted son of future President Joe Biden walked through the door, he realized the family was planning an intervention, not a meal. Amid the tears, yelling and accusations of betrayal that followed, a visibly terrified Joe Biden turned to his son and pleaded. “I don’t know what else to do,” he cried out. “I’m so scared. Tell me what to do.” Anna LaBarre knows that feeling of helplessness. She, too, has watched as an adult child with a brilliant future teetered close to self-destruction under the demons of addiction. On her work break, LaBarre used to get in her car, drive through the streets and alleys of Columbus, Ohio, and search for her daughter. She had no plans to approach the young woman should she actually find her. She just wanted to know she was alive.
Reuters
On a pleasure boat cruising Gulf waters near Dubai’s glittering skyline, a Nigerian woman in a white dress and gold jewelry nodded and swayed as a gathering sang “Happy Birthday” to her. Videos of Christy Gold’s 45th birthday party were posted in May last year on an Instagram account that showcases her glamorous lifestyle, months after Gold fled Nigeria, where she was facing sex trafficking charges. Gold – whose name appears in court records as Christiana Jacob Uadiale – was a ringleader in a criminal network that lured African women to Dubai and forced them into prostitution in brothels, backstreets, bars, hotels and dance clubs, according to six Nigerian government anti-trafficking officials, a British human rights activist who has tracked her operation and five women who say they were trafficked and exploited by her. Ida B. Wells Society canceled programs for young journalists after UNC withheld millions in funding NC Newsline Nearly six months after the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting notified UNC-Chapel Hill it would be moving to Morehouse College, the university has yet to transfer all of the society’s funds — nearly $4 million — to its new home. That lag, far longer than the society has experienced in previous moves, has ground its work to a halt. The society was forced to cancel its successful summer internship program and scrap a planned program for high school students at N.C. Central University. “This is all of our funding,” said Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Pulitzer-winning journalist and bestselling author who cofounded the organization, in an exclusive interview with Newsline. “It’s all of our operating funding, all of our grant money, our quasi-endowment,” Hannah-Jones said. “Without it, we can’t work toward our mission, we can’t do any of our work.” That work has changed the lives and careers of young journalists of color. x The Trump indictment has the power that Trump tweets used to have in engendering illiteracy among GOP officials pic.twitter.com/2ez19si0E9 — Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) June 12, 2023
The crew of the Overnight News Digest consists of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, jeremybloom, Magnifico, annetteboardman, rise above the swamp, Besame and jck. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) eeff, 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.
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