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Overnight News Digest: Climate change continues to cause serious problems [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-08-07
NPR
Meteorologists are warning millions of people across the East Coast to brace for major thunderstorms and other severe weather beginning Monday afternoon. A strong storm system moving in from the Midwest and Great Lakes region ahead of a cold front is putting a large swath of the eastern U.S. at "enhanced" risk for severe weather, from Atlanta to Binghamton, N.Y. Enhanced risk — a level 3 out of 5 on the National Weather Service scale — means numerous severe storms are possible across the area. Parts of the Mid-Atlantic — including Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and Roanoke, Va. — are at an even greater "moderate" risk. The second-highest rating on the scale means widespread severe storms are likely.
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.
Al Jazeera
Kidnappings of women and children are surging in Haiti as gang violence worsens, with the number of abductions in the first half of 2023 nearly reaching last year’s total. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said in a statement on Monday that close to 300 kidnappings have been reported in the Caribbean nation in the first six months of the year. Most often, the women and children were taken by armed groups “for financial or tactical gains”, said the agency. It called for the immediate release of those kidnapped. “Women and children are not commodities. They are not bargaining chips. And they must never be exposed to such unimaginable violence,” Garry Conille, UNICEF’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, said in the statement.
Al Jazeera
At least 16 people have died in shipwrecks off Tunisia and Western Sahara as North Africa faces a spike in Europe-bound sea crossings. Tunisia in particular has become a major gateway for refugees, primarily from other parts of Africa, attempting perilous voyages in the hopes of a better life. The death toll from a shipwreck on Sunday off Tunisia rose to 11 after more bodies were found. “Seven new bodies have been recovered on Sunday evening,” said Faouzi Masmoudi, spokesman for the court in Sfax, Tunisia’s second largest city, which is near the site of the sinking that took place over the weekend in the Mediterranean Sea.
Deutsche Welle
Former Minneapolis police officer Tou Thao was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison on Monday for his role in the killing of George Floyd in 2020. He is the fourth and final ex-police officer to be sentenced over the killing. A state judge found Thao guilty in May of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. The sentence handed down on Monday was more severe than the four years and six months requested by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison for Thao. The state sentence will run concurrently with Thao's existing federal sentence of three and a half years.
Deutsche Welle
A man in Italy has died after he was crushed by masses of Grana Padano cheese, firefighters said on Monday. Giacomo Chiapparini, 74, was checking on the ripening wheels of cheese on Sunday when a metal shelf collapsed in his warehouse, setting off a domino effect. The warehouse stored around 25,000 wheels of Grana Padano weighing 40 kilograms (88 pounds) each. Firefighters worked for around 12 hours to free him from the cheese. They were only able to recover Chiapparini's body on Monday morning, when he was confirmed dead.
The Guardian, Australia
Four years ago, it was the nightmare in Nice. This time it was the celebration in Sydney. Where lapses of mental fortitude against Norway at the 2019 World Cup led to the Matildas exiting the tournament in the last 16, maturity and toughness saw them through against Denmark on Monday. Without one, the Matildas may not have managed the other. This was a journey that began in the bowels of the Stade de Nice on a French summer’s night with the captain, Sam Kerr, in tears having missed their opening penalty of the shootout. In that moment, the striker made a commitment to her country: “We’ll come back.” She was true to her word.
The Guardian UK
A man has been found guilty of a public order offence after protesting against a drag queen story-telling event for children at Tate Britain. Lance O’Connor, of Plaistow in east London, was accused of being “aggressive and intimidating” towards organisers and attenders and making comments that were motivated by “hostility relating to sexual orientation and transgender identity”. The 59-year-old had denied two counts of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress.
The Guardian UK
The bodies of three hillwalkers have been recovered from a mountainside in the Scottish Highlands after they failed to return from a trek, police have said. Police Scotland said concerns were raised shortly after 9pm on Saturday when the trio did not return from their walk of the Aonach Eagach ridge in Glen Coe. Coastguard helicopter and mountain rescue teams searched the area and three bodies were found. The ridge is one of the narrowest in mainland Britain and stretches for six miles on the north side of Glen Coe, climbing to a height of 1,100 metres (3,608ft). Police Scotland called out the coastguard due to the inaccessibility of the area and the Inverness search and rescue helicopter was dispatched. A search was carried out in difficult weather conditions, with low visibility caused by mist and fog.
The Guardian US
Three members of a firefighting helicopter crew were killed after their helicopter collided with another in midair and crashed while battling wildfires in southern California on Sunday evening, officials said. The cause of the deadly accident near Cabazon, about 90 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, was not immediately clear, the chief of Cal Fire’s southern region, David Fulcher, told a news conference early Monday. CBS News Los Angeles described a “fiery mid-air collision”. Both helicopters were responding to a grassland fire when they collided Sunday about 6pm. The pilot and two other crew members of the coordinating chopper – an “observer helicopter” – were killed. The other helicopter, a water-dropping one with two crew members aboard, was able to land safely.
The Guardian US
A dramatic brawl on the Montgomery, Alabama, riverfront pitted people standing up for a Black riverboat worker against a group of white people who began beating him for telling them to move their illegally parked pontoon. The Saturday night fight, which was captured in multiple videos posted to social media, appeared to unfold largely along racial lines. And many social media users celebrated footage of the riverfront dust-up, which showed the white assailants get the tables turned on them by Black people who rushed to the riverboat worker’s aid. “This is not … 1963 anymore,” read one comment, alluding to the year before the signing of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibited discrimination on the basis of race. Montgomery police confirmed they responded to reports of a disturbance on the 200 block of Coosa Street in the area of the Montgomery riverfront park. They said officers had “located a large group of subjects engaged in a physical altercation”.
NPR
The latest federal case against Donald Trump is putting a spotlight on the role of false and baseless claims in his presidency. The indictment alleges that the former president and his co-conspirators used lies for the criminal purpose of overturning the 2020 election. For some scholars of history, its forensic look at how speech underpinned an alleged conspiracy to illegally retain power helps to situate Trump into larger historical patterns. "All authoritarian leaders have cults of personality," said Ruth Ben-Ghiat, professor of history at New York University and author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present. "Meaning, they propose themselves as all-powerful, as the only solution possible to the nation's ills. 'I alone can fix it.' "
CNN
Prior to filming our first documentary on cannabis a decade ago, I was highly skeptical about its use as a medicine. I had even written a story for Time magazine a few years earlier to make the case that the evidence simply wasn’t there. But, as so often happens when we start to dig into things, a different picture started to emerge. I traveled the world, visited tiny labs and, most important, spent time with patients — even young children — who changed my mind. I came to the realization that in some cases, not only did cannabis provide relief, it was the only thing that did so. Yes, there are real risks, as with most things. And of course, it’s not a panacea. Nothing is. While it is not something that will work for everyone, that should not mean it isn’t available to anyone. Over the past few decades, we have experienced one of the most significant and uneven legal evolutions ever seen in the United States. Up until 1996, there wasn’t a single state that had legalized cannabis for any purpose, but now 38 states and the District of Columbia have some form of cannabis legally available, while it remains a Schedule I substance federally: “drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.“
USA Today
William Friedkin, the acclaimed director best known for his Oscar-winning 1971 film "The French Connection" and the 1973 horror classic "The Exorcist," has died at 87. Friedkin died Monday in Los Angeles. Stephen Galloway, a friend of Friedkin's wife, former studio chief Sherry Lansing, and dean of the film school at Chapman University, confirmed the news to USA TODAY. The director had been working until recently on his final film, "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial," starring Kiefer Sutherland as Phillip Queeg. The film will premiere at Venice International Film Festival in September. The maverick Friedkin was part of a new generation of directors who redefined filmmaking in the 1970s that included Peter Bogdanovich, Francis Ford Coppola and Hal Ashby.
Reuters
NIAMEY, Aug 7 (Reuters) - West African leaders scheduled a summit for Thursday to discuss the Niger junta's rejection of an ultimatum to reinstate the ousted president, as the United States sent a top official to Niamey to push for a return to democracy. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had told leaders of the July 26 coup to stand down by Sunday or face a possible military intervention. But the junta, under self-declared head of state General Abdourahamane Tiani, former commander of Niger's presidential guard, instead closed the airspace and pledged to defend the country.
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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