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Overnight News Digest: US Postal Chief DeJoy steps down [1]
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Date: 2025-03-24
Reuters
WASHINGTON, March 24 (Reuters) - Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who led efforts to restructure the money-losing U.S. Postal Service for nearly five years, has resigned effective immediately, the agency said on Monday. DeJoy, a former logistics executive and major Republican political donor who took over in 2020, had clashed with lawmakers over reforms at the agency that has lost more than $100 billion since 2007 Republican President Donald Trump , who in February called the agency a "tremendous loser for this country," said he was considering merging the Postal Service with the Commerce Department, a move Democrats said would violate federal law.
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BBC
Two women who were part of a Russian spy network run from the UK are named for the first time today by a BBC investigation. Bulgarian nationals Cvetelina Gencheva and Tsvetanka Doncheva took part in elaborate surveillance operations against people spied on by the cell. Neither woman answered questions when contacted by the BBC. Ms Gencheva, an airport worker, hung up when contacted by phone, and said she did not want to comment on the case in response to a subsequent letter. Ms Doncheva denied being herself and walked away when approached near her home in Vienna, Austria. Six other Bulgarians are awaiting sentencing in London for their roles in spying for Russia as part of the cell.
BBC
US President Donald Trump has been gifted a new portrait from his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin - while trashing an existing painting of him as "truly the worst". The new portrait has not been shown publicly. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described it as a "personal gift", adding that only Putin himself could disclose further details. Meanwhile, Trump took to Truth Social to criticise an earlier picture of him that hung in the Colorado State Capitol building until it was removed on Monday. The US president has paid close attention to cultivating his image, and made headlines in January by unveiling an official portrait that was variously described by critics as serious or ominous.
x The Trump regime's national security leadership accidentally included the editor of The Atlantic in their communications about military strikes in Yemen. Really.
Just because they're cruel, criminal and fascist doesn't mean they're competent.
[image or embed] — Mark Jacob (@markjacob.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 10:06 AM
NPR
When Leyland Lucas was a Ph.D. student at Rutgers University, there weren't a lot of professors in the business department who looked like him. He's Black and originally from Guyana, in South America. He says a small nonprofit, called the Ph.D. Project, helped him successfully navigate and complete his Ph.D. "I am incredibly grateful to the program, which was fulfilling a very critical role," says Lucas, who is now a dean at the University of Guyana. For about 30 years, the Ph.D. Project has provided support, mentorship and guidance to students from underrepresented groups who are earning doctoral degrees in business.
NPR
Straddling two countries, the historic Haskell Free Library and Opera House is unlike any other in the world. One half sits in Canada and the other half in the U.S. A thick black stripe runs across the library floor and under the opera house seats, marking the Quebec-Vermont border. Since 1904, the citizens of both countries have used the cultural building without going through passport control and customs. Now, citing safety concerns, the U.S. is beginning to impose restrictions in phases. Canadians without a library membership will no longer be able to simply walk in the front door, which is on the U.S. side, in Derby Line, Vt.
x The DOJ is asking a federal judge for the United States to replace Trump in civil lawsuits seeking to hold the president accountable for Jan. 6. The unusual move comes amid the Trump administration’s larger effort to erode the DOJ’s independence.
[image or embed] — Democracy Docket (@democracydocket.com) March 24, 2025 at 5:19 PM
USA Today
A painful, never-ending period sent Kristina Adams to the emergency room for the first time when she was in college. It was the kind of pain that takes your breath away. The bleeding was so severe that she went through a maxi pad every hour. Two decades later, at age 38, she had another period that “felt like having your intestines grabbed and squeezed on the inside.” She called her gynecologist, and recalls that a nurse told her it was “just a bad period.” As the pain and abnormal bleeding raged on, she called again and was told to come in for an appointment the following week. “I feel like this is where everything went downhill,” Adams, now 46, says. At her appointment, she found out she was having a miscarriage. She didn't know she was pregnant. The miscarriage, she suspects, escalated the heavy and painful periods she had experienced since her first menstruation. When she expressed this to her doctor, it was dismissed.
Deutsche Welle
Trump says he will soon announce tariffs on autos, aluminum, pharmaceuticals President Donald Trump asid he will soon announce new tariffs on cars, aluminum, and pharmaceuticals. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said the United States will need these products in case of problems like wars. "We've been ripped off by every country," Trump said during a Cabinet meeting. It is not clear if this is part of the "reciprocal tariffs" that Trump plans to impose on April 2. These tariffs are meant to match the taxes and policies that other countries apply to American exports.
x In accepting the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, Conan O’Brien delivered what amounted to a bristling attack on the current administration artfully disguised as a tribute to Twain.
[image or embed] — The New York Times (@nytimes.com) March 24, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Deutsche Welle
Denmark's foreign minister criticized a planned visit by a US delegation to Greenland on Monday, calling it "inappropriate." Greenland is a territory that has some self-governance but is still part of Denmark, and it is wanted by US President Donald Trump. "This shows an appetite among Americans that is inappropriate," the minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, told broadcaster TV2. Second Lady Usha Vance, the wife of the United States Vice President JD Vance, is due to visit the autonomous Danish territory of Greenland this week, the White House said Sunday. Vance will be accompanied by one of her three children as part of a US delegation that will also include President Donald Trump's National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright. Al Jazeera journalist Hossam Shabat killed in Israeli attack on Gaza Al Jazeera Mohammad Mansour, who worked for Palestine Today, has also been killed in a separate Israeli attack.
Separate Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have killed two media workers, including an Al Jazeera journalist. Hossam Shabat, a journalist who worked for Al Jazeera Mubasher, was killed in northern Gaza on Monday. Witnesses told the network that his car was targeted in the eastern part of Beit Lahiya. Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said Shabat, 23, had been previously wounded in another Israeli attack “but he insisted on continuing news reporting” in Gaza. “The Israeli military targeted his vehicle” without giving “any prior warning”, Abu Azzoum said. The colleagues of Shabat, have shared his final words.
x Jim Pollard, 70, spent his career as an artist, but a lifelong fascination with fossils and the stories they can tell led to his own natural history museum, set up in a small storefront near the Minnesota-Iowa border. (via @mprnews.org)
[image or embed] — NPR (@npr.org) March 24, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Al Jazeera
Hamdan Ballal, a Palestinian co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, has been arrested by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank after he was beaten and injured by Israeli settlers, his fellow co-director Yuval Abraham said on X. “A group of settlers just lynched Hamdan Ballal, co-director of our film No Other Land. They beat him and he has injuries in his head and stomach, bleeding,” Abraham said in a post. “Soldiers invaded the ambulance he called, and took him. No sign of him since,” he added. A video provided by the Center for Jewish Nonviolence showed a masked settler shoving and swinging his fists at two activists from the group in a dusty field at night. The activists rush back to their car. “Get in, get in!” one shouts, and they duck inside as the thuds of rocks can be heard hitting the car.
Mark Sumner, Uncharted Blue
The iconic shape, which was supposedly required because the vehicle was being built using that folded steel exoskeleton, isn't necessary.There is no exoskeleton. It's a suit. It's a costume. This is a Model Y doing cosplay.
When Elon Musk introduced the CyberTruck in 2019, he made clear this would be a truck like no other. That iconic and polarizing design wasn't just due to a quirky engineer who spent too much time watching Mad Max. It was required by the nature of the vehicle Tesla was creating. The angular form was necessary because the CyberTruck wasn’t going to be built using unibody construction, like most cars, or body-on-rail like most pickups and large SUVs. it would be unique; a truck whose basic form was defined by a new type of vehicle architecture. "We moved the mass to the outside," said Musk. "We created an exoskeleton." Rather than the design of previous trucks, where the structural rigidity came from the underlying frame, the strength of the CyberTruck would be in its folded steel body. It would be bulletproof. It would shrug off blows from a sledgehammer. It would have a range of 500 miles, and it would roll out at a starting price of $39,900.
x Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear on Monday vetoed Republican legislation that he said would make workplaces in Kentucky more dangerous and several bills that he said were unconstitutional.
@liamniemeyer.bsky.social @mckennahorsley.bsky.social kentuckylantern.com/briefs/beshe...
[image or embed] — Kentucky Lantern (@kentuckylantern.com) March 24, 2025 at 4:59 PM
The Guardian, US
Greenland’s prime minister, Múte B Egede, has called for the international community to step in after it was announced that Donald Trump’s national security adviser and the US second lady will visit the Arctic island, accusing Washington of “foreign interference”. Mike Waltz and Usha Vance are scheduled to arrive in Greenland this week as part of a delegation that will also include the US energy secretary, Chris Wright. A spokesperson for the Danish police confirmed on Monday that they had sent extra personnel and sniffer dogs to Greenland as they step up security measures before the visit. Local media also reported the arrival of four bulletproof cars in Nuuk city centre, delivered by plane from the US. Trump told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Monday: “I think Greenland is going to be something that maybe is in our future.” He has previously pledged to make the autonomous territory part of the US “one way or the other”, and has refused to rule out using military or economic force to do so. Greenland is part of the kingdom of Denmark, which ruled the island as a colony until 1953 and continues to control its foreign and security policy.
The Guardian, Europe
Sales of new Tesla cars slumped in Europe last month in the latest indication of a potential buyer backlash over Elon Musk’s high profile and controversial behaviour since becoming a leading figure in Donald Trump’s administration. The Texas-based electric carmaker sold less than 16,000 vehicles across Europe last month, down 44% on average across 25 countries in the EU, the UK, Norway and Switzerland, according to data compiled by the research platform Jato Dynamics. Tesla’s market share fell to 9.6% last month, the lowest it has registered in February for five years. In January, its sales across Europe fell 45% , from 18,161 in 2024 to 9,945.
The Guardian, US
Donald Trump critics aimed ridicule at the president after he publicly demanded the removal of his portrait at Colorado’s state capitol building, calling it “truly the worst”. In a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, Trump shared an image of the portrait and complained about the painting, saying it was bad and blaming it on Colorado’s governor, Jared Polis – whom the president insulted as being “radically left”. A Republican admirer of Trump actually commissioned the portrait. House Democrats said in a statement on Monday evening that the oil painting would be taken down at the request of Republican leaders in the legislature. Senate minority leader Paul Lundeen, a Republican, said that he requested for Trump’s portrait to be taken down and replaced by one “that depicts his contemporary likeness”. “If the GOP wants to spend time and money on which portrait of Trump hangs in the Capitol, then that’s up to them,” Colorado House Democrats spokesperson, Jarrett Freedman, said.
AfricaNews
Former U.S. Rep. Mia Love of Utah, a daughter of Haitian immigrants who became the first Black Republican woman elected to Congress, died Sunday.
She was 49. Love's family posted news of her death on Love's X account. Love had been undergoing treatment for brain cancer, and her daughter said earlier this month that the former lawmaker was no longer responding to treatment. She had been receiving immunotherapy as part of a clinical trial at Duke University's brain tumor center. Love entered politics in 2003 after winning a seat on the city council in Saratoga Springs, a growing community about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City. She later became the city’s mayor. In 2012, Love narrowly lost a bid for the House against the Democratic incumbent, former Rep. Jim Matheson, in a district that covers a string of Salt Lake City suburbs. She ran again two years later and defeated first-time candidate Doug Owens by about 7,500 votes. Love didn’t emphasize her race during her campaigns, but she acknowledged the significance of her election after her 2014 victory.
x The Trump administration's erasure of federal data has put the Internet Archive in the spotlight. The organization, with its small but mighty team, is working to help save the world's digital history.
[image or embed] — NPR (@npr.org) March 24, 2025 at 4:49 PM
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