The Guardian, US Edition
The massacre by a white supremacist gunman of Black shoppers at a Buffalo grocery store has drawn renewed scrutiny of Republican figures in the US who have embraced the racist “great replacement theory” he is alleged to have used as justification for the murders.
Born from far-right nationalism, the extremist ideology expounding the view that immigration will ultimately destroy white values and western civilization has found favor not only with media figures, such as the conservative Fox News host Tucker Carlson, but a host of elected politicians and others seeking office.
Those who have convinced themselves Democrats are operating an open-door immigration policy to “replace” Republican voters with people of color and keep themselves in power permanently include Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, chair of her party’s House conference, and JD Vance, the Donald Trump-approved Republican nominee to represent Ohio in the US Senate.
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Elon Musk's $44B Twitter Deal 'Temporarily on Hold' Over Bots
C/NET
Elon Musk's $44 billion deal to buy Twitter is "temporarily on hold, the tech entrepreneur tweeted early Friday, alongside a link to a Reuters article about spam accounts.
In another tweet two hours later, Musk confirmed that he's "still committed to the acquisition." In the intervening period, Twitter share prices took a significant hit, tumbling over 20% in premarket trading. When markets closed Friday, shares were down nearly 10% to around $40.72, a steep discount from the $54.20 per share acquisition price.
The Reuters article reported that Twitter had said in a filing that false or spam accounts represented fewer than 5% of its monetizable daily active users during the first quarter of 2022.
BBC
The move comes after it temporarily closed its 850 outlets in March.
The fast food giant said it made the decision because of the "humanitarian crisis" and "unpredictable operating environment" caused by the Ukraine war.
The opening of McDonald's first restaurant in Moscow in 1990 came to symbolise a thaw in Cold War tensions.
A year later, the Soviet Union collapsed and Russia opened up its economy to companies from the West. More than three decades later, however, it is one of a growing number of corporations pulling out.
"This is a complicated issue that's without precedent and with profound consequences," said McDonald's chief executive Chris Kempczinski in a message to staff and suppliers.
BBC
Pro-Russian hackers attempted to disrupt voting for the Eurovision Song Contest, Italian police have said.
Ukraine won the competition thanks to huge support in the public vote. Russia was banned following its invasion.
Police in Italy, where this year's contest was staged, said the Killnet hacker group targeted the first semi-final - in which Ukraine performed - as well as Saturday's grand final.
But they said their cybersecurity division blocked the attacks.
"Various computer attacks of a DDOS [distributed denial-of-service] nature aimed at network infrastructures during voting operations and singing performances were mitigated," a police statement said.
Ukraine's Kalush Orchestra won the contest with their song Stefania, which was the runaway winner in the public vote.
Reuters
WASHINGTON, May 16 (Reuters) - U.S. Representative Liz Cheney called on fellow Republicans to reject white supremacism, days after a teenage gunman motivated by the right-wing "great replacement" theory allegedly killed 10 people in a racist shooting in western New York state.
"The House GOP leadership has enabled white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-semitism," Cheney, an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump and his allies in the House of Representatives, wrote on Twitter.
The Guardian, Australian Edition
Labor is deploying frontbencher Penny Wong to the electorates of Brisbane and Higgins in the final days of the election campaign, as the opposition becomes increasingly bullish about its prospects in the Liberal-held seats due to voter disaffection with Scott Morrison.
Strategists say Labor’s internal polling points to opportunity in four Liberal-held seats – Brisbane and Ryan in Queensland, Bennelong in Sydney and Higgins in Victoria – because disapproval of Morrison is high in these electorates and disaffected centrist progressive voters don’t have a teal independent to back.
Guardian Australia understands in private YouGov seat polls, 58% of respondents in Ryan, 57% in Bennelong, 62% in Brisbane and 65% in Higgins disapproved of Morrison’s performance as prime minister when asked whether they had a positive or negative view of the Liberal leader.
The Guardian, Australian Edition
A taskforce of Australian government agencies and social media companies set up to counter violent extremism online in the wake of the Christchurch terror attack has been quietly disbanded.
The revelation that the taskforce was wound up last year comes in the wake of the Buffalo shooting in the United States, as the government faces fresh criticism about its response to the 2019 terror attack by an Australian man.
The white 18-year-old male charged with the murders of 10 people at a convenience store in Buffalo, New York on Saturday cited the Great Replacement Theory and the manifesto of the Christchurch shooter in his own manifesto.
The Guardian, UK Edition
Boris Johnson has said a legal move to ditch parts of the Northern Irelandprotocol is only an “insurance” policy, as it emerged that the controversial legislation has been delayed for some weeks.
Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, is expected to give a combative statement on Tuesday threatening to bring forward the draft legislation, after a cabinet discussion on Northern Ireland.
However, the timetable for the draft laws has now slipped, with the text now only promised before the summer break, according to Whitehall sources.
The prime minister came under sharp criticism from all sides on Monday when he flew into Belfast in an effort to revive the devolved government at Stormont, amid the continuing row over the protocol.
One of the major sticking points is the protocol aligning Northern Ireland’s trade with the EU rather than the rest of the UK, with the DUP refusing to return to power-sharing without major changes.
The Guardian, UK Edition
In MI5’s London headquarters there is a top secret grid, on which is ranked the top terrorist plots absorbing the attention and resources of the security services and police.
While 15 years ago it was dominated by Islamist plotters, in recent years the most severe threats to the country’s national security feature people planning atrocities linked to extreme rightwing ideology.
The official figures are sobering. They reveal that the United Kingdom faces twin threats of terrorist violence, from Islamists such as adherents of
Islamic State, and from a far more disparate extremist far right, trying to trigger a race war to further their ideology.
Since March 2017, counter-terrorism police and the intelligence services have stopped 32 plots they assess as aiming to cause mass casualties on British soil. Of these they assess 18 were Islamist related, and 12 were triggered by extreme rightwing terrorist ideology. The other two were linked to category known as left, anarchist or single-issue terrorism (LASIT).
The Guardian, International Edition
Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra gave an impromptu rendition of their Eurovision-winning song, Stefania, at the Polish border as they made their way home on Monday.
The band, whose music blends traditional folk and hip-hop, were presented with blue and yellow flowers as they were greeted at the border by servicemen and women, before breaking into song.
Stefania had been among the favourites to win the Eurovision song contest in the northern Italian city of Turin, but decisive victory came from the public, with 439 points from the public vote putting the band in first place among the 25 finalists.
The song, which includes the lyrics: “I’ll always find my way home, even if all roads are destroyed”, was written by frontman Oleh Psiuk as a tribute to his mother, before finding new resonance among Ukrainians as it became an anthem in their war-torn country.
The Guardian, International Edition
The Bank of England governor has blamed the war in Ukraine for the highest inflation in the UK for three decades and warned that “apocalyptic” food prices caused by Russia’s invasion could have a disastrous impact on the world’s poor.
Defending Threadneedle Street before an announcement on Wednesday of the sharpest annual increase in four decades, Andrew Bailey told MPs that while he was unhappy about the level of price rises, 80% of the inflation target overshoot was caused by factors outside the Bank’s control.
Bailey said the Bank could not have been expected to predict a war in
Ukraine, which he warned would have consequences for the UK and the developing world.
Countries such as Egypt and Tunisia rely heavily on exports of Ukraine’s wheat and cooking oil, and the governor said his concerns about food supplies had been heightened after speaking to Kyiv’s finance minister at last month’s IMF meeting in Washington.
The Guardian, US Edition
The massacre by a white supremacist gunman of Black shoppers at a Buffalo grocery store has drawn renewed scrutiny of Republican figures in the US who have embraced the racist “great replacement theory” he is alleged to have used as justification for the murders.
Born from far-right nationalism, the extremist ideology expounding the view that immigration will ultimately destroy white values and western civilization has found favor not only with media figures, such as the conservative Fox News host Tucker Carlson, but a host of elected politicians and others seeking office.
Those who have convinced themselves Democrats are operating an open-door immigration policy to “replace” Republican voters with people of color and keep themselves in power permanently include Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, chair of her party’s House conference, and JD Vance, the Donald Trump-approved Republican nominee to represent Ohio in the US Senate.
The Guardian, US Edition
If the US supreme court follows through with its initial decision to overturn Roe v Wade next month, 26 states are certain or likely to ban abortion. For those who want to protect abortion rights, a governor’s veto pen is about to become all the more powerful.
The probable end of Roe has raised the stakes in gubernatorial races across the country, particularly in states with Republican-led legislatures that would probably move to ban abortion unless a Democratic governor steps in.
Democratic gubernatorial candidates are now stressing the urgency of the moment to voters, portraying themselves as the last line of defense against an abortion ban in their states.
Four states with Republican-controlled legislatures and Democratic governors – Kansas, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – are holding gubernatorial races in November. Democrats are also paying close attention to gubernatorial elections in battleground states where Republicans currently control both the governor’s mansion and the state legislature, such as Georgia and Arizona.
Al Jazeera
The top Catholic clergyman in Jerusalem has condemned the police beating of mourners carrying the coffin of slain Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed by Israeli forces last Wednesday, accusing Israeli authorities of violating human rights and disrespecting the Catholic Church.
Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa told reporters on Monday at St Joseph Hospital that the incident, broadcast around the world, was a “disproportionate use of force” against the Palestinian flag-waving crowd of thousands proceeding from the hospital to a nearby Catholic church in Jerusalem’s Old City.
The police attack, Pizzaballa told reporters, “is a severe violation of international norms and regulations, including the fundamental human right of freedom of religion, which must be observed also in a public space”.
Al Jazeera
Stocks fell back toward session lows in the last hour of trading Monday as investors assessed the latest signs of economic malaise in the US and China.
The S&P 500 dropped, dragged lower by a slide in megacaps including Tesla Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 dropped more than 1%. Equity markets gave up earlier gains in a seesaw session amid data showing China’s industrial output and consumer spending hit the worst levels since the pandemic began, hurt by Covid lockdowns. New York state manufacturing activity unexpectedly contracted in May, stoking concerns of slowing economic activity that may complicate the Federal Reserve’s policy path.
Adding to those growth concerns, New York City is preparing to hit a high Covid-transmission level in the coming days that would have it reconsidering mask requirements in public places.
Deutsche Welle
Chickenpox is a vivid example. The cause of the itchy skin blisters is one of the nine known herpes viruses that can infect humans and make them sick: the varicella zoster virus. It is widespread all over the world and is mainly known as a children's disease. Most of the time, the little ones get over the infection fairly well, only a few scars can remain from scratching. But, the virus stays with them.
The varicella-zoster variant of the herpes virus settles in the nerve cell bodies, the so-called ganglia. It can reawaken years or decades later and come back in the form of shingles.
In addition to the varicella-zoster virus, the herpes virus family also includes the herpes simplex viruses of types 1 and 2. They are known worldwide because they are responsible for painful cold sores and genital herpes. The cytomegalovirus is also widespread and can lead to severe complications and damage to organs, especially in immuno-suppressed people.
Deutsche Welle
Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Sunday outlined demands for Finland and Sweden which seek membership in NATO in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking with Turkish reporters after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Berlin, he said that Sweden and Finland must stop supporting terrorists in their countries, provide clear security guarantees and lift export bans on Turkey.
According to Cavusoglu, Turkey was not threatening anybody or seeking leverage but speaking out especially about Sweden's support for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Ankara views the PKK as a terrorist organization.
NPR
The weapon used in Saturday’s shooting was purchased this year from a vintage gun store near the suspect’s hometown, the owner of the gun shop confirmed to NPR. He said a background check didn't turn anything up.
Here's more of what we know so far:
- The alleged shooter is charged with first-degree murder and faces life in prison. He potentially also could be tried under a new federal antilynching law.
- Authorities have said they are investigating the mass shooting as a racially motivated hate crime and are also considering a terrorism charge.
- The names of all of those killed have been released. Of the 13 people shot, 11 are Black.
- The suspect purchased his rifle in 2022, months a threat against his high school led the New York State Police to order a psychiatric evaluation.
- The U.S. has seen more than 200 mass shootings this year, including 3 this weekend.
NPR
A gunman in deadly attack at California church was Chinese immigrant motivated by hate for Taiwanese people, authorities said.
The shooting killed Dr. John Cheng, 52, and five others were wounded in an attack at a Southern California church, authorities said at a Monday news conference.
Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said the motive of the shooting was a grievance between the shooter, identified as a Chinese immigrant, and the Taiwanese community. China claims Taiwan is a part of its national territory and has not ruled out force to bring the island under its rule.
Barnes said the suspect drove to the Orange County church, where he was not a regular attendee, secured the doors and started shooting. The gunman had placed 4 Molotov cocktail-like devices inside the church, the sheriff said.
Also, for those interested:
Josh Marshall has set up a Twitter account to help us follow the Ukraine Crisis. Click the link and “follow” for good, intelligent coverage.
The crew of the Overnight News Digest consists of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, 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.