The Guardian, International Edition
Vladimir Putin was born seven years after the end of the second world war, and raised on the Brezhnev-era myth of the great victory. A man of no great education, he loved to quote Soviet films and old stories. The history books portrayed the “great patriotic war” as a magical fable in which the hero – the Russian people – vanquishes a monster, to the envy of the whole world. In this myth there was no room for many of the actual facts of war, such as the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact, the war with Finland, the occupation of the Baltics. The myth ignores the deportation of millions of Poles. It glosses over the Rzhev campaign of the winter of 1942-43, in which the Soviet army sustained terrible losses, preferring to dwell on the storied victories of Moscow and Stalingrad.
The myth, celebrated today on Russia’s Victory Day, has become the essential narrative underpinning Putin’s plan to rule Russia eternally.
The Guardian, International Edition
Elon Musk has warned that Japan will “cease to exist” unless it addresses its falling birthrate, sparking calls for the country to allow more immigration and improve its work-life balance.
“At the risk of stating the obvious, unless something changes to cause the birthrate to exceed the death rate, Japan will eventually cease to exist. This would be a great loss for the world,” the Tesla chief executive, who recently agreed a deal to buy Twitter for $44bn (£36bn), said in a post at the weekend.
Musk, who has previously voiced concern about global population collapse, was responding to government data showing that Japan’s population fell by a record 644,000 last year – the 11th consecutive year of decline.
Some social media users said Japan was not the only developed economy experiencing long-term population decline, but others used Musk’s tweet to criticise successive governments’ half-hearted attempts to raise the birthrate in the world’s third-biggest economy.
The Guardian, UK Edition
Boris Johnson’s government will force through police powers to prevent disruptive yet peaceful protests as one of 38 new bills in Tuesday’s Queen’s speech.
In a move to reinstate measures thrown out by the House of Lords in January, the government will announce new offences to stop protesters from “locking on” to infrastructure, extend stop and search powers, and make it illegal to obstruct transport projects.
The public order bill will be aimed at quashing tactics employed by protest groups such as Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil.
It will be seen as part of a plan by Johnson to boost his premiership with proposals which will appeal to core Tory supporters.
The development came as Buckingham Palace announced on Monday night that the Queen will miss the state opening of parliament. The Prince of Wales will instead read the Queen’s speech for the first time on her behalf.
Priti Patel blames lawyers as she admits Rwanda plan will ‘take time’
The Guardian, UK Edition
Priti Patel has admitted that it will take time to establish the government’s high-profile plan to send people who arrive in the UK without authorisation to Rwanda, amid growing suspicion that it will not solve the migration crisis in the Channel.
In a further attack on the legal profession, the home secretary blamed “specialist lawyers” as the main reason for the delays in setting up the scheme.
Under a partnership agreement, people arriving in the UK via unauthorised routes, including by crossing the Channel in small boats, will face the possibility of being flown 4,000 miles to Rwanda. Boris Johnson has said that the scheme will be up and running by the end of this month.
The Guardian, US Edition
Carolyn Egan has seen people cross the Canada-US border for abortions – going north to south.
In the years before Canada’s supreme court legalised abortion in 1988, it was common for Canadians who needed abortions to travel to the US. “We had a network of people who could make referrals and help them get there [to the US]. If it’s necessary, that probably would happen again – but the other way,” said Egan, spokesperson for the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada.
If, as a leaked draft decision indicates, the US supreme court votes to overturn
Roe v Wade, many Americans in need of surgical abortion could be forced to travel not just across state lines but, once again, across international borders – both along the northern border to Canada and the southern one to Mexico.
The Guardian, US Edition
Conservative groups perpetuating Donald Trump’s false charges that the 2020 election was rigged have sparked a lawsuit against one in Colorado, and a congressional panel investigation of another in New Mexico, over aggressive tactics allegedly used to seek out possible voter fraud.
The scrutiny and criticism facing these conservative groups underscore how Trump loyalists in several US states are working to sustain falsehoods about Trump’s loss, while launching new drives that voting rights advocates say smack of voter intimidation, often targeting communities of color.
A lawsuit was filed by the NAACP and two other groups in March charging that Colorado-based US Election Integrity Plan (USEIP), which has echoed Trump’s baseless claims about 2020 election fraud, has gone door to door in some counties aggressively questioning residents about their voting status and sometimes bearing arms.
The Guardian, All Editions
The year the world breaches for the first time the 1.5C global heating limit set by international governments is fast approaching, a new forecast shows.
The probability of one of the next five years surpassing the limit is now 50%, scientists led by the UK Met Office found. As recently as 2015, there was zero chance of this happening in the following five years. But this surged to 20% in 2020 and 40% in 2021. The global average temperature was 1.1C above pre-industrial levels in 2021.
It is also close to certain – 93% – that by 2026 one year will be the hottest ever recorded, beating 2016, when a natural El Niño climate event supercharged temperatures. It is also near certain that the average temperature of the next five years will be higher than the past five years, as the climate crisis
The Guardian, Australian Edition
Peter Dutton’s department says the defence minister is in possession of six reports from the oversight panel regarding the Brereton reforms – but he is yet to disclose any details about what they found.
Meanwhile, the Office of the Special Investigator is considering further allegations of war crimes against Australian defence force personnel allegedly committed in Afghanistan, in addition to the matters specifically referred to it for investigation by the Brereton inquiry, a letter tabled in parliament shows.
The former defence minister, Linda Reynolds, established an oversight panelin late 2020 to give the Australian community confidence the ADF was putting in place lasting cultural reforms. She promised to report “regularly to the parliament on their reports to me”.
Al Jazeera
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has been forced to resign after a day of violence saw five people including a ruling party member of parliament dead, with reports emerging of people attacking properties linked to the ruling party across the island nation.
Shots were fired from inside the Sri Lankan prime minister’s official residence on Monday, as thousands of protesters breached the main gate and torched a parked truck, AFP reported.
Earlier in the day, legislator Amarakeerthi Athukorala from the ruling party shot two people – killing a 27-year-old man – after being surrounded by a mob in Nittambuwa, about 40km (25 miles) from Colombo, police said.
CCTV footage showed the MP and his security officer fleeing into a nearby building. They were later found dead.
Al Jazeera
Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the son of late Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos, is on course to win a landslide presidential election victory, with more than 90 percent of eligible ballots counted, unofficial data from the poll body showed.
Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Junior had secured almost 30 million votes, more than double the tally of his nearest rival, liberal candidate Leni Robredo, the current vice president who is a champion of human rights.
That unassailable lead spells another astonishing turnaround for the fortunes of the Marcos clan, who have gone from the presidential palace to pariahs and back again in the space of half a century.
In 1986, Marcos senior and notoriously kleptocratic first lady Imelda Marcos were chased into exile by the “People Power” revolution.
Deutsche Welle
In Berlin, the past is always chasing the present. On some days, like Victory in Europe Day on May 8 and 9, it catches up. The occasion, which marks Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender to Allied forces, always brings out activists to push their particular version of history and understanding of good guys versus bad.
This time around, 77 years later, Russia's war in Ukraine has challenged how the deadliest war in human history gets collectively remembered, as images of devastation that many thought were the stuff of history books now play out in real-time. Though German capitulation took place in Berlin on May 8, 1945, it was already the next day in Moscow. That spreads out events over two days.
Emotions and complex narratives were on display at the Soviet War Memorial in Berlin's Tiergarten.
On Sunday, the Ukrainian embassy oversaw a wreath-laying ceremony. As foreign dignitaries and German officials arrived, a few hundred pro-Putin and pro-Ukrainian protesters lined up on the street just outside.
Under the watchful eye of dozens of police officers, the two sides traded heated, but peaceful, barbs — re-litigating the past, praising the Red Army's sacrifices that helped end the war, and feuding over who the real fascists now are.
Deutsche Welle
French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Berlin on Monday for talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about the war in Ukraine.
It is the French leader's first trip abroad since being reelected for a second term last month.
He was received with military honors at the chancellery ahead of a scheduled closed-door meeting and working dinner.
At a press conference before the talks, Scholz praised the Franco-German friendship and told reporters "we stand side by side with Ukraine as part of the European family."
The chancellor said Russia's invasion of its neighbor was "a turning point in history," that required European countries to work together.
NPR
Escaped inmate Casey White and former jail official Vicky White were taken into custody Monday in Indiana, according to an Alabama sheriff.
Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton said the two fugitives were caught near Evansville, Ind., after a chase with U.S. Marshals. Marshals were pursuing a pickup driven by Casey White when the truck wrecked and he surrendered, the sheriff said. Vicky White was taken to a hospital.
"Casey White and Vicky White are in custody," Singleton said. "This has ended a very long and stressful and challenging week and a half. It ended the way that we knew it would. They are in custody."
NPR
A sell-off on Wall Street keeps getting worse.
Stocks slumped for a third consecutive day as anxiety continues to build about inflation – and whether the Federal Reserve can bring prices down without sparking a recession.
The declines come before the Labor Department is set to report consumer prices data for April, which are expected to show price gains slowing somewhat, but not enough to meaningfully bring down inflation from 40-year highs.
Those inflation fears are coming at a time of deep uncertainty in markets, as investors assess the economic fallout from Russia's continued war in Ukraine. Wall Street is also concerned about the COVID-related lockdowns in China, which are raising new fears about global supply chains.
Thailand Post
Ministry of Public Health officials are on high alert after at least one foreign national was detected carrying an Omicron sub-variant with the potential to cause severe infections, according to the ministry's Department of Medical Sciences.
Supakit Sirilak, director-general of the DoMS, on Monday said Omicron has become the dominant coronavirus strain in Thailand, with the BA.2 sub-variant attributed to 97.6% of infections in the country.
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.