(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Overnight News Digest: Midsummer Edition [1] ['Kelli Anne Busey', 'News Corpse'] Date: 2026-06-19 Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame, jck, JeremyBloom, and doomandgloom. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man (RIP), wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw. OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos since 2007, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time. Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments. Pictures of the Week come from The Guardian. Cheery and news of the slightly odd above the fold. Below will be the more serious stories. We begin with the slightly odd, in a set of reminiscences from The Guardian: From CNN, via Yahoo! News: Ancient Sherwood Forest oak tree reputed to have sheltered Robin Hood has died Sam Peters When knights of old went looking for Robin Hood, they knew where to find him. The legendary outlaw has been associated with England’s Sherwood Forest for centuries, and one tree in particular has traditionally been cited as his hideout: the Major Oak. Scientists now believe this 1,200-year-old oak tree has died after it failed to produce any new leaves this spring, British conservation body the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said in a news release. More about nature in the UK, from The Guardian: First pelicans in 360 years hatch in St James’s Park London Birds have been in the park since the Russian ambassador gave King Charles II two in 1664 – but none ever bred there Donna Ferguson They arrived in the royal park shortly before the Great Fire of London, when the Russian ambassador presented a pair to King Charles II as a gift. But although pelicans have been living in St James’s Park since 1664, none ever learned the art of courtship – until now, when for the first time in more than 360 years, chicks have been born. From The Hindu: Interview | Steve Brusatte on why India could be the world’s next dinosaur hotspot The palaeontologist and Jurassic World consultant says the subcontinent holds some of Earth’s most important dinosaur secrets — if enough young scientists go looking Jacob Koshy Roughly once a week, a creature dead for tens of millions of years is introduced to science for the first time. Around 50 new dinosaur species are named every year — a pace the species might have struggled to match even at their peak in the Cretaceous period, between 145 and 66 million years ago. Steve Brusatte, the University of Edinburgh palaeontologist who consults on the Jurassic World films and wrote the bestselling The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs (2018), calls it “a golden age”. Brusatte was in Delhi recently — on only his second-ever trip to India — lecturing at the Lodha Genius Programme run by Ashoka University, to high-schoolers he calls “incredibly bright”, but with wrinkled optimism. The new discoveries are pouring out of China, Argentina, Brazil, Mongolia and South Africa — the big, fast-growing countries throwing young people at the rocks; however, India is conspicuously under-represented at the dig site, and not for want of fossils, which are “spectacular”. The Guardian is rich in stories this evening. I subscribe, while I let my US national newspaper memberships lapse. That is why I feel less guilty to add in one more: Country diary: These oysters are destined – we hope – for great things Portsmouth, Hampshire: A huge conservation effort is under way to restore native oysters to the Solent, and I was on hand to help give them a pre-release spa day Claire Stares Native oysters (Ostrea edulis) have been harvested from Chichester Harbour since Roman times, but due to overfishing, disease, pollution and competition from invasive Pacific oysters (Magallana gigas), the population has declined by 96% over the past century. The Solent Oyster Restoration Project is working to restore reefs by reseeding them with juveniles and installing cages containing a high density of mature broodstock beneath pontoons, to facilitate the release of millions of larvae. From Galerie Magazine: And finally, something that (most of) the world cares about: news about the World Cup from The Guardian: ‘You can’t unsee it’: how hot pink became the unofficial colour of the World Cup Move over Barbie, ‘electric fuchsia’ is now dominating football’s biggest stages. But why has the sport embraced the colour? Lauren Cochrane Any fashion-conscious England fan watching the World Cup this week would have appreciated the moment the attack reached the Croatian end – and not just for the potential goals. It offered another glimpse of goalkeeper Dominik Livaković in hot pink, a shade fast becoming a visual signature this tournament. Forget Barbie pink – welcome to the World Cup’s hot pink summer. From The Guardian: From ABC (Australia): Australia Zoo calls police on traditional owner who came to see totem crocodile Old Faithful By Tom Hartley Alwyn Lyall says he felt “extremely upset and humiliated” when, in front of tourists and staff, police asked him to leave Australia Zoo. “I’m not threatening anybody,” he calmly told the two officers who had been called by the zoo’s managers. Also from ABC News Australia: From Asahi Shimbun: Driver sentenced over death, but injured fetus still in ‘legal void’ ICHINOMIYA, Aichi Prefecture—A court here sentenced a woman to prison over a car crash that killed an expectant mother, but the ruling did not hold the driver responsible for the injuries to the unborn child. The case has led to a national debate over the legal rights of fetuses in criminal proceedings. Naoko Chigono, 50, was found guilty of negligent driving resulting in the death of Sayaka Togitani, 31, and given a prison term of two and a half years on June 18. From Reuters: India med school hopefuls beset with anxiety before they retake scandal-tainted exam By Sharafat Ali and Rajesh Kr. Singh NEW DELHI, June 19 (Reuters) – If sitting one of India’s ​most difficult exams wasn’t trying enough, more than 2 million medical school candidates are now experiencing ‌severe stress as they have to do it again on Sunday through no fault of their own. They initially sat the exam on May 3 but authorities ended up scrapping the results after allegations on social media that there had been leaks of the ​question paper in advance. From Al Jazeera: Afghanistan strikes targets in Pakistan, raising cross-border tension The strikes are the latest threat to the fragile ceasefire between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Afghanistan has launched air strikes on what it called hideouts used by armed groups and “hostile intelligence circles” inside Pakistan, Kabul has announced. The strikes, reported on Friday by Afghanistan’s defence ministry, were launched the previous day. The incident is the latest threat to the fragile ceasefire between the neighbours. From the Associated Press: Polish president strips Zelenskyy of honor over naming of army unit after notorious WWII group By CLAUDIA CIOBANU WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish President Karol Nawrocki said Friday he will strip Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Poland’s highest state honor over the Ukraine leader’s decision to name a military unit after a Ukrainian paramilitary organization accused of massacring Poles during World War II.https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/16657464 Zelenskyy was awarded the Order of the White Eagle in 2023 by Poland’s then President Andrzej Duda for his services to security, resilience and the defence of human rights. From The Guardian: Venice’s new mayor seeks to raise day-tripper fee to up to €50 Simone Venturini says proposal aimed at discouraging arrivals in ‘periods of heightened tourist pressure’ Angela Giuffrida Venice’s new mayor has said he hopes to raise a controversial entrance fee for day-trippers to the lagoon city to as much as €50 (£43). Simone Venturini, the rightwing former tourism councillor who was elected as mayor in late May, said the proposal was aimed at further discouraging arrivals “during periods of heightened tourist pressure”. From the Asahi Shimbun: Europe enters an ‘era of queens’ as Japan’s Diet avoids debate Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, currently visiting the Netherlands, attended a state banquet hosted on June 17 by King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima. Seated with the four royals was Catharina-Amalia, the 22-year-old crown princess and heir to the Dutch throne. Also from the Asahi Shimbun: Emperor seeks World War II reconciliation on Dutch visit AMSTERDAM—Confronting a painful wartime past, Emperor Naruhito spoke of a “time of suffering” during World War II at a state banquet on June 17 in the Netherlands, a country where the scars of the fighting remain. Earlier in the day, the emperor and Empress Masako laid a wreath at the National Monument on Dam Square, the site of the Netherlands’ annual Remembrance Day ceremony. From The Atlantic: Britain’s Next Leader Has Emerged Andy Burnham, Manchester’s mayor, prepares to challenge Keir Starmer—and is likely to win. By Helen Lewis Britain has a new prime minister in waiting. Andy Burnham has wanted to lead the Labour Party for more than a decade, and now the deep unpopularity of the incumbent, Keir Starmer, has created a path to Downing Street for the Manchester mayor. Yesterday in Makerfield, a constituency outside Manchester in northern England, Burnham won a special parliamentary election that basically everyone understood to be both a referendum on Starmer’s leadership and a test of his own ability to defeat the radical right. He won the by-election in a blowout, and is expected to challenge Starmer almost immediately—by pressuring him behind the scenes to resign or, failing that, by triggering a leadership contest. Either way, Burnham is highly likely to come out on top. The question for Britain is whether his easygoing charm and gift for communication will be enough to successfully lead a grumpy, stagnant country that has already had six prime ministers since the Brexit referendum in 2016. Opinion from The Guardian: Reform’s genius plan is finally coming into view: field terrible candidates then lose Marina Hyde The unstoppable Nigel Farage is looking increasingly stoppable in the wake of Makerfield. The actual prime minister, meanwhile, has gone into hiding You’ll note Keir Starmer is in full bunker mode – and we’ll get to him – but after this Makerfield result, why isn’t Nigel Farage? Why isn’t Nigel ranting madly at his generals and refusing to admit that actually, everything that went wrong for Reform here flowed directly from his personal character, and is going to keep happening in one way or another because people don’t change. Nigel’s gonna Nigel. Nobody fetishises plain speaking like Farage, so we owe it to him to honour that and observe that Reform really shat the bed. Makerfield is among the party’s top 10 target seats for a general election, and Reform strategists’ decision to field yet another inadequate liability, whose past social media activity they simply couldn’t be arsed checking, seems to have proved something of a turn-off – for example for women, who strangely didn’t feel minded to vote for someone who had said: “I’m sexist, sorry but I am.” Rob Kenyon will no doubt be back on his plumbing rounds next week. So, Makerfield ladies, make sure your husband’s home to be consulted as to whether you really want your sink unblocked. It’ll honestly be cheaper to replace it. Also from The Guardian: Opinion from Al Jazeera: The slow death of Goldsmiths is a warning to British universities The crisis at the London university known for arts, humanities and social sciences shows how marketisation has pushed UK higher education to the brink. By Feyzi Ismail Staff at Goldsmiths, University of London – one of the United Kingdom’s most celebrated universities for arts, humanities and social sciences – are on strike again. This time, it is indefinite. They are responding to yet another round of restructuring meant to generate 22 million pounds ($29.5m) in savings, mainly through mass redundancies, putting more than a fifth of the workforce at risk. This is the third restructure in five years proposed by Goldsmiths’ management. Each restructure has been more disastrous for the institution than the last. From The Guardian: On the trail of the dotcom queen: how Julie Meyer left a pattern of unpaid bills, missing funds and broken dreams in her wake Investigation: The entrepreneur was once the toast of London’s tech scene, a ‘global leader of tomorrow’ who starred on Dragons’ Den and promised untold riches for the startups she championed. But people she worked with in the last decade, from Malta to Switzerland, describe a very different reality Olivia Lee and Juliette Garside Julie Meyer is sitting in a starkly lit attic, surrounded by piles of £50 notes. A California blond in a crisp, white shirt, her long, stockinged legs crossed at the knee, she listens intently to the young man standing before her. As he talks, she sizes him up. Eventually, she tells him: “I’m going to make you an offer.” It could be a scene from a heist movie, but Meyer is in a BBC studio, shooting a 2009 episode of the TV show Dragons’ Den. A celebrated entrepreneur with a venture capital fund, she is ready to invest in whichever contestants catch her eye. For the viewers, she has some advice: “What is success? A lot of it is self-belief. Continuing on when most rational people would stop.” This is an online spin-off from the original Dragons’ Den series, so the stakes are a little lower. But for Lex Deak, a 23-year-old with a big idea for a social media website, what happens in this room today could be make or break. He desperately wants to work with Meyer. From the BBC: Woman who saved boy from crocodile praised Alice Cunningham A woman who jumped into a crocodile enclosure to save a three-year-old boy has been praised for her bravery. Cambridgeshire Police was called to Johnsons of Old Hurst, near Huntingdon, on Thursday at 13:24 BST after reports that the boy had been attacked by at least one of the animals. From Al Jazeera: Could the HPV vaccine eliminate cervical cancer deaths? The HPV vaccine has reduced the risk of cervical cancer death before age 30 to effectively zero in the United Kingdom. By Sarah Shamim One of the first reviews of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has shown that it has reduced the risk of cervical cancer death before age 30 to effectively zero in the United Kingdom. The study, published by The Lancet medical journal on Wednesday this week, has shown remarkable results, experts say, raising hopes in other countries where the vaccine is also being rolled out. From the CBC: Canadian sniper rifles openly flaunted in Yemen, Sudan, Libya — despite arms sanctions “Very concerned” Foreign Affairs Minister Anand responds to CBC investigation Ivan Angelovski, Christian Paas-Lang, Eric Szeto Newly uncovered videos and images show Canadian-made sniper rifles in the hands of Sudanese paramilitary fighters and a Libyan militia, as well as openly advertised online by Yemeni arms dealers, according to a CBC News visual investigation. Sudan and Libya are both under Canadian arms embargoes, while Yemen faces targeted sanctions, precisely because they are home to groups known for committing widespread human rights abuses, torture and mass killings. From Relevant Magazine: The World’s Worst Refugee Crisis Is Happening in Sudan, and Almost Nobody’s Talking About It by Emily Brown More than 13 million people have been displaced since war broke out in Sudan in April 2023, according to humanitarian organizations, fueling a refugee crisis that continues to spread across the region as violence and instability persist. Since fighting began between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, more than 4 million Sudanese have fled to neighboring countries while more than 9 million others remain displaced inside Sudan. Together, they make up what aid groups now describe as the largest displacement crisis in the world. From African Arguments: Sovereignty without control: Sudan, gold and the limits of international law By Maria Pietrolungo In 2024, as Sudan reeled from one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, UAE imports of its gold jumped by 70%. Millions had been displaced, tens of thousands killed, yet the gold kept flowing: refinery-bound, market-ready, and largely unquestioned. Sudan’s contemporary gold economy has become one of the most significant sites of violence, coercion, and resource extraction in the region. Since the early 2010s, gold has financed armed actors, shaped patterns of labour exploitation, and linked local mining communities to transnational markets stretching across the Gulf and beyond. Far from representing a breakdown of order, this is how the system works. From Al Jazeera: More than 70 medics infected with Ebola as DRC outbreak spreads ‘fast’ Aid cuts and poor sanitation are deepening fears that Ebola is spreading through displacement camps. Seventeen medics have died from Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as the death toll surpasses 200 in an outbreak tearing through a health system already weakened by years of conflict, displacement and chronic underfunding. A senior World Health Organization (WHO) official confirmed the death toll on Friday and said that 75 healthcare workers had contracted the virus since Congolese authorities declared the outbreak on May 15 . From Newser: 35 Dead in Attack on African Country’s Main Airport 11 solders, 2 civilians among the dead in attack on airport in Niger’s capital Gunmen attacked the main airport in Niger’s capital early Thursday, killing 11 soldiers and two civilians in an exchange of fire that also left 22 of the attackers dead, authorities said. Niger’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that the attack in Niamey was foiled and that 20 suspects were arrested, the AP reports. Authorities said a cache of weapons including RPG-7 launchers, AK-47 rifles, and explosives was seized. Witnesses reported gunfire and explosions during the attack, and an AP journalist saw soldiers searching people on the road to the airport in the aftermath of the violence. Hours later, the National Civil Aviation Agency said the airport was operating normally. The al-Qaeda affiliate Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin claimed responsibility for the attack. Niger, led by a military junta since a 2023 coup, has struggled to contain deadly jihadi violence that has battered parts of Africa’s Sahel region, including neighbors Burkina Faso and Mali,which are also run by military juntas. It was the second attack at Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey this year, after the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a similar attack in January that targeted Niger’s drone assets. And finally, a few more items about the World Cup. We begin with Al Jazeera: For one Yemeni, World Cup serves as a marker of war and peace Since 1982, a Yemeni fan’s commitment to the World Cup has endured war, economic turmoil, and personal sacrifices. By Saeed Al Batati Mukalla, Yemen – Weeks before this year’s World Cup started, Adel Mohsen’s backup battery broke down, and he couldn’t afford to replace it, meaning he wouldn’t have power at home when the electricity regularly goes out. A fuel shortage also struck his home city of Mukalla, in eastern Yemen, leaving him struggling to secure enough for his motorbike, and restricting his ability to get around and watch games outside. Also from Al Jazeera: From CTV News: [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/6/19/800058200/community/overnight-news-digest-juneteenth/ Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/