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Jun 28, 2023

Overnight News Digest: March on Washington was 60 years ago today

The Guardian US One hundred years after the civil war, the treatment of African Americans persisted as a gaping wound in the purported land of the free. Then, suddenly in the 1960s, the bleeding from

The Guardian US

One hundred years after the civil war, the treatment of African Americans persisted as a gaping wound in the purported land of the free. Then, suddenly in the 1960s, the bleeding from lynchings, bombings, beatings and shootings finally had a seismic effect. It galvanized the noble group who made the 60s so electric: the nimble, passionate and utterly fearless Black and white citizens who banded together to rescue America’s soul.

Using Solar-Powered AI Sensors to Detect Wildfires Earlier

C/NET

If a tree catches fire in the forest and nobody's around to notice, how can first responders prevent things from getting out of control?

That's where Dryad Networks' AI-powered wildfire detection system comes in. It uses solar-powered sensors to detect gas changes in the air. When the sensors are spread throughout a forest, the system can detect fires more quickly, even during the initial smoldering phase.

Once the system picks up on a blaze, the company uses its own communication network to send a signal to firefighters with the location of the threat.

BBC

"After the Taliban shut universities for women, my only hope was to get a scholarship which would help me study abroad," says 20-year-old Afghan student Natkai.

Natkai's name has been changed for her own safety.

The Taliban have cracked down hard on women who oppose them.

Natkai says she kept studying even though there was little chance of her ever attending university in her homeland.

Then she was granted a scholarship to study at the University of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from Emirati billionaire businessman Sheikh Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor.

The scholarships for Afghan women were announced in December 2022 after the Taliban banned women from university.

BBC

Spain's top criminal court has opened a preliminary investigation into the country's football federation president Luis Rubiales after he kissed player Jenni Hermoso on the lips.

The prosecutors are looking into whether the incident amounts to a crime of sexual assault.

Hermoso, 33, said the kiss was not consensual.

Rubiales was suspended on Saturday by world football's governing body Fifa.

The previous day, Rubiales had insisted he would not resign.

Deutsche Welle

The head of Spain's football federation Luis Rubiales caused outrage when he kissed Jenni Hermoso at the World Cup. The saga that ensued as he refused to step down has now come to dominate women's football discourse.

Women football players worldwide have voiced solidarity with Spanish forward Jenni Hermoso after the head of the Spanish football federation, Luis Rubiales, kissed her after their victory at the Women's World Cup.

The Spanish national women's team signed a joint letter with Hermoso, who said she did not consent to the kiss, saying they would no longer represent their country unless the current leadership of the football federation is removed.

Further afield, women in football and their male counterparts have formed a chorus condemning Rubiales' actions and his refusal to step down.

Former Germany goalkeeper and two-time Women's World Cup winner Nadine Angerer said the incident has deeply affected players.

Deutsche Welle

The European Union should make a "bold move" and accept new members by 2030, European Council President Charles Michel said on Monday.

He made the remarks at the international strategic forum at the Slovenian lakeside resort of Bled, a meeting attended by Western Balkan leaders.

"I believe we must be ready, on both sides, by 2030 to enlarge," Michel said. "This is ambitious, but necessary. It shows that we are serious," adding a timeline would grant the bloc more credibility.

"Not reforming on our side before the next enlargement would be a fundamental mistake," Michel said. "It only makes sense for new member states to join a Union that's functioning well, that's efficient," he stated.

According to Michel, the bloc's leaders would discuss "the EU's capacity to absorb new members," at an upcoming summit in Granada, Spain, in October. Going through the accession process and eventually joining the bloc requires unanimous decisions by all current members.

Al Jazeera

India’s first space-based observatory to study the sun is to be launched on September 2, weeks after it became the first country to land a spacecraft on the unexplored south pole of the moon.

Monday’s announcement by India’s space agency said the Aditya-L1 probe will study solar winds, which can cause disturbances on Earth and are commonly seen as auroras.

It will take the Aditya-L1 about four months to travel to its observation point, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Al Jazeera

Libyan Foreign Minister Najla al-Mangoush, under fire for meeting with her Israeli counterpart, has been dismissed, according to senior sources in the government.

Reporting from Tripoli, Al Jazeera’s Malik Traina said sources close to Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah reported al-Mangoush’s dismissal after an earlier announcement of an investigation into her meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen last week in Rome.

Al-Mangoush has been the subject of much speculation since yesterday’s announcement by Cohen, which set off large protests across Libya, including rumours that she had left the country.

Libya’s Internal Security Service responded by denying reports that it had allowed or facilitated her departure and announcing that she was on the list of people barred from travelling.

The Guardian, Australia

Conservation groups have accused a New South Wales agency of logging one of the last known remaining strongholds of the greater glider, an endangered marsupial species, and urged the state government to intervene.

Bob Debus, a former Labor environment minister and now chair of the group Wilderness Australia, said there was overwhelming evidence that a Forestry Corporation of NSW logging operation was “smashing into the middle” of forest that was home to a large population of greater gliders.

Dr Kita Ashman, an ecologist with the World Wide Fund for Nature Australia, said researchers had recorded 96 greater gliders in the area, in the Tallaganda state forest south of Canberra, over two nights of searching with spotlights last year.

The Guardian International

The “crazy” extreme weather rampaging around the globe in 2023 will become the norm within a decade without dramatic climate action, the world’s leading climate scientists have said.

The heatwaves, wildfires and floods experienced today were just the “tip of the iceberg” compared with even worse effects to come, they said, with limitations in climate models leaving the world “flying partially blind” into the future.

The Guardian UK

Suella Braverman has reiterated her wish to leave what she called the “politicised” European court of human rights (ECHR) and refused to rule out the mass tagging of asylum seekers, a move one refugee charity said would treat people as “mere objects”.

Marking a return to the political fray after a summer recess in which a series of Home Office policy hiccups prompted speculation she could be replaced as home secretary, Braverman said the government would “do whatever it takes” to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Reuters

Aug 28 (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Idalia was expected to strengthen into a major hurricane on Monday as it crawled toward Florida's Gulf Coast as officials issued evacuation orders and urged residents to make preparations ahead of an expected Wednesday morning landfall.

Idalia was churning about 80 miles off Western Cuba as it barreled north at 8 mph, carrying maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (105 kph), the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory on Monday

The storm's growing intensity and its current northerly track put some 14 million Floridians under hurricane and tropical storm warnings.

"Buckle up for this one," Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said during a news conference on Monday afternoon, adding that he spoke to President Joe Biden and FEMA Director Deanne Criswell.

"Do what you got to do. You still have time today. You have time for most of tomorrow," he added, urging Floridians to prepare for the potentially dangerous conditions.

USA Today

Hundreds of people gathered Sunday to remember and mourn the loss of three Black people who were fatally shot in what authorities say was a racist attack in Jacksonville, Florida.

Authorities say the suspect, a 21-year-old white man who wore a tactical vest while carrying an "AR-style" rifle and a handgun bearing a swastika, opened fire at a Dollar General store in the predominantly Black neighborhood of New Town on Saturday, killing two men and a woman. Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters identified the victims as Angela Michelle Carr, 52; A.J. Laguerre, 19; and Jerrald Gallion, 29.

“This is a community that has suffered again and again. So many times this is where we end up,” Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan said Saturday. “This is something that should not and must not continue to happen in our community.”

NPR

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was booed and heckled on Sunday while attending a prayer vigil in Jacksonville for the three victims killed in what authorities say was a racially motivated attack at a local Dollar General.

DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate, and his wife were among those who gathered in Jacksonville's Grand Park neighborhood to commemorate the victims of the Saturday shooting. But not everyone was pleased that the governor was there.

As DeSantis approached the podium to speak, some people in the crowd began to boo; one person yelled out, "You're not welcome here." Later, someone shouted, "Your policies caused this," according to videos of the event. As governor, DeSantis has loosened the state's guns laws, and curbed efforts to teach Black history in public schools.

In a #NOAA20 image from Aug. 27, 2023, Tropical Storm #Idalia is seen between Cuba and Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, while Hurricane #Franklin is near the southeastern coast of the Bahamas. The storms are parallel to one another in the Atlantic Ocean, close to Florida. pic.twitter.com/7izU6DfrMW