(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Overnight News Digest: President Biden to announce his 2024 reelection campaign next week [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-20 President Biden preparing to announce '24 reelection campaign in video next week USA Today President Joe Biden is prepared to formally kick off his 2024 campaign with the release of a video next week that will announce his reelection bid, according to Democrats familiar with the plan. […] By choosing April 25, Biden would time the announcement with the four-year anniversary of his entry into the 2020 presidential election. Biden has for months said he intends to run for reelection but held off on formally announcing a bid amid Republican infighting for the GOP presidential nomination and the lack of viable Democratic challengers. Biden Aims to Unveil China Investment Curbs With G-7 Backing Bloomberg President Joe Biden aims to sign an executive order in the coming weeks that will limit investment in key parts of China’s economy by American businesses, people familiar with the internal deliberations said. […] The move marks a new phase in the years-long economic campaign against China that’s already seen the US impose tariffs on Chinese imports under ex-President Donald Trump, and more recently seek to restrict exports of key American technologies. Now, capital flows between the world’s two biggest economies are in the crosshairs. The US says it’s imposing the curbs on national security grounds – a point emphasized by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in a speech Thursday – rather than in an effort to hold back the development of a rival superpower, as Beijing has argued. US supersonic bombers to make surprise appearance in drill near disputed China-India border South China Morning Post A pair of US B-1B supersonic heavy bombers will make a surprise appearance at Exercise Cope India – a joint drill held by US and Indian forces not far from India’s contested border with China. The bombers, which were seen parked in Bangalore in southern India, will join the drill being held less than 700km (435 miles) from the Chinese border, according to media reports. The planes will join the air combat phase of the exercise from April 13 to 24 at India’s Kalaikunda Air Force Station. The base is located in the eastern state of West Bengal, which is bordered by Bangladesh and Bhutan. It will be the first time for the B-1B Lancers to take part in an exercise in India. Climate tension: UN chief chides Biden, other world leaders AP News U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres bluntly challenged the climate efforts of President Joe Biden and other world leaders Thursday in a message for a White House summit, charging that expanded oil and gas drilling and other policies of the richest countries amount to a “death sentence” for the planet. The warning marked a public rebuke from the U.N.’s highest official of what he described as “the major emitters” of gases from burning fossil fuels that are heating the planet. The challenge — recorded by Guterres in a video for the White House virtual climate summit — came as Russia’s war in Ukraine and other threats to the world’s short-term oil and gas supply are leading the U.S. and some other nations to up production of climate-damaging oil, natural gas and coal. Top GOP lawyer decries ease of campus voting in private pitch to RNC The Washington Post A top Republican legal strategist told a roomful of GOP donors over the weekend that conservatives must band together to limit voting on college campuses, same-day voter registration and automatic mailing of ballots to registered voters, according to a copy of her presentation reviewed by The Washington Post. Cleta Mitchell, a longtime GOP lawyer and fundraiser who worked closely with former president Donald Trump to try to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, gave the presentation at a Republican National Committee donor retreat in Nashville on Saturday. The presentation — which had more than 50 slides and was labeled “A Level Playing Field for 2024” — offered a window into a strategy that seems designed to reduce voter access and turnout among certain groups, including students and those who vote by mail, both of which tend to skew Democratic. Durbin asks Roberts to testify in Congress amid Thomas controversy The Hill Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Thursday asked Chief Justice John Roberts to testify in Congress about the court’s ethical standards amid a controversy surrounding Justice Clarence Thomas. Durbin vowed to hold a hearing on May 2 on ethical rules at the high court after a ProPublica investigation revealed that Thomas took various luxury trips over the years paid for by Harlan Crow, a Dallas-based real estate developer who has donated millions to conservative causes. “The time has come for a new public conversation on ways to restore confidence in the Court’s ethical standards. I invite you to join it, and I look forward to your response,” Durbin wrote in a letter to Roberts on Thursday, also inviting him to designate another justice in his place. Harlan Crow led a life out of the spotlight. Clarence Thomas revelations ruined that The Dallas Morning News Before gaining fame as Clarence Thomas’ biggest benefactor, Harlan Crow wasn’t particularly well-known outside Dallas or real estate circles. He liked it that way… The point: His long friendship with a justice — and the perks the latter has enjoyed because of it — raises questions about the motivations of a billionaire most of the public barely knows. “With this spotlight that I’m under in the last few days,” he said, “which I hope I’ll be out of pretty soon, I just gotta say that I’m pretty passionate about the traditional American values that we’ve had in our country. Rule of law. The constitutional order. The Judeo-Christian values. I think America’s in a pretty bad place right now. Extremists on one side, extremists on the other side. We’ve got to reacquaint ourselves with each other and remind each other that somebody who disagrees with us isn’t evil. “I’d like to do everything that I can to help all that. I’d love to do it from the back of the room because I’m not a front-row guy. I’m a back-row guy.” Democrats’ Numbers Problem The New York Times […] Senator Dianne Feinstein’s failing health has frozen the Senate Judiciary Committee, the group that must consider any judicial nominees before the full Senate votes on them. Feinstein, who’s 89 and has represented California since 1992, has been ill with shingles since February. She has also been struggling with her ability to hold conversations and the deterioration of her short term memory for more than a year. It is unclear when she will return to the Senate. Biden and other Democrats had hoped for the appointment of judges — both to federal trial courts (known as District Courts) and to appeals courts (known as Circuit Courts) — to be a major accomplishment this year. That plan is now in doubt because Democrats do not have the votes to confirm judges without Feinstein. Instead, about 20 Biden nominees are in limbo, and 9 percent of District Court and Circuit Court judgeships remain vacant. Among Biden’s unconfirmed nominees: Mónica Ramírez Almadani, a civil rights lawyer; Robert Kirsch, a former prosecutor who focused on white collar crime; and Kato Crews, an expert in labor law. US House Republicans squirm over Speaker McCarthy's debt ceiling proposal Reuters House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has begun working in earnest to persuade his fellow Republicans to support a $1.5 trillion increase in the nation's debt ceiling, amid early indications of a possible revolt in his thin majority. […] Several House Republicans on Thursday either raised concerns about the proposal or acknowledged a tough battle ahead on a bill that is unlikely to win Democratic support. U.S. Representative Don Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska, told reporters he supports the legislation but said if the vote were held on Thursday it might not pass, as some in the caucus are "struggling" with it. […] McCarthy faces a tough path as he can lose only five votes from his razor thin 222-member majority to pass legislation if Democrats remain united in opposition. It took him 15 rounds of voting in January to win the speakership, a sign of the dissension within the caucus about his leadership. Senior Groups Tell Kevin McCarthy to 'Release His Hostage' and Back Clean Debt Ceiling Hike Common Dreams An alliance of senior advocacy groups, progressive organizations, and labor unions demanded Wednesday that Congress quickly approve legislation to increase the debt limit without any conditions, warning the House GOP's pursuit of steep spending cuts is risking an "economic calamity" and imperiling key benefits. In a letter shared exclusively with Common Dreams, Social Security Works, MoveOn, Indivisible, and nearly 30 other organizations implored Democratic and Republican congressional leaders "in the strongest possible terms to swiftly pass a clean debt limit bill." "There are real disagreements among elected officials about the role of government, budgetary matters, and tax policy," the letter reads. "We understand that and welcome a robust debate and seeing where the American people stand. There's a time and place for that debate. This is not that time. The entire economy and the financial security of every working family is at stake." First raise the debt limit. Then we can talk about spending, the White House insists NPR News The White House is standing firm on its insistence that raising the debt limit be kept separate from talks about federal spending, President Biden's chief of staff Jeff Zients said in an interview. Zients made his comments after Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy released a legislative framework that would raise the debt limit for a year while cutting spending to 2022 levels. […] Zients said Republicans were being irresponsible by "tying two things together that should never be tied together" — the debt limit and budget discussions. "I think the off-ramp is very clear. It's the same off-ramp that was taken with no drama three times in the previous administration…," Zients said. Judge rejects Trump request to make special excuse to jurors for his absence at NYC civil rape trial New York Daily News […] Judge Lewis Kaplan declined [Trump’s] request for a special instruction to jurors should he choose to sit out his Manhattan civil rape trial. […] “The decision whether to attend or to testify is his alone to make. There is nothing for the Court to excuse,” Kaplan wrote, saying he was “entirely confident” U.S. Marshals and city authorities are capable of ensuring Trump and New Yorkers’ safety should he choose to attend. “[The] Court notes from Mr. Trump’s campaign web site and media reports that he announced earlier this week that he will speak at a campaign event in New Hampshire on April 27, 2023, the third day of the scheduled trial in this case,” Kaplan noted. “If the Secret Service can protect him at that event, certainly the Secret Service, the Marshals Service, and the City of New York can see to his security in this very secure federal courthouse.” Mike Lindell ordered to pay $5 million to expert who debunked his false election data CNN My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell has been ordered to shell out $5 million to an expert who debunked his data related to the 2020 election, according to a decision by the arbitration panel obtained by CNN. Lindell, a purveyor of election conspiracies, vowed to award the multimillion-dollar sum to any cyber security expert who could disprove his data. An arbitration panel awarded Robert Zeidman, who has decades in software development experience, a $5 million payout on Wednesday after he sued Lindell over the sum. “Based on the foregoing analysis, Mr. Zeidman performed under the contract,” the arbitration panel wrote in its decision. “He proved the data Lindell LLC provided, and represented reflected information from the November 2020 election, unequivocally did not reflect November 2020 election data. Failure to pay Mr. Zeidman the $5 million prized was a breach of the contract, entitling him to recover.” Ron DeSantis loses again to Disney Vox Florida Republican Gov. DeSantis has been foiled by Disney once again. The new board DeSantis appointed to oversee the company’s Orlando theme parks has discovered a new wrinkle in its plans. The board’s chairman said Wednesday that another “11th hour agreement” was signed before the board took over that allows Disney to set its own utility rates for its resorts through 2032. By that time, DeSantis, who is term-limited and cannot run for reelection in 2026, will be long gone. […] DeSantis’s efforts to punish Disney for being “woke” have become a political headache, with his potential 2024 Republican presidential primary opponents, including former President Donald Trump and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, using it to go on the attack. But at this point, DeSantis is probably in too deep to retreat. McCurtain Co. commissioner resigns amid controversy over violent remarks The Oklahoman McCurtain County District 2 Commissioner Mark Jennings has resigned after allegedly being recorded discussing the murder of journalists and lynching Black Oklahomans with members of the McCurtain County Sheriff’s Office. The McCurtain Gazette-News reported that after a March 6 county meeting, officials discussed killing a reporter that works for the paper, and making racist comments toward Black people. The conversation is allegedly captured on an audio recording, and was released online publicly over the weekend. […] The McCurtain News-Gazette attributes Jennings as the speaker who wished to return to a time of lynchings, in the transcript of the recording, "But you can’t do that anymore. They got more rights than we got," the transcript reads. A wet California boosts water allocations to 100% for first time in nearly 20 years Los Angeles Times For the first time since 2006, California officials have increased allocations from the vital State Water Project to 100% of requested supplies, as reservoirs across the state are nearing capacity with an epic snowmelt forecast for the coming weeks. An unusually wet winter brought unprecedented snowfall and a succession of heavy rainstorms, pulling much of the state out of a punishing years-long drought. Just last year, state officials slashed water allocations to 5%, bracing for the third year without substantial precipitation. This year has been a different story. Accelerating pace of ice sheet melt a significant contributor to sea level rise UPI The ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are melting at an accelerating pace causing signifcant sea level rise, according to a three-decade-long study published Thursday. Scientists tracking ice losses from Greenland and the Antarctic over a 29-year period using 50 satellites -- 27 for Greenland and 23 for Antarctica -- found that the polar caps lost 7,563 billion tons of ice between 1992 and 2020 and that the rate of melting is speeding up. The study published in the journal Earth System Science Data found the rate of melting more than tripled from 105 billion tons a year during the first four years of the study to 372 billion tons a year between 2016 and 2020 contributing to 0.8 inches to global mean sea level over the 29 years, or about 25% of sea level rise. The rate of ice loss is now five times higher in Greenland and 25 % higher in Antarctica, compared to the early 1990s. Sudan’s generals reject negotiations as ceasefire fails Al Jazeera Warring generals in Sudan have rejected negotiations with each other, as fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continues, despite repeated attempts at a ceasefire. Speaking to Al Jazeera on Thursday, the head of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), General Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, said that he would not sit down and talk with his chief rival, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. […] Both men spoke of the upcoming Eid holiday, with Hemedti saying that he had “no objection” to a truce over Eid, but claimed that the army had continued attacking his forces despite a ceasefire that was supposed to be observed from 16:00 GMT on Wednesday evening. For his part, al-Burhan said that the Sudanese people “did not deserve to receive Eid while living through this suffering”. Sudan conflict: Khartoum residents fear food shortages amid fighting BBC News Ongoing fighting in Sudan's capital is now severely affecting food supplies, as well as disrupting access to water and electricity, according to Khartoum residents who spoke to the BBC. "We only have enough food for two days," Nisreen Al-Saim said. Ms Saim added that she and her family were now reducing the amount of food they consume in the hope that their supplies last longer. Water and electricity cuts have affected many Sudanese homes since clashes began between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group and the Sudanese army on 15 April. Sudan: up to 20,000 flee violence as rival leaders refuse to negotiate The Guardian Up to 20,000 people have fled the escalating violence in Sudan to seek safety in neighbouring Chad, many of whom lack basic needs such as food, water and shelter, the United Nations has said. The UN’s refugee agency said the majority of those arriving were women and children, who were currently sheltering out in the open, some of whom had been caught up in the fighting that has raged around the country for six days. “In the past days, an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 people have fled the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region to seek refuge in neighbouring Chad,” the UNHCR agency said, citing figures from its teams at the border. NATO chief makes surprise visit to Kyiv Deutsche Welle NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg made a surprise visit to Kyiv on Thursday. In his first visit to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion last year, Stoltenberg paid his respects to soldiers who had died fighting Russian forces and inspected Russian military equipment that is on display in a central square in Kyiv. "Now, when the majority of people in NATO countries and the majority of Ukrainians support the entry of our country into the alliance, it is time to take the appropriate decision," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said later during a joint press conference with Stoltenberg. Defense Ministry says 'complex measures’ of counteroffensive ‘underway’ in the east The Kyiv Independent Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said that "complex measures" of Ukraine’s planned counteroffensive are "already underway" in the east of the country. The planned counteroffensive "involves a vast and complex set of actions and measures” conducted by Ukraine’s military, which includes preparations for “a range of defensive and offensive actions," Maliar said on national television on April 19. She hasn’t specified dates, actions, or locations of these measures but said that "the plan was finally chosen in such a way that the enemy cannot react." Putin's ghost ships spying on critical infrastructure 'in case of war' Access to the comments EuroNews Russia is running a fleet of 'ghost ships' in the Baltic Sea with their transmitters turned off -- as they map offshore wind farms, gas pipelines, power, and internet cables in the waters around the Nordic nations for possible sabotage attacks. Those are just some of the explosive claims made in a new documentary series called "The Shadow War," produced by public broadcasters from Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway, which looks at Russia's intelligence operations across the region. "In the event of a conflict with the West, they are ready and know where to intervene if they want to paralyze Danish society", Anders Henriksen from the Danish Police Intelligence Service (PET) was quoted as saying. Lithuania law to allow 'volunteer' border guards to use violence EU Observer Lithuania's parliament passed a controversial new law allowing volunteers from around Europe to join its national border guard force — while giving them the right to use violence against asylum seekers and migrants crossing in from Belarus. "There is no restriction for people from abroad to come," Emilija Švobaitė, a lawyer and rights campaigner at Sienas Grupė, a Lithuanian NGO, told EUobserver on Thursday (20 April) ahead of the vote. She said it means radical rightwing groups from Germany could come and patrol alongside national border guards under the provisions of the state border and protection draft law. Meanwhile, journalists and independent monitors will be banned from the border, she said. Norway proposes opening Germany-sized area of its continental shelf to deep-sea mining Mongabay Norway is moving forward with plans to mine its continental shelf to procure minerals critical for renewable energy technologies. However, some scientists, members of civil society and even industry leaders have raised concerns about Norway’s proposal, arguing that deep-sea mining in this part of the ocean could cause widespread environmental harm. The nation’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has proposed opening up a 329,000-square-kilometer (127,000-square-mile) portion of the Norwegian Sea to deep-sea mining, an area nearly the size of Germany. The region overlaps with many marine areas previously flagged by Norwegian research institutes and government agencies as vulnerable or valuable. A study by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), a government agency responsible for regulating petroleum resources, found that this area holds significant quantities of minerals such as magnesium, cobalt, copper, nickel and rare-earth metals. Investigators found these minerals on manganese crusts on seamounts and sulfide deposits on active, inactive or extinct hydrothermal vents at depths of 700-4,000 meters (2,296-13,123 feet). A sliver of this proposed mining area is within Norway’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The rest falls across the adjoining continental shelf — the gently sloping seabed stretching out from Norway’s mainland into the ocean — in international waters beyond Norway’s jurisdiction. Drugs give biology's favourite worms the munchies too Nature Roundworms exposed to cannabis chemicals get the ‘munchies’ — a persistent hunger for tasty food — just like people do, a study has found. When under the influence, Caenorhabditis elegans worms choose to feed for longer than normal, and show a stronger preference for their favourite high-quality foods over less nutritious options. The study, published on 20 April in Current Biology1, suggests that the mechanism by which cannabis affects appetite evolved more than 500 million years ago, when the evolutionary paths of C. elegans and humans diverged. This commonality across the animal kingdom suggests that C. elegans could be used to study how cannabis affects the human nervous system. “The more we know at a basic level about drug physiology, the more healthy our society will ultimately be,” says Shawn Lockery, a neuroscientist at the University of Oregon in Eugene who led the research. Louisiana woman sets Guinness world record with her 5-foot Afro The New Orleans Advocate Aevin Dugas has done it again. The 47-year-old from Reserve recently set a Guinness World Record — for the third time — in the largest Afro on a living person (female) category. According to Guinness World Records, Dugas' Afro is an astonishing 9.84 inches tall, 10.4 inches wide, and 5.41 feet in circumference. […] Dugas' journey to having the world's biggest Afro began 24 years ago, when she decided to forgo using chemicals in her hair and go natural. […] "It can be tedious," Dugas admitted. […] "I mean, who's going walk around with a 5-foot (wide) afro?" she said, with a laugh. "Like, why would I do that, you know? Right now, I’m wearing it kind of curly and tied up in a scarf. Most times it's in a bun … so you would have no clue at all." 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