Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Interceptor7, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame and jck. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, 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.
BBC
Brexit: Ministers plan laws overriding part of withdrawal deal
Ministers are planning new legislation that would override a key section of last year's EU withdrawal agreement.
It would remove the legal force of customs arrangements due to come into effect in Northern Ireland next year that aim to prevent the return of a hard border with the Irish Republic.
Labour attacked the plan. No 10 says it is a standby in case trade talks fail.
Boris Johnson is expected to say later that if no agreement is reached by 15 October, both sides should "move on".
The prime minister will tell EU counterparts that completing the UK's exit from the bloc without a trade deal would still be a "good outcome".
It comes after UK chief negotiator David Frost said the UK was not "scared" of walking away.
BBC
Typhoon Haishen heads to South Korea after slamming Japan
Typhoon Haishen is making its way towards South Korea after slamming through southern Japan.
The storm is headed towards Busan, South Korea's second-largest city, said the country's weather agency.
More than 300 flights from 10 airports were cancelled, with some train services suspended.
The typhoon caused a loss of power across hundreds of thousands of homes in Japan, though initial assessments suggest it did less damage than feared.
Thirty-two people were injured, including four who sustained cuts after the glass windows of an evacuation centre were blown in, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK.
Some eight million people in Japan had been asked to evacuate in the path of the storm.
The Guardian
Belarus protests show no sign of fading as 100,000 turn out in Minsk
Huge protests have taken place across Belarus against the embattled regime of Alexander Lukashenko, with demonstrators marching on the president’s residence in the capital, Minsk, for a fourth weekend in a row.
More than 100,000 people filled Minsk’s Independence Avenue calling for Lukashenko to step down. There were similar marches in other cities, including Brest, Vitebsk and Grodno.
Riot police sealed off the centre of Minsk with barriers and armoured personnel carriers. Officers wearing balaclavas arrested and beat several male demonstrators and dragged them into vans. At least one person was taken away in an ambulance.
Authorities detained up to 100 people across the country, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported, citing the Belarus interior ministry.
But there were few indications that the regime’s heavy-handed tactics are working. Protests have gone on for nearly a month and show no sign of fizzling out, following the presidential election on 9 August that was widely seen as rigged.
New York Times
For Aging Belarus Rockers, a Late Shot at Stardom
MINSK, Belarus — Pit Pawlaw, guitar in hand, bobbed before the line of riot police guarding the presidential palace, belting out the chorus of his band’s biggest hit even as a siren blared. The protesters joined in behind him: “Hey, la-la-la-lai, don’t wait, don’t wait.”
The police stayed silent during this recent Sunday protest. But, Mr. Pawlaw said, “I felt like, in terms of their body language, they were singing along.”
Thirty years ago, when the Soviet Union fell, rock music was Eastern Europe’s sound of change and freedom. In Russia, some of the rockers whose anthems bid farewell to Communism rose to stardom, wealth and mainstream acclaim. But in neighboring Belarus, where President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko soon re-established authoritarian rule, many were forced back underground — and they have stayed there ever since. Now, it is as though Belarusian rockers — grizzled, jaded, tired of playing cover gigs and giving guitar lessons — are emerging from as much as a quarter-century of cryogenic sleep. Their renewed relevance sheds light on the breadth of the revolution now sweeping Belarus,
NPR
Review Of Federal Charges In Portland Unrest Shows Most Are Misdemeanors
In President Trump's telling of it, Portland, Ore., is a city under siege by violent radical leftists. He has suggested that only the strong hand of federal law enforcement can save it.
On Fox News this week, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf admonished state and local leaders there and elsewhere for failing to restore law and order, and he touted the administration's response.
"We've seen about 300 arrests across this country regarding civil unrest and protest, violent protesting, I'd say criminal protesting, criminal rioting," Wolf said. "About 100 of those have been in Portland specifically, and I know the Department of Justice has charged about 74 or 75 individuals in Portland there with different federal crimes."
But an NPR review of the federal cases brought in Portland shows that the majority of the charges are for what could be considered minor offenses.
As of Aug. 28, the U.S. Attorney's Office for Oregon had charges outstanding against 74 people in connection with the Portland unrest.
Of those cases charged, 11 are for citations and 42 are for misdemeanors, meaning that more than 70% of the total charged cases are not felonies.
NPR
Massive Rescue Operation Underway As Crews Battle California's Creek Fire
Firefighters in central California are searching for people stranded by a fast-moving fire that has already burned an estimated 45,000 acres. The Creek Fire started Friday evening and, fueled by timber and dry vegetation, quickly jumped the San Joaquin River and blocked evacuation routes.
More than 200 people were rescued overnight as military helicopters plucked the stranded from the Mammoth Pool Reservoir in Sierra National Forest, where they were asked to shelter in place after fire blocked the one road leading out of the area. Most of those rescued had minor or no injuries, but several were transported to local hospitals and at least two were "severely injured," the Fresno Fire Department said early Sunday.
"We do believe that there are still other people out in the wilderness, and when daylight breaks, we will be continuing those rescue operations to go out and try to find them and get them to safety as well," Madera County Sheriff Tyson Pogue told CNN on Sunday.
As of Sunday, the fire was zero percent contained, according to Cal Fire, as giant plumes of smoke up to 50,000 feet tall were visible from the air. Several areas in Madera County were under mandatory evacuation orders.
Reuters
Underwater: Australia's oil industry faces new indigenous heritage test
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - A discovery of ancient artefacts on the seabed off Australia’s west coast has opened up a new frontier for resource companies to watch out for in conserving indigenous heritage.
Archaeologists in July reported they had found hundreds of stone tools submerged off the Dampier Archipelago in Western Australia, showing evidence of people living in the area when it was dry land more than 7,000 years ago.
The two sites are about 5 km (3 miles) east of where Woodside Petroleum, Australia’s top independent gas producer, plans to build a pipeline connecting its Scarborough gas field to its Pluto gas plant on the Burrup Peninsula.
The company is speaking to archaeologists involved in the Deep History of Sea Country, which made the discoveries, and the Murujuga Aboriginal Corp (MAC), the indigenous land owners in that region, about its pipeline route.
“We are concerned there is potential for submerged heritage to be impacted, regardless of whether it has been discovered or is yet to be discovered,” Peter Jeffries, chief executive of MAC, told Reuters in emailed comments.
“We believe a thorough investigation of these areas needs to be conducted before any decision can be made.”
Reuters
Deal likely to fund U.S. government to early December, Mnuchin says
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Sunday said a deal between the White House and Congress would fund the federal government through the beginning of December and that details of the spending bill should be finalized by week’s end.
The measure would help avert a government shutdown when current funding runs out Sept. 30. Mnuchin and U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had agreed to extend funding, according to a Democratic aide, but details on the bill have yet to emerge.
“We’re going to move forward with a clean CR (continuing resolution), hopefully through the beginning of December,” Mnuchin told reporters at the White House, adding: “I hope by the end of the week we’ll have something firmed up.”
Washington Post
Judge blocks administration’s ‘winding down’ of census operations
A federal court judge ordered the Trump administration to stop winding down census operations until a court hearing later this month over whether the 2020 count should keep going through October.
A filing in the case by the government last week revealed that the Census Bureau had already begun ratcheting down the count, prompting the civil rights groups and local jurisdictions that filed the suit to ask for the order.
The order is set to last until a Sept. 17 court hearing over the plaintiffs’ request for counting to continue until Oct. 31, the date the Census Bureau set months ago in response to coronavirus-related delays.
BBC
Man blows up part of house while chasing fly
A man has blown up part of his house in France while trying to swat a fly.
The man, who is in his 80s, was about to tuck into his dinner when he became irritated by a fly buzzing around him.
He picked up an electric racket designed to kill bugs and start swatting at it - but a gas canister was leaking in his Dordogne home.
A reaction between the racket and the gas caused an explosion, destroying the kitchen and partly damaging the roof of the home in Parcoul-Chenaud village.
According to local media, the unnamed man had a lucky escape, sustaining just a burn to the hand.
The man has since checked into a local campsite while his family repair the house.