OND Editors OND is a 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 12:00AM Eastern Time.
OND Editors Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Man Oh Man, rfall, Doctor RJ and JML9999. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke and jlms qkw. The guest editor is annetteboardman.
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L A Times
30 killed, 102 injured in missile attack on Ukraine port city
Thirty civilians were killed and102 wounded in missile attacks Saturday on Mariupol, an industrial center and seaport in southeast Ukraine, officials said.
The Grad missiles struck a day after Donetsk region pro-Russia separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko said his forces were launching a wide-ranging offensive.
“This is a crime against humanity to be tried by the Hague tribunal,” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in a statement condemning the attack.
U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry also denounced the assault. “It is reprehensible that the separatists are publicly glorifying this and other offensives,” he said in a statement. He said the attacks were “aided and abetted by Russia’s irresponsible and dangerous decision to resupply” the separatists in recent weeks.
About 60 missiles landed in eastern Mariupol in a pair of attacks, one in the morning and the other about four hours later, Donetsk regional deputy police chief Ilya Kiva said.
Al Jazeera America
Japan investigating reports of hostage killed by ISIL
A video purported to have been released by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claims the armed group killed one of two Japanese hostages after a deadline passed for Japan to pay the group $200 million in ransom for their freedom.
The video, published online Saturday, reportedly shows the killing of Haruna Yukawa, a private military contractor who was kidnapped in Syria last August.
While Japan has not yet verified the authenticity of the video, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday called the killing of a Japanese captive by the militants "outrageous" and demanded the group release a second Japanese national they are holding.
Abe, speaking to public broadcaster NHK, said chances were high that an image of what appeared to be the decapitated body of captive Yukawa, was authentic.
The Japanese leader called for the immediate release of the remaining Japanese captive, veteran war correspondent Kenji Goto, and said saving Goto's life was a top priority.
Still, Abe reiterated that Japan would not give in to "terrorism."
"Such an act of terrorism is outrageous and impermissible, which causes me nothing but strong indignation," Abe said. "Again, I strongly demand that Mr. Kenji Goto not be harmed and be immediately released."
Al Jazeera America
Obama and Modi announce nuclear 'breakthrough' during India visit
U.S. President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a deal on Sunday aimed at unlocking billions of dollars in nuclear trade, a step that both sides hope will help establish an enduring strategic partnership.
The two countries reached an understanding on two issues that, despite a groundbreaking 2006 agreement, had stopped U.S. companies from setting up reactors in India and became one of the major irritants in bilateral ties.
"We are committed to moving towards full implementation," Obama told a joint news conference with Modi after he arrived in New Delhi. "This is an important step that shows how we can work together to elevate our relationship."
The new deal resolved differences over the liability of suppliers to India in the event of a nuclear accident and U.S. demands on tracking the whereabouts of material supplied to the country, U.S. ambassador to India Richard Verma told reporters.
"Ultimately it's up to the companies to go forward, but the two governments came to an understanding," he added.
Signaling his determination to take ties to a higher level, Modi broke with protocol to meet and bear-hug Obama as he landed in New Delhi earlier in the day. It was a remarkable spectacle given that, just a year ago, Modi was persona non grata in Washington and denied a visa to the United States.
Reuters
Weather News
U.S. East Coast braces for 'historic' blizzard on Monday
(Reuters) - A swath of the U.S. East Coast from Philadelphia to New York City to Maine was bracing for a potentially historic blizzard on Monday that is expected to dump as much as 3 feet (90 cm) of snow and snarl transportation for tens of millions of people.
The National Weather Service on Sunday issued a blizzard warning for the northern section of the East Coast from Monday afternoon until Tuesday, placing states from New Jersey to Indiana under winter storm watches and advisories. Airlines were already canceling hundreds of flights ahead of the storm.
"This could be the biggest snowstorm in the history of this city," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told a news conference, saying snowfall could reach up to 3 feet.
De Blasio told residents of America's financial capital and most populous city to stay off the roads and to "prepare for something worse than we have seen before."
Reuters
Euro, stocks slip as anti-austerity party wins Greek election
(Reuters) - The euro skidded to an 11-year low and stock prices fell on Monday as Greece's Syriza party promised to roll back austerity measures after sweeping to victory in a snap election, putting Athens on a collision course with international lenders.
The euro fell to an 11-year low of $1.1098 EUR= on the vote outcome, before recovering to $1.1171, still down 0.3 percent from last week.
The election was the second blow since last week for the euro, still smarting after the European Central Bank unveiled a huge bond-buying stimulus program.
Both U.S. stock futures ESc1 and Japan's Nikkei .N225 fell 0.6 percent while MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS shed 0.1 percent on heightened concerns the Greek election results could lead to renewed instability in Europe.
C/Net
Microsoft's HoloLens explained: How it works and why it's different
What's a HoloLens, and how does it work?
Microsoft's HoloLens is not actually producing 3D images that everyone can see; this isn't "Star Trek."
Instead of everyone walking into a room made to reproduce 3D images, Microsoft's goggles show images only the wearer can see. Everyone else will just think you're wearing goofy-looking glasses.
Another key thing about HoloLens is what Microsoft is trying to accomplish.
The company is not trying to transport you to a different world, but rather bring the wonders of a computer directly to the one you're living in. Microsoft is overlaying images and objects onto our living rooms.
As a HoloLens wearer, you'll still see the real world in front of you. You can walk around and talk to others without worrying about bumping into walls.
The goggles will track your movements, watch your gaze and transform what you see by blasting light at your eyes (it doesn't hurt). Because the device tracks where you are, you can use hand gestures -- right now it's only a midair click by raising and lowering your finger -- to interact with the 3D images.
Media
N Y Times
Unease for What Microsoft’s HoloLens Will Mean for Our Screen-Obsessed Lives
Microsoft made a big announcement last week, revealing that Windows, a lucrative legacy franchise, was about to be unleashed into the physical environment through a set of goggles called the HoloLens that superimposes the operating system on the actual world. In one sense, it was heartening. Business reporters are frequently hung up on the new and the insurgent, but seeing mature companies adapt to a changed world is equally interesting.
But something about Microsoft’s new technology creeps me out, and it probably has less to do with the threat of holograms populating our everyday lives and more to do with something I’ve been watching on a different screen.
“Black Mirror” is a three-season, seven-part anthology series, which first appeared in 2011 on Channel 4 in Britain and recently became available on Netflix, eliciting a lot of provocative chatter stateside. The show shares DNA with “The Twilight Zone,” but is very much about the present future we are living through.
(snip)
But “Black Mirror” asks fundamental questions about where this is all headed, not by creating an improbable dystopian future, but by hitting us right where we live. Its world is just one click away from the one in front of us.
This is a satire that is built not on laughs but on a deep melancholy. In one episode, the prime minister is forced by purported terrorists to perform an unspeakable act while the entire public stares. In another, a man’s suspicions about his wife are on vivid display, because nothing is ever secret anymore. In one of the more heart-rending episodes, a woman can’t resist reconstructing and tragically falling for an avatar of her deceased partner. In a Christmas special that is yet to screen in the United States, a character played by Jon Hamm uses virtual reality on unwitting subjects to dark and merciless ends.
N Y Times
As Oil Prices Fall, Alaska’s New Governor Faces a Novel Goal: Frugality
JUNEAU, Alaska — As a crowd of lawmakers and staff members bustled up and down the central staircase here at the State Capitol on the opening day of Alaska’s legislative session last week, a string quartet could be heard on a landing above, sweetly playing in backdrop to a midafternoon cookie-and-crudités reception.
“Maybe it’s the band from the Titanic,” a wiseacre on the stairway sniped, to an eruption of laughter.
Alaska is not a sinking ship, but no one needed an explanation of the gallows-humor remark, as a record-setting sea of red ink has flooded the state budget amid a global collapse of energy prices. Taxes paid by oil companies account for 90 percent of the state’s operating budget, and those revenues have sunk with stomach-churning suddenness and depth, echoing other oil-patch states, like Texas, but with uniquely Alaskan scale and implications.
The result, historians and economists say, is beyond the experience of this state, or probably any other in modern times: more than half of the tax base — predicated on crude oil selling at around $110 a barrel — is simply gone in the whirlwind of $50 oil, as though it never existed. A spending plan of $6.1 billion for 2015, passed by the Legislature last year, will fall $3.5 billion short, or more, if oil prices keep falling. Alaska collects no state sales or income taxes to pick up the slack; a savings fund from past oil earnings will help, but it cannot fully fill the gap either.
Raw Story
British lawmakers call for freeze on fracking citing enviromental concerns
A committee of British lawmakers demanded a national moratorium on fracking due to environmental concerns on Monday, ahead of a crucial vote intended to boost the shale gas industry.
An inquiry by the cross-party Environmental Audit Committee, which examines the effect of government policy on the environment, found the extraction and burning of more fossil fuels was contrary to Britain’s pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
It warned that fracking — in which water, chemicals and sand are pumped at high pressure underground to extract gas — posed uncertain risks to public health, air quality, and water supplies.
“A moratorium on the extraction of unconventional gas through fracking is needed to avoid both the inconsistency with our climate change obligations and to allow the uncertainty surrounding environmental risks to be fully resolved,” the report said.
It comes as lawmakers prepare to vote on the Infrastructure Bill, which contains a number of measures intended to kick-start the fledgling British fracking industry.
Britain has pledged to cut greenhouse emissions by 80 percent by 2050, and several MPs on the committee tabled an amendment to the bill to call for a moratorium.
S F Gate
Millions of GMO insects could be set loose in Florida Keys
KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) — Millions of genetically modified mosquitoes could be released in the Florida Keys if British researchers win approval to use the bugs against two extremely painful viral diseases.
Never before have insects with modified DNA come so close to being set loose in a residential U.S. neighborhood.
"This is essentially using a mosquito as a drug to cure disease," said Michael Doyle, executive director of the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District, which is waiting to hear if the Food and Drug Administration will allow the experiment.
Dengue and chikungunya are growing threats in the U.S., but some people are more frightened at the thought of being bitten by a genetically modified organism. More than 130,000 signed a Change.org petition against the experiment.
Even potential boosters say those responsible must do more to show that benefits outweigh the risks.
"I think the science is fine, they definitely can kill mosquitoes, but the GMO issue still sticks as something of a thorny issue for the general public," said Phil Lounibos, who studies mosquito control at the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory. "It's not even so much about the science — you can't go ahead with something like this if public opinion is negative."
Mosquito controllers say they're running out of options that can kill Aedes aegypti, a tiger-striped invader whose biting females spread these viruses. Climate change and globalization are spreading tropical diseases farther from the equator, and Key West, the southernmost city in the continental U.S., is particularly vulnerable.