Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Doctor RJ, rfall, annetteboardman and Man Oh Man. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke, JML9999, Chitown Kev 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 12:00AM Eastern Time.
BBC
New Dubai tower 'to surpass' world's tallest building Burj Khalifa
Developers have announced plans to build a new tower in Dubai to surpass the Burj Khalifa, currently the world's tallest building.
Emaar Properties has not announced the height of the proposed tower, saying only that it would be "a notch" taller than the Burj Khalifa's 828m (2,717ft).
The $1bn (£710m) project is scheduled to be completed for the Dubai Expo trade fair in 2020.
It is expected to have residential units, a rooftop courtyard and a hotel.
The new tower is designed by Spanish-Swiss neo-futuristic architect Santiago Calatrava Valls and will be supported by a matrix of cables.
The structure's design means that it is unlikely to be widely recognized as a taller "building" than the Burj Khalifa even if it surpasses it in height, Associated Press reported.
BBC
Kollam temple: Inquiry ordered into fireworks blast
Indian authorities have ordered a judicial inquiry into an explosion and fire at a Hindu temple in Kerala that killed more than 100 people.
Nearly 400 others were injured at the Puttingal temple in Paravur when a faulty firework fell onto a large stockpile of fireworks.
A building at the temple then collapsed, causing many of the deaths.
Thousands had gathered to watch the fireworks display as part of a local new year festival.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who visited the scene and spoke with victims in local hospitals, said the incident was "heart-rending and shocking beyond words".
"The incident is so grave that it is very difficult to describe in words," he added. "People who were 200 metres away were also hurt."
BBC
Both sides 'will respect' Yemen truce
The Saudi-led coalition supporting government forces in Yemen has said it will respect a UN-backed ceasefire coming into force from Monday.
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who are trying to overthrow the government have also said they will respect the truce.
More than 6,000 people have been killed and 2m displaced in more than a year of fighting between the two sides.
Negotiations on ending the conflict are due to be held later this month in Kuwait.
Torn in two: Yemen divided
"The Arab coalition is going to respect a ceasefire in Yemen starting from midnight Sunday at the demand of President [Abdrabbuh Mansour] Hadi but reserves the right to respond" to any rebel attacks, the coalition statement said.
Al Jazeera
Ukraine PM resigns after losing majority
Ukraine's embattled prime minister has said he is resigning, opening the way for the formation of a new government to end a drawn-out political crisis.
In his weekly televised addresson Sunday, Arseniy Yatsenyuk said his resignation would be formally submitted to parliament on Tuesday.
Yatsenyuk's Cabinet survived a no-confidence vote in February, but two parties left the governing coalition to protest the failure to oust the prime minister, who is under fire over the worsening economy and slow pace of reforms.
The withdrawal deprived the coalition of its majority in the Ukrainian parliament.
If lawmakers fail to form a new coalition and unite behind a new prime minister, that may lead to early elections, which President Petro Poroshenko has sought to avoid for fear of further destabilising the situation in the country.
"From today I see my goals as broader than the powers of the head of the government," Yatsenyuk said.
Al Jazeera
Panama Papers: Inside the shady world of tax havens
The Panama Papers shocked the world this week when a massive leak of 11.5 million tax documents exposed the secret dealings of hundreds of thousands of people, including world leaders and celebrities, and how they use shady financial mechanisms to avoid paying taxes and hide their wealth.
Linking at least 12 current and former heads of state and 143 politicians to illicit financial transactions, the documents revealed how Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm, allegedly used banks, law firms and offshore shell companies, from 1977 to the end of 2015, to help hide its clients assets.
While the disclosures have since led to the resignation of one world leader, Sigmundur Davio Gunnlaugsson, the Icelandic prime minister; the problem goes beyond mere individuals.
The Panama Papers have exposed that most of the work Mossack Fonseca and the rest of the wealth-management industry do is perfectly legal.
The Guardian
Russian cellist says funds revealed in Panama Papers came from donations
The Russian cellist linked by the Panama Papers to a money trail of billions has spoken out for the first time since the story broke.
In a story published by the Guardian last Sunday, the musician Sergei Roldugin was identified as an old friend of Vladimir Putin linked by documents from the leak to a number of offshore companies with cash flows of up to $2bn (£1.4bn).
A week later, in a 20-minute segment aired on Russian state television, Roldugin dismissed the idea that he was fabulously wealthy or was safeguarding money and assets for Putin.
Without directly answering the allegations that he personally controls a series of assets worth at least $100m, Roldugin insisted his “wealth” was merely a series of donations from rich businessmen in order to purchase expensive musical instruments for young Russians.
(Editorial query: Stradivarius for everyone?)
The Guardian
Zika virus may cause broader range of brain disorders than previously believed
The Zika virus may cause a wider range of brain disorders than previously thought, according to a small study released on Sunday. Scientists already suspect the mosquito and sex-spread virus causes fetal brain disorder and temporary paralysis.
The study followed patients with symptoms of arboviruses, the family of infectious agents that includes Zika and dengue, who came to a hospital in Recife,Brazil, between December 2014 and June 2015.
Six people developed neurological symptoms and two suffered attacks that swelled the brain and damaged its myelin, the fatty material that protects nerves there and at the spinal cord.
The research was presented on Sunday at the annual conference for the American Academy of Neurology in Vancouver. Its abstract concluded that “there is strong evidence that this epidemic has different neurological manifestations” than those already documented.
All the people arrived in the hospital with a fever, then a rash, and some suffered red eyes, itching and aching muscles and joints – the known symptoms of the Zika virus. The neurological symptoms sometimes began immediately, or as long as 15 days after patients first sought treatment.
Raw Story
Mexico City gets choked by worst smog in decades as officials scramble to clear the air
Mexico City is in the grips of a pollution crisis.
Authorities have issued the first smog alerts for the city in more than a decade and recently implemented restrictions on when cars can be on the road. On Wednesday, for example, two-in-five cars were ordered off the road because the pollution reached such high levels.
In addition, Mexico City closed a loophole in its existing rules that kept about 20 percent of cars off the road each day. Now, even vehicles certified as low-emission will also be banned on designated days, typically based on a number on their license plates.
The pollution problem isn't new for Mexico City. Some driving restrictions have been in place for years. But still, according to the Wall Street Journal, the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness estimates that 1,823 people each year die prematurely in Mexico City because of air pollution. The city's geography is a major factor in the city's bad air. Surrounded by mountains, during the city's dry season, smog just sits and accumulates.
Warmer tempeatures — it's been in the mid-80s this week — also contribute to the thick smog.
Raw Story
Food Stamp cutbacks hit those in need hard, pantries across U.S. are strapped
April Long was basically directing traffic, at the Lutheran Memorial Church in northeast Portland, Ore. The church is home to the Northeast Emergency Food Program, one of 950 food pantries statewide, and partly because it’s open to any needy person regardless of where they might live, it was slammed.
“Number 6!” Long called out to a church basement full of mostly elderly visitors, who’d drawn tickets for a bimonthly shopping trip that provides about a week and a half’s worth of food for an average family. “OK, take a seat, eat some snacks, and you’ll start shopping soon enough.”
Long’s client joined a row of others waiting for their turn at the pantry’s offerings, as dozens more sat in a nearby room anticipating their numbers to be called.
The wait, at this and thousands of other pantries across the country, is about to get longer. New restrictions in the federally funded food stamp program have begun affecting hundreds of thousands of needy families throughout America, as revived rules designed to incentivize people looking for work result in the loss of benefits for 500,000 to 1 million people in 21 states. The Department of Agriculture program, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, implemented a rule Jan. 1 that reinstates a three-month time limit for those receiving benefits who don’t have children or a disability and haven’t found a minimum 20-hour-a-week job, a requirement that was previously suspended thanks to recession-induced unemployment levels.
NY Times
William Hamilton, Longtime Cartoonist at The New Yorker, Dies at 76
William Hamilton, a cartoonist whose work for The New Yorker over more than 50 years was known for skewering the wealthy and the powerful, died on Friday in a car crash in Lexington, Ky. He was 76.
His wife, Lucy Young Hamilton, confirmed his death.
She said he was driving about four miles from their horse farm when he either passed out or was distracted and drove through a stop sign. His vehicle was struck on the driver’s side by a pickup truck, she said.
Lt. Jackie Newman of the Lexington Police Department said the collision happened on a rural road around 2:45 p.m. Mr. Hamilton was pronounced dead at the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington.
Mr. Hamilton, who also wrote novels and plays, began his career with The New Yorker in 1965 and was still working there at his death.
CNN (autoplay)
Obama admits worst mistake of his presidency
(CNN)President Barack Obama said the worst mistake of his presidency was a lack of planning for the aftermath of the 2011 toppling of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
"Probably failing to plan for the day after what I think was the right thing to do in intervening in Libya," he said in a Fox News interview aired Sunday.
This is not the first time in recent weeks he has talked about Libya and the NATO-led intervention which resulted in Gadhafi's death in October of that year, months after NATO first intervened.
Cameron, along with former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, took the brunt of Obama's criticism.
Although Obama said he thinks the intervention went as well as it could, he views Libya today as a "mess."
Privately, according to the article, he refers to the troubled state as a "sh*t show.”
Al Jazeera
SpaceX delivers world's first inflatable room to ISS
SpaceX has arrived at the International Space Station (ISS), delevering the world's first inflatable tent for astronauts.
The US aerospace company's unmanned Dragon cargo ship, carrying lettuce seeds, lab mice and an inflatable pop-up room, arrived on Sunday at the space station where six spacecraft are now docked.
British astronaut Tim Peake reached out with the station's robotic arm and grappled the Dragon, carrying its nearly 3,175kg of gear, at 7:23am (11:23 GMT).
"It looks like we've caught a Dragon," said Peake.
Four Russian spaceships - two Progress cargo carriers and two Soyuz capsules which ferry astronauts - are docked at the space station, along with Orbital ATK's Cygnus cargo ship and SpaceX's Dragon.
Not since 2011, during the final flight of the space shuttle Discovery, have there been six vehicles parked at the ISS at the same time, NASA said.
C/Net
Man climbs rock to propose via Apple's FaceTime, gets arrested
Proposing to the love of your life is a very special thing.
It's tempting, then, to make the event memorable. But you can't always control what about an event will stay in the memory most.
Consider, please, the proposal of Michael Banks, performed on Thursday afternoon.
The City of Morro Bay, California, says Banks decided to climb the iconic, 600-foot rock that sits in the bay the coastal city is named for and to propose to his girlfriend via Apple's FaceTime.
You might find this a noble pursuit.
You might find it slightly less noble when I tell you climbing isn't allowed there. Apparently, locals regularly contravene the ban. Still, Banks may have been slightly injudicious in the route he took to get off the rock once he proposed.
“He couldn't go any direction, on a sheer ledge, with his feet dangling 80 feet off the ground," Gailey added.
And so it was that Michael Banks had to be rescued by helicopter.
This is right next to one of my favorite restaurants.