Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Doctor RJ, Magnifico, annetteboardman and Man Oh Man. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) wader, planter, JML9999, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke 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
Millions without water in Chile capital, Santiago
Rainstorms and landslides in Chile have contaminated a major river forcing the authorities to cut off drinking water to four million people in the capital, Santiago.
Officials said the water supply from the Maipo river would be cut to most of the city until the water flowed clear.
People stocked up on bottled water and the authorities ordered restaurants and businesses to remain closed.
Officials also postponed the start of the school term on Monday.
Emergency personnel said the water rushing down from the Andes had also cut roads and isolated thousands of people.
The regional governor of Santiago, Claudio Orrego, said " We are talking about 1.45 million homes that are going to be affected by the cutting off of the water supply, which will be total or partial in 30 districts."
"We still do not know when the drinking water will be turned back on,"
BBC
Battle for west Mosul: Bombs 'fall like rain' on front line
This weekend as many as 2,500 residents of Mosul escaped from the western half of a city that has been under the yoke of so-called Islamic State (IS) for almost three years.
Aid agencies estimate that there are approximately 750,000 civilians trapped in western Mosul, unable or too frightened to leave despite the very real prospect of a prolonged, intense battle over the city between Iraqi government forces and IS fighters.
The assault on western Mosul has, thus far, been largely as expected - a much better equipped and better trained Iraqi army than the one humiliated by IS in 2014, methodically pushing towards the edge of the city thanks to overwhelming fire power and the cover of coalition air strikes.
For all their brutality and intolerance, IS fighters are nothing if not ingenious and in recent days they have been deploying a battle tactic almost unprecedented in modern urban warfare - the use of commercially available drones to drop bombs and grenades against civilian and military targets.
Large military drones are, of course, used to devastating effect by armies all over the Middle East, often resulting in huge loss of life. But the frequency and accuracy of how the Islamic State group is utilising small, relatively unsophisticated drones in Mosul has significantly slowed the advance of government forces.
BBC
Kim Jong-nam: VX dose was 'high and lethal'
Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korea's leader, was given a very high amount of the toxic nerve agent VX and he died in pain within 15-20 minutes, Malaysia's health minister says.
No antidote would have worked, said Subramaniam Sathasivam.
Mr Kim died two weeks ago after two women accosted him in a check-in hall at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
They say they thought they were doing a TV prank. North Korea denies killing the high-profile critic of the regime.
VX is classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations. A drop on the skin can kill in minutes.
Indonesian national Siti Aisyah, 25, one of two women held, told Indonesian embassy officials that she was given 400 Malaysian ringgit ($80; £72) to smear Kim Jong-nam's face with "baby oil" as part of a reality show joke.
BBC (We’re not the only jerks)
Woman deported to Singapore despite 27-year marriage
A woman who has been married to a British man for 27 years has been deported to Singapore.
Irene Clennel was being held in a Scottish detention centre, but has now told the BBC she has been sent back to her country of origin without warning.
Mrs Clennel had been living near Durham with her husband before being detained, and has two British sons, as well as a granddaughter, in the UK.
The Home Office said it did not comment on individual cases.
Mrs Clennel told the BBC she was put in a van and taken to the airport from the Dungavel Detention Centre in South Lanarkshire on Saturday.
She had been held at the facility since the start of February.
She told the BBC she was unable to contact her lawyer and did not have the chance to get any clothes from her home.
The Guardian
Leading French academic threatened with deportation at Houston airport
A prominent French historian has said he was detained for more than 10 hours in Houston and threatened with deportation, in the latest of several examples of high-profile individuals being questioned extensively at US airports before being allowed entry.
Henry Rousso flew from Paris to Houston last Wednesday to take part in a symposium at Texas A&M University but was wrongly detained and almost sent back to France after a border guard failed to understand Rousso’s entitlements under visa rules, university officials said.
Rousso said on Twitter that he was “detained 10 hours at [Houston’s George Bush intercontinental airport] about to be deported. The officer who arrested me was ‘inexperienced’.”
While he was held, Rousso contacted university officials who attempted to secure his release. “He was waiting for customs officials to send him back to Paris as an illegal alien on the first flight out,” Richard Golsan, a professor at Texas A&M, toldthe Eagle.
Following scorn poured on Donald Trump by the French president and the mayor of Paris after the US president suggested in a speech last week that Paris is unsafe for American tourists, the incident has sparked fresh outrage in France. Emmanuel Macron, a presidential candidate, tweeted on Sunday to declare that “there is no excuse for what happened to Henry Rousso. Our country is open to scientists and intellectuals.
Al Jazeera
Storm Doris screams through the UK and Low Countries
When a storm is expected to develop potentially damaging winds, the UK Met Office now gives it a name. Storm Doris was one such which deepened explosively on Thursday.
It thrashed the west coast of Ireland, bringing gusts of over 140 kilometres an hour. The centre of the storm headed east, bringing severe gales to Northern Ireland, Wales, central and southern England. A tree-lined avenue in Northern Ireland which featured in Game Of Thrones has been damaged by the storm.
Winds gusting frequently to 100km/h felled mature trees and disrupted road, rail, sea and air travel. Power cuts were caused to thousands of homes in a swath from Northern Ireland to Suffolk as winds brought branches on to power lines. Some 77 flights were cancelled at London's Heathrow airport. The Port of Liverpool was closed as the seas became rough in the severe gale.
To the north of Doris, snow proved a greater problem, especially in Scotland's Central Belt. Major roads were brought to a standstill, including the M80 motorway.
Doris reached maturity as she crossed the North Sea and stopped getting worse. Nevertheless, severe gales swept the Low Countries, northern Germany and Poland. The cold air brought down this storm will sweep down through Scandinavia dropping temperatures, especially in Finland and the Baltic States.
Al Jazeera
What is behind the hostility between Iran and Turkey?
Diplomatic tensions between Iran and Turkey will not result in an actual confrontation due to the vast economic ties between the regional rivals, Turkish analysts say.
As both regional rivals compete for a greater share of influence in the region, the Syrian government's victory in Aleppo, coupled with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group's diminishing presence in Iraq, has brought tensions between them to the boil.
"The tensions between Turkey and Iran did not appear out of the blue," said Atilla Yesilada, a political analyst with Istanbul's Global Source Partners.
"This rivalry had been simmering beneath the surface for a very long time. Recent developments in Syria and Iraq simply forced the two countries to be more overtly aggressive against each other," Yesilada told Al Jazeera.
Raw Story
African hunger crisis is largely man-made: experts
This year, more so than usual, hunger is stalking Africa. The United Nations has declared a famine in parts of South Sudan and food insecurity is affecting tens of millions in nearly every geographic region of the continent.
The causes vary, as do the proposed solutions. But, experts say the worst crises are being fueled by war.
“Drought is an exacerbating factor in some context but conflict is really, really the major driver in the biggest emergencies,” said Chris Hillbruner, a senior official for the U.S.-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET).
“Drought can result in really severe food insecurity but usually, even when you have a severe drought, there's an opportunity for recovery that starts with the next rainy season," he said. "The challenge with conflict is that the conflict persists and persists and persists in many of these cases and so there's little relief for the people.”The United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that 1.4 million children are at imminent risk of death in just four countries: Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen. All four are in the midst of civil wars or insurgencies.
Raw Story
Tests show driver in Mardi Gras crash was legally drunk, police say
The driver accused of injuring 28 people in New Orleans after plowing a pickup truck into a crowd watching a Mardi Gras parade had a blood alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit soon after the crash, police said on Sunday.
The suspect, identified as Neilson Rizzuto, 25, has been charged with two felony counts in the Saturday evening incident that brought chaos to one of the main events of the city’s signature pre-Lent celebration.
Rizzuto’s blood alcohol level was measured at 0.232, well above the 0.08 limit, about two hours after he was taken into custody on Saturday, New Orleans police spokesman Michael Tidwell said in an email.
Rizzuto was charged with two felony counts of vehicular negligence injuring in the first degree, hit-and-run driving and the reckless operation of a motor vehicle, according to a statement earlier on Sunday.
The truck driven by Rizzuto was traveling on the side of the street open to traffic along the parade route in the Mid-City neighborhood of New Orleans when it struck three other vehicles, including a dump truck. It then veered onto the median where a crowd of people stood watching the procession, police said.
N Y Times
sessions wants all women to be pregnant; how about this, you jerk?
A Balm When You’re Expecting: Sometimes Pot Does the Trick
The New York Times reported this month that expectant mothers are taking up marijuana in increasing numbers. We asked women who used marijuana during pregnancy to share their stories.
Hundreds of readers wrote in; most had smoked, while a few vaped or ate marijuana-laced edibles. Roughly half said they had used pot for a medical reason. Most felt marijuana use had not affected their children, or were not sure; just a handful worried the children might have suffered cognitive deficits.
The Times followed up with a few of these women in greater depth. Where they wished to protect their privacy or avoid legal consequences, only first names are used.
N Y Times
Trump to Ask for Sharp Increases in Military Spending, Officials Say
WASHINGTON — President trump will instruct federal agencies on Monday to assemble a budget for the coming fiscal year that includes sharp increases in Defense Department spending and drastic enough cuts to domestic agencies that he can keep his promise to leave Social Security and Medicare alone, according to four senior administration officials.
The budget outline will be the first move in a campaign this week to reset the narrative of Mr. trump’s turmoil-tossed White House.
A day before delivering a high-stakes address on Tuesday to a joint session of Congress, Mr. trump will demand a budget with tens of billions of dollars in reductions to the Environmental Protection Agency and State Department, according to four senior administration officials with direct knowledge of the plan. Social safety net programs, aside from the big entitlement programs for retirees, would also be hit hard.
Preliminary budget outlines are usually little-noticed administrative exercises, the first step in negotiations between the White House and federal agencies that usually shave the sharpest edges off the initial request.
C/Net (autoplay)
Jackie Chan causes early panda-monium on Oscar red carpet
Past Academy Awards attendees have drawn attention for bringing their mom or child as a date. But martial arts legend and actor Jackie Chan doubled the attention by escorting two stuffed pandas on the Oscar red carpet on Sunday.
Why pandas? Chan, of course, voices Monkey in the "Kung Fu Panda" movie series. In 2009, he adopted two pandas at China's Chengdu Giant Panda Research and Breeding Base, and was dubbed Chengdu Panda Ambassador by tourism authorities there.
He created the two stuffed pandas, Chan La and Chan Zy, in honor of his adoptees, and often carries them with him to remind people of the need to protect the species. On the red carpet, one of the pandas wore a UNICEF pin -- Chan was appointed a UNICEF goodwill ambassador in 2004.
Chan introduced the pandas to E!'s Ryan Seacrest as "my two baby boys." He went on to say, "I am the ambassador of pandas. After the (2008 Sichuan) earthquake, they get hurt, I raised them."
Oscar watchers could bear-ly stand the cuteness.