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
North Korea: Four ballistic missiles fired into sea
North Korea has launched four ballistic missiles towards the Sea of Japan, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe has said.
Three of them fell into Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) after flying some 1,000km (620 miles).
They were fired from the Tongchang-ri region, near the North's border with China, the South Korean military said.
It is unclear what type of missiles were fired, but the North is banned by the UN from any tests of missile or nuclear technology.
A South Korean military official said the launch took place at 07:36 local time Monday (22:36 GMT Sunday) and was being investigated to determine the type of projectile used.
The Guardian
Malaysia expels North Korea ambassador over Kim Jong-nam killing
Malaysia has expelled North Korea’s ambassador, giving him 48 hours to leave the country in a major break in diplomatic relations over the assassination of the half-brother of the North Korean leader.
Kim Jong-nam was poisoned on 13 February with deadly nerve agent VX. North Korea has repeatedly disparaged the murder investigation, accusing Malaysia of conniving with its enemies.
The ambassador was declared persona non grata after Malaysia demanded but did not receive an apology for Pyongyang’s attacks on the investigation, Malaysia’s foreign minister, Anifah Haji Aman, said.
“Malaysia will react strongly against any insults made against it or any attempt to tarnish its reputation,” he said in a statement released late on Saturday.
Ambassador Kang Chol failed to present himself at the ministry when summoned and is expected to leave Malaysia within 48 hours, the statement added. The deadline is 6pm on Monday.
The Guardian
Iraqi forces push into deadliest areas of Mosul as civilian exodus accelerates
Nearly three weeks into the last phase of the battle for Mosul, Iraqi forces have started pushing into the most heavily fortified and lethal corners of the crumbling city.
This weekend the battles in the city, the Islamic State’s last urban stronghold in Iraq, were some of the most intensive yet. Maj Gen Haider al-Maturi, of the federal police commandos division, said Isis militants had dispatched at least six suicide car bombs, which were all destroyed before reaching troops. He said the militants were moving from house to house and deploying snipers.
A statement released by Iraqi Rapid response teams said units were “very close” to the government buildings near the old city. It added that units had captured the Danadan district, south-east of the complex, while US-trained counter-terrorism service units pushed through the Tal al-Ruman and Somood districts, in the south-west.
Al Jazeera
Report: More than 200,000 displaced by Mosul conflict
More than 200,000 people have been displaced as a result of the Iraqi forces' battle to retake the city of Mosul from ISIL that began in October, according to a Switzerland-based nongovernmental organisation.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimates, in a report released on Sunday, said 45,000 people have fled west Mosul since the push to seize it from ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, began in February.
More than 17,000 people arrived from west Mosul on February 28 alone, while over 13,000 came on March 3, according to the IOM.
On Saturday, a senior Iraqi government official publicly criticised UN-led efforts to aid those displaced by the west Mosul fighting, while the UN said that such assistance is the "top priority".
"Unfortunately, there is a clear shortfall in the work of these [UN] organisations," Jassem Mohammed al-Jaff, the minister of displacement and migration, said in a statement.
Al Jazeera's Dekker, reporting from eastern Mosul on Sunday, said that the stream of people is continuing.
"Because the camps are operating at full capacity, the refugees are now being brought to the Kurdish regions here in northern Iraq," she said.
The Guardian
Erdoğan accuses Germany of 'Nazi practices' over blocked political rallies
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has lashed out at Germany for blocking several rallies on its soil in the run-up to a referendum in Turkey, likening its stance to Nazi practices.
“Your practices are not different from the Nazi practices of the past,” he said of Germany at a women’s rally in Istanbul before the referendum on changes to the constitution that would bolster his powers as president.
“I thought it’s been a long time since Germany left [Nazi practices]. We are mistaken,” he added.
Last week federal authorities in two German states withdrew permission for political rallies targeted at Turkish residents in Germany amid growing public outrage over Ankara’s arrest of a Turkish-German journalist.
The Guardian
Libyan militias capture key oil ports and refinery
Militias have captured a string of key Libyan oil ports in the fight against eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar, sharply escalating the country’s civil war and throwing international peacemaking efforts into doubt.
The Islamist Benghazi militia struck at al-Sidra, Libya’s biggest oil port, and Ras Lanuf, its biggest refinery, overnight on Friday, forcing Haftar’s Libyan National Army to retreat.
Army spokesman Col Ahmad al-Mismari said the militias had overrun the main airfield at Ras Lanuf, with the army pulling back to avoid damage to oil facilities.
He said the Benghazi defence brigades, militias originally from Benghazi who were driven out of the city by Haftar’s forces last year, attacked the ports from four directions on Friday.
Airstrikes failed to halt the drive, in which militia units entered the ports in fighting that has left at least nine dead. Renewed strikes were launched against the militias on Saturday morning, while army reinforcements massed for a counter-attack in what has become a see-saw struggle to control Libya’s vast oil wealth.
Al Jazeera
Abe could become Japan's longest serving premier
Japan's ruling party has extended term limits for its leaders, a change that gives Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a shot at becoming the country's longest-serving post-war leader.
On Sunday, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) congress approved a proposal that extends the limit to three consecutive three-year terms, up from the previous two consecutive three-year term limit.
This means Abe can stand for re-election in the next party leadership vote in 2018.
If he wins the party election and the national polls, he could remain in power until September 2021.
Under the previous limit, Abe would have had to step down as party leader and prime minister in September 2018, even if the LDP was still in power.
The current longest-serving prime minister in the post-war era is Eisaku Sato who served from November 1964 to July 1972.
Raw Story
Tehran successfully tests Russian missile system
Iran's military has reportedly conducted successful tests of Russian purchased S-300 anti-aircraft missile system. The news comes amid ongoing tensions between Tehran and Washington, and soon after President Donald Trump's pledge to get tough with Iran.
Tests on effectiveness of the missile system against ballistic threats were conducted by Iran in its drill dubbed Damvand. The drill was reportedly attended by a number of high-ranking military commanders and officials.
The S-300 system was evaluated through simulated electronic warfare conditions and tested for its detection, identification, interception and target shooting capabilities, the Tasnim news agency reported Saturday.
The deal for five Russian S-300 systems was struck in 2007 but was later suspended after the adoption of U.N. Security Council sanctions on Iran in mid-2010. Tehran eventually reached an international agreement in 2015 and vowed to limit its nuclear development program in exchange for the removal of crippling economic sanctions.
It was around this time, in April 2015, that Russia resumed talks with Iran on deliveries of the S-300, and in December 2016, Iran's ambassador in Moscow Mehdi Sanayee confirmed that Russia had executed the contract.
Raw Story
Fukushima cleanup company baffled by robot-killing radiation
The company in charge of the ruined Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant revealed Thursday it needed new ideas to design robots capable of surviving the high levels of radiation inside the site's reactors, which were damaged in a 2011 earthquake and its resulting tsunami.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) has hit a new obstacle since being tasked with cleaning up the worst nuclear incident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the Soviet Union. The exploratory robot, specially designed to navigate the underwater sections of the reactor, died last month after being exposed to "unimaginable" levels of radiation nearly nine times more potent than the previous highest dose recorded. Naohiro Masuda, president of Tepco's Fukushima Daiichi Decommissioning project, told reporters that the company had to rethink its methods in order to examine and extract the hazardous material stuck in the plant's second reactor.
“We should think out of the box so we can examine the bottom of the core and how melted fuel debris spread out,” Masuda said, according to the Japan Times.
N Y Times
In Israel, Lauding and Lamenting the Era of Trump
JERUSALEM — Many Israelis are buoyed by signs that President Trump will be a friend to Israel. But the recent wave of toppled tombstones and threats against Jewish centers in the United States has at least as many worrying that his rise may also not be good for Jews.
“Jews in America, that’s supposed to work,” said Einat Wilf, a former member of the Knesset for the center-left Labor Party. “To have these instances, is that an aberration? Or has the American president unleashed forces — willingly, unwillingly, consciously, unconsciously — but maybe he has unleashed forces that will challenge the place of Jews in America?”
Israelis have grown used to rising nationalism in Europe that has fed anti-Semitism. But many have looked to the United States, home to the largest number of Jews outside Israel, as a relative refuge from anti-Semitism, not another front for it.
Few here suggest that has permanently changed (though the Labor Party leader, Isaac Herzog, recently said Israel should prepare for a wave of American immigrants).But worry spans left and right, even if they disagree on exactly how much to blame Mr. Trump, who is seen here as growing more confusing by the day. What to make of a president who, on the same day, denounced the anti-Semitic attacks but also suggested — in remarks widely covered here — that they might have been carried out by his own enemies?
N Y Times
Leashes Come Off Wall Street, Gun Sellers, Polluters and More
WASHINGTON — Giants in telecommunications, like Verizon and AT&T, will not have to take “reasonable measures” to ensure that their customers’ Social Security numbers, web browsing history and other personal information are not stolen or accidentally released.
Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase will not be punished, at least for now, for not collecting extra money from customers to cover potential losses from certain kinds of high-risk trades that helped unleash the 2008 financial crisis.
And Social Security Administration data will no longer be used to try to block individuals with disabling mental health issues from buying handguns, nor will hunters be banned from using lead-based bullets, which can accidentally poison wildlife, on 150 million acres of federal lands.
These are just a few of the more than 90 regulations that federal agencies and the Republican-controlled Congress have delayed, suspended or reversed in the month and a half since President Trump took office, according to a tally by The New York Times.
The Guardian
Smart condoms: like Fitbit for sex – and you can even share your stats
The first smart condom, called the i.Con, is the new frontier in the wearable-tech revolution.
The wearable-tech revolution that keeps failing to sweep the world? The very same.
I’m slightly afraid to ask this, but what does the i.Con do? To quote its seller’s website, “Have you ever wondered how many calories you’re burning during intercourse? How many thrusts? Speed of your thrusts? The duration of your sessions?”
No. And I would like to add that if you are wondering about those things during intercourse, then the problem isn’t thrust speed. You are free to scoff, but you will be wasting valuable sex data. The i.Con promises to measure all those things, as well as how often you have sex, the girth of your penis, your average skin temperature and (subject to Beta testing) how many different positions you used.
So it’s a Fitbit for your old chap? Basically, yes, although I doubt that will be the slogan, for a number of reasons. You charge it with a USB cable and sync the data with your phone in the usual way. Then share it online, if you wish.
Now there’s something on Facebook that I would actually read. That’s the spirit!
Except this is a hoax, right? It looks like one, I agree, but British Condoms is a real company, and there have been smart condoms, more often called “sex wearables”, before. The concept for a “SexFit” was revealed in 2014.