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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.
Protests
BBC
Russia protests: Opposition leader Navalny and hundreds others arrested
Russia's main opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, has been arrested at an anti-corruption protest he organised in the capital, Moscow.
Thousands of people joined rallies nationwide, calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev over corruption allegations.
At least 500 other protesters were detained in the capital and across the country.
Most of the marches were illegal, organised without official permission.
TV pictures showed demonstrators chanting "Down with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin!", "Russia without Putin!" and "Putin is a thief!".
Correspondents say the marches appear to be the biggest since anti-government demonstrations in 2011/2012.
BBC
Yemenis protest on war's second anniversary
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Yemen's capital on Sunday to call for an end to war in the country.
The demonstration was organised by Houthi rebels, who occupy the city and much of Yemen's north.
The rallies in Sanaa came on the second anniversary of the Saudi-led military intervention against the Houthi rebel movement.
More than 7,600 people have been killed in the conflict since it began in March 2015.
Millions of citizens have been displaced and the country has also been pushed to the brink of famine.
Yemen conflict: How my country has changed
Yemen crisis: Who is fighting whom?
The war is being waged between forces loyal to President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and those allied to the Houthis.
BBC
Chile pensions protest draws tens of thousands
Tens of thousands of people in Chile have taken part in demonstrations against the country's controversial privatised pension system.
Demonstrators called on the socialist government of Michelle Bachelet to scrap the the system, which is managed by private funds.
Critics say the system benefits the rich but leaves poorer Chileans with a pension below the minimum wage.
The system was introduced in 1981 under General Augusto Pinochet's rule.
Protest organisers said a total of more than 2 million people had joined marches in most Chilean cities, and that 800,000 people took part in Santiago alone.
Chilean police put the number of demonstrators in the capital at 50,000.
Al Jazeera
Venezuelans protest about medicine shortages
Venezuelans have taken to the streets to protest against medicine shortages.
A fourth year of economic recession has led to a short supply of both drugs and food in the country.
The pharmaceutical association says 85 out of every 100 medicines are unavailable.
The Guardian
Shell-shocked Mosul survivors tell of intense airstrikes
Covered in dust, their hands raw from digging, Ali Assad and his cousin made a desperate choice – to leave their family under the rubble of their west Mosulhome and flee while they still could.
The two men were among hundreds to be evacuated on Sunday, during a lull in the fighting prompted by outrage over the high civilian toll caused by multiple airstrikes that have battered the city and its trapped population over the past eight days.
With the ground war now suspended as a result, families that have sheltered in ruins or taken their chances in what is left of their homes have been leaving Mosul in droves, many arriving shell shocked and starving at refugee processing centres on its southern outskirts, where they spoke of more than a week of terror
[snip]
Both men said that 15 people remained buried under three homes in the Yarmouk area of Mosul after a series of airstrikes on 22 March. The attacks took place amid a barrage of strikes by jets in support of a ground push by Iraqi forces that started around 17 March. On that afternoon, the Mosul Jadida neighbourhood was also repeatedly hit, leading to what could be the highest civilian toll of any airstrike in the region since the invasion of Iraq 14 years ago. At least 150 people are thought to have been killed, many of whom died during the five days it took for help to arrive.
Why does this make me think of trump voters?
The Guardian
Parts of UK that voted for Brexit may be hardest hit, study finds
Several parts of Britain that voted to leave the European Union are among the most vulnerable to the economic impact of Brexit, according to new research published as the government prepares to trigger article 50.
Researchers at the thinktank Demos studied regional differences in the reliance on exports to the EU, use of European workers and receipt of support grants. It found that Wales, the north-east and east Midlands all showed relatively heavy dependence despite being home to a preponderance of leave voters.
The government hopes to soften the impact of leaving the single market by striking a new free trade agreement, but with EU negotiators insisting that Britain first settle the terms of its divorce settlement, there are growing fears that it will instead crash out of the union without a deal.
In this scenario, exporters would be forced to rely on World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms, which include punitive tariffs for many agricultural products and manufactured goods such as cars. The three regions that rely most on European markets are Wales, which sends 67% of its exports to the EU, the north-east at 62%, and Yorkshire and Humberside at 55%.
Al Jazeera
One dead as 1,000 refugees rescued in the Mediterranean
One woman was found dead while more than 1,000 refugees were rescued off the Libyan coast, aid groups said on Sunday.
Around 400 people were crammed onto a single wooden boat, while others were picked up from huge inflatable dinghies, which had set sail from the coast of Libya, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and SOS Mediterranee.
A young woman was found unconscious on one of the vessels and later died, MSF said.
Two rescue ships found the refugees, just days after 250 migrants and refugees from African countries were reported missing in boat disasters off the Libyan coast.
The weekend rescues mean that about 22,000 mainly African refugees have been picked up heading to Italy so far this year, while around 520 have died trying to make the crossing.
Al Jazeera
Pakistan starts building fence along Afghanistan border
Pakistan's military has begun fencing parts of its disputed northwestern border with Afghanistan to curb the movement of Pakistani Taliban fighters it says are based on Afghan soil, according to a statement.
Fencing started in the Pakistani Bajaur and Mohmand districts, which border the eastern Afghan provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar, Pakistan's Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa announced on Saturday.
Pakistan shares a mountainous and largely unpatrolled 2,500km-long border with Afghanistan, which the latter disputes. Previous attempts to fence or formally demarcate the border have met with resistance from Kabul.
N Y Times
Ai Weiwei’s Latest Artwork: Building Fences Throughout New York City
Ai Weiwei, the provocative Chinese artist, will build more than 100 fences and installations around New York City this fall for “Good Fences Make Good Neighbors,” one of his most large-scale public art projects to date.
The exhibition, which opens on Oct. 12, was commissioned by the Public Art Fund to celebrate the organization’s 40th anniversary and will comprise about 10 major fence-themed installations and scores of smaller works spread across multiple boroughs, including Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn.
“This is the most ambitious that we’ve undertaken since I’ve been here,” said Nicholas Baume, who has been the Public Art Fund’s director and chief curator since 2009. “Certainly, it’s the most distributed throughout the city.”
Throughout its history, the Public Art Fund has commissioned major artists like Alexander Calder and Sol LeWitt, and has funded seminal works like Olafur Eliasson’s “The New York City Waterfalls” in 2008 and Tatzu Nishi’s “Discovering Columbus” in 2012.
Among the planned sites for Mr. Ai’s project are Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, the Cooper Union building in Manhattan and Doris C. Freedman Plaza, at the tourist-heavy southeast corner of Central Park.
Raw Story (This is conjecture, of course)
CNN analyst: Sources say Mike Flynn may have turned on Trump and become a witness for the FBI
As of Saturday evening, rumors are swirling that Pres. Donald Trump’s ousted national security adviser Mike Flynn has cut a deal with the FBI and is now informing on his old boss, the president.
CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem discussed the possibility in a panel discussion on Friday night when she said that former Trump foreign policy consultant Carter Page, ex-campaign manager Paul Manafort and longtime Trump ally Roger Stone will all testify before the House Intelligence Committee regarding their ties to Russia.
“It’s not that interesting to me because I don’t think they’ll be under oath,” Kayyem said. “The one name not mentioned is a name I mention often on this show: Mike Flynn, the former national security adviser.”
“It is starting to look like — from my sources and from open reporting — that Mike Flynn is the one who may have a deal with the FBI and that’s why we have not heard from him for some time,” she said.
Raw Story
North Korea threatens US over preemptive strike
Kim Jong Un’s North Korea issued a threat against the United States Friday in a statement that said the U.S. should be prepared for “catastrophic consequences” if it attempts to engage Pyongyang with preemptive strikes.
The statement, titled “ U.S. should not run wild, pondering over the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by its attempt at a preemptive strike,” was published by North Korea’s state news agency KCNA.
The threat from Pyongyang is reportedly the result of U.S. indicating that preemptive strikes on the regime to curb the nuclear threat posed by Kim Jong Un, were not off the table for the country.
Read: North Korea Will Launch Rockets 'At Any Time' Kim Jong Un Pleases, Officials Say
Last week, during a trip to Seoul, at a press conference, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said: “Twenty years of talking has brought us to the point we are today.”
“Talk is not going to change the situation,” he said, adding that preemptive military action is “on the table” if forces from the U.S. and ally North Korea are threatened by North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
N Y Times
Miners Found a 706-Carat Diamond in Sierra Leone. Who Should Get the Profit?
DAKAR, Senegal — Fist-size and lumpy, the rock that a team of miners came upon recently in the diamond fields of Sierra Leone was orange with red speckles that looked like tiny droplets of palm oil.
They almost tossed it aside. The rock didn’t seem like the kind of gem that diggers typically unearth in a nation with a reputation for having some of the highest quality and most transparent diamonds in the world. But the rock was unusual enough to take to a local diamond dealer.
“The look on his face when he saw the rock made me believe that we discovered something extraordinary,” said the Rev. Emmanuel Momoh, a pastor who runs the team of diggers who found the rock.
The strange lump turned out to be one of the biggest diamonds ever uncovered in Sierra Leone — an estimated 706 carats, valued at as much as $50 million. But Mr. Momoh’s decision to hand the diamond over to the Sierra Leone government to handle the sale, instead of quietly selling it himself, has set off a debate in a country where suspicion of officials runs high.
N Y Times
Who Killed the Iceman? Clues Emerge in a Very Cold Case
BOLZANO, Italy — When the head of a small Italian museum called Detective Inspector Alexander Horn of the Munich Police, she asked him if he investigated cold cases.
“Yes I do,” Inspector Horn said, recalling their conversation.
“Well, I have the coldest case of all for you,” said Angelika Fleckinger, director of the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, in Bolzano, Italy.
The unknown victim, nicknamed Ötzi, has literally been in cold storage in her museum for a quarter-century. Often called the Iceman, he is the world’s most perfectly preserved mummy, a Copper Age fellow who had been frozen inside a glacier along the northern Italian border with Austria until warming global temperatures melted the ice and two hikers discovered him in 1991.
The cause of death remained uncertain until 10 years later, when an X-ray of the mummy pointed to foul play in the form of a flint arrowhead embedded in his back, just under his shoulder. But now, armed with a wealth of new scientific information that researchers have compiled, Inspector Horn has managed to piece together a remarkably detailed picture of what befell the Iceman on that fateful day around 3300 B.C., near the crest of the Ötztal Alps.