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.
North Korea is "ready to sink" a US aircraft carrier heading for the peninsula, state media have said.
A commentary in the Rodong Sinmun newspaper warned that the USS Carl Vinson could be sunk "with a single strike".
A battle group headed by the Vinson is expected off the peninsula this week.
It was despatched by President Donald Trump amid a warning that US "strategic patience" over the North's nuclear ambitions had come to an end.
Tension also rose after a recent failed missile test by the North and a massive military parade showing off its latest hardware.
Sunday's commentary in Rodong Sinmun, the mouthpiece of the ruling Workers' Party, followed a feature on leader Kim Jong-un's inspection of a pig farm.
"Our revolutionary forces are combat-ready to sink a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with a single strike," the commentary read, saying that the attack on what it called a "gross animal" would be "an actual example to show our military's force".
Raw Story
North Korea ratchets up tensions by detaining US citizen: report
BEIJING — North Korean authorities have reportedly detained a U.S. citizen, raising the number of Americans known to be detained in North Korea to three and potentially deepening animosity between Washington and Pyongyang at an already tense time.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency, which first reported the detention Sunday, identified the man as a Korean-American in his late 50s with the surname Kim. North Korean authorities detained him at Pyongyang International Airport on his way out of the country Saturday, the agency reported, citing unidentified sources. The reason for his detention was unknown.
The man is a former professor at the Yanbian University of Science and Technology, a research university in China's Jilin province, which borders North Korea. He was in the country for about a month "to discuss relief activities," Yonhap reported.
Al Jazeera
Israel-Europe gas deal sparks criticism
Ramallah - An Israel-Europe gas pipeline deal aimed at turning Israel into a major energy exporter in the Mediterranean has come under criticism from Palestinians, particularly as the besieged Gaza Strip continues to suffer from a crippling power crisis.
"The pipeline agreement between Israel, Italy, Cyprus and Greece will not only benefit corporations which directly profit from the occupation of the Palestinian territory," Shawan Jabarin, general director of Al-Haq, told Al Jazeera.
"It also provides an incentive for Israel to continue the closure of Palestine's coast and a tacit approval by Europe of Israel's 'naval blockade' and continued international armed conflict in the waters off the Gaza Strip. It is the occupied Palestinian people who will continue to be further brutalised by the expansion of Israel's gas industry."
Ministers from Israel, Greece, Italy and Cyprus, as well as the European Union's commissioner for climate action and energy, signed a joint declaration this month to make their commitment to building a gas pipeline that would bring recently discovered natural gas from Israel and Cyprus to Italy and the European market via Greece official.
Al Jazeera
Taliban attack prompts resignation calls in Afghanistan
Afghan families have buried their dead and the country observed a national day of mourning following the deadliest-ever Taliban attack on a military base that prompted angry calls for ministers and army chiefs to resign.
Flags flew at half-mast throughout the country on Sunday and special prayers were said for the dead.
The exact toll from Friday's assault in the northern province of Balkh remained unclear, with some local officials putting the number of dead as high as 140.
The defence ministry gave a figure of at least 100 soldiers killed or wounded. Kabul has so far ignored media calls for a complete breakdown of casualties from the five-hour attack near the provincial capital of Mazar-i-Sharif.
Raw Story
Iran’s military releases video of new stealth fighter jet — but can it fly?
Iran showcased its first ever domestically-manufactured stealth fighter jet Monday, but a number of critics in the West have called the aircraft a hoax.
Iran's Qaher F-313 jet was presented by leaders of the nation's defense industry at a ceremony attended by top government officials near the Meherabad Air Base, United Press International reported. Days earlier, Iran's Irib News Agency released footage showing the aircraft making its hardware debut. In the video, the Qaher F-313 performed a taxi test, but did not take off, leading some to speculate as to whether the supposedly high-tech warplane was capable of flight yet.
The Qaher, which means "Conqueror," was first unveiled in February 2013 during a ceremony marking the 34th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought the current Iranian government into power. The fifth-generation jet was hailed by leaders at the time as a breakthrough for the nation's military, which both Western and Gulf Arab nations have long considered a regional threat.
Western observers, however, noted inconsistencies in the plane's design including apparent errors in cockpit size and the absence of a nozzle for the engine, according to The National Interest. The irregularities caused a number of critics to consider the 2013 model a simple prop.
The Guardian
Venezuela's anger is on the streets. But the ballot box remains key for change
Despite a string of deaths and fierce clashes with riot police, Venezuela’s opposition are trying to ramp up the street pressure on the beleaguered government of Nicolás Maduro.
The mass demonstrations this week are a sign of frustration at the president’s increasingly authoritarian rule. But with the security forces still loyal to the socialist president, analysts say the best long-term hope for those who seek change is likely to remain the ballot box.
For the second day in a row, central Caracas was filled with clouds of teargas on Thursday as protesters, including several prominent legislators, confronted security forces.
This followed “the mother of all marches”, which drew hundreds of thousands to anti-government rallies across the country on Wednesday. Simultaneous demonstrations by government supporters led to violence in several cities.
The Guardian
A tale of two droughts: one killed 260,000 people, the other none. Why?
Drought is a slow and predictable natural disaster. We know it will happen again, and we know much of its effects are preventable if money is invested at the right time. So why do we wait for people to die from hunger induced by droughts before we start calling for emergency relief money?
The UN recently launched a $864m appeal to help 5 million Somalis in dire need of food assistance because of drought. But what if the Somali government could have taken out an insurance policy against such a disaster? They could have responded to their own crisis before a famine claimed lives and far less money would be needed. They would not now in a situation similar to six years ago, when a drought-induced famine killed 260,000 Somalis.
Senegal experienced a significant drought in 2014, but Senegalese children did not starve to death. In fact, there was little international media coverage of the drought because Senegal, Mauritania, Niger, and Kenya led the creation of African Risk Capacity (ARC), a mutual insurance company into which they pooled resources.
Catastrophe risk pools like the ARC have emerged over the last 10 years to protect vulnerable populations and national budgets in case of extreme weather events. And they’re working.
Buzzfeed
Almost No Plastic Bottles Get Recycled Into New Bottles
If you consider every plastic soda, water, or juice bottle you've ever used, you might assume that because the label says it's a recyclable bottle that the bottle itself is made of recycled plastic too. But this is hardly ever true.
Coca-Cola sources just 7% of its plastic from recycled materials, the company told BuzzFeed News. Nestlé Waters North America said 6% of its bottles are made from recycled plastic. PepsiCo declined to share a percentage, saying only that it grew to 139 million pounds in 2015. A recent Greenpeace report found six of the largest soft drinks companies, excluding Coca-Cola, use a combined average of just 6.6% recycled plastic globally.
Rather than being recycled into new bottles, the vast majority of beverage bottles are exported to plastic manufacturers in emerging markets and used to make synthetic fabrics for clothing — demand has been helped along by the athleisure boom — as well as carpeting, bags, packaging, and straps for shipping boxes.
That means nearly every drink we buy is packaged in new plastic, a trend aided by the recent drop in oil prices — plastic is made from petroleum — making new plastic cheaper than recycled material. Environmentalists worry that for beverage companies, future growth relies on producing more disposable bottles that, in the current system, only feeds a growing volume of plastic junk across the world.
N Y Times
Will the Government Be Open in a Week? Here Are the Dividing Lines
WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders and White House officials have steered the nation to the brink of a government shutdown that virtually all parties agree would be a terrible idea.
While lawmakers seem eager to forge a deal before government funding expires Friday, the Trump administration wants to use the deadline as a point of leverage that Democrats — and at least a few Republicans — do not believe they have, raising the prospects of a shutdown that had seemed unlikely.
President Trump’s team is straining to demonstrate progress on key campaign promises like money for a border wall and increased military spending, hoping to project success before Mr. Trump’s 100th day in office on Saturday. But any measure will require bipartisan support, and Democrats are unlikely to budge.
The standoff continues a Washington trend, as banal now as it is nonsensical to veterans of the Capitol: legislative cliff-jumping in the name of brinkmanship, frustration or some combination thereof, with no clear endgame.