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 Besame. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Man Oh Man, wader, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) 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.
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US NEWS
Agence France Presse
Ed. note: This from the guy with 5 deferments and bone spurs.
President Donald Trump said Monday he would have rushed inside the Florida high school where 17 people were shot dead earlier this month, whether or not he was armed at the time.
"I really believe I'd run in there even if I didn't have a weapon," Trump told a group of state governors gathered at the White House.
"And I think most of the people in this room would have done that, too," said the US president, while adding: "You never know until you're tested."
Trump has vocally criticized an armed deputy who failed to intervene in the February 14 Parkland mass shooting, suggesting he was a "coward."
He took up that theme again in his comments to the governors, calling the performance of some Broward County sheriff's deputies "frankly disgusting."
"They weren't exactly Medal of Honor winners," he said.
Agence France Presse
US lawmakers returned to Congress Monday under pressure to address the nation's gun violence epidemic following the Parkland mass shooting, as staff make an emotional return to the Florida school where 17 people were killed.
President Donald Trump has called for gun law reform in the wake of the tragedy, including strengthening background checks on firearm purchases, but the White House has yet to announce support for specific legislation in Congress, where enacting federal gun restrictions faces major obstacles.
The Republican leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives have remained largely silent on the matter, with members of their party split on how to proceed.
The vast majority of Democrats want to bring gun control efforts to fruition in Congress, and a new CNN poll showed that 70 percent of Americans support stricter gun laws, up 18 points since October.
Al Jazeera
The US Supreme Court has refused to hear an attempt by the Donald Trump administration to have it intervene in the legal fight over a programme that protects hundreds of thousands of young, undocumented immigrants from deportation.
The Supreme Court justices said on Monday they would not hear the government's challenge to a federal court injunction issued last month, blocking Trump's effort to end the Deferred Actions for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme.
Passed by the Obama administration in 2012, the DACA programme shields from deportation about 800,000 undocumented immigrants - known as Dreamers - who were brought to the US as children.
Trump promised to end the programme during his 2016 election campaign and the protections were set to begin to be phased out in early March.
The Supreme Court's ruling comes after a San Francisco court issued a countrywide injunction on January 9, ordering the programme to remain in place until all litigation is finalised.
The Guardian
Doctors and first responders who treated a student initially thought to have died in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school massacre have spoken of their battle to save the teenager’s life, and her incredible recovery from multiple gunshot wounds.
Madeleine Wilford, 17, and her parents also spoke at a Monday press conference at Broward North hospital to praise the ambulance crew, surgeons and medical staff who resuscitated and operated on her, and talked of the “miracle” that allowed her to be discharged barely a week after she was shot in the rampage that killed 14 classmates and three adult teachers.
“When they were clearing the rooms, at first sight it was believed Maddy had deceased,” said Lieutenant Laz Ojeda of the Coral Springs fire rescue department, a member of one of the first medical teams to enter the school.
“She looked very pale. At that point, Officer Fernandez shook her to elicit a response. She gasped or moved; she made signs of life.”
Reuters
FedEx Corp said on Monday it would allow the National Rifle Association (NRA) to continue using a discount program but said it opposed sales of assault rifles.
The package delivery company’s statement comes as major corporations are under pressures to sever marketing and other ties with the NRA in the aftermath of the Feb. 14 shooting that killed 17 people at a Florida high school.
FedEx said its positions on the issues of gun policy and safety differ from those of the NRA. The shipper supports restricting assault rifles to the military and opposes allowing civilians to use them.
NPR
The Supreme Court heard fiery arguments Monday in a case that could remove a key revenue stream for public sector unions.
A sharply divided court could be poised to overturn a 40-year-old Supreme Court decision that would further undermine an already shrinking union movement.
Attorneys for Mark Janus, a child support specialist for the state of Illinois, argue that people like Janus, who choose not to join a union, shouldn't be compelled to pay partial union fees. The union argues that he should because he benefits from collective bargaining negotiations. The Supreme Court agreed in 1977, but that could change with the new conservative tilt of the court.
When a decision is reached, expected in June, all eyes will be on Trump-appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch, who was uncharacteristically quiet in Monday's proceedings. He asked no questions and is likely to be the deciding vote, given that the other justices split 4 to 4 in a similar case in 2016. That case was decided just after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, and the balance didn't seem to change Monday.
The Washington Post
Discriminating against someone on the basis of sexual orientation is prohibited under federal civil rights law, a federal appeals court ruled Monday as it sided with a gay skydiving instructor who was fired from his job after discussing his sexuality with a client.
The decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit offers expanded protections for LGBT people and marks a significant loss for President Trump’s Justice Department, which had filed a brief arguing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not cover sexual orientation discrimination.
But the state of the law is still murky, as federal circuits in other parts of the country have issued mixed opinions. The ruling from the 2nd Circuit, based in Manhattan, could be appealed to the Supreme Court.
NPR
Automakers are watching closely as the Trump administration tries to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the latest round of talks is under way in Mexico City this week.
NAFTA touches almost every business sector — few more than the car industry. Automakers say that changing the agreement could boost their costs and make them less competitive.
Covering approximately 450 million people in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, NAFTA is the world's largest free trade area — with $20 trillion in economic output. The three countries represent nearly a quarter of the trade in passenger vehicles worldwide, according to the Center for Automotive Research.
How would changing the 24-year-old agreement affect the auto industry? To answer that, it's important to understand that not all car companies are the same.
WORLD NEWS
Agence France Presse
More than 100 girls missing for a week after a Boko Haram attack on their school in northeast Nigeria were kidnapped, the government said for the first time on Monday.
The authorities in Abuja had previously stopped short of saying the 110 students were seized during the raid on the Government Girls Science and Technology College in Dapchi last Monday.
The attack has revived painful memories in Nigeria of the mass abduction of 276 girls from another boarding school in Chibok in April 2014. Nearly four years on, 112 are still being held.
President Muhammadu Buhari said his government was determined to ensure the release of everyone taken by the Islamist militants and to return "the abducted girls to their families".
Deutsche Welle
The Russian president has ordered a new ceasefire to allow civilians to exit one of Syria's last rebel strongholds. The UN has urged warring parties to end hostilities to allow much-needed aid into devastated areas.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered a daily "humanitarian pause" to airstrikes in Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, said Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, according to Russian news agencies.
The ceasefire comes amid calls from the international community to implement a nationwide cessation of hostilities as the humanitarian situation worsens on the ground.
Read more: Which rebel groups are fighting in Syria's Eastern Ghouta?
What the ceasefire entails:
- The ceasefire is aimed at establishing a "humanitarian corridor" to allow civilians to exit from Eastern Ghouta, considered one of Syria's last rebel strongholds.
- It will begin on Tuesday and last from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. local time (07:00 to 12:00 UTC), according to the order.
- In agreement with the Syrian regime, the Russian Defense Ministry said it will help evacuate the sick and injured.
Deutsche Welle
UK opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn says Britain should negotiate a new tariff-free customs deal with the EU after Brexit. His announcement is likely to rouse Conservative critics of Prime Minister May's hard-line stance.
In a highly anticipated policy speech on Monday, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn called for "a new comprehensive UK-EU customs union" after Britain splits from the EU.
Staying in such a system would allow Britain to skirt tariff barriers for its exports to the bloc's 27 member states, as well as avoid the risk of returning to a "hard border" between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Read more: EU warns Britain of 'unavoidable' trade barriers if it leaves customs union
"We have long argued that a customs union is a viable option for the final deal," Corbyn said, speaking in Coventry, central England.
"We are also clear that the option of a new UK customs union with the EU would need to ensure the UK has a say in future trade deals."
Al Jazeera
The Jordanian and Palestinian governments have expressed support for a decision by Christian leaders in Jerusalem to shut the doors of a major church in protest of what the latter described as "discriminatory" Israeli policies.
In a rare and sudden move, Roman Catholic, Armenian and Greek Orthodox leaders in Jerusalem closed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre indefinitely on Sunday, claiming there is a "systematic campaign of abuse" directed at the community.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, located in occupied East Jerusalem's Old City, is one of Christianity's holiest sites. It is believed by many Christians to be the site of Jesus' crucificion and burial, drawing millions of pilgrims every year.
Agence France Presse
Saudi King Salman has sacked the military chief of staff and a host of other top commanders, state media said Monday, in a major shake-up of the defence establishment.
The monarch also replaced the heads of the ground forces and air defences, as well as senior officials at the interior ministry, in a series of late-night royal decrees.
No official reason was given for the sweeping overhaul, but it comes as the Saudi-led coalition's military intervention in Yemen against Iran-aligned Huthi rebels nears the end of its third year.
"Termination of the services of General Abdul Rahman bin Saleh al-Bunyan, Chief of Staff," the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said, adding that Fayyad al-Ruwaili had been appointed as his replacement.
Al-Bunyan's sacking came after he inaugurated a major exhibition this week by the Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI), the state-owned defence company, which illustrates ongoing efforts to reform the sector.
BBC
Homeless people in Brussels could be detained overnight if they refuse shelter, as extremely low temperatures grip the Belgian capital.
At the weekend police in the Etterbeek suburb were asked to remove people from the street for their own protection.
The mayor of Brussels later issued a similar order in the city centre.
Like much of Europe, the city is going through a bitter cold spell and temperatures could fall to as low as -10C (14F) in the coming days.
Etterbeek Mayor Vincent De Wolf said people would be forced into shelters only "in cases of absolute necessity".
The Guardian
The European Union has warned that it will regulate cryptocurrencies if the risks exposed by the meteoric rise of bitcoin and its ilk are not addressed.
The boom and bust of cryptocurrencies has seen some investors make millionswhere others have suffered heavy losses. Bitcoin, which now trades at about $9,000 (£8,000) a token but recently dropped to less than $6,000, leads the pack, rising nearly 2,000% to just under $20,000 in 2017, fuelling a global investment craze.
“This is a global phenomenon and it’s important there is an international follow-up at the global level,” Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU’s financial chief, said on Monday. “We do not exclude the possibility to move ahead (by regulating cryptocurrencies) at the EU level if we see, for example, risks emerging but no clear international response emerging.”
Dombrovskis was speaking after hosting a roundtable meeting attended by the European Central Bank, industry bodies and the Financial Stability Board, which writes and coordinates regulation for the Group of 20 Economies.
THE ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE, HEALTH AND TECHNOLOGY
Bloomberg
Apple Inc. is preparing to release a trio of new smartphones later this year: the largest iPhone ever, an upgraded handset the same size as the current iPhone X and a less expensive model with some of the flagship phone’s key features.
With the new lineup, Apple wants to appeal to the growing number of consumers who crave the multitasking attributes of so-called
phablets while also catering to those looking for a more affordable version of the iPhone X, according to people familiar with the products.
Apple, which is already running production tests with suppliers, is expected to announce the new phones this fall. The plans could still change, say the people, who requested anonymity to discuss internal planning.
Agence France Presse
Global warming is on track to wipe out 70 percent of the world's King penguins by century's end, putting the regal birds on a path towards extinction, researchers warned Monday.
As climate change drives away the fish and squid upon which the flightless creatures depend, the penguins must swim further afield to find sustenance for their hungry hatchlings on land.
"For most colonies, the length of the summer trips by parents to get food will soon become so long that their offspring could starve while waiting," said Celine Le Bohec, a population ecologist at the University of Strasbourg/CNRS in France and co-author of a study in Nature Climate Change.
"If global warming continues at its current pace, the species may disappear," she told AFP.
Deutsche Welle
Automotive lobbies are in uproar as European courts threaten to impose inner city driving bans. But a few cities have already moved to get diesel vehicles off their roads.
London. Oslo. Rome. Beijing. Shanghai. Ever more cities are introducing a variety of schemes to improve urban air quality by limiting the number or types of automobiles that can enter downtown zones, and the list is growing.
Diesel cars are among the worst sources of urban air pollution. In December 2016, the mayors of Paris, Madrid, Athens, and Mexico City announced plans to ban diesel cars and vans from their roads by 2025. And they're not alone – the number of cities moving toward green transport solutions is growing fast.
The Guardian
The Trump administration has angered ranchers, hunters, fishermen and conservationists across the US who complain they are being shut out of a federal advisory process designed to steer the management of cherished public lands.
Many of the dozens of public advisory boards have been stonewalled by the department of interior since the president put Ryan Zinke at the helm of the agency.
In a letter sent Thursday to Zinke, 23 members of public-lands advisory groups in Colorado said they were “dismayed” and felt “disenfranchised” by their “inability to perform in our official role”, and that some had not met in over a year. Panels in other states have faced similar difficulties.
The letter follows the January resignation of 10 of the 12 members of the National Park System advisory board, who complained that Zinke had declined to meet with them.
Zinke announced last year that he was reviewing the status of over 200 advisory bodies intended to solicit outside input, but some of their members say the effect has been to eliminate local comment on issues of national importance.
The Guardian
In a significant blow to the fortunes of disgraced “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli a judge ruled Monday that he was responsible for nearly $10.5m in losses in a securities fraud scheme.
The decision could result in a harsher sentence for the eccentric former pharmaceutical company CEO who faces up to 20 years in prison.
Shkreli’s defense had hoped the 34-year-old would get little or even no prison time and had argued that investors in two failed hedge funds did not suffer actual losses because they were compensated with drug company stock that more than covered their initial investments.
But US district judge Kiyo Matsumoto rejected their arguments in a written decision in federal court in Brooklyn, finding that Shkreli should be penalized for the losses because he made risky transactions with investors’ millions without their permission.
Matsumoto concluded that after dipping into investor money from one of the hedge funds to keep his drug company startup afloat, Shkreli “used some the funds to satisfy both personal and unrelated professional obligations”, including a $900,000 debt for a bad stock market trade, she wrote.
The ruling could allow for a 10-year or longer sentence – although Matsumoto is not bound by the guidelines on sentencing.
The Guardian
The dwindling North Atlantic right whale population is on track to finish its breeding season without any new births, prompting experts to warn again that without human intervention, the species will face extinction.
Scientists observing the whale community off the US east coast have not recorded a single mother-calf pair this winter. Last year saw a record number of deaths in the population. Threats to the whales include entanglement in lobster fishing ropes and an increasing struggle to find food in abnormally warm waters.
The combination of rising mortality and declining fertility is now seen as potentially catastrophic. There are estimated to be as few as 430 North Atlantic right whales left in the world, including just 100 potential mothers.
“At the rate we are killing them off, this 100 females will be gone in 20 years,” said Mark Baumgartner, a marine ecologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. Without action, he warned, North Atlantic right whales will be functionally extinct by 2040.
NPR
Hopes were dashed this week that the United States was finally making progress in the fight against childhood obesity.
Contrary to previous reports, the epidemic of fat has not abated. In fact, there's been a big jump in obesity among the nation's youngest children, according to the latest analysis of federal data, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
"The main take-home message for me is that, clearly, obesity remains a problem," says Asheley Skinner, an associate professor of population health services at Duke University and leader of the analysis. "It's not improving."
ENTERTAINMENT AND SPORTS
NPR
Updated at 5:30 p.m. ET
The Weinstein Co. says it will file for bankruptcy after a deal for the sale of the company fell apart.
The film and television studio had been in talks with a group led by Maria Contreras-Sweet, who was in charge of the Small Business Administration under President Barack Obama, and backed by billionaire Ron Burkle. The deal was said to be worth $500 million — "roughly $275 million for the Weinstein Company, plus the assumption of $225 million in debt," The New York Times reports.
According to a letter from the Weinstein Co. to Contreras-Sweet and Burkle, talks broke down in part over the issue of interim funding, which the studio needed to stay operational and paying its employees.
NPR
The 2018 Winter Olympics ended Sunday evening in Pyeongchang, South Korea, with a closing ceremony featuring fireworks, K-pop performances, the reappearance of Tongan cross-country skier Pita Taufatofua sans shirt, and a dance party that brought athletes onstage, eager to let loose and celebrate their games.
Norway is taking home the most Winter Olympic medals this year, 39 total — 14 of them gold. The U.S. came in fourth in the medal count, winning 23 — its lowest number of medals since 1998, when it won just 13. (The gold medal count has stayed consistent at nine since 2006.) Host South Korea won 17, and its athletes took part in a joint North-South women's ice hockey team.
The games delivered late, unexpected curling victories for the U.S. men (gold) and South Korea's women (silver). The U.S. women's ice hockey team, too, scored a historic win against longtime gold medalist Canada.
DOCTOR RJ
What if I told you there was a system which generated billions of dollars each year, and this system consolidates and distributes the billions it generates to the upper levels of executives, management and institutions? The elements of labor within this system, who're primarily responsible for creating the money being shared among those overseeing things, are compensated with only a fraction of the profits, usually with no concern for their future after the experience. In fact, if they get some non-approved money, meal, a coat, a pair of shoes, or plane ticket to go home for the holidays from anyone the system doesn't approve of, these people will be punished.
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