Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, interceptor7, Magnifico, annetteboardman and Besame. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) wader, palantir, JML9999, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Man Oh Man, Doctor RJ, 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
Poland PM cancels Israel trip after Netanyahu's Holocaust comment
PM Mateusz Morawiecki has cancelled a trip to Israel following comments on the Holocaust by Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mr Netanyahu was quoted in Israeli media as saying "Poles co-operated with the Germans" during the Holocaust.
He later issued a clarification saying he was not referring to the Polish nation or all Polish people.
Poland summoned the Israeli ambassador and on Sunday said Mr Morawiecki would not attend a summit on Tuesday.
The meeting, hosted by Israel, is of the Visegrad Group that represents the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.
Polish government spokesperson Joanna Kopcinska said: "Prime Minister Morawiecki told Prime Minister Netanyahu in a telephone call that Poland will be represented at the summit by Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz."
Mr Netanyahu was on a state visit to Poland on Thursday when his comments were reported in Israeli media, including Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post.
The Jerusalem Post said its version used the term "Polish nation", which it said it quickly amended.
Raw Story
Netanyahu gives up role as Israel’s foreign minister
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday handed over his role as foreign minister to intelligence minister Israel Katz, giving up the portfolio he has held since 2015.
Netanyahu’s decision to appoint Katz as acting foreign minister came after an advocacy group, the Movement for Quality Government, went to court to press the prime minister to stop serving as foreign minister as well.
Government officials said Katz, who will remain intelligence minister and also serves as transport minister, will hold the foreign affairs portfolio through the upcoming parliamentary election on April 9. Katz is a member of Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party,
In addition to the premiership, Netanyahu still holds the defense portfolio, which he assumed after his former far-right coalition partner Avigdor Lieberman quit that post in November. Netanyahu is also health minister.
The advocacy group that pushed for a new foreign minister had argued that Netanyahu’s workload was untenable and further harmed a foreign ministry beset by budget disputes.
Al Jazeera
As MBS arrives, Pakistan seals Saudi ties with $20bn in deals
Islamabad, Pakistan - Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has led a delegation to Islamabad that agreed deals worth more than $20bn, proving much-needed investment for a faltering Pakistani economy struggling with a looming foreign reserve crisis and slowing domestic growth.
Amid much fanfare, Prince Mohammed was greeted on Sunday by Prime Minister Imran Khan at the Nur Khan airbase, where he was accorded a 21-gun salute for his first visit to the country since becoming heir to the throne in 2017.
The two leaders held direct talks in Islamabad, followed by the signing of investment deals in the areas of petrochemicals, energy, minerals, sports and other sectors.
Prince Mohammed echoed Khan's comments.
"We believe Pakistan is going to be a very important country in the coming future, and we want to be part of that," he said.
The crown prince, who wields tremendous influence and power over policy in Saudi Arabia, valued the deals signed on Sunday at $20bn.
Al Jazeera
Venezuela in crisis: All the latest updates
Venezuela has plunged into a major political crisis amid a growing row over President Nicolas Maduro's future as the country's leader.
Visiting the Colombia-Venezuela border, US Senator Marco Rubio declined to say if he would support US military action against Venezuela, warning Maduro of severe consuquences is he takes action against the opposition.
"There are certain lines and Maduro knows what they are," the Republican politician told CNN, saying he was confident that Washington would not stand by if the Venezuelan government harmed or imprisoned Guaido.
"The consequences will be severe and they will be swift."Opposition leader Juan Guaido set a goal Sunday of enlisting a million volunteers within a week to confront a government blockade that has kept tons of humanitarian aid, most of it from the United States, from flowing into the country.
Food supplies, hygiene kits and nutritional supplements have been stockpiled near the Venezuelan border in Cucuta, Colombia.
The Guardian
Spanish warship orders Gibraltar boats to leave British waters
A Spanish warship has ordered commercial vessels to leave British waters, Gibraltar’s government said.
The warship’s crew can be heard in an audio recording of a radio exchange on Sunday telling vessels anchored at the Rock to “leave Spanish territorial waters”. Royal Navy boats were deployed in response to the incident.
The boats that had been told to leave were ordered to remain by the GibraltarPort Authority during the incident, which was branded “foolish” by a spokesman for the government of the British overseas territory.
“There is only nuisance value to these foolish games being played by those who don’t accept unimpeachable British sovereignty over the waters around Gibraltar as recognised by the whole world in the United Nations convention on the law of the sea,” the spokesman said. “It seems there are still some in the Spanish navy who think they can flout international law.”
Gibraltar’s government accused the Spanish ship of trying to take “executive action” against the commercial boats.
The Guardian
Hoda Muthana 'deeply regrets' joining Isis and wants to return home
An American woman captured by Kurdish forces after fleeing the last pocket of land controlled by Islamic State says she “deeply regrets” travelling to Syria to join the terror group and has pleaded to be allowed to return to her family in Alabama.
Once one of Isis’s most prominent online agitators who took to social media to call for the blood of Americans to be spilled, Hoda Muthana, 24, claims to have made a “big mistake” when she left the US four years ago and says she was brainwashed into doing so online.
Speaking from al-Hawl refugee camp in northern Syria, while her 18-month-old son played at her feet, Muthana said she misunderstood her faith, and that friends she had at the time believed they were following Islamic tenets when they aligned themselves to Isis.
“We were basically in the time of ignorance […] and then became jihadi, if you like to describe it that way,” she said. “I thought I was doing things correctly for the sake of God.”
Reuters
California tells Trump that lawsuit over border wall is 'imminent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - California will “imminently” challenge President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to obtain funds for a U.S.-Mexico border wall, state Attorney General Xavier Becerra said on Sunday.
“Definitely and imminently,” Becerra told ABC’s “This Week” program when asked whether and when California would sue the Trump administration in federal court. Other states controlled by Democrats are expected to join the effort.
“We are prepared, we knew something like this might happen. And with our sister state partners, we are ready to go,” he said.
Trump invoked the emergency powers on Friday under a 1976 law after Congress rebuffed his request for $5.7 billion to help build the wall that was a signature 2016 campaign promise.
The move is intended to allow him to redirect money appropriated by Congress for other purposes to wall construction.
The White House says Trump will have access to about $8 billion. Nearly $1.4 billion was allocated for border fencing under a spending measure approved by Congress last week, and Trump’s emergency declaration is aimed at giving him another $6.7 billion for the wall.
NPR
Their Home Survived The Camp Fire — But Their Insurance Did Not
Tom and Tamara Conry were dead set on returning to Paradise after the deadly Camp Fire destroyed the town last November. The couple's home was barely touched by the fire, and most other survivors had a much steeper climb to recovery.
But when their property insurer, American Reliable, notified them in December that it wasn't renewing the couple's homeowner's coverage, they realized that returning home would be even harder than expected.
"Getting that letter was like a slap in the face," Tamara Conry said. "Right now, when it's going to be the hardest time ever to get insurance at any kind of reasonable price, that's when you non-renew us?"
Other families in Butte County could face a similar insurance dilemma. About 10 percent of buildings in Paradise are still standing after last November's wildfire, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Even though a new California law that took effect in January requires insurers to renew homeowner's coverage on properties that survived wildfires for at least one year, the new law doesn't help people affected by last year's fire disasters like the Conrys.
Washington Post
Anthony Weiner has been released from federal prison
AYER, Mass. — Disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner has been released from federal prison after being convicted of having illicit online contact with a 15-year-old girl in 2017.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons website shows that Weiner is currently in the custody of its Residential Reentry Management office in Brooklyn.
It’s not immediately clear when Weiner, 54, was transferred and where he’s staying now, but he will have to register as a sex offender and spend three years on supervised release under the terms of his sentence.
The prison bureau, federal prosecutors in New York and Weiner’s lawyer didn’t respond to emails seeking comment Sunday.
Weiner began serving a 21-month prison sentence at the Federal Medical Center Devens in Ayer, about 40 miles west of Boston, in November 2017.
The bureau website shows that Weiner is slated to complete his sentence May 14, a few months earlier than scheduled, because of good conduct.
The Guardian
Study blames YouTube for rise in number of Flat Earthers
Researchers believe they have identified the prime driver for a startling rise in the number of people who think the Earth is flat: Google’s video-sharing site, YouTube.
Their suspicion was raised when they attended the world’s largest gatherings of Flat Earthers at the movement’s annual conference in Rayleigh, North Carolina, in 2017, and then in Denver, Colorado, last year.
Interviews with 30 attendees revealed a pattern in the stories people told about how they came to be convinced that the Earth was not a large round rock spinning through space but a large flat disc doing much the same thing.
Of the 30, all but one said they had not considered the Earth to be flat two years ago but changed their minds after watching videos promoting conspiracy theories on YouTube. “The only person who didn’t say this was there with his daughter and his son-in-law and they had seen it on YouTubeand told him about it,” said Asheley Landrum, who led the research at Texas Tech University.
The interviews revealed that most had been watching videos about other conspiracies, with alternative takes on 9/11, the Sandy Hook school shooting and whether Nasa really went to the moon, when YouTube offered up Flat Earth videos for them to watch next.
Some said they watched the videos only in order to debunk them but soon found themselves won over by the material.
But, those poor benighted people. The real proof that they’re wrong is right here: