Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Interceptor7, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame and jck. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, 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.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
BBC
Queen Hind cargo ship carrying sheep overturns off Romania 14,000 sheep!
A large cargo ship carrying more than 14,000 sheep has overturned off the coast of Romania, with rescuers scrambling to save the animals.
The Queen Hind capsized on Sunday morning after leaving the port of Midia, near the south-eastern city of Constanța, on the Black Sea coastline.
All crew members - 22 Syrian nationals - were rescued.
An operation involving police, firefighters and the Romanian coast guard was launched to save the sheep.
At least 32 sheep found swimming near the Palau-flagged ship have been rescued, but many are believed to have drowned.
"We have already saved a small number. They were swimming in the sea," Ana-Maria Stoica, spokeswoman for the emergency services in Constanța, told the BBC.
BBC
DR Congo: Many dead as plane crashes into homes
At least 27 people have died after a passenger plane crashed into houses in the city of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local officials say.
The victims included nine people from the same family who were in one of the houses hit in the Mapendo area.
The small aircraft went down shortly after taking off from the city's airport on Sunday morning. The cause of the crash is still unclear.
The plane was carrying 17 passengers and two crew members, officials say.Air accidents are relatively frequent in DR Congo amid lax safety standards and poor maintenance, and all the country's commercial carriers are banned from operating in the European Union.
The Guardian
Two die in France and highway in Italy collapses as heavy rain batters region
At least two people were killed in France and a landslide collapsed a stretch of elevated highway in Italy, leaving cars perched on a precipice, as heavy rains pounded the region over the weekend, trapping travellers, downing trees and triggering mudslides and floods in parts of both countries.
A 30-metre (100ft) section of highway along a viaduct near the flooded coastal city of Savona collapsed on Sunday. In an aerial video taken by firefighters, cars and one truck could be seen stopped perilously close to the point where the raised part of the A6 highway plunged on to a wooded area of the Liguria region. Giovanni Toti, the governor of Liguria, said a landslide caused the collapse in a muddy, hilly area. Firefighters were using dogs in the search for possible victims in the two-metre-high mud, he said. It was not known whether any vehicles might have plunged off the highway, which is supported by pillars at that point.
Al Jazeera
Despite threats, Iraq's medical volunteers keep protests alive
Baghdad, Iraq - A bloodstained letter warning Reham Feras not to return to Baghdad's Tahrir Square was not enough to keep the 21-year-old medical volunteer from lending her help to Iraq's anti-government protesters.
Fearful that her parents would discover the threatening message left anonymously on the doorstep of their family home, Feras hid the piece of paper before slipping out the front door and going to one of the makeshift clinics at the heart of Baghdad's uprising.
Last month, protests against Iraq's ruling elite kicked off violent clashes between the demonstrators wearing helmets and goggles, and the heavily-armed security forces.
Since then, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been taking to streets to demand the removal of a government they perceive as deeply corrupt and an end to foreign interference in the country's affairs.
More than 330 people have been killed since the uprising began on October 1, a toll that could have been higher were it not for the volunteer medics offering first aid and logistical support.
Doctors, medical students and even people without prior medical experience have been key in treating the victims of the security forces' excessive use of violence and relocating the critically wounded to nearby hospitals.
Reuters
Italy grants access to Spanish migrant rescue ship
ON BOARD THE OPEN ARMS, OFF SICILY (Reuters) - Italian authorities have agreed to grant the Open Arms ship access to a port to disembark 62 African migrants it has been carrying since Wednesday, the founder of the Spanish rescue mission said on Sunday.
Oscar Camps said the vessel is set to dock at the southern Italian port of Taranto on Tuesday afternoon, although the eventual destination may change.
Italy initially refused entry for the group of 73 African migrants which the Open Arms crew plucked out of a packed rubber dinghy drifting about 50 miles off Libya, suggesting that the vessel should instead put them ashore at Tripoli.
However, earlier today the coastguard evacuated 11 of the group who required medical attention to the port of Augusta and Italy’s Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese signaled the country might be softening its position.
NPR
The southern Greenland town of Narsaq is just a speck of place. About 1,200 people live in colorful A-frame houses along a fjord, and it's a good hour's boat ride from the nearest community. While it may be remote, Narsaq has strategic importance.
The craggy hills surrounding the town are estimated to hold about a quarter of the world's rare earth minerals. With names such as cerium and lanthanum, rare earths contain key ingredients used in many of today's technologies — from smartphones to MRI machines, as well as electric cars and military jets.
A bumpy ride up the hills delivers you to the Kvanefjeld project, one of two major rare earth mineral deposits in Greenland. The rocky plateau at the base offers majestic views of this corner of the vast Arctic island. It is empty and silent out here; the mine is not yet up and running.
Across the plateau there are large piles of dull, gray rocks. When you shine an ultraviolet light on them, they explode with vivid pink and orange hues, revealing the rare earths inside the rocks.
Deutsche Welle
Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee unveils plan to save the internet
Tim Berners-Lee, a British engineer credited with having invented the World Wide Web in 1989, has released an ambitious plan detailing steps for better online governance, addressing problems like misinformation, data surveillance and censorship.
The Contract for the Web was created by Berners-Lee's World Wide Web Foundation in cooperation with representatives from governments, companies and civil society to "keep knowledge freely available," while strengthening laws, regulations and companies "to ensure pursuit of profit is not at the expense of human rights and democracy."
"If we don't act now — and act together — to prevent the web being misused by those who want to exploit, divide and undermine, we are at risk of squandering" its potential for good, Berners-Lee said in a statement released by the WWW Foundation on Monday. The plan is backed by more than 150 organizations, including internet giants like Google, Microsoft and Facebook, along with interest groups like Reporters Without Borders. The governments of Germany and France have also indicated their support for the plan.
Raw Story
‘We’ve already seen the smoking gun’: John Dean says GOP is ‘denying reality’
Math itself is now in question, said former White House counsel John Deal in an interview with CNN. The GOP is so intent on lying for President Donald Trump that Dean explained it reached a level of absurdity.
“Ana, in the current Republican Party, two plus two does not equal four,” Dean told CNN host Ana Cabrera. “It doesn’t equal anything. I’m not even sure they can do the math anymore. It’s pretty striking the way they analyze problems and jump onto conspiracy theories that have no basis in fact. They’ll get three plus six equaling (sic) four. To me, it’s just denying reality and that’s what they choose to do.”“It’s a very, very serious offense of what he’s done — is to use his personal office to advantage his election, re-election, using a foreign country,” Dean continued. “We’ve never had a president pull a trick like this. [Former President Richard] Nixon, in his darkest thoughts, I don’t think would envision doing this.
Deutsche Welle
Feared Hamburg drowning turns out to be energetic seal
A rescue operation was triggered in the northern German city of Hamburg on Sunday after a jogger spotted what he thought was a drowning person.
The local fire department deployed several boats, a helicopter and a diving team to the cool waters of the Elbe River. An ambulance and the police were also at the scene.
But they were unable to find any trace of the struggling swimmer, following the reports of someone struggling to swim near the Teufelsbrück (Devil's bridge) jetty.
The jogger who had left the scene was asked to return to pinpoint exactly where he had spotted the flailing person. But no human could be found.
Happy ending
Instead, rescuers found a seal happily splashing around in the water.
The mammal appeared repeatedly and seemed to be watching the rescue operation unfold, the Hamburg Morgenpost reported.