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
Climate change: Critical year for climate change starts in Madrid
A critical 12 months in the battle against rising temperatures begins in Madrid this week, as UN delegates gather for key talks.
The 25th Conference of the Parties, or COP, will see negotiators from almost 200 countries in attendance.
Ahead of the meeting the UN secretary general has warned that the world is at the point of no return.
António Guterres said the global response to date has been "utterly inadequate".
The conference takes place amid a welter of bad news on climate change in recent days.
The World Meteorological Organisation announced that greenhouse gas concentrations reached their highest recorded level in 2018.
The UN Environment Programme showed that there's a huge gap between the plans that governments currently have on the table to cut emissions and what's needed to keep under 1.5C. Keeping to that guardrail will need a five-fold increase in the carbon cutting ambitions of countries.
BBC
Burkina Faso: Attack on church kills at least 14
At least 14 people have been killed after gunmen opened fire inside a church in Burkina Faso.
The victims were attending a service at a church in Hantoukoura, in the eastern part of the country on Sunday.
The identity of the gunmen is not known and the motive is unclear.
Hundreds of people have been killed in the country over the past few years, mostly by jihadist groups, sparking ethnic and religious tensions especially on the border with Mali.
A statement from the regional government said that many people are injured.
A security source told AFP news agency that armed individuals carried out the attack, "executing the faithful including the pastor and children”
The Guardian
Malta’s PM quits in crisis over Daphne Caruana Galizia murder
Malta’s embattled prime minister Joseph Muscat has resigned, driven from office by the constitutional and political crisis triggered by the murder of the investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
In a televised address broadcast on Sunday evening, Muscat announced that he would stay on until a new leader of his ruling Labour party was elected in January. The prime minister expressed “deep regret” for Caruana Galizia’s murder and spoke of the need for a “fresh page”.
But his tone remained defiant, as he said: “This case cannot define everything that our country is.”
As the nation awaited Muscat’s address, thousands gathered on the streets of Valletta, holding candles, waving Malta’s red and white flag, and singing the national anthem, marking the conclusion of an emotional and angry demonstration.
Caruana Galizia was killed in October 2017 when a bomb planted under the driver’s seat of her rental car was detonated as she was travelling away from her home in the village of Bidnija. She had exposed corruption at the highest level in Muscat’s government.
The Guardian
Zimbabwe on verge of 'manmade starvation', warns UN envoy
Zimbabwe is on the brink of manmade starvation with close to 60% of the population now food insecure, a UN envoy has said.
Hilal Elver, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, said the situation was likely to escalate political instability in the southern African nation. After an 11-day visit to parts of the country worst hit by the El Niño-induced drought, Elver said widespread food insecurity was being exacerbated by hyperinflation.
“The people of Zimbabwe are slowly getting to a point of suffering a manmade starvation,” said Elver.
“More than 60% of the population of a country once seen as the breadbasket of Africa is now considered food insecure, with most households unable to obtain enough food to meet basic needs due to hyperinflation.”
Reuters
Parliament approves Iraqi prime minister's resignation
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq’s parliament voted on Sunday to accept the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi after weeks of violent anti-government protests that have rocked the country.
Abdul Mahdi’s decision to quit on Friday came after a call by Iraq’s top Shi’ite Muslim cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani for parliament to consider withdrawing its support for Abdul Mahdi’s government to stem the violence.
“The Iraqi parliament will ask the president of state to nominate a new prime minister,” a statement from parliament’s media office said.
Lawmakers said Abdul Mahdi’s government, including the prime minister himself, would stay on in a caretaker capacity until a new government is chosen.
Under the constitution, President Barham Salih is expected to ask the largest bloc in parliament to nominate a new prime minister to form a government, a move expected to trigger weeks of political wrangling.
Reuters
Mexico will not accept intervention from abroad, president says
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Sunday his government will deliver justice to the victims of organized crime and repeated that the country would not accept any intervention from abroad.
Referring to recent outbreaks of gang violence that have fed concern that the United States could try to intervene in Mexico, Lopez Obrador thanked U.S. President Donald Trump for his support and said his government would handle the country’s security challenges.
NPR
Hundreds Of Flights Cancelled, Thousands More Delayed As Winter Storm Moves East
As weary travelers make their post-Thanksgiving trek back home — and back to work — two winter storms continue to disrupt travel plans throughout the nation. Heavy snow and ice accumulation is expected to continue battering regions across the United States on Sunday, the first day of meteorological winter, delaying or cancelling flights of thousands of customers.
The National Weather Service said the inclement weather stems from a powerful transcontinental storm that has hammered the western U.S. During Thanksgiving, it moved east and is now expected to bring up to 12 inches of snow to parts of the Great Lakes region.
The hazardous storm is likely to shift into New England states by late Sunday and develop into a nor'easter, according to Lara Pagano, a meteorologist for the NWS.
"We're seeing values upwards of 8 to 12 inches and even along the Catskills and higher terrain, we're seeing values upwards of towards 15 inches in that area," Pagano said regarding expected snowfall in New York and Maine.
Buzzfeed
A Huge Flood Of Housing Is Expected To Hit The Market As Boomers Die
Baby boomers are now ages 55 to 73; to housing economists, this fact means millions of homes will hit the market in the next couple of decades “as their current owners pass away” or move in with their children or into assisted living, according to a new and utterly macabre report by real estate search platform Zillow, just in time to make Thanksgiving incredibly awkward.
Does this flood of supply mean housing prices will plummet to more affordable levels? Not likely, unless you’re looking to live in popular retirement destinations or cities with a large elderly population like Miami, Orlando, and Tampa in Florida, or Tucson, Arizona. Still, it will relieve some of the upward pressure on prices created by the current supply shortage.“ The number of extra homes opening up via boomers aging out will be comparable to the extra wave of supply built in the heady days of the early 2000s, which eventually contributed to inventory overhang in many metros,” Jeff Tucker, an economist at Zillow, told BuzzFeed News. “These homes will also be more affordable to a broader range of buyers than most newly built homes, due to the diversity of building ages and conditions.”
New York Times
Joe Sestak Ends Presidential Campaign (I had a conversation with him at one Netroots)
Representative Joe Sestak of Pennsylvania, a former Navy admiral who made history in 2006 as the highest-ranked military officer elected to Congress, announced on Sunday that he was dropping out of the presidential race.
Mr. Sestak, a Democrat, had promoted himself as a candidate with the “global experience” needed to “restore America’s leadership in the world,” with a message focused on the economy and rural communities. Among the centerpieces of his platform were a job training guarantee for employees displaced by technological advances and outsourcing, and a system of public hospitals in underserved areas.
But his campaign began late and never got off the ground. He raised less than $500,000, and his polling average in the Democratic primary was 0 percent.
Washington Post
Woman rescued after 12 nights stranded in Outback, 2 missing
DARWIN, Australia — A woman who was stranded in the arid central Australian Outback almost two weeks ago has been rescued, and a search was continuing Monday for her two friends.
Tamra McBeath-Riley, 52, was being treated in an Alice Springs hospital for dehydration and exposure after she was found late Sunday, Police Superintendent Pauline Vicary said. The air search continued on Monday for her friends Claire Hockridge, 46, and Phu Tran, 40.
The three set out from Alice Springs for an afternoon drive on Nov. 19 and their car became bogged in a riverbed southwest of the town.
McBeath-Riley found water about 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) north of the car.
“Sensibly she appears to have stayed where the water is and has been drinking that and that’s probably what kept her going,” Vicary told Australian Broadcasting Corp.