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
Coronavirus: Americans from quarantined cruise ship flown from Japan
Two planes carrying Americans from the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess have left Japan.
The aircraft chartered by the US government departed Tokyo's Haneda Airport in the early hours of Monday, Kyodo news agency reported.
There were some 400 Americans on board the ship, which has been held since 3 February due to infections from the new coronavirus which has hit China.
At least 40 US citizens are infected and will be treated in Japan.
The Diamond Princess has been quarantined in Japan's port of Yokohama with some 3,700 passengers and crew on board.
The ship was held after a man who disembarked in Hong Kong was found to have the virus.
It has the largest cluster of coronavirus cases outside China. The Japanese authorities on Sunday said the number of new cases on board the ship had risen by 70 to 355.
The Americans who are infected will receive medical treatment in Japan, Dr Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told Face the Nation on CBS.
BBC
Swiss Crypto AG spying scandal shakes reputation for neutrality
It's hard to exaggerate just how much the Crypto AG scandal has shaken Switzerland.
For decades, US and German intelligence used this Swiss company's encoding devices to spy on other countries, and the revelations this week have provoked outrage.
From the Cold War into the 2000s, Crypto AG sold the devices to more than 120 governments worldwide. The machines were encrypted but it emerged this week that the CIA and Germany's BND had rigged the devices so they could crack the codes and intercept thousands of messages.
Rumours had circulated in the past but now everybody knows.
There are only a handful of countries on the planet that have chosen neutrality; Austria is one, Sweden another. But no country has made a status symbol out of neutrality like the Swiss.
Now that the Crypto AG scandal has emerged in all its tawdry detail, there's not a newspaper or broadcaster in the country that is not questioning Switzerland's neutrality.
The Guardian
Costa Rica's largest drugs bust nets five tonnes of cocaine bound for Netherlands
Police in Costa Rica seized more than five tonnes of cocaine bound for the Dutch port of Rotterdam in the country’s largest ever drugs bust, officials said.
Authorities on Saturday found the cocaine in Costa Rica’s Caribbean port of Limon, stashed inside a shipping container of decorative canopy plants bound for the Netherlands.
The anti-narcotics police discovered the drugs in 202 small bags and said the cocaine was produced in South America, though did not specify where.
The drugs had an estimated street value of about 126 million euros in Holland, Costa Rica’s security minister Michael Soto said.
“It’s a historic seizure,” Soto said in a statement. “It is a blow to the regional criminal structures.“
A Costa Rican man, who drove the shipment from north of the country to Limon port, was detained, authorities said.
The Guardian
Human composting could be the future of deathcare
It is viewed as a fitting end for a banana skin or a handful of spent coffee grounds. But now people are being urged to consider human composting and other environmentally friendly “deathcare” options.
Speaking before a talk at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Seattle on Sunday, Lynne Carpenter-Boggs, a professor of soil science and sustainable agriculture at Washington State University, said: “Death certainly isn’t the biggest environmental impact we have in our life process. But we can still look for new alternatives.”
Washington recently became the first US state to legalise human compostingand UK funeral directors are reporting a surge in requests for green burials and other more sustainable alternatives to burial and cremation.
Carpenter-Boggs, who also acts as scientific adviser to Recompose, a Seattle-based company that plans to open the world’s first human composting facility next year, presented data from a pilot project in which six bodies were composted to test the safety and effectiveness of the approach.
[snip]
The process reportedly uses an eighth of the energy of cremation. According to Carpenter-Bogg, cremation in the US produces as much CO2 as burning 800,000 barrels of oil – for an individual, that is equivalent to taking a flight from London to Rome.
Al Jazeera
Mixed signals as Pompeo begins three-stop Africa tour
The United States's top diplomat has arrived in Senegal at the start of a whistle-stop tour of three African countries, with analysts viewing it as a bid to counter Chinese influence in Africa at a time of growing confusion over Washington's strategy on the continent.
On his first official trip to a sub-Saharan African country since taking office almost two years ago, USSecretary of State Mike Pompeo will also visit Angola and Ethiopia.
Pompeo has already warned of what he called China's "dangerous influence" on the African continent, saying in January that Chinese investment feeds corruption and undermines the rule of law, and presenting the US as an alternative.
Joseph Ochieno, a political analyst, called Pompeo's comments "almost hypocritical".
"I don't think the US can tell Africa that American companies are necessarily the cleaner ones when it comes to the continent," he told Al Jazeera, alluding to past corruption and patronage scandals involving US companies in Africa. Beijing surpassed Washington as Africa's largest trading partner more than a decade ago, forming a relationship worth about $204bn in trade, according to China's Ministry of Commerce.
NPR
Officials: Mississippi Flooding Remains 'Precarious,' And Can 'Turn At Any Moment'
Forecasters in Mississippi are bracing for what could be one of the most devastating floods in the state's history, as days of heavy downpours stoke fears that a river in the state capital of Jackson will continue to swell beyond its banks and threaten the homes of thousands of people.
Flooding has already began to ripple across parts of Jackson and surrounding areas, and state and federal officials are working to contain the severity of the flooding in the face of additional rainfall expected in the days ahead.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency Saturday, and officials have been releasing water from a local reservoir, which was approaching capacity, in order to reduce downstream flooding and allow residents more time to seek shelter.
Torrential rain has given way to sunny conditions and clear skies in central Mississippi, but Reeves warned residents in low-lying areas not to assume the flooding risk has passed.
"Do not let that lull you into a false sense of hope," Reeves said at a press conference on Sunday morning. "The flooding has not receded," he said.
Reuters
Rouhani says Iran will never yield to U.S. pressure for talks
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran will never hold talks with the United States under pressure, President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday, adding that Tehran’s help was essential in establishing security in the Middle East.
Relations between Tehran and Washington reached crisis point in 2018 after U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned a 2015 pact between Iran and world powers under which Tehran accepted curbs to its nuclear program in return for the lifting of sanctions.
Tensions spiked further following the killing of Iran’s most prominent military commander Qassem Soleimani on Jan. 3 by U.S. drone attacks at Baghdad airport. In retaliation, Iran attacked U.S. targets in Iraq in January.
Trump has adopted a policy of “maximum pressure” to force Tehran to negotiate a broader deal that further curbs Iran’s nuclear work, ends its missile program and its involvement in regional proxy wars.
“Iran will never negotiate under pressure ... We will never yield to America’s pressure and we will not negotiate from a position of weakness,” Rouhani said in a televised news conference.
Reuters
U.S. peach grower awarded $265 million from Bayer, BASF in weedkiller lawsuit
(Reuters) - A Missouri jury’s $265 million award to peach grower Bill Bader in his lawsuit against herbicide providers Bayer and BASF has raised the stakes for the two companies as at least 140 similar cases head to U.S. courts later this year.
A jury in U.S. District Court in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, handed Bader, the state’s largest peach farmer, $15 million in actual and $250 million in punitive damages. He sued the companies saying his 1,000-acre orchard was irreparably harmed by herbicide that they produce, which drifted onto its trees from nearby farms.
The three-week trial was the first case in the United States to rule on the use of dicamba-based herbicides alleged to have damaged tens of thousands of acres of U.S. cropland. The herbicide can become a vapor and drift for miles when used in certain weather, farmers have claimed.
Bayer said it was “disappointed with the jury’s verdict,” and plans to appeal. BASF also said it was “surprised and disappointed” by the decision and plans to appeal. Both companies said their dicamba-based herbicides are safe when used as directed.
Bayer faces separate multi-billion-dollar litigation over the Roundup weedkiller made by Monsanto, the U.S. firm it took over for $63 billion in 2018. Monsanto made Roundup and dicamba, and Bayer is being sued over both products.
Deutsche Welle
Berlin court stops forest clearance for Tesla 'Gigafactory'
A German court has ordered the temporary halt of the development of a Tesla development site in a forest outside of Berlin.
The Higher Administrative Court of Berlin-Brandenburg (OVG) ruled late on Saturday that it must first consider an appeal from the Green League Brandenburg, an environmental protection association, against the tree felling.
Environmental organizations became outraged once the cutting of trees over 91 hectares of forest commenced Thursday.
The Green League called for an immediate stop to the felling and had filed an emergency appeal on Friday to put a stop on the construction of Elon Musk's "Gigafactory."
"We are calmly awaiting the decision of the OVG," government spokesman Florian Engels said on Sunday. "This will be taken for granted," he added.
"We then focus on the timely decision of the OVG," minister of economics in the German state of Brandenburg Jörg Steinbach wrote on Twitter.
The Guardian
Woman's ring lost 47 years ago in US is unearthed in a forest in Finland
An American woman’s high school class ring that was lost in Maine in 1973 has been found in a forest in Finland.
Debra McKenna, 63, lost the ring in Portland when she was a student at Morse high school, the Bangor Daily News reported. She said the ring was largely forgotten until a metal detectorist found it buried under 20cm (8in) of soil in a forested Finnish park 47 years later.
The ring belonged to McKenna’s late husband Shawn, whom she dated throughout high school and college. The couple were married for 40 years until he died in 2017. Shawn gave Debra the ring before he left for college, and she accidentally left it in a department store.
McKenna said she cried when the ring arrived in the mail at her home in Brunswick last week.
“It’s very touching in this world of negativity, to have decent people step forward and make an effort,” McKenna said. “There are good people in the world, and we need more of them.”
A Finnish Ilta-Sanomat reported in January, Marko Saarinen, a sheet metal worker, was using a metal detector in a park in Kaarina, a small town in south-west Finland, when he found the ring.