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) Man Oh Man, wader, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular community featureon 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.
Special thanks to JekylinHyde for the OND banner.
US NEWS
Your Apps Know Where You Were Last Night, and They’re Not Keeping It Secret
New York Times
The millions of dots on the map trace highways, side streets and bike trails — each one following the path of an anonymous cellphone user.
One path tracks someone from a home outside Newark to a nearby Planned Parenthood, remaining there for more than an hour. Another represents a person who travels with the mayor of New York during the day and returns to Long Island at night.
Yet another leaves a house in upstate New York at 7 a.m. and travels to a middle school 14 miles away, staying until late afternoon each school day. Only one person makes that trip: Lisa Magrin, a 46-year-old math teacher. Her smartphone goes with her.
An app on the device gathered her location information, which was then sold without her knowledge. It recorded her whereabouts as often as every two seconds, according to a database of more than a million phones in the New York area that was reviewed by The New York Times. While Ms. Magrin’s identity was not disclosed in those records, The Times was able to easily connect her to that dot.
US top court rebuffs state bids to cut Planned Parenthood Funds
Al Jazeera
The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected appeals by Louisiana and Kansas seeking to end their public funding to women's healthcare and abortion provider Planned Parenthood through the Medicaid programme, with President Donald Trump's appointee Brett Kavanaugh among the justices who rebuffed the states.
The justices left intact lower court rulings that prevented the two states from stripping government healthcare funding from local Planned Parenthood affiliates. The case was one of a number of disputes working their way up to the Supreme Court over the legality of state-imposed restrictions involving abortion.
Three conservative justices - Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch - dissented from the decision by the nine-member conservative-majority court, saying it should have heard the appeals by the states.
'Appalling' video shows NYPD officers wrenching baby from mother’s arms
The Guardian
A video of New York police officers wrenching a baby from his mother’s arms has sparked outrage and an investigation by the NYPD.
The video shows the woman lying on the floor of a Brooklyn benefits office as several officers struggle to arrest her and remove the one-year-old boy from her arms, as she cries out, “You’re hurting my son.”
At one point, an officer pulls out a Taser and waves it at a crowd of onlookers objecting to the police actions. Eventually the woman, 23-year-old Jazmine Headley, is dragged to her feet and removed in handcuffs.
The next worry for U.S. stocks: shrinking profit forecasts
Reuters
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The growing ranks of stock market Eeyores now have another reason to stay glum: Next year’s profit picture is darkening fast.
Corporate earnings forecasts are eroding as the tailwind from the tax cut fades and as investors worry the U.S.-China trade dispute could upend global commerce more than it already has.
Even after the second correction of the year for the benchmark S&P 500 .SPXstock index, many investors wonder whether share prices adequately reflect risks of slower profit growth.
Emblematic of the recent turbulence, last week the S&P 500 slid 4.6 percent. The previous week it notched its biggest weekly gain in nearly seven years.
Heavy snow kills one, snarls travel, in U.S. southeast
Reuters
ATLANTA (Reuters) - An intense snow storm headed out to sea on Monday after dumping up to 2 feet of snow on parts of the southeastern United States, leaving one person dead in North Carolina and cutting off power for more than 200,000 people.
School districts across North and South Carolina and Virginia canceled classes for the day and emergency officials warned that heavy snow and icy roads were slowing their responses to reports, such as those of hundreds of stranded motorists.
The storm dropped its heaviest snow in the appropriately named Whitetop, Virginia, tucked in the Appalachian Mountains along the western end of the Virginia-North Carolina border, the U.S. National Weather Service said. Whitetop received 2 feet (60 cm) of snow, while Greensboro, North Carolina, had 16 inches (41 cm) and Durham, North Carolina, got 14 inches (36 cm).
Trump considering handful of candidates for chief of staff: sources
Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is considering Republican Representative Mark Meadows, former campaign adviser David Bossie, and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for White House chief of staff, a source familiar with the search said on Monday.
Another source said Trump was also looking at U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer for the job.
The search comes after the president’s initial choice for the job bowed out and as his White House braces for an onslaught of political and legal challenges in the coming year.
'Love knows no borders': Agents arrest 32 as religious leaders gather at US border
The Guardian
Kneeling in front of riot police, 32 religious leaders and activists were arrested at the US border fence in San Diego on Monday during a protest in support of the Central American migrant caravan.
More than 400 demonstrators, many leaders of churches, mosques, synagogues and indigenous communities, called for an end to detention and deportation of migrants and for the United States to welcome the caravan that arrived in Tijuana, Mexico in November.
Singing and praying, religious leaders moved forward in lines of four to six, some wearing t-shirts reading “Love knows no borders”. They were handcuffed and led away by federal agents once they entered a restricted area in front of the fence.
WORLD NEWS
Theresa May delays vote on Brexit deal
DW News
Prime Minister Theresa May has deferred parliament's 'meaningful vote' on the Brexit deal, admitting it would be rejected by a 'significant margin.' She is going back to EU leaders to improve terms on the Irish backstop.
The United Kingdom's political crisis over its planned departure from the European Union intensified on Monday after Prime Minister Theresa May delayed a vote on a draft exit deal and told lawmakers should would hold further talks with EU leaders.
May, who admitted the deal would have been rejected "by a significant margin," vowed to seek reassurances from the remaining EU member countries in an effort to secure a parliamentary majority in the deal's favor.
"It is clear that while there is broad support for many of the key aspects of the deal, on one issue, the Northern Ireland backstop, there remains widespread and deep concern," May said in a speech to the House of Commons on Monday.
Scottish nationalists offer support to Labour to topple UK PM
Al Jazeera
The leader of the Scottish National Party Nicola Sturgeon said she will support the opposition Labour party if it lodges a no-confidence motion on British Prime Minister Theresa May's rule.
May cancelled a parliamentary vote on Monday approving her preferred arrangement for leaving the European Union, which was scheduled for Tuesday, in the face of widespread opposition from within her party and the opposition.
"If Labour, as official opposition, lodges motion of no confidence in this incompetent government tomorrow, [the SNP] will support & we can then work together to give people the chance to stop Brexit in another vote. This shambles can't go on - so how about it?" Sturgeon wrote on her Twitter account.
Egyptian authorities investigate ‘forbidden’ Great Pyramid sex photo
The Guardian
Egyptian authorities are reportedly investigating after a Danish photographer posted a photograph of himself and a woman in a sexual pose apparently on top of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Andreas Hvid also posted a video apparently showing the two of them climbing the pyramid at night, with the woman taking her top off at the summit, revealing her bra, with the skyline of Cairo in the background. The woman’s face was pixellated.
The footage and image triggered fury in Egypt and on social media, with many arguing it was disrespectful to the nation’s heritage.
One angry Twitter user wrote: “ewww at this denmark guy claiming to be photographer but cant be bothered to abide simple rules. The disrespect by climbing over protected monument like pyramids like ewww what disgusting behaviour from people claiming to be from 1st nation country yucks.”
Lawsuits Say Australia Subjects Asylum Seekers To Torture And Crimes Against Humanity
NPR
Two class action lawsuits filed in Australia's High Court claim people seeking asylum in Australia who arrive by boat without proper documentation are subject to torture and crimes against humanity. The suits say the Australian government is also guilty of intentional infliction of harm in the use of an offshore processing system, according to The Guardian.
The suits were filed by the National Justice Project, a human rights group based in Australia, and represent about 1,200 migrants detained in camps on the independent island of Nauru and on Manus, Papua New Guinea. Researchers and activists say many of them fled from places such as Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Myanmar and even Bangladesh seeking asylum.
Break Rules, Clean Up Gutters: The To-Do List Of A Rookie Mayor In Sierra Leone
NPR
Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr walks up the stairs from her office in Freetown, Sierra Leone, to her car when she notices that the sky has darkened and is starting to open up.
Tiny drops of rain fall. Within seconds they've become large and squishy, splashing against the concrete – and she has forgotten her rain boots. Her hot pink slingbacks won't make it through a downpour.
Aki-Sawyerr, who was elected mayor of Freetown in May and is the city's first female mayor in nearly 40 years, asks her driver to take a detour on the way to an outdoor meeting with market women. She is hoping to find a street vendor selling rubber sandals. As the car weaves through sheets of rain, she spots overflowing gutters and makes frantic calls to members of her team back in the office.
Boundlessly Idealistic, Universal Declaration Of Human Rights Is Still Resisted
NPR
Given the rivalries and violence that divide the global community today, it is hard to imagine that on December 10, 1948, the nations of the world approved, almost unanimously, a detailed list of fundamental rights that every human on the planet should enjoy.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the most sweeping such statement ever endorsed on a worldwide basis, opened by asserting, "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights." It proceeded with 30 articles summarizing the things to which everyone would be entitled in a world of genuine peace and justice.
In the immediate aftermath of two horrifying world wars, not a single member state of the newly created United Nations dared oppose the Declaration, though several abstained on the final vote. That so many of the rights remain unachieved on its 70th anniversary testifies to the boundless idealism of the document's drafters.
HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY
Climate protection: Germany falls farther behind
DW News
A decade ago, Germany was a pioneer in fighting climate change via the expansion of renewable energies. But now, like many G20 nations, its climate protection is stagnating as global emissions rise again.
As greenhouse gas emissions increase, the Climate Change Performance Index 2019 shows that only a handful of nations have implemented strategies to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
The annual report — published Monday at the COP24 climate summit in Katowice, Poland — tracks climate change performance in 56 countries and the EU. It comes on the heels of news that after CO2 emissions stabilized for three consecutive years, they are set to hit historic highs in 2018.
Germany, so often held up as a beacon in the climate change fight, comes in at a middling 27th position — five places below its spot last year.
Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege acccept Nobel Peace Prize
DW News
In an emotional ceremony, Yazidi activist Nadia Murad and Congolese gynecologist Denis Mukwege have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. They called on the world to do more to protect victims of wartime sexual violence.
In their Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speeches on Monday, Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad called on the world to protect victims of wartime sexual violence. They also slammed global indifference to the plight of women and children in conflict.
In her speech Murad implored the global community to help free hundreds of women and girls still held by jihadists. She also said that the world must protect her people and other vulnerable communities.
Speaking in Oslo's City Hall and seemingly overcome with emotion, Murad said: "It is my view that all victims deserve a safe haven until justice is done for them."
Protesters disrupt US panel's fossil fuels pitch at climate talks
The Guardian
A Trump administration presentation extolling the virtues of fossil fuels at the UN climate talks in Poland has been met with guffaws of laughter and chants of “Shame on you”.
Monday’s protest came during a panel discussion by the official US delegation, which used its only public appearance to promote the “unapologetic utilisation” of coal, oil and gas. Although these industries are the main source of the carbon emissions that are causing global warming, the speakers boasted the US would expand production for the sake of global energy security and planned a new fleet of coal plants with technology it hoped to export to other countries.
The event featured prominent cheerleaders for fossil fuels and nuclear power, including Wells Griffith, Donald Trump’s adviser on global energy and climate, Steve Winberg, the assistant secretary for fossil energy at the energy department, and Rich Powell, the executive director of the ClearPath Foundation, a non-profit organisation focused on “conservative clean energy”. The only non-American was Patrick Suckling, the ambassador for the environment in Australia’s coal-enthusiast government.
Tackle climate or face financial crash, say world's biggest investors
The Guardian
Global investors managing $32tn issued a stark warning to governments at the UN climate summit on Monday, demanding urgent cuts in carbon emissions and the phasing out of all coal burning. Without these, the world faces a financial crash several times worse than the 2008 crisis, they said.
The investors include some of the world’s biggest pension funds, insurers and asset managers and marks the largest such intervention to date. They say fossil fuel subsidies must end and substantial taxes on carbon be introduced.
Ministers arrive at the UN climate summit in Katowice, Poland, on Monday for its crucial second week, when the negotiations on turning the vision of the Paris agreement into reality reach a critical point, with finance for fighting global warming a key area of dispute.
“The long-term nature of the challenge has, in our view, met a zombie-like response by many,” said Chris Newton, of IFM Investors which manages $80bn and is one of the 415 groups that has signed the Global Investor Statement. “This is a recipe for disaster as the impacts of climate change can be sudden, severe and catastrophic.”
Nasa's Voyager 2 probe reaches interstellar space
The Guardian
Nasa’s Voyager 2 has become only the second human-made object to reach the space between stars.
Nasa said that the spacecraft left the region of the sun’s influence last month and is now beyond the outer boundary of the heliosphere, about 11 billion miles from Earth. It is trailing Voyager 1, which reached interstellar space – the vast, mostly empty area between star systems – in 2012.
Nasa said the evidence that Voyager 2 had left the heliosphere was provided by an onboard instrument called the Plasma Science Experiment, which measures solar wind. On 5 November, the device recorded a steep decline in the speed of solar wind particles, and had not observed any at all since that date. Other instruments on Voyager 2 have corroborated the theory.
According to Nasa, the Voyagers are still technically in our solar system. Scientists maintain the solar system stretches to the outer edge of the so-called Oort Cloud, a sphere of icy bodies millions of miles away which will take thousands of years to traverse.
Research Gaps Leave Doctors Guessing About Treatments For Pregnant Women
NPR
Jenna Neikirk was nearing the end of her first pregnancy when her blood pressure shot up to dangerous levels.
"I started feeling splotchy and hot, just kind of uncomfortable, so I took my blood pressure at work and it was 160 over 120," she says. Neikirk's a physical therapist in Atlanta and knew that level was alarmingly high.
She left work and walked over to her obstetrician's office, which was in the same medical complex.
"They took my blood pressure again and they decided to admit me to the hospital," Neikirk, 29, says. "So I was actually in the hospital for a night monitoring my blood pressure, monitoring the protein in my urine."
The doctors were making sure her blood pressure didn't get so high as to cause a stroke and that she didn't have symptoms of pre-eclampsia, a condition that can be fatal in pregnant women.
SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
Fox News Talked More About Migrant ‘Invasion’ Just Before Election Than In Past 3 Years Total
HuffPost
Editor’s note: All Fox News related items are categorized as entertainment in my OND’s
Ahead of his party’s shellacking in the 2018 midterm elections, Republican President Donald Trump spent weeks warning his supporters that a caravan of Central American migrants headed for the U.S border constituted an “invasion.”
Trump’s favorite television channel was his most important ally in that effort. Prime-time Fox News programs used the words “invasion” or “invaders” to describe migrants and asylum-seekers more times in the 30 days leading up to the Nov. 6 election than they did during all of 2015, 2016 and 2017 combined.
The politics of '12 Angry Men' has never really left us and probably never will
Doctor RJ
When I’m not analyzing the subtext of the latest pop culture offerings, on most days I get to interact with people from all walks of life, dealing with all sorts of situations. I meet people with children who in one way or another face a life of hardship, and I sometimes get lost in thought about the unfairness of it all. Seeing babies in a hospital nursery, some born into this world with serious medical adversities on day one, I start thinking about the things most people take for granted for which those children may never experience, and all because somehow someway they lost a random chance lottery game with nature. Things as simple as walking, living to be a teenager, having a first kiss, going to prom, or ultimately being able to live as a self-sufficient individual in control of their own destiny may be beyond their capabilities.
It’s not fair, and the longer I think about it the angrier I get.