The Overnight News Digest is nightly series dedicated to chronicling the day’s news of import or interest. Everyone is welcome to add their own news items in the comments. Tonight’s news is from around the world.
Science - Hidden Neandertal DNA may increase risk of allergies, depression
🇩🇪 Depressed? Your inner Neandertal may be to blame. Modern humans met and mated with these archaic people in Europe or Asia about 50,000 years ago, and researchers have long suspected that genes picked up in these trysts might be shaping health and well-being today. Now, a study in the current issue of Science details their impact. It uses a powerful new method for scanning the electronic health records of 28,000 Americans to show that some Neandertal gene variants today can raise the risk of depression, skin lesions, blood clots, and other disorders.
Neandertal genes aren’t all bad. “These variants sometimes protect against a disease, sometimes make people more susceptible to disease,” says paleogeneticist Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Two other new studies identified three archaic genes that boost immune response. And most archaic genes that persist in humans were likely beneficial in prehistoric times. But some now cause disease because modern lifestyles and environments are so different. […]
The researchers also found a number of Neandertal genes associated with neurological conditions, including depression, which can be triggered by disturbed circadian rhythms. Other variants were linked to precancerous skin lesions called actinic keratoses. Capra speculates that Neandertal brain chemistry and their skin responses to sunlight may both have been attuned to the light conditions and lifestyles of prehistoric Europe. The gene variants responsible may be maladaptive now that most people live by artificial light.
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NYT - Alan Grayson’s Double Life: Congressman and Hedge Fund Manager
🇺🇸 The hedge fund manager boasted that he had traveled to “every country” in the world, studying overseas stock markets as he fine-tuned an investment strategy to capitalize on global companies’ suffering because of economic or political turmoil.
But the fund manager had an even more distinctive credential to showcase in his marketing material in June 2013: He was a “U.S. congressman,” Representative Alan Grayson, Democrat of Florida, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Now he is also among the leading Democratic candidates for one of Florida’s United States Senate seats.
This highly unusual dual role — a sitting House lawmaker running a hedge fund, which until recently had operations in the Cayman Islands — has led to an investigation of Mr. Grayson by the House Committee on Ethics.
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Flint Journal - Snyder ordered DEQ to withhold Flint lead test results, emails claim
🇺🇸 Gov. Rick Snyder and other state officials allegedly withheld lead testing results from county health officials while they worked to find ways to present the information to the public, according to emails obtained by The Flint Journal.
Local health officials say the governor and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality withheld lead testing results, including results from a Flint elementary school, while the agency discussed the best way to present the information to the public.
But, Snyder's office said Wednesday, Feb. 10, that information was shared quickly after testing and denied withholding any information.
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AFP - Obama calls Supreme Court emissions ruling 'unusual'
🇺🇸 President Barack Obama said Thursday that the Supreme Court did something "unusual" in freezing a plan to tackle carbon emissions, as he insisted his administration was on firm legal ground. […]
The plan underpins the US emissions reduction commitments under a global climate deal agreed by 195 governments in Paris last December. […]
"We are very confident we are on strong legal footing here," Obama insisted.
Obama's administration had expected legal challenges but had been surprised that a stay was enacted on plans that will take many years to come into full effect.
"The Supreme Court did something unusual," Obama said referring to the ruling supported by five of the nine Supreme Court justices.
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WaPo - Progress reported in Munich talks on cease-fire in Syria
🇸🇾 🇷🇺 🇮🇷 🇺🇸 Efforts to reach a cease-fire in Syria’s civil war appeared to be making progress late Thursday, as international leaders here considered a plan that would include staged implementation next week of Russian airdrops of relief supplies to at least 15 besieged towns and cities, humanitarian access by the United Nations on the ground, and a stop to Russian and Syrian government airstrikes.
It remained unclear whether Russia, which had proposed a cease-fire by March 1, would agree to an earlier time frame.
After a day of consultations among various participants, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov huddled with his counterpart from Iran, Russia’s ally in backing the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad, and Secretary of State John F. Kerry sat down with allies backing the Syrian opposition, before all parties gathered for a joint meeting Thursday night.
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LAT - Gov. Jerry Brown makes budget the latest battleground on climate change
🇺🇸 Gov. Jerry Brown is looking to make good on a promise to curb California’s petroleum use by shifting away from new legislation and instead tucking his fuel-reduction goal inside the state budget.
Oil companies spent millions of dollars in 2015 to strip a controversial climate change bill of its provision slashing petroleum use in half by 2030. At the conclusion of that bruising fight, a defiant Brown stood before reporters in the Capitol and declared war.
“Oil has won the skirmish. But they’ve lost the bigger battle,” he said. “Because I am more determined than ever ... we’re not going to miss a beat.”
The budget the governor submitted to the Legislature last month proposed spending a third of the state’s cap-and-trade funds, about $1 billion, on public transit, promoting electric vehicles and other programs, all with the explicit goal of cutting oil use by 50% by 2030. Those dollars were collected through the auction of pollution credits to companies that emit greenhouse gases.
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Oregonian - 7 more named in new indictment linked to Oregon refuge occupation
🇺🇸 A federal indictment naming seven more people associated with the occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge was unsealed Thursday.
The seven named were Blaine Cooper, 36, of Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona; Corey Lequieu, 44, of Fallon, Nevada; Neil Wampler, 68, of Los Osos, California; Jason Charles Blomgren, 41, of Murphy, North Carolina; Darryl William Thorn, 31, of Marysville, Washington; Wesley Kjar, 32, of Manti, Utah; and Eric Lee Flores, 22, of Tulalip, Washington.
Each has been arrested and is scheduled to appear in federal court Thursday or Friday, according to a news release from the office of the U.S. attorney for Oregon, Billy J. Williams. The men were arrested in six states.
Two other people were listed in the indictment, but their names were redacted because they have not yet been arrested.
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Guardian - Gravitational waves: breakthrough discovery after two centuries of expectation
🇺🇸 Physicists have announced the discovery of gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of spacetime that were first anticipated by Albert Einstein a century ago.
“We have detected gravitational waves. We did it,” said David Reitze, executive director of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Ligo), at a press conference in Washington.
The announcement is the climax of a century of speculation, 50 years of trial and error, and 25 years perfecting a set of instruments so sensitive they could identify a distortion in spacetime a thousandth the diameter of one atomic nucleus across a 4km strip of laserbeam and mirror.
The phenomenon detected was the collision of two black holes. Using the world’s most sophisticated detector, the scientists listened for 20 thousandths of a second as the two giant black holes, one 35 times the mass of the sun, the other slightly smaller, circled around each other.
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Guardian - Two-thirds of US students are taught climate change badly, study finds
🇺🇸 Nearly two-thirds of schoolchildren in the US are taught lessons on climate change that do not rise to the level of a sound science education, according to new research on Thursday. The finding provide new evidence on the source of the confusion and denial surrounding global warming in American public life. […]
Only 38% of American schoolchildren were taught lessons that adhere to the scientific consensus that climate change is largely the result of the burning of fossil fuels, the researchers from Pennsylvania State University and the National Centre for Science Education found. […]
Some 7% attributed recent warming to natural causes – which is simply wrong – while 4% of teachers avoided talking about the cause of climate change. Another 22% said their lessons mentioned the scientific consensus – but also that there was significant disagreement among scientists, which is also incorrect.
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NYT - NATO Will Send Ships to Aegean Sea to Deter Human Trafficking
🇬🇷 🇸🇾 With more than a million migrants having reached Europe in the last year and many more on the way, NATO stepped into the crisis for the first time on Thursday, saying it would deploy ships to the Aegean Sea in an attempt to stop smugglers.
But while the hastily made decision reflected the growing urgency of the situation, it was not clear that it would have much practical effect on the flow of refugees fleeing Syria’s five-year civil war: The alliance said it would not seek to block the often rickety and overcrowded migrant vessels or turn them back, and military officials were scrambling to determine precisely what role their warships would play.
NATO’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said that “this is not about stopping or pushing back refugee boats.” […]
Adding military muscle to what has largely been treated in Europe as a humanitarian issue reflected concerns across the Continent that further waves of refugees are likely to head toward Greece and beyond in coming weeks amid intensified fighting in Syria and improving weather.
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SMH - Kevin Rudd's brutal slapdown of Australians who don't think we have a racism problem
🇦🇺 Former prime minister Kevin Rudd says it is “100 per cent bullshit” that the booing of Adam Goodes had nothing to do with his Aboriginality, in a speech that called on Australians to name and shame racism.
Speaking on the eighth anniversary of his apology to the Stolen Generation, Mr Rudd said that he was perhaps naive when he said five years ago that he did not believe that racism was at work in Australia.
“Perhaps I was just wishing that the better angels of our nature had begun to prevail in a newly reconciled Australia,” he said. ”Or perhaps I was just plain wrong.”
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Haaretz - Holocaust Survivor Testifies Against Auschwitz Camp Guard in German Court
🇩🇪 A 94-year-old survivor of Nazi Germany's Auschwitz death camp gave his testimony in court on Thursday, face to face with a former guard, who is charged with helping in the murder of at least 170,000 people.
Leon Schwarzbaum, who lost 35 family members during the Holocaust, calmly recalled the camp’s horrors and when he had finished he directly addressed the accused, Reinhold Hanning, also 94, on the first day of his trial.
“I want to know why millions of Jews were killed and here we both are,” Schwarzbaum said, his voice beginning to tremble. “Soon we will both stand in front of the highest judge — tell everyone here what happened, the way I've done just now!”
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Reuters - Russia boosts ties with Iraq in challenge to U.S. influence
🇷🇺 🇮🇶 Russia is ready to sell civil airliners to Iraq and keep providing it with military aid to fight Islamic State, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Thursday, accompanied on a trip to Baghdad by the biggest Russian delegation in years.
The mission by nearly 100 government and business officials was part of a drive by Moscow to strengthen commercial and security ties with Iraq, potentially eroding U.S. influence in one of the world's most critical regions.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said discussions had revolved around providing military assistance to defeat Islamic State militants, also known as Daesh, who seized a third of Iraq in 2014 and want to redraw the map of the Middle East.
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Financial Times - Maersk warns business conditions worse than during 2008 crisis
🇩🇰 AP Møller-Maersk warned that it was facing conditions significantly worse than the financial crisis after it plunged to a large net loss as global trade growth ground to a halt last year.
The Danish shipping-to-oil conglomerate has been hit by the slump in both petroleum prices and container freight rates in what its chief executive described as a “massive deterioration” in its business.
Nils Andersen told the Financial Times: “It is worse than in 2008. The oil price is as low as its lowest point in 2008-09 and has stayed there for a long time and doesn’t look like going up soon. Freight rates are lower. The external conditions are much worse but we are better prepared.”
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Reuters - South Sudan president re-appoints rival under peace deal
🇸🇸 South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has re-appointed his rival Riek Machar as vice president, a decree said on Thursday, the culmination of a deal to try to end months of civil war in the world's newest nation.
The announcement returned the presidency to where it was soon before fighting erupted between supporters of the two men in December 2013 - a conflict that went on to kill thousands of people and force more than two million to flee.
Both sides, under pressure from Washington, the United Nations and other powers, signed an initial pact in August, and agreed to share out ministerial positions in January. But that accord has repeatedly broken down and a U.N. report last month said both leaders qualified for sanctions over atrocities in the conflict.
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CNN - Female suicide bombers kill 58 in a Nigerian camp meant to be a haven
🇳🇬 Two female suicide bombers between the ages of 17 and 20 blew themselves up this week in a camp in northeastern Nigeria set up to shelter people from terrorism, killing at least 58 people. But others were spared when a third intended bomber realized at the last minute that her family had taken shelter there, too, and refused to detonate her explosives, relief officials said.
Officials said 78 people were injured. The victims were staying in a camp for people who had been displaced by Boko Haram violence in Nigeria's Borno state.
"There were three female bombers who entered the camp around 6:30 a.m. disguised as displaced persons," said Satomi Alhaji Ahmed, head of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency. "Two of them set off their explosives in the camp while the third refused after realizing her parents and siblings were in the camp."
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Guardian - Climate change may have helped spread Zika virus according to WHO scientists
🇧🇷 The outbreak of Zika virus in Central and South America is of immediate concern to pregnant women in the region, but for some experts the situation is a glimpse of the sort of public health threats that will unfold due to climate change.
“Zika is the kind of thing we’ve been ranting about for 20 years,” said Daniel Brooks, a biologist at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “We should’ve anticipated it. Whenever the planet has faced a major climate change event, man-made or not, species have moved around and their pathogens have come into contact with species with no resistance.”
It’s still not clear what role rising temperatures and altered rainfall patterns have had on the spread of Zika, which is mainly spread by mosquitos; the increased global movement of people is probably as great an influence as climate change for the spread of infectious diseases. But the World Health Organization, which declared a public health emergency over the birth defects linked to Zika, is clear that changes in climate mean a redrawn landscape for vector and water-borne diseases.
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NYT - George W. Bush to Campaign for Brother Jeb in South Carolina
🇺🇸 On Thursday, the Bush team made official what had long been an open secret — that former President George W. Bush will hit the campaign trail on Monday evening with his younger brother in North Charleston, S.C. […]
Jeb Bush has struggled with how to handle his famous last name, and with the reality that some voters simply do not want to see another Bush in the White House.
Early on in the campaign, Mr. Bush bungled a question about if he would have authorized the 2003 invasion of Iraq, as his brother did, with the intelligence available today. At first, he said he would have, only to backpedal and say several days later than he had misunderstood the original question.
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NBC - Ana Flores Salazar Was Third Journalist Killed in Mexico in 2016
🇲🇽 Mexico is reeling from the news that the body of reporter Anabel Flores Salazar was found a day after an armed group kidnapped Monday her from her home in the state of Veracruz, Mexico. The 32-year-old mother of two was a crime-beat reporter for newspaper El Sol de Orizaba and is the third journalist to be killed in Mexico in 2016.
The journalist was found on the side of a highway in the neighboring state of Puebla. The Attorney General of the State of Veracruz issued a statement confirming that Flores Salazar was identified by family members.
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VoA - Taliban Battle Leads to Kabul Blackout
🇦🇫 Millions of residents in the bitterly cold Afghan capital Kabul have been living mostly without power for the last two weeks as critical grid line from neighboring Uzbekistan has been cut off. The Afghan government blames Taliban attacks for the disruption in the power supply.
Taliban insurgents blew up two power pylons in the Dand-e-Shahabuddin area in the strategic northeastern province of Baghlan after security forces launched a massive operation against the Taliban, Afghan officials say.
The Taliban denied responsibility for destroying power lines and blame Afghan government forces.
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China Daily - Special troops to help keep China-Pakistan corridor safe
🇨🇳 🇵🇰 Islamabad will set up a special force of approximately 10,000 troops to protect Chinese people and enterprises along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a visiting senior Pakistani diplomat said on Wednesday.
Syed Tariq Fatemi, Pakistani special assistant to the prime minister for foreign affairs, revealed the establishment of the force in reply to Beijing's security concerns over the increasing number of Chinese involved in more than 200 projects in the country, including 14,000 engineers and technicians.
"We have decided to create a special force of highly trained military people who will be specially equipped and will have special organizations in concerned ministries backing them, "Fatemi said. "Their task will be to provide the necessary safety and security of Chinese working in Pakistan and the Chinese companies and industries set up there."
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USA Today - Five years after revolt, Egypt has come full circle
🇪🇬 On Feb. 11, 2011, the Arab Spring revolution that spread to Egypt ousted longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak amid hopes of replacing his military dictatorship with democracy and economic reforms. Five years later, Egypt has come full circle: The military is back in charge, the economy is worse and political dissidents are imprisoned.
Egypt’s current President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a former general, has cracked down on dissent as he fights a violent insurgency and unemployment is higher than before the revolution. His goal, he says, is stability and economic development.
Unemployment, a major rallying cry during the 2011 revolution, is now at 12.8%, compared to 8.9% in the last quarter of 2010. Ongoing turmoil has hurt tourism, Egypt's top industry. Tourist visits peaked in 2010 at 14 million and were expected to be around 9 million for 2015, according to The Guardian newspaper.
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teleSUR - Thousands of Campesinos Demand Political Change in Guatemala
🇬🇹 Rural organizations called for a resolution to be more than 100 land conflicts, freedom for their politically persecuted leaders, and respect for diverse rights.
Thousands of campesinos took to the streets in Guatemala Wednesday and blocked traffic in the capital city to put pressure on President Jimmy Morales to make political and economic reforms to benefit rural workers, local media reported.
The campesino organizations raised their voices on a list of diverse demands, starting with fundamental respect for constitutional rights of the Guatemalan people and extending to issues of wages, the environment, and national sovereignty..
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BBC - Lucian Freud portrait Pregnant Girl sells for £16m
🇬🇧 A portrait by Lucian Freud has sold for £16.1m, far exceeding its estimated sale price.
Pregnant Girl was pursued by six bidders at the London auction on Wednesday, according to Sotheby's.
The portrait depicts the artist's girlfriend, Bernardine Coverley, in the early 1960s, asleep while she was expecting their daughter Bella… Coverley was 16 when she first met Freud in London in 1959. It's understood she was 17 when he painted Pregnant Girl.
Bella Freud, now aged 54 and a fashion designer, was the first of the couple's two children. She said: "It must have been a very happy time in her life, being pregnant with the man she loved and him wanting her to be there and paint her. I think he was undoubtedly the love of her life."
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LAHT - Havana Bay Recovering Species Thanks to Reduction in Pollution
🇨🇺 The return of fish and marine birds to Havana Bay is an indication that Cuban authorities have managed to reduce pollution there by 50-60 percent over the past 10 years, experts on the communist island said Sunday.
Pelicans and seagulls have begun flying over the bay again, a sign that its waters have recovered their oxygen content and the marine flora and fauna have been rejuvenated, official media have reported.
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Daily Mail - Orphaned baby orangutans wheeled to 'jungle school' to learn to survive in the wild
🇮🇩 Every day charity workers take a group of abandoned baby orangutans on wheelbarrow run into the jungle for lessons on how to survive in the wild. They have all been orphaned and as a result are having to teach themselves the skills their mothers would have taught them in the wild. […]
To help them learn, International Animal Rescue, a charity in Keptang, Indonesia, have built the forest school where the youngsters can climb and swing from the ropes and barrels. Each day, the orangutans are taken in wheelbarrows from their sanctuary to 'jungle school', with the aim to return the animals to the wild once they are fully rehabilitated. […]
Orangutans usually spend seven to eight years with their mother and learn the skills they need to survive. In Borneo, orangutan mothers are killed by poachers who catch and sell their infants as pets, condemning them to years behind bars or in chains.
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