OND Editors OND is a 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 12:00AM Eastern Time.
OND Editors Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Man Oh Man, rfall, and JML9999. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke and jlms qkw. The guest editors are Doctor RJ and annetteboardman.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
BBC
Obama signals 'new phase' against Islamic State in Iraq
President Barack Obama has said the deployment of 1,500 more US troops to Iraq marks a "new phase" against Islamic State militants.
He told CBS TV that the new troops, although non-combat advisers, could help Iraq go on the attack against IS.
A US-led coalition has been helping Iraqi and Kurdish ground forces with hundreds of air strikes since August.
Iraqi forces have now reportedly seized large parts of Baiji - home to Iraq's biggest oil refinery - from IS.
Officials said troops now controlled some 50% of the town, about 200km (130 miles) north of the capital Baghdad.
In his interview with CBS's Face the Nation broadcast, Mr Obama said: "Phase one was getting an Iraqi government that was inclusive and credible - and we now have done that.
"Rather than just try to halt IS's momentum, we're now in a position to start going on some offense," he said
.
BBC
Joy as North Korea detainees Miller and Bae return home
Two Americans who were released from detention in North Korea, Matthew Todd Miller and Kenneth Bae, have arrived to a joyful welcome in the US.
US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper accompanied the men back, the US has confirmed.
Mr Bae thanked his supporters and said that he had experienced an "amazing" two years in prison during which he had "learned a lot" and lost weight.
US President Barack Obama said he was "grateful" for their safe return.
He said it was "a wonderful day" for the men and their families.
'
A third US citizen, Jeffrey Fowle, was freed last month and no Americans are now being held in North Korea.
The plane carrying the two men landed at a military base near Tacoma in Washington state late on Saturday.
N Y Times
Obama Arrives in China on Trip With Complex Agenda
BEIJING — President Obama arrived here on Monday morning for a three-day visit that will capture the complexities of the United States-China relationship: the tensions of a rising power confronting an established one, as well as the promise that the world’s two largest economies could find common cause on issues like climate change.
Touching down under skies that were a government-mandated blue — the authorities idled factories and kept vehicles off the roads to clear the air — Mr. Obama plunged into a hectic schedule that mixed the solemn rituals of a state visit with the deal-making of an economic summit meeting.
Mr. Obama’s visit, his second as president, began on a promising note on Saturday with North Korea’s release of two Americans held there. Administration officials did not speculate about whether the release was timed to the visit, but it sent an unmistakably conciliatory message on the eve of talks that are certain to include the nuclear-armed rogue state.
The centerpiece of the visit will be Mr. Obama’s session with President Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People on Wednesday, where he will encounter a Chinese leader who has moved boldly to restore the primacy of the Communist Party with a radical anticorruption campaign, an overhaul of China’s economy and a crackdown on dissent
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Al Jazeera America
25 years on: How the fall of the Berlin Wall changed the world
The fall of the Berlin Wall, 25 years ago, not only reunited Germany and foretold the coming collapse of the Soviet Union; it signaled a profound change in global affairs. The Cold War that followed World War II created a bipolar world, in which relations between countries and contests for state power everywhere were subsumed by the binary conflict of a U.S.-led West vs. a Soviet-dominated East. Even though the U.S.S.R.’s final collapse came two years later, the fall of the Wall that had separated West from East in Berlin more than any other single moment symbolizes the end of the Cold War.
Excitable politicians and pundits may have rushed to proclaim a new Cold War as a result of the current standoff in Ukraine, but the fact that the U.S. and Russia are once again engaged in strategic rivalry is simply old-fashioned geopolitics: There’s no serious argument to be made that all of the world’s major conflicts today can be framed as an epic struggle between Washington and Moscow, and there’s no longer much of an ideological pretense in contemporary strategic alliances. (Whatever else unites those fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, for example, it’s certainly not a shared vision of democracy and freedom.)
Al Jazeera America
Palestinians remind world of their own wall
Palestinian youth have dug a hole in Israel’s separation wall with the Palestinian territories, as a symbolic gesture to mark 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Armed with hammers, a group of Palestinian activists on Saturday created a cavity in the wall that crosses through the West Bank village of Bir Nabala, between Jerusalem and Ramallah, braving tight Israeli security measures.
"It doesn't matter how high the barriers will be, they will fall. Like the Berlin Wall fell - The Palestinian wall will fall," the Palestinian activists who organised the event wrote in a statement according to the Palestinian Ma'an News Agency.
The collapse of the Berlin Wall a quarter century ago is a key event in the breakdown of communism and the preface to Germany's reunification in 1990.
During its 28-year existence, the Wall served as a symbol for communist oppression.
Palestinians refer to the current wall separating the West Bank from Israel as the "apartheid wall".
Israel began work on the sprawling barrier in 2002 and has defended its construction as a crucial protective measure, pointing to a drop in attacks inside Israel as a proof of its success.
But the Palestinians say the wall is a land grab. Large tracts of Palestinian land have been confiscated by the Israeli government to build it. When complete, 85 percent of it will have been built inside the West Bank.
Raw Story (proof that global warming is a myth)
First arctic blast of season to hit most of US this week: forecasters
(Reuters) – The coldest air of the season is set to reach into some 42 states this week as an Arctic blast drops temperatures from the Canadian border down to the Gulf of Mexico, forecasters said.
Some 200 million people are expected to be affected by the cold, with only Florida, Hawaii, and the Southwest being spared, according to Accuweather.com forecasters.
First to see the frigid temperatures this week will be states along the Canadian border and in the northern Rockies late Sunday and early Monday, including the coldest night in Montana since March and temperatures around 33 degrees F (18 C)below average in South Dakota, Accuweather forecasters said.
Winter storm warnings are in effect for Montana, North and South Dakota, Wyoming and Minnesota as they braced for a major snowstorm forecast for the leading edge of that Arctic blast, according to the National Weather Service.
The storm is set dump up to two feet (61 cm) of snow in parts of Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin by Tuesday, according to the service.
Raw Story
Pope demotes highest ranking U.S. cardinal to position with ‘no responsibilities’
In a move announced on Saturday, Pope Francis has demoted the highest-ranking American in the Vatican in response to the conservative cardinal’s criticism of the pontiff’s reformist agenda, reports the Catholic News Service.
The Vatican announced without comment the demotion of Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, 66, who previously had served as head of the Vatican’s highest court. Burke has been reassigned to the largely ceremonial position of chaplain for the Knights of Malta, a charity group.
The chaplain position is normally given to a retired cardinal and, according to Michael Sean Winters of the National Catholic Reporter, the job comes with “almost no responsibilities.”
Winters called the demotion, “unprecedented and completely warranted.”
The demotion of Burke has been expected after an Italian journalist first reported rumors of it in September, with the cardinal himself confirming it the following month.
In December Pope Francis chose to not reappoint Cardinal Burke to his powerful position on the Congregation for Bishops, which advises the pope on episcopal appointments.
The Pope was reportedly unhappy with the conservative cardinal’s criticism of his reforms, as well as his criticism of the pontiff’s stated belief that it is not “necessary” for the church to talk about issues like abortion or same-sex marriage “all of the time.”
L A Times
Disney's 'Big Hero 6' wins weekend over 'Interstellar'
Disney’s “Big Hero 6” soared past Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” at the box office this weekend, as both big-budget films had strong launches.
According to studio estimates, the animated action comedy grossed $56.2 million in the U.S. and Canada, edging out Nolan’s space drama. “Interstellar” pulled in $52.2 million, which covers the film’s early limited release on Tuesday evening and wide release on Friday.
If the early estimates hold up, for only the fourth time in history two films grossed more than $50 million apiece in their shared opening weekend, as had been projected.
In June 2013, "Monsters University" opened to $82.4 million and "World War Z" opened to $66.4 million in the same weekend. "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted" opened to $60.3 million the same weekend in 2012 that "Prometheus" opened to about $51 million. And in 2008, "Wanted" opened to $51 million the same weekend that "Wall-E" opened to $63 million.
Despite the “Interstellar” and “Big Hero 6" numbers, the box office is still down 7% from the same weekend last year and down 3.8% year-to-date, according to research firm Rentrak. However, studios and analysts said the upcoming holiday season could help ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada come close to matching last year's annual record of $10.9 billion.
BBC
Strippers sue to prevent identity disclosure
Government open-records requests can be boring. Government open-records requests made by a man who wants to obtain information about 70 licensed strippers in his town so he can "pray* for them", on the other hand...
The godly citizen in question is David Allen Van Vleet of Tacoma, Washington. In September he filed court papers to obtain personal information on 70 government-licensed nude dancers at a nightclub in his area - including their full names, addresses, photos and dates of birth.
(Yes, Washington requires nude dancers to pay a $75 (£47) a year licence fee. If government oversight is good enough for beauticians, it seems, it's good enough for lap dancers.)
The county auditor granted his request under the state's open-records law - although she also notified area dancers and club managers of her action. On 21 October two licensees sued to block the release of the information. Two days later a county judge issued a temporary order blocking the release, with a final decision scheduled for 15 December.
Mr Van Vleet was not happy with the judge's action.
"He essentially silenced 7 million people in the state of Washington to protect 70 people's so-called right to privacy who dance on a stage naked," he said.
The plaintiffs' lawyer, on the other hand, told the Associated Press that Mr Van Vleet's interests were trumped by his clients's rights
*pray or prey?
BBC
This last story is fascinating but I can't find a date on it so we may have seen it already. A great read, however.
Why is there something rather than nothing?
People have wrestled with the mystery of why the universe exists for thousands of years. Pretty much every ancient culture came up with its own creation story - most of them leaving the matter in the hands of the gods - and philosophers have written reams on the subject. But science has had little to say about this ultimate question.
However, in recent years a few physicists and cosmologists have started to tackle it. They point out that we now have an understanding of the history of the universe, and of the physical laws that describe how it works. That information, they say, should give us a clue about how and why the cosmos exists.
Their admittedly controversial answer is that the entire universe, from the fireball of the Big Bang to the star-studded cosmos we now inhabit, popped into existence from nothing at all. It had to happen, they say, because "nothing" is inherently unstable.