Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Doctor RJ, rfall, JML9999 and Man Oh Man. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke 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 12:00AM Eastern Time
BBC
Syria conflict: Marketplace air strikes 'kill 80'
Syrian activists say at least 80 people have died in government air strikes on a marketplace in the rebel-held town of Douma, near Damascus.
Around 200 people were reportedly injured in the attack.
Government forces have been regularly attacking Douma and its surrounding areas in recent months with air strikes and helicopter barrel bombs.
Hundreds of civilians have been killed alongside opposition fighters.
Images of the aftermath of Sunday's strikes show dead bodies lined up on the floor, including some of children.
Unverified footage uploaded by activists showed a marketplace destroyed, with surrounding buildings in ruins and vehicles on fire.
BBC
Indonesia passenger plane wreckage found in remote Papua
The wreckage of an Indonesian plane carrying 54 people has been found in the remote western Papua region, officials say.
The Trigana Air flight lost contact with ground control at 14:55 local time (05:55 GMT) as it flew from the capital Jayapura to the town of Oksibil.
Indonesia's transport minister said the aircraft had been found in the Bintang highlands region, not far from its intended landing site at Oksibil airport.
It is not yet known if anyone survived.
The wreckage was discovered by villagers, who then alerted officials.
"Residents provided information that the aircraft crashed into Tangok mountain," said the country's director-general of air transportation, Suprasetyo.
The ATR42-300 twin turboprop plane was carrying 44 adult passengers, five children and infants, and five crew.
BBC
Iraq ex-PM Nouri Maliki blamed for Mosul fall to IS
An Iraqi parliamentary panel has called for former PM Nouri Maliki to face trial over the fall of the northern city of Mosul to Islamic State.
More than 30 other officials including former Mosul governor Athil al-Nujaifi were also blamed in the report.
The militants seized Mosul in a sweep across north and west Iraq last year.
Mr Maliki, a Shia, is seen as having fanned sectarian tensions, leading to a growth of discontent in those mainly Sunni Arab areas captured by IS.
Hours earlier, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi cleared the way for a court martial of military commanders who abandoned their posts as another city, Ramadi, fell to IS in May this year.
The moves come as the current government continues a major campaign to combat corruption and mismanagement.
Al Jazeera
Tens of thousands protest in Brazil to say, 'Dilma must go'
Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered across Brazil on Sunday to call for the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, whom they blame for a vast corruption scandal and the economy's worst slump in a quarter century.
Less than a year into her tumultuous second term, the left-wing Workers' Party president's support has dwindled to single digits in recent polls, while two in three support calls for her impeachment.
"We hear all about budget cuts, but so far it's only hurting people like me," said Francisco Mosack, a retired metalworker from the Sao Paulo neighborhood of Capao Redondo, who complained that his electric bill had doubled in a year.
Support for the protest movement remains widespread as rising unemployment and inflation presage the worst economic downturn since at least 1990. Government austerity efforts meant to keep the country's investment-grade credit rating have also turned off Rousseff's supporters and met resistance from lawmakers.
Al Jazeera
Former head of Pakistan's powerful spy agency dies
Hamid Gul, the former head of Pakistan's powerful intelligence agency who strongly backed the Taliban, has died of a brain haemorrhage at the age of 79.
Gul, who was a military commander in the Pakistani Army in the 1980s, died on Saturday night at a military hospital in Muree, 50km northeast of the capital Islamabad.He served as the head of the country's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency from 1987 to 1989.
A controversial figure, he became a strong backer of the Taliban government in Afghanistan and often blamed the US and India for instability in Pakistan.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif extended his condolences over Gul's death.
Professor Akbar Ahmed, the chair of Islamic Studies at the American University, and also a former Pakistani Ambassador to the UK, told Al Jazeera that it was Gul’s career in the army that gave him the credibility to become such a politically renowned figure.
Al Jazeera
State of emergency in Ecuador as volcano spews ash
Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has declared a state of emergency over increasing activity in the Cotopaxi volcano near the capital of Quito.
Saturday’s decree gives authorities more flexibility in using government funds to deal with any problems, with officials having so far evacuating several hundred people as a precaution.
Eruptions beginning Friday have shot ash more than five kilometres into the sky, spreading fine grey powder over roads, homes and cars in the region as far as the capital, 50km to the north.
Presidential legal secretary Alexis Mera said further ash explosions and some pyroclastic flows on the volcano's western slopes on Saturday led officials to evacuate some nearby villages.
Dozens of families fled the immediate vicinity, setting up tents and improvised camps at a higher location, where they continued to watch the volcanic activity.
The Guardian
China does not want 'currency war' with west, says central bank economist
China’s central bank has warned of further volatility in the yuan but reiterated that Beijing had no intention of sparking a “currency war” following a series of shock devaluations last week.
The chief economist at the People’s Bank of China, Ma Jun, said the Chinese government had “no intention or need to participate in a currency war”.
In a concerted effort to play down fears of tit-for-tat devaluations with the US, Europe and Japan, he said Beijing would intervene only in exceptional circumstances to counteract excessive volatility.
The yuan’s drop last week, and its increased flexibility as a result, could help sharply reduce the possibility of similar adjustments in future, Ma said. However, he added it was more likely there would be “two-way volatility”, or appreciation and depreciation of the national currency in response to economic ups and downs. Referring to the possibility of further interventions, he said: “In the future, even if the central bank needed to intervene in the market, it may be in either direction.”
Reuters
U.S. military cancels hearing for September 11 suspects
The U.S. military has canceled a pretrial hearing for suspects in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, a military spokesman said on Sunday, in another setback for the government in its efforts to try the five men being held at Guantanamo.
A defense department spokesman said the hearing, originally scheduled for Aug. 24 to Sept. 4, was canceled by the military judge.
"The judge cited issues that remain unresolved with regard to a claimed defense counsel conflict of interest," said Commander Gary Ross.
News of the cancellation was first reported by ABC News.
Defense attorneys for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators raised concerns in 2014 that they were being spied on by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They said that created a conflict of interest between them and their clients.
N Y Times
After Delicate Negotiations, U.S. Says It Will Pull Patriot Missiles From Turkey
WASHINGTON — The United States said Sunday that it would withdraw two Patriot missile-defense batteries from southern Turkey this fall, a sign that the Pentagon believes the risk of Syrian Army missile attacks has eased since the Patriots were deployed in 2013. Officials said the antimissile systems would be needed elsewhere to defend against threats from Iran and North Korea.
A statement issued by the United States Embassy in Ankara from the American and Turkish governments said the Patriots would be sent back to the United States for “critical modernization upgrades.” If needed in a crisis, the batteries and their 250 troops could be rushed back to Turkey “within one week” to fulfill an American and NATO commitment to Turkey’s air defenses. Air defenses aboard American warships in the region also could help carry out the security mission over Turkey, the statement said.
What the statement did not mention was a complicated story behind the Patriot decision, which briefly last month seemed poised to dash months of painstaking talks with Turkey about allowing American armed drones and fighter jets to fly combat missions against the Islamic State from Incirlik Air Base and other Turkish installations.
C/Net
Brilliant GPS navigation system changes to children's voice near schools
It's a GPS navigation system with a tiny difference. Whenever you're driving near schools, day care centers or anywhere where there might be children, the system's voice switches to that of a child.
In a YouTube demonstration of the system, a traffic safety expert says that you can't frighten people into driving more carefully. Instead, as sound expert Julian Treasure explains, because we're programmed to care for children, the sound of their voices alerts us at a visceral level to take more care.
The app became available this month in Sweden, Norway and Finland. However, its sheer ingenuity suggests the car industry should perhaps test it out.
In the US, almost 400 children aged 15 and under are killed by cars every year.
Anything to save one more life. Especially when it's such a brilliantly simple idea.
BBC
Bug-killing book pages clean murky drinking water
A book with pages that can be torn out to filter drinking water has proved effective in its first field trials.
The "drinkable book" combines treated paper with printed information on how and why water should be filtered.
Its pages contain nanoparticles of silver or copper, which kill bacteria in the water as it passes through.
In trials at 25 contaminated water sources in South Africa, Ghana and Bangladesh, the paper successfully removed more than 99% of bacteria.
The resulting levels of contamination are similar to US tap water, the researchers say. Tiny amounts of silver or copper also leeched into the water, but these were well below safety limits.
The results were presented at the 250th national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston, US.
The West is burning. We have the 100,000 acres in Lake County. Then Mendocino County is adding to our smoke. Ojibwa reported on 50 fires in Montana. Then I see this:
Guardian
Oregon wildfire evacuees face a new normal as blaze season rages on
Oregon wildfire evacuees face a new normal as blaze season rages on
As residents retreat to makeshift housing, latest fire is the most disruptive and emergency crews await more help as firefighters are ‘overstretched’
On Saturday in Warm Springs, Oregon – tucked alongside US-26, at the heart of the Warm Springs Reservation – two dozen residents were cooling their heels in the community centre that was serving as an interim home for wildfire evacuees.
They may have a long wait to return to their homes. What’s more, seasoned experts say that the current fire season – which began early – may yet have months to run. And in the long term, this may be the new normal for the northwest.
Around 950 people in the district have been forced to flee the County Line 2 fire, which has consumed almost 60,000 acres since last Thursday. It’s not the largest of the wildfires burning across the length and breadth of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho right now. On the Oregon-Idaho border, the Soda fire has so far burned over 265,000 acres.
Firefighters struggle to contain blazes as Soda Fire becomes largest in US
Nor is it the only thing that the region’s emergency services have in their in-tray. Carol Connolly from the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center said that in Oregon and Washington alone, this season has seen 85 large fires consume upwards of 400,000 acres, with 31 burning right now.