Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Doctor RJ, Magnifico, annetteboardman and Besame. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) wader, planter, JML9999, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Man Oh Man, 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 12:00 AM Eastern Time.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
BBC
Russia Saratov crash: Investigators comb crash site near Moscow
Russian investigators are searching snow-covered fields near Moscow for clues why a passenger plane crashed.
All 71 passengers and crew were killed when the Saratov Airlines jet went down minutes after taking off from Domodedovo airport on Sunday afternoon.
Officials say they are considering weather conditions, human error and technical failure as possible causes.
They did not mention the possibility of terrorism. The Antonov An-148 was en route to Orsk in the Ural mountains.
It crashed near the village of Argunovo, about 80km (50 miles) south-east of Moscow. Wreckage and body parts are strewn over over a large area.
Rescuers had to abandon their vehicles and reach the remote crash site on foot.
A spokeswoman for the accident investigation agency, Svetlana Petrenko, said searching the area would take at least a day, the gazeta.ru news website reported.
The plane did not make an emergency call. One of the flight recorders has been recovered.
Al Jazeera
A somber revolutionary anniversary in Iran
The 39th anniversary of the revolution in Iran promises to be a sombre occasion for the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, who was forced to acknowledge the mass discontent in the country as result of the recent protests and received letters from two dissident insiders accusing him of negligence and empire building.
The letters came from two prominent establishment figures from either end of the political spectrum. On the left, Mehdi Karroubi, one of the leaders of the reformist uprising of 2009, in a letter published on January 30, blamed Khamenei for the country's chaotic political, economic, cultural and social situations. And on the right, the former hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, published a similar letter marking the anniversary of the revolution and held Khamenei responsible for not doing anything about the judiciary which has turned into a "major pillar of oppression" against the Iranian people.
Reuters
Iran displays missile, Rouhani says U.S. regional policy a failure: TV
ANKARA (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Iranians rallied on Sunday to mark the anniversary of Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, denouncing the United States and Israel as oppressors.
President Hassan Rouhani, addressing flag-waving crowds on central Tehran’s Azadi (Freedom) Square, made no specific reference to Israel’s air strikes in Syria on Saturday which it said were aimed at air defense and Iranian targets.
But he told the crowd: “They (U.S. and Israel) wanted to create tension in the region ... they wanted to divide Iraq, Syria ... They wanted to create long-term chaos in Lebanon but ... but with our help their policies failed.”
Iran backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war, supports Shi‘ite militias in Iraq, Houthi rebels in Yemen and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who sees Iran as a rising threat to regional stability in the Middle East, has pledged to work with Israel and Iran’s key regional rival Saudi Arabia to curb what they say are Tehran’s attempts to extend its influence in the region.
Washington Post
The drone shot down by Israel was an Iranian copy of a U.S. craft, Israel says
JERUSALEM — The drone that Israel said it shot down this weekend appeared to have been developed by Iran from technology obtained when it captured a U.S. stealth aircraft in 2011, according to aviation experts and Israeli officials.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a spokesman for Israel’s military, and Yuval Steinitz, a minister in Israel’s security cabinet, said the craft was a copy of a U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel spy drone, which Iran claims to have reverse-engineered.
Experts who examined footage of the drone being shot down and images of its wreckage released by the Israeli military agreed that the shape strongly resembled that of Iran’s Saeqeh, or “Thunderbolt,” drone, which was based on a CIA-operated RQ-170 captured by Iran.
Conricus said that he could not specifically confirm that the drone was a Saeqeh and that the debris is still being examined. Iran has developed several other models based on the RQ-170.
“It was an Iranian copy of a U.S. drone that they got hold of a few years ago and they duplicated,” Steinitz told Israeli radio.
Al Jazeera
Netanyahu: Air raids dealt serious blow to Iran, Syria
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, has described his country's most significant air attacks on Syria in decades as a heavy blow to Syria and Iran.
The attacks were in response to Syrian government forces shooting down an Israeli fighter jet on Saturday, and claims that an Iranian drone entered Israeli airspace.
The air attacks reportedly hit an airport on the outskirts of al-Suwayda, in southern Syria, and a weapons depot near the capital, Damascus.
Israel has sounded several warnings about the perceived, increased Iranian involvement along its borders with Syria and Lebanon.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin has urged Netanyahu to avoid any steps that could escalate tension.
The Guardian (Here’s hoping they won’t be in power then)
Trump administration considering privatizing International Space Station
The Trump administration is considering turning the International Space Station over to private enterprise, according to internal documents obtained by the Washington Post, and ceasing to fund the orbiting lab by 2024.
While the plan doesn’t not recommend “deorbiting” the 1990s-vintage space station, which is currently contracted to Boeing and costs Nasa more than $3bn a year, the Nasa documents say “it is possible that industry could continue to operate certain elements or capabilities of the ISS as part of a future commercial platform”.
“Nasa will expand international and commercial partnerships over the next seven years in order to ensure continued human access to and presence in low Earth orbit,” the documents state.
The administration is set to request $150m in its 2019 budget proposal, due on Monday, “to enable the development and maturation of commercial entities and capabilities which will ensure that commercial successors to the ISS – potentially including elements of the ISS – are operational when they are needed”.
The plan to terminate funding is not unexpected. Last week former astronaut Mark Kelly appeared to predict the impending proposal in an a New York Times editorial in which he described the space station’s recent “surge in commercial activity.
Raw Story
11 government employees quit after election of first woman mayor in fundamentalist Mormon city
The election of a woman as mayor of the city of Hildale, Utah has caused a political earthquake that has sparked a mass exodus of government employees.
KSL.com reports that 11 city employees resigned from their positions last week — and one of them cited his religious objections to working for a woman as a primary reason.
Specifically, the employee claimed that his religious beliefs prevented him from “following a woman, and from serving on a board with apostates” as the reason for his resignation.Mayor Donia Jessop, who made history as the first woman elected as mayor of Hildale last November, was sworn into office last month. She is also the first Hildale mayor who is not a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which has long been the most dominant force in the city’s politics.
Raw Story
Mick Mulvaney emerges as a leading candidate to replace White House chief of staff
Posted with permission from Tribune Content Agency
WASHINGTON — Mick Mulvaney, a former South Carolina congressman who now serves as President Donald Trump's budget director, is a leading contender to replace White House chief of staff John Kelly, according to two people familiar with the situation.
Mulvaney, who was recently named to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on an interim basis, is the top choice if Trump dismisses Kelly over his handling of domestic abuse allegations involving one of his closest aides, according to one of the people.
Mulvaney has become one of the White House's most effective messengers for a president who values telegenic qualities in his administration officials. He is scheduled to appear Sunday on "Face the Nation," the day before the Office of Management and Budget is scheduled to release its fiscal 2019 budget blueprint.
{snip}
Others who are being considered for Kelly's job are House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, a North Carolina Republican; House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California; Gary Cohn, Trump's economic adviser; and David Urban, a veteran Washington lobbyist who worked on the president's campaign. Trump is also interested in Tom Barrack, former executive chairman of his inaugural committee, but Barrack is not willing to take the job.
NPR
Trump To Unveil Long-Awaited $1.5 Trillion Infrastructure Plan
President Trump will finally be unveiling his long-awaited $1.5 trillion plan to repair and rebuild the nation's crumbling highways, bridges, railroads, airports, seaports and water systems Monday. But, the proposal will not be one that offers large sums of federal funding to states for infrastructure needs, but it is instead a financing plan that shifts much of the funding burden onto the states and onto local governments.
Critics say that will lead to higher state and local taxes, and an increased reliance on user fees, such as tolls, water and sewer fees, transit fares and airline ticket taxes.
Senior White House officials who briefed reporters over the weekend say the plan is aimed at fixing the current system of funding infrastructure that they say is broken in two ways.
The first is that the country has been under-investing in infrastructure, leading a state of growing disrepair. The American Society of Civil Engineers gives the nation a grade of D+ for the condition of transit, highway, bridge, rail, water and other infrastructure, and says the country is in need of an investment of $2 trillion more than is currently budgeted.
USA Today
De-icing fluid shortage forces Southwest to cancel Chicago flights (autoplay)
An icy winter storm moving across the Great Lakes forced Southwest Airlines to cancel all of its flights in and out of Chicago on Sunday. Southwest said the cancellations were due to a shortage of airplane de-icing fluid.
In all, more than 250 flights were canceled “due to winter operational issues,” Midway Airport tweeted Sunday night.
Southwest said it “proactively canceled” about 220 flights and was offering refunds or flight vouchers, WBBM-TV reported.
In a statement, Alyssa Eliasen, a spokesperson for the airline, said Southwest had "actively worked to manage our glycol levels (used to deice aircraft)," but that due to the severity of the winter weather it was forced to cancel the flights.
Southwest has "multiple glycol deliveries" scheduled for Monday and expects to resume "close to normal operations" at Midway, she said.
N Y Times
F.D.A. Chief Goes Against the Administration Stereotype
WASHINGTON — Scott Gottlieb, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, came to the job with a résumé straight out of the Trump administration’s playbook.
A millionaire with a libertarian bent, he made his money working for the industry he now regulates, and had investments in 20 health care companies whose products could come before the agency for approval. Pharmaceutical and medical device executives enthusiastically supported his nomination, while consumer and public health groups sounded the requisite alarms.
“Unprecedented financial entanglements,” complained Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, during his confirmation hearing.
Now, more than nine months after he was confirmed, Dr. Gottlieb has achieved something unusual among President Trump’s appointees: He has quieted some skeptics, while also managing to keep industry supporters content and the president on his side. He has done so by making moves to protect public health while also offering rewards to industry — double plays that have some willing to give him a second look.