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, jck, 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 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
Chile protests: Five dead after looters torch garment factory
Five people have died after a garment factory was set ablaze by looters near Chile's capital Santiago amid a wave of protests.
The military and police used tear gas and water cannon against demonstrators, and a night-time curfew was imposed in major cities.
The unrest, sparked by a now suspended metro fare hike, has widened to reflect anger over living costs and inequality.
President Sebastián Piñera has defended the government's response.
"I'm convinced that democracy not only has the right, it has the obligation to defend itself using all the instruments that democracy itself provides, and the rule of law to combat those who want to destroy it," he said after an emergency meeting with officials.
Protests continued across the country despite a state of emergency in five regions declared by Mr Piñera on Friday, allowing authorities to restrict people's freedom of movement and their right to assembly.
BBC (Some explanation of a complex situation)
Brexit: What happens now?
A new version of the Brexit deal has been agreed between the EU and UK.
For the first time this century, MPs sat in the House of Commons on a Saturday to debate it.
The new deal replaces the Northern Ireland backstop with special arrangements for Northern Ireland that will prevent a hard Irish border.
There is also a new political declaration, which sets out proposals for the long-term future relationship between the UK and the EU.
A key amendment from MP Sir Oliver Letwin has passed. It means that any support MPs give to the Brexit deal is withheld until legislation to implement the deal has been passed by MPs and Lords.
Mr Johnson has now - compelled by the so-called Benn Act - sent a letter to the EU to request a three-month delay to Brexit.
But Mr Johnson did not sign the letter. He then sent a follow-up one, which he did sign, saying that he does not think there should be an extension.
Al Jazeera
DRC bus skids off highway, bursts into flames leaving 30 dead
At least 30 people died early on Sunday when a packed bus came off the road on a highway west of the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kinshasa, and burst into flames, according to the Red Cross.
"The current toll is 30 dead, 18 others have third-degree burns," Red Cross spokesman David Nsiala told AFP news agency.
"We are continuing the work of identifying the bodies," added Nsiala, who runs the Red Cross in Mbanzea-Ngungu territory southwest of Kinshasa.
The bus, carrying people and goods, was travelling from Lufu to Kinshasa when the brakes failed, he said.
An injured passenger who gave her name as Nacha said more than 100 people had been in the vehicle at the time, and many bodies were burned beyond recognition.
Al Jazeera
Defence minister says 'no force' can stop China reunification
China's defence minister said on Monday that resolving the "Taiwan question" was China's greatest national interest, and that no force could prevent the country's "reunification".
Separatist activities were doomed to failure, Defence Minister Wei Fenghe said at the opening in Beijing of the Xiangshan Forum, which Chinastyles as its answer to the annual Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore.
Xi: Nobody can change fact Taiwan is part of China.
Tensions between China and Taiwan have ratcheted up ahead of a presidential election on the island in January.
Beijing sees Taiwan as a renegade province that needs to be retaken by force if necessary a message President Xi Jinping reiterated at the start of this year.
The Guardian
Scientists 'may have crossed ethical line' in growing human brains
Neuroscientists may have crossed an “ethical rubicon” by growing lumps of human brain in the lab, and in some cases transplanting the tissue into animals, researchers warn.
The creation of mini-brains or brain “organoids” has become one of the hottest fields in modern neuroscience. The blobs of tissue are made from stem cells and, while they are only the size of a pea, some have developed spontaneous brain waves, similar to those seen in premature babies.
Many scientists believe that organoids have the potential to transform medicine by allowing them to probe the living brain like never before. But the work is controversial because it is unclear where it may cross the line into human experimentation.
On Monday, researchers will tell the world’s largest annual meeting of neuroscientists that some scientists working on organoids are “perilously close” to crossing the ethical line, while others may already have done so by creating sentient lumps of brain in the lab.
Reuters
Pentagon chief in Afghanistan as U.S. looks to kickstart Taliban talks
KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper arrived in Afghanistan on Sunday in a bid to bring talks with the Taliban back on track after President Donald Trump abruptly broke off negotiations last month seeking to end the United States’ longest war. Esper’s trip to Kabul comes amid questions about the United States’ commitments to allies after a sudden withdrawal of U.S. troops from northeastern Syria and Trump’s long-time desire to get out of foreign engagements.
“The aim is to still get a peace agreement at some point, a political agreement. That is the best way forward,” Esper told reporters traveling with him to Afghanistan. He is due to meet President Ashraf Ghani and U.S. troops while in Afghanistan.
“I hope we can move forward and come up with a political agreement that meets our ends and meets the goals we want to achieve,” Esper said, adding that talks were in the State Department’s domain.
NPR
Justin Trudeau Battles For His Political Survival As Canada Gets Ready To Vote
In Canada, campaigning for Monday's election is going down to the wire with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fighting the battle of his political life.
His rise to power as Liberal Party leader four years ago on a message of hope and change now seems a long way off. He has since been implicated in a series of scandals that have him locked in a virtual tie with the opposition Conservative Party in a race that has some distinctly American overtones.
This past Wednesday, former President Barack Obama endorsed Trudeau, writing on Twitter that "The world needs his progressive leadership now, and I hope our neighbors to the north support him for another term.” Trudeau welcomed the endorsement. "I appreciate the kind words and I'm working to keep the progress going," he told reporters in Quebec, the Liberal power base where polls show he is losing support to the separatist Bloc Québécois party.
Deutsche Welle
Greens surge in Swiss elections as voters' climate concerns grow
Support for environmentalist parties surged in Switzerland's Sunday election, while the right-wing People's Party (SVP) kept their lead but emerged chastened.
The left-leaning Green Party garnered 13.2% support, surpassing their pre-election projection with a six-point bump from their performance in the last election in 2015.
Read more: Tens of thousands join Swiss climate march ahead of election
The Liberal Greens, a more centrist environmental party with libertarian socioeconomic policies, also gained ground with 7.8% of the vote, moving up from less than 5% in 2015.
'Green wave'
Sunday's "green wave" marks a "tectonic shift" to the left, said Green Party President Regula Rytz, and gives the Greens or a coalition of the two environmentalist parties a chance for a seat in the broad coalition that has governed the country for decades.
Deutsche Welle
Deadly Bangladesh riot over Facebook post about Islam
A Facebook post that criticized Islam's Prophet Muhammad sparked a riot in southern Bangladesh on Sunday that left at least four people dead.
Hundreds of Muslims took to the streets in the town of Borhanuddin, 195 kilometers (120 miles) from the capital, Dhaka, to protest the offensive social media post allegedly written by a Hindu man.
A local official said a meeting was held on Sunday to try to defuse the tensions that began Friday as the Facebook post gained traction.
But the angry protesters started attacking security officials, prompting them to retaliate.
Tear gas deployed
As the protest descended into further violence, police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.
"We fired blank shots in self-defense when some people started throwing stones at our officers, forcing us to take shelter in a building," said Sarkar Mohammad Kaisar, superintendent of police in Bhola.
Officials said 50 people were injured, including around 10 police officers.
Washington Post
Brazil’s female farmers join forces to fight attacks, discrimination, lack of opportunity
SAO PAULO, Brazil — The endless fields of soy and corn outside Norma Gatto’s window sent her into a panic. Harvest was coming, and her husband was dead, killed in a work dispute with a farmhand.
Gatto, who grew up around agriculture but had never planted anything herself, was left to raise her three boys and manage their burgeoning farm in Brazil’s heartland on her own.
“It was the worst moment of my life,” she says. “I had to be Mom and Dad, help heal my children’s pain, and do something I had never done before — [farm]work.”
Two decades later, Gatto, 60, is one of Brazil’s most powerful female farmers, managing 44,000 acres of soy, corn, beans and cattle. For years she was the only female farmer in southern Mato Grosso state, Brazil’s soy country. Now, she speaks to thousands of women hoping to break into the country’s $300 billion, male-dominated agricultural industry.
Al Jazeera
Motown to Growtown: Detroit's Urban Farming Revolution
Rising from the ashes of decades of urban decay, the US city of Detroit is fast becoming an urban farming capital.
Many residents are now producing organic food locally - reducing the environmental footprint of their food by cutting down on carbon emissions from transport and on chemical inputs.
They are also helping revive communities as new green spaces and farmer's markets crop up, providing neighbourhoods with fresh fruits and vegetables.
Plots of land range from backyards, to seven-acre (2.8 hectares) community farms, to plans for large-scale commercial farms.
In 2012, Al Jazeera met the local residents at the centre of the city's urban farming revolution. Several years on, Rewind returns to visit them to see how the movement has progressed.
70-year-old Edith Floyd, an urban farming veteran, has expanded her farm from nine lots to 32 and has added a large hoop house, where she can grow fruits and vegetables year-round.
"We have broccoli, collards, green peppers and celery," she explains.
She says she plans to keep on farming for years to come: "If you don't work, you don't eat. And if you don't work, you get lazy and don't want to do nothing. Work keeps me going. I like working.”