A selection of tonight’s stories:
Assault on Palma
Mexico virus death toll up 60%
Mexicans travel to US for vaccines
Europe; France, Covid-critical
Ship still stuck in canal
Beijing sandstorms
Nashville flooding
Pandemic money hoarding
Putin boasting
Active shooter in Everglades
Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame, jck and Rise above the swamp. . Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw.
Since 2007 the OND has been 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 and consider this an open thread.
BBC
Mozambique: Dozens dead after militant assault on Palma
Dozens of people are dead following an attack on the town of Palma in northern Mozambique, according to a spokesperson from the country's defence department.
Seven were killed trying to escape a siege on a hotel, said Omar Saranga.
Hundreds of others, both locals and foreigners, were reportedly rescued.
The area has been under attack by Islamist militants since Wednesday. Witnesses have described hiding out while waiting to be rescued by boat, on a beach strewn with headless bodies.
Marine traffic websites showed a string of vessels around Palma, and the port of Pemba to the south, as people tried to escape by any means - cargo vessels, passenger ships, tugs and recreational boats.
The exact number of casualties in Palma, a town of about 75,000 people in Cabo Delgado province, is unclear. Many are still unaccounted for.
The town and beaches are strewn with bodies "with heads and without", according to Col Lionel Dyke, whose private security firm, Dyck Advisory Group, is contracted by the Mozambique police in the area.
The armed group is reported to have taken control of Palma, but those claims are hard to verify amid a communications blackout.
BBC
Covid-19: Mexico revises coronavirus death toll up by 60%
Mexico has published revised figures indicating that the number of deaths caused by coronavirus is 60% higher than previously reported.
More than 321,000 people are now believed to have died from Covid-19 in the country.
The revised toll places Mexico with the second highest number of Covid-related deaths in the world, after the US.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has faced widespread criticism over his handling of the crisis.
The opposition has accused him of downplaying the severity of the pandemic and blamed him for delays in the vaccination programme.
NPR
Some Mexicans Travel To U.S. For COVID Vaccines As Their Country's Rollout Stumbles
In Mexico, where less than 5% of the population has received a COVID-19 vaccine dose, the rich and well-connected have found a faster way to get their hands on one: travel north.
Some Mexicans with family ties or dual citizenship in the United States, or who just can afford the airfare, are heading to the U.S. to get vaccinated faster than the many months of waiting for one back home.
They've also not been shy to share their tips and stories online about how they do it. The phenomenon has sparked intense debate: between officials who believe U.S. residents should have priority and those who feel that, in a general sense, the more people vaccinated the better. But the picture isn't that black and white.
The quest for shots comes as Mexico struggles to secure and distribute vaccines against COVID-19, with the country's confirmed deaths from the disease now surpassing 200,000.
Al Jazeera
Several European countries expand COVID curbs; France ‘critical’
Several European countries have tightened measures to stem the spread of coronavirus in the face of a worrying rise in infections that is putting further pressure on healthcare systems.
In France, the government on Saturday described the situation as “critical” as it added three more departments to the 16 already under tight restrictions.
Some 20 million people, including those in the greater Paris region, are classed as living in high-infection zones. They are not allowed to travel further than 10km (six miles) from their home unless they have an essential reason.
Officers at train stations, airports and toll-paying motorways began on Saturday to enforce the travel restrictions. Only shops selling food, and book and music stores are open and classrooms in high schools are only running at half the capacity.
Daily cases in France have nearly doubled since the start of March, with more than 200,000 new infections registered every week. On Saturday, it reported another 42,619 daily cases, up from 41,869 on Friday.
The Guardian
Suez canal: Syria 'rations' fuel as efforts to free stuck ship fail
Syrian authorities say they have begun rationing fuel as the blockage of the Suez canal stretched into a sixth day, delaying vital shipments and worsening the country’s oil shortages.
Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011 and faces a severe economic crisis. It had already announced a more than 50% rise in the price of petrol in mid-March.
Global supply chains have been crippled since Tuesday when the giant container ship Ever Given ran aground and became wedged diagonally across the canal, blocking the crucial waterway in both directions.
In contrast to earlier claims that wind gusts were behind the stranding, the Suez Canal Authority chief, Osama Rabie, said on Saturday: “Strong winds and weather factors were not the main reasons for the ship’s grounding, there may have been technical or human errors.”
He hopes to refloat the vessel within days, but days of dredging, digging and tugboat pushing have so far been unsuccessful.
Rabie said the longer the skyscraper-sized Ever Given remained in place, the greater the possibility its load would need to be lightened using cranes, a strategy that experts have said would probably extend the salvage effort by weeks.
The Guardian
Sandstorms turn sun blue and sky yellow in Beijing
The second sandstorm to hit China in less than a fortnight has reversed the colours of the sky, turning the sun blue and the heavens yellow.
Beijing woke on Sunday morning shrouded in thick dust carrying extremely high levels of hazardous particles.
The sandstorm was fuelled by winds from drought-hit Mongolia and north-western China.
Visibility in the city was reduced, with the tops of some skyscrapers obscured by the sandstorm. Pedestrians were forced to cover their eyes as gusts of dust swept through the streets.
The China Meteorological Administration issued a yellow alert on Friday, warning that a sandstorm was spreading from Mongolia into northern Chinese provinces including Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Liaoning and Hebei, which surrounds Beijing.
As the sandstorm hit Beijing on Sunday morning, air pollution levels rose to a maximum level of 500, according to Beijing’s real time air quality index. Levels of the pollutant PM10, which can penetrate the lungs, passed 2,000 micrograms per cubic metre.
Al Jazeera
Philippines deploys air force as tensions over Chinese ships rise
The Philippines’ air force has been conducting daily aerial patrols over Chinese fishing vessels moored near a disputed reef, the country’s defence chief said, as he repeated a call to Beijing for their withdrawal from the area.
The diplomatic row was touched off earlier this month when some 220 boats were first spotted at the boomerang-shaped Whitsun Reef, west of Palawan Island.
The Philippines ordered China to recall the vessels, describing their presence as an incursion into its sovereign territory. But China, which claims almost the entirety of the South China Sea, said the flotilla is made up of fishing vessels sheltering from bad weather.
The Philippine foreign ministry has filed a diplomatic protest, while several countries – including the United States and Australia – have expressed concern over the renewed tension in the region.
Philippine navy and coast guard ships have been deployed to the area to monitor the situation, in addition to the aerial patrols, according to the defence secretary, Delfin Lorenzana.
“We are ready to defend our national sovereignty and protect the marine resources of the Philippines,” Lorenzana said late on Saturday.
NPR
At Least 4 Dead, 130 Rescued As Nashville Sees Worst Flooding In Over A Decade
Authorities in Nashville, Tenn., said four people were killed and 130 rescued after near-record levels of rainfall caused significant flooding across the region.
The Nashville Office of Emergency Management said in a Sunday morning update that emergency responders were continuing to make rescues in the aftermath of the storm, which drenched the area in a total of 7 inches of rain.
"Even though it looks beautiful outside, we still want people to be cautious and stay aware, stay alert, stay alive," Nashville Fire Department Director William Swann said at an early afternoon press conference.The downpour had subsided in most of Middle Tennessee as of midday Sunday, according to the National Weather Service in Nashville. But parts of the region remain under a flash flood watch through the evening and officials are asking the public to stay vigilant as rising creeks and rivers pose a continuing flood risk.
Reuters
China generated over half world's coal-fired power in 2020: study
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China generated 53% of the world’s total coal-fired power in 2020, nine percentage points more that five years earlier, despite climate pledges and the building of hundreds of renewable energy plants, a global data study showed on Monday.
Although China added a record 71.7 gigawatts (GW) of wind power and 48.2 GW of solar last year, it was the only G20 nation to see a significant jump in coal-fired generation, according to research from Ember, a London-based energy and climate research group.
China’s coal-fired generation rose by 1.7% or 77 terawatt-hours, enough to bring its share of total global coal power to 53%, up from 44% in 2015, the report showed.
The country has promised to reduce its dependence on coal in a bid to bring emissions of climate-warming greenhouse gas to a peak before 2030 and become “carbon neutral” by 2060.
Deutsche Welle
COVID: Germans hoard billions due to lockdown spending curbs
Germans are saving billions more than in previous years, due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the Ifo Institute for Economic Research said.
The savings, which increased by billions of euros, are weakening hopes for a consumer boom in the near future.
Between January 2020 and January 2021, the amount held in private household bank accounts increased by €182 billion ($215 billion) to reach €1.73 trillion, according to Germany's central bank.
"This forecast assumes that households will not spend these savings during the recovery phase and that the savings ratio, which had risen temporarily to around 20% during the two shutdown phases, will return to its pre-crisis level of 11% by the end of 2021," the Ifo report said.
"Nonetheless, there is a chance that at least some of the excess savings will be spent, driving demand. The savings rate would then temporarily fall below 11%."
The Ifo Institute estimated that the cash represents a "savings surplus" of €100 billion, which it said was likely to rise further in the first quarter. The amount of credit extended to consumers, including in the form of overdrafts, has decreased during the pandemic.
Time
How Has the Pandemic Impacted U.S. Savings Rates?
As local economies shut down and the service industry flounders, Americans are saving a greater percentage of their money than ever before, according to new data.
But the high overall U.S. saving rate is hiding a deep inequality.
While many are cutting back on their spending and hoarding cash like never before, poorer Americans are still spending nearly as much of their money as before the pandemic.
“The problem in America, in particular, is that there’s a very large portion of the population that was living paycheck to paycheck. They couldn’t save enough to miss one payment or put $400 aside for an emergency,” says Sarah Nadav, a behavioral economist in the World Economic Forum’s expert network. “So, if they were barely able to pay their bills before then they don’t have very much room to cut down and save now.”
Raw Story
Active shooter situation in Everglades National Park — and the suspect is at large
An active shooter has been reported in the Everglades National Park, the park's Twitter account said Sunday evening. Thus far, there are no reported deaths or injuries but hotels in the area are being told to shelter in place and the shooter is at large. Park officials said that a 33-year-old white man shot at park rangers. Story still developing.
Washington Post
Russia’s Putin pumps up the swagger in swipes at Biden
MOSCOW — The most cutting blow lately against Russian President Vladimir Putin was not President Biden's recent "killer" epithet but the taunt from jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny calling him "grandpa in his bunker."
Shut off from the public and surrounded by security services, Putin has been largely holed up in his country retreat, protected by a special disinfection chamber for visitors. Navalny’s repeated use of the barb stung because it flipped Putin’s image: no longer a Russian bear but a cowering senior.
Cue a state propaganda blitz with 68-year-old Putin portrayed as a dynamic leader with years ahead of him and 78-year-old Biden as a doddering has-been.
Parliament member Pyotr Tolstoy said Biden had “political dementia.” State TV anchor Dmitry Kiselyov called Biden “the American patient,” noting that “at some point you have to face up to the inevitable” of age catching up. Kiselyov gleefully aired footage this month of Biden stumbling on the steps to Air Force One with the on-screen banner “Gone With the Wind.”