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 JeremyBloom. 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.
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.
- Some stories for tonight:
- India bridge collapse: Hundreds plunged into river and dozens killed in Gujarat
- Switzerland sets record with world's longest passenger train
- Fires from exploding e-bike batteries multiply in NYC — sometimes fatally
- Western leaders blast Russia's exit from grain deal that's helped ease global hunger
- Nearly 2m public sector workers close to quitting over pay, says TUC
- Guantanamo’s oldest inmate Saifullah Paracha freed after 19 years
- 'Golden parachutes' for fired Twitter executives worth $122 million, research firm says
- Ukraine's allies confront a massive reconstruction task
- Covid, Flu, RSV: Hospitalizations Rise as Wave of Viruses Hits New York
BBC
India bridge collapse: Hundreds plunged into river and dozens killed in Gujarat
At least 78 people have died after a pedestrian bridge collapsed in India's western state of Gujarat.
Hundreds of people were plunged into River Macchu in Morbi town. Local footage shows survivors hanging off the partly-submerged suspension bridge.
Reports say as many as 400 people were on the structure at the time. More than 80 people have been rescued, said Brijesh Merja, a state minister.
The incident comes just days after the bridge was reopened following repairs.
The 230-metre (754 feet) colonial-era crossing was built during British rule of India in the 19th Century. Known locally as a Julto Pool, it is a popular tourist attraction in the area.
BBC
Switzerland sets record with world's longest passenger train
A Swiss railway operator has set a new record for completing a journey with the world's longest passenger train.
The 1.9km (1.2 mile) train, which is composed of 100 coaches, completed a spectacular 25km (15.5 mile) journey through the Alps.
The world record attempt took place to highlight Switzerland's engineering achievements, as well as to mark 175 years of Swiss railways.
NPR
Fires from exploding e-bike batteries multiply in NYC — sometimes fatally
NEW YORK — Four times a week on average, an e-bike or e-scooter battery catches fire in New York City.
Sometimes, it does so on the street, but more often, it happens when the owner is recharging the lithium ion battery. A mismatched charger won't always turn off automatically when the battery's fully charged, and keeps heating up. Or, the highly flammable electrolyte inside the battery's cells leaks out of its casing and ignites, setting off a chain reaction.
"These bikes when they fail, they fail like a blowtorch," said Dan Flynn, the chief fire marshal at the New York Fire Department. "We've seen incidents where people have described them as explosive — incidents where they actually have so much power, they're actually blowing walls down in between rooms and apartments."
As of Friday, the FDNY investigated 174 battery fires, putting 2022 on track to double the number of fires that occurred last year (104) and quadruple the number from 2020 (44). So far this year, six people have died in e-bike-related fires and 93 people were injured, up from four deaths and 79 injuries last year.
NPR
Western leaders blast Russia's exit from grain deal that's helped ease global hunger
Odesa, Ukraine – The European Union called on Russia on Sunday to reverse its decision to suspend participation in a grain deal brokered by the United Nations that has helped ease the global food crisis.
Western leaders are condemning Moscow's actions, which are triggering a new wave of fears about global hunger and rampant inflation.
"Russia's decision to suspend participation in the Black Sea deal puts at risks the main export route of much needed grain and fertilisers to address the global food crisis caused by its war against Ukraine," Josep Borrell, the European Union's foreign policy chief, said in a Twitter message.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia was deliberately blockading food for the hungry.
In a nighttime address, he called Moscow's decision "predictable." He said Russia was already holding up 176 ships carrying more than 2 million tons of food.
"This is an absolutely transparent intention of Russia to return the threat of large scale famine to Africa and Asia," Zelenskyy said.
The Guardian
Nearly 2m public sector workers close to quitting over pay, says TUC
Nearly 2 million public sector workers could be close to quitting over poor pay, their representatives have warned, leaving the UK’s public services facing a looming crisis.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) said the efforts of millions of key workers got the UK through the worst of the Covid pandemic, but now those same workers were facing another year of “pay misery” at the hands of the government – while the cost of living continues to soar.
“Many are now at breaking point because of a toxic mix of low pay, unsustainable workloads and a serious lack of recognition,” said its outgoing general secretary, Frances O’Grady.
“After years of brutal pay cuts, nurses, teachers, refuse workers and millions of other public servants have seen their living standards decimated – and now face more pay misery,” O’Grady said.
“It is little wonder morale is through the floor and many key workers are considering leaving their jobs for good.”
Al Jazeera
Guantanamo’s oldest inmate Saifullah Paracha freed after 19 years
The oldest inmate at the United States-run Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba Saifullah Paracha has been released to his home country Pakistan after nearly 20 years of detention without trial, the South Asian country’s foreign ministry said.
“The Foreign Ministry completed an extensive inter-agency process to facilitate the repatriation of Mr Paracha,” the ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
“We are glad that a Pakistani citizen detained abroad is finally reunited with his family.”
Businessman Paracha was arrested in 2003 in Thailand and accused of financing the armed group, but he has maintained his innocence.
In May, the US approved Paracha’s release concluding only that he was “not a continuing threat” to the US.
Like most prisoners at Guantanamo, Paracha – aged 74 or 75 – was never formally charged and had little legal power to challenge his detention.
Reuters
'Golden parachutes' for fired Twitter executives worth $122 million, research firm says
(Reuters) - Three top executives of Twitter Inc fired by new owner Elon Musk stand to receive separation payouts totaling some $122 million, research firm Equilar said on Friday.
Musk fired Twitter Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde, according to people familiar with the matter. He had accused them of misleading him and Twitter investors over the number of fake accounts on the platform.
In an email to Reuters, Equilar, known for its research on executive compensation, valued Agrawal's so-called "golden parachute" at $57.4 million, while Segal's was $44.5 million and Gadde's was $20 million.
In addition to those payouts, the three executives also will receive a collective $65 million from Musk in exchange for shares they held in the company he has now taken private.
Deutsche Welle
Ukraine's allies confront a massive reconstruction task
It isn't easy to estimate the cost of rebuilding post-war Ukraine. Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine's prime minister, said in July it would cost $750 billion. The World Bank and European Commission lowered that figure to $349 billion in September. With the war still raging and no end in sight, neither estimate is all that reliable.
Russia's invasion has destroyed many as 130,000 buildings, 2,400 schools, and 400 commercial properties, according to Ukraine's economy ministry. Then there is road and rail infrastructure to take into account. Russian forces have also been targeting gas and water utilities more specifically in the last few weeks.All of that comes to one-third of Ukraine's infrastructure, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said via video link at a two-day conference in Berlin earlier this week. Germany, which currently chairs the G7, a collection of the world's richest democracies, hosted the event, which also included the European Commission and German business groups.
Of course, these goals are still a long way away. Economic output is down 30%, Ukraine's Economy Minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, told the conference via video from Kyiv. Inflation is at 26% and one-third of the country is out of work.
New York Times
Covid, Flu, RSV: Hospitalizations Rise as Wave of Viruses Hits New York
Just in time for colder weather and with other respiratory viruses on the rise, the mix of Covid-19 variants is shifting again in New York City in potentially worrying ways.
The Omicron variant that accounted for most infections through the summer, BA.5, is now giving way to a variant soup — a mixture of different Omicron subvariants, including BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, which are even more transmissible and better at dodging immunity.
With most testing now done at home, it is hard to get a clear picture of the amount of virus circulating. The city’s official Covid case numbers have been holding steady for two months, at about 2,000 cases reported per day. But hospitalizations have again started to increase. There were about 1,100 people hospitalized with Covid-19 in New York City on Oct. 24, up from 750 in mid-September, according to state data.
The rise in Covid hospitalizations is coinciding with the early arrival of flu season and a nationwide surge in RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, which can cause breathing difficulty in young children and older adults.