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 now moi, 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. Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
Hey there! Let’s start with some apocalyptic stories and put some not so disastrous tales below the fold. First up, CNN:
Russian President Vladimir Putin, for the second time this week, floated the possibility that Russia may formally change its military doctrine of not being the first to use nuclear weapons in a conflict, days after he warned of the “increasing” threat of nuclear war.
“They (the US) have it in their strategy, in the documents it is spelled out – a preventive blow. We don’t. We, on the other hand, have formulated a retaliatory strike in our strategy,” Putin said at a news conference in the Kyrgyzstan capital Bishkek.
From the New York Times:
By Catrin Einhorn and Lauren Leatherby
WILDLIFE IS DISAPPEARING around the world, in the oceans and on land. The main cause on land is perhaps the most straightforward: Humans are taking over too much of the planet, erasing what was there before. Climate change and other pressures make survival harder.
This week and next, nations are meeting in Montreal to negotiate a new agreement to address staggering declines in biodiversity. The future of many species hangs in the balance.
From The Guardian:
Unsustainable human activity putting dugongs, abalone shellfish and pillar coral at risk of disappearing, says latest IUCN update
Illegal and unsustainable fishing, fossil fuel exploration, the climate crisis and disease are pushing marine species to the brink of extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list, with populations of dugongs, abalone shellfish and pillar coral at risk of disappearing for ever.
Marine life is facing a “perfect storm” of human overconsumption, threatening the survival of some of the world’s most expensive seafood, according to the conservation organisation, which publishes the most up-to-date information on the health of wildlife populations on Earth.
Now for the just “bad” news. A few on the Germany story, beginning with NPR:
This week, authorities in Germany arrested more than two dozen suspected far-right extremists over a plot to violently overthrow the government.
The plotters were reportedly inspired by QAnon conspiracy theories.
NPR's Rob Schmitz walks us through the latest.
From The Guardian:
Ex-police officer once tasked with protecting Jewish communities also linked to foiled Reichsbürger plan
A celebrity gourmet chef whose daughter is the girlfriend of the Real Madrid footballer David Alaba and an ex-police officer once tasked with protecting Jewish communities from terror attacks are among the latest figures to have been linked to the foiled Reichsbürger coup plan in Germany, with further arrests expected as investigations continue.
Details emerging after the biggest ever national police operation against rightwing extremism indicate that suspects may have been informed in advance of the raids, in which 3,000 police officers targeted more than 150 addresses across Germany, and in Austria and Italy, making 25 arrests.
From the Seattle Times:
The police raid was apparently the largest in postwar German history. Early on Wednesday morning, some 3,000 officers from various branches of federal and regional law enforcement swept across 11 of Germany’s 16 states as well as locations in Austria and Italy, arresting at least 25 people — including a Russian woman — and questioning many more. Some of the suspects were heavily armed, a few even had training in the German army’s special-operations units. One, an elderly aristocrat known as Heinrich (Henry) XIII, had already been designated as Germany’s next leader.
With this crackdown, it appears, the Germans disrupted plans for a full-bore putsch. Fittingly, putsch is a German word that migrated into English. The Weimar Republic survived several attempted coups until it succumbed in 1933. The U.S. used to think it was immune to such sedition, until it too had to withstand an attack on its Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
From NPR:
SIMEON TEGEL
LIMA, Peru — Perhaps the most telling detail of Pedro Castillo's botched coup attempt this week was the fact that the high-stakes gamble may have been completely unnecessary.
The now former president of Peru made his power grab during an abrupt televised address to the nation on Wednesday morning in which he announced that he was shuttering Congress, "reorganizing" the judiciary and would rule by decree.
From Deutsche Welle:
The incoming leftist president announced five key cabinet appointments — all white men — but promised his government would soon reflect "the image of Brazilian society."
Brazil's leftist President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced the first members of his cabinet on Friday, while outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro has broken his silence over a month after he lost the election.
The incoming president — universally known as Lula — named five key ministers, with more to come. He is set to take office on January 1.
From Quartz:
Tim McDonnell
Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman met this week in Riyadh to discuss oil trade and other issues.
On Dec. 9, the leaders of Saudi Arabia and China met in Riyadh—Xi Jinping’s first visit there since 2016. He and his counterpart, crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, agreed meet more often and signed a number of deals broadly aimed at aligning the countries’ mid-term development agendas, China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Saudi’s Vision 2030.
At the heart of Chinese-Saudi relations is oil. No specific oil deals were disclosed during the meeting, but the Riyadh meeting was clearly a chance for the countries to firm up their longstanding energy trade relations. Saudi Arabia is the top supplier of oil to China, and China is its biggest oil customer, importing $43.9 billion in Saudi crude in 2021.
From The Hill
BY KNOX THAMES
Uyghur Muslims face mass atrocities, if not genocide, at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). With Chairman Xi Jinping visiting Saudi Arabia this week to meet with Arab leaders, these Muslim-majority countries have an opportunity to advocate for oppressed Muslims. Their fellow believers in China need their help.
China’s abuse of Uyghur Muslims is well documented, but unfortunately, most Muslim-majority nations have been silent. Indisputable evidence from the United Nations documented a war against faith. In August 2022, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) issued an assessment on human rights in Xinjiang.
From Deutsche Welle:
Ilya Yashin, a Russian opposition politician, receved a sentence of eight years and six months on Friday for charges that he spread "fake information" by detailing evidence of atrocities carried out in Bucha, near the capital Kyiv.Russian authorities allege Yashin had committed a a "provocation" against Russia.
From the BBC:
Qatar's human rights record is under scrutiny as the World Cup takes place in Doha. A lot has been written about the treatment of migrant workers who built the stadiums and hotels, but what about the foreign maids who work for Qatar's ruling classes? BBC gender and identity correspondent Megha Mohan speaks to two about a life of long hours without days off.
I make contact with Gladys (not her real name) late at night, after her employers from the Qatari elite have gone to bed.
In a brief online conversation she tells me she works from 8am to 11pm every day. She cleans, helps prepare food and looks after the children.
From Deutsche Welle:
Greek MEP Eva Kaili has been detained along with four others. An unidentified Gulf state allegedly targeted officials "with a significant political and/or strategic position" to influence the EU Parliament.
Police in Belgium have arrested Greek socialist MEP Eva Kaili, one of 14 European Parliament vice-presidents, in connection with an investigation into criminal organization, corruption, and money laundering that involves an unidentified Gulf state.
Four others were also detained, including a former MEP, authorities said on Friday.
From NPR:
Nearly 400 South Koreans adopted as children by families in the West have requested South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigate their adoptions through Friday's application deadline, as Seoul faces growing pressure to reckon with a child export frenzy driven by dictatorships that ruled the country until the 1980s.
The commission on Thursday said it decided to investigate 34 cases among the 51 adoptees who first submitted their applications in August, which could possibly develop into the country's most far-reaching inquiry into foreign adoptions yet.
From Al Jazeera:
UN biodiversity conference renews global call to respect Indigenous rights and stewardship over critical territories.
From ABC News:
French President Emmanuel Macron says France will make condoms free in pharmacies for anyone up to age 25
PARIS -- France will make condoms free in pharmacies for anyone up to age 25 in the new year, President Emmanuel Macron announced Friday.
The move comes as the government says sexually transmitted diseases are on the rise among young people, and as this year’s exceptional inflation is cutting especially deeply into the budgets of France’s poorest.