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 (RIP), 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.
Let’s start with news about COVID, from Yahoo News:
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, stressed that we need to be "grateful" for healthcare workers, after hospital employees in Toronto were advised to not to wear anything to identify them has health workers this weekend, due to a possible "freedom convoy" protest.
From Axios:
Austria on Friday became the first country in the European Union to legally mandate that all adults get vaccinated against COVID-19, CNN reports.
The big picture: Those without vaccine proof or an exemption face an initial fine of up to up to 600 euros (around $680). Authorities are expected to begin checking people's vaccine status March 15, per The Guardian.
Another big story of the day is the Olympics. We begin with this, from CNN:
(CNN)It would be hard to hold a conversation over the deafening sound of the snow machines preparing the Olympic venues northwest of Beijing. They are loud and they are everywhere, blowing snow across what will be this month's most-watched slopes.
It is almost beautiful -- except that the
venues are surrounded by an endless brown, dry landscape completely devoid of snow.
From Reuters:
BEIJING, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya who defected at last year's Tokyo Games said on Friday she had fought hard for the United States to penalise those responsible for her early Olympic exit and that she hoped international sports bodies would join in punishing them.
On Thursday the United States said it was imposing visa restrictions on several Belarusian nationals, citing Tsimanouskaya's case and repression against athletes from the country.
From the Daily Beast:
Jamie Ross
The
Beijing Winter Olympics are officially underway—but, before the Opening Ceremony even finished on Friday, Chinese authorities proved to the world once again that it won’t tolerate any kind of free press.
In an extraordinary clip from Dutch broadcaster NOS, one of its reporters who is in Beijing to cover the Games can be seen being manhandled by a security guard sporting a red armband. The reporter, Sjoerd den Daas, attempted to carry on his broadcast while being grabbed and yelled at by the guard, then NOS decided to cut away back to the studio.
From The Cut:
From CNN:
(CNN)India on Thursday announced a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing after a commander involved in 2020 border clashes between the two countries appeared as an Olympic torchbearer in the customary torch relay leading up to the Games.
The last-minute boycott, which will see India's top envoy in Beijing sit out Friday's Opening Ceremony, adds the world's most populous democracy to a list of Western nations who already have launched their own
diplomatic no-shows, citing China's human rights record -- setting the tone for a controversial Olympic Games.
From Deadline:
A Chinese-hosted Winter Olympics in the Year of the Tiger should have been roaring. Instead, this morning’s Opening Ceremony alternated between boring and brutal.
Officially starting off with a solemn countdown video linking the Beijing Games and the recently launched Lunar New Year festival, the tone of spring rebirth, propaganda and imperial heritage was firmly established. While there were a few moments of beauty and grace, the privileged post given the goose-stepping People’s Liberation Army early on in the opening ceremony really said it all.
Other things are happening, of course. Check out this from the Washington Post:
As military analysts warn of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, they also are keeping an eye on the weather. Temperatures, cloud cover or even the radioactivity in the soil could determine when and where Russian troops make a possible move.
For centuries, armies and nations have waged wars on these same lands, from the steppes to the Eastern European heartland, and have faced similar obstacles — from mucky wetlands to rushing rivers and treacherous mountain ranges.
And more on the same topic, from Newsweek:
BY BRENDAN COLE
Vladimir Putin will soon have to decide what to do with the huge number of soldiers he has sent to the border with Ukraine, a former CIA analyst has told Newsweek.
The Russian president "has to be concerned about the cost of keeping Russian troops deployed in the field—not just financially, but in terms of military morale," said Nicholas Dujmovic.
From the BBC:
Tory MP Aaron Bell, who criticised Boris Johnson in Parliament over lockdown parties, says he has submitted a letter of no confidence in the PM.
Mr Bell made an emotional speech in the Commons on Monday.
She investigated 16 separate gatherings, some of which "should not have been allowed to take place".
From Reuters:
- Johnson is 'taking charge', minister says
- Senior lawmaker: I am deeply troubled
- Four senior aides quit
- Johnson fights to shore up authority
- Another lawmaker submits letter of no confidence
LONDON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was fighting on Friday to shore up his authority after a senior aide resigned over his false claim that the leader of the opposition Labour Party failed to prosecute a notorious child sex abuser.
Johnson, who in 2019 won the biggest Conservative majority since Margaret Thatcher, has repeatedly refused to resign over reports that he and some of his staff attended Downing Street parties during COVID-19 lockdowns.
From the BBC:
Germany and the EU have condemned Russia's decision to shut down the Moscow bureau of international public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW).
All DW's staff have lost their press accreditations and the channel is barred from broadcasting in Russia.
Germany's culture minister said the move was "not acceptable in any way".
From People Magazine:
Ashley Wadsworth, 19, was found stabbed to death in the home of a man she had met online
A Canadian teen was found dead in Chelmsford, England, on Tuesday, and police say that her boyfriend is responsible for killing her.
Ashley Wadsworth, 19, had never left Canada before flying to the UK to move in with Jack Sepple, who she met online.
From the BBC:
Commercial whaling in Iceland could be banned within two years, after a government minister said there was little justification for the practice.
The northern European country, an island in the North Atlantic, is one of few places to allow whale hunting.
But demand for the mammals' meat has decreased dramatically since Japan - Iceland's main market - resumed commercial whaling in 2019.
From the New York Times:
Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance was crushed by Antarctic ice in 1915. Now, a team of researchers is heading to the Weddell Sea where it went down.
A century after Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance sank in the waters of Antarctica, resulting in one of the greatest survival stories in the history of exploration, a team of modern adventurers, technicians and scientists is setting sail to find the wreck.
With a crew of 46 and a 64-member expedition team aboard, a South African icebreaker, the Agulhas II, is set to leave Cape Town on Saturday, bound for the Weddell Sea. Once there, the team hopes to find the wreck and explore it with two underwater drones.
From KSL.com:
By David Rising and Nick Perry
BANGKOK — For more than two years, the isolation of the Pacific archipelago nation of Tonga helped keep COVID-19 at bay.
But last month's volcanic eruption and tsunami brought outside deliveries of desperately needed fresh water and medicine — and the virus.
From CNN:
(CNN) —
A New Zealand family got an unexpected bird's eye view of a trail they had just hiked in Fiordland National Park, South Island, after a mischievous parrot stole their GoPro and took flight.
The Verheul family, from Dunedin in the southeast of the country, had just finished exploring part of the Kepler Track when a kea -- a native New Zealand species -- grabbed their GoPro and flew off over woodland.
From The Guardian:
Deceased included three Dutch tourists, two Chilean tourists and two Peruvian members of crew, local police said