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.
NPR
Palestinian student shot in Vermont is paralyzed from chest down, his family says
Hisham Awartani, a Palestinian-Irish-American college student who was shot last month in an unprovoked attack in Burlington, Vt., is paralyzed from the chest down, his family says.
Awartani, 20, was taking a walk on Nov. 25 with his childhood friends who are the same age and of Palestinian descent when a man approached them with a gun and shot all three.
Awartani and his two friends — Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad — were able to survive, but Awartani could face permanent paralysis in his legs due to a bullet lodged in his spine, his family said in a GoFundMe posted on Saturday to raise money for his medical costs.
"He has demonstrated remarkable courage, resilience and fortitude — even a sense of humor — even as the reality of his paralysis sets in," his family wrote on the GoFundMe page, which was verified by NPR.
NPR
Iran-linked cyberattacks threaten equipment used in U.S. water systems and factories
An Iran-linked hacking group is "actively targeting and compromising" multiple U.S. facilities for using an Israeli-made computer system, U.S. cybersecurity officials say.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said on Friday that the hackers, known as "CyberAv3ngers," have been infiltrating video screens with the message "You have been hacked, down with Israel. Every equipment 'made in Israel' is CyberAv3ngers legal target."
The cyberattacks have spanned multiple states, CISA said. While the equipment in question, "Unitronics Vision Series programmable logic controllers," is predominately used in water and wastewater systems, companies in energy, food and beverage manufacturing, and health care are also under threat.
"These compromised devices were publicly exposed to the internet with default passwords," CISA said.
The Guardian
Mount Merapi eruption: 11 hikers found dead on Indonesian volcano
Indonesian rescuers have found the bodies of 11 climbers after the eruption of the Mount Merapi volcano in West Sumatra.
A rescue official said three people were found alive on the volcano and 12 climbers were still missing. Rescue efforts were ongoing.
“There are 26 people who have not been evacuated, we have found 14 of them, three were found alive and 11 were found dead,” said Abdul Malik, head of Padang Search and Rescue Agency, speaking one day after the eruption.
He said there were a total of 75 hikers on the mountain from Saturday.
The volcano erupted with white and grey ash plumes on Sunday, stranding and injuring climbers and spreading volcanic ash over several villages.
The Guardian
At least 47 people killed and 85 injured by landslides in Tanzania
At least 47 people have been killed and 85 others injured in landslides caused by flooding in northern Tanzania, a local official has said, with warnings the toll would rise.
Heavy rain on Saturday hit the town of Katesh, 300km (186 miles) north of the capital, Dodoma, district commissioner Janeth Mayanja said on Sunday. “Up to this evening, the death toll reached 47 and 85 injured,” Queen Sendiga, regional commissioner in the Manyara area of northern Tanzania, told local media. Both warned that the death toll was likely to increase.
Mayanja added that many roads in the area had been blocked by mud, water and dislodged trees and stones. Livestock had also reportedly been swept away.
After experiencing an unprecedented drought, east Africa has been hit by weeks of torrential rain and flooding. The downpours have displaced more than 1 million people in Somalia and left hundreds dead.
Reuters
Israeli security chief in recording vows to hunt down Hamas abroad
JERUSALEM, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Israel will hunt down Hamas in Lebanon, Turkey and Qatar even if it takes years, the head of Israel's domestic security agency Shin Bet said in a recording aired by Israel's public broadcaster Kan on Sunday.
It was unclear when Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar made the remarks or to whom.
The agency itself declined to comment on the report.
"The cabinet has set us a goal, in street talk, to eliminate Hamas. This is our Munich. We will do this everywhere, in Gaza, in the West Bank, in Lebanon, in Turkey, in Qatar. It will take a few years but we will be there to do it."
By Munich, Bar was referring to Israel's response to the 1972 killing of 11 Israeli Olympic team members when gunmen from the Palestinian Black September group launched an attack on the Munich games.
Israel responded by carrying out a targeted assassination campaign against Black September operatives and organizers over several years and in several countries.
Raw Story
Zelensky calls Russian airstrikes on Kherson 'pure terrorist attacks'
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the Russian attacks in Kherson, calling them "pure terrorist attacks."
"There were more than 20 Russian attacks in the Kherson region on this day alone," Zelensky said in his evening video address on Sunday.
"Brutal strikes, all over the city — houses, streets, hospitals," he continued.
At least two people were killed and seven injured in a Russian artillery attack on an apartment block in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Sunday, the Ukrainian Unian news agency reported citing the regional military administrator Roman Morchko.
Raw Story
Media is scared to appear hysterical by calling out Trump's danger to the U.S.:
Reporter Molly Jong-Fast warned that the media can't stop allowing Donald Trump to operate unchallenged.
Speaking to MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan on Sunday, Jong-Fast explained that journalists are so concerned about appearing biased that they ultimately end up downplaying the seriousness of Trump's pledge to bring down American democracy as we know it. In reality, regardless of what news outlets say, Trump will attack it as partisan or "fake news."
"They want to treat things as normal, and they're worried about looking partisan," continued Jong-Fast. "I'm talking about straight news journalists, not really opinion journalists. They're worried about looking partisan, so they understate things in order to not seem hysterical. And so, what happens is the road to fascism is literally lined with stories that understate the urgency of the situation."
BBC
US warship downs drones fired from Houthi-held Yemen in Red Sea
A US warship engaged and shot down three drones after three commercial vessels came under attack in the Red Sea, US Central Command has said.
It said the USS Carney assisted the ships - which had links to 14 nations including the UK - on Sunday after they were targeted from areas of Yemen held by Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Two of the ships were hit by missiles but there were no casualties, it added.
A Houthi spokesman said the group's navy had attacked two Israeli ships.
The Israeli military said the vessels had no connection to Israel.
The Iranian-backed Houthis have controlled parts of Yemen since the movement toppled the country's government in 2014, sparking an ongoing civil war.
It has recently begun targeting Israel-linked vessels in the Red Sea over Israel's war with Iranian-backed Hamas in Gaza.
Washington Post
Alaska Airlines reaches deal to buy Hawaiian Airlines for $1.9 billion
Alaska Airlines has reached a nearly $2 billion deal to buy Hawaiian Airlines, executives with the two carriers announced Sunday.
Under the terms of the transaction, Alaska Air will pay $18 a share in cash, the two companies said, for a transaction value of $1.9 billion.
“This brings together two great companies steeped in history — both 90 years in service,” Alaska Airlines chief executive Ben Minicucci said. “We share the same values — connecting communities and connecting people.”
Peter Ingram, chief executive of Hawaiian Airlines, said his airline has expanded over the years, adding a hub in Maui and more international flights, but hasn’t been able to offer its customers access to more destinations on the mainland. The deal with Alaska will make that possible.
Deutsche Welle
Vietnam reels from historic €11.4 billion corruption scandal
Vietnam has been rocked by its largest corruption scandal to date after authorities last month arrested a prominent real estate developer over allegedly embezzling nearly €11.4 billion ($12.4 billion), the equivalent of more than 3% of the country's GDP.
In 2016, Vietnam's governing Communist Party began conducting a sweeping anti-corruption campaign. Since then, it has brought down a national president and senior government ministers, but the scale of the alleged graft involved in the latest scandal it uncovered raised questions about the true state of Vietnam's banking and property sectors.
On November 17, the Ministry of Public Security alleged that Truong My Lan, the chairperson of real estate developer Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, had embezzled 304 trillion dong (€11.4 billion) from Saigon Commercial Bank, of which she was a majority stakeholder, over several years.
According to the ministry's statements, My Lan, who was first arrested last year, operated a vast network of more than 1,000 domestic and foreign subsidiaries as well as further shell companies that took out more than €40 billion in loans from the Saigon Commercial Bank, appropriating about a third of it through "ghost companies" she and her family and associates created.