OND Editors OND is a 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 12:00AM Eastern Time.
OND Editors Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Man Oh Man, rfall, Doctor RJ and JML9999. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke and jlms qkw. The guest editor is annetteboardman.
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BBC:President Obama due to begin busy Kenya schedule
President Obama due to begin busy Kenya schedule
US President Barack Obama is to open a major business summit on the first full day of his landmark visit to Kenya.
He has praised what he called the "dynamism" of Kenya's business class and is expected to call for greater efforts to tackle corruption.
He will visit a memorial to the 1998 US embassy bombing, before talks on security with President Kenyatta.
Mr Obama arrived in Nairobi on Friday, for his first presidential visit to his father's homeland.
BBC:Thailand indicts 72 people over human trafficking
Thailand indicts 72 people over human trafficking
Thai prosecutors have indicted 72 people, including politicians and an army general, over the trafficking of migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Arrest warrants have been issued for more than 30 others, the attorney general's office said.
The investigation follows the discovery of mass graves, believed to contain the bodies of refugees, in jungle camps near the Thai-Malaysian border in May.
Many migrants endured arduous sea journeys before arriving in Thailand.
BBC:Rights group urges Pakistan not to hang mentally ill man
Rights group urges Pakistan not to hang mentally ill man
Human Rights Watch has urged Pakistan not to execute a mentally ill man who is scheduled to be hanged on Tuesday.
The charity said Khizar Hayat, who was sentenced to death 12 years ago for killing a colleague, suffers from severe paranoid schizophrenia.
Authorities in Pakistan are about to resume executions after a break for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), the country has executed 176 people since lifting a moratorium in December.
BBC:Turkey vows to continue campaign against Islamic State militants
Turkey vows to continue campaign against Islamic State militants
Turkey has vowed to keep up a crackdown on Islamic State (IS) militants, after launching its first air strikes against their positions in Syria.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the strikes were part of a broad "process".
Turkish jets are reported to have also carried out strikes against the bases of Kurdish militants in northern Iraq.
Turkey arrested hundreds of suspected IS supporters on Friday and has also said it will let the US use a key airbase to attack IS targets.
BBC:Chile charges former soldiers in 1986 burning students case
Chile charges former soldiers in 1986 burning students case
A Chilean judge has charged seven former soldiers over the burning of two students during a 1986 protest against Gen Augusto Pinochet's government.
The soldiers are accused of involvement in setting Rodrigo Rojas and Carmen Quintana alight with gasoline. Mr Rojas later died of his injuries.
Six officers were charged with murder, the seventh as an accomplice.
They were arrested after an ex-soldier changed his testimony, echoing witness accounts of the soldiers' actions.
BBC:Tunisia parliament passes new anti-terror law
Tunisia parliament passes new anti-terror law
Tunisia's parliament has adopted a new anti-terror law which seeks to counter the threat posed by Islamist militants.
The move follows two deadly attacks on tourism sites - a beach and hotel at Sousse in June and the Bardo Museum in Tunis in March.
Under the new law, those convicted of terrorism could face the death penalty and expressions of support for terrorism are a jailable offence.
However, rights groups have criticised the new measures as draconian.
Reuters:AT&T, DirecTV complete merger to form biggest pay-TV company
AT&T, DirecTV complete merger to form biggest pay-TV company
The No. 2 U.S. wireless carrier AT&T Inc and the biggest satellite-TV provider DirecTV became the country's largest pay-TV company on Friday, completing their $48.5 billion merger after receiving final regulatory approval.
The newly expanded AT&T leapfrogs the biggest U.S. cable company Comcast Corp. The company said it will serve more than 26 million U.S. customers and more than 19 million in Latin America, making it the world's biggest pay-TV company.
After more than a year of review, the Federal Communications Commission finalized its vote to approve the deal with conditions, imposed for four years and enforced by an internal and an external compliance officers.
The requirements from the FCC, which ensures that deals are in the public interest, include protections for rival video and pledges to expand high-speed Internet services to schools, low-income Americans and other customers.
Reuters:Nikkei and the FT: a meeting of minds or culture clash?
Nikkei and the FT: a meeting of minds or culture clash?
For all the assurances by Nikkei executives on Friday that the Financial Times would retain editorial independence under their ownership, some staff at the business daily were fretting about everything from journalistic standards to holiday allowance.
Most acquisitions cause workforce anxiety, but some of Japan Inc's overseas buys have foundered on perceived differences in corporate culture and values.
Nomura's cut-price purchase of parts of failed Wall Street broker Lehman Brothers during the financial crisis caused tension and resentment, and hit the bottom-line. Gung-ho Lehman bankers champed at Japanese conservatism and bureaucracy, while Nomura veterans chafed at how much Lehman staff were paid.
Nikkei promises a far more hands-off approach to the FT
Reuters:Damning report on missing Mexican students says 'justice neglected'
Damning report on missing Mexican students says 'justice neglected'
An independent Mexican commission said on Thursday it found serious flaws in an investigation into the apparent massacre of 43 students last year, dealing a fresh blow to President Enrique Pena Nieto over a scandal that has battered his administration.
The case became a symbol of impunity over disappearances and plunged Pena Nieto into his deepest crisis after the 43 trainee teachers were abducted and very likely murdered by a drug gang working with corrupt police in southwest Mexico last September.
A report by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) said the attorney general's office, which has only identified the remains of one of the 43, still had not compiled basic information about the victims, who came from poor backgrounds.
Nor had it properly investigated 11 suspects in the case, the CNDH found.
Reuters:Fiat Chrysler U.S. to recall vehicles to prevent hacking
Fiat Chrysler U.S. to recall vehicles to prevent hacking
Fiat Chrysler will recall 1.4 million vehicles in the United States to install software to prevent hackers from gaining remote control of the engine, steering and other systems in what federal officials said was the first such action of its kind.
The announcement on Friday by FCA US LLC, formerly Chrysler Group LLC, was made days after reports that cybersecurity researchers used a wireless connection to turn off a Jeep Cherokee's engine as it drove, increasing concerns about the safety of Internet-enabled vehicles.
The researchers used Fiat Chrysler's (FCAU.N) (FCHA.MI) telematics system to break into a volunteer's Cherokee being driven on the highway and issue commands to the engine, steering and brakes.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Friday it would investigate whether FCA's solution to upgrade software was enough to protect consumers from hackers, although FCA said in its recall announcement that it was unaware of any injuries.
Reuters:U.S. troops to train regular Ukrainian military troops: State Department
U.S. troops to train regular Ukrainian military troops: State Department
U.S. troops will begin training regular Ukrainian military forces later this year in an expansion of their current mission, which so far has been limited to instructing Interior Ministry national guard units, the State Department said on Friday.
"This training is part of our long-running defense cooperation with Ukraine and is taking place at the invitation of the Ukraine government. This additional program brings our total security assistance committed to Ukraine since 2014 to over $244 million," State Department Mark Toner said.
Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, head of U.S. Army forces in Europe, said earlier this month that U.S. officials were discussing expanding the military training to include regular Ukrainian troops under the Defense Ministry.
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The training is part of U.S. efforts to strengthen Ukraine's security following Russia's seizure of the Crimea last year and the spread of separatist unrest in eastern, Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine.
Reuters:Kerry to talk with Russia on Islamic State fight and role Iran might play
Kerry to talk with Russia on Islamic State fight and role Iran might play
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday that he planned to discuss combating Islamic State militants in Syria and what role Iran could play when he meets with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Qatar in coming weeks.
Kerry told the Council on Foreign Relations think tank in New York that "we have to change the dynamic in Syria" to kill off radical Islamic State, which has declared a caliphate in swathes of territory it has seized in Syria and Iraq.
"And that's part of why we have been negotiating with Turkey in these last weeks and now have some shift in what the Turks are prepared to do, and there is also a shift in some of the things that we're engaged in," Kerry said, without elaborating.
Turkish warplanes pounded Islamic State targets in Syria for the first time on Friday, and officials in Washington have said Turkey has agreed to let U.S. jets launch air strikes from a base near the Syrian border.
Tech Crunch:Apple Adjusts Its App Store Algorithm, Impacting Some iPad Developers
Apple Adjusts Its App Store Algorithm, Impacting Some iPad Developers
To keep the playing field level and fair for all app developers, Apple on occasion changes the way its App Store ranking algorithm works, the fallout of which can impact developers’ standings in the App Store charts, which ultimately can impact their visibility, downloads, and revenue. Around a week ago, it appears that Apple yet again tweaked the way its rankings worked, but this time around, the changes have only impacted a subset of iPad app developers in the U.S. App Store.
No one knows the specifics of how Apple’s App Store ranking algorithm works, but it’s generally understood to take into account factors like download volume, velocity, and possibly other metrics like ratings or engagement.
There are a number of ways to spot a possible rankings change, but one of the easiest is to keep an eye on the rankings of top mobile apps, like Facebook and others. Because of the size and reach of these applications, a significant movement of these apps in the App Store charts can indicate that Apple could be making adjustments to how apps are weighted.
Of course, those changes can also just point to a rankings glitch, so the only way to determine if the App Store algorithm has actually changed is to survey the market in the days that follow to see if developers are seeing major changes following a sudden drop or spike in their rankings.