Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Doctor RJ, Magnifico, annetteboardman and Man Oh Man. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) wader, planter, JML9999, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke 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.
BBC
Mount Agung: Bali volcano alert raised to highest level
Fears of an imminent major eruption of Bali's Mount Agung have increased and the evacuation zone around the volcano has been widened.
The Indonesian authorities have raised the state of alert on the island to its highest level.
The island's airport has now closed, leaving many stranded in the tourist hotspot destination.
Dark smoke has been seen billowing up to 3,400m (11,150ft) above the mountain's summit.
The National Board for Disaster Management said explosions were being heard 12km (7 miles) from the summit.
Bali's main resorts of Kuta and Seminyak are about 70km (43 miles) from the volcano.
BBC
Syria: Russian air strikes 'kill dozens of civilians'
At least 53 civilians have been killed in Russian air strikes in east Syrian village of Al-Shafah, a monitoring group says.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said 21 of those reportedly killed on Sunday morning were children.
The village is in Deir al-Zour, one of the last provinces where Islamic State still holds territory.
Initially SOHR said 34 had been killed in strikes on residential buildings.
But the monitoring group's head told the AFP news agency it now believed the figure was higher.
"The toll increased after removing the debris in a long day of rescue operation," Rami Abdel Rahman said.
BBC
Pope in Myanmar: Francis sets off for tricky trip
Pope Francis has departed the Vatican for Myanmar on the first papal visit to the country that has this year been widely accused of ethnic cleansing.
Focus will be likely be on whether he uses the term "Rohingya" to describe the country's Muslim minority.
Myanmar officials strongly reject the term, raising concerns it could spark some potential violence if he does.
He is scheduled to meet Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and the head of the country's military.
The Pope will then visit Bangladesh, and meet a small group of Rohingya refugees there in a symbolic gesture. The 80-year-old pontiff has become known for his liberal views and willingness to denounce global injustice.
Al Jazeera
Wheat aid arrives in blockaded Yemen amid famine fears
About 25,000 tonnes of wheat will be offloaded on Monday for starving people in Yemen, the first food aid allowed into the country facing mass famine after a three-week blockade by a Saudi Arabia-led military coalition.
A spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP), Abeer Etefa, said the shipment landed on Sunday at the Houthi rebel-controlled Red Sea port of Saleef in western Yemen.
The Saudi-led coalition battling Houthi fighters imposed the siege on Yemeni ports and airports in response to a ballistic missile they fired at the Saudi capital, Riyadh, which was shot down earlier this month.
UN officials have warned Yemen could face the world's largest famine in decades unless the crippling blockade by the coalition is lifted. The impoverished Middle East country is highly dependent on imported wheat.
Al Jazeera
Hondurans vote in controversial presidential election
Tegucigalpa, Honduras - Hondurans head to the polls to choose a new president on Sunday in an election that lays bare the fragility of the Central American country's democracy eight years after it suffered a military coup.
Six million Hondurans are eligible to vote on Sunday, with polls set to open at 13:00GMT and to close at 22:00GMT.
The election is unprecedented, marking the first time a Honduran president will seek re-election.
Despite a constitutional ban on re-election, President Juan Orlando Hernandez of the conservative National Party is running for a second term based on a contentious 2015 Supreme Court ruling that overturned the article prohibiting re-election.
Personal note. We toured Honduras with Heifer International. Landing in Tegucigalpa was the scariest plane landing I’ve ever experienced. Great pilot but very short runway.
The Guardian
Zimbabwe activists fear post-Mugabe human rights crackdown
Activists and human rights campaigners in Zimbabwe fear a new crackdown that could roll back gains made during the eight-day crisis that culminated in the resignation of President Robert Mugabe last week.
Relatives of victims of state-sponsored violence said they were concerned about the track record of the new leader, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was Mugabe’s righthand man and is blamed for the brutal suppression of political opposition parties during elections in 2008.
“Just because [Mnangagwa] has wrestled power from the devil does not mean I see him as the messiah,” said Patson Dzamara, whose activist brother Itai was abducted in 2015 and has not been heard of since.
“So many have been killed, maimed, tortured or imprisoned, and the ones who are presiding over this transition are the ones responsible.” he added.
Mugabe, whose 37-year rule over the impoverished southern African country was marked by brutal repression, stepped down after a military takeover led to mass protests and impeachment proceedings in parliament.
The Guardian
Macron visits Africa amid anger over human trafficking and slavery
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, will start a four-day visit to Africa on Monday amid growing anger across the continent about politicians’ collective failure to do more to clamp down on human trafficking, and even slave auctions, in Libya.
The revelations by CNN of apparent slave auctions in Libya a fortnight ago led to widespread condemnation, but also claims that European politicians had been repeatedly warned about the dire state of Libyan migrant detention centres, including systematic abuse, amounting to slavery.
Macron has called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations security council this week, saying such auction houses are a crime against humanity. The fierceness of his intervention may have been prompted by his high-profile visit to sub-Saharan Africa built around a carefully crafted theme of empowering Africa’s youth.
The contrast between empowerment and the reality of slavery in Libya has set alarm bells ringing in the Elysée, especially since critics say France, by backing the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, has a key responsibility for Libya’s current state of near-anarchy.
Reuters
Meredith to buy U.S. publisher Time in Koch-backed deal
(Reuters) - U.S. media company Meredith Corp said on Sunday it will buy Time Inc, the publisher of People, Sports Illustrated and Fortune magazines, in a $1.84 billion all-cash deal backed by conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.
The deal is a coup for Meredith, which held unsuccessful talks to buy Time earlier this year and in 2013.
It will give news, business and sports brands to the Des Moines, Iowa-based publisher and broadcaster, which owns lifestyle magazines such as Better Homes & Gardens and Family Circle. Analysts have said that bulking up on publishing assets could give Meredith the scale required to spin off its broadcasting arm into a standalone company.
Raw Story
Jared and Ivanka refuse to leave DC — no matter how much White House officials want them to
President Donald Trump might not be getting rid of his eldest daughter and son-in-law anytime soon.
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are reportedly looking to buy their first house in Washington, D.C., even amid reports that White House staffers want them to scram.
In a rare interview, Kusher said his wife has been asking about purchasing a home in the nation’s capital, apparently countering reports that the couple might move back to New York after drawing too much scrutiny in D.C.
“We’re here to stay. At the current moment, we’re charging forward,” Kushner told The Washington Post in a profile published Saturday.
“My wife asked me the other day if we should be looking at new houses, so that’s a good sign,” he added.
Kushner and Ivanka, who both serve as presidential advisors, moved with Trump to Washington and rented a place for six months before deciding whether they will stay.
Since then, both have become enmeshed in daily White House operations — and scandals, with the latter reportedly mortifying the president.
The Guardian
North Atlantic’s greatest survivors are hunted once more
One of the more hopeful ecological stories of recent years – the slow restoration of numbers of the North Atlantic right whale – has taken a disastrous turn for the worse. Marine biologists have found their population has plunged abruptly in the past few years and that there may now only be around 100 reproductively mature females left in the sea. Many scientists fear the species could soon become the first great whale to become extinct in modern times.
The principal cause for the North Atlantic right whale’s precipitous decline has been the use of increasingly heavy commercial fishing gear dropped on to the sea bed to catch lobsters, snow crabs and hogfish off the east coast of North America. Whales swim into the rope lines attached to these sea-bed traps and their buoys and become entangled. In some cases hundreds of metres of heavy rope, tied to traps weighing more than 60kg, have been found wrapped around whales. “We have records of animals carrying these huge loads – which they cannot shake off – for months and months,” said Julie van der Hoop, of Aarhus University in Denmark.