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 and Besame. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) wader, palantir, JML9999, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Man Oh Man, Doctor RJ, 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.
Subbing for maggiejean tonight.
Beginning with an internet-users warning; that’s us:
BBC
Tim Berners-Lee: 'Stop web's downward plunge to dysfunctional future'
Global action is required to tackle the web's "downward plunge to a dysfunctional future", its inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee has told the BBC.
He made the comments in an exclusive interview to mark 30 years since he submitted his proposal for the web.
Sir Tim said people had realised how their data could be "manipulated" after the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
However, he said he felt problems such as data breaches, hacking and misinformation could be tackled.
In an open letter also published on Monday, the web's creator acknowledged that many people doubted the web could be a force for good.
He had his own anxieties about the web's future, he told the BBC: "I'm very concerned about nastiness and misinformation spreading."
But he said he felt that people were beginning to better understand the risks they faced as web users.
"When the Cambridge Analytica thing went down [people] realised that elections had been manipulated using data that they contributed.”
Washington Post
The Dalai Lama and Arthur Brooks: All of us can break the cycle of hatred
The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the spiritual leader of Tibet and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Arthur C. Brooks is president of the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington Post columnist and author of “Love Your Enemies.”
Human beings have a deep longing to live together in harmony. People only feel completely alive when experiencing loving bonds with one another. Everyone, of all faiths and no faith, knows this truth, and most profess it openly.
And yet people fight incessantly. Even though war is blessedly absent in most countries today, these are deeply polarized times. Words too often are delivered with contempt; philosophical differences are likened to warfare; those who simply disagree with another are deemed “enemies.” Often it is on the Internet — which was launched as a forum for unity — where people attack one another, under the cloak of anonymity.
This state of constant conflict is a major source of stress and unhappiness for millions of people. Is there a solution?
We believe that the answer is yes. Further, as is the case with all big problems, within this crisis lies an opportunity. Polarization contains the seeds for personal excellence and spiritual advancement.
BBC
Brexit: 'Legally binding' changes to EU deal agreed
Theresa May says she has secured "legally binding" changes to her Brexit deal, a day ahead of MPs voting on it.
But European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker warned if the deal was voted down there was "no third chance".
They spoke at a joint press conference in Strasbourg after a late meeting.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the prime minister's negotiations had "failed" and the announcements did not contain "anything approaching the changes" she had promised Parliament.
Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington announced the changes to the Commons shortly before the press conference, saying they would mean the EU "cannot try to trap the UK in the [Irish] backstop indefinitely".
Al Jazeera
MPs to vote on May's Brexit deal in second meaningful vote
London, United Kingdom - British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to bring her deal back to Parliament on Tuesday for a second meaningful vote.
Talks in Brussels have been deadlocked and over the weekend, it became clear that May was unable to convince EU leaders to agree to changes she was seeking to the withdrawal agreement, particularly on the so-called "backstop", the protocol to ensure an open border is maintained in the island of Ireland.
The last time May put the deal to Parliament on January 16, it suffered a major defeat as 432 MPs voted against it and just 202 supported her plan.
The UK is due to leave the EU on March 29, in just two weeks' time.
After MPs gave her a mandate to go back to Brussels and renegotiate the deal, May gave herself until March 12 at the latest to bring a revised deal back to Parliament.
The Guardian
Fukushima grapples with toxic soil that no one wants
Not even the icy wind blowing in from the coast seems to bother the men in protective masks, helmets and gloves, playing their part in the world’s biggest nuclear cleanup.
Away from the public gaze, they remove the latest of the more than 1,000 black sacks filled with radioactive soil and unload their contents into giant sieves. A covered conveyor belt carries the soil to the lip of a huge pit where it is flattened in preparation for the next load. And there it will remain, untouched, for almost three decades.
It is repetitive, painstaking work but there is no quick way of addressing arguably the most controversial physical legacy of the triple meltdown that occurred eight years ago at the nearby Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
In the years after the disaster, about 70,000 workers removed topsoil, tree branches, grass and other contaminated material from areas near homes, schools and public buildings in a unprecedented ¥2.9tn (£21bn) drive to reduce radiation to levels that would enable tens of thousands of evacuees to return home.
Reuters
U.S. says 737 MAX safe to fly after Ethiopia crash; Boeing shares dip
GARA-BOKKA, Ethiopia/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States told airlines it was safe to fly 737 MAX 8 planes on Monday as investigators found two black box recorders that will help piece together the final moments of an Ethiopian Airlines jet before it plunged to the ground on Sunday.
China and Indonesia grounded their fleets of 737 MAX 8 aircraft earlier on Monday, citing safety concerns, contributing to a drop in Boeing Co shares that wiped billions of dollars off the market value of the world’s biggest plane maker.
Investigators in Ethiopia found two black box recorders that will help piece together the final moments of the plane before it plunged, trailing smoke and debris, and crashed killing 157 people.
Late on Monday, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a “continued airworthiness notification” to assure operators of the plane that it was safe to fly. It said it was collecting data on the crash and keeping in contact with international civil aviation authorities and would take immediate action if it identified any safety issues.
The FAA also publicly detailed for the first time a series of design changes and training requirements mandated from Boeing on the MAX fleet after a jet of the same model came down in Indonesia in October and killed 189 people.
NPR
'This Is Going To End Ugly': Venezuela's Power Outage Drags On
Venezuela has been in the grip of a crippling blackout for four days — and the humanitarian situation there is growing increasingly dire.
Signs of the crisis are everywhere you look in the Venezuelan capital. "Drive around Caracas, and you see long lines of cars waiting for hours at the few gas stations still operational," NPR's Philip Reeves reported from the city.
"Motorists park on highways, cell phones aloft, searching for a signal. The rich have taken refuge in luxury hotels. The poor stand in lines in the street," Reeves added. The power outage has affected water pumps in some Caracas neighborhoods, meaning that people are waiting to fill water bottles at public locations such as springs. Schools and public offices remained closed on Monday, according to Reeves.
Reuters
Mueller probe already financed through September: officials
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the team he assembled to investigate U.S. President Donald Trump and his associates have been funded through the end of September 2019, three U.S. officials said on Monday, an indication that the probe has funding to keep it going for months if need be. The operations and funding of Mueller’s office were not addressed in the budget requests for the next government fiscal year issued by the White House and Justice Department on Monday because Mueller’s office is financed by the U.S. Treasury under special regulations issued by the Justice Department, the officials said.
“The Special Counsel is funded by the Independent Counsel appropriation, a permanent indefinite appropriation established in the Department’s 1988 Appropriations Act,” a Justice Department spokesman said.
There has been increased speculation in recent weeks that Mueller’s team is close to winding up its work and is likely to deliver a report summarizing its findings to Attorney General William Barr any day or week now. Mueller’s office has not commented on the news reports suggesting an imminent release.
Deutsche Welle
US warns Germany over use of 'untrusted vendors' in 5G network
The United States on Monday warned Germany that sensitive communications could be compromised if "untrusted vendors" were used within its 5G telecom infrastructure, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
US Ambassador Richard A. Grenell wrote to German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier on Friday, saying the participation of Huawei or other Chinese equipment vendors in the 5G project would mean the "US won't be able to maintain the same level of cooperation with German security agencies," WSJreported.
"To the extent there are untrusted vendors in the networks of an ally, that could raise future questions about the integrity and confidentiality of sensitive communications within that country, as well as between that country and its allies," a US embassy spokesman said.
"This could in the future jeopardize nimble cooperation and some sharing of information. We are engaging intensively with our allies on how to secure our telecommunications networks to ensure continued interoperability," he added.
Huawei recently filed a lawsuit against the US government for labeling it a security risk and limiting its access to the American market.
Raw Story
New York AG drops subpoenas on Deutsche Bank about Trump investments unearthed in Cohen testimony
During Michael Cohen’s testimony to Congress nearly two weeks ago, the former “fixer” of President Donald Trump revealed several possible financial crimes that have sparked an investigation by the New York attorney general.
According to a Monday report by the New York Times, the attorney general’s office issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank for records relating to the Trump Organization projects noted by Cohen as well as the failed loan to buy the Buffalo Bills in 2014.
“The inquiry opens a new front in the scrutiny of Deutsche Bank, one of the few lenders willing to do business with Donald J. Trump in recent years,” The Times reported. “The bank is already the subject of two congressional investigations and was examined last year by New York banking regulators, who took no action.”
Cohen testified that Trump inflated his assets in financial statements required when applying for the loan. Trump gave copies of statements that he gave to Deutsche Bank on Trump’s behalf.
The investigation is not a criminal one, according to The Times, though the scope is unclear, because the attorney general has the power to investigate fraud cases and issue fines.
Washington Post
Extreme storm in the central U.S. may generate blizzard, flooding and severe storms midweek
An unusually strong late-winter storm is predicted to explosively intensify in the western Plains on Tuesday into Wednesday, unleashing flooding rains, severe storms, howling winds and blizzard conditions in the middle of the nation.
The zone from Texas north through the Dakotas and Minnesota will probably be hit the hardest.
Roaring, potentially damaging winds will affect an enormous area. High-wind watches have been posted from southeastern New Mexico through Nebraska. Gusts are expected to reach 60 mph late Tuesday into Wednesday, and up to 80 to 90 mph in the high terrain.“Models remain consistent developing one of the more dynamic systems I have seen in quite some time for Kansas" midweek, wrote a forecaster at the National Weather Service office in Wichita. The forecaster explained that the weather variables simulated for the storm are statistically unusual — three to five standard deviations from average.