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. And jck. 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.
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BBC
Libya crisis: Fighting near Tripoli leaves 21 dead
Libya's UN-backed government says 21 people have been killed and 27 wounded in fighting near the capital, Tripoli.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called for an immediate halt to the fighting and called for talks.
Rebel forces under Gen Khalifa Haftar have advanced from the east with the aim of taking Tripoli.
Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj has accused him of attempting a coup and says rebels will be met with force.
Among the dead was a Red Crescent doctor killed on Saturday. Gen Haftar's forces said they had lost 14 fighters.
Earlier the UN appealed for a two-hour truce so casualties and civilians could be evacuated, but fighting continued.
And in a statement, Secretary of State Pompeo said the US was "deeply concerned about fighting near Tripoli" and stressed the need for talks.
BBC
Pakistan accuses India of plotting fresh military attack
Pakistan says it has "reliable intelligence" India is planning a military attack this month, something India dismissed as "war hysteria".
Foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi made the comments on Sunday.
Already tense relations between the two deteriorated this year when Pakistan-based militants killed dozens of Indian troops in Indian-administered Kashmir.
India responded with air strikes on what it said was a militant training camp in Pakistani territory.
Soon afterwards, Pakistan shot down an Indian jet in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and captured its pilot. He was handed back to India days later.
Tensions seemed to have eased after the clashes, but on Sunday the Pakistani foreign minister said his country had intelligence to suggest an imminent Indian attack.
"There are chances of another aggression against Pakistan and according to our information this action can take place between April 16 and 20," Mr Qureshi told reporters.
BBC
Gaza zoo animals evacuated to Jordan by Four Paws group
More than 40 animals have been moved out of "terrible conditions" in a Gaza Strip zoo to a reserve in Jordan, a welfare group has announced.
Four Paws say they have taken the animals from Rafah Zoo near the border with Egypt.
Lions, monkeys, peacocks and porcupines were among the 47 creatures rescued.
They were sedated for the journey 300 kilometres (190 miles) through Israel, which gave its permission for the transfer.
Four Paws vet Amir Khalil told the BBC the cages had become too small to house the animals.
Only birds were left behind at the zoo by the group. Two of the lions saved will eventually be moved to South Africa.
The Guardian
Rwanda begins week of memorial events for genocide victims
Rwanda has begun a solemn commemoration of 800,000 people killed with knives, clubs and other weapons during three months of genocide of 1994.
The president, Paul Kagame, laid a wreath at a memorial site where more than 250,000 people are buried in the capital, Kigali. Songs were sung and poems recited at the beginning of a week of events.
Speaking after the ceremony, Kagame pledged that history would never repeat itself. “That is our firm commitment. Our bodies and minds bear amputations and scars but none of us is alone. Together we have woven the tattered threads of our unity into a new tapestry.”
He said Rwandans had granted themselves a new beginning and were “wounded and heartbroken … but unvanquished”.
Officials and foreign dignitaries joined around 2,000 people in a “walk to remember” from Rwanda’s parliament to the national football stadium, where candles were to be lit in a night vigil.
The Guardian
Drinks bottles now biggest plastic menace for waterways – report
Plastic bottles, the detritus of our throwaway water and soft drinks habits, are the most prevalent form of plastic pollution in European waterways, according to a new report.
Food wrappers, including crisp and sweet packets, were the second biggest form of plastic pollution in rivers, followed by cigarette butts. All of these forms of litter can cause problems for wildlife and fish, and are hard to clean up once they have found their way into the water.
Plastic bags were found to make up only 1% of plastic rubbish in freshwater, reflecting years of efforts to reduce their use, including charges on them in the UK and many other European countries.
Consumers should be more aware of what they can do to prevent the fouling of waterways, from using cotton buds with paper sticks to binning wet wipes instead of flushing them, and bringing their own receptacles for food takeaways, according to the Plastic Rivers report from Earthwatch Europe and Plastic Oceans UK.
The Guardian
‘Pete! Pete! Pete!’ Buttigieg fever hits New Hampshire – can he keep up the pace?
If this weekend was anything to go by, Pete Buttigieg might be the hottest ticket in the Democratic party right now.
The 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, held rallies in New Hampshire on Friday and Saturday and amid talk of job growth, healthcare and military service one thing was clear: if you want to see Buttigieg, get there early.
On Friday night Buttigieg – his campaign T-shirts bear the phonetic spelling “Boot-edge-edge” – had been due to hold a rally at a brewery in Manchester. Because of demand, he switched venues at the last minute to the Currier Museum of Art. That quickly sold out too, leaving 200 people standing outside at 7.30pm.
They got to see their man. Buttigieg emerged in the drizzle, to lusty chants of “Pete! Pete! Pete!” He’d even prepared a joke.
“I hear the way you ingratiate yourself to voters is to stand on things,” he said as he clambered on to a bench. It was a reference to the folksy, table-hopping style of his Texan rival Beto O’Rourke.
Reuters
Iran will retaliate in kind if U.S. designates Guards as terrorists: MPs
GENEVA (Reuters) - Iran will take reciprocal action against the United States if Washington designates the elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as terrorists, a majority of Iranian parliamentarians said on Sunday, according to state news agency IRNA.
The United States is expected to designate the Revolutionary Guards a foreign terrorist organisation, three U.S. officials told Reuters, marking the first time Washington has formally labelled another country’s military a terrorist group.
“We will answer any action taken against this force with a reciprocal action,” a statement issued by 255 out of the 290 Iranian lawmakers said, according to IRNA.
Reuters
GENEVA (Reuters) - U.S. sanctions have prevented the Iranian Red Crescent from obtaining any foreign financial aid to assist victims of flooding that has killed at least 70 people and inundated some 1,900 communities, the group said on Sunday.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week that Washington was ready to help via the Red Cross and Red Crescent, but accused Iran’s clerical establishment of “mismanagement in urban planning and in emergency preparedness”.
“No foreign cash help has been given to the Iranian Red Crescent society. With attention to the inhuman American sanctions, there is no way to send this cash assistance,” the Red Crescent said in a statement.
It said the group had received some non-financial help from abroad which had been distributed to flood victims.
Raw Story
Carbon levels are higher than they’ve been in past 3 million years according to scientists
Human activity has helped cause carbon levels to rise to a rate that hasn’t been seen on planet Earth in three million years, researchers have revealed.
A study published Wednesday by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany showed that the last time carbon dioxide was detected in the planet’s atmosphere at the level it is now was during the Pliocene epoch, which took place 2.6 to 5.3 million years ago.
Authors of the report, which was published in Science Advances, warned that while global temperatures have not yet risen more than 2º Celsius (3.6º Fahrenheit) above industrial levels in the past three million years, they likely will if “climate inaction” on the part of world governments continues.
“It seems we’re now pushing our home planet beyond any climatic conditions experienced during the entire current geological period, the Quaternary,” said Matteo Willeit, lead author of the study, “a period that started almost three million years ago and saw human civilization beginning only 11,000 years ago. So, the modern climate change we see is big, really big; even by standards of Earth history.”
The report suggested that sea levels could rise as much as 6.5 feet in the next 200 years if humans do not end fossil fuel drilling and carbon emissions. The last time carbon levels were where they are now, sea levels were 65 feet higher, according to the Potsdam Institute.
Washington Post (Let them eat cake)
Diners face protest for eating in transparent domes near a former homeless camp
One of Toronto’s hottest new restaurants is Dinner With A View. Located under Gardiner Expressway, this pop-up experience has everything: giant heated “terrariums” surrounding diners in flora, a celebrity chef preparing a “3-course blind menu” and, now, organized protests.
Local activists have taken umbrage that the luxurious restaurant now sits beneath the same expressway near where homeless people had been living until recently, when the city demolished encampments earlier this year, CTV News reported, citing safety concerns.
What was supposed to be an Instagram-friendly spin on fine dining became a flash point on Friday between the city’s wealthier residents and its most vulnerable ones.
As diners tucked themselves into the domes and feasted on entrees infused with Mexican, Italian and French influences, a group of activists on the other side of a fence separating the pop-up from the rest of the world carried signs that read “Homes Not Domes” and “Evict the Rich,” while others played drums and other instruments.