Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame and jck. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbook (RIP), 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.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
BBC
Myanmar military takes control of country after detaining Aung San Suu Kyi
Myanmar's military has taken control of the country after Aung San Suu Kyi and other political leaders were arrested in the early hours.
The coup comes after tensions rose between the civilian government and the military following a disputed election.
Hours after the arrests, military TV confirmed a state of emergency had been declared for one year.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, was ruled by the military until democratic reforms began in 2011.
The military said on Monday it was handing power to commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing. Soldiers are on the streets of the capital, Nay Pyi Taw, and the main city, Yangon.
In November's election, Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won enough seats to form a government. The army says the vote was fraudulent. Earlier NLD spokesman Myo Nyunt said Ms Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other leaders had been "taken" in the early hours of the morning.
BBC
Navalny: Thousands join fresh protests across Russia
Thousands of Russians have been taking part in unauthorised protests to demand the release of the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
More than 5,000 people have been detained, a monitoring group says. In Moscow police closed metro stations and blocked off the city centre.
Mr Navalny was jailed on his return to Russia after recovering from an attempt to kill him with a nerve agent.
He blames the security services for the attack but the Kremlin denies this.
The opposition figure was arrested after arriving in Moscow from Germany, where he spent months recovering from the near-fatal incident.
Russian authorities say Mr Navalny was supposed to report to police regularly because of a suspended sentence for embezzlement.
Mr Navalny has denounced his detention as "blatantly illegal", saying the authorities had allowed him to travel to Berlin for treatment for the Novichok poisoning, which happened in Russia last August.
BBC
Covid: Thousands attend Israel funeral for orthodox rabbi
Thousands of ultra-Orthodox mourners have gathered in Jerusalem to attend the funeral of a top rabbi, in breach of Israel's coronavirus regulations.
Rabbi Meshulam Dovid Soloveitchik, 99, died on Sunday following months of ill health after contracting Covid-19.
The country is currently under a third national lockdown, but police did not intervene to disperse the crowd.
The scenes sparked backlash from deputy prime minister Benny Gantz ahead of a vote to extend lockdown rules.
"Millions of families and children are locked in their homes and abide by the rules while thousands of Haredim crowd the funeral, most of them even without masks," Mr Gantz tweeted describing it as evidence of "unequal enforcement".
"We will not agree to the continuation of an ineffective fake lockdown. Either everyone is locked down - or everyone opens. The days of indulgence are over."
The Guardian
‘That hurricane is coming’: expert warns US to brace for virulent Covid strain
A leading infectious disease expert predicted on Sunday that the deadlier British variant of Covid-19 will become the dominant strain of the virus in the US and could hit the country like a hurricane.
The worrying forecast came as the total of confirmed infections in the US passed the 26m mark, with the death toll advancing steadily towards the grim milestone of half a million after on Sunday surpassing the total of 440,000, by far the highest in the world according to data gathered by the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus research center.
Epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, who served on Joe Biden’s transition coronavirus advisory board after the Democratic victory in the 2020 election, and is director of the center for infectious disease research and policy at the University of Minnesota, warned America to brace for the spread of the virulent strain this spring.
NPR
CDC Issues Sweeping New Mask Mandate For U.S. Travelers, Extends Eviction Moratorium
Starting early next week, travelers and commuters will be required to wear face masks on nearly all forms of public transportation as part of a sweeping new order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.
The order, issued late Friday, will require masks to be worn by "all passengers on public conveyances" traveling into or within the United States, including airplanes, ships, ferries, trains, subways, buses, taxis and ride-shares. Coverings will also be required at transportation hubs like airports, bus terminals, and train or subway stations. The new guidelines take effect at 11:59 p.m. ET on Feb. 1.
"Requiring masks on our transportation systems will protect Americans and provide confidence that we can once again travel safely even during this pandemic," said the 11-page order signed by Dr. Martin Cetron, director of the CDC's Division of Global Migration and Quarantine. "Therefore, requiring masks will help us control this pandemic and aid in reopening America's economy."
Deutsche Welle
WHO team visits Wuhan wet market to find COVID clues
A World Health Organization (WHO) team tracing the origins of COVID-19 on Sunday visited a food market in Wuhan, where the virus was initially detected.
The 10-strong international team walked through sections of the Baishazhou seafood center — one of the largest wet markets in Wuhan — surrounded by a large entourage of Chinese officials and representatives.
Public access to the market has been restricted since the authorities closed it at the beginning of last year.
On December 31, 2019, four cases of a mystery pneumonia were reported in the market, which was later identified as the novel coronavirus. By the end of January, Wuhan had gone into a 76-day lockdown to contain the COVID-19 spread.
International health experts believe the market still plays a role in tracing the origins of the virus. A single visit by scientists, however, is unlikely to confirm the virus' origins. The team will also visit the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and laboratories at medical facilities, including the Wuhan Center for Disease Control.
Reuters
Britain's centenarian fundraiser Captain Tom in hospital with COVID-19
LONDON (Reuters) - British centenarian Captain Tom Moore, who raised millions of pounds for the health service by walking laps of his garden in last year’s lockdown, has been admitted to hospital after testing positive for COVID-19, his daughter said on Sunday.
The World War Two veteran caught the public’s imagination in April, just before his 100th birthday, when he was filmed doing laps with the help of a walking frame around his garden in the village of Marston Moretaine, north of London.
He hoped to raise 1,000 pounds. Instead, he raised more than 30 million ($41 million) for the National Health Service, broke two Guinness world records, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, scored a No. 1 single, wrote an autobiography and helped set up a charity.
“I wanted to update everybody that today ... my father was admitted to hospital,” his daughter, Hannah Ingram-Moore, said on Twitter.
Barf.
Reuters
Kushner, Berkowitz nominated for Nobel Peace Prize for Israel deals
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and his deputy, Avi Berkowitz, were nominated on Sunday for the Nobel Peace Prize for their role in negotiating four normalization deals between Israel and Arab nations known as the “Abraham Accords.”
Nominating the pair of former deputies to then-President Donald Trump was American attorney Alan Dershowitz, who was eligible to do so in his capacity as a professor emeritus of Harvard Law School.
Kushner, who is Trump’s son-in-law, and Berkowitz, who was the Middle East envoy, were key figures in negotiating deals between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.
The deals were announced in a four-month span between mid-August and mid-December and were the most significant diplomatic breakthroughs in the Middle East in 25 years as the region girds for a prolonged confrontation with Iran.
Deutsche Welle
India's Modi lashes out at protesting farmers
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has slammed farmers protesting his government's agriculture reforms. This week's demonstrations turned violent after farmers broke into the historic Red Fort and clashed with police.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Sunday radio address criticized protesters that stormed Delhi's historic Red Fort on the country's Republic Day.
Tens of thousands of farmers have camped on the outskirts of the capital Delhi for more than two months, demanding a repeal of new agricultural laws that they say benefit private corporations.
"The country was saddened by the insult to the Tricolor (Indian flag) on the 26th of January in Delhi," Modi said in his first public comments on a monthslong farmers' agitation.
"The government is committed to modernizing agriculture and is also taking many steps in that direction," he added.
Violence erupted on Tuesday during a tractor parade in the capital to coincide with India's Republic Day. Thousands of farmers stormed the city's Red Fort, and clashes between protesters and the authorities left one dead and hundreds injured. Since then there have been sporadic skirmishes between protesters, police and anti-farmer groups.
Buzzfeed
More Than 1,000 Open Prostitution Cases In Brooklyn Are Going To Be Wiped From The Files
More than 1,000 open cases related to prostitution and loitering — some dating as far back as the 1970s — will be dismissed in Brooklyn, District Attorney Eric Gonzalez told BuzzFeed News.
The news is a part of a formal announcement that Gonzalez’s office now plans to decline to prosecute or dismiss cases on both charges. It is part of an effort to keep sex workers and other marginalized people — particularly people of color on low incomes — out of court in New York City’s most populated borough, where there are more than 2.5 million people. Gonzalez said his office has been rolling out a program to dismiss all prostitution cases over the last year, along with arrests under the loitering statute, which he said it has declined to prosecute since 2019. Gonzalez said his office has declined prosecution or dismissed all such cases since the end of last year.
New York Times
Democratic Party Enters 2021 in Power — and Flush With Cash, for a Change
After years of flirting with financial disaster, the Democratic Party entered 2021 not only in control of the White House, the House and the Senate but with more money in the bank than ever before at the start of a political cycle.
The Democratic National Committee will report to the Federal Election Commission on Sunday that it ended 2020 with $38.8 million in the bank and $3 million in debts, according to an advance look at its financial filings. In addition, there is roughly $40 million earmarked for the party, left over from its joint operations with the Biden campaign, according to people familiar with the matter. This gives the Democrats a roughly $75 million war chest at the start of President Biden’s tenure.
“This is a number that is unimaginable,” said Howard Dean, a former party chairman. The D.N.C. was badly outmatched financially in recent years by the Republican National Committee — by as much as 50 to 1 in terms of cash less than 18 months ago — and the enormous $70 million balance could have significant political consequences for the 2022 midterm elections and beyond.
Washington Post
Reopening of Chicago schools in limbo
CHICAGO — A plan to reopen Chicago schools remained in limbo as last-minute negotiations about coronavirus safety measures with the teachers union stalled Sunday, amplifying the possibility of a strike or lockout.
About 62,000 students in kindergarten through eighth grade and about 10,000 teachers and staff members were expected to return to school Monday for the first time since March, part of the district’s gradual reopening plans during the pandemic. Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) said Sunday that she still expected all teachers, including those in pre-K and special education who started in-person classes in January, to show up Monday. But she pushed back students’ arrival until Tuesday over staffing concerns, saying remote learning would be extended a day.
The Chicago Teachers Union has fought returning to classrooms in the nation’s third-largest district, defying orders to come to class ahead of students. The union has said that if the district locks teachers out of email and teaching platforms, which it has done previously, all teachers will picket. Such a move could shut down remote learning districtwide.