Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame, jck and Rise above the swamp. . Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw.
Since 2007 the OND has been 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.
Some stories for tonight:
- Kerala floods: Dozens missing in deadly India disaster
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Pedro Sanchez: Spanish PM vows to abolish prostitution
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The political fight over vaccine mandates deepens despite their effectiveness
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Gangs expand territory as Haiti government struggles to stay in control
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Iranian warship fends off pirate attack in Gulf of Aden
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No end in sight to La Palma volcanic eruption: Canaries president
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West Virginia leads US in flood risk, adding to Manchin’s climate dilemma
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Coronavirus digest: Mecca Grand Mosque drops social distancing
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Hungary: Small-town Mayor Marki-Zay to challenge PM Orban in 2022
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It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the ultimate question
BBC
Kerala floods: Dozens missing in deadly India disaster
At least 26 people have been killed in floods in southern India after heavy rains caused rivers to overflow, cutting off towns and villages.
Five children are among the dead. There are fears the death toll could rise further as many people are missing.
Several houses were washed away and people became trapped in the district of Kottayam in Kerala state.
Video from the area showed bus passengers being rescued after their vehicle was inundated with floodwater.
Days of heavy rainfall in Kerala has caused deadly landslides and the Indian military has joined rescue efforts.
Helicopters have been used to fly in supplies and personnel to areas where people have been trapped under debris by the landslides, officials said on Sunday.
BBC
Pedro Sanchez: Spanish PM vows to abolish prostitution
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez pledged on Sunday to outlaw prostitution in the country.
Speaking to supporters at the end of his Socialist Party's three-day congress in Valencia, Mr Sanchez said that the practice "enslaves" women.
Prostitution was decriminalised in Spain in 1995 and in 2016 the UN estimated the country's sex industry was worth €3.7bn (£3.1bn, $4.2bn).
A 2009 survey found that up to 1 in 3 Spanish men had paid for sex.
However, another report published in 2009 suggested that the figure may be as high as 39% and a 2011 UN study cited Spain as the third biggest centre for prostitution in the world, behind Thailand and Puerto Rico.
Prostitution is currently unregulated in Spain, and there is no punishment for those who offer paid sexual services of their own will as long as it does not take place in public spaces. However, pimping or acting as a proxy between a sex worker and a potential client is illegal.
NPR
The political fight over vaccine mandates deepens despite their effectiveness
The science is clear: Vaccines are a safe and effective way to prevent serious illness, hospitalization and death from the coronavirus, and vaccine mandates are an effective tool in promoting widespread vaccinations.
Still, the battle to inoculate the nation against the coronavirus has reached a fever pitch in recent months. President Biden has focused on getting as many Americans as possible vaccinated against the coronavirus, most notably rolling out wide-reaching vaccine mandates for government employees and for businesses with more than 100 workers.
But Republicans have grown increasingly hostile to the notion of mandatory vaccines — despite vaccine mandates existing in the background in parts of the United States since the 19th century — and have parlayed the fight against COVID-19 into a political battle, with vaccine mandates as the latest frontier in the great American defense of freedom and liberty.
Reuters
Gangs expand territory as Haiti government struggles to stay in control
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Oct 17 (Reuters) - When Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry attempted on Sunday to lead a ceremony commemorating the death of one of the country's founding fathers, his delegation was met with a volley of gunfire that forced officials to withdraw.
It was a further sign of the growing power of the Caribbean nation's gangs, who on Saturday kidnapped a group of Christian missionaries traveling near the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Gangs have become more comfortable committing crimes outside the territory they control since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July and an earthquake in August, said human rights activist Pierre Esperance.
Al Jazeera
Iranian warship fends off pirate attack in Gulf of Aden
Tehran, Iran – An Iranian warship has repelled pirates who were trying to take over two Iranian oil tankers in the Gulf of Aden, state television said.
The commander of Iran’s navy, terming the incident “maritime terrorism”, said on Saturday that the two tankers were attacked by pirates commanding five boats.
Admiral Shahram Irani added that a group of army vessels that escorted the tankers, which included the Alborz destroyer, fended off the attack.
“The attacking boats were forced to leave the scene and their offensive was repelled through the timely response of commandos” on board the vessels who shot at them, Irani said.
According to Irani, the two unnamed tankers passed safely through the area, which is now secure.
Al Jazeera
No end in sight to La Palma volcanic eruption: Canaries president
There is no immediate end in sight to the volcanic eruption that has caused chaos on the Spanish isle of La Palma since it began about a month ago, the president of the Canary Islands said on Sunday.
There were 42 seismic movements on the island on Sunday, the largest of which measured 4.3, according to the Spanish National Geographic Institute.
“There are no signs that an end of the eruption is imminent even though this is the greatest desire of everyone,” President Angel Víctor Torres said at a Socialist party conference in Valencia, citing the view of scientists.
Streams of lava have lain waste to more than 742 hectares (1,833 acres) of land and destroyed almost 2,000 buildings on La Palma since the volcano started erupting on September 19.
Boston Globe
West Virginia leads US in flood risk, adding to Manchin’s climate dilemma
FARMINGTON, W.Va. — In U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin’s hometown, a flood-prone hamlet of about 200 homes that hugs a curve on a shallow creek, the rain is getting worse.
Those storms swell the river, Buffalo Creek, inundating homes along its banks. They burst the streams that spill down the hills on either side of this former coal-mining town, pushing water into basements. They saturate the ground, seeping into Farmington’s aging pipes and overwhelming its sewage-treatment system.
Climate change is warming the air, allowing it to hold more moisture, which causes more frequent and intense rainfall. And no state in the contiguous United States is more exposed to flood damage than West Virginia, according to data released last week. From the porch of his riverfront house, Jim Hall, who is married to Manchin’s cousin, recounted how rescue workers got him and his wife out of their house with a rope during a flood in 2017. He described helping his neighbors, Manchin’s sister and brother-in-law, clear out their basement when a storm would come. He calls local officials when he smells raw sewage in the river.
Deutsche Welle
Coronavirus digest: Mecca Grand Mosque drops social distancing
The Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia operated at full capacity on Sunday for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began.
"This is in line with the decision to ease precautionary measures and to allow pilgrims and visitors to the Grand Mosque at full capacity," reported the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
The mosque removed the floor markings that previously guided pilgrims in maintaining social distancing.
Saudi authorities said visitors must be fully vaccinated against coronavirus and must continue to wear masks on mosque grounds.
The Kaaba — the black cubic structure in the center toward which Muslims around the world pray — remained cordoned off.
Deutsche Welle
Hungary: Small-town Mayor Marki-Zay to challenge PM Orban in 2022
Conservative provincial Mayor Peter Marki-Zay will stand against Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban at next year's election after winning an opposition primary on Sunday.
Marki-Zay, a 49-year-old political outsider, beat the leftist Democratic Coalition Party's Klara Dobrev.
He got 56.71% of the votes, while Dobrev had 43.29%, the primary election commission announced on Sunday evening.
Speaking to cheering supporters, Marki-Zay said, "We can only win together."
"No one can break the unity of the opposition… This was a battle, but we have to win the war as well," he said, referring to the 2022 election.
Dobrev vowed to support Marki-Zay as the head of an alliance of six opposition parties that will attempt to oust Orban after more than a decade in power.
NPR
It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the ultimate question
It's the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything: 42.
And 42 is now the number of years since the publication of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, the first in the series of wacky and beloved sci-fi books by Douglas Adams.
The book follows Englishman Arthur Dent as he wakes up to find that Earth is about to be demolished to make way for a space highway. Adventure ensues across the galaxy with aliens, super computers and Marvin, a perpetually sad robot.
The iconic sci-fi franchise has taken on many forms, including a TV show, a movie, live theater productions, a computer game and comic books. It started as a BBC radio series in 1978.
But it's most well-known as a book, first published in October 1979. And after 42 years, fans still find joy in the humorous characters, absurd plots and subtle lessons that have kept the cultural legacy strong.