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:
- Colombian drug lord Otoniel to be extradited to US
- Powerful storm hits California amid warnings of ‘potentially historic rain’
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Pelosi ‘very confident’ Democrats will reach deal to salvage Biden agenda
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China is removing domes from mosques as part of a push to make them more 'Chinese'
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Saudi-led coalition says it killed more than 260 Yemen rebels
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New Zealand reports second-highest daily COVID-19 cases in pandemic
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German COVID rate soars to highest level since May
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Pro-Kyrie Irving, anti-vaccine-mandate protesters demonstrate at Barclays Center before Nets game
BBC
Colombian drug lord Otoniel to be extradited to US
Colombia has announced that the country's most wanted drug trafficker will be extradited to the US after his capture on Saturday.
Dairo Antonio Úsuga, better known as Otoniel, was seized after a joint army, air force and police operation.
US officials had placed a $5m (£3.6m) bounty on his head.
They accused him of importing at least 73 metric tonnes of cocaine into the country between 2003 and 2014.
Colombia's Defence Minister Diego Molano told El Tiempo newspaper that the next step for officials was to comply with the US extradition order.
The Guardian
Pelosi ‘very confident’ Democrats will reach deal to salvage Biden agenda
A powerful storm has roared ashore in California, flooding cities, toppling trees and causing mud flows in areas burned bare by recent fires.
After months of drought, the darkened clouds collecting over the state this weekend were a welcome sight to some. But rather than the much-needed drizzle residents and officials hoped could end a disastrous fire season and dampen dried landscapes, the state got a deluge. Some areas are forecast to see more than 10in (25cm) of rain and thousands across the state have lost power. “A powerful west coast storm is likely to produce areas of heavy rain with life-threatening flash flooding, especially on burn scars, high winds, and significant waves along the coast,” the National Weather Service reportedSunday, adding that “some areas that normally do not experience flash flooding will flood”.
Editor note: This is happening right here, and the first story in the article is two blocks from my home in Santa Rosa, We are safe.
The Guardian
Pelosi ‘very confident’ Democrats will reach deal to salvage Biden agenda
House speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed confidence on Sunday that a deal between Democrats to salvage Joe Biden’s ambitious social agenda was “pretty much there”, paving the way for a possible vote in Congress later this week.
Her upbeat words came as the president was meeting in Delaware with the Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic holdout Joe Manchin to put the finishing touches on what has become a scaled-back package central to Biden’s Build Back Better initiative.
Manchin, of West Virginia, was one of two moderate Senate Democrats, along with Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema, resisting the original $3.5tn cost of the social spending bill. Manchin had indicated he would be more comfortable with something closer to $1.5tn, and raised objections over Biden’s flagship clean power plan (CPP) that would have imposed emission controls on power companies.
NPR
China is removing domes from mosques as part of a push to make them more 'Chinese’
XINING, China — The Dongguan Mosque has adopted some very different looks in its nearly 700 years in China's northwestern city of Xining. Built in the style of a Chinese imperial palace, with tiled roofs and no domes, and adorned with Buddhist symbols, the mosque was nearly destroyed by neglect during political tumult in the early 20th century. In the 1990s, authorities replaced the original ceramic tiles on the roof and minarets with green domes.
This year, provincial authorities lopped off those domes .China is removing the domes and minarets from thousands of mosques across the country. Authorities say the domes are evidence of foreign religious influence and are taking down overtly Islamic architecture as part of a push to sinicize historically Muslim ethnic groups — to make them more traditionally Chinese.
Al Jazeera
Saudi-led coalition says it killed more than 260 Yemen rebels
More than 260 Houthi rebels were killed in fighting over the past three days near Yemen’s strategic city of Marib, the Saudi Arabia-led coalition said on Sunday.
The rebel deaths are the latest among hundreds the coalition claims have been killed in recent battles around the internationally recognised government’s last bastion in oil-rich northern Yemen.
It was not possible to independently verify the death toll, and the Iran-aligned Houthis rarely comment on losses.
“Thirty-six military vehicles were destroyed and more than 264” rebel fighters were killed in raids in the past 72 hours, the coalition said, quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency.
The attacks were carried out in Al-Jawba, 50km (30 miles) south of Marib, and Al-Kassara, 30km (17 miles) to the northwest.
The coalition has for the past two weeks reported almost daily air raids around Marib. Last week, the Saudi Arabia-led coalition said it killed 160 Houthi rebels in raids south of Marib.
Reuters
New Zealand reports second-highest daily COVID-19 cases in pandemic
Oct 25 (Reuters) - New Zealand reported 109 new locally acquired coronavirus cases on Monday, the bulk of them in its largest city, Auckland, as the country saw its second-worst day of daily infections since the pandemic began.
Once the poster child for stamping out COVID-19, New Zealand has been unable to beat an outbreak of Delta variant of COVID-19 centred in Auckland, despite the city remaining under a strict lockdown for more than two months.
The country over the weekend also reported the first community case of the virus in its South Island in nearly a year, a cause for further headache, though health officials said the risks of a further spread from the case remained low.
The spike in cases has forced Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to abandon her elimination strategy and switch to living with the virus, and health officials have warned of an uptick in cases until vaccinations ramp up.
Deutsche Welle
German COVID rate soars to highest level since May
Germany's coronavirus infection rate rose again on Saturday, touching exactly 100 cases per 100,000 of the population.
The figure — previously used as Germany's benchmark for lockdowns — is the highest since mid-May.
The number had risen considerably from Tuesday to Friday, from 75.1 to 95.1.
The incidence rates last topped 100 per 100,000 on May 13. At the time, the figure was still being used as a benchmark to assess whether communities could emerge from lockdown.
The rates are no longer considered as so meaningful, given that so many Germans have been vaccinated against the worst effects of the disease.
In Germany, the number of coronavirus patients being admitted to hospitals in the past seven days remains low.
Washington Post
Pro-Kyrie Irving, anti-vaccine-mandate protesters demonstrate at Barclays Center before Nets game
The 2012 NBA rookie of the year is among just a handful of players in the league who remain unvaccinated. Commissioner Adam Silver said last week that “roughly 96 percent” of players are vaccinated and that the number was likely to “tick up a little bit” as the season got underway. He described New York’s ordinance and a similar one in San Francisco that affects Golden State Warriors players as “perfectly appropriate.”
“I hope that Kyrie — despite how strongly he feels about the vaccination — ultimately decides to get vaccinated because I’d love to see him play basketball this season,” Silver added at the time. “I’d love to see the Brooklyn Nets have their full complement of players on the floor.
On Sunday, some protesters wore T-shirts or held signs that read, “Stand with Kyrie.” Messages on other signs included “No mandates — my body, my choice”; “We will not comply” and “Don’t tread on me.”