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.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments and consider this an open thread.
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Nigeria school abduction: Gunmen kidnap students in Niger state
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Covid investigators must interview Wuhan stall owners, says virologist
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The $3bn bargain: how China dominates Pacific mining, logging and fishing
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Summer’s about to start in America. So is sticker shock.
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Russia confirms $500m loan for Belarus as West toughens sanctions
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US drawing up Belarus sanctions after Ryanair plane diversion
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Small Plane Crashes Into Tennessee Lake; 7 Believed Dead
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'He's going to flip': Allen Weisselberg's ex-daughter-in-law says longtime accountant will turn on Trump
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Japan's fascination with perfect — and expensive — fruits
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Bouncy Castles and Grenades: Gangs Erode Maduro’s Grip on Caracas
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Leading scientist says that without a full investigation of lab leak theory, the world will face ‘covid-26 and covid-32’
BBC
Nigeria school abduction: Gunmen kidnap students in Niger state
Nigerian officials say gunmen have kidnapped many students from an Islamic school in Nigeria - the latest in a series of such attacks on schools.
Authorities in Niger state confirmed to the BBC that gunmen had seized an unknown number of students from the school in the town of Tegina on Sunday.
A teacher told the BBC that 150 students were missing, while other reports put the figure at about 200.
Abductions carried out for ransom are increasingly common in northern states.
In February nearly 300 girls were taken by armed men from a boarding school in Jangebe, Zamfara state. Most were later freed. In the latest incident, witnesses quoted by This Day news website said gunmen riding on motorcycles stormed the town and opened fire indiscriminately. As people fled the attackers went to the Islamic school and seized the children. The school is attended by boys and girls, aged six to 18.
The Guardian
Covid investigators must interview Wuhan stall owners, says virologist
A leading scientist has called for stallholders at the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan to be interviewed in any further investigation of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Prof Eddie Holmes has joined a growing chorus of voices calling for increased efforts to identify the source of the outbreak. The US president, Joe Biden, has ordered the US intelligence community to intensify its scrutiny of the origins of coronavirus, as the theory that the virus might have come from a lab in Wuhan gains traction.
He revealed that two of the 18 intelligence agencies were leaning towards the animal link and one more toward the lab theory.
It is still thought by many that the market in Wuhan is at the centre of the Covid breakout and that the virus jumped from an animal species to humans. On 31 January, a team of scientists led by the World Health Organization visited the market. However, according to their report only two stall operators were interviewed, and neither was engaged in trading wildlife.
Washington Post
Leading scientist says that without a full investigation of lab leak theory, the world will face ‘covid-26 and covid-32’
A prominent scientist on Sunday added his voice to the growing number of experts calling for a full investigation into the origins of the novel coronavirus, saying the future of public health is at stake.
“There’s going to be covid-26 and covid-32 unless we fully understand the origins of covid-19,” Peter Hotez, a professor of pediatrics and molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine and a leading expert on the virus, said Sunday on NBC News’s “Meet The Press.” He said coming to firm conclusions about how the virus emerged was “absolutely essential” in preventing future pandemics.
New reports suggest that China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology was at the center of the outbreak, not animal-to-human transmission elsewhere in Wuhan, which was the long-prevalent opinion. President Biden last week ordered a fresh 90-day intelligence review of the virus’s origins with the goal of examining the possibility that it accidentally leaked from the Wuhan lab instead of being spread by bats or other animals to humans in a zoonotic transmission.
The Guardian
The $3bn bargain: how China dominates Pacific mining, logging and fishing
One country dominates the Pacific’s resources extraction.
Guardian analysis of trade data has revealed that China received more than half the total tonnes of seafood, wood and minerals exported from the region in 2019, a haul worth $3.3bn that has been described by experts as “staggering in magnitude”.
The country’s mass extraction of resources comes as China has deepened its connections with governments across the region, amid a soft power push that sees it rivalling the influence of the US and Australia in the Pacific.
China took more by weight of these resources from the Pacific than the next 10 countries combined, with experts saying China “would easily outstrip” other countries, including Australia, when it comes to “gross environmental impact of its extractive industries”.
Data analysis reveals the extent of China’s appetite for Pacific natural resources.
In 2019 China imported 4.8m tonnes of wood, 4.8m tonnes of mineral products, and 72,000 tonnes of seafood from the Pacific.
Reuters
Summer’s about to start in America. So is sticker shock.
With coronavirus cases plummeting and 1.8 million U.S. residents getting vaccinated each day, more Americans plan this upcoming Memorial Day weekend to get back to old pleasures like friends over, evenings out, travel and afternoons at a ball game.
They will also encounter something new and less pleasant: rising prices.
Overall, U.S. consumer prices in April were up about 3.1% compared with February 2020, the month before the pandemic shut down the economy. Data published Friday showed a separate measure of inflation surging 3.6% last month, and underlying inflation excluding volatile gas and food prices gaining 3.1%, its largest annual increase since 1992. And that may be only the beginning. A survey from the University of Michigan on Friday showed consumers' one-year inflation expectations shot up to 4.6% in May from 3.4% in April.
Al Jazeera
Russia confirms $500m loan for Belarus as West toughens sanctions
Russia has agreed to release a second $500m loan to Belarus as Moscow stepped up its support for Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko amid outrage in the West about the grounding of a European passenger plane and the arrest of a dissident journalist.
The financial support was announced after Russian President Vladimir Putin held a second day of talks with Lukashenko, and treated his guest to a yacht tour in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Saturday.
The money is part of a $1.5bn loan that Russia promised Belarus as part of Moscow’s efforts to stabilise its neighbour after mass protests broke out against Lukashenko’s nearly three-decade rule last year.
Minsk received a first instalment of $500m in October and will receive the second tranche before the end of June, the RIA news agency reported.
Al Jazeera
US drawing up Belarus sanctions after Ryanair plane diversion
The United States announced punitive measures against Belarus as Russia offeredPresident Alexander Lukashenko support in his standoff with the West over the forced diversion of a European plane and the arrest of a dissident.
In a statement on Friday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki called the events of May 23 a “direct affront to international norms” and said Washington – in coordination with the European Union – was drawing up a list of targeted sanctions against key members of Lukashenko’s government.
She also announced the suspension of a 2019 agreement that allowed US and Belarusian carriers to use each other’s airspace and called for “a credible international investigation” into the forced landing of the Ryanair plane.
Belarusian authorities last week scrambled a fighter jet and flagged what turned out to be a false bomb alert to force the plane to land, then arrested journalist Roman Protasevich who was on board.
NPR
Small Plane Crashes Into Tennessee Lake; 7 Believed Dead
SMYRNA, Tenn. (AP) — A small jet carrying seven people crashed into a Tennessee lake on Saturday, and authorities indicated that no one on board survived.
The Cessna C501 crashed into Percy Priest Lake near Smyrna after taking off from a nearby airport about 11 a.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.
Rutherford County rescue crews were still at the scene of the crash late Saturday and planned to work through the night, Rutherford County Fire Rescue Capt. Joshua Sanders said at a news conference. He indicated that there were no survivors.
"Our efforts have transitioned from a rescue effort to that of a recovery effort. ... We are no longer ... looking for live victims at this point," Sanders said.
Earlier Saturday, officials confirmed that at least one person had died in the crash and that search crews had found a debris field and identified parts of the airplane in the lake. Sanders said the crash appeared to have taken place entirely in the lake.
Raw Story
During an appearance on MSNBC, Jennifer Weisselberg reacted to the news that a special grand jury has been empaneled to hear evidence against the Trump Organization.
"I lost my breath," Weisselberg recalled. "I was in shock actually. I didn't realize it was going to happen this soon. I did anticipate it happening but I was shocked." According to Weisselberg, her former father-in-law "changed dramatically" after Trump became president.
According to Weisselberg, her former father-in-law "changed dramatically" after Trump became president. "It really went to their heads. They were extremely enabled and had no accountability," she said. "Weisselberg does lie. He has perjured himself with the presidential inaugural committee, with most depositions. Looks like he was trying to avoid the inevitable but now that there is a personal criminal probe on him and they are going really hard on his children -- Barry and Jack -- he's going to flip."
New York Times
Bouncy Castles and Grenades: Gangs Erode Maduro’s Grip on Caracas
CARACAS, Venezuela — From within his presidential palace, President Nicolás Maduro regularly commandeers the airwaves, delivering speeches intended to project stability to his crumbling nation.
But as the Venezuelan state disintegrates under the weight of Mr. Maduro’s corrupt leadership and American sanctions, his government is losing control of segments of the country, even within his stronghold: the capital, Caracas.
Nowhere is his weakening grip on territory more evident than in Cota 905, a shantytown that clings to a steep mountainside overlooking the gilded halls from which Mr. Maduro addresses the nation.In the maze of shacks that make up Cota 905 and the adjoining communities of El Cementerio and La Vega, home to about 300,000 people, the capital’s largest gang has moved into the power vacuum left by an unraveling nation: It delivers food to the needy. It helps pay for medicine and funerals, equips sports teams and sponsors music concerts. On national holidays, it hands out toys and puts up bouncy castles for children.
Deutsche Welle
Japan's fascination with perfect — and expensive — fruits
Perfectly round with a delicious green sheen, a pair of melons from the town of Yubari in northern Japan were sold for an eye-watering 2.7 million yen (€20,260, $24,702) at the first fruit auction of the season at Sapporo wholesale market earlier this week.
Yubari is famous for the quality of its melons, which are known across the country as a delicacy and a symbol of the imminent arrival of summer.
The melons were purchased by Hokkaido Products Ltd., a local baby food manufacturer, which announced that they would be quickly frozen, divided into 10 equal segments and sent to customers taking part in a lottery.
The president of the company told local media that he wanted to "cheer people up" during the ongoing hardships brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
The price the company paid for the two melons was significantly higher than the maximum of €900 last year's prime specimens went for, with lavish spending during the pandemic and economic crisis frowned upon by many.