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) 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.
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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Washington Post: Five months post-covid, Nicole Murphy’s heart rate is still doing strange things by Ariana Eunjung Cha
Five months after being infected with the coronavirus, Nicole Murphy’s pulse rate is going berserk. Normally in the 70s, which is ideal, it has been jumping to 160, 170 and sometimes 210 beats per minute even when she is at rest — putting her at risk of a heart attack, heart failure or stroke.
No one seems to be able to pinpoint why. She’s only 44, never had heart issues, and when a cardiologist near her hometown of Wellsville, Ohio, ran all of the standard tests, “he literally threw up his hands when he saw the results,” she recalled. Her blood pressure was perfect, there were no signs of clogged arteries, and her heart was expanding and contracting well.
Murphy’s boomeranging heart rate is one of a number of mysterious conditions afflicting Americans weeks or months after coronavirus infections that suggest the potential of a looming cardiac crisis.
A pivotal study that looked at health records of more than 153,000 U.S. veterans published this month in Nature Medicine found that their risk of cardiovascular disease of all types increased substantially in the year following infection, even when they had mild cases. The population studied was mostly White and male, but the patterns held even when the researchers analyzed women and people of color separately. When experts factor in the heart damage probably suffered by people who put off medical care, more sedentary lifestyles and eating changes, not to mention the stress of the pandemic, they estimate there may be millions of new onset cardiac cases related to the virus, plus a worsening of disease for many already affected.
New York Times: Jurors to Weigh Fate of Officers Who Restrained George Floyd as He Died by Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
ST. PAUL, Minn. — In the prosecution’s telling, three Minneapolis police officers did little more than callously watch as their colleague, Derek Chauvin, slowly killed George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes. In the eyes of defense lawyers, the officers had trusted Mr. Chauvin, the veteran officer on the scene, to do his duty and should be acquitted.
The dueling positions presented on Tuesday brought the arguments in the federal trial over Mr. Floyd’s death to a close, and jurors on Wednesday will begin deliberating whether any of the three officers — Tou Thao, 36; J. Alexander Kueng, 28; and Thomas Lane, 38 — are guilty of violating Mr. Floyd’s civil rights.
Jurors have heard from doctors, police officers and other witnesses since the trial began nearly a month ago, and now they must decide whether any of the officers’ actions on May 25, 2020 — for which they were quickly fired — rose to the level of a crime. Mr. Kueng and Mr. Lane, who were both on their first week on the job as full officers, helped to hold Mr. Floyd down, and Mr. Thao kept back a group of concerned bystanders. All three officers are charged with failing to provide medical aid to Mr. Floyd, while Mr. Kueng and Mr. Thao are also charged with failing to intervene to stop Mr. Chauvin.
USA Today: A bone-numbing blast: Storm wallops central US with heavy snow, wind chills near 50 below by Doyle Rice
A powerful storm continued to wreak havoc across the nation on Tuesday as winter refused to relinquish its icy grip on the U.S.
The storm walloped the Upper Midwest with snow and ice, creating dangerous travel conditions, closing scores of schools and causing a chain-reaction accident that injured at least six people in North Dakota.
The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for parts of the Dakotas on Tuesday. "Travel is discouraged," the weather service said. By Tuesday morning, over 20 inches of snow had fallen in Washburn, Wisconsin, just east of Duluth, Minnesota, AccuWeather said.
That same storm also ushered in bitterly cold temperatures across much of the central U.S. Wind chills approached 50 degrees below zero in some locations. "With wind chills this cold, frostbite could happen in minutes," the weather service warned.
Guardian: Ukraine: president calls up reservists as Russia moves troops into country’s east by Emma Graham-Harrison
Ukraine’s president has called up the country’s reservists after Russia began moving troops into the country’s east, and warned that Ukraine could face a battle for its very existence.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy ruled out a general mobilisation in an evening address to the nation. But the decision to bring reservists back into active duty was a further sign that Ukraine was bracing for a possible military clash with its neighbour.
Vladimir Putin said that Russia will support the territorial claims of self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk, dramatically increasing the likelihood of a larger war in the near future.
France 24: French presidential race: Macron diplomacy in Ukraine crisis keeps challengers at a distance
In normal times, Emmanuel Macron would have hit the campaign trail by now to try for a second term in a presidential election only seven weeks away, plotting strategy, appearing in TV debates and firing up supporters at rallies.
But times are far from normal, and none of this is happening.
Instead, the French president seems chained to his desk, a five o'clock shadow growing into a stubble, brows furrowed, his attention focused east, as he hopes to dissuade Russian leader Vladimir Putin from waging all-out war in Ukraine.
Macron hasn't even told the nation whether he plans to run for re-election in the April vote, though few doubt that he will.
In the past few days, he has spent countless hours on the telephone to nearly every leader with a stake in the Ukraine crisis: Putin, US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and EU leaders.
The opposition at home accuses him of putting on "a show" as he hugs the world headlines with his diplomacy instead of engaging with other presidential hopefuls at home.
Al Jazeera: Italy rescues nearly 600 migrants off Calabria, finds one dead
Italy’s coastguard has rescued nearly 600 people packed into overcrowded fishing boats in bad weather off the coast of Calabria, finding one person dead.
The 573 refugees and migrants were found overnight on board “two overloaded fishing boats and left at the mercy of waves with unfavourable weather conditions that were expected to worsen significantly”, the coastguard service said in a statement on Tuesday.
A large ship and three patrol boats aided in the rescue, which took place about 110km (70 miles) off Cape Spartivento at the southern tip of Calabria, it said.
Among those recovered was a body of a person who “had already been dead for a few days”, according to witnesses cited by the coastguard.
A patrol boat rushed another person in need of immediate medical care to the Calabrian port of Roccella Ionica.
DW: Hostage situation ends at Amsterdam Apple store
Amsterdam police said they had apprehended a suspect who had taken a hostage an Apple Store in Amsterdam on Monday evening. Police added that the hostage was safe.
Earlier, police said they were dealing with a situation involving an armed person in a shop in Leidseplein, a typically busy square in downtown Amsterdam where the Apple store is located.
They later confirmed it was an "ongoing hostage situation at the Apple Store."
"To ensure the safety of all people involved we are not able to share information about the situation and/or actions taken by the police," police said.
Police did not specify how many people were in the shop, but said that several people were able to leave the building since the hostage situation started.
According to footage shared on social media, there was at least one person confronted by the armed man.
BBC News: Hong Kong: What went wrong with its Covid plan? by Grace Tsoi
The scene was grim at Caritas Medical Centre last week.
Just outside the hospital's emergency room, dozens of hospital beds had been placed in an alley under makeshift tents. The air was punctuated by the moans of patients - most of whom were elderly - and cries of children. All were suspected or confirmed Covid cases waiting to be admitted.
"It felt like we were in a wartime refugee camp. It was depressing. We were tearful, but there was no more space in the ward. They could only wait and there was nothing we could do," one emergency room nurse told the BBC.
Days later the patients were moved indoors, after Chief Executive Carrie Lam said the situation was "unacceptable". But Hong Kong's hospitals still remain full as the city battles its worst wave of infections.
Hong Kong was a poster child of pandemic control success in the past two years. By the end of 2021, the city of 7.5 million had recorded only 12,650 cases and fewer than 220 deaths.
Everyone have a great evening!