Some headlines from today:
- Apple Wins Best Picture, Beating Netflix to Streaming's Most Elusive Oscar
- Boris Nemtsov: Murdered Putin rival 'tailed' by agent linked to FSB hit squad
- Zelensky says Ukraine prepared to discuss neutrality in peace talks
- ‘Symbol of normality’: the Ukrainian TV host who stayed behind
- No 10 lockdown breaches: Met police expected to issue first fines
- Judge says Trump ‘likely’ committed crimes in bid to block Biden victory
- Johnson’s energy strategy held up over nuclear funding row with Sunak
- Britain’s loudest bird is back! How the once extinct bittern is booming
- Bannon’s escape plan: how the Trump strategist is trying to dodge prison
- Bowling for pride: Melbourne club that inspired cult comedy plays host to LGBTQ comp
- Cold war echoes as African leaders resist criticising Putin’s war
- EU seizes $130m assets linked to money laundering in Lebanon
- South African anti-immigration vigilante leader granted bail
- Thailand: 24,635 new Covid cases, 81 more deaths
- G7 rejects Russia's demand for gas payment in rub
- Germany considering new missile defense system
- Jada Pinkett Smith's hair loss, noted at the Oscars, is a struggle for many women
This is an open thread where everyone is welcome, especially night owls and early birds, to share and discuss the happenings of the day. Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
C/NET
Apple’s film CODA won the Academy Award for best picture Sunday, beating powerhouse Netflix to become first streaming service to conquer Hollywood's most coveted film prize. Netflix was nominated in the category, too, for its film The Power of the Dog, and the two streaming services were considered to be the frontrunners in the category going into Sunday's awards ceremony.
Apple's coup is sure to give the fledgling streaming service a boost among prospective subscribers, even as competition among Apple TV Plus, Netflix and their rivals grows fiercer than ever. In the last three years, multiple corporations have poured billions of dollars into launching new services in the hope of taking on the likes of Netflix to shape the future of television.
BBC
Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was shadowed by an agent linked to a political assassination team for almost a year before he was shot dead, an investigation has found.
Nemtsov was a fierce adversary of President Vladimir Putin. His murder in 2015 is the highest-profile political killing since Putin came to power.
The authorities deny any involvement.
Bellingcat, The Insider and the BBC found evidence that Nemtsov was shadowed on 13 trips before his murder.
Boris Nemtsov rose to prominence in the 1990s, served as deputy prime minister under President Boris Yeltsin, and was widely tipped to be Yeltsin's successor.
Instead, Mr Putin came to power and Mr Nemtsov was pushed to the margins of Russian politics. He became an effective campaigner, exposing corruption and denouncing Russia's 2014 attack on eastern Ukraine.
BBC
Ukraine's president has said his government is prepared to discuss adopting a neutral status as part of a peace deal with Russia.
In an interview with independent Russian journalists, Volodymyr Zelensky said any such deal would have to be put to a referendum in Ukraine.
He has made similar comments before, but rarely so forcefully.
The news comes as the negotiations between the two countries are set to resume this week in Turkey.
"Security guarantees and neutrality, non-nuclear status of our state. We are ready to go for it. This is the most important point," Mr Zelensky said in the 90-minute video call.
Neutrality means a country does not ally itself militarily with others.
The Guardian, International Edition
Meet the face of the war for millions of Ukrainians hunkering down in their homes.
Marichka Padalko, 46, is among a small coterie of TV news anchors with a platform to guide the country through the daily and nightly war developments while teasing out psychological advice from studio experts and offering practical tips on everything from shelter etiquette to surviving a chemical weapons attack.
She became central to people’s lives when, two days after Vladimir Putin announced his “special military operation”, the four main channels on Ukrainian television decided to work together to create one 24/7 “marathon” news show.
The Guardian, UK Edition
The first fines for lockdown breaches in Downing Street are expected to be issued imminently after Scotland Yard concluded that laws were broken at the heart of government, sources have told the Guardian.
Multiple government insiders said the Metropolitan police had made referrals for the first tranche of fixed penalty notices (FPNs) connected with parties and gatherings being investigated by police in No 10 and the Cabinet Office. It is understood the Met are expected to issue around 20 fines related to the most straightforward cases, though more are expected to follow.
It comes two months after the force began examining material from the Whitehall inquiry carried out by the senior civil servant Sue Gray into multiple alleged breaches of Covid rules.
The Guardian, US Edition
Donald Trump appears to have committed multiple felonies as he sought to return himself to power on 6 January, a judge said in a Monday ruling that ordered the Trump lawyer John Eastman to turn over hundreds of emails to the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack.
The extraordinary ruling marks a breakthrough and paves the way for the select committee to obtain some of Eastman’s most sensitive emails concerning his illegal scheme to overturn the 2020 election, which he had attempted to shield from the inquiry.
“Based on the evidence the court finds that it is more likely than not that President Trump and Dr Eastman dishonestly conspired to obstruct the joint session of Congress on January 6 2021,” ruled Judge David Carter.
The Guardian, UK Edition
Boris Johnson’s flagship energy strategy has been held up over a row with Rishi Sunak about funding a new generation of up to eight nuclear powerstations costing the public more than £13bn.
The strategy, which has been delayed for a month, was due to be published this week but has now been pencilled for 5 April after disagreement about the multibillion-pound cost of new nuclear plants and amid ongoing tensions between the prime minister and his chancellor, as well as the wider cabinet.
Johnson has
told the nuclear industry that he wants 25% of electricity generation to come from nuclear power by 2050, up from 16% now. Whitehall sources told the Guardian this shift could require the building of about eight new nuclear power stations.
The Guardian, UK Edition
Name: Bitterns.
AKA: Botaurus stellaris.
Age: First described in 1603, so older than that.
Appearance: Extremely difficult to see.
Why? Their speckled brown plumage makes them hard to pick out against the backdrop of the reed beds where they hang out. Also, they were extinct in Britain by the 1870s.
Oh no! How come? A combination of hunting and loss of habitat – the UK’s wetlands were being extensively drained back then. Bittern numbers were down to zero for about 25 years.
The Guardian, US Edition
As the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack was negotiating with Donald Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon to cooperate with its inquiry, the panel affirmed one of their rules: no third-party lawyers could attend witness depositions.
That meant when Bannon’s then-attorney asked whether a lawyer for Trump could be present for the closed-door interview to decide what issues were covered by the former president’s invocation of executive privilege, the select committee flatly refused.
The Guardian, Australian Edition
In its 153 years the Richmond Union Bowling Club has survived fires and gentrification. These days it welcomes all at its Pride Cup
It was such a big occasion for the Richmond Union Bowling Club, members in their late 60s had come out of retirement.
Some clubs recruit star players from overseas to succeed. Richmond – the tiny, unpretentious bowls club that inspired the movie Crackerjack – never has. Instead, its players are made up of rough diamonds and bar stragglers, brought together by acceptance and fun.
If they were to win, it would be the first time in the club’s 153 year history to have qualified for the Victorian Bowls Premier League, and the second time in two years to have been promoted.
The Guardian, International Edition
Twelve hours after its forces attacked Ukraine last month, Russian government officials and senior soldiers in South Africa gathered at a comfortable residence in the city of Pretoria for a cocktail reception to celebrate Russian Motherland Defenders’ Day.
The host was the Russian ambassador, Ilya Rogachev, and his guests included the South African minister of defence as well as the head of the country’s armed forces. Neither saw any reason to shun the gathering as many other nations’ officials did, nor to apologise afterwards.
Al Jazeera
France, Germany and Luxembourg have seized properties and frozen assets worth 120 million euros ($130m) in an operation linked to money laundering in Lebanon, according to the EU’s justice agency.
“Five properties in Germany and France were seized as well as several bank accounts [were frozen],” Eurojust said in a statement on Monday.
The Hague-based Eurojust said the operation on Friday was directed against five people who were suspected of embezzling public funds in Lebanon of more than $330m between 2002 and 2021.
This included the seizure of three properties in Germany, valued at 28 million euros ($30m) as well as other assets worth seven million euros ($7.6m).
Al Jazeera
Johannesburg, South Africa – The controversial leader of several anti-immigrant protests in South Africa, Nhlanhla ‘Lux’ Dlamini has been granted bail at the Roodepoort Magistrate’s Court, in front of hundreds of his supporters.
His trial on Monday followed his arrest last week due to a criminal complaint lodged against him for assault, intimidation, and burglary by Victor Ramerafe, a member of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).
Dlamini is the leader of a self-styled anti-illegal immigration militia called Operation Dudula. The group has been accused of masterminding the raids of shops and local businesses belonging to foreigners as well as demanding that they be fired from low-skilled jobs.
Bangkok Post
There were 81 more Covid-19 fatalities and 24,635 confirmed new cases during the previous 24 hours, the Public Health Ministry announced on Monday.
This compared with the 25,821 new cases reported on Sunday morning and 84 coronavirus-related fatalities, up from 17 just 24 hours previously.
The latest figures did not include 14,200 positive results from antigen tests over the past 24 hours. This would raise the total to 38,835.
The 81 latest fatalities were between the ages of nine months and 94 years and included one foreigner, from Myanmar.
Deutsche Welle
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck on Monday said the Group of Seven (G7) major economies dismissed Russian President Vladimir Putin's demand to pay for gas in rubles.
Putin had said "unfriendly" countries would have to pay for Russian gas in Russia's own currency.
"All G7 [energy] ministers agreed that this is a unilateral and clear breach of the existing agreements," said Habeck, whose country holds the G7 presidency.
"Payment in rubles is not acceptable and ... we call on the companies concerned not to comply with Putin's demand," Habeck said.
Habeck added that Putin had his "back against the wall" to make such demand.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also insisted that "the contracts we know lay down the euro as payment currency and the companies will pay according to the contracts they have signed."
Deutsche Welle
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz confirmed on Sunday that his government is considering setting up a missile shield for the whole of Germany.
The missile defense system will be based on the Israeli model.
What did Scholz say?
"[A missile shield] is certainly among the things we are discussing, for good reason," Scholz told broadcaster ARD.
"We must all prepare ourselves for the fact that we have a neighbor presently ready to use force to assert its interests."
Scholz declined to give any more details on the possible plan, adding that that it was not final.
NPR
The third hour of the Oscars last night went viral — and not in a way that anyone could have seen coming. After Chris Rock made a crass joke making fun of Jada Pinkett Smith ("Jada, I love ya, G.I. Jane 2, can't wait to see it"), Will Smith initially laughed and clapped while his wife looked stung. But a few moments later, the actor walked onstage and slapped Rock, then yelled profanities back to Rock after returning to his seat: "Keep my wife's name out your f****** mouth."
Jada Pinkett Smith lives with a medical condition called alopecia, or hair loss, and now keeps her head shaved.
[...]
Jada Pinkett Smith's condition is familiar to many women. According to Harvard Medical School, about 1/3 of all women experience alopecia, or hair loss, at some point in their lives; Johns Hopkins has reported that almost half of all Black women have experienced some form of hair loss.
NPR
As Monday draws to an end in Kyiv and in Moscow, here are the key developments of the day:
Ukrainian officials warn that Russia could try to split the country in two, calling it "a Korean scenario." The Pentagon reports more Russian "ground activity" against Ukrainian forces in the Donbas area, assessing that Moscow is "prioritizing" the eastern region. Russian forces are trying to gain full control of Ukraine's southern coast and link up with territory they've held in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region for years. Ukrainian military officials say they are now launching counteroffensives.
Ukrainian officials said they wouldn't open humanitarian corridors for civilians Monday, saying intelligence reports warned of Russian provocations along routes.
A new round of in-person cease-fire talks is slated to begin Tuesday. Envoys from Ukraine and Russia are planning to meet in Istanbul. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told independent Russian journalists that Ukraine was prepared to discuss a neutral status as part of a peace deal subject to a referendum vote and including third-party security guarantees.
The crew of the Overnight News Digest consists of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Rise above the swamp, 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.