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:
- Macron defeats Le Pen and vows to unite divided France
- Nigeria in trauma after Imo refinery deaths - President Buhari
- 168 people were killed in violence in Darfur, Sudan, an aid group says
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After the relentless rain, South Africa sounds the alarm on the climate crisis
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Ukrainian cities take heavy shelling as top US officials meet Zelenskiy in Kyiv
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Ramadan: Hagia Sophia a glimpse of Turkey’s modern transformation
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Large fire at oil depot in Russia's Bryansk, near Ukraine - agencies
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Guyana gets $106 million from Exxon for oil from newest offshore platform
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Indonesia bans palm oil exports
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As world reopens, North Korea is one of two countries without vaccines
BBC
Macron defeats Le Pen and vows to unite divided France
Emmanuel Macron has won five more years as French president after a convincing victory over rival Marine Le Pen, who nevertheless secured the far right's highest share of the vote yet.
He won by 58.55% to 41.45%, a greater margin than expected.
The centrist leader told jubilant supporters at the foot of the Eiffel Tower that now the election was over he would be a "president for all".
Despite her loss, Ms Le Pen said her vote share still marked a victory.
The ideas her National Rally represented, she told her supporters, had reached new heights. But far-right rival Eric Zemmour pointed out that she had failed just like her father who preceded her: "It's the eighth time the Le Pen name has been hit by defeat."
"An answer must be found to the anger and disagreements that led many of our compatriots to vote for the extreme right," Mr Macron said in his victory speech on Sunday night. "It will be my responsibility and that of those around me.”
BBC
Nigeria in trauma after Imo refinery deaths - President Buhari
Nigeria's president has said the country is in "shock and trauma" following the deaths of at least 100 people from an explosion at an illegal oil refinery.
President Muhammadu Buhari described the incident in Imo state, southern Nigeria, as a "catastrophe and a national disaster".
Many victims were burnt beyond recognition.
The police are now looking for the owner of the illegal refinery.
The damage to fishing and farming caused by the oil industry over the decades and the failure to share the oil wealth has led some to find other ways to make money.
Illegal refining is attractive as in parts of the oil-rich Niger Delta it is seen as being relatively easy to pull off, despite efforts to halt the practice.
Dozens of people were thought to have been working at the refining plants when they were caught in the huge fire.
The death toll has risen as emergency workers go through the scene. Ifeanyi Nnaji of the National Emergency Management Agency told BBC Igbo that the number killed now stood at 109.
NPR
168 people were killed in violence in Darfur, Sudan, an aid group says
CAIRO — Tribal clashes between Arabs and non-Arabs in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region Sunday killed 168 people, a local aid group said, one of the deadliest bouts of violence in the country in recent years.
The fighting in West Darfur province comes as Sudan has been plunged into turmoil since a military coup last year. The takeover upended the country's transition to democracy after a popular uprising forced the removal of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in April 2019.
The clashes raise questions over whether military leaders are capable of bringing security to Darfur, which has been wracked by years of civil war. In 2020, the U.N. Security Council ended its peacekeeping mission there.
Adam Regal, spokesman for the General Coordination for Refugees and Displaced in Darfur, said Sunday's fighting in West Darfur's Kreinik area also wounded 98 people.
The fighting grew out of the killing of two people by unknown assailants Thursday, he said.
The Guardian
After the relentless rain, South Africa sounds the alarm on the climate crisis
Survivors of South Africa’s devastating floods have described “sheet upon sheet of relentless rain” that washed away entire houses, bridges and roads, killing about 450 people and making thousands homeless.
The storm, which delivered close to an entire year’s usual rainfall in 48 hours, took meteorologists by surprise and has been blamed by experts on climate change. The new disaster comes after three tropical cyclones and two tropical storms hit south-east Africa in just six weeks in the first months of this year.
The full extent of the devastation caused by the floods in South Africa this month is yet to become clear, with many victims still missing and authorities still learning of new damage around the eastern coastal city of Durban. Many tens of thousands of people remain without water, and there are rising concerns about an outbreak of infectious disease.
The Guardian
Ukrainian cities take heavy shelling as top US officials meet Zelenskiy in Kyiv
Russian forces continued heavy shelling of Ukrainian cities on Sunday as people in both countries observed Orthodox Easter and the US secretaries of state and defence made their first visit to Kyiv since the invasion.
Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin arrived in Kyiv and were holding talks with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Zelenskiy, said on Sunday in a social media video.
Ukrainian officials plan to tell Blinken and Austin of the immediate need for more weapons, including anti-missile systems, anti-aircraft systems, armoured vehicles and tanks, Zelenskiy aide Igor Zhovkva told NBC News on Sunday.
The Russian military reported hitting 423 Ukrainian targets overnight, including fortified positions and troop concentrations, while its warplanes destroyed 26 Ukrainian military sites, including an explosives factory and several artillery depots.
Most of the Easter fighting focused on the eastern Donbas region where Ukrainian forces are concentrated and where Moscow-backed separatists controlled some territory before the war.
Local good news:
Sonoma County Press Democrat
Sebastopol neighbors went extra miles to help Ukrainian refugees
For 30 years, neighbors David Schneider and John Namkung have talked over the fence in their quiet, shady Lone Pine Village neighborhood on the south end of Sebastopol. They’ve celebrated kids’ birthdays, nodded when taking out the recycling and warily eyed wildfire smoke together.
Their interaction April 8 was a little different. That day, Namkung took his old acquaintance to the Medyka border crossing, on the Polish side of its border with Ukraine, and showed him around the Korczowa refugee reception center, a converted shopping mall that has been serving as a temporary haven for thousands of people fleeing the Russian invasion.
This was Schneider’s first day in Poland, and one of Namkung’s last. Between them, the two retirees — Schneider, 71, is a psychologist; Namkung, 74, was director of special education for Santa Rosa City Schools — would spend nearly a month on the outskirts of a war, ferrying beleaguered families to safety.
“It was really like one candle lighting another,” Schneider said Thursday, sitting in his living room on Bing Tree Way with his wife, Dana, and still wearing the plastic wristband that identified him as a registered volunteer.
Al Jazeera
Ramadan: Hagia Sophia a glimpse of Turkey’s modern transformation
We toured Hagia Sophia.
Istanbul, Turkey – With the end of twilight covering this city, the sound of Isha prayer breathes heavily around the complex of Hagia Sophia.
As Muslims and non-Muslims – some tourists, some not – manoeuvre their way towards the antique wonder, many wait to pray and also experience the special tarawih prayers resuming in the museum-turned-mosque after 88 years this Ramadan.
It has been a cathedral, a mosque, a museum, and now a mosque again after Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced the decision in 2020. The first prayer was then held under the building’s sky-high dome on July 24 that year.
Erdogan’s move received a lot of backlash and was deemed to be “politically motivated” by critics. Nuh Atikoglu, 52, a visitor to Hagia Sophia echoed similar views.
“It doesn’t matter to me if it is a mosque or a museum. I’m indifferent since there is the Blue Mosque close by as well. Erdogan took this decision to distract Turkish citizens from the ongoing political crisis at that time,” Atikoglu said.
Reuters (Interesting)
Large fire at oil depot in Russia's Bryansk, near Ukraine - agencies
April 25 (Reuters) - A large fire was reported early on Monday at an oil storage facility in the Russian city of Bryansk, Russian news agencies said, citing the emergency services ministry, but gave no details.
There was no immediate indication the fire was related to the war in Ukraine, although Russian officials said last week that Ukrainian helicopters hit residential buildings and injured seven people in the area.
Bryansk is an administrative centre 154 km (95.69 miles)northeast of the Ukrainian border, near the Sumy and Chernihiv regions, and is about 380 km (236 miles) distant from Moscow, the Russian capital.
Moscow calls its actions in Ukraine, now entering their third month, a special military operation.
Reuters
Guyana gets $106 million from Exxon for oil from newest offshore platform
April 24 (Reuters) - Guyana sold its first share of crude oil from the country's newest offshore production facility to Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) for about $106 million, the government said.
One of South America's poorest nations, Guyana plans to use proceeds from oil in the short term to build roads, bridges, houses, gas-fired power plants and solar energy projects. The second platform is set to reach its full 220,000 barrel per day (bpd) capacity in the third quarter.
The 1-million-barrel cargo of the new crude, called Unity Gold, was sold through a competitive bidding process that Exxon won with a bid of $106 per barrel, according to the Guyana Ministry of Natural Resources.
Deutsche Welle
Indonesia bans palm oil exports
The ban from the world's largest exporter has rocked an already precarious edible oil market. The price of cooking oil has soared as war rages between sunflower oil producers Russia and Ukraine.
Indonesia announced on Friday a ban on palm oil exports in a bid to stymie the soaring domestic price of cooking oil.
Palm oil is the most produced, consumed and traded edible oil in the world.
The price of cooking oil has risen substantially as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Both Ukraine and Russia are major exporters of sunflower oil. Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati told Reuters that Jakarta understood that the ban would hurt other countries, but stressed that it was necessary to bring down the domestic price of cooking oil as demand exceeds supplies.
Washington Post
As world reopens, North Korea is one of two countries without vaccines
SEOUL — As mask mandates and social distancing requirements lift around the world, North Korea remains one of two countries that have not administered any coronavirus vaccines, with no sign of how it can ever begin to reopen despite a brewing humanitarian crisis for its people.
The vaccines that were allocated for North Korea through a United Nations-backed global vaccination effort are no longer available, officials said this month, after Pyongyang repeatedly rejected the initiative’s offers of millions of doses.
North Korea, already one of the most closed societies in the world, remains in a strict pandemic lockdown and has shuttered its borders except to a minimal level of trade with China, with grave implications for the health and food security of its population.