BBC
Ahmad al-Ghuferi missed the bomb that obliterated his family.
When 103 relatives were killed in a strike on their family home in Gaza City, he was stuck 50 miles (80km) away, in the occupied West Bank town of Jericho.
Ahmad had been working on a Tel Aviv construction site when Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October - unable to return to his wife and three young daughters because of the war that followed, and Israel's military blockade.
He spoke to them at the same time every day, when the phone connections allowed, and was on the phone to his wife, Shireen, as the attack happened on the evening of 8 December.
"She knew she would die," he said. "She told me to forgive her for anything bad she might ever have done to me. I told her there was no need to say that. And that was the last call between us."
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BBC
A New York City medical school will offer students free tuition following a $1bn donation from the 93-year-old widow of a major Wall Street investor.
The gift to Albert Einstein College of Medicine came from Dr Ruth Gottesman, a former professor at the Bronx school.
It is one of the largest ever donations made to a US school and is the largest ever made to a medical school.
The Bronx, New York City's poorest borough, is ranked as the unhealthiest of New York's 62 counties.
In a statement, university dean Dr Yaron Yomer said that the "transformational" gift "radically revolutionises our ability to continue attracting students who are committed to our mission, not just those who can afford it".
Tuition at the school is nearly $59,000 each year, leaving students with substantial debt.
NPR
Aaron Bushnell, 25, died in the hospital after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., on Sunday in what he said on social media was an act of protest against Israel's war in Gaza.
Bushnell was an active duty member of the U.S. Air Force and based in San Antonio, Texas, the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department said. He was pronounced dead at 8:06 p.m. ET Sunday.
On Sunday, the U.S. Secret Service said it was responding to reports of an individual experiencing a possible medical or mental health emergency. Local police arrived around 1 p.m.
NPR
On a late autumn day, a team of forestry workers spreads out among the burned trunks of giant sequoia trees. The 1,000-year-old trees in the grove are dead but still standing, killed in an extreme wildfire that raced through Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.
In the shadow of one of the trees, the crew gets to work, pulling tiny, 4-inch seedlings out of bags clipped to their belts and tucking them into the dirt.
"Wish it some luck and that's it," says Micah Craig of the Eastern Sierra Conservation Corps, standing back to look at the young sequoia. He then grabs another seedling, part of a historic planting effort that the National Park Service hopes will be enough to preserve one of the world's most iconic species.
Deutsche Welle
With the death of Alexei Navalny, Russia has lost Vladimir Putin's best known rival — but also unexpectedly gained a new symbol of resistance.
In an emotional video posted in the days after his death on February 16, Navalny's widow Yulia Navalnayapledged to continue her husband's fight against the regime and urged others to fight "harder, more desperately and more fiercely," than before.
"I know it already appears impossible to do more, but more is needed. To join up into a single powerful fist and strike their insane regime — Putin, his friends, the bandits in uniforms, thieves and murderers who have crippled our country," she said in a video on Navalny's YouTube channel.
Navalnaya said her husband was "unbreakable."
"And that's exactly why [Vladimir] Putin killed him — shamefully, cowardly, without ever looking him in the eye," she said.
Deutsche Welle
For the first time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has presented his Security Cabinet with a plan for managing the Gaza Strip after the end of the war against the militant Islamist group Hamas.
The Israel-Hamas war began after the Hamas terror attacks on Israel on October 7. According to Israeli figures, around 1,160 people were killed and some 250 hostages were taken to Gaza. Israel believes that around 130 hostages are still being held by Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, Israel and other states.
The Palestinian death toll since the start of the war has exceeded 29,500, with close to 70,000 wounded, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. Widespread destruction has led to dire humanitarian conditions.
The Guardian, Europe
Ed. note: Check out some of the photos at the link. It’s worth it.
The photographer, who has died aged 41, took the nation’s most vulnerable people as his subject, and his soulful images, shared on Instagram, earned him comparisons with the greats
Waiting in a Russian police station after being arrested at an opposition
protest in 2021, photographer Dmitry Markov surreptitiously raised his iPhone, snapped a photo, and posted it to Instagram.
The
image, of a burly police officer in body armour and a black balaclava sitting below a photograph of president Vladimir Putin, quickly went viral. For many, it became a symbol of the brutality of the Russian regime, its crackdown on dissent and – because the police officer was hiding his face – the Kremlin’s fear of its own people.
The Guardian, UK
Labour would help schools to train young male influencers who can counter the negative impact of people like Andrew Tate, the shadow education secretary has said.
In an interview with the Guardian, Bridget Phillipson said that in order to combat sexual harassment, Labour wanted to see schools develop role models who could provide a “powerful counterbalance” to Tate and others like him.
Tate is a self-professed “misogynist” influencer who has amassed 8.8 million followers on the social media website X, and has continued to use his platform even as he faces rape and human trafficking charges in Romania.
The Labour party announced plans on Tuesday to help schools develop young male mentors and teach pupils how to question the material they see on social media from people like Tate.
The Guardian, Austrlia
Australia has for the first time released data reflecting the gender pay gap at nearly 5,000 companies – every private company with 100 employees or more.
The data paints a stark picture, with some of the country’s biggest and most recognisable employers posting gender pay gaps of 30-40% in favour of male employees.
In this interactive graphic you can see the pay gap for every employer listed in the Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s newly released data.
Each dot is an employer, and shows the median gender pay gap by total remuneration. This is the percentage difference between the median of what a man is paid and the median of what a woman is paid within an organisation.
The pay gaps are not reflective of companies paying male and female employees different amounts for the same work, which has been illegal for more than 50 years, but mostly represent men working in higher-paid roles within a company.
The Guardian, US
Officials in Alabama said on Monday they had launched an investigation into the detonation of an explosive device outside the office of the state’s attorney general at the weekend.
“Thankfully, no staff or personnel were injured by the explosion. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (Alea) will be leading the investigation, and we are urging anyone with information to contact them immediately,” the attorney general, Steve Marshall, said in a statement.
The explosion occurred early on Saturday morning, and the statement gave no other details. The extent of any property damage is not yet known.
The Guardian has contacted the Alea for comment.
Marshall, a Republican, has recently become embroiled in controversy following last week’s decision by Alabama’s supreme court that embryos created by in vitro fertilization are “extrauterine children”, a decision that has effectively halted IVF treatments in the state as providers fearful of prosecution have shuttered operations.
Al Jazeera
Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny was close to being freed in a prisoner swap before his sudden death, according to his ally Maria Pevchikh.
In a video posted to YouTube on Monday, Pevchikh claimed the planned swap involved exchanging Navalny and two unnamed US nationals for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) assassin in Germany.
Navalny, an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died at 47 in an Artic penal colony, where he was serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges when he reportedly collapsed after a walk on the prison grounds.
“Alexey Navalny could be sitting in this seat right now, right today. That’s not a figure of speech, it could and should have happened,” said Pevchikh.
Al Jazeera
An Al Jazeera investigation has shown three Israeli tanks around the car where a six-year-old girl was killed after hours of pleading for help.
However, Israel’s army denied this on Saturday, saying its troops were not in the area on January 29, the day Hind Rajab and her family were killed.
What happened to Hind?
Hind’s story travelled around the world when a phone recording of what’s now understood to be her and her family’s final moments went viral on social media.
On the call, which lasted for about three hours, Hind begged rescue workers to come save her after the family’s car came under fire and she became the sole survivor, stranded inside with her dead relatives.
Two dispatchers with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) sent to save her were also killed.
CNN
President Joe Biden said that he hopes there’ll be a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict by “next Monday.”
“Well I hope by the beginning of the weekend, I mean, the end of the weekend,” Biden said after being asked when a ceasefire might start during an appearance on Monday at an ice cream shop in New York city with comedian Seth Meyers. “My national security adviser tells me that we’re close. We’re close, it’s not done yet. And my hope is that by next Monday we’ll have a ceasefire,” Biden added.
Earlier on Monday, CNN reported Hamas has backed off some key demands in the negotiations for a hostage deal and pause in the fighting in Gaza following Israeli accusations that its position was “delusional,” bringing the negotiating parties closer to an initial agreement that could halt the fighting and see a group of Israeli hostages released, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.
New York Times (subscription not needed)
The Supreme Court seemed skeptical on Monday of laws in Florida and Texas that bar major social media companies from making editorial judgments about which messages to allow.
The laws were enacted in an effort to shield conservative voices on the sites, but a decision by the court, expected by June, will almost certainly be its most important statement on the scope of the First Amendment in the internet era, with broad political and economic implications.
A ruling that tech platforms have no editorial discretion to decide which posts to allow would expose users to a greater variety of viewpoints but almost certainly amplify the ugliest aspects of the digital age, including hate speech and disinformation.
Though a ruling in favor of big platforms like Facebook and YouTube appeared likely, the court also seemed poised to return the cases to the lower courts to answer questions about how the laws apply to sites that do not seem to moderate their users’ speech in the same way, like Gmail, Venmo, Uber and Etsy.
The crew of the Overnight News Digest consists of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, jeremybloom, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Rise above the swamp, Besame and jck. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) eeff, 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.