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), 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.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
CNN Business
Voting technology company Smartmatic files $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox News, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell over 'disinformation campaign'
A voting technology company swept up in baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election filed a monster $2.7 billion lawsuit on Thursday against Fox News, some of the network's star hosts, and pro-Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, alleging the parties worked in concert to wage a "disinformation campaign" that has jeopardized its very survival.
"We have no choice," Antonio Mugica, the chief executive and founder of Smartmatic, told CNN Business in an interview about the company's decision to file the lawsuit. "The disinformation campaign that was launched against us is an obliterating one. For us, this is existential, and we have to take action."
The lawsuit, filed in New York state court, accused Fox, Giuliani, Powell and hosts Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, and Jeanine Pirro of intentionally lying about Smartmatic in an effort to mislead the public into the false belief that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.
The Gaurdian
US to cut off support for Saudi-led operations in Yemen amid humanitarian crisis
The US has announced an end to its support for Saudi-led offensive operations in Yemen, citing the role the bombing campaign has had in creating the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The announcement was made by the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, in a preview of a speech Joe Biden is due to deliver at the state department, capping a whiplash fortnight of dramatic foreign policy changes since his 20 January inauguration.
The distancing of Washington from Riyadh is one of the most conspicuous reversals of Donald Trump’s agenda, but it also marks a break with the policies pursued by Barack Obama, who had backed the Saudi offensive in Yemen, although he later sought to impose constraints on its air war.
AP News
Biden strikes tough tone on Russia in diplomatic push
President Joe Biden on Thursday said the days of the U.S. “rolling over” to Russian President Vladimir Putin are gone as he called for the immediate release of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
During his first visit to the State Department as president, Biden issued his strongest condemnation of Putin as large protests have broken out throughout Russia following the jailing of Navalny. Thousands of protesters have been arrested.
The new American president was also seeking to make clear to the world that he’s making a dramatic turn away from Putin following the presidency of Republican Donald Trump, who avoided direct confrontation and often sought to downplay the Russian leader’s malign actions.
AP News
US rushes to catch up in the race to detect mutant viruses
Despite its world-class medical system and its vaunted Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. fell behind in the race to detect dangerous coronavirus mutations. And it’s only now beginning to catch up.
The problem has not been a shortage of technology or expertise. Rather, scientists say, it’s an absence of national leadership and coordination, plus a lack of funding and supplies for overburdened laboratories trying to juggle diagnostic testing with the hunt for genetic changes.
“We have the brains. We have the tools. We have the instruments,” said Ilhem Messaoudi, director of a virus research center at University of California, Irvine. “It’s just a matter of supporting that effort.”
AP News
Wisconsin governor issues new mask mandate after GOP repeal
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers issued a new statewide mask order on Thursday, an hour after the Republican-controlled Legislature voted to repeal his previous mandate saying he didn’t have authority to make such a decree.
The Democratic governor said in a video message that his priority is keeping people safe and that wearing a mask is the most basic way to do that.
“If the Legislature keeps playing politics and we don’t keep wearing masks, we’re going to see more preventable deaths, and it’s going to take even longer to get our state and our economy back on track,” Evers said.
AP News
GameStop booster did well; many devotees won’t as shares sag
“IF HE’S STILL IN, I’M STILL IN,” was the constant refrain from followers of Roaring Kitty, the YouTube personality whose enthusiasm about buying stock in video-game retailer GameStop made him an icon in the social media frenzy that shocked Wall Street last week.
His hometown newspaper in Massachusetts dubbed him a “Brockton legend,” stirring dreams about how the former high school running champion might use his newfound riches to build the city an indoor track. Hollywood studios started sketching out movie proposals about the small-pocketed investors who banded together on social media to vault a troubled brick-and-mortar chain “to the moon” and punish hedge funds that were betting on its failure.
But what was a big victory for Roaring Kitty, a 34-year-old whose real name is Keith Gill, is turning into hardship for followers who jumped on the bandwagon and took risky bets on GameStop’s rollercoaster ride in the stock market.
GameStop shares dropped 30% in afternoon trading Thursday, continuing to plummet from a high of $483 a week ago to around $60. That’s still above the $17 they fetched at the start of the year.
AP News
In thrice-demolished village, a Mideast battle of wills
It looks like the aftermath of a tornado.
There are dirt plots where there used to be makeshift homes; tent poles stacked like firewood; fencing and scrap metal scattered across a desert valley greened by winter rain; a cold firepit and a pile of kitchen essentials where a cooking tent once stood.
This is what remains of the herding community of Khirbet Humsu in the occupied West Bank, after Israeli forces demolished it for the third time in as many months. On Wednesday, just minutes after the army left, Palestinian residents were at work repairing their fences — hoping to gather their sheep before dark, knowing the army might return the next day.
“We build it up and they tear it down,” said Waleed Abu al-Kbash as he stretched fencing between two posts. “Where am I supposed to go? I have a thousand head of sheep.”
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 war, and the Palestinians want it to form the main part of their future state. Khirbet Humsu, perched on the rolling highlands above the Jordan Valley, is part of the 60% of the West Bank known as Area C, which is under full Israeli military control as part of interim peace agreements from the 1990s.
AP News
‘Not like every time:’ Beirut blast victims want the truth
Days after a massive explosion ripped through Beirut’s port and disfigured the Lebanese capital, family members of some of the 211 people killed in the blast demanded an international probe.
It was a swift vote of no confidence in the authorities’ ability to investigate one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history and one of the nation’s most traumatic experiences.
The skepticism was justified. Lebanon, a country wrought by political violence and assassinations, has a history of unfinished prosecutions and buried secrets.
Six months after the Aug. 4 blast, the domestic investigation has been brought to a virtual halt by the same political and confessional rivalries that thwarted past attempts to uncover the truth in major crimes.
AP News
ICC convicts Ugandan rebel commander of war crimes
The International Criminal Court on Thursday convicted a one-time child soldier who morphed into a brutal commander in the notorious Ugandan rebel group the Lord’s Resistance Army of dozens of war crimes and crimes against humanity, ranging from multiple murders to forced marriages.
Dominic Ongwen, who was abducted by the shadowy militia as a 9-year-old boy and transformed into a child soldier and later promoted to a senior leadership rank, faces a maximum punishment of life imprisonment after being convicted of 61 offenses.
The judgment, which can be appealed, outlined the horrors of the LRA’s attacks on camps for displaced civilians in northern Uganda in the early 2000s, and of Ongwen’s abuse of women who were forced to be his “wives.” Activists welcomed his convictions for crimes against women, which included rape, forced pregnancy and sexual slavery.
Reuters News
U.S. releasing hundreds of Central American families from increasingly busy custody
U.S. officials in Texas are releasing an increasing number of Central American migrant families from custody as local authorities in Mexico have baulked at taking them back and border patrol facilities risk becoming overcrowded.
Two shelter managers told Reuters the U.S. Border Patrol began dropping off families last week at shelters in Laredo and Brownsville along the stretch of border with Mexico’s Tamaulipas state, the busiest region for illegal immigration into the United States.
Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, said the Border Patrol has sent around 50 to 80 families to her shelter daily since Jan. 27, rising to 150 families on Wednesday. Most remain only briefly at the shelters before connecting with relatives or friends elsewhere in the United States, she said.
Good News Network
30 Years After Big Eruption Put Volcano Mouse on the ‘Extinct’ List, Research Reveals it’s ‘Doing Great’
A small mouse found to live only on and surrounding a volcano in the Philippines has seemingly remained unscathed after the mountain exploded in what was the largest eruption in the 20th century.
Details on the long-nosed Luzon apomys are scant in good times, but after surveying the damage the eruption caused to the ecosystem, it was presumed they would have mostly vanished.
Much to Erik Rickart’s surprise, the apomys, sometimes called the Mount Pinatubo volcano mouse, is doing just fine.
Good News Network
‘World’s Most Dangerous Malware’ Emotet Taken Down in International Cyber Crime Effort
Perhaps the world’s most infamous phishing racket, the Emotet malware network has been taken down by police, sparing people around the globe millions of dollars in data-theft and computer, software, and network maintenance fees.
In what was the cyber-equivalent to a massive international police raid, the governments of the US, UK, Canada, Lithuania, Holland, France, Ukraine, and Germany all participated in the bust.
First observed in Europe in 2014, Emotet expanded its reach over the years and was behind millions of costly cyberattacks across the globe. The FBI opened its first related investigation when a North Carolina school district was compromised by Emotet in 2017.
10-year-old boy clears snow off cars for hospital workers in Rhode Island
A 10-year-old boy decided to thank the front-line heroes battling the relentless coronavirus pandemic by clearing snow off their cars outside a Rhode Island hospital this week.
“I was thinking they’ve been helping us a lot through this whole pandemic, and I figured why don’t we help them, you know?” Christian Stone told a local news station from the parking lot at Westerly Hospital.
“All day, every day the nurses here, they deal with the pandemic like COVID and they want to get home from work, so we thought we would make it a tiny bit easier for them by cleaning off their cars for them,” he said.