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.
Here’s some stories for tonight:
- Gabby Petito: Body matching missing blogger found in Wyoming
-
Afghanistan: Stay home, female Kabul government workers told
-
Boxer Manny Pacquiao to run for Philippine president in 2022
-
Protesters call to ‘kick out’ Thai PM on coup anniversary
-
‘We felt fooled’: France still furious after Australia scraps $90bn submarine deal
-
‘Highly effective’ ovarian cancer treatment could help thousands of women
-
Cambodia bat researchers on mission to track origin of COVID-19
-
U.S. Treasury's Yellen: Debt default would 'permanently' weaken America
-
Russian spy Maria Butina elected to Parliament after big donations from Trump-loving ex-Overstock CEO
-
Canary Islands: Volcano erupts on La Palma destroying several homes
-
The average U.S. daily death toll from Covid-19 over the last seven days surpassed 2,000
-
A Giant Violin Floats Down Venice’s Grand Canal
BBC
Gabby Petito: Body matching missing blogger found in Wyoming
A body matching the description of missing woman Gabby Petito has been found by crews searching a national park in the US state of Wyoming.
"As every parent can imagine, this is an incredibly difficult time for her family," FBI agent Charles Jones told the media, choking back tears.
"The cause of death has not been determined," he added.
Ms Petito, 22, was visiting the Grand Teton National Park with her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, when she disappeared.
Mr Laundrie was declared a "person of interest" in the case, but not charged with any crime. He declined to speak to police, and disappeared a few days later.
The FBI said that while forensic examinations were yet to "confirm 100%" that the human remains were those of Ms Petito, they were consistent with her description.
BBC
Afghanistan: Stay home, female Kabul government workers told
The new Taliban mayor of Afghanistan's capital Kabul has told female municipal employees to stay home unless their jobs cannot be filled by a man.
Hamdullah Nomany said the Taliban "found it necessary to stop women from working for a while".
It is the latest restriction imposed on Afghanistan's women by the country's hard-line new Islamist government.
During their previous rule in the 1990s women were barred from education and the workplace.
And this weekend secondary schools reopened, but with only boys and male teachers allowed back into classrooms. The Taliban said it was working on reopening schools for girls.
According to the Kabul mayor about a third of the municipality's 3,000 employees are women. He said some would carry on working.
"For example, women work in the women's toilets in the city where men cannot go," he said.
Al Jazeera
Boxer Manny Pacquiao to run for Philippine president in 2022
Boxing star Manny Pacquiao says he will run for president of the Philippines next year after railing against corruption in government and what he calls President Rodrigo Duterte’s cosy relationship with China.
Pacquiao, currently a senator, was nominated on Sunday by his PDP-Laban party allies during the group’s national assembly, days after a rival faction nominated Duterte as its choice for vice president and his longtime aide, Senator Christopher “Bong” Go, as the party’s presidential candidate.
Pacquiao, 42, presents a potential obstacle to Duterte’s succession plans as the race for the top post takes shape.
“I’m a fighter and will always be a fighter, inside and outside of the ring,” Pacquiao said at the event. “All my life, I haven’t backed down from any fight. Nothing is impossible if it’s ordained by God.”
Al Jazeera
Protesters call to ‘kick out’ Thai PM on coup anniversary
Hundreds of protesters drove through Bangkok’s streets on Sunday to mark the 15th anniversary of a military coup that removed former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
The billionaire ex-leader – now living in self-exile – has remained a prominent figure in the country’s politics since the military deposed his government on September 19, 2006.
Unloading a massive cardboard model of a tank for their “cars against tanks” protest, rallygoers honked car horns to call for the resignation of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former army chief who came to power in a 2014 coup.
“Fifteen years have passed, we are still here to fight,” shouted Nattawut Saikuar, a politician long associated with Thaksin, to a sea of supporters waving “Kick out Prayut” flags.
“No matter how many coups there are, it cannot stop us … No matter how good capacity their tanks are, it cannot stop the fighting hearts of the people.”
The Guardian
‘We felt fooled’: France still furious after Australia scraps $90bn submarine deal
French anger at the Morrison government’s decision to scrap its $90bn submarine program with France continues to boil over, with the country’s recalled ambassador saying it felt “fooled” by the announcement.
Jean-Pierre Thebault was ordered back to Paris in the wake of the Aukus announcement, which will see Australia enter into a strategic “forever partnership” with the US and the UK.
Part of the still-to-be-determined arrangement will include the sharing of nuclear-powered submarine technology with Australia, prompting the Morrison government to tear up its existing contract with France.
On Sunday Scott Morrison said his government had informed France’s President Emmanuel Macron that the deal was off at “around 8.30” the night before the deal was announced. But details had already leaked to the media and the French have said they felt “blindsided” by the decision.
The Guardian
‘Highly effective’ ovarian cancer treatment could help thousands of women
Thousands of women with ovarian cancer could benefit from a revolutionary drug combination after it was shown to shrink tumours in half of patients with an advanced form of the disease.
The pair of drugs – which work together to block the signals cancer cells need to grow – could offer a new treatment option for women with a type of ovarian cancer that rarely responds to chemotherapy or hormone therapy.
Experts said the “fantastic” results from early trials of the new drug combination, presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology congress, suggested the treatment was highly effective. They were so successful that a phase 2 trial is already under way. Researchers said they were delighted with the outcome, and hope it could mean a significant advance in treatment if the results are replicated in larger trials.
Reuters
Cambodia bat researchers on mission to track origin of COVID-19
STUNG TRENG, Cambodia, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Researchers are collecting samples from bats in northern Cambodia in a bid to understand the coronavirus pandemic, returning to a region where a very similar virus was found in the animals a decade ago.
Two samples from horseshoe bats were collected in 2010 in Stung Treng province near Laos and kept in freezers at the Institut Pasteur du Cambodge (IPC) in Phnom Penh.
Tests done on them last year revealed a close relative to the coronavirus that has killed more than 4.6 million people worldwide.
An eight-member IPC research team has been collecting samples from bats and logging their species, sex, age and other details for a week. Similar research is going on in the Philippines.
Reuters
U.S. Treasury's Yellen: Debt default would 'permanently' weaken America
WASHINGTON, Sept 19 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen issued a fresh plea for Congress to raise the federal debt ceiling on Sunday, arguing a default on U.S. debt would trigger a historic financial crisis.
In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Yellen said that the crisis triggered by a default would compound the damage from the continuing coronavirus pandemic, roiling markets and plunging the U.S. economy back into recession at the cost of millions of jobs and a lasting hike in interest rates.
"We would emerge from this crisis a permanently weaker nation," Yellen said, noting that U.S. creditworthiness has been a strategic advantage.
Yellen did not offer a new timeline for a possible default, but described economic damage that would fall on consumers through higher borrowing costs and lower asset prices.
Raw Story
Russian spy Maria Butina elected to Parliament after big donations from Trump-loving ex-Overstock CEO
Convicted Russian agent Maria Butina has been elected to the lower house of Parliament in her home country but not in her home city.
BusinessInsider reported Sunday that Butina was elected to represent the rural region of Kirov Oblast, about 2,700 miles from her hometown Barnaul, Altai Krai. When she was just 19, she served on the public council of Altai Krai.
She appeared in the U.S., claiming she was a "gun-rights activist," focusing on meeting leaders involved in the National Rifle Association (NRA). She connected with GOP officials and political leaders to set up a "back-channel" with the Kremlin. Butina remains to insist she was never a spy for Russia but pleaded guilty to being a Russian foreign agent in 2018.
One of Butina's big supporters for her election was Patrick Byrne, the supporter of President Donald Trump, who spent a lot of time at the White House as Trump crafted his protest losing the 2020 election. The two had previously been lovers, prior to Paul Erickson.
Deutsche Welle
Canary Islands: Volcano erupts on La Palma destroying several homes
A volcano erupted Sunday on one of Spain's Canary Islands, after a week of heightened seismic activity.
The volcano is located on La Palma, the fifth-largest island in the Spanish archipelago that sits in the Atlantic Ocean off the western coast of Morocco.
Local TV station Radio Television Canaria (RTVC) showed footage of red-hot lava and dust emanating from the Cumbre Vieja National Park in the south of the island.
Canary Islands regional President Angel Victor Torres told Spanish state broadcaster TVE that no injuries had been reported so far.
Local media reported that several isolated homes were destroyed by the lava flows.
The fire brigade was brought in to fight forest fires caused by the eruption.
Flights to and from the Canaries — which are popular with European tourists — were continuing as normal, airport operator Aena said.
New York Times
Average daily deaths in the United States surpass 2,000.
The average U.S. daily death toll from Covid-19 over the last seven days surpassed 2,000 this weekend, the first time since March 1 that deaths have been so high, according to a New York Times database.
Texas and Florida, two of the hardest-hit states in the country, account for more than 30 percent of those deaths: Florida, where 56 percent of the population is vaccinated, averages about 353 deaths a day, and Texas, where 50 percent of the population is vaccinated, averages about 286 deaths a day. In the United States as a whole, 54 percent of all people are vaccinated.
New York Times
A Giant Violin Floats Down Venice’s Grand Canal
VENICE — In its 1,600-odd years, any number of phantasmagorical vessels have floated down Venice’s Grand Canal, often during regattas or elaborate ceremonies dedicated to the sea. On Saturday morning, a decidedly unusual head-turner took a spin: a gigantic violin, carrying a string quartet playing Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.”
The craft, called “Noah’s Violin,” set sail accompanied by an escort of gondolas, and in no time a small flotilla of motorboats, water taxis and traditional flat-bottomed Venetian sandoli joined the violin as it glided from city hall, near the Rialto Bridge, to the ancient Customs House across from Piazza San Marco, about an hour’s ride.
The vessel is a faithful, large-scale replica of a real violin, made from about a dozen different kinds of wood, with nuts and bolts inside, as well as space for a motor. In addition to the artistry involved, it took a lot of tinkering and nautical expertise to make it seaworthy, its makers say.