BBC
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has criticised the "cowardly attempts to intimidate our diplomats" in a deepening diplomatic row with Canada.
Both countries expelled each other's top envoys last month after Canadian officials accused India of being involved in violent acts targeting Indian dissidents on Canadian soil, something the country denies.
Modi's comments came after violence broke out at a Hindu temple in the Canadian city of Brampton on Sunday, which he has called a "deliberate attack".
"Such acts of violence will never weaken India’s resolve. We expect the Canadian government to ensure justice and uphold the rule of law," he wrote on X.
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.
BBC
A former Ohio police officer who shot and killed a black man as he walked out of a garage four years ago in Columbus was found guilty of murder on Monday.
Adam Coy, who is white, faces life in prison for fatally shooting Andre Hill, 47, in December 2020.
Mr Hill had been carrying a mobile phone and keys when Coy shot him four times.
Coy, 48, told jurors he thought Mr Hill was holding a silver revolver.
"I thought I was going to die," he said, testifying he realised his mistake when he rolled over Mr Hill's body and saw there was no weapon.
"I knew at that point I made a mistake," he said. "I was horrified."
Coy had responded to a complaint about someone inside a running vehicle at about 01:30 in the morning when he first encountered Mr Hill, sitting inside an SUV.
Al Jazeera
The recurrent storms in eastern Spain that led to massive flooding last week and killed at least 217 people, mostly near Valencia, have dumped rain on Barcelona, prompting authorities to suspend commuter rail service.
Transport Minister Oscar Puente on Monday said he was suspending all commuter trains in northeastern Catalonia, a region with 8 million people, on request from civil protection officials.
Authorities in Barcelona warned of “extreme and continued rainfall” on the southern outskirts of the city, urging people to avoid any normally dry gorges or canals.
Puente said the rains forced air traffic controllers to change the course of 15 flights operating at Barcelona’s airport, located on the southern flank of the city. Several highways have also been closed.
Classes were cancelled in Tarragona, a city in southern Catalonia about halfway between Barcelona and Valencia, after a red alert for rains was issued.
Al Jazeera
Russian President Vladimir Putin has met North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui at the Kremlin, as Ukraine warned North Korean troops in Russia’s Kursk region could be sent into combat.
In a video released by the Kremlin of Putin greeting Choe on Monday, the Russian leader told the official that she had visited on Russia’s National Unity Day, a public holiday.
Choe expressed “sincere, warm, comradely greetings” from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Monday that as many as 10,000 North Korean soldiers were in Russia’s Kursk region and preparing to join Moscow’s fight against Ukraine in the coming days.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that according to Ukrainian intelligence, 11,000 North Korean troops had reached the Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops started a sudden incursion in August.
Deutsche Welle
Serbia's minister of consruction, transport and infrastructure, Goran Vesic, said on Monday he would resign after 14 people were killed last week when a train station roof collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad.
"Tomorrow morning I will officially submit my resignation as minister of construction, transportation and infrastructure," Vesic said during a live broadcast.
"I submit the resignation as a responsible man who wants to show by personal example that in today's Serbia there is a moral responsibility since such a terrible accident happened under the department that I lead."
However, Vesic added that he did not "accept the guilt for the deaths of 14 people" killed in Friday's accident.
Deutsche Welle
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday congratulated Moldova's pro-EU incumbent Maia Sandu on winning the country's closely contested presidential election.
He said Sandu had "steered the Republic of Moldova safely through difficult times and set the country on a European course."
"We stand by Moldova's side," Scholz wrote on social media platform X.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also congratulated Sandu "wholeheartedly on her reelection."
"The people of Moldova have decided: The majority of them want to continue resolutely on the path to the EU," she wrote on X, adding that the Moldovan people's rejection of Russia's "hybrid stranglehold" deserved "respect."
The Guardian, International
An incendiary device hidden in a DHL package that caught fire in Germany in July was due to be sent by air to the UK as part of a suspected Russian sabotage plot that may also have been a dry run for a similar attack on the US and Canada.
The device, reported to have been secreted in shipments of massage pillows and erotic gadgets, started a fire on the ground in Leipzig that was feared to be capable of downing a plane – similar to a package that ignited at a DHL warehouse in Birmingham on 22 July.
Sources indicated the suspect package in Leipzig was also bound for the UK, though why the UK was chosen as the destination for the two devices, originally sent from Lithuania, is not fully clear.
An unconfirmed German report suggests they were addressed to fake recipients at real addresses in the UK, as were two other incendiary devices found in Poland, one of which Polish media said caught fire at a warehouse in Warsaw while the other was successfully intercepted.
The Guardian, International
At least 10 people have died amid a series of volcanic eruptions on the Indonesian island of Flores, the country’s national disaster management has said.
The eruption at Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Monday night spewed thick brownish ash as high as 2km (1.24 miles) into the air and on to several villages, burning down houses including a convent of Catholic nuns, said Firman Yosef, an official at the Lewotobi Laki-Laki monitoring post.
He said volcanic material was thrown up to 6km (3.7 miles) from its crater, blanketing nearby villages and towns with tons of volcanic debris and forcing residents to flee.
Rescuers were still searching for more bodies buried under collapsed houses, said Abdul Muhari, the national disaster management agency’s spokesperson. Muhari said all the bodies, including a child, were found within a 2.4-mile radius of the crater.
The Guardian, Technology
Air fryers that gather your personal data and audio speakers “stuffed with trackers” are among examples of smart devices engaged in “excessive” surveillance, according to the consumer group Which?
The organisation tested three air fryers, increasingly a staple of British kitchens, each of which requested permission to record audio on the user’s phone through a connected app.
Smart air fryers allow cooks to schedule their meal to start cooking before they get home. Not all air fryers have such functionality but those that do often use an app installed on a smartphone.
Which? found the app provided by the company Xiaomi connected to trackers for Facebook and a TikTok ad network. The Xiaomi fryer and another by Aigostar sent people’s personal data to servers in China, although this was flagged in the privacy notice, the consumer testing body found.
NPR
PHILADELPHIA — Thousands of last-minute challenges to voters’ mail ballot applications, along with baseless claims by former President Donald Trump about an investigation into suspicious voter registration forms, are adding pressure on Pennsylvania county officials in the final hours before Election Day.
Pennsylvania has more electoral votes (19) than any other presidential swing state, and the major parties have in recent weeks engaged in a series of legal battles over its election rules.
Officials in 14 counties reported receiving more than 4,000 challenges by last Friday, which was the deadline for contesting an absentee voter’s eligibility, according to Matt Heckel, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of State.
USA Today
At noon on the eve of Election Day, the familiar mix of tourists, locals, and government workers seeking fresh air on lunch hour milled as usual in Lafayette Square, next to the White House in downtown Washington, D.C.
They were met with an unusual sight – a heavy, metal fence around 10 feet high surrounded the White House, the street in front, and a bronze statue of former President Andrew Jackson astride his horse at the center of the park.
The Secret Service's decision to erect the fence ahead of Election Day left tourists frustrated and Americans on edge at the prospect of violence or unrest in the nation's capital amid an extraordinarily tight election.
USA Today
Tropical Storm Rafael formed in the Caribbean on Monday, a storm that's predicted to intensify into a hurricane and threaten the U.S. Gulf Coast by this weekend, the National Hurricane Center said.
However, given significant uncertainties in the long-range forecast track and intensity, it is too soon to determine what, if any, impacts could occur in the U.S., the hurricane center said.
"There has never been a tropical storm or hurricane landfall in Texas, Louisiana or Mississippi during November and December. So that would be quite a milestone, but this does not mean that people along the central and western Gulf Coast should let their guard down," AccuWeather lead hurricane expert Alex DaSilva said.
NY Times (free article)
Quincy Jones, one of the most powerful forces in American popular music for more than half a century, died on Sunday night in his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles. He was 91.
His death was confirmed in a statement by his publicist, Arnold Robinson, who did not specify the cause.
Mr. Jones began his career as a jazz trumpeter and was later in great demand as an arranger, writing for the big bands of Count Basie and others; as a composer of film music; and as a record producer. But he may have made his most lasting mark by doing what some believe to be equally important in the ground-level history of an art form: the work of connecting.
Beyond his hands-on work with score paper, he organized, charmed, persuaded, hired and validated. Starting in the late 1950s, he took social and professional mobility to a new level in Black popular art, eventually creating the conditions for a great deal of music to flow between styles, outlets and markets. And all of that could be said of him even if he had not produced Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” the best-selling album of all time.
Uncharted Blue
There's lots of pent-up energy and enthusiasm in deep blue neighborhoods like my own – especially given what's at stake in this year's election.
But the Harris-Walz campaign has to focus on the swing states, so you have to travel some distance to attend a rally or even find a campaign office. Of course, there are numerous opportunities to phone bank or write postcards from home or sign up for bus trips to canvass.
But on Manhattan's Upper West Side we're resourceful. And thanks to our two local clubs, Three Parks Independent Democrats and Broadway Democrats, we have our very own Do It Yourself 2024 Democratic Victory Campaign Center.
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.
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