The crew of the Overnight News Digest consists of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, jeremybloom, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, doomandgloom, FarWestGirl, Besame, and jck. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Rise above the swamp, 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.
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos since 2007, 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.
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From Phys.org:
Paleontologists discover 506-million-year-old predator
Paleontologists at the Manitoba Museum and Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) have discovered a remarkable new 506-million-year-old predator from the Burgess Shale of Canada. The results are announced in a paper in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
Mosura fentoni was about the size of an index finger and had three eyes, spiny jointed claws, a circular mouth lined with teeth and a body with swimming flaps along its sides. These traits show it to be part of an extinct group known as the radiodonts, which also included the famous Anomalocaris canadensis, a meter-long predator that shared the waters with Mosura.
However, Mosura also possessed a feature not seen in any other radiodont: an abdomen-like body region made up of multiple segments at its back end.
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You need to click on the link to see the reconstruction of the critter. Those three eyes are really alien.
I try to avoid posting war stories but this was too important to ignore.
From The Guardian:
Israel is annihilating Palestinian children. Amer Rabea was one of them
This US citizen was shot by Israeli forces in April. There was no warning, no investigation but worst of all – no outcry from the west.
Amer Mohammed Rabea was 14 years old. He was a US citizen. On 7 April 2025, he was shot and killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank city of Turmus Ayya. There was no warning. No investigation. Just a bullet, a body and a silence so deep it it threatens to swallow justice whole.
The killing of a child should rupture the world. Instead, Amer’s death joined a growing ledger of erased Palestinian lives, tallied but never mourned by those in power. There was no state department briefing. No congressional statement. No public grieving for a child born under two flags, killed under a third. Even in death, Amer was made stateless.
Since October 2023, at least 17,000 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza. The UN now confirms that at least 100 children have been killed or injured every single day since Israel resumed its offensive in March 2025. In 36 verified airstrikes, only women and children were found beneath the rubble. Not fighters. Not military targets. Just families.
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Here is some good news from SciTechDaily:
$20 Pill vs $20,000 Surgery? Popular Diabetes Drug Metformin Found To Relieve Osteoarthritis Knee Pain
A clinical trial led by Monash University found that the common diabetes drug metformin significantly reduced knee pain in people with osteoarthritis and overweight or obesity, potentially delaying the need for knee replacements. Over six months, participants taking metformin experienced greater pain relief than those on placebo, offering a promising, low-cost alternative treatment.
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From The Guardian:
Harvard’s unofficial copy of Magna Carta is actually an original, experts say
Document issued by Edward I in 1300 was bought by law school library for just $27 in 1946.
A Magna Carta wrongly listed as an unofficial copy for nearly 80 years has been confirmed as an original from 1300.
The discovery means the document is just one of seven issued in 1300 by Edward I that still survive. David Carpenter, a professor of medieval history at King’s College London, stumbled on a document labelled as an unofficial copy of Magna Carta from 1327 in Harvard law school library’s online collection.
He said: “I was trawling through all these online statute books trying to find unofficial copies of the Magna Carta … and I immediately thought: my god this looks for all the world like an original of Edward I’s confirmation of Magna Carta in 1300, though of course appearances are deceptive.”
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From The Guardian:
Faith leaders denounce US book burning as hate-fuelled intimidation
Interfaith group responds after books on Black, Jewish and LGBTQ+ history were burned and shared in racist video.
A group of faith leaders in Ohio denounced a recent alleged hate crime in the state, in which a man burned books belonging to a public library. The destroyed books were on Jewish, African American and LGBTQ+ history.
“Unfortunately, this is one of those things that’s, like, I’m shocked, but not surprised, every time it happens,” Rev Ryan Wallace of Fairmount Presbyterian told the Guardian in an interview. “We need to not get complacent. Every time it happens, we have to be there to say, ‘this is unacceptable.’”
The group of faith leaders gathered on Monday to speak out against the book burning. The informal, inter-faith coalition in Ohio, called the Interfaith Group Against Hate, has been organizing and engaging in political action in recent years, to combat far-right and white supremacist attacks.
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I wondered when the nazis would move from book banning to book burning.
From Phys.org:
Genomics study shows early Asians traveled over 20,000 km from North Asia to South America
An international genomics study led by scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) at the Singapore Center for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE) and Asian School of the Environment (ASE) has shown that early Asians made humanity's longest prehistoric migration.
These prehistoric humans, roaming Earth over a hundred thousand years ago, would have traversed more than 20,000 kilometers on foot from North Asia to the southernmost tip of South America. This journey would have taken multiple generations of humans, taking thousands of years. In the past, land masses were also different, with ice bridging certain portions that made the route possible.
The study, published in Science, involved the GenomeAsia100K consortium, which analyzes DNA sequence data from 1,537 individuals representing 139 diverse ethnic groups. The study involved 48 authors from 22 institutions across Asia, Europe and the Americas.
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As a college student 50 years ago I had to read endless wrangling about how and when the Americas were populated and whether the Etruscans were Italian or West Asian in origin. It is wonderful that genomics has finally answered those questions.
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Thanks to everyone who stepped up to take over the days I can no longer do. And an apology to the lady whose toes I stepped on.
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