Overnight News Digest: Mostly news from Africa and Europe tonight

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday May 03, 2024 · 9:49 PM PDT

2024/05/03 · 21:49

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 JeremyBloom. 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.

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.

Again it was hard to find good and/or amusing news to start out the diary. I found three items in a first skim through. You might have seen this first one, as it has been all over today. This version comes from NPR:

Orangutan in the wild applied medicinal plant to heal its own injury, biologists say

Bill Chappell

When a wild orangutan in Indonesia suffered a painful wound to his cheek, he did something that stunned researchers: He chewed plant leaves known to have pain-relieving and healing properties, rubbed the juice on the open wound — and then used the leaves as a poultice to cover his injury.

"This case represents the first known case of active wound treatment in a wild animal with a medical plant," biologist Isabelle Laumer, the first author of a paper about the revelation, told NPR.

From the New York Times:

Court Says Italy Is Rightful Owner of Bronze Held by Getty Museum

The European Court of Human Rights has found that Italy’s claims to a contested Greek statue are legitimate. But the museum says its continued possession is appropriate and lawful.

By Elisabetta Povoledo

The European Court of Human Rights on Thursday upheld Italy’s right to confiscate a contested ancient Greek statue on display in the J. Paul Getty Museum in California. It ruled that in trying to recover the artifact, the Italian authorities had “acted with the purpose of recovering an unlawfully exported piece of cultural heritage.”

The ruling rejected the appeal of the J. Paul Getty Trust, which had asked the European Court of Human Rights to weigh in on the case after Italy’s highest court in 2018 ruled that the Getty had to return the statue to Italy.

And this, from USA Today, which I at first thought was a US story, but no...:

'It was a monster': Record-breaking 143-pound catfish reeled in at UK lake

Emilee Coblentz

The United Kingdom has a new catfish on record, thanks to an angler from Rainham.

Darren Reitz, 34, from east London seems to have captured the country's largest freshwater fish by rod from a lake in Maldon, Essex. The "monster" catfish, as he calls it, weighed in at 143 pounds (64.4kg). Reitz says it was all "luck," according to BBC News.

The rest of the news below the fold.

annetteboardman

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday April 26, 2024 · 9:29 PM PDT

2024/04/26 · 21:29

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 JeremyBloom. 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.

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.

As often happens it was hard to find unquestionably good news amid the mess of a world we seem to have these years. We begin with the BBC:

From Ancient Egypt to Roman Britain, brewers are reviving beers from the past

By Norman Miller

Beer archaeologists are peering back millennia to recreate brews from ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome using ancient methods and ingredients.

Some of the most interesting beers made in recent years provide a drinkable window into human history. These so-called "rebrews" of age-old ales were once savoured in places ranging from Ancient Egypt and Greece to Celtic and Viking Europe. Their drinkers liked a choice too, with 5,000-year-old Babylonian-carved stone tablets depicting recipes for nearly 20 different barley-based beers.

And a (hopeful) silver lining ending to a sad story comes from CNN:

Orca calf stranded in British Columbia lagoon for more than a month swims out on her own

By Rebekah Riess and Zoe Sottile

An orca calf that spent over a month stranded in a remote lagoon on Vancouver Island off the west coast of Canada swam out of the lagoon on her own early Friday morning, according to the Ehattesaht First Nation.

The seemingly trapped mammal attracted media attention, concern from local agencies and prompted several aborted rescue attempts.

On Friday, rescuers’ hopes the calf would leave on her own were finally realized. After an evening of feeding the calf, a small crew with Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Ehattesaht First Nation watched her breach the water and play before swimming under a bridge and out through an inlet during high tide at 2:30 a.m., according to a news release from the Ehattesaht First Nation.

On to the rest of the news below the fold.

annetteboardman

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday April 12, 2024 · 10:36 PM PDT

2024/04/12 · 22:36

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 JeremyBloom. 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.

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.

Happier and weirder items above the fold. First up are photos from The Guardian, of the week, and of the week in wildlife.

From Reuters:

Notre-Dame fire anniversary: Cathedral restoration nears completion

By Lucien Libert, Michaela Cabrera and Tassilo Hummel

PARIS, April 12 (Reuters) - Five years after a devastating fire, the restoration of Notre-Dame cathedral is nearing completion as the world's eyes turn to Paris for the Olympic Games.

On the evening of April 15, 2019, the cathedral's roof burst into flames. Soon, it had engulfed the spire and almost toppled the main bell towers. Around the world, TV viewers watched with horror as the medieval building burned.

From The Guardian:

Dinosaur data: can the bones of the deep past help predict extinctions of the future?

Millions of years ago, animals adapted to become warm-blooded amid huge climactic changes. Now scientists hope these clues from the past could help us understand what lies ahead

by Tiffany Cassidy

In Chicago’s Field Museum, behind a series of access-controlled doors, are about 1,500 dinosaur fossil specimens. The palaeobiologist Jasmina Wiemann walks straight past the bleached leg bones – some as big as her – neither does she glance at the fully intact spinal cord, stained red by iron oxides filling the spaces where there was once organic material. She only has eyes for the deep chocolate-brown fossils: these are the ones containing preserved organic matter – bones that offer unprecedented insights into creatures that went extinct millions of years ago.

Wiemann is part of the burgeoning field of conservation palaeobiology, where researchers are looking to the deep past to predict future extinction vulnerability. At a time when humans could be about to witness a sixth mass extinction, studying fossil records is particularly useful for understanding how the natural world responded to problems before we arrived: how life on Earth reacted to environmental change over time, how species adapted to planet-scale temperature changes, or what to expect when ocean geochemical cycles change.

And also from The Guardian:

After 101 years – and a $20 find at a yard sale – Clara Bow’s lost film premieres

The Pill Pounder, one of the key titles in the CV of the iconic flapper, has enjoyed a belated revival at the San Francisco Silent film festival

Pamela Hutchinson

A century after she first began to turn heads, Clara Bow is “It” once more. The iconic flapper of the silent film era inspired Margot Robbie’s character Nellie in Damien Chazelle’s Hollywood epic Babylon, is namechecked on Taylor Swift’s forthcoming album The Tortured Poets Department, and yesterday at the San Francisco Silent film festival, one of her earliest films was shown for the first time since the days of bathtub gin.

The story of the film’s discovery has already caused excitement online. Film-maker Gary Huggins inadvertently snapped up a slice of lost silent film history at an auction in a car park in Omaha, Nebraska, that was selling old stock from a distribution company called Modern Sound Pictures. Hoping to bid on a copy of the 1926 comedy Eve’s Leaves that he had spotted on top of a pile, Huggins was informed that he could only buy the whole pallet of movies, not individual cans. The upside? The lot was his for only $20.

News from the Americas, beginning with Reuters:

Argentina court blames Iran for deadly 1994 bombing of Jewish center

By Lucila Sigal and Lucinda Elliott

A new ruling by Argentina's highest criminal court has blamed Iran for a fatal 1994 attack against the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, declaring it a "crime against humanity" in a decision that paves the way for victims to seek justice, according to court documents released late on Thursday.

The judges ruled that the bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) - the deadliest of its kind in the country's history, with 85 people killed and hundreds wounded - was carried out by Hezbollah militants responding to "a political and strategic design" by Iran.

Another from The Guardian:

‘I felt pains all over my body’: Argentina battles dengue outbreak as politicians pass up vaccine opportunity

Rising temperatures, dense urban populations and increasing poverty have contributed to more than a quarter of a million cases, and campaigners don’t think the government is doing enough about it

by Sylvia Colombo in Buenos Aires

On a particularly warm autumn afternoon in Buenos Aires, Michelly Natalí Barreto Sánchez, 22, began to feel unwell. As she served customers at La Boca, the bar she had opened in Villa 31, one of the capital’s largest slums, she suddenly started to experience severe headaches and dizziness.

She told her customers, who are among the 70,000 people who live in this densely populated area close to the city centre, that she would have to close the bar, and she headed home.

From Al Jazeera:

Ecuadorian tribunal deems arrest of former Vice President Glas illegal

But the three-member panel also upheld his ongoing imprisonment, arguing it could not ‘modify’ his sentence.

The defence team for former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas has hailed a decision declaring his arrest inside Mexico’s embassy in Quito illegal.

Still, on Friday, lawyer Sonia Vera Garcia pledged to appeal the ruling, which upheld her client’s continued detention.

From The Hill:

Colombia’s capital starts rationing water after reservoirs hit historically low levels

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Luis Soler is caring for water as if it were the most expensive ingredient at his restaurant in Colombia’s capital.

For the first time in 40 years, a severe drought pushed the city to start rationing tap water. At Soler’s restaurant in Bogota, nothing flowed through the pipes Friday. The city’s warnings allowed him to prepare for the change, buying bottled water for cooking purposes and storing tap water for dish washing, and since his entire neighborhood was facing the same inconvenience as the restaurant, he said he expected sales to go up, not down.

From the BBC:

The trafficked war babies looking for their long-lost families

Mike Lanchin

Flor and Jazmin were among many children separated from their parents during El Salvador's civil war, and put up for adoption in the US and Europe. Now, nearly 40 years later, they and many others are searching for their birth families. But has anyone been searching for them?

Element removed

Flor Wolman has a small scar the size of a quarter dollar coin on the left side of her stomach. Some of the girls at her school in the US used to tease her that it looked like a second belly button.

From NBC News (Associated Press):

Haiti announces transition council to establish new political leaders

The formation of the council is expected to trigger the formal resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry and help re-establish Haiti's government after months of lawlessness.

By The Associated Press and Michelle Garcia

A transitional council tasked with choosing Haiti’s next prime minister and Cabinet has been formally established, as gangs continue to tighten their grip on the troubled Caribbean country.

The existence of the council, announced in a decree published Friday in a Haitian government outlet, was expected to trigger the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who promised to step down once the council was created.

From The Guardian:

‘It is simply best not to get pregnant’: women left terrified as Haiti’s maternity services collapse

Delivering a baby was already risky, but an unprecedented surge in gang violence has forced clinics and hospitals to close

Luke Taylor

The worst fears of midwives at Heartline Haiti were realised last week. As they prepared the maternity clinic for patients that evening, armed men laid siege to their neighbourhood in eastern Port-au-Prince, spraying bullets at police and rival gangs, setting cars on fire and ransacking houses.

“All of our staff were huddled in an interior hallway hearing the noises outside the gates and walls, afraid they may be next,” says Tara Livesay, the NGO’s executive director. “A gang member was shot dead outside, just two doors over.”

From Reuters:

In US meeting, Philippines says it will assert South China Sea rights

By David Brunnstrom and Simon Lewis

WASHINGTON, April 12 (Reuters) - The Philippines is determined to assert its sovereign rights in the South China Sea, its foreign secretary said on Friday at a meeting with U.S. allies to show support for Manila over an increasingly fraught standoff with China in the strategic waterway.

Speaking at the U.S. State Department, Enrique Manalo accused China of "escalation of its harassment" of the Philippines, while U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Washington stood with Manila against what he described as "coercion."

From CNN:

Tycoon’s death penalty in $12.5 billion fraud case highlights Vietnam’s corruption crisis

By Heather Chen

The death sentence handed to a real estate tycoon in a $12.5 billion financial fraud case is the latest punishment meted out by Vietnam in the Southeast Asian country’s sweeping “blazing furnace” anti-corruption campaign.

Thursday’s ruling against Truong My Lan, the former chairwoman of property developer Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, follows the resignation of two presidents in just over a year, in departures linked to separate allegations of wrongdoing.

From Kyodo News:

Japan's population falls for 13th straight year, pinned below 125 million

Japan's population fell by 595,000 from a year earlier to total 124,352,000 as of Oct. 1, marking the 13th consecutive year of decline, with household size also continuing to shrink, national data showed Friday.

The population of Japanese nationals fell by 837,000 to 121,193,000, marking the largest drop since comparable data became available in 1950, according to a demographic survey by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, despite government efforts to grapple with the country's declining birthrate and rapidly aging society.

From The Guardian:

As Thailand revels in Songkran water fights, tourist hub Samui suffers through drought

The resort island is facing days without running water, even as the country celebrates new year with water fights

Rebecca Ratcliffe and Navaon Siradapuvadol

Across Thailand, people are getting ready to take to the streets for a giant water fight to mark the new year. Roads will be lined with vendors selling water pistols, businesses will put out buckets of icy water for refills and no passersby is safe.

What began as a tradition of the Songkran festival to sprinkle water on the hands of elders, in a symbol of cleansing and reverence to mark the new year, has evolved into huge water fights that draw tourists from across the world.

From Al Jazeera:

Why the fall of Myawaddy, Myanmar’s ‘gateway’ to Thailand, is so important

Anti-coup fighters say they’ve taken control of the eastern border town, sending the last soldiers scurrying to withdraw.

By Tony Cheng

The town of Myawaddy has always assumed much greater importance than its small size would suggest.

Located on the eastern border of Myanmar and facing the Thai town of Mae Sot across the Moei River, it has been a focal point for many of the ethnic and pro-democracy groups who have struggled for decades against successive military administrations.

From CNN:

‘Mass evacuation’ underway in city as floods worsen in Russia and Kazakhstan

By Sergey Gudkov, Louis Mian and Rob Picheta, CNN

A mass evacuation is underway in the Russian city of Orenburg, as severe flooding tears through parts of the country and northern Kazakhstan.

“A mass evacuation is underway,” the city’s mayor Sergei Salmin said on Telegram, instructing residents in multiple areas of the city to “take your documents, medicines, and basic necessities with you and leave home immediately.” The mayor described the flooding situation as “extremely dangerous” and urged locals not to “waste time.”

From All Israel News:

Iran reportedly days away from nuclear capability as it plans reprisal on Israel

As Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reportedly mulls plans for a retaliatory attack on Israel, a Washington Post report claims the regime is possibly days away from having sufficient material for a nuclear weapon.

A report from The Washington Post, drawing on the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) latest inspection of Iranian nuclear facilities in February, points to "indications of alarming change."

From Al Jazeera:

France, India, Russia, UK issue travel warnings over Israel-Iran tensions

Warnings come as Tehran promises reprisals against Israel for the deadly April 1 attack on an Iranian consulate in Syria.

Countries including France, India, Russia, Poland and the United Kingdom have warned their citizens against travelling to Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories and, in some cases, the wider region amid threats of an Iranian attack in response to a strike this month on its consulate in Damascus.

Canada as well.

From Reuters:

European court ruling puts cautious Swiss in climate bind

By Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber and Dave Graham

GENEVA/ZURICH, April 12 (Reuters) - Switzerland for all its snow-capped mountains and crisp Alpine air has failed to protect its people from the ravages of climate change, as a top European court ruled this week.

Behind the picture postcard exterior, critics say, is a country that has done too little for the planet and acted as a business hub for some of the most powerful international corporations in fossil fuels and mining.

From The Guardian:

Belgium investigates alleged Russian payments to MEPs

Belgian PM says Russia is trying to influence forthcoming elections to weaken European support for Ukraine

Lisa O'Carroll in Brussels

Prosecutors in Belgium have opened an investigation into alleged payments by Russia to members of the European parliament following an intelligence operation in Brussels, the Belgian prime minister has revealed.

Alexander De Croo said Moscow’s objective was to weaken support for Ukraine in Europe.

“Belgian intelligence services have confirmed the existence of pro-Russian interference networks with activities in several European countries and also here in Belgium. According to our intelligence service, the objectives of Moscow are very clear,” he said. “The objective is to help elect more pro-Russian candidates in the European parliament and to reinforce a certain pro-Russian narrative in that institution. It’s very clear.”

And finally, two from Africa, beginning with The Atlantic:

A Home for Kidnappers and Their Victims

It’s been 10 years since 276 girls were dragged into the forest by Boko Haram.

By Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

When I first interviewed Yama Bullum and his wife, Falmata, in 2015, they were desperate for the safe return of their daughter Jinkai, who was one of the 276 girls abducted from their school in Chibok, in the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno, by the terrorist group Boko Haram.

In the years following the 2014 kidnapping, I spoke with many of the teenagers’ parents. The raid was part of an extended campaign of violence by Boko Haram—whose name roughly translates to “Western education is sin”—to create an Islamic state in Nigeria. The kidnapped girls, most of whom were Christian, were taken to Boko Haram’s stronghold in the Sambisa forest, where they endured harsh conditions and were subjected to Islamic instruction sessions lasting up to 11 hours a day.

And, of course, my weekly story about the war we seem to have forgotten, from the BBC:

Sudan civil war: The children living between starvation and death in Darfur

By Barbara Plett-Usher

The woman with sad eyes and a quiet voice is just one of the millions of people living in camps for those forced to flee their homes in Sudan, where a civil war broke out a year ago between the army and an armed paramilitary group. The country now faces what the UN says is the "world worst hunger crisis".

Qisma Abdirahman Ali Abubaker goes through the motions of waiting in line to pick up her food ration, but her heart is not in it.

The small bag does not have to stretch as far as it used to for her family.

Overnight News Digest: News from Elsewhere

annetteboardman

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday March 29, 2024 · 9:32 PM PDT

2024/03/29 · 21:32

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 JeremyBloom. 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.

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.

On Friday nights I like to focus on news from outside the United States. We begin tonight with the BBC:

Iceland: Northern Lights captured glowing over erupting volcano

A timelapse video has captured a volcano in Iceland spewing ash and clouds of smoke against the backdrop of the Northern Lights.

The volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula has erupted several times this year, leading to a state of emergency being declared in southern Iceland in March.

From NBC News:

Sacre bleu! Camembert and brie 'on the verge of extinction,' French scientists warn

Some beloved cheeses “could disappear,” owing to a decline in the strains of fungus that give them their unique taste, smell, color and texture, France’s science agency says.

By Josh Lederman and Briony Sowden

CAMEMBERT, France — On a tiny farm tucked into the lush, green hillside of Normandy, Aude Sementzeff heats raw milk from cows up the hill until it curdles, then scoops it into molds to make a round, pearly white Camembert cheese.

For eight years, Sementzeff has been making the earthy, soft cheese in small batches to be sold in Paris stores, continuing a tradition that dates to the 18th century. So ubiquitous is Camembert in France that soldiers in the trenches of World War I ate it as part of their daily rations.

From the NY Post:

Italy’s got another leaning tower —and this one could actually fall over

By Alex Mitchell

They wanna Pisa the action.

There’s another leaning tower in Italy — but this time, officials are worried about a dangerous collapse.

The 12th-century catastrophe-in-waiting is the Torre Garisenda, standing tall at 148-foot on a four-degree bend — for now — at the heart of Bologna.

More below the fold...

annetteboardman

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday March 22, 2024 · 9:39 PM PDT

2024/03/22 · 21:39

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 JeremyBloom. 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.

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.

Fun stuff above the fold, and the rest below. We begin with a story from The Guardian:

‘A beacon of hope’: Nick Grimshaw and Vicky Pattison on the reality show that’s ripping up the rulebook

The Underdog: Josh Must Win challenges a group of celebrities to secretly fix a TV series so the nerdy bloke wins – without him knowing. It’s a joyful, subversive ride, with the least likely reality star ever

Michael Hogan

Reality TV is about to get an overdue shake-up. Hoax reality show The Underdog: Josh Must Win flips the entire genre on its head by putting an average bloke into a houseful of the usual tanned, tattooed, gym-buffed types. They all think they’re in an E4 popularity contest called The Favourite but, in fact, the underdog in their midst – a nice, nerdy 23-year-old called Josh who lives with his parents and four chocolate labradors in Bournemouth – is being backed by a panel of four celebrities, covertly controlling events from the house next door and trying to make Josh win.

From the BBC:

W.i.S.H.: The Indian girl group aiming to take over the world

By Harpal Bobby

The world has seen the rise of J-pop and K-pop, but could I-pop be next to take over the global charts?

That's the aspiration of Indian girl group W.i.S.H. - an acronym of World inka Stage Hai, or "the world is their stage".

The foursome - Ri, Zo, Sim, and Suchi - are said to be India's first mainstream girl group in more than 20 years.

From Deutsche Welle (video):

A truly head turning accessories brand from Lagos

15 hours ago

Ijeure Ezebuike Onwadike crafts extraordinary headwear from unconventional scrap materials. Her designs crown Nigerian celebrities at prestigious events such as the Oceans 8 Met Gala in Lagos.

annetteboardman

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday March 15, 2024 · 9:34 PM PDT

2024/03/15 · 21:34

Bangkok from the air, courtesy of ColoTim

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 JeremyBloom. 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.

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.

We start with some news that isn’t depressing for a change.

From Deutsche Welle (link is to a video):

Nigeria: Meet the shoemaker mixing style with sustainability

Lusanda Chauke
18 hours ago
In Nigeria's bustling business center, one shoemaker is making stylish and sustainable footwear.

From the Asahi Shimbun:

German woman starts up firm to aid Tohoku area through knitting

By FUKA TAKEI

One woman showcased colorful yarns and knitted goods at her booth at a recent handmade market held on the grounds of Hyakumanben Chionji temple in Kyoto’s Sakyo Ward.

Martina Umemura, a knitting artist from Germany, ran the booth that saw a constant stream of customers coming to buy yarn and knitted items.

Also from the Asahi Shimbun:

Aichi town to put gigantic rock salt blocks for sale on flea market app

By AKIHITO USUI

For sale: two blocks of rock salt that weigh a combined 6 tons. A bid of just 2 yen (1.3 U.S. cents) per piece would clinch the deal, but so far nobody is showing any interest.

The unusual items are part of a clearance sale by town authorities of Higashiura, Aichi Prefecture.

From CBS News:

See the heaviest blueberry ever recorded. It's nearly 70 times larger than average.

By Li Cohen

A farm in Australia has grown the heaviest blueberry the world has ever seen. It's so big, in fact, that it could be used to play ping pong – assuming it could bounce, of course.

Guinness World Records announced the "behemoth blueberry" on Friday, saying it weighed in at 20.4 grams, almost 70 times more than an average wild blueberry. The berry is 4.2 grams heavier than the previous record, Guinness said, and is 39.

From the Toronto Star:

Orcas that hunt the world's biggest predators may be a new population, say scientists

VANCOUVER - Researchers from the University of British Columbia said they've identified a potentially new population of open-ocean orcas, which hunt the biggest predators on the planet.

By Nono Shen

VANCOUVER - Researchers from the University of British Columbia said they've identified a potentially new population of open-ocean orcas, which hunt the biggest predators on the planet.

In a study published Friday, researchers said a group of 49 orcas has been observed hunting sperm whales off the coast of California and Oregon.

annetteboardman

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday March 08, 2024 · 9:03 PM PST

2024/03/08 · 21:03

Amelia Bloomer (pants for women), introduces Elizabeth Stanton to Susan B. Anthony, in a bronze statue. Seneca Falls, New York

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 JeremyBloom. 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.

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.

I was in Paris one year over spring break and went with my cousin to a restaurant where we had a lovely dinner. At the large table next to us (it took up half the restaurant) was a group of maybe 10 women. They were exchanging gifts (it looked like a Christmas exchange, but in March), and we couldn’t figure out what the occasion was, so my cousin asked the waiter if it was someone’s birthday. The waiter told her it was the International Day of the Woman, as if it was something we should have known. Now I realize it should have been something we knew. I do now.

Now on to the international news, beginning with women’s news.

First from the Washington Post:

It’s International Women’s Day: How women’s rights fared in the past year

By Victoria Bisset, Adela Suliman, and Naomi Schanen

LONDON — It’s International Women’s Day. U.N. Secretary General António Guterres has urged faster action to achieve gender equality, amid what he described as “a fierce backlash against women’s rights.”

“Billions of women and girls face marginalization, injustice and discrimination, while the persistent epidemic of violence against women disgraces humanity,” he said last week.

From the Washington Post:

On International Women’s Day, Ireland votes on ‘women in the home’ referendum

By Karla Adam

As the world marks International Women’s Day, Ireland is voting on a pair of referendum questions about how its constitution should refer to the role of women, who is responsible for providing care, and how to define a family.

But what at first seemed like a simple decision about updating outdated language in the 1937 constitution has become fraught, and it’s not at all clear which way the country will vote.

From Al Jazeera:

France makes abortion a constitutional right on International Women’s Day

Country becomes first in world to explicitly guarantee abortion as a constitutional right as Macron seals amendment and pledges to push for lifting of restrictions across Europe.

France has officially become the first country in the world to guarantee the right to abortion in its constitution, and President Emmanuel Macron has promised he “will not rest” until women across Europe have the same protection.

The constitutional amendment, passed by the French Parliament earlier in the week, was sealed with hot wax in Paris on Friday.

From Politico Europe:

Meet the Russian women taking on Putin

The Ukraine war is driving the mothers and wives of Russian soldiers to take up the gauntlet against the Kremlin.

BY EVA HARTOG

Three days after news broke of Alexei Navalny’s death, his wife Yulia announced she would take over his cause.

“We need to form one strong fist and use it to strike this crazy regime,” she urged in a stoic YouTube video.

From NBC News (Reuters):

‘Love wins’ say Greek lesbian couple as they wed at last

Danai Deligeorges and Alexia Beziki became one of the first gay couples in Greece to wed after parliament passed a bill last month allowing same-sex marriage.

ATHENS — A calendar reminder shone up on Danai Deligeorges’ phone on Thursday evening: “Wedding,” the message said. She turned, smiling, to her partner Alexia Beziki. “Are you ready?” Beziki asked, before the couple kissed and started to prepare.

That night, Deligeorges and Beziki became one of the first lesbian couples in Greece to get married after parliament passed a landmark bill allowing same-sex couples to tie the knot.

From CNN:

Iran’s repression of protesters and women amounts to ‘crimes against humanity,’ UN report says

By Eve Brennan and Jomana Karadsheh

Iran’s “repression of peaceful protests” and “institutional discrimination against women and girls” has led to human rights violations, some of which amount to “crimes against humanity,” according to a United Nations’ report.

Such violations and crimes include “extrajudicial and unlawful killings and murder, unnecessary and disproportionate use of force, arbitrary deprivation of liberty, torture, rape, enforced disappearances, and gender persecution,” the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a press release Friday.

From The Guardian:

Kyoto bans tourists from parts of geisha district amid reports of bad behaviour

Gion residents asked city council to crack down after rise in tourist numbers leads to increased harassment of traditional entertainers

Justin McCurry

Visitors to the geisha district of Gion – one of Kyoto’s most popular sightseeing spots – will be banned from entering its picturesque alleyways as authorities in Japan attempt to tackle a dramatic rise in tourism.

Residents of Japan’s ancient capital have struggled to reconcile the financial boost from a return to pre-pandemic visitor numbers with overcrowding and incidents of bad behaviour among tourists.

annetteboardman

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday March 01, 2024 · 9:09 PM PST

2024/03/01 · 21:09

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 JeremyBloom. 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.

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.

I will try to post several stories about women tonight (and next Friday is International Women’s Day, celebrated more broadly around the world than it is in the U.S.). But first a few collections of photos.

Deutsche Welle has pictures of ten interesting mailboxes from around the world.

And The Guardian has twenty pictures of the week and the week in wildlife.

From The Guardian:

‘Extraordinary’: 101 women narrate A History of Women in 101 Objects audiobook

Miriam Margolyes, Kate Winslet and Gillian Anderson among those giving voice to objects including a femur, a thumbscrew and a glass dildo

Esther Addley

‘I think it’s terribly funny that men have these weird dangles between their legs – I wouldn’t like that at all.” The actor Miriam Margolyes is talking about male genitalia and dildos – subjects she assumes must have been causing amusement for millennia. “I think from the very beginning, women have been just hooting with laughter.”

And yet – how would we know? So often, women’s voices have been squeezed to the margins of history, their thoughts on all kinds of subjects disregarded by those who got to narrate the past. As Margolyes puts it: “Women have had to fight for space from the beginning.”

(with the reading of the chapter on a glass dildo by Miriam Margolyes included)

Also from The Guardian:

Winchester plan for £100,000 Jane Austen statue triggers ‘Disneyfication’ fears

People at public meeting raise concerns that sculpture in cathedral grounds will attract tourists taking selfies

Steven Morris

The idea was to celebrate one of the greatest British authors with a beautiful statue set up in a cathedral for the 250th anniversary of their birth.

But at a public meeting to discuss the erection of a Jane Austen sculpture close to her final resting place at Winchester Cathedral, concerns were raised that it would lead to the “Disneyfication” of the place of worship and become a magnet for tourists keen to get a selfie.

And from Al Jazeera:

India’s Urban Company revolutionised gig work for women. Then it bled them

Multiple costs to qualify for work leads, forced product purchases, and a high rate of blockings have stripped their earnings.

By Ananya

After years of working at a salon in Bengaluru, Shakeela Banu made a major life change in 2018 and joined Urban Company (UC), an app-based home services platform that has more than 52,000 workers across Indian cities, one-third of whom are women.

At first, Banu was happy with the working conditions. Her manager treated her well, she said, and she got plenty of work as a beautician on call. She estimates that she’s worked with 3,000 customers since she joined the company and has turned down many requests from those who would ask for her services privately. It was her way of staying loyal to her employers.

annetteboardman

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday February 23, 2024 · 9:17 PM PST

2024/02/23 · 21:17

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 JeremyBloom. 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.

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.

I know I very seldom include US stories, but I wanted to start tonight, and highlight, the sad end of one of my favourite stories of the past year and more. This breaking news from the New York Times:

Flaco, Escaped Central Park Zoo Owl and Defier of Doubts, Is Dead

Let loose by an act of vandalism, the Eurasian eagle-owl died after apparently striking an Upper West Side building, according to the zoo.

By Ed Shanahan

Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl whose escape from the Central Park Zoo and subsequent life on the loose in Manhattan captured the public’s attention, died Friday night after apparently striking a building on the Upper West Side, officials said.

The Wildlife Conservation Society, which operates the zoo, said in a statement that Flaco had been found on the ground after hitting a building on West 89th Street.

Another disappointing animal story, this from USA Today:

Guinness strips title from world's oldest dog after 31-year-old age questioned

Guinness has spent the last month investigating Bobi, a supposedly 31-year-old Rafeiro do Alentejo from Portugal. They decided there's not enough evidence to prove his age.

Amaris Encinas

The world’s oldest dog has officially been stripped of his Guinness Record title, the authority for all things world-record-breaking said Thursday.

Guinness has spent the last month investigating Bobi, a supposedly 31-year-old Rafeiro do Alentejo from Portugal, in response to a “number of veterinarians expressing concern and skepticism over the dog’s age,” according to previous AP reporting.

Something a bit cheerier from the undersea world, via IFLScience:

Over 100 Never-Before-Seen Species Discovered Along Deep Sea Mountain Range

Off the Pacific coast of Chile, another world exists.

TOM HALE

More than 100 new species have been discovered on an underwater mountain range off the coast of Chile. Among the never-before-seen critters seen on the expedition are corals, glass sponges, sea urchins, amphipods, lobsters, plus a gaggle of peculiar fish and squid that are already known to science (but no less strange).

More sea stories, and highlights of world news, beneath the fold.

annetteboardman

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday February 16, 2024 · 9:36 PM PST

2024/02/16 · 21:36

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 JeremyBloom. 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.

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.

You can pick and choose among the international stories this evening. I’ll leave it at this: the Navalny story and Ukraine and NATO are widely covered in this blog and elsewhere. There is a lot of good information out there, so as usual this diary will focus on the less widely discussed news. And because it is me hosting tonight, and I am in that kind of mood, I wanted to start with a couple of archaeology stories. The first is from Explorers’ Web:

Controversy Persists in Troubled Tomb of Alexander the Great’s Father

Sam Anderson

One tomb containing a who’s who of fourth-century Macedonian royalty has been a bone of contention in the archaeological community for decades.

Now a recent report in the Journal of Archaeological Science claims to have resolved the controversy. But has it?

From The Guardian:

Egypt scraps plan to restore cladding on one of three great pyramids of Giza

Antiquities authority drops proposal for Menkaure pyramid after review prompted by international outcry

Egypt has scuttled a controversial plan to reinstall ancient granite cladding on the pyramid of Menkaure, the smallest of the three great pyramids of Giza, a committee formed by the country’s tourism minister said in a statement.

Mostafa Waziri, the secretary general of the supreme council of antiquities, announced the plan last month, declaring it would be “the project of the century”.

And from Haaretz:

Israeli Archaeologists Beg State: Don't Build Road Over Only Roman Legion Camp Ever Found

The extant highway is deadly but new finds at Legio, the Roman Legion base at Armageddon, spur archaeologists to urge government: Consider other ways to save drivers from themselves

Ruth Schuster

"And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. ... And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon" – Revelation 16:1,16

At the foot of Tell Megiddo lies a sprawling Roman army camp. This was no temporary military encampment with tents and a mangy grunt on guard. This was a full-fledged base of the fearsome Roman legions. Over no less than 180 years from the second century, it served the Legio II Triana and then the Legio VI Ferrata, aka the Ironclad Legion.

And before we go below the fold, your Taylor Swift news from The Guardian here and here (I seem to be geographically obliged to include Taylor Swift news, as my local news comes from Kansas City).

annetteboardman

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday February 09, 2024 · 9:01 PM PST

2024/02/09 · 21:01

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 JeremyBloom. 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.

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.

As often happens it is hard to find happy news in the international highlights, but there are two not-so-bad ones. We begin with CNN:

Chinese zodiac fortune predictions: What’s in store for the Year of the Dragon

By Maggie Hiufu Wong

Put away those bunny ears and crank up the heat, it’s time to say goodbye to the Rabbit and enter the Year of the Dragon – the only mythical creature among the 12 Chinese zodiac signs.

In addition to eating auspicious food and giving/receiving blessings, Lunar New Year – which falls on February 10 this year – is also a time for many to consult the stars and find out what’s in store for the months to come.

And from the BBC:

World record for matchstick Eiffel Tower after U-turn

Sofia Ferreira Santos

A model of the Eiffel Tower has been officially deemed the world's tallest matchstick building a day after being ruled out by Guinness World Records (GWR).

The 7.19m (23ft) tower had been disqualified on Wednesday for being made out of the wrong type of matches.

annetteboardman

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday February 02, 2024 · 10:44 PM PST

2024/02/02 · 22:44

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 JeremyBloom. 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.

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.

Cheerier news above the fold, the rest below it. We begin with Deutsche Welle:

Bavaria's costume veteran Söder unveils 2024 Carnival outfit11 hours ago

One of Germany's more colorful, if less significant, recurring political questions has its annual answer: Bavarian State Premier Markus Söder's conspicuously detailed Carnival costume for 2024 is Otto von Bismarck.

Bavaria is one of the parts of Germany that can take Carnival — a word to the wise, call it "Fasching" if you do find yourself down south — extremely seriously each year.

Many people go to great lengths to participate in the revelry, primarily during February, and many of them will dress up in elaborate costumes.

For years, this has famously been the case for the conservative CSU politician Markus Söder, now the party leader and state premier.

From The Guardian:

Tasmania hails Australia’s first colonial statue as a piss-take – and an ‘extraordinary political statement’

Research shows the statue held by Tasmania’s Maritime Museum was created in the 1830s, likely as a satirical depiction of George Arthur, the fourth governor of Van Diemen’s Land

Kelly Burke

A surprise discovery in Tasmania of a historic sculpture may also be the country’s first example of political – and quite rude – protest art.

Tasmania’s Maritime Museum has released images of a 1.3-metre sandstone statue of a well-dressed colonial gentleman, apparently designed as part of a fountain to show him behaving in a decidedly ungentlemanly way.

From the BBC:

Hunt to uncover story of mysterious Canada shipwreck

By Nadine Yousif & Eloise Alanna

A mysterious shipwreck that washed up on shore in Newfoundland, Canada, has captured the imagination of locals.

Wanda Blackmore said her son was out sea duck hunting when he stumbled upon the 24-metre long, wooden ship that likely dates back to the 19th Century.

"On his way home, he saw a dark object out in the water," she said.

Locals think the wreck could be a vital piece of Newfoundland history, and experts now intend to uncover what it was before it met its watery grave.

From the BBC as well:

Inert nuclear missile found in US man's garage

By Max Matza in Seattle

Police in Washington state say an old rusted rocket found in a local man's garage is an inert nuclear missile.

On Wednesday, a military museum in Ohio called police in the city of Bellevue to report an offer of a rather unusual donation.

The police then sent a bomb squad to the potential donor's home.

More below the fold.

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Overnight News Digest: Mostly news from Africa and Europe tonight

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Overnight News Digest: International Women's Day

Overnight News Digest: It's Women's History Month!

Overnight News Digest: Goodbye Flaco

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