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.
Good news above the fold, beginning with The Guardian:
Three-year €2.1m fund will prioritise former colonies of the two countries and could lead to return of items
Germany and France will jointly spend €2.1m (£1.8m) to further research the provenance of African heritage objects in their national museums’ collections, which could prepare the ground for their eventual return.
A three-year fund, with contributions of €360,000 a year by each country, was launched in Berlin on Friday. It has been designated to fund research on objects from anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa, though priority is expected to be given to countries that were colonised by France and Germany, such as Togo and Cameroon.
From the BBC:
On the night of 1 June 2019, a grey Renault Koleos pulled up outside Geneva's Museum of Far Eastern Art.
Three men wearing ski masks, dark clothing and gloves got out and walked up the steps to the solid, wooden front door.
Dotted across four floors of an elegant 19th-Century townhouse, the museum - also known as the Baur Foundation - hosts an extensive, world-renowned collection of Chinese and Japanese artefacts.
From Deutsche Welle:
German lawmakers have voted in favor of changing the law that would open up the possibility of dual citizenship to swaths of the population. The bill would also reduce the time needed to qualify for naturalization.
From CBS News:
Archaeologists excavating a sanctuary honoring the ancient Greek goddess Artemis have announced they discovered a significant number of structures, as well as plentiful relics, including gold and silver jewels.
A "monumental building in the heart of the sanctuary" was first found in 2017, according to a recent social media post from Greece's Ministry of Culture. Another temple was found in 2023. Excavating this second temple turned up "rich relics" and jewelry, the ministry said. Other excavations found buildings from the ninth and eighth centuries B.C.
From the Canadian Prime Minister’s office (essentially a press release):
Today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with the Premier of Nunavut, P.J. Akeeagok.
The Prime Minister and the Premier celebrated the historic signing of the Nunavut Lands and Resources Devolution Agreement the day before. This landmark agreement is an essential step toward the political advancement and economic development of Nunavut and on the shared path of reconciliation. The agreement will enable Nunavut and its residents to make decisions about public lands, freshwater, and non-renewable resources.
And from NPR’s Goats and Soca:
Nobel peace prize honoree Malala Yousafzai is calling for an end to "gender apartheid."
COVID is no longer a global health emergency but will the coming year see a "cholera comeback"?
And if you're feeling a bit overwhelmed by election coverage here in the U.S. for the November event, keep in mind that 2024 is going to be a "mega-election year" on Earth — more elections than ever in the history of elections, some election watchers say.
Lots of African news tonight, so we will start there. This comes from CGTN Africa (funded by the Chinese government, as it says on its YouTube page:
IGAD urges Ethiopia and Somalia to de-escalate tensions over port deal
The meeting of regional heads of state was called by Somalia, as it looks for outside help regarding concerns over its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
On the same topic, this is from africanews, which is part of euronews, funded by the EU:
Nigerian ex-president sent to mediate Ethiopia-Somalia tensions
In a bid to prevent the escalating tensions between Ethiopia and Somalia from spiralling into a full-blown war, the African Union's Peace and Security Council (PSC) has deployed former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo for negotiation efforts.
From the BBC:
By Umaru Fofana & Natasha Booty
Sierra Leone's former president is headed to Nigeria for medical treatment despite being due to stand trial for his alleged role in a coup attempt last year.
Ernest Bai Koroma was given permission to leave by the High Court on Wednesday for a maximum of three months.
Sierra Leone's current president has called this a "humanitarian gesture".
But it is widely believed that a deal has been reached allowing Mr Bai Koroma to go into exile.
And, though we will have British news later, this fits in here, from The Guardian:
Paul Kagame also says he would be happy for the scheme to be scrapped
Rwanda’s president has said there are limits to how long attempts to implement an asylum deal with Britain can “drag on”, indicating he would be happy for the scheme to be scrapped.
Paul Kagame’s comments on Wednesday came before Rishi Sunak faced a potentially leadership-ending rebellion by Conservative MPs threatening to vote down his Rwanda deportation bill on Wednesday night.
East to West across Eurasia now, and then a few from the Americas.
From The Hill:
North Korea said Friday that it had tested an underwater nuclear attack drone in response to a naval exercise by South Korea, the United States and Japan.
North Korea’s military said it conducted the test of the “Haeil-5-23” in the country’s eastern waters. It did not specify the date the test occurred.
From Reuters:
North Korean teens sentenced for watching K-pop
Video footage released by an organization that works with North Korean defectors shows North Korean authorities publicly sentencing two teenagers to 12 years' hard labor for watching K-pop.
From The Guardian, part of their series “Age of Extinction”:
Scientists call for urgent intervention, as bearded pig populations are devastated by the deadly virus on islands such as Borneo
Populations of wild pigs are crashing due to the spread of African swine fever (ASF), threatening the livelihoods of millions who depend on them for food, researchers warn.
With a fatality rate of almost 100%, ASF has swept across Asia, Europe and Africa, devastating domestic and wild pig populations over the past 10 to 20 years. The impacts are especially significant in Borneo, in south-east Asia, where bearded pig numbers have declined by between 90% and 100% since it arrived on the island in 2021, researchers said.
Also from The Guardian (AFP):
Mongkol Thirakot receives record sentence under kingdom’s strict lese-majesty laws for posts on personal Facebook account
A Thai man has been given a 50-year prison sentence – the longest jail term handed down under the kingdom’s strict lese-majesty laws – for criticising the monarchy, a legal rights group said.
The record-breaking sentence comes after several years in which Thailand has ramped up use of the legislation against pro-democracy protesters in what critics say is a tactic to silence dissent.
From France 24:
Ram temple controversy: India's Hindu nationalist groups take over ancient Muslim sites
In India, tensions have been rising between the country's Hindu majority and the Muslim minority. Some say the ruling party has only exacerbated the situation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to open a Ram temple in the northern town of Ayodhya. What makes it controversial is the land it sits on. For centuries a mosque stood there, before it was ultimately torn down by Hindu nationalists, incited by Modi's party. Our team on the ground reports on the Ram temple, as well as other sites that could see the same fate.
From the BBC:
Pakistan and Iran have restored diplomatic ties according to the caretaker prime minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar's office.
It comes after both countries exchanged drone and missile strikes on militant bases on each other's territory.
As a result of the tit-for-tat attacks Iran and Pakistan withdrew their ambassadors from the respective capitals.
From Reuters:
Han, who exports Chinese-made cars to Africa and imports off-road vehicles from Europe, told Reuters the cost of shipping a container to Europe had surged to roughly $7,000 from $3,000 in December, when Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement escalated
attacks on shipping.
From Politico:
Estonia to build hundreds of bunkers on eastern frontier to deter the Kremlin’s possible aggression.
Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia agreed on Friday to set up a common Baltic defense zone on their borders with Russia and Belarus amid growing security concerns.
The defense ministers of the three Baltic countries met on Friday in Riga to approve the construction of "anti-mobility defensive installations" on their eastern frontiers. They also agreed to develop missile-artillery cooperation.
From The Hill:
Top NATO official Adm. Rob Bauer warned Thursday that a larger war with Russia and other adversaries is a real threat amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
Bauer, chair of the Western security alliance’s Military Committee, said “not everything is going to be hunky dory in the next 20 years.”
From Deutsche Welle:
German chancellor Olaf Scholz has compared a far-right plan to deport migrants to Nazi racial ideology, calling it "an attack on our democracy." He has welcomed planned protests against right wing extremism this weekend.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz has again strongly condemned alleged plans by right-wing extremists and politicians from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party for the mass deportation of migrants, drawing parallels with Nazi racial ideology.
"I say it in absolutely clarity and severity: right-wing extremists are attacking our democracy," he said in a video released on Friday, referring to reports of a secret meeting at which far-right extremists, AfD politicians and business leaders allegedly discussed the deportation of millions of people from Germany.
Opinion, from The Guardian:
This isn’t its first failure, yet the tech giant is so embedded in the public sector that it seems invincible
“We were involved from the very start. We did have bugs and errors in the system. And we did help the Post Office in their prosecutions of the sub-postmasters. For that we are truly sorry.” As admissions go, this one from Paul Patterson, the head of Fujitsu Europe, was uncharacteristically candid. For almost two decades, the Post Office, supported by Fujitsu, falsely prosecuted nearly a thousand sub-postmasters rather than admit the Horizon system was flawed. It took years of litigation, campaigning and an ITV drama to force Fujitsu to admit the truth so publicly. Ministers are now talking tough about consequences. In reality, the company is far too influential to be held truly accountable.
From NBC affiliate WCYB comes a very sad story from the UK:
SKEGNESS, England (WKRC) — A two-year-old boy "starved to death" after his father died from a heart attack in the family's home.
According to PEOPLE, Bronson Battersby was found dead along with his 60-year-old father at their home in Skegness, England around 3:25 p.m. on Jan. 9.
A bit happier story from the BBC:
A humpback whale has been spotted swimming just a few hundred metres from a busy Welsh port.
It was snapped breaching from the water by Lloyd Nelmes, 29, near the breakwater between Fishguard and Goodwick in Pembrokeshire.
Mr Nelmes, a marine project officer at the Sea Trust, said the rare sighting was "spine tingling".
Now for the Americas, beginning with this from WION (India):
WION Web Team
Demands are being raised by the lawmakers in Washington to clamp down on farmland sales to China-linked entities or persons
Millions of acres of land in the United States are being bought by foreign buyers, most prominently by China-linked individuals and entities. The foreign ownership in the US farmland increased to about 40 million acres in 2021, up 40 per cent from 2016, according to data published by the US Department of Agriculture.
The foreign ownership of the US cropland has raised concern in Washington about possible national security risks. The US lawmakers have called for a crackdown on sales of farmland to China.
From Al Jazeera (Qatar government-funded):
A neighborhood in Haiti’s capital came under attack Thursday as a gang tried take control. It's the latest in a series of attacks on Solino since Sunday which has left several dead.
Haiti is battling an onslaught of organized crime. In a January report, the UN warned that people going about their daily lives are at risk of being shot as soon as they cross the threshold of homes into the street.
And from France 24:
Ecuador police hold two for prosecutor's murder, soldiers raid prison •
Ecuador's authorities on Thursday arrested the suspected killers of a prosecutor and deployed soldiers to take control of a key prison as part of an ongoing "war" between the government and powerful criminal gangs.