Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Doctor RJ, rfall, annetteboardman and Man Oh Man with guest editor Chitown Kev and Magnifico. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke 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 12:00AM Eastern Time (or if it is Friday night and the editor is me, a bit later).
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
You surely have heard about the mess of politics in Brazil, the Zika virus there, the question about the bribe paid to a Japanese Olympic official’s family through a Singapore bank, and the election in the Philippines. But did you know that Singapore has just had its first Zika case? Or that residents there are worried about the disease spreading because there are areas with so many mosquitoes?
This weekend is the Eurovision song contest. This report comes from Metro:
France hoping for first Eurovision win in nearly 40 years with Amir’s J’ai Cherche
France used to hold the record for most Eurovision wins but after five victories, they’ve rarely got close since 1977. There are high hopes that Amir Hadad can end that run this year with J’ai Cherche.
France’s odds on a Eurovision victory dropped as low as 3/1 but the vocals in early rehearsals weren’t great and odds slid dramatically. Amir has turned it around and the live shows and jury final sounded strong. They’re still in the race.
The song, part in English and part French is modern and en vogue, it’s been popular in the Euroclub where delegations and fans meet every evening in Stockholm and he’s been on the full Eurovision promotion tour, taking the song to Amsterdam and London amongst other events.
From Agence-France Presse, by Leela Jacinto:
In life and death Hezbollah’s ‘untraceable ghost’ haunts the Middle East
Mustafa Badreddine, a senior Hezbollah military commander who was killed in Syria led such a shadowy life, he was dubbed the “untraceable ghost”. In death, his legacy will continue to haunt the region.
In his lifetime, Badreddine was known as the “untraceable ghost”. A senior Hezbollah military commander, he who walked out of jails, survived targeted strikes, juggled a rolodex of aliases and led a shadowy, tough to track life that frustrated prosecutors and international tribunals.
In death, the ghost of Badreddine can be traced back to some of Hezbollah’s deadliest attacks over the past three decades, a period that saw the group emerge as a distinct entity from the myriad Shiite movements embroiled in the 1980s Lebanese civil war.
On the same topic, the news from France, by John Lichfield in the Independent:
Terror threat still 'very high' in France six months after the Paris attacks
However, the country's interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, says the EU has made progress in efforts to combat terrorism 'largely thanks to Fench [sic] pressure'
Six months on from the worst attack on French soil since World War Two, the terrorist threat remains “very high" the interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve has said.
He revealed on Thursday that 101 people had been arrested in France on suspicion of terrorist activity since the triple assault on the Paris area on 13 November which killed 130 people.
Mr Cazeneuve promised an “exceptional deployment” of police and soldiers to protect two large sporting events in France this June and July – the Euro 2016 football competition and the Tour de France cycle race.
News about a happier aspect of Islam, from Joan Henderson in the Straits Times:
Islamic tourism: The next big thing?
Demand for leisure travel by Muslims is mounting in parallel with the expanding Muslim population worldwide. The phrase Islamic tourism is frequently used to describe travel by Muslims for whom compliance with religious observances when away from home is an important consideration. Among other labels are halal tourism and Muslim-friendly tourism.
Muslim travellers have several unique features. Their distinctiveness creates challenges for suppliers of services as well as destination marketers in ensuring proper provision while balancing the needs of Muslim and non-Muslim customers. At the same time, there is diversity within the overall market, based on factors such as age and nationality alongside religiosity.
Commercial interest in Muslim consumers as a whole reflects the size, growth and increasing affluence of the population. According to Pew Research, there were an estimated 1.6 billion Muslims globally in 2010 and this figure is predicted to reach 2.8 billion in 2050, about 30 per cent of the world total. Over 60 per cent reside in the Asia-Pacific region, 20 per cent in the Middle East and North Africa (where they make up 93 per cent of the resident population), 3 per cent in Europe and 1 per cent in North America.
More news from France, from PRI’s Joshua Kelly (radio story at the link):
In France, employers resort to harassment to drive employees away. But not much longer?
There's a practice in France called being sent to the closet — "le placard."
It's when your employer makes your work life so miserable that you are forced to quit.
“A friend of mine is in the closet right now at his company,” says Pamela Druckerman, an author living in Paris. “His boss has stopped replying to his emails.”
She gives another example of a banker who found that his desk had been moved into a hallway. He gradually realized that his colleagues had been told not to talk to him at all.
“You reach a point where no one can tell you that you’re in the closet, because it’s technically illegal. It’s considered moral harassment,” she says. “But you eventually figure out what is happening. It can last for years.”
Being sent to the closet is a pretty awful practice, but it's something that a number of French employers resort to because it's so hard to fire people legally there.
Also from Europe and the Independent comes this story by Hazel Sheffield:
Sainsbury's job advert asks for an artist to refurbish a Camden store canteen - for no pay
Sainsbury's made a profit of £587 million in the year to March 12
A Sainsbury's store in Camden has attracted anger and disgust on Twitter after it advertised a job in the local paper for no pay.
The advert was posted on Twitter by a reader.
It asked for a "creative and ambitious artist to voluntarily refurbish our canteen".
It promised that the successful candidate would get "experience in the creative industry while making our community a comfortable are for employees to escape to" and that "your work will contribute to our success".
More on the arts at the end of this diary, but in the meantime here is a video animal story from the BBC:
Elephant has rotten molar extracted
An elephant at Whipsnade zoo had a rotten molar extracted after it stopped eating and began losing weight.
Speaking of Africa (kinda), the news of a relatively-forgotten diaspora, from Ofer Aderet in Haaretz:
Then and now: Tracking down the Ethiopian Jews who moved to Israel
A new exhibition provides a fascinating insight into how members of the Ethiopian-Jewish community acclimatized to Israel – some more successfully than others – following Operation Moses in the mid-1980s.
For over 30 years, Doron Bacher documented the immigrants who came to Israel from Ethiopia in Operation Moses (in 1984-1985). His camera captured moments in their absorption and acclimatization to Israel when the operation was still secret and it was forbidden to publish photographs of them. It followed them in school, bar mitzvah ceremonies, the army, weddings, workplaces, and as they moved into permanent housing.
One of the new immigrants who caught his eye was Zehava Mahari, a beautiful 3-year-old girl whom it was impossible to ignore. Bacher met her at the Mikhmoret absorption center in central Israel. She had arrived there with her mother in 1985, at the end of a dangerous, harrowing journey from Ethiopia to Israel.
Mahari’s tale is part of the mosaic of personal stories presented in the exhibition “Operation Moses: 30 Years After,” which opens at Tel Aviv’s Beit Hatfutsot (The Museum of the Jewish People) on May 25.
Bronwen Dachs writes about Ethiopia for the Catholic News Service, for a story in America:
Drought, Hunger Ravage Ethiopia
Watching hungry schoolchildren in Ethiopia carefully put away one of the two biscuits they received at a food program, Msgr. John Kozar, president of Catholic Near East Welfare Association, found the act touching.
He realized they were taking the second biscuit home to share with younger siblings or their mothers.
Alarming levels of hunger, caused by the worst drought in about half a century, has left about 10 percent of all Ethiopians—some 10 million in all—in need of food aid, Msgr. Kozar said in a May 11 telephone interview from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital.
When the rains have come, as they did in April as part of the El Nino weather phenomenon that drove the drought, flash flooding has resulted. The most recent floods left at least 50 people dead and nearly 120,000 displaced.
Nathanael Johnson writes for Grist on much the same subject (dated May 11th, but with pictures of beauty):
Ethiopian farmers made a desert bloom again
Ethiopia is in the middle of the worst drought in 50 years. It’s the sort of shock to the system we are likely to see more of with climate change. But Ethiopia is also home to a successful experiment to make the land more resilient to drought. If we are going to adapt to our changing world, it’s experiments like these that will show us the way.
In the steep fields of Ethiopia’s highlands, when rain falls on the parched, overworked land it runs downhill, carrying soil with it. Farmers commonly lose 130 tons of soil per hectare a year, comparable to the worst erosion documented on U.S. farms in recent history. Then, because the water has all rushed downhill, instead of seeping underground, wells go dry. Without water, crops wither, and that exposes bare soil to further erosion.
On the other side of the African continent the news is filled with stories about the new FIFA Secretary-General, a Senegalese woman. This article about Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura is from Punch:
FIFA appoints first female secretary-general
Senegal’s Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura has been appointed as FIFA’s first female Secretary-General, BBC Sport reports.
She succeeds former Secretary-General Jerome Valcke, who was banned from football-related activity for 12 years.
Samoura, 54, spent 21 years working for the United Nations and will start at football’s governing body in June.
“It is essential FIFA incorporates fresh perspectives as we continue to restore and rebuild our organisation,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
From Sierra Leone, where the Ebola outbreak was so severe, comes this Agence-France Presse article by Jennifer O’Mahony in the China Post:
Sierra Leone's first Ebola-hit community reconsiders its traditions
KAILAHUN - Violently coughing up blood, the woman was close to collapse when brought to Kailahun hospital in eastern Sierra Leone from her village close to the Guinean border.
For nursing staff, the spectre of the killer Ebola virus had returned.
"My staff went into PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder)," said Samuel Massaquoi, medical superintendent of the hospital. "People said that if she came from near Guinea she had Ebola."
Urging calm, the doctor immediately implemented the screening measures used at the outbreak's height, when Ebola cases arrived on a daily basis.
That was one month ago -- the patient was instead diagnosed with advanced tuberculosis -- but it is a clear example of how the the fear of Ebola still grips the heart of this community.
More news about Ebola from Science Daily:
Confirmation that the Ebola virus persists in the semen of survivors of the epidemic
An international study, conducted by researchers from the Institute for Development Research (IRD), Inserm and Institut Pasteur and their Guinean partners (Donka University Hospital, Macenta Hospital, National Institute of Public Health, and University of Conakry, confirms that Ebola virus persists in the semen of survivors of the epidemic in Guinea, for up to 9 months after their recovery. These results, which recall the importance of monitoring survivors in order to prevent the risks of new epidemic outbreaks, are published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases on 3 May 2016.
And to finish up the evening, some arts news (I think I am going to make this a part of my diaries from here on out — it is a nice way to end the week):
From Jess Denham in The Independent:
V&A Illustration Awards 2016 shortlist showcases stunning literary artworks
Last year’s Overall Winner was Sterling Hundley for his illustration of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island
Readers are often told not to judge a book by its cover, but London’s V&A museum has been doing just that for its 2016 Illustration Awards shortlist.
Judges have narrowed down nearly a thousand entries to choose the best 14 submissions across four categories: Student Illustrator of the Year, Book Illustration, Book Cover Design and Editorial Illustration.
David McConochie’s eerie image of a ghoulish girl for The Folio Book of Ghost Stories competes with Marina Esmeraldo’s art deco style artwork for AC Koning’s Game of Chance and Simon Pemberton’s dynamic painting of a stormy sea for Frank Worsley’s Shackleton’s Boat Journey in the Book Cover Design group.
“I wanted to capture the icy Antarctic colour palette and the terrifying extent of the waves,” Pemberton said of his design. “My hope is that the cover image captures the drama, intensity and energy - the power of the sea. I’d like the reader to look at the cover and instantly feel a little scared.”
From Agenda.ge (about the Asian country, not the US state):
Georgian artists feature in Europe’s leading photo festival
Two Georgian contemporary artists are part of Europe's leading photography festival in Krakow, Poland.
For one month starting May 12, works by Lado Lomitashvili and Atu Gelovani of Tbilisi State Academy of Arts will be on display within the 14th annual Krakow Photomonth Festival 2016.
The Europe-wide festival, named Crisis? What Crisis?, features three sections this year.
The young Georgian students will present their work in the Experimental Section of the photo display.
Kaya GENÇ, in Daily Sabah:
Turkish artist explores the concept of evil through Shakespeare and Arendt
Istanbul's Kuad Gallery hosts ‘Nobody's Fault,' Esra Carus's new exhibition on the concept of the ‘banality of evil,' until June 11
"Nobody's Fault," Esra Carus's new exhibition at Istanbul's Kuad gallery, includes many references like Hannah Arendt, Carl Jung, Roland Barthes and William Shakespeare. Carus's works explore myths and archetypes, and the concept of evil in everyday life. "The reason I focus on the concept of evil is the fact that we are, both emotionally and physically, undergoing a global and unavoidable disaster situation that is caused by humans," she says in the exhibition catalog. "Terrorism, violations of human rights, violence, cruelty, apocalyptic expectation … all these forms of evil that we could not even begin to count were what led me to focus more on the id of the human being. … Political theorist Hannah Arendt's explorations of reality through the Holocaust and the roots of violence were my guide."
Born in 1968 in Istanbul, Carus is a graduate of Mimar Sinan University's Department of Ceramics and Glass. Her work has been exhibited in New York, Ankara, Diyarbakır and Istanbul. In 2009, she participated in the Atelier Babelle Flianders in Berlin; two years later, she attended the Berlin Literaturform in Brecht Haus, Berlin. Her lifelong fascination with German culture led Carus to Arendt and her analysis of the phenomenon of fascism in Germany.
And finally, an archaeology story from David Keys in the Independent. Archaeology, just because…
How London became Britain's capital has been revealed for the first time
Exclusive: Historians now believe they know why the Romans moved the capital from Colchester
A brutal blood-soaked bid to wipe London off the map was a key factor that led to the city first emerging as Britain's capital.
New archaeological research is showing that London's elevated status stemmed partly from a Roman military and political reaction to Boadicea's violent destruction of London and other key cities in the mid 1st century AD.
The investigation, carried out by Museum of London Archaeology (Mola), suggests that the Romans shifted the capital of their British province from Colchester to London shortly after her revolt.