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 are 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 12:00 AM Eastern Time (or if it is Friday night and the editor is me, a bit later).
Taking a look around the world we seem to have a couple of themes. First up is politics.
From Iceland, via The Guardian:
Iceland's Pirate party invited to form government
Anti-establishment group receives mandate for power-sharing pact after talks to build five-party coalition fail
Iceland’s president has invited the anti-establishment Pirate party to form a government, after the right- and leftwing parties failed in their bids.
Guðni Jóhannesson made the announcement on Friday after meeting with the head of the Pirate’s parliamentary group, Birgitta Jónsdóttir.
“I met with the leaders of all parties and asked their opinion on who should lead those talks. After that I summoned Birgitta Jónsdóttir and handed her the mandate,” he said.
From the Gambia, via the BBC:
Gambia's Adama Barrow says shock win heralds 'new hope'
Property developer Adama Barrow says his shock win of the Gambian election heralds new hope for the country.
Yahya Jammeh, an authoritarian president who ruled for 22 years, has confirmed he will step down.
"I will help him work towards the transition," Mr Jammeh said on state TV on Friday evening, after speaking to the president-elect by telephone.
Mr Barrow, 51, who has never held political office, won Thursday's election with 45.5% of the vote.
From Somalia, via RFI English:
Presidential elections in Somalia postponed... again!
Presidential elections in Somalia, which were due on Wednesday November 30th, have been postponed for the third time. The federal government says the elections will now be held by the end of December. Presidential elections in Somalia do not conform to the one person, one vote pattern and the current one is a lengthy process marred by corruption allegations.
The president of Somalia cannot be elected until all 275 MPs of the Lower House and the 54 from the Upper House are themselves elected as they are the ones who will vote for the president.
Officials say that nearly half of the Lower House has been elected by the 14,025 representatives of Somalia's various clans. As for the Upper House, nearly all members have been voted in.
From Ghana, via AllAfrica:
Ghana: What Obama Can Do To Encourage a Successful Election
GUEST COLUMN By Johnnie Carson
Washington, DC — The results in Ghana’s presidential election on December 7 could be very close and President Obama should demonstrate his support for a peaceful and transparent process
Barrack Obama applauded Ghana’s extraordinary democratic progress and political maturity when he made that country his first stop in Africa after becoming President. As he prepares to leave office, he can help Ghana take another step forward.
Ghana is facing a particularly tight presidential contest next week, and the U.S. President should speak out in favor of a free, fair and peaceful process.
From Uzbekistan, via The Guardian:
Brand new leader, same old autocracy as Uzbeks go to polls
Shavkat Mirziyoyev expected to continue Islam Karimov’s iron-fisted rule in Uzbekistan, which has no free press or opposition
Uzbeks will elect a new leader for the first time in more than 25 years on Sunday. Just don’t expect a Trump-like upset.
About 18 million people are eligible to vote for a successor to Islam Karimov, the long-time dictator who died in September after ruling Uzbekistan ever since it gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Karimov’s prime minister for the past 13 years, is set to step seamlessly into the shoes of his former boss and is widely expected to continue his predecessor’s autocratic rule.
From South Korea, via The Straits Times:
Early presidential polls in S. Korea likely
Four possible contenders as President Park's approval ratings plunge to new lows
Impeachment or early resignation - these are the two options facing South Korean President Park Geun Hye, whose entanglement in an influence-peddling scandal has seen her approval ratings plunging to new lows.
Either way, analysts say it is inevitable that the country will have to elect a new leader months ahead of the scheduled presidential election next December.
The three main opposition parties yesterday said they would propose an impeachment motion in Parliament, adding that a vote will be held next Friday.
But the ruling Saenuri party - whose support is necessary to push an impeachment through - is hoping Ms Park would step down next April and the presidential polls be held in June. It has given her until next Wednesday to decide.
From Nicaragua, via nacla.org:
Indigenous Resistance in Nicaragua’s Elections
Laura Hobson Herlihy and Brett Spencer
Daniel Ortega’s win of a third consecutive term as Nicaragua’s President November 6th came amidst widespread evidence of electoral fraud. In the face of Ortega’s increasingly hegemonic control, a Caribbean coast indigenous organization turned political party, Yatama (Yapti Tasba Masraka Nanih Aslatakanka/Sons of Mother Earth), emerged as a thriving opposition party. Yatama has articulated an alternate, autonomous resistance to the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional(Sandinista National Liberation Front, FSLN) regime, unaligned with Ortega’s opponents from traditional elites and the rightwing.
Daniel Ortega has been Nicaragua’s president four times – first from 1984-1990, and again in 2007, 2011, and 2016 after the National Assembly abolished terms limits in 2014. As he has consolidated his political power, Ortega’s once-celebrated record of commitment towards social and human rights has crumbled. Rather he appears determined to create a family dynasty.
There is a lot of good coverage from around the world about Donald Trump’s excellent diplomatic adventures. I recommend looking at foreign papers for their take.
Changing subjects. The news about history, the first (a nice bit of news for a change), from Scotland via the BBC:
German PoW leaves £384,000 to Perthshire village
A former German soldier has left £384,000 in his will to the Perthshire village where he was held as a prisoner of war during World War Two.
Heinrich Steinmeyer was 19 when he was captured in France and held in the PoW camp at Cultybraggan by Comrie.
Mr Steinmeyer, who died in 2013 aged 90, bequeathed the money in return for the kindness he was shown there.
He said in his will he wanted the money to benefit the village's "elderly people".
From Norway (and Germany), via The Guardian:
Dachau concentration camp gate found two years after it was stolen
Police in Bergen, Norway, find iron gate with slogan ‘Arbeit macht frei’ after tipoff
An iron gate with the slogan “Arbeit macht frei” (work will set you free) that was stolen from the former Nazi concentration camp in Dachau two years ago has been found in Norway, police say.
“Due to an anonymous tipoff, police in Norway’s Bergen have secured an iron gate with the well-known text,” Bavaria state police said on Friday. “From the picture transmitted, police believe it is highly likely that this is the iron gate that was stolen from Dachau.”
From England, via The Daily Mail:
Still spouting poison: As Hollywood makes a movie about his views, how Holocaust denier David Irving continues to pervert history (and make money while he's at it)
- David Irving, 78, is a famous Holocaust-denying historian
- He has been jailed, discredited and bankrupted for his views
- He has just embarked on a month-long, nationwide speaking tour
- At event in Gateshead on Saturday he said number of Jews killed was closer to 4million than the widely accepted 6million figure
By David Jones for the Daily Mail
At weekends, the Premier Inn in Gateshead throngs with football fans and young clubbers up for a wild night out in nearby Newcastle. Visitors to this cheap and cheery hotel on a trading estate seldom arrive by Rolls-Royce. Last Saturday evening, however, a vintage Silver Shadow glided onto the forecourt.
Sitting ramrod-straight at the wheel was an elderly and distinguished looking man, with silver hair and ruddy jowls. He might have been a retired brigadier. But it was none other than the infamous Holocaust-denying historian, David Irving.
In the passenger seat was the latest of Irving's Girl Fridays — an attractive Polish woman, 50 years his junior, named Martyna Jurska. Her immediate task was to unload a stash of his books (including his laudatory 985-page biography of Hitler) from the boot of the Rolls and carry them into the hotel, in the hope he might hawk copies to an audience he was due to address, for upwards of £30 a time.
Unrepentant: At the age of 78, Irving has been jailed, discredited and bankrupted for disgracefully dismissing the Auschwitz gas chambers as a 'fairytale'
For at the age of 78, Irving — who has been jailed, discredited and bankrupted for disgracefully dismissing the Auschwitz gas chambers as a 'fairytale', and claiming Hitler was oblivious to the planned extermination of six million Jews (the true figure was far fewer, he maintains) — is beating his odious drum yet again.
Utterly unrepentant, he has just embarked on a month-long, nationwide speaking tour. It is being conducted in a cloak of secrecy and accessible only to a select and carefully vetted audience, but last Saturday night I managed to infiltrate his first engagement. It was an eye-opening and disturbing experience.
From Egypt, via The Guardian:
Mummified knees are Queen Nefertari's, archaeologists conclude
A pair of mummified knees are most likely those of the famously beautiful spouse of Pharoah Ramses II, who died around 1250BC, say scientists
Nicola Davis
A pair of mummified knees found in a tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Queens are most likely those of Queen Nefertari, the royal spouse of Pharaoh Ramses II, say archaeologists.
Thought to have died around 1250 BC, Nefertari was the favourite consort of Ramses the Great, and was famed at the time for her beauty.
“[Her] main role [was] to be the decorative bystander when Ramses was flexing his pharaonic muscles at public events, and she was there as the eye candy,” said Joann Fletcher from the University of York, a co-author of the research published in the journal PlosOne. “But really, [she was] a striking woman who I think exerted a quiet power behind the throne.”
Nefertari’s lavish tomb was discovered in 1904 – the walls covered in beautiful paintings, although the tomb itself had been looted long before. But it was unclear whether the fragmented, mummified legs discovered among the remaining contents did indeed belong to the queen.
(with pictures of the queen’s knees)
Other bits from the world in the news:
From Australia, via the Japan TImes:
Australia boosts spending to keep Great Barrier Reef off danger list
SYDNEY – Australia will spend 1.3 billion Australian dollars ($965.3 million) in the next five years to improve the water quality and wellbeing of the Great Barrier Reef to prevent the World Heritage Site being placed on the United Nation’s “in danger” list.
But activists say the money — in addition to the A$1 billion fund announced earlier — is insufficient and want the government to take more concrete action to protect the reef.
A negative rating for the Great Barrier Reef — located off the country’s northeast coast — would be embarrassing for the Australian government and damage its lucrative tourism industry.
From Canada, via the CBC:
Moncton area seeks to import 700 skilled American workers
Economic development group 3+ Corporation launches media campaign in the U.S. in bid to fill job vacancies
By David Bartlett
The economic development corporation of Dieppe, Moncton and Riverview has launched a campaign to try and bring skilled workers from the United States to New Brunswick.
The 3+ Corporation hopes to attract Americans to fill 700 job vacancies in the Moncton region.
"We want to attract companies to settle here and we need to have enough skilled workers to ensure productivity. It's that simple," president and CEO Eric Mourant told Radio-Canada.
From Australia, via the BBC:
Largest all-women expedition heads to Antarctica
On Friday the largest ever all-female expedition to Antarctica is setting sail, hoping to increase the number of women in important scientific roles around the world, writes Ben Collins.
They call Ushuaia, a cold and windy port city in Argentina, the end of the world.
It's from here that the largest ever all-female expedition to Antarctica will depart, with more than 70 women with backgrounds in science set to spend 20 days at sea.
The voyage is part of the Homeward Bound initiative, an Australian programme aimed at increasing the representation of women in top science jobs across the globe.
From Syria, via CNN:
Beloved clown who comforted children in war-torn Aleppo killed in strike
Clown brought joy amid life of horror
By ELIZA MACKINTOSH
LONDON (CNN) - Happy children dance with a rosy-cheeked clown in a floppy birthday cake hat and oversized orange tie, their Eid celebrations a rare moment of joy amid the horrors of life under siege in Syria.
Footage of the July 2015 party, shot by activist group Aleppo Media Center, shows a costumed and face-painted Anas al-Basha at the center of the festivities, bouncing a smiling girl on his hip as music plays and youngsters clap along with the tune.
Clown and entertainer Al-Basha, 24, was killed Tuesday in a missile strike in the Mashhad neighborhood of the city's rebel-held east, his brother Mahmoud Al-Basha told CNN.
Al-Basha was a director at Space for Hope, a local non-profit that has worked to provide civil services to people living in the war-torn opposition area.
And finally, arts news, because we need it in these times. This first from arch daily:
The Actual History Behind Yugoslavia's "Spomenik" Monuments
by Patrick Lynch
For many years,
Yugoslavia’s futuristic “Spomenik” monuments were hidden from the majority of the world, shielded from the public eye by their remote locations within the mountains and forests of Eastern Europe. That is, until the late 2000s, when Belgian photographer Jan Kempenaers began capturing the abstract sculptures and pavilions and posting his photographs to the internet. Not long after, the series had become a viral hit, enchanting the public with their otherworldly beauty. The photographs were shared by the gamut of media outlets (
including ArchDaily), often attached to a brief, recycled intro describing the structures as monuments to World War II commissioned by former Yugoslavian president Josip Broz Tito in the 1960s and 70s.
This accepted narrative, however, may not be entirely accurate, as Owen Hatherley writes in this piece for the Calvert Journal. In the article, Hatherley explains the true origins of the spomenik, and how this misconception has affected the way we view the structures and the legacies of the events they memorialize.
From Syria, via The Guardian:
Looted Palmyra relics seized by Swiss authorities at Geneva ports
Confiscated objects date from the third and fourth centuries and include a head of Aphrodite and two funereal bas-reliefs
Agence France-Presse
The confiscated objects, from the third and fourth centuries, include a head of Aphrodite and two funereal bas-reliefs.
Most of the items reached Switzerland via Qatar and were taken by looters, Geneva’s public prosecutor said in a statement.
They were deposited at the free ports in 2009 and 2010 and the alarm was first raised in April 2013 during a customs inspection, prosecutors added. It was not immediately clear when they were seized.
And finally, from the USA, via Hyperallergic:
The Roles of Art and Artists at the Pipeline Protests in North Dakota
Four artists at the Oceti Sakowin Camp at Standing Rock, North Dakota, have arrived to help stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. I interviewed them about the role of artists and art during protest.
The controversial pipeline was originally planned to cross the Missouri north of Bismarck, North Dakota’s capital, but the city protested for fear that it would contaminate their water supply. The pipeline was pushed down river right by the Standing Rock Reservation, which is one of the largest Native American reservations in the United States.
In the Oceti Sakowin Camp, the largest of the three camps, is a prominent art tent area. Dozens of artists and volunteers are silkscreening and producing work. Among those artists is Cannupa Hanska Luger, who grew up on Standing Rock. I spoke to him, along with three of his artist friends (Jesse Hazelit, Raven Chacon, and Dylan McLaughlin), who have joined him here at this request. We are presenting the raw, roughcut version of that roundtable interview with all four artists here because we wanted the artists to be able to share their thoughts in full.