Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Doctor RJ, Magnifico, annetteboardman and Man Oh Man. Alumni editors include (but are not limited to) palantir, wader, 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).
We begin this evening with news from India, from The Washington Post:
A girl was found living among monkeys in an Indian forest. How she got there is a mystery.
Police in northern India are reviewing reports of missing children from the past few years in the hopes of identifying a young girl who they say they found more than two months ago in a forest living among a group of monkeys. (AP)
Amid a troop of monkeys in the Katraniaghat forest range in northern India roamed a naked human girl, playing with the primates as if she were one of them. She looked emaciated, her hair disheveled. But she appeared to be in a comfortable state, until the police arrived.
A group of woodcutters had alerted authorities after spotting the girl, believed to be 10 to 12 years old. When police approached her, the monkeys surrounded the girl, protecting her as one of their own, and attacking an officer as the girl screeched at him, the New Indian Express reported this week. After rescuing the girl, the officer sped away in his patrol car, the monkeys chasing him.
From Germany, via The Guardian:
Architects seek to debunk spy's testimony in neo-Nazi murder trial
Forensic Architecture to present findings after rebuilding German cafe crime scene where man of Turkish origin was shot
Forensic Architecture, a London-based organisation started by architect Eyal Weizman have previously investigated war crimes in Syria, Palestine and the former Yugoslavia, using modern technology to search urban areas for evidence.
“If a pile of rubble is what’s left of your crime scene an architect may be better qualified to analyse it than [the police],” Weizman said.
Also from The Guardian:
Palestinian activist's Australian visa cancelled on eve of speaking tour
Government says there is a risk people may react adversely to Bassem Tamimi’s presence, and his views on the Middle East
The federal government has cancelled the visa of an outspoken Palestinian activist on the eve of his Australian speaking tour because others are likely to “react adversely” to his presence.
The activist, Bassem Tamimi, was due to board a plane this week to begin his Australian speaking tour, which was organised by the Palestine Action Group, Friends of Palestine, and The Social Research Institute.
He was granted a visa on 4 April, but it was cancelled the next day.
The department said Tamimi’s presence would threaten the good order of the Australian community, and invoked section 128 of the Migration Act to cancel the visa.
From the BBC:
Is Singapore really the world’s most expensive city?
For the fourth year in a row, the Economist Intelligence Unit has declared Singapore the world’s priciest city. But is it really as bad as the headlines would have you believe?
Retail clerks in Singapore have a habit of forcing receipts into your hand whether you want them or not. As a result, every Singapore resident occasionally cleans out their wallet or purse, only to discover a horrifying stack of receipts where once there was money. There’s no doubt this can be a very expensive city.
But is it the most expensive? Well, that’s debatable.
Distorted perspectives
Last month, the Lion City hit the headlines again when The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) placed it atop its Worldwide Cost of Living index. However, this index was set up for a specific purpose. It’s designed for human resources departments to figure out the cost of sending employees on business trips or to work overseas, often in a high-paying job.
It couldn’t happen to a nicer set of people. From the BBC:
Fifa loses nearly £300m in 2016 and scheduled to lose further £400m in 2017
World football governing body Fifa lost nearly £300m in 2016 and is scheduled to lose close to £400m in 2017.
Legal costs related to the corruption scandal which engulfed the organisation and "ill-considered previous investments" contributed to the losses.
The latest financial results follow a loss of nearly £100m in 2015.
Fifa forecasts a financial recovery in 2018, when Russia hosts the World Cup, and expects to finish the four years since 2014 with an £80m profit.
The governing body, which is still under criminal investigations in Switzerland and the United States, paid out nearly £50m to lawyers last year.
Another tale of financial challenge, from allafrica.com:
Nigeria Needs Oil Price of $139 a Barrel to Balance Budget - Report
By Oladeinde Olawoyin
Nigeria needs an oil price of $139 a barrel to balance its budget this year, Fitch Ratings Ltd said on Thursday.
Fitch, an international rating agency, in an April 5 report, said Nigeria has the worst situation among 14 major oil exporting nations in the Middle East, Africa and emerging Europe.
Bloomberg reports that the agency said Kuwait is in the best position of major oil exporting nations to have a balanced government budget this year with oil forecast to average $52.50 a barrel.
The report noted that even after cuts in government subsidies and currency devaluations, 11 of them won't have balanced government budgets this year, including Saudi Arabia.
From Agence France Presse, via The Daily Times (Pakistan):
British DJ jailed for playing remixed version of Muslim call to prayer in Tunisia
TUNISIA: A British DJ faces charges in Tunisia of “offending public morality” after his set at a nightclub included a remixed recording of the Muslim call to prayer, a judicial source said Tuesday.
A video of the alleged incident, widely shared online since Sunday, shows clubbers dancing at the weekend in the northeastern town of Hammamet to music that includes the call to prayer.
The footage sparked a storm of debate on social media.
From The Voice of America:
Sierra Leone Grapples with Mental Health Impact of Ebola
FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE —
With the recent Ebola crisis, officials in Sierra Leone have seen a rise in mental health concerns. Mustapha Kallon's problems are typical. He survived Ebola but lost many family members during the epidemic.
"Whenever I think of my parents, I feel depressed," he said.
Kallon said he turned to alcohol to cope with his grief. He was still receiving care in the Ebola treatment unit when his parents died from the virus. He didn't get to say goodbye and doesn't even know where they are buried.
A press release from Outbreak News Today:
Guinea measles outbreak nears 3500 cases, MSF launches vaccination campaign
The international humanitarian organization
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), along with the Guinean Ministry of Health, is launching today a large-scale measles vaccination campaign in Conakry. Since the beginning of the year there have been 3,468 confirmed cases and 14 deaths dues to measles in Guinea, with the most cases in the Conakry and Nzérékoré districts.
Routine vaccination in Guinea was drastically reduced during the 2014-2015 Ebola epidemic, both because most resources and attention were geared towards the management of Ebola and, mainly, due to fear. People stayed away from health facilities, and vaccination activities were suspended because of infection risks, leaving thousands of young children unprotected against easily preventable diseases. A nation-wide vaccination campaign was organized by authorities one year ago for children who had missed or never received their vaccines. Despite this catch-up effort, a measles epidemic was declared on February 8, 2017.
“The fact that a new epidemic occurs barely a year after a massive vaccination campaign is a worrying sign of the weakness of health care in Guinea,” said Ibrahim Diallo, MSF’s representative in Guinea. “Major problems remain in the health system, undermining its capacity to prevent and respond to outbreaks effectively and timely.”
From the Greenpeace blog:
"Fishing from the sky", empty nets, dead fish and the plight of West African fisher folks
Blogpost by Mbong Akiy
Travelling in Africa is bittersweet. I always appreciate the warmth of fellow Africans, the humanity that characterises daily life and the untold stories of Ubuntu. But there is a dark side. If poverty and quality of life are measured by access to clean water, basic health care, roads and infrastructure, most African countries are poor and likely over 50% of Africans live in abject poverty.
Guinea reserved no surprises for me. It was dusk when we landed in Conakry and as the sun set over the rusty roofs and muddy roads, I instantly knew that this was another country where people, though warm and kind, reel through the daily challenges of bread and butter and longed for access to basic services. I hoped the state of fisheries in Guinea would be the ray of hope for a visibly impoverished population with a vast coastline.
More cheerful news, from the CBC (includes video):
Toronto Zoo welcomes 4 new baby African penguins
You can visit the chicks while they're still fluffy between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. starting Friday
By Ramna Shahzad
Four new African penguin chicks are joining the Toronto Zoo's already impressive roster of cute baby animals.
The chicks have yet to be named but you can see them in an indoor viewing area between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. every day beginning next Friday, April 14.
The zoo released a video clip of one of the new hatchlings squawking away.
And now for the Arts news, beginning with nextpittsburgh.com:
A whole waddle of penguins is coming to the Hilltop thanks to James Simon
Celebrated Pittsburgh artist and sculptor James Simon is known locally for his larger-than-life sculptures and installations around town, like the Liberty Avenue Musicians or his colossal, kaleidoscopic mosaics that welcome people to Braddock and Uptown.
This time around, he’s making penguins—45 of them, in fact—to be installed throughout Allentown, Beltzhoover and Knoxville this summer.
The project is made possible through a grant from Neighborhood Allies and the Office of Public Art’s Temporary Public Art and Placemaking Pilot Program.
One from a couple of days ago that you might have missed, from the BBC:
Hunting for treasure at low tide
Joseph Fox photographed the mudlarkers who comb the shore of London's River Thames. Originally a term for the city's poor who scraped a meagre living by scavenging in the river's mud, it has been adopted by a new breed of treasure hunters, often armed with metal detectors.
These men and women show off their favourite finds, and discuss the joys of mudlarking.
From The Irish Times:
The world's turmoil is down to boredom. Art can fight this
In a culture that swings between tedium and hysteria, art is a democratic necessity
In crazy political times, it is easy to think of art as a sideshow. But it matters – and not just for what it says. It matters for what it does and especially what it does to our sense of time.
In Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, after the two tramps have concocted another bit of business to keep themselves going, Vladimir exclaims: “That passed the time.” The gloomier Estragon counters: “It would have passed in any case.”
“Yes,” rejoins Vladimir, “but not so rapidly.”
From Geo.tv:
In Berlin, a street art gallery designed to be destroyed
It may seem an unlikely venue for an art gallery -- an old bank building in the centre of a busy shopping district and about to be torn down.
But in Berlin, arguably Europe's urban art capital, some 165 like-minded street artists have filled the five-storey space with their work.
And the result is a burst of colour and myriad of styles, with murals and installations covering 10,000 square metres (108,000 feet), all on public view at no charge -- but only until the demolition crew moves in.
"We're open here for two months, then everything will disappear for all eternity," said Joern Reiners of Die Dixons (The Dixons), the group behind the project called The Haus (The House).
It approached property developers Pandion for temporary use of the block before it makes way for luxury condominiums, and got the keys last October.
"There was so little time, we didn't have any big plans, we just got our telephones out and rang everyone we know," said Timo von Rekowski, another Dixons member.
Artists from 17 countries joined the project, with Berlin-based ones making up the majority.
From Channelnewsasia.com:
Art-buying 101: A handy guide to buying that first painting for your house
Thinking of buying your first artwork? With Affordable Art Fair Singapore 2017's Spring edition taking place this weekend, we've compiled a handy FAQ to help you figure things out. What’s behind the price of a painting? Is it okay to ask for a discount? Bookmark this page - we’ve got you covered.
By Mayo Martin
SINGAPORE: For the longest time, Naeem Kapadia has been staring at the blank red wall in his dining room.
It has been two years since the 32-year-old lawyer moved into his three-room condo in Tanglin, and while the rest of the place looks perfect, it lacks that special painting to complete the picture.
While he already owns a handful of small prints and paintings that were either given as gifts or bought as souvenirs from overseas trips, he now wants to take things to the next level – a “proper” landscape painting he’s willing to fork out hard-earned cash for.
“Now that I’m a bit older and stable in my career as a professional, I’ve gotten to that stage where I would like to acquire works that have a longevity to them. But the reality is, I don't know much about buying art," he said.
Singapore may already be bursting at the seams with art galleries and fairs popular with collectors and casual buyers. But there are still first-timers like Kapadia, for whom acquiring their first serious artwork can be an intimidating, and even daunting, experience.