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).
Let’s begin with photographs, from the Straits Times:
Navy Day celebrations in Singapore, landslide in Poland, and other pictures from around the world in Today in Pictures.
From The Washington Post:
She fixed Ukraine’s economy -- and was run out of her job by death threats
Valeriya Gontareva, governor of Ukraine's central bank, abruptly quit her post in April after death threats and ongoing harrassment from her political enemies. She has won admiration from the International Monetary Fund and economists for the tough steps she took to stabilize an economy torn by war, annexation, decades of mismanagement and internal rivalries. (Vincent Mundy/Bloomberg)
Valeria Gontareva, governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, takes out her phone and pulls up a photo of her house in Kiev with the word “killer” and dollar signs scrawled across an outside wall. Another piece of graffiti shows a piggy bank with the words “Russian pig.”
Another photo shows an open coffin in front of the formidable doors of the Ukrainian central bank. Inside lies an effigy of Gontareva, a photo of her face where the head would be, prison garb on the body and black bouquet at her feet.
These are hardly the sort of emotions the average central banker stirs up. Yet over three years as Ukraine’s central bank chief, Gontareva has made her share of enemies, even as she has won admiration from the International Monetary Fund and economists for the tough steps she took to stabilize an economy torn by war, annexation, decades of mismanagement and internal rivalries.
From The Straits Times:
Japanese gear up in face of danger, but many remain stoic
Half an hour after North Korea launched a ballistic missile, albeit unsuccessfully, last Saturday, trains running 1,200km away in Tokyo's extensive underground metro network ground to a halt.
Flak from Japanese reluctant to let wayward North Korea disrupt everyday life came fast and furious.
Notwithstanding their protests, there has been a surge of interest in how to guard against ballistic missile and nuclear attacks.
Japan has drawn up detailed civil defence guidelines on its Cabinet Secretariat Civil Protection portal on what people should do in the event of an attack. The website's page views jumped exponentially from 450,000 in March to about three million last month.
Companies specialising in nuclear bunkers and air purifiers that can remove radioactive and chemical substances say they are receiving more inquiries about products.
Another from Japan, this via The Times:
Children going out of fashion in Japan
Lucy Alexander
Japan celebrated Children’s Day yesterday by flying flags, eating sweets and reading articles about the increasing rarity of young families.
Last year, 170,000 fewer babies were than the year before. It was the 36th consecutive year in which the birthrate declined — and children’s voices have become so rare that some pensioners would like to eradicate them entirely.
One last one from (sorry about this) The Daily Caller:
Japan’s Tourism Industry Takes A Hit As Ninjas Disappear
Ninjas are known for their stealth, but the disappearance of these feudal-era assassins is becoming something of a problem in Japan.
Tourism is booming in Japan, and many foreign tourists expect crowd-pleasing ninja performances when they visit the country. “With the number of foreign tourists visiting Japan on the increase, the value of ninjas for tourism content has increased,” Takatsugu Aoki, the manager of a martial arts team in Nayoga in southern Japan, recently told the Asahi Shimbun, “While ninja shows across the country have become popular, I feel there is a ninja shortage.”
From The Times of Malta, news about the upcoming election there:
Third of army personnel get promoted ahead of election
403 promotions, mainly to Labour sympathisers - sources
by Keith Micallef
A third of the Armed Forces personnel have moved up a rank in what is being described as an unprecedented promotion exercise at election time, Times of Malta has learnt.
A total of 403 promotions had been handed out across the board, mainly to Labour sympathisers, according to army sources who spoke to the Times of Malta on the condition of anonymity.
The maritime squadron was the most affected, with 91 officers promoted, followed by the First Regiment with 90, while a further 58 promotions were handed out to officers stationed within the Third Regiment.
An editorial from The Straits Times:
The negative impact of fake news
Chong Lip Teck Lead Writer Sin Chew Daily, Malaysia
Fake news which spread during the United States presidential election caught global attention last year. The fake news went viral on social media and shocked the public.
US President Donald Trump's victory was even regarded as the outcome of fake news.
But fake news and rumours are not confined to just the US; Malaysia has had its fair share of fake news circulating.
From Normangee Star:
South Africa detains cargo ship after Western Sahara request
The hearing, announced by a lawyer for the movement on Thursday, should test Polisario’s use of a European court ruling a year ago that said Western Sahara should not be considered part of Morocco in European Union and Moroccan deals.
The NM Cherry Blossom has been stopped at Port Elizabeth, South Africa, since Monday. A 1991 ceasefire split the region into separate parts controlled by Morocco and Polisario.
A lawyer for Polisario in Cape Town, Andre Bowley, says a court hearing over the cargo will be held on May 18.
The two sides have been since locked in diplomatic and legal tussles though tensions flared a year ago when United Nations peacekeepers had to step in between Moroccan forces and Polisario brigades in the buffer zone near the Mauritania border.
From The Times of India:
PM Narendra Modi's space diplomacy turns satellite launch into mini-Saarc summit
Surendra Singh
Prime Minister
Narendra Modi opened a new chapter in neighbourhood diplomacy by launching a
South Asia satellite+on Friday. It's the fulfilment of a promise made in 2014, but it is the larger progress towards regional integration that might show lasting benefits.
Modi commended
Isro scientists for the launch and addressed the heads of six
South Asian countries, barring Pakistan, via video conferencing. Calling it a "historic moment", Modi said the satellite "opens up new horizons of engagement and will greatly benefit South Asia and our region's progress".
Same story, different tone, from Daily News & Analysis:
South Asia Satellite: India's pride, Pakistan's spite
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday virtually pulled off a diplomatic coup. He ensured the presence of leaders of all the South Asian countries through video conferencing, virtually isolating Pakistan, at the launch of the South Asian Satellite, which blasted off from the second launchpad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
The GSAT-9 has will provide different communication applications in Ku-band with coverage over South Asian countries, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.
The satellite is India's gift to its neighbours, in line with Modi's slogan of participating in the development of the neighbourhood. At the video conference with the heads of the South Asian nations of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, Modi recalled that two years ago, India made a promise to extend advanced space technology for the cause of growth and prosperity of the people of South Asia. He added that he felt that the successful launch of the South Asia Satellite fulfills that commitment.
From Newshub (NZ):
Cyclone Donna: Homes, buildings damaged in Vanuatu
First light is revealing the extent of damage to Vanuatu's outlying islands, as Cyclone Donna moves across the country's northwest.
Winds reaching more than 200km/h are striking the province of Torba, with homes and other buildings damaged.
The potentially-devastating cyclone has snaked just north of Vanuatu to lie north-west of the island nation on Saturday, WeatherWatch.co.nz says.
Pootie news from the BBC:
Scotland is home to small 'tigers', but maybe not for long
To save Scottish wildcats from extinction, a few conservationists are leaving them alone
The Sun is rising on a calm and cloudy morning in late February 2017, and Jamie Sneddon and I have an important collection to make. After a short drive along the north-east coast of Scotland – passing open fields, detached bungalows, and blooming bushes of gorse that shine with a radiant yellow under the grey sky – we arrive at the muddy entrance of a farmyard.
Many of the locals here in the remote Scottish Highlands are crofters: they nurture and trade certain root vegetables and small numbers of livestock and poultry, a lifestyle first developed in the 19th Century. After opening a red and rusting gate, we disturb a vocal gaggle of geese and a few chickens. Through the wire fences that border the farm, we can also see a small flock of sheep.
However, Sneddon has only one animal on his mind: a cat. He is hoping to catch a stray tomcat that rules the yard. The previous day, he had baited a small cage inside one of the farm's stone outbuildings with mackerel – cheap, smelly, and easy to split into portions – and cat food.
Some happy news from the BBC:
New image of Moray Firth's sunburned dolphin Spirtle
By Steven McKenzie
A new photograph has captured the significant scarring left on the side of a dolphin that was badly sunburned while stranded on mudflats a year ago.
The bottlenose dolphin known as Spirtle was out of the water for 24 hours last May in the Cromarty Firth.
She was spotted by chance by a couple who had got lost trying to drive to a dolphin-watching spot at the Moray Firth.
Rescuers refloated the dolphin but did think she would survive.
From Scientific American blogs:
East of Siberia: An Undesirable Nest
The last thing you want to find in your mattress is a nest of wasps
By Jonathan C. Slaght
Years ago I conducted songbird research at the Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve: summers of sweat, field camouflage, and pulsing masses of biting insects in this humid, temperate rainforest. There were only two of us on the field team, me and a botanist—a bright, friendly woman who described the vegetation at the same study plots where I recorded the vocalizing bird species.
Our goal was to document how songbird communities changed when a forest was selectively logged. We’d sit quietly under enormous pines at designated locations, up to a dozen of them in a morning. Occasionally we’d find bird nests but most of our detections were vocalizations: melodious song from birds unseen in the dense vegetation. I’d scribble down the exotic-sounding names of species like Siberian blue robin, Mugimaki flycatcher, and Asian stubtail.
Our work was based out of remote research cabins in the reserve, and we’d move from one location to the next every week or two when we’d completed all the necessary bird surveys. Late in the season we arrived at Perevalnii, an area of Korean pine forest near the Sikhote-Alin divide, and found a cabin of typical construction for the reserve.
From Russia Beyond the Headlines:
How Nicholas II, Stalin and Brezhnev relied on the supernatural
There were many charlatans and occultists in Russian history, but only a few of them were admitted to the highest echelons of the ruling elite. Here is a look at three personalities, who enjoyed the trust of Russian rulers.
From time immemorial people with ‘supernatural’ powers were perceived to be a source of divine knowledge and power. In Russia, like everywhere else, such people offered paying patrons a glance into their future and suggested ways to avoid fatal mistakes. This kind of power was priceless for the ruling class.
RBTH looks at the three mysterious figures that in one way or another were connected to Russian leaders.
And in arts news, beginning with this from the BBC:
Syria war: Refugee who fled Homs with violin releases album
A Syrian refugee who fled the fighting in his country carrying a violin on his back is to have an album released by a major record label.
Rami, 21, was a music student and left the city of Homs in 2015. He now lives in Germany, after crossing eight countries, often on foot.
During his journey through Europe, he was thrown off a train and lost his violin while being chased by police.
But in Germany, he was given another instrument after sharing his story.
The musician travelled through Lebanon and Turkey to Istanbul. From there he crossed to Greece by boat, carrying his violin wrapped in cling film.
From the Financial Times:
National pavilions: an identity parade at Venice Biennale
Artists respond to issues around representation
by: Dan Einav
The idea of national pavilions evokes complicated issues around statehood and statelessness. In a globalised art world, how do the artists themselves respond to the notion of representing their countries? Previewed here are a selection of pavilions where the artists are directly engaging with this question.
Israel
Gal Weinstein will present Sun Stand Still, in which wool drawings, sculptures, videos and prints created over the past decade form a single installation. The piece examines the dichotomies that Weinstein sees as central to Israel’s identity, a nation simultaneously modern and biblical, geared toward progress and destruction. Billed as a highlight is the vast landscape “Moon over Ayalon Valley” made from metal-wool and felt. It depicts a moment in Zionist mythology in which Joshua ordered the sun and moon to stay still; Israel, Weinstein implies, is still caught between enlightenment and darkness.
Kiribati
Making its debut at Venice this year is Kiribati, a dispersed island nation in the Pacific Ocean, whose pavilion will be based at the Palazzo Mora. Uniting 35 artists from different generations and disciplines, the project lends a contemporary framework to the customs that have remained at the heart of the nation’s culture for centuries. Vocal and dance performance pieces form the basis of the exhibition, immersing viewers in Kiribati heritage. The exhibition will also offer a sobering reminder that the very existence of this community is threatened by environmental pollution caused by nations on the other side of the globe.