I thought tonight, with all the excitement/stress of health care, Russia sanctions, North Korea,, and of course the unnecessary drama at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, it might be good to look elsewhere and see how other people are coping with their lives. This is not a feel-good OND, but one that might help us put some things in perspective. But first...
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, perhaps a bit later).
We begin with a link to pictures of the week from the BBC.
And from the BBC’s “news from elsewhere” feature:
A cinema in north-western Iran has denied media reports that it has been flooded with job applicants confused by the title of a film it is currently showing.
Local media reports say that people have been asking Cinema Bahman, the only movie theatre in the city of Zanjan, for work after they spotted the poster for a film called "Workmen Needed", Fars News Agency says.
It's thought that the poster - advertising a feature about class divides in Iranian society through the eyes of three men travelling to Tehran to look for work - might have been mistaken for a genuine plea for new workers at the cinema.
Continuing in the Middle East, this from Deutsche Welle:
An international animal welfare charity has evacuated several animals stranded at a zoo in Aleppo. The animals had been neglected during the ongoing conflict in Syria.
At least nine animals were rescued from the Aalim al-Sahar (Magic World) zoo in Aleppo and taken to safety and care in neighboring Turkey. The small group of rescued animals included two bears, two hyenas, two tigers, and two lions.
Animal welfare is increasingly becoming a concern in war-torn parts of the Middle East; earlier this year, this lion and bear were rescued from a zoo in Mosul in neighboring Iraq.
Also from Deutsche Welle, a slide show of Cairo:
It's a wonder of human ambition and engineering set in the middle of Cairo. Al-Azhar Park was built on a 500-year-old rubble heap and is now a green jewel for the Egyptian capital.
Some news from Europe, beginning with this from Al Jazeera, which has a link to a documentary on “The New Germans”:
Irmela Mensah-Schramm, who has painted over far-right graffiti for 31 years, is part of a long history of anti-fascism.
Patrick Strickland
Berlin, Germany - A smile stretches across Irmela Mensah-Schramm's face as she adjusts the brace on her gauze-swaddled right hand and lifts a binder full of photos detailing three decades of work defacing neo-Nazi graffiti and propaganda in public spaces.
The 70-year-old says she has painted over or defaced more than 100,000 manifestations of far-right sentiment over the past 31 years. Her one-person anti-fascist battle has left her with an injured hand, on which she recently had surgery, and landed her in a lengthy legal battle.
"I can't stand this," the retired teacher says of her hand injury. "It is a catastrophe for me."
And a video story by Kate Ferguson, from Deutsche Welle:
Studies show food sold by multinational producers in eastern Europe contains cheaper, lower-quality ingredients than identically branded versions in the west.
From the BBC:
Europe's top court has ordered Poland to immediately stop large-scale logging in Europe's oldest forest.
Last year the Polish government approved a threefold increase in logging in the protected Bialowieza forest, home to bison and rare birds.
Unesco, EU officials and green activists protested against it.
The European Commission, which is taking legal action against Warsaw, asked the European Court of Justice to impose the provisional ban.
And also from the BBC:
Police in Berlin have praised an "honest finder" who handed in cash and gold bars worth a total of €33,500 ($40,000; £30,000) found in a briefcase under a tree.
The small fortune comprising €3,500 in cash and 22 gold bars weighing a total of 1kg was found just outside a bank in the working class district of Neukölln.
"Amazing what you can find under a tree in Neukölln," the police said on Twitter.
Further south, we look at life on the African continent, beginning with news from the BBC:
Two rival families will compete for power in Kenya's presidential election, in a relationship that goes back to before independence. The BBC's Dickens Olewe looks at some of the more unusual aspects of the election campaign.
1) The sex strike:
Nothing comes close to explaining how close the race for the presidency is than the public plea by opposition leader Raila Odinga to his supporters to hold off having sex until after the election.
"8 August will be a historic day and no vote will be left without being cast. Men will sleep outside. When the day comes, no man should sleep with a woman," he was quoted as saying by the Star newspaper.
From Reuters:
KELSO, South Africa (Reuters) - Fishermen on South Africa's east coast were treated on Friday to a sight they have waited five years to see as millions of sardines swam in from the Indian Ocean,
From the BBC:
South Africa could soon give sign language official status, one of a few countries in Africa to do so.
This is after a recommendation from the parliamentary constitutional review committee to alter the constitution.
The country's deaf community, which has lobbied for the change, says official recognition would help "give them a voice".
Sign language would become South Africa's 12th official language.
From GhanaWeb:
Ghanaian youth should desist from seeking greener pastures outside the country because conditions in Ghana are far becoming better, Mohammed Tijani, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, has said.
According to him, Ghanaian youth are turned into slaves in the countries that they travel to in search of better lives and so they are better off staying at home to explore opportunities.
Recently, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo called on the Qatari authorities to take steps to address the maltreatment of Ghanaians working in that country.
And providing a transition from African news to our Friday night art news, this from Reuters and VOA:
A collection of yawing mouths and extracted teeth, booming stereo speakers and colorful hookah pipes adorn shop fronts in Somalia, a colorful contrast to the airbrushed artworks of big business.
Somali mural artist Muawiye Hussein Sidow, also known as "Shik Shik," is the man responsible for the art that features on more than 100 shops, including barbers, tea shops and supermarkets across Mogadishu.
More Africa and art, from Atlas Obscura:
Located more than 400 miles southeast of the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, the town is remote and impoverished. Workers on the plantations make just $19 a week, and many have too little to eat. The bright white gallery, a brand new institution whose ambit is yet to be defined, stands out not just against the red earth and lush foliage of its surroundings, but as an incongruous extravagance.
The gallery is the latest development in an ongoing project that’s incited heated debate. Can art be used to address the economic exploitation of the plantation economy that plagued Africa for centuries without, on some level, being a source of exploitation itself?
From the LA Weekly:
By Liz Ohanesian
Art can be beautiful, thought-provoking and extremely valuable. In a city with as much art as Los Angeles, thefts aren't uncommon. From Picasso to Charles Schulz's Peanuts, art has been at the center of enough cases that the Los Angeles Police Department has a detail dedicated to finding and retrieving the stolen items.
Much like the art itself, these crimes are often spectacular. Below, we flash back to 10 L.A. art crimes, including scams, inside jobs and brazen heists.