Nope, not feeling very positive this evening, but I am sure things are going better elsewhere. Let’s take a look at life beyond our borders and see what else is going on. 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 and annetteboardman. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) wader, planter, JML9999, 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.
Photos of the week this time come from The Atlantic, Christian Science Monitor, CNN International, Reuters (check out the first one of a fox), and ABC (images of the Middle East).
If you liked the picture of the fox, here are some of a puppy, from Stuff (New Zealand):
An Auckland woman has been reunited with her beloved puppy after it was ripped from her arms outside her home.
Grace Read said she was in her Castor Bay driveway on January 15 when, at 11.40am, two men shoved her to the ground and took her rottweiler puppy, Rosko.
It was "absolute hell" to lose Rosko, who she had only had for a week and a half, Read said.
Also from Stuff (New Zealand):
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern insists nothing has changed, despite her pregnancy news.
Ardern sat down with her partner, Clarke Gayford, for an interview with Stuff on Friday.
"I know that, because of who I am, that I will do the job that I've been asked to do, that I have the mandate to do - nothing's going to change that," she said.
From Reuters:
GANSEOUNG, South Korea (Reuters) - The chairs of an abandoned ski lift sit on a barren, ghostly mountainside in South Korea; like gravestones for what was one a vibrant holiday resort.
As the country prepares to host the 2018 Winter Olympics in a raft of new sporting venues, the abandoned Alps Ski Resort, only around 100 kilometers (60 miles) away, stands in grim contrast, as the future of South Korea’s new facilities remains uncertain.
Located close to the border with North Korea, the resort had been used for skiing since the period of Japan’s colonial rule in the early 20th century and was South Korea’s oldest when it closed its doors in 2006.
From U.S. News (this is news?):
The president of Russia took a polar plunge to celebrate an Orthodox Christian holiday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin won't be forfeiting his quintessential "tough guy" persona anytime soon – even if it means braving frigid temperatures.
On Friday, photographs spread online showing the 65-year-old leader – dressed in a sheepskin coat and felt boots – approaching a hole in the ice of a lake in the northwestern part of the country, then dunking his stripped-down body into the water and crossing himself. The polar plunge was part of a ritual to celebrate the feast of the Epiphany, a major holiday marking the baptism of Jesus in Orthodox Christianity.
From coindesk:
India's government has reportedly sent tax notices to cryptocurrency traders and investors following a nationwide survey.
According to Reuters, a survey found that Indian citizens conducted more than $3.5 billion worth of trades and other transactions across a 17-month period. The government also collected data from nine exchanges within the country, and per the report, notices have been issued to "tens of thousands of people."
From the BBC:
A doctor has been arrested for allegedly setting fire to 25 cars over a period of several days in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.
Police have seized CCTV footage of Dr Ameet Gaikwad, in which he is seen wearing a helmet and entering various buildings.
It is not clear if this was a kind of fetish, or if it was a case of mental illness, police told the BBC.
From The Guardian:
Trump Towers project in India lures investors with chance of meeting US president’s son
Michael Safi in Delhi
The developers behind a Trump Towers project near Delhi are offering to fly the first 100 investors in the property to the US to meet
Donald Trump Jr, the US president’s eldest son.
The promotional materials for the project – the fifth in India to take the Trump name – claim the address in the Indian capital is “so powerful, a letter would reach you from any part of the world”.
One former White House ethics counsel described the offer as an “ethics atrocity”.
One last from India, this from The Diplomat:
Despite some notable achievements, challenges remain.
By all accounts, India’s space program had a stellar 2017. That was capped with its latest launch last Friday of India’s hundredth satellites, along with 30 other satellites, on board its workhorse space rocket: the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C40).
Almost a year ago, in February 2017, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) had launched 104 satellites on a single PSLV rocket, a world record. Last Friday’s launch included a Cartosat-2 earth observation satellite, along with 30 other micro- and nano-satellites from six different countries. These achievements have been warmly praised by India’s leaders, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeting his congratulations to the ISRO.
Moving on to Africa, this from the Los Angeles Times:
South Africa’s second-largest city is facing its worst drought in a century, with its water supply expected to run dry April 21.
They’re calling it “Day Zero.” In this city of 4 million, people will have to line up in the streets at just 200 water stations. The police and army will enforce a limit of 6.6 gallons per person and adopt measures to control crowds. Some experts believe evacuations will be necessary.
If the city runs out of water, it will be the first major city in a developed country to do so.
From the Associated Press from The Washington Post (Democracy Dies in Darkness), this news from the US, but with big implications overseas):
RATON, N.M. — The Latest on a helicopter crash in New Mexico that killed five people, including a Zimbabwean opposition leader (all times local):
5:40 p.m.
A New Mexico sheriff says residents from nearby ranches were among the first to arrive at a fiery helicopter crash that killed five people, including Zimbabwe opposition leader Roy Bennett and his wife, Heather.
Colfax County Sheriff Rick Sinclair said Friday that he had joined a game warden and paramedics in searching the rugged terrain for the wreckage after a survivor called 911. New Mexico State Police also responded.
And from our neighbor to the north, first up from the BBC:
By Jessica Murphy
Nearly five years after one of the worst rail disasters in Canadian history, a small town at the centre of the tragedy is still grappling with the aftermath.
When Tom Harding walked out of the courtroom after being acquitted of criminal negligence causing death, he didn't speak.
The former train driver instead ducked away from the news cameras, overcome with emotion.
His one-time colleague, Richard Labrie, did have something to say.
"Could you back up a little bit so I can look at my paper? Because my eyes are full of tears," the ex-rail worker urged media crowding around him.
And from The Guardian:
A handful of indigenous-owned restaurants that have sprung up in Toronto in recent years hint at changing circumstances
The line at the door snaked down the street, eventually spilling out into a residential area. In a city offering menus from around the globe, more than 800 people had turned up for the opening of a relative rarity: a restaurant devoted to First Nations cuisine.
“It was like a dream, just standing there and seeing everyone,” said Johl Whiteduck Ringuette, the Anishinaabe chef behind the Toronto restaurant NishDish. “And knowing that we now had this opportunity to bring this food to everybody.”
Since that opening in April, thousands have passed through the door of this small restaurant, indulging in dishes that range from wild rice casserole to elk with cranberries, and embracing Whiteduck Ringuette’s efforts to revive long-neglected culinary traditions.
Now to have a pleasant post-prandial, the art news. First up from artnews:
At the entrance to this year’s Outsider Art Fair in New York hangs a mural-size canvas by self-taught artist Kevin Blythe Sampson and the Rusty Thorn Collective (Manuel Acevedo, Cesar Melgar, James Wilson, Jerry Gant, and Lauren Sampson). Titled The Arc of the Moral Universe is Long, but it Bends Towards Justice, the painting is a plea for inclusiveness, fairness, and tolerance, with multiple references to current events including images of a Mexican Sacred Heart, a kneeling football player, and a scrawled riposte to Donald Trump’s recent comment about “shithole” (or possibly “shithouse,” as if that would matter) countries.
The mural serves notice that while most of the work exhibited at the fair is categorized as outsider art, it is—no matter how narrow or eccentric its focus—invariably connected to the world. On view at Tokyo gallery Yukiko Koide’s booth are quiltlike hangings made of thread and plastic bags by Jessie Dunahoo, a blind and deaf artist from Kentucky who is thought to have made his works as aids for navigating his environment. (At the booth of Lexington-based Institute 193, another Dunahoo piece makes a great pairing with Beverly Baker’s sheets of paper covered edge to edge with dense swathes of ballpoint-pen inkings.)
From Cleveland.com:
When Google's art selfie craze went mega-viral on the weekend, a moment of pure pop-culture magic unfurled before our eyes. As most people know by now, Google's Arts and Culture smartphone app matches your selfie to a portrait in a museum collection in the Google Cultural Institute's database.
By Wednesday, it was a phenomenon. Who wasn't wasting precious work time texting and posting pictures of themselves matched to obscure 18th-century portraits of cravat-wearing aristocrats with weird facial hair?
Maybe not you. But I know I was. And it was just my second day on the job.
Who would have predicted that a perfect pop moment in 2018 would involve millions of people poring over obscure portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Hendrick Goltzius and thousands of other artists whose earnest efforts more often languish in storage?
From The Guardian:
A recent extension to the $10m reward has led to renewed interest, and theories, about the 1990 robbery of major artworks
Nadja Sayej
On 18 March 1990 two police officers entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston – they told security they were responding to a late-night disturbance and asked to be let in. The guard allowed the cops in through the employee entrance but got a surprise – they were art thieves. After handcuffing the two guards, they stole 13 famous artworks by Rembrandt, Vermeer and Degas, walking away with art today valued at $500m.
It remains the world’s biggest unsolved art heist and the museum announced last week that they are extending a $10m reward for art stolen 28 years ago. According to Steve Kidder, president of the museum’s board, the museum doubled the reward and made it indefinite because they remain hopeful that the art will make a comeback.
“This reward demonstrates the commitment of the museum and its board of trustees to the recovery of these important works,” Kidder said in a statement. “We are the only buyer for these works and they belong in their rightful home.”
From Kentucky.com:
Standing on the second floor of the Kentucky Folk Art Center, Matt Collinsworth admired the center’s most recent rotating exhibit, a selection of art pieces created by a couple dozen Kentucky public school teachers.
The exhibit, which opens this week, represents a variety of styles, moods and colors, some more traditional, others edgy.
“I think it’d be a great tragedy if this place closed,” said Collinsworth, the center’s director. “(For now) we’re going to continue to do our work.”