Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Besame, 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.
Pictures of the week this week come from The Guardian (wildlife), the BBC and BBC Africa, NBC, ABC, and Yahoo.
This week we will concentrate on news from Europe, beginning with the UK, with this from The Independent:
Body responsible for anything 'which threatens serious damage to human welfare' instructed to assess impact of UK crashing out of EU without a deal
Lizzie Dearden
The mayor of London says he has “no choice” but to order London’s crisis planners to prepare for a no-deal Brexit.
Sadiq Khan said the London Resilience Forum would assess the impact of Britain crashing out of the EU on access to medicine, energy and food, as well as the ability to maintain emergency care, law and order.
The group, whose 170 member organisations include police and the emergency services, is charged with preparing for and responding to crises including terror attacks, the Grenfell Tower fire and any situation “which threatens serious damage to human welfare”.
From Deutsche Welle:
Scottish voters overwhelmingly rejected Britain quitting the European Union. As Brexit draws nearer, many are anxious for Scotland to find a way out, but not necessarily at the price of leaving the United Kingdom.
Peter Geoghegan
Time has done little to soften Nicola Sturgeon's view of Brexit. In June 2016, the day after the referendum, the Scottish first minister declared that a second vote on independence was "on the table" after almost two-thirds of Scots voted to remain in the European Union.
More than two years later, the Scottish National Party (SNP) leader remains implacably opposed to leaving the European Union. Most of her compatriots feel the same: Polls indicate Scottish support for staying in the EU has risen further in recent months.
From The Telegraph:
With only a few minutes to spare on the night of Friday 25 May 1951 Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean managed to board the mid-night cross-channel ferry to St Malo. In their haste they almost hit a lorry driven by Sid Hampton, a Southampton Docks employee who later told the press: ‘I was about to tell them off for speeding in the docks when one of them threw a couple of bob on the ground and shouted, “Buy yourself a drink”.’ Hampton asked them what they wanted to do with the car they had just left on the quayside. As they ran up the gangway, almost as it was being raised, Burgess yelled back, ‘I’m back on Monday...’
From the BBC:
Two men have been killed and four boys hurt in separate stabbings across London.
The four boys, aged between 15 and 16, were attacked outside Landor House on the Elmington Estate in Camberwell on Thursday evening, police said.
A 42-year-old man died after he was found with stab wounds at an address in Flaxen Road, Chingford, at about 04:40 BST on Friday.
Hours later, a man in his 50s was found dead at a home in Walworth.
From the BBC:
Two men have been injured and robbed in a racist street attack in Edinburgh.
The victims, aged 39 and 41, were assaulted in Craigour Drive in the south side of the city at about 21:20 on Wednesday.
The 39-year-old suffered injuries to his face and hand while the older man sustained a hand injury.
Police said racist comments were made during the attack. Two male suspects were seen running towards Craigour Terrace.
From The Scotsman:
A nine-week break basking in the summer heatwave is a luxury that most people tied to the work treadmill cannot begin to imagine. But that is the length of the Scottish Parliament’s summer recess, which this year saw business end on 30 June and will not see MSPs return to Holyrood until 2 September.
A nine-week break basking in the summer heatwave is a luxury that most people tied to the work treadmill cannot begin to imagine. But that is the length of the Scottish Parliament’s summer recess, which this year saw business end on 30 June and will not see MSPs return to Holyrood until 2 September.
Given that MSPs earn a more than comfortable salary of £62,149, a two-month break seems rather indulgent. The impression of a cushy number is reinforced when Holyrood’s nine-week break is compared with the six-week Westminster recess.
From Time comes this news about the Netherlands:
From Forbes:
Michelle Mielly, a development anthropologist and culture specialist, has not only pivoted professionally but geographically as well. She has been active in the field of anthropological development in both Costa Rica and the Ivory Coast where she has led projects for youth development and sustainable development and ecotourism initiatives. Now, in addition to teaching, Mielly is the Program Director of the Doctor of Business Administration at Grenoble Ecole de Management located in Grenoble, France.
From The New York Post:
An aristocrat claims he was tricked out of the throne to Monaco by the French government’s “sleight of hand” — and is asking for $401 million in damages for the snub.
“I want the truth to come out and this injustice perpetrated by France on my family to be put right,” Count Louis de Causans told French newspaper Le Parisien. “It’s a matter of honor.”
From CNN:
Right-wing extremism gains a voice in Germany
Germany has seen a resurgence in far-right sentiment over the last few years, along with the rapid rise of the anti-immigration, anti-Islam Alternative for Germany (AfD). CNN's Atika Shubert reports.
Now to arts news, beginning with something from the Chronicle of Higher Education:
By Beckie Supiano
Cheating.
Sexual assault. Physical
abuse. These days, it seems, college football is in the news for all the wrong reasons. The scandals consuming some Division I programs are serious, says Gretchen Kreahling McKay, but they can also give professors at Division III colleges like hers a mistaken understanding of the players in their own classrooms.
As faculty mentor to McDaniel College’s Green Terror football team, McKay, a professor of art history, has a view of the sport quite different from that of other professors. Getting to know the college’s football players has given her a new appreciation for the challenges today’s students face — and even changed how she teaches.
McKay, who is planning to write a book on the subject, spoke with The Chronicle about what she’s learned from the team’s members. The following conversation has been edited and condensed.
From CNBC:
Scott Cohn
The biggest art fraud in modern U.S. history was shockingly simple. Yet it went on for 15 years, duped some of the world's most sophisticated collectors, brought down a 165-year-old New York gallery, and brought in more than $80 million. It is also a cautionary tale for anyone thinking of dabbling in the art world.
"Art and jewelry are the last sort of bastions of unregulated business," retired special agent Meridith Savona of the FBI's Art Crimes Unit said in an interview with CNBC's "American Greed." "If you're a collector, if you're in this art world, it truly is buyer beware."
Glafira Rosales first appeared on the New York art scene in 1995, showing up at the venerable Knoedler Gallery with a painting that she claimed was the work of abstract expressionist Mark Rothko. And Rosales said there was more where that painting came from. Claiming to represent a mysterious Mexican collector known only as Mr. X, she said she was helping him unload a collection of previously unknown works by Rothko and fellow expressionists Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning, and Jackson Pollock, among others. If true, it would be a treasure trove of modern art.