Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Interceptor7, Magnifico, annetteboardman, jck, and Besame. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Man Oh Man, wader, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) 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 sometimes a little bit later if the diarist is me. I have a terrible habit of cutting things close.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
Pictures of the week this week come from the Atlantic, CNN, the Washington Post, Buzzfeed, Sydney Morning Herald, Roll Call, BBC Africa, and The Guardian (wildlife).
To start us off tonight, we have this article from ABC News:
A leading advocacy group for
refugees estimates a record 41 million people have been displaced within their countries, with many forced to flee conflict, violence and internal tensions in several African countries and
Syria.
The Norwegian Refugee Council said a global report on displacement by its monitoring center for internal displacement found an increase in 2018 of more than a million people in the total tally accumulated over many years.
Tonight we have news from Africa, starting with this from the BBC:
By Pumza Fihlani
Plummeting voter turnout and big gains for fringe parties at either end of the political spectrum are arguably signs of South Africa's maturing democracy, however they could also be seen as evidence of a more divided society. With almost all of the votes counted, the governing ANC is set to limp on with a reduced majority but some difficult challenges lie ahead.
1: The ANC lost ground - but is celebrating
Many people are asking why the governing African National Congress (ANC) is happy after recording its worst performance since white minority rule ended in 1994 - 57% share of the vote.
This is the first time the party that has led South Africa since 1994 has won less than 60% of votes, but for an organisation that is hugely divided, riddled by corruption and has had a decade of lethargic leadership, this result is seen as a boost for its new leader Cyril Ramaphosa.
More beneath the fold.
From Smithsonian.com:
The animals’ plight highlights existing concerns about a controversial wildlife industry
Last month, 108 lions were found in deplorable conditions at a farm in South Africa’s North West province, shining a damning light on the country’s captive lion-breeding industry.
According to National Geographic’s Rachel Fobar, the National Council for Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA), which enforces animal welfare in South Africa, was alerted to the situation at Pienika Farm through an anonymous tip. When inspectors arrived at the facility, they were greeted by a horrific scene. The lions had been packed into filthy, overcrowded enclosures, they had not been provided with any water, and 27 of lions were afflicted so badly with mange—a skin disease caused by parasitic mites—that they had lost nearly all their fur. Two cubs at the facility appeared to be suffering from neurological conditions that rendered them unable to walk. One was ultimately euthanized by a veterinarian.
From The Economist:
White magic
Politicians believe their body parts boost their chances of winning
HIS FISTS clenched on the tabletop, Bon Kalindo, an opposition MP, leans forward conspiratorially to list the magical properties of albino body parts. Place the fibula of one under a bottle of Coke and it will fizz manically, until the top pops off. Pass it in front of a torch and the light will go out. Most handily of all, a bone correctly inserted into a machine made by a reputable witch doctor will cause large amounts of cash to fly out; it’s the magnetic liquid albinos have in their bones, you understand. Sensing scepticism, Mr Kalindo brushes it aside. You are not from here, he says.
From Al Jazeera:
In a poor community, practice known as nyumba mboke allows same-sex arranged marriage but surrogates are being abused.
Migori County, Kenya: In a southwestern Kenyan village near the border with Tanzania, Grace Boke, a 19-year-old mother of three girls, lives with her wife - a woman who was unable to bear her own children.
They were married under "nyumba mboke", a practice which allows for woman-to-woman unions, despite the fact that gay marriage is criminalised in Kenya.
From Religion News:
There is good news for the Jews.
It starts in the African nations of Nigeria and Ghana, and the story of a young black woman named Mercedes Bent.
When she was a freshman at Harvard, she attended a meeting of the Association of Black Harvard Women.
When people introduced themselves, Mercedes noticed that several of them had names with African origins.
Not Mercedes.
She introduced herself: “Hello, I am Mercedes Bent. Like the car.
Mercedes longed for a more intimate connection with her African heritage.
A Jewish friend told her about Taglit-Birthright, and its mission: Young Jews would visit Israel, would feel a connection with Israel, and would feel a connection with their Jewish heritage.
The article above refers to an essay in last Sunday’s New York Times.
From the Los Angeles Times:
By Emily Estelle
Two African dictators, who between them ruled 85 million people, were ousted from office last month. This was no coincidence. The popular unrest that dislodged Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir and Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is part of a wave of conflict engulfing northern Africa and posing grave risks to stability in the region and beyond. The discord is likely to produce major new refugee flows and increase the potential for a dramatic expansion of Islamic State and Al Qaeda in northern Africa.
It’s not that this region hasn’t known conflict before. But even during the Arab Spring, which rocked states large and small, only small states experienced the kind of total collapse that can usher in major transnational threats. There was the 2011 revolution in Libya, for example, which removed the government and spawned a civil war that continues today. But Libya’s total population is just 6.5 million.
From CNN:
By Bianca Britton, Alla Eschenko and Jennifer Deaton, CNN
At least 70 migrants drowned and 16 were rescued after their boat capsized near the Kerkennah Islands off Tunisia's eastern coast on Friday, according to the country's state-run Tunis Afrique Presse agency (TAP).
The boat, carrying migrants of sub-Saharan origin, set sail from Libya, TAP said, quoting a regional source.
From Al Jazeera:
Saudi vessel that was due to load arms sets sail without them amid protests over use of French-made weapons in Yemen.
A Saudi vessel that was due to load weapons at a northern French port has set sail without them and headed towards Spain on Friday, a day after a rights group tried to block the cargo on humanitarian grounds.
The Christian Action for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT) sought to block the loading of weapons onto the ship through a legal filing on Thursday, arguing the cargo contravened an international arms treaty.
also from Al Jazeera:
With the popular drink, an 'iftar' staple, in short supply during the holy month of Ramadan, Pakistan says it can help.
New Delhi, India - Shaista Begum is fasting and it's quite hot outside her home in New Delhi's historical Chandni Chowk area. But the heat doesn't deter her from making yet another attempt to find Rooh Afza, a popular rose-flavoured beverage, at a neighbourhood store.
The store still doesn't have it. Determined, the 45-year-old mother of three children walked to an outlet of Hamdard, the company that makes the iconic drink, and is happy to find a bottle.
From CNN:
(CNN) —
A village in France is offering a reward to anyone who can decipher a mysterious inscription on a local rock.
Experts in Plougastel-Daoulas, a village in Brittany, northwest France, have been unable to decrypt the inscription on a rock outside the village, estimated to be centuries old, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency reports.
The Washington Post:
From the BBC:
An 81-year-old Irish woman has said she has never been happier after meeting her 103-year-old mother for the first time.
News from the arts world, beginning with Africa again. This comes from VOA:
Robert Kyagulanyi, the Ugandan singer and legislator better known as Bobi Wine, has vowed to continue using music to denounce longtime President Yoweri Museveni. But, as Halima Athumani reports from Kampala, his music is now facing stiff control from the state.
NBC News has this Reuters story:
The international Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement dismissed the tactic as "crude propaganda."
JERUSALEM - Israel has launched a PR campaign to counter calls for a boycott of the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest final in Tel Aviv, using Google ads which refer to the boycott but lead to a glossy website extolling Israel.
The international Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement dismissed the tactic as "crude propaganda".
From CNN:
The rebuilt Notre Dame could feature a futuristic glass design, solar power, and an urban farm that supports vulnerable and homeless Parisians, if one architecture firm's vision is realized.
In April, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe
announced an international competition for architects to redesign the cathedral's 19th century spire, which collapsed after a fire devastated the 850-year-old Gothic landmark. Paris firm Vincent Callebaut Architectures responded to the call with an innovative, eco-friendly
design that supports the local population and produces more energy than it uses.
And from the New York Times:
On April 23, about a week after the fire at Notre-Dame in Paris, the designer Mathieu Lehanneur unveiled his plan for a new spire for the cathedral: a gleaming, 300-foot flame, made of carbon fiber and covered in gold leaf, that would be a permanent reminder of the tragedy.
The suggestion, first made on Instagram, did not go down very well — some even called it blasphemous, Mr. Lehanneur said in a telephone interview.
The idea was meant as a simple provocation: to show the absurdity of rebuilding the spire as it was in the 19th century, he said. But, he added, he had since become serious about the plan.
From the New York Post:
A Manhattan art dealer was iced out of a hefty commission after selling a $1 million Mary Cassatt painting to a fancy Fifth Avenue gallery, a new lawsuit claims.
Plaintiff Christine Keefe says in court papers that she brokered the sale of the pastel-on-paper “Sketch of Tony” to Adelson Galleries for the big bucks on behalf of owner Rosalie James of Florida, but the seller has yet to fork over her promised $100,000 commission.
From the BBC:
This week's invite only "Private View" of the Venice Biennale (which opens today) was one weird affair. It was like being dropped into the middle of a Wes Anderson movie.
The place was heaving with characters. Artists, posers, dealers, curators, billionaires, bureaucrats, fakes, freeloaders, snobs, journalists, pseuds, hustlers, and narcissists all cramming themselves into tiny spaces and noisy halls to get a glimpse of some box-fresh contemporary art.
They are not a hip crowd like you might find at Coachella or XJAZZ in Berlin. They are more clamorous than glamorous. Art is a shared interest but not the thing that truly binds them. Money and status are the currencies that count. You don't need both, but you sure as hell need one or the other.
And finally, from the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Every spring, thousands flood the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for the school’s annual
Student Exhibition. Many are looking for deals on paintings, sculptures, prints, and beyond. Others are scouting for the next Picasso. The three-week show, which
opens May 10, generates hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales. And while average sale prices hover around $1,000, plenty of pieces go for under $100.
“The price points are naturally lower, and you’re finding artists at a really exciting snapshot in time, where they’re still emerging and developing their voice,” said Clint Jukkala, PAFA’s dean of the School of Fine Arts. “Most graduates here are making art for the rest of their lives, and some will go on to become major names.”