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.
I thought we would start with a bit on Brexit, in case you thought it was going away anytime soon (it’s not). We start with coverage from the BBC:
Talks between Labour and the government aimed at breaking the Brexit impasse have ended without an agreement.
Jeremy Corbyn said the discussions had "gone as far as they can", blaming what he called the government's "increasing weakness and instability".
Theresa May said the lack of a "common position" within Labour over a further referendum had made talks "difficult".
The prime minister said she would now consider putting options to MPs on Brexit that may "command a majority".
And from The Guardian:
MPs could be asked to vote on a range of options – possibly including a second referendum
Peter Walker Political correspondent
After weeks of long discussions and little progress, cross-party talks between the government and Labour are over.
What’s the next step?
Theresa May has committed to giving MPs a vote on her key piece of Brexit legislation, the withdrawal agreement bill (Wab), in the first week of June.
It is unclear whether there will be any votes before that; but one proposal presented to Labour – and rejected – was for a series of indicative votes, next week.
That could have included a free vote on the prospect of submitting any deal passed by parliament to a referendum.
Relatedly, but not quite the same, there is an election coming up in Europe:
Pro-European voters should back candidates who oppose hard Brexit and are in with a chance. Above all, they must make their votes count
Next week, voters across Europe face the most highly charged election to the
European parliament in 40 years. In most of the previous five-yearly EU polls, political parties have struggled to engage the more than 400 million citizens who are entitled to vote. Past contests have regularly been fought on domestic rather than Europe-wide issues. Voters have often used their ballots as an opportunity to kick their own governments.
Turnout has declined every time – down to 43% in 2014.
That trend may not – and certainly should not – continue next week. The 2019 elections, the first since the rise of populism, have been more confrontational. That’s because there is more at stake for Europe today than before in the face of resurgent nationalism, and in a world marked by Chinese power, Russian aggression, American isolationism and Islamist terrorism.
Another opinion piece in the Guardian:
My vote for the Green party in the European elections is a vote for a commitment to a better future – and a vote against Brexit
For the past few weeks, I’ve been considering voting Green in the European elections, and I think I’m going to do it.
It will be my first time voting Green. The environment is my main motivation. In many ways, I’ve always been an ideal Green party voter. I grew up vegetarian, surrounded by people who grew their own veg, and living next to a lake filled with the rare fish, Arctic char, under threat of extinction because of poor water quality. I’ve always been aware of climate change, but a combination of weird weather, awareness campaigns, David Attenborough documentaries and political direct action have made me look the situation more directly in the face.
And one final opinion piece:
Those who stuck with the party after its worst decision are now inexplicably drawing a line in the sand
In 2002 I accompanied Tony Benn for a short while on his lecture tour around Britain, watching him speak to packed auditoriums and outselling the magician Paul Daniels in Cornwall by three to one. It was a peculiar time that in many ways presaged the moment in which we find ourselves now.
A year earlier, Labour had just been returned with a huge majority and the steepest slump in postwar voter turnout to date. A BBC survey, Beyond The Soundbite, prompted by concern about that decline in participation, found that, while voters were neither “de-politicised” nor “uninterested”, they were “disillusioned” and “disconnected”. When asked to finish the statement “I would get more involved if … ” more than a third of respondents ticked either “I thought my contributions made a difference” (24%) or “I thought anyone would listen” (12%). And that was before the Iraq war.
There are European elections elsewhere, of course. From DeutscheWelle:
Cyprus has been divided for more than 40 years between its Turkish and Greek Cypriot halves. The peace process has long been abandoned. But the European elections might help bring both sides closer together. For the first time, a Turkish Cypriot candidate is campaigning with a major Greek Cypriot party – and his chances of winning a seat in the European Parliament are high. Sira Thierij has more.
Other news from across Europe, beginning with education from DW:
Austria has passed a law intended to ban Muslim girls from wearing a headscarf in primary schools. The Jewish yarmulke and Sikh patka are not included in the new measure.
Austria's parliament has passed a law intended to ban Muslim girls from wearing the headscarf in primary schools, a measure that is likely to be challenged as discriminatory in the constitutional court.
The bill passed with the support of the governing center-right People's Party (ÖVP) and the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ). Almost all of the opposition voted against it.
And from The Guardian:
Teachers are better able to identify radicalisation than most, yet in the UK they are too often ignored
Dozens of heads of state, policymakers and leaders of technology companies gathered in Paris this week to discuss social media’s impact on global terrorist violence. Their goal – to eliminate terrorist and violent content online – is a laudable, necessary step toward combating extremism. But a critical group was missing from the meeting: educators.
During dozens of meetings about extremist radicalisation and violence across Europe and the US over the past several years, I’ve met plenty of academics, CVE (countering violent extremism) specialists, terrorism analysts, policymakers and diplomats working to understand the roots of extremism and ways to stem violence. These discussions typically bring experts together to discuss collaborative approaches to law enforcement and surveillance, learn about new research findings and practical efforts on the ground – and forge high-level, international public-private cooperation around issues such as online radicalization.
And from dw.com:
Ahead of the World Cup in France, Germany's women's national team have hit back against stereotypes with a powerful campaign. The hard-hitting video has received widespread praise for its message of female empowerment.
Germany's women's national football team – two-time World Cup winners and eight-time European champions –are still fighting against stereotypes and clichés in 2019.
Ahead of the World Cup in France, which kicks off on June 7, head coach Martina Voss-Tecklenberg and members of her 23-woman squad featured in a provocative ad made by the team's main sponsor Commerzbank.
There are a few animal stories in the news this evening. We begin with this from thecut.com:
In an attempt to preemptively quash the rise of a worrying new trend, Austria has issued a stern warning to its citizens: Please abstain from smooching cows!!!
The command, issued by Austrian agriculture minister Elisabeth Köstinger, was not unprompted. This Wednesday, the Guardian reports that the Swiss app Castl launched the �KuhKussChallenge (translation, “Cow Kiss Challenge”), which urges people to kiss bovines, “with or without tongues,” for charity. How exactly participating in this challenge will raise money is quite unclear, as is the specifics of the charity. And yet, people in Switzerland and other German-speaking countries have been carelessly smashing their tiny little mouths up against cows’ big rubbery lips — what Köstinger has called a “dangerous nuisance.”
From the Brussels Times:
Another wolf has been spotted in Belgium near Neufchâteau in the province of Luxembourg, the nature conservation body WWF Belgium tweeted on Friday.
The information was confirmed by the "Wolf Network", a group of experts set up by the Walloon government in 2017. This makes the fourth wolf observed in the territory since the wild animal's return to Belgium after a one-hundred-year absence.
From Business Insider:
Experts say no more than 80,000 koalas remain in the wild, making the marsupial "functionally extinct."
Australia's cutest marsupial is now "functionally extinct."
Experts at the Australian Koala Foundation (AKF) announced on May 10 that they believe no more than 80,000 koalas are left on the continent.
That's not zero, of course, but "functionally extinct" means that a species' population has declined so much that it no longer plays a significant role in the ecosystem (like as predators of other creatures, for example). That's now true of koalas.
From dw.com:
Online sensation Grumpy Cat "passed away peacefully" in the hands of her owner after suffering an infection, the feline's human family has announced. The 7-year-old cat's frown earned her millions of fans worldwide.
Fans of Grumpy Cat, the mixed-race feline whose dwarfism and underbite gave her what looked like a perpetual frown, responded with sadness after the cat's owners announced on Friday that the animal had died at the age of seven.
"Some days are grumpier than others," they posted on the cat's Twitter account.
News of the arts, beginning with EUROVISION, from Deutsche Welle:
After two semifinals, 15 countries have been eliminated and 26 are going on to the finale on Saturday. DW scopes out the remaining contenders.
From the AP, via WTOP:
World-renowned architect I.M. Pei has died at age 102. Among his many designs: the Louvre Pyramid in Paris and the National Gallery of Art's East Building in D.C
NEW YORK (AP) — I.M. Pei (PAY), the versatile, globe-trotting architect who revived the Louvre with a giant glass pyramid and captured the spirit of rebellion at the multi-shaped Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, has died at age 102.
Pei’s death was confirmed Thursday by Marc Diamond, a spokesman for the architect’s New York firm, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. One of Pei’s sons, Li Chung Pei, told The New York Times his father had died overnight.
From The Guardian:
Director gets death threats as 93,000 sign petition to have ‘LGBT film’ Memories of My Body banned lest young ‘imitate behaviour’
Saeed Kamali Dehghan
The release of an award-winning Indonesian film about a male dancer exploring his sexuality has led to a backlash from religious groups in the south-east Asian country.
The release of Garin Nugroho’s Memories of My Body comes at a time of increased antagonism towards the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.
From The Guardian as well:
The vessel that became a coffin for hundreds has gone on display at the Venice Biennale. It intends to stir our conscience – but is it a spectacle that exploits disaster?
From Marie Claire:
It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a seriously tricked out jet.
This one goes out to all the girls who have their head stuck in the clouds: You guys are on to something. Today, United Airlines announced that they are dedicating some serious real estate to female artists in the form of two Boeing 757 planes, bringing their artistic vision in the sky.
Fifty-one percent of artists are women, yet less than 13 percent of art on display in museums is by female artists. United is hoping to help correct this industry-wide problem: They launched Her Art Here this spring, a contest that encouraged cisgender, transgender, woman-aligned, and non-binary people to submit original designs to appear on the outside body of a United jet. A panel of judges, comprised of United’s top execs, picked two winners (one who hails from the East Coast and one from the West Coast), Corinne Antonelli and Tsungwei Moo. With the help of internationally-praised visual artist Shantell Martin, each women will get to recreate their masterpieces on the body of a twin-engine airliner. The plane (roughly 3,666 times larger than a traditional canvas) will fly year-round, covering approximately 1.6 million miles in distance over nearly 500 cross-country trips, giving the winners major exposure.
And finally, from The New York Times:
What Australia’s Aboriginal artists and filmmakers are teaching Americans in two radiant shows.
What does the United States look like, and who gets to decide? Our museums of modern and contemporary art, after far too long, have at last begun to esteem the work of living Native American artists — and several major shows, including the Whitney Museum of American Art’s just-opened biennial, have plunged into the ruinous legacy of settler colonialism in contemporary society.
Recent biennials in New Mexico and Hawaii, states with sizable Native populations, have also pushed for a greater place for Indigenous people in today’s art world. In some cases, debates over the presence of Native Americans in museums have come without warning; in 2017, at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, objections from Dakota people to Sam Durant’s public sculpture “Scaffold” led the artist to disclaim the work and approve its dismantlement.