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.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
WE haven’t concentrated on the southern hemisphere for a while. I am extending that area to include those countries close — the South Pacific, Sub-Saharan Africa, and all of South America. What is going on there? Let’s find out, shall we?
From The Guardian:
Hospitality and travel have already been hard hit, while there are concerns of looming shortages of products such as iPhones and batteries
Melissa Davey
With the coronavirus outbreak in China affecting the import and export trade, Australian retailers and suppliers are concerned that consumers will soon start experiencing shortages of products ranging from iPhones to batteries. There are widespread factory shutdowns in China as millions of people remain in lockdown and subject to strict travel restrictions and quarantine measures.
From Japan Times:
Reuters
SYDNEY – As bush fires and floods fuel public concerns in Australia about global warming, the country’s powerful mining lobby is facing increasing pressure from investors to drop support for new coal mines, according to a dozen interviews with shareholders in global mining companies.
Nearly a third of shareholders in BHP Group, the world’s biggest miner, last year voted for resolutions to ax its membership in industry groups advocating policies counter to the Paris climate accord, which aims to limit global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius.
From the BBC:
A decision to ban the Aboriginal flag and other forms of recognition from Anzac Day services in Western Australia (WA) has sparked widespread backlash.
Each year, solemn ceremonies are held on 25 April in Australia and New Zealand to commemorate veterans and soldiers.
Also from the BBC:
People around the world have rallied behind a nine-year-old Australian boy after a video of his deep distress over being bullied went viral.
Yarraka Bayles posted the clip of her son, Quaden, crying after he was targeted at school for his dwarfism.
"This is what bullying does," she says in the video, in which her son also says he wants to end his life.
And one final one from the Beeb:
An Australian police detective investigating the murders of Hannah Clarke and her children has been stood down from the case over comments that were seen as "victim shaming".
Clarke and her children died when her estranged husband Rowan Baxter set their car on fire. He also died.
In comments to the media on Thursday, Det Insp Mark Thompson had said it could be a case of a man "being driven too far by issues that he's suffered".
From the New Zealand Herald:
A German man is sending an SOS to New Zealand about a message in a bottle which washed up after seven years on the far side of the world.
Seven years ago Christian Gogos' kids and their friends threw a message in a bottle into the Rhine River from the land-locked city of Bonn, famously known as the birthplace of Ludwig van Beethoven in 1770.
From The Guardian:
Refusal of entry to citizens after transiting through Singapore is illegal, expert warns
Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson
Samoa’s decision to refuse entry into the country of eight of its citizens over coronavirus fears has been criticised as a violation of international law by a legal expert.
Eight people were denied entry into Samoa over the weekend as they returned home from India, travelling through Singapore. The day before their flight, Singapore was added to a list of countries from which the Samoan government said it would not accept travellers until they had been quarantined for 14 days.
From FBC News:
Fiji has secured new funding to improve its preparedness for natural disasters after signing a loan agreement with Japan.
Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum signed a standby loan agreement worth more $98m with the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
From Live Science:
ByMindy Weisberger
Though the planes were submerged in a popular dive spot, they went undetected for decades.
Three WWII aircraft that were shot down during a decisive U.S. victory in the Pacific Ocean were missing for decades. Now, 76 years later, they have been found.
A recovery operation discovered pieces of the long-lost planes at the bottom of Truk Lagoon in Chuuk State, part of the Federated States of Micronesia.
From The Guardian:
Hunting scene dated to 40,000 years ago ‘crumbling before our eyes’, say scientists
Krithika Varagur
The oldest known figurative paintings in the world, located near a cement mine in Indonesia, are under threat from industry, scientists have warned.
From Jakarta Globe:
Jakarta. The Indonesian government plans to bring home its 74 citizens who have been quarantined inside Diamond Princess cruise ship off the Japanese city of Yokohama due to coronavirus outbreak, a health official said on Friday.
As the two-week onboard quarantine was concluded last week, governments around the world began to evacuate their citizens stuck on the ship.
From Channel News Asia:
SINGKAWANG, West Kalimantan: It was only 10am but Mr Iwan Murtanto Tjhia was already busy running around his kitchen, steaming dumplings and coordinating with his siblings.
Iwan and his sisters Mdm Lily Tjhia and Mdm Tasya Elizabeth Tjhia own an eatery in Singkawang, West Kalimantan, that specialises in just one item - choi pan, a type of steamed dumpling with shredded turnip and dried shrimps wrapped in translucent, chewy skin.
From the New York Times:
At first, villagers thought the dark, dense blot in the sky was a harmless cloud. Then came the terrifying realization that the locusts had arrived.
By Abdi Latif Dahir
WAMBA, Kenya — When the dense, dark smudge started blocking out the daytime sky, many in a sleepy pastoralist hamlet in northern Kenya imagined it was a cloud ushering in some welcome, cooling rain.
But the hope soon turned to terror when the giant blot revealed itself as a swarm of fast-moving desert locusts, which have been cutting a path of devastation through Kenya since late December.
From Daily Nation:
In Summary
- Kenya, being one of the largest foreign investors in that country, stands to benefit tremendously with the return of the peace and stability.
- Many Kenyans who have invested in sectors such as construction, insurance hospitality, transport and banking will see their businesses recover from effects of the 2016 civil war.
- Formation of the unity government is also expected to boost trade between Kenya and South Sudan.
- The return of peace in Southern Sudan will also boost key projects such as the Lapsset corridor, which will spur socio-economic development in Kenya and the region.
By CHARLES WASONGA
Kenya stands to benefit significantly from Saturday’s formation of the Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU) as announced by South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar.
Dr Machar, leader of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in Opposition (SPLM-IO), accepted to rejoin the government as the First Vice President, based on the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS), signed in September 2018 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
From VOA News:
NAIROBI - Kenya's government said that its citizens stranded in Wuhan city — the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak — are safer staying where they are.
The announcement came amid demands for evacuation by the families of about 100 Kenyans stuck in the city, a majority of them students on Chinese scholarships.
From Daily Nation:
In Summary
-
It is time for Kenyans to ask ourselves if this is who we truly are, and if this is the society we desire.
-
Because if our recent troubles are anything to go by, then we are losing our humanity faster than our money is being stolen by the corrupt people we elected.
By MWENDE KYALO
There was a time one could predict when trouble would find them in Kenya. Take for instance a few years ago when the most popular advice from loved ones was for one to avoid malls or other crowded places with no easy exit because of possible terrorist attacks. It made sense to avoid such places if you loved your life.
As the years went by, the advice turned to avoiding Nairobi’s city centre during demonstrations. The government of the day did not take it kindly when Kenyans exercised their right to picket and protest. Every once in a while, a few Kenyans lost their lives that way.
From the Star (Kenya):
Kenyans have 15 million Protestants while 9 million are Catholics.
In Summary
• Kilifi has the highest number of atheist with the number put at 146,669, Nakuru( 67,640)
• Mumia moved to the High Court of Kenya to challenge the suspension of the society and won the case in February, 2018.
More than half a million Kenyans do not believe in God, Census results have shown.
In the report released on Friday, Kenya has 755,750 atheists. Atheism is greatly stigmatized in Kenya.
From NPR:
A homicide that shocked Lesotho has become more shocking still: Police say Prime Minister Thomas Thabane will be charged in the killing of his estranged wife.
But rather than appear in court as he was supposed to Friday, the 80-year-old leader has gone to South Africa to seek medical treatment. "He's not fled the country," Thabane's son Potlako told Reuters. The prime minister's office says he will go to court when he returns.
From Macau Hub:
The abundance of rare species of birds in the Tundavala region, in the Angolan municipality of Lubango, is attractive for international bird watchers to visit Angola and promote bird-related tourism in Huila province, said the director of a tourism company.
Noam Shany, director of Spanish company Promised Land Ventures (PLV), said that the region has rare and endemic birds, including the white-headed barbet, the Angola cave chat, the Angola waxbill, Harter’s camoroptera, the Angola slaty flycatcher, Outstalet’s sunbird and Swierstra’s Francolin.
From Quartz:
There’s an easy way to check how much of a priority education is to the Nigerian government: look at the national budget.
Last year, the allocation for education stood at less than 10% of the entire $29 billion budget—much less than the 26% recommendation for developing countries by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
From Modern Ghana:
What happens to a country if the messiah is in fact, Mr. Judas Iscariot? Ghana, the former Gold Coast, is now full of corruption that the old ones are falling down from the closet and surely, before the December 2020 elections, more corruption scandals will emerge.
What Ghanaians must observe is since 2016, after NDC lost to NPP, John Mahama has never denied being corrupt. That means he has accepted it but Akufo Addo, the so-called messiah coming to eradicate corruption, is in fact, a thief among thieves, who wouldn't admit that he is corrupt.
From the Taipei Times:
Reuters
Mara the elephant is packing for what might be the final trip of her 54-year life spent globe-trotting from India to Germany before joining circuses in Montevideo and Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she has been for the past 25 years.
Now she is readying to say goodbye before a 2,700km trip from Buenos Aires to a new home near the city of Chapada dos Guimaraes, Brazil, a vast specially designed sanctuary for elephants like her.
From RFI (France):
Brazil's carnival celebrations are among the wildest parties in the world, but someone has to reign over them -- and being "queen" can be a year-round job.
AFP interviewed two "carnival queens" who devote a substantial part of their lives year-round to the personas they bring to life every February: the super-buff, silicone-pumped queen of the Portela samba school, and a business executive turned drag queen who has fused his love of carnival with his job as an airline sales manager.
From Colombia Reports:
Colombia’s President Ivan Duque claimed to be an honest man on Thursday as authorities began looking into mounting claims and evidence the 2018 elections were rigged in his favor.
At a business summit in Medellin, Duque claimed his presidential campaign “always put decency first,” despite lying about a Harvard degree and evidence of election fraud that emerged before the elections already.
From the Bogota Press:
Although Chilean and Colombian unrests have things in common, a comparison of both country’s protest movements is completely unfounded.
This story of wrong conclusions, misleading narratives and culturally specific demonstrations started when Colombia joined a wide range of Latin American countries, including Chile, Ecuador and Bolivia, in protesting against the status quo at the end of last year. It wasn’t long before it was labelled as part of a ‘Latin Spring’.
And even though the unrest throughout the continent has similar roots, lumping a dozen countries – all in different situations – together under the same umbrella is simply disingenuous.
Now news of the arts:
From Courthouse News Service:
LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Peru unveiled a priceless manuscript containing the memoirs of former Inca leaders that had disappeared during Chile’s occupation of Lima during the 1879-84 Pacific War.
The manuscript — called “Memories of the Peruvian monarchy or outline of the Inca’s history” — was written in the 1830s by Justo Apu Sahuaraura Inca (1775-1853), a descendent of the Inca emperor Huayna Capac (1493-1525).
From PRI:
As Chileans call for change, many women have turned to a form of artistic protest dating back to the dictatorship era: political embroidery.
When high school students in Santiago, Chile,
took to the streets in October 2019 to protest an increase in subway fares, Chileans saw an opportunity to denounce systems in place since the country’s 1973-1990 dictatorship under Augusto Pinochet.
Still in the streets four months later, protesters have called for economic reform and a new constitution to replace the 1980 constitution written at the height of General Pinochet’s rule.
From Screen Daily:
The future of Brazilian cinema remains uncertain in the hands of Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro. Local producers complain of being paralysed by a lack of funding since the incentive programmes for new productions have been frozen since last year.
In January 2019, the same month Bolsonaro assumed the country’s presidency, Brazil’s national film agency Ancine announced the last round of applications for financing from its Audiovisual Sector Fund (FSA), the most important federal fund in the country. But since then there have been no further announcements, which makes local producers wonder if there will be a continuity of the incentive programmes implemented by previous governments.
From Quartz Africa:
By Joe Penney
The Ballaró neighborhood lies in the former historic city center of Palermo, the capital of Sicily, Italy. A few decades ago, Ballaró was known to be a dangerous part of the city controlled by brutal mafia bosses.
Today, the neighborhood is safe and revitalized, thanks to the arrival of African and Asian migrants. Among these immigrants is a community of Nigerian musicians building an Afrobeats industry from scratch.
From reuters:
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Whenever a more risque line shocks his audience into silence, Kenyan comic Brian Onjoro knows he can rescue his set with a sure-fire punchline: the country’s leaders.
“Comedians should run for office. We already have a bunch of clowns!” he tells the crowd at Kez’s Kitchen before riffing about whether Kenya’s politicians are on drugs.
From the New York Times:
Michael Soi’s “China Loves Africa” collection examines the symbiotic and often corrupt relationship between Beijing and African elites.
By Abdi Latif Dahir
NAIROBI, Kenya — In the painting, one of 100 on the same theme, China’s president, Xi Jinping, appears as he has in all the previous ones: a larger-than-life figure who commands attention because of the goodies he has brought with him.
Decked in a flowing white garment, Mr. Xi is surrounded by a crowd of black men — some with bald heads, others with unkempt beards — all reaching out for the dollars leaking out of a briefcase.