Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame, jck, and JeremyBloom. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, 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, sometimes09OP0az 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.
Pictures of the week are from The Guardian, pictures of the week in wildlife.
We will start with news of the animal world, then more beneath the fold. This is from the Huron Daily Tribune:
A sea creature that is often identified as the "Dooms Day" fish was discovered by divers off the coast of Taiwan.
To be clear, the fish's official name is an oarfish (sometimes spelled orfish) and it's known for being a slithery, snake-like fish that — according to legend — shows up close to catastrophic events such as earthquakes and tsunamis.
From ABC News:
A 36-hour search turned up no trace of a big cat in the area, authorities said.
LONDON -- A massive search for an elusive animal initially thought to be a lioness on the loose near Germany's capital was called off Friday after authorities found no trace of a big cat in the area.
After 36 hours of combing through woodlands and speaking to experts, authorities said they now believe the creature in question is a wild boar, which are common in the region.
From Deutsche Welle:
Rina Goldenberg16 hours ago
The hunt for a suspected lion on the outskirts of Berlin made the headlines for days. People wondered where it may have escaped from. Actually, it is remarkably easy to keep even the most exotic pets in Germany.
From AZ Animals:
There have to be few things in this world that can be scarier than a human coming face-to-face with a black rhinoceros. The man in this video posted below had just such an experience! Let’s see how it plays out.
The video posted below takes us to South Africa, where a group of tourists are on a safari through the African wilderness. They stopped and turned their vehicle off to take in an amazing sight not far out, an enormous black rhino.
And from the International Fund for Animal Welfare:
(The Hague, 21 July 2023) – Wildfires that have blazed through Greece for several days - the direct result of climate change and extreme temperatures - have displaced thousands of people and countless animals.
IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) is rushing aid to ANIMA, a non-profit association that operates the main First Aid Station for wildlife in Greece. The center treats thousands of wounded and orphaned wild animals, before releasing them back into the wild. IFAW’s support will provide veterinary care for burnt animals, medicine and food.
More on the environment and climate change, beginning with more on Greece from the New York Times:
Security guards and others say the extreme temperatures in Athens and at other historical sites are dangerous for them and for tourists. The employees are stopping work at noon at least for now.
The suffocating heat in Athens has forced its top attraction, the Acropolis, to close to tourists in the afternoons for the second time this month, with plans to open up in the cooler hours of the evening. But a strike by workers at that site and others, over dangerous working conditions, will likely keep it closed in the afternoons while the extreme temperatures endure.
From euronews:
By Susan Gardner, Director, Ecosystem Division, UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent in any way the editorial position of Euronews.
As wildfires expand and emissions grow, we might be facing infernal feedback loops that turn landscapes into tinderboxes, Susan Gardner writes.
Fire has always been with us. According to Greek myth, Prometheus first stole fire from Mount Olympus and gave it to humans.
From the New York Times:
Canada’s record-breaking wildfire season shows the need to shift from suppressing fires to preventing them as fires become more difficult to combat.
Wildfires in Canada have so far scorched forests totaling the size of the state of Virginia. The province of Quebec recorded its biggest blaze ever this month as it advanced across an area 13 times as large as New York City. Mega fires, so vast and ferocious that they simply cannot be fought, have erupted across the country.
Even as thousands of Canadians and firefighters from abroad continued to battle more than 900 fires, Canada’s record-shattering wildfire season has made it clear that traditional firefighting methods are no longer enough, experts in wildfires and forests say.
From CNN:
Spain and Italy may still be among the most popular destinations for Europeans to take their vacations, but there are signs
scorching weather in southern Europe has started to change travelers’ calculations on where to go in the future.
According to the European Travel Commission, a Brussels-based association of European tourism organizations, the number of European tourists planning to travel to Mediterranean destinations in the summer and fall has dropped 10% compared with the same period last year.
From the Voice of America:
Apparent Tornado Tears Through Milan Suburb
Moving on to a different topic, but not one necessarily any cheerier. The rest of the world has elections, and results of elections.
From Reuters:
July 21 (Reuters) - Cambodia holds an election on Sunday that is almost certain to be won by the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) of Prime Minister Hun Sen, extending its nearly four-decade grip on power.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN ON SUNDAY?
About 9.7 million of Cambodia's 16 million people are eligible to vote in the election for a national assembly. Polling stations will open from 7 a.m (0000 GMT) until 3 p.m. and a preliminary result is expected Sunday evening.
From the Associated Press:
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Hun Sen has been Cambodia’s autocratic prime minister for nearly four decades, during which the opposition has been stifled and the country has grown increasingly close to China.
With his Cambodian People’s Party virtually guaranteed another landslide victory in this Sunday’s election, it’s hard to imagine dramatic change on the horizon. But the 70-year-old former communist Khmer Rouge fighter and Asia’s longest-serving leader says he is ready to hand the premiership to his oldest son, Hun Manet, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point who heads the country’s army.
From the Associated Press:
BY JINTAMAS SAKSORNCHAI AND JERRY HARMER
BANGKOK (AP) — A coalition of Thai political parties, struggling to form a government after two failed attempts, announced Friday it would try again next week to persuade conservative parliamentary opponents to back it, and suggested it might consider removing its most progressive member which won May’s election.
The eight-party grouping met in Bangkok on Friday for the first time since a combined sitting of the House of Representatives and Senate on Wednesday voted to block Pita Limjaroenrat, leader of the progressive Move Forward Party, from becoming prime minister. Pita was rejected last week in a first vote on whether to name him prime minister, and was knocked out of contention on Wednesday when a procedural vote decided he could not be nominated a second time.
From the Washington Post:
JERUSALEM — Israel braced for a resurgence of domestic turmoil Friday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brushed aside objections to his government’s looming vote to limit the Supreme Court’s power, dashing hopes he would find a last-minute way to defuse an unprecedented crisis of governance.
Demonstrators rushed back into the streets late Thursday following a defiant televised address in which Netanyahu blasted opponents for their “absurd” scare tactics and blamed some protesters for trying to bring down his governing coalition.
And from the New York Times:
In a move that experts say could hurt Israel’s military readiness, pilots and other personnel issued a warning after Benjamin Netanyahu pressed ahead with a plan to limit judicial power.
More than a thousand pilots and other personnel in the Israeli Air Force reserve said on Friday that they would stop reporting for duty next week if the government pushes through a contentious plan to reduce judicial power without broader consensus.
In a joint letter released Friday, 1,142 air force reservists — including 235 fighter pilots, 98 transport plane pilots, 89 helicopter pilots and 173 drone operators — said they would not serve if the government proceeded with its plan to reduce the ways in which the Supreme Court can overrule the government.
Coverage and commentary on British elections comes from The Guardian:
There are good reasons for not voting for the Tories, but Sir Keir Starmer needs to offer compelling reasons to vote for Labour
A trio of byelections in England was good news for the main party leaders but not necessarily for their parties. Rishi Sunak can breathe a little easier for not losing three seats. The Tory party, however, will be worried about being defeated in bluest Britain. Sir Keir Starmer has shown he can win in a Conservative heartland, as New Labour did in 1997, overturning a 20,000-seat majority in North Yorkshire. However, his party’s failure to win in London raises doubts about its electoral strategy. Voters seem to be saying that the Conservative party deserves to lose at the next election, but the Labour party doesn’t – yet – deserve to win outright.
Thursday’s votes might be less than they seem. Turnout in these byelections was low: on average 25% below that in the 2019 general election. Party loyalists often see them as a protest vote. At the next election, Britain’s political map will also be redrawn. Of this week’s three byelection seats, only Uxbridge and South Ruislip will be largely as it is today.
From CNN:
By Barbie Latza Nadeau and Jack Guy, CNN
The northern Italian city of Padua
has started removing the names of non-biological gay mothers from their children’s
birth certificates under new legislation passed by the “traditional family-first” government of
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
These birth certificates belong to 33 children of Italian women who underwent artificial insemination abroad and then registered their children under the city’s center-left government, led by Sergio Giordani, in 2017.
And a few interesting stories from around the world, not held together by any theme.
From NPR:
A 15th-century Christopher Columbus letter is finally back in Italy, decades after it disappeared from a Venice library and years after it resurfaced in Delaware.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that it repatriated the letter to Rome on Wednesday following a "multifaceted international investigation."
From NextShark (via Yahoo! News):
Carl Samson
Speculations are mounting over the mysterious disappearance of China’s foreign minister as Beijing continues to remain tight-lipped on the matter.
What’s going on: China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Qin Gang, 57, has not been seen in public since June 25. On that day, he reportedly met senior diplomats from Russia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.
From VOA:
Women in #India's northeastern state of #Manipur attacked the house of the main suspect in a sexual assault case that has enraged the nation, its chief minister said Friday. Local women shouted while using long sticks to damage the walls of the house, before setting it alight with burning hay. The suspect allegedly dragged two tribal women onto the streets in May and later incited a mob to rape and parade them naked, police said Friday, as ethnic clashes engulfed the state. The sexual assault took place over two months ago, but it captured national attention after a short video went viral on social media earlier this week.
From The Guardian:
Lawsuit filed against FTX founder, 31, includes memo that detailed plans to purchase Pacific island in case world came to an end
The disgraced cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, who founded the FTX exchange, had planned to purchase the small Pacific island nation of Nauru in case the world came to an end, according to a new lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed on Thursday by FTX against its 31-year-old founder and three other former executives, and seeking $1bn, included a memo created by Bankman-Fried’s younger brother Gabriel and an FTX Foundation executive. The memo detailed plans to buy Nauru.
And finally from the New York Times:
The Dutch capital will stop cruise ships from docking in the city center as part of a campaign to curb pollution and reduce the flow of tourists.
Amsterdam will bar cruise ships from docking in the city center as part of a broader effort to curb pollution and reduce the large numbers of tourists who visit the Dutch capital.
The City Council passed a proposal on Thursday to close a terminal where more than a hundred cruise ships dock each year not far from the central train station.