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.
Pictures of the week come from CNN, Roll Call, The Guardian (wildlife), Euronews, and to provide something calming, Wales Online has sunrises and sunsets.
We begin with news from Africa, with this from Deutsche Welle:
Tanzania plans to stop individuals and NGOs from filing cases at Africa's human rights court. The move could restrict chances of getting justice for human rights abuses – and cut the court's effectiveness, experts say.
Tanzania's government is planning to stop individuals and groups of people directly filing complaints against it at the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR), according to Amnesty International.
The East African country's government has the highest number of cases brought by individuals and NGOs as well as judgments issued against it by the human rights court, according to Amnesty.
From The Washington Post:
NAIROBI, Kenya — Police in Kenya say suspected al-Shabab extremists have stopped a bus in the north near Somalia and killed eight passengers, all of them non-Muslims.
A police report seen by The Associated Press on Friday says an unknown number of extremists stopped the bus and singled out non-locals. It says preliminary reports show the majority of those killed were police officers returning to their stations in Elwak and Mandera.
From Al Jazeera:
Sudan has been involved in the five-year Yemen civil war since 2015 as part of the Saudi-led coalition.
Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has said the war in Yemen, which the United Nations calls one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters, has no military solution and peace there could only be achieved through a political solution.
Speaking at the Atlantic Council, a self-described think tank in Washington, DC in the United States, Hamdok said: "When it comes to Yemen... this is a legacy we inherited. I think a conflict in Yemen has no military solution - whether from us or anywhere in the world."
Other continents and areas below the break.
From The Guardian:
Urban elites have largely embraced cultural transformation but elsewhere there is fear and anger
Martin Chulov in Riyadh
Rayan and Maha sat on the ground smoking, their schoolbags beside them and their smartphones blaring pop songs. School was in full session but they were at the mall, and they didn’t seem to care who knew it.
Both girls were uncovered, their abayas held together by only a few buttons, as women dressed more conservatively in full black robes and niqabs breezed by carrying babies and shopping bags. Men in traditional thobes walked past without turning their heads, but the pair caught the eye of a Brazilian man wearing shorts and two full-sleeve tattoos, who stopped to try to talk to them.
From Al Jazeera:
Turkey is threatening to send a drilling ship to waters claimed - and defended - by Greece.
Athens, Greece - Greece and Turkey have come closer to armed conflict after Turkey's surprise delineation of an Exclusive Economic Zone with Libya, experts tell Al Jazeera.
The agreement, signed on November 27 and unveiled on Thursday, maps out a corridor of water stretching across the eastern Mediterranean between the coasts of Turkey and Libya, cutting across a swath that is also claimed by EU member Greece.
From Reuters:
ROME (Reuters) - Almost half of Italians are in favor of having a “strongman” in power who does not care about parliament and elections, a survey showed on Friday, casting doubts on the strength of democracy in a major European nation.
Some 48.2% of people think the government should be led by a Messiah-like leader who does not have to worry about being accountable, the survey by Censis research institute said.
From inews.uk:
President Jair Bolsonaro has been widely criticised for the slow response, with police claiming the initial spill happened back in July
When the waves of dense, black oil first began arriving at Morro de São Paulo on the night of 21 October, residents of the tropical island renowned as one of the most beautiful in Brazil rushed to clear the sullied beach.
“Two of my students, an eight-year-old and a 10-year-old, were both on the scene that first night,” says Amar Mansoor, a teacher at the island’s community centre. “With big hearts full of worry, they rushed in to help.”
From the BBC:
An independent international audit of Bolivia's disputed election in October has detailed "deliberate" and "malicious" efforts to rig the vote in favour of then-President Evo Morales.
The Organization of American States (OAS) said the measures included hidden servers and falsified signatures.
Mr Morales fled to Mexico after the army urged him to quit. He has not commented on the report.
From the Guardian:
- A Rapist in Your Path performed by women at mass protests
- Performances staged across Latin America and Europe
Charis McGowan in Santiago
A Chilean protest song about rape culture and victim shaming has become a viral anthem for feminists around the world.
Un Violador en Tu Camino – A Rapist in Your Path – was first performed in late November as Chile’s nationwide uprising against social inequality pushed into its second month.
And now, stories of the arts, beginning with this from The Guardian:
Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan’s work, Comedian, is a piece of fruit duct-taped to a wall – and it sold for over $100,000
Sometimes a banana is just a banana. And sometimes, like the one duct-taped to a wall that sold for $120,000 this week, it’s an expensive piece of art.
The questionably genius work by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan was being shown by the international gallery Perrotin at Art Basel in Miami when it was sold. One in a series of three, a second version of the piece has also been sold for a similar price, Perrotin told the Guardian.
From Bloomberg:
Art Basel Miami Beach is buzzing about the central figure in fraud allegations.
ByKatya Kazakina
He burst onto the scene, a young man in a hurry, with an eye for art and a nose for a deal.
Before age 30, he was bidding millions for works by the likes of Basquiat, Kusama and Stingel for investors with money to spend. Then, in a blink, he vanished, leaving a trail of mystery and scandal in his wake.
Where in the world is Inigo Philbrick?
From the Art Newspaper:
Leave the Bus Through the Broken Window follows filmmaker Andrew Hevia as he fumbles his way through the often exclusionary art world
Wallace Ludel
The Miami-born Cuban American filmmaker Andrew Hevia, who at 31 years old was a co-producer on Barry Jenkins’ Oscar-winning film Moonlight (2016), has spent his fair share of time at art fairs. Hevia attended high school at the New World School of the Arts in Miami and says that when Art Basel first arrived in Miami Beach, “our teachers got us together to say, ‘You don’t understand yet, but this is going to change everything.’” He adds: “Then I went off to college and when I came back, it was true. Suddenly art was a thing you could participate in.”
From The Guardian:
Melodies for Mums singing class uses songs specially chosen to improve confidence and bonding
Rachel Williams
In the snug warmth of a children’s centre a group of mothers sing with their babies. But there is no Wheels on the Bus, no Wind the Bobbin Up. Instead, the women work their way through folk songs, lullabies and gospel, switching from Spanish to Hebrew to Igbo and Zulu and deftly following the group’s leader as she introduces rounds and three-part harmonies.
This is a singing class designed not to entertain the babies – though they are perfectly happy as they chew on miniature maracas – but for the women themselves. Melodies for Mums, run by the not-for-profit social enterprise Breathe Arts Health Research, aims to help new mothers with postnatal depression (PND), or those at risk of it, combat their symptoms by singing songs specially chosen to improve confidence and help them bond with their babies. No musical experience is necessary.
From Classicfm:
Her Royal Highness, Queen Elizabeth II’s contribution to classical music is generous, unwavering and all too easy to take for granted.
Throughout her 67-year reign, Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, has been a generous patron of classical music and the arts.
Her involvement in the nation’s musical life is reflected in the positions Her Majesty appoints, musical honours she awards regularly, her patronage of music and music institutions, and her regular attendance at concerts and other classical music events.