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.
The picture of the week is from the Sydney Morning Herald:
A park ranger in Congo has described how he captured a selfie with two gorillas that went viral.
Mathieu Shamavu, a ranger at Virunga National Park in eastern Congo, said he was checking his phone when he noticed two female orphaned gorillas, Ndakazi and Ndeze, mimicking his movements, so he took a picture with them.
More photos come from The Sydney Morning Herald.
From The Straits Times:
DHAKA (AFP) - A Bangladeshi activist who rescued dozens of people when the Rana Plaza factory complex collapsed in 2013 has committed suicide after suffering years of trauma-related depression, police said on Friday (April 26).
Police said Nowshad Hasan Himu, 27, killed himself near the industrial town of Savar late on Wednesday on the sixth anniversary of the disaster, which killed 1,138 people in one of the world's worst industrial tragedies.
"He poured kerosene onto his body and set himself in fire. He was rushed to a Dhaka hospital where he died," police inspector Asgar Ali told AFP.
Another rescue story from The Straits Times:
KATHMANDU (AFP) - A Malaysian climber rescued after two nights in the open on one of the world's most treacherous mountains is in critical condition, his doctor said on Friday (April 26).
Chin Wui Kin, 48, was airlifted to a hospital in Kathmandu for treatment in the morning after rescuers brought him down to a lower camp in a risky operation close to the summit of Mount Annapurna.
"His heart rate and temperature were both very low when we received him. He is suffering from severe hypothermia and has frostbite on his hands and feet," Sanij Singh, emergency physician at Mediciti Hospital, told Agence France-Presse.
The Guardian has news from India:
Farmers sued for allegedly growing potatoes used in Lay’s crisps without permission
Benjamin Parkin
PepsiCo has faced a backlash after suing four Indian farmers who allegedly grew a patented strain of potatoes used in its Lay’s crisps without the company’s permission.
The company, which originally sought about $150,000 (£116,000) in damages from each of the farmers, arguing they broke the law by sourcing and dealing the potatoes, offered to settle “amicably” when the case went to court in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad on Friday.
From Reuters:
By Simon Scarr and Marco Hernandez
Pakistan continues to restrict its airspace after an air strike in late February by the Indian military in northern Pakistan. The disruption is forcing international airlines to take costly and time-consuming detours to the north and south, adding flight time for passengers and fuel costs for airlines.
Hundreds of commercial and cargo flights are affected each day. Reuters counted 311 such flights between four airports in Europe and four in Southeast Asia.
From Bloomberg:
It would be difficult for the president to rally a coalition without key national security allies.
What happens when the president’s influence has been reduced to historically low levels?
From Middle East Eye:
The financial crisis in Jordan, and the threat of further US meddling in Jerusalem, drive an ongoing shift away from traditional allies
Amid major transformations throughout the region, Jordan has started looking beyond its usual allies, limited in recent decades to the wealthy Gulf states that have doled out massive financial aid.
A five-year aid package from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states to Jordan, worth some $3.6bn, ended in January 2017, with no further assistance offered. As Jordan’s economic crisis deepened, however, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE loaned more than $1bn to the country’s central bank late last year to provide the state with badly needed funds.
From the National Herald (Greece):
ATHENS – No longer needing support from Germany – the biggest contributor to 326 billion euros ($363.09 billion) in three international bailouts – the ruling Radical Left SYRIZA now wants reparations for World War II, a move the party’s critics said is designed to try to reverse flagging fortunes in an election year.
The move garnered some international attention as well, although Germany has flatly refused, saying the matter was long ago settled. But the leading British newspaper, The Guardian, picked up on the story as did other media.
Germany invaded Greece in May of 1941. Around 1,000 Greek villages were destroyed, thousands of Greeks died of starvation, and tens of thousands were killed by German forces who were trying to stop Greek resistance fighters, War History Online noted in a story.
From Reuters:
LJUBLJANA (Reuters) - Slovenia imported a lynx from Romania on Friday in an attempt to restore its dwindling population of the wildcat, the national Forest Service said.
The male lynx called Goru is the first out of 10 lynxes that will be moved from Romania and Slovakia by 2024, Maja Sever, a spokeswoman of the Service, told Reuters.
From The Guardian:
Rubbish, potholes and metro closures contribute to anger among visitors and citizens alike
Angela Giuffrida in Rome
As the day draws to a close in Rome, tourists are enjoying a nightcap at a bar on Piazza della Rotonda. In front of them stands the majestic Pantheon, the imposing domed temple built by Emperor Hadrian.
To their right, however, is a scene less befitting the piazza, famed for its elegance and history. A photomural of the temple covers boarding that surrounds a building under renovation and as the night gets later it is used to prop up a pile of rubbish bags and boxes discarded by nearby restaurants.
And from Reuters:
VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria’s public broadcaster ORF defended its top news anchor on Friday after a far right politician threatened the journalist with “consequences” for comparing an anti-immigrant poster to Nazi propaganda.
The far-right Freedom Party (FPO) is the junior partner in a coalition government with the conservatives. It says it wants to restructure the ORF which it accuses of left-wing bias.
From The Guardian:
Anachronistic and patronising, or benign nautical tradition? The appropriateness of referring to ships as “she” has been challenged by the Scottish Maritime Museum’s decision this week to adopt gender-neutral signage for its vessels.
The move has provoked debate over when, if ever, it is acceptable to use the feminine pronoun for inanimate things.
It’s not just ships. Cars are often personified as female. How many male owners enjoy “taking her for a spin?” One well-known haulage company, Eddie Stobart, gives its trucks female names.
One last bit of news from the BBC:
By Helen Briggs
The oceans contain almost 200,000 different viral populations, according to the latest count.
Marine viruses were found from the surface down to 4,000m deep and from the North to the South Pole.
Though most are harmless to humans, they can infect marine life, including whales and crustaceans.
And scientists are only just starting to understand how these tiny organisms play a role in the life and chemistry of the seas.
In news of the arts, we begin with this from the BBC:
By Rosie Blunt
On a wintry beach lined with conifers, the body of a teenage boy washes up on the grey sand. A mother runs to her dead son and clutches him to her chest, wailing.
Meanwhile, a young man named Adiits'ii flees from the scene, running into the forest, gasping and grunting. Having taken the boy out in a boat which hit choppy waters, he feels responsible for his death.
It is this family tragedy that serves as the focus of the Canadian film Edge of the Knife, or Sgaawaau K'uuna. The story, steeped in the supernatural, centres on the universal themes of family, love, loss and betrayal.
What is less universal is the language of the film, Haida. According to the First People's Culture Council, there are only 20 remaining fluent speakers of this language, making it critically endangered.
Also from the BBC:
Iranian state TV has temporarily banned the country's equivalent of Who Wants to a Millionaire after complaints by senior clerics and conservatives.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that game-shows endanger the "culture of hard work and productivity" that the country seeks to encourage.
Now a senior Shia cleric has issued a fatwa (an Islamic religious ruling) against shows like Be a Winner that offer cash prizes.
Gambling is banned under Islamic law.
From The Guardian:
Art dealer who owns a dozen pieces by the street artist is convinced by Marble Arch work
Lanre Bakare
A Banksy collector and expert believes a mural that appeared at Extinction Rebellion’s Marble Arch base overnight is an authentic piece by the Bristolian street artist.
John Brandler, who owns a dozen pieces by Banksy is convinced the artwork – which features the slogan “From this moment despair ends and tactics begin” next to a young girl sitting on the ground holding an Extinction Rebellion logo – is an original because of its execution and theme.