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 (RIP), 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 The Guardian.
NBC news brings us our first story:
“If we wait for them then we’ll start seeing more graves,” Patrick Bilai, a pastor, said of the government.
DURBAN, South Africa — South Africa was already beset by rampant poverty. The pandemic exacerbated the struggle for many of the country’s poorest. Now weeks of riots have left stores torched, shelves empty and many hungry.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has reassured the country that “immediate food relief” was being distributed in the wake of deadly unrest that saw access to food disrupted after trucks, warehouses and shops were burned and pillaged.
From The Guardian:
Bill could mean 10 years in prison for LGBTQ+ people and those who support their rights
Emmanuel Akinwotu
Draft anti-gay legislation submitted to Ghana’s parliament could propose up to 10 years in jail for LGBTQ+ people as well as groups and individuals who advocate for their rights, express sympathy or offer social or medical support, in one of the most draconian and sweeping anti-gay laws proposed around the world.
Support for intersex people would also be criminalised and the government could direct intersex people to receive “gender realignment” surgery, said the draft legislation.
From the BBC:
French President Emmanuel Macon has changed his phone and number after reports that he was targeted with Israeli-made spyware called Pegasus.
The president's office said Mr Macron had also ordered an overhaul of security protocols.
This week, Le Monde reported that he and 14 French ministers were flagged for potential surveillance by Morocco.
From the New York Times:
France is taking the lead in making life unpleasant for the unvaccinated, even requiring some people to get shots. Protesters see a soft dictatorship dawning.
By Roger Cohen
PARIS — As Europe and the United States scramble to find an appropriate balance between curbing the Delta variant of the coronavirus and curbing personal freedom, President Emmanuel Macron has led the way down a narrow path combining limited compulsion to get vaccinated with widespread coercion.
From The Guardian:
Unesco says ‘the facts are the facts and the science is the science’ after its recommendation is ignored
Graham Readfearn
From the Guardian:
New Zealand has long fought to have indigenous remains held overseas returned – now it’s reckoning with its own colonial legacy
In 2009, Āwhina Twomey received a phone call from a friend and member of her Rangitāne o Wairau iwi (tribe), asking if she could be in the South Island by 4am the following Saturday. She baulked at the early start, but then she heard the reason: Canterbury Museum had agreed to repatriate her tūpuna (ancestors), or kōiwi tangata (ancestral remains) to her iwi.
It had taken the iwi 70 years of battling the museum, and now their ancestors were coming home.
From NBC news:
All of the man's documents were "under his wife's name," said Police Chief Aditya Laksimada.
By Rhea Mogul
He covered his face and hoped for the best, but his plan to disguise himself as his wife ultimately failed.
Donning a niqab — a face veil worn by some Muslim women — an Indonesian man who tested positive for Covid-19 boarded a plane traveling from the southeast Asian nation's capital Jakarta to the city of Ternate on Sunday, police told the Associated Press.
From CNN:
By Ghazi Balkiz, Ben Wedeman and Kareem Khadder, CNN
Beirut, Lebanon (CNN) Lebanon's water supply system is on the verge of total collapse, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), in what would mark the latest development in the eastern Mediterranean country's slide into chaos.
More than 71% of the country's population -- over 4 million people including 1 million refugees -- are at immediate risk of losing access to safe water, UNICEF said on Friday.
From the New York Times:
Pandemic meets “pingdemic”: Coronavirus infections rise sharply and an official app tells legions of people to stay home after exposure, even as most restrictions
By Stephen Castle
LONDON — Gas stations closed, garbage collection canceled and supermarket shelves stripped bare of food, water and other essential goods.
In a week when Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised England a return to normality after the end of months of lockdown rules, a coronavirus-weary nation has instead been battered by a new crisis.
This one is being called the “pingdemic.”
From Deutsche Welle:
Journalist Susanna Ohlen was recorded spreading dirt on her clothes and face before reporting from a flood site in Germany in an apparent bid to make the report feel more authentic.
A German television reporter has apologized after a video surfaced of her smearing mud on herself ahead of a broadcast from an area devastated by floods last week.
RTL presenter Susanna Ohlen, 39, said it was a "serious mistake" to add mud to her clothes before reporting from the areas heavily hit by deadly floods in Germany.
Haaretz:
Israel refuses to approve family reunification for thousands of citizens of Arab countries who are married to Palestinians
Amira Hass
Once every three weeks, for over half a year, dozens of women, men and children gather for protest vigils in the West Bank city of El Bireh, under the slogan “Family reunification: my right.”
The slogan thus became the name of a new grassroots Palestinian movement that is active in the Gaza Strip as well.
From Business Insider:
- This week, deadly floods hit China's Henan province, killing at least 33 people.
- New footage shows the flooding in Zhengzhou, home to the largest iPhone-assembly plant.
- The extreme flooding in Europe and China is a consequence of the climate crisis, experts say.
From The Guardian:
Ageing fleet hit by breakdowns and cancellations, with capacity low on services that do run due to Covid
The perfume and toiletries shop overlooking Brodick Bay on Arran is normally packed in the summer, as day-trippers and holidaymakers stream off the mainland ferries at the busy terminal just across the bay.
But this summer has been grim, said Andrew Russell, the sales director for Arran Sense of Scotland, formerly known as Arran Aromatics. For thousands of people and businesses up and down the west coast of Scotland, this summer has been marred by repeated crises affecting ferry services run by the state-funded CalMac.
From the BBC:
In a move that pours cold water on the dreams of a few billionaire space explorers, the US has tightened its definition of the word "astronaut".
New Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules say astronaut hopefuls must be part of the flight crew and make contributions to space flight safety.