Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, annetteboardman, jck, Rise above the swamp, and Besame. Alumni editors include (but are not limited to) Man Oh Man, wader, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), ScottyUrb, Interceptor 7, Neon Vincent, 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.
The most entertaining and frustrating story this week is what has happened to the British government. We begin with news from CNBC:
- Analysts said little has materially changed for investors; and sterling is likely to remain weak.
- It comes as the U.K. faces recession warnings and inflation challenges.
LONDON — The British pound pared losses late Friday, after earlier wiping out the moderate gains it made following the resignation of Prime Minister Liz Truss.
Sterling was last up by 0.6% against the dollar, after some weakness for the greenback.
From the BBC:
By Sam Hancock
Rishi Sunak is close to reaching the 100 MP nominations needed to enter the race to be the next Conservative leader and prime minister.
The ex-chancellor has 93 endorsements from Tory MPs so far, though a campaign source said he had already reached 100.
Former leader Boris Johnson, second with 44 backers, is poised to enter the contest to succeed Liz Truss and is flying back from a Caribbean holiday.
And from the Washington Post:
LONDON — After a chaotic spell packed with political crises, Britain finds itself right back where it was before — with some of the same faces competing to become the country’s third prime minister in just eight weeks, and a dumbfounded public watching from the sidelines.
From The Guardian:
Quitting the ECT, which protects fossil fuel investors from policy changes that might threaten their profits, was ‘coherent’ with Paris climate deal, Macron said
France has become the latest country to pull out of the controversial energy charter treaty (ECT), which protects fossil fuel investors from policy changes that might threaten their profits.
Speaking after an EU summit in Brussels on Friday, French president, Emmanuel Macron, said: “France has decided to withdraw from the energy charter treaty.” Quitting the ECT was “coherent” with the Paris climate deal, he added.
From the BBC:
by Paul Kirby
Her rise to power at the head of the party she founded has been meteoric, but Giorgia Meloni has been politically active since she was a teenage activist in a neo-fascist party's youth wing in Rome.
Now at 45 she has accepted the role of Italy's first female prime minister, although she has picked a government in which only one in four ministers are women.
From Deutsche Welle:
Germany's Olaf Scholz said Europe stood together against Putin and high energy prices, despite disagreements. In addition to talks on Ukraine and the energy crisis, EU leaders also deliberated future ties with Beijing.
European leaders on Friday reached agreement on what they called a "roadmap" aimed at putting in place measures to shield consumers from rising energy prices.
Several members, including Germany, had objected to immediate moves to cap prices recommended by France and others.
From Reuters:
- Sweden said it had stepped up efforts against Kurdish militants
- Says it will address pending extradition requests
- Letter meant to demonstrate Sweden's commitment to pledges
- Sweden asked to join NATO after Russia's invasion of Ukraine
- Turkey initially vetoed, accused Sweden of harbouring militants
ISTANBUL, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Sweden has taken "concrete action" to address Turkey's concerns over its NATO membership bid, including stepping up counter-terrorism efforts against Kurdish militants, Stockholm told Ankara in a letter dated Oct. 6 and seen by Reuters.
From NBC News:
As his war in Ukraine falters, the Russian leader is turning to more radical measures in a bid to stabilize and sustain it.
By Matthew Bodner
LONDON — President Vladimir Putin’s declaration of martial law has left residents in occupied Ukrainian regions facing new restrictions and uncertainty. But the same is also true in Russia, where the decree tightened security and left open the possibility that broader, deeper changes could follow.
From the start of its invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has gone to great lengths to paint it as less than a war, calling it a “special military operation” that did not require great sacrifice from most of the public.
From The Daily Beast:
The global manhunt for a Russian governor’s son over a major money laundering scheme has ended with an arrest in Milan. The Kremlin is now vowing the move won’t go “unanswered.”
The Kremlin is threatening retaliatory action after authorities arrested Artyom Uss, the son of a top Russian official, at the United States’ request, for allegedly participating in a sanctions evasion and money laundering scheme.
Uss, who was detained in Milan, was charged in relation to a scheme to unlawfully obtain U.S. military technology and sanctioned Venezuelan oil in order to support Russia’s war effort in Ukraine, according to charges unsealed by the U.S. Department of Justice this week.
From Al Jazeera:
Turkey’s foreign minister slams US for ‘bullying’ Saudi Arabia after OPEC+ announced oil production cuts despite Washington’s objections.
Turkey accused the United States of bullying its ally Saudi Arabia after OPEC+ producers announced major oil production cuts despite American objections.
OPEC+ announced recently it would produce two million barrels of oil less a day starting in November, curbing supply in an already tight market despite pressure from the US and other nations to increase output.
From Deutsche Welle:
Tania Krämer11 hours ago
Following Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv using Iranian drones, Ukraine has once again asked Israel for military help. Israel, however, is seeking to maintain relations with both Ukraine and Russia.
Shortly after Russia reportedly used Iranian-supplied Shahed-136 drones to attack Kyiv, Ukraine's foreign minister, Dimytro Kuleba, said he would formally submit an official request to Israel for air defense supplies. This would not be Ukraine's first such request for military support from Israel.
From the CBC:
CNN's chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour talks about Iran's morality police and the significance of women's rights protests that were sparked after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in police custody last month.
From NPR:
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is placing a nationwide freeze on the sale, purchase and transfer of handguns, effective immediately.
The handgun freeze is the latest in an ongoing battle among Canadian lawmakers over gun control measures. In parliament, legislators are still debating the passage of a bill, introduced in May, that would be one of the strongest pieces of gun control legislation in decades. The new handgun freeze is an "immediate action" the Trudeau administration said it is taking as conversation around the bill continues.
From Al Jazeera:
Demonstrations against the extension of a transitional period before elections turned violent.
By Virginia Pietromarchi
Dozens of people were killed in Chad as security forces cracked down on anti-government protests denouncing a decision to further delay the country’s transition towards civilian rule.
Here, Al Jazeera takes a look at Thursday’s violence, what happened before it and what might happen next.
From CNN:
Four more bodies of suspected illegal migrants from Ethiopia have been found near the site of a mass grave in northern Malawi that contained the remains of 25 Ethiopian nationals, according to police in the southern African country.
Malawi police spokesman Peter Kalaya said the Ethiopians were suspected victims of human trafficking. The four bodies were discovered a day after the corpses of 25 Ethiopian migrants were exhumed from a mass grave in northern Malawi’s Mzimba district. The 25 victims were males aged between 25 and 40 years, police found.
And a couple of Art stories
Beginning with this from CBS:
By Anthony Mason, Analisa Novak
Singer-songwriter John Mellencamp has been painting for as long as he's been making music. And before he broke through as a rock star, he was hoping to be an artist.
Now, after decades building a legendary music career, a collection of his paintings and assemblages are being displayed at the New York Academy of Art. And his latest release — out this week — is a book, titled "John Mellencamp: American Paintings and Assemblages," of his artwork.
From the New York Times:
With works by 40 artists, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston examines many aspects of the lives of children.
This article is part of our Fine Arts & Exhibits special section on how museums, galleries and auction houses are embracing new artists, new concepts and new traditions.
The
Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston has bold ambitions for “
To Begin Again: Artists and Childhood,” its thematic group exhibition that explores how visual artists have been inspired and influenced by children and childhood, on view through Feb. 26.
“Children and childhood, their role in society,” said Jill Medvedow, the institute’s director, “their visibility or invisibility, their creativity, their resilience, and their plight, have for a long, long time — decades, centuries — been a source of interest, engagement and concern for artists.”
From The Guardian:
Readers on the protest by Just Stop Oil activists who threw soup at a Van Gogh painting in the National Gallery
I am fully supportive of the Just Stop Oil campaign, and acknowledge the need for rousing tactics to counteract a business-as-usual mentality. However, the attack on Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting was misguided (Just Stop Oil activists throw soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, 14 October).
Van Gogh cared deeply for nature, and for humanity; he was a missionary before he became a painter. He was poor, he lived simply, and his passion was to reveal the extraordinary beauty of nature to those who could not see it. For his magnificent gift to humanity to become a target for environmentalists is a violation of all that the painting upholds.
From USA Today:
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A new art installation that visitors can walk through on New York's Governors Island features giant chain links grinding overhead, pointing to the legacy of slavery in the United States.
Artist Charles Gaines says he wanted to create a piece - which faces the Statue of Liberty and is roughly 100 feet (30.5 meters) long that reflected the sounds and history of the Mississippi River.
From The Guardian:
Curator at school which awards Jane Lombard Prize says the artists’ work would ‘galvanise arts and social justice communities’ in New York
Indigenous Australian art collective proppaNOW has won a prestigious prize that will take them to New York next year after the selecting jury found their practices would serve as “models for political empowerment throughout the world”.
But don’t expect traditional Aboriginal artworks.
Established in Brisbane in 2003, proppaNOW emerged to give voice to urban-based Indigenous artists. Nearly two decades later, that voice has gone global, with the collective awarded the 2022–2024 Jane Lombard Prize for Art and Social Justice on Friday evening in the United States.