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 include the Comedy Pet Photography Awards, The Guardian’s week in wildlife, as well as their week around the world. The BBC also has pictures of the week, and the week in pictures in Africa. There also are pictures of amazing flooding in northern India.
As the title of this diary indicates, it is too darn hot in much of the world.
Above the fold we have weather (climate) news, and other stories below the fold.
From euronews:
By Fay Doulgkeri
Greek authorities temporarily closed the Acropolis in Athens on Friday as temperatures were expected to reach 40 degrees Celsius and some tourists experienced fainting spells.
Volunteers, doctors, and healthcare workers from the Hellenic Red Cross offered water and first aid to tourists hoping to visit the ancient monument, which was closed from noon to 5 pm local time.
From the BBC:
In the eras before air-conditioning, southern China's skywells played a key role in keeping people's homes cool. Could they do it again today?
Ru Ling loves spending time in skywells. To her, these courtyards of old Chinese houses are the perfect place to be in on a hot and humid day.
"They are airy, cool and well-shaded," says 40-year-old Ru.
From 2014 to 2021, Ru lived in a century-old timber-framed home in the village of Guanlu in eastern China's Anhui province. She moved there for a change of life after living and working in air-conditioned buildings for many years.
From Wired.com:
Cerberus, an unofficial name for the current European heat wave, has gone viral—but some meteorologists find it sensationalistic and worry it won't help people take extreme weather seriously.
If you’re at all aware of the heat wave baking southern Europe right now, you’ll have heard people referring to it as “Cerberus”—a moniker that invokes the fearsome three-headed dog of Greek mythology. In Dante’s Inferno and the classics that inspired it, Cerberus is a monster associated with the underworld.
Multiple reports about the blistering heat wave, which has pushed temperatures up to around 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in Spain, Italy, Greece, and other countries, have cited the Italian Meteorological Society as the institution that chose the name Cerberus for this dangerous weather event.
From the Conde Nast Traveller:
Here’s hoping your European vacation rental has air-conditioning—beyond severe discomfort, record-breaking temperatures spark deaths, fires, and even a shortage of milk
This summer Europe is breaking records like never before, and not in a good way. June was the hottest month ever recorded on the planet and July already looks to break that record, coming in searing with the hottest week ever recorded on the planet. All eyes are especially on Europe—its borders still chock-a-block with a continued post-pandemic influx of tourists eager to explore outdoors, despite a host of advisories to stay indoors during midday—with southern Spain, in particular, sizzling with Sahara-like land temperatures.
And from the BBC:
Christy Cooney
A 19-year-old firefighter has been killed in western Canada as the country battles its worst season of wildfires on record.
Devyn Gale was struck by a falling tree while working in a remote area near the town of Revelstoke, British Columbia.
Paying tribute, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described the news as "heartbreaking".
The last one, from The Guardian:
Sweltering temperatures in Europe directing low-pressure systems towards UK and yellow wind warning is in place
Tobi Thomas
Sweltering temperatures in Europe are forecast to lead to 55mph winds and heavy rain in the UK due to low-pressure systems being directed towards the country.
The Met Office has issued a yellow wind warning that is in place across south-west England and Wales until Friday evening, while another covering areas of central and southern England will come in on Saturday morning.
From east to west this day. From The Guardian:
A rocket engine exploded during a test in Japan on Friday, the latest in a series of failures that have deflated Tokyo’s space ambitions. The explosion took place about a minute into the test of the second-stage engine at a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency testing site in Noshiro city, in Akita prefecture, officials said. Footage showed flames shooting out the side of the test facility, before the small building was engulfed in flames and the roof blew off. No injuries were reported.
From USA Today and this story from China:
Kate Perez
A Chinese kindergarten teacher was executed Thursday for poisoning 25 of her students in 2019, resulting in the death of one child, the Associated Press reported.
Wang Yun, 40, was convicted of poisoning her students by adding sodium nitrite to the food being served to them. She had originally received nine months in prison for deliberate harm for the crime, but the sentencing was then changed, and she was sentenced to death in September 2020.
From The Guardian:
Statement comes after US, Australia and New Zealand expressed concerns about new agreement with Beijing
Solomon Islands has said that its policing pact with China poses no “threat” to the Pacific, rebuking western powers that raised fears the deal could inflame regional tensions.
Prime minister Manasseh Sogavare inked a raft of deals during a trip to China this week, including an agreement allowing Beijing to extend its police presence in the developing Pacific nation until 2025.
From DW News:
Thailand's Prime Ministership remains up for grabs after Parliament rejected the lead contender for the job. Pita Limjaroenrat led his Move Forward Party to victory in the May polls, but his promises to reform laws governing the monarchy have placed him at odds with Thailand's conservative polity.
From CNN:
India is bidding to become only the fourth country to execute a controlled landing on the moon with the successful launch Friday of its Chandrayaan-3 mission.
Chandrayaan, which means “moon vehicle” in Sanskrit, blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center at Sriharikota in southern Andhra Pradesh state at just after 2:30 p.m. local time (5 a.m. ET).
From the BBC:
Syria is to allow UN humanitarian aid into rebel-held territory through its main border crossing which closed amid a political impasse at the UN, its ambassador there has said.
Some 4.1 million people in north-west Syria depend on the aid deliveries.
From the Hindustan Times:
As per the Israeli doctors, Hassan's head was “almost completely detached from the base of his neck” in what is known as an internal decapitation.
Israeli doctors have performed a miraculous feat of reattaching a boy's head after he suffered internal decapitation in a road accident. According to The Times of Israel, a 12-year-old Palestinian named Suleiman Hassan, suffered a serious injury in which his skull got detached from the top vertebrae of his spine- officially known as a bilateral atlanto occipital joint dislocation.
Hassan was riding his bike when he was hit by a car. He was brought to Hadassah Medical Center and was immediately operated upon via surgery in the trauma unit.
From CNN:
By Anna Chernova and Uliana Pavlova
The Russian State Duma, or lower house of parliament, has voted in favor of a new law banning nearly all medical help for transgender people including gender reassignment surgery, in a raft of new anti-LGBTQ laws in Russia.
The bill, which had its third and final reading on Friday, prohibits doctors from conducting gender reassignment surgeries, except in cases related to treating congenital physiological anomalies in children. It also restricts registry offices from amending official documents based on medical certificates of gender change.
From CNN:
By Sharon Braithwaite and Josh Pennington,
Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani condemned the brawl that erupted Thursday in Kosovo’s parliament between opposition and ruling party MPs, CNN’s affiliate N1 reported.
In a live video broadcast of the Kosovan parliament, Prime Minister Albin Kurti was interrupted by opposition MPs and had water thrown at him following some shoving and brawling between ruling Vetevendosje party and opposition MPs.
From Reuters:
Hungary's second-largest bookstore, Lira, said it planned to take legal action after it received a hefty government fine for the sale of an LGBTQ-themed British webcomic and graphic novel for minors without closed wrapping.
From AP News:
By KARL RITTER and JAN M. OLSEN
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Stockholm police on Friday said they have authorized a protest this weekend by a man who has stated that he wants to burn the Torah and the Bible outside the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm.
Israeli officials called on the Swedish government to stop the protest, which is scheduled to take place Saturday outside the diplomatic mission.
From Africanews:
Leaders from Sudan’s six neighbouring countries met in Egypt's capital, Cairo, to discuss ways to put an end to the conflict raging since mid-April
From PBS:
By —Gerald Imray
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to attend an economic summit in South Africa next month and the country is desperately trying to persuade him to stay away to avoid the legal and diplomatic fallout over his international arrest warrant, South Africa’s deputy president said in an interview with a news website on Friday.
As a signatory to the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court, South Africa is obliged to arrest Putin on an indictment the court issued against the Russian leader in March for war crimes involving the abduction of children from Ukraine.
From The Guardian:
Ex-president of South Africa receives medical treatment day after court rules he should return to prison
The former South African president Jacob Zuma is receiving medical treatment in Russia, his spokesperson has said, a day after the country’s highest court upheld a ruling that he should return to prison.
“Zuma travelled to Russia last week for health reasons,” Mzwanele Manyi said on Friday.
From the BBC:
By Chloe Kim
A Canada court has allowed police to remove a blockade of a landfill site by protesters demanding action over the murders of two indigenous women.
Demonstrators began blocking the entrance to the rubbish dump in Winnipeg, Manitoba, about a week ago.
They are demanding another landfill be searched for two murder victims.
From the Associated Press:
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council asked the secretary-general on Friday to come up with options to help combat Haiti’s armed gangs, including a possible U.N. peacekeeping force and a non-U.N. multinational force.
A resolution adopted unanimously by the council asks U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to report back on “a full range” of options within 30 days to improve the security situation, including additional training for the Haitian National Police and providing support to combat illegal arms trafficking to the impoverished Caribbean nation.