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.
Some of the more interesting and perhaps less earth-shattering news above the fold. Below it climate disasters and concerns and conflicts.
We begin with the story horifying the art world. First up this, from euronews:
The British Museum says it's taking legal action and the Metropolitan Police's economic and crime command is investigating.
The British Museum staff member sacked after the disappearance of a number of artefacts has been named as Peter Higgs.
Higgs, an expert on Greek and Mediterranean artefacts, had been with the British Museum for almost three decades and was its curator of Mediterranean cultures.
From The Art Newspaper:
The items include a piece of Roman jewellery—reportedly worth between £25,000 and £50,000—being offered with a minimum price of £40
Precious items allegedly stolen from the British Museum in London by one of the institution’s senior curators were put up for sale on eBay according to a report in The Telegraph. The objects, including a piece of Roman jewellery offered with a minimum price of £40, appeared on the auction and shopping website as early as 2016.
Peter John Higgs, a prominent curator who was employed at the British Museum for 30 years, was identified in UK press reports as the person alleged to be responsible for stealing priceless artefacts from the museum’s collection.
From Space.com (with video):
Chandrayaan-3 is gearing up for a touchdown attempt on Aug. 23 or Aug. 24.
India's Chandrayaan-3 probe has captured more amazing imagery of the moon ahead of its historic touchdown try, which is just a few days away.
The very very thin crescent moon tonight was spectacularly beautiful.
From Business Insider:
- A 9th century gravesite unearthed in England suggests ancient settlers may have feared the undead.
- Researchers with the Museum of London Archeology discovered a 15-year-old girl buried face-down.
- The unusual burial technique suggests people wanted to prevent her from coming back, researchers said.
Now to the environmental news. I won’t write about Hurricane Hilary, as that is well covered by the US press, although it will hit Baja in Mexico before it gets to California.
But from north of the border there is a different kind of disaster. This from CNN:
Thousands of residents are rushing to evacuate the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories as more than 200 fires burn, leaving many to face dangerous road conditions or stand in line for hours for desperately needed emergency flights. Evacuations were also under way in British Columbia.
The Northwest Territories capital Yellowknife – home to about 20,000 – and several other Northwest Territories communities have been ordered to evacuate as crews battle 236 active wildfires, and a massive fire creeps toward the city and a major highway.
From Reuters:
OTTAWA, Aug 18 (Reuters) - The Canadian government on Friday demanded that Meta (META.O) lift a "reckless" ban on domestic news from its platforms to allow people to share information about wildfires in the west of the country.
Meta started blocking news on its Facebook and Instagram platforms for all users in Canada this month in response to a new law requiring internet giants to pay for news articles.
From the New York Times:
The blaze on Tenerife has burned almost 10,000 acres and forced thousands of residents in the north to lock down or flee.
Firefighters on the Spanish island of Tenerife scrambled on Friday to contain a devastating fire, described as the most complicated in the Canary Islands in 40 years, after it blackened forests, prompted lockdowns and forced thousands of people to evacuate.
More than 4,500 people have been forced to flee their homes since the blaze began to spread early on Wednesday in a wooded and mountainous region in the island’s north, where firefighters and troops from the Spanish armed forces have been struggling to limit the spread of the flames and divert them away from nearby settlements and homes.
From Reuters:
Sea levels in the South-West Pacific are rising faster than the global average, threatening low-lying islands while heat damages marine ecosystems, the UN meteorological agency said.
More water, from WION:
Frankfurt airport, Germany's biggest airport, flooded to the brim after a massive storm hits the capital. How many have been affected?
I just flew through that airport on Monday!
From CNN:
(with video)
Dozens are dead in India's northern Himachal Pradesh state following deadly landslides caused by heavy rainfall. In addition, around 2,500 people have been relocated to safer areas. Vedika Sud reports.
In other news, we have this from Al Jazeera (with video):
Quran-burnings have sparked angry protests in Muslim countries, attacks on Swedish diplomatic missions and threats.
Swedish police detained a woman who sprayed an anti-Islam activist with a fire extinguisher as he staged a Quran-burning protest outside the Iranian Embassy in Stockholm.
Video of the scene showed the woman rushing up to Salwan Momika and spraying white powder towards him before she was intercepted by plainclothes police officers who led her away. Momika, who appeared stunned but unhurt on Friday, then resumed his demonstration, which had been authorised by police.
Also from Al Jazeera:
The alleged desecration of pages of the Quran led a violent mob to attack Christian homes and churches this week.
Police have arrested two Christians accused of blasphemy in eastern Pakistan – two days after a Muslim mob burned churches and houses in the minority’s community – saying the two men had desecrated the Quran.
Pages of the Quran were found in a street with derogatory comments written on them in red, police said.
From NBC News:
The arrests are part of a concerted effort to head off protests to mark a year since the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising swept the Islamic Republic, rights groups say.
Iran appears to be rounding up activists in a crackdown ahead of the anniversary of mass protests that shook the country.
Authorities in the Islamic Republic detained at least a dozen women’s rights activists on Wednesday, according to rights groups and local news agencies.
From CNN:
China’s military has launched joint air and sea patrols around Taiwan in a move described by Beijing as a “stern warning” to separatists against colluding with “foreign elements.”
“The patrols and exercises are meant to train the coordination of military vessels and airplanes and their ability to seize control of air and sea spaces,” said Shi Yi, spokesperson for the Eastern Theater Command, according to state news agency Xinhua.
From the South China Morning Post:
- Potential new members and greater use of local currencies for trade are expected to be the top agenda items discussed at the summit in South Africa
- African nations want to see how the group can give them a bigger voice on the world stage, analysts say
Jevans Nyabiage
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to
South Africa for the Brics summit next week will be a stage for Beijing to promote its post-Covid charm offensive, including agenda items like
membership expansion and de-dollarisation.
While the Johannesburg summit is not expected to yield any concrete results, it will be watched closely by developing countries looking to the Brics group – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – as a major counterweight to Western influence in global governance.
From Al Jazeera:
Moscow City Court said it was dissolving the organisation for illegally hosting conferences and exhibitions.
From CNN:
By Sophie Tanno and Benjamin Brown
Russian journalist Elena Kostyuchenko was on her way back from Munich to Berlin when she took ill.
Russian dissident journalist Elena Kostyuchenko has revealed how she was traveling to Berlin by train last autumn when she was abruptly taken ill, in a case that has led German authorities to investigate a suspected poisoning attempt.
Kostyuchenko was living in exile at the time in the German capital after being warned of Russian plans to assassinate her. She was on her way back from a trip to Munich to apply for a Ukrainian visa when she suddenly found herself drenched in strange-smelling sweat and experiencing cognitive difficulties, she wrote in the Russian-language publication Meduza this week. A long and mysterious illness then ensued, from which she has yet to completely recover, the journalist said.
From the BBC:
By Kathryn Armstrong
Russia has banned 54 British nationals and people working for UK organisations from entering the country in retaliation for UK sanctions on its citizens, its foreign ministry says.
They include Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer and International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Khan.
From euronews:
The notoriously violent Russian mercenary organisation has been shored up in Belarus after mounting a rebellion that briefly threatened to descend on Moscow.
Lithuania closed two of its six border crossings with neighbouring Belarus on Friday to counter the risk posed by the Russian mercenary group Wagner, authorities have announced.
From the Associated Press:
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Angry Turkish Cypriots punched and kicked a group of international peacekeepers who obstructed crews working on a road that would encroach on a U.N.-controlled buffer zone in ethnically divided Cyprus, the U.N. said Friday.
It said the attack happened as peacekeepers stood in the way of work crews building a road to connect the village of Arsos, in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north, with the mixed Greek Cypriot-Turkish Cypriot village of Pyla, inside the buffer zone and abutting the Greek Cypriot south, where the island’s internationally recognized government is seated.