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.
I was impressed this evening by the number of stories from Africa. Most of the stories in the digest are from that continent, with a smattering of other news included. As usual, though, the happier news is above the fold.
From Mongabay:
- For the first time, native mushroom species in Mozambique are being harvested for sale in the capital, Maputo.
- The project provides extra income for hundreds of women living next to Gilé National Park in the center of the country.
- The mushrooms grow in the miombo woodlands bordering the park that are being cleared to make way for crops like cassava.
- The commercial sale of mushrooms is helping to reduce deforestation in the densely populated buffer zone, while also benefiting local communities.
Lomwé and Macua communities in Mozambique’s Zambezia province traditionally harvest wild mushrooms to eat alongside staples like cassava. Conservationists are working with hundreds of Indigenous women there to commercialize the sale of mushrooms like the vivid orange eyukuli (Cantharellus platyphyllus) as part of a wider strategy to protect forests surrounding Gilé National Park.
From the BBC:
Nine places are still up for grabs when the final round of qualifying matches for next year's Africa Cup of Nations take place in September.
A total of 15 countries are already guaranteed a berth, including Ivory Coast, who qualify automatically as hosts.
Also from the BBC:
Samba Cyuzuzo
New-born baby gorillas in Rwanda have been named - one by Hollywood star Idris Elba and his wife - in a much-vaunted annual event to promote conservation and tourism.
The naming ceremony, known as Kwita Izina, has been taking place in Kinigi, a small town beneath gigantic volcanoes.
This is home to rare mountain gorillas and the event attracts personalities from the worlds of activism, sport, politics, film, philanthropy,fashion and more.
Other news below the fold.
From NPR:
By Kate Bartlett
JOHANNESBURG — This is a tale of two cities. One is Africa's richest metropolis: glitzy shopping malls, gated estates, swanky restaurants and leafy streets. The other — where 76 people died in an inferno that engulfed a derelict building on Thursday — has garbage rotting in the gutters, jobless men drinking morning beers and an abundance of ads for abortion clinics and funeral parlors.
From Al Jazeera:
Police say suspects were planning a cash truck heist and were responsible for similar crimes elsewhere in the country.
Officers in South Africa have killed 18 suspected robbers during a shootout in Limpopo province, according to police.
The suspects were believed to be planning a cash truck heist, also called a cash-in-transit (CIT) heist, and were responsible for similar crimes in other provinces, National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola said on Friday from the crime scene in South Africa’s northernmost province.
Also from Al Jazeera:
In West and Central Africa, military leaders are exploiting disenchantment with democratic leadership amid deteriorating economic conditions.
By Ope Adetayo
Lagos, Nigeria – Shortly after Ali Bongo, president of Gabon since 2009, was deposed by members of the Republican Guard, his personal security unit, he appeared in a short video, visibly frail and urging people to “make some noise” on his behalf.
Sitting on a chair against a backdrop of opulence that only a few Gabonese can aspire to, the long-term ruler of the oil-rich central African country looked helpless.
From Al Jazeera:
Dozens of civilians killed over DR Congo anti-UN protest
Graphic video from eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo is believed to show soldiers loading bodies into a truck, after dozens of people were killed ahead of a protest against UN peacekeepers.
From France24:
Niamey (Niger) (AFP) – Niger braced Friday for a weekend of planned anti-French rallies as tensions mount between the country's new military rulers and its traditional ally.
A coalition of civil society groups opposed to the presence of French forces in Niger has called a three-day sit-in, starting Friday.
The protest, organised by the M62 grouping, is set to take place in central Niamey to demand the departure of the French contingent.
Also from France24:
It happened Tuesday off a resort on Morocco's Western border. A group of at least four jet skiers setting off but only one returning back safe to tell the tale. Mohamed Kissi saying his Franco-Moroccan brother was shot dead when they strayed into Algerian waters. A second missing and presumed dead while there are unconfirmed reports that Algeria's detaining a third.
From Deutsche Welle:
Egypt's clampdown on political dissent increasingly includes family members of activists living abroad. The government has also admitted to leveraging the release of individual political prisoners for financial aid.
Criticism of Egypt's government is regularly voiced from abroad, but almost never from within the country, infamous as its security apparatus is for brutal crackdowns on political activists.
From Forbes:
Japan recorded its hottest summer on record in 2023, the agency’s meteorological agency said Friday, while Australia notched its hottest winter in the southern hemisphere, continuing a year of heat records seen across the globe as the Earth continues to heat up amid the impacts of climate change.
KEY FACTS
Japan’s average temperatures this summer were the “highest for summer since 1898,” when the country began keeping track, the country’s weather agency said, as reported by Agence France-Presse.
The temperature was on average 1.78 degrees Celsius (approximately 35 degrees Fahrenheit) above average temperatures, beating a previous record in 2010 of 1.08 degrees Celsius (approximately 34 degrees Fahrenheit) above average.
From Deutsche Welle:
Japan is arming itself like it never has before. The Defense Ministry has now asked for a nearly 12% budget increase this year, to finance the acquisition of warships and long range cruise missiles. If approved, it would be the second straight year of the new five-year military build-up plan that was approved in December last year.
The request to increase the defense budget as part of that plan, came a day after Japan's top uniformed officer, General Yoshihide Yoshida warned that the neglected state of the country's Self-Defence Forces had put it's very sovereignty in jeopardy.
From NBC:
India led regional protests to the map, which lays claim to disputed territory in the Himalayas, as well as almost all of the strategically important South China Sea.
By Jennifer Jett
HONG KONG — From the peaks of the Himalayan mountains to the shoals of the South China Sea, China lays claim to a vast territory — and a new national map produced by Beijing is the latest expansive conception of its borders to outrage its neighbors.
The Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan and India, all of which have territorial disputes with China, have objected to the 2023 version of the country’s “standard map,” released Monday by the Chinese Ministry of Natural Resources.
From NextShark (via Yahoo! News):
Miss Fitness Vietnam 2022 runner-up Lê Phương Thảo has spoken out after stirring controversy by expressing support for "sugar dating."
How it started: Lê, 29, drew backlash on Wednesday for a video she posted on social media where she reportedly said she supports “women being 'sugar babies,' as long as you don't interfere in any marriage.” She reasoned that older men have already established their finances and careers, while younger men are still building theirs.
From CNN:
By Helen Regan and Kocha Olarn
Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn has reduced the prison sentence of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra from eight years to one, in a remarkable turn of events that caps an extraordinary decades-long political saga.
Thaksin, the head of a famed political dynasty who had dramatically returned to Thailand from a 15-year self-imposed exile last week, submitted a request for a royal pardon, the country’s outgoing justice minister confirmed Thursday.
From Vatican News:
Mongolian culture for Pope Francis' visit
At the Mongol culture park in Nalajh, 40 kilometres from Ulanbataar, Mongolians enchant the papal entourage with their dance, music, singing a horsemanship and and bokh, an ancient fighting style.
From Quartz:
The Bangladesh government has brought an onslaught of legal cases against Muhammad Yunus over the last decade
Among foreign economists and civil society activists, the Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus is an icon for extending microloans to those too poor to access conventional banks. But at home, in Bangladesh, he has been increasingly vilified—and now faces time in prison.
Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh’s prime minister, has routinely torn into Yunus, calling him a “bloodsucker” of the poor for coercing loan repayments, and even blaming him for the World Bank’s 2012 decision to withdraw from a crucial bridge project. Most recently, Yunus and his associates at Grameen Telecom—separate from Grameen Bank, his pioneering microfinance institution—have been put on trial in a labor law violations case.
From the BBC:
India is set to launch its first observation mission to the Sun, just days after the country made history by becoming the first to land near the Moon's south pole.
Aditya-L1 is due to blast off from the launch pad at Sriharikota on Saturday at 11:50 India time (06:20GMT).
From Deutsche Welle:
Florian SchmitzAugust 31, 2023
The wildfires raging in northern Greece are causing unprecedented devastation to nature reserves and livelihoods. Some Greeks have accused migrants of starting the blaze.
Valia Kelidou still can't get to grips with what has happened.
Before the wildfire came, her family owned over 12,000 olive trees on the outskirts of the city of Alexandroupolis in northern Greece. Now, many of the trees have been reduced to smoking, black stumps, and the ground in the olive grove is covered in a fine layer of white ash. Although the fire has long since moved on, the acrid stench of smoke and burning still hangs in the air.
From Reuters:
ROME, Sept 1 (Reuters) - The death of a mother bear shot near a national park in central Italy, leaving two cubs to fend for themselves, has drawn condemnation from animal rights groups and politicians.
The bear was killed on late on Thursday on the outskirts of the town of San Benedetto dei Marsi, the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise said on Facebook on Friday, also releasing a picture that was circulating widely on social media.
From CNN:
By Nadine Schmidt
A 98-year-old former Nazi concentration guard has been indicted on charges of aiding and abetting the murder of more than 3,300 people during the Holocaust, German authorities said on Friday.
The man’s name was not made public by prosecutors, in accordance with German privacy laws.
From The Hill:
by Nick Robertson
Christie’s announced Friday it is canceling an upcoming auction of a late Austrian billionaire’s jewels after “intense scrutiny” over ties to Nazi Germany.
Heidi Horten’s jewel collection was scheduled for its second auction this November after the initial May sale was also criticized over her late husband’s membership in the Nazi party.
From the NY Times:
But the city is adding bike lanes, and scooter companies are shifting their focus to electric bikes. E-scooters were involved in accidents resulting in the deaths of three people in Paris last year.
By Juliette Guéron-Gabrielle
As Paris’s experiment with e-scooters came to an end on Friday, Anne-Marie Moreno set out on her morning walk feeling just a little more peaceful. Ms. Moreno, a 78-year-old retiree who was knocked over by a man riding an electric scooter a few years back, was luxuriating in the calm of her neighborhood.
She didn’t come across a single person on an e-scooter.
From ART News:
A spate of cultural vandalism continued earlier this year when part of a buried Stone Age monument in Wales was crudely excavated and left to the elements.
Julian Baker, a 52-year-old man from Abertridwr, Caerphilly, filmed himself unearthing the 4,500-year-old relic on Eglwysilan mountain and posted the video to Facebook, according to local heritage officials. In a first prosecution of its sort in Wales, Baker has been ordered to pay £4,400 (roughly $5,600) for its restoration. Additionally, he was given a four-month custodial sentence, suspended for two years, at the Magistrates Court in Wales, according to the BBC.