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, 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.
On Friday nights I like to focus on news from outside the United States. We begin tonight with the BBC:
A timelapse video has captured a volcano in Iceland spewing ash and clouds of smoke against the backdrop of the Northern Lights.
The volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula has erupted several times this year, leading to a state of emergency being declared in southern Iceland in March.
From NBC News:
Some beloved cheeses “could disappear,” owing to a decline in the strains of fungus that give them their unique taste, smell, color and texture, France’s science agency says.
By Josh Lederman and Briony Sowden
CAMEMBERT, France — On a tiny farm tucked into the lush, green hillside of Normandy, Aude Sementzeff heats raw milk from cows up the hill until it curdles, then scoops it into molds to make a round, pearly white Camembert cheese.
For eight years, Sementzeff has been making the earthy, soft cheese in small batches to be sold in Paris stores, continuing a tradition that dates to the 18th century. So ubiquitous is Camembert in France that soldiers in the trenches of World War I ate it as part of their daily rations.
From the NY Post:
They wanna Pisa the action.
There’s another leaning tower in Italy — but this time, officials are worried about a dangerous collapse.
The 12th-century catastrophe-in-waiting is the Torre Garisenda, standing tall at 148-foot on a four-degree bend — for now — at the heart of Bologna.
More below the fold...
First up is Easter news. We begin with Crux:
ROME – In a service Friday commemorating Jesus’s suffering and death on the cross, papal preacher Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa said his sacrifice was for everyone, no exception, and was illustrative of God’s true power, found not in might, but in loving sacrifice.
Speaking during a March 28 Good Friday Passion service in St. Peter’s Basilica, Cantalamessa, 89, noted how Jesus in the Gospels told his disciples, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”
From Al Jazeera:
During Gaza war, usual crowds of international worshippers are absent, and Palestinians face ‘unprecedented’ restrictions.
As Christians around the world prepare to celebrate Easter, Palestinians in the land that birthed the religion are facing severe restrictions on entering Jerusalem’s Old City to mark the occasion.
While at least 200 leaders from the occupied West Bank have been given permits to enter the area, their congregations are not being allowed access to participate in the services, said Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem.
From Reuters:
Catholic devotees were nailed to crosses in sweltering heat north of the Philippines capital Manila on Good Friday in a re-enactment of Jesus Christ's crucifixion.
Around 20,000 Filipino and foreign tourists flocked to San Pedro Cutud village in Pampanga province to witness this annual display of devotion, which the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines frowns upon.
Now the rest of the news. From NDTV:
Mr Maalouf has over 1.4 million subscribers on YouTube. He is famous for exploring dangerous places that are void of general tourism.
American YouTuber Addison Pierre Maalouf, popularly known as YourFellowArab or Arab, has allegedly been kidnapped in Haiti by one of the gangs that become its de facto rulers. According to the New York Post, the Georgia-based YouTuber had travelled to the violence-stricken country to interview the nation's most notorious gang leader, Jimmy "Barbecue" Cherizier. However, just 24 hours after he arrived in Haiti, Mr Maalouf and a Haitian colleague were taken by members of the 400 Mawozo gang on March 14.
According to The Post, the YouTuber is being held for a $600,000 ransom, and even though $40,000 has already been paid, the kidnappers are continuing to demand a large sum of money to secure Mr Maalouf's release.
From NBC News (AP):
In the tourist city of Taxco, a mob brutally beat a woman to death Thursday because she was suspected of kidnapping and killing a young girl.
TAXCO, Mexico — A mob in the Mexican tourist city of Taxco brutally beat a woman to death Thursday because she was suspected of kidnapping and killing a young girl, rampaging just hours before the city’s famous Holy Week procession.
The mob formed after an 8-year-old girl disappeared Wednesday. Her body was found on a road on the outskirts of the city early Thursday. Security camera footage appeared to show a woman and a man loading a bundle, which may have been the girl’s body, into a taxi.
From CNN:
The Horizontal Falls are one of Australia’s strangest natural attractions, a unique blend of coastal geography and powerful tidal forces that visitors pay big money to see up close.
But all that is about to change.
Also from CNN:
By Hilary Whiteman
Emotions were running high in the Australian town of Alice Springs this week when mourners attending the funeral of an 18-year-old man attacked its oldest pub, smashing windows and kicking doors.
For Northern Territory officials, Tuesday’s violence – and clashes later that night involving around 150 people armed with axes, machetes and knives – was the final straw.
From the NY Times:
The monitors have provided vivid evidence of how Russia is keeping Pyongyang brimming with fuel and other goods, presumably in return for weapons that Russia can use in Ukraine.
Through the most tense encounters with President Vladimir V. Putin’s Russia over the past decade, there has been one project in which Washington and Moscow have claimed common cause: keeping North Korea from expanding its arsenal of nuclear weapons.
Now, even that has fallen apart.
From the BBC:
In Loyob, they do not believe anyone from their village was capable of taking part in the jihadist massacre at Moscow's Crocus City Hall.
But Faridun Shamsiddin is now one of four Tajik citizens held in a Moscow jail suspected of murdering at least 143 people last week. The 25-year-old is also accused of recruiting two other men to help the gunmen.
He left Loyob, about 40km north-west of the capital Dushanbe, several months ago in search of work in Russia.
From the Associated Press:
A Moscow court on Friday ordered a Russian journalist who covered the trials of late Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny and other dissidents to remain in custody pending an investigation and trial on charges of extremism.
Antonina Favorskaya, also identified by court officials as Antonina Kravtsova, was arrested earlier in March. On Friday, Moscow’s Basmanny District Court ordered that she remain in pre-trial detention at least until May 28.
From The Guardian:
Polish prime minister urges countries to step up defence spending after Russian missile bound for Ukraine breaches airspace
The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, says Europe is entering a “prewar” era, cautioning that the continent is not ready and urging European countries to step up defence investment.
In an interview with a group of European newspapers reported by the BBC, Tusk said: “I don’t want to scare anyone, but war is no longer a concept from the past. It’s real and it started over two years ago.”
From CNN:
Key Points
- A win for the opposition on Sunday could set the country in a new direction, presenting a major challenge to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the AK Party’s decades-long hold on power.
- Erdogan himself rose to prominence as Istanbul mayor in the 1990s before later going on to win the presidency.
- Now he is pushing hard for his party’s mayoral candidate Murat Kurum, a 47-year-old former environment and urbanization minister.
From the BBC:
France is setting up a mobile security force for schools "experiencing difficulties", days after the headteacher of a Paris school resigned because of death threats.
The head was falsely accused of striking a student in a row over her wearing an Islamic headscarf in school.
Education Minister Nicole Belloubet said the mobile force was intended to reassure teachers and boost security.
From the Associated Press:
From the NY Times:
Jeffrey Donaldson, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party and a backer of strong ties with the U.K., has resigned after being arrested on Thursday.
Jeffrey Donaldson, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party and one of Northern Ireland’s most prominent and influential politicians, resigned his leadership of the party on Friday, after being charged with “historical” sex offenses.
The resignation, which sent shock waves through Northern Irish politics, was announced in a statement from the D.U.P., which said it was also suspending Mr. Donaldson as a party member pending a judicial process.
And a couple from Africa, with this from US News and World Report (Reuters):
Immediate action is needed to "prevent widespread death and total collapse of livelihoods and avert a catastrophic hunger crisis in Sudan," a United Nations-backed global authority on food security warned on Friday.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) had been due to issue an update to its December analysis that found nearly 5 million were on the verge of catastrophic hunger. But it was unable to do so due to the war.
From France 24:
Senegal's Constitutional Council on Friday confirmed the presidential election victory of opposition candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye, paving the way for his inauguration as the country's fifth president.
The top court validated provisional results announced on Wednesday based on vote tallies from 100% of polling stations, adding that no objections had been raised by the other contenders.
Faye won more than 54% of votes in last Sunday's delayed presidential poll, with ruling coalition candidate Amadou Ba taking over 35%.