Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Doctor RJ, rfall, JML9999 and Man Oh Man with guest editors annetteboardman and Chitown Kev. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke 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 12:00AM Eastern Time. Or, if it is me and it is Friday night, it might be a little later (sorry).
We begin with the environmental news from East Asia, from Audrey Tan in Singapore’s Straits Times:
Driest March, with little respite ahead
In other environmental news, John Elder writes for the Sunday Explainer in the Sydney Morning Herald:
Fairy circles in Australia: Sunday Explainer
Wow, like I heard all these sweet little fairies floated over to West Australia on a shimmering breeze from Africa and they've decorated the desert with their magic circles, yeah?
Well, that's one more theory among many. There are a number of naturally occurring phenomena called fairy circles: the perfect rings of mushrooms in the woods where pixies and elves get it on in the moonlight; the exotically tattooed circle of swirls in the grasses of Iceland.
The fairy circles making news are those found in Namibia – perfect circles of bare earth bordered by a fringe of grass, like eyelashes. The plains are dotted with millions, arranged in a honeycomb formation, giving the suggestion they've been created as a giant abstract piece of art that can be seen only from the air. They were long believed to be a strictly African happening. And now they've turned up in the Pilbara, near the mining town of Newman in West Australia. Spooky.
And the last item about Australia was covered across the internet. This comes from designboom:
bruce munro illuminates australia’s vast desert landscape in a field of light
at ayers rock resort in australia, british artist bruce munro has installed a ‘field of light’ that illuminates the vast desert landscape. marking his largest project to date, this immersive work — the most recent in a series of monumental light-based installations — comprises more than 50,000 slender stems, crowned with frosted-glass spheres. the sculpture stretches to an area the size of four football fields just beside
uluru — the monumental sandstone monolith in the heart of the red centre desert. throughout the day, the semi-transparent solar-powered spheres collect and store sunlight, coming alive by night through a network of illuminated optical fibre threads. the labyrinth of color forms pathways that lead viewers through the landscape, as well as the installation’s dynamic abyss.
From ABC news Australia’s South Asia correspondent James Bennett:
Hepatitis C sufferer warns 'hundreds of thousands will die' if India changes patent law in trade deal
India, sometimes dubbed "pharmacy to the developing world", is facing pressure to change strict patent laws as it negotiates a trade deal with Europe.
That would make it easier for drug companies to prevent the generic manufacture of medicines widely used to combat diseases like hepatitis and HIV, putting them out of reach for many.
When Australian Greg Jefferys found out he had hepatitis C two years ago, the cost of treatment rocked him more than the diagnosis.
"There was a new drug out that could cure it completely, but at the cost of $100,000," he said.
"Then I heard that the same drug in generic form was available in India, and it only cost $1,200.
"So I went to India and bought it, and now I'm cured."
From Egypt, news of anti-corruption fight, by Rania Rabeaa Elabd, via Al Monitor:
Will Egyptian parliament cut into the military's profit margin?
Egypt's politicians are preparing to do battle against its army. A number of lawmakers in the country's recently elected parliament are working on laws designed to provide answers to questions about the army's money and its place in the national budget.
“Armies are the basis of the administration and the administration is everything,” Maj. Gen. Mahmoud Nasr said at a conference four years ago on the role of the Egyptian Armed Forces (EAF) in supporting the economy through the institution’s many projects. At the same conference, held in Cairo and organized by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, he stressed that the so-called "army economy" is not derived from state funds, but rather from returns on Ministry of Defense projects.
Tom Brant, writing in PCmag.com:
Unable to Spy on Its Users, Egypt Banned Facebook's Free Basics
The Egyptian government apparently wanted to use the service to conduct surveillance.
Egypt turned off Facebook's free Internet service in December 2015 because the country's government could not spy on the browsing activities of citizens using the service, according to
Reuters.
Facebook's Free Basics, an effort to extend Internet access to the developing world, launched in Egypt in October and was suspended Dec. 30. Reuters said it talked to "two sources with direct knowledge of discussions between Facebook and the Egyptian government," who said that "Free Basics was blocked because the company would not allow the government to circumvent the service's security to conduct surveillance."
It's unclear what surveillance access the Egyptian government asked of Facebook. A spokesperson from Egypt's ministry of communication said only that Free Basics was blocked because it presented unfair competition for existing Internet service providers.
Derek Gatopoulos (Associated Press), in the Detroit News:
EU prepares to deport refugees back to Turkey
Athens, Greece – — Greece is pressing ahead with plans to start deporting migrants and refugees back to Turkey next week, despite mounting concern from the United Nations and human rights organizations that Syrians could be denied proper protection while some are allegedly even being forced back into their war-torn country.
Lawmakers in Athens Friday voted 169-107 to back draft legislation, fast-tracked through parliament, to allow the returns to start as soon as Monday.
The operation would see migrants and refugees who arrived on Greek islands after March 20 put on boats and sent back to Turkey.
Justin Salhani, in Think Progress, on the same topic:
Despite EU Deal, Turkey Is Not A Safe Place For Refugees
A day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke about Turkey’s benevolent reception of refugees during a trip to Washington, D.C., a new report from Amnesty International shows that many Syrians who have sought refuge in the country are actually being mass deported back to Syria.
“New research carried out by the organization in Turkey’s southern border provinces suggests that Turkish authorities have been rounding up and expelling groups of around 100 Syrian men, women and children to Syria on a near-daily basis since mid-January,” Amnesty International reported on Friday in a press release. “Over three days last week, Amnesty International researchers gathered multiple testimonies of large-scale returns from Hatay province, confirming a practice that is an open secret in the region.”
Lucy Shouten, in the Christian Science Monitor, on a different story from Turkey:
Turkey's all-women news agency works for change in the Middle East
A Turkish news agency run entirely by women takes a bold stand for gender equality and press freedom in a region that suppresses both.
Journalists have long been the targets of harassment and even death threats in Turkey. Yet one Turkish news organization is persisting despite tenacious setbacks.
Its website has been blocked four times for "supporting terrorism," and one reporter served three months in jail for covering a political demonstration. But the agency's aim goes one step beyond media freedom — it wants to give women a larger voice in the region by emphasizing and prioritizing their stories.
The Jin News Agency (JINHA) is completely staffed by women, offering news coverage of Turkey, Iraq, and Syria in multiple languages. ("Jin" means "woman" in Kurdish.) It's a strong mandate in a region known for its gender inequality that is also staggering under the weight of conflict.
Moving to the other side of Europe, this article by John Lichfield comes from The Independent:
French people more keen on Brexit than Britons - but still most want UK to stay in Europe
French impatience with Britain’s semi-detached attitude to the EU is thought to be growing
Almost half of French people would be delighted to say au revoir if Britain votes to leave the European Union in June, according to a new poll.
The survey suggests that a Brexit is marginally more popular in France (45 per cent in favour) than it is in Britain (44 per cent). However, a majority of people in five large EU countries, including Britain and France, supports continued UK membership, according to the Odoxa study.
The survey, conducted in early March, put British support for continued UK membership at 55 per cent and French support at 54 per cent. In both cases, only 1 per cent of those polled said they had no opinion.
Jamie Merrill, also in the Independent, on the situation in the Falklands:
Falkland Islands left with no Royal Navy warship protection for first time since 1982 conflict
Defence failures emerge as dispute with Argentina over islands escalates
The Falkland Islands have been left without the protection of a British frigate or destroyer for the first time since the conflict in 1982, The Independent can reveal.
The Royal Navy has been committed to providing a “permanent presence” of a major warship in the South Atlantic since a naval taskforce liberated the Falkland Islands from Argentinian occupation 34 years ago.
However a manpower crisis, a need to deploy vessels to monitor Russian naval movements closer to home and a string of engine problems with the Royal Navy’s much-vaunted Type 45 destroyers has meant that no warship has been dispatched to the South Atlantic since a frigate returned from the region in November 2015.
The penultimate story comes from the Straits Times, from writers Dominic Teo, Ng Huiwen, and Pang Xue Qiang:
'Printing error' on packaging suggests China-brewed drink is 'imported' from Germany
It is nothing to raise a glass to.
Beer drinkers find it hard to swallow that the six-pack Beck's premium beer, whose cardboard packaging suggests it is "imported" from Germany, was brewed in China.
"They're fooling us by insinuating it's imported from Germany," said 43-year-old Mr Tadeusz Jankowski, who has been a fan of the pilsner for more than a decade.
The British expatriate, who runs a sports website, added: "It's priced in the same range as premium imported beers, so you would expect good ingredients from Germany."
Carlsberg Singapore, the official distributor of Beck's, said it was an isolated incident involving a "technical printing error" on the outer label of its six-can pack.
And to end on a more cheery note, this last from Lizzie Dearden in The Independent:
April Fools' Day 2016: Some of the best fake news reports
Newspapers around the world have been fooling their readers
Newspapers around the world have been pushing the boundaries of plausibility for
April Fools' Day, with hilarious results.
From heated Cornish beaches to a new Union Flag - here are some of the best fake reports.