Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Doctor RJ, Magnifico and annetteboardman. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) wader, planter, JML9999, 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 12:00 AM Eastern Time.
Pictures of the week from Africa (BBC), the world of wildlife (The Guardian), of puppies (also from The Guardian),and from NBC News and Al Jazeera.
Elections are going on around the world. In Malaysia, from the Straits Times (AFP):
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - Sick of people sniping about his advancing years, Malaysia's 92-year-old ex-leader Mahathir Mohamad gatecrashed a forum where voters were discussing whether he was too old to return as prime minister.
"I am here guys. Say it to my face," tweeted a defiant Mahathir, who is seeking the top job again as the opposition's candidate in looming polls, with a picture of himself at the discussion late Thursday (March 22).
In Indonesia, also from The Straits Times:
BANDUNG (REUTERS) - A spate of mysterious attacks on Islamic clerics, schools and mosques in Indonesia in recent weeks has ramped up tensions as the world's most populous Muslim-majority country heads into provincial elections this year and a presidential poll next year.
Intelligence and Islamic officials believe that political forces are behind what they describe as a shadowy "black campaign" designed to whip up fear that Islam itself is under siege under the leadership of President Joko Widodo.
And they have our problems, as in the Kenyan elections (from The Hill):
- The managing director of data analysis firm Cambridge Analytica was covertly filmed by U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 describing his company's sway over Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta's previous two election campaigns.
- The firm worked on "just about every element" of Kenyatta's bid to be elected, he said.
- Fake news and misinformation impacted Kenya's 2017 elections like never before, as exposure to smartphones and social media has grown quickly in the country, a Nairobi-based data analysis firm told CNBC.
The managing director of Cambridge Analytica, the data analysis firm at the center of a firestorm over its sway in multiple elections, was filmed describing its dominant role in Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta's election campaigns in 2013 and 2017.
"We have rebranded the entire party twice, written their manifesto, done two rounds of 50,000 (participant) surveys," Mark Turnbull, MD of Cambridge Analytica Political Global, was covertly filmed saying by U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 in a report aired this week.
From Ahram Online:
Less than a week before Egypt's presidential election, the sole competitor against incumbent President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi for the highest office in the country maintains he is entering the race to win, although he acknowledges many Egyptians still don't know him.
Over the past weeks, Cairo’s streets, highways and public places have been festooned with banners and billboards proclaiming their support for El-Sisi; public declarations of support for Moussa Mostafa Moussa, the head of the Ghad Party, have been harder to spot.
In crime news, we have this from the (UK) Independent:
Pair 'showed a lack of judgement and sensitivity', force admits
The Metropolitan Police have apologised after two officers tweeted a selfie from the scene of a murder in east London.
Uniformed officers from Newham’s Forest Gate North team posted the image from the Stratford Centre shopping complex on Thursday, the morning after a young man had been stabbed to death.
And from The Guardian as well:
- Doctors say baby is stable but relying on breathing machine
- Tragic case renews focus on Paraguay’s strict abortion laws
Santi Carneri in Asunción
A 14-year-old rape victim has died during childbirth in Paraguay, where abortion is forbidden unless giving birth threatens the life of the mother.
Her baby is stable but relying on a breathing machine, the medical team told the Guardian. The girl, who has not been named, had been hospitalized for 20 days because of pregnancy complications when she went into labor.
A 37-year-old man who raped and impregnated the girl was arrested on Thursday, according to Ricardo González Borgne, the head of the the National Secretariat for Children and Adolescents (SNNA).
Other news, this from The Guardian:
Mark Hillsden
Durum wheat varieties can withstand 40C heat along the Senegal River basin, and could produce 600,000 tonnes of food.
In the northern Senegalese village of Ndiayene Pendao, close to the border with Mauritania, Fatouma Sow is pulling weeds. Her team of female farmers tread carefully among the tall, ripening plants as they prepare to harvest the country’s first ever crop of durum wheat.
They had grown onions and tomatoes on the one-hectare plot (2.47 acres), Sow explains, but the crops took too long to grow and disrupted the essential rice growing season. Now the wheat offers a fast-growing, lucrative alternative.
And this from The Toronto Star:
The city says there are “significant” arrears on the university’s account, which York disputes.
Also from The Toronto Star:
The spread of TB in most parts of Canada and other developed countries has been contained for decades. This is in sharp contrast to Inuit Nunangat — the Inuit homeland — where the rate of TB among Inuit in 2016 was more than 300 times higher than in the Canadian-born, non-Indigenous population, and is trending upwards.
Natan Obed and Jane Philpot
Tuberculosis (TB) is the world’s leading cause of death by infectious disease, claiming over 4,500 lives each day. TB is considered a “social disease” because societal and economic factors like poverty, malnutrition, and substandard or overcrowded housing contribute to its transmission.
And a video from the BBC:
Part of a highway has collapsed after a crack opened up in Kenya’s Rift Valley.
Several families have been evacuated from the Suswa area in the south-western part of the country.
Now on to the Art news, beginning with this from Ad Week:
Eric Hirshberg directs the Hammer's self-deprecating comedy
Museums are often pretty humorless when it comes to their artwork. It’s rare for them to acknowledge that art can be confusing—particularly conceptual art, where the artist’s choices can seem self-indulgent or bafflingly arbitrary.
But the Hammer Museum at UCLA leans into that confusion in an amusing new short film made by some A-list talent in front of, and behind, the camera.
From Quartzy:
If you had near-endless amounts of money, what would you spend it on? Every year, global real estate consultancy Knight Frank and real estate firm Douglas Elliman dig into this question and compile the answers in The Wealth Report, which was unveiled in New York this week.
The report highlights the spending patterns of the world’s ultra high net worth individuals (UHNWI)—those with investable assets of at least $30 million—from the property they purchase to the size of their yachts. And while it’s no surprise that UHNWIs like expensive things, the report does reveal a few unexpected details.
And finally, from the Iceland Monitor:
The incredible art collection by artist Samúel Jónsson in Selárdalur, North Iceland, has inspired awe and wonder by everyone who visits it. Now, a society has been formed to save the statues by the artist, who passed away in 1969 and to restore his house and make it a m museum at the edge of the habitable world.
There are fourteen days left of the fundraiser and 33 percent of the total of money required has yet to be raised. Sólveig Ólafsdóttir, one of the founders of the society says speaking to mbl.is that all restoration has been done by volunteers. The next town´, Bíldudalur is some 25 kilometres away and it's neccessary to have amenities for the volunteers.