Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Interceptor7, Magnifico, annetteboardman, jck, and Besame. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Man Oh Man, wader, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck, 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.
Photos of the week come from CNN, the Washington Post, BBC-Africa, and The Atlantic, and here are photos of the Earth Science Week competition released this week.
There really isn’t much going on in the UK other than the vote on Saturday for Boris’s Brexit deal. If you want to read up on it, the latest news is available through The Guardian. News updates are pretty regular.
We begin with the other lead story in the UK:
Activist Ben Atkinson scales scaffolding on Houses of Parliament without ropes
An Extinction Rebellion activist scaled Big Ben’s tower and unfurled banners calling for action on the climate emergency after a day of protest that marked the culmination of the group’s fortnight-long “October rebellion”.
The organisation said Ben Atkinson, a 43-year-old tree surgeon, climbed scaffolding surrounding the clock tower without ropes. Wearing a jacket and tie, and what appeared to be a Boris Johnson-type wig, he hung two large banners, reading: “No pride on a dead planet” and “Citizens Assembly”.
From the BBC:
By Stav Dimitropoulos
Jannis Athinaios is preparing to sell his merchandise, an assortment of fresh red mullets, red snappers, white sea bream and blunt-snouted mullets, at the sun-washed port of Nea Makri, a coastal town 25km northeast of Athens.
For 31 years he has been fishing in the South Euboean Gulf, mainly at night, heading to Nea Makri's port at noon to sell his catch, either to local restaurants or his many loyal clients.
And one final environmental story, this from The Guardian:
Photographer Robin Hinsch travelled to the Niger delta, visiting the gas flaring sites, artisanal refineries, and meeting the communities living in the hugely polluted environments caused by the oil industry
Covering 70,000 sq km (27,000 sq miles) of wetlands, the Niger delta was formed primarily by sediment deposition. It is home to more than 30 million people and 40 different ethnic groups, making up 7.5% of Nigeria’s total land mass.
More protests, coverage from The Washington Post:
A day after protests engulfed Lebanon’s capital and other cities, demonstrations in which thousands demanded the resignation of corrupt government officials, Lebanon’s prime minister gave himself and his partners in government 72 hours to find a solution.
Addressing a nation rife with economic woes, Prime Minister Saad Hariri said others had placed obstacles in front of him since he had formed the new government, and in front of all efforts he has made to fix the country’s problems.
From The Guardian:
Isolated clashes break out during mass demonstrations that follow general strike
Earlier, workers in Catalonia downed tools, shops were closed and activists blocked roads in a general strike, while tens of thousands of people who marched from across the region began converging in Barcelona.
From The Washington Post:
BERLIN — In what could become one of Germany’s last Nazi trials, 93-year-old former SS guard Bruno Dey went on trial on Thursday on 5,230 counts of accessory to murder.
The setting — a juvenile court in the northern German city of Hamburg — was an unlikely one for a pensioner in a wheelchair, but became necessary because the Dey was 17 years old when he committed the alleged crimes in the final stages of World War II. He faces a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.
From The Guardian:
Dutch media report that 67-year-old was former member of movement known as Moonies
The 67-year-old man, who has not been identified by Dutch police but was named by the movement, often known as the Moonies, as Gerrit-Jan van Dorsten, was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of “depriving people of their liberty, harming the health of others and money laundering”, police said in a statement.
From the BBC:
Egypt has banned a pilot for life for allowing celebrity and actor Mohamed Ramadan to sit in the cockpit during a private flight to Saudi Arabia.
The actor and singer posted a video of himself sat in the co-pilot's seat, holding the controls, as someone else commented he's "driving the plane now".
The pilot has had his licence revoked, and the co-pilot was also reportedly banned for a year over the incident.
From Al Jazeera (video):
South African politician Baleka Mbete on corruption, xenophobia and whether the ANC has lived up to its promises.
In this episode of Head to Head, Mehdi Hasan challenges African National Congress (ANC) stalwart Baleka Mbete on whether, in the 25 years since apartheid, her party has betrayed Nelson Mandela's legacy and the dreams of South Africa's rainbow nation.
From France24 (Agence France Presse):
While Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was praised for efforts to end years of bitter tension with Eritrea in his Nobel Peace Prize award last week, his Eritrean partner in the peace-making has conspicuously failed to offer his congratulations.
Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki was acknowledged for accepting Abiy's peace offer in the Norwegian Nobel Committee's announcement, which held out hope of "positive change" in both countries. But he was not given a share of the prize and has made no public statement on the award.
From Al Jazeera:
Women endure the greatest financial hardships in Argentina, and their plight is being pushed onto the election agenda.
Buenos Aires, Argentina- A year ago, Mariana had her hands full, working 12-hour days as a seamstress at a textile factory and raising five children in Villa 21-24, an impoverished settlement on the margins of Buenos Aires.
As Argentina's recession worsened, her clients dwindled along with her work hours and pay. In March, her boss told her he could no longer afford to keep her.
From the Straits Times:
TOKYO (REUTERS) - When Japan's youngest prince, Hisahito, visited Bhutan in August on his first overseas trip just months after his uncle Naruhito became emperor, his trip was regarded as the debut of a future monarch on the world stage.
Greeting his hosts in a traditional "hakama" kimono and trying his hand at archery, the visit was rare public exposure for the boy on whose shoulders the future of the monarchy rests.
And now for news of the arts, beginning with CNN:
(CNN) —
For more than a century, the secretive imperial palace complex has stood over Ethiopia's capital city of Addis Ababa, closed off to everyone but the country's leaders and the troops who protected them.
Almost hidden from view on a wooded bluff, its forbidding 40-acre compound was unknown even to some of those living beneath it. Behind its walls, plots were hatched, conquests planned and dark deeds executed.
From Al Jazeera:
Tunisian singer-songwriter whose songs soundtracked the 2011 Arab awakening joins The Stream to showcase her new album.
"I am the secrets that will never die / I am the voice of those who would not give in" – the words of Emel Mathlouthi’s 'Kelmti Horra ' ('My Word Is Free') retain their singular power more than eight years after it expressed the hopes of millions of people looking for major political change in Tunisia and the wider Arab world.
Mathlouthi grew up in Tunis during the rule of Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali. Her early performances in schools and colleges voiced the frustrations of young people unhappy at the lack of opportunity across Tunisia under the Ben Ali government, which promptly banned her songs from the airwaves as they became popular. After a three-year spell in France, she returned to Tunis in late 2010 – and was on the ground when millions of Tunisians held a series of protests that mushroomed into wider ‘awakening’ demonstrations across the Middle East and North Africa. Mathlouthi sang on the streets – and ‘Kelmti Horra’ became an anthem.
From The Washington Post:
Alicia Alonso, a ballet star known for her impeccable technique and exuberant stage presence and who became a national heroine in her native Cuba after founding one of the country’s premiere cultural institutions, National Ballet of Cuba, died Oct. 17 at a hospital in Havana. She was 98.
Miguel Cabrera, an official of the National Ballet of Cuba, confirmed the death but did not provide a specific cause. She maintained a steel-like grip over the dance troupe as its leader until her death.
From the BBC:
By Peter Ball
A painting of the Mona Lisa hangs above a fireplace in a London flat in the 1960s. Is this picture not only by Leonardo da Vinci, but also an earlier version of the world famous portrait that hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris?
Some people are convinced it is, and more than 50 years later, a bitter battle has erupted over both the ownership of the picture and the evidence about who painted it.
From inews:
Want a piece of iconic street art to call your own? All you have to do is answer one simple question.
From selling artworks that self-destruct the moment they are purchased to setting up art gallery exhibits that never officially open, Banksy is forever finding ways to surprise his fans.
The mysterious street artist has subverted expectations once again by opening up an online store... with a twist.
While the store will be selling various Banksy-designed wares, including at least one of his most famous pieces, it won't quite operate like your average online shop.
Here's everything you need to know.
And from the Art Newspaper:
The Iranian artist's major exhibition opens at the Broad museum features new work addressing discrimination in Trump's America
Aimee Dawson
Shirin Neshat’s early life in the US was less American Dream and more brutal reality. The Iranian-born artist and film-maker was 17 in 1975 when she arrived in Los Angeles—and she hated it. The Hollywood glamour that had intoxicated her in the cinema of her small hometown of Qazvin, two hours outside of Tehran, was not what she encountered. “I was very, very homesick,” Neshat remembers. Later she moved north to study art at Berkeley, but she continued to feel lost—and, when it came to creating art, inept. After graduating and leaving California, Neshat stopped making art for ten years.