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 (RIP), 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.
Let’s begin with COVID news, from CNN:
(CNN) —
The United Nations recognizes 193 countries in the world. And it seems like every one (along with numerous territories and observer states) has its own approach to travel and tourism during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Some tourism favorites, such as Turkey, have been welcoming visitors for months now with not too much in the way of restrictions. Other destinations have opened their doors partially and cautiously. That would include Argentina, which just recently started allowing citizens of only bordering countries to visit.
From NPR:
Mahua Barve lives in Frankfurt, Germany, with her husband, a son in first grade and twin daughters in kindergarten. All three children are currently attending school full time and in person. That's despite a coronavirus surge that has led Germany to shut down restaurants, bars, theaters, gyms, tattoo parlors and brothels (which are legal in the country) for November. Schools were allowed to remain open.
From Time Magazine:
Eight months after the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic, COVID-19 is reaching the last places on Earth that remained untouched by the coronavirus.
On Wednesday, Vanuatu, a Pacific island nation about 1,200 miles northeast of Australia, reported its first COVID-19 case. Two other countries in the Pacific Ocean, the Marshall Islands and Solomon Islands, reported their first infections in October. In Samoa, workers who serviced a ship with COVID-19-positive crew members are in quarantine.
From The Guardian:
Student who tested positive on Thursday was genomically linked to defence cluster, but city may reintroduce masks on public transport next week
New Zealand will stay at alert level one but mandatory mask-wearing on public transport in Auckland and on flights may return next week after a new community case was confirmed on Thursday.
Auckland, which was partially shut down on Friday with about 100,000 people asked to work from home, has reopened and weekend events can go ahead, though the Covid response minister, Chris Hipkins, has urged people to be cautious.
From The Guardian:
People encouraged to stay at home for Hindu festival, with Delhi particularly affected
Diwali celebrations in India have taken a more sombre tone this year, as the double spectres of the pandemic and pollution cast a shadow over festivities.
The Hindu festival of light is the most important celebration of the year for many in India and this weekend would usually be marked by raucous parties and fireworks displays.
From the NY Times:
The growing tensions in the disputed territory threaten the fragile truce that has been in place there since 1991.
CAIRO — Morocco has launched a military operation in a United Nations-patrolled buffer strip in Western Sahara, escalating tensions in the contested territory and threatening a fragile truce that has held in the region for almost three decades.
Authorities in Morocco said on Friday that their forces had moved into the buffer strip, at the Guerguerat zone, following weeks of “provocations” from members of the Polisario Front, a pro-independence movement.
From CBS News:
A wooden boat carrying migrants bound for Europe capsized off the coast of Libya and 20 of them drowned, an international humanitarian group said. The statement from Doctors Without Borders late Thursday came just hours after it was revealed that another shipwreck had claimed the lives of at least 74 migrants in the Mediterranean Sea.
From the NY Times:
The secretary general of the governing African National Congress faces 21 charges including kickbacks and fraud, in a case likely to deepen divisions within the party.
From NBC:
"There is a risk this situation will spiral totally out of control, leading to heavy casualties and destruction," U.N. rights chief Michelle Bachelet said.
ADDIS ABABA — Fighting between Ethiopian government forces and rebellious northern leaders could spiral out of control and war crimes may have been committed, the United Nations said on Friday, as repercussions spread around the volatile Horn of Africa.
The 10-day conflict in Tigray region has killed hundreds, sent refugees flooding into Sudan, and raised fears it may suck in Eritrea or force Ethiopia to divert troops from an African force opposing al Qaeda-linked militants in Somalia.
From the Washington Post:
Jerry Rawlings, who as a young military officer orchestrated two coups to seize control of the government in Ghana, then led the African country for 20 years, guiding it through a period of relative stability with an idiosyncratic blend of autocratic rule and democratic reform, died Nov. 12 at a hospital in the capital city of Accra. He was 73.
From CBS News:
BY SOPHIE LEWIS
A town in northern Japan has recently been plagued by a plethora of wild bears, roaming around neighborhoods and petrifying residents. In an attempt to prevent attacks, the town of Takikawa has now installed terrifying robotic wolves to howl at the bears and scare them off, Reuters reports.
From The Guardian:
A small but vocal group have sharpened divisions and prompted a wave of vitriol against journalists
Helen Davidson in Taipei
Donald Trump’s refusal to concede the US presidential election has won some faraway support in
Hong Kong and Taiwan, where a small but noisy number of people are holding hope out for his eventual victory.
The US president’s attempt to cling to power has sharpened internal divisions in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement over its ties to the US Republican party, and prompted a wave of vitriol against journalists reporting or commenting on the US vote.
From CNN:
(CNN) —
Diwali, one of the most important festivals in India, commenced Thursday, with the main festivities due to take place on Saturday, November 14.
Each year, Hindus, Sikhs and Jains across the world celebrate Diwali. The festival symbolizes new beginnings and the triumph of good over evil, and light over darkness.
From CNBC:
KEY POINTS
- In strongly worded criticism, Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris this week said Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is making a “very big mess” in the Middle East by interfering around the region.
- A Turkish official said, “President Erdoğan leads our Nation accordingly and claims to the contrary are baseless.”
From CNN:
Pictures showed Cummings carrying a box as he left the Prime Minister's office at 10 Downing Street on Friday.
From NPR:
From CNN:
London (CNN) British serial killer Peter Sutcliffe has died in hospital aged 74 after contracting Covid-19, the UK Ministry of Justice said Friday.
Nicknamed the "Yorkshire Ripper" by the UK press, Sutcliffe was convicted in 1981 for murdering 13 women and attempting to murder seven others during a reign of terror in northern England between 1975 and 1980. He was serving a whole life term.
News of the Arts
From The Guardian:
Campaign to fund statue by sculptor Laury Dizengremel of the author in Richmond receives thousands of pounds after naked Wollstonecraft statue divides public
Alison Flood
After the controversial unveiling of a naked statue honouring Mary Wollstonecraft this week, plans to erect a public monument to a fully-clothed Virginia Woolf have gained fresh momentum.
Maggi Hambling’s Wollstonecraft sculpture in Newington Green, London, which depicts a silvery, naked woman, is intended to represent the “birth of a movement” rather than the writer known as the mother of feminism. But it has attracted a wave of criticism. The author Caroline Criado-Perez, who led the campaign for a statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square, described the decision-making process as “catastrophically wrong” and said the representation was “insulting” to Wollstonecraft.
From CBS News:
A sculpture in Palencia, Spain, is gaining attention around the world after it was restored. The sculpture, which once had human-like features, now looks like a cartoon character. Some people are comparing it to other botched restoration jobs in the country.
The sculpture, which is part of the ornate facade of an office building, went viral after Antonio Capel posted an image of it on Facebook, according to the Associated Press. Capel is a local artist who lives near the building. He told the AP a local florist tipped him off to the botched restoration job.
From the New York Times:
The architect David Adjaye discusses his plans for an institution to house the looted treasures on their to return to Nigeria.
Ever since, there have been hopes of bringing them back from Western museums.