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, JeremyBloom, and doomandgloom. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man (RIP), 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 since 2007, 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.
Pictures this week come from The Guardian:
The North Macedonian town celebrated the 1,400-year-old festival over two days. The part-pagan, part-satire carnival is believed to scare away evil spirits, and marks the beginning of the Julian calendar’s New Year.
From the Asahi Shimbun:
NAGAKUTE, Aichi Prefecture—The photo area featuring lifesize setups of Studio Ghibli scenes that guests can step into has been revamped for the first time since Ghibli Park opened here in 2022.
“If you’re interested (in the displays), I would like you to seek out and watch the featured films themselves, too,” said anime director Goro Miyazaki, who supervised the update.
From The Guardian:
Criticism comes after artist David Hockney described moving the 900-year-old treasure as ‘madness’
A leading art history expert who is one of the few people to have studied the Bayeux Tapestry up close has warned that its “extremely fragile” condition makes it “not worth” the risk of moving it to the British Museum.
Professor Shirley Ann Brown, who has spent decades researching the priceless 11th-century artwork, told The Independent her experience surveying the relic has left her convinced that the risks of transporting it to London from its home in Normandy, France, outweigh any rewards.
From the NY Times:
In Wajima, Japan, where hundreds of homes and studios were destroyed, master-class artisans are struggling to keep lacquer alive and nurture the next generation of creators.
Deep in his heart, Kazuo Yamagishi, a lacquer artist designated a Living National Treasure of Japan, does not reside in a nondescript beige apartment complex in a packed area of Kanazawa, the capital city of Ishikawa Prefecture on the country’s main island.
His real home, the one before he was displaced, is captured in a lacquer tray with delicately carved red lines inlaid with gold and mother-of-pearl stretching across the horizon of its ebony surface.
From Deutsche Welle:
As Hollywood doubles down on sequels, the contenders for the European Film Awards feature bold, political works that are challenging audiences and creating buzz far beyond the continent.
European cinema is having a moment — and not the kind engineered by marketing departments or toy companies.
As much of Hollywood doubles down on sequels, superheroes and slasher movies, the most vital films of the past year have come out of Europe. Not as escapist fantasy adapted from comic books, toys or video games, but as demanding, politically engaged stories aimed squarely at adults. These are films that assume viewers are willing to sit with ambiguity, moral discomfort and unresolved questions. They don't flatter their audiences; they challenge them.
From The Guardian:
Song that topped Swedish Spotify rankings ruled ineligible after elements of song revealed to be partly AI-made
A hit song has been excluded from Sweden’s official chart after it emerged the “artist” behind it was an AI creation.
I Know, You’re Not Mine – or Jag Vet, Du Är Inte Min in Swedish – by a singer called Jacub has been a streaming success in Sweden, topping the Spotify rankings.
From the NY Times Style Magazine:
No travel companion seems more essential than a phone. After all, it’s a camera, an alarm clock, a credit card, a translator and more. Unfortunately, it can also be the source of an eternal stream of work emails and Slack messages, an endless buffet of empty calories from social media and an entree into a psyche-crushing scroll of grim news. There’s a good argument to be made that it’s not actually your everyday life you need a vacation from — it’s your phone.
For those looking to truly disconnect during a getaway, a growing number of hotels, resorts and even entire islands — like Ulko-Tammio, in the eastern Gulf of Finland — have declared themselves phone-free zones. Vacations are “a good opportunity to try to reset your relationship with technology because you are going to be out of your normal routine,” says Catherine Price, the author, along with the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, of “How to Break Up With Your Phone, Revised Edition” (2025).
From The Guardian:
Todolí foundation produces varieties from Buddha’s hands to sudachi and hopes to help citrus survive climate change
It was on a trip with a friend to the east coast of Spain that the chef Matthew Slotover came across the “Garden of Eden”, an organic farm growing citrus varieties he had never heard of. The Todolí Citrus Foundation is a nonprofit venture and the largest private collection of citrus in the world with more than 500 varieties, and its owners think the rare fruit could hold the genetic secrets to growing citrus groves that can deal with climate change.
The farm yields far more interesting fruit than oranges and lemons for Slotover’s menu, including kumquat, finger lime, sudachi and bergamot.
The more depressing/serious stories are below the fold.
From the Asahi Shimbun:
A baby girl was born in the autumn 26 years ago in a working-class neighborhood of backstreet workshops and humble housing complexes in Yao, Osaka Prefecture.
She reportedly grew into a slim and fair-skinned young girl with an “okappa” bob haircut. Her name was Reina Iwamoto, and she referred to herself by her given name instead of speaking in the first person singular.
From Al Jazeera:
Guryong, on outskirts of South Korean capital, carries high fire risk due to cramped homes built with combustible materials, experts warn.
A massive blaze has swept through a shanty town on the outskirts of the South Korean capital, Seoul, destroying homes and sending residents fleeing.
Nearly 300 firefighters fought the fire on Friday as it threatened Guryong, an impoverished area of the affluent Gangnam district in southern Seoul. No injuries or deaths have been reported thus far.
From The Guardian:
Yoon Suk Yeol’s conviction for obstructing own arrest separate from main trial that could lead to death penalty
A South Korean court has sentenced former president Yoon Suk Yeol to five years in prison for mobilising presidential security forces to block his own arrest and abusing his powers. It is the first judicial ruling linked to the events surrounding his failed martial law declaration in December 2024.
The ruling is separate from Yoon’s main insurrection trial, where prosecutors earlier this week sought the death penalty and a verdict is due next month.
From DW:
Millions of Chinese people living in single households are using a new app that will notice if something happens to them. It was launched in 2025 and has since become hugely popular across China.
China's new paid app "Are You Dead?" lets people living alone check in with a single tap — and alerts contacts if they don't respond within 48 hours.
From Al Jazeera:
Environmental groups say government also holds responsibility for granting firms right to raze large tracts of land.
Indonesia’s government has filed multiple lawsuits seeking more than $200m in damages against six firms, after deadly floods wreaked havoc across Sumatra, killing more than 1,000 people last year, although environmentalists criticised the moves as inadequate.
Environmentalists, experts and the government pointed the finger at deforestation for its role in last year’s disaster that washed torrents of mud and wooden logs into villages across the northwestern part of the island.
From Al Jazeera:
Tiny The Gambia was the first to take another country to the ICJ as a third-party rights defender.
The Gambia’s attorney general and justice minister, Dawda A Jallow, told ICJ judges on Monday that the Rohingya were “targeted for destruction” by Myanmar’s government, as the case’s final hearing opened nearly a decade after the country’s military launched an offensive that forced some 750,000 Rohingya from their homes, mostly into neighbouring Bangladesh. The refugees recounted mass killings, rape and arson attacks.
Also from Al Jazeera:
Hindu groups insisted that Muslims shouldn’t benefit from institutions funded by Hindu charity.
India has shut down a medical college in Indian-administered Kashmir in an apparent capitulation to protests by right-wing Hindu groups over the admission of an overwhelming number of Muslim students into the prestigious course.
The National Medical Commission (NMC), a federal regulatory authority for medical education and practices, on January 6 revoked the recognition of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Medical Institute (SMVDMI), located in Reasi, a mountainous district overlooking the Pir Panjal range in the Himalayas, which separates the plains of Jammu from the Kashmir valley.
One more from Al Jazeera:
Multiple countries have shown interest in Pakistani weapons and jets. But Pakistan won’t find it easy to deliver, say analysts.
By Abid Hussain
Islamabad, Pakistan – By the standards of mega arms deals, the $1.5bn deal for Pakistan to reportedly sell jets and weapons to Sudan’s military isn’t huge.
But the deal, which the Reuters news agency reported in early January was close to being finalised, could prove pivotal in the grinding war that has devoured Sudan for nearly three years between the country’s armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
From DW:
One of the smallest members of the EU now holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU. The Cypriot government wants to promote European autonomy over the next six months.
Ship positions, weather data and emergency messages flash across monitors at the Cyprus Joint Rescue Coordination Center in the port town of Larnaca in southeastern Cyprus.
This is where Cyprus coordinates search and rescue operations in the eastern Mediterranean. It is also where the logistics of running a maritime corridor to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza are organized. Some 32,000 tons of humanitarian relief supplies aid from the European Union have been inspected in Cyprus' ports and shipped on to Gaza.
From DW:
A cartoon by the French satirical weekly portraying the deadly fire in Crans-Montana as the "comedy of the year" provokes disgust.
On average, the cartoons published on the Instagram account of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo get a few hundred reactions, but a recent drawing by cartoonist Eric Salch has prompted more than 15,000 social media users to express their dismay.
It was published as Switzerland observed a national day of mourning to commemorate the victims of the deadly fire in a bar in Crans-Montana on New Year's Eve, which killed 40 people, most of them teenagers. More than 110 others suffered injuries, some severe.
From DW:
Although largely Muslim, Kosovo is a secular state. While its constitution guarantees religious freedom, a government directive bans "religious uniforms" in public schools. For some, this is discriminatory.
In accordance with the country's constitution, Kosovo is a secular state that guarantees religious freedom.
From The Guardian:
Toby Ovens of Broughton Transport called Brexit a nightmare, and said he hoped a reset with the EU would mean ‘light at the end of the tunnel’
British vets have been forced to chase lorries down the motorway on their way to Dover due to the “pure hell” of Brexit paperwork needed by inspectors in Calais, MPs have been told.
Toby Ovens of Broughton Transport told the business and trade committee that Brexit has been a costly and logistic nightmare, and hopes of a reset with the EU represented “light at the end of the tunnel”.
Also from The Guardian:
Reform’s latest defector from the Tories is a politician whose eye has only ever been on his own ambition
It’s come down to this. Watch any reality TV show and it won’t be long before you hear the lead presenter talking about how each contestant has been on a journey. It’s as though we can’t survive without a narrative structure. An attempt to give emotional meaning to something fundamentally meaningless.
It feels as if everyone has to be on a journey now. If you’re not, then you’re somehow less interesting. Only half a person. Even our politicians are no longer exempt. In the last 24 hours there have been any number of talking heads lining up to tell us that Robert Jenrick has been on quite the journey. His former Tory colleagues. His new tribe at Reform. Even Honest Bob likes to talk about his journey. Makes him feel special and different. Important.
From ABC News:
U.S. President Donald Trump has turned Greenland into a geopolitical hotspot with his demands to own it
NUUK, Greenland -- U.S. President Donald Trump has turned the Arctic island of Greenland into a geopolitical hotspot with his demands to own it and suggestions that the U.S. could take it by force.
The island is a semiautonomous region of Denmark, and Denmark's foreign minister said Wednesday after a meeting at the White House that a “fundamental disagreement” remains with Trump over the island.
African news from Al Jazeera (which covers Africa very well):
National Unity Platform says opposition presidential candidate seized from his home a day after tense election.
Bobi Wine‘s political party says the Ugandan opposition presidential candidate has been “forcibly” removed from his home and taken to an “unknown destination” in an army helicopter.
The National Unity Platform made the announcement in a social media post on Friday, a day after Ugandans cast their ballots in a tense election that took place amid an internet blackout.
From The Guardian:
Soaking fabrics in a commonly used insect repellent is a simple and effective tool as mosquito bites become more common during daytime, study shows
From Africa to Latin America to Asia, babies have been carried in cloth wraps on their mothers’ backs for centuries. Now, the practice of generations of women could become a lifesaving tool in the fight against malaria.
Researchers in Uganda have found that treating wraps with the insect repellent permethrin cut rates of malaria in the infants carried in them by two-thirds.
From The Guardian:
The Uru Chipaya, one of South America’s most ancient civilisations, are battling drought, salinity and an exodus of their people as the climate crisis wreaks havoc on their land
In the small town of Chipaya, everything is dry. Only a few people walk along the sandy streets, and many houses look abandoned – some secured with a padlock. The wind is so strong that it forces you to close your eyes.
Chipaya lies on Bolivia’s Altiplano, 35 miles from the Chilean border. The vast plateau, nearly 4,000 metres above sea level, feels almost empty of people and animals, its solitude framed by snow-capped volcanoes. It raises the question: can anybody possibly live here?
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And one final item of global debate, from The Guardian:
Experts say central banks are increasingly stuffing their vaults as an insurance policy in a volatile world
Fifteen minutes after takeoff, the call came for Serbia’s central bank governor: millions of dollars’ worth of gold bars, destined for a high-security Belgrade vault, had been left on the runway of a Swiss airport.
In air freight – despite the extraordinary value of bullion – fresh flowers, food and other perishables still take priority. “We learned this the hard way,” Jorgovanka Tabaković told a conference late last year.
Serbia’s is among a growing number of central banks to hastily amass vast stockpiles of gold, upending decades of conventional economic logic and fuelling an increase in the gold price amid mounting geopolitical tensions. As Washington challenges the US Federal Reserve’s independence, sending jitters through financial markets, the price soared to a record $4,643 (£3,463) an ounce this week, and analysts have tipped it to break $5,000 this year.
