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 of the week come from The Guardian, and of the week in art, also from The Guardian, and of Scotland, from the BBC.
There are several arts articles in the news this week. We will have these above the fold. The rest of the news, happy and less so, are beneath it.
From The Guardian (Opinion):
It can make us healthier, happier and live longer. Engaging in culture should be encouraged like good diet and exercise
The second Friday in January has been dubbed “Quitter’s Day”, when we are most likely to give up our new year resolutions. Instead of denying ourselves pleasures, suggests a new batch of books, a more successful route may be adding to them – nourishing our minds and souls by making creativity as much a daily habit as eating vegetables and exercising. Rather than the familiar exhortations to stop drinking, diet, take up yoga or running, there is an overwhelming body of evidence to suggest that joining a choir, going to an art gallery or learning to dance should be added to the new year list.
Art Cure by Daisy Fancourt, professor of psychobiology and epidemiology at University College London, brings together numerous research projects confirming what we have always suspected – art is good for us. It helps us enjoy happier, healthier and longer lives. One study found that people who engaged regularly with the arts had a 31% lower risk of dying at any point during the follow-up period, even when confounding socioeconomic, demographic and health factors were taken into account. Studies also show that visiting museums and attending live music events can make people physiologically younger, and a monthly cultural activity almost halves our chances of depression. As Fancourt argues, if a drug boasted such benefits governments would be pouring billions into it. Instead, funding has been slashed across the culture sector and arts education has been devalued and eroded in the UK.
From The Guardian:
Study of man often featured in works by the Flemish master reveals hidden painting of woman beneath model’s beard
Is it a bald elderly man with a big bushy beard and a wine-addled stare? Or a friendly young woman with flowing locks and a crown of braids?
To Belgian art dealer Klaas Muller, an answer to that question mattered less than the fact that this particular take on the duck-rabbit optical illusion was painted by one Peter Paul Rubens.
From The Guardian:
It is one of the most tantalising – and entertaining – puzzles in art, stretching from the Louvre to the Loire via, well, Norfolk. And our critic thinks he has just worked it out
Increased security after the recent heist has made the queues at the Louvre even slower, yet on this rainswept, very wintry morning, no one grumbles. After all, the Mona Lisa is waiting inside for all these tourists who have come from the world over. Leonardo da Vinci’s woman – swathed in dark cloth and silk, smiling enigmatically as she sits in front of a landscape of rocks, road and water – draws crowds like no other painting. But if the Mona Lisa can attract such attention fully clothed, what would the queues be like if she was nude?
Strangely, this is not just amusing speculation – because in 18th-century Britain, she was. An engraving issued by a publisher called John Boydell gave libertine Georgians the opportunity to hang “Joconda” in their boudoir. It must have been popular because many copies survive. This Mona Lisa sits in a chair with her hands crossed in front of a fading view of distant rock formations. And, like the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, she smiles enigmatically. But there is one key difference. She is naked from the waist up.
From the NY Times:
He desperately needed to reach his cabin in the forest, his place of refuge, where he had crafted world-class violins for decades. When he and his girlfriend, Noël Shimizu, made it to the workshop at last, he felt himself spinning as he scanned the room and wondered: “What can’t I afford to live without?”
From The Guardian:
From the V&A to the Stranger Things finale, the pop icon still looms large – but with lower streaming figures than his peers, how many new listeners are discovering his music?
When David Bowie died on 10 January 2016, such was the scale of media coverage and public mourning that one would have presumed his music would be everywhere for ever, elevated as he was, to misquote Smash Hits, to the position of the People’s Dame. It was briefly – Starman reached No 18, and Space Oddity No 24 – but then it wasn’t.
Each year, Forbes compiles a posthumous celebrity rich list. Bowie appeared in 2016, ranked at No 11 with estimated earnings of $10.5m (£7.8m), and again in 2017, in the same position but with earnings of $9.5m (£7m). This was unsurprising given the enormous spike in interest there is in the immediate aftermath of a superstar’s death. Yet he didn’t appear in the Forbes list again until 2022, when he was at No 3 with earnings of $250m (£195m) – the highest-ranked musician that year – but that was almost all attributable to the sale of his music publishing rights to Warner Chappell.
From the NY Times:
Despite a ceaseless battle against government censors, he was celebrated as one of his country’s greatest auteurs, winning praise from luminaries like Martin Scorsese.
Bahram Beyzaie, a filmmaker, playwright and scholar who was hailed as a giant of Iranian culture for leading the nation’s cinematic New Wave starting in the late 1960s, melding the history and mythology of Iran with a haunting portrayal of its political reality, died on Dec. 26 at his home in Palo Alto, Calif. He was 87.
His death was caused by pancreatic cancer, which he had been battling for five years, said his wife, Mojdeh Shamsaie, an actress who appeared in several of his films. Mr. Beyzaie had been a lecturer in Iranian studies at Stanford University for 15 years.
Weather news from the Daily Mail:
Frozen Europe grinds to a halt: Chaos in Germany as -20C blizzards halt trains, planes and traffic while 135mph Storm Goretti triggers mass blackouts hit in France
By IMOGEN GARFINKEL
Frozen Europe has grinded to a halt as Storm Goretti continues to wreak havoc, with -20C blizzards disrupting trains, planes and causing enormous traffic jams in Germany.
Northwestern France has been hit by strong winds of 135mph as the nation copes with mass blackouts, particularly in Normandy and Brittany.
From The Guardian:
Met Office issues rare red warning as winter storm causes power cuts, travel disruption and school closures
Snow and ice are expected to grip much of the UK over the weekend as parts of the country continue to reel from the effects of Storm Goretti, which left thousands of people facing power cuts, school closures and travel chaos.
The storm brought winds of nearly 100mph after forecasters issued a rare red warning for “dangerous, stormy” winds in the south-west, where more than 37,000 properties were without power at about 8pm on Friday, according to the National Grid’s website. There were about 3,000 homes without power in the West Midlands, more than 1,000 in the East Midlands and about 240 in Wales.
From The Guardian:
Cyclists and others voice frustration as transport infrastructure descends into chaos amid increasingly rare cold snap
A week-long winter cold snap that would once have been normal in the Netherlands has caused more than 2,000 flight cancellations, chaos on roads and railways, buildings to partially collapse, and a stream of angry cyclists asking why roads seem better gritted than cycle lanes.
Since Saturday, up to 15cm of snow has fallen across the country, with temperatures of -10C (14F) including wind chill, sparking angry commentary over how some nations manage months of snow but the Netherlands, no longer used to it, appears paralysed.
A follow-up to last week’s invasive species story from The Guardian:
The curse of the ring-necked parakeets so vividly described in your report certainly struck a chord with me and, no doubt, with many more Londoners (Rapid expansion of ring-necked parakeets in UK sparks concern, 2 January). Whether the green beasts escaped from the set of the African Queen or from Jimi Hendrix’s garden matters not to me but I did object most strongly to the flashmobs that descended on my bird tables and whose rapacious greed drove away many of the native species.
From Deutsche Welle:
A majority of EU member states have voted in favor the long-awaited Mercosur trade agreement with South American countries. Farmers in a number of member states have protested the deal.
Representatives of the European Union's member states in Brussels on Friday cleared the way for the Mercosur free trade agreement with South American countries.
A majority of the EU's 27 states, representing 65% of the bloc's population, have said they agree for the proposal to proceed.
From ABC News:
Jacques Moretti was placed in pre-trial detention on Friday, officials said.
Prosecutors on Friday detained the owner of a Swiss bar where a deadly New Year's Day fire killed 40 people and injured 116 others, according to officials.
Jacques Moretti was placed in pre-trial detention after a meeting with prosecutors in Sion, the prosecutor's office for Switzerland's Valais region said.
From the BBC:
Scouring remote areas for missing walkers and climbers can take rescuers weeks and sometimes months. AI can do the job in a matter of hours in some cases – and potentially save lives.
Racing against worsening weather, mountain rescue teams in the Italian region of Piemonte were facing a puzzle. An experienced Italian climber and orthopaedic surgeon Nicola Ivaldo had gone missing. The 66-year-old had failed to show up show up at work on Monday and an alarm was raised.
From CNN:
Pope Leo XIV has said the prohibition on countries violating one another’s borders has been “completely undermined,” in an important speech to diplomats gathered in the Vatican.
The first United States-born pope, giving his debut “state of the world” address, expressed his concern about “escalating tensions” in the “Caribbean Sea and the American Pacific coast” while calling for the “will of the Venezuelan people” to be respected, and a return to stability in the country.
News from Africa, beginning with this, from Al Jazeera:
Senegal beat Mali 1-0 to reach AFCON 2025 semifinal where defending champions Ivory Coast or record winners Egypt await.
Recalled striker Iliman Ndiaye scored in the first half to give Senegal a 1-0 victory over 10-man Mali in Tangiers on Friday in the first 2025 Africa Cup of Nations quarterfinal.
Mali hopes were dealt a severe blow in first-half added time when Yves Bissouma was sent off after being shown a second yellow card.
Also from Al Jazeera:
Fierce fighting and global funding cuts have pushed more than 33 million people towards starvation.
Millions of people in Sudan are in urgent need of humanitarian help, aid organisations have warned, as the war in the east African state marked its 1,000th day.
Fierce fighting and global funding cuts have pushed more than 33 million people towards starvation in what has become one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises, nongovernmental organisations said on Friday as the grim anniversary passed.
One more from Al Jazeera:
Critics view Israel’s moves in the Horn of Africa as part of Netanyahu’s expansive conflict and influence agenda.
By Simon Speakman Cordall
When Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar visited Somaliland on Tuesday, he became the first Israeli official to visit the breakaway republic since his country established full diplomatic relations with it in the closing days of last year.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the diplomatic recognition of Somaliland – a breakaway part of Somalia – on December 26. He said that the recognition was in keeping with “the spirit of the Abraham Accords”, referring to the United States-led initiative encouraging a number of Arab countries to normalise relations with Israel in return for diplomatic and financial concessions from the US.
Now to Asia, beginning with the NY Times:
A delegation from the Southern Transitional Council in Riyadh announced its dissolution, but members abroad rejected the news amid fears it was not voluntary.
A conflict that for weeks has pitted Yemenis against each other and driven a rift between two powerful Gulf allies appeared to come to a head on Friday, when an official from a separatist faction at the heart of the row announced that the group was disbanding.
However, the circumstances of the televised announcement raised serious questions about whether the group had made it of its own volition.
From The Guardian:
In Tehran this week, young adults told the Guardian about collapsing living standards, the mass anti-government protests and their hopes for the future
Mahsa*, 36, fashion designer
Mahsa is single and lives with her family. She has a page online where she sells her clothes and had arranged for a prominent influencer to run a major promotion for her. But because of the current situation, the influencer returned the money, and her sales and page activity came to a halt.
Now she is left with money that has lost much of its value and winter fabrics she bought to make and sell clothes. With everything suspended, she has become very depressed, mostly staying at home and feeling unwell.
From the NY Times:
In the dictators’ capital, a worker swept a broom across a 16-lane highway. Another snipped wayward fronds from palm trees and manicured unruly rhododendrons. This was the height of a stage-managed election season in Myanmar, but there was no traffic.
There is never any traffic in Naypyidaw.
Built early this century, Naypyidaw, the capital of Myanmar, means the “abode of kings.” In reality, it is a vast bunker for the top brass of this Southeast Asian nation, who have stolen power for themselves for more than a half century. With its defensive layout and gargantuan scale, Naypyidaw stands testament to the junta’s fear of invasion — and to its tastes for the trappings of a tropical totalitarianism.
From the South China Morning Post:
What does 2026’s coming Year of the Horse have in store for those born in the Year of the Horse (1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014)? Renowned fortune-teller Tong Pik-ha offers her comprehensive predictions for the year.
The Year of the Horse is a year of enhanced wisdom. However, people of the Horse zodiac sign clash with and offend the tai sui, or Grand Duke of Jupiter, this year.
This means it will be a volatile year for Horses and they are likely to experience turbulence in relationships, career, wealth, housing and health. These could lead to intrusive thoughts, internal conflict and self-isolation.
From the Korea Herald:
By Ji Da-gyum
South Korea and Japan's leaders are set to meet for their second summit, seeking to expand practical cooperation — including economic partnership — while building a “virtuous cycle” in which growing momentum helps the two countries navigate sensitive historical issues.
Cheong Wa Dae said Friday President Lee Jae Myung will travel to Nara from Tuesday to Wednesday at the invitation of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. Nara is Takaichi’s home prefecture and her political base.
From the NY Times:
A computer simulation ordered by the government showed that everyone on board would have survived if the concrete berm had been made of materials that easily broke apart.
Everyone on board a Jeju Air flight that crashed and killed 179 people just over a year ago would have survived if a concrete wall at the end of the runway had instead been built with materials that break apart easily, a previously undisclosed report to the South Korean government said.
The report, obtained by The New York Times on Friday, drew the conclusion based on computer simulations of the Boeing 737-800’s belly landing at the airport in Muan, in the country’s southwest. The accident would have ended differently had the wall, which houses navigation antennas called localizers, been made with frangible materials in accordance with international and South Korean guidelines, it said.
From NBC News (Associated Press):
Dozens of rescuers retrieved 13 people alive overnight and were searching for the missing still trapped after the mountain of garbage, earth and debris collapsed on them.
MANILA, Philippines — An avalanche of garbage and debris buried or trapped workers in low-slung buildings at a landfill in the
Philippines, killing one person, injuring a dozen and leaving 38 others missing, officials said Friday.
Dozens of rescuers retrieved 13 people alive overnight and were searching for the missing still trapped after the mountain of garbage, earth and debris collapsed on them Thursday afternoon in the village of Binaliw in Cebu city, officials and police said. Landfill workers were among those affected, but it was not clear whether there were neighboring residents or others involved as well.
