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, annetteboardman and Man Oh Man. Alumni editors include (but are not limited to) palantir, wader, 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 (or if it is Friday night and the editor is me, a bit later).
We begin with heritage news not about Hobby Lobby, from the Associated Press, via CBS News:
JERUSALEM -- The U.N. cultural agency on Friday declared the old city in the West Bank town of Hebron as a Palestinian world heritage site, a decision that outraged Israeli officials who say the move negated the deep Jewish ties to the biblical town and its ancient shrine.
The move was the latest chapter in Israel's contentious relationship with UNESCO, an agency it accuses of being an anti-Israeli tool that makes decisions out of political considerations.
While the Palestinians welcomed the action, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it "another delusional decision by UNESCO."
More on recent UNESCO decisions, from The Telegraph:
Vienna’s historic centre – a Unesco-designated site recognised for its Baroque castles, majestic parks and grand 19th-century Ringstrasse boulevard – has been placed on the United Nations (UN) body’s endangered list and could be at risk of losing its Unesco status because of a planned high-rise development.
Construction on a 6,500 sq-m complex, developed by the city’s Social Democratic and Green party coalition, is set to start in 2019 and will include a hotel and luxury apartments within a 66.3 metre-high tower – the height of which was reduced from 75 metres following opposition – as well as a conference venue, a 1,000 sq-m indoor skating rink, and open-air public areas that developers claim will enhance the city’s architecture with an “attractive and modern” feel, the AFP reports.
And news found mostly on Christian and conservative news sites, but here from The Daily Mail (the least objectionable one I found):
- Syriac Orthodox Church was deprived of dozens of churches and monasteries
- Christian leaders say assets taken include two monasteries built 1,500 years ago
- The seizures, which stem from a land dispute, have led to claims of persecution
By RORY TINGLE
One of the world's oldest Christian communities fears extinction after the Turkish government confiscated 50 of its properties.
The Syriac Orthodox Church was deprived of dozens of churches, monasteries and cemeteries over claims the ownership deeds had lapsed.
Christian leaders say the assets being seized include two monasteries built 1,500 years ago, the loss of which would be a crushing blow to their culture.
And in case you missed the editorial in Friday’s New York Times:
By KEMAL KILICDAROGLU
GEBZE, TURKEY — On June 15, I began walking from Ankara to Istanbul on a 280-mile march for democracy, justice and freedom from fear and authoritarian rule in Turkey. I am the leader of the Republican People’s Party, or C.H.P., the main opposition party in the Turkish Parliament. I set out with thousands of supporters from Ankara.
As we walked through punishingly hot afternoons and plodded on through rain for the past three weeks, tens of thousands of Turkish citizens of varying political persuasions representing the diversity of our country joined us. We did not carry the signs of our political party but a simple placard that read: Justice.
Another fight for justice in the Middle East is reported on in The Nation:
But it’s up against the country’s powerful right-wing politics and institutional racism against Palestinians.
Musa Alabid, 41, is getting organized. Alabid is a Bedouin from Rahat, in southern Israel, one of some 200,000 Bedouin citizens of Israel. He works at SodaStream, the Israeli carbonated-drink company popularized by Scarlett Johansson–studded commercials. A few years back, a Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign targeted SodaStream’s plant in a settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, resulting in a wave of bad publicity for the company and putting Johansson under immense public pressure. SodaStream relocated from the Mishur Adumim industrial zone near the Ma’aleh Adumim settlement in the West Bank to a factory in Lehavim near Rahat, though the owner maintains the move was not because of the BDS campaign but because it had outgrown the facility.
But last year, frustrated SodaStream employees—Alabid among them—started to push for better pay and working conditions. So they turned to the Histadrut, Israel’s largest and state-aligned trade federation, which was founded by Labor Zionists in 1920. After continuing negotiations, in June the Histadrut filed a lawsuit against SodaStream’s management for allegedly trying to disrupt unionizing.
Moving south to Africa, this article about the first sub-Saharan nation to send a satellite into space comes from the Ghana News Agency:
Accra July 7 GNA President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has congratulated All Nations University Space Laboratory team for putting Ghana into the Global Space community, describing their feat as ‘inspiring dedication, enthusiasm and insight for the project.’
From Reuters:
African powers launched a new multinational military force in the Sahel on Sunday, which France’s President Emmanuel Macron told a regional summit should be fully operational within the next few months and some observers see as the basis of an exit strategy for French troops.
Islamist militant groups, some of which have links to al-Qaeda, seized control of Mali’s northern desert in 2012.
While they were driven back a year later by a French-led military intervention, they continue to carry out attacks against on UN peacekeepers, Malian soldiers and civilian targets in violence that has spilled across Mali’s borders.
Macron said France and African powers must work together to “eradicate terrorists, thugs and murderers” in the Sahel.
From Africa News:
Ethiopia says it is concerned about the wider security implications arising from the ongoing Gulf crisis on the Horn of Africa region.
Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, in a parliamentary address shown live on the state broadcaster, EBC TV, said Addis Ababa hoped for a peaceful resolution to the crisis whiles admitting that the country could be gravely affected in the event of a regional destabilization.
He affirmed that the country backed Kuwait’s negotiation efforts in the impasse. Ethiopia has previously said it will not take sides on the issue. A similar position was taken by neighbouring Somalia.
And from All Africa:
Ethiopia is suffering from severe drought. But there is water in Gergera. Twenty years of restoring its hills and valley has brought life back to this area in the state of Tigray. The work has been painstaking, complex and multidimensional and continues to this day. But its hard won results offer up two key lessons. First, landscape restoration in drylands hinges on water management. Second, restoration can create a base for better livelihoods and jobs for youth who formerly left in droves.
From NPR:
Last week, Beyonce broke a year-long hiatus from tweeting by announcing a new initiative, BeyGood4Burundi — a partnership between her charitable foundation and UNICEF.
"Mothers in Burundi want to provide clean, safe water for their children. Let's help them, together," she wrote on June 30.
That single tweet raises some critical questions that often come up when a celebrity chooses to throw their star power behind a cause. Unfortunately, only some of them seem to have answers. Among the questions: How strong is her connection to Burundi? How much money is she giving? And is this effort promoting her own brand as well?
And that provides us with a nice transition to the Arts news for this evening. The first comes from Al-Ahram:
Ahram Online talks to Tamer Mohsen, creator of television series This Night and Under Control, about how he creates his unique dramas
Sarah Mourad
Tamer Mohsen is one of Egypt’s most talked-about directors. His creative repertoire includes a 2015 drama film Cat and Mouse ("Ott we Far") and television series: Without Mentioning Names ("Bedoun Zikr Asmaa"), which aired during Ramadan 2013, followed by Under Control (“Taht El-Saytara”) in 2015, and This Night (“Haza El-Masaa”) which aired this Ramadan, last month, and created a lot of debate among audiences.
This Night explores the secret world of phone hacking, giving viewers a darker and certainly more dangerous perspective on the phenomenon, one that they have probably not paid attention to, and a topic that is fairly new for Egyptian and Arab viewers. In addition, the elements used in the cinematography worked to underscore the issues tackled and the moods created throughout the series.
The series garnered praise on social media in the last week of Ramadan, from those describing it as a unique drama series which raised the bar for Egyptian television serials.
And another from Al Ahram:
The 15th Bibliotheca Alexandrina International Summer Festival kicks off on 10 July and will continue until 26 August
The Bibliotheca Alexandrina will open its summer festival on Monday, with the 15th annual summer festival set to be the longest ever in the institution's history at seven weeks.
The festival, which runs until 26 August, will feature over 60 artistic events, including concerts, plays, dance performances, film screenings, and family-friendly events.
The inauguration programme will take place from Monday to Wednesday and will feature a special programme, “Experience China”, which focuses on China, the guest of honour.
From Reuters, via WHTC (Holland, MI):
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Thousands of music fans will pour into the stadium of the Roman Temple of Bacchus in Lebanon's Baalbek on Friday night for the opening performance of the oldest music festival in the region.
On opening night, the festival celebrates the 60th anniversary of its "Lebanese Nights" concert, which has given voice to the country's music and heritage for decades.
From AP, via ABC News:
The recent spread of fake Native American art and jewelry has shown the need to update how the federal government protects tribal artists from fraud that undercuts the value of their work, according to two U.S. senators who gathered suggestions for reforms on Friday.
New Mexico Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich convened a hearing in the American Indian arts hub of Santa Fe, where federal law enforcement officials and leading Native American artists described a disheartening influx of counterfeit jewelry, weavings and contemporary art knock-offs.
"We've got a serious problem on our hands," said Udall, vice chair of the Senate Indian affairs committee, summarizing three hours of testimony. "Fake Indian arts and crafts are flooding the markets right here in Santa Fe and across the country and this is having an effect of destabilizing the Native Art market. It's forcing Native Americans to quit their crafts."
And from Reuters:
A Swiss museum director preparing for a Nazi-era art collection's long-awaited public unveiling later this year said Friday that her goal remains finding heirs to any works that may have been looted from Jewish owners.
Bern Museum of Fine Arts head Nina Zimmer, who took ownership of 150 drawings, lithographs and paintings this week ahead of an exhibition slated to begin in November, said research shows none of these were stolen by National Socialists.