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.
We don’t focus enough on Africa, so tonight it will be the focus, although a few other interesting stories will be mixed in.
Pictures of the week from Africa, from the BBC.
We begin with Reuters:
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa’s confirmed COVID-19 cases have surpassed 600,000, the health ministry said on Friday, although the number of new cases has been declining since a peak in July.
Despite imposing one of the world’s toughest lockdowns at the end of March when the country had only a few hundred cases, South Africa saw a surge in coronavirus infections that has left it the hardest hit on the continent.
From the BBC:
Average daily cases of coronavirus in Africa fell last week, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
The continent-wide daily average was 10,300 last week, down from 11,000 the week before.
The director of Africa CDC, Dr John Nkengasong, said it was a "sign of hope".
From The Guardian:
Growing up in 80s Soweto, Ditsie was immersed in the struggle against apartheid. But she knew racial oppression was only part of the fight – and organised the first Pride march in Africa
by Aamna Mohdin
Beverley Ditsie first understood what the word “gay” meant while listening to Boy George. She was a teenager in the South African township of Soweto in the early 1980s, obsessed with the UK’s New Romantic movement. In South Africa, people were speculating about the singer’s sexuality, as they were all over the world, and when Ditsie heard that to be gay was to love someone of the same sex, she felt a shock of joy.
From the Daily Maverick (Zimbabwe):
With Zimbabwe’s socio-political and economic state rapidly deteriorating, there is no sign of relief as at least a dozen human rights lawyers have been arrested and arraigned before the courts.
The recent refusal by a Harare Magistrates Court to allow lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa to be the lead counsel in detained journalist whistleblower Hopewell Chin’ono’s case has drawn widespread international condemnation.
From The Guardian:
MV Wakashio has split in two and leaked 1,000 tonnes of oil into the water since it ran aground
Salvage crews were preparing to sink a Japanese-owned ship that ran aground off Mauritius, despite opposition from environmental campaigners.
The MV Wakashio broke into two on Saturday, almost three weeks after hitting a reef and spilling 1,000 tonnes of oil into idyllic waters full of marine life.
From the BBC:
Catherine Byaruhanga
Volunteers in Mauritius say the government is putting in place restrictions blocking them from accessing shorelines where they have been helping clean up a recent oil spill.
Authorities have said the areas need to be restricted for public health reasons.
From the Guardian:
Ruling is result of lawsuit filed over deaths in childbirth of two women due to staff negligence and lack of facilities
Health rights activists in Uganda have welcomed a landmark court ruling that the government should increase its health budget to ensure women receive decent maternal healthcare services.
The ruling is the result of a lawsuit filed in 2011 over the deaths in childbirth of two women – Jennifer Anguko and Sylvia Nalubowa – in a public health facility.
From the Committee to Protect Journalists:
Abuja, August 21, 2020 — Authorities in Ghana must conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into the recent attack and harassment of journalists Stanley Nii Blewu and Joseph Armstrong Gold-Alorgbey, and ensure those responsible are held to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
From the BBC:
Thousands have taken to the streets of Mali's capital to celebrate the coup against Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta.
Coup leaders arrested Mr Keïta on Tuesday and forced him to resign, sparking global condemnation.
But Mr Keïta was facing huge street protests before his arrest and many in Mali have welcomed his removal.
From the BBC:
Nigeria's government says it will bar entry to citizens of countries that do not allow in Nigerians due to coronavirus restrictions.
From the BBC:
By Peter Mwai
Senegalese officials say they have asked for 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate - the chemical which caused a huge explosion in Beirut - to be removed from Dakar.
The amount in Dakar's port, which is near residential areas, is nearly as much as was in the Lebanese capital.
Officials say the chemical is part of a 3,050-tonne consignment destined for neighbouring Mali.
And from another part of the world, this from CNN:
By Jessie Yeung, CNN
Hong Kong (CNN)Zaran Vachha was born and raised in Hong Kong. Yet the 34-year-old, of Indian, Iranian, Malay and Sri Lankan descent, says the Chinese city has never treated him like one of its own.
He says he has been spat at, cussed at, and denied public services. When he sits down on the subway, nearby passengers often get up or move away.
News of the Arts
From Reuters:
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan reconverted the historic Chora church, one of Istanbul’s most celebrated Byzantine buildings, into a mosque on Friday, a month after opening the famed Hagia Sophia to Muslim worship.
The mediaeval Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora, built near the ancient city walls of Constantinople, contains 14th century Byzantine mosaics and frescoes showing scenes from biblical stories.
They were plastered over after the city was conquered by the Muslim Ottomans in 1453, but brought to light again when - like Hagia Sophia - the building was converted to a museum by Turkey’s secular republic more than 70 years ago.
From Conde Nast Traveler:
On a night out in the country's capital, Malian music—and its performers—captured author Teju Cole's full attention.
I longed, for so long, to visit Mali. What I loved in my imagination before ever setting eyes on the enormous West African country was its ancient culture: the intricately carved, semiabstract sculptures and flamboyant dyed textiles; the trade in copper and gold; the mellifluous epics; and, above all, the lavish musical traditions. The Malian music we hear today is unmistakably modern, but it owes its beginnings to the 13th-century king Sundiata Keita, whose enormous Mande Empire established cultural lineages that survive to this day. Ancient instruments like the kora, a dazzling 21-string instrument, and the balafon, a wooden xylophone, are now played in ensembles that also feature drum kits, electric basses, and synthesizers. The guitarists of Mali are among the best in the world, and the singers are famous for their power and subtlety. Many of these performers are djeli, hereditary musicians.
From the BBC:
By Kalkidan Yibeltal
Pop stars in Ethiopia have been belting out tunes marking a victory in what is seen as a battle with Egypt over who has rights to the waters of the River Nile.
In June, Ethiopia began filing the mega dam it has been built on the Blue Nile - which could have repercussions for countries downstream.
After this year's rainy season, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd) now has 4.9 billion cubic metres (bcm) in its reservoir, which is enough to test the first two turbines.
From All Africa, and the Nyasa Times:
By Nyasa Times Reporter
Although it is a relatively small, landlocked country in the heart of Africa, Malawi has always shown itself to be open to receiving and welcoming the influences of many other cultures from all around the world.
It has also gained a reputation as being a safe haven for many thousands of refugees and other migrants from African countries including Mozambique and Rwanda. This, in turn, has helped to attract foreign aid from countries as diverse as the United States, Iceland, Sweden, and the UK.
From the El Paso Times:
The push for social change has an artistic note on Dead Punk’s Instagram page.
The El Paso artist, who wears a Mexican luchador mask to help keep his art and private life separate, said he knew art was his life path since he was 7 or 8 years old.
From The Guardian:
Photographs of works go on display in Manger Square to celebrate British street artist’s contribution to diversifying tourism
Jessie McDonald
Photographs of 20 pieces of Banksy’s artwork in Palestine have been displayed in the centre of Bethlehem as a thank you to the anonymous British street artist for helping diversify tourism in the city.
The images were collated by Palestinian photographers for the surprise exhibition in Manger Square.
From The Art Newspaper:
Film aims to show “surveillance, ideological brainwashing, and brute determination used to control every aspect of society” by China’s leaders
CATHERINE HICKLEY
The artist and activist Ai Weiwei is today releasing CoroNation, a documentary film about the unprecedented lockdown that began in January in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the first patient with coronavirus (Covid-19) symptoms was identified in December last year.
The documentary footage was shot by individuals living through the Wuhan lockdown and shows ordinary lives in extraordinary times: a couple attempting to return to Wuhan after visiting family face police checks and random temperature controls; a courier delivers essentials to residents barred from leaving their community; a doctor dons layers of protective clothing before work in a labyrinthine new temporary coronavirus treatment centre. In one cameo an emergency construction worker is forced to live out of his car; in another, a grieving son navigates the bureaucracy of retrieving his father’s ashes.
From KUTV:
(KUTV) — A new monument titled “A Path Forward” frames the front steps of the Utah State Capitol building.
The monument commemorates the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote in the United States and the 150th anniversary of the first ballot cast by a woman in the state of Utah.
From the dcist:
As demonstrators gather on the National Mall next Friday for the March on Washington, a timely new outdoor art exhibition will open outside the National Building Museum in Judiciary Square.
The exhibition, Murals That Matter: Activism Through Public Art, will showcase public art created during this summer’s protests against police brutality. The exhibition will remain on display through late November.
