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.
From the Washington Post:
The storm currently exhibits a 36-mile-wide eye, surrounded by towering thunderstorms.
Super Typhoon Haishen is roiling the unusually warm waters of the Western Pacific Ocean, having reached the equivalent of high-end Category 4 intensity, with 155 mph maximum sustained winds. The storm rapidly intensified on Thursday Eastern time, vaulting from Category 2 to super typhoon status with sustained winds of 150 mph or greater in about 24 hours.
From the New York Times:
A new law takes aim at dissent, creating a challenge to free expression. We documented the changing nature of speech.
A sweeping national security law passed on June 30 instantly altered the lives and liberties of Hong Kong’s residents, criminalizing words and images that just hours earlier had been legally protected free speech.
From CNN:
(CNN) A Russian TV crew flying over the Siberian tundra this summer spotted a massive crater 30 meters (100 feet) deep and 20 meters wide -- striking in its size, symmetry and the explosive force of nature that it must have taken to have created it.
Scientists are not sure exactly how the huge hole, which is at least the ninth spotted in the region since 2013, formed. Initial theories floated when the first crater was discovered near an oil and gas field in the Yamal Peninsula in northwest Siberia included a meteorite impact, a UFO landing and the collapse of a secret underground military storage facility.
From Al Jazeera:
The Panamanian-registered vessel, currently off Sri Lanka's coast, is carrying about 270,000 tonnes of crude oil.
Ships and aircraft from Sri Lanka and India intensified efforts to extinguish a fire on an oil tanker for a second day on Friday as officials warned of significant environmental damage to Sri Lanka's coast if the ship leaks or explodes.
The tanker, carrying nearly two million barrels of crude oil, was drifting about 40km (22 nautical miles) from the coast, army chief Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva said on Friday. A navy spokesman, Captain Indika de Silva, said there were 23 crew on board, one of whom is presumed dead.
Also from Al Jazeera:
Move to remove citizenship comes weeks after an Al Jazeera investigation revealed the country's passport business.
Cyprus has said it will strip seven people of their "golden passports" that were bought in the country's citizenship-by-investment scheme.
The move comes two weeks after Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit published The Cyprus Papers, a trove of leaked documents that showed the country sold passports to convicted criminals, fugitives from the law and those considered to be at higher risk of corruption.
From The BBC:
By Desta Gebremedhin
The feud between Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the ruling party in the strategically important Tigray region is escalating, raising fears of military confrontation and the break-up of Africa's second most-populous nation.
The tensions revolve around the regional government's decision to press ahead with organising its own election for the Tigray parliament on Wednesday, in an unprecedented act of defiance against the federal government.
From Reuters:
MILAN (Reuters) - Italy’s former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, in hospital after contracting coronavirus, has mild pneumonia in both lungs but is breathing on his own, and his condition is not worrying, his doctor Alberto Zangrillo said on Friday.
Zangrillo said the infection had been caught at a very early stage.
From the Washington Post:
By Mike Corder
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — A Dutch appeals court upheld Friday the conviction of anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders for insulting Moroccans in comments he made at an election night gathering in 2014. However, the court overturned Wilders’ conviction for inciting discrimination.
The appeals court did not punish Wilders for his conviction on the charge of insulting a group, which he can appeal to the Dutch Supreme Court.
From Al Jazeera:
French president, who proposes law against 'Islamic separatism', defends free speech amid Charlie Hebdo attack trial.
French President Emmanuel Macron criticised what he called "Islamic separatism" in his country and those who seek French citizenship without accepting France's "right to commit blasphemy".
Macron on Friday defended satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which published caricatures of Prophet Muhammad that helped inspire two French-born men to mount a deadly January 2015 attack on the paper's newsroom.
From the New York Times:
Using a term that suggests the society is turning “savage,” government ministers signal a shift from the center as President Macron prepares for a new political season.
By Norimitsu Onishi and Constant Méheut
PARIS — The word “ensauvagement” has been a favorite dog whistle of France’s far right in recent years, used to suggest that the nation is turning savage. With its colonial and racist overtones, it has been wielded in discussion of immigration and crime to sound alarms that France is being transformed into a dangerous, uncivilized place, stripped of its traditional values.
“Behind it, there is an underlying imaginary world, with savages on one side and civilized humanity on the other” said Cécile Alduy, a French expert on the political use of language who teaches at Stanford University.
From the BBC:
The UK is "sleepwalking into a disaster" over its border plans for the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December, road hauliers have warned.
Groups representing truckers have written to ministers warning of "severe" disruption to supply chains.
Rod McKenzie, from the Road Haulage Association, said the government should "act now before it's too late".
From Al Jazeera:
Rewilding is not about restoring the past, but about proactively seeking solutions for a world in environmental crisis.
by Nick Clark
There is something deeply heartening about an extinct native species being reintroduced to its former habitat. In the United Kingdom, there are several of those stories.
The last time storks were recorded breeding in the UK was way back in 1416 on top of a cathedral in Edinburgh. This year, nests on the Knepp Estate in West Sussex produced the first wild-born chicks in 600 years. The parent birds were bred in captivity and released into the wild as part of a reintroduction project started in South East England.
From the BBC:
The government of El Salvador has allegedly granted favours to the imprisoned leaders of street gangs in return for support in elections, according to a media report.
Online newspaper El Faro said the gang leaders were asked to reduce violence and support President Nayib Bukele.
The report said the favours ranged from better food to the reversal of a decision to house members of rival gangs in the same cells.
From USA Today:
A college professor in Argentina experiencing COVID-19 symptoms died after gasping for breath while conducting a Zoom lecture.
Paola de Simone, 46, a professor of government and international relations at the Universidad Argentina de la Empresa in Buenos Aires, died Wednesday, the university said in a statement on Twitter.
News of the Arts
From the Monadnock News:
Pam Graesser of Francestown has recreated more than 100 works of art through the Getty Museum Challenge including pieces by Andrew Wyeth, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Jane Peterson and others.
Like the rest of the world, Pam Graesser was searching for something to fill the void in every day life due to the coronavirus pandemic.
She had just retired after decades as a licensed clinical mental health counselor with big plans for her free time that included a month long excursion to Hawaii and French Polynesia and another trip to the Oregon coast and wine country with her husband Peter. But like most, COVID-19 put those grand plans on hold.
From The Guardian:
Jim Broadbent plays Kempton Bunton, the ex-bus driver accused of carrying out one of the most infamous heists in British history
Lanre Bakare in Venice
The story of an ex-bus driver and cabbie from Newcastle upon Tyne who was accused of executing one of the most infamous heists in British history has been given a starring role at this year’s Venice film festival.
The Duke, which stars Jim Broadbent as the unlikely art “thief” Kempton Bunton and Helen Mirren as his wife, premiered on the Lido on Friday and reacquainted the world with a story that captivated Britain in the early 60s. Bunton was charged with stealing a portrait of the Duke of Wellington by the great Spanish painter Francisco Goya from the National Gallery in 1961.
From the Chicago Sun-Times:
We asked Chicago-area students to send photos of their best chalk-art creations for the latest phase of The Imagination Project and had professional artists view their work.
Sidewalks are the places to be in the summer for kids — riding bikes, playing hopscotch, skateboarding, running through a sprinkler, especially during this summer of the coronavirus pandemic, when they needed to get outside but not too far from home.
So we asked Chicago-area kids to take to their sidewalks — or driveways or patios — and create their best chalk drawings, then send them in to the latest Chicago Sun-Times art contest, part of what we call The Imagination Project.
From KCUR:
As colleges and universities kick off a school year like no other, students are also demanding schools take steps to end systemic racism. Here's how that's been playing out at the Kansas City Art Institute.
Fall classes at the Kansas City Art Institute resumed on Monday. And this year, that means face masks, social distancing, daily symptom checks — and a reckoning with the institution's role in dismantling white supremacy.
That last item, according to the school's president Tony Jones, "is actually not a new issue. It’s had more of a spotlight thrown on it.”
From WSPA:
ANDERSON, SC (WSPA)–Depictions of the late actor and Anderson county native, Chadwick Boseman, could soon be on permanent display in City.
Boseman died last week from colon cancer.
Mayor Terence Roberts said the City has established a Public Arts Endowment to pay tribute to Boseman. This could be a statue, more murals, or a variety of different things, and Mayor Roberts said either way, it will be massive.
From NC State:
The Gregg Museum takes a scientific approach to managing invasive pests.
An exhibit at the Gregg Museum of Art & Design is playfully titled, “All That Glitters: Spark and Dazzle From the Permanent Collection.” So it’s no wonder the assortment of textiles, jewelry, pottery and other shiny objects is a feast for the eyes.
But for some visitors to NC State’s recently renovated museum, the collection is more than a celebration of beauty and creativity. It’s potentially a midnight snack.