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 (RIP), 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 begin with Pandemic news, this from Business Insider:
Almost half of coronavirus cases in the UK were among vaccinated people, per a large UK study.
- The virus seems to be "running out" of people who do not have immunity, the study lead said.
- Hospitalization in the UK could stabilize and likely fall in the UK, he told Insider.
From Haaretz:
Daily COVID cases in Israel reach another four-month peak of 855, but data is showing signs that the increase in seriously ill patients is starting to steady ■ Arrivals from U.K., Cyprus to require week-long quarantine
Israel recorded yet another four-month high in daily coronavirus infections, with 855 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Thursday, but Health Ministry data shows that serious cases have begun stabilizing over recent days.
From CNA news (video):
Indonesia is bracing for a worsening COVID-19 outbreak. The authorities have warned that the Delta variant is spreading fast. The country confirmed 57,000 new infections on July 15 -- yet another single-day record. Indonesia is now said to be the new epicentre of the pandemic in Asia, having exceeded India's daily tally. Officials are considering an extension of mobility curbs that are set to end next week. However, as businesses suffer, the government said more than a million more people have been dragged below the poverty line in the past year.
From Yahoo News:
SINGAPORE — The first COVID-19 case linked to the growing KTV cluster is a short-term visit pass holder from Vietnam, said the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) on Friday (16 July).
In a joint release with the Manpower Ministry (MOM), it said that "the Vietnamese national entered Singapore in February 2021 via the Familial Ties Lane, sponsored by a Singapore Citizen who is her boyfriend".
From the New York Times:
The Delta variant is sweeping across the continent. Namibia and Tunisia are reporting more deaths per capita than any other country. Hospitals across the continent are filling up, oxygen supplies and medical workers are stretched thin and recorded deaths jumped 40 percent last week alone.
From CNN:
KEY POINTS
- The pact, championed by the OCED, is expected to put in place a minimum global corporate tax rate of 15%.
- The aim is for world leaders to finalize the deal at an October summit in Rome.
- Alex Cobham, chief executive of the Tax Justice Network, has described discussion and agreement on the OECD’s global corporate minimum tax as “historic,” but one that fails to deliver fair and effective reform.
From the Washington Examiner:
All of those on board survived after the Russian Emergencies Ministry confirmed the disappearance of an An-28 aircraft. At least three crew members were on the flight, which was bound for the city of Tomsk after departing from Kedrovoye.
From NPR:
Pulitzer-Prize winning photographer Danish Siddiqui, who worked for the Reuters news agency based out of India, was killed Friday while on assignment in southern Afghanistan after coming under fire by Taliban militiamen.
Siddiqui, who was 38 years old, had been embedded with Afghan special forces in southern Kandahar province when he was killed along with a senior Afghan officer, Reuters reports.
From CNN Business:
By Diksha Madhok, CNN Business
New Delhi (CNN Business)WhatsApp blocked 2 million accounts of Indian users in a month to prevent harmful behavior, the company said in its first ever compliance report published under the country's strict new information technology rules.
Under the
new rules, which came into effect in May, social media companies have to publish a compliance report every month detailing how many complaints they received from Indian users and what action they took. International technology firms also have to hire executives locally, who can help regulate content and take swift action in response to legal complaints.
From NPR:
As the U.S. vows to safeguard open sea lanes and China lays claim to resource-rich territory, the disputed waters of the South China Sea are becoming a flashpoint between Washington and Beijing.
From the New York Times:
Pakistani officials had previously suggested that an accident sent a company bus into a ravine. Investigators now believe a vehicle packed with explosives rammed the workers’ convoy.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The explosion that killed nine Chinese workers and four others near a hydroelectric project in Pakistan on Wednesday was a terrorist attack, not an accident as officials in Pakistan initially suggested, according to a statement by the Chinese government and a top Pakistan official close to the investigation.
A vehicle driven by a suicide attacker and laden with explosives rammed a convoy of Chinese workers headed to the project site in Dasu, a remote town north of the capital, Islamabad, the official said, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a security matter.
From The Hill:
“All of a sudden I was on the ground and couldn’t hear anything apart from this high-pitched buzzing,” one sibling said.
By Jenna Romaine
Story at a glance
- Three English siblings survived a lightning strike while they were taking a selfie.
- All three were transported to St. George’s Hospital in Tooting for the treatment of minor burns and released hours later.
- The selfie also managed to survive the strike, emerging as a bright orange image with the outline of two of the three faces.
From the New York Times:
A breach in the dike along the Juliana Canal in the southern Netherlands on Friday was closed by the Dutch military by dumping hundreds of sandbags into the growing hole. Hours before, thousands had been told to evacuate after the dike was breached along the canal, a 22-mile waterway that regulates the Maas River.
The river’s water level is at heights not witnessed since 1911, the Dutch national broadcaster NOS reported.
From SF Gate:
A stark warning has been issued to hikers attempting to scale Scotland's highest mountain: A trail to the summit marked out on Google Maps is "potentially fatal."
The John Muir Trust — the organization named after the Scottish-born conservationist and man who saved Yosemite from development — issued the warning this week.
From the Washington Post:
Movie depictions of bloodthirsty sharks stalking and eating swimmers have given the ocean predators a bad rap, researchers say.
Now some Australian officials have opted to stop using the word “attack” as a blanket description of all interactions between sharks and people. Instead, they’re now calling them “incidents,” “bites” or, in some cases, “a negative encounter.”
From the NY Daily News;
She broke the No. 2 rule — over and over again.
A British serial pooper has been officially banned from defecating and urinating in any open space in her town after more than two decades of criminal behavior, police said.
Amanda Lee, 50, has been breaking the law since at least 1996, with 15 convictions for anti-social behavior, harassment, public order violations and abusing the country’s 999 emergency phone number, according to police in the northwest English county of Cheshire.
“There comes a point when you have to say enough is enough and take additional action to protect the community and businesses in the area,” Police Constable Alex Barker said Tuesday.
From the Associate Press:
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Some bookstores in Hungary placed notices at their entrances this week telling customers that they sell “non-traditional content.” The signs went up in response to a new law that prohibits “depicting or promoting” homosexuality and gender transitions in material accessible to children.
While some writers, publishers and booksellers say the law curtails free thought and expression in Hungary, the country’s second-largest bookstore chain, Lira Konyv, posted the advisory notices to be safe. The new prohibition took effect last week, but the government has not issued official guidance on how or to whom it will be applied and enforced.
“The word ‘depicts’ is so general that it could include anything. It could apply to Shakespeare’s sonnets or Sappho’s poems, because those depict homosexuality,” Krisztian Nyary, the creative director for Lira Konyv, said of the legislation passed by Hungary’s parliament last month.
From NBC News:
Hungary passed a law that bans exposing minors to LGBTQ content in schools, while several Polish towns have declared themselves “LGBT-free” zones.
By Elizabeth Kuhr
The European Commission has started legal action against Hungary after the country passed a law that bans sharing content in schools that seemingly endorses gay and transgender issues, the commission announced Thursday.
“Equality and the respect for dignity and human rights are core values of the E.U.,” Ursula von der Leyen, the European Parliament’s president, said in a statement. “The Commission will use all the instruments at its disposal to defend these values.”
From the Associated Press:
ROME (AP) — Archaeologists have discovered a rare stone delineating the city limits of ancient Rome that dates from the age of Emperor Claudius in 49 A.D. and was found during excavations for a new sewage system.
Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi was on hand for the unveiling Friday of the pomerial stone, a huge slab of travertine that was used as a sacred, military and political perimeter marking the edge of the city proper with Rome’s outer territory.
It was found June 17 during excavations for a rerouted sewer under the recently restored mausoleum of Emperor Augustus, right off the central Via del Corso in Rome’s historic center.
From The Hill:
Greenland’s government announced on Thursday that it would stop issuing licenses for oil and gas exploration, saying the autonomous Danish territory takes “climate change seriously.”
“The Greenlandic government believes that the price of oil extraction is too high. This is based upon economic calculations, but considerations of the impact on climate and the environment also play a central role in the decision,” the government said in a news release.
From the BBC:
By Shingai Nyoka
South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa has said the violence that has rocked the country was pre-planned, describing it as an assault on democracy.
Riots were sparked by the jailing of former President Jacob Zuma.
The death toll has risen to 212, up by almost 100 since Thursday, the government said.
From the Associated Press:
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis cracked down Friday on the spread of the old Latin Mass, reversing one of Pope Benedict XVI’s signature decisions in a major challenge to traditionalist Catholics who immediately decried it as an attack on them and the ancient liturgy.
Francis reimposed restrictions on celebrating the Latin Mass that Benedict relaxed in 2007, and went further to limit its use. The pontiff said he was taking action because Benedict’s reform had become a source of division in the church and been exploited by Catholics opposed to the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings that modernized the church and its liturgy.
Critics said they had never before witnessed a pope so thoroughly reversing his predecessor. That the reversal concerned something so fundamental as the liturgy, while Benedict is still alive and living in the Vatican as a retired pope, only amplified the extraordinary nature of Francis’ move, which will surely result in more right-wing hostility directed at him.