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.
It was a very long and rather confusing week. So let’s start with something nice:
There's a new record-holder for the world's heaviest strawberry. Check out the strawberry that earned a Guinness World Record.
(Then of course to make it not as great — I developed an allergy to strawberries a couple of years ago. At least it gave me several decades of joy before saying “Nope — you are done.”)
Some news from Latin America (Chile to be specific), from NPR:
Cristina Calderón, the last known native speaker of one of Chile's indigenous languages, Yaghan, died at 93, her family said on Wednesday.
Until the end of her days, Abuela Cristina — as many knew her — bided her time making traditional reed baskets, and sharing the Yaghan language and culture with those around her, AFP reported.
From the Independent:
Father faces up to six months in prison for the mass outage in Messanges
Anthony Cuthbertson
Two French towns were knocked offline for several nights after a parent’s misguided attempt to curb their children’s internet use, according to local reports.
From The Inertia:
A swimmer was killed near Sydney this week and now authorities are staging a massive hunt for the great white shark believed to have taken the man’s life. Gruesome video of the incident went viral on Twitter, where a 3-4 meter shark can be seen attacking a man, before a body floats to the surface and the shark comes back for another attack. The swimmer was identified as 35-year-old ocean lover, Simon Nellist.
Nellist was reportedly a diving instructor and was apparently training for distance swimming.
From CNN Health:
(CNN)The BA.2 virus -- a subvariant of the Omicron coronavirus variant -- isn't just spreading faster than its distant cousin, it may also cause more severe disease and appears capable of thwarting some of the key weapons we have against Covid-19, new research suggests.
New lab experiments from
Japan show that BA.2 may have features that make it as capable of causing serious illness as older variants of Covid-19, including Delta.
From The Guardian:
Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia first countries to be assisted by global mRNA hub
Six African countries – Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia – will be the first on the continent to receive the technology needed to produce their own mRNA vaccines from a scheme headed by the World Health Organization.
The groundbreaking project aims to assist low- and middle-income countries in manufacturing mRNA vaccines at scale and according to international standards, with the aim of ending much of the reliance of African countries on vaccine manufacturers outside the continent.
Another from NPR:
HONG KONG — Hong Kong's Fung Shing Restaurant was bustling this week as customers came for one last taste of the traditional Cantonese dim sum that has made it famous.
With COVID-19 restrictions cutting too deeply into its bottom line, the restaurant will shut its doors for good on Sunday, another economic victim of the pandemic.
From CNN:
Why some North Korean defectors return to one of the world's most repressive regimes
By Yoonjung Seo and Julia Hollingsworth, CNN
Seoul, South Korea (CNN)He risked his life fleeing from one of the world's most repressive regimes, traversing a militarized stretch protected by barbed wire fences. Then a year later, he went back -- the way he came.
More than one month since the man crossed the demilitarized zone from South to North Korea, much of his life in both countries remains a mystery -- as do his reasons for returning to the isolated nation ruled by Kim Jong Un.
From Fox News (didn’t find this story elsewhere):
The idea of learning more about someone through DNA sounds 'more scary than it is,' expert said
If knowledge is power, knowing the intimate secrets of one's DNA could be a powerful weapon. That might explain why the world leaders who hastened to Moscow in recent days for diplomatic talks seemed to balk at Russian-administered coronavirus tests.
But this may be a case where imagination is getting a bit ahead of what science is actually capable of.
From Al Jazeera:
Comments by President Mohamed Bazoum come a day after France and European allies announce withdrawal from Mali.
President Mohamed Bazoum says Niger has accepted that French and European special forces will be deployed into its territory from Mali to boost security near the border with its neighbouring country.
Bazoum’s comments on Friday came a day after France and European allies announced they would begin withdrawing troops from Mali fighting armed groups operating in the western portion of Africa’s Sahel region.
And finally, from the Miami Herald:
By Jacqueline Charles
Showing little patience with the ongoing political gridlock in Haiti, the United Nations Security Council made it clear Friday that it wants elections in Haiti before the end of the year and called on the country’s political and civic leaders to find a way to agree on the way forward. “Only dialogue can get Haiti out of the current political crisis,” France’s U.N. ambassador, Nathalie Broadhurst, said at the Security Council meeting. “I invite all political stakeholders to build a necessary consensus so that elections can be held by the end of the year.”