Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame, jck, and JeremyBloom. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man (RIP), wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos since 2007, 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.
Pictures of Africa and Africans come from the BBC.
Tonight begins Ramadan, and tomorrow fasting begins. From Al Jazeera:
Here is how to wish someone during the holy month of Ramadan in different languages around the world.
Following the sighting of the crescent by the moon-sighting committee on Friday, Saudi Arabia has announced that the first day of fasting will be Saturday, March 1.
Other countries follow their own moon sightings, and the crescent moon was not sighted in Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and several other countries across Asia making the first day of Ramadan March 2.
From CNN:
For many Muslims around the world, the holy month of Ramadan is a time for spiritual reset. Fasting during the month may be one of the most physically difficult challenges to endure. Muslims refrain from consuming any food or liquid from dawn until sundown — when one can break the fast and share the experience at an evening meal with family and friends.
If you’re committed to fasting this Ramadan, here are some expert-backed ways to ensure you’re getting enough nutrients and hydration this Ramadan season.
From the Associated Press:
OULAD SLAMA, Morocco (AP) — Sheep come running when Larbi El Ghazouani pours alfalfa and straw into their troughs twice a day. The 55-year-old farmer had counted on selling the bulk of his 130 sheep to Moroccans preparing for early June’s Eid Al-Adha holiday, but now his hopes are unraveling and he expects to lose around half of his investment.
That’s because, in a surprising break from tradition, King Mohammed VI on Wednesday urged Moroccans to forgo buying sheep to be sacrificed during this year’s holiday amid record inflation and climate change. A seven-year drought has decimated the country’s livestock, causing sheep prices to surge beyond the reach of working class families.
From the New York Times:
From CNN:
One of the Middle East’s most intractable conflicts
may be nearing its end, with ramifications that will be felt far and wide.
For half a century, Kurdish militants have fought Turkey for independence in the southeast of the country, a region heavily populated by ethnic Kurds. The battle has claimed more than 40,000 lives and has rippled beyond Turkey’s borders into Iran, Iraq, and Syria.
From euronews:
French Prime Minister François Bayrou announced on Wednesday that his government will be "reexamining" a 1968 migration pact which has historically made it easier for Algerians to settle in France.
Algeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded firmly to Bayrou on Thursday, warning that the country would not accept being "addressed with ultimatums, warnings or threats”.
From Al Jazeera:
A religious scholar is killed at the influential seminary. Does this signal a growing threat from the armed group ISKP?
By Abid Hussain
Islamabad, Pakistan – A suicide bombing at a mosque in northwestern Pakistan has killed at least six people, including a prominent religious scholar, and injured at least 20, according to authorities.
The mosque is located inside the Darul Uloom Haqqania seminary in Akora Khattak, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Police said the attack occurred just after Friday prayers had concluded and appeared to target Hamid-ul-Haq, the leader of the religious political party Jamiat Ulema Islam-Sami (JUIS), who was killed.
Thematic arrangement of stories this evening seems appropriate. Disasters, both natural and manmade, are the next focus.
We begin with this, from The Guardian:
UN biodiversity conference in Rome ends with fragile accord but questions remain over whether funding will emerge
The task of halting nature loss by 2030 is slipping out of reach, ministers have warned, as countries from around the world came to a hard-won compromise on nature finance after marathon negotiations in Rome.
Delegates at the UN biodiversity conference – known as Cop16 – broke into applause after finally reaching a deal in the Eternal City following a night of tense and painstaking discussions. Cop16 president Susana Muhamad wept as she brought down the gavel on the agreement outlining a roadmap for nature finance. The agreement broke a deadlock at UN talks seen as a test for international cooperation in the face of geopolitical tensions.
Also from The Guardian:
Twenty-two people died in the 2019 New Zealand disaster, mostly US and Australian cruise ship passengers on a walking tour
The owners of an island volcano in New Zealand where 22 tourists and local guides died in an eruption had their criminal conviction for failing to keep visitors safe thrown out by a judge on Friday.
The release of the decision followed a three-day hearing last October for the owners’ company at the high court in the city of Auckland where they appealed against the charges laid by New Zealand’s workplace health and safety regulator after the 2019 eruption of Whakaari, also known as White Island.
From Al Jazeera:
Authorities say at least 25 people remain trapped after avalanche hits a work camp, burying dozens under the snow.
At least 25 people are missing after an avalanche struck the Indian Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, authorities say.
Blizzard-like conditions caused the avalanche on Friday near a highway in the state’s Chamoli region, adjoining Tibet.
From the Independent:
One found floating unconscious and the other seen being attacked by sharks
One was believed to have drowned while the other was found being attacked by sharks, his right arm severed.
From the BBC:
Mayeni Jones in Pretoria & Khanyisile Ngcobo in Johannesburg
The US government's sudden decision to axe funding for HIV programmes is a "wake-up call" for South Africa, the country's health minister has told the BBC.
Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, responding to US termination notices issued late on Wednesday, said the cuts could lead to deaths, but he had instructed state-funded clinics to ensure no patient went without life-saving drugs.
There is chaos as many affected organisations scramble to find alternative help for some 900,000 HIV patients by the end of the day.
A few about Politics and Foreign Relations, beginning with the Bangkok Post:
Advisory notes deadly Erawan Shrine incident that followed deportation of Uyghurs in 2015
The United States Embassy in Bangkok on Friday issued a security alert for its citizens in Thailand, a day after the deportation of a group of Uyghurs to China.
From the BBC:
Katy Watson
The Cook Islands may be small but the ambitions of its leader are mighty.
A range of deals Prime Minister Mark Brown signed with China without consulting the public or New Zealand – an ally to which the Cooks is closely tied – has caused increasing irritation and concern.
The agreements are the first of their kind with a country that is not a traditional ally. They cover infrastructure, ship-building, tourism, agriculture, technology, education and, perhaps crucially, deep-sea mineral exploration.
This is from The Guardian:
Threat after Taipei announces bigger military drills appears to mirror a line from children’s film Ne Zha 2
China’s defence ministry spokesperson has warned Taiwan “we will come and get you, sooner or later”, after Taipei announced an expansion of military exercises.
The threat was delivered in a press conference on Thursday, but grabbed attention inside China for its apparent mirroring of a line from the record-breaking children’s movie Ne Zha 2.
From the Telegraph (via Yahoo!news):
Julian Ryall
North Korea is refusing to repatriate the bodies of troops killed fighting for
Russia against Ukraine because it fears anger from families could lead to civil unrest.
South Korean intelligence officials estimate that about 300 North Korean soldiers have been killed, while about 2,700 have sustained injuries.
From CNN:
Hundreds of thousands of people rallied in cities and towns across Greece on Friday to demand justice on the second anniversary of the country’s deadliest-ever train crash, and striking workers grounded flights and halted sea and train transport.
Fifty-seven people were killed when a passenger train filled with students collided with a freight train on February 28, 2023, near the Tempi gorge in central Greece.
From euronews:
NGOs and human rights activists in Hungary have condemned the government's proposed clampdown on this year's Pride march in Budapest.
In a speech last week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán hinted that his administration would crack down on the event, saying it would be "a waste of time and money" for its organisers to make their usual preparations.
From NBC News:
For the first time since the late 1940s, Austria has a three-party government, which will take office on Monday if all parties approve the deal.
VIENNA — Austria’s three main centrist parties in parliament reached a deal to form a coalition government without the far-right Freedom Party that won the last parliamentary election five months ago.
In a deal that should bring to a close Austria’s longest wait for a new government since World War II, the center-right, liberal and center-left parties unveiled a program including tax increases on banks and energy companies, spending cuts and immigration curbs.
From The Guardian:
Aid was soft power but also good for business: as countries get richer, they buy exports. Strategically, this is very short-sighted
Get right down to it and there are two reasons for thinking that cuts to Britain’s aid budget to pay for defence are a seriously bad idea. The first is that people will die as a result. There will be less money to respond to humanitarian crises and less money for vaccination programmes and hospitals. Realpolitik is being blamed for the decision, but realpolitik doesn’t make it right.
But there are also economic arguments for rich countries providing financial support to less well-off nations, which were summed up succinctly in last year’s Labour party manifesto. This document could not have been clearer. International assistance, it said, helps make “the world a safer, more prosperous place”.
From Politico:
Ontario premier uses victory speech to rally Canadians for trade war.
By Sue Allan and Nick Taylor-Vaisey
Ontario Premier Doug Ford romped to a third-consecutive landslide Thursday night in a snap election he argued was necessary in order to win a mandate to fight a trade war with the United States.
“Donald Trump thinks he can break us,” Ford said during his victory speech. “He is underestimating the resilience of the Canadian people, the Canadian spirit. Make no mistake, Canada won’t start a fight with the U.S., but you better believe we’re ready to win one.”
stories about people and nature
From the BBC:
Cherylann Mollan
Was it pruning or felling?
The alleged chopping of centuries-old chinar trees in Indian-administered Kashmir has sparked outrage, with locals and photos suggesting they were cut down, while the government insists it was just routine pruning. The debate has renewed focus on the endangered tree and efforts to preserve it.
The chinar is an iconic symbol of the Kashmir valley's landscape and a major tourist draw, especially in autumn when the trees' leaves light up in fiery hues of flaming red to a warm auburn.
From the BBC:
Jean Mackenzie
Don't insult the leaders. Don't insult the ideology. And don't judge.
These are the rules tour guides read out to Western tourists as they prepare to drive across the border into North Korea, arguably the most secretive and repressive country in the world.
Then there is the practical information. No phone signal, no internet, no cash machines.
From Al Jazeera:
A century ago, Germany, France and Britain claimed the country at different times. The scars remain visible in conflicts today.
By Amindeh Blaise Atabong
Tiko, Cameroon – On a warm day in Mudeka, an English-speaking village across the river from Cameroon’s Francophone region, supercentenarian Atemafac Anathasia Tanjuh pieces together snippets of her childhood memories.
Tanjuh, whose family says she is about 120 years old, is one of the last living witnesses to European colonial rule in Africa and her Bangwa people’s fierce resistance against German colonisation.
From the Telegraph (via yahoo!news):
James Badcock
Tania Gomez developed a seemingly innocent cover for her alleged criminal activities – running the HundGärin dog rescue charity in Stockholm
To outsiders, Tania Gomez was the glamorous 33-year-old owner of a dog rescue centre in Stockholm, who had moved to Lanzarote for a quieter life.
But to police, she was known as the “Cocaine Queen of Europe” and one of the Continent’s most wanted fugitives.
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency:
The longtime Queens resident, who ran a knitting shop in Forest Hills, fled Poland and Germany for Shanghai before immigrating to the U.S. in 1947.
New Yorker Rose Girone, who celebrated her 113th birthday on Jan. 13 and was believed to be the oldest living Holocaust survivor, died on Monday morning.
The cause, according to her daughter, Reha Bennicasa, was old age.
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I am setting this up to publish shortly before midnight, eastern time. I will check up on it when I get up just before 3 am (4 eastern time) to attend a conference from the UK. It starts at 9 am UK time.
