Overnight News Digest: There is a world out there

Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Doctor RJ, rfall, JML9999 and Man Oh Man with guest editors annetteboardman and Chitown Kev. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke 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 12:00AM Eastern Time.

Tonight’s featured story is some good news (for a change) from the Middle East:

Sebastien Malo’s article on C|Net:

Uber offers free lifts to women voting for first time in a Saudi election

NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Online taxi-hailing service Uber will give Saudi Arabian women lifts to polling stations for free on Saturday to help boost female participation at the first elections in the deeply conservative Islamic kingdom open to female voters.

Saudi Arabian women are both running for election and voting for the first time in local elections in what is viewed as a pigeon step towards gender equality in the autocratic nation where women are still legally barred from driving.

William Booth, in the Washington Post with a less good news-ish story:

Netanyahu wants Palestinian violence linked to radical Islam

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stepped up his rhetorical campaign to convince the world that the surge in Palestinian violence here is not born of frustration against Israel’s decades-long military occupation but instead is the work of radical Islam.

In a series of speeches and public pronouncements since the Paris attacks last month, Netanyahu has been urging the United States and the international community to view the latest wave of daily Palestinian knife, gun and vehicular attacks against Jewish Israelis as a part of a globalized assault by extremist Muslims against Western democracies.

“The terrorists are attacking in California or in Israel, or for that matter in Paris. They are attacking the very values that we hold dear — freedom, tolerance, diversity,” Netanyahu said Sunday.

From the Pacific:

Adele Redmond and others write for stuff.co.nz:

Flag referendum: Chosen design a 'lost opportunity'

The black, white and blue design of Kyle Lockwood's winning flag has been labelled "dull and depressing" by a Nelson flag designer.

Tim Bayley, whose "21st Century Kiwi Flag" design cracked the top 75 alternative flag designs, was disappointed by the black, white and blue Silver Fern design's popularity, calling the flag "old-fashioned".

"It's a bit dull and depressing, but I'm not surprised it won. I think a lot of people who voted for Red Peak probably had it as their second choice.

The final five flags voted on in the first referendum, which was open for postal voting for three weeks.

Anouschka Foltz writes in the New Republic:

How Languages Die

The 2015 Paris Climate Conference (COP21) is in full gear and climate change is again on everyone’s mind. It conjures up images of melting glaciers, rising sea levels, droughts, flooding, threatened habitats, endangered species, and displaced people. We know it threatens biodiversity, but what about linguistic diversity?

Humans are the only species on the planet whose communication system exhibits enormous diversity. And linguistic diversity is crucial for understanding our capacity for language. An increase in climate-change related natural disasters may affect linguistic diversity. A good example is Vanuatu, an island state in the Pacific, with quite a dramatic recent rise in sea levels.

Scott Yeoman, for the New Zealand Herald:

A week inside an active volcano -'If it erupts you're screwed anyway'

Camping 200m inside an active volcano is understandably hot. Abseil 300m beyond that and you're not far away from cooking.

"It would be like running a marathon with a wetsuit on," Auckland-based Geoff Mackley explained to the Herald on Sunday this morning from a hotel in Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu.

"It's very hot," he said. "It really saps your energy -- it's just extremely hot."

From Asia:

Josh Lew writes for travel pulse:

Japanese Village Unable to Cope with Influx of Foreign Tourists

Being listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site can be game changing for a destination. That was certainly the case for the historic Japanese village of Shirakawa-go. This mountain hamlet features traditional gassho-zukuri buildings, which are often described as “prayer-hands constructions” because their steeply-sloped roofs resemble a common meditative hand position. 

Danny Lewis for Smithsonian.com:

EXPLORE LAOS' PLAIN OF JARS WITH DRONE FOOTAGE Many parts of the 2,000-year-old-site are off-limits because of Vetnam-era cluster bombs

Northeast Laos is home to one of the world’s most wondrous archaeological sites: the Plain of Jars. The awe-inspiring site is littered with thousands of enormous 2,000-year-old stone jars nestled among unexploded Vietnam-era bombs. The site largely remained a mystery because of the challenge of working in such dangerous territory. But with the help of drones, archaeologists and curious civilians can now get a closer look at the site.

Riddling the countryside, many of these bombs remain a threat more than 40 years after the United States dropped them across Laos. [RIGHT?] Not only do they pose a threat for Laotian farmers but the bombs have largely deterred archaeologists from studying the curious jugs. The Laotian government and UNESCO have been working on safely clearing the bombs for years, but the care required makes it a slow process, Michele Lent Hirsch writes for Smithsonian Magazine.

From the Star Daily Standard Times:

East Asia Pacific ageing quicker than anyplace else in historical past: World Financial institution

The East Asia Pacific region is ageing at a faster rate than any other place in history, the World Bank warned Wednesday, a demographic shift likely to cramp public services and economic growth.

The region, which spans from Myanmar and China’s western borders as far east as Japan, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific islands, is now home to a third of the world’s over 65s — some 211 million people.

That lurch towards older populations will have a significant impact on economic growth in a area of the globe that has been financially booming for much of the last two decades, according to the study.

Brendon Hong writes for ejinsight: How a desert sprang up in the middle of Myanmar

They now share that space with eugenia, plum, avocado, papaya and tamarind trees, among others. These trees are your best friends.

They do something rare. Their shade shields you from a sun that never stops beating down on the gravel and pavement.

Blame it on the dead royals.

A thousand years ago, Bagan, in central Burma, now Myanmar, was covered with rice paddies. Potters said the best mud was in Bagan.

So when Burmese princes assassinated their brothers, uncles or fathers, and those sins had to be atoned for by performing public good deeds, they uprooted the trees of Bagan to fire their kilns and used the local mud to make bricks.

From Africa:

Marina Koren writes in the The Atlantic.com

The Cheetahs of the South African Air Force

The world’s fastest land animal serves as a handy patrol on military bases near wildlife reserves.

This week, two cheetahs attacked an officer on a South African air-force base.

The officer was not seriously injured, and was treated for minor wounds on her shoulders and the back of her head. After that, the cheetahs got back to work.

Wait, what?

The cheetahs didn’t wander onto Makhado Air Force Base by accident. They were deployed there earlier this month as part of a program started in the 1990s that places cheetahs on military bases for animal-control purposes. The big cats roam the base freely, hunting small game that might run onto airplane runways from nearby nature reserves and pose risks to flight safety.

Endalk Chala for Global Voices, part of the Guardian Africa network:

Violent clashes in Ethiopia over 'master plan' to expand Addis

Extending capital into surrounding farmland is part of ongoing discrimination against Oromo people, say protesters. Global Voices reports

At least 10 students are said to have been killed and hundreds injured during protests against the Ethiopian government’s plans to expand the capital city into surrounding farmland.

According to Human Rights Watch, the students were killed this week when security forces used excessive force and live ammunition to disperse the crowds.

The students were protesting against a controversial proposal, known as “the master plan”, to expand Addis Ababa into surrounding Oromia state, which they say will threaten local farmers with mass evictions.

And one that is a few days old (December 7th) but still worth admiring from the BBC:

In pictures: Challenging perceptions of Africa through art

An exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, northern Spain, aims to show how a new generation of Africans are giving the world a fresh perspective on their continent. Making Africa brings together the work of 120 artists and designers.