Overnight News Digest: Christmas wrapup edition

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.  Or, if it is me and it is Friday night, it might be a little later (sorry).

Tonight’s featured story is from Agence France Presse photographer Filippo Monteforte (there are beautiful photos and at the bottom of the page links to the work of other photographers of the Christmas season):

Rome, December 24, 2015 -– Every December, I have the same assignment – take pictures that say ‘Christmas in Rome.’ You might think that doing the same thing in your job year, after year, after year gets boring or monotonous. But I really enjoy it. I look forward to it in fact.

And then we have a happy one from The Daily Caller by Jacob Bojesson:

Refugees Rescued At Sea Win Spain’s Famous Jackpot Christmas Lottery

A Senegalese refugee who nearly drowned on his journey to Spain is enjoying his 15 minutes of fame after winning Spain’s El Gordo, “the fat one,” Christmas lottery.

The drawing of El Gordo is a vital part of the Spanish Christmas tradition in many homes. The lottery is game postal codes, where people who bought a ticket in the winning district get to share a jackpot of almost $700 million.

Another happier ending from Europe in this story by Ceylan Yeginsu, writing for the New York Times:

Turkish President Erdogan Persuades Man From Jumping From Bridge

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s president has often been described as a rhetorical tactician and “man of the people” who excels at rebuttals and rejoinders when challenged by critics on almost any issue. But on Friday, the president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, used his skills of verbal persuasion to save a despondent man as he sought to jump off the Bosporus Bridge here.

In what amounted to a Turkish take on the Hollywood Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life,” Mr. Erdogan found himself in the role of Clarence the angel, rescuing George Bailey from suicide.

For some reason, there are suddenly a bunch of interesting stories about traditional cuisine, so here are your food writing highlights for the day:

From The Guardian, this story from Justin McCurry: A raw deal: the female chefs challenging sushi sexism in Japan

Country’s sole sushi restaurant with women-only team throws down the gauntlet to traditionalists, one expertly sliced piece of tuna at a time

Despite the global popularity of Japanese food– and the entry of umami into the international culinary lexicon – the kitchen-side of Japan’s sushi counters continues to be dominated by men.

But in a corner of Tokyo’s Akihabara district, Yuki Chizui and her colleagues are challenging the sushi world’s conservatism, one expertly sliced piece of tuna at a time.

Nadeshiko Sushi is one of thousands of sushi restaurants in Japan, but it is the only one where all of the chefs are women. .

And from Agence France Presse:

Dying art? A recipe to save Hong Kong's handmade dim sum

For the past 60 years, Chui Hoi has risen in the early hours of the morning to prepare bite-size steamed morsels for his small but popular dim sum restaurant in Hong Kong.

"Sun Hing" opens its doors at 3:00 am, seven days a week, with a loyal clientele from students to the elderly filling the 60-seat restaurant in the western district of Kennedy Town.

At 85 years old, Chui is committed to handmaking his dim sum -- parcels of meat, seafood and sweet fillings served in stacks of bamboo baskets -- saying that freshness is key to their success.

But many in the industry fear the traditional art of making dim sum is dying as restaurants choose factory-made versions to save money and meet demand.

Also from East Asia comes Patrick Stokes’s meditation in The Straits Times (Singapore):

Christmas already? 'Tis the season to think about time

Well, it's that time of year again - and there it is; just four words into an article on Christmas I've used the word "time". Among the hodge-podge of rituals and holidays that survive in the post-Christian West, Christmas might just be the one that tells us the most about how humans relate to and experience temporality.

That might sound like a strange claim. After all, we have other yearly rituals that seem to be much more explicitly concerned with time. Birthdays are staging posts on our journey from childhood to youth to middle age to dotage. (The Canadian public intellectual John Ralston Saul wrote that where once we sang the Latin Mass over the born, the living, the dying and the dead to mark their passage through this vale of tears, now we make do with Happy Birthday).

New Year's Eve is a time when we tend to take stock of a year that's gone and make resolutions for the year to come. The resolutions don't usually stick, admittedly, but that's not really the point. What matters is the sense of narrative coherence - of what French philosopher Paul Ricoeur, drawing on Aristotle, calls our "emplotment" - that we give to the time of our lives through such resolutions.

Not everything from Asia is good or chatty news, however.  Reuters reports on an earthquake in Afghanistan:

Strong earthquake hits northeast Afghanistan

A 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit northern Afghanistan and Pakistan late on Friday, two months after more than 300 people were killed by a quake in the same mountainous region.

Strong shocks were felt in the Afghan capital Kabul at 11:14 p.m. local time (1914 GMT) and in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, waking sleeping people and driving them out of their houses. Tremors were felt as far away as New Delhi, officials said.

And from Voice of America’s Shaikh Azizur Rahman, news of Bangladesh: Suspected Suicide Bomber Attacks Bangladesh Mosque

KOLKATA, INDIA—

A suspected suicide bomber set off his explosives during Friday prayers at a mosque in northern Bangladesh, killing himself and leaving about a dozen people injured.

The bombing took place at the house of worship run by the minority Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Bagmara, a town about 250 kilometers northwest of Dhaka, investigators said.  No one claimed responsibility for the attack at the Syedpur Chakpara Ahmadiyya Jame Masjid mosque.

Chriistmas news from the UK, via Nick Bourne of the BBC:

1915 WW1 diary gives account of second Christmas truce A diary from a World War One soldier has come to light providing details of a Christmas Day truce in 1915.

Pte Robert Keating's account explains how a ceasefire was held by some men despite orders from officers who did not want a repeat of a 1914 truce.

A military historian said the account contradicts reports from the time which said a second truce did not take place.

It has been donated to the archives of Royal Welch Fusiliers (RWF) and is being transcribed at Wrexham Museum.

And Max Evans, also of the BBC:

Why work as Santa Claus, an elf or a light untangler?

"I'm fed up with mince pies," joked retired ambulance worker, John Jones who has worked as Father Christmas for seven years in a row.

The 72-year-old is among the hundreds across Wales who personify the season of goodwill in red robes and tireless smiles as professional Santas and elves.

But why apply for a job spreading yuletide cheer? And what do Christmas workers do for the rest of the year?

The BBC spoke to some seasonal workers to discover the perks, privileges and professional challenges connected with clocking in at the grotto.  

News from the South Pole (again BBC):

Polar adventurer Luke Robertson has Christmas alone

Scottish explorer Luke Robertson has been speaking to the BBC about spending Christmas alone as he walks to the South Pole.

He hopes to be the first Scot to trek solo and unsupported to the pole. He would also be the youngest person from Britain - at age 30 - to do so.

Luke was inspired to undertake his adventure after undergoing brain surgery to remove a suspected tumour.

He said he is preparing to celebrate with a "Christmas breakfast for one".

And finally there is that astronaut… (BBC again):

Astronaut Tim Peake calls wrong number from space station UK astronaut Tim Peake has tweeted a light-hearted apology after dialling a wrong number from space and saying to a woman on the other end of the line: "Hello, is this planet Earth?"

Mr Peake said on Twitter it was not intended to be a "prank call".