Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Doctor RJ, Magnifico, annetteboardman and Man Oh Man. Alumni editors include (but are not limited to) palantir, wader, 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 12:00 AM Eastern Time (or if it is Friday night and the editor is me, a bit later).
To celebrate the end (we’re almost there) of 2016, a few disaster-themed stories from beyond US borders. The first from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, an editorial about their very bad year:
‘Annus horribilis’Right down to the wire, as they say, 2016 continued its apparent quest to be remembered as a particularly bad year. In its closing days, when most Filipinos kick back, take it easy and enjoy the rest of the holiday break before preparing to resume the grind, a typhoon, a fire, three bombings, and more deaths from drug-related police operations were among the major aggravations that bedeviled the country and essentially put a damper on the national mood.
The explosions that shook Leyte and North Cotabato have led to warnings by the military for the public not to gather outdoors for the traditional New Year countdown parties, as these, it said, may become the object of terrorist attacks. The explosion in Leyte left at least 34 people wounded; authorities have ascribed the bombing to the Maute terrorists fighting for an Islamic state in Mindanao. Before that, the grenade attack in Midsayap in North Cotabato injured 16 people, right on Christmas Eve.
The violence can only add to the general sense of dread and foreboding as the nation heads to the new year with no end in sight to the bloody war on drugs being carried out by President Duterte’s administration. On the campaign trail, Mr. Duterte had vowed to lick the drug problem within six months—even then already a tall promise, but one lapped up by a sector that seems to thrive on braggadocio.