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).
We begin with news from the UK, via IFL Science!:
London Breached Its Yearly Air Pollution Limit Just Five Days Into 2017London’s a thoroughly lovely place to live, but it does have at least one persistent problem – air pollution. While not quite as bad as the super smoggy skies of Beijing, it has just breached its legal limits for toxic air for the entire year in just five days.
That’s a new record. Last year saw the same limit broken in eight days. London has broken these limits for six years in a row as of 2017, and it is still the worst city in Europe in terms of air pollution.
From The Globe and Mail:
Austria to consider total headscarf ban for public servantsSHADIA NASRALLA
Austria’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Integration Sebastian Kurz said on Friday he wants to ban public servants, including school teachers, from wearing the Islamic headscarf.
Mr. Kurz, of the Christian Conservative People’s Party (OVP), is working on a draft law with Muna Duzdar, a junior minister from the OVP’s senior Social Democrat coalition partner who has an Arab family background and is Muslim.
If passed by Austria’s parliament, the nationwide ban would be stricter than laws in France, where only the full body veil is illegal, or Germany, where the highest court in 2015 restricted lawmakers’ scope to ban teachers from wearing the headscarf.
From the Washington Post, found in the Santa Fe New Mexican:
Misleading Brietbart report triggers backlash in GermanyBy Anthony Faiola and Stephanie Kirchner
BERLIN — It was every God-fearing Christian’s worst nightmare about Muslim refugees. “Revealed,” the Breitbart News headline screamed, “1,000-Man Mob Attack Police, Set Germany’s Oldest Church Alight on New Year’s Eve.”
The only problem: Police say that’s not what happened that night in the western city of Dortmund.
From WXXI news:
On This German Island, The Breakers Bring Gifts Ashore: Thousands Of Toys By COLIN DWYERIt's a fantasy that goes back centuries: a message in a bottle, carried ashore from far-off lands. Authors, artists and children alike have dreamed of such a gift from the sea.
This time, though, it's not a bottle that washes ashore. It's eggs — thousands of little toy eggs.
That's what happened on the German island of Langegoog this week. Perched just off the North Sea coast, it found itself buffeted by an invasion of multicolored plastic eggs — much to the delight of local children, because the eggs contained toys.
From Egyptian Streets:
President Sisi Vows to Build Egypt’s Largest Church, Mosque During Christmas MassEgyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi attended Christmas Mass for the third year running where he vowed to build the largest church and mosque in Egypt.
Announcing that he has donated EGP 100,000 towards the project, the Egyptian President said that the church and mosque would be built in Egypt’s new capital city by 2018.
The President said that the opening of the largest church and mosque will be celebrated next year to mark, adding that the occasion would coincide with 50 years since the construction of St Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo.
From Al-Monitor:
First ride-hailing app for Cairo's traditional taxis launchedIn late 2016, Egyptian-owned company Taxi Plus launched its first ride-hailing service for Egyptian capital taxis with the aim of modernizing them to meet international quality and safety standards.
The app is downloaded on cellphones and connects customers with traditional taxi drivers.
"Taxi Plus is a shareholding company, and all its employees are Egyptians," said Hesham El-Sayed, the CEO of Taxi Plus.
"The taxi drivers join the service with the fare decided by the Egyptian government. Currently, 500 taxi drivers are enrolled in the app and have offered service to 2,000 customers since Dec. 25, 2016 — the date of its launch," he told Al-Monitor, adding that the service covers Cairo and Giza governorates. Access to the service will be expanded across Egypt.
The company reaches taxi drivers by distributing flyers in gas stations to encourage them to apply.
From Gulf News:
Ancient palm wood craft faces extinction in EgyptArtisans fight to keep profession, which has been passed down through generations, alive
Ramadan Al Sherbini, CorrespondentCairo: Virtually cut off from the world around him, Faraj Darwish is working to finalise a wooden cage, a daily job he has been doing for more than 30 years.
Darwish, 43, is one of a few hundreds of artisans across Egypt manufacturing cages and other products from dried palm wood.
In recent years, the craft has fallen on hard times.
From the Indian Express:
In 80% farmer-suicides due to debt, loans from banks, not moneylendersIt’s for the first time that the NCRB has categorised farmers’ suicides due to debt or bankruptcy based on the source of loans.
Written by Deeptiman Tiwary
According to the NCRB data, “bankruptcy and indebtedness” witnessed the sharpest spike in 2015, registering an almost three-fold increase (3,097) as compared to 2014 (1,163). (Representational)
LOCAL MONEYLENDERS are usually portrayed as the villains in India’s farmer-suicides narrative, but government data shows that 80 per cent of farmers killed themselves in 2015 because of bankruptcy or debts after taking loans from banks and registered microfinance institutions.
According to National Crime Records Bureau’s latest farmer-suicides data, of the over 3,000 farmers who committed suicides across the country in 2015 due to debt and bankruptcy, 2,474 had taken loans from banks or microfinance institutions.
From the Kathmandu Post:
Nepal expects fillip from tourism promo in ChinaJan 7, 2017- Nepal expects to grab a larger share of the Chinese outbound travel market as China has announced Nepal Tourism Promotion Year 2017 in a bid to encourage its citizens to visit the Himalayan republic, the Nepal Embassy in Beijing said.
Each year, 120 million Chinese vacationers head to foreign destinations to see the sights, which makes China the biggest tourism source market in the world.
From The Star:
Nepal quake victims risk going into debtBhaktapur (Nepal): Victims of Nepal’s 2015 earthquake are at risk of slipping into debt as they face a second winter in temporary shelters, according to a monitoring group which says the government has been too slow to disperse reconstruction grants.
Nearly 9,000 people were killed and over half a million homes were destroyed by the quake in April 2015.
But 21 months on, thousands are enduring another harsh winter in temporary shelters, with an increasing number now being forced to take out loans to rebuild their homes.
From Energy Live News:
Pacific Island nations to get green funding boostA number of Pacific Island nations are to get a green funding boost.
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has approved grants to support an Asian Development Bank (ADB) programme aiming to boost the adoption of renewable energy in the region.
The proposed Pacific Islands Renewable Energy Investment Programme will help the Cook Islands, Tonga, the Republic of Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Nauru and Samoa transition from diesel power sources to solar, hydropower and wind energy.
From Radio New Zealand:
Cooks govt not ruling out state crematoriumA proposal to establish a state crematorium in the Cook Islands is not being ruled out by the Health and Justice Ministry.
Families are struggling to find suitable places to bury their loved ones on Rarotonga. Photo: RNZ / Daniela Maoate-Cox
Cook Islands News reports that there is less and less land available for conventional burials because of demand for land for housing, agriculture and commercial activities increases.
From the Daily Herald:
Vast iceberg poised to crack off Antarctica.A rift, slowly developing across the Larsen C ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula in recent years, expanded abruptly last month, growing by about 18 km (11 miles). It is now more than 80 km long with just 20 km left before it snaps, scientists said.
"The Larsen C Ice shelf in Antarctica is primed to shed an area of more than 5,000 square km (1,930 square miles) following further substantial rift growth," scientists at Project Midas at the University of Swansea in Wales said in a statement. The iceberg "will fundamentally change the landscape of the Antarctic Peninsula" and could herald a wider break-up of the Larsen C ice shelf, the statement said. Ice shelves are areas of ice floating on the sea, several hundred metres thick, at the end of glaciers. Scientists fear the loss of ice shelves around the frozen continent will allow glaciers inland to slide faster towards the sea as temperatures rise because of global warming, raising world sea levels.
From IFL Science!
What Is This Mysterious Oval Structure In Antarctica?New year, new claims of ancient civilizations having developed complex cities at the South Pole. Last month, we covered the pyramids of Antarctica, but January 2017 is all about the dome.
Conspiracy theory website Ancient Code has posted about an oval-shaped structure that they claim is likely man-made and possibly even evidence of an ancient civilization in Antarctica.
And finally, some arts news to finish out the week. from channel news asia:
UK artist gives away free art to Singapore’s train commutersAs a way of dealing with her Compulsive Skin Picking disorder, UK artist Liz Atkin sketches during train rides and gives her art for free — and you might just spot her in Singapore.
By Mayo Martin
SINGAPORE: It’s a late Thursday morning on the Downtown Line and Liz Atkin settles into one of the carriages. She promptly pulls out a copy of the day’s newspaper and leafs through it. Spotting an ad that catches her eye, she takes out a charcoal stick and begins shading and sketching on it.
After a couple of minutes, she looks up and sees a curious fellow passenger. She hands it to him - and proceeds to do another one.
For the next few days, you might spot the 40-year-old UK artist on the train, furiously drawing on newspapers and giving these away to lucky random commuters. It is part of Atkin’s performance for the ongoing M1 Singapore Fringe Festival called #CompulsiveCharcoal, where she’ll be sketching on the train until Jan 15.
From The Denver Post (the Washington Post is the origin of the story):
Avoid these mistakes when you hang or clean the art on your wallsBy Jura Koncius
Whether your gallery wall contains rare French lithographs or drawings by your children, you should do your best to protect what you have chosen to display.
Often we hang things up quickly when we move in, not taking into consideration factors that may damage art over the long term, such as exposing it to sunlight or direct heat from a radiator or HVAC vent.
But how do you actually clean your artworks? Experts say as little and as gently as possible. And if you have cleaning help or a cleaning service, make sure to go over the procedures you would like them to follow when dusting your framed items.
From My San Antonio:
Guerrilla art bench stolen from Hays Street BridgeBy Elda Silva
Carlos Alvarez aka Carlos the Carpenter said he placed a steel bench on the Hays Street Bridge on New Year’s Eve.On New Year’s Eve, Carlos Alvarez — aka Carlos the Carpenter — hauled an elliptical metal rocking bench on to the Hays Street Bridge and left it there for the public to enjoy.
He didn’t bother to secure it. Since the bench weighed about 200 pounds, Alvarez thought it would be safe.
He was wrong.
A couple of days later, when Alvarez went to retrieve it, the bench was gone.