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, JeremyBloom, and doomandgloom. 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.
A friend and I went to see “The Odyssey” today so the banner tonight is of Troy in May, with spectactular poppies and roses all over the fields. It looked much different 3100 years ago…
Photos of the week come from Latin America and the Caribbean courtesy of the Associated Press, and of the week around the world from The Guardian.
On that note, cheerier stories above the fold and the more serious ones below. We begin with a story from Al Jazeera:
Pacific island nation Nauru officially changes name to ‘Naoero’
The switch honours a name lost to colonial rule more than a century ago.
The Pacific island nation of Nauru has officially reclaimed its traditional name, becoming the Republic of Naoero.
Nauru’s parliament passed a constitutional amendment in May to change the name, and President David Adeang confirmed in a social media post late on Wednesday that plans for a national referendum on the change had been dropped. He said the shift reflected an identity the people already held rather than a new one seeking approval.
From the Sydney Morning Herald:
‘No real rules’: Meet the Australians driving the Dungeons & Dragons craze
Not long ago, playing Dungeons & Dragons was considered akin to making deals with the devil. The role-playing game inspired immense panic in the 1980s, with some parents and fundamentalist religious groups worrying it would expose children to dark, demonic whims.
This panic didn’t last forever, of course. Concerns subsided as psychologists and players pushed against the ludicrous claims. However, even as it became more socially acceptable, the game remained largely relegated to the periphery of society – something only “nerds” would play.
From the Associated Press:
A book found bricked in a fireplace is returned to an Australian library, 150 years overdue
By ROD MCGUIRK
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A book on Greek antiquities has been returned to an Australian public library about 150 years late, with water damage from years bricked into a fireplace.
The book was returned to the library in the seaside town of Kiama last week by a local Ross Simmons who had found it during recent home renovations inside a tea crate bricked into a sealed fireplace, Kiama Library manager Michelle Hudson said.
From the Sydney Morning Herald:
We’ve never known the size of the trans community. That’s about to change
Transgender Australians have long been the focus of debates about the future of sport, schools, healthcare and public bathrooms.
But there has never been a single, official tally of how many Australians identify as transgender – only a patchwork of estimates.
In just a matter of days, this will change.
From the NY Times:
A Whale Gave Birth. A Drone Was There to Capture the Spectacle.
A wildlife photographer noticed a humpback whale displaying unusual behavior off Australia’s east coast, then something extraordinary happened.
By Laura Chung
A drone has captured a humpback whale giving birth to a calf in waters off Australia’s east coast, in what may be a world first.
Alexander Forrest, 20, a wildlife photographer, was standing on a coastal point in northern New South Wales to capture the annual whale migration along a stretch of ocean known as the “humpback highway.”
From the Asahi Shimbun:
One researcher attempts to save Japan from ‘supereruption’
By TAIRIKU KUROSAWA
Japan has experienced multiple “supereruptions” throughout its history, and one volcanologist is not sitting around idly waiting for the next one to destroy the country and possibly all of humankind.
Isoji Miyagi, a senior researcher with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, is pitching the idea of venting gases from magma chambers beneath the Earth’s surface to prevent another explosive event.
From the South China Morning Post:
As Jolie-Pitt kids change their surname, why the ancient Chinese did the same
I am not one to follow celebrity gossip, but the recent decision by several of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s children to drop their father’s surname caught my attention. Following the couple’s bitter separation, some of their children have chosen to remove “Pitt” from their original hyphenated surname, “Jolie-Pitt”.
For people living in imperial China, changing one’s surname was rarely a casual decision. Unlike Europeans and many others, married Chinese women traditionally retain their own family names. The Chinese surname is an important marker of identity and community, but there have always been circumstances in which it could be altered.
From Deutsche Welle:
FIFA chief Infantino abandons World Cup sell-off plans
Karl Sexton | Jenipher Camino Gonzalez
Europe’s governing body, UEFA, had threatened to boycott FIFA tournaments, including the World Cup, unless Gianni Infantino withdrew his plans to sell stakes in FIFA competitions to private equity investors.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has withdrawn his plans to sell stakes in FIFA competitions to private investors.
Infantino’s plans had been met with widespread condemnation from across the football world.
From Live Science:
40,000-year-old bird figurines the size of a thumbnail discovered in German cave
Two newly discovered bird carvings reveal early humans’ keen eye for artistry in the ice age world 40,000 years ago.
Archaeologists excavating in the famous prehistoric Hohle Fels cave in Germany have uncovered two bird figurines carved from mammoth ivory. The thumbnail-size carvings add to the existing evidence that ice age humans had a sophisticated artistic sense 40,000 years ago.
“The figurines demonstrate that the earliest artists were skilled ivory-carvers, who could depict delicate motifs in miniature form,” Nicholas Conard, an archaeologist at the University of Tübingen in Germany and director of excavations at Hohle Fels, said in a July 29 statement.
From The Guardian:
‘It’s OK to mess around’: how ‘mop man’ stole the show at Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games
CJ Miller from West Lothian has delighted global audiences with ‘sheer stupidity’ of his half-time dances
The 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow have already provided plenty of highlights. But fans across the world have been dazzled by one particular breakout star: the “mop man”.
When a cleaner came out at half-time during a netball match to wipe down the court before the restart, everything appeared normal. But as the cleaner swept, and the first bars of Queen’s I Want to Break Free rang out in the venue, he went from sweeping to a standing split.
From the UPI:
Rotting fish sauce being removed from plant after decades of stench
By Ben Hooper
July 30 (UPI) — Workers have begun the process of removing thousands of gallons of rotting fish sauce from a Newfoundland and Labrador plant that was abandoned in the early 2000s.
St. Mary’s Mayor Steve Ryan said the former Atlantic Seafood Sauce Company plant has been stinking up the town for decades.
From Archaeology Magazine:
Hundreds of Geoglyphs Discovered in Amazon Rainforest
HELSINKI, FINLAND—Live Science reports that a lidar survey of more than 1,700 square miles of the Amazon rainforest in western Brazil has detected nearly 400 earthworks dated to between 600 B.C. and A.D. 850. The geoglyphs were constructed by the Aquiry, a multicultural group made up of as many as three million people, based upon an estimate of 300 people needed to build and maintain each geoglyph. “The cultures and societies that composed the Aquiry shared a common worldview and constructed ceremonial centers in a variety of monumental geometric forms, characterized by deep ditches and high outer embankments, commonly known as Amazonian geoglyphs,” said Martti Pärssinen of the University of Helsinki. People lived in multifamily longhouses around these earthworks and grew crops including maize and squash, Pärssinen added. “According to native oral traditions, the Aquiry centers were built to foster relations among communities,” he explained. As many as 20,000 earthworks may still be hidden in the rainforest. “We do not know why the geoglyphs were suddenly abandoned between A.D. 850 and 950,” Pärssinen continued. The collapse may be related to the disappearance of other groups of people, such as the Classic Maya in Central America and the Tiwanaku and Wari civilizations in the Andes, he concluded. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Nature.
From the New York Times:
A Ton of Space Junk Tumbles Unpredictably to Earth Every Week
Flaming chunks of metal crash into homes, farms and parking lots. Who’s to blame? And who pays for the damage?
One December afternoon, the sky tore open and a fiery hunk of metal, wider than a school bus, came hurtling down.
It was louder than a thunderclap when it plunged into a patch of farmland, startling everyone in the village of Mukuku, about three hours south of Nairobi, Kenya.
And in the space theme, this comes from the BBC:
Satellite killers: What a war in space might look like
Mark Piesing
The satellites that orbit Earth have remained largely untouched in modern conflict. But in the 21st Century, space may no longer be a safe haven.
Around 03:00 on 24 February 2022, thousands of satellite modems across Ukraine and Central Europe went offline. A few hours later, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began.
From Gizmondo:
Earth Is On Track to Break the All-Time Record for Category 5 Hurricanes This Year
Thanks, El Niño.
The U.S. may be enjoying a quiet Atlantic hurricane season thanks to a growing “super” El Niño, but don’t let that fool you. This climatic phenomenon is supercharging storm activity over the Pacific Ocean—so much so that Earth is on track for a record-breaking year of Category 5 hurricanes.
Super typhoon Dolphin is the fifth Cat 5 tropical cyclone of 2026, putting this year ahead of the pace set in 1997, which currently holds the all-time global record for the most Cat 5 storms in a single year. A very strong El Niño encouraged the development of 12 Cat 5s that year, 10 in the Northwest Pacific and two in the Northeast Pacific.
From the Asahi Shimbun:
South Korea records highest-ever temperature of 41.4 C as heatwave intensifies
SEOUL–South Korea recorded its highest temperature on Friday since modern weather observations began, as a prolonged heatwave pushed temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) for a third straight day in parts of the country.
The record was set in the southeastern city of Yangsan, where temperatures reached 41.4 C at 1:40 p.m. (0440 GMT), according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). The reading surpassed the previous national record of 41.0 C set in Hongcheon in August 2018.
More stories about weather and then we will get to more, but the news about fires and heat are found across the globe.
From The Guardian:
A rain festival with no rain: the Indian farmers bracing for a ‘super’ El Niño as monsoon arrives late
Raja is normally a celebration of the start of the monsoon, but in the eastern state of Odisha, the rains came so late the seeds were sown under clear skies
Words and photographs by Neelima Vallangi
Kasturi Gamango and Pramila Sabar cannot contain their giggles as they explain one of the big attractions of the Raja festival, which they attended a few days earlier along with 20 other farmer families in Laxmipur, in Odisha’s Ganjam district.
“We do no work for three days during the festival,” they say. “Our husbands cook and clean while we enjoy our free time.”
Also from The Guardian:
India’s monsoon rains in danger as UN chief warns planet is ‘on fire’
António Guterres says strengthening El Niño will help push the world’s climate crisis into ‘uncharted territory’
Fiona Harvey Environment editor
India’s monsoon is in danger and hotter, drier conditions are forecast across much of the world as a stronger El Niño weather system is taking hold, weather experts have warned.
António Guterres, the UN secretary general, said the strengthening El Niño was “adding fuel to a planet already on fire” and pushing the world into “uncharted territory”.
From Science Alert:
Concerning Map Suggests The Worst May Be Yet to Come For Devastating European Fires
It’s been a fraught summer in terms of extreme weather events.
Heatwaves have set new records. Canada has burnt, Europe is currently on fire.
If you’re anything like us, you’re likely already fatigued and anxious from the barrage of bad news, so we’re not going to go on about it.
But one important graphic to share has come out of the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC).
As bad as things have been, the coming few days (from 29 July through to 2 August) may be among the worst for fire risk.
From Euronews:
Wildfire breaks out near Athens, prompting evacuation alerts
By Konstantinos Tsellos & Euronews with ΑΠΕ ΜΠΕ
The fire broke out at around 3:30 p.m. on Friday on the slopes of Mount Poikilo, in the Aspropyrgos area, west of Athens.
A wildfire has broken out in a forested area in Aspropyrgos, west of Athens, prompting evacuation alerts and a major firefighting response.
According to the fire service, the blaze broke out at around 15:29 in forest land on the slopes of Mount Poikilo, in the Aspropyrgos area, and is moving south.
Firefighting forces have been reinforced. A total of 108 firefighters are operating at the scene with six ground teams from the 1st EMODE special wildfire unit and 27 vehicles. Five aircraft and six helicopters have also been deployed for aerial firefighting, one of them for coordination.
Also from euronews:
EU considers emergency meeting as nuclear shutdown leaves Hungary facing energy crisis
Hungarian PM Péter Magyar has warned of an energy crisis after record-low Danube water levels forced the shutdown of the Paks nuclear plant, which supplies nearly half the country’s power.
The European Commission says it is prepared to convene an emergency meeting of its Electricity Coordination Group over the shutdown of Hungary’s Paks nuclear plant, as the country’s prime minister warned of a looming energy crisis.
“Although the operator has emergency measures in place to guarantee nuclear safety, an event of this kind could further strain the regional electricity balance,” the Commission’s spokesperson, Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, told Euronews. “The Commission stands ready to convene an ad hoc meeting of the Electricity Coordination Group.”
From CNN:
Ancient mammoth remains and a Nazi shipwreck: Europe’s shrinking rivers reveal past relics
By Laura Paddison
Europe’s summer of extraordinary heat and drought has pushed some of its rivers to record lows, revealing long-submerged relics from ancient bones to century-old shipwrecks.
The remains of what’s believed to be an ancient mammoth were discovered Wednesday on the newly exposed riverbed of the Danube in northern Bulgaria, after the river plunged to record lows.
The director of the Regional History Museum in the nearby town of Ruse said the discovery consists of a lower jaw, two tusks and potentially a rib, according to Reuters, citing local media reports. The bones will now be tested to confirm the find.
From Al Jazeera:
Tunisian wildfires expose failing infrastructure, community vulnerabilities
For families in Tunisia’s north, the wildfires have meant lost homes, livestock and harvests.
By Ghaya Ben Mbarek
Sakiet Sidi Youssef, Tunisia – Smoke still lingers over the blackened hills surrounding the village of el-Gol near the town of Sakiet Sidi Youssef in Tunisia’s mountainous Kef governorate, days after one of the worst wildfires to hit the region this summer.
Standing outside the charred remains of his farm near the Algerian border, 70-year-old Mongi Abdeli struggles to put into words the scale of what has been lost.
From The Guardian:
Daughter of British couple killed in Spanish wildfire rejects claim they ignored order to leave
Exclusive: Danielle Kirton calls on Ed Miliband to help her get answers about why evacuation order came too late
The bereaved daughter of a British couple who died in a Spanish wildfire is calling on the foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, to get answers from Spain’s government about why her parents were not told to evacuate until it was too late.
Severe wildfires have burned across Spain and France since early July, killing people, destroying thousands of homes and forcing more than 300,000 people to flee.
From Al Jazeera:
Inside Barcelona’s most sweltering neighbourhood: El Raval
Densely packed apartments, low incomes, a lack of tree cover and uninsulated housing have placed the migrant heart of the city on Europe’s frontline of extreme temperatures.
Barcelona, Spain – The sky glows with the pink, orange and blue hues that commonly appear when the sun slips below the horizon – but the heat and humidity remain suffocating.
A group of Pakistani women take refuge from the scorching heat at the water’s edge on Barcelona’s beach in colourful, breezy cotton clothing, some letting the water wash over them as they lie on the wet sand. Others are dancing in the shallows to music from home blasting from a speaker, or cooling off under showers on the beach.
In other news (there is more going on than the weather and climate)…
From the NY Times
Myanmar dispatch
This Country Is Ravaged by War, but Its Rich Feel ‘Positive Vibes Only’
The lifestyles of the wealthy in Myanmar — nightclubs, caviar and trips abroad — have been largely untouched by years of deadly conflict.
By Hannah Beech; Visuals by Daniel Berehulak, Hannah Beech and Daniel Berehulak spent three weeks in Myanmar, traveling through big cities and small villages.
After midnight, amid a war, the D.J. hyped the crowd.
“Are you ready to party?” he yelled into the mic, adding an expletive for emphasis.
The partygoers of Pioneer Plus, the most exclusive nightclub in the war-torn nation of Myanmar, were ready. The D.J. had come all the way from Croatia, after all. Young women gyrated onstage. Johnnie Walker flowed, but only Blue Label because that is the way these high-rollers roll. A private table for the evening — with hookah, imported fruit and pyramids of frosted shot glasses — costs hundreds of dollars to book.
Also from the NY Times:
4 Bodies Found, 6 Climbers Missing After Avalanche in Pakistan
The bodies of the first Omani woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest and of an American climber were recovered. An influential British-Nepali mountaineer was missing.
By Elian Peltier, Binod Ghimire and Francesca Regalado
Elian Peltier reported from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Binod Ghimire from Kathmandu, Nepal.
Rescuers searching for 10 mountaineers who went missing in Pakistan after an avalanche on Broad Peak, one of the world’s highest mountains, recovered four bodies on Friday, the authorities said.
Among the victims were Nadhira Alharthy, one of Oman’s most successful mountaineers, and an American climber, Sarah Mallory Geis, according to a statement shared by local officials on Friday evening. Another was Pur Bahadur Gurung, who was part of a separate team being led by the British-Nepali climber Nirmal Purja.
One more from the NYTimes:
Young Men Poured Into Ceuta Seeking Work
Several migrants said they had been motivated by social media messages claiming that the Spanish border was open, though the origin of those messages remained unclear.
By Jason Horowitz, Carlos Barragán, and Aida Alami
They swam across a narrow channel to arrive in the tiny Spanish territory of Ceuta. They jumped over a border wall. They were mostly men, mostly Moroccan. Their underlying motives were familiar, but what prompted them to pour into Ceuta over a two-day period remained unclear, beyond the encouragement of a crowd.
“You ask why everyone came — because there’s no work in Morocco,” said Ajoub el-Arrot, 24, a Moroccan man wearing a beat-up Gucci cap and standing among thousands who were wandering on a beach in Ceuta Friday.
From Deutsche Welle:
Small insects, big damage: The global ant trade is booming
Simone Schlindwein
Legal or not, the trade in African ants bound for Europe is booming. What do hobbyists find appealing about these insects, and what risks does the trade pose to ecosystems, including power outages?
They are unusual pieces of evidence that regularly appear in Kenyan courtrooms: thousands of ants packed into tiny containers.
Since 2025, such finds have been presented in court several times. Staff from the Kenya Wildlife Service discovered them during baggage inspections. In multiple cases, they identified thousands of specimens of the sought-after Messor Cephalotes species also known as the Giant African Harvester Ant. A single queen can fetch more than €200 ($230) on the market.
Also from DW:
German court rules that AI music firm violated copyrights
Germany’s state-mandated licensing agency, GEMA, says the verdict has “global significance,” as Suno is also directed to pay yet-to-be-quantified damages.
The Munich Regional Court ruled on Friday that Suno AI, a US-based company, which generates songs from text prompts. has violated copyrights and has to disclose illicit revenues.
The lawsuit initiated in January 2025 by GEMA, Germany’s state-mandated licensing agency, argued that Suno trained its AI models on copyrighted music without obtaining licences or compensating its rights holders.
According to the verdict, Suno will have to pay damages that have yet to be quantified. Suno has disagreed with the ruling and said it would evaluate all available options, including an appeal.
One last one from DW:
UK court allows plans for Chinese ‘super’ embassy to advance
A court dismissed a legal challenge against Beijing’s new embassy in London, which could become the largest in the UK. The case, brought by a neighborhood association, argued the embassy poses a security threat.
A UK High Court on Friday threw out a challenge against UK authorities’ decision to permit a new Chinese super embassy in central London.
The challenge was brought by a neighborhood group called the Royal Mint Court Residents’ Association (RMCRA), which represents families and businesses in roughly 100 properties around the planned embassy site.
From The Guardian:
BP puts North Sea oil and gas business up for sale
Move will end six decades of production in area, as new CEO tries to simplify company and cut debt
BP has put its North Sea oil and gas business up for sale as it looks to end six decades of production from the basin.
The firm announced on Friday morning it had launched a formal process to market its North Sea business for a potential sale. The move comes as BP’s new chief executive, Meg O’Neill, tries to simplify the company and cut its debt levels.
From The Guardian:
The dead doctor and a dicey diet: how a ban made a hero of Egypt’s rogue medic
Diaa al-Awadi claimed insulin was a fraud, smoking was safe and chemotherapy useless. But despite losing his medical licence and dying at early age, his reach continues to grow
It had been a struggle with conventional treatments. For Fatima Adel, a 50-year-old author living in Cairo’s upmarket Sheikh Zayed neighbourhood, the misdiagnoses and medical errors she had experienced had began to erode her confidence in doctors.
But when the videos of Diaa al-Awadi began circulating – an Egyptian doctor who spoke plainly, invoked the Qur’an, and told his audience that their bodies could heal themselves if they changed their diet – Adel, like tens of thousands of other Egyptians, listened.
Also from The Guardian:
Fifteen elephant deaths in Kenya may be due to cyanide poisoning
Analysis of samples collected from carcasses found traces of toxic chemical compound, says Kenya Wildlife Service
The recent deaths of 15 elephants near a park in southern Kenya were likely caused by the animals ingesting pesticides used on tomato farms, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has said.
Erustus Kanga, the agency’s director general, told Citizen TV that analysis of samples collected from the carcasses had found traces of cyanide, a chemical compound used in farming as a predator control poison and a pest fumigant, which has also been used by poachers.
“Cyanide is a highly toxic chemical,” he said. “If elephants consume cyanide, they cannot survive a day or two.”
From the Archbishop of Canterbury:
Archbishop of Canterbury arrives in Cameroon for pastoral visit
The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd Dame Sarah Mullally, arrived in Cameroon today for the start of a five-day visit to its Anglican community.
The Archbishop, who is visiting Ghana and Cameroon on her first pastoral visit to Africa, concluded her visit to Ghana yesterday in Cape Coast.
From Al Jazeera:
DR Congo Ebola epidemic becomes world’s second largest outbreak
Officials declare the outbreak the fastest spreading ever, warning the world to ‘pay much more attention’.
More than 3,500 people have been infected with the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), making it the world’s second largest outbreak on record.
Confirmed cases have reached 3,532, the DRC Ministry of Communication and Media said in a statement on Friday. The data show that the current outbreak has surpassed the country’s 10th on record, which ran from August 2018 to June 2020 and saw roughly 3,470 cases recorded.
Huge blankets of seaweed are smothering coastlines from the Caribbean to Mexico
Fabiola Sanchez, Associated Press, Dánica Coto, Associated Press
PUERTO MORELOS, Mexico (AP) — Swaths of seaweed are blanketing the beaches and coastlines of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, suffocating shorelines and snuffing out marine life while spooking visitors in areas that depend heavily on tourism.
Some 27 million metric tons of self-sustaining sargassum have been recorded in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico in July, according to a report released Friday by the University of South Florida’s Optical Oceanography Lab.
The prickly seaweed covers miles of coastline, releasing a foul smell as it rots onshore.
