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Overnight News Digest August 18, 2022 [1]
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Date: 2022-08-18
NPR
The Bible is among dozens of books removed from this Texas school district
Students at the Keller Independent School District outside Fort Worth, Texas, went back to school Wednesday. But instead of the focus being on their return, much of the attention has been heaped on an email that was sent out the day before, instructing school staff to pull all copies of a list of more than 40 books from classrooms and school libraries. The books that were pulled include the graphic novel adaptation of Anne Frank's diary, all versions of the Bible and numerous books with LGBTQ+ themes or characters. The School Board did not say why the Bible and the Anne Frank book were removed, but parents had objected to them, according to the list. The books on the list have been challenged at the district in the past and while some have been reviewed and put back on shelves, they must all undergo another review under new criteria set by the school board, the school district said in a statement to NPR.
NPR
Plácido Domingo linked to criminal ring in Argentina, prosecutors say
Prosecutors in Argentina have linked disgraced opera star Plácido Domingo to a criminal group in Buenos Aires that was a front for sexual trafficking, including of minors, as well as other crimes. Last week, police conducted 50 raids against the BA Group, which operated under the name Buenos Aires Yoga School, and 19 people were arrested. Numerous broadcast channels in Latin America have been airing excerpts of audio recordings, obtained by wiretap, that include the voice of a man whom authorities claim is Domingo making plans with members of the alleged criminal ring. The dates of these wiretap recordings have not been made public. Since 2019 more than 20 women have come forward publicly with misconduct claims against Domingo. As a result of those accusations, Domingo parted ways with New York's Metropolitan Opera and resigned from his role as general director of LA Opera in California.
The Guardian
Police call for Bolsonaro to be charged for spreading Covid misinformation
Brazilian federal police have called for President Jair Bolsonaro to be charged with spreading fake information about a coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 680,000 of his citizens, including bogus claims of a link between Aids and Covid vaccines. Bolsonaro’s anti-scientific response to a disease he called “a bit of a cold” has been internationally condemned and the subject of a congressional inquiry in which the far-right populist was accused of deliberately delaying vaccine purchases and promoting quack “cures” such as hydroxychloroquine. On Wednesday night a senior federal police investigator was reported to have written to the supreme court asking for Bolsonaro to be questioned and charged with the crime of incitement, when someone encourages another person to commit an offense. That alleged crime, which is punishable with up to six months in prison, relates to a notorious social media broadcast in October 2021 which was subsequently removed by YouTube and Facebook. In the deleted transmission, Bolsonaro falsely claimed face masks – the compulsory use of which he repeatedly flouted – had been responsible for many of the deaths during the 1918 influenza pandemic.
The Guardian
Huge megalithic complex of more than 500 standing stones discovered in Spain
A huge megalithic complex of more than 500 standing stones has been discovered in southern Spain that could be one of the largest in Europe, archaeologists have said. The stones were discovered on a plot of land in Huelva, a province flanking the southernmost part of Spain’s border with Portugal, near the Guadiana River. Spanning about 600 hectares (1,500 acres), the land had been earmarked for an avocado plantation. Before granting the permit the regional authorities requested a survey in light of the site’s possible archaeological significance. The survey revealed the presence of the stones. “This is the biggest and most diverse collection of standing stones grouped together in the Iberian peninsula,” said José Antonio Linares, a researcher at Huelva University and one of the project’s three directors. It was probable that the oldest standing stones at the La Torre-La Janera site were erected during the second half of the sixth or fifth millennium BC, he said. “It is a major megalithic site in Europe.” At the site they found a large number of various types of megaliths, including standing stones, dolmens, mounds, coffin-like stone boxes called cists, and enclosures.
The Guardian
At least 38 people killed as ‘tornado of fire’ rages in northern Algeria
Algerian firefighters were on Thursday battling a string of blazes, fanned by drought and a blistering heatwave, that have killed at least 38 people and left destruction in their wake. Deadly forest fires have become an annual scourge in the north African country, where the climate crisis is turning large areas into a tinderbox. According to multiple sources, including local journalists and the fire service, at least 38 people have been killed, mostly in El Tarf province near Algeria’s eastern border with Tunisia, which was baking in 48C (118F) heat. At least 200 more people have suffered burns or respiratory problems from the smoke, according to Algerian media. A journalist in El Tarf described scenes of devastation on the road to El Kala in the country’s far north-east. “A tornado of fire swept everything away in seconds,” he told AFP by telephone. “Most of those who died were surrounded while visiting a wildlife park.” Emergency services were still battling a blaze around Tonga Lake, he said.
Deutsche Welle
Dry rivers: Traffic backed up on Rhine as engine failure worsens woes
About 20 ships were queued up in Germany's crisis-struck Rhine river on Wednesday as a ship broke down in a busy shipping lane. River traffic was closed in the Middle Rhine after a ship with a 1,660-ton load dropped anchor after an engine failure, police said. "The berths are full all the way to Mainz" (about 50 kilometers or 31 miles from the affected area), a spokesperson for the Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration told the Reuters news agency. The ship was eventually towed out. River traffic on the key shipping route has already been severely hampered in recent weeks by low water levels, with ships either unable to sail or forced to carry a quarter of their normal capacity to avoid running aground. Water levels have dropped as part of a Europe-wide drought. Climate change has made extreme weather, including heatwaves and droughts, more likely. Conditions are expected to improve in the coming days, with rain forecast to raise levels by as much as 50 centimeters (20 inches). The Kaub gauge was at 34 centimeters on Wednesday — just barely above the minimum level to allow relatively unladen ships to pass.
Al Jazeera
US preparing additional $800m in military aid for Ukraine: Report
The United States is readying about $800m of additional military aid to Ukraine and could announce the plan as soon as Friday, three sources familiar with the matter have told the Reuters news agency. US President Joe Biden would authorise the assistance using his Presidential Drawdown Authority, which allows the president to approve the transfer of excess weapons from US stocks, the sources told Reuters. The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that an announcement could slip into next week, and cautioned that weapons packages can change in value before they are announced. The White House declined to comment. Since Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February, in what Russian President Vladimir Putin termed a “special military operation,” the conflict has settled into a war of attrition fought primarily in the east and south of Ukraine.
Al Jazeera
Torrential rain, floods in Sudan kill 77 and destroy 14,500 homes
Flooding in Sudan has killed scores of people and destroyed an estimated 14,500 homes as seasonal rains pound the country, causing rivers to flood and destroying property. The death toll since the rainy season began in May now stands at 77, the spokesman for Sudan’s National Council for Civil Defence, Brigadier General Abdul-Jalil Abdul-Rahim, said on Thursday. Provinces most affected by the seasonal rains include North Kordofan, Gezira, South Kordofan, South Darfur and River Nile, the spokesman said. Heavy rains usually fall in Sudan between May and October, and the country faces severe flooding every year that wrecks property, infrastructure and crops. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported earlier this week that, according to the government’s Humanitarian Aid Commission, humanitarian organisations, and local authorities, more than 136,000 people have been affected by the floods.
Washington Post
Student, 20, makes $110 million trading meme stock Bed Bath & Beyond
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