Welcome to the Overnight News Digest (OND) for Tuesday, June 24, 2014.
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 near 12:00AM Eastern Time.
Creation and early water-bearing of the OND concept came from our very own Magnifico - proper respect is due.
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This diary is named for its "Hump Point" video: Shining Armor by CloZee
News below Aunt Flossie's hairdo . . .
Please feel free to browse and add your own links, content or thoughts in the Comments section.
Any timestamps shown are relative to each publication.
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Top News |
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U.S. To Face Multibillion-Dollar Bill from Climate Change
By (Reuters via scientificamerican.com)
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Annual property losses from hurricanes and other coastal storms of $35 billion; a decline in crop yields of 14 percent, costing corn and wheat farmers tens of billions of dollars; heat wave-driven demand for electricity costing utility customers up to $12 billion per year.
. . .
Commissioned by a group chaired by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Secretary of the Treasury and Goldman Sachs alum Henry Paulson, and environmentalist and financier Tom Steyer, the analysis "is the most detailed ever of the potential economic effects of climate change on the U.S.," said climatologist Michael Oppenheimer of Princeton University.
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Called "Risky Business," the report projects climate impacts at scales as small as individual counties. Its conclusions about crop losses and other consequences are based not on computer projections, which climate-change skeptics routinely attack, but on data from past heat waves.
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The report does not make policy prescriptions, concluding only that "it is time for all American business leaders and investors to get in the game and rise to the challenge of addressing climate change."
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Thanks to shrinking sea ice, National Geographic puts global warming on the map
By Samantha Larson
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For the upcoming 10th edition of the National Geographic Atlas of the World, its cartographers say they have made one of the most visible changes in the publication’s history: it’ll show a lot less Arctic ice.
The loss of Arctic sea ice has been a glaring sign of climate change for the last thirty-some years. Rising temperatures have caused the ice to retreat by 12 percent per decade since the 1970s, with particularly notable setbacks in 2007 and 2012. Arctic sea ice is so responsive to climate change because of a positive feedback loop: As the ice melts it gets thinner, and because thin ice reflects less sun than thick ice, the ocean absorbs more of that heat – which weakens the ice even more.
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The new Atlas will be available on September 30. National Geographic cartographer Juan José Valdés thinks the changes may help convince more people of how real this whole climate change thing is: “Until you have a hard-copy map in your hand, the message doesn’t really hit home.” Hopefully, that’s true — but, then again, even the globe hasn’t done much to convince the Flat Earth Society.
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Climate action could spur $2 trillion in economic growth in 2030 alone
By John Upton
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Republicans in Congress, dim-witted politicians abroad, and fossil-fuel companies would all like you to believe that taking action on climate change is too expensive. Better to blow all our cash and credit on unsustainable oil and coal today and live large and dirty for as long as possible, they argue.
Cue World Bank study.
The international lender, which has been belatedly waking up to the dangers of climate change in recent years, modeled the potential costs and benefits of using taxes, incentives, and regulations to clean up key sectors of some of the world’s biggest economies. It analyzed reforms that could spur cleaner transportation, more efficient industrial use of energy, and less energy-hungry buildings and appliances. It concluded that such reforms would create GDP growth of $1.8 trillion to $2.6 trillion per year by 2030.
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In many cases, the analysts looked at local case studies, such as the benefits of providing rural Chinese with cleaner cookstoves and improving public transportation in an Indian city, then considered what the impacts would be if those initiatives were scaled up to national or regional levels. They concluded that the public-health, economic-development, food-supply, and energy-supply benefits of reforms in those key sectors far outweighed the costs of the reforms.
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International |
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Japan reveals plans to cut corporate tax to below 30%
By (BBC)
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Japan has unveiled plans to cut the country's corporate tax to below 30% in several stages starting next year.
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The gradual increases in the sales tax are aimed at covering rising social welfare costs linked to Japan's ageing population.
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Mr Abe also said he would end compulsory overtime payments for workers earning over 10m yen a year (£57,000) and raise the proportion of female managers to 30% by 2020 from last year's 7.5% rate.
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And Naoki Iizuka, an economist at Citigroup Global Markets Japan, said Mr Abe's plans needed to be bolder.
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Atheist declared mentally ill in Nigeria
By (BBC)
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A Nigerian man has been sent to a mental institute in Kano state after he declared that he did not believe in God, according to a humanist charity.
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Despite being told that he was not unwell, Mr Bala's family then went to a second doctor, who declared that his atheism was a side-effect of suffering a personality change, the group says.
Mr Bala, a chemical engineering graduate, was forcibly committed to a mental institution, but was able to contact activists using a smuggled phone.
IHEU spokesman Bob Churchill said the group was concerned about his "deteriorating condition" and called for his "swift release".
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Libyans set to vote amid chaos
By (Al JAzeera)
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Libyans go to the polls on Wednesday to elect a new national parliament despite much of the country being in the grip of the worst violence since the 2011 uprising.
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HNEC, the election organisers, insist that all 1,300 polling stations will be open on Wednesday, and Haftar's forces have pledged a ceasefire for the day.
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The political divide in Libya is complicated by political and ethnic rivalries, and the chaos and insecurity mean there have been no recent opinion polls. In the 2012 election, the nationalist National Forces Alliance won 48 percent of the vote, with the Justice and Construction Party led by the Muslim Brotherhood securing second place with 10 percent.
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Along with the fighting raging in Benghazi, the new parliament will confront an 11-month-old blockade of the bulk of Libya's oil production which has cost the country $30bn in lost revenue. An agreement to end the blockade reached between rebel leaders and the government of Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni in April has broken down, and it remains to be seen if a new legislature can summon the authority to get the ports open.
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USA Politics, Economy, Major Events |
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Washington toddler foils babysitter's attempt to frame black neighbor for robbery
By Matt Bradwell
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4-year-old Abby Dean was being watched by her babysitter on June 18 when two men wielding weapons came into her home and proceeded to steal the child's electronics and bank.
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When police questioned her babysitter, she blamed the robbery on two unidentified black males and said one looked similar to African American neighbor Cody Oaks. In reality, the robbery was perpetrated by the babysitter's boyfriend and a friend, a fact that Abby brought to light, but only after Oaks was brought in for questioning.
"It wasn't the right skin color," Abby insisted. She then said she saw two white men in her house, forcing the babysitter to break down and confess.
Oaks lamented the babysitter's immature choice, noting the teen was likely ignorant of the frightening consequences her actions had on his life.
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Congress marks 50th anniversary of Civil Rights Act
By Ally Mutnick
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In a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda, King's children - Bernice King, Dexter Scott King and Martin Luther King III - accepted the Congressional Medal of Honor on behalf of their parents. Top lawmakers praised the Kings and the legacy of the landmark legislation.
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Democratic Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan praised lawmakers for allowing "the desires of justice to overcome the divisions of party in order to help overcome the divisions of race."
Tuesday's ceremony included an audio clip of Johnson's remarks following the bill's signing. Many speakers also recognized the roles that Johnson and President John F. Kennedy played in getting the bill passed. Johnson's daughter, Lynda Johnson Robb, also attended the ceremony.
A few lawmakers used the anniversary to plug the Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2014, which would restore a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court struck down last summer.
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What's a Liberal to Think About the Great Import-Export Bank Foofaraw?
By Kevin Drum
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Killing Ex-Im is basically a conservative hobbyhorse, but plenty of lefties have weighed in too. Dean Baker points out that an interest rate subsidy is basically the same as a tariff, so if you're in favor of free trade you should be opposed to Ex-Im. Paul Krugman admits that Ex-Im is mercantilist and therefore a bad idea—except when the economy is weak and monetary policy is up against the zero lower bound. Which it is, so Ex-Im acts as an economic stimulus, more or less, and we should probably keep it around for now. On a political note, Greg Sargent points out that deep-sixing Ex-Im may become the scalp tea partiers claim for their defeat of Eric Cantor, who was a big supporter.
Elsewhere, Matt Yglesias tells us that opposition to Ex-Im was largely driven by Delta Airlines, which was tired of seeing its foreign competitors get subsidies to buy their airplanes. The Wall Street Journal reports that four Ex-Im officials have been suspended or removed recently "amid investigations into allegations of gifts and kickbacks," and Danny Vinik says these charges should be a warning for liberals. "If they prove true, then officials are choosing winners and losers based on kickbacks. And that should make the decision easy for liberals: Join with conservatives and oppose the reauthorization of the Export-Import bank."
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Oh, and the tea party hates it, for the usual obscure reasons that the tea party hates things you've never heard of.
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Welcome to the "Hump Point" of this OND.
News can be sobering and engrossing - at this point in the diary, an offering of brief escapism:
Random notes related to this video:
. . .
Stefani: “For the people who don’t already know you, please tell them who you are?”
CloZee: “I’m Chloé Herry aka CloZee, a 20 year old music producer from Toulouse, Southern France. I make music oscillating between Glitchstep, Glitch-Hop, Dubstep and Acoustic.”
. . .
Stefani: “First time you played an instrument, how did you feel?”
CloZee: “(I will not talk about the first time I played the flute in school….)
The first time I played guitar: awful. I was discouraged… I noticed the amount of work that’s necessary to play something that sounds well. But, the first time I thought: Wow, this sounds good…I felt like I discovered a new world… You forget everything and you just jump in it.”
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Stefani: “What is something you have learned outside of school and you think school could never have taught you?”
CloZee: “It IS the subject: Music. My school tried to disgust me of it, by obliging me to play the flute and to sing ‘My Heart Will Go On’.”
Stefani: “What styles of music or musicians influence you?”
CloZee: “No one in my family was a musician when I started playing the guitar. Now, my 10 year old little brother plays guitar, violin and saxophone…okay (laughs) but my parents listened to a lot of different styles of music. So, this was- of course- a factor that triggered my passion!
. . .
Stefani: “What moves you to make music?”
CloZee: “Everything! It could be a sound, an atmosphere, an old memory, a picture, a landscape, a movie scene, a person, etc…
Of course there are no similar dancers in the world : Dance is an inexhaustible source of ideas.”
. . .
Stefani: “Do you have a motto (to strive) to live by?”
CloZee: “On a qu’une vie!”
Back to what's happening:
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Environment and Greening |
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$213bn illegal wildlife and charcoal trade 'funding global terror groups'
By Hannah McNeish
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In Africa alone, governments are losing at least $1.9bn a year from charcoal, to the benefit of criminals earning up to $9bn – three times the value of drug trade on the continent. "This number is likely to triple in the coming decades and we believe that the scale of logging in Africa alone would be equivalent in a few decades from now to what has been logged in the Amazon, just to sustain charcoal trade," said Hellemann.
Al-Shabaab, which last week claimed responsibility for the slaughter of 64 people in attacks on villages near a popular Kenyan coastal resort and the siege in September siege of a upmarket mall in the capital Nairobi that killed around 70 people, earns between $38m and $68m a year from charcoal sales and taxation.
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But an underfunded and uncoordinated international response was sluggish and reactive, with arrests usually limited to petty criminals and poachers and investgations into seized hauls dropped. "We can catch as many foot soldiers as we want. If we don't address the kingpins of illegal trade and wildlife crime, we won't stop it," he said.
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Scanlon said that a new breed of ivory traders were driving up prices for between $165m to $199m a year in elephant ivory and $64m to $192m in rhino horn. "We have speculators basically banking on extinction, they have a portfolio" and are "stockpiling [ivory] on the assumption that the value this contraband will go up over time, and it's these speculators that are driving the value of this illegal trade," he said.
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Growing pains of China's agricultural water needs
By Mark Kinver
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China's scarce water supply is being wasted as crops grown in water-stressed provinces are exported to wet, rainfall-rich areas, a study reports.
Farming accounts for about 65% of water use in China and the limited resource is coming under pressure from rapid urbanisation and industrialisation.
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A report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said the intensive use of groundwater resources had resulted in the lowering of water tables by up to 300m and the rapid depletion of groundwater reservoirs.
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However, in contrast - it added - less than 30% of the known groundwater resources in southern China were being used as a result of having a more plentiful supply of surface water sources.
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Science and Health |
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Kids eating too many foods fortified with vitamins and minerals
By Brooks Hays
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According to a new report from the Environmental Working Group (EWG), 45 percent of children under 8 years old get too much zinc in their food, 13 percent consume too much vitamin A and 8 percent get more than the recommended amounts of niacin. These numbers don't account for the fact that many kids also take multivitamins.
Manufacturers of processed foods, especially cereals and snack foods, have used nutrient fortification as way to attract parents looking for healthier options in the grocery aisles. But as EWG pointed out in their new report, too much of a some vitamins and minerals can be harmful.
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Young people are especially vulnerable to the consequences of too much of a single nutrient. Too much vitamin A can cause liver damage, brittle nails and hair loss. Toxic levels of zinc can can cause the immune system to malfunction. And rash and vomiting are the result of too much niacin.
One of the key takeaways from report is a similar refrain from healthy eating advocates: more whole fruits and vegetables and less processed food.
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NASA detects mysterious signal 240 million light years away from Earth
By Jesus Diaz
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Astronomers have detected a mysterious signal 240 million light years away from Earth, in the Perseus Cluster (top), one of the most massive objects in the Universe. The unidentified signal is a "spike of intensity at a very specific wavelength of X-ray light." Scientists don't know yet what is the origin.
One of their theories is really interesting: It may be "produced by the decay of sterile neutrinos, a type of particle that has been proposed as a candidate for dark matter." According to Esra Bulbul, at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts:
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They are now working in finding confirmation of this interpretation, which would be a major breakthrough as nobody has been able to directly detect dark matter yet, even while astronomers estimate that dark matter constitutes 85% of all matter in the Universe. Some scientists are even suggesting that the origin may not be sterile neutrinos. Instead, they say, "different types of candidate dark matter particles, such as the axion, may have been detected."
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A taste of Kandinsky: assessing the influence of the artistic visual presentation of food on the dining experience
By Charles Michel, Carlos Velasco, Elia Gatti and Charles Spence
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Researchers have demonstrated that a variety of visual factors, such as the colour and balance of the elements on a plate, can influence a diner’s perception of, and response to, food. Here, we report on a study designed to assess whether placing the culinary elements of a dish in an art-inspired manner would modify the diner’s expectations and hence their experience of food. . .
Prior to consumption, the art-inspired presentation resulted in the food being considered as more artistic, more complex, and more liked than either of the other presentations. The participants were also willing to pay more for the Kandinsky-inspired plating. Interestingly, after consumption, the results revealed higher tastiness ratings for the art-inspired presentation.
These results support the idea that presenting food in an aesthetically pleasing manner can enhance the experience of a dish. In particular, the use of artistic (visual) influences can enhance a diner’s rating of the flavour of a dish. These results are consistent with previous findings, suggesting that visual display of a food can influence both a person’s expectations and their subsequent experience of a dish, and with the common assumption that we eat with our eyes first.
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Mobile phones carry owners' bacterial 'fingerprint'
By Helen Briggs
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Smartphones reflect the personal microbial world of their owners, say US scientists.
More than 80% of the common bacteria that make up our personal bacterial "fingerprints" end up on their screens, a study suggests.
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The researchers say there is no evidence that mobile phones present any more infection risk than any other possession.
But they say our phones might one day be used to study whether people have been exposed to certain bacteria, particularly healthcare workers.
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Technology |
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Iraqis use Firechat messaging app to overcome net block
By (BBC)
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Iraqis have been turning to an app which allows group messages to be sent between phones, without the need for an internet connection, in an effort to circumnavigate government restrictions.
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Using a technology known as "mesh networking", messages can be sent to people within the immediate vicinity, as long as they too have the app installed. However, discussions are not private, and can be seen by anyone in the area.
The software is available for both Android and iOS devices, and has a range of roughly 70m (230ft). However, if enough people use the app, messages can travel over far greater distances, hopping between intermediary devices in a chain-like effect.
The app was heavily used in Taiwan earlier this year, when protesting students intent on occupying the parliament were faced with the threat of internet restrictions and limited cell coverage.
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San Francisco bans parking space app
By (BBC)
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San Francisco has banned the use of apps which allow people to buy and sell public parking spaces.
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But the city says it is illegal to auction off public land and has threatened to fine anyone doing so.
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Apps such as CARMAnation that allow people to rent private parking spaces are not affected by the ban.
"People are free to rent out their own private driveways and garage spaces should they choose to do so," said Mr Herrera.
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Cultural |
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Kathmandu youth circus turns tables on human trafficking
By Anbarasan Ethirajan
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Bijaya Limbu was eight years old when people he describes as "agents" tricked his parents into sending him to neighbouring India for a better life. But the next four years proved to be a nightmare which he wants to forget.
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His suffering ended when charity workers rescued him and brought him home to Nepal.
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In 2010, two British charities - Freedom Matters and The Esther Benjamins Trust - which have been working to rehabilitate rescued trafficked children helped to set up Circus Kathmandu so that they can start a new life.
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Their latest show is 'Swagatham' - meaning welcome in Nepali. The 45-minute show reflects their lives and highlights human trafficking.
It is a fusion of circus, theatre, dance and a mix of Nepali, Hindi and English songs to narrate their personal stories.
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"What we found most upsetting is how women who have survived trafficking are treated - they are often stigmatised, have usually lost out on education and have very little opportunities. Establishing Circus Kathmandu seemed like a bold and attention grabbing way to confront this," says Sky Neal, the co-founder and co-director of Circus Kathmandu
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Portugal draw 'most viewed' football game in US history
By (BBC)
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An average of 24.7 million watched the World Cup thriller on ESPN and Univision, said data firm Neilsen.
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The match had more viewers than homegrown events like the NBA finals in basketball or baseball World Series.
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This time, with live broadcasts in peak times in the US, large screens have been erected in parks across the country, with a record 20,000 fans gathering at Balbo Avenue park in Chicago.
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But American football is in a different league - 111.5 million watched the Seattle Seahawks triumph at the Super Bowl in February.
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Meteor Blades is known to offer an enlightening Evening Open Diary - you might consider checking that out tonight if you haven't already. |