Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Man Oh Man, rfall, and JML9999. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke and jlms qkw. The guest editors are Doctor RJ and annetteboardman.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
Reuters
British Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to appeal to Scots' emotions on his last visit to Scotland before this week's historic referendum by warning them on Monday that a vote to leave the United Kingdom would be irreversible.
With opinion polls suggesting the referendum remains too close to call, Cameron, the leader of the ruling Conservative party, which draws most of its support from England, will plead with voters not to use the referendum as a protest vote.
"There's no going back from this. No re-run. If Scotland votes "yes" the UK will split and we will go our separate ways forever," he will say, according to advance extracts of his speech given to media by his advisers.
Cameron's trip is a last-ditch effort to try to persuade Scotland's many undecided voters to reject independence. Up to 500,000 people out of more than 4 million registered voters are estimated to be unsure how they will vote.
DW
DW has picked 12 things you need to know about Scotland, the self-proclaimed "best wee country in the world," ahead of its referendum to remain part of the United Kingdom or become an independent country.
The Unicorn
Yes, it's not a real animal. But Scottish culture is rich in myths and legends - so the unicorn seems to be a fitting choice as the country's national animal. It has been used in royal Scottish coats of arms since the 12th century. This specimen can be found on the walls of Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh.
The Guardian
David Cameron has issued a heartfelt plea for Scotland to vote to stay in the United Kingdom. Speaking in Aberdeen, he depicted the UK as a family, stressed the finality of the decision to break it up, insisted that Scotland would get more powers without independence and admitted that he, and Tory governments, would not be in power for ever.
On Thursday, Scotland votes, and the future of our country is at stake. On Friday, people could be living in a different country, with a different place in the world and a different future ahead of it.
This is a decision that could break up our family of nations, and rip Scotland from the rest of the UK. And we must be very clear. There’s no going back from this. No re-run. This is a once-and-for-all decision. If Scotland votes Yes, the UK will split, and we will go our separate ways forever.
Gordon Brown, the Labour former prime minister and now the driving force behind efforts by the three main UK parties to commit themselves to greater devolution to Scotland in the event of a no vote, has called for three “guarantees” for Scotland to “locked in” before Thursday. They are: a guarantee that Scotland will be involved in further constitutional change; a guarantee of fairness; and a guarantee the Barnett formula will survive.
The White House has reaffirmed its opposition to Scottish independence.
BBC
Alex Salmond has joined business leaders to argue for Scottish independence, as David Cameron outlined "head and heart" reasons to vote "No".
Mr Salmond used an event at Edinburgh Airport to hit out at the "scaremongering" of the "No" campaign.
Mr Cameron later gave a speech arguing that independence was a "divorce" rather than a "trial separation".
On Thursday, voters will be asked: "Should Scotland be an independent country?"
Speaking in Aberdeen, the prime minister said the outcome could "end the United Kingdom as we know it", and argued that there would be "no way back" if Scotland does decide to leave the UK.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail...
NPR
With voter opinion polls showing single-digit margins over the call for Scotland to break away from the U.K., two of England's most visible leaders — Prime Minister David Cameron and Queen Elizabeth II — are speaking about the issue. Today, Cameron told Scots not to vote out of frustration, saying, "If you don't like me, I won't be here forever."
Cameron spoke one day after a rally for Scottish independence, and a day after the queen briefly addressed an issue on which she has been publicly silent. Voters in Scotland will decide the issue on Thursday, Sept. 18.
Queen Elizabeth, who's known for spending much of her summers at the royal family's Balmoral estate in Scotland, spoke about the question after a church service there Sunday. According to The Times newspaper, she told someone in the crowd, "I hope people will think very carefully about the future."
In a separate article, The Times reports that Alex Salmond, leader of the pro-independence Scottish National Party, is certain that the queen is "absolutely impartial" on the issue.
Thursday's ballot will include the question, "Should Scotland be an independent country?" Today, Cameron told his audience in Aberdeen, Scotland, that they should all vote no.
*
O Flower of Scotland
Scotland's (unofficial) National Anthem written by Roy Williamson of The Corries
O flower of Scotland
When will we see your like again
That fought and died for
Your wee bit hill and glen
And stood against him
Proud Edward's army
And sent him homeward
Tae think again
The hills are bare now
And autumn leaves lie thick and still
O'er land that is lost now
Which those so dearly held
And stood against him
Proud Edward's army
And sent him homeward
Tae think again
Those days are passed now
And in the past they must remain
But we can still rise now
And be the nation again
That stood against him
Proud Edward's army
And sent him homeward
Tae think again
*
Al Jazeera America
Editor’s note: This is the first in a three-part series examining the impact of Gov. Sam Brownback’s policies on Kansas.
WICHITA, Kan. — Once a long shot, Kansas Democrat Paul Davis’ campaign to unseat this conservative state’s Republican governor, Sam Brownback, has become surprisingly serious. But you can still get a laugh out of Davis on the trail. Just ask if he’s planning to invite President Barack Obama to campaign with him in the Sunflower State.
“I … I,” Davis stammered, in response during an interview at a hotel conference center in Wichita, then broke into laughter. He collected himself long enough to issue an emphatic no.
These days, Kansans will tell you, winning candidates come in one of two flavors: conservative and very conservative. Registered Republicans here outnumber Democrats 2 to 1. But Democrats sometimes sneak through in statewide races. Kathleen Sebelius spent six years as governor before her rocky term as secretary of health and human services. The key is convincing voters that the candidate will be a steadier hand on the government till while avoiding confrontations over God, guns or agriculture. Above all, under no circumstances can a candidate allow him- or herself to be identified as liberal.
Spiegel Online
There have been several botched executions by lethal injection this year, turning many Americans against the death penalty. Now an Oklahoma politician wants to put death-row convicts to death using a new method: nitrogen asphyxiation.
Following a series of botched executions in the US, one lawmaker in the state of Oklahoma is now trying to gather support behind a new form of capital punishment. Mike Christian, a Republican in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, would like to see nitrogen asphyxiation introduced as a method to execute death row inmates. Nitrogen and noble gases such as helium are seen by proponents of assisted suicide as offering a reliable, quick and painless way to die.
Reuters
Former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden could be granted safe passage in Switzerland if he helped a potential criminal inquiry into U.S. spying there, the Swiss public prosecutor's office said on Monday.
He would probably not be extradited to the United States if Washington asked, but it was also unlikely that he would be granted political asylum, according to a document laying out Switzerland's legal options if Snowden were to visit.
The prosecutor's office, which provided the document to Reuters, stressed the issue was "purely hypothetical" because Snowden had not been invited to come from his current refuge in Russia. It had no further comment.
The document was leaked last week and prompted a lively debate in the Swiss media.
NPR
Millions of Americans are still grappling with debt they've accumulated since the recession hit. And new numbers out Monday show many are having a tougher time than you might think.
One in 10 working Americans between the ages of 35 and 44 are getting their wages garnished. That means their pay is being docked — often over an old credit card debt, medical bill or student loan.
That striking figure comes out of a collaboration between NPR and ProPublica. The reporting offers the first available national numbers on wage garnishment.
A 'Roundhouse' Punch
Back in 2009, Kevin Evans was one of millions of Americans blindsided by the recession. He had a 25-year career selling office furniture, but suddenly, companies stopped buying furniture. His income collapsed. He sold his three-bedroom home outside Kansas City that he could no longer afford.
NPR
Hillary Clinton, who has a huge lead in many early presidential polls, returned to Iowa on Sunday. The woman who says she has not yet decided on a 2016 presidential run appeared along with former President Bill Clinton in a state she has not visited since she lost the 2008 Iowa caucuses to Barack Obama.
Her speech at the annual steak fry hosted by U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, a must-attend event for state Democratic activists, revealed little about her intentions — but also did nothing to dampen the widespread belief that she will indeed run.
Harkin has hosted his steak fry for 37 years. Sunday's was his last, because he'll leave office in January after five terms. The buzz in the crowd, however, was all about Hillary Clinton. The group Ready for Hillary — call it a pre-campaign organization — was everywhere with yard signs, bumper stickers and more.
Cindy Pollard, 57, wasn't looking for a new Hillary T-shirt — she was wearing the one she's had since Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign.
"I was a precinct captain for Hillary. I've been decided. These people are wearing these Ready for Hillary — I have been ready," Pollard said.
New York Times
RESTON, Va. — After a generation of campaigns in which Republicans exploited wedge issues to win close elections, Democrats are now on the offensive in the culture wars.
Democrats see social issues as potent for the same reasons Republicans once did, using them as a tool to both stoke concerns among moderate voters, especially women, and motivate their base.
In few places has the change been as notable as in Virginia, where Democrats for decades practiced defensive politics to assure voters they were in the state’s cultural mainstream.
ow it is Republican candidates who are in a crouch. When Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, and his Republican opponent, Ed Gillespie, met for their first debate this summer, it was Mr. Gillespie who had to summon a creative way to rebut the suggestion that he was an extremist. When Mr. Warner attacked his views on abortion, contraception and same-sex marriage, Mr. Gillespie used his Catholic faith as a shield. “My religious views, really, Senator, should not be at issue here,” he said.
Los Angeles Times
Majorities of Republicans and Democrats say they support President Obama's plan for attacking Islamic militants in Iraq and Syria, a rare bit of bipartisan backing for the president, two new polls show.
Six in 10 Democrats and a slightly larger share of Republicans said they backed Obama's plan, according to a Pew Research Center survey released Monday.
Self-identified independents were more skeptical, but overall, Americans supported Obama's plan by 53% to 29%, with 19% unsure, the poll found.
The broad support comes despite public doubts that attacking the Islamic State organization would make America safer.
Reuters
U.S. manufacturing output fell for the first time in seven months in August, but the underlying trend remained consistent with a steadily expanding factory sector.
That view was bolstered by other data on Monday showing factory activity in New York state jumped to its highest level in nearly five years in September.
"The weakness in factory output in August is likely to be transitory," said Millan Mulraine, deputy chief economist at TD Securities in New York.
Factory production dropped 0.4 percent last month as motor vehicle production fell sharply after surging in July, the Federal Reserve said. The drop, which followed a gain of 0.7 percent in July, confounded economists' expectations for a 0.3 percent rise.
Excluding automobiles, manufacturing output gained 0.1 percent in August. So far in the third quarter, factory production is running at a 4.6 percent annual pace, a sign that manufacturing will continue to support economic growth.
The Guardian
Authorities in Utah have altered their account of how a 22-year-old black man was killed by police – adding that he was shot at by officers as he moved away from them – after an attorney for the man’s family said he was hit repeatedly from behind.
The authorities also said that the two police officers involved in the shooting of Darrien Hunt last Wednesday had not yet been interviewed about the incident. The attorney for Hunt’s family described this delay as “almost incomprehensible”.
Hunt died outside a Panda Express restaurant at a strip mall in Saratoga Springs on Wednesday morning following an encounter with two police officers who were responding to a 911 call reporting a man with a samurai-style sword acting suspiciously.
After several days of silence Tim Taylor, the chief deputy attorney for Utah county, said in a statement on Saturday: “When the officers made contact with Mr Hunt, he brandished the sword and lunged toward the officers with the sword, at which time Mr Hunt was shot.”
DW
Germany has banned the extremist group "Islamic State," whose fighters have seized substantial amounts of territory in northern Iraq and Syria. The interior minister described the group as a threat "also for Germany."
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere used a press conference in Berlin on Friday to announce the measure, saying the ban was immediately in effect.
"The terror organization "Islamic State" is a threat, also for public security in Germany," de Maiziere said. "We are resolutely confronting this threat."
De Maiziere said the ban applied to any activities linked to the self-proclaimed "IS," including taking part in demonstrations or supporting the group through social media. It also included the wearing or display of IS symbols or collecting donations in the group's name.
"Today's ban is an important step in the battle against international terrorism," de Maiziere said.
The interior minister said that German intelligence agencies believed that around 400 sympathizers of the IS had left the country and that some of these had returned to Germany.
Al Jazeera
Thirty countries have pledged to help Iraq in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) "by any means necessary", as leaders gathered to discuss a strategy against the group.
French President Francois Hollande called for a global response to counter ISIL on Monday, as he opened a conference on Iraq, bringing together members of a US-led coalition.
"[The threat] is global so the response must be global," the French leader said, at a Paris conference of some 30 countries aimed at coordinating a strategy against the group, which has taken control of parts of Northern Iraq and has a power base in Syria.
Foreign ministers from the main European states, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, Iraq's neighbours and Gulf Arab states Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the UAE, are in Paris to discuss broad political, security and humanitarian aspects of tackling ISIL.
Al Jazeera
Thousands of tourists and locals in Mexico have taken refuge in luxury hotels, converted into shelters, after Hurricane Odile crashed into the northwest, taking down trees with powerful winds.
The "dangerous" hurricane, a category three storm on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, packed 205km per hour winds when it made landfall near Cabo San Lucas on Sunday, according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Hurricane-force winds spread northward as the eye of the storm moved over the southern portion of the Baja California peninsula, the NHC said.
At 0600 GMT on Monday, Odile was packing winds of 195km per hour as it moved north-northwest at 28km per hour.
Al Jazeera America
U.S.-led multinational military exercises began Monday in Ukraine after a day of deadly fighting between government forces and pro-Russian rebels in the restive east that has piled pressure on a shaky 10-day-old truce.
The decision to go ahead with the Rapid Trident exercise through Sept. 26 is seen as a sign of NATO’s commitment to support non-NATO member Ukraine while stopping well short of military intervention in the conflict. The crisis in Ukraine's vital industrial heartland in the east and Moscow's annexation of Crimea have sent ties between Russia and the West plunging to their lowest point since the Cold War.
As forces begin the exercise, the fragile cease-fire is an attempt to end a conflict that has cost more than 2,700 lives and sent at least half a million people fleeing battered towns and cities across the east. Ukraine, Russia, the separatists and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe brokered the deal, which went into effect Sept. 5.
The United States is sending about 200 troops for Rapid Trident, the first such deployment since the pro-Moscow uprising erupted across eastern Ukraine in April. Soldiers from 15 nations are taking part in the exercise near the western city of Lviv, about 600 miles from the conflict in Donetsk.
Spiegel Online
According to top-secret documents from the NSA and the British agency GCHQ, the intelligence agencies are seeking to map the entire Internet, including end-user devices. In pursuing that goal, they have broken into networks belonging to Deutsche Telekom.
When it comes to choosing code names for their secret operations, American and British agents demonstrate a flare for creativity. Sometimes they borrow from Mother Nature, with monikers such as "Evil Olive" and "Egoistic Giraffe." Other times, they would seem to take their guidance from Hollywood. A program called Treasure Map even has its own logo, a skull superimposed onto a compass, the eye holes glowing in demonic red, reminiscent of a movie poster for the popular "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, starring Johnny Depp.
Reuters
Iran's supreme leader said on Monday he had personally rejected an offer from the United States for talks to fight Islamic State, an apparent blow to Washington's efforts to build a military coalition to fight militants in both Iraq and Syria.
World powers meeting in Paris on Monday gave public backing to military action to fight Islamic State fighters in Iraq. France sent jets on a reconnaissance mission to Iraq, a step towards becoming the first ally to join the U.S.-led air campaign there.
But Iran, the principal ally of Islamic State's main foes in both Iraq and Syria, was not invited to the Paris meeting. The countries that did attend - while supporting action in Iraq - made no mention at all of Syria, where U.S. diplomats face a far tougher task building an alliance for action.
Washington has been trying to build a coalition to fight Islamic State since last week when President Barack Obama pledged to destroy the militant group on both sides of the Iraqi-Syrian border.
The Guardian
About 500 migrants are feared to have drowned after the boat carrying them from Egypt to Malta was apparently rammed and deliberately sunk by people-traffickers, an intergovernmental group has said.
The news – based on the accounts of two Palestinian survivors – emerged on the same day up to 200 more people were feared dead when another boat heading to Europe capsized off Libya.
The Geneva-based International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said there was no independent verification for what happened to the vessel heading to Malta, mainly because only nine people are believed to have survived. The IOM's account comes from the two Palestinians, who were rescued by another boat and taken to Sicily.
Malta's armed forces said it had flown seven survivors, who were suffering from hypothermia, to a hospital in Crete. It said initial information pointed to a collision of some sort between a boat carrying up to 400 migrants and another vessel.
THE ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE, HEALTH AND TECHNOLOGY
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The Guardian
The unprecedented drought now affecting São Paulo, South America’s giant metropolis, is believed to be caused by the absence of the “flying rivers” − the vapour clouds from the Amazon that normally bring rain to the centre and south of Brazil.
Some Brazilian scientists say the absence of rain that has dried up rivers and reservoirs in central and southeast Brazil is not just a quirk of nature, but a change brought about by a combination of the continuing deforestation of the Amazon and global warming.
This combination, they say, is reducing the role of the Amazon rainforest as a giant “water pump”, releasing billions of litres of humidity from the trees into the air in the form of vapour.
Meteorologist Jose Marengo, a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, first coined the phrase “flying rivers” to describe these massive volumes of vapour that rise from the rainforest, travel west, and then − blocked by the Andes − turn south.
The Guardian
Mounds of plastic rubbish along Australia’s coastline are growing and killing wildlife which is ingesting or becoming ensnared in it, researchers say.
Scientists visited more than 170 sites along the coast and found about three-quarters of the rubbish was plastic from the land, not vessels on the ocean, and debris was concentrated near cities.
The density of plastic ranged from a few thousand pieces per square kilometre to more than 40,000 pieces, a CSIRO scientist, Denise Hardesty, said.
“There has been an increase in plastic as we have had an increase in our population,” Hardesty said on Monday.
The report showed other marine debris included bottles, cans, bags, balloons, rubber, metal, fibreglass and cigarettes that could smother coral reefs, kill wildlife and even pose a threat to human health.
About one-third of marine turtles around the world had probably ingested debris, and that figure had increased since plastic production began in the 1950s, Hardesty said.
Up to 15,000 turtles had also been killed in the Gulf of Carpentaria, off Australia’s northern coast, after becoming ensnared by derelict fishing nets.
Bloomberg
Apple Inc.’s latest iPhones topped 4 million in pre-orders in the first 24 hours, surpassing earlier releases as early demand for the smartphones outstrips supply.
Deliveries of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will start at the end of this week, when the devices officially go on sale, and a backlog will mean that many won’t receive their handsets until next month, the Cupertino, California-based company said in a statement today. Apple said there will be devices in stock in stores on Sept. 19 and encouraged customers to arrive early or order online for in-store pickup.
NPR
Some of the world's top race-car drivers put the pedal to the metal in Formula E this weekend, the first-ever all-electric automobile race. It was held in the Chinese capital, the first of 10 cities that will host the races between now and next June.
The championship is aimed to generate interest in — and boost sales of — electric cars.
The Formula E race cars are low to the ground, somewhere between Formula 1 and Indy cars. They've got aluminum and carbon fiber chassis, and can go from zero to 60 in under 3 seconds, and reach top speeds of over 150 mph.
Clearly, these cars are not your father's Prius.
On Saturday, 10 teams with two drivers each competed on a narrow track set up around Beijing's iconic Olympic stadium, more commonly known as the Bird's Nest. The race covered about 50 miles, or 25 laps around a circuit that was roughly 2 miles.
Outside the pit stop of the Amlin Aguri team, where mechanics swap tires, is driver Katherine Legge. She is a Briton who has settled in Indianapolis and raced twice in the Indy 500.
NPR
When your child has an earache or a bad cold, it's hard to think that there's not much you can offer beyond Tylenol and sympathy. But most of those infections are mostly caused by viruses that don't respond to antibiotics, a study finds.
Just 27 percent of acute respiratory tract infections are caused by bacteria, researchers at Seattle Children's Hospital found. That means that more than two-thirds are viral and antibiotics don't help.
But doctors prescribed antibiotics for children with those infections 57 percent of the time, the study found. In other words, children are taking medication that's not going to help them and can hurt, because of side effects and the increased risk of antibiotic resistance, both for that person and for the larger community.
Reuters
Crews battled nearly a dozen major wildfires across California on Monday that have forced hundreds of people to flee, destroyed dozens of homes and structures and charred thousands of acres of forest land left bone dry by the state's record drought.The most destructive of the 11 blazes, the Courtney Fire, quickly blackened 320 acres east of Yosemite after it erupted on Sunday, burning several homes to the ground, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Some 1,000 residents in and around the foothill community of Oakhurst and near Bass Lake were evacuated ahead of the flames, which were 20 percent contained by Monday morning as California baked in a heat wave that drove temperatures into triple digits.
Further north, about 800 firefighters were battling a 3,900-acre blaze, dubbed the King Fire, raging in heavy timber and steep terrain in El Dorado County. Nearly 250 homes were under a mandatory evacuation order, while residents of another 400 houses were advised they could voluntarily leave, the county sheriff's office said.
Weather Underground
Destructive Hurricane Odile powered ashore at Cabo San Lucas on Mexico's Baja Peninsula near 12:45 am EDT Monday as a Category 3 storm with 125 mph winds. Odile was the strongest hurricane on record to hit the Baja Peninsula, tied with Hurricane Olivia of 1967. An Air Force hurricane hunter plane was in Odile Sunday afternoon, and measured a surface pressure of 922 mb. This pressure puts Odile in pretty select company--only two other Eastern Pacific hurricanes have had lower pressures measured in them by the Hurricane Hunters (though a total of eleven Eastern Pacific hurricanes have had lower pressures, if we include satellite-estimated pressures.) The only major hurricane on record to affect Southern Baja was Hurricane Kiko of 1989, which moved ashore on the Gulf of California side of the peninsula just south of La Paz as a Category 3 storm with 120 mph winds.
The Guardian
Some of the world’s most famous authors escalated their heated dispute with Amazon on Monday, publishing a letter to retailer’s board warning of the “ugly history” of blocking book sales.
Amazon and publishing giant Hachette have been locked in a six-month dispute over the pricing of e-books that has led Amazon to delay shipment of Hachette authors, refuse pre-orders and institute other tactics aimed at damping the publisher’s sales.
Bestselling authors including Malcolm Gladwell, Stephen King, Michael Pollan and Donna Tartt are among the Hachette authors who have protested Amazon’s move.
On Monday Authors United, which represents the writers, released a letter it is sending to Amazon’s 10 board members that claims the retailer’s tactics have driven down Hachette authors’ sales by at least 50% and in some cases as much as 90%.
The group points out that Russell Grandinetti, Amazon senior vice-president and the man seen as the driving force in the dispute, has stated that the company was “forced to take this step because Hachette refused to come to the table”. Grandinetti has also said that “authors are the only leverage we have”.
The Guardian
The natural gas boom resulting from fracking has contaminated drinking water in Texas and Pennsylvania, a new study said on Monday.
However, the researchers said the gas leaks were due to defective gas well production – and were not a direct result of horizontal drilling, or fracking.
The study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences validated some of the concerns raised by homeowners in the Barnett Shale of Texas and the Marcellus formation in Pennsylvania about natural gas leaking into their water supply.
The film Gasland notoriously showed flames bursting out of a kitchen tap because of high concentrations of natural gas in drinking water.
But the researchers said there was no direct causal relationship with fracking itself.
“Our data do not suggest that horizontal drilling or hydraulic fracturing has provided a conduit to connect deep Marcellus or Barnett formations directly to surface aquifers,” the authors wrote.
Instead, the researchers said the leakage was due to faulty cement casing on natural gas wells.
The finding was in line with a number of earlier studies on leaks in the cement casing of natural gas wells.