As your faithful scribe, I welcome you all to another edition of Overnight News Digest.
I am most pleased to share this platform with jlms qkw, maggiejean, wader, rfall, JLM9999 and side pocket. Additionally, I wish to recognize our alumni editors palantir, Bentliberal, Oke, Interceptor7, and ScottyUrb along with annetteboardman as our guest editor.
Neon Vincent is our editor-in-chief.
Special thanks go to Magnifico for starting this venerable series.
Lead Off Story
Independence Referendum:
Final Exclusive Daily Record Poll Shows 'No' Campaign With Six-Point Lead As Debate Enters Final Hours
The exclusive survey for the Record found 53 per cent of Scots will reject independence compared with 47 per cent who will support a Yes vote in tomorrow's historic ballot.
dailyrecord
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The Final Polls: Yes 43-47% No 48-50%, Don't Know 4-9%
A Panelbase poll reported 45% for Yes, 50% for No, and 5% either undecided or wouldn't say.
When the third category are excluded, it produces a headline figure of Yes 48% v No 52%.
heraldscotland
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No Retains Lead In Final Opinion Polls
The No campaign has retained a narrow lead ahead of the independence referendum, according to the latest opinion polls.
A YouGov survey for The Sun and The Times found 52% of Scots are to vote for the union, with 48% favouring independence when undecided voters are excluded.
courier
World News
Modern-Day Slavery Rife In Malaysia’s Electronics Industry
One-third of migrant workers in the Malaysian electronics industry, which produces goods for some of the world’s best-known brands, are trapped in forced labour, a form of modern-day slavery, according to new research.
A report by Verite, an NGO working on supply chain accountability, found that forced labour is present in the supply chains of a wide cross-section of household electronics brands, which use Malaysian factories to produce billions of pounds worth of goods every year.
The NGO interviewed more than 500 workers and concluded that debt bondage and the illegal confiscation of passports and documents were the main drivers of this “systemic” forced labour, which traps workers in low-paid jobs and prevents them from returning home.
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“What was most shocking to us was that this was happening in modern facilities, some of which were owned and operated by major international brands,” said Dan Viederman, chief executive of Verité. “This work has led us to conclude that forced labour in this industry is systemic and that every company operating in this sector in Malaysia faces a high risk of forced labour in their operations.”
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Verité refuses to name brands it found to be using forced labour to produce goods, because it fears that would be counterproductive to its mission to create greater accountability in supply chains.
guardian
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Australian Special Forces In Iraq To Gather Intelligence, Direct Air Strikes
Australia's elite special forces troops in Iraq will be gathering intelligence and targeting militants, either through ground operations or by directing air strikes, according to a senior defence force insider familiar with the SAS role.
The claim runs counter to the impression being given by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who continued to say on Wednesday that Australian forces would be "military advisers" to Iraqi and Peshmerga fighters and would "not themselves normally engage in actual combat".
It came as the US top military commander, General Martin Dempsey, opened the door to a deeper combat role on the ground for coalition forces, and former chief of army Peter Leahy said the Abbott government should be prepared to consider expanding ground operations if military commanders said it was needed.
The now-retired senior defence insider, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said it was an accepted fact within the Australian Defence Force that special forces troops were being deployed because they are the ADF's most lethal force.
"You don't send in the SAS to run seminars and give white-board presentations back at headquarters," the former top tactician said. "These guys are our most highly trained killers, and that's what they will be doing."
smh
[Article contains a list of additional coalition members and their contributions. -- Editor]
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An Inside Look At EU's Shameful Immigration Policy
Green dots and lines document the course of the border on wall monitors in the situation room of Fortress Europe, on the 23rd floor of a skyscraper in Warsaw. Klaus Rösler, 59, a German police officer and 40-year civil service veteran, is in command. He uses terms like "storm on the borders," "risk regions" and "overcoming crises." Rösler is the director of the operations division at the European border agency, Frontex, and he makes it sound as though his agency is defending Europe against an enemy.
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In the Mediterranean, the Italian coast guard picks up desperate people from rickety vessels almost daily. In Germany, close to 20,000 people applied for asylum in July, the greatest number in 20 years. Some 200,000 refugees are expected to arrive in Germany this year.
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There is virtually no legal path to Europe for refugees -- not for most Syrians, of which only very few are brought to Germany as so-called contingent refugees, not for Iraqis and not for people from troubled West African countries. Those wishing to apply for asylum in the EU must arrive illegally first -- on smugglers' boats, hidden in minibuses or traveling with forged passports on commercial flights. The EU is sealing itself off, fearing that if it fails to do so, even more people will come, particularly from poorer countries. But it is also true that the transformation of the EU into a fortress has created the conditions that have led to deaths along its borders. Many refugees choose the extremely dangerous route across the Mediterranean because Frontex is sealing off land routes.
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One number that Frontex does not record, however, is how many people die on Europe's external borders. A consortium of European journalists found that more than 23,000 people have lost their lives while attempting to reach Europe in the last 14 years.
derspiegel
U.S. News
House Votes to Authorize Aid To Syrian Rebels In ISIS Fight
A House divided along unusual and unpredictable lines voted Wednesday to authorize the training and arming of Syrian rebels to confront the militant group Islamic State, backing President Obama after he personally pleaded for support.
The 273-to-156 vote was over a narrow military measure with no money attached, but it took on outsize importance and was infused with drama. Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the minority leader, actively and strongly backed the legislation, and both sought to portray it as a modest measure. The Senate hopes to pass it as soon as Thursday.
“The American forces that have been deployed to Iraq do not and will not have a combat mission,” President Obama said Wednesday in addressing troops at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. “I will not commit you and the rest of our armed forces to fighting another ground war in Iraq.”
But the theater around the debate and the vote belied that portrayal. The president, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and top White House officials personally lobbied for the measure’s passage, calling more than 70 Democrats and Republicans on national security committees and in leadership posts to appeal for their support. Mr. Obama and his allies pleaded with lawmakers not to cut his legs out from under him as he tries to assemble an international coalition to confront the terrorist group.
“Obama is our commander in chief,” said Representative C. A. (Dutch) Ruppersberger of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. “You don’t weaken the commander in chief when we’re in a serious crisis.”
nyt
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D.C. Leaders Will Propose ‘Concealed Carry’ Law To Address Federal Judge’s Gun Ruling
Within weeks, civilian gun owners could be free to apply to carry a concealed weapon in the nation’s capital for the first time in decades, after a federal judge’s ruling prompted city leaders to create new firearms law.
The proposed law, set to be unveiled at a Wednesday afternoon news conference, was drafted by city officials after the city’s long-standing ban on carrying firearms in public was declared unconstitutional in July.
D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D), who played a lead role in developing the gun-carry proposal and spoke about it ahead of the news conference, said the emergency legislation put together in recent weeks will be scheduled for a council vote on Tuesday.
The bill, Mendelson said, will permit city residents who own duly registered handguns and non-residents who hold state carrying licenses to apply to the D.C. police for a concealed carry permit. So-called open carry, such as the wearing of a weapon in a holster, will not be allowed under the proposed law, he said.
D.C. carry permits will be issued on a “may carry” basis, giving great discretion to D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier on who will be allowed to carry firearms in the city. Applicants will have to state a reason for seeking a permit, Mendelson said.
wapo
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2014 On Track To Be Hottest Year On Record In California
This year is on track to be the hottest year in California since record-keeping began roughly 119 years ago, scientists announced Wednesday..
Prolonged drought and increasing temperatures over the last four decades have resulted in the warmer conditions currently plaguing California, said Paul Iniguez, science and operation officer for the National Weather Service in Hanford.
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"We have baked in the fact that we are going to be above average," Iniguez said.
Scientists also used past and present average temperature data to run 1 million statistical simulations, he said.
Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that the first eight months of 2014 were the warmest on the record in California. The average temperature was 62.6 degrees.
latimes
Science and Technology
Enormous Carbon Capture Project Begins Construction In Texas
What will eventually be the world's largest carbon capture facility has started construction near Houston, Texas.
The Petra Nova system will collect carbon dioxide leaving an existing coal plant by spritzing the plant's exhaust with a chemical solvent. The purified carbon dioxide then gets compressed into a liquid and piped 80 miles away to an active oil field. Once there, the carbon dioxide gets piped underground, where it helps force oil to the surface. So, yes, Petra Nova captures carbon dioxide to help people mine ever more oil, which creates its own emissions once it's burned to make electricity.
That's not ideal, but experts who support such projects say they're a necessary step. Projects similar to Petra Nova, in the U.S. and elsewhere, have been stymied by their high costs, Yale Environment 360 reports. Petra Nova's engineers hope the system will eventually pay for itself because it's linked to increased oil production, the Houston Chronicle reports. That, in turn, could encourage other companies to adopt the technology and improve it.
Critics worry sequestered carbon dioxide will eventually find its way up to the surface of the Earth and back into the atmosphere, as NPR reported in 2012. Oil field-linked projects may also prove unhelpful to global warming in the long term, if it encourages people and nations to continue to use fossil fuels.
popsci
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Effect Of Ocean Acidification:
Coral Growth Rate On Great Barrier Reef Plummets In 30-Year Comparison
A team of researchers working on a Carnegie expedition in Australia's Great Barrier Reef has documented that coral growth rates have plummeted 40% since the mid-1970s. The scientists suggest that ocean acidification may be playing an important role in this perilous slowdown.
In a quest for historical context on the peril facing coral reefs, the team compared current measurements of the growth rate of a section of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with similar measurements taken more than 30 years ago. Their work is published in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta.
Coral reefs are havens for biodiversity and crucial for the economies of many coastal communities. But they are very sensitive to changes in ocean chemistry resulting from human activity. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution about one-third of the carbon dioxide, CO2, which has been released into the atmosphere from fossil fuel combustion and land use change has been absorbed by the oceans, where it damages coral reefs.
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In order to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between acidification and decreased calcification, a team led by Carnegie's Ken Caldeira and including Carnegie's Jacob Silverman (the lead author) and Kenneth Schneider, formerly of Carnegie, compared measurements of the rate of calcification in one segment of Australia's Great Barrier Reef called Bird Island that were taken in between 1975 and 1979 to those made at the neighboring Lizard Island in 2008 and 2009.
sciencedaily
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Cars Will Cook The Planet Absent Shift To Public Transportation
If the world's cities focused their investments on expanding public transportation, walking and cycling, they could save more than $100 trillion in public and private capital and urban transportation operating costs between now and 2050, according to a report released today by the University of California, Davis, and the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP).
In a "high shift" scenario with far greater urban passenger travel by clean public transport and nonmotorized vehicles, as compared to a base-line scenario matched to mobility forecasts by the International Energy Agency, roughly 1.7 gigatons of carbon dioxide could be eliminated each year—a 40 percent reduction in urban passenger transport emissions—by 2050.
"A most affordable but largely overlooked way to cut global warming pollution is to give people clean options for using public transportation, walking and cycling," said Michael Replogle, ITDP's managing director for policy and a co-author of the report, in a statement.
"Transportation, driven by rapid growth in car use, has been the fastest-growing source of CO2 in the world," he continued. "While every part of the global economy needs to become greener, cleaning up the traffic jams in the world's cities offers the least pain and the most gain."
In 2010, urban transportation accounted for almost a quarter of all carbon emissions produced across all parts of the transportation sector. As cities continue to grow, particularly in developing economies, these emissions are on track to double over the next 35 years without policy intervention.
scientificamerican
Well, that's different...
Unclear on the Concept:
A 20-year-old woman was arrested in Seattle in August after calling police to complain that she was being harassed by a man who was following her. Police arrived to find that the "stalker" was simply trying to get his phone back after the woman stole it from him while he was napping on a bus.
newsoftheweird
Bill Moyers and Company:
Climate Change — Faith and Fact
Christian and climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe talks to Bill about ending the gridlock between politics, science and faith