Welcome to Overnight News Digest, where the usual crew, consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors maggiejean, wader, Man Oh Man, side pocket, rfall, and JML9999, alumni editors palantir, Bentliberal, Oke, Interceptor7, jlms qkw, and ScottyUrb, guest editors annetteboardman and Doctor RJ, and current editor-in-chief Neon Vincent, along with anyone else who reads and comments, informs and entertains you with tonight's news. 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 each day near 12:00AM Eastern Time.
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From the Washington Post: Suspected architect of Paris attacks is dead, 2 senior European officials say
The suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks was killed Wednesday in a massive pre-dawn raid by French police commandos, two senior European officials said, after investigators followed leads that the fugitive Islamic State militant was holed up north of the French capital and could be plotting another wave of violence.
More than 100 police officers and soldiers stormed an apartment building in Saint-Denis, a bustling suburb home to many immigrants, during a seven-hour siege that left at least two people dead, officials said. The dead included the suspected overseer of the Paris bloodshed, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, according to the two senior European officials. Abaaoud, a Belgian extremist, had once boasted that he could slip easily between Europe and strongholds of the Islamic State militant group in Syria.
Paris prosecutor François Molins, speaking to reporters hours after the siege, said he could not provide the identities of the people killed at the scene. A French security official declined to confirm or deny that Abaaoud had died. U.S. officials said they were awaiting confirmation of the identities of those slain.
The two European officials from different countries, who have followed the case closely, said they had received the information about Abaaoud’s death from French authorities. The two officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.
From CNN: ISIS video threatens New York City
A new ISIS video released Wednesday warns of an impending attack on New York City. The video mentions Times Square and purports to show an explosive device being put together and a bomber zipping his jacket over a suicide belt.
The New York City Police Department said in a statement that it was aware of the video and was deploying additional members of its new anti-terrorism squad out of an abundance of caution.
"While some of the video footage is not new, the video reaffirms the message that New York City remains a top terrorist target," the statement said. "While there is no current or specific threat to the City at this time, we will remain at a heightened state of vigilance and will continue to work with the FBI, the Joint Terrorism Task Force and the entire intelligence community to keep the City of New York safe."
From Bloomberg: Most Americans Oppose Syrian Refugee Resettlement
Most Americans want the U.S. to stop letting in Syrian refugees amid fears of terrorist infiltrations after the Paris attacks, siding with Republican presidential candidates, governors, and lawmakers who want to freeze the Obama administration’s resettlement program.
The findings are part of a Bloomberg Politics national poll released Wednesday that also shows the nation divided on whether to send U.S. troops to Iraq and Syria to fight the Islamic State, an idea President Barack Obama opposes, and whether the U.S. government is doing enough to protect the homeland from a comparable attack.
Fifty-three percent of U.S. adults in the survey, conducted in the days immediately following the attacks, say the nation should not continue a program to resettle up to 10,000 Syrian refugees. Just 28 percent would keep the program with the screening process as it now exists, while 11 percent said they would favor a limited program to accept only Syrian Christians while excluding Muslims, a proposal Obama has dismissed as “shameful” and un-American.
From the Los Angeles Times: Mayor against Syrian refugees is denounced for noting WWII internment of Japanese Americans
A Virginia mayor ignited a backlash Wednesday after he cited America's mass detention of Japanese Americans during World War II as support for his call to deny Syrian refugees the opportunity to resettle in the United States.
In a letter on official city stationery, Roanoke, Va., Mayor David A. Bowers asked local governments and nonprofit groups to join the more than half of the nation's governors who have said they do not want to accept Syrian refugees into their states, citing security concerns after last week's Paris terrorist attacks that killed at least 129 people. The Obama administration plans to admit about 10,000 Syrian refugees this fiscal year.
Bowers' stance on the issue is just one among many. In Congress, Republican lawmakers plan to vote on legislation toughening the U.S. screening process for Syrian and Iraqi refugees despite a veto threat by President Obama.
But there was one paragraph in Bowers' letter — which called Roanoke a “welcoming city” — that was highly unusual:
“I'm reminded that President Franklin D. Roosevelt felt compelled to sequester Japanese foreign nationals after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and it appears that the threat of harm to America from [Islamic State] now is just as real and serious as that from our enemies then,” Bowers, a Democrat, said in the statement.
From Reuters: Islamic State says 'Schweppes bomb' used to bring down Russian plane
Islamic State's official magazine carried a photo on Wednesday of a Schweppes soft drink can it said was used to make an improvised bomb that brought down a Russian airliner over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula last month, killing all 224 people on board.
The photo showed a can of Schweppes Gold soft drink and what appeared to be a detonator and switch on a blue background, three simple components that if genuine are likely to cause concern for airline safety officials worldwide.
"The divided Crusaders of the East and West thought themselves safe in their jets as they cowardly bombarded the Muslims of the Caliphate," the English language Dabiq magazine said in reference to Russia and the West. "And so revenge was exacted upon those who felt safe in the cockpits."
From ABC News: Nigeria's Boko Haram Kills 49 in Suicide Bombings
The suicide bomber exploded as truckers were tucking into dinner at the bustling marketplace where vendors urged them to buy sugar cane. At least 34 people were killed and another 80 wounded in Yola, a town packed with refugees from Nigeria's Islamic uprising, emergency officials said Wednesday.
Later Wednesday, two more suicide bombers killed at least 15 people in the northern city of Kano and injured 53, according to police. Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency said more than 100 were wounded.
The blasts were the latest by Boko Haram, Nigeria's home-grown extremists whose 6-year insurgency has killed 20,000 and forced 2.3 million to flee their homes.
Boko Haram was named Wednesday as the world's most deadly extremist group in the Global Terrorism Index. Deaths attributed to Boko Haram increased by 317 percent in 2014 to 6,644 compared to 6,073 blamed on the Islamic State group. Boko Haram pledged allegiance to IS in March and calls itself that group's West Africa Province.
From NBC News: Texas Man Executed for Fire That Killed 3 Children
A Texas inmate was executed Wednesday for setting a fire that killed his 18-month-old daughter and her two young half-sisters at an East Texas home 15 years ago.
Raphael Holiday, 36, became the 13th convicted killer put to death this year in Texas, which carries out capital punishment more than any other state. It has accounted for half of all executions in the U.S. so far this year.
The lethal injection was carried out after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal seeking to halt Holiday's punishment so new attorneys could be appointed to pursue additional unspecified appeals in his case.
Earlier Wednesday, the judge in Holiday's trial court stopped the execution after Holiday's trial attorney filed an appeal saying the conviction and some trial testimony were both improper. The judge agreed the issues should be reviewed and withdrew his execution warrant. The Texas attorney general's office appealed, the judge's order voided and the warrant reinstated, clearing the way for the lethal injection to move forward.
From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Audi says US sales undiminished by diesel emissions scandal
The emissions-rigging scandal that has engulfed German auto giantVolkswagen will not diminish sales of one of its luxury brands in the United States, the head of Audi of America predicted Wednesday.
In the two months since news broke that hundreds of thousands of diesel cars — mostly VWs, but also some Audi models — had their emissions devices doctored to beat US tailpipe tests, sales of Audis have been at record levels compared to the same months in years past, according to company data.
"We'll have a record November and a record December," Audi of America President Scott Keogh told reporters at the Los Angeles Auto Show. In 2014, Audi sold 36,000 cars in the U.S. in November and December.
From the Memphis Commercial Appeal: Hog-tying killed Troy Goode, independent autopsy finds
Troy Goode's death was caused by his being hog-tied for an extended period and had nothing to do with his ingestion of LSD, the family's lawyer said Wednesday in citing an independent autopsy conducted by Goode's family. Attorney Tim Edwards, representing Goode's family, released those results in a press conference Wednesday. However, citing client confidentiality, Edwards would not release the full autopsy report to the media.
The results from the official state autopsy have yet to be released. DeSoto County District Attorney John Champion said he did not know when that report would be finished, and that a wait time of 6-8 months would not be unusual. It's been four months since Goode died.
According to Edwards, Goode was left hog-tied and on his stomach for an extended period after his arrest in Southaven on July 18. That caused him to have trouble breathing, and when his heart couldn't compensate, it went into cardiac arrhythmia and killed him. "He was suffocating. His heart increased into what is called tachycardia," Edwards said. "There is no scientific basis to attribute his death to LSD." … "This was lethal force, putting someone in a prolonged hog-tied position," Edwards said. "This was not a situation where a 300-pound man attacked a police officer in the dark. This was a science nerd."
From the Associated Press: Utah prosecutor says he's investigating US Sen. Harry Reid
A Utah county prosecutor said Wednesday he is investigating U.S. Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada in connection with a pay-to-play scheme involving two former Utah attorneys general.
Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings, a Republican, said in a statement that he's looking into allegations related to the Democratic senator.
Rawlings declined to disclose the allegations and only said the claims are based on information from witnesses in the attorneys general case.
Reid, who hasn't been charged, fired back at Rawlings in a statement from his spokeswoman Kristen Orthman. She said Rawlings is using "Sen. Reid's name to generate attention to himself and advance his political career, so every few months he seeks headlines by floating the same unsubstantiated allegations."
From the New York Times: Fed Minutes Signal Readiness for December Rate Increase
The Federal Reserve, setting aside its habitual reticence, is issuing increasingly explicit warnings that it is likely to start raising its benchmark interest rate in December.
Most Fed officials say they think the economy will be ready for higher rates by year’s end, the Fed revealed on Wednesday in an official account of its October policy-making meeting.
“While no decision had been made, it may well become appropriate to initiate the normalization process at the next meeting,” the October meeting minutes said in the latest signal of the Fed’s intentions.
The account cautioned that the Fed might still be deterred by “unanticipated shocks” or disappointing economic data, but such warnings sound increasingly pro forma. After the strong October jobs report, investors and analysts are convinced that a rate increase is imminent. Borrowing costs are rising, and Fed officials are encouraging the solidification of expectations.
From Reuters: Some U.S. airport workers to strike Wednesday night: union
Airport workers at seven of the busiest U.S. hubs plan to strike on Wednesday night and Thursday over what they say are bad wages and threats against unionizing.
Some 2,000 plane cleaners, baggage handlers and other workers will strike at New York's Kennedy and LaGuardia airports, as well as Newark Liberty, Chicago O'Hare, Boston, Philadelphia and Fort Lauderdale, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) said.
The walkout comes just before air travel picks up for the Thanksgiving holiday. U.S. airlines American, United, Delta and JetBlue said they do not expect the action to impact their operations.
The strikers work for companies that U.S. carriers contract for some airport operations. That means pilots, flight attendants and in-house baggage handlers are not taking part in the action.
From USA Today: Ta-Nehisi Coates, Adam Johnson win National Book Awards
Ta-Nehisi Coates won the National Book Award for non-fiction Wednesday night for Between the World and Me, the searing best seller about being black in America.
He dedicated the book to his friend from Howard University, Prince Jones Jr., who was killed inFairfax, Va., by a police officer in 2000 "because he was mistaken for a criminal," Coates said. Alluding to shootings of blacks by police this year, Coates said, "At the heart of our country is the notion that we are OK with the presumption that black people have a predisposition toward criminality."
The ceremony was held at Cipriani downtown. In the night's biggest surprise, the fiction prize went to Adam Johnson for his collection of stories, Fortune Smiles. Johnson seemed startled by the win, even though his novel about North Korea, The Orphan Master's Son, won the Pulitzer in 2013.
"I was having a calm evening because this was not going to happen," he said, accepting the award.
From Phys. Org: NASA gives MIT a humanoid robot to develop software for future space missions
NASA announced today that MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) is one of two university research groups nationwide that will receive a 6-foot, 290-pound humanoid robot to test and develop for future space missions to Mars and beyond.
A group led by CSAIL principal investigator Russ Tedrake will develop algorithms for the robot, known as "Valkyrie" or "R5," as part of NASA's upcoming Space Robotics Challenge, which aims to create more dexterous autonomous robots that can help or even take the place of humans "extreme space" missions. (NASA's challenge is divided into a virtual competition using robotic simulations, and a physical competition using the robot.) Tedrake's team, which was selected from groups that were entered in this year's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Robotics Challenge, will receive as much as $250,000 a year for two years from NASA's Space Technology Mission Directive.
NASA says it is interested in humanoid robots because they can help or even replace astronauts working in extreme space environments. Robots like R5 could be used in future missions either as precursor robots performing mission tasks before humans arrive or as human-assistive robots collaborating with the human crew. While R5 was initially designed to complete disaster-relief maneuvers, its main goal is now to prove itself worthy of even trickier terrain: deep-space exploration.
From Vox: A survey measured 38 countries' support for free speech. The US came out on top.
America loves freedom.
At least, Americans are more likely to say they support freedom — of speech and press in particular — compared with residents of other countries. That's what a new survey by the Pew Research Center found … In April and May, Pew surveyed more than 40,000 people in 38 countries about support for legal protections for various forms of free expression — including criticisms of the government, public comments that are sexually explicit, and media coverage of government policy and national security issues.
The findings: People in Western countries, like America, Poland, and Spain, tend to be more supportive of free expression, while those in the eastern parts of the world — like China, India, Japan, and Turkey — are generally less supportive. And the US stood out as more supportive of free expression than anyone else.
From The Daily Beast: Scientists Grew a Vocal Cord
Scientists have made promising breakthroughs in the world of bioengineering, successfully growing human kidneys, a mini-brain, and a limb. On Wednesday, a new body part worthy of talk was unveiled: vocal cords.
The paper, published in Science Translational Medicine, shows how University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers bioengineered vocal cord tissue from a cadaver. The tissue, which closely resembles real vocal cord tissue, is even capable of transmitting sound. Dr. Nathan Welham, an associate professor of surgery at UW and a speech pathologist, touched on the significance of the discovery.
“Voice is a pretty amazing thing, yet we don’t give it much thought until something goes wrong,” said Welham. “Our vocal cords are made up of special tissue that has to be flexible enough to vibrate, yet strong enough to bang together hundreds of times per second. It’s an exquisite system and a hard thing to replicate.”
From Vice: Stripping, Twerking, and Feminism at the Miss Juggalette Beauty Pageant
The stereotypical portrait of a Juggalo involves face paint, Faygo, and Insane Clown Posse (whose latest album, The Marvelous Missing Link: Found is out now.) But within the outsider community of the ICP fans, female Juggalos are even more marginalized.
That is until three years ago, when the Juggalettes reclaimed the annual Miss Juggalette Beauty Pageant. Formerly hosted by porn star Ron Jeremy, who would inevitably turn the event into a nude bacchanal, the pageant has been taken over by Lette's Respect, a feminist movement within the community.
While there's still nudity involved, it now rewards women of all different body types for their talents. Some girls rap, other strip, and a few sing rock songs. How have the Juggalettes built a 21st century beauty pageant within the male-dominated Juggalo culture? Broadly traveled to the pageant at the Gathering of the Juggalos to find out.
From Slate: It's Not a Great Time to Be Jewish in France
Three people on two scooters, one of them wearing an Islamic State t-shirt, approached the teacher in the street, Marseilles prosecutor Brice Robin told Reuters ... "The three people insulted, threatened and then stabbed their victim in the arm and leg. They were interrupted by the arrival of a car and fled," Robin added.
Jews were also targeted by the Jan. 9, 2015 attack on a kosher Paris supermarket in which an ISIS-affiliated gunman killed four people. The historically anti-Semitic National Front party, meanwhile, has recently been gaining a great deal of support among voters concerned about the perceived threat of Muslim immigration; the party was expected to do well in upcoming elections even before the Nov. 13 Paris attacks.
From The Atlantic: The Front-Runner Fallacy
In november 1975, one year before the obscure Georgia governor Jimmy Carter was elected president, the field of Democratic presidential aspirants was in chaos. According to the polls, voters’ top choices were Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts (23 percent), Governor George Wallace of Alabama (19 percent), and former Vice President Hubert Humphrey (17 percent). Unfortunately, only one of these men—a widely reviled racist—was actually running. To be sure, there was a grass-roots favorite expected to vault into contention by winning the Iowa caucuses, but it wasn’t Carter. It was Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana. Carter was netting low single digits. Newsweek explained that he could become viable “only in the long-odds event that [he] can stop George Wallace” and get the southern vote.
Four years later, Carter was, of course, president. And the late-1979 polling data strongly suggested that he would be dethroned—by Ted Kennedy. The great liberal hope for Democrats despairing of Carter’s incompetence, Kennedy had been scoring 60 percent in matchups against the incumbent earlier in the season. In the late fall he was still favored by Democratic majorities. One New York Timessurvey found black voters choosing Kennedy over Carter 53 to 15 percent, conservative Democrats favoring him 58 to 22 percent, and even southerners backing him 44 to 29 percent. But in the end, Kennedy triumphed in only 10 states, mostly in the Northeast.
In 1987, after the Democratic front-runner, Gary Hart, withdrew from the race following questions about his private life, the new leader, with 25 percent in the polls, was a candidate with no real prospect of winning: the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Jackson’s chief adversary was the Illinois senator and unreconstructed liberal Paul Simon, who was surging in Iowa. The party’s eventual nominee, Michael Dukakis, was in the fight, especially in New Hampshire, but The New York Times noted, “Recent surveys show him to be increasingly vulnerable in the state.”
From Rolling Stone: Zola Tells All: The Real Story Behind the Greatest Stripper Saga Ever Tweeted
On a recent night in Detroit, Aziah "Zola" Wells returned to where it all began: Hooters. As the petite 20-year-old beauty in a pink blouse and tight blue jeans clacked her high black heels past the hostess stand, a curvy bartender shouted, "Zola!" It was her first visit back since she quit her waitressing job three months earlier, not long after finding out she and her fiancé were pregnant, but that wasn't the reason for the excitement. The week before, on October 27, Zola tweeted, "Okay listen up. This story long. So I met this white bitch at Hooters…" What followed was an epic 148-tweet tale about her harrowing road trip to Florida with said "white bitch," Jessica; Jessica's maudlin boyfriend, Jarrett; and Jessica's violent Nigerian pimp, "Z". Tricks get turned, a hustler gets murdered, Jarrett leaps from a four-story window. It reads like Spring Breakers meets Pulp Fiction, as told by Nicki Minaj. "That nigga lost in the sauce," Zola wrote in one of her more popular tweets, "& that bitch lost in the game."
The saga got hashtagged #TheStory and trended worldwide. Missy Elliot, Keke Palmer, Solange Knowles joined the legions obsessing online. "Drama, humor, action, suspense, character development," Ava DuVernay, the director of Selma, tweeted. "There's so much untapped talent in the hood." ("I'm not from the hood tho Ava," Zola replied. "Ima suburban bitch. Still love you tho"). There were Zola Halloween costumes, Zola feminist think pieces, Zola comics, and parody movie trailers for a rumored Hollywood project: In a world where stripper fingers turn to Twitter fingers… One of her 108,000 followers anointed her the "Queen of hoeism." To which, Zola replied: "Title of my autobiography."
But what really happened that weekend in Tampa? Here, for the first time, is Zola's exclusive account. I went to Detroit to meet with her and her tight-knit family, and also spoke at length with the other main players, many of whom are eager to set Zola's story straight. "She's ruining my life," Jessica tells me.
From The Hollywood Reporter: Kurt Sutter Cancels 'The Bastard Executioner' Via Hollywood Reporter Ad
The audience has spoken and unfortunately the word is, "meh."
So reads the ad creator Kurt Sutter took out in this publication (see below) and others to announce the cancellation of his FX series, The Bastard Executioner. The "heartbreaking" decision, made in concert with FX Networks CEO John Landgraf, comes as the ambitious 14th century period drama lost more than half of its audience through its first six weeks on the air, falling from 4 million combined weekly viewers for its Sept. 15 premiere to just 1.9 million for episode six. The series wrapped its first, and now final, season Nov. 17.
"It's not like it had a chance and I said, 'Let's not take it,'" explains Sutter, who watched as Bastard failed to catch on the way his previous juggernaut, Sons of Anarchy, had on the same network. (The gritty biker drama famously grew every season it was on, ending its seven-year run in December as the top-rated drama series in FX's history.) The timing and delivery of Bastard's cancellation news fell to the long-tenured and often outspoken showrunner, who was adamant everybody involved not be strung along. Sutter preempted the ad with a heartfelt email to the Wales-based cast and crew, who he says remained committed and enthusiastic even as the ratings sputtered and he'd fallen woefully behind on scripts.
From Billboard: Adele's '25' Will Ship 3.6 Million Units in U.S., Could Top *NSYNC's Historic Sales Week
Adele is going for a milestone.
Sources reveal that Columbia Records will ship 3.6 million physical copies of the singer's new album 25 in the U.S., which would probably mark the largest number of new-release CDs shipped in the past decade. The last album to ship more than that would have been *NSYNC's "No Strings Attached, which shipped 4.2 million units back in 2000.
As of Nov. 18, insiders tell Billboard that parent company Sony Music is projecting first-week CD sales of 1.5 million, while Apple digital sales are expected to be about 900,000. Overall downloads should come in at about 1 million units. Sources also suggest that preorders at iTunes will wind up at about 450,000, while Amazon’s pre-orders have already topped 100,000, for both CDs and MP3s.
From the A.V. Club: Carly Simon finally reveals who’s so vain
For more than 40 years, the identity of the egomaniac who inspired Carly Simon to write and record her 1972 hit single “You’re So Vain” has remained one of the most enigmatic mysteries in pop music. Throughout the years she’s dropped hints, such as the fact that the person’s name contains the letters A, E, and R, and excluded potential candidates like Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, who sings backup vocals on the song. But finally today she revealed that at least the second verse of the song is about her one-time beau Warren Beatty.
In an interview with People Magazine to promote her upcoming autobiography,Boys In The Trees, the singer tells the publication that, “I have confirmed that the second verse is Warren.” That portion of the song is especially agonizing, given that it details the casual and careless way in which the actor/director/producer tossed Simon aside.
You had me several years ago when I was still quite naive / Well you said that we made such a pretty pair / And that you would never leave / But you gave away the things you loved and one of them was me / I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee / Clouds in my coffee, and…
Of course, being the vain individual that he is, Simon asserts that Beatty remains convinced that the entire song is still about him. For her part, she contends that the first and third verses of “You’re So Vain” are actually about two separate individuals, the identities of whom she intends to keep secret, “at least until they know it’s about them.”