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
Israel Ramps Up Strikes, Orders Gazans To Leave As Death Toll Passes 200
Israel continued airstrikes overnight, bringing the death toll in Gaza to over 200, as it promised to ramp up its eight-day offensive and ordered some 100,000 Palestinians to evacuate their homes ahead of more strikes.
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In a possible respite from the violence, the United Nations has helped broker a five-hour "humanitarian" pause in Israeli airstrikes scheduled to take effect Thursday at 10:00 a.m local time. The temporary lull would allow Palestinians, who have suffered a disproportionate number of civilian casualties, to restock food, water and other necessities.
Earlier Wednesday, the Israeli army dropped leaflets and issued prerecorded phone calls to residents of northeast Gaza, telling them to evacuate.
“For your own safety, you must evacuate your homes now and at once go toward central Gaza. You have until 8 a.m. on Wednesday … It is forbidden that you go back to the areas cited above until further notice,” the warning said.
Hamas called the orders “psychological warfare” and urged residents to stay in their homes, the Palestinian news website Maan News reported. On Sunday, Israel warned residents of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza to leave, causing at least 17,000 civilians to seek shelter in United Nations installations.
aljazerra
World News
Ukraine Crisis: US And EU Boost Sanctions On Russia
The US and EU have bolstered sanctions against Russia over its alleged support for separatists fighting in Ukraine.
The US has targeted major banks including Gazprombank, defence firms and energy companies including Rosneft.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying sanctions would take US-Russia relations to a "dead end".
The EU said it would announce details of its sanctions by the end of July, but added that its investment banks would no longer fund Russian projects.
The new round of US sanctions announced by the US treasury significantly expands previous penalties by Washington, which were limited to individuals in Russia and Ukraine and a number of companies.
bbc
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Germany's Choice: Will It Be America Or Russia?
For decades, Germany's position in the West remained unquestioned. Following the NSA spying and other political scandals, many Germans want greater independence from the US. But does that mean getting closer to Moscow?
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John Emerson never stops smiling. On the evening of Friday, July 4 -- Independence Day -- the United States ambassador shook hands on the red carpet at a reception given by his embassy at Berlin's former Tempelhof Airport, which has since been transformed into a park. Emerson greeted his guests with a diplomat's practiced joviality. He faced an endless line of businesspeople, German government officials and celebrities, and although he could be seen sweating, his smile remained unbroken, as if to convey the message that all was still well in the world.
It's been a common scene at recent encounters between American and German officials. But behind the perfect façade, relations are cracking. Even as workers were decorating Tempelhof Field with pennants and small flags last Friday, a report was making the rounds in the German capital that could very well drag relations between Washington and Berlin to a new low.
The chancellor did, however, expect the Americans to at least refrain from involving her in any further embarrassing incidents -- she has no interest in seeing a continued rise in anti-US sentiment in Germany, a development that would ultimately offer her no choice but to distance herself from the Americans once again. But that point may have already been reached.
As of the end of last week, the BND had not yet fully investigated the spy scandal. But if the story turns out to be true, it will mean that the Americans paid a mole to copy documents for them, some of which were even intended for the German parliamentary committee set up to investigate the NSA's activities in Germany. It would represent a new level of audacity.
derspiegel
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Disaster Plans Outstanding Issue In Plant Restart, Critics Say
The Sendai nuclear plant in Kyushu may have cleared a major hurdle toward its restart on Wednesday, but anti-nuclear groups warn it’s far from ready to go online. Improved evacuation plans and a better understanding of the possible impact of a volcanic eruptions in southern Kyushu are among the unresolved issues for Kyushu Electric Power Co., the operator of the plant in Kagoshima Prefecture, critics say.
“A major flaw (with the evacuation plans) is that there is no specific plan to evacuate people who are deeply dependent on others, such as the elderly, those in the hospital or at care facilities, and where to take them,” the Citizens’ Commission on Nuclear Energy, a Tokyo-based anti-nuclear group, said in a statement released after the Nuclear Regulation Authority effectively gave the green light for restarting the Sendai plant.
[...]
Anti-nuclear groups also faulted the NRA for not adequately evaluating the impact of potential volcanic activity on the two reactors it evaluated for safety.
According to Kyushu Electric, there are 39 volcanos, including Sakurajima, within a 160-km radius of the Sendai plant. The activists say a huge eruption could bring disaster to the plant.
Kyushu Electric has insisted that there is only a very small chance of a major eruption in the near future.
japantimes
U.S. News
$80 Billion Offer From Rupert Murdoch Is Rejected, But Time Warner May Be In Play
The media giant 21st Century Fox, the empire run by Rupert Murdoch, made an $80 billion takeover bid in recent weeks for Time Warner Inc. but was rebuffed.
The bold approach could put Time Warner in play and might again ignite a reshaping of the media industry, prompting a new spate of mega-mergers among the nation’s largest entertainment companies.
Shares of Time Warner were up nearly 17 percent in mid-afternoon trading.
Over nearly five decades, the 83-year-old Mr. Murdoch has built a global media juggernaut spanning studios, television channels and newspapers, in part, by pursuing bold deals that were often rebuffed at first by targets that would later acquiesce.
Time Warner on Wednesday confirmed that it had rejected a cash and stock offer from 21st Century Fox, saying that it was not in the company’s best interests. The Time Warner statement said its own strategic plan would “create significantly more value.” It also pointed to regulatory risks in a merger and what it said was “uncertainty” over the value of non-voting shares of 21st Century Fox. Unlike Time Warner, which has no controlling shareholder, 21st Century Fox is controlled by the Murdoch family, which has no controlling shareholder, 21st Century Fox is controlled by the Murdoch family, which has 39.4 percent of the voting rights of the Class B shares.
nyt
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Bill Proposes Ethics Classes For Congress
Senators — and congressional staff members from both chambers — are required to attend ethics training. Lawmakers in the House are not.
Two House members, one D and one R, want to change that, and they’ve introduced a bill this week that might as well be called the No Member Can Reasonably Vote Against This Act.
Reps. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and Scott Rigell (R-Va.) simply want their House colleagues to be held to the same standards as everyone else and required to attend annual ethics training classes to keep themselves in check.
“It struck me as odd,” Cicilline said, “that we rely on staff to answer these questions.” For instance, he said, there was some confusion over what he could put on his campaign Facebook page as opposed to his official congressional one. (Though social-media ethics still generally fall into a gray area.)
Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist at Public Citizen, said such training sessions would do a world of good for members who still believe “anything goes.”
“I believe many of the violations we’ve seen of ethics rules really came from a lack of understanding of what the ethics rules are,” Holman said.
wapo
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Anthrax Incident 'Should Never Have Happened,' CDC Chief Says
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told a congressional panel Wednesday that safety lapses at the agency’s bioterrorism labs were “completely unacceptable” and “should never have happened.”.
Appearing before an oversight panel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden vowed to improve the agency’s safety procedures after reporting in June that more than 80 CDC staffers may have been exposed to live anthrax.
“This is like saying I didn't know the gun was loaded, but someone was shot. You should always assume it is.”- Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) in response to CDC director's explanation that staff believed anthrax samples were "inactive"
The problems, which included storing anthrax in unlocked refrigerators, transferring dangerous materials in Ziploc bags and using expired disinfectants, were detailed in a memo released Friday by the CDC and by another investigation initiated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
latimes
Science and Technology
Opinions Divided Over Mysterious 80-Metre Wide Crater In Northern Siberia
A giant, mysterious crater in northern Siberia is probably a melted ice formation rather than a hole from a meteor, says an Australian polar scientist.
The Siberian Times reported the giant hole in the Yamal Peninsula - which reportedly translates to “end of the world” - is up to 80 metres wide and has an unknown depth.
A team of Russian scientists have been dispatched to investigate the crater but University of New South Wales polar scientist Dr Chris Fogwill says it’s likely to be a geological phenomenon called a pingo.
A pingo is a block of ice that’s grown into a small hill in the frozen arctic ground. The ice can eventually push through the earth and when it melts away it leaves an exposed crater. Dr Fogwill says the permafrost [frozen earth] can be hundreds of metres thick, allowing for large ice features.
“It’s just a remarkable land form. This is obviously a very extreme version of that, and if there’s been any interaction with the gas in the area, that is a question that could only be answered by going there,” Dr Fogwill said.
smh
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Sharpest Map Of Mars Surface Properties
heat-sensing camera designed at Arizona State University has provided data to create the most detailed global map yet made of Martian surface properties.
The map uses data from the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS), a nine-band visual and infrared camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter.
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"We used more than 20,000 THEMIS nighttime temperature images to generate the highest resolution surface property map of Mars ever created," says [Geological Survey's Robin Fergason at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona]
Surface properties tell geologists about the physical nature of a planet or moon's surface. Is a particular area coated with dust, and if so, how thick is it likely to be? Where are the outcrops of bedrock? How loose are the sediments that fill this crater or that valley? A map of surface properties lets scientists begin to answer questions such as these.
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The new map uses nighttime temperature images to derive the "thermal inertia" for areas of Mars, each the size of a football field. Thermal inertia is a calculated value that represents how fast a surface heats up and cools off. As day and night alternate on Mars, loose, fine-grain materials such as sand and dust change temperature quickly and thus have low values of thermal inertia. Bedrock represents the other end of the thermal inertia range: because it cools off slowly at night and warms up slowly by day, it has a high thermal inertia.
sciencedaily
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Another Chinese National Indicted For Stealing American GMO Corn
Sometimes even a high-tech heist requires a little digging around in the dirt.
Earlier this month, a federal court indicted a Chinese national for trying to steal GMO corn technology from DuPont, Monsanto, and AgReliant Genetics. The scientist's arrest is just the latest in a series of indictments against six other people linked to a Beijing seed-development company called Dabeinong Technology Group Co. The FBI alleges the Dabeinong staff were part of a years-long seed collection effort that sometimes involved some low-tech methods. Science magazine reports:
The U.S.-based defendants roamed rural Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa in rental cars, digging up corn seedlings, stealing ears of corn, and stealing or illegally obtaining packaged seed, according to court documents. In 2011, a DuPont Pioneer field manager spotted one alleged thief on his knees digging in a field, as a collaborator waited in a nearby parked car.
And from Chemical & Engineering News:
To get the seed back to China, the government says, one defendant tucked the stolen kernels into Orville Redenbacher microwave popcorn boxes packed into his luggage. A second defendant traveling back to China tried to conceal the seed corn in Pop Weaver boxes.
What's at stake here aren't the genetically modified seeds that farmers buy and plant. Presumably you could get those by pretending to be a farmer and signing an agreement with a GMO company (although that might present its own difficulties: What if a company representative comes to check on your "farm"?). Instead, the FBI alleges Debeinong staff tried to steal the seeds and seedlings of the "parent" plants that companies crossbreed to create the seeds they sell to farmers.
Parent plants are much more valuable than the GMO seeds farmers buy. A farmer who plants a cross-bred GMO corn crop could keep the resulting seeds and re-plant them, if she wanted. (I mean technically she could, because the seeds aren't sterile, as is often alleged, but she would likely face legal repercussions.) However, a crop grown from cross-bred seeds will contain a mix of corn types, most them inferior in quality. Parent plants, on the other hand, breed true generation after generation, carrying the traits companies engineered into them. The sequences of parent plants' genes represent some of the companies' most important intellectual property.
popsci
Well, that's different...
Latest Religious Messages
The leader of Romania's Orthodox church was shown in June on the church's website performing a traditional blessing of a newly inaugurated facility, in this case the church-owned Trinitas Radio and Television studios. The rooms are big and the walls are tall, and Patriarch Daniel is pictured applying holy oil to the facilities with a long-armed commercial paint roller.
newsoftheweird
Bill Moyers and Company:
Is the Supreme Court Out of Order?
NY Times columnist Linda Greenhouse and Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick
discuss the agenda of the Roberts court.