Overnight News Digest
Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors jlms qkw, maggiejean, wader, Oke, rfall, and JML9999. Alumni editors are palantir and ScottyUrb and guest editor is annetteboardman.
Massive storm Sandy crashes ashore in New Jersey
Reuters
Sandy, one of the biggest storms ever to hit the United States, roared ashore with fierce winds and heavy rain on Monday near the gambling resort of Atlantic City, New Jersey, after forcing evacuations, shutting down transportation and interrupting the presidential campaign.
High winds and flooding racked hundreds of miles (km) of Atlantic coastline while heavy snows were forecast farther inland at higher elevations as the center of the storm marched westward.
More than 3 million customers already were left without power by early evening and more than a million people were subject to evacuation orders. Many communities were swamped by flood waters.
The National Hurricane Center said Sandy came ashore as a "post-tropical cyclone," meaning it still packed hurricane-force winds but lost the characteristics of a tropical storm. It had sustained winds of 80 miles per hour, well above the threshold for hurricane intensity.
Hurricane Sandy
Obama urges resolve, patience in face of hurricane
Reuters
President Barack Obama on Monday urged East Coast residents in the path of Hurricane Sandy to heed evacuation orders and assured them the government was ready to respond swiftly, but he warned them it would take a long time to clean up in the storm's aftermath.
Scrapping campaign plans to return to Washington, Obama sought to show voters just eight days before the November 6 election that he was giving top priority to his presidential duties in a looming national crisis, rather than his bid for re-election in a tight race.
He also appeared determined to demonstrate that his administration had learned the lessons of White House predecessor George W. Bush's botched handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which inflicted serious political damage.
Rushing back from a campaign visit to Florida, Obama huddled with top aides in the White House Situation Room for an update on Hurricane Sandy, which started to batter the densely populated East Coast as one of the biggest storms to ever hit the U.S. mainland.
The Science Of Why Sandy Is Such A Dangerous Storm
npr
Here are a few reasons government forecasters at the National Hurricane Center and emergency management officials are so concerned about Sandy:
1. Sandy is one of the largest hurricanes ever to strike the U.S. Sandy's winds cover an area of more than 1,000 miles in diameter. That's enormous by hurricane standards. So instead of affecting an area a couple of hundred miles across, Sandy will cut a huge swath. That means many millions of people are probably going to be exposed to high winds, heavy rains, and, for those on the coast, powerful storm surge.
2. Sandy is a very slow-moving storm. Sandy was slowing as it turned inland in a northwesterly direction. That means many places could see two full days of heavy winds and rain, not just a few hours. Sandy is now packing winds of more than 90 miles per hour, according to latest update from the National Hurricane Center. Forecasters say some places will get a foot of rain and they expect widespread flooding, wind damage and power outages.
Hurricane Sandy's Economic Impact Likely To
Be Immense
npr
Economists will need many days — maybe weeks or months — to assess the financial harm being done by Hurricane Sandy. But whatever the final figure, it will be huge, well into the tens of billions of dollars.
More than 60 million Americans are feeling the impact of the weather monster slamming New York, New Jersey, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and many other states. The howling mix of wind, rain and snow is causing massive direct losses, i.e., the destruction of private homes, stores, boats and cars.
But there will be much more to the final bill once economists add up the lost wages, lost restaurant sales and lost tax revenues, as well as the canceled flights and cruises. Federal, state and local government coffers will be diminished by the cost of rebuilding public infrastructure, such as beaches, roads, bridges and transit systems.
And then there's Wall Street. The stock market was shut down on Monday and will remain closed again on Tuesday. Calculating the costs of two frozen trading days will be tricky.
And the weather calamity is still far from over.
Frankenstorm: Has Climate Change Created A Monster?
npr
It was not a good year for people, weather and climate. The winter was strangely warm in many places and the summer ridiculously hot. As a large fraction of the country suffered through extreme or even extraordinary drought many folks naturally wondered, "Is this climate change?" Then along came a presidential election in which the words "climate change" disappeared from the dialogue. Now, just a week or so before voting day, the convergence of westbound Hurricane Sandy with a eastbound cold front is creating a massive storm, a Frankenstorm even, that is threatening millions of Americans. Weird weather is making yet another appearance in our lives and once again we ask, "Is this climate change?"
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Barclays Libor case to go to trial
Reuters
Barclays became the first bank to be ordered to stand trial in a British court over damages stemming from manipulation of the Libor interest rate after a High Court ruling on Monday.
Guardian Care Homes, a residential care home operator based in Wolverhampton, is suing Barclays for up to 37 million pounds ($59 million) over the alleged mis-selling of interest rate hedging products known as swaps.
"Today is a huge milestone with a trial now going forward to determine whether these financial products should be declared void," Guardian Care Homes' chief executive Gary Hartland said after the ruling.
The case could also lead to new revelations about the Libor scandal after Guardian Care Homes asked for documents relating to the affair to be disclosed.
The company says it should be fully compensated for its losses because the swap rates were based on the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor). Barclays agreed to pay $450 million in fines to U.S. and British authorities in June to settle allegations that it manipulated Libor and other key interest rates. More than a dozen other banks are also being investigated.
Air strikes, car bombs wreck last day of Syria "truce"
Reuters
Syrian jets bombed parts of Damascus on Monday in what residents said were the capital's fiercest air raids yet, at the end of what was supposed to be a four-day truce.
"More than 100 buildings have been destroyed, some leveled to the ground," said opposition activist Moaz al-Shami. "Whole neighbourhoods are deserted."
Each side in the 19-month-old conflict between President Bashar al-Assad and rebels blamed the other for breaking the truce proposed by peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to mark a Muslim holiday. Two car bombs rocked the capital on Monday, state media reported.
"I am deeply disappointed that the parties failed to respect the call to suspend fighting," U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said.
"This crisis cannot be solved with more weapons and bloodshed ... the guns must fall silent."
Violence ends Israel-Gaza truce
BBC
Militants in Gaza have fired 26 rockets into Israel, officials say, amid a flare-up in fighting which shattered a brief ceasefire between the two sides.
No injuries were reported from the barrage, in the south of the country.
It came hours after Israeli aircraft hit targets in Gaza, after militants fired rockets following the killing by Israel of a Gazan who Israel said fired mortars at its troops.
An Egyptian-brokered truce had calmed cross-border fighting since Thursday.
Last week, six militants were killed by Israeli air strikes on the Hamas-run territory amid some of the heaviest rocket-fire against Israel from Gaza for months. Four Israeli civilians were wounded in the attacks and a soldier was severely injured by a roadside bomb on the Gaza border.
Netanyahu wins party mandate for alliance with far right
Reuters
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday overcame opposition within his party to an alliance with a far-right group that opinion polls predict will help him triumph in a January election.
Netanyahu had angered many Likud party faithful with a surprise announcement on Thursday of the merger with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's ultra-nationalist party.
Some of Likud's 3,700-member ruling body tried to stall the vote by petitioning for a secret ballot, but the alliance won a quick show of hands after Netanyahu pledged in a speech that the move would "not change Likud" or supplant its leadership.
"I've got news for you, I intend to lead Israel for many years to come," he said to loud applause in a packed Tel Aviv auditorium.
Some in Likud had objected to the merger with Lieberman's faction, citing his Yisrael Beitenu party's widely-criticized legislative moves questioning the loyalty of Israeli Arabs and calls to investigate foreign funding of organizations, a move seen as targeting liberals.
Clinton presses Algeria on Mali intervention plan
Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed regional power Algeria on Monday to support an Africa-led military intervention in northern Mali, a senior U.S. official said.
Clinton's one-day visit comes amid mounting international pressure on Algeria over the crisis in Mali, where a March military coup was followed by a revolt that has seen Tuareg rebels and Islamist militants, some linked to al Qaeda, seize control of the northern two-thirds of the country.
The senior U.S. official said after the talks that Clinton argued strongly that counter-terror efforts in Mali could not wait for a political resolution to Mali's problems.
"The secretary underscored ... that it is very clear that a political process and our counter-terrorism efforts in Mali need to work in parallel," the official said.
"We have an awful lot at stake here, and an awful lot of common interests, and there's a strong recognition that Algeria has to be a central part of the solution," the senior U.S. official told reporters traveling with Clinton.
U.S. NEWS
Meningitis outbreak spreads to 19 states with case in Rhode Island
Reuters
The deadly meningitis outbreak tied to steroid injections from potentially tainted medications spread to a 19th state on Monday with the first case reported in Rhode Island, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Only four of the 23 states that received some of the medication have not reported cases of fungal meningitis, which has killed 25 people nationwide.
The four states that have not reported at least one case of meningitis are California, Nevada, West Virginia and Connecticut, the CDC said.
The total number of meningitis cases including the expansion to Rhode Island reached 347 nationwide on Monday, the CDC said, up 10 from the last report on Saturday.
There also are seven reported cases of infections after the tainted steroid was injected into a joint such as a knee, hip, shoulder or elbow, bringing the total number of infections to 354.
Consumer spending picks up, but savings a worry
Reuters
Consumer spending rose solidly in September, putting the economy on a firmer footing heading into the fourth quarter even though households had to pull back on saving to fund purchases.
The Commerce Department said on Monday that consumer spending rose 0.8 percent, the largest increase since February, after an unrevised 0.5 percent gain in August.
Spending accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity and last month's increase offered a strong hand off from the July-September period to the current quarter.
"The jumping off point, or the base point, is already pretty high. You have a lot of momentum going into the fourth quarter," said Ellen Zentner, a senior U.S. economist at Nomura Securities in New York.
The rise beat economist's expectations for a 0.6 percent increase last month. When adjusted for inflation, consumer spending rose 0.4 percent after edging up 0.1 percent in August.
Eight Percent of Latino Voters Have Already Voted
ABC News/ Univision
Latinos are more enthusiastic about voting than they were just 10 weeks ago and President Barack Obama is on track to win the largest share of Latino voters in 16 years, according to the latest Latino Decisions/impreMedia tracking poll.
Seventy-three percent of all Latino registered voters support Obama, while 21 percent favor Romney, according to the poll. That 52-point gap matches the largest gap among Latino voters this, found in an October 1 poll, according to Latino Decisions. Addtionally, 45 percent of Latino voters say they are more enthusiastic about voting in this election than they were in 2008, compared with just 37 percent 10 weeks ago.
A full 87 percent of Latino voters say they are almost certain they will vote, including eight percent who have already voted early. According to Census statistics, 84 percent of Latino registered voters cast a ballot in 2008.
Pumps And Polls: Why Americans Wait In Lines
npr
Please line up for this multiple choice quiz:
Days before the deluge descended and the chaos commenced, Americans along the Eastern Seaboard waited patiently in single-file lines to try to influence their destiny. Were they ...
A) Waiting to buy gasoline at a station before Hurricane Sandy hit?
B) Showing up to participate in early voting for the 2012 election?
C) All of the above
For all of the talk about the disappearance of manners and the coarsening of society, Americans don't seem to mind lining up in orderly fashion – for a good reason. We line up to: congratulate newlyweds, pick up event tickets, audition for reality TV shows, buy the newest iPhone, get autographs.
In lines we dance the Electric Slide and the Boot-Scootin' Boogie. In lines we dine in cafeterias, pay our respects at a funeral and play football in offensive and defensive formations. Even our national flag mixes stars with straight lines — we call them stripes.
In many cases, Americans don't mind standing in lines. There is a sense of collective purpose and we're-all-in-this-togetherness.
Apple software, retail chiefs out in sweeping overhaul
Reuters
Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook on Monday replaced the heads of its software and retail units in the company's most sweeping executive shake-up in a decade following embarrassing problems with its new mapping program and unpopular store-related decisions.
Software chief Scott Forstall, who oversaw the launch of the flawed mapping software and much criticized Siri voice-enabled assistant, will leave Apple next year and serve as an advisor to Cook in the meantime.
Forstall, seen as a polarizing figure inside Apple, had been billed as one of the future candidates to take the top job at Apple. He was the executive behind the panned Apple Maps app that the company announced with much fanfare in summer.
Google unveils first 10-inch Nexus tablet
Reuters
Google Inc unveiled a larger version of its Nexus-branded tablet computer on Monday, and updated its mobile gadget and online content offerings as competition with Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp heats up ahead of the holiday sales season.
The device follows a spate of new product launches by the technology leaders in recent weeks, including Apple's iPad Mini last week and software-maker Microsoft's first-ever home-built tablet, the Surface.
Google, the world's No.1 Internet search engine, has pushed deeper into the hardware business at a time when consumers are increasingly accessing the Web on mobile devices.
Crew rescued from HMS Bounty as hurricane rages; captain missing
Reuters
The U.S. Coast Guard rescued 14 of the 16 crew members who abandoned the replica tall ship HMS Bounty off North Carolina in rough seas caused by Hurricane Sandy, using helicopters on Monday to pluck them from life rafts.
A Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk rescue helicopter later recovered crew member Claudene Christian, 42, who was described as unresponsive, while continuing to search for the 63-year-old captain of the ship, which sank in 18-foot seas.
Christian taken to Albemarle Hospital in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, where a hospital spokesman said she was in "critical condition."
The crew of the Bounty took to life rafts about 90 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina when the vessel began to take on water about 160 miles from the storm's eye, the Coast Guard said.
The three-mast, 180-foot (55-meter) ship, built for the 1962 movie "Mutiny on the Bounty," sank after water pumps apparently failed.
SCIENCE AND HEALTH
Taming Stomachs With Fodmap Diet Spurs $8 Billion Market
Bloomberg
The 38-year-old Australian dietitian invented a food regimen with a bizarre name in her early 20s to relieve symptoms of bloating and stomach cramps. It’s now being adopted internationally, changing the way doctors manage a set of digestive troubles known as irritable bowel syndrome.
Shepherd initially set out to help the 1 percent of people with a gluten intolerance causing celiac disease. She found even those without the condition felt better when they avoided the grain-protein and foods containing certain sugars named Fodmaps, an abbreviation for potentially tough-to-absorb molecules. Shepherd’s diets low in gut irritants have spurred an $8.3 billion market, encouraging the likes of Abbott Laboratories (ABT) to introduce products devoted to food intolerance.
Why Is This Supercomputer So Superfast?
npr
The world's fastest supercomputers have come back to the U.S. In June, the title was claimed by a machine named Sequoia at Lawrence Livermore Labs. Today, at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory — what could be an even faster computer comes on line. It's called Titan and it would not have been possible were it not for the massive market for video games.
The first thing you notice when you visit Titan is the noise. The room reminds me of a 1980s-era Kmart — but much louder. The room is very large, about a half acre. Big stainless steel pipes help keep Titan cool. The pipes have been repurposed from the dairy industry, which is not surprising considering that Cray, the company that built the computer, is based in Wisconsin. Cray built special fans to cool each cabinet. The fans are so powerful the floor in the room vibrates.
Millennia Of Stargazing At 'African Cosmos' Exhibit
npr
An ongoing exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art asks visitors to consider the connections between art and science — and how they each attempt to explore the why, when and how of our existence. "African Cosmos: Stellar Arts" illustrates how the stars and planets we see in the sky have been influencing African art and ritual for generations.
One of the first things visitors see as they enter is a meticulously painted Egyptian mummy case from about 1,000 years B.C. It was made for a female singer in the temple of the sun god Amun-Re.
Further along, there are masks, some of them 20 feet tall, elaborately carved from a single tree. Exhibit curator Christine Kreamer says the masks create a symbolic bridge between two realms when they're used in rituals.
"We have the connection — sky and earth made by some of these masquerades that literally soar to the heavens when they are performed," she says. That connection resonates throughout this exhibition — the experience of looking up at the sky and wondering what it all means.