The Debrief, 9/9/14

This week we tell you about Taiwan’s latest food oil safety scandal, NATO’s discussion on the Islamic State after two US journalists were beheaded on camera, the race for submarines in the Western Pacific and Scotland, where polls show more people in favor of independence, 10 days before the historic independence referendum.

• Taiwan has in the last two weeks been embroiled in another oil safety scandal, this time over poor quality lard, or commonly known as rotten oil that has been recycled, being mixed into consumer oil products and manufactured food using lard as an ingredient…
• Tomorrow, US President Barack Obama is expected to announce US plans to engage the Islamic militant group the Islamic State, or ISIS, which has taken control over large parts of Syria and Iraq, and has made public threats against the United States by releasing videos of two American journalists beheaded by an ISIS officer…
• As tensions between China and neighboring maritime Asian nations continue to rise, navies from Japan down to Southeast Asia are all planning to expand. Specifically, many navies are focusing on acquiring or building new submarines…
• As voters in Scotland go to the polls on September 18th to cast votes in a historical independence referendum from the United Kingdom, for the first time opinion polls show that support for independence has overtaken support for the status quo for the first time…

(Feature photo of First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond and First Deputy Minister Nicola Sturgeon in 2007, by the Scottish Government for Wikicommons, CC BY-SA 2.0)