| Taliban open to new talks with US after bloody attacks Posted: 18 Sep 2019 12:13 AM PDT  The Taliban's chief negotiator has said their "doors are open" to resuming talks with Washington, hours after two attacks by the insurgents killed at least 48 people in war-weary Afghanistan. Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai also defended the Taliban's role in recent bloodshed across the country after US President Donald Trump cited an attack that killed an American soldier as his reason for calling off negotiations earlier this month. Speaking to the BBC, Stanikzai argued the Americans had also admitted to killing thousands of Taliban during the discussions, and that the insurgents had done nothing wrong by continuing to fight throughout the talks.
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| New poll finds Harris’ support has plunged 13 points in Iowa Posted: 18 Sep 2019 06:51 AM PDT ![New poll finds Harris' support has plunged 13 points in Iowa]( "New poll finds Harris' support has plunged 13 points in Iowa") In July, Harris was tied with Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden for first place in the state.
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| Sheriff indicted for plotting to kill deputy who had tape of his 'racially offensive' remarks Posted: 17 Sep 2019 11:57 AM PDT  A North Carolina sheriff was indicted for obstruction of justice for allegedly plotting to kill one of his deputies.
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| Houston area preparing for heavy rain, flooding from Imelda Posted: 17 Sep 2019 02:40 PM PDT  Officials in the Houston area were preparing high-water vehicles and staging rescue boats Tuesday as Tropical Storm Imelda moved in from the Gulf of Mexico, threatening to dump up to 18 inches of rain in parts of Southeast Texas and southwestern Louisiana over the next few days. The storm, which formed Tuesday, made landfall near Freeport, Texas, with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph. Jeff Lindner, a meteorologist and director of flood operations for the Harris County Flood Control District in Houston, said the main threat from Imelda remained the potential for heavy rainfall and flooding.
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| The Royal Navy Is Going All In on 2 New Aircraft Carriers Posted: 17 Sep 2019 06:00 PM PDT  The Royal Navy would become what Tony Radakin, the new first sea lord, called "a proper, carrier task group navy."
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| A 22-year-old from Minneapolis who is jailed in Syria says ISIS recruited him on Twitter Posted: 18 Sep 2019 08:10 AM PDT  Abdelhamid Al-Madioum, a naturalized US citizen, told CBS News his story from a prison in Syria, run by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.
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| Artists refusing to make gay wedding invitations win US legal battle Posted: 16 Sep 2019 07:03 PM PDT  Two Arizona artists who refused to create invitations to same-sex weddings due to their Christian beliefs were within their legal rights, the US state's top court ruled Monday. The state Supreme Court's decision invalidates previous judgments against the two women for violating a "human relations ordinance" introduced by the southwestern city of Phoenix to safeguard LGBTQ rights. According to their lawyers, the two artists could have faced up to six months in prison and a $2,500 fine each time they refused to make invitations to gay weddings.
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| 2020 Vision Wednesday: Trump raised $15 million in California in one day. That should worry Democrats. Posted: 18 Sep 2019 06:10 AM PDT  When President Trump arrived in California Tuesday, Democrats saw his arrival as a platform for protest, but there's another reason his visit should concern them.
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| 2019 and 2020 Full-Size Pickup Truck Rankings Posted: 17 Sep 2019 02:08 PM PDT |
| Georgia homeowner kills three teens wearing masks in possible 'stand your ground' case Posted: 17 Sep 2019 02:15 PM PDT  The fatal shooting of three teens by a Georgia homeowner this week could be a 'stand your ground' case, the Rockdale County Sheriff says.
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| Hong Kong cancels China national day fireworks amid protests Posted: 18 Sep 2019 06:13 AM PDT  An annual fireworks display in Hong Kong marking China's National Day on Oct. 1 was called off Wednesday as pro-democracy protests show no sign of ending. Major protests are expected on Oct. 1, which will be the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party-governed People's Republic of China. Hong Kong has experienced often-violent demonstrations all summer as many residents fear the Chinese government is eroding the rights and freedoms the semi-autonomous territory is supposed to have under a "one country, two systems" framework.
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| What Were the Mach 10 UFOs That Iran's Jets Encountered? Posted: 17 Sep 2019 07:00 PM PDT  Does the U.S. have a super-secret spy plane?
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| Yemen Houthi drones, missiles defy years of Saudi air strikes Posted: 17 Sep 2019 12:24 PM PDT  At a weapons exhibition in July in Yemen's Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa, military officials whipped silken sheets off what they said were newly-developed drones and missiles. The theatrical gesture revealed the proud slogan "Made in Yemen" spray-painted onto the weapons' bodywork. The moment was a celebration of sorts for Yemen's Houthi fighters.
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| Belgian F-16s scrambled to intercept 2 Russian nuclear-capable supersonic bombers over the Baltic Sea Posted: 17 Sep 2019 01:23 PM PDT  The Belgian Air Force intercepted two Russian Tu-160 supersonic, nuclear-capable bombers at close range in Baltic airspace.
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| US sanctions Italy, Panama and Colombia firms over Venezuela ties Posted: 17 Sep 2019 01:28 PM PDT  The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on 16 companies linked to Colombian businessman Alex Nain Saab Moran, an associate of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The move is the latest US escalation of sanctions targeting the inner circle of Maduro, who is grappling with a political and economic crisis that the United Nations says has left a quarter of Venezuela's 30 million people in need of humanitarian aid.
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| 20 arrested, 18 charged in Minneapolis beatings Posted: 16 Sep 2019 09:59 PM PDT  Minneapolis police chief, assault victim talk to Fox News about arrests in downtown beatings; Matt Finn reports.
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| Trump Pushes Baseless Smear That Ilhan Omar ‘Partied’ on 9/11 Posted: 18 Sep 2019 09:54 AM PDT  REUTERSPresident Donald Trump on Wednesday used his Twitter account to boost a baseless smear claiming that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) danced at an event last week on the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, a claim that's based on footage that wasn't actually taken from that day.Trump's tweet circulated a video from conservative personality Terrence Williams, in which Williams declared that Omar "partied on the anniversary of 9/11." In his video, Williams comments on footage of the Muslim congresswoman dancing and fumes that she's disrespecting the memory of the Sept. 11 attacks.But the footage of Omar dancing actually came from a Sept. 13 event hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus and wasn't taken on the 11th, as Williams and Trump wrongly claimed. Trump, however, used Williams' video to declare that Omar would help Republicans win Minnesota. "Ilhan Omar, a member of AOC Plus 3, will win us the Great State of Minnesota," the president tweeted. "The new face of the Democrat Party!" Williams' original tweet was deleted from Twitter at some point on Wednesday. Twitter confirmed to The Daily Beast that the video post was not removed by the social media site's administrators but was instead deleted by Williams or someone with access to his Twitter account.Williams did not respond to a request for comment.Omar blasted Trump's smear on Wednesday, tweeting that he has put her life in danger."The President of the United States is continuing to spread lies that put my life at risk," she wrote. "What is Twitter doing to combat this misinformation?"Trump has frequently targeted Omar with smears, inspiring death threats against the Somali-American lawmaker. In July, Trump suggested that Omar had married her own brother to commit immigration fraud—a baseless claim that's become increasingly popular on the right, despite being based entirely on a single, anonymous message-board post. Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Biden's 1960s gang fight yarn: Son of 'bad dude' Corn Pop confirms his father knew Dem frontrunner Posted: 17 Sep 2019 10:27 AM PDT  The saga of Joe Biden's mysterious story from the 1960s, in which he and a man called Corn Pop almost battled with a knife and a chain but ultimately did not, may have been confirmed.Mr Biden has told the story of a 1962 confrontation with a man who frequented a public pool in Wilmington, Delaware where he was a lifeguard several times, including in his book. But a video of him retelling it at an event in 2017, at the pool's dedication ceremony after it was renamed for him, resurfaced earlier this week.
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| Trial in 'heinous' gang-related murder of 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee begins in Chicago Posted: 17 Sep 2019 03:37 PM PDT  Trial of Dwright Boone-Doty and Corey Morgan, charged with the November 2015 attack on 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee, began Tuesday in Chicago.
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| Cash-starved Air India putting crews on low-fat diet Posted: 18 Sep 2019 04:57 AM PDT  Cash-starved Air India is putting its crew on a diet, changing their inflight menu to special low-fat meals. Dhananjay Kumar, the state-run airline's spokesman, said Wednesday that the objective is to provide healthy and cost-effective meals to crews on domestic and international flights. Kumar declined comment on media reports that the cost per meal, mostly vegetarian, will fall to one-third of the current 500-800 rupees (up to $11) per meal.
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| The Story of the 160 Victories Scored by Iran's F-14 Tomcats Posted: 17 Sep 2019 03:00 PM PDT  Iran's force of American-made F-14 Tomcat interceptors dominated the sky during the Iran-Iraq war from 1980 to 1988. F-14s reportedly downed more than 160 Iraqi planes.
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| UPDATE 1-Pakistan's anti-graft agency arrests opposition leader Posted: 18 Sep 2019 07:29 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Pakistan's anti-graft agency arrests opposition leader]( "UPDATE 1-Pakistan's anti-graft agency arrests opposition leader") Pakistan's anti-graft agency said on Wednesday it had arrested opposition Pakistan People's Party leader Khursheed Shah in an investigation into the sources of his wealth, the latest high-profile detention of an opposition politician. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) said that Shah was arrested in relation to allegations of his assets being higher than his known sources of income. "NAB's Sukkur chapter has arrested Syed Khursheed Shah over 'assets beyond means'," the NAB said in a statement, adding that he would appear in an anti-corruption court in the southeastern city of Sukkur.
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| The EU accuses Boris Johnson of only 'pretending' to negotiate a Brexit deal Posted: 18 Sep 2019 02:30 AM PDT  Johnson's negotiators have so far only presented the EU with a draft of the withdrawal agreement with the backstop scrubbed out.
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| Filipino coastguards convicted of killing Taiwanese fisherman Posted: 17 Sep 2019 11:36 PM PDT  Coastguard sailors who opened fire on a Taiwanese fisherman in Philippine waters were convicted Wednesday of his 2013 killing, which strained ties between the historically friendly neighbours. The eight Filipino crewmen said they had shot in self-defence after the fisherman's vessel sailed directly at them in the seas just north of the main Philippine island of Luzon. "We are filing a notice of appeal so that what we perceived as errors of the trial court will be thrashed out," Paul Jomar Alcudia, one of the lawyers of the officers, told AFP.
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| Frivolous Lawsuits Once Again Threaten the Gun Industry Posted: 18 Sep 2019 03:30 AM PDT  In 2005, a wave of lawsuits threatened to bankrupt the gun industry. These suits were based on — pick your adjective — "creative," "novel," "inventive," and "imaginative" legal theories that rarely held up in court, and they did their damage primarily by forcing gun companies to incur the costs of defending against them. Congress, seeing the problem, stepped in to put a stop to it — or at least tried to — by passing the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA).A decade and a half later, anti-gun activists have responded with yet more new legal theories, and the Connecticut courts have bought one of them. Some families victimized by the Newtown massacre are being allowed to pursue a wrongful-death claim against Remington, which owns Bushmaster, the company that made the rifle used in the attack.The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to take the case and reverse the Connecticut supreme court's decision. It should, as numerous briefs from gun-rights supporters have argued this month.The problem here traces back to a flurry of legal activity in the 1980s and 1990s. Anti-gun activists faced a conundrum: It's easy enough to file a wrongful-death suit against someone who committed murder with a gun, or to sue a company that sold a defective gun, or to go after a gun store that knowingly sold a gun to a criminal. But the activists didn't just want to punish those who broke the existing rules; they thought the rules were too lax, and they'd had little success getting legislatures to change them.So they sued gun companies for following the rules, spinning elaborate theories about why different, stricter rules should apply instead. Those companies were creating a "public nuisance." They were "oversupplying" guns to high-crime neighborhoods, or continuing to send guns to stores that had had too many crimes traced back to them, or making products that appealed to the wrong sorts of people. Never mind how bizarre it is to hold a company liable for the criminal misuse of its legal products; never mind that state and federal governments had already written detailed laws about which guns were legal to sell and how gun sales were to take place; never mind that the targeted companies were following the prescribed process of dealer licenses and background checks; never mind that the alleged "bad apple" gun stores were licensed by the federal government to continue selling guns. If legislatures wouldn't draw the lines the way the activists wanted, maybe judges and juries would instead.Practically speaking, the problem with these suits was not that they had much chance of succeeding on the merits. The plaintiffs almost never won. Rather, the suits threatened to drown the industry in a sea of legal costs. Late in the Clinton administration, Andrew Cuomo, who was organizing lawsuits by federally funded housing authorities as the secretary of housing and urban development, told gunmakers they'd suffer "death by a thousand cuts" if they didn't give in to the gun-control lobby's demands. Some gunmakers did in fact go bankrupt.So Congress decided to nip these suits in the bud. Under the PLCAA, there would be no more lengthy court proceedings: Whenever a court was asked to find a gun company liable simply because someone else had misused its products, the lawsuit would be unceremoniously tossed out. Contrary to some of the lies about the law spread in the media, it didn't touch legitimate lawsuits. You can still sue gun companies if they sell defective products or break the law. Indeed, gun-rights supporters often cheer such lawsuits.Eventually, though, activists came up with creative theories as to why the law against creative theories didn't apply.The case against Remington alleges that the marketing of the gun used in the Newtown massacre violated the Connecticut Uniform Trade Protection Act, which prohibits "unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any trade or commerce." This is relevant because the PLCAA allows lawsuits when a gun company "knowingly violated a State or Federal statute applicable to the sale or marketing of the product" and the violation was a "proximate cause" of the harm at issue.There are several layers of problems here.For one thing, it's not clear that a generic law like Connecticut's is "applicable" to guns in the relevant sense. (The word can mean "capable of being applied" or "specifically applied.") As 22 members of the House note in their brief, two different appeals courts have interpreted the word narrowly, and Congress clearly meant to bar lawsuits based on "remote theories" tying marketing to criminal acts.Nor is it easy to see how Bushmaster violated the statute at all, much less knowingly violated it. Some of Bushmaster's ads were cringeworthy; the "CONSIDER YOUR MAN CARD REISSUED" one is the most famous example. But it's a hell of a stretch to say that to run such an ad is to knowingly engage in an "unfair or deceptive act or practice." And as a group of Second Amendment scholars explain in another brief, the advertising themes decried in the lawsuit — military imagery, defense against adversaries — "have necessarily been common in American arms culture."Yet as the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) notes, the Connecticut supreme court found that "the plaintiffs could survive a motion to dismiss by simply alleging that the defendant[s] . . . had marketed their products in a manner that encouraged their use for offensive assault missions."The idea that the gun's marketing directly contributed to the massacre is absurd as well. There is no evidence the shooter ever saw any Bushmaster ads, and he did not even buy the gun himself; he stole it from his mother. This, too, should protect Remington under the PLCAA.Put simply, if a dubious allegation that a company violated a generic statute is enough to punch through the protections of the PLCAA, the PLCAA won't mean much at all. As the NSSF argues, an attorney "can easily craft an allegation of 'unfair' conduct sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss under modern pleading standards. And nearly all states have statutes that prohibit 'unfair' trade practices in language as broad and as vague as the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act."If the PLCAA doesn't mean much, the Second Amendment itself won't mean much, either. Just as they did last time around, anti-gun activists will be free to flood the courts with lawsuits that have little chance of success but are guaranteed to rack up massive legal fees capable of bankrupting gun companies. And the people can't keep and bear arms if businesses can't make and sell them.The Supreme Court needs to take this case — and then nuke it into oblivion.
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| 'This is science': Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg testifies before Congress Posted: 18 Sep 2019 08:40 AM PDT  Appearing on Capitol Hill for the second straight day, Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg urged U.S. lawmakers to take action.
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| India Is Dangerously Close to Becoming an Also-Ran Posted: 16 Sep 2019 08:00 PM PDT ![India Is Dangerously Close to Becoming an Also-Ran]( "India Is Dangerously Close to Becoming an Also-Ran") (Bloomberg Opinion) -- India's government will shortly find itself at a fork in the road. Will it choose globalization and export-oriented growth? Or will the isolationists in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party win, and keep India out of a giant Indo-Pacific trading bloc?This weekend, New Delhi hosted negotiators for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership – from the 10 members of ASEAN as well as Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and China – in the hope that it could swing last-minute safeguards for some of its producers. Indian officials have stalled RCEP's progress as much as they could, and the others are now losing patience. One way or another, the deal will have to be concluded by November, when the leaders of the 16 RCEP countries will meet in Bangkok. Malaysia's Mahathir Mohammed, not a man known for patience, said in June that the other countries could go on without India, if necessary.Many in New Delhi, even within the commerce ministry, would be relieved to see that happen. The belief that India has "lost" in most of its trade agreements is pervasive here. Influential lobbies tied to the country's laggard producers are happy to remind officials how trade deficits soared with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations after a free-trade agreement was signed some years ago, for example. And there has always been a strong isolationist wing within the Hindu nationalist BJP – right-wing ideologues don't just want India out of RCEP; they would prefer existing agreements with Japan, Korea and ASEAN be renegotiated, if not abandoned.Of course, India can only be said to have "lost" if you ignore the considerable gains to consumers from cheaper imports. Once upon a time, Indian households had to worry constantly about high and variable prices of cooking oil. That's no longer a concern, thanks to imports of palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia, in spite of the steep duties permitted by the Indo-ASEAN free-trade agreement. And when producers' lobbies complain about losing market share to Southeast Asia, they merely underline how uncompetitive Indian industry has become.There is, in fact, a far better reason than any of these for India to feel doubtful about RCEP, and it's geopolitical more than economic. For Beijing, the trading bloc is just another method to ensure that the People's Republic embeds itself as the hub of Asia's economic geography. That's not something anyone in India is comfortable with. India runs a massive trade deficit with China, of course; but, even more than that, officials here are conscious that concluding RCEP in the middle of the Sino-U.S. trade war would be a boost to Beijing. The problem is that all options for New Delhi are unappetizing. If only there was a large and comprehensive alternative to the RCEP that excluded China — but, of course, President Donald Trump has killed the Trans-Pacific Partnership, leaving Beijing in control of the future of Asian trade.In the end, though, it's hard to see how India would be best served by turning its back on RCEP. In spite of his pro-trade rhetoric at places like Davos, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has started putting up tariff walls in recent years, as early attempts to boost Indian competitiveness failed to show quick enough results. This turn to protectionism needs to be reversed, if India has any hope of employing the millions of young people graduating its schools every year.It's true that signing a sweeping free-trade agreement would be a significant change in direction for a government that is most comfortable speaking a 1970s-vintage language of import substitution, industrial policy and protective tariffs. But Indian negotiators have already moderated their demands considerably. New Delhi has made it clear that it would be satisfied with a two-track agreement that keeps some walls up against Chinese imports while opening up to the other RCEP countries.I'm still hopeful that, come November, Modi's signature will be on this agreement. If nothing else, it would be a massive humiliation on the international stage for him to stand aside as all the other leaders of the Indo-Pacific come together to declare a new era is dawning. So much of Modi's domestic popularity is wrapped around the carefully constructed myth of his international importance, that this might be seen as an unacceptable political hit. At least that's what we should hope the calculations within New Delhi's corridors of power are – because, if not, then India is condemned to long decades of being an also-ran on trade and growth.To contact the author of this story: Mihir Sharma at msharma131@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Rachel Rosenthal at rrosenthal21@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Mihir Sharma is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was a columnist for the Indian Express and the Business Standard, and he is the author of "Restart: The Last Chance for the Indian Economy."For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Prosecutor: Man charged in killings of 4 women in Detroit Posted: 18 Sep 2019 10:10 AM PDT  A prosecutor announced murder charges Wednesday against a 34-year-old man in the slayings of four women in Detroit whose deaths authorities have characterized as the work of a serial killer. Deangelo Martin is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and four counts of felony murder in the killings of the women whose bodies were found in abandoned houses in the city as far back as February 2018, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said at a news conference. Martin is expected to be arraigned on these charges Wednesday afternoon, Worthy said.
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| Legendary ABC News political journalist Cokie Roberts dies at age 75 Posted: 17 Sep 2019 09:26 AM PDT  Legendary ABC News political journalist Cokie Roberts has died due to complications from breast cancer on Tuesday. She was 75 years old.
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| Houthis Have an Arsenal of Ballistic and Cruise Missiles (Some from North Korea) Posted: 17 Sep 2019 12:01 AM PDT  Know this: The Houthis inherited from the defunct Yemeni military a large number of Soviet-exported Scuds as well as North Korean-made Scuds called "Hwasong-6s.
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| View Every Angle of the 2020 Zero SR/F Electric Motorcycle Posted: 18 Sep 2019 10:59 AM PDT |
| UPDATE 2-Saudi says Iranian sponsorship of attack undeniable, displays arms Posted: 18 Sep 2019 08:19 AM PDT ![UPDATE 2-Saudi says Iranian sponsorship of attack undeniable, displays arms]( "UPDATE 2-Saudi says Iranian sponsorship of attack undeniable, displays arms") RIYADH/DUBAI, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia on Wednesday displayed remnants of what it described as Iranian drones and cruise missiles used in an attack on Saudi oil facilities, saying they were "undeniable" evidence of Iranian aggression. A total of 25 drones and missiles were launched at two oil plants in last weekend's strikes, including Iranian Delta Wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and "Ya Ali" cruise missiles, Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki said.
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| 29 bodies found in plastic bags in Mexico mass grave Posted: 17 Sep 2019 12:05 PM PDT  Mexican forensics experts have found at least 29 bodies stuffed in 119 plastic bags that were dumped in the bottom of a well outside the western city of Guadalajara, officials said Tuesday. Experts have been working to establish how many victims are in the mass grave since it was discovered earlier this month in a remote area known as La Primavera, about a 45-minute drive outside Guadalajara, Mexico's second city. "We have 13 complete corpses and 16 incomplete, for a total of 29 bodies," said Gerardo Solis, chief prosecutor for the state of Jalisco, which has been hit by a wave of violence in recent years driven by drug cartel turf wars.
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| White House, DOJ Reps Meet with Top Republicans on Expanding Background Checks for Gun Sales Posted: 18 Sep 2019 10:22 AM PDT  Representatives from the White House and the Department of Justice met Tuesday with senior Republicans to discuss expanding background checks for the sale of firearms within the parameters of legislation first introduced by Senators Joe Manchin (D., W.V.) and Pat Toomey (R., Pa.).The relevant legislation seeks to expand background-check requirements to include "all advertised commercial sales, including sales at gun shows," according to an idea sheet first obtained by The Daily Caller.Such background checks would be conducted "either through an FFL [Federal Firearm Licensee] or through a newly-created class of licensed transfer agents."White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley said that President Trump did not necessarily approve of the plan, despite the fact that White House Director of Legislative Affairs Eric Ueland is among those circulating the idea sheet.The Tuesday meetings were attended by Ueland as well as Attorney General Bill Barr. Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas Representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina were also present. There was a planned meeting between Barr and Utah senator Mike Lee, but Barr canceled the meeting.The Manchin-Toomey bill failed to pass last April after it didn't muster enough votes to survive a filibuster. The bill has remained a moderate alternative to more sweeping legislation that would mandate background checks on any and all gun sales. It would require background checks for any commercial sales at gun shows as well as over the Internet. It also expressly prohibits the formation of a national gun registry.
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| Investors Urge South Africa to Leave Their $163 Billion Savings Posted: 18 Sep 2019 05:08 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- South Africa's 2.4 trillion rand ($163 billion) savings industry has a request for the ruling party: stop threatening to dictate where funds must invest and get going on projects that pensions can help finance."You can prescribe, but nothing will happen unless you have proper projects," Leon Campher, the chief executive officer of the Association for Savings and Investment South Africa, an industry body of fund managers and insurers, said in an interview in Johannesburg. "The savings industry would gladly invest in infrastructure or developmental projects provided they are properly done."President Cyril Ramaphosa last month echoed the election manifesto of the African National Congress saying a discussion was required to investigate the use of prescribed assets as a tool for fostering economic growth. A lack of detail on how retirement funds could be forced into investing in state-owned companies or government projects has stoked concerns it could leave pensioners poorer if these don't make inflation-beating returns.There has been very little visible progress since Ramaphosa last year announced that the government would create a multi-billion rand infrastructure fund. Banks and even Ramaphosa's envoys appointed to lure investment into the country have complained over a dearth of projects that has led to the near demise of South Africa's construction industry."If it's funding for developmental projects South Africa is after, government would be better off ensuring that the infrastructure initiative proposed by the president in his fiscal stimulus plan a year ago gets going," Campher said.Managers WorriedThe association and banking industry are working with the Development Bank of Southern Africa to flesh out details of an infrastructure initiative, Campher said, adding that DBSA has indicated it could be up and running by the end of this year."The concept is that you have the government pot, the DBSA pot and you have got the savings pot so you can create what is called a blended-finance model," he said. "Recruiting retired and semi-retired technical experts, people with the appropriate skills, to prepare projects will be important for attracting funding."Money managers are worried that "sooner or later" prescribed assets will be implemented, according to the 2019 BEE.conomics survey done for 27four Investment Managers and published on Wednesday. At least 83% of participants from the industry said they consider prescribed assets as threat."Prescription is a clear violation of property rights, because it impairs choice," said Andrew Canter, chief investment officer at Futuregrowth Asset Management in Cape Town, South Africa's biggest specialist fixed-income money manager. "There is ample global evidence that where prescription has been tried it has reduced returns," he added, citing Argentina, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa during racial-segration rule as examples."If you tell people how to invest their funds, you are undermining the savings culture and effective asset allocation," Canter said. "It will go to court, no matter what the government proposes. If you let the wolf into the hen house, the wolf will eventually eat the chickens."(Updates with comment from BEE.conomics survey, Futuregrowth starting from third-to-last paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Roxanne Henderson in Johannesburg at rhenderson56@bloomberg.net;Mike Cohen in Cape Town at mcohen21@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Stefania Bianchi at sbianchi10@bloomberg.net, Vernon Wessels, Alastair ReedFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Triple threat: Tropical Storm Imelda swamps Texas, Humberto nears Bermuda and TD 10 forms in Atlantic Posted: 17 Sep 2019 08:24 PM PDT  While Hurricane Humberto nears Bermuda, there's flooding in Texas due to Tropical Storm Imelda, and Tropical Depression 10 is spinning up in the Atlantic
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| Bodies of 4 Missing Florida Children Discovered Hours After Mother Found Slain: Authorities Posted: 17 Sep 2019 06:18 AM PDT  Authorities in central Florida say they believe they've found the remains of four young children just hours after their mother was found slain in Georgia.
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| Nigerian women protest over apparent serial killings Posted: 18 Sep 2019 09:35 AM PDT ![Nigerian women protest over apparent serial killings]( "Nigerian women protest over apparent serial killings") Women in southern Nigeria marched in the streets on Wednesday to protest the deaths of several women in hotel rooms by what appears to be a serial killer. "Their killers must be found," the women chanted, many dressed in black for mourning, during the second day of protests in the city of Port Harcourt in the oil-producing Niger Delta region. Eight women have been strangled in hotel rooms in Rivers State in the past two months, police spokesman Nnamdi Omoni said.
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| What Fitbit (or Other Fitness Watch) Should I Get? Posted: 17 Sep 2019 02:36 PM PDT |
| BOOM: Why China Should Take Taiwan's New Cruise Missile Seriously Posted: 17 Sep 2019 11:30 PM PDT  It's a big deal.
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| CORRECTED-UPDATE 3-Rwandan Hutu militia commander killed in Congo, army says Posted: 18 Sep 2019 04:06 AM PDT ![CORRECTED-UPDATE 3-Rwandan Hutu militia commander killed in Congo, army says]( "CORRECTED-UPDATE 3-Rwandan Hutu militia commander killed in Congo, army says") D emocratic Republic of Congo's army said on Wednesday it had killed Sylvestre Mudacumura, the commander of a Rwandan Hutu militia who is wanted by the International Criminal Court. Mudacumura had been a leader of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) since it was founded in 2000 by Hutu officials who fled Rwanda at the end of the 1994 genocide. The FDLR has waged periodic war with the Congolese government and rival militias, and Rwanda's government has cited its presence on Congolese soil to justify repeated interventions across the border.
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| France gives more people iodine pills in case of nuclear accident Posted: 17 Sep 2019 10:20 AM PDT  France will soon start distributing radioactivity-blocking iodine pills to an additional 2.2 million people living near the country's 19 nuclear power plants, to be taken in case of accidental radiation leaks, regulators said Tuesday. The ASN nuclear safety authority had announced in June an extension of the safety radius to 20 kilometres (12 miles) of each plant, up from 10 kilometres set in 2016, when some 375,000 households were prescribed the pills. The watchdog said Tuesday that affected residents will receive a letter in the coming days with a voucher to collect stable iodine tablets from pharmacies, as well as information on what to do in case of a nuclear accident.
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| The problem isn't Joe Biden's centrism. It's that he's the wrong kind of centrist Posted: 17 Sep 2019 11:00 PM PDT  Americans could embrace a moderate liberal. But Biden comes across as the tepid version of his more leftwing competitors 'Biden has become the target for progressives who are disappointed with the Obama-Biden administration.' Photograph: John Bazemore/APOne of the clearest takeaways from the Democratic presidential debate in Houston last week is that the party has a Joe Biden problem. As the frontrunner, Biden has blocked other moderate candidates from making a credible case for the nomination, while his amorphous and uninspiring centrism makes it more likely that the eventual Democratic nominee may end up going too far left to defeat Donald Trump in 2020.In Houston, Biden was more focused and forceful than he had been in previous debates – although that was a low bar to clear. He was at his most effective when critiquing the Medicare for All plan, chiding Bernie Sanders for the astronomically high cost of the proposal and Elizabeth Warren for her unwillingness to admit it would impose any financial burdens on middle-class taxpayers.Biden missed numerous examples to play up his deep experience in lawmaking and foreign policy, which his supporters tout as the antidote to Trump's chaotic and disruptive governing approach. But he did call attention to the fact that he was the only candidate to have defeated the NRA in the legislative arena, when he secured passage of the 1993 Brady bill requiring background checks for firearms purchases.To the extent that Biden made an affirmative case for his candidacy during the debate, it was that he's running to restore the status quo that prevailed during the eight years that he was Barack Obama's vice-president. Democrats still revere the former president, who in 2018 registered a 97% favorable rating from party members. At the Houston debates, some of the most progressive candidates went out of their way to praise Obama – a significant shift from the previous debates, when they treated his legacy with something approaching disdain."I'm for Barack," Biden proclaimed at the debate, and his partnership with Obama is one of his greatest advantages with Democratic voters.But Trump's presidency has accelerated the radicalization of most Democratic activists, if not the majority of Democratic voters. Obama himself may be off-limits for criticism, but Biden has become the target for progressives who are disappointed with the Obama-Biden administration, which they consider to have been insufficiently "woke" on race and immigration, excessively accommodating toward corporate interests on trade and taxation, and naive in believing Republicans would cooperate with them on matters like healthcare and climate change.Biden struggles to respond to such charges because, in typical centrist fashion, he wants everyone to like him. He will not make a robust defense of his centrism because he's unwilling to denounce progressive excesses, other than to say that this or that policy is too expensive or won't pass Congress. There haven't been any Sister Souljah moments in Biden's campaign, and there probably won't be.During the debate, he had no good answer to an accusatory question about the high number of deportations during the Obama presidency. That's because, at a time when many progressives appear to think there should be no restrictions on immigration whatsoever, he couldn't openly defend the border enforcement policies he once supported. Rather than restating the Obama administration's argument that the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal would have significantly improved global labor and environmental standards, he meekly agreed that unions and environmental activists should be included in future trade negotiations. Confronted with his 40-year-old quote rejecting reparations for African Americans, he couldn't reply that reparations are still a widely unpopular and unworkable idea, so instead he served up an indigestible word stew larded with random thoughts about social workers, record players and the dictator of Venezuela.Biden's centrist program, at least as he presented it during the debate, boils down to little more than a more incremental and cost-conscious version of the progressives' plans. The moderate wing of the Democratic party may be relieved that Biden so far hasn't been sucked into endorsing the progressives' identity politics, but his articulation of what he wants to accomplish has so far been anything but inspiring.If Biden continues in the same dispiriting vein for the next several months, he will continue to overshadow more interesting proponents of Democratic moderation such as Amy Klobuchar and Michael Bennet (who failed to make the debate). Eventually, in the view of many Washington political observers, he will lose much of his popular support and fade from contention. In that case, many Democratic strategists worry that the remaining Democratic candidates will continue to try to outflank each other on the left, to the extent that the eventual candidate turns off the moderate majority of Americans and Trump wins re-election.If Biden is to avoid that fate, he might reflect on the difference between centrism and moderation captured in the idea of "trimming", a nautical concept turned to political metaphor by the 17th-century English statesman George Savile, the Earl of Halifax. When the boat you're sailing is being blown off course, sitting in the dead center of the boat isn't going to get you where you want to go; you may have to lean hard to one side of the boat or another to counteract the force of the wind and waves and keep you moving in the right direction. Moderation, unlike centrism, can be dynamic and innovative rather than inert and imitative.If Biden wants to invigorate his campaign, he should try to reorient the Democratic conversation around bold moderate ideas that aren't just cautious versions of the progressives' plans. When defending free trade and the free market, he should think harder than he did as vice-president about how to more equitably distribute their benefits. (And if Sanders persists in calling countries like Denmark socialist, Biden should point out that their robust social safety net enables more unfettered capitalist competition than we have here.)Biden should sound the alarm about the opioid epidemic that led to nearly 140,000 Americans dying of overdoses during the past two years – a horrifying fact that went completely unmentioned in the Houston debate. He could call for a tax on the bloated financial sector, which could be used to address the disproportionate loss of home equity wealth suffered by minorities in the financial crisis.While no Republican legislator will ever endorse the Green New Deal, Biden could emphasize his ability to persuade many of them of the need for a carbon tax to offset climate change – an idea that's slowly gaining acceptance among Republicans. He could champion the carbon-capture technologies that most of the progressive candidates instinctively resist. And he might point out that ideologically moderate Democrats performed much better than progressives in the 2018 elections.In the interest of full disclosure, I should add that as a registered Republican, I won't be able to vote for any of the candidates in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries. But as a political historian, I believe that few significant and enduring legislative achievements – from the New Deal to the civil rights legislation of the 1960s to Ronald Reagan's pro-business reforms – have been passed without appealing to a critical mass of moderates in both parties.And as an American citizen, I hope that the next president, whoever he or she is, will be bold enough to make the far-reaching reforms our society and economy and environment need, but also moderate enough to restore the social unity and functional government that we currently lack. * Geoffrey Kabaservice is the director of political studies at the Niskanen Center in Washington DC as well as the author of Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party
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| A damning new report on the 737 Max blames 'inexperienced pilots' and the low-cost airlines who employ them — not Boeing Posted: 18 Sep 2019 08:39 AM PDT  The Boeing 737 Max has been grounded worldwide for months after two fatal crashes. A new report suggests that Boeing doesn't deserve all the blame.
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| Qatar Air Loss Spirals as Cost Surge Compounds Saudi Embargo Posted: 18 Sep 2019 07:32 AM PDT ![Qatar Air Loss Spirals as Cost Surge Compounds Saudi Embargo]( "Qatar Air Loss Spirals as Cost Surge Compounds Saudi Embargo") (Bloomberg) -- Qatar Airways reported a near ten-fold increase in annual losses as higher fuel costs and a weaker regional economy compounded an already tough operating environment from Saudi-led airspace closures.The loss for the 12 months through March swelled to 2.33 billion riyals ($637 million) as currency fluctuations and the increased kerosene bill led costs to outstrip an advance in revenue, the company said in a statement Wednesday.Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said the figures were disappointing, but that the company faces challenges "unparalleled in the airline industry" from what he called an illegal blockade of Qatari airspace that had led to a cull of profitable routes. He said the carrier still added new destinations in the 12 months, lifted passenger numbers and made its cargo business the largest in the world.Qatar Airways isn't alone in its woes among top Gulf carriers. Dubai's Emirates Group suffered a 44% earnings drop to a seven-year low in the year through March, prompting the world's biggest long-haul airline to begin a strategy review. Eithad Airways of Abu Dhabi has accumulated losses of $4.8 billion in three years after over-expanding and investing in weaker foreign operators.Barred from overflying Saudi Arabia and three other countries amid a spat over Qatar's links with Iran, the Doha-based carrier has had to abandon more than 20 routes and make lengthy diversions in order to continue others, further enlarging its fuel bill.The embargo led Qatar Air to suspend plans to add destinations in West and Central Africa and South America, according to the statement. "Sustainability indicators were also negatively impacted by the illegal blockade as fuel consumption increased due to airspace restrictions," the company said.Adding to its troubles are wobbling demand and a faltering global economy amid a trade war between the U.S. and China, while ratcheting tensions between the White House and Iran threaten further upheaval.(Updates with results at rivals in fourth paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Layan Odeh in Dubai at lodeh3@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net, Christopher Jasper, Claudia MaedlerFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| YouTuber sentenced to jail after attempting to film Area 51 Posted: 18 Sep 2019 07:45 AM PDT  Two Dutch tourists have pleaded guilty to trespassing after they were arrested for attempting to capture footage of US government site Area 51.On Monday, Govert Sweep, 21, and Ties Granzier, 20, were sentenced to a year in county jail, following their 10 September arrest in Nevada. They will only serve three days if they agree to pay fines of $2,280 each.
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| Two labs in the world keep a live smallpox sample. The one in Russia just had an explosion Posted: 17 Sep 2019 09:46 AM PDT ![Two labs in the world keep a live smallpox sample. The one in Russia just had an explosion]( "Two labs in the world keep a live smallpox sample. The one in Russia just had an explosion") A gas cylinder exploded in a lab at a Russian biological research center that holds several deadly viruses including smallpox and Ebola.
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