| Senator Elizabeth Warren's net worth revealed as the 2020 Presidential Election heats up Posted: 24 Sep 2019 08:11 AM PDT  The 2020 President Election is heating up -- and with taxes and finances being some of the biggest areas, here's a look at Sen Elizabeth Warren's net worth.
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| Israel final vote results give Netanyahu additional seat Posted: 25 Sep 2019 12:35 AM PDT  Israel's election committee published final results from last week's election on Wednesday that gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud an additional seat, but which did not change the deadlock the country faces. The final results from the September 17 vote gave the rightwing Likud 32 seats compared to Benny Gantz's centrist Blue and White's 33 in the 120-seat parliament. The two parties are in the process of trying to negotiate a unity coalition, and President Reuven Rivlin has one week to name someone to form a government.
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| Iran's Strange Navy of Small, Fast Boats Is No Joke Posted: 24 Sep 2019 04:47 AM PDT  A "mad max" threat?
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| In-Depth Photos of the 2020 Porsche Taycan Posted: 24 Sep 2019 03:01 PM PDT |
| Young boys tortured in Kashmir clampdown as new figures show 13,000 teenagers arrested Posted: 25 Sep 2019 09:55 AM PDT  A new report claiming thousands of Kashmiri children have been incarcerated has cast doubt on claims life is returning to normal in the state. After visiting Kashmir, activists found around 13,000 boys have been detained since its autonomous status was revoked on Aug 5. The report, led by the National Federation of Indian Women, detailed claims that boys - some as young as 14 - had been imprisoned for up to 45 days. It also claimed that families were paying up to 60,000 rupees (£678) for their children's release. The Muslim-majority state has been under a rigid curfew and communications blackout since Article 370 and Article 35A were removed last month. The Jammu and Kashmir government said there is "no centralised figure" for numbers of Kashmiris who have been arrested during the crackdown. Kashmir | Read more On Monday, however, the Chief of Staff of the Indian Army said any stories of disruption were a "narrative being driven by separatists." Krishna Saagar Rao, chief spokesperson of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) told the Telegraph it had detained Kashmiri politicians to ensure stability in the state. "Politicians in the Kashmir valley were plotting to create unrest amongst people by instigating them," said Mr Rao. According to government data, over 200 local politicians have been detained, including former Chief Ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah. Official data on the number of children imprisoned has not been released. It is also unclear why minors have been arrested, although it is believed some have been detained for throwing stones at army personnel. An Indian paramilitary trooper stands guard in Srinagar Credit: TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/AFP/Getty Images The activists visited Kashmir between September 17 and 21 and interviewed members of the Jammu and Kashmir police, doctors and professors. Their report claims the authorities used excessive force when arresting the boys, and that some have been tortured while imprisoned. Domestic and international media has detailed the use of torture against Kashmiris, including beatings and electric shocks. On Saturday, a 15-year-old boy committed suicide in Srinagar after allegedly being assaulted by the army. "It is [an] Indian variant of genocide," said Annie Raja, the General Secretary of the National Federation of Indian Women. Ms Raja's organisation has called on the India to release all children detained in Kashmir since August 5.
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| Stacey Abrams is breaking all the rules in the best way possible Posted: 25 Sep 2019 02:52 PM PDT  When it comes to politics, Stacey Abrams is a powerhouse -- and she has no plans on slowing down anytime soon.
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| GM and UAW union making progress in talks for new labor deal: sources Posted: 25 Sep 2019 07:30 AM PDT  General Motors Co and the union that represents its 48,000 striking hourly workers in the United States have made progress in talks toward a new labor deal but are grappling with issues over the pay and job security of newer and temporary workers, two people familiar with the talks said on Wednesday. United Auto Workers (UAW) Vice President Terry Dittes told union members in a statement issued late in the day that "all unsettled proposals are now at the Main Table and have been presented to General Motors. UAW members went on strike at GM on Sept. 16 seeking higher pay, greater job security, a bigger share of the leading U.S. automaker's profit and protection of their healthcare benefits.
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| Sanders Calls for ‘National Wealth Registry’ to Enforce New Tax Posted: 24 Sep 2019 09:27 AM PDT  Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders on Tuesday rolled out his plan to levy an "extreme wealth tax" on millionaires and billionaires, which he plans to enforce through the creation of a "national wealth registry.""Today, the United States has more income and wealth inequality than almost any major country on Earth, and it is worse now than at any time since the 1920s," Sanders said in his proposal.Sanders' annual tax on the top 0.1 percent would apply to Americans with a net worth of over $32 million, or about 180,000 households, and would raise approximately $4.35 trillion over the next decade, the Sanders campaign estimates.The Vermont senator's plan seeks to combat capital flight and other forms of tax avoidance through a "national wealth registry" and the addition of "significant additional third party reporting requirements." The proposal calls for increased funding for the Internal Revenue Service to cover the bureaucratic costs associated with enforcing the wealth tax.Under the plan, the IRS will be required to audit 30 percent of the top one percent's wealth tax returns and 100 percent for billionaires.The tax would start at one percent for a married couple with $32.5 million and would progressively increase one percent for each bracket up to eight percent for those with a net worth of $10 billion. Those rates would be halved for single individuals.The new tax will partially fund Sanders' Medicare for All plan as well as his affordable housing and universal childcare plans.Sanders argues there has been a "massive transfer of wealth from those who have too little to those who have too much" over the last three decades."Under this plan, the wealth of billionaires would be cut in half over 15 years which would substantially break up the concentration of wealth and power of this small privileged class," the progressive candidate said.Sanders' plan goes beyond Senator Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax plan, which would impose just a 2 percent tax on families with $50 million and a 3 percent tax on those with $1 billion.
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| Mother of boy killed in Sandy Hook shooting pays touching tribute: 'I feared today' Posted: 25 Sep 2019 08:46 AM PDT  The mother of a 6-year-old boy who was killed in a 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook paid a touching tribute to him on Twitter this week.
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| Entangled in US scandal, Ukraine's president speaks at UN Posted: 25 Sep 2019 12:46 PM PDT  Abruptly cast into the center of a political storm in the United States, Ukraine's president steered clear of the controversy Wednesday as he made his debut at the United Nations, focusing instead on the horrors of war and on his country's ongoing conflict with Russia. Volodymyr Zelenskiy's address at the U.N. General Assembly came less than a day after a formal U.S. House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump was launched — a development that was sparked partly by a July 25 phone call between the two leaders. It has come under scrutiny because Trump prodded Zelenskiy to investigate Trump rival and former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.
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| Meghan Markle shares emotional group hug with young women in Cape Town: 'You guys are going to make me cry' Posted: 25 Sep 2019 10:58 AM PDT  Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle had an adorable moment with young women outside of mothers2mothers in Cape Town.
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| Russia Has One Way to Find and Kill U.S. F-22 and F-35 Stealth Fighters Posted: 24 Sep 2019 05:00 PM PDT  Can they pull it off?
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| Doctors in India are stunned by baby born with 4 legs and 3 hands Posted: 25 Sep 2019 10:06 AM PDT  The mother was expecting triplets, but ended up delivering twins — one of which seemed to have absorbed extra limbs from the third unborn fetus.
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| Rudy Giuliani calls fellow Fox News guest a 'serial liar' and a 'moron' Posted: 25 Sep 2019 10:32 AM PDT  Rudy Giuliani hurled abuse at a fellow Fox News guest, calling him a "serial liar" and a "moron" as the president's opponents pledged to seek Donald Trump's removal from office.
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| UPDATE 2-Air strikes in Yemen hit Houthi territory, Houthis fire ballistic missile Posted: 24 Sep 2019 04:17 AM PDT ![UPDATE 2-Air strikes in Yemen hit Houthi territory, Houthis fire ballistic missile]( "UPDATE 2-Air strikes in Yemen hit Houthi territory, Houthis fire ballistic missile") Air strikes blamed on the Saudi-led coalition killed at least 16 people in Yemen's Houthi-controlled Dalea province on Tuesday, two residents and the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV said. The strikes came four days after the Houthis, a group aligned with Iran, said they would stop aiming missile and drone attacks at Saudi Arabia if the Saudi-led coalition targeting Yemen does the same. The coalition spokesman said later on Tuesday that Houthi forces fired a ballistic missile from Amran, northwest of the capital Sanaa, but it fell inside Houthi territory in Yemen.
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| Scientists answer whether the popular CBD oil trend is legitimate (and legal) Posted: 25 Sep 2019 06:28 AM PDT  Culture has dubbed CBD oil a miracle — you can now find it in lattes, food and creams — but is it effective? And is it legal?
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| AP FACT CHECK: Trump's thin rationale on Ukraine aid Posted: 25 Sep 2019 04:40 PM PDT  Explaining circumstances that sparked a Democratic impeachment inquiry, President Donald Trump said Wednesday he froze U.S. aid to Ukraine earlier this year because he's tired of his country being the only one helping there. Trump also pointed to developments in the stock market as evidence that the financial world, at least, thinks the impeachment episode is overblown. Under pressure Wednesday, the White House released its account of a phone conversation Trump had in July with Ukraine's new president, asking him to "do us a favor" and subject Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden and his businessman-son to a corruption investigation.
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| Here's what the US Air Force has planned for all its bombers Posted: 25 Sep 2019 11:56 AM PDT  From the venerable B-52 to the future B-21, the US leads the way in firepower and stealth technology. This is what the US has in the skies.
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| China Launched a Special Type of Warship That Can Help Invade Taiwan Posted: 25 Sep 2019 12:10 PM PDT  Beijing now has an 'assault ship'. It probably can accommodate dozens of helicopters and landing craft and hundreds of marines.
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| Rouhani at UN demands Saudis end war in Yemen Posted: 25 Sep 2019 11:00 AM PDT  Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday demanded that Saudi Arabia end its offensive in Yemen after an attack in the oil-rich kingdom which Washington blamed on Tehran. "The security of Saudi Arabia will be guaranteed with the termination of aggression in Yemen, rather than by inviting foreigners," he told the UN General Assembly. Saudi Arabia is leading an air campaign aimed at defeating Iranian-backed Huthi rebels who control much of Yemen, contributing to a humanitarian crisis in which thousands of civilians have died and millions are on the brink of starvation.
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| Amputee woman recreates iconic Cinderella scene with gorgeous glass prosthetic arm Posted: 25 Sep 2019 08:11 AM PDT  A woman who is missing part of her arm became fed up with a lack of amputee representation in media, so she decided to create her own.
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| Rare painting, possibly worth millions, was just hanging in woman's kitchen, experts say Posted: 24 Sep 2019 07:29 AM PDT  "Christ Mocked," a work by the 13th century pre-Renaissance painter Cimabue was found in a house in northern France, art auctioneers say.
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| Can Someone Be Fired for Being Gay? The Supreme Court Will Decide Posted: 24 Sep 2019 05:01 AM PDT  ATLANTA -- The Supreme Court has delivered a remarkable series of victories to the gay rights movement over the last two decades, culminating in a ruling that established a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. But in more than half the states, someone can still be fired for being gay.Early in its new term, on Oct. 8, the court will consider whether an existing federal law, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, guarantees nationwide protection from workplace discrimination to gay and transgender people, even in states that offer no protections right now.It will be the court's first case on LGBT rights since the retirement last year of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinions in all four of the court's major gay rights decisions. And without Kennedy, who joined four liberals in the 5-4 ruling in the marriage case, the workers who sued their employers in the three cases before the court may face an uphill fight."Now that we don't have Kennedy on the court, it would be a stretch to find a fifth vote in favor of any of these claims that are coming to the court," said Katherine Franke, a law professor at Columbia and the author of "Wedlocked: The Perils of Marriage Equality."She added that lawyers working to expand gay rights might have focused too narrowly on the right to marry. "The gay rights movement became the marriage rights movement," she said, "and we lost sight of the larger dynamics and structures of homophobia."Other experts said the court should have little trouble ruling for the plaintiffs."Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans continue to face widespread job discrimination because of their same-sex attraction or sex identities," said William N. Eskridge Jr., a law professor at Yale and the author of an article in The Yale Law Journal on Title VII's statutory history. "If the justices take seriously the text of Title VII and their own precedents, LGBT Americans will enjoy the same job protections as other groups."The Supreme Court's earlier gay rights rulings were grounded in constitutional law. Romer v. Evans, in 1996, struck down a Colorado constitutional amendment that had banned laws protecting gay men and lesbians. Lawrence v. Texas, in 2003, struck down laws making gay sex a crime. United States v. Windsor, in 2013, overturned a ban on federal benefits for married same-sex couples.And Obergefell v. Hodges, in 2015, struck down state bans on same-sex marriage, ruling that the Constitution guarantees a right to such unions.The new cases, by contrast, concern statutory interpretation, not constitutional law.The question for the justices is whether the landmark 1964 law's prohibition of sex discrimination encompasses discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Lawyers for the gay and transgender plaintiffs say it does. Lawyers for the defendants and the Trump administration, which has filed briefs supporting the employers, say it does not.The common understanding of sex discrimination in 1964 was bias against women or men, Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco wrote. It did not encompass discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity."The ordinary meaning of 'sex' is biologically male or female," he wrote. "It does not include sexual orientation."In response, lawyers for one of the plaintiffs, Gerald Bostock, wrote that "a person's sexual orientation is a sex-based classification because it cannot be defined without reference to his sex."Bostock, who spent a decade building a government program to help neglected and abused children in Clayton County, Georgia, just south of Atlanta, said his story illustrated the gaps in protection for gay workers."Everything was going amazingly," he said in an interview in his home. "Then I decided to join a gay recreational softball league."He played catcher and first base for his team, the Honey Badgers, in the Hotlanta Softball League. A few months later, the county fired him for "conduct unbecoming a county employee."Bostock's case is at an early stage, and the reason for his dismissal is contested. His former employer has said it fired him after an audit indicated he had misused county funds, which Bostock denies.In an email, Jack R. Hancock, a lawyer for the county, said, "Mr. Bostock's sexual orientation had nothing to do with his termination."The justices will decide whether Bostock is entitled to try to make his case to a jury. The county insists that Title VII allows it to fire workers for being gay, meaning that the case should be dismissed at the outset."When Congress prohibited sex discrimination in employment approximately 55 years ago," Hancock wrote in a brief, "it did not simultaneously prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation."Bostock, 55, grew up in southern Georgia, where he said he "learned the three F's very quickly: family, faith and football." But he found his own calling, he said, when he was assigned to recruit volunteers to represent children from troubled homes in juvenile court."It was my passion," he said. "My employer loved the job I was doing. I got favorable performance reviews. We had great success."Things took a turn, he said, when he became more open about his sexual orientation."When I joined the gay softball league in January of 2013, that's when my life changed," he said. "Within months of that, there were negative comments about my sexual orientation." In particular, he said, he was criticized for recruiting volunteers for the program from the gay community in Atlanta.Bostock said he would attend the Supreme Court arguments in his case, Bostock v. Clayton County, No. 17-1618. "I hope they give me the right to have my day in court, to come back to Georgia and clear my name and have the truth come out," he said.The justices will also hear a companion case, Altitude Express v. Zarda, No. 17-1623. It was brought by a sky diving instructor, Donald Zarda, who said he was fired because he was gay. His dismissal followed a complaint from a female customer who had expressed concerns about being strapped to Zarda during a tandem dive. Zarda, hoping to reassure the customer, told her that he was "100% gay."Zarda sued under Title VII and lost the initial rounds. He died in a 2014 sky diving accident, and his estate pursued his case. His lawyers told the justices that the case could be decided "without ever using the term 'sexual orientation' or 'gay.'""The claim could accurately be framed entirely in terms of sex and nothing else: Zarda was fired for being a man attracted to men," they wrote. "That is sex discrimination pure and simple."Most federal appeals courts have interpreted Title VII to exclude sexual orientation discrimination. But two of them, in New York and Chicago, have ruled that discrimination against gay men and lesbians is a form of sex discrimination.Last year, a divided 13-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in New York, allowed Zarda's lawsuit to proceed. Writing for the majority, Chief Judge Robert A. Katzmann concluded that "sexual orientation discrimination is motivated, at least in part, by sex and is thus a subset of sex discrimination."Hancock, in his brief for Clayton County in Bostock's case, urged the justices to be wary of what he called a novel interpretation of an old law. "One would expect that, if Congress intended to enact a statute of such magnitude -- socially, culturally, politically and policy-wise -- as one prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation," he wrote, "Congress specifically would have so stated in the text of Title VII."The Supreme Court has ruled that it is race discrimination to fire a worker for being a member of an interracial couple. Lawyers for Zarda said the same principle should apply to same-sex couples."Just as firing a white employee for being married to an African American person constitutes discrimination because of race," they wrote, "so firing a male employee for being married to another man constitutes sex discrimination."Francisco, in his brief for the administration, wrote that the analogy did not hold."An employer who refuses to hire an applicant in an interracial relationship would rightly be branded a racist," he wrote. "But no ordinary speaker of English would call an employer who refuses to hire an applicant in a same-sex relationship a sexist."At bottom, the cases may turn on whether the justices focus on the words of the statute or their sense of what the lawmakers who voted for it in 1964 understood they were doing. In a 1998 decision in a Title VII case, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that it was the words that matter."Statutory prohibitions," he wrote, "often go beyond the principal evil to cover reasonably comparable evils, and it is ultimately the provisions of our laws rather than the principal concerns of our legislators by which we are governed."If nothing else, Franke said, the cases will explore divisive and difficult issues. "Sex," she said, "is a confounding term in our culture, in our language and certainly in the law."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Friendship between Duke of York and Jeffrey Epstein ended after Duchess of York called financier a 'pedophile' Posted: 24 Sep 2019 07:38 AM PDT  The Duke of York's friendship with Jeffrey Epstein ultimately ended in acrimony after his wife called the financier a "pedophile" and refused to retract the statement.
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| Greta Thunberg turns Trump's attack back on him Posted: 24 Sep 2019 01:28 PM PDT  "A very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future," the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist's bio now reads.
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| Deported Army veteran returns to US in bid to become citizen Posted: 24 Sep 2019 08:34 PM PDT  Federal immigration authorities granted Miguel Perez Jr. a two-week parole into the U.S. for an immigration hearing, according to his attorney. The 41-year-old Perez has a green card as a permanent U.S. resident, but after serving time for a 2008 non-violent drug conviction was deported last year. Then last month, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a pardon , erasing the conviction and reviving Perez's chances to become a citizen.
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| Asylum seekers I meet flee something even worse than Trump's unethical immigration agenda Posted: 24 Sep 2019 05:38 AM PDT  Our immigration policies seek to discourage border crossings by making life difficult for migrants. But almost nothing could be worse than going home.
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| 11-year-old boy drives stolen car 200 miles for Snapchat meetup: South Carolina police Posted: 25 Sep 2019 07:43 AM PDT ![11-year-old boy drives stolen car 200 miles for Snapchat meetup: South Carolina police]( "11-year-old boy drives stolen car 200 miles for Snapchat meetup: South Carolina police") The boy told Charleston police that he had driven his brother's car from Simpsonville, North Carolina, about 200 miles away.
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| Hong Kong Protests Threaten Billionaires' Ties With Beijing Posted: 25 Sep 2019 09:00 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Less than a decade ago, Hong Kong's richest man, Li Ka-shing, was granted an exclusive audience with China's then-President Hu Jintao, a rare honor. State television lauded the September 2010 meeting, saying Hu lavished praise on the tycoon for contributing to the city's prosperity and stability.These days, as Hong Kong reels from months of violent demonstrations, China's government is weaving a much harsher narrative around the billionaires who dominate the business and politics of the city. In recent weeks, it's linked them to the rising inequality it blames for the social unrest, a new stance that threatens the close ties Hong Kong dynasties have forged with Beijing.While most of Hong Kong's wealthiest families have sprawling property holdings, they also dominate industries from telecommunications to retail, giving them outsize influence. The 20 Hong Kong tycoons tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index -- including moguls like Li and property magnate Lee Shau Kee -- have a combined net worth of more than $200 billion. So any shift in China's posture toward those wealthy families has the potential in coming years to ripple through the city's $360 billion economy.In a scathing article posted on social media earlier this month, China's Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, the nation's most powerful law-enforcement body, lashed out at Hong Kong's property tycoons for "hoarding land and grabbing money." Next, the Communist Party's mouthpiece, the People's Daily, said the government should take away land from Hong Kong developers through compulsory acquisition."It is very clear that Beijing's attitude toward Hong Kong's property tycoons has changed," said Joseph Wong, who was secretary for commerce, industry and technology under the city's former leader, or chief executive, Donald Tsang.China appears to be encouraging state-backed enterprises to expand in Hong Kong, a special administrative region, and, over the coming years, these companies likely will play a leading role in industries the tycoons have controlled, Wong said.China Mobile Ltd., the mainland's biggest carrier, has increased its subscriber base in Hong Kong by more than 50% since 2016, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News. Mainland developers, including China Resources Land Ltd., bought almost 60% of the residential land sold by Hong Kong's government in the first half of this year.Representatives at family holding companies of Li and Lee didn't respond to requests for comment.While much of their power comes from these informal relationships, members of the wealthiest families in Hong Kong also have official positions, including on the election committee of about 1,200 people that selects the city's leader. Hong Kong business people sit on the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body that meets once a year in Beijing.Chinese leaders were friendly toward the tycoons when the mainland economy was opening up because they wanted to encourage them to invest across the border, said Ding Yifan, a former senior government researcher who now teaches world economy at Beijing Foreign Studies University."Now that things have hit the fan, they realize there are many things quite unfair in Hong Kong," he said. "Of course they need to deal with these problems."Hong Kong's protests erupted in June in response to a proposed bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China. They've continued even after that legislation was shelved, with protesters making other demands, including universal suffrage and an investigation into police actions toward demonstrators.China's office for Hong Kong and Macau affairs this month said it would support Hong Kong's leader, Carrie Lam, in efforts to address social problems such as the housing shortage, the large wealth gap and the difficulty in upward social mobility. Hong Kong has the world's least affordable housing.At the end of July, about half of Hong Kong's new apartments for sale came from five of its largest developers -- including the Li family's CK Asset Holdings Ltd.; Henderson Land Development Co. of the Lee family; and Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd., controlled by the Kwok family -- according to an analysis of data from realtor Centaline Property Agency.Meanwhile, half of the city's mobile-phone users subscribe to providers controlled by the Li and Kwok families, according to government data and earnings reports. In some industries, the wealthiest Hong Kong Chinese families share power with dynasties that are a holdover from the British.The Li family's AS Watson Group and Dairy Farm International Holdings Ltd., linked to the Keswick family, control 70% of the supermarkets, according to data from Euromonitor International. Representatives for the Kwok and Keswick family businesses declined to comment.Beijing's priority has shifted toward pursuing social equality, said Li Xiaobing, a professor at Nankai University in Tianjin who has written on Chinese regional politics. "The central government wishes tycoons to contribute more to society," Li said. That shift has come as China searches for answers to end Hong Kong's protests.In recent weeks, several tycoons, including real-estate and casino magnate Lui Che-woo, have attempted to show Beijing their loyalty by issuing statements or placing newspaper advertisements condemning violence and pledging full support to the government.Li earlier this month called for the government to "have mercy" on Hong Kong's young people and for the youth to show more understanding. But China's highest law-enforcement body lashed out, accusing Li of encouraging crime. The 91-year-old billionaire then said his remarks were misinterpreted.Hong Kong's billionaire families long hedged their risks because they knew their political and economic favors wouldn't last forever, said Joseph Fan, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong who studies family-run businesses.Some tycoons, in recent years, sold their businesses to mainland firms. In 2018, former city Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa's family sold its stake in a shipping line to state-owned Cosco Shipping Holdings Co. That year, the real-estate arm of Li's business group sold its stake in an office tower, The Center, for about $5 billion to a consortium controlled by mainland companies.Michael Tien, a pro-Beijing lawmaker in Hong Kong and a deputy to China's National People's Congress, expects more mainland firms to play leading roles in Hong Kong industries traditionally controlled by tycoons."In the long run, we all know that the future belongs to mainland Chinese capital," he said.\--With assistance from Dandan Li.To contact the reporters on this story: Shirley Zhao in Hong Kong at xzhao306@bloomberg.net;Bruce Einhorn in Hong Kong at beinhorn1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Sam Nagarajan at samnagarajan@bloomberg.net, Anjali Cordeiro, Michael TigheFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Elizabeth Warren’s Dilemma: If She Beats Up Trump, Will It Boost Biden? Posted: 24 Sep 2019 02:10 PM PDT  Joshua Lott/ReutersElizabeth Warren finds herself in a delicate position. Right as her popularity in the Democratic presidential contest is rising, the race has taken a dramatic turn: Her main rival for the nomination is under attack by the president. She has been left with a choice: forcefully defend former Vice President Joe Biden against President Donald Trump's debunked accusations of misconduct in Ukraine by his son Hunter, or risk looking like she's taking advantage of Trump's attack on her top opponent to boost her own presidential campaign. Warren, so far, has kept her attention primarily on the need for impeaching the president, which she has championed for five months and which House Democrats are now embracing in droves. And Democratic operatives caution that she should continue spending her time focusing on the Trump and not her primary rival. "This isn't about Joe Biden. This is about Donald Trump," Rebecca Katz, a progressive Democratic strategist told The Daily Beast when asked how Warren's campaign should address the issue. "On the defining issue of the Trump era, Warren has been right since day one." Not Just Ukraine: Rudy and Bannon Try a Whole New Way to Slime Biden"Look, she should pat herself on the back and remind everybody she called for impeachment before everyone else," Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh, who has long praised Warren's presidential candidacy, said. "Joe Biden honestly has nothing to do with this." Warren's handling of the Trump-Ukraine saga illustrates the tricky politics that many Democrats currently find themselves in, including Biden's own campaign. Few Democrats are eager to elevate Trump's attacks on the former vice president by engaging them head on. But virtually no one in the party feels comfortable letting them go unanswered. The question is how to do so. In interviews with multiple progressive Democrats and Warren supporters, their chief advice to Warren is don't rush to Biden's defense against Trump, but don't jab him over being slower to call for impeachment inquires, either. "There will be plenty of time for real policy differences with Joe Biden, but the biggest Trump corruption scandal of his presidency is not the time to do it," said Adam Green, cofounder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a Washington-based organization that has endorsed Warren's presidential bid. "We need 100 percent all hands on deck calling for impeachment right now."The comments come as more than 160 House Democrats are now calling for some degree of impeachment inquiry."I called for impeachment five months ago, the day after the Mueller Report came out," Warren wrote on Twitter on Tuesday, without addressing Biden. "Trump continues to commit crimes because he believes he's above the law. If Congress does nothing to respond, he'll be right," she continued. "We must begin impeachment proceedings—now."Biden has been noticeably slower than his Democratic opponents on the issue that has reached a new height this week. On Tuesday afternoon, he took a stronger stance than in the past when addressing how House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should move forward. "Using its full constitutional authority, Congress, in my view, should demand the information it has a legal right to receive," Biden said from Delaware. If the president refuses to cooperate, Biden added, "Trump will leave Congress, in my view, with no choice but impeachment. That would be a tragedy, but a tragedy of his own making."Biden's new stance—and Warren's doubling down—comes as a pair of early state polls released in recent days from Iowa and New Hampshire show Warren narrowly beat out Biden for the number one spot in the respective states. "Voters respond to moral clarity and courage, and Senator Warren showed it in spades with her early call for impeaching Donald Trump," Maurice Mitchell, the national director of the Working Families Party, which recently endorsed Warren, told The Daily Beast. "It's great to see others in the field follow her lead," he said, without referencing Biden. Warren's campaign declined to comment.One Democratic communications operative supportive of Warren stressed that the best course of action is to focus on her own campaign and not address Biden by name. "She's not facing pressure from voters on this, so she should continue her focus on how she'll root out corruption to make real change in people's lives," the operative said. "If she's going to weigh in, she should condemn the media's willingness to blur the lines."In late April, Warren was the first major Democratic presidential candidate to call on the House to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump. Her call came immediately after the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on Trump and Russia."The severity of this misconduct demands that elected officials in both parties set aside political considerations and do their constitutional duty," she wrote on Twitter at the time. "That means the House should initiate impeachment proceedings against the President of the United States."Since then, Warren has grown increasingly fervent in pushing the issue. In her most recent public showing during a Democratic cattle call in Iowa, Warren started off her speech amplifying her previous sentiments, while saying she's there "to stand up for the Constitution" and that "Congress failed to act" in impeaching Trump, impressing voters in the influential caucus state. "She read the report. She didn't do any poll testing about how this is going to look. She looked at the facts and decided to do what's right. Voters are hungry for a leader who has the courage of their convictions," Katz said. So far, there's been considerable upside for Warren. Multiple polls showed her popularity increasing after she called for impeachment in the spring. And the number of small-dollar donations grew. Additionally, Warren's campaign brought in more than $19.1 million in the second quarter of the year, more than tripling her total for the first quarter."You keep it about the facts," Katz added. "This isn't about whether or not to defend a rival. This is about the rule of law."Pelosi Announces Support for a Trump Impeachment InquiryRead more at The Daily Beast.Get 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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| FBI agents raid Illinois state senator's home, offices Posted: 24 Sep 2019 12:52 PM PDT  FBI agents carried materials in bankers' boxes and grocery bags out of the Illinois Capitol building on Tuesday, and multiple media outlets reported that and other raids were linked to a Democratic state senator. FBI spokesman John Althen said the agents were in the building for "law enforcement activity" but declined to elaborate. Multiple media outlets reported that the raids were conducted at Sen. Martin Sandoval's Capitol office in Springfield, his district office in the Chicago suburb of Cicero and his Chicago home.
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| The world's first floating nuclear power plant, which activists dubbed 'Chernobyl on ice,' has docked in Russia. Photos show its journey. Posted: 25 Sep 2019 08:14 AM PDT  Environmentalists have criticized the concept of floating nuclear plants, arguing that they could be harder to reach during an accident.
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| Death Match: America's F-16s vs. China and Russia's Best Planes (Who Wins?) Posted: 25 Sep 2019 09:00 AM PDT  Could America's legendary fighter make it?
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| UPDATE 1-US launches strike in southern Libya as UN warns of escalation Posted: 25 Sep 2019 04:42 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-US launches strike in southern Libya as UN warns of escalation]( "UPDATE 1-US launches strike in southern Libya as UN warns of escalation") U.S. forces said on Wednesday they killed 11 suspected militants in their second air strike in a week near the southern Libyan town of Murzuq, as the U.N. envoy warned of a growing risk of armed escalation and rights abuses in the country. The strike comes as rival factions have been locked in a battle around the capital Tripoli, about 500 miles (800km) to the north, which forces loyal to eastern-based commander Khalifa Haftar have been trying to capture since April. The U.S. attack, carried out on Tuesday deep in Libya's southern desert, followed a Sept. 19 strike that the U.S. said had killed eight suspected militants.
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| Megan Thee Stallion teams up with Jimmy Fallon for 'Hot Girl Fall' Posted: 24 Sep 2019 10:40 AM PDT  Though summer has officially ended, Megan Thee Stallion's "hot girl" moment isn't over just yet. Megan and Fallon have teamed up for "Hot Girl Fall."
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| Fired police officer defends KKK application, Confederate flags in his Michigan home Posted: 24 Sep 2019 10:42 AM PDT  Former police officer Charles Anderson said the Confederate flags are a part of his extensive "Dukes of Hazzard" collection.
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| NRA: Universal background checks would do nothing to stop mass shootings Posted: 24 Sep 2019 04:15 PM PDT  President Trump is calculating which policies would actually work, writes Jason Ouimet, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action
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| Trump Administration Threatens to Cut U.S. Highway Funds From California Posted: 24 Sep 2019 05:10 AM PDT  WASHINGTON -- The political war between California and the Trump administration escalated Monday with a letter from Andrew Wheeler, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, warning that Washington would withhold federal highway funds from the state if it did not rapidly address a decades-long backlog of state-level pollution control plans.The letter is the latest parry between President Donald Trump and the liberal West Coast state that he appears to relish antagonizing. California's recent actions on clean air and climate change policy have blindsided and enraged him, according to two people familiar with the matter.While California has angered Trump with its efforts to adhere to stricter state standards on climate change pollution from vehicles even as Trump has sought to roll back such standards nationally, Wheeler's new letter to the state offers a twist on the narrative.It states that California "has the worst air quality in the United States," including 82 areas within the state with air quality that does not meet federal law. It says that by law, the state is required to submit plans for reducing that pollution, but that California has a backlog of about 130 incomplete or inactive plans, "many dating back decades."The letter notes that California has more than 34 million people living in areas that do not meet federal air pollution standards for pollutants like soot and smog -- "more than twice as many people as any other state in the country."Wheeler says in the letter that he is calling attention to California's backlog as part of a broader effort to "dramatically reduce" such backlogs nationally.He says that California's failure to address the backlogged plans may result in penalties such as the withholding of federal highway funds, or the implementation of federal plans.The letter requests a response from the state by Oct. 10.The letter, made public Monday but dated Sept. 24, was first reported by The Sacramento Bee. California officials said Monday night that they had only just received it, and they declined to respond until they had time to review it. A spokesman for the White House referred questions to the EPA, and a spokesman for the agency did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.The letter follows Trump's announcement last week that his administration would revoke California's legal authority to set its own stringent state-level regulations on planet-warming pollution from vehicle tailpipes. On Friday, California and more than 20 other states retaliated by filing a sweeping lawsuit expected to be resolved only before the Supreme Court, accusing Trump of trampling on both states' rights and on major efforts to fight climate change.In fact, one of the key legal arguments made by the California lawsuit last week is that those tailpipe standards are required for the state to control emissions of the other pollutants, like soot and smog, at levels required to meet even federal standards."We need the extra clean cars to meet the standards set by the federal government," Mary Nichols, California's top clean air regulator, said at a news conference last week. "If this prevails, millions of people in California will breathe dirty air. There will be more pollution, more asthma, more hospitalizations, more premature deaths."Trump's move to revoke California's authority to set climate standards from vehicle pollution came after an announcement in July that four automakers that opposed Trump's plan to roll back the national vehicle tailpipe pollution standard signed a deal with California to comply with tighter emissions standards if the broader rollback goes through.Trump, who was surprised and angered by that announcement, according to two people familiar with the matter, has since sought to push policies that would punish California.Earlier this month, the Justice Department opened an investigation into whether the automakers' deal with California violates antitrust laws, although a person familiar with the investigation said that it was not started at the request of Trump or any administration officials.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Iranian president demands U.S. 'pay more' for a wider deal Posted: 25 Sep 2019 04:44 PM PDT  Iranian President Hassan Rouhani demanded on Wednesday that the United States "pay more" for any agreement that goes beyond the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that Washington abandoned.
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| Johnson: 'Terrifying limbless chickens' but little Brexit Posted: 25 Sep 2019 05:55 AM PDT  Things Boris Johnson didn't address with any substance: Brexit (though he mentioned it in a quip). Many didn't know what to expect Tuesday after the court ruling came down hours before Johnson's inaugural U.N. General Assembly speech as prime minister. The first potential future that Johnson mapped out was decidedly dystopian — one where technology permeates every corner of human life, and not in a good way.
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| Stock up on Cold-Weather Essentials at Backcountry’s Winter Clearance Posted: 25 Sep 2019 01:40 PM PDT |
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