| 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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| White House upgrade: First lady's done a lot with the place Posted: 17 Sep 2019 04:34 PM PDT  Like anyone who has ever spruced up their home, Melania Trump will have a few new touches to showcase Friday when guests visit the White House for only the second state dinner of the Trump presidency. There's refreshed wall fabric in the Red Room, repurposed draperies in the Green Room and restored furniture in the Blue Room. Sunlight streaming into the Red Room had left some of the wall fabric "so faded it was almost pink," said Stewart McLaurin, president of the White House Historical Association, which helps finance upkeep of some rooms in the 132-room mansion.
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| Three hunters mauled in grizzly bear attacks at Yellowstone: 'He was in their face before they even had chance to grab a gun' Posted: 18 Sep 2019 02:37 PM PDT  Three hunters were badly hurt in two separate grizzly bear attacks in Montana on the same day, state officials have said.All three suffered "moderate to severe" injuries after being mauled by a lone bear in the Gravelley Mountains on Monday, according to the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks agency.
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| Navy SEAL who oversaw the bin Laden raid says China's massive military buildup is a 'holy s---' moment Posted: 18 Sep 2019 12:51 PM PDT  Speaking at an event in Washington, William McRaven, a SEAL who oversaw the bin Laden raid, said the US was approaching a "Sputnik moment" with China.
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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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| 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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| Philippines Arrests Hundreds of Chinese For Alleged Cybercrimes Posted: 17 Sep 2019 03:33 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- About 600 allegedly illegal Chinese workers have been arrested in the Philippines in less than a week after Beijing's call for a crackdown on online gambling.Some 324 undocumented Chinese nationals will be deported after being apprehended on Monday in the western Palawan province for alleged cybercrimes, the Philippines' immigration bureau said in a statement Tuesday.The agency also said in an earlier statement it had arrested 277 Chinese nationals last Wednesday for allegedly conducting illegal online operations in Pasig City in the Philippine capital, Manila. Those arrested are wanted for fraud and investments scams in China, the immigration bureau added, citing information from Chinese authorities.Last month, China urged the Philippines to crack down on online casino operations catering mostly to Chinese nationals. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said he will not ban the billion-peso industry despite Beijing's opposition, as it benefits the Southeast Asian nation.To contact the reporter on this story: Andreo Calonzo in Manila at acalonzo1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Cecilia Yap at cyap19@bloomberg.net, Ruth Pollard, Ditas LopezFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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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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| Drone delivers shark warning to surfer Posted: 17 Sep 2019 04:29 PM PDT 
A surfer enjoying the pristine waters off Australia's east coast Sunday didn't see the large shark beneath the surface, but a nearby drone operator did. UPSOUND: SHARK, SHARK, SHARK... Using a search and rescue drone equipped with infra-red thermal imaging and a warning speaker system, amateur drone pilot Christopher Joye captured the moment the shark approached. Joye says he blasted the alert, causing the surfer to quickly turn toward shore. That's when the shark headed to deeper waters. Joye, who is also a fund manager, has previously run shark patrols on Australian beaches as part of a campaign to keep swimmers safe using drones, which he believes work better than shark nets.
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| Prosecutor: Man charged in killings of 4 women in Detroit Posted: 18 Sep 2019 12:41 PM 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. Police Chief James Craig has said he sees similarities between three of the slayings and the assaults of at least two other women who survived attacks.
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| Dozens of people charged for illegally distributing millions of opioid pills Posted: 18 Sep 2019 01:38 PM PDT  Dozens of people - including six doctors and seven pharmacists - have been charged with fraud for illegally distributing more than 6 million opioid pills.Some of the pills were obtained using counterfeit prescription pads, and the stolen identities of legitimate doctors, prosecutors say.
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| 2019 and 2020 Full-Size Pickup Truck Rankings Posted: 17 Sep 2019 02:08 PM PDT |
| After hours of questioning Lewandowski, Democrats finally land punches Posted: 17 Sep 2019 08:24 PM PDT  When Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee turned to criminal defense lawyer Barry Berke to question Corey Lewandowski, the tenor of Tuesday's hearing abruptly changed.
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| Republicans Slam Democrats Uninterested in Spying Investigation Posted: 18 Sep 2019 10:38 AM PDT  Why don't they want to know?
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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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| FAA closes Area 51 airspace ahead of Alienstock for 'special security reasons' Posted: 18 Sep 2019 08:28 AM PDT  Federal agencies are prepping for the alien-themed music festival Alienstock in the Nevada desert near the U.S. Air Force Base Area 51 this weekend. The event was spawned by the viral Facebook event "Storm Area 51," and while you can Naruto-run there, you sure can't fly there now.The Federal Aviation Administration announced two "temporary flight restrictions for special security reasons," effectively banning air traffic ahead of the festival from early Wednesday to late Sunday, CNET reports. The airspace will be closed to news helicopters, drones, private pilots, and any other aircrafts above Rachel, Nevada, U.S. Air Force's Nevada Test and Training Range, and Area 51 itself.SEE ALSO: People are already getting arrested at Area 51, and of course they're YouTubersWhile the original meme event "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All Of Us" was meant in jest, it garnered 2 million RSVPs worldwide and a pretty sick music video for one of Lil Nas X's many "Old Town Road" remixes. Eventually the Air Force had to step in to squash the tin foil hat dreams. Amidst reports that even the neighboring town couldn't hold the influx of tourists, a music festival was planned to either deter or distract alien-lovers from actually trespassing on government property. But Matty Roberts, the original poster of the page, has since severed his ties with Alienstock, calling it "a possible humanitarian disaster" and "FYREFEST 2.0." He cited the "lack of infrastructure, poor planning, risk management and blatant disregard for the safety of the expected 10,000+ AlienStock attendees."Due to this risk, the original organizers moved away from the festival in Rachel and now encourages planned attendees to head to an alternative free Area 51 Celebration in the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center. News outlets reported that Alienstock was dead. But, as you can probably guess by now, that's not stopping some folks from "seeing them aliens." Various organizers are claiming the festival in Rachel is still going ahead, with 2,600 camping spots booked. Additionally, YouTubers are already getting arrested for jumping the fence into the Area 51 base. So even if thousands of people do end up attending the event from the sheer force of meme power alone, the heavens above will be clear of any aircrafts, both unidentified and otherwise.
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| Andrew Yang’s Dumb Gimmick Stepped on His Own Important Message Posted: 17 Sep 2019 02:25 AM PDT  Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Photo by Jayme Gershen/GettyAndrew Yang has been my favorite Democrat to watch this election cycle, partly because he's the candidate I would most like to be friends with. That's why I was so disappointed to see him resort to a cheap stunt during last week's debate. I assumed that having earned his way into the first debate where all the candidates would share the same stage at the same time, Yang would seize this moment to explain the core issue that has propelled his candidacy. In case you missed it (and you wouldn't have seen it during the debate!), Yang's fundamental message is that a lot of working-class Americans have been left behind, and the culprit is automation. This problem, Yang insists, is going to get much more pervasive. Like the Industrial Revolution, it will lead to tremendous dislocation and disruption. To manage this inevitable transformation, Yang proposes a universal basic income (UBI) of $1,000 a month, an amount specifically chosen to be big enough to mitigate the harm without being so big as to disincentivize work. Indeed, Yang argues that his "freedom dividend" could actually liberate us to pursue our inventions, passions, and dreams. The brilliance here is that Yang frames what might otherwise be seen as a radical progressive idea in language that sounds good to conservative ears. Democrats, Beware of Andrew Yang's Insane Vision for AmericaBut instead of telling this (admittedly longer) story, Yang chose to turn his opening debate statement into a raffle where 10 families will win a "freedom dividend" of $1,000 a month for a year. By turning his big idea into a sort of game, Yang doesn't just skip over the seriousness of a looming automation dystopia—he actually trivializes it. What is more, the idea of giving away money based on luck or need (it's not actually clear how winners will be determined) actually steps on Yang's own messaging. That's because Yang carefully avoids framing UBI as a giveaway (indeed, to qualify for the check, you'd have to opt out of welfare payments). Instead, he sells it as something you've earned—like Social Security—by virtue of being a "citizen of the richest, most advanced country in the world." So why would an obviously smart entrepreneur squander the best chance he might ever have to make his substantive argument to a large TV audience? According to Politico, the idea helped Yang "raise $1 million in the 72 hours since the debate and collect more than 450,000 email addresses from people who entered the online raffle…" Once you view the idea through the prism of list acquisition, rather than traditional message delivery, you begin to see the method to the madness. This, of course, raises legal questions. FEC experts seem to see this as problematic and dubious, though there is a general sense that nothing will be done to stop it. We live in a world where a foreign government providing opposition research to a candidate doesn't necessarily qualify as "a thing of value," and where using campaign funds to ostensibly pay voters can be seen as mere campaign advertising. It also raises a practical question: Where does this end?In recent years, we have seen the proliferation of cloying candidates begging us to "visit my website" or to text such-and-such message to such-and-such number. As far as I can tell, though, this is the first time audiences have been invited to participate by virtue of being given the chance to win cash. And since it has apparently worked, I'm worried that everyone else will get in on the act. That means we can expect to see more elites exploiting their positions of influence and undermining their credibility—all in the service of shameless self-promotion. I, for one, have had enough of that. Want to win a copy of my latest eBook? Sign up for my email newsletter at www.mattklewis.com. Terms and conditions may apply!Read 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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| 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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| Ed Buck: Man suspected of preying on gay black men arrested after years of accusations Posted: 18 Sep 2019 04:40 AM PDT  A US businessman has been described as a "violent, dangerous sexual predator" after a man nearly died in his West Hollywood home, following two identical deaths.Ed Buck, a prominent Democratic donor, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with battery causing serious injury, after years of accusations that he preys on homosexual black men.
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| Amber alert issued for missing Bridgeton, New Jersey girl Posted: 18 Sep 2019 01:43 AM PDT  An Amber Alert has been issued for a missing Bridgeton, New Jersey girl last seen on Monday.
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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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| Trump on Cokie Roberts: She 'never treated me nicely' but she was a 'professional' Posted: 17 Sep 2019 01:24 PM PDT  Cokie Roberts was a veteran and award winning journalist who passed away on Tuesday at the age of 75.
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| View Photos of Porsche's 911 RSR in Coke Livery Posted: 18 Sep 2019 11:39 AM PDT |
| Afghan president sees his chance after collapse of U.S.-Taliban talks Posted: 17 Sep 2019 06:33 PM PDT  Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had no more than 20 minutes to study a draft accord between the United States and the Taliban on pulling thousands of U.S. troops out of his country, but upcoming elections could put him back at the heart of talks to end decades of war. What he read in the draft outlining the now collapsed deal left Ghani and his officials - who were shut out of the talks by the Taliban refusal to negotiate with what they considered an illegitimate "puppet" regime - badly shaken and resentful, said a senior Kabul official close to the Afghan leader. "Doesn't this look like surrender to the Taliban?" Ghani asked Zalmay Khalilzad, the veteran Afghan-born diplomat who led negotiations for Washington, at a meeting the two held immediately afterwards, according to the source who was present.
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| How Vietnamese Commandos Sank A U.S. 'Aircraft Carrier' Posted: 18 Sep 2019 07:43 AM PDT  The sinking of the Card was a stunning victory for the Viet Cong, yet little remembered today. It illustrated how vulnerable naval vessels can be even when faced with a low-tech enemy … and how difficult maintaining port security can be in a war with no real front.
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| Netanyahu, Gantz deadlocked with nearly all votes counted: Israel media Posted: 18 Sep 2019 12:09 AM PDT ![Netanyahu, Gantz deadlocked with nearly all votes counted: Israel media]( "Netanyahu, Gantz deadlocked with nearly all votes counted: Israel media") Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main challenger Benny Gantz were deadlocked with nearly all votes from the country's general election counted on Wednesday, Israeli media reported. Various Israeli media reported that Netanyahu's right-wing Likud and Gantz's Blue and White had 32 seats each of parliament's 120 with more than 90 percent of the vote counted. Ex-defence minister Avigdor Lieberman could prove to be kingmaker, with the reported results showing his nationalist Yisrael Beitenu with nine seats.
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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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| Moldova Turns to FBI for Help in Investigating $1 Billion Fraud Posted: 18 Sep 2019 08:37 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Moldova requested assistance from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to bring to justice participants in a $1 billion fraud that led to a bailout of three of the nation's banks.Interior Minister Andrei Nastase said he met with senior FBI officials and handed over a letter seeking assistance.The letter "put on the FBI's agenda the theft of the billion, the laundromat of the international mafia and all the other schemes that have ruined the financial and banking system and have deprived our country of much needed resources," he said Wednesday in a post on Facebook. The FBI gave assurances they would help, he said.The former Soviet republic of 3.5 million people was rocked by the 2014 theft that forced the government to seek assistance from the International Monetary Fund. A new government led by Prime Minister Maia Sandu took power in June, and the banking sector has been overhauled and sold to foreign investors.\--With assistance from Olga Tanas.To contact the reporter on this story: Aaron Eglitis in Riga at aeglitis@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Michael Winfrey, Andrew LangleyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| How 3 guys and 3 dogs caught this 411-pound feral hog that infiltrated a San Antonio golf course Posted: 16 Sep 2019 06:25 PM PDT  A 411-pound feral hog was spotted near a golf course in San Antonio. One of the men who humanely captured and removed it told Insider how they did it.
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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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| Judge resigns after sharing noose image with 'Make America Great Again' slogan on Facebook Posted: 18 Sep 2019 08:09 AM PDT  A New York town judge was forced off the bench after a written complaint said his post appeared 'to convey racial and/or political bias.'
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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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| View Every Angle of the 2020 Zero SR/F Electric Motorcycle Posted: 18 Sep 2019 10:59 AM PDT |
| US-Russia nuclear war would kill 34 million people within hours and is increasingly likely, Princeton study concludes Posted: 17 Sep 2019 11:28 AM PDT  More than 90 million people would be killed or injured in a nuclear war between the US and Russia if a conventional conflict went too far, according to a new simulation created by researchers.Such a scenario has become "dramatically" more plausible in the last two years because the two countries have dropped support for arms-control measures, according to a team from Princeton University.
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| In leaderless Hong Kong movement, Joshua Wong just 1 voice Posted: 16 Sep 2019 08:02 PM PDT  Overseas, Joshua Wong has emerged as a prominent face of Hong Kong's months-long protests for full democracy. While not diminishing the importance of that role, other protesters say Wong does not speak for what is purposefully a leaderless movement. "Not that nobody cares about what he says, but it's just that Joshua Wong alone cannot represent the whole of Hong Kong," said Sean Au, a 17-year-old student.
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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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| Illinois opens 24 cases of alleged priest sex abuse after finding reports weren't reviewed Posted: 18 Sep 2019 11:22 AM PDT  The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has opened 24 new investigations into alleged sexual misconduct by Catholic priests.
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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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| Tekashi69 Testifies Against Gang: We Did ‘a Lot of Crimes’ Posted: 17 Sep 2019 02:32 PM PDT  Bob Levey/GettyIt took gangbanging rapper Tekashi69 just one day after his arrest to decide he was going to cooperate with the feds—and lay out for a jury how the Nine Trey Bloods jump-started his career, which he then used to bankroll the crew."I got the street credibility. I would say I got my career," the hip-hop star testified Tuesday in a Manhattan federal courtroom where two of his ex-associates are on trial."I knew I had a winning formula for my music videos: repeat the gang image. That's what people liked." Dressed in navy blue prison jumpsuit, his trademark rainbow hair mostly grown out, Tekashi was the third witness to take the stand against Aljermiah "Nuke" Mack, 33, and Anthony "Harv" Ellison, 31. Mack is charged with racketeering and trafficking in narcotics such as fentanyl, while Ellison is charged with racketeering and gun crimes in connection with an alleged kidnapping of Tekashi last July. The hyper-aggressive persona on display in Tekashi's videos was gone on the witness stand. Instead, the 23-year-old recording artist looked nervous as he described the symbiotic relationship he established with the Nine Trey Bloods: They provided protection as his fame grew, and he provided a revenue stream for their illicit activities. "My role was, just keep making hits and be the financial support for the gang," he said as he touched his brunette Dutch pigtails. Feds Warned Tekashi69 His Life Was Threatened by CrewProsecutors allege Tekashi also helped Ellison and Mack carry out a 2018 gunpoint robbery of their gang rivals in Manhattan, filming the heist from a nearby car. And in court, the rapper admitted his role wasn't purely monetary."We participated in a lot of crimes," the rapper testified. "Robberies, assaults, drugs."Tekashi, whose real name is Daniel Hernandez, became a viral star in 2014 with unabashedly raunchy Instagram and YouTube videos that often featured guns and drugs. The Brooklyn-born rapper, who hit the mainstream music scene in 2016, is best known for his hit single last year with Nicki Minaj, "FEFE."He was arrested last year in a takedown of the Nine Trey Bloods and pleaded guilty in February to nine federal charges, including firearms offenses, racketeering, and drug counts. (The rapper also previously pleaded guilty in 2015 to child porn charges after filming a sexually explicit video with a 13-year-old girl—a video he once said was intended to boost his "scumbag" persona and was "just for shock value.")As part of the deal with federal prosecutors, Tekashi had to take the stand against reputed Nine Trey Bloods who opted for trial. Tekashi69 Pleads Guilty to Nine Counts, Cooperates With FedsOn Tuesday, he told jurors he was first introduced to the gang in 2017 through his former manager while taping a music video for his first hit single, "GUMMO." He said once he found out his manager had a gang affiliation, he "asked if Nine Trey members would be in the video" because he wanted their "aesthetic.""I said I wanted them to be wearing all red," Tekashi added, noting the color symbolizes the gang's Bloods affiliation. "Before I went to the house where we were shooting, I went to buy three dozen red bandanas for them to wear."As prosecutors played the infamously rowdy, career-launching video, to point out notable gang members, Tekashi bopped his head to the beat, seemingly enjoying his own music. He added that a month after "GUMMO"'s "instant success," he created the music video for his hit "KOODA" and then "was officially a Nine Trey member." He eagerly translated various gang codes for the jury, showing off the secret handshake, and proudly listing the hierarchy of the Bloods lineage.Both Mack and Ellison looked straight ahead, showing no emotion throughout Tekashi's testimony.Tekashi69 Sealing His Fate With Gangs, Guns and GoonsAssistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Rebold previously described Ellison as the "muscle and manager" for Tekashi until he was ousted from the gang in July 2018—a move that allegedly prompted Ellison kidnap and rob Tekashi for revenge. Tekashi testified he was coming home from another video shoot when he was jumped by three men in hoodies who blocked off his car. He alleges the men hit him over the head with a pistol, before dragging him into their car and driving him around while demanding his money and jewelry. The rapper said they took about $750,000 worth of jewelry and $20,000 in cash. The rapper's arrangement with the street gang allegedly disintegrated after that incident, just months before he and a dozen other alleged members were indicted on racketeering charges in November. He was asked when he decided to turn state's witness."The next day. The day after we were taken down," he said.During opening statements on Monday, defense attorneys slammed Tekashi as an unreliable witness and claimed he faked his own kidnapping for publicity."It's a hoax!... It's a 'Jussie Smollett,' if you will," Deveraux Cannick, Ellison's attorney, said, referring to the former Empire star who made headlines this year after allegedly staging a fake hate crime against himself.Tekashi is expected to continue his testimony on Wednesday. He is facing a minimum penalty of 47 years in prison but under the terms of his plea deal, he could serve far less.How Tekashi69 Was Haunted by His Father's MurderRead 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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| Saudi says Iranian sponsorship of attack undeniable, displays arms Posted: 18 Sep 2019 10:20 AM PDT  RIYADH/DUBAI (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. "The attack was launched from the north and unquestionably sponsored by Iran," he told a news conference.
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| Arkansas attorney general wants judge barred from her cases Posted: 18 Sep 2019 01:25 PM PDT  Arkansas' attorney general is asking the state Supreme Court to reassign cases involving her office from a judge who has been prohibited from handling execution cases, accusing him of regularly being biased against her staff. Attorney General Leslie Rutledge's office on Tuesday requested that the court reassign cases from Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen.
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| Here Are the 5 Biggest Nuclear Weapons Tests Ever Conducted Posted: 18 Sep 2019 03:42 AM PDT  We've got them ranked.
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| Netanyahu's rival Gantz says it appears PM lost Posted: 17 Sep 2019 08:50 PM PDT 
Gantz, a former general, stopped short of an outright claim of victory. But beaming confidence, he told a rally of his Blue and White Party that it appeared "we fulfilled our mission", and he pledged to work towards the formation of a national unity government. Netanyahu, he said, apparently "did not succeed in his mission" to win a fifth term in a do-over election that followed an inconclusive national ballot in April. "We will await the actual results," Gantz said. Revised surveys, several hours after polls closed, by Israeli TV stations gave Netanyahu's Likud 30 to 33 of parliament's 120 seats, a slight drop from earlier forecasts, versus 32 to 34 for Blue and White. Neither had enough support, at first glance, for a governing coalition of 61 legislators, and Netanyahu's ally-turned-rival, former Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, emerged as a likely kingmaker as head of the far-right Yisrael Beitenu party.
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