| PHOTOS: China marks 70 years of communism with massive show of force Posted: 02 Oct 2019 06:14 AM PDT  Soldiers of People's Liberation Army (PLA) are seen in front of a sign marking the 70th founding anniversary of People's Republic of China before a military parade on its National Day in Beijing, China October 1, 2019. (Photo: Thomas Peter/Reuters) China celebrated its growing power and confidence with a big display of military hardware and goose-stepping troops in Beijing on Tuesday, overseen by President Xi Jinping who pledged peaceful development on Communist China's 70th birthday. The event is the country's most important of the year as it looks to project its assurance in the face of mounting challenges, including nearly four months of anti-government protests in Hong Kong and an economy-sapping trade war with the United States. (Reuters) See more news-related photo galleries and follow us on Yahoo News Photo Twitter and Tumblr.
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| 'Pure insanity': Intelligence veterans are floored by Barr's 'off the books' overtures to foreign officials about the Russia probe Posted: 01 Oct 2019 07:41 AM PDT  "I have not heard of so much involvement by the attorney general in this sort of investigation," a former CIA lawyer said.
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| Australian teen 'deliberately' mowed down, killed 20 kangaroos Posted: 01 Oct 2019 07:33 PM PDT  An Australian teenager has been charged over the deaths of 20 kangaroos, which he allegedly mowed down with his truck in a killing spree that lasted an hour. The dead kangaroos, including two joeys, were found littered over roads in Tura Beach, 450 kilometres (280 miles) south of Sydney, on Sunday morning. Police said Wednesday the man, 19, had been arrested and charged with animal cruelty offences on Tuesday.
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| Police Drone Finds Fugitive Who's Been Living in a Cave for 17 Years Posted: 02 Oct 2019 10:26 AM PDT  The man lived in the wilderness for the past 17 years.
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| Fast food drive-thrus: Which chains are the fastest and slowest? Posted: 02 Oct 2019 12:09 PM PDT  Time spent in fast food drive-thrus was 20 seconds slower in 2019 than the year before, a new performance study suggests.
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| U.S. urges restraint after North Korea fires ballistic missile Posted: 02 Oct 2019 01:01 AM PDT ![U.S. urges restraint after North Korea fires ballistic missile]( "U.S. urges restraint after North Korea fires ballistic missile") The United States called on Pyongyang on Wednesday to "refrain from provocations" and remain committed to nuclear negotiations after North Korea fired a ballistic missile off its east coast. "We call on (North Korea) to refrain from provocations, abide by their obligations under U.N. Security Council Resolutions, and remain engaged in substantive and sustained negotiations to do their part to ensure peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and achieve denuclearization," a state department spokeswoman said in Rome. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is visiting Italy.
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| Former NC GOP head pleads guilty to lying in bribery case Posted: 02 Oct 2019 09:15 AM PDT  The former chairman of North Carolina's Republican Party admitted Wednesday that he broke the law by lying to federal agents about his role in an alleged effort to bribe the state's top insurance regulator to help a major GOP donor. Robin Hayes, 74, pleaded guilty to making a false statement in August 2018 to FBI agents conducting the bribery investigation. Hayes, a former congressman, was initially also charged with conspiracy and bribery.
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| The ocean on Saturn's moon Enceladus contains the building blocks of life, NASA data reveals Posted: 02 Oct 2019 02:07 PM PDT  NASA data revealed the most basic ingredients of life in bursts from an ocean on Saturn's moon Enceladus.
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| Shipwrecked Colombians clung to cocaine bales Posted: 01 Oct 2019 01:46 PM PDT  Three suspected drug smugglers survived in shark-infested Pacific waters by clinging for hours to floating bales of cocaine, Colombia's navy said Tuesday. The three Colombians are suspected of smuggling 1.2 tons of cocaine from Tumaco in Colombia when their boat was hit by a wave Saturday and capsized, Captain Jorge Maldonado of Colombia's Task Force Against Drug Trafficking told AFP. "The coastguard arrived and these three people were floating on a material that by its characteristics resembled drugs," said Maldonado.
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| Yang Raises $10 Million in Third Quarter, Easily Outpacing Two Sitting U.S. Senators Posted: 02 Oct 2019 12:02 PM PDT  Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang raised $10 million over the last quarter, easily surpassing the $2.8 million he raised in the previous quarter, his campaign announced Wednesday.The entrepreneur's crowdfunding efforts, centered around his so-called Freedom Dividend, a universal basic income plan, matched recent rising poll numbers and outpaced both Senator Cory Booker's (D., N.J.) $6 million and Senator Michael Bennett's (D., Colo.) $2.1 million for the same period.The campaign reported that 99 percent of donations were under $200. To date, Yang has over 300,000 unique donors."This grassroots fundraising total, with $6m+ in the bank, ensures this campaign will have the funding to compete and outperform expectations through Super Tuesday and beyond," Yang campaign manager Zach Graumann told CNN.During the September Democratic debate, Yang made headlines when he announced a $120,000 giveaway to random families in an effort to promote his universal basic income proposal, which will offer $1,000 a month to every adult American in an effort to cushion job upheaval from increasing automation. In the three days after the debate, the stunt drew 450,000 entries and sparked $1 million in donations, the campaign told Politico.Yang's numbers also showed $2.4 million raised from merchandise purchases, as the candidates supporters, affectionately dubbed "Yang Gang," have swelled in numbers over recent weeks. Over the last ten days of the quarter, the campaign raised $2.3 million more than Booker raised in the same period.Yang celebrated the significant fundraising haul on Twitter."Other campaigns are plateauing or contracting while we are growing quickly. The excitement rises every day," he said. "Our rate of growth makes all things possible - including our winning the general election next year."
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| Trump ally suing reporter for $75m over claims of undocumented workers on his family’s farm Posted: 01 Oct 2019 07:01 AM PDT  A top ally of Donald Trump has sued a journalist for $75m (£61.3m) in damages for alleging his family's farm partially relied on undocumented workers.Devin Nunes, a California representative and former dairy farmer, filed the lawsuit in federal court against Hearst Magazines, the publisher of Esquire, and reporter Ryan Lizza.
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| US prosecutor says Honduran president took fortune in drug bribes Posted: 02 Oct 2019 05:56 PM PDT  Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez took millions of dollars in bribes from drug lords including jailed Mexican kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, a US prosecutor said Wednesday at the opening of his brother's trial. The president's brother, Juan Antonio Hernandez -- a former Honduran congressman also known as Tony -- was arrested at a Miami airport in November 2018 for conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, weapons offenses and making false statements. "The defendant was protected by the current president, who has received millions of dollars in bribes from drug traffickers like 'El Chapo' Guzman, who personally delivered one million dollars to the defendant for his brother," prosecutor Jason Richman said.
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| New whistleblower comes forward regarding Trump’s tax audit Posted: 02 Oct 2019 07:31 AM PDT  A new whistleblower complaint alleges that "possible misconduct" occurred in an effort to influence the audit of President Trump's taxes.
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| 10 Fat Bears and the Machines I Think They Kinda Look Like Posted: 02 Oct 2019 06:38 AM PDT |
| U.S. withholds U.N. aviation dues, calls for immediate whistleblower protections Posted: 02 Oct 2019 12:55 PM PDT  The United States is withholding its dues to the U.N.'s aviation agency, arguing the body needs to move quickly with reforms like expanding public access to documents and giving greater protections to whistleblowers, U.S. government and aviation sources told Reuters this week. The United States has been advocating for greater transparency and protection for whistleblowers at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), after an insider's account of a 2016 cyberattack at the agency generated fallout when it was reported in the media this year. U.S. officials have accused ICAO of downplaying the severity of the breach and have called on the organization to be more open.
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| Lawyer: Uber driver killed passenger in self-defense Posted: 01 Oct 2019 04:36 PM PDT  An Uber driver charged with first-degree murder in the death of a passenger shot the man in self-defense after he touched, punched and pulled his hair as he was speeding down an interstate, his lawyer told jurors Tuesday. In opening arguments in Michael Hancock's trial, Johnna Stuart said Hancock asked a driver who stopped to help to call 911 and then urged a dispatcher to send help to save Hyun (Huhn) Kim, 45, after shooting him on Interstate 25 in June 2018.
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| Before we put people on Mars, we should infect the planet with Earthly microbes, a group of scientists says Posted: 02 Oct 2019 09:23 AM PDT  NASA seeks to prevent interplanetary contamination when exploring space. But some scientists argue we should be infecting Mars with Earth's microbes.
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| Boris Johnson to Suspend Parliament to Outline New Program Posted: 02 Oct 2019 10:46 AM PDT ![Boris Johnson to Suspend Parliament to Outline New Program]( "Boris Johnson to Suspend Parliament to Outline New Program") (Bloomberg) -- Follow @Brexit, sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, and tell us your Brexit story. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will suspend Parliament on Oct. 8 so that he can outline a new legislative program, two weeks after the country's highest court ruled that his previous attempt to stop parliament sitting was unlawful.But unlike that suspension, this one will only last six days, before Parliament returns Oct. 14 for a Queen's Speech. "The government will set out its plans for the NHS, schools, tackling crime, investing in infrastructure and building a strong economy," Johnson said in an emailed statement. "We will get Brexit done on Oct. 31 and continue delivering on these vital issues."Members of Parliament who want to tie Johnson's hands further on Brexit now have just three sitting days in order to do so before the suspension begins. Rebel Conservatives and opposition parties already teamed up last month to pass a law against the government's wishes compelling Johnson to seek to delay the divorce if he's unable to secure a deal acceptable to both the EU and Parliament by Oct. 19.The announcement comes just over a week after the Supreme Court declared Johnson's previous suspension -- which was supposed to last 5 weeks -- "unlawful," saying that "no justification for taking action with such an extreme effect" had been given to the court. A four- to six-day suspension is the norm before a Queen's speech, the court ruled.To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Robert HuttonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Check Out China's New DF-17 Hypersonic Glide Vehicle: A Real Killer? Posted: 01 Oct 2019 12:19 PM PDT  Can the U.S. military match it? How capable is it?
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| Rush Limbaugh Blasts Fox News: They Should Change Name to ‘Fox Never Trumper Network’ Posted: 02 Oct 2019 03:25 PM PDT  REUTERSConservative radio star Rush Limbaugh inserted himself directly into the middle of the Fox News civil war between the network's news division and opinion personalities, complaining on Wednesday that the conservative-leaning network isn't completely on board with the president.Blasting the House Democrats impeachment inquiry during Wednesday's broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show, the right-wing talker bellowed about the coverage of President Donald Trump's now-infamous July 25 call in which he pressured the Ukrainian president to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden."They're trying to create the illusion that Trump is a mob boss," Limbaugh exclaimed. "And he was ordering someone to make up dirt or else we're not going to give you the money. Or worse. None of what they're saying happened in that phone call!"Limbaugh then took aim at Fox News, complaining that there are "Never Trumpers all over" the network, mocking those at Fox who have said the call is hard to defend or inappropriate."There's nothing hard to defend about the phone call," the radio host yelled. "You just don't want to defend it! You know, Fox really ought to change the name of the network from the Fox News Channel to the Fox Never Trumper Network! Because that's who's getting the highlights, and they're bringing in Democrats like Donna Brazile!"In the wake of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's announcement last week that the House Democrats were pursuing an impeachment inquiry, there have been several notable on-air scuffles between Trump-supporting Fox News hosts and Fox anchors and analysts. Anchor Shep Smith, for instance, took issue with primetime host Tucker Carlson allowing Trump-defending guest Joe diGenova to call Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano "a fool" unchallenged, prompting Carlson to return fire by mocking Smith while suggesting he's a "partisan opinion host." 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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| A teen died by suicide after being outed online. His family worries the DA is 'anti-gay' Posted: 01 Oct 2019 02:47 PM PDT  Channing Smith, 16, died by suicide after two teens outed him on social media. His family is worried that the county DA could affect the case.
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| Warren gets ‘dramatic shift’ in support from black voters Posted: 02 Oct 2019 06:34 AM PDT  One element of Elizabeth Warren's surge in the polls is likely to strike fear in her top Democratic rivals — her rising support among African-Americans. After struggling to win over black voters in the early stages of the primary, the Massachusetts senator appears to be gaining ground with a demographic that will play a pivotal role in determining the nomination. A Quinnipiac University national poll last week showed Warren winning 19 percent of the African-American vote — a nine-point jump over the poll's August results.
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| View Photos of the Nissan IMk Concept Posted: 01 Oct 2019 10:00 AM PDT |
| Missouri executes killer despite concern about painful death Posted: 01 Oct 2019 03:12 AM PDT  A Missouri inmate was executed Tuesday for killing a man in 1996 in a string of violence that included several other crimes, despite concerns that the prisoner's rare medical condition would cause a gruesome lethal injection. Russell Bucklew was put to death at the state prison in Bonne Terre. It was Missouri's first execution since January 2017.
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| U.S. Treasury sanctions chief Mandelker leaving for private sector Posted: 02 Oct 2019 09:32 AM PDT  Sigal Mandelker, the U.S. Treasury official who oversaw the Trump administration's aggressive use of sanctions as a foreign policy tool, has resigned to return to the private sector, the U.S. Treasury secretary said on Wednesday. "She is a fierce advocate for effectively leveraging our powerful economic tools to make an impact for a safer world," Mnuchin said in a statement. As undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence since June 2017, Mandelker supervised the ramping up of sanctions against Iran, mainly aimed at strangling oil exports after the United States left the 2015 landmark nuclear deal with Iran.
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| Trump news: President attacks journalist in rambling press conference as impeachment inquiry escalates Posted: 02 Oct 2019 11:07 AM PDT  Donald Trump has been labelled "dangerous" and accused of "unhinged depravity" after he tweeted that the impeachment inquiry into his phone call with Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky amounted to a "coup" days after quoting a far-right Texas pastor's warning that Congress risks creating a "Civil War like fracture" by pursuing him.As his job approval rating slides to an all-time low, the president has been forced to deny reports emanating from a new book that he suggested shooting migrants in the legs, building a snake and alligator-filled moat at the US-Mexico border (no, really) and electrifying his much-touted wall before being told by aides his ideas were both illegal and impractical.
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| A Virginia teacher is suing his school district after he was fired for refusing to use a trans student's pronouns, arguing that doing so would have been 'telling a lie' Posted: 02 Oct 2019 04:02 PM PDT  A teacher alleged that the school tried to force him to "express an objective biological falsehood" by urging him to use the student's male pronouns.
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| DANGER AHEAD: China's Six Carrier Navy Is Just Around the Corner Posted: 01 Oct 2019 09:22 PM PDT  Will it tilt the balance against local U.S. forces?
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| In Syria camp, uncertain future for foreign IS orphans Posted: 01 Oct 2019 07:04 PM PDT  Sitting in a wheelchair beside a metal fence in a camp in northern Syria, nine-year-old Ruqaya Mohammad raises a scarf over her face to hide from journalists. The Egyptian girl lost her left eye, her legs and both her parents during battles against the Islamic State group in their last Syria redoubt in March. Aged 18 months to 13-years-old, the children were born to parents from Russia, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Tajikistan, Egypt and Iraq.
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| 'I never thought something like this would happen to me': Racist graffiti stuns Mississippi restaurant owner Posted: 01 Oct 2019 06:48 AM PDT  Vikki Layne's, a popular restaurant in downtown Hattiesburg, Mississippi, was vandalized and a racial slur was written on a bathroom mirror.
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| The Latest: Judge also hugs Dallas cop sentenced to 10 years Posted: 02 Oct 2019 05:20 AM PDT  The judge overseeing the trial of a white Dallas police officer convicted of killing her black neighbor in his apartment hugged the former officer after jurors sentenced her to 10 years in prison. Judge Tammy Kemp hugged Amber Guyger on Wednesday after the brother of the victim forgave Guyger and hugged her in front of the packed courtroom. Brandt Jean, whose brother, Botham Jean, lived in the fourth-floor apartment directly above Guyger's, told Guyger that his brother would have wanted her to turn her life over to Christ and that if she asks God for forgiveness, she will get it.
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| Will a wealth tax be crippled by avoidance schemes? Posted: 02 Oct 2019 02:55 AM PDT ![Will a wealth tax be crippled by avoidance schemes?]( "Will a wealth tax be crippled by avoidance schemes?") Wealth taxes are hot in American politics right now. Polling consistently finds that the idea of taxing the massive fortunes held by our richest citizens is broadly popular on a bipartisan basis. And the two most progressive candidates in the Democratic presidential primary -- Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) -- have dueling proposals to do just that.But wealth is a mercurial thing, and more difficult to measure than straight income. Critics contend that a wealth tax would be crippled by avoidance schemes the rich would cook up. As an idea, a wealth tax may fire people up. But would it actually work?I can't answer that question for you in a single column. But it's not just complicated because of the technicalities of tax evasion. It's hard for everyone to even agree on what a wealth tax "working" would mean.One of the arguments worth engaging with comes from Larry Summers, who's worked in previous Democratic administrations, and his co-author, Natasha Sarin, who point to the already-existing estate tax, which itself is a form of wealth tax. And revenue for the estate tax chronically comes it at much lower levels than you'd expect if you just ran the raw numbers on the tax rate and the amount of wealth it could hit. Summers and Sarin argue this is due to numerous evasion strategies: "questionable appraisals; valuation discounts for illiquidity and lack of control; establishment of trusts that enable division of assets among family members with substantial founder control; planning devices that give some income to charity while keeping the remainder for the donor and her beneficiaries; tax-advantaged lending schemes" to cite a few examples.As a crude intellectual exercise, they use the results of the estate tax to estimate Warren's wealth tax would only bring in one-eighth to three-eighths of the roughly $200 billion in annual revenue she calculates. They don't do this so much to claim their numbers are right, as to point out the enormous variances evasion can cause. (This same problem would also apply to Sanders' proposal, which is even more aggressive.)Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, the economists who consulted with Warren and ran her numbers, certainly aren't unaware of this criticism. They point out that the make-up of wealth among the very rich is different than among average citizens: 80 percent of the wealth held by the top 0.1 percent is in stocks, bonds and real estate, which are actually pretty easy to measure and value. Warren has committed to keeping the definitions and language of her tax bill as clean and simple as possible, so as to avoid creating loopholes. She wants to significantly bulk up the resources available to the IRS to police tax avoidance. And Warren wants her wealth tax to apply globally, so as to cut down on efforts by the wealthy to simply move their money overseas.More broadly and ambitiously, Saez and Zucman propose ideas like a global wealth registry, built on international cooperation, to track and police wealth holdings, and to enable a more coherent international taxation regime.The underlying challenge is that dealing with tax evasion boils down to political will, influence, and discipline. Over time, either your lawmakers allow lobbyists to blow loopholes in the tax code, or they don't; either they continue giving tax authorities the resources and funding they need to crack down on avoidance, or they don't; and so on. Critics of wealth taxes such as Summers are essentially invoking a skepticism that the necessary political will can ever be mustered, while champions of wealth taxes like Warren and Sanders think these proposals can be used to muster the political will where it once was lacking.Finally, to go one more layer down, mustering the political will to impose a wealth tax inherently involves combating the political leverage and influence that mass concentrations of wealth represent. The more a wealth tax is successful, presumably, the more political force can be mustered to preserve and protect it.This gets to one other complication: Is revenue really the best measure of whether a wealth tax is working?Most everyone both in favor of and opposed to wealth taxes assumes their purpose is to raise the money that will then pay for big spending programs. But the U.S. federal government is the source of all U.S. federal currency -- it can "print" as much money as it wants. "For the federal government, taxes are not about raising revenue, taxes are about reducing consumption to prevent inflation," as economist Dean Baker recently put it. And there's a critical distinction between how much money a tax brings in and how much aggregate consumption it affects in the economy: "Do we think this additional tax bill will reduce the number of times Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos goes out to dinner," Baker asked. "Will they take fewer vacations or buy fewer cars, planes, and yachts?" The effect on consumption won't be zero, but it will be far lower than the effect of the same amount of money taken out of a broader and less wealthy group of taxpayers.Essentially, a wealth tax wouldn't really be about financing government spending or holding down inflation. It'd be about changing the structure of the economy, and ownership in particular: Are companies owned by a small number of rich shareholders, or a bigger number of rich shareholders? Do politicians need to get donations from a small number of rich people, or a larger number of less rich people? Who gets to control decision-making in the economy, and how much power do they wield?If a rich person sells one set of financial instruments and buys another somewhere else to avoid a new wealth tax, that's not necessarily a problem. If that rich person sells off a factory or a business to move their money, that presents more of a quandary. But whether that sale is good or bad depends on what happens next: Is the business ended (Along with the jobs it represents?) or does it simply change ownership? Is it sold to a more socioeconomic diverse group of owners with different prerogatives? Given the right conditions and surrounding policy changes, could it be sold to the workers themselves? Those latter results would ultimately be better for American democracy.None of this is a slam dunk argument in favor of a wealth tax. For example: Baker is also skeptical of wealth taxes, because he fears they'll encourage more people to become lawyers and accountants in the tax evasion industry, when our society could make better use of their talents elsewhere.But to decide a wealth tax's worth, these are the questions we should be asking.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.
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| North Korea says successfully tested new submarine-launched ballistic missile Posted: 02 Oct 2019 02:21 PM PDT  North Korea said on Thursday it had successfully test-fired a new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) from sea to contain external threats and bolster self-defense, ahead of fresh nuclear talks with the United States. The launch on Wednesday was the most provocative by North Korea since it resumed dialogue with the United States in 2018 and a reminder by Pyongyang of the weapons capability it had been aggressively developing, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, analysts said. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "sent warm congratulations" to the defense scientists who conducted the test, state news agency KCNA said, indicating he did not attend the launch as he had done previously at tests of new weapons systems.
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| More than 132,000 Sephardi Jews apply for Spanish citizenship as deadline expires Posted: 02 Oct 2019 09:34 AM PDT  More than 132,000 Jews have applied for Spanish citizenship since the government offered residence to relatives of those expelled during the Inquisition more than 500 years ago. The deadline has now passed for Sephardi Jews - hailing from the Iberian peninsula - to claim rights to citizenship after the window for applications closed. Most have applied from South America. But in Britain the rules have created an unexpected opportunity for some members of the Jewish community to avoid the impact of Brexit by gaining a European passport. The total number of Jews applying to return is not far off the estimated 200,000 who are thought to have fled in the 1490 after facing the option of converting to Catholicism or being burned at the stake. The initiative in Spain has been coupled by a similar offer by the Portuguese government to atone for the persecution of Jews. Meanwhile in Austria last month the parliament ratified a law extending citizenship to descendants of Nazi victims who fled during and after Hitler's Third Reich. Figures from Spain's justice ministry show that by the end of August, one month before the September 30 deadline, 117 British Jews had applied for Spanish citizenship under the scheme introduced in 2015. It remains unclear how many more British Jews have applied in the final rush to meet the Spanish deadline that saw 72,000 applications flood in last month alone, more than in the previous four years combined. "Most of them were from citizens in Latin American countries, mainly Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela," Spain's justice ministry said. But more than 420 British Sephardic Jews have been granted Portuguese passports under that country's citizenship initiative, also launched in 2015. In 1492 the Catholic monarchs of Spain, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, ordered the country's approximately 200,000 Jews to convert to Christianity under the aegis of the Inquisition. Unknown thousands opted for exile, some entering Portugal, which also imposed compulsory conversion or exile by the end of the 15th century. "It was a pragmatic decision," Londoner Adam Perry told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency of his decision to apply for Portuguese citizenship, adding that it was "also a form of protest action against Brexit, with which I deeply disagree". "The Spanish government's law helps Sephardic Jews to close a circle, healing a wound that was opened more than five centuries ago," Marcelo Benveniste told The Telegraph about his decision to apply in 2015. All four of Mr Benveniste's grandparents moved to Argentina from the Greek island of Rhodes, where they had continued to speak Ladino, a language also known as Judaeo-Spanish. Spain asks Sephardic Jews wishing to gain citizenship to show that they can speak Spanish, as well as proving their hereditary connections.
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| Trump praises 'honorable' Portman for corroborating Ukraine aid story Posted: 02 Oct 2019 01:40 PM PDT ![Trump praises 'honorable' Portman for corroborating Ukraine aid story]( "Trump praises 'honorable' Portman for corroborating Ukraine aid story") In defending his decision to withhold Ukrainian aid on Wednesday, President Donald Trump brought to light a behind-the-scenes disagreement with a member of his own party: Republican Sen. Rob Portman. Whether Portman agrees with Trump that the president's phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was "perfect" is another matter. The Ohio lawmaker repeatedly asked the Trump administration why roughly $400 million in aid to Ukraine was delayed.
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| Mouse falls from White House ceiling into man's lap Posted: 02 Oct 2019 01:19 AM PDT  Reporters got a surprise when a mouse fell from the ceiling at the White House.The rodent fell onto the lap of NBC News White House correspondent Peter Alexander yesterday morning, before eventually seeking refuge amid a tangle of wires behind a shelf.
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| See Photos of the 2020 BMW 840i Gran Coupe Posted: 02 Oct 2019 09:59 AM PDT |
| China's Air Force Has One Flaw It Could Never Fix (Until Now) Posted: 01 Oct 2019 08:05 PM PDT  Making quality jet engines.
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| Modi hails toilet 'milestone' as India marks Gandhi's 150th Posted: 02 Oct 2019 09:49 AM PDT  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday declared the country of 1.3 billion people free of open defecation, and turned his sights towards eradicating single-use plastic next. Modi -- whose claim has been challenged by experts -- made his ambitious "latrines for all" pledge when he first took office in 2014 and his announcement late Wednesday coincided with the 150th birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, an icon not just for Indian independence but also sanitation. "In 60 months, 600 million people have been given access to toilets, more than 110 million toilets have been built," Modi said in a speech to 20,000 village chiefs in western Ahmedabad city in his and Gandhi's home state of Gujarat.
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| 3 charged with providing drugs that killed rapper Mac Miller Posted: 02 Oct 2019 01:31 PM PDT  Three men arrested during the investigation into rapper Mac Miller's deadly overdose last year have now been charged with providing the drugs that killed him, U.S. prosecutors said Wednesday. A grand jury indictment that was unsealed in Los Angeles accuses the men of conspiring and distributing cocaine and oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl that caused Miller's death in September 2018.
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| Man severely burned after falling into hot spring by Old Faithful in Yellowstone Posted: 01 Oct 2019 11:56 AM PDT  Walking off the boardwalks in Old Faithful is illegal, punishable by up to six months in prison and a $5,000 fine. Siemers may face criminal charges.
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| UPDATE 2-Vatican financial control office director, four others suspended - report Posted: 02 Oct 2019 06:21 AM PDT ![UPDATE 2-Vatican financial control office director, four others suspended - report]( "UPDATE 2-Vatican financial control office director, four others suspended - report") Five Vatican employees, including the number two at the Vatican's Financial Information Authority (AIF) and a monsignor, have been suspended following a police raid, the Italian magazine L'Espresso reported on Tuesday. The scandal, affecting two departments at the heart of the Vatican, was the first after several years of relative calm in which reforms enacted by Pope Francis appeared to be taking root. A Vatican spokesman said he had no immediate comment on the report.
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| Blackstone Is Warned Denmark Will Act on High Apartment Rents Posted: 02 Oct 2019 03:50 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Denmark's new left-wing government pledged tough laws to control housing costs and singled out Blackstone Group Inc. for "unsustainable" rental practices.Kaare Dybvad, the Danish housing minister, said Blackstone is "challenging" local legislation "where there are holes." By taking advantage of those holes, the concern is that properties are being bought up and then rented out at prices that Danes are finding increasingly difficult to afford.Speaking in an interview in Copenhagen on Tuesday, Dybvad said that "it's clear we need to do something about this.""We're not going to legislate around an individual firm, but the way this has been going so far isn't sustainable," he said. "If Blackstone chooses to conduct itself in a different way in Denmark, in a more sustainable way here than in many other places in the world, then it's clear that they're allowed to be here on the same terms as others."Dybvad said the Social Democrat government that has ruled Denmark since June will now start formulating stricter laws to address the concerns. He has previously criticized Blackstone for "driving up prices in the Copenhagen rental market" and making it harder for low-income earners to remain in the city.The housing minister laid out his plans as Denmark's parliament met for its first session since the summer break. As the chamber reconvened, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen took the opportunity to lash out at what she described as corporate greed.The 41-year-old became Denmark's youngest ever head of government this year after promising a more equal society with increased spending on welfare. Her government's budget proposal means that Denmark will need to raise its borrowing requirement for next year by about $2.3 billion, the finance ministry estimates.Frederiksen also used her speech to lawmakers to zero in on the housing market. "An American private-equity fund is purchasing our houses," she said. And she touched on the list of financial scandals that have angered Danish voters in recent years. "Does greed know no boundaries? Apparently not," she said.Blackstone has said it's a long-term investor in the Danish market, and that it complies with all regulations. Jean Ahlefeldt-Laurvig, a spokeswoman for Blackstone-owned 360 North Property Management, said in August that "the under-supply of rental housing in Copenhagen needs to be addressed, which is why we are bringing additional units to market, while continuing to invest capital into the properties, improving sustainability and contributing to the local economy.""We intend to own these properties for decades and will ensure that they are operated to the highest standard," Ahlefeldt-Laurvig said back then. "We have always operated within the existing regulatory framework, which is one in which all leases are and will remain indefinite for the existing tenants."(Adds reference to borrowing requirement.)\--With assistance from Frances Schwartzkopff and Nick Rigillo.To contact the reporter on this story: Morten Buttler in Copenhagen at mbuttler@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tasneem Hanfi Brögger at tbrogger@bloomberg.net;Paul Sillitoe at psillitoe@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Fairfax County, Va., cop suspended for turning individual over to ICE Posted: 02 Oct 2019 01:14 PM PDT  The Fairfax County, Va., Police Department has suspended an officer for detaining and turning the driver in an accident over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Saturday in violation of the department's policy not to assist ICE with civil enforcement.
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| Biden Gun-Control Plan Would Ban ‘Assault Weapon’ Sales but Not Force ’Buybacks’ Posted: 02 Oct 2019 06:38 AM PDT  Joe Biden's campaign released an eleven-page comprehensive gun-control plan on Wednesday morning, in which the former vice president proposes the reintroduction of an assault-weapons ban but offers only a voluntary buyback for current owners.Biden's plan also includes a universal background check for gun purchases — except for gifts between close family members — and $900 million in federal funding over eight years for anti-gun-violence programs in U.S. inner cities.The voluntary government-purchasing program distances the former vice president from other Democratic presidential candidates, including former congressman Beto O'Rourke, whose viral "hell yes, we're going to take your AR-15," comment in the third Democratic debate sparked controversy over the prospect of gun confiscation.President Trump took aim at O'Rourke in a tweet after the debate, saying "Dummy Beto made it much harder to make a deal," and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said in a conference call that "I don't know of any other Democrat who agrees with Beto O'Rourke." But fellow candidates Kamala Harris and Cory Booker have also expressed support for a mandatory buyback, with Booker telling Bloomberg that foreign countries have been successful in taking assault weapons "off the streets."Biden's proposal toes the line, as it lays out a ban of the manufacturing and selling of military-style assault weapons, but allows current assault-weapon owners the choice between selling to the government or registering the gun under the National Firearms Act.The Act, passed in 1934, requires individuals who own machine guns, silencers, and short-barreled rifles to undergo a background check and register those weapons with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. Currently, semiautomatic weapons do not fall under the law's jurisdiction.On Wednesday, Biden is expected to attend a gun-control-advocacy forum in Las Vegas, hosted by Gabby Giffords and March for Our Lives, where he will unveil his gun-control agenda.A Biden staffer told Axios on Wednesday that despite a Republican-controlled Senate, "You have in the vice president's record two examples of him succeeding in getting legislation done and defeating the NRA before."
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