| Indonesia forest fires: Video shows sky turned blood red by 'scary phenomenon' Posted: 23 Sep 2019 10:14 AM PDT  Skies over Indonesia turned a frightening shade of blood red this weekend, leaving some locals frightened by their surroundings.
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| High school player collapses, dies in twin brother's arms: 'I'm about to pass out' Posted: 23 Sep 2019 10:01 AM PDT  A high school is struggling to come to terms with the death of a football player after he suddenly collapsed and died in his twin brother's arms.
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| At UN General Assembly, Iran and US historically at odds Posted: 22 Sep 2019 04:49 PM PDT  Iran has often commanded center stage at the annual U.N. gathering of world leaders, turning the organization's headquarters into an arena for arguments over the Persian Gulf's daily complexities and hostilities. As Tehran's leadership prepares to address the U.N. General Assembly this week, there are fears that a wider conflict, dragging in Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States, could erupt after a summer of heightened volatility in the region. After the United States withdrew from the nuclear deal — and Washington hit Tehran with escalating sanctions —Iran has begun to break some of the limits that were set in return for sanctions relief.
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| Mother, grandmother charged with neglect after unsupervised child struck sibling with knife Posted: 23 Sep 2019 10:34 AM PDT ![Mother, grandmother charged with neglect after unsupervised child struck sibling with knife]( "Mother, grandmother charged with neglect after unsupervised child struck sibling with knife") Five kids were left home alone for about 30 minutes. Their mother and grandmother were charged with neglect after one child hit another with a knife.
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| U.S. Air Force is Prototyping a Replacement for the Stealth F-35 Posted: 23 Sep 2019 12:18 AM PDT  And it could be revolutionary.
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| 15 Coffee Tables Under $300 (That You'll Actually Like) Posted: 23 Sep 2019 02:06 PM PDT |
| China buys about 10 cargoes of U.S. soybeans after trade talks Posted: 23 Sep 2019 09:28 AM PDT  Chinese importers bought about 10 boatloads of U.S. soybeans on Monday following deputy-level trade talks in Washington last week that were overshadowed by the abrupt cancellation of a U.S. farm state visit by Chinese agriculture officials. Benchmark U.S. soybean futures on the Chicago Board of Trade <0#S:> jumped about 1.5% on news of the renewed buying, the market's steepest rise since Chinese buyers bought a large volume of U.S. soybeans on Sept. 12. Purchases of U.S. agricultural products like soybeans, the most valuable U.S. farm export, and pork are seen as key to securing a deal to end a bilateral trade war between the United States and China that has lasted more than a year.
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| GM furloughs 1,225 more workers as strike enters 2nd week Posted: 23 Sep 2019 12:55 PM PDT  General Motors temporarily laid off an additional 1,225 workers in Canada and the United States on Monday as a strike entered its second week. The actions affect 525 hourly workers at its DMAX engine plant in Moraine, Ohio, a GM spokesman said. DMAX is a joint venture owned 60 percent by GM and 40 percent by Isuzu.
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| Baby Archie receives traditional African name Posted: 23 Sep 2019 10:53 AM PDT  "This name of Xhosa African origin means 'pillar of strength.' May you always be a pillar of strength for those who need you."
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| Clinton Vets to Biden: Sh*t’s Just Gonna Get Worse Posted: 23 Sep 2019 01:56 PM PDT  Joshua Lott/GettyAs Joe Biden's campaign braces itself for an onslaught of highly dubious accusations from Donald Trump over Hunter Biden's work in Ukraine, Democratic veterans of the last presidential election are watching in horror. Nearly three years after their boss was on the receiving end of Trump's attacks, former aides to Hillary Clinton recognized the current Trump playbook: allegations of corruption amplified by his allies and the conservative media, followed by the mainstream press adding more oxygen to the scandal by treating it as a horse race story rather than a misinformation campaign. As a result, they are sounding the alarm, urging Biden's campaign to be extremely careful with how they handle the fallout, arguing that missteps will be twisted and exploited sometimes before a cohesive pushback strategy can be crafted. And, they warn, it's not just Biden's problem to tackle. "I think the other candidates should all recognize that it may be Joe Biden in the barrel today but it could just as easily be them tomorrow if Trump decides any of them emerge as the Democratic nominee," said Brian Fallon, who served as Clinton's press secretary in 2016. "It is a problem that needs to be tended to by the party as a whole. It is not a Joe Biden problem. It is a party problem." Karen Finney, a political consultant and former spokesperson for the Clinton campaign, said the Biden campaign has done a good job calling attention to Team Trump's tactic of creating a false equivalence between Joe and Hunter Biden and what Trump reportedly said during a phone call with the Ukrainian president. But she warned that the onslaught was just starting. "Everybody get ready, because this is what 2020 is going to be like every day," Finney said. House Threatens to Subpoena Trump & Giuliani Ukraine DocsThe fears expressed by multiple Clinton veterans underscore the difficult task at hand for team Biden, the current front-runner in the Democratic primary. Going after Trump for encouraging or even pressuring the president of Ukraine to investigate allegations of corruption involving Hunter Biden may seem like the only move at hand, but it runs the risk of elevating the attacks on his son even further. "The key piece of advice is to never repeat the negative," said Zac Petkanas, a former senior adviser to Clinton who ran her 2016 campaign's rapid response effort. "Never accept the premise of the question. The only thing the Biden campaign should say about the substance of the attack is that it has been debunked."For now, the former vice president's team sees no other choice than to rebut the president and his team head on. "This is a situation where there is no question about whether us reacting to it gives it more oxygen," said Anita Dunn, an adviser to the Biden campaign. "When the president, his personal of lawyer, the secretary of the treasury, the secretary of state, and every other person they can find is out there raising the issue, when the president decides to tweet or talk to the press, he is elevating the issue regardless of whatever we are doing. The question then becomes: What is the most effective way to combat it?""We will be direct, call it out for what it is, be aggressive, and won't back down," Dunn added. "I hope the media has taken some lessons from 2016 on this too, because the media tries to play by a set of rules and Trump knows what those rules are, and uses them to his advantage because he doesn't play by any rules." Those who have worked on campaigns past don't quibble with the approach. But there are fears that Biden's campaign has already made errors. One Clinton vet noted that Hunter Biden told The New Yorker in July that he had spoken to his father about his Ukraine work, in contrast to the former vice president's assertion that the topic was never discussed. "That's an inconsistency," said the former Clinton aide, who asked for anonymity in order to speak freely. "They should get their facts in order and push back hard on substance so that everyone can have confidence that this won't be a real issue for his campaign."Pelosi Not Budging on Impeachment and Her Colleagues Are Privately ScreamingBiden's campaign has, in recent days, denied any wrongdoing. It's also gone after Trump, his allies, and reporters for suggesting there's any validity to the claim. During a press gaggle in Iowa, Biden called Trump's conduct an apparent "overwhelming abuse of power." And his spokesman, Andrew Bates, told The Daily Beast that Trump had debased the presidency, "remind[ing] the American people of something he made clear long ago: He will always put himself before his country."Philippe Reines, a longtime Clinton confidant, said the best course of action for Biden's team moving forward is to "just let it rip." Biden, he said "should just breathe fire and say, 'Look, you're lying.'"To that end, in a strongly worded memo sent to some members of the media on Saturday, Biden's deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield pushed any media outlet covering Trump's allegations to "state at the outset that there is no factual basis for Trump's claims," asserting that failure to do so "is misleading readers and viewers." "The inescapable news from this week is that Donald Trump, in order to damage the potential Democratic nominee he fears the most—and who, as Joe Biden said Saturday, polls consistently show would 'beat him like a drum'—may very well have perpetrated an abuse of presidential power that has never before taken place in American history," the memo read. Trump himself has not shied away from the accusation that he encouraged the president of Ukraine to launch an investigation into Hunter Biden's work as part of conversations about sending military aid to the country. He has suggested he'd even be comfortable with a transcript of the call being made public, all while insisting that the real scandal involves the former vice president's encouragement that a Ukrainian prosecutor looking into the Hunter Biden-tied company be sacked. Several reports have noted that other officials, including many European governments, wanted the Ukrainian prosecutor gone on grounds that he was corrupt. The chaotic fallout has prompted many Clinton allies to draw comparisons to the allegations they were tasked with responding to in the lead-up to the 2016 general election. During that campaign, Clinton faced months of scrutiny over her use of a private email server, the workings of her family's charitable foundation, and revelations that she'd exchanged more than 100 emails that contained classified information. She struggled with how to respond to the steady drip of news and hesitated for weeks over whether to apologize. But by the end of the cycle, she and her team came to believe that the news media's coverage of the controversies lacked any proportionality—certainly when compared to the coverage devoted to Trump. Reflecting on that now, Fallon called the stories of Clinton's wrongdoings "banana peels" that would have the effect of making them slip up. Biden, he warned, would be wise to simply avoid stepping on them at all. "Trying to sort of duke it out in the press every day is not a recipe for long-term success," Fallon said. "You might get the better of any given cycle, but it won't alter the trajectory of the story or shift the press off the mindset of probing any merits of whatever controversy Trump is trying to fan around your candidacy." 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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| These DIY instant noodles are healthier than the store-bought versions and so easy to make Posted: 23 Sep 2019 12:48 PM PDT  These homemade ramen noodle recipes are quick and easy, and you can make them up to four days in advance.
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| UNC denies claims of bias in Middle East studies program Posted: 23 Sep 2019 03:54 PM PDT  The University of North Carolina is disputing the Trump administration's accusations of bias in a Middle East studies program that the school operates with Duke University. In a letter sent to the department Friday and obtained by The Associated Press through a records request on Monday, UNC's research chief defends the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies, saying it has been a leader in Middle Eastern language studies for years. UNC, which houses the consortium, was responding to an Aug. 29 letter from the department.
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| Thirteen Marines Charged with Smuggling Illegal Immigrants into U.S. Posted: 23 Sep 2019 11:12 AM PDT  The Marine Corps has charged 13 members with smuggling illegal immigrants into the U.S., in addition to a range of other offenses including failure to obey an order, drunkenness, endangerment, larceny, and perjury, according to a statement released Friday.Lance Corporals Byron Law and David Salazar-Quintero were specifically charged with transporting illegal immigrants into the country for financial gain. The two were based in Camp Pendleton, located between San Diego and Los Angeles, Calif.The other marines included in the indictments, some of whom were charged with distributing cocaine and LSD, were not named.Law and Salazar-Quintero were pulled over by Border Patrol agents seven miles north of the U.S.–Mexico border after picking up three migrants who had just crossed the border illegally, according to a federal complaint filed in July and first reported by Quartz. Law was found in the driver's seat with Salazar-Quintero on the passenger side, along with three undocumented immigrants in the back seat.The three were reportedly found to be Mexican citizens without documents needed to enter the U.S. legally. Two of the immigrants told agents they planned on paying $8,000 to their smugglers.During his interrogation, Law told investigators that Salazar-Quintero had suggested they pick up an illegal immigrant to make $1,000. They then succeeded in bringing one person into the U.S. but weren't paid for their endeavor, and so decided to smuggle more people and receive pay for the total number of people they brought in.
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| Why Russia's Air Force Is So Dangerous Posted: 22 Sep 2019 01:30 AM PDT  Cheaper than Western aircraft and almost just as good.
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| White House press secretary: Trump stopped briefings because reporters were mean Posted: 23 Sep 2019 12:51 PM PDT  Any hope that Americans may one day see Trump's new press secretary taking questions from reporters in a formal White House press briefing went out the window on Monday morning when Stephanie Grisham sat down for her first appearance on "Fox & Friends" since taking over for Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier this year.
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| Indonesia finds design flaw, oversight lapses in 737 MAX crash: WSJ Posted: 22 Sep 2019 03:56 PM PDT  The draft conclusions, expected to be the first formal government finding of flaws in the design and U.S. regulatory approval, also identify a string of pilot errors and maintenance mistakes as causal factors of the Lion Air crash, the WSJ https://www.wsj.com/articles/indonesia-to-fault-737-max-design-u-s-oversight-in-lion-air-crash-report-11569185664?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1 said. The Boeing 737 MAX has been grounded since March in the aftermath of two fatal crashes in five months. A Boeing spokesman did not comment on the newspaper report but said the plane maker continued to offer support to the investigating authorities as they complete their report.
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| Israeli woman dies months after wounds from Gaza rocket Posted: 23 Sep 2019 08:07 AM PDT  An Israeli woman wounded by Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip in November 2018 has died from her injuries, officials said Monday. The southern coastal city of Ashkelon, where she lived, announced the death of Nina Genisdanova in a statement. Israeli media said she was 74 and died last week.
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| AOC says bigger scandal than Trump's 'lawbreaking behavior' is Dems' refusal to impeach Posted: 22 Sep 2019 09:55 AM PDT  Ocasio-Cortez added further fuel to the impeachment fire by saying the bigger scandal was Democrats' refusal to impeach President Trump.
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| The Latest: Trump: I'd win Nobel if it was awarded 'fairly' Posted: 23 Sep 2019 03:25 PM PDT  President Donald Trump got a question that was music to his ears during one of his meetings with foreign leaders at the United Nations. When Trump met with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday, a reporter from the Pakistani press corps asked Trump about mediating the India-Pakistan standoff over the disputed region Kashmir. When the reporter told Trump he would deserve a Nobel Prize if he could resolve the dispute, the president readily agreed.
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| Florida police officer suspended for arresting two 6-year-olds Posted: 23 Sep 2019 03:07 PM PDT ![Florida police officer suspended for arresting two 6-year-olds]( "Florida police officer suspended for arresting two 6-year-olds") A Florida police officer has been suspended and is being investigated after arresting two 6-year-olds for separate disciplinary incidents at their school, police and a prosecutor said on Monday. Dennis Turner arrested the children on Thursday while working as a resource officer at a charter school in Orlando, charging them both with misdemeanor battery, Florida State Attorney Aramis Ayala told a news conference. Ayala said Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolón told her he did not intend to prosecute the children and had asked for the charges to be dropped.
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| How a routine training flight ended with 6 Marines killed in a tragic midair collision and 4 officers out of a job Posted: 23 Sep 2019 08:01 AM PDT  The deadly incident led to to a loss of "trust and confidence" in a squadron commander and saw the firing of another three Marine Corps officers.
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| Government warns people against using conditioner after a nuclear explosion Posted: 23 Sep 2019 08:30 AM PDT  Last month, the United States pulled out of a nuclear treaty with Russia that prohibited the two nations from possessing, producing or testing thousands of land-based missiles. The U.S. then conducted a missile test that would have been forbidden under the treaty. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers a few dos and don'ts that citizens should remember in case a nuclear explosion were to take place.
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| See This Strange Cannon? It Was Hitler's Secret Weapon to Crush the Allies Posted: 21 Sep 2019 09:00 PM PDT  The German Heavy Gustav was the largest gun ever built. It was more than 150 feet long, 40 feet tall and weighed almost 1,500 tons. The steel giant Krupp A.G. made only two, and neither worked well.
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| Israel cuts power in parts of West Bank over debts Posted: 22 Sep 2019 12:21 PM PDT  Israel's national electricity company said Sunday it was cutting power to parts of the occupied West Bank due to outstanding payments amounting to nearly $483 million. The Israel Electric Corporation said it was owed 1.7 billion shekels in debts from the main Palestinian power distributor for the West Bank, which is based in east Jerusalem. From Monday, the company "will reduce the current in some areas of the West Bank" because of the debts, it said in a statement.
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| The DNC again raises the requirements needed to qualify for the Democratic debates Posted: 23 Sep 2019 12:34 PM PDT  As in previous debate rounds, the requirements announced Monday include specific donor thresholds and polling numbers. But the new rules raise those bars.
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| In the 1980s, the World Acted to Save the Ozone Layer. Here's Why the Fight Against Climate Change Is Different Posted: 23 Sep 2019 10:47 AM PDT  A scientist who helped saved the ozone layer in the 1980s weighs inn on why it's been harder for science to lead to action on climate change
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| White House Press Sec: Trump ‘Put a Stop’ to Briefing Because Reporters Were Being Mean Posted: 23 Sep 2019 10:09 AM PDT  Any hope that Americans may one day see Trump's new press secretary taking questions from reporters in a formal White House press briefing went out the window on Monday morning when Stephanie Grisham sat down for her first appearance on Fox & Friends since taking over for Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier this year. Before Grisham even got a chance to explain why she has yet to brief the media, the Fox hosts were giving her cover. Steve Doocy suggested that President Trump "doesn't really need anybody to do the talking for him" because he's such a "great communicator.""He's his own best spokesperson, it's true," Trump's official spokesperson replied, pointing to Trump's helicopter-side chats with the press as evidence that he's the "most accessible" president in history. "Is this the new press briefing?" Ainsley Earhardt asked. "Before, we saw all of his press secretaries in front of the podium." Noting that Saturday Night Live "made fun of" Sean Spicer for his briefing behavior, she told Grisham, "You'll never have that moment because no longer are we doing that, right?" "Not right now," Grisham said, adding, "to be honest the briefings had become a lot of theater and I think that a lot of reporters were doing it to…" Doocy finished her sentence for her with, "get famous!" Without naming names, Grisham seemed to criticize White House reporters like CNN's Jim Acosta and ABC's Jonathan Karl for writing books about their experiences. When Brian Kilmeade asked Grisham if Trump "took it personal" when reporters demanded answers in briefings with Spicer or Sanders—in other words, doing their jobs by holding the administration accountable—she replied, "Absolutely.""I think it's so important that the spokesperson for the president can adequately speak to his policies and get his message out there. And I think the president saw that that's not what was happening," she said. "It had become, again, theater, and they weren't being good to his people. And he doesn't like that. He's very loyal to his people, and he put a stop to it." Sean Spicer Has Most Embarrassing 'Dancing With the Stars' Debut Ever, PeriodRead 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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| Mexican president praises historian at center of dispute with business leaders Posted: 23 Sep 2019 03:26 PM PDT  Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday praised a historian whose comments about the killers of a prominent industrialist in the 1970s sparked an angry response from a top business lobby and other corporate leaders. Last week, Pedro Salmeron, head of the National Institute of Historical Studies of the Revolutions of Mexico (INEHRM), described the left-wing guerrillas who fatally shot Eugenio Garza Sada in 1973 as "courageous youths" in a blog post. Garza, an 81-year-old businessman from the northern city of Monterrey, was killed along with several others when resisting a failed kidnapping attempt by members of a group known as the Liga Comunista 23 de Septiembre (September 23 Communist League).
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| Jurors convict Iowa farmer in corn rake killing of wife Posted: 23 Sep 2019 01:25 PM PDT  A jury Monday convicted an eastern Iowa hog farmer of using a corn rake to kill his wife, agreeing with prosecutors who argued he was enraged that she was having an affair. Jurors found Todd M. Mullis, 43, guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Amy Mullis, according to the Telegraph Herald . Prosecutors said Mullis had wanted to kill his wife for years and was irate that she was having an affair and fearful that he'd lose their farm if she divorced him.
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| Delta has an incredible fare sale through Wednesday with flights as low as $97 Posted: 22 Sep 2019 06:06 AM PDT  Regular travelers probably don't associate the idea of sales and low-fares with a carrier like Delta Airlines, which are more in the wheelhouse of a low-cost brand like Southwest that offers up flash fare sales on the regular.Nevertheless, that's exactly what Delta has going at the moment \-- a fare sale with deals that start as low as only $97, though they come with a few important catches.One is that you've only got until September 25, to lock one of these fares in. Just as important to know: These are Delta basic economy fares, a classification that leaves several things to chance. You'll be assigned a seat at check-in, for example, and you'll be stuck in the last boarding group and thus will probably have to gate-check your luggage.If you can be fine with those limitations, though, there are some great deals to be had. In most cases, they're fares that are meant for travel happening sometime between October and February 2020, and the deals include a $97 round-trip offer in basic economy between Atlanta and Nashville; a $99 round-trip offer between Los Angeles and San Diego; a $117 offer between Austin and Cincinnatti; and a $127 offer between Seattle and San Jose.The full list of routes and discounted fares offered can be found on Delta's sale website. Of course, just because a fare that's discounted here looks pretty low doesn't mean you won't find a comparable offer elsewhere -- one that may also have some of the perks like earlier boarding that you're denied through this Delta sale. Speaking of those basic economy limitations here, savvy travelers should be able to easily get around them using certain co-branded credit cards that offer perks like early boarding, luggage benefits and the like.If you decide these deals are worth it, though, remember -- you've only got a few more days to decide, as the fare sale is only good through Wednesday.
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| Patriot Missile Defense: America's Answer to Ballistic Missiles, Drones, and Aerial Threats Posted: 22 Sep 2019 01:00 AM PDT  Can it handle 21st-century threats?
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| India seizes one tonne of ketamine on boat, arrests six Myanmar crew Posted: 22 Sep 2019 02:02 AM PDT  India's coast guard has arrested six Myanmar men and seized $42 million worth of ketamine after spotting a suspicious vessel in the Indian Ocean near the Nicobar Islands. The 1,160 kilogram (about 2,500 pounds) drug haul came after coast guard aircraft spotted the boat, which had its lights off, on Wednesday in India's Exclusive Economic Zone, the defence ministry said in a statement. The boat's crew did not respond to radio calls and the coast guard eventually boarded it, with officials finding "57 gunny bundles of suspicious substance" on Friday.
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| Germany Mulls Emergency Aid for Thomas Cook’s Condor Airline Posted: 23 Sep 2019 08:25 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- German authorities are considering emergency financial aid for Thomas Cook Group Plc's Condor subsidiary as Deutsche Lufthansa AG remains tight-lipped on the fate of a unit it bid for earlier this year.Germany's Economy Ministry on Monday said it's urgently assessing Condor Flugdienst GmbH's request for a bridge loan after Thomas Cook collapsed under a pile of debt. The state of Hesse, where Condor's base at Frankfurt Airport is located, is ready to help with a loan guarantee and is already in talks with the airline and the federal government, Premier Volker Bouffier said."Condor is in a difficult situation thanks to its British parent Thomas Cook," Bouffier said in a statement. "Both are victims of Brexit, which has created uncertainty among companies and its customers."The federal government in 2017 made a similar loan to Air Berlin Plc to keep the airline flying while Lufthansa considered taking it over. The European Union Commission may also have to sign off on potential aid, a government spokesman said. Lufthansa earlier this year bid for Condor but in June said the offer would likely be rejected."The federal government is examining the application," an economy ministry spokesman said in an emailed statement. A spokesman for Lufthansa declined to comment on Thomas Cook's bankruptcy.European airlines are struggling to turn a profit due to the surplus of seats on tourist and business routes. Despite the demise of Air Berlin, Monarch, Wow and several other airlines since the end of 2017, too many planes are still flying to too many places."All Condor flights are taking off as planned today, and we will do everything within our means so that our fleet can continue to take our guests to their holiday destinations and back," Condor Chief Executive Ralf Teckentrup said in a statement. About 240,000 of the airline's customers are currently abroad, he said, adding that tickets sales are working without restrictions.Authorities came under increasing pressure to act on Monday, as labor groups and industry associations weighed in. Germany's UFO cabin personnel union said Condor is a profitable company that "deserves a chance at survival," a position echoed by unions representing the pilots and ground staff, as well as the country's airport association ADV.Slots Available"We very much hope that the decision makers in the federal government and in Hesse look closely at the situation and contribute to make this happen," UFO head Sylvia De la Cruz said in a statement.While a spokesman for Lufthansa on Monday wouldn't reveal details of its earlier bid, the airline is unlikely to be interested in the company's medium- and long-haul jets, which are mostly older than its own. Condor's slots would be valuable to Lufthansa, although Chief Financial Officer Ulrik Svensson in June said an integration with its low-cost unit Eurowings would be "complex".That complexity could prove insurmountable as the Cologne-based airline has issued profit warnings and is under pressure from investors to turn Eurowings around after years of underperformance. Investors have also lambasted management for its costly integration of the Air Berlin jets.One option for Lufthansa would be to wait for Condor to go bust and then acquire the airline's slots from airport operators. The Condor brand would likely also be of value, as the airline is popular with German travelers.Main BattlegroundThomas Cook flew German customers with three different airlines. All three remain airborne for the time being, meaning just over half of the company's 105 aircraft are still flying. Lufthansa owned Condor before selling the unit to Thomas Cook a decade ago.Germany's aviation market is one of the main battlegrounds in a Europe-wide fare war to gain market share. Ryanair Holdings Plc and Easyjet Plc rushed into a vacuum created by the collapse of Air Berlin, forcing Lufthansa into a price war in which the firm's Eurowings subsidiary has lost hundreds of millions of euros.This summer has seen heated competition on holiday routes to western Mediterranean destinations such as Spain, after Ryanair added a plethora of flights from Lufthansa's main Frankfurt hub to the Iberian peninsula.(Adds comment from Condor CEO from seventh paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: William Wilkes in Frankfurt at wwilkes1@bloomberg.net;Richard Weiss in Frankfurt at rweiss5@bloomberg.net;Birgit Jennen in Berlin at bjennen1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Raymond Colitt, Iain RogersFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| A Crackdown on Islam Is Spreading Across China Posted: 22 Sep 2019 09:14 AM PDT  YINCHUAN, China -- In China's northwest, the government is stripping the most overt expressions of the Islamic faith from a picturesque valley where most residents are devout Muslims. Authorities have destroyed domes and minarets on mosques, including one in a small village near Linxia, a city known as "Little Mecca."Similar demolitions have been carried out in Inner Mongolia, Henan and Ningxia, the homeland of China's largest Muslim ethnic minority, the Hui. In the southern province of Yunnan, three mosques were closed. From Beijing to Ningxia, officials have banned the public use of Arabic script.This campaign represents the newest front in the Chinese Communist Party's sweeping rollback of individual religious freedoms, after decades of relative openness that allowed more moderate forms of Islam to blossom. The harsh crackdown on Muslims that began with the Uighurs in Xinjiang is spreading to more regions and more groups.It is driven by the party's fear that adherence to the Muslim faith could turn into religious extremism and open defiance of its rule. Across China, the party is now imposing new restrictions on Islamic customs and practices, in line with a confidential party directive, parts of which have been seen by The New York Times.The measures reflect the hard-line policies of China's leader, Xi Jinping, who has sought to reassert the primacy of the Communist Party and its ideology in all walks of life.The campaign has prompted concerns that the repression of Uighur Muslims in the western region of Xinjiang has begun to bleed into other parts of China, targeting Hui and other Muslims who have been better integrated than Uighurs into Chinese society. Last year, a top party official from Ningxia praised Xinjiang's government during a visit there and pledged to increase cooperation between the two regions on security matters.Haiyun Ma, a Hui Muslim professor at Frostburg State University in Maryland, said the crackdown was continuing a long history of animosity toward Islam in China that has alienated believers."The People's Republic of China has become the world's foremost purveyor of anti-Islamic ideology and hate," he wrote in a recent essay for the Hudson Institute. "This, in turn, has translated into broad public support for the Beijing government's intensifying oppression of Muslims in the Xinjiang region and elsewhere in the country."None of the new measures, so far, have approached the brutality of Xinjiang's mass detentions and invasive surveillance of Uighurs. But they have already stirred anxiety among the Hui, who number more than 10 million."We are now backtracking again," Cui Haoxin, a Hui Muslim poet who publishes under the name An Ran, said in an interview in Jinan, south of Beijing, where he lives.To Cui, the methods of repression that are smothering Uighur society in Xinjiang now loom over all of China. "One day, this model will not only target Muslims," he said. "Everyone will be harmed by it."'Sinicization of Islam'Islam has had followers in China for centuries. There are now 22 million to 23 million Muslims, a tiny minority in a country of 1.4 billion. Among them, the Hui and the Uighurs make up the largest ethnic groups. Uighurs primarily live in Xinjiang, but the Hui live in enclaves scattered around the nation.The restrictions they now face can be traced to 2015, when Xi first raised the issue of what he called the "Sinicization of Islam," saying all faiths should be subordinate to Chinese culture and the Communist Party. Last year, Xi's government issued a confidential directive that ordered local officials to prevent Islam from interfering with secular life and the state's functions.Critics of China's policies who are outside the country provided excerpts from the directive to The Times. The directive, titled "Reinforcing and Improving Islam Work in the New Situation," has not been made public. It was issued by the State Council, China's Cabinet, in April of last year and classified as confidential for 20 years.The directive warns against the "Arabization" of Islamic places, fashions and rituals in China, singling out the influence of Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam's holiest sites, as a cause for concern.It prohibits the use of the Islamic financial system. It bars mosques or other private Islamic organizations from organizing kindergartens or after-school programs, and it forbids Arabic-language schools to teach religion or send students abroad to study.The most visible aspect of the crackdown has been the targeting of mosques built with domes, minarets and other architectural details characteristic of Central Asia or the Arabic world.Taken in isolation, some of these measures seem limited. Others seem capricious: some mosques with Arabic features have been left untouched, while others nearby have been altered or shut down.But on a national scale, the trend is clear. Cui, the poet, calls it the harshest campaign against faith since the end of the Cultural Revolution, when so-called Red Guards unleashed by Mao Zedong destroyed mosques across the country.Targeting Domes and Arabic ScriptIn the state's view, the spread of Islamic customs dangerously subverts social and political conformity.In Ningxia, the provincial government banned public displays of Arabic script, even removing the word "halal" from the official seal it distributes to restaurants that follow Islamic customs for preparing food. The seals now use Chinese characters. That prohibition spread this summer to Beijing and elsewhere.The authorities in several provinces have stopped distributing halal certificates for food, dairy and wheat producers and restaurants. Chinese state media have described this as an effort to curb a "pan-halal tendency" in which Islamic standards are being applied, in the government's view, to too many types of foods or restaurants.Ningxia and Gansu have also banned the traditional call to prayer. Around historical mosques there, prayer times are now announced with a grating claxon. One imam in Ningxia's capital, Yinchuan, said authorities had recently visited and warned him to make no public statements on religious matters.Auuthorities have also targeted the mosques themselves. In Gansu, construction workers in Gazhuang, a village near Linxia, descended on a mosque in April, tearing off its golden dome. It has not yet reopened. Plainclothes policemen prevented two Times journalists from entering.In the southern province of Yunnan, where there have long been Hui communities, authorities last December padlocked mosques in three small villages that had been run without official permission. There were protests and brief scuffles with police, to no avail. The county issued a statement accusing the mosques of holding illegal religious activities and classes.In one of the villages, Huihuideng, Ma Jiwu carried his grandson outside the shuttered local mosque, which had operated inside a home.Ma, wearing the distinctive skullcap that many Hui wear, said the imams there had ignored warnings to move their services to the village's main mosque, where a Chinese flag hangs in the central courtyard and a large red banner exhorts worshippers, "Love your country, love your religion.""They did not listen," Ma said.Near the main mosque, a woman said the closing of the smaller one had stirred resentment, but also a feeling of resignation. She used a Chinese idiom for helplessness against a superior force, in this case the government: "The arm cannot twist the thigh."Xiong Kunxin, a professor of ethnic studies at Minzu University in Beijing, defended the government's recent actions. He said that China's far-reaching economic changes over the last 40 years had been accompanied by a loosening of restrictions on religious practice, but that the laxity had gone too far."Now China's economic development has reached a certain height," he said, "and suddenly problems related to religious and other affairs are being discovered."In the case of Islam, he cited the proliferation of mosques and the spread of "halal" practices into public life, saying they conflicted with the cultural values of the majority Han Chinese population.Official statistics indicate that there are now more mosques in China than Buddhist temples: 35,000 compared with 33,500. In the last year, scores of mosques have been altered, closed or destroyed entirely, many of them in Xinjiang, according to officials and news reports.'The Major Enemy the State Faces'The party asserts that it has the right to control all organized religion. Critics ascribe that to its fear that religious organizations could challenge its political power. In the past, the party's repression has triggered violent responses.In 1975, during Mao's Cultural Revolution, the People's Liberation Army surrounded Shadian, a mostly Hui Muslim town in Yunnan province where residents had protested the closure of mosques. Clashes ensued, prompting a massive military intervention that razed the town and left more than 1,600 people dead.The current pressure has also been met with unrest, though not on that scale. In August 2018 in Weizhou, a village in Ningxia, protests erupted when the authorities sent demolition workers to a newly built mosque. After a tense showdown that lasted several days, the local government promised to suspend the destruction and review the plans.Nearly a year later, police officers still block the roads into the village, turning away foreigners, including diplomats and two Times journalists who tried to visit in May.China claims that it allows freedom of religion, but emphasizes that the state must always come first. The Ningxia government, asked about its recent restrictions on Islam, said that China had rules on religious practice just like any other country.Mosques that violate laws such as building codes will be closed, it said, and schools and universities will not permit religious activities."Arabic is a foreign language," the government said about the restrictions on public signage, adding that they had been imposed "to make things convenient for the general public."In an interview, Ma, the Frostburg State scholar, said the current leadership viewed religion as "the major enemy the state faces." He said senior officials had studied the role played by faith -- particularly the Catholic Church in Poland -- in the collapse of the Soviet Union and its dominion in Eastern Europe.Believers have little recourse against the intensifying crackdown. Ma predicted that it would not relent soon, but that it would ultimately fail, as other campaigns against Muslims have."I really doubt they can eliminate religious faith," he said. "That is impossible."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| Capital gains tax reform may be coming. Here's what Republicans and Democrats want Posted: 22 Sep 2019 07:35 AM PDT  Some Republicans are pushing an idea to tie the tax to inflation, which would lower what many owe. Democrats want to see the rich pay more.
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| After the Israeli elections, is the friendship between Netanyahu and Trump on the decline? Posted: 23 Sep 2019 04:35 PM PDT  With so many favors promised and fulfilled, what else is to be expected from the partnership?
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| Scientists race to read Austria's melting climate archive Posted: 23 Sep 2019 04:03 AM PDT  Scientists are racing to read a rapidly melting archive of climate data going back thousands of years - the inside of Austria's Alpine glaciers. Mountain glaciers are receding the world over as average global temperatures rise - a phenomenon that will be described in detail in a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change this week. Glaciers in Austria, on the eastern edge of the Alps, are particularly sensitive to climate change and have been shrinking even more rapidly than most, making it all the more urgent to examine their contents before they disappear, said Andrea Fischer, a scientist conducting the work.
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| The Latest: British PM questions Thomas Cook bosses' pay Posted: 23 Sep 2019 10:03 AM PDT  Prime Minister Boris Johnson says a "huge effort" is underway to bring home British tourists and passengers stranded by the sudden financial collapse of travel company Thomas Cook. Gambian Tourism Minister Hamat Bah has told The Associated Press the country's government has convened an emergency meeting to deal with the collapse of travel company Thomas Cook. A Swedish Thomas Cook customer stranded on Cyprus is making the best of a bad situation, saying he'll enjoy the sunshine until Friday when arrangements will hopefully be made for his return.
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| Will the Supreme Court Nix Montana’s Anti-Catholic ‘Blaine Amendment’? Posted: 23 Sep 2019 03:30 AM PDT  As a second-grader, Raelyn Sukhbir used to cry every night. She was being bullied "unmercifully" in the public school she was attending. Life at home was miserable because the poor girl was so anxious and despondent — which had her parents worried about how bad things might be all the rest of the time, when she wasn't home. Raelyn "did not want to be around other kids and was clingy whenever we would visit friends," her mother told lawyer Andrea Picciotti-Bayer. "She did not want to participate in any activities or sports." Her father, a retired army veteran who was injured in Afghanistan, talked to the teachers and administrators, but there was no improvement.Brittany and Kyle Sukhbir had heard good things about the nearby St. Mary's Catholic school — that it had a "zero tolerance policy" against bullying. Picciotti-Bayer writes that "the Sukhbirs did not think that they could afford private school, but the daily bullying simply became too much for Raelyn to bear." They contacted the school just before Christmas, and Raelyn spent a day trying on the school. "Every single teacher knew her name, and every student was excited to meet Raelyn and play with her," her mother said.Two years later, the girl is transformed. She's not shy and reserved anymore, but outgoing. She fully participates in the life of the school, including sports. "St. Mary's is teaching self-confidence and kindness," her mother reports. She's thriving academically, and even the Sukhbirs' family life is better. "Now that Raelyn is no longer crying when she comes home from school, we can really enjoy being together," Brittany says.Brittany works as an office manager at a local physical-therapy clinic, and Kyle works in North Dakota on an oil field two weeks of every month. Their combined salaries would not cover tuition for Raelyn, now eight, and their son, five-year-old Wyatt. She used to think that "St. Mary's was only for rich kids," she says. "But I now know that that is 100 percent not the case." Knowledge of tuition assistance from the school or other widely available helps from private and public sources could help save other families from similar situations. "My kid would not be the kid she is today if we did not have the scholarship supports to send her to St. Mary's," Brittany notes. Raelyn "really has flourished into an amazing child."Piccioti-Bayer interviewed Brittany Sukhbir and other parents of children benefiting from tuition assistance, for an amicus brief just filed at the U.S. Supreme Court by the Catholic Association Foundation. The brief is in support of a challenge to a decision by the Montana supreme court that religious schools cannot benefit from public tuition aids — not even from tax credits for people donating to private scholarship funds. (The Institute for Justice is representing moms of Montana.) The case, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Taxation, has the potential to remove the anti-Catholic Blaine amendments that remain in many state constitutions. Such a decision could change children's lives in America.Other parents profiled by Piccioti-Bayer include Christina and Justin Schye, who had sent three children to public schools. Their nine-year-old with Down syndrome needed something else, they concluded. His public-school situation was "traumatic." By contrast, when he went to St. Francis school, some eighth-grade boys would wait for Kellan's arrival every morning, giving him "hugs and high-fives" as he entered school. He was immediately a welcome part of the community, and his needs were attended to. If he needed extra time, including time for eating lunch, he would get it. School staff and families of students rallied for him when he competed in this first Special Olympics. (The teacher arranged the transportation, and parents even chipped in to get pizza for him and for all the three second-grade classes who came to cheer him on.) The flexibility and love at St. Francis for Kellan is a "huge blessing" for the whole Schye family. "We have peace of mind now that Kellan is where he belongs," his mother says.Some but not all of the parents Piccioti-Bayer interviewed are Catholic. Catholic schools serve all. In some settings, such as Montana, the students are mostly non-Catholic. Parents choose these schools because of they are staffed by educators with a missionary, vocational approach. The families Piccioti-Bayer talked with experienced religious education as the leaven it is — communities where human dignity is respected and served in gratitude for the gift of life.It worth a prayer not only that this case winds up a win for religious liberty and school choice — for families across the country who shouldn't be deprived of giving their children the best chance at a good life — but that it is a reinvigoration of Catholic education and our collective need for it. In their book Lost Classroom, Lost Community: Catholic Schools' Importance in Urban America (2014), Notre Dame law professors Margaret F. Brinig and Nicole Stelle Garnett make the case that, statistically, when a Catholic school closes, social capital, "the web of connections and trust between people," declines. Catholic schools have been closing, and we see the deterioration in our culture. Let's do everything we can to ensure that families have access to the good ones in operation. A Supreme Court win here for these Montana families would be no small dose of hope for family life, freedom, and the health of our nation.This column is based on one available through Andrews McMeel Universal's Newspaper Enterprise Association.
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| Iran Might Need a Nuclear Weapon to Sink an Aircraft Carrier Posted: 22 Sep 2019 03:08 AM PDT  5 reasons killing these warships would not be easy in a war.
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| November 9, 1989: the day that changed the world Posted: 22 Sep 2019 08:21 PM PDT  Guenter Schabowski scratches his head, puts on his glasses, hesitates, then fumbles with his handwritten notes. A member of the Politburo of East Germany's communist party, and its spokesman, this member of the inner ruling circle of the "workers' and peasants' state" as the German Democratic Republic was known just announced to a few flabbergasted journalists the fall of the Berlin Wall. Was it the result of a misunderstanding in the communist hierarchy, caught flat-footed by events, or a calculated gesture by the East German dictatorship which had reached the end of the line?
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| Long-live the Electoral College! All of the Reasons to Keep It Posted: 22 Sep 2019 08:30 AM PDT  Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., recently proposed killing it on the grounds that the presidential selection mechanism leads candidates to focus on just a handful of "swing states" that are most likely to determine the election.
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| Florida caretaker napped while man with Down syndrome died in hot car, according to police Posted: 23 Sep 2019 07:14 AM PDT  Joshua Russell took Kratom and fell asleep, leaving the 'non-verbal' man inside a van reaching 125 degrees, Pinellas County officials said.
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| 27% of Democratic voters say candidates shouldn't attack their rivals for being too old Posted: 23 Sep 2019 07:55 AM PDT  27% of Democratic primary voters are less likely to support a candidate who used age-related attacks, according to a new Insider poll.
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| UK has put forward detailed Brexit proposals, wants EU to engage seriously -UK official Posted: 23 Sep 2019 01:55 PM PDT ![UK has put forward detailed Brexit proposals, wants EU to engage seriously -UK official]( "UK has put forward detailed Brexit proposals, wants EU to engage seriously -UK official") Britain believes it has put forward detailed proposals on Brexit in replacing the Irish backstop and is looking for the European Union to engage seriously with these ideas, a UK government official said on Monday. EU sources earlier said no proper alternative for the border between Northern Ireland, a British province, and Ireland that ensures the integrity of the EU single market and customs union has been proposed yet by London. "We believe we have put forward some detailed proposals and we have made a move to try to get this process moving along," the official said.
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| Karen Pence's attempt to help Trump 2020 online falls flat Posted: 23 Sep 2019 06:51 AM PDT  Karen Pence has joined Twitter to help with President Trump's reelection campaign, but it's not going well.
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