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Member states will conduct a last-ditch offensive on a proposal to limit CO2 gases emitted by aircraft during the International Civil Aviation Organization conference in Montreal opening on Tuesday (27 September). The 191 members of the UN body responsible for air transport are expected to adopt a global market-based mechanism to achieve carbon-neutral growth for the aviation sector from 2020 onwards. The number of passengers flying each year is expected to double by 2035, surpassing 6.5 billion travelers. …

European Union leaders will explore next month the possibility of improving strained ties with Russia in response to growing irritation among some member states over economic sanctions imposed on Moscow over its role in the Ukraine crisis. But the sanctions appear likely to remain in place for now, especially those slapped over Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula seized by Russia in March 2014, despite the legal and political challenges of maintaining them. A series of Reuters investigations recently showed how European companies including German retailer Metro and France’s Auchan were doing business in Crimea despite the punitive sanctions regime there....

In 1971 70% of Americans were middle class. A clear majority. Today the middle class is now a minority. It is interesting that within one generation we have pushed the middle class into minority status yet most people still think they are middle class when the data clearly states otherwise. This misperception is probably at the root of a lot of the political anger this year. If everyone is middle class and you are struggling, surely it is the system to blame. Forget about the cronyism on Wall Street and the deep capture of big money in D.C. – the...

Qatar always wanted to punch above its weight. In Syria, it got the chance. In 2009, Qatar, a leading natural gas producer, approached Syria about routing its planned 1,500 mile pipeline to the gas markets of Europe through Syria’s Aleppo province. Qatar wanted a pipeline straight to Europe as its current gas transport modes were limited to Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) tanker, mostly to Asia with limited spot shipments to Europe or the Dolphin pipeline to the United Arab Emirates and Oman. The pipeline would head north and end in Turkey after crossing Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Syria. Syria declined...

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that President Obama and actor Leonardo DiCaprio will meet on October 3 to discuss climate change. The meeting will take place at the White House as part of the inaugural South by South Lawn: A White House Festival of Ideas, Art, and Action. It will include a screening of DiCaprio’s new environmental documentary “Before the Flood,” which will be in theaters October 21. The president and the Oscar-winning actor will take part in a conversion with climate scientist Dr. Katharine Hayhoe about "the importance of protecting the one planet we've got for future generations."

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments Tuesday in West Virginia v. EPA, the legal challenge to President Barack Obama’s signature global warming initiative, the Clean Power Plan (CPP). The litigation is massive in scale — nearly every state in the union is involved in some capacity. West Virginia is leading a coalition of 27 states who are challenging the rule, while 18 states have come to the Plan’s defense. Each side is joined by activist and industry groups, electric companies, academics, lawmakers, tech companies, and retired dignitaries who together have filed over 70...

Bloomberg reports: Partners in Israel’s Leviathan field, the country’s largest natural gas reservoir, signed an export agreement with Natural Electric Power Co. of Jordan. Tel Aviv gas stocks rose. The partners, including Noble Energy Inc. and Delek Drilling-LP, will supply a gross 1.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas from the Leviathan field over a 15-year period, Noble said in a statement. Gross contract revenue is estimated to be about $10 billion.

Grand Junction will no longer be home to a district Bureau of Land Management office after the agency’s Grand Junction Field Office gets transferred from the northwest Colorado district to the southwest district under a reorganization. ... Mesa County Commissioner John Justman is uncomfortable with the Grand Junction Field Office no longer being part of the Northwest District, despite Mesa County’s close economic ties to the oil and gas development that takes place in northwest Colorado. Many area oil and gas jobs are based in Mesa County. “Financially the county is much more attached to the Northwest District than the...

There were two sightings of Western yellow-billed cuckoos this year, both in Delta County, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said. The secretive birds are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering designating parts of western Colorado as critical habitat for the migratory bird, including lands along the Colorado River through Mesa County. Sightings — which frequently involve people hearing the cuckoo’s distinctive “klak-klak” sound — have been recorded in Mesa and Delta counties in previous years. ... “We have changed the initial map due to comments from the proposed...

A plethora of smaller theater chains and independent theaters, but none of the biggest exhibitors, joined Fox Searchlight Pictures in opening their lobbies to a voter registration drive associated with promotional screenings and the opening of The Birth Of A Nation on October 7. Fox on Monday announced a roster of participants that included Bowtie Cinemas, Marcus Theatres and Movie Taverns, among others. But power players like AMC, Regal and Cinemark were not on the list. Backers of the registration drive included public interest organizations like the League Of Women Voters and the National Coalition Of Black Civic Participation. The...

After a slew of complaints online from parents who shop at target, Target is making a change. According to several tweets from an official Twitter account, Target is removing the recently added “tiny carts” from 72 of its stores this week where they were being tested. The change comes after a slew of complaints from parents....

The U.S. Army has dropped Smith & Wesson from its Modular Handgun System competition, according to a Sept. 23 report Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation made to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Smith & Wesson, which was partnered with General Dynamics, was one of five gun makers competing to replace the Army’s M9 9mm pistol. “We and our partner in the pursuit of the U.S. Army’s Modular Handgun System, or MHS, solicitation to replace the M9 standard Army sidearm have been notified by the Department of the Army that our proposal was not selected to advance to the next...

Greed A selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed. ‎ A continual lust for more. Envy A feeling of resentful longing aroused by someone else's possessions or qualities or wealth. Someone might want to tell Hillary Clinton that greed and envy are two of the seven deadly sins. She's guilty of both. Her revised tax plan‎ would raise the estate tax to as high as 65% -- up from 40% today. She would also apply the hated death tax to as many as twice the number of estates. It's one of her dumbest ideas...

Listening to Janet Yellen splitting hairs and blathering in circles about the state of the economy yesterday was enough to put you in mind of a paint-by-the-numbers robot built in the labs at MIT and programmed by its Keynesian economics department. After all, the latter has also inflicted on the world Paul Samuelson, Stanley Fischer, and his infamous student, Ben Bernanke.So why not a four-fer?There is only one question that Yellen needs to answer and then all else is readily explained. To wit, does she actually believe that the money market rate——as formerly measured by Fed funds before Bernanke nationalized the interbank market in September 2008——is a wholly owned property of the...

Will the gloves come off Monday, and the wheels fall off stocks Tuesday? Investors will be keeping a close eye on the first of the presidential debates between Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton and GOP nominee Donald Trump for signs of a momentum shift in the heated race. The outcome from the head-to-head matchup carries the potential to deliver a jolt to U.S. equity markets coming off closely watched policy decisions by central bankers. Stocks finished the week higher, even with a Friday downturn... ...the debate may be, outside of another important meeting of major oil producers, the most important event...

SpaceX has done its first test of the Raptor rocket engine that will take humans to Mars as early as 2024, Elon Musk said in a series of tweets. It was fired at the company's McGregor, Texas facility on a stand that can handle the extreme thrust. Pointing out the "mach diamonds" from the test (above), Musk said the "production Raptor goal is a specific impulse of 382 seconds and thrust of 3 MN [680,000 pounds]," more than three times that of the current Falcon 9. With nine of the methane-fueled motors, the Red Dragon will be far more powerful...

MEXICO CITY, Sept 24 (Reuters) – A fire broke out on an oil tanker of Mexican state oil company Pemex in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, forcing all the crew to be evacuated in the latest accident to plague the struggling firm.

<p>Tweefie Millspaugh has a relatively short commute from her home in North Baltimore's Abell neighborhood to her job at a downtown law firm. Without traffic, she says, it takes about 15 minutes.</p> <p>But lately, the 54-year-old has found herself yelling fruitlessly in the driver's seat as she sits for 45 minutes on streets jammed by road closures across the city's center. After work, she waits again in a crawling line before finally inching out of her parking garage and into the gridlock.</p>

As most of you know, I had been endorsing Hillary Clinton for president, for my personal safety, because I live in California. It isn’t safe to be a Trump supporter where I live. And it’s bad for business too. But recently I switched my endorsement to Trump, and I owe you an explanation. So here it goes. 1. Things I Don’t Know: There are many things I don’t know. For example, I don’t know the best way to defeat ISIS. Neither do you. I don’t know the best way to negotiate trade policies. Neither do you. I don’t know the...

More than half of America's single parents and one-fifth of its families with children could see their federal income taxes go up under Republican Donald Trump's revamped tax plan, according to a new analysis of the plan by a New York University professor who previously served as a tax specialist for the Obama administration and the Senate Finance Committee. The Trump campaign called the findings "pure fiction," contending the analysis neglects a crucial benefit for low-income taxpayers — and insisting that Trump would instruct the congressional committees drafting his plan into law that taxes would not be allowed to rise for any...

Actor Isaiah Washington is calling on African-Americans to protest the recent killings of black men by police in a very different way. Washington took to Facebook on Tuesday to suggest that African-Americans across the United States boycott showing up for work on Monday to show that black lives matter in the wake of recent police brutality. "Imagine if every single African American in the United States that was really fed up with being angry, sad and disgusted, would pick ONE DAY to simply 'stay at home' from every single job, work site, sports arena and government office in the United...

EAST LIVERPOOL, Ohio — Rich Andrason isn’t blind to the evidence of decay that a collapsed local economy and two generations of heroin addiction have brought to Columbiana County. Still, he wouldn’t change anything about his life here. “I have a good life here, I still do,” he said, settling behind a desk slightly elevated from the counter of the antiques shop he and his wife Janice own on Washington Street. Things used to be grander in the once-bustling downtown of this city of about 13,000 along the Ohio River. Parents brought kids here to shop for back-to-school clothes or...

STAGE 1: INFILTRATIONMuslims begin moving to non-Muslim countries in increasing numbers and the beginning of cultural conflicts are visible, though often subtle. - First migration wave to non-Muslim “host” country. - Appeal for humanitarian tolerance from the host society. - Attempts to portray Islam as a peaceful & Muslims as victims of misunderstanding and racism (even though Islam is not a ‘race’). - High Muslim birth rate in host country increase Muslim population. - Mosques used to spread Islam and dislike of host country & culture. - Calls to criminalize “Islamophobia” as a hate crime. - Threatened legal action for...

<p>A blue-ribbon commission had just excoriated Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street banks for fueling the financial crisis. Prosecutors were investigating whether Goldman had misled investors. The company was a whipping boy for politicians looking to lay blame for the crash.</p>

NEW DELHI—India is being offered blueprints to advanced combat aircraft by the world’s aerospace companies, a move unthinkable even a decade ago, as New Delhi gets ready to place another multibillion-dollar air force order. India’s aging military jet fleet desperately needs an upgrade, which analysts say may spur it to place an order worth more than $10 billion in the next year. Hoping for an edge, and encouraged by a recent law that allows 100% foreign ownership of local defense firms, jet-fighter makers such as Lockheed Martin Corp. , Boeing Co. and Saab AB are rushing in with offers to...

After voting to proceed to a bill that didn’t exist earlier this week, the Senate has finally produced text of the continuing resolution, a short-term government spending bill. The bill, written behind closed doors by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, was brought to the floor late Thursday afternoon, and for the majority of Senate Republicans, represented their first opportunity to see the text. According to McConnell, senators will have four days (two of them on a weekend) to review the bill before having to cast their votes next week. As far as conservative priorities go, the bill is a failure....

Donald Trump detailed his energy plan, which he previously mentioned during his speech on the economy at the Detroit Economic Club in August, on Thursday in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. “I am going to lift the restrictions on American energy, and allow this wealth to pour into our communities – including right here in Pennsylvania,� Trump stated while speaking to more than 1,000 gas industry experts. Citing the Institute for Energy Research, Trump suggested that lifting energy restrictions such as shale production would produce more than 500,000 new jobs every year and raise the GDP by more than $100 billion each year.He also says...

Nike has finally announced when it will begin selling its self-lacing sneakers inspired by the shoes worn by Michael J. Fox in Back to The Future II. According to a tweet from the company's Heidi Burgett, the HyperAdapt 1.0 will be available for "experience & purchase" starting on the 28th of November, but only in select Nike locations in the US. Pricing is still unknown, but expect a "high price tag," according to a Wired feature on the shoe's development. You can check out the full story from Wired for a more detailed look at how the sneakers were made,...

The White House mocked GOP nominee Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz for trying to prevent the Commerce Department from transferring technical oversight of the Internet to an international body. "It doesn't withstand scrutiny," President Obama's spokesman Josh Earnest said on Thursday. "It also strikes me as a curious position for a self-described small government conservative to shut down the government to ensure that the federal government can continue to control the Internet," Earnest said of Cruz. "It doesn't make any sense." Cruz is trying to stop the multi-year transition that will leave the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and...

Goldman Sachs is cutting almost 30 per cent of its 300 investment banking jobs in Asia outside Japan in response to a slowdown in activity in the region, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The Wall Street bank is reducing the number of bankers working on mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and equity and debt capital markets deals, the sources said. It will be left with slightly more than 200 bankers across Asia. Most of the jobs cuts are likely to take place in Hong Kong, Singapore and China, where Goldman’s main Asian offices are located, according to the...

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral argument next Tuesday, September 27 on the Environmental Protection Agency’s so-called Clean Power Plan. The centerpiece of resident Obama’s climate policy agenda, the Plan establishes first-ever carbon dioxide (CO2) emission standards for “existing” (already built) coal and natural gas power plants. The Plan will increase consumer energy prices and impede job and GDP growth yet have no discernible effect on global temperatures or sea levels. However, that’s not why the Court should strike it down. The Court should overturn the Plan because it is an unlawful power grab. The Plan will...

Mr. Drangmeister of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association is invited to debate us (Panhandle Import Reduction Initiative) on OPEC , free trade and the price war against in the American Southwest. Apparently, he missed our presentation at the Independent Producers Association of New Mexico (IPANM) Convention recently in Santa Fe. This OP-ED is a response to his comments in a news article in this newspaper by Maddy Hayden It is not too late for him to learn that as a communications officer in an oil and gas trade association he should support an open forum of all ideas...

Bruce Stokes of the Pew Research Center based in Washington, DC, was in Delhi for a series of talks. He presented results of opinion polls that offer an interesting insight into the contemporary American mind Every leap year, the United States presidential election becomes the most watched such event in the world. The quantum of coverage only grows with each successive election, as media and social media capacities expand worldwide. Yet, this year the election has acquired a special significance due to a mix of factors. First, there are the compelling personalities -- in their own ways, Donald Trump and...

Are you one of 20 million uninsured Americans who hasn’t signed up for Obamacare? Then you might be getting a note from the IRS this year “suggesting” you enroll. “Getting a letter from the IRS can be a threatening and nerve-racking experience; it seldom is seen as a suggestion and more of a threat,” Galen Institute President Grace-Marie Turner wrote in a Forbes column Wednesday. The IRS is reportedly “reaching out” to Americans who claimed an exemption or chose to pay the tax penalty for not purchasing mandatory health insurance. The ploy is intended to “attract” Obamacare enrollees. “The government...

Anyone who pays any attention knows that something unusual is happening to employment. Good full time jobs are disappearing, being replaced by lower paying and part time jobs. Experts and especially politicians have explanations and excuses: Offshoring to lower labor countries, excessive rules and regulations, illegal aliens, lack of education in the workforce…. The list goes on and on. What I rarely hear: automation. When most people hear “automation,” they think “robots.” Most robots are dedicated and expensive and don’t replace that many people. “Automation” or computer control is what gets the majority of the jobs, and it is not...

While the most recent set of troubles plaguing Deutsche Bank have been duly documented here, most recently yesterday when the stock price tumbled once again just shy of all time lows over fears the bank's multi-billion DOJ settlement could severely impact its liquidity and/or solvency, this may be the first time we have heard the "n"-word tossed around in an official German publication: as Germany's top financial newspaper, Handelsblatt said, "German financial officials reacted with shock and dismay to the leaking of a U.S. government demand for a $14 billion fine against Deutsche Bank, which may ultimately need a state...

AND NOW... amidst billowing clouds of fragrant, aromatic first- and second-hand premium cigar smoke... it is time for... that harmless, lovable little fuzz ball, the highly-trained broadcast specialist, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, from behind the golden EIB microphone, firmly ensconced in the prestigious Attila-The-Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies, serving humanity simply by showing up, and he’s not retiring until every American agrees with him — do NOT doubt him — with shrieks of joy at the mere mention of his name (that’s Rush, for those in Rio...

Colonial pipeline is investigating what caused a pipeline to leak nearly 336,000 gallons of gasoline into a man-made retention pond. That leak was discovered back on September 9th near Helena, Alabama after state workers noticed a strong smell of gas. The shutdown pipeline caused rising fuel prices amid gas shortages across the South. Investigators say the broke portion, built in 1963, has since been repaired. A preliminary report does not identify the cause of the break as the federal investigation continues.

Democrats love to talk about rights. They say people have the "right to affordable health care," the "right to a debt free college education," the "right to choose," and so on. But there's one right they apparently want to erase: The right to work. Here's how Hillary Clinton put it in a videoconference this week at the Laborers' International Union of North America: "I will fight back against so-called right to work. Right to work is wrong for workers and wrong for America." Come again? The right to work is wrong for America? Clinton is referring to state right-to-work laws...

"Yeah, you're a genius, everyone knows it, a goddamn genius, but that's why you failed as a head coach - that's why you'll never be a head coach ... some genius." Those were the words of head NFL coach Bill Parcells to then assistant, and at the time once-failed (with the Cleveland Browns) head coach, Bill Belechick. During a game Belechick had suggested a defensive scheme that Parcells rejected, only for Belechick to be proven correct. Parcells' irritated reply revealed a now dated view among some football types about Belechick; that while he was in possession of a brilliant defensive...

THEY do not naturally crave the limelight. But for the past decade the attention on central bankers has been unblinking—and increasingly hostile. During the financial crisis the Federal Reserve and other central banks were hailed for their actions: by slashing rates and printing money to buy bonds, they stopped a shock from becoming a depression. Now their signature policy, of keeping interest rates low or even negative, is at the centre of the biggest macroeconomic debate in a generation. The central bankers say that ultra-loose monetary policy remains essential to prop up still-weak economies... ...But a growing chorus of critics...

The U.S. Federal Reserve is still enabling financial markets. The central bank on Wednesday again declined to raise rates, despite recent remarks from Chair Janet Yellen suggesting an increase was becoming more likely. The Fed counts talking to the market – what it calls giving “forward guidance” – as one of its tools, but the story has changed so often that Yellen and her colleagues might do better being less chatty. The Fed initially signaled four rate hikes in 2016 after raising the range for the federal funds rate to 0.25 percent to 0.5 percent last December... ...the U.S. economy...

The NFL this season has 32 league-wide category sponsors, including new brands in the auto and yogurt categories. Hyundai this season begins a four-year deal with the league. The automaker replaces GM, which had been the NFL’s official auto brand since ’01. Dannon, which began running Super Bowl spots in ’12, begins the first year of its league-wide deal after signing on in July '14. NFL corporate partnership benefits vary from deal to deal, but they typically include category exclusivity, use of league marks for advertising and promotional purposes, event signage, media exposure through radio, print and TV ads, as...

Donald J. Trump on Thursday traveled to Pittsburgh, a city once synonymous with the rich coal seam that runs beneath it and now the capital of natural gas fracking, to promise the impossible: a boom for both coal and gas. Mr. Trump’s energy promises to those attending a corporate conference contained a fundamentally incompatible concept, as expanding the exploration of natural gas is the surest way to hurt coal production, and vice versa. Since the two fuels compete directly for the same market — the power plants that light American homes — it is effectively impossible to increase production of...

"With around 94 million people out of the workforce, and the near record low Labor Force Participation rate, former Assistant Treasury Secretary Dr. Paul Craig Roberts says, “The Labor Force Participation rate never falls during a recovery. It rises because people are entering the labor force to take advantage of the strong economy and jobs. So, there isn’t any economy. There is a house of cards that is held together by central bank money creation. The money flows into financial assets. That’s what keeps the stock market up, and it flows into bonds, which is why we have essentially 0%...

As part of Hofstra University’s Debate 2016 Signature Speaker series, Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson and The Weekly Standard senior writer Stephen Hayes will discuss “What Issues Will Decide the 2016 Presidential Election?” on Thursday, Sept. 22.

A World Trade Organization (WTO) compliance panel ruled Thursday that the European Union has fallen dramatically short of remedying the harm to Boeing from illegal subsidies to Airbus. The decision opens a path for the U.S. to implement trade sanctions against the EU — potentially imposing billions of dollars in tariffs on its goods or services.

That did not take long. Just hours after a CNN report suggested that Wells Fargo was retaliating, and firing, company whistleblowers who had spoken out against the company's illegal "account creation" practices (while blaming them of being "tardy"), moments ago Reuters reported that Senators have asked the Labor Department to investigate Wells Fargo for potential violations of Fair Labor Standards Act. To be sure, now would be a perfect time for Wells Fargo's biggest shareholder, Warren Buffett - who owns a 10% stake in WFC - to speak up in defense of his favorite US bank, alas that won't happen....

The stolen data includes users’ names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, passwords and security questions for verifying an account holder’s identity. This is a developing story. It will be updated.

Economic recovery, but not for the “Invisible Americans” Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO at Gallup, who presides over endless surveys of American consumers and businesses and knows a thing or two about them, has a message for the media and the political establishment that seem to be clueless: this meme about the recovering economy – “It was even trumpeted on Page 1 of The New York Times and Financial Times last week,” he says – “I don’t think it’s true.” In an article posted on Gallup’s website, he made his case: The percentage of Americans who say they are in...