Gunman on the loose near Ky. highway after ‘numerous persons’ shot

 An “active shooter” blasted as many as 6 people along a rural Kentucky highway Saturday night before disappearing — and is now the subject of a massive manhunt, according to officials and reports. 

The gunman was believed to have fired at about 6 p.m. from either an overpass or from a wooded area along the I-75 highway about nine miles away from the town of London, KY, which is home to part of the Daniel Boone National Forest,  the Courier-Journal reports.

Local officials urged residents to remain inside and avoid the area near the highway, as efforts to find the shooter are ongoing.

“We have no clue where he is at,” Kentucky State Police spokesperson Scottie Pennington told the Courier-Journal, before adding that it is still a “very active scene.”

Law enforcement officers gather on the I-75 highway after reports of multiple people shot about nine miles north of London, Kentucky, U.S. September 7, 2024.via REUTERS

“Kentucky, we are aware of a shooting on I-75 in Laurel County. Law enforcement has shut the interstate down in both directions at exit 49. Please avoid the area. We will provide more details once they are available,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said in a statement.

The I-75 is shut down in both northbound and southbound lanes from exit 49 to 62, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet said in a statement. Route 25 is also shut down.

The Mount Vernon Fire Department warned locals to “EXPECT SIGNIFICANT DELAYS” in a Facebook post sent at 8 pm

The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms said they are assisting local officials with the investigation, which is being led by the Laurel Canyon Police Department with help from the Kentucky State Police and other agencies.

Gov. Beshear says he is “actively monitoring the situation” with Kentucky State Police and the local Office of Homeland Security.

He implored people to “please pray for everyone involved.”

Laurel County is 90 miles south of Lexington, Kentucky and has a population of 62,000 people. The city of London is home to little over 8,000 people.

https://nypost.com/2024/09/07/us-news/active-shooter-near-kentucky-highway-reports-of-numerous-persons-shot/

'Major environment, health protections Biden set to leave unfinished'

 From heat protections for workers to restrictions on toxic chemicals, the Biden administration is set to leave several of the significant environmental and health protections it has floated unfinished.

The fate of many of these regulations likely depends on the outcome of November’s election, as a Harris administration would probably continue them, while a Trump administration likely would not. 

While even finished rules are vulnerable under a new administration, it may take a lengthy process with significant scrutiny to undo some of the progress the Biden administration has made on climate and health. 

However, rules that are not yet on the books can simply be abandoned. 

The Biden administration has completed a number of significant actions aimed at combating climate change and improving environmental health. These include the passage of billions of dollars for climate-friendly energy in the Inflation Reduction Act and regulations restricting planet-warming and toxic emissions from a variety of sources.

But it has not completed everything it set out to do — and probably will not before President Biden’s term is up in January.

Here’s a breakdown of some of the unfinished business he’s likely to leave behind.

Heat protections for workers

One of the highest profile items that is unlikely to be finished this term is Biden’s effort to protect workers from extreme heat. His administration announced in 2021 that it planned to require companies to provide employees with such protections, but it didn’t propose to do so until this year.

The proposed rule would make companies give employees access to water and breaks in times of high heat. Those breaks would need to include access to shade or air conditioning for outdoor workers or cooler areas with fans, ventilation or air conditioning for indoor workers. 

The dwindling time before January’s inauguration leaves little room to complete a rule before Biden is out of office, however.

“The rulemaking process can span multiple years, and in many cases, multiple administrations. We are proud to be one step closer to helping indoor and outdoor workers secure the heat protections they need,” a Labor Department spokesperson said in an email. 

But Juley Fulcher, worker health and safety advocate at the group Public Citizen, said that if former President Trump is elected and doesn’t support the unfinished rule, his administration could “very easily just shelve it.”

“Workers die because of this, and the problem is only getting worse, as we see summers getting hotter and hotter and longer and longer,” Fulcher said. “We are talking about a very real danger, and workers are suffering and without any kind of federal protection —  that puts a lot of workers in danger.”

Limitations on gas plant emissions

The Biden administration has also punted on a major piece of one of its landmark climate rules. 

It proposed last year to limit planet-warming emissions from existing coal-fired power plants, new gas-fired power plants and, for the first time, some existing gas plants. 

But the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ultimately stripped out the limitations for existing gas plants, saying that it would set climate standards for these power generators through a separate rule. 

By this point, completing such a rule seems like a tall task, and one that would probably have to fall to the next administration.  

Trump has said he’d roll back the Biden administration’s existing power plant rule, calling it part of an “anti-American-energy crusade,” so it’s highly unlikely that he’d pursue anything further if reelected.

‘Forever chemicals’ restrictions

A third rule that Biden is unlikely to complete is an effort to restrict releases of toxic chemicals known as PFAS.

PFAS, which stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a class of thousands of chemicals whose uses include making products nonstick and waterproof. Exposure to the toxic substances, which have become pervasive in the environment and in Americans’ bodies, has been linked to health problems including cancer.

In 2021, the EPA issued a notice that it planned to set limits on how much PFAS can be discharged by companies that make the substances — but it has yet to even propose a rule to do so, let alone finish one. 

The EPA did set drinking water limits for some PFAS earlier this year, requiring water providers to filter them out, but this rule didn’t address ongoing emissions. 

“There’s so much PFAS that has been released over the last 60, 70 years that because they’re forever chemicals are still in the environment, and we shouldn’t be adding to that problem,” said Melanie Benesh, vice president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group.

“Stopping PFAS at the source is really one of the most critically important things that any administration could do … to try to mitigate this PFAS crisis,” Benesh said.

An EPA spokesperson said the agency “is focused on developing and implementing policies that will stand the test of time” and that are “rooted in the best available science and technical records and are informed by robust and inclusive stakeholder engagement.”

What would a Harris or Trump administration do?

The Harris campaign did not respond to a question from The Hill about whether Vice President Harris would continue to pursue these protections if she wins the presidency, though the policy positions taken by her campaign seem largely in line with Biden’s.

Asked the same question, the Trump campaign did not address the specific regulations The Hill asked about. However, spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a written statement that Trump will “make America energy independent again, bring down prices for American consumers and drill baby drill!”

Beyond the rules that have already been floated, environmental activists have also called for even more climate action.

Craig Segall, vice president of climate advocacy group Evergreen, told The Hill that the next administration ought to do more to advance the decarbonization of transportation and industry. 

“We’ve taken a lot of steps to start moving money into demonstration projects, into rebuilding manufacturing at home,” Segall said. “All that’s great, but now it’s really important that we have federal standards that affirmatively drive decarbonization of our industry.”

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4866856-biden-administration-unfinished-environment-health-protections/

'Hunter Biden, Lev Parnas reconcile in emotional meeting: Maddow film'

 Hunter Biden faced his one-time antagonist Lev Parnas, who was at the center of former President Trump’s efforts to dig up dirt on President Biden’s son, in an emotional meeting captured in a new MSNBC/Rachel Maddow documentary — calling the remorseful convict a “hero.”

Titled “From Russia with Lev,” the documentary charts Parnas’s course from his days working for various criminal organizations to a stint in Hollywood to ultimately becoming a central figure in the impeachment investigation into Trump.

Parnas has since recanted his work for former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, where he played a central role in pushing accusations that President Biden took actions in Ukraine to benefit his son.

The result for Hunter Biden has been significant, as accusations from Giuliani and Parnas helped ignite a Justice Department investigation into the president’s son, resulting in a conviction in a gun case and his pleading guilty Thursday in a separate tax case.

Parnas gets emotional, both in speaking directly to the camera and during his meeting with Biden.

“Our actions in Ukraine, pushing all of this disinformation against Hunter Biden, has now caused real problems, real criminal problems that he is now facing,” Parnas says.

“To watch Hunter Biden, an American citizen that has nothing to do with politics, a son – and I have sons – to watch the pain that caused in his life,” he adds, getting tearful.

The documentary tracks Parnas as he nervously arrives in Los Angeles for a meeting with Biden on July 7 — an exchange that ends with a hug.

“It really takes a big person to not only admit that they’re wrong, but to do so in public and to do it on the stage you did,” Biden said. He noted that Parnas has gone on TV and in front of a “hostile committee” – in reference to a March hearing in the House Oversight Committee that was probing the Biden family’s foreign business dealings — all “while you’re getting the goddamn hell beat out of you.”

“What I saw was somebody with just an enormous reserve of character when it really counted.”

“So bottom of my heart, I promise you, you’re a hero to me. I was really, really, really proud. I was proud of you,” Hunter Biden added.

The meeting between the two was not initially planned and came together at a late stage in filming the documentary, The Hill was told.

Parnas said it was his work that sparked the investigation into the younger Biden, something he said came at the behest of other figures close to Trump.

“Basically from the very beginning, from that first initial meeting with Trump, and right after that, Giuliani started calling all his contacts at the DOJ and FBI to start putting pressure to look into you, to look into your dad and all of your Ukraine dealings,” Parnas said.

“You have to understand, Hunter, at that time, I truly believed there was a deep state. I truly believed you were up to some s—.”

In 2022, Parnas was sentenced to 20 months in prison for fraud and campaign finance crimes.

Biden admits he was not bothered by seeing GOP allies abandon the former fixer.

“They turned their back on you, and at that point, just so you know, I wasn’t very sympathetic,” he says, adding later “we get a second chance. Both of us do.”

“I gave them a lot of ammunition,” Biden said. “Addiction is never an excuse, but it’s an explanation. It’s an explanation why I ended up in some of the rooms I ended up in, doing things that I’m ashamed of today.”

Parnas has been active in discounting his former allegations. 

In July of last year, he wrote a letter to the House Oversight Committee in the midst of its impeachment investigation into President Biden, saying that despite his months of research, “there has never been any evidence that Hunter or Joe Biden committed any crimes related to Ukrainian politics.”

He also said that Giuliani and all others involved in the matter “knew that these allegations against the Bidens were false.”

Parnas has also written a book about his journey — an effort he said was dedicating to cleaning the Biden name — and also testified before the House Oversight Committee earlier this year.

“In nearly a year traveling the world and interviewing officials in different countries, I found precisely zero evidence of the Bidens’ corruption in Ukraine. No credible sources ever provided proof of criminal activity,” Parnas said in the March hearing.

The film premieres Saturday at the “MSNBC Live: Democracy 2024” event at The Brooklyn Academy of Music, and will air on MSNBC at 9 p.m. Sept. 20.

The documentary premieres just weeks after a House Republican impeachment inquiry report asserted that President Biden engaged in impeachable conduct in relation to his son’s foreign business dealings, relying largely on circumstantial evidence and showing no direct evidence that he financially benefited from the foreign business deals.

It also comes after Hunter Biden entered a surprise guilty plea in his tax crimes case on Thursday, citing his desire to not put his family though the kind of “anguish” they endured earlier in the summer in a trial that found him guilty of lying about his use of illicit drugs on a federal gun purchase form.

Hunter Biden is scheduled to be sentenced in the gun case on Nov. 13, and in the tax case on Dec. 16.

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4866538-hunter-biden-lev-parnas-documentary/

US, British intel officials laud Ukraine for ‘audacious and bold’ Russian incursion

 The heads of the American and British foreign intelligence agencies praised Ukraine’s incursion into Russia as Ukraine attempts to shift the course of the war.

Richard Moore, the head of MI6, said Ukraine’s surprise August offensive into Russia’s Kursk region was “typically audacious and bold on the part of the Ukrainians to try and change the game” while making comments at an event in London, the Associated Press reported.

CIA Director William Burns echoed Moore’s comments, calling the offensive a “significant tactical achievement” exposing Russia’s vulnerabilities.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed last month that his troops are fighting inside of Russia, what he called the “aggressor’s territory.” Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that Ukraine’s Kursk mission won’t prevent his forces from continuing in eastern Ukraine, even as thousands of troops were relocated to defend Kursk.

Zelensky said he would hold the Russian land his troops seized indefinitely.

While the Kursk incursion was deemed a bold move by world leaders, it has yet to fully pay off for Ukraine. It has so far failed to achieve one of its main goals, which was to divert troops from eastern Ukraine. The troops Putin sent to Kursk came from the south, not the east.

Moore and Burns also co-authored an article in the Financial Times, where they outlined the U.S. and U.K. alliance, particularly when it comes to countries like Russia.

“The CIA and SIS stand together in resisting an assertive Russia and [Russian President Vladimir Putin’s] war of aggression in Ukraine,” they wrote.

As the war rages on between Russia and Ukraine, the intelligence leaders said staying the course is “more vital than ever.”

The leaders wrote that there is an “unprecedented array of threats,” including Russia, China and threats of terrorism, making the strength of their trans-Atlantic relationship more important.

https://thehill.com/policy/international/4867719-us-british-intel-officials-laud-ukraine-russia-incursion/

Portugal Calls on EU to Start Preparing for Ukraine’s Inclusion

 

Portugal is actively lobbying for Ukraine to join the European Union and wants the bloc to begin preparing for its eventual inclusion.

“We are very engaged in the enlargement process,” Portuguese Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel said in an interview on the sidelines of the Ambrosetti Forum, a conference held on the shores of Lake Como in northern Italy. 

“We need to prepare to receive Ukraine in the EU when that’s possible,” he added

. That process “will require a financial and institutional reform that we should take care of immediately.” 

The annual conference is a draw for prominent world leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy this year. This current gathering also comes after Russia escalated its attacks following an incursion by Ukrainian troops.

“Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region has clearly changed the perception of the balance of the war,” Rangel said, while calling for negotiations toward a peace process. Earlier in the year, he said the EU should stay committed to its policy that any talks about ending the conflict should be led by the government in Kyiv.

At the same event, Zelenskiy and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni agreed to work toward a conference next year, focused on the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine, even as a cease-fire with Russia remains elusive.

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/company-news/2024/09/07/portugal-calls-on-eu-to-start-preparing-for-ukraines-inclusion/

Yellen 'probably done' when Biden ends term, may meet Chinese counterpart soon

 U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Saturday that she is "probably done" serving at the highest levels of government after President Joe Biden's term ends in January, but will likely meet again soon with her Chinese counterpart.

Asked at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin, Texas whether she was "done" when a new administration takes over in January, or might continue in her job or take on a new administration role, Yellen said: "Probably done, but ... we'll see."

The comments are the closest that Yellen, 78, has come to announcing her future plans as the presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump heats up. Yellen has been the first woman to serve as Treasury Secretary, Federal Reserve Chair and director of the White House National Economic Council.

Yellen told the event in Austin that she still has a lot of work to do at Treasury in coming months, including another likely meeting with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, her Beijing counterpart, to try to manage an often tense relationship.

The two met in April in Beijing, where Yellen warned China to rein in excess industrial capacity ahead of Biden's decision to impose steep tariff increases on Chinese-made electric vehicles, batteries, solar products and semiconductors.

Yellen said she would welcome a visit to the U.S. but also may return to China herself, adding: "My guess is that we will have, one way or another, a visit."

The Treasury's top economic diplomat, Undersecretary Jay Shambaugh, will lead a delegation to Beijing "very soon" to discuss economic issues. Shambaugh leads a U.S.-China economic working group that has made addressing China's excess factory production a top issue

Yellen said the U.S.-China relationship "needs to be prioritized and nurtured" by the next U.S. administration, with discussions at the highest levels and among agency staffs.

"We have enough differences and without a chance to discuss them and put them in context, it's certainly possible for tensions to rise," Yellen said. "So this is something that really requires ongoing attention. I hope that it would get it."

'SOLID ECONOMY'

Yellen also said the U.S. economy has largely reached a "soft landing" with lower inflation after U.S. August jobs data on Friday showed a slight decline in the unemployment rate despite slower hiring.

"When you see pace of job creation diminishing over time, what I love to see is that it stabilizes roughly where it is now, and we have to be careful to make sure that it's not going to weaken further," Yellen said.

She said consumer spending remains "quite solid" and while there is "less frenzy" in hiring, there are not meaningful layoffs

"I'm attentive to downside risks now on the employment side, but I what I think we're seeing, we will continue to see, is a good, solid economy," Yellen said.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/yellen-probably-done-biden-ends-194914272.html

Italy inches towards reversing a nuclear energy ban

 Italy plans to draft, by early 2025, rules to allow the use of new nuclear power technologies, the energy minister said on Saturday, signalling a potential reversal of the country's current ban on nuclear power production.

"By the end of the year (the energy ministry's legal adviser Professor Giovanni) Guzzetta and his team will produce a comprehensive analysis on nuclear, and what kind of laws we need to introduce," Energy Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin said on the sidelines of the TEHA business forum in Cernobbio.

He added he hoped parliament would be able to approve the draft legislation in the course of 2025.

Nuclear fission as a source of energy is a controversial topic in Italy, were nuclear-fired power plants are banned following referendums in 1987 and 2011.

Pichetto has recently appointed Guzzetta to study how power stations based on new nuclear technology including small modular reactors (SMRs) and advanced modular reactors (AMRs), which the government believes could support its green energy transition, could be exempted from the prohibition.

"Italy's demand for electricity will almost double by 2050 to 583 Terawatt hour (Twh)," Pichetto told reporters. "Such a boost cannot simply be met with an increase in renewable energy capacity."

In its energy and climate plan (PNIEC), Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government estimates nuclear power could meet up to 11% of domestic energy demand in 2050.

Despite the ban, Italy has retained key expertise in the sector. State-controlled utility Enel operates nuclear power stations in Spain and energy major Eni is investing in a project to develop a nuclear fusion reactor in the United States.

"There is for sure an interest in studying the potential of nuclear technologies of third and fourth generations, including small modular reactors," Enel's grid business head Gianni Vittorio Armani said at the same conference.

Utility Edison, the Italian subsidiary of French nuclear group EDF, has recently expressed an interest in building a small nuclear reactor in Italy. Pichetto said SMRs could be introduced in Italy as soon as 2035.

According to a study compiled by Edison, state-backed Ansaldo Nucleare and economic think-tank The European House Ambrosetti, the adoption of new nuclear technologies in Italy could add more than 50 billion euros to the country's economy.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/italy-inches-towards-reversing-nuclear-161001705.html