Indian troops fire shots at Pakistani helicopter in Kashmir

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Leader of the Pakistan-administered Kashmir region has accused Indian troops of shooting at his helicopter while it was flying close to the highly militarised Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border dividing the region.

The incident happened in Havaily district in Poonch sector in the India-administered Kashmir when Raja Farooq Haider Khan, prime minister of the Azad (Independent) Kashmir region, was on his way to a nearby village to give condolences to the family of a local politician who had died.

“My helicopter had not even committed any violation and was flying well within our side of the LoC when Indian troops opened fire,” Raja Farooq Haider Khan, prime minister of the Azad (Independent) Kashmir region, said in a statement from Pakistan’s capital Islamabad on Sunday.

“The Indian army fired to show that Pakistan had violated their airspace,” Khan’s statement said.

Spokesperson for the Indian army, Lieutenant Colonel Devender Anand, said the helicopter violated Indian air space along the LoC in Poonch around 12PM local time (06:30 GMT).

“It could likely be a civil chopper and was flying very high. The air sentries at forward location had engaged it with small arms,” said Anand.

Khan said his helicopter was not armed.

“We do not want any war hysteria in this region,” he said.

Tension escalates

India and Pakistan both claim the Himalayan territory in full. The area has witnessed a surge in shelling in recent months.

The incident is likely to further worsen relations between the two belligerent neighbours, who have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir.

New Delhi has long accused Islamabad of supporting rebel groups in Kashmir, who either want independence or a merger with Pakistan.

Pakistan denies supporting rebel groups and calls the uprising in Kashmir an indigenous freedom struggle.

Shortly after assuming power in August, Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Imran Khan offered an olive branch to India by inviting for talks, which have remained suspended for nearly three years.

India agreed, and a meeting of the foreign ministers of the two nations was planned on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

But a week before the scheduled meeting, India abruptly called off the talks.

While the foreign ministers of the two countries did not meet, they ended up trading barbs at each other in their speeches at the UN on Saturday

Pakistan FM: “War is no option. The only solution is dialogue.” | Talk to Al Jazeera

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies

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Ryan Reynolds trolls wife Blake Lively’s risqué Instagram picture, again

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Ryan Reynolds is back at it again – trolling his wife’s Instagram page, that is. 

Blake Lively posted a provocative picture on Saturday for her more than 23 million followers in promotion of her new movie “A Simple Favor,” which is in theaters now.

The photo featured the mother of two pressed against a man serving her a martini in nothing but his birthday suit. She’s dressed in a suit and tie, Lively’s outfit of choice while promoting her film

“My turn,” the actress captioned the sexy shot. 

Related: Blake Lively shuts down ‘double standard’ critics in Robert Redford-inspired pink suit

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In typical Reynolds fashion, the “Deadpool” star took to his wife’s comments for some good old-fashioned trolling.

Reynolds’ reply: “He seems nice.” (His comment alone has more than 330,000 likes.)

Related: Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively spar on Twitter, making us laugh as per usual

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Reynolds may have got the last laugh for now, but Lively is due for a clever clapback soon. The couple love to troll each other on social media, and let’s just say we can’t get enough.

More: Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively lose their cool at sound of daughter’s voice at Taylor Swift concert

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Intensive search continues for Ohio woman lost in Great Smoky Mountains

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More than 30 agencies and 125 people continued the search Saturday for a City of Cincinnati worker who has been lost in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park since Tuesday.

Helicopters, multiple canine teams, and specialized search and rescue drones are assisting in the search for 53-year-old Mitzi “Susie” Clements of Cleves, Ohio, who was reported missing after becoming separated from her daughter while hiking near Clingmans Dome.

Weather conditions Saturday helped searchers. The search has been hampered by rain, fog, wind and temperatures in the 40s over the last several days in this mountainous area of the park straddling Tennessee and North Carolina.

Sunday’s forecast calls for partly to mostly cloudy skies with a high of 74 degrees in the park. Thunderstorms are likely in the afternoon.

Clingmans Dome Road was closed Thursday for the search effort. The Clingmans Dome parking area is being used as a field “incident command post” to manage the search. Tents and self-contained mobile command busses have been set up there. 

Verizon has brought in a portable cell tower

The seven-mile closed road has been used as a landing zone for aircraft assisting the search. Clingmans Dome Road remains closed.
 
Additional volunteer searchers are not being sought, the National Park Service said, because the search operation is limited to “trained searchers to enable a systematic, thorough search of the area,” according to a news release.

“This is unforgiving terrain, and we are working long hours to find Ms. Clements,” said Jared St. Clair, acting chief ranger for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. “We are extremely grateful for the rapid response by so many well-trained personnel and the generous support resources that our cooperators have dedicated to this search.”

Clements was last seen on the Forney Ridge Trail approximately a quarter mile from Andrews Bald on Tuesday at 5 p.m., according to the Park Service. She was wearing a green zip-up sweater, black workout pants over black leggings, a clear rain poncho, and white tennis shoes with purple laces.

Anyone who saw Clements in the Smokies is asked to contact the National Park Service Investigative Services Branch at 1-888-653-0009  at www.nps.gov/isb by clicking “submit a tip,” or via by sending a message on Facebook at “InvestigativeServicesNPS,” or Twitter @SpecialAgentNPS.

Assisting in the search are: Backcountry Unit Search and Rescue, Black Diamond Search and Rescue, Blount County Rescue Squad, Blount County Special Operations Response Team, Blue and Gray Search and Rescue Dogs, Buncombe County Rescue Squad, Catons Chapel-Richardson Cove Volunteer Fire Department, Cherokee Indian Police Department, Cherokee Tribal EMS, Gatlinburg Police Department, Henderson County Rescue Squad and EMS, Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, Knox County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Knoxville-Knox County Emergency Management Agency, Maryville Police Department, North Carolina Emergency Management Agency, Northview Kodak Fire Department, Pigeon Forge Police Department, Sevier County Emergency Management Agency, Sevier County Volunteer Rescue Squad, Sevier County Sheriff’s Office, Sevierville Police Department, Southwest Virginia Mountain Rescue Group, Seymour Volunteer Fire Department, Smoky Mountain Nordic Ski Patrol, Smoky Mountain Search and Rescue Team, Swain County Emergency Management Agency, Swain County Rescue Squad, Swain County Sheriff’s Office, Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, and Walden’s Creek Volunteer Fire Department.

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‘Leadership seems out of whack’ — The stock market is behaving unusually, and it could be signaling that the next big crash is near

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A strange anomaly has been brewing in the stock market over the past few months.

Defensive stocks — or those in the healthcare, telecom, utilities, and consumer staples sectors — have been keeping pace with the broader market.

It’s a relatively new phenomenon, as the chart below shows. Defensives have only been market performers since about early July.

Leuthold Group

Market history suggests it’s not supposed to be like this. Not when the economic is allegedly roaring. Considering the US unemployment rate has been below 4% for the past five months — the lowest in 18 years — the economy appears to be firing on all cylinders.

Jim Paulsen, the chief investment strategist at Leuthold Group, has taken notice — and he’s not too encouraged by what he sees. In fact, he argues that this aberrant outperformance could be signaling rough times ahead for both the market and the supposedly bustling economy at large.

“For a stock market supposedly driven by some of the best economic performance of the entire recovery, its leadership seems out of whack,” said Paulsen. “It might be worth paying attention to this oddity.”

That’s because the rare combination of defensive outperformance and economic strength has historically been a warning sign that a recession is near. And since recessions are accompanied by market crashes, anyone who owns stocks should be on high alert.

Paulsen notes that in the modern era from 1988 to 2018, every single US recession was preceded by the strong relative performance of defensive stocks. This can be seen in the chart below.

Leuthold Group

Paulsen’s historical study actually goes all the way back to 1948 and reaches a similar conclusion. While he’s found it difficult to identify a specific unemployment threshold to serve as a surefire recession indicator, the area between 4% and 6% has usually been the sweet spot for imminent economic pressure and the market declines that accompany it.

As an interesting caveat, Paulsen also finds that defensive stocks beat the broader market when unemployment is high. This all begs the question of why the market’s safe havens outperform when joblessness is at either end of the spectrum.

Paulsen surmises that when unemployment is high, the economy is struggling. That, in turn, makes defensives nearly indistinguishable from riskier stocks, since growth is suppressed across the board. And when unemployment is low, investors start to get worried the recovery is in its final innings.

So what’s an investor to do? Paulsen says not to overthink it. Defensives are keeping pace right now, and will only keep outperforming as economic conditions slip from peak levels.

“Should defensive stocks outperform in the coming year, history also suggests recession risk may soon be on the rise,” said Paulsen. “Perhaps it is time for investors to consider tilting the portfolio in a more defensive direction.”

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God Friended Me star says series aims to start conversations — not convert anyone

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CBS’ new drama isn’t here to preach!

God Friended Me follows atheist and podcast host Miles (Brandon Michael Hall) as he receives a friend request from an account claiming to be the heavenly Father. Yes, it all seems like a weird prank at first, but when God starts suggesting friends to Miles and those recommendations lead him to save lives, the God claim doesn’t seem so outlandish. “He becomes an agent of change in his community,” says Hall of his character.

While Miles has left his faith behind, his dad (played by Joe Morton) is a pastor and, obviously, very much believes in the Almighty. “The show ultimately is about how to understand the other person’s point of view without rejecting them,” says Morton. Hall agrees that the new drama isn’t about converting Miles or the viewers. “The message behind it is that Miles is starting to have a conversation,” he says. “Because of the dynamic between him and his dad, that’s the place where it has to start.”

God Friended Me is also about communication in today’s trying times — something the cast has no problem with on set. “The dynamic of all of us and chemistry we have is so special and I know that will radiate off the screen,” says Hall, “I’m just excited for people to tune in and watch it. It’s an uplifting show and we need that.”

God Friended Me premieres Sunday, September 30 at 8:30 p.m. ET, then airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS beginning October 7. The pilot episode is available to stream now on cbs.com.

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A furtive moth slurps up this sleeping bird’s tears

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Caught red-handed.
Caught red-handed.

Image: Leandro João Carneiro de Lima Moraes/ the National Institute of Amazonian Research/Youtube

Deep in the Amazon jungle, ecologist Leandro Moraes filmed a moth sucking the tears out of a sleeping antbird’s eye. 

The delicately-performed nighttime feeding is a rarely seen event, wrote Moraes in a report about the experience, entitled “Please, more tears: a case of a moth feeding on antbird tears in central Amazonia.”

The short clip depicts a moth carefully dipping its tubular mouth into the bird’s closed eye. For a brief moment, the antbird opens its eye, but doesn’t seem to notice the large insect perched on its back — nor the tube resting in its eyeball.

Consuming the tears of other animals is called lachryphagy, and has previously been witnessed in bees and butterflies consuming the tears of formidable predators: crocodiles. 

Stealthily sucking another animal’s tears is apparently a risk worth taking. In an intensely-competitive natural world, tears are a rich source of salts and nutrients. Sleep carefully.

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Europe controls the singles on Sunday to reclaim the Ryder Cup

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CLOSE

SportsPulse: USA TODAY Sports’ Steve DiMeglio discusses the disappointing performances from Team USA in Day 2 and what they need to do to contend.
USA TODAY

SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — A pasting in Paris turned into a heart-pounder early Sunday afternoon before Europe regained control in singles play to defeat the USA and reclaim the Ryder Cup at Le Golf National.

Europe, which led 10-6 heading into the last day after whipping the U.S. over two days of foursomes and four-balls, weathered an early charge from the Americans and reached the needed 14½ points for victory when Francesco Molinari defeated Phil Mickelson, 4 and 2. It was fitting Molinari clinched the point — he went 5-0-0 on the week.

The Europeans stemmed the red, white and blue tide with key victories from rookie Jon Rahm, who won 2 and 1 against Tiger Woods (who was 0-4); rookie Thorbjorn Olesen, who toppled Jordan Spieth, 5 and 4; and veteran Ian Poulter, who defeated world No. 1 Dustin Johnson, 2 up.

“To beat Tiger, one of the greatest, if not the greatest, on a Sunday, with a pivotal point, I was so aware of it, it’s the best feeling of my life,” Rahm said.

MORE: Tiger Woods goes winless after singles loss to Jon Rahm

TRACKER: Francesco Molinari clinches win for Europe

Every player in the European squad earned at least 1 point. Europe has won nine of the last 12 biennial clashes. It also has won six consecutive matches on home soil. The Americans last won overseas in 1993.

Playing in front of 50,000 partisan spectators spread out over this massive complex, the U.S. needed to win 8 out of the 12 possible points in singles to retain the Ryder Cup it won in 2016 at Hazeltine National in Minnesota.

The U.S. gave itself some hope early with wins from Justin Thomas, Webb Simpson, Tony Finau and a half-point from Brooks Koepka that cut the deficit to one point, but in the end, the margin, and the task, proved too much to overcome.

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Here’s what legal experts are saying about the SEC’s settlement with Elon Musk

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The Securities and Exchange Commission reached a settlement with Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Saturday. Under the terms of the settlement, Musk doesn’t admit or deny the allegations in the agency’s lawsuit against him, but he will step down as the chairman of Tesla’s board of directors for three years and pay a $20 million fine.

The agency sued Musk on Thursday after he reportedly rejected a settlement under which he would have had to step down as board chairman for two years, add two independent directors to the company’s board, and pay a nominal fine, according to CNBC. The SEC alleged in the lawsuit that Musk made “false and misleading statements” in August about the possibility of taking the Tesla private. The agency sought to bar Musk from being an officer or director of a public company.

The SEC alleged that Musk said a representative from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund had shown interest in taking Tesla private but that Musk had never discussed any of the specific terms he described on Twitter with the Saudi fund or any other potential backers before making them public. According to the SEC, those terms included a proposed $420 share price and an option for all existing Tesla shareholders to remain with the company after it went private.

Musk said in a company statement Thursday that he was “deeply saddened and disappointed” by the lawsuit, which he described as “unjustified.”

Here’s how four legal experts reacted to the SEC’s settlement with Musk.

Gregory Sichenzia — partner at Sichenzia Ross Ference

  • The fine Musk received was likely higher than other CEOs would have paid.
  • But other CEOs would have likely had to step down from the position.

Jay Dubow — partner at Pepper Hamilton

  • It’s unusual that Musk will step down as chairman but remain CEO, since executives usually have to resign from both positions when they settle with the SEC in similar situations.
  • The SEC may have determined that removing Musk as CEO would have been bad for shareholders.
  • The settlement is good for Musk and Tesla since it eliminates the uncertainty the company would have faced if it had to find a new CEO.
  • The settlement is good for the SEC since it received a lot of attention and sent a message to other executives.

JR Lanis — partner at Drinker Biddle

  • The speed with which the settlement was reached is surprising
  • Being able to remain CEO is a victory for Musk.
  • The SEC is likely happy that it was able to settle with Musk quickly so the lawsuit wouldn’t affect Tesla’s stock indefinitely.

Renato Mariotti — partner at Thompson Coburn

  • The settlement is a reminder that officers and directors at public companies must be careful when they make statements that can affect their company’s stock price.
  • Musk’s “funding secured” tweet may be the most expensive tweet ever.

Have a Tesla news tip? Contact this reporter at mmatousek@businessinsider.com.

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The most popular animated series, by state

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From The Simpsons and Family Guy to South Park and Archer, animated series have some of the most loyal audiences — cult followings, even, in the case of Rick and Morty.

But which is the most popular in your state? The data team at All Home Connections answered that question by taking a list of the top 15 most popular animated sitcoms and using Google Trends to compare those with the highest search volume in each state. 

Ahead, see which animated series is the most popular where you live.

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President Donald Trump on Kim Jong Un: ‘We fell in love’ over ‘beautiful letters’

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President Donald Trump said he and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “fell in love” because of Kim’s “beautiful letters,” but another top Pyongyang official warned that denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula won’t happen unless the U.S. backs up its warm words with action.

Trump, speaking at a rally in West Virginia on Saturday night, said both leaders took tough positions at their June summit. 

“I was really tough and so was he, and we went back and forth,” Trump told an adoring crowd of thousands at Wesbanco Arena in Wheeling. “And then we fell in love, OK? No, really, he wrote me beautiful letters, and they’re great letters. We fell in love.”

North Korea’s foreign minister, however, suggested the bloom may be off the rose. Ri Yong-ho, speaking to the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Saturday, said his country won’t dismantle its nuclear weapons program seeing “trust-building” measures from the U.S.

“Without any trust in the U.S., there will be no confidence in our national security, and under such circumstances, there is no way we will unilaterally disarm ourselves first,” Ri said.

More: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to travel to North Korea next month

More: Why Trump needs to be involved in North and South Korea talks

Kim has committed to denuclearization in return for security guarantees from the U.S. Ri said it is time for the U.S. to curb the crippling economic sanctions his nation has faced and to make other gestures aimed at pushing the relationship between the two nations forward.

Ri met with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week and invited him to make a fourth visit to Pyongyang. An August visit was canceled after Trump determined that insufficient progress was being made.

“The reason behind the recent deadlock is because the U.S. relies on coercive methods, which are lethal to trust-building,” Ri said.

Trump acknowledged that the U.S. has made no concessions.

“The other day, on a good network, I heard one of the anchor’s say ‘why has President Trump given up so much?’” Trump told the crowd. “I didn’t give up anything, really. I didn’t give up anything. What did I give up? I gave up nothing.”

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