Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, and I talk about Apple's October 22 event invitations going out, what might be announced, and more!
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/GNrX34CIW6g/story01.htmWASHINGTON — As the fiscal fight roiling Washington nears its end, the White House is already signaling that it plans to use the political momentum it has gained during the shutdown fight to charge back into the immigration debate. And this time, Democratic pollsters and advocates say, they could actually win.
The final chapter of the current crisis hasn’t been written yet, but Democrats in Washington are privately confident that they’ll emerge with the upper hand over the conservatives in Congress who forced a government shutdown. And sources say the administration plans to use its victory to resurrect an issue that was always intended to be a top priority of Obama’s second-term agenda.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton smiles during a press conference after two days of closed-door nuclear talks on Iran in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013. Talks between Iran and six world powers have ended an upbeat note, with the European Union's top diplomat Ashton calling them "very important," in efforts to end international tensions over Tehran's nuclear program. (AP Photo/Keystone, Martial Trezzini)
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton smiles during a press conference after two days of closed-door nuclear talks on Iran in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013. Talks between Iran and six world powers have ended an upbeat note, with the European Union's top diplomat Ashton calling them "very important," in efforts to end international tensions over Tehran's nuclear program. (AP Photo/Keystone, Martial Trezzini)
Switzerland's Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter, left, speaks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, right, during a meeting besides of the two days of closed-door nuclear talks in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013. (AP Photo/Martial Trezzini, Pool)
GENEVA (AP) — High-stakes nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers adjourned on an upbeat note Wednesday, with the European Union's top diplomat calling them "very important." Iran's foreign minister spoke of a possible "new phase" that would ease a decade of tensions over fears that his country wanted a nuclear bomb.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton did not go into details on the substance of the talks. But she read a statement endorsed by both Iran and the six countries, calling the talks "substantive and forward looking."
Confirming Iranian media reports, the statement said the two sides will meet again in Geneva on Nov. 7-8.
Ashton, who convened the talks, spoke of a "very intensive and I think a very important meeting."
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who headed the Iranian side, said he hoped the results achieved over two days of talks ending Wednesday "will hopefully be the beginning of a new phase" in relations between Iran and the six powers — the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.
"We have reached a serious stage in the talks," he told reporters.
The lack of immediate details on what was achieved, however, made it difficult to evaluate the amount of progress made in what has been a decade of deadlocked negotiations over Iran's nuclear program.
Iran says it's not interested in having nuclear weapons. Its proposal Tuesday to the six powers focused on their demands that Iran's uranium enrichment program and other activities that could be used to make nuclear arms be stopped or reduced.
Iran wants painful international sanctions to be lifted in exchange for possible concessions it had been previously unwilling to consider. Those could be increased international monitoring of its nuclear program and the scaling back of its uranium enrichment plans — a potential pathway to nuclear arms and the centerpiece of its impasse with the West.
Tehran insists it has no interest in weapons production. Still, it has resisted both enticements and sanctions from world powers designed to force it into ending uranium enrichment and other activities that could be used to make weapons.
But negotiations now appear to be driven by the new wind generated since reformist President Hassan Rouhani was elected in June.
A member of one of the delegations at the talks said the new Iranian plan offered reductions in both the levels of uranium enrichment being conducted by Iran and the number of centrifuges doing the enrichment — a key demand of the six powers.
An Iranian official said any plan would be implemented in three stages, lasting from six months to a year.
Both men demanded anonymity because they were not allowed to discuss the confidential plan.
Iranian state TV, which closely reflects government views, said Tehran offered to discuss uranium enrichment levels. The report also said Iran proposed adopting the additional protocols of the U.N.'s nuclear treaty — effectively opening its nuclear facilities to wider inspection and monitoring — if the West recognizes Iran's right to enrich uranium.
But the Iranian official said any acceptance of the protocols would be one of the last steps in implementing the plan.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-10-16-Iran-Nuclear-Talks/id-a70acb8ca6e34390bff13459277d3d66WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says the latest proposal from House Republican leaders for reopening the government and extending the nation's borrowing cap is a partisan effort to appease tea party conservatives. It praises bipartisan negotiations in the Senate as a good-faith effort to end the partial government shutdown and avoid an economy-shaking default.
The White House also announced it will meet with House Democratic leaders Tuesday afternoon as negotiations continue and a deadline to raise the debt ceiling moves ever closer.
White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage says a proposal from House GOP leaders that would attach health care law changes to shut-down and debt ceiling measures is a, quote, "partisan attempt to appease a small group of tea party Republicans who forced the government shut down in the first place."
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-10-15-Budget-Battle%20Obama/id-a1353d780c2543d79de9a9ce166ab1a7President Barack Obama, center, and Vice President Joe Biden, center left, meet with Democratic Leadership in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013, in Washington. Sitting with them are from left to right, Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y. The partial government shutdown is in its third week and less than two days before the Treasury Department says it will be unable to borrow and will rely on a cash cushion to pay the country's bills. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
President Barack Obama, center, and Vice President Joe Biden, center left, meet with Democratic Leadership in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013, in Washington. Sitting with them are from left to right, Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y. The partial government shutdown is in its third week and less than two days before the Treasury Department says it will be unable to borrow and will rely on a cash cushion to pay the country's bills. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
From left to right, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., and Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., speaking with members of the media outside the West Wing of the White House following their meeting with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013, in Washington. The partial government shutdown is in its third week and less than two days before the Treasury Department says it will be unable to borrow and will rely on a cash cushion to pay the country's bills. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Reporters wait outside the office of Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, as a planned vote in the House of Representatives collapsed, Tuesday night, Oct. 15, 2013, at the Capitol in Washington. Time growing desperately short, House Republicans pushed for passage of legislation late Tuesday to prevent a threatened Treasury default, end a 15-day partial government shutdown and extricate divided government from its latest brush with a full political meltdown. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate leaders are optimistic about forging an eleventh-hour bipartisan deal preventing a possible federal default and ending the partial government shutdown after Republican divisions forced GOP leaders to drop efforts to ram their own version through the House.
Pressured by the calendar, financial markets and public opinion polls, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., were hoping to shake hands on an agreement Wednesday and, if possible, hold votes later in the day.
Driving their urgency were oft-repeated Obama administration warnings that the government would exhaust its borrowing authority Thursday and risk a federal default that could unhinge the world economy. Lawmakers feared that spooked financial markets would plunge unless a deal was at hand and that voters would take it out on incumbents in next year's congressional elections.
"People are so tired of this," President Barack Obama said Tuesday in an interview with Los Angeles TV station KMEX.
U.S. stock futures were rising early Wednesday amid strong corporate earnings and lingering hope for a deal to head off a government default. But there were also dire warnings from the financial world a day after the Fitch credit rating agency said it was reviewing its AAA rating on U.S. government debt for possible downgrade.
John Chambers, chairman of Standard & Poor's Sovereign Debt Committee, told "CBS This Morning" on Wednesday that a U.S. government default on its debts would be "much worse than Lehman Brothers," the investment firm whose 2008 collapse led to the global financial crisis.
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett told CNBC he doesn't think the federal government will fail to pay its bills, but "if it does happen, it's a pure act of idiocy."
Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, a tea party favorite, said he was not worried about the prospect of a U.S. default.
"We are going to service our debt," he told CNN. "But I am concerned about all the rhetoric around this ....I'm concerned that it will scare the markets."
Aides to Reid and McConnell said the two men had resumed talks, including a Tuesday night conversation, and were hopeful about striking an agreement that could pass both houses.
It was expected to mirror a deal the leaders had neared Monday. That agreement was described as extending the debt limit through Feb. 7, immediately reopening the government fully and keeping agencies running until Jan. 15 — leaving lawmakers clashing over the same disputes in the near future.
It also set a mid-December deadline for bipartisan budget negotiators to report on efforts to reach compromise on longer-term issues like spending cuts. And it likely would require the Obama administration to certify that it can verify the income of people who qualify for federal subsidies for medical insurance under the 2010 health care law.
But that emerging Senate pact was put on hold Tuesday, an extraordinary day that highlighted how unruly rank-and-file House Republicans can be, even when the stakes are high. Facing solid Democratic opposition, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, tried in vain to write legislation that would satisfy GOP lawmakers, especially conservatives.
Boehner crafted two versions of the bill, but neither made it to a House vote because both faced certain defeat. Working against him was word during the day from the influential group Heritage Action for America that his legislation was not conservative enough — a worrisome threat for many GOP lawmakers whose biggest electoral fears are of primary challenges from the right.
The last of Boehner's two bills had the same dates as the emerging Senate plan on the debt limit and shutdown.
But it also blocked federal payments for the president, members of Congress and other officials to help pay for their health care coverage. And it prevented the Obama administration from shifting funds among different accounts — as past Treasury secretaries have done — to let the government keep paying bills briefly after the federal debt limit has been reached.
Boehner's inability to produce a bill that could pass his own chamber likely means he will have to let the House vote on a Senate compromise, even if that means it would pass with strong Democratic and weak GOP support. House Republican leaders have tried to avoid that scenario for fear that it would threaten their leadership, and some Republicans worried openly about that.
"Of all the damage to be done politically here, one of the greatest concerns I have is that somehow John Boehner gets compromised," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a former House member and Boehner supporter.
With the default clock ticking ever louder, it was possible the House might vote first on a plan produced by Senate leaders. For procedural reasons, that could speed the measure's trip through Congress by removing some parliamentary barriers Senate opponents might erect.
The strains of the confrontation were showing among GOP lawmakers.
"It's time to reopen the government and ensure we don't default on our debt," Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., said in a written statement. "I will not vote for poison pills that have no chance of passing the Senate or being signed into law."
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Associated Press writers David Espo, Andrew Taylor, Charles Babington, Stephen Ohlemacher, Henry C. Jackson and Donna Cassata contributed to this report.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-10-16-Budget%20Battle/id-12bbcdd4a82744e783d77ad0d8036ecfThe Washington Post has published new revelations about the National Security Agency's electronic snooping, indicating that the intelligence branch gathers millions of contact lists from personal email accounts and instant messaging around the world.
The new information is attributed by the Post to "senior intelligence officials and top-secret documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden."
"The collection program, which has not been disclosed before, intercepts e-mail address books and 'buddy lists' from instant messaging services as they move across global data links. Online services often transmit those contacts when a user logs on, composes a message, or synchronizes a computer or mobile device with information stored on remote servers.
Rather than targeting individual users, the NSA is gathering contact lists in large numbers that amount to a sizable fraction of the world's e-mail and instant messaging accounts. Analysis of that data enables the agency to search for hidden connections and to map relationships within a much smaller universe of foreign intelligence targets."
According to the newspaper, in a single day last year the NSA harvested 444,743 email address books from Yahoo, 105,068 from Hotmail, 82,857 from Facebook, 33,697 from Gmail and 22,881 from unspecified other providers.
The Post story quotes Yahoo as saying in response to NSA effort, it would begin encrypting user connections using SLL technology in January.
However, last month, The Two-Way's Eyder Peralta wrote that The New York Times and The Guardian, relying on documents from Snowden, revealed that the NSA has the keys to crack most Internet encryption methods.
"In plain English, this means that many of the tools — like , used by many banks and email providers — that people worldwide have come to believe protect them from snooping by criminals and governments are essentially worthless when it comes to the NSA."
He’s one of the most lovable stars on the boob tube, and it turns out Ashton Kutcher is also one of the richest!
According to Forbes’ annual Highest-Earning Television Actors roster, the “Butterfly Effect” hunk nabbed a cool $24 million over the past year.
Kutcher’s “Two and a Half Men” partner in crime Jon Cryer took the runner-up position with a salary of $21 million, and Ray Romano scored $16 million thanks to syndication royalties from “Everybody Loves Raymond.”
Rounding out the top five are Neil Patrick Harris, who is tied for #4 with Mark Harmon ($15 million) and Patrick Dempsey in fifth place with an impressive $13 million income.
