Fears mount that New Jersey shooting was anti-Semitic attack
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Fears that a deadly shooting at a Jewish market in Jersey City was an anti-Semitic attack mounted on Wednesday as authorities recounted how a man and woman deliberately pulled up to the place in a rental van with at least one rifle and got out firing.
A day after the gunbattle and standoff that left six people dead — the two killers, a police officer and three people who had been inside the store — state and federal law enforcement officials warned they have not established the motive for the attack.
“The why and the ideology and the motivation — that’s what we’re investigating,” New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said, adding that authorities are also trying to determine if anyone else was involved.
But Mayor Steve Fulop said surveillance video of the attackers made it clear they targeted the kosher market, and he pronounced the bloodshed a hate crime against Jews, as did New York’s mayor and governor.
Also, investigators believe the two dead attackers — who were believed to be a couple — identified themselves in the past as Black Hebrew Israelites, a movement whose members have been known to rail against whites and Jews, according to a law enforcement official who was briefed on the matter but was not authorized to discuss the case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Israel heads to 3rd consecutive election
JERUSALEM — Israel’s parliament on Wednesday dissolved after failing to meet a midnight deadline for forming a new government, triggering an an unprecedented third election in a 12-month period while giving scandal-plagued Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a welcome break as he fights to save his political career.
After months of political deadlock following a September election, lawmakers overwhelmingly passed the first of three votes required to dissolve the parliament and set a March 2 date for new elections.
But after a midnight deadline passed, parliament was automatically dissolved. Lawmakers were continuing their debate early Thursday to confirm the official date.
A new campaign will prolong a year-long political stalemate that has paralyzed the government and undermined public trust in the government. For the third time in the past year, the country now appears to be heading to what is sure to be a nasty three-month political campaign that according to recent opinion polls is expected to deliver very similar results.
In September’s vote, Netanyahu’s Likud party and the rival Blue and White party both were unable to secure a parliamentary majority. Netanyahu and Blue and White’s leader, former military commander Benny Gantz, both failed during officially mandated periods to cobble together a governing coalition. Then, during a final three-week window that ended Wednesday, they were unable to agree on a power-sharing agreement that would have avoided another vote.
Leaders scramble for final votes as UK’s ugly election ends
LONDON — Britain’s election has been like the country’s late-autumn weather: chilly and dull, with blustery outbursts.
On the last day of the campaign, political leaders dashed around the U.K. on Wednesday trying to win over millions of undecided voters who will likely determine the outcome.
Opinion polls suggest Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives have a lead over the main opposition Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn ahead of Thursday’s election. But all the parties are nervous about the verdict of a volatile electorate fed up after years of Brexit wrangling.
Truck driver Clive Jordan expressed a weariness that could be heard up and down the country during the five-week campaign.
“Basically I just want it over and done with now,” he said. “Nobody’s doing what they said. Everybody’s lying.”
Flooded farmers face growing dilemma in warming world
CRESCENT, Iowa — Frogs, carp and bugs thrived all summer in murky floodwaters where Gene Walter should have planted corn and soybeans. Last year’s ruined crop spilled from metal storage bins that burst nine months ago when the Missouri River surged through two levees near his southwest Iowa farm.
Like many in the water-weary Midwest, Walter doesn’t know if climate change was responsible for the second major flood in nine years. Or the increasingly frequent torrential rains that dump more water in an hour than he used to see in days.
Even so, “we kind of feel like it’s the new normal,” said Walter, who lost 46,000 bushels of corn and soybeans. “You can’t rely on anything. You can’t build anything. You can’t do future planning … the uncertainty is the thing that is really bad.”
This year’s devastating losses are forcing tough decisions about the future of farming in America’s flood plains, even among those skeptical of climate change and humans’ role in it.
Farmers who lost billions of dollars in grain, livestock, equipment, structures and unplanted crops are wondering whether they should — or can — return to the fertile bottomlands next year.
FAA analysis predicted many more Max crashes without a fix
After the first crash of a Boeing 737 Max last year, federal safety officials estimated that there could be 15 more fatal crashes of the Max over the next few decades if Boeing didn’t fix a critical automated flight-control system.
Yet the Federal Aviation Administration did not ground the plane until a second deadly crash five months later.
The FAA analysis was disclosed Wednesday during a hearing of the House Transportation Committee, which is investigating the FAA’s oversight of Boeing and the Max.
“Despite its own calculations, the FAA rolled the dice on the safety of the traveling public and let the Max continue to fly until Boeing could overhaul its MCAS software,” said Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., chairman of the committee.
MCAS is the name of Boeing’s flight-control system that automatically pushed the noses of the doomed planes down in response to faulty readings from a sensor.
