TDB Top 5 International Stories: Tuesday 20th September 2016

5: What We Know So Far About Bombing Suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami

Around 11 AM Monday morning, cops engaged in a shootout with 28-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahami, a man authorities believe was involved in bombings in New York and New Jersey over the weekend. After striking two officers and being wounded himself, Rahami was taken into custody in Linden, New Jersey, the New York Times reports.

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“Lotta’ lotta’ gunfire,” Derek Pelligra, manager of Linden Auto Body, told the paper in reference to the capture of Rahami, who was apparently found passed out in the doorway of a bar.

Rahami, a US citizen born in Afghanistan in 1988, was the first person named in connection to a blast at a charity race for Marines in Seaside Park, New Jersey, on Saturday—as well as a pair of explosive devices found in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. One of those devices exploded Saturday night and injured 29 people. The second may have inadvertently been disabled by thieves; a cell phone connected to the second bomb that contained pictures of Rahami helped put cops on his tail, according to DNAInfo. Rahami’s fingerprints were also reportedly found on one of the pressure-cooker bombs, and he was spotted in surveillance footage near the scene of the attack.

Vice News

4: Central bankers group issues stark warning on world economy

Financial markets have coped well with the Brexit vote and other potentially disruptive political developments but asset prices may be running too high and the risks to market stability are growing, a report has warned.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) – the central bank for central bankers – said in its quarterly review that valuations are high, especially given that the foundations they are built on may not be so solid. It did not explicitly say that stock and bond markets are waiting to burst.

BIS reports are not known for their stark language and blunt warnings, but they offer an insight into what is occupying the thoughts of the world’s most powerful and important central bankers.

“There has been a distinctly mixed feel to the recent rally – more stick than carrot, more push than pull, more frustration than joy. This explains the nagging question of whether market prices fully reflect the risks ahead,” said Claudio Borio, head of the BIS monetary and economic department.

The Guardian 

3: Weapons Makers Hold Lavish Lovefest for Pentagon Official Who Manages Arms Sales

HERE’S WHAT PASSES for funny in a room packed full of weapons-industry executives and lobbyists: When Vice Adm. Joseph Rixey — the man in charge of the Pentagon agency that administers foreign arms sales — said “I know you don’t go after human rights violators for potential customers.”

The line produced chuckles in the room.

Rixey was the guest of honor at a reception Wednesday hosted by the Senate Aerospace Caucus, a group of more than a dozen senators who “work to ensure a strong, secure, and competitive American aerospace sector,” according to their mission statement online. The event in a sumptuous Senate reception room was cohosted by the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), the lobbying group for weapons contractors like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon.

Rixey is the director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), the Pentagon agency charged with overseeing the Pentagon’s relations with the militaries of U.S. allies. As such, DSCA plays a key role in many foreign military sales to other countries, often acting as an intermediary and looking for a producer in the United States.

The Intercept

2: Nader: Trump is a Freeloading, Pontificating Empty Suit Who Has Cheated on Everything He’s Done

As The New York Times reports Donald Trump received at least $885 million in New York City tax breaks for his real estate projects since 1980, and also sued three mayoral administrations when the city sought to deny him tax breaks for a pair of Trump skyscrapers, we speak with consumer advocate Ralph Nader. Trump is “a freeloader on the backs of taxpayers who have to make up the difference for the taxes he doesn’t pay, or get less public services,” Nader comments.

Democracy Now

1: Aid stuck at border as Syria truce about to expire

Two aid convoys destined for Syria’s Aleppo, with enough supplies to feed 185,000 people for a month, remained stuck in Turkey on Monday as rebels said a landmark ceasefire had effectively ended.

The United Nations has said it does not have sufficient security guarantees from all sides in the conflict, now in its sixth year, to be able to deliver the 40 lorries of aid to eastern Aleppo, which is held by rebels battling to topple President Bashar al-Assad.

The aid has been sitting at the border for nearly a week, as the patchy seven-day ceasefire was punctuated by fighting and air raids, with all sides accusing each other of violating it.

The UN also wants to deliver aid to other hard-to-reach parts of the country, but says it has not received the necessary permissions from the government to proceed.

“They completely wasted time. They had a really good opportunity in the past week, with low casualty numbers and low bombing rates, to be able to send in aid, but we haven’t seen that,” Hadeel al-Shalchi, Syria researcher with Human Rights Watch (HRW), told al Jazeera.

Aljazeera