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Nasa has released a new video of Valkyrie, or ‘R5’ as its more officially known, strutting its stuff.

By: Matt Burgess,

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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s prime minister has accused Russia of trying to “cover up” its infringement of Turkey’s airspace with “unfounded” claims that Turkey is illegally importing oil from the Islamic State group in Syria.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed that Turkey shot down its plane to protect what he described as Turkish profiteering from the oil trade — a charge Turkey denies.

Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters Tuesday: “It is not possible to cover up the violation of the Turkish airspace with unfounded accusations against Turkey.”

He renewed a call for Russia to keep military and diplomatic channels for dialogue open, insisting that Russia’s stance was turning the Syria crisis into a “crisis between Russia and Turkey.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s December, when Congress typically passes a last-minute package of temporary tax breaks, sparing millions of businesses and individuals from unwanted tax increases just weeks before the start of filing season.

This year, lawmakers will have to do it again if they want to avoid the wrath of angry taxpayers at holiday time.

Congress extends these tax breaks every year or two, usually in the final days, drawing complaints from business leaders tired of the uncertainty.

The Senate Finance Committee passed a package of 56 temporary tax breaks in July. The package would extend the tax breaks through the end of 2016, saving taxpayers $95 billion, which would be added to the budget deficit.

Expect the full Senate and House to take up the package — or a version of it — before leaving town for the year.

Things to know about the year-end tax package:

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WHO BENEFITS?

Businesses big and small, commuters who use public transportation, teachers who spend their own money on classroom supplies and people who live in states without state income taxes.

The package of 56 tax breaks is a collection of narrow provisions targeting specific groups and industries, held together by a few broad tax breaks that benefit millions.

In all, they affect about one in six taxpayers, according to the Tax Institute, the independent research arm at tax giant H&R Block.

Among the biggest breaks for businesses are a tax credit for research and development and an exemption that allows financial companies such as banks and investment firms to shield foreign profits from being taxed by the U.S. Several provisions allow retailers and other businesses to write off capital investments more quickly.

A popular tax break for individuals allows people who live in states without an income tax to deduct local sales taxes on their federal returns. Seven states don’t tax income: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. Two states — New Hampshire and Tennessee — tax investment income but not wages.

Other, narrower provisions include tax breaks for film and theater producers, NASCAR racetrack owners, racehorse owners, and rum producers in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

One protects struggling homeowners who get their mortgages reduced from paying income taxes on the amount of debt that was forgiven.

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DIDN’T THE TAX BREAKS ALREADY EXPIRE?

Yes, they expired at the beginning of the year. The Senate bill would retroactively extend them, enabling taxpayers to claim them on their 2015 and 2016 income tax returns.

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WHY NOT MAKE THEM PERMANENT?

Some of the tax breaks were originally intended to be temporary, but powerful interest groups keep them alive year after year. Others are popular but expensive, leaving some deficit-weary lawmakers reluctant to make them permanent.

For example, some conservatives say a generous tax credit for using wind farms and other renewable energy sources to produce electricity has outlived its purpose. The tax break was first enacted in the 1990s to help kick-start a fledgling industry. It has been renewed many times since.

One of the most popular tax credits rewards businesses for investing in research and development. Both Democrats and Republicans want to make it permanent, but congressional estimates say it would cost more than $150 billion in lost revenue over the next decade, so lawmakers simply renew it every year or two, masking the true long-term cost.

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GOOD POLICY?

Tax experts say it’s terrible policy to let these tax breaks expire repeatedly, only to renew them retroactively at a later date.

Consider this: The tax credit for research and development is supposed to provide an incentive for businesses to invest in R&D. The credit expired in January, and more than 11 months later, it hasn’t been renewed. How much incentive do you think the credit has been providing since it expired?

Also, business groups complain that companies can’t accurately project expenses from year to year because they don’t know for sure whether Congress will renew their tax breaks.

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WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Lawmakers have been negotiating a package that would make some of the tax breaks permanent while extending others temporarily. However, Democrats and Republicans are once again struggling to agree on which ones to make permanent.

Last December, Congress was faced with the exact same scenario and lawmakers only extended the tax breaks through the end of 2014, allowing them to expire again just a few weeks later.

Lobbyists and business groups are working hard to avoid a repeat.

“I believe we’ll get this done before the end of the year. I would love to see permanency in some of these,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters on Monday. “In these situations, it’s always coming down to the last week or so to see what mix we’re able to get.”

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AP Congressional Correspondent Erica Werner contributed to this report.

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Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap

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LE BOURGET, France (AP) — The latest news from the U.N. climate conference in Paris, which runs through Dec. 11. All times local:

9:45 a.m.

French President Francois Hollande is holding talks with African leaders about what their countries need to cope with and reduce global warming.

The meeting Tuesday is part of broader international diplomatic efforts toward a possible long-term accord for all countries to cut man-made carbon emissions. Those emissions produce heat-trapping gases and scientists say are causing glaciers to melt and sea levels to rise and leading to more and more droughts and other extreme weather.

Hollande hosted President Barack Obama and 149 other world dignitaries Monday to kick off two weeks of U.N.-led climate talks outside Paris. The leaders agreed that something must be done to protect the planet for future generations, but now must overcome disagreements over who should shoulder the economic responsibility for cutting emissions and protecting countries already hit by climate change.

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9:15 a.m.

Envoys at the Paris climate conference say governments and companies need to do more to protect forests, which can help slow global warming.

Prince Charles, South American indigenous leaders and other dignitaries are holding a special meeting Tuesday to call attention to shrinking global forests from South America to Russia and Africa.

Peru’s Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal told reporters ahead of the meeting that companies too need to do their part to limit deforestation. Envoys are urging greater efforts against illegal logging.

The world’s forests play an important role in absorbing carbon dioxide released by man-made emissions from burning oil, gas and coal.

The meeting is part of two weeks of U.N.-led talks aimed at a worldwide, long-term accord to cut human-made emissions blamed for climate change.

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — After a long, bumpy ride, production of RVs has just about returned to where it was before the Great Recession put sales in the slow lane.

Overall recreational vehicle shipments from manufacturers to dealers — a key measure of consumer demand — are expected to increase 3.5 percent to 369,100 units in 2015, the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association said Tuesday at the start of an industry trade show in Louisville.

Shipments are up for all kinds of RVs, from less-expensive towable ones to stand-alone motor homes, it said.

And the industry expects to ride the momentum into 2016, when total wholesale shipments are projected to reach 375,100. That would be the highest total since the pre-recessionary boom times a decade ago.

“We’ve come all the way back from the recession low to recover all that ground,” RVIA spokesman Kevin Broom said.

Shipments swelled to 384,400 RVs in 2005 and 390,500 in 2006, and were still strong at 353,400 units in 2007, the last year before sales tanked along with the economy. During the recession, sales plunged, plants closed and thousands of jobs were cut as orders for RVs dropped to their worse level in decades. Shipments sank to 165,700 in 2009, but have steadily risen every year since then.

An improved economy, access to credit and pent-up consumer demand have helped fuel the industry’s comeback, the industry said. The plunge in fuel prices has reinforced its upbeat forecast that more Americans will want to hit the open road in the traveling homes.

“I really don’t see an end in sight,” said Derald Bontrager, president and CEO of RV manufacturer Jayco Inc. “The demographics are all in our favor.”

Indiana-based Jayco has expanded production space and added several hundred workers to keep pace with accelerating demand, Bontrager said. The company predicts its shipments will rise about 12 percent this year, with growth of at least 8 percent to 10 percent forecast for 2016, he said.

Dealers are reaping the benefits as well, after struggling a few years ago to clear inventory clogged by tepid sales.

Lindsey Reines has operated an RV dealership for decades at Manassas, Virginia, and now has opened a second location near Richmond. Sales have been strong for his lineup of motor homes ranging from $80,000 to $200,000, he said. Reines said his business has fully recovered from the recession.

“I think it’s the perfect storm right now for people to buy RVs,” Reines said, citing the stock market, low fuel prices, consumer confidence, an improved economy and low interest rates.

Tom Stinnett, an RV dealer in southern Indiana, said his customers are trending toward the less-expensive towables and more moderately priced motor homes since the recession.

“People still want to spend the money and go do what we offer,” Stinnett said. “But they simply aren’t spending the amounts of money on this that they did” before the recession.

Towables, attached to pickups or hitched to the back of another vehicle, account for about 85 percent of new RV shipments. Through October, towable shipments were up 4.9 percent for the year, while motor home shipments had risen 5.8 percent, the industry said.

Towables cost between $8,000 and $95,000, with an average price of about $29,000, according to RVIA. Stand-alone motor homes range from $45,000 to $1.5 million for the most luxurious, bus-like vehicles. The average price is about $128,000 for the amenity-filled moving homes.

Indiana is the clear manufacturing leader, accounting for 81 percent of RV production in 2014, followed by Oregon, Michigan, California and Iowa.

The recession thinned out the number of RV manufacturers, suppliers and dealers. The manufacturers who survived are now stronger than ever as production returns to pre-recession levels, Bontrager said. “The same size of pie is being eaten by fewer people,” he said.

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Mobile dating app Happn can’t be used to stalk people, according to the company’s CEO, despite what some reports have suggested.

The Happn app allows single people to set up their own profile and choose what kind of person they’re looking for based on sex and age. The app shows users who they’ve “crossed paths” with and how many times. After two Happn users express an interest in one another — by tapping a red love heart on the other person’s profile — they are able write messages to one another.

When asked about whether the app can be used to stalk people, Happn cofounder and CEO Didier Rappaport claimed it isn’t nearly accurate enough.

“You can cross with people who are around you but it is not really precise because it’s in a circle of 250m, which in a big city is very large, so you cannot really stalk the people,” he said.

Those who use Happn for several months may start to notice that they’ve crossed paths with certain people close to 100 times, indicating that this person probably lives or works very close to them. It’s perfectly possible that Happn users may start to recognise the people they’ve matched with on Happn on the street.

Rappaport told Business Insider that Happn is planning to introduce a voice messaging feature so that users can talk to their “crushes” in a more realistic way. Like rival app Tinder, Happn will also be integrated with Instagram so users can see what photos their love interests are posting.

“For us the evolution of our product is really important,” Rappaport said. “We want to make a service that is more and more rich for our users to allow them to express themselves much more.”

Some have suggested that Happn’s proprietary algorithm could be used by the police to track people who have gone missing but Rappaport said the company’s technology wouldn’t be able to pinpoint an individual’s location any better than the technology that’s already built into smartphones, namely GPS.

“We like fostering magic and we want to keep our app in that mood,” said Rappaport.

Happn has 700,000 users in the UK, with 450,000 of those in London where a high population density allows Happn users to cross paths with more people. Globally, Happn is used by some 8 million people and 1.2 million people are joining the platform every month. Rappaport said he expects Happn to have 25 to 30 million users worldwide by the end of 2016 and just as many users as Tinder by 2017.

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NOW WATCH: We flew to the airport like the 1% — on the ‘Uber of helicopters’

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BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s al-Qaida branch has freed a group of Lebanese soldiers held captive since August 2014 as part of a swap deal.

The group, known as Nusra Front, released the 16 soldiers on Tuesday near the border town of Arsal, where they were abducted last year.

Lebanese and other media broadcast the release. The soldiers were being transported by the militants to a location outside the border town, to be handed over to Lebanese authorities who were waiting in Red Cross vehicles.

The release is part of a Qatar-brokered deal that includes Lebanon releasing a number of prisoners wanted by the militant group.

Details on those prisoners were not immediately available.

The Nusra Front and the Islamic State group abducted about 25 soldiers and policemen in Arsal last year.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Bono says despite the deadly attacks in Paris last month he believes Paris will remain strong and he is hoping U2’s concert there this week moves the audience.

U2 was set to perform in Paris on Nov. 14 and was in a middle of rehearsing when 130 people were killed in suicide bombings and shootings the day before in what has become the worst attack on French soil in more than a half-century.

“Well, knowing our French audience and having a sense of them by now, I would say joy as an act of defiance,” he said of what concertgoers can expect when U2 performs at the Accor Hotels Arena in Paris Dec. 6-7. “That’s what U2 does, that’s what French people want from us and that’s it.”

“They took a lot of lives we’re not going to get back, but they’re not going to change the character of the city of Paris,” he continued in an interview with The Associated Press.

Bono also praised the U.S. rock band Eagles of Death Metal, who were performing at the concert theater Bataclan in Paris where some were taken hostage and killed.

“We’re very, very of course moved by the fact that our fellow troubadours, the Eagles of Death Metal, had such a hard time; they’re an extraordinary talented band, they’ve been through the most ugly nightmare and they have been very graceful about it,” Bono said.

Of the audience, he said, “These are our people and they’re very familiar faces, the people in the audience, they’re our people.

“They’re like my daughter, my son, they’re like (U2 members) Edge, they’re like Larry (Mullen, Jr.) … so we took it very badly,” Bono said. “But we’re going back, you bet. Nothing will stop us from going back.”

Bono made the comments when discussing a new campaign for his (RED) organization, which is launching Tuesday to coincide with World AIDS Day.

U2’s Dec. 7 show will broadcast on HBO. Bono said to those frightened by the Paris attacks and fearful of attending concerts: “Be vigilant, but be unafraid.”

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Berlin (AFP) – The German cabinet on Tuesday approved a mandate offering military assistance to back the fight against the Islamic State jihadist group, sources said.

The package, which still requires parliamentary approval, covers Tornado reconnaissance jets, a naval frigate and up to 1,200 troops following a request from France in the wake of deadly jihadist attacks in Paris last month.

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BALTIMORE (AP) — A second set of 75 prospective jurors was due to be questioned in a Baltimore court for the first trial of a city police officer stemming from Freddie Gray’s death.

Tuesday is the second day of jury selection for the trial of Officer William Porter, one of six officers charged in the case, which led to protests and rioting and added fuel to the Black Lives Matter movement.

On Monday, Judge Barry Williams questioned about 75 prospective jurors. A second group of 75 would be questioned Tuesday. On Wednesday, some of the potential jurors from each group will advance to a second round of questioning.

On Monday, Williams conducted initial questioning in the marble-walled courtroom, and then interviewed dozens of the prospective jurors in a private conference room. The large jury pool suggests how difficult the selection process could prove to be.

Gray was a 25-year-old black man who died April 19 of a severe spinal injury he received while in police custody.

Porter, who is also black, is accused of failing to get medical help for Gray during several stops made by the police van that carried Gray on a 45-minute trip. At the end, officers found Gray unresponsive. He was taken to a hospital and died a week later.

The officer is being tried first in part because prosecutors want to use him as a witness in the trials of several other officers. He is charged with manslaughter, assault, misconduct and reckless endangerment.

The judge asked potential jurors Monday if any of them had not heard about the case, the citywide curfew imposed after Gray’s death or the $6.4 million settlement the city paid to his family. No one responded.

Williams read aloud more than 200 names of possible witnesses, a list that included more than 100 Baltimore police officers, lawyers and prosecutors. The judge said he expects the trial to wrap up by Dec. 17.

A small group of protesters gathered outside the downtown courthouse. Their chants of “All night, all day, we will fight for Freddie Gray,” could be heard throughout the morning proceedings.

Another demonstration began Monday evening before the court wrapped up its work for the day. People rallied outside the courthouse and later marched to the Inner Harbor, then past Baltimore’s World Trade Center office tower and the National Aquarium and on to City Hall. One carried a sign that read, “Stop the War on Black America.” A woman led a chant of “If we don’t get it,” with people responding, “shut it down.”

One prospective juror was taken to a hospital after tripping on courthouse stairs. Court spokeswoman Terri Charles said the woman suffered a knee injury.

A verdict is likely to set the tone for the city. If Porter is acquitted, there could be protests and possibly more unrest. A conviction could send shock waves through the city’s troubled police department.

“Everything is at stake. The future of the city is at stake,” Police Commissioner Kevin Davis has said.

Two other officers are black and the three additional officers are white. They will be tried separately beginning in January. Their trials are expected to last until the spring.

Gray was initially handcuffed. Later during his van ride, his legs were shackled and he was not put in a seat belt, a violation of department policy, prosecutors have said.

Porter told police investigators that arresting Gray “was always a big scene,” according to a pretrial filing by defense attorneys. Porter indicated that he knew of a previous arrest in which Gray allegedly tried to kick out the windows of a police vehicle.

“You know, so he was always, always, like, banging around,” Porter said in the statement excerpted in the filing. “It was always a big scene whenever you attempted to arrest Freddie Gray.”

Defense attorneys say that helps explain Porter’s actions during Gray’s arrest.

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Associated Press writer Juliet Linderman in Baltimore contributed to this report.

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