SkyFall: China stocks slowed their slide today, but still closed off by 1.3 percent. Futures indicate that the American markets will open higher, but they also did that yesterday and it was a false promise. The Down Jones averages opened …

Politics: Vice President Joe Biden met quietly with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren in Washington yesterday as he weighs whether to run for president. Warren is seen as an influential democrat and one of the brains of the party. Her support …

GeoEcon 101: In the midst of an economic slowdown and a stock market slump, China devalued its currency for the second day in a row. The Central Bank dropped the value of the yuan, by 1.6 percent against the US …

Ferguson: St. Louis County’s executive declared a state of emergency yesterday after street violence returned to Ferguson, Mo. with protests over police shootings. A reporter was beaten and robbed, a police officer was injured, and two teenagers wounded in a …

Nation: Houston authorities found eight people … five children and three adults … dead inside a home after a standoff and a brief gunfight with a man inside the house. Police had been called to do a welfare check at …

Life: A Colorado jury chose life in prison over death for convicted movie theater shooter James Holmes. The jury had previously decided that Holmes’s mental illness was not a mitigating factor in his killing of 12 people in an Aurora. …

Nation: Jon Stewart made his last appearance as host of the Daily Show last night but the Republican presidential candidates also had their first debate so, sadly, and without Jon Stewart, we lead with that. Standing center stage among 10 …

Clue: A piece of airplane wing that washed up on a remote island east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean has been identified as probably coming from a Boeing 777, leading investigators to suspect it may have been a wing …

Permawar: The US, Turkey, and Syrian rebels plan military action to clear Islamic State fighters out of a 60-mile strip of Syria along Turkey’s southern border. The area would be established as a safe zone for Syrians escaping their country’s …

Theater Shooting: A 58-year old man opened fire inside a crowded movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana, last night, killing two people and wounding nine before shooting himself. It happened at about 7 pm during a showing of the movie “Trainwreck.” Coincidentally, …