10 things you need to know today: November 4, 2015

(Image credit: AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)

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1. Leaders of Taiwan and China to meet for first time in 66 years
2. Outsider Republican Matt Bevin wins governor's race in Kentucky
3. Voters repeal Houston anti-bias ordinance
4. Takata faces a potential record fine over faulty airbag inflators
5. Obama wants to decide on the Keystone XL pipeline, despite delay request
6. Ohio voters reject proposal to legalize pot
7. Jon Stewart reaches deal with HBO
8. Cargo plane crashes in South Sudan, killing dozens
9. Romanian government resigns amid nightclub fire protests
10. Robin Williams wife says depression is not what drove him to suicide

published 4 November 2015

1. Leaders of Taiwan and China to meet for first time in 66 years

The leaders of mainland China and Taiwan this weekend are meeting for the first time since before 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists lost the Chinese civil war to Mao Zedong's Communists. The historic discussions between Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Singapore come after eight years of preparatory contact among lower-level officials. The two sides are expected to discuss improving relations, but not sign any agreements.

Republican Matt Bevin, a political novice and Tea Party favorite, beat Democrat Jack Conway, the state's attorney general, on Tuesday to win the governor's race in Kentucky. Bevin received just under 53 percent of the vote and Conway 44 percent, according to unofficial results. Bevin's victory surprised even many in his own party, who thought he was too far out of the mainstream to win. His newcomer status, however, proved a plus in a campaign season in which the GOP presidential primary race is being dominated by outsiders Ben Carson and Donald Trump.

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Houston voters on Tuesday repealed an ordinance that sought to ban discrimination over gender identity or sexual orientation. The City Council approved the protections, which are not guaranteed under Texas state law, in May, but opponents, including conservative politicians and pastors, won a court fight to put the matter to a referendum. Opponents said the measure would have let male sexual predators into women's bathrooms. The city's lesbian mayor, Annise Parker, blamed the defeat on "fear mongering and deliberate lies."

U.S. auto safety regulators on Tuesday fined Japan's Takata up to a record-setting $200 million over airbag inflators that have been linked to seven deaths and dozens of injuries. Takata will pay $70 million in cash. If Takata does not hold up its end of the deal, it could pay additional fines up to $130 million in what would be the biggest financial penalty ever imposed on a company in the auto industry. Takata's stock dropped by as much as 20 percent as Honda, its biggest customer, announced it was dropping the company as its airbag-inflator supplier.

President Obama plans to rule on TransCanada's proposal to complete the Keystone XL oil pipeline, even though the company has requested that the U.S. government suspend its permit application, the White House said Tuesday. The company's request for a delay came as approval prospects dimmed. The $8 billion pipeline would carry oil from Canadian tar sands to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Obama has called the oil production method "extraordinarily dirty."

Ohio voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a measure that would have legalized marijuana for medical and recreational use in the state. If the amendment had passed, Ohio would have been the first state to legalize recreational and medical marijuana at the same time. Opponents said the measure would have given a small number of investors a monopoly on growing legal pot. About two dozen wealthy investors contributed $25 million to the Issue 3 campaign.

Jon Stewart is returning to TV, discussing current events on HBO, just months after concluding his legendary run on Comedy Central's The Daily Show. Under a four-year deal with the cable network, Stewart will appear on the streaming services HBO NOW and HBO Go multiple times a day. HBO also will get a first-look option for any other film or TV project Stewart wishes to produce. "Appearing on television 22 minutes a night clearly broke me," said Stewart in a statement. "I'm pretty sure I can produce a few minutes of content every now and again."

A Russian-built Antonov-12 cargo plane crashed Wednesday shortly after taking off from an airport in South Sudan, killing at least 41 people, according to a police officer at the scene. The government put early estimates of the death toll at about 25 people. The plane was carrying 19 people, 17 of whom died. A crew member and a child survived. The other victims were on the ground when the plane went down. A witness said an engine failed just before the crash, although the cause was not immediately confirmed.

Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta resigned Wednesday after protests over a nightclub fire that killed at least 30 people last week. "I'm handing in my mandate, I'm resigning, and implicitly my government too," Ponta said in a statement. President Klaus Iohannis will name a replacement, and Ponta will stay on until the new government is installed. The mayor of the district in the nation's capital where the fire occurred also resigned, saying he accepted "moral blame."

Robin Williams' widow, Susan Schneider Williams, says she does not blame him "one bit" for committing suicide. The actor and comedian was not driven by depression, but by his struggle with diffuse Lewy body dementia, a disorder often confused with Parkinson's or Alzheimer's, she told ABC News' Amy Robach in her first interview since the actor and comedian's death in August 2014 at age 63. "If Robin was lucky, he would've had maybe three years left," Susan Williams said. "And they would've been hard years."

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.