10 things you need to know today: October 14, 2013

(Image credit: (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak))

last updated 8 January 2015

1. Senate shutdown talks fall short

Senate Republicans and Democrats failed on Sunday to break an impasse on a stopgap spending measure to end the two-week-old government shutdown. Congress also must raise the government's borrowing limit by Thursday or risk defaulting on some of the nation's debts. The two sides couldn't agree on spending levels, but Republicans, who are suffering in the polls, also accused Democrats of "moving the goal posts" to humiliate the GOP. [CNN, The New York Times]

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Conservatives, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, rallied on Washington's National Mall on Sunday, blaming President Obama for the government shutdown that closed the World War II Memorial there. Demonstrators pushed past barriers and sang "God Bless America." Some waved Confederate flags and called for impeaching Obama. [Associated Press, The New York Times, CNN]

Gunmen abducted seven Red Cross volunteers in Syria on Sunday, underscoring dangers faced by aid workers in the country's civil war. The Red Cross team was traveling in a convoy through essentially lawless territory in northern Syria that is mostly controlled by anti-government insurgents. It was the latest in a series of kidnappings in the area, where some armed groups use ransoms to help bankroll their fighters. [Los Angeles Times]

Social Security cost-of-living increases in 2014 will be the among the smallest since 1975, according to a new analysis by The Associated Press. The bump will be around 1.5 percent, the news agency calculated. That amounts to an extra $17 for the average recipient, who gets $1,162 a month. The exact amount will be determined after the Labor Department releases its September inflation report, which has been delayed by the government shutdown. [Associated Press]

At least 109 people were killed when pilgrims visiting a temple for a popular Hindu festival in India stampeded because of a rumor that the bridge they were crossing was about to collapse, authorities said Monday. Some of the victims were crushed, and others died after falling or jumping into the Sindh River below. Authorities fear that the death toll could rise because some bodies may have been carried down river. [The Wall Street Journal]

Professors Eugene Fama and Lars Hansen of the University of Chicago, and Robert Shiller of Yale won the Nobel Prize in Economics on Monday for their work on asset pricing. While prices of stocks, bonds, and other assets are impossible to predict in the short term, the Nobel committee said, these economists have shown that "it is quite possible to foresee the broad course of these prices over longer periods, such as the next three to five years." [Business Insider]

A mass evacuation is being credited with saving thousands of lives in India after Cyclone Phailin, the country's most powerful storm in 14 years, buffeted the coast with 125 mph winds. The death toll in the eastern state of Odisha stood at 15 on Sunday — the last major storm to hit the state, in 1999, killed 10,000 people. Aid workers said a million could need help, though, because the storm tore apart tens of thousands of homes. [Reuters]

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.

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