Happening Today: North Korea, Securities and Exchange Commission, Paul Manafort, Health Bill, Jake LaMotta

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“Sound of a Dog Barking”: North Korea Responds to Trump's Threats at U.N.

North Korea's foreign minister has described President Trump's threat to destroy his country as "the sound of a dog barking." The comments are the North's first response to Trump's speech at the U.N. General Assembly, during which he vowed to "totally destroy North Korea" if provoked. Trump also called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "Rocket man." The North's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told reporters in New York that "It would be a dog's dream if he intended to scare us with the sound of a dog barking." South Korean TV footage also shows Ri saying he feels "sorry for his aides" when he was asked about Trump's "Rocket man" comments. North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test this month.

Hackers Breached System, Accessed Data, SEC Says

Hackers breached the filing system of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and may have accessed "nonpublic information" for profit, the agency said in a statement. The SEC, which regulates the financial securities industry, gave few details on the hack but said the hackers may have made "illicit gain through trading, NBC News reported. It is not believed that any personally identifiable information or SEC operations were compromised, the agency added. The hack was first detected in 2016, but the SEC didn't realize until last month that the hackers may have benefited from the data accessed.

Category 3 Hurricane Maria Moving North of Dominican Republic

Hurricane Maria began lashing the northeastern Dominican Republic and is expected to pass near the Turks and Caicos later in the day after causing devastating damage to Puerto Rico. Overnight, the storm regained strength and its maximum sustained winds are 115 mph. The National Hurricane Center said some more strengthening is possible during the next day or so. Maria, which has killed at least 10 people across the Caribbean, was centered about 70 miles north of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, where 56-mph wind gusts were reported. The storm is moving northwest near 9 mph. Meanwhile, Puerto Ricans are rebuilding after the hurricane slammed into the U.S. territory, crushing concrete balconies and paralyzing the island with landslides, flooding and downed trees. Tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans stunned by a hurricane that crushed concrete balconies and paralyzed the island with landslides, flooding and downed trees vowed to slowly rebuild amid an economic crisis as rescue crews fanned out across the U.S. territory.

Manafort Offered “Private Briefings” to Russian Billionaire

Shortly before Donald Trump secured the Republican nomination last summer, his campaign chairman offered to provide private briefings on the race to a Russian billionaire with Kremlin ties, his spokesman confirmed to NBC News. The offer appeared in emails between then campaign chairman Paul Manafort and one of his employees, some of which suggested Manafort was seeking to use his role to make money, the Washington Post reported. The spokesman, Jason Maloni, said the emails, which had been turned over to congressional committees, showed nothing improper. The Post said the billionaire was Oleg Deripaska, an oligarch in Putin's inner circle. NBC News has reported Manafort had business dealings with Deripaska, who was once denied entry to the United States because of alleged mafia links. "If he needs private briefings we can accommodate," Manafort wrote in the July 7, 2016, email, the Post reported.

GOP Health Bill Short of Votes Before Deadline, Trump Says

President Trump said the Republicans' last-resort "Obamacare" repeal effort remains two or three votes short, forecasting days of furious lobbying ahead with a crucial deadline looming next week. The legislation by Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina would repeal major pillars of former President Barack Obama's health law, replacing them with block grants to states to design their own health care programs. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is trying to round up 50 votes to pass the legislation before Sept. 30, when special rules preventing a Democratic filibuster will expire. "We think this has a very good chance, Obamacare is only getting worse," Trump told reporters covering the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York. "At some point the Senate is going to be forced to make a deal." By his reckoning, "we're at 47 or 48 already, senators, and a lot of others are looking at it very positively." T rump's comments came several hours after McConnell's office announced that the majority leader's "intention" is to bring the legislation to the Senate floor next week, a question McConnell was noncommittal on a day earlier.

Boxer LaMotta, Immortalized in “Raging Bull,” Dies at 95, Fiancee Says

Jake LaMotta, the former middleweight champion whose life in and out of the ring was depicted in the film "Raging Bull," for which Robert De Niro won an Academy Award, has died, his fiancee said. He was 95.He died from complications of pneumonia, according to fiancee Denise Baker. The Bronx Bull, as he was known in his fighting days, compiled an 83-19-4 record with 30 knockouts, in a career that began in 1941 and ended in 1954. LaMotta fought the great Sugar Ray Robinson six times, handing Robinson the first defeat of his career and losing the middleweight title to him in a storied match. In the fight before he lost the title, LaMotta saved the championship in movie-script fashion against Laurent Dauthuille. Trailing badly on all three scorecards, LaMotta knocked out the challenger with 13 seconds left in the fight. LaMotta threw a fight against Billy Fox, which he admitted in testimony before the Kefauver Committee, a U.S. Senate committee investigating organized crime in 1960.