Trump confirms death of Osama bin Laden's son in counterterrorism operation

WASHINGTON – Osama bin Laden's son Hamza bin Laden, a high-ranking leader of the militant al-Qaida terrorist group, was killed in a U.S. counterterrorism operation, the White House confirmed Saturday. President Donald Trump announced Hamza bin Laden's death, which had been widely reported more than a month ago, in a statement that did not provide details about how or when he was killed. "The loss of Hamza bin Ladin not only deprives al-Qaida of important leadership skills and the symbolic connection to his father, but undermines important operational activities of the group," Trump said in a statement.

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  Trump confirms death of Osama bin Laden's son

  Politico
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  Rep. Gonzalez's message to terrorist groups: We will hunt them down in any corner of the world

  FOX News Videos

Police: No sign that Duluth synagogue fire was hate crime

A fire that destroyed a historic synagogue in northeastern Minnesota doesn't appear to have been a hate crime, authorities said Sunday in discussing the arrest of a suspect. Matthew James Amiot, 36, of Duluth, was arrested Friday in the fire last week at the Adas Israel Congregation in downtown Duluth, the city's police chief, Mike Tusken, said at a news conference. Tusken said he has no reason to believe the fire was a hate crime, although the investigation is ongoing.

• Suspect arrested in fire at historic Minnesota synagogue

  Associated Press
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  Police arrest man in connection with Duluth synagogue fire

  Reuters Videos

Virginia Attorney General Concludes Race Information Is Not Necessary for Marriage Licenses

More than 50 years after the Supreme Court struck down Virginia's laws against interracial marriage, the state has effectively negated race identification requirements in marriage license applications. Facing a federal lawsuit over a state law requiring couples to identify their races in marriage applications, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring has reinterpreted the statute. In a memo forwarded to TIME, Herring clarified to staff that while clerks are still obligated to ask about race, respondents should not be denied marriage licenses for refusing to answer.

The Future of Design: Transportation

AD uncovers the world's leading innovations in travel, transportation, cities, home, and the workplace Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

Scores of tigers rescued from infamous Thai temple have died: media

More than half of the tigers that Thai authorities confiscated in 2016 from an infamous Tiger Temple tourist attraction have died from a viral disease because their immune systems were weakened by inbreeding, media reported. The Buddhist temple west of Bangkok was a tourist destination where visitors took selfies with tigers and bottle-fed cubs until authorities removed its nearly 150 tigers in 2016 in response to global pressure over wildlife trafficking. The confiscated animals were taken to two state-run sanctuaries but it soon became apparent they were susceptible to canine distemper virus, said a senior official from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation.

Second British-Australian woman jailed in Iran identified as Middle East researcher Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert

A British-Australian woman who has been sentenced to 10 years in a notorious Iranian prison has been identified as Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a Cambridge-educated academic specialising in Middle Eastern politics. Dr Moore-Gilbert, who was working as a lecturer and researcher for Melbourne University's Asia Institute and has published work on authoritarian governance and activism in the Middle East, was jailed in October 2018. However, her detention had not been reported in case it harmed the prospects of her release.

Video shows a Model 3 automatically apply the brakes to avoid hitting a cop who ran a red light

Tesla's automated emergency braking (AEB) system, which was first introduced in 2017, has improved markedly in a relatively short amount of time. Just a few weeks ago, for example, Tesla demonstrated its next-gen AEB system which can more ably apply the brakes when a pedestrian or cyclist is detected. With that said, we recently stumbled across a new video which shows a Tesla Model 3 abruptly hit the brakes when a police officer on a motorcycle runs a red light and turns left into oncoming traffic.

Judge rules Confederate statues will remain in Charlottesville despite deadly white nationalist rally

A pair Confederate statues will remain standing in the city of Virginian city Charlottesville where clashes over their removal left a young woman dead. After city officials decided to remove statues of Confederate American Civil War generals Robert E Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, one resident filed a lawsuit to prevent this. It was submitted months before August 2017's “Unite the Right” rally, which saw hundreds of white supremacists descend on the city.

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  Confederate statue that prompted Charlottesville rally must stay, judge rules

  USA TODAY
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  Charlottesville Confederate Statue Defender Sues Paper, Prof, for Reporting His Family’s Slaveholding History

  The Daily Beast

A look at the corruption scandals facing Israel's Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to hold on to power in Tuesday's historic repeat election as the shadow of various corruption charges loom over his future. Israel's attorney general has recommended pressing criminal charges against him in three separate corruption cases, pending a long delayed pre-trial hearing scheduled for early October — just three weeks after the election.

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  West Wing’s Revolving Door, Brexit’s Mayhem

  Bloomberg
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  Trump floats possible defense treaty with Israel

  Reuters Videos

Rep. Meadows says Democrats' impeachment investigation already has 'made up conclusions'

North Carolina Republican Rep. Mark Meadows calls the Democrats' impeachment push 'political theater.

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  Moderate Democrats warn Pelosi of impeachment obsession

  Politico
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  Democrats should think like criminal prosecutors as they investigate Trump impeachment

  USA TODAY Opinion

GM auto workers decide to go on strike in US: union

The United Auto Workers union called a strike against General Motors Sunday, with some 46,000 members set to walk off the job beginning at midnight amid an impasse in contract talks. The decision, which the Wall Street Journal described as the first major stoppage at GM in more than a decade, came a day after the manufacturer's four-year contract with workers expired without an agreement on a replacement. Local union leaders met in Detroit "and opted to strike at midnight on Sunday," the UAW said on its Twitter account.

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  UAW Says It Will Strike against GM Sunday Night

  Car and Driver
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  GM workers to strike amid contract negotiation

  Associated Press Videos

Climate Activists Don’t Know How to Talk to Christians

This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 220 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. Religious Christians are the key to America taking action on global warming. And yet, the way climate activists frame the issue often alienates the very people they most need to persuade.

Empty seats give Robert Mugabe fitting farewell in stadium funeral

Harare's 60,000 seat Zimbabwe National Stadium was barely at a third of its capacity as Zimbabwe's military and civilian leadership, a small group of foreign dignitaries, and members of the Mugabe family paid their formal farewell to Mugabe at a five hour ceremony on Saturday. In one of the most discombobulating moments, President Emmerson Mnangagwa praised the man he betrayed and overthrew in a coup two years ago as "our revolutionary icon, statesman, leader, wartime commander, and former president." He went on to pay tribute to Grace Mugabe, the late former president's widow and his political arch enemy, who sat silently throughout the ceremony.

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  Jeered over attacks, S.Africa's president apologises at Mugabe funeral

  AFP
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  Robert Mugabe's funeral takes place in Harare at quarter-full stadium

  Yahoo News UK

Saddam Hussein Thought He Knew How to Sink U.S. Battleships

Key point: This could have worked, but only under the most ideal conditions. Could Saddam Hussein's armed forces have sunk a U.S. Navy battleship? That might seem like a question destined to launch an excursion into alt-history, but it was far from hypothetical to the 3,200 or so crewmen of the battleships USS Wisconsin and Missouri who squared off against Iraq in 1991.

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  How America's Last Battleships Could Come Out of Retirement

  The National Interest
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  How to Sink a 'Battleship': Why Sea Mines Can Sink Any Navy in a War

  The National Interest

Texas congressman switches endorsement from Castro to Biden

Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro lost one of his congressional endorsements Sunday, with Texas Rep. Vicente González switching to support former Vice President Joe Biden. González was one of three Texas representatives who endorsed the former HUD secretary, along with Castro's twin brother, Rep. Joaquin Castro, and Rep. Colin Allred. González announced his endorsement for Julián Castro in March, saying at the time, "I know firsthand his passion for expanding opportunity for the Latino community, people of color, and historically disenfranchised communities, as well as his unparalleled dedication to building a bench of dynamic Democratic candidates in Texas and nationally."

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  Joe Biden on racism: Whites 'can never fully understand'

  WLS – Chicago
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  Joe Biden shrugs off age chatter, pledges medical disclosures after 3rd Democratic debate

  WABC – NY

Muslim American New Jersey Mayor Says CBP Wrongfully Detained Him for Almost 3 Hours

The Muslim American mayor of a New Jersey town accused U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officials at New York's JFK airport of “flat out profiling”, wrongfully detaining him and asking him if “he knew any terrorists” at a press conference earlier this week. Mohamed Khairullah, who has been mayor of Prospect Park, N.J., for more than a decade, said in a video posted to his Facebook page last month that CBP agents detained him and his family for almost three hours in early August after he returned home from a vacation in Turkey. The CBP also allegedly took his phone away despite his objections, Khairullah said, adding that it took him almost two weeks to get the device back.

No kites, pigeon flying as China preps for 70th anniversary

China has banned flying kites, drones and captive pigeons over central Beijing for more than two weeks as it prepares for a military parade and other celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of Communist Party rule on Oct. 1. Flying activities that affect flight safety are prohibited in seven of the capital city's 16 districts from Sept. 15 to Oct. 1, according to a notice posted Sunday on the Beijing municipal government's website. The banned activities also include flying balloons and lanterns.

French group to open two hotels in Damascus as airstrikes kill civilians

Louvre Hotels Group, owned by China's Jin Jiang, has signed an agreement to open two hotels under its own name in Damascus, it said on Saturday, a day after the UN announced an internal investigation into the bombing of hospitals in Syria. The confirmation of the two hotels opening, after recent media reports, also came as at least six civilians were killed by the Syrian regime and Russian fire in northwestern Idlib province in the past days, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The region of around three million people, many of them displaced by fighting in other areas, is one of the last holdouts of opposition fighting against the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

View Photos of Volkswagen Microbus with Civil Rights History

The 1966 VW Type 2 Transporter was used in efforts to help South Carolina residents register and vote. From Car and Driver

Turkey orders arrest of 223 military personnel over suspected Gulen links: state media

Turkey has ordered the arrest of 223 serving military personnel across the country and in the breakaway state of Northern Cyprus over suspected links to a network Ankara accuses of organizing an attempted coup in 2016, state media said on Saturday. Authorities are seeking the suspects across 49 provinces in Turkey and in Northern Cyprus, state broadcaster TRT Haber said. Ankara blames U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, of masterminding the failed putsch on July 15, 2016.

Storm reprieve: Tropical Storm Humberto steers clear of beleaguered Bahamas

Residents, rescue teams and aid workers across the storm-battered northern Bahamas could breathe a sigh of relief Sunday when Tropical Storm Humberto, expected to soon reach hurricane status, steered wide of the beleaguered island nation. The National Hurricane Center said Humberto was located well north of Great Abaco Island and was moving toward the north-northwest at about 7 mph. The Florida coast also won an apparent reprieve, with forecasters predicting Humberto will turn sharply to the northeast early this week and well off the U.S. coast.

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  Cleanup resumes in Bahamas as Humberto swirls away

  Associated Press
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  Tropical Wave in the Gulf to bring heavy rains next week, low chance of development

  KTRK – Houston