- WorldReuters
Afghan president sees his chance after collapse of U.S.-Taliban talks
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had no more than 20 minutes to study a draft accord between the United States and the Taliban on pulling thousands of U.S. troops out of his country, but upcoming elections could put him back at the heart of talks to end decades of war. What he read in the draft outlining the now collapsed deal left Ghani and his officials - who were shut out of the talks by the Taliban refusal to negotiate with what they considered an illegitimate "puppet" regime - badly shaken and resentful, said a senior Kabul official close to the Afghan leader. "Doesn't this look like surrender to the Taliban?" Ghani asked Zalmay Khalilzad, the veteran Afghan-born diplomat who led negotiations for Washington, at a meeting the two held immediately afterwards, according to the source who was present.
- PoliticsAOL.com
Joe Biden's net worth ahead of 2020 Presidential Election
The 2020 United States Presidential Election is quickly approaching and hopeful candidates on all ends of the political spectrum are hoping to secure the nomination for their respective parties. As to be expected, the Democratic nominee pool is fiercely competitive with certain candidates turning out to be frontrunners. At the top of this list is Democratic Party member and 47th Vice President of the United States Joe Biden, who served as a senator from Delaware for 36 years before being elected in 2009 alongside President Barack Obama.
- NewsBusiness Insider
US attorneys reportedly knew that Jeffrey Epstein didn't qualify for Florida jail work release where he allegedly abused women
Newly revealed documents show that federal prosecutors under the guidance of US attorney Alex Acosta told the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office that Jeffrey Epstein was not eligible for work release. The Daily Mail reported that a December 2008 letter and other materials from then-US Attorney Alex Acosta's office arguing against Epstein's work release cited the timing of Epstein's registering as a sex offender and other administrative functions as the reason for the arrangement. Acosta's office ultimately says the decision was made by the Corrections Division of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's office.
WorldReuters Videos"We stand as one": Hong Kong activist with Pelosi
Hong Kong pro-democracy leaders, including Joshua Wong who led the 'Umbrella Movement,' met with U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Republican Congressman Chris Smith as they champion the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, that would require an annual review of the special treatment Washington gives Hong Kong, including trade and business privileges. The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act would also make officials in China and Hong Kong, who have undermined the city's autonomy, vulnerable to sanctions. The activists have been protesting for three months.
LifestyleAssociated PressWhite House upgrade: First lady's done a lot with the place
Like anyone who has ever spruced up their home, Melania Trump will have a few new touches to showcase Friday when guests visit the White House for only the second state dinner of the Trump presidency. Sunlight streaming into the Red Room had left some of the wall fabric "so faded it was almost pink," said Stewart McLaurin, president of the White House Historical Association, which helps finance upkeep of some rooms in the 132-room mansion. First lady Jacqueline Kennedy founded the private, nonprofit organization in 1961.
- NewsThe Independent
Three hunters mauled in grizzly bear attacks at Yellowstone: 'He was in their face before they even had chance to grab a gun'
Three hunters were badly hurt in two separate grizzly bear attacks in Montana on the same day, state officials have said. One of the pair was able to drive the grizzly away with bear spray while it was “on top of” his friend, according to a worker at an outdoors shop the men visited later that day. “They said he was up and in their face, just right there on them before they even had a chance to really even grab a gun or do anything, which I think is important for people to know,” she told NBC Montana.
- WorldThe National Interest
What Were the Mach 10 UFOs That Iran's Jets Encountered?
Key point: Iran has encountered really strange flying objects that might be an unknown, secret American spy plane. Iran is the only other country besides the United States to operate arguably history's most powerful interceptor aircraft, the F-14 Tomcat. The F-14s played a major role in Iran's war with Iraq from 1980 to 1988.
- WorldBloomberg
Philippines Arrests Hundreds of Chinese For Alleged Cybercrimes
About 600 allegedly illegal Chinese workers have been arrested in the Philippines in less than a week after Beijing's call for a crackdown on online gambling. Some 324 undocumented Chinese nationals will be deported after being apprehended on Monday in the western Palawan province for alleged cybercrimes, the Philippines' immigration bureau said in a statement Tuesday. The agency also said in an earlier statement it had arrested 277 Chinese nationals last Wednesday for allegedly conducting illegal online operations in Pasig City in the Philippine capital, Manila.
WorldAFPFilipino coastguards convicted of killing Taiwanese fisherman
Coastguard sailors who opened fire on a Taiwanese fisherman in Philippine waters were convicted Wednesday of his 2013 killing, which strained ties between the historically friendly neighbours. The eight Filipino crewmen said they had shot in self-defence after the fisherman's vessel sailed directly at them in the seas just north of the main Philippine island of Luzon. A Manila court convicted the men of homicide and sentenced them to a minimum of eight years in prison, though they will be allowed to remain free while they appeal.
WorldReutersUPDATE 1-Russia detains two N.Korean vessels after one opens fire - reports
Russian border guards have detained two North Korean boats in Russian territorial waters in the Sea of Japan after one of them attacked a Russian patrol, local media cited the Federal Security Service (FSB) as saying on Tuesday. A Russian border patrol discovered two North Korean schooners and 11 motorboats fishing illegally off its far eastern coast and detained the first vessel, prompting the second one to open fire, the FSB was quoted as saying. Three Russian border guards were wounded in the incident.
- PoliticsYahoo News
2020 Vision Wednesday: Trump raised $15 million in California in one day. That should worry Democrats.
LOS ANGELES — When President Trump touched down in California Tuesday, local Democrats seemed to greet his arrival largely as a platform for protest, with at least a hundred demonstrators lining the road near his first event as enormous Baby Trump and Trump Chicken balloons hovered overhead. But the real reason Democrats should be paying attention to Trump's current California swing isn't because it's a prime opportunity to register their displeasure with policies on immigration, emissions and forest management. Instead, Democrats' cause for concern should be the mountains of money Trump is raising here — and, more importantly, the right-wing energy that money represents.
- NewsBusiness Insider
A 22-year-old from Minneapolis who is jailed in Syria says ISIS recruited him on Twitter
Abdelhamid Al-Madioum, a 22-year-old naturalized US citizen jailed in northern Syria, told CBS News that he was recruited to join ISIS on Twitter when he was just 18 years old. Al-Madioum disappeared while on a family vacation in Morocco in 2015, according to court documents detailed by the Minneapolis Star Tribune in 2017. Unbeknownst to his parents, he had secretly booked a flight to Istanbul.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Sheriff indicted for plotting to kill deputy who had tape of his 'racially offensive' remarks
A North Carolina sheriff has been indicted for allegedly plotting to kill one of his deputies after learning the man had a tape of him making "racially offensive" comments. Granville County Sheriff Brindell Wilkins was indicted Monday on two counts of felony obstruction of justice for withholding knowledge of a credible threat made against Joshua Freeman and failing to take appropriate law enforcement action. The indictment came after a ten month investigation by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the FBI, according to a release from Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman.
- WorldAssociated Press
Cash-starved Air India putting crews on low-fat diet
NEW DELHI (AP) Cash-starved Air India is putting its crew on a diet, changing their inflight menu to special low-fat meals. Dhananjay Kumar, the state-run airline's spokesman, said Wednesday that the objective is to provide healthy and cost-effective meals to crews on domestic and international flights. Kumar declined comment on media reports that the cost per meal, mostly vegetarian, will fall to one-third of the current 500-800 rupees (up to $11) per meal.
- NewsThe Independent
Dozens of people charged for illegally distributing millions of opioid pills
Dozens of people - including six doctors and seven pharmacists - have been charged with fraud for illegally distributing more than 6 million opioid pills. Some of the pills were obtained using counterfeit prescription pads, and the stolen identities of legitimate doctors, prosecutors say. After filling the forged prescriptions - paid for in cash - the pills would be sold on the street at up to five times their actual price.
- NewsThe National Interest
How Vietnamese Commandos Sank A U.S. 'Aircraft Carrier'
Key Point: The North Vietnamese government even commemorated the event by portraying the operation on a 1964 postage stamp. It was shortly after midnight when two Viet Cong commandos emerged from a sewer tunnel that emptied into Saigon Port, each man carrying nearly 90 pounds of high explosives and the components needed to make two time bombs. An escort carrier that saw distinguished service as a submarine-hunter in the North Atlantic during World War II, during the early morning hours of May 2, 1964, Card was part of U.S. Military Sealift Command.
- WorldNational Review
Is Israel’s Netanyahu Era Over?
After more than ten consecutive years in power, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's luck may have finally run out. The system of electing a parliament — each citizen casts a single vote for one party of his choice, with the 120 seats in the Knesset allocated on a proportional basis among only those parties that get at least 3.25 percent of the total vote — makes it virtually impossible for any single party to win a majority on its own. This has created a system in which blocs of parties, whose components compete separately for seats in the Knesset, are widely understood to back a single candidate for prime minister.
- BusinessCar and Driver
2019 and 2020 Full-Size Pickup Truck Rankings
We sort every full-size pickup truck foreign and domestic so that you don't have to. From Car and Driver
- BusinessReuters
GM stops paying for health insurance for striking union workers; talks continue
General Motors Co shifted health insurance costs for its striking workers to the United Auto Workers union as its members walked the picket line for the second day on Tuesday. The UAW on Monday launched the first company-wide strike at GM in 12 years, saying negotiations toward a new national agreement covering about 48,000 hourly workers had hit an impasse. This year's talks between the union and GM, Ford Motor Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA) were expected to be tough, with thorny issues such as healthcare costs, profit-sharing and the use of temporary workers on the table.
- PoliticsUSA TODAY Opinion
Trump wants you to think he's racist so you won't notice he's corrupt and killing jobs
"Who do you like more, the country or the Hispanics?" President Donald Trump called out to a Hispanic supporter Monday at a campaign rally in New Mexico. If you thought that, you're right. But if you start calling Trump a racist or a white nationalist, bad news: You're now a volunteer in the Trump campaign. In his upcoming book, "Merge Left: Fusing Race and Class, Winning Elections, and Saving America," Ian Haney López reveals that Trump's only really big innovation in dog whistling is that he invites charges of racism.
- WorldBusiness Insider
Belgian F-16s scrambled to intercept 2 Russian nuclear-capable supersonic bombers over the Baltic Sea
The Belgian Air Force is policing Baltic airspace as of September 3; on Tuesday, it intercepted two Russian Tu-160 Blackjack supersonic, nuclear-capable bombers. Belgium took over the Baltic policing mission from Hungary which, along with Spain and the UK, was policing Baltic airspace when Russian Su-30 Flanker fighters flew near Baltic airspace twice over two days in June. US and UK aircraft have been sending clear messages to Russia — US B-2 Spirit stealth bombers flew their first missions in the Arctic earlier in September, and the B-2s flew with non-US F-35s for the first time in August.
- PoliticsThe Daily Beast
Andrew Yang’s Dumb Gimmick Stepped on His Own Important Message
The brilliance here is that Yang frames what might otherwise be seen as a radical progressive idea in language that sounds good to conservative ears. But instead of telling this (admittedly longer) story, Yang chose to turn his opening debate statement into a raffle where 10 families will win a “freedom dividend” of $1,000 a month for a year. By turning his big idea into a sort of game, Yang doesn't just skip over the seriousness of a looming automation dystopia—he actually trivializes it.
- U.S.WLS – Chicago
New Jersey police searching city park for 5-year-old girl, simultaneous criminal investigation into disappearance
Police are focusing search efforts for Dulce Maria Alavez in Bridgeton City Park. Officials said there is a simultaneous criminal investigation ongoing.
- NewsAssociated Press
No severe impacts from Imelda as it moves through Texas
Tropical Depression Imelda has deluged parts of Southeast Texas with rain, but officials in Houston and surrounding communities said Wednesday that so far there have been no severe consequences. Glenn LaMont, deputy emergency management coordinator in Brazoria County, located south of Houston along the Gulf Coast, said that despite the heavy rainfall he has seen no reports of flooded homes or people stranded. "It's too early to breathe a sigh of relief," LaMont said.
- BusinessPopular Mechanics
Surprising Facts You Didn't Know About Rhinos
Do you know how much dung one rhino produces a day? From Popular Mechanics
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PHOTOS: Rescued busts of former U.S. presidents from the closed Presidents Park
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