Here are some of the stories making headlines today.
Hurricane Florence nears Category 5 strength as it moves toward the Southeast coast
The southern East Coast of the United States is bracing for the arrival of Hurricane Florence as the storm — already packing winds of up to 140 mph — neared Category 5 strength Tuesday.
White House again changes phone policy amid heightened paranoia
After Omarosa Manigault Newman revealed last month that she secretly taped White House chief of staff John Kelly as he fired her in the Situation Room, a change was made to the West Wing’s phone policy.
Racist Serena Williams cartoon ‘nothing to do with race,’ paper says
An Australian newspaper has doubled down on a cartoon of multiple Grand Slam tennis champion Serena Williams widely denounced as racist both at home and in the US.
Indian nuns demand arrest of bishop accused of rape
A group of nuns in one of India’s oldest Catholic communities is calling for the arrest of a bishop who has been accused of raping one of the church’s sisters multiple times over a two-year period.
Bob Woodward’s publisher says it’s printing 1 million copies of ‘Fear’
And it still isn’t even in bookstores yet. The publisher, Simon & Schuster, said Monday that it is printing one million copies of the book to keep up with reader demand. “Fear: Trump in the White House” will officially come out on Tuesday in both hardcover and e-book form.
Plan to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch gets underway
An ambitious project to clean up the ocean’s plastic pollution got underway over the weekend as members of The Ocean Cleanup project began towing their system out to sea.
Trump open to meeting North Korea’s Kim again despite lack of progress
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Monday that President Donald Trump is open to another meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un despite national security adviser John Bolton’s assertion that the US is still waiting for Pyongyang to take steps toward denuclearization.
Apple’s iPhone event: What to expect
Apple CEO Tim Cook is expected to announce a new set of iPhone Xson Wednesday at the company’s underground Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California. The company unveils the latest version to its iPhone every fall ahead of the holiday shopping season. Here’s what to expect from Wednesday’s event.
Scores of migrants drown off Libyan coast
More than 100 migrants died in a shipwreck off the Libyan coastline earlier this month, an aid agency says. According to Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) two rubber boats set off on 1 September, but one of the vessels deflated and sank.
Kim ‘warmly’ invites Trump for new summit
North Korea’s Kim Jong-un has written to US President Donald Trump asking for a follow-up to their historic summit, the White House says. The US says it is already looking at scheduling a new meeting. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the “very warm” letter showed Pyongyang’s “continued commitment to focus on denuclearisation”.
TV may invite viewer to sue its manufacturer
Consider it a different kind of on-screen courtroom drama. Owners of Vizio Smart TVs may soon see a message inviting them to take legal action against the manufacturer. California-based Vizio, one of America’s leading TV brands, was in 2015 caught gathering large amounts of user data, which was then passed on to advertisers.
Russia launches ‘record’ war games
Russia’s biggest military exercise since the Cold War, involving about 300,000 service personnel, is getting under way in eastern Siberia. China is sending 3,200 troops to take part in “Vostok-2018”, with many Chinese armoured vehicles and aircraft. Mongolia is also sending some units. The last Russian exercise of similar scale was in 1981, during the Cold War.
Serena Williams and ‘angry black women’
Mammies, jezebels, Sapphires. Black women in America have long been dogged by negative stereotypes, rooted in a history of racism and slavery. In the aftermath of Serena Williams’ controversial US Open loss, it’s the trope of the “angry black woman” that has once again re-emerged.
Ethiopia-Eritrea border set to reopen
A key crossing point between one-time bitter enemies Ethiopia and Eritrea is set to reopen after a border war shut it more than 20 years ago. The border post, just north of the Ethiopian town of Zalambessa, is on the main road linking the two countries.
Even Fox News Shoots Down Donald Trump’s Fake Economy Boast
President Donald Trump boasted Monday in a tweet that it’s the first time in more than a century that America’s gross domestic product growth is higher than the unemployment rate. Except that it’s not. In fact, the GDP has been higher than the unemployment rate more than 20 percent of the time since 1948, according to actual facts.
Trevor Noah Reveals Why His Dog Seemed To Be So ‘Stupid’
During a commercial break in the taping of “The Daily Show,” Trevor Noah was surprised when an audience member asked him how his dog Fufi was doing. The dog, who was part of his family when he was growing up in South Africa, died, he said as the audience moaned.
Majority Of Singaporeans Support Nation’s Ban On Gay Sex, Survey Finds
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A slim majority of Singaporeans still support a law that bans gay sex, an online survey showed on Monday, amid renewed debate on whether the city-state should follow India’s footsteps and scrap similar British colonial-era legislation.
Trump Makes Light Of Terrorists Who Killed U.S. Soldiers In Omarosa Tape
A newly released audiotape shows President Donald Trump seeming to make light of the deaths of four U.S. soldiers who were killed Oct. 4, 2017, in an ambush in Niger. The tape was recorded about two weeks later by former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman during a meeting the president had with his communications team about the ambush and the movement of terrorists.
Here’s what a rocket launch looks like from the view of a satellite
Rocket launches are usually thrilling to watch anyway, but it’s particularly cool watching them from a satellite. Over the weekend, Chinese private spaceflight company OneSpace launched its OS-X1 rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert.
Mark Zuckerberg will stop at nothing to win a game of Scrabble
You can learn a lot about a person from the way they play Scrabble. Do they show off their SAT vocabulary or only know dirty words? Are they rule-sergeants or are they so competitive that they will stop at nothing to beat someone who is half their age?
Fighting snakes fall through bedroom ceiling, and that’s enough internet for today
Imagine winding down after a long day and getting ready for bed when a pair of snakes FALL THROUGH your ceiling mid-combat. The nightmare scenario happened to unsuspecting residents in Brisbane, Australia. In a Facebook Live video from local snake catcher Lana Field on Sunday night, the male coastal carpet pythons intertwined in a wrestling match for the closest female snake.
Chrissy Teigen couldn’t resist the ‘Arthur’ jokes after John Legend won his Emmy
The Creative Arts Emmys are one night a year, but Arthur memes are forever. On Sunday, John Legend took home an Emmy for his performance in Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert, meaning he’s an EGOT now – but that didn’t stop his wife Chrissy Teigen from gently trolling him.
