🇫🇷 **Squabbles erupt as G7 leaders open summit in French resort**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/DpZh5>

Squabbles erupted among G7 nations on Saturday as their leaders gathered for an annual summit, exposing sharp differences on global trade tensions, Britain’s exit from the EU and how to respond to the fires raging in the Amazon rainforest.

French President Emmanuel Macron, the summit host, planned the three-day meeting in the Atlantic seaside resort of Biarritz as a chance to unite a group of wealthy countries that has struggled in recent years to speak with one voice.

Macron set an agenda for the group - France, Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States - that included the defense of democracy, gender equality, education and the environment. He invited Asian, African and Latin American leaders to join them for a global push on these issues.

However, in a bleak assessment of relations between once-close allies, European Council President Donald Tusk said it was getting “increasingly” hard to find common ground.

“This is another G7 summit which will be a difficult test of unity and solidarity of the free world and its leaders,” he told reporters ahead of the meeting. “This may be the last moment to restore our political community.”

U.S. President Donald Trump brought last year’s G7 summit to an acrimonious end, walking out early from the gathering in Canada and rejecting the final communique.

Trump arrived in France a day after responding to a new round of Chinese tariffs by announcing Washington would impose an additional 5% duty on some $550 billion worth of Chinese imports, the latest tit-for-tat trade war escalation by the world’s two largest economies.

“So far so good,” Trump told reporters as he sat on a seafront terrace with Macron, saying the two leaders had a special relationship. “We’ll accomplish a lot this weekend.”
----------------

🇺🇸 **Steven Mosher: China Loses Money on Everything But Exports, Trump’s Tariffs Will Break Them**
Breitbart - <http://archive.is/rHWNC>

Exports are the lifeblood of China’s economy, stated Mosher, highlighting the inefficiency and corruption endemic to centrally-planned economies. “The tariffs have hurt the export sector of economy tremendously in China, and remember, that’s the only sector of the economy that actually makes money, the rest of the economy loses money,” Mosher remarked. “The state-owned enterprises [are] these huge dinosaurs run by huge non-productive bureaucracies consisting of Communist Party officials who have no idea how a market economy works and are just there to take bribes, make deals, and pocket the profits.”

“The state-owned enterprises are all losing money,” Mosher said. “The state-owned steel mills, the state-owned railroads, they’re all in huge amounts of debt, and of course the government keeps funding them, and the money comes from what? The money comes from what is stolen from the West and from the United States. It comes from the export sector of the economy and the trade surplus that President Trump is trying so manfully to reduce, now. That’s the key to bringing China to heel. If you can cause enough pain to the export sector of the Chinese economy, it ripples throughout China, it hurts the political class, it hurts the economy in general, and it will eventually bring them around.”

Mosher concluded, “Certainly, I have great respect for the Chinese people, who are among the hardest working, most enterprising, and most intelligent people the world has ever seen. It’s a great tragedy that they’re languishing under one of the most tyrannical surveillance states the world has ever seen.”
---------------

🇨🇦 **Anti-immigration billboards across Canada taken down after backlash**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/syB8k>

Anti-immigrant ads on billboards across Canada are being taken down after a public outcry and multiple petitions against them, the company that owns the billboards said.

The ads were launched in support of Maxime Bernier, leader of the small right-wing anti-immigration People’s Party of Canada, and called for a halt on mass immigration to Canada.
They started appearing in several Canadian cities last week and were bought by True North Strong and Free Advertising Corp (TNSFAC).

Bernier, 56, has focused on limiting immigration and protecting so-called Canadian values in contrast with more moderate Conservatives, prompting some pundits to refer to him as Canada’s Donald Trump.

Canada will have a federal election on Oct. 21 and immigration has broad support, some polls show. A Pew Research Center report published Aug. 9 found that Canadians have among the highest support in the world for immigration.

Although the People’s Party of Canada was not responsible for the ad, Bernier was upset that it was taken down.

“The message on the billboard is not ‘controversial’ for two thirds of Canadians who agree with it, and for those who disagree but support free speech and an open discussion,” Bernier said on Twitter on Monday.

“It was never my or Pattison Outdoor’s intention to offend, alienate or in any way insult the public by allowing this ad to be run,” Pattison Outdoor President Randy Otto said in a statement, adding that he regretted the
decision to run the ads.

TNSFAC registered as a third party with Elections Canada on Aug. 16, just days before the billboards first garnered attention on Aug. 23. If an entity runs an advertising campaign worth over $500 that is considered
political in nature and it must register as a third party, according to the Canada Elections Act.
----------------

🇬🇧 **Johnson to suspend parliament before Brexit, opposition denounces 'coup'**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/L0fi5>

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will suspend Britain’s parliament for more than a month before Brexit, enraging opponents and raising the stakes in the country’s most serious political crisis in decades.

Cheered on by U.S President Donald Trump, Johnson launched his boldest move yet to take the country out of the European Union by Oct. 31 with or without a divorce deal, by setting a new date for a state opening of parliament.

Known as the Queen’s Speech, the formal event will be held on Oct. 14 and be preceded by a suspension of the House of Commons, meaning parliament will not sit between mid-September and mid-October.

The move, which had to be approved by Queen Elizabeth, limits the time opponents have to derail a disorderly Brexit, but also increases the chance that Johnson could face a vote of no-confidence in his government, and possibly an election.

It also risks dragging the 93-year-old, politically neutral queen into the dispute. So incensed were leaders of the opposition parties by Johnson’s plan that several have written to the monarch asking for a meeting to express their concern.
----------------

🇨🇳 **Amid crisis, China rejected Hong Kong plan to appease protesters**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/gcBQy>

Earlier this summer, Carrie Lam, the chief executive of Hong Kong, submitted a report to Beijing that assessed protesters’ five key demands and found that withdrawing a contentious extradition bill could help defuse the mounting political crisis in the territory.

The Chinese central government rejected Lam’s proposal to withdraw the extradition bill and ordered her not to yield to any of the protesters’ other demands at that time, three individuals with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

China’s role in directing how Hong Kong handles the protests has been widely assumed, supported by stern statements in state media about the country’s sovereignty and protesters’ “radical” goals.

Beijing’s rebuff of Lam’s proposal for how to resolve the crisis, detailed for the first time by Reuters, represents concrete evidence of the extent to which China is controlling the Hong Kong government’s response to the unrest.

The Chinese central government has condemned the protests and accused foreign powers of fuelling unrest. The Foreign Ministry has repeatedly warned other nations against interfering in Hong Kong, reiterating that the situation there is an “internal affair.”

Lam’s report on the tumult, made before an Aug. 7 meeting in Shenzhen about Hong Kong led by senior Chinese officials that examined the feasibility of the five demands of the protesters, analyzing how conceding to some of these might quiet things down, the individuals with direct knowledge said.
----------------

🇳🇱 **Rotterdam 12 points: port city to stage Eurovision Song Festival**
*Dutch News* - <https://archive.fo/Z7Wjj>

Rotterdam has been selected as the host city for next year’s Eurovision Song Festival, after beating Maastricht in a short-list of two.

The Netherlands will host the show because singer songwriter Duncan Lawrence won the contest last year – the first Dutch victory in 44 years.

The contest will be staged in the Ahoy exhibition complex which hosts trade fairs, tennis matches and the North Sea Jazz festival.
The semi-finals take place on Tuesday May 12 and Thursday may 14, with the grand final on Saturday, May 16.

Rotterdam, Utrecht, Maastricht, Arnhem and Den Bosch all submitted formal ‘bid books’ to host the show, with just two making the shortlist.

Amsterdam pulled out of the running after mayor Femke Halsema said none of the venues that were capable of putting on the event were available for the required eight-week period.

Staging the festival is likely to cost up to €30m, and Zuid-Holland provincial council has said it will contribute €1m. Rotterdam alderman Said Kasmi said he did not yet know how much the city would
contribute to the bill but that it would be considerable.
----------------

🇵🇰 **Pakistan leader Imran Khan warns of "genocide" as is India accused of torture in Kashmir**
*CBS News* - <https://archive.fo/S6gPI>

Pakistan's prime minister said Friday he has warned the international community that India could launch an attack on Pakistani-held Kashmir in an effort to divert attention
from human rights abuses in the portion of the disputed Himalayan region that it controls. His warning comes as multiple reports claim abuses of civilians in Indian-held Kashmir,
including torture by Indian forces and threats of sexual violence.

In a speech at a rally in Islamabad, Imran Khan said his country will give a "befitting response" to the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi if it attacked.

"Every brick will be countered with a stone," he said. "Our armed forces are ready" to respond to any such attack, he said.

Khan said any conflict between nuclear-armed Pakistan and India will not be confined to the South Asian region. "The whole world will be affected," he said, adding that he will raise the issue when he addresses
the U.N. General Assembly next month.

**Allegations of torture and abuse**

People in Indian-administered Kashmir have been living under a curfew for almost four weeks since New Delhi downgraded the Muslim-majority region's autonomy on Aug. 5 and imposed a security clampdown to prevent any violent response.

As CBS News' Arshad Zargar has reported, the Indian government is blocking most communication channels in and out of Kashmir, and few journalists have been permitted into the region to witness conditions amid the crackdown first-hand.

The Indian government has flatly rejected a BBC News report by a journalist inside the region, who was told by multiple residents that army personnel raided homes and dragged men into the streets to beat them soon after Kashmir's
semi-autonomy was revoked.
----------------

🇭🇰 **Hong Kong activists arrested including Joshua Wong in crackdown on protests**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/jaN63>

Hong Kong police arrested a number of prominent pro-democracy activists including Joshua Wong and three lawmakers on Friday, seeking to rein in protests that have plunged the city into its worst political crisis for decades.

Wong, who was one of the leaders of the pro-democracy “Umbrella” movement five years ago, is the most prominent activist to be arrested since protests escalated in mid-June over fears China is exerting greater control over
the city and squeezing its freedoms.

He was charged with inciting and participating in an unauthorized assembly outside police headquarters on June 21.

Police also arrested Agnes Chow, another senior member of his group Demosisto.

Other activists arrested included Athea Suen, a former university student union leader, as well as three pro-democracy lawmakers - Cheng Chung-tai, Au Nok-him and Jeremy Tam.

Au and Tam had been present at some protests and faced charges including obstructing police officers, according to their political parties.

Police also blocked plans for a mass demonstration on Saturday in a show of force a day before the fifth anniversary of a decision by China to curtail democratic reforms in the former British colony.

The bespectacled Wong, who was 17 when he became the face of the student-led civil disobedience movement in 2014 that blocked major roads for 79 days, has not been a prominent figure in the latest protests, which have no
identifiable leaders.

He was released from jail in June after serving a five-week term for contempt of court.

Wong and Chow were released on bail and the case was adjourned until Nov. 8, but they will be subject to travel restrictions and a night-time curfew.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Simone Biles' brother Tevin Biles-Thomas charged with murder**
*BBC News* - <https://archive.fo/Rk2kh>

The brother of US Olympic gold medal gymnast Simone Biles has been charged with murder.

Tevin Biles-Thomas was arrested on Thursday in connection with a shooting on New Years Eve that left three men dead and two more injured.

The 24-year-old - who serves in the US Army - was charged with murder, voluntary manslaughter, felonious assault and perjury.

He is being held in prison in Georgia, where he was arrested.

According to a joint statement by the Cleveland Division of Police and the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office seen by US media, the shooting took place in Mr Biles-Thomas' hometown of Cleveland, Ohio.

The statement said a fight broke out after an "uninvited group" appeared at the party, leading to the deaths of Delvante Johnson, 19, and Toshaun Banks, 21, at the scene. Devaughn Gibson, 23, died at the hospital.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley praised the "relentless persistence" of Cleveland's detectives for the arrest.

An arraignment is scheduled for 13 September in Ohio. It is not yet known when Mr Biles-Thomas will be extradited from Georgia.

Simone Biles won four gold medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics. She is the most decorated US gymnast and is considered to be one of the greatest gymnasts of all time.
----------------

🇫🇷 **One dead, nine wounded in France after suspected knife attack**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/fsz0L>

One person was killed and at least nine others wounded on Saturday in the city of Villeurbanne near Lyon in central France after a suspected knife attack, a police source told Reuters.

A suspect carrying a knife was arrested, the source said. A second source close to the police said the man had told officers he was an Afghan national.

The police source said the motivation for the suspected attack, which took place around 1430 GMT, was not immediately clear.

The police source said authorities had been hunting for a suspected second attacker. But the second source said this search was now not being pursued, adding that the victim was aged 19.

The suspected attacker assaulted residents waiting at a bus stop and then ran towards an underground station before being seized by other local people and transport staff, Lyon mayor Lyon Gerard Collomb told reporters.

A helicopter was patrolling the area, a Reuters correspondent at the location reported.
----------------

🇭🇰 **Hong Kong commercial centers paralyzed as protesters, police exchange petrol bombs and tear gas**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/bZ6re>

Hong Kong police fired tear gas and water cannon on Saturday and pro-democracy protesters threw petrol bombs in the latest in a series of chaotic clashes that have plunged the Chinese-ruled city into its worst
political crisis in decades.

Police fired round after round of tear gas and protesters took cover behind umbrellas between the local headquarters of China’s People’s Liberation Army and the government. Protesters also threw bricks dug up from pathways at police.

Many shops and restaurants in protest areas popular with tourists were shuttered, while curious visitors peered out from windows of some luxury hotels overlooking the demonstrations.

Protest numbers had dwindled by the early hours of Sunday, with just a few hundred demonstrators and some riot police visible.

The water cannon unleashed blue-dyed water, to make it easier for police to identify protesters.

Riot police then marched on foot toward the neighboring Admiralty district, followed by 20 police cars, where protesters had thrown fire bombs from flyovers, some landing close to police.
Others shone blue and green lasers at police lines.

There were unconfirmed reports of an off-duty policeman being wounded.

In the neighboring Wanchai bar and restaurant district, police fought running battles with protesters, some beating them with truncheons, according to Reuters witnesses. There were several arrests.

“We have to keep protesting, we cannot let China take back Hong Kong now,” said Evelyn, a 25-year-old asset manager, chanting “gangster” at police outside a subway station across the harbor
from the central business area in Kowloon district.

Asked what she would do if authorities did not respond to protesters’ demands, she said: “Maybe I will leave Hong Kong. I absolutely cannot live under Chinese rule.”
----------------

🇺🇸 **U.S. Unleashes Military to Fight Fake News, Disinformation**
*Yahoo/Bloomberg* - <https://archive.fo/QP7pb>

Fake news and social media posts are such a threat to U.S. security that the Defense Department is launching a project to repel “large-scale, automated disinformation attacks,” as the top Republican in Congress blocks efforts to protect the integrity of elections.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency wants custom software that can unearth fakes hidden among more than 500,000 stories, photos, video and audio clips. If successful, the system after four years of trials may expand to detect malicious intent and prevent viral fake news from polarizing society.

“A decade ago, today’s state-of-the-art would have registered as sci-fi — that’s how fast the improvements have come,” said Andrew Grotto at the Center for International Security at Stanford University. “There is no reason to think the pace of innovation will slow any time soon.”

U.S. officials have been working on plans to prevent outside hackers from flooding social channels with false information ahead of the 2020 election. The drive has been hindered by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s refusal to consider election-security legislation. Critics have labeled him #MoscowMitch, saying he left the U.S. vulnerable to meddling by Russia, prompting his retort of “modern-day McCarthyism.”
---------------

🇺🇸 **Former Marine said he’d ‘slaughter’ antifa. The FBI, using Oregon’s new red flag law, took his guns away**
*The Oregonian* - <https://archive.fo/ieCQk>

Shane Kohfield stood outside the home of Portland’s mayor in July wearing body armor and a “Make America Great Again” baseball cap, a large knife strapped to one shoulder and a copy of his concealed weapons permit displayed on the other.

Using a loudspeaker, he warned the right-wing activists who turned out to condemn the city’s handling of recent violent demonstrations that they needed to protect themselves against their anti-fascist, or antifa, rivals.

“If antifa gets to the point where they start killing us, I’m going to kill them next,” Kohfield, 32, said. “I’d slaughter them and I have a detailed plan on how I would wipe out antifa.”

That threat pushed the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task to take a series of extraordinary steps against Kohfield, including temporary seizure of a cache of his firearms under Oregon’s new “red flag” law aimed at preventing gun violence, The Oregonian/OregonLive has learned.

The task force also had the ex-Marine committed to a veterans’ hospital in Portland. He spent the next 20 days there.

The moves came as city officials and law enforcement prepared for potentially violent clashes Aug. 17 during a right-wing rally and counterprotests planned in downtown Portland that had become inflamed with incendiary political rhetoric nationwide. Police worried that they would end in catastrophe.

Though Kohfield wasn’t accused or charged with any crimes, police took no chances and prevented him from attending the rally as he repeatedly had promised to do on social media after his confrontation at Mayor Ted Wheeler’s house.

The episode shows that federal law enforcement may be beginning to take a more aggressive tack toward potential political threats, said Michael German, a retired FBI agent and fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School.
---------------

🇮🇱 **Netanyahu repeats pledge to annex Israeli settlements in occupied West Bank**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/rq8Fb>

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to annex all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, he said on Sunday, reiterating an election promise made five months ago but again giving no timeframe.

Settlements are one of the most heated issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinians have voiced fears Netanyahu could defy international consensus and move ahead with annexation with possible backing
from U.S. President Donald Trump, a close ally.

“With God’s help we will extend Jewish sovereignty to all the settlements as part of the (biblical) land of Israel, as part of the state of Israel,” Netanyahu said in Sunday’s speech in the West Bank settlement of
Elkana, where he attended a ceremony opening the school year.

He did not say when he planned to make such a move.

Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said Netanyahu’s announcement was a “continuation of attempts to create an unacceptable fait accompli that will not lead to any peace, security or stability”.

Netanyahu, who heads the right-wing Likud party, made a similar pledge days before an Israeli general election in April. After the vote, he failed to form a governing parliamentary majority and the country will hold a
new election on Sept. 17.

His reaffirmation of the annexation promise came amid a campaign push to draw supporters of far-right factions to Likud in the coming election, in which votes are cast for a party’s list of parliamentary candidates.

Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing in three criminal investigations against him. Likud is running neck-and-neck in opinion polls with the centrist Blue and White party led by former armed forces chief Benny Gantz.
----------------

🇬🇧 **Opponents of 'no-deal' Brexit defeat PM Johnson, who promises an election**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/60eqG>

A cross-party alliance defeated Boris Johnson in parliament on Tuesday in a bid to prevent him taking Britain out of the EU without a divorce agreement - prompting the prime minister to announce that he would immediately push for a snap election.

Lawmakers voted by 328 to 301 for a motion put forward by opposition parties and rebel lawmakers in Johnson’s party - who had been warned they would be kicked out of the Conservative Party if they defied the government.

More than three years after the United Kingdom voted in a referendum to leave the European Union, the defeat leaves the course of Brexit unresolved, with possible outcomes still ranging from a turbulent ‘no-deal’ exit to abandoning the whole endeavor.

Tuesday’s victory is the first hurdle for lawmakers who, having succeeded in taking control of parliamentary business, will on Wednesday seek to pass a law forcing Johnson to ask the EU to delay Brexit until Jan. 31 unless he has a deal approved by parliament beforehand on the terms and manner of the exit.

The Conservative rebels who now face expulsion from the party included Nicholas Soames, the grandson of Britain’s World War Two leader Winston Churchill, and two former finance ministers - Philip Hammond and Kenneth Clarke.

“I don’t want an election, but if MPs vote tomorrow to stop negotiations and compel another pointless delay to Brexit, potentially for years, then that would be the only way to resolve this,” Johnson told parliament after the vote.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Defense secretary signs off on spending $3.6B to build 175 miles of border wall**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.fo/NxWXS>

Defense Secretary Mark Esper has signed off on spending $3.6 billion in Defense Department construction funds for 175 miles of wall on the southern border with Mexico, Pentagon officials told Fox News on Tuesday.

Esper has been briefing congressional leaders on the plans, including what military construction projects would be affected both in the U.S. and overseas.

The moves provoked an outcry Tuesday among some Democrats.

“Earlier today Defense Secretary Mark Esper notified me that the Department of Defense will reprogram $3.6 billion in funds appropriated for military construction and maintenance, including the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, in order to build the president’s misguided border wall,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement.

Others weighed in with just as much dissent.

“President Trump’s immigration efforts have failed since Day 1,” said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I. “Today, he made it clear he is willing to take funds from our troops and disaster victims and divert them to try to protect his political right flank. And ultimately, that could put Americans at risk.”

For its part, the Trump administration has been touting progress made on the border.

“Construction continues on the border wall in Yuma, AZ,” Customs and Border Protection (CBP) tweeted over the weekend. “The process includes panel fabrication and delivery, demolition, soil conditioning and digging, trench digging, panel hoisting and installation.”

Use of the money had been frozen by lower courts while a lawsuit proceeded. Last month, however, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the use of about $2.5 billion.
---------------

🇳🇿 **Five killed in New Zealand as bus with Chinese tourists rolls over**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/I5FXX>

A bus carrying 27 people, mostly Chinese tourists, rolled over on a highway in New Zealand’s North Island on Wednesday, killing five people and injuring six, police said.

Police are investigating the accident on State Highway 5 near Rotorua, a popular destination for tourist groups from China, in which the bus flipped to the opposite side of the road on a “moderate to easy bend”, an official said.

“It’s a traumatic incident for all concerned, and it has far-reaching consequences,” Brent Crowe, an inspector in the Bay of Plenty region, told a news conference.

Ethnic liaison officers were coordinating with victims’ families and Chinese officials, he said, adding that police were working with the foreign ministry and the Chinese consulate to notify the next of kin.

An official at the Chinese embassy in Wellington told Reuters it was working with police to identify the victims.

Two of the injured suffered serious injuries, while four were less grievously hurt.
----------------

🇺🇸 **San Francisco Officials Designate NRA a Domestic Terrorist Organization**
*KQED* - <http://archive.fo/Nl3bl>

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday declaring the National Rifle Association a domestic terrorist organization and urging other municipalities, states and the federal go government to do the same.

The resolution calls out the NRA for inciting acts of violence and spreading "misinformation and propaganda" and encourages the city to assess and limit contracts with vendors affiliated with the NRA. It stops short, though, of putting in place any enforcement mechanisms or new regulations.

"The NRA conspires to limit gun violence research, restrict gun violence data sharing and most importantly aggressively tries to block every piece of sensible gun violence prevention legislation proposed on any level, local state or federal," said Supervisor Catherine Stefani, who sponsored the measure.

A longtime advocate for gun safety, Stefani also introduced a resolution earlier this year that authorized the San Francisco Police Department to use funds from the U.S. Department of Justice to help improve the collection, management and analysis of gun-crime evidence.

Tuesday's resolution notes America's "epidemic of gun violence, including over 36,000 deaths, and 100,000 injuries each year." It also highlights the striking frequency of mass shootings nationwide, specifically noting a massacre in nearby Gilroy in July that left four people dead, including two children.

In addition, it mentions a notable increase in hate crimes since 2015, and the growing number of guns in the U.S., which currently exceeds the country’s total population.

In a statement before the vote, NRA spokeswoman Amy Hunter said, "This ludicrous stunt by the Board of Supervisors is an effort to distract from the real problems facing San Francisco, such as rampant homelessness, drug abuse and skyrocketing petty crime."
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🇺🇸 **Jussie Smollett lawyers: Even if actor faked attack, cops didn’t need to investigate it so vigorously**
*Chicago Sun Times* - <https://archive.fo/yg5Q1>

This is it.

Jussie Smollett is smokin’.

The actor, once a star of the hit-TV series “Empire,” is making one last attempt to get a city lawsuit against him tossed out of federal court before it proceeds to trial.

Sneed learned exclusively that late Tuesday night, his attorneys filed a motion responding to the city’s claim that he should pay the city more than $130,000 to cover police overtime and other costs.

The city claims the costs were incurred in connection with an investigation into a report he filed claiming he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack in River North. Police later charged Smollett with staging the attack.

Attorneys for Smollett deny the actor made up the attack, and note charges were ultimately dropped by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.

“My client from the beginning has maintained his innocence and disputed the city’s allegations,” said William J. Quinlan, of The Quinlan Law Firm, who filed the motion. He noted that “it’s going to be very difficult for the city to prevail in making a case my client should pay for overtime for a case ultimately dismissed by the state’s attorney.

“It’s ridiculous and a stretch to require him to do so.”

But the latest court filing contends even if Smollett did make a false report, there is no way the city can assert he would have known the city would investigate — and investigate it to the extent cops did.

“We contend the city is wrong,” Quinlan said of the city’s assertion that Smollett should have known the city would spend nearly 2,000 hours investigating. “ ... The mere fact somebody filed a police report doesn’t presume the investigation will be done and certainly not to the extent of what the city is claiming.

“Smollett has no control over that,” Quinlan added.
---------------

🇺🇸 **Biden's eye fills with blood during CNN climate town hall**
*Washington Examiner* - <https://archive.fo/ZB7PC>

Former Vice President Joe Biden's left eye appeared to have a blood vessel burst while he was participating in CNN's town hall on climate change.

Biden has long been plagued by health issues. In 1988, he suffered an aneurysm that burst and required him to undergo emergency surgery. The then-senator was so close to death that a Catholic priest began preparing to administer the sacrament of last rites.

Months later, surgeons clipped a second aneurysm before it burst. Biden then took a seven-month leave from the Senate following the surgery. He’s described the operation as “they literally had to take the top of my head off.”

Doctors removed a benign polyp during a colonoscopy in 1996. In 2003, Biden had his gallbladder removed. He also suffers from asthma and allergies, and takes a prescription drug to lower his cholesterol. He has also taken medication for an enlarged prostate.

Biden hasn’t disclosed his medical history since 2008 when doctors found he had an irregular heartbeat.
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🇿🇼 **Robert Mugabe: death of a liberation 'colossus' who crushed his foes as Zimbabwe unraveled**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/TdXl3>

Robert Mugabe, the bush war guerrilla who led Zimbabwe to independence and crushed his foes during nearly four decades of rule as his country descended into poverty, hyperinflation and unrest, died on Friday. He was 95.

He was one of the most polarizing figures in his continent’s history, a giant of African liberation, whose rule finally ended in ignominy when he was overthrown by his own army. He died in Singapore, where he had long received
medical treatment.

“It is with the utmost sadness that I announce the passing on of Zimbabwe’s founding father and former President, Cde (Comrade) Robert Mugabe,” a post on President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s official Twitter account said.

Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s long-serving security chief who helped oust him from power, cut short a trip to a World Economic Forum in South Africa. He called an emergency meeting of the ruling ZANU-PF party to discuss declaring Mugabe
a national hero — a certain formality — and was due to address the nation.

Tributes poured in from African leaders. South Africa’s government mourned a “fearless pan-Africanist liberation fighter”. Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta hailed a “man of courage who was never afraid to fight for what he
believed in, even when it was not popular”.

At home, even foes paid respects.

“He was a colossus on the Zimbabwean stage and his enduring positive legacy will be his role in ending white minority rule & expanding a quality education to all Zimbabweans,” tweeted David Coltart, an opposition senator and
rights lawyer.

But others said his legacy was overshadowed by the harm he did to his people.
----------------

🇺🇸 **ThinkProgress, a Top Progressive News Site, Has Shut Down**
*The Daily Beast* - <https://archive.fo/tQVb4>

ThinkProgress, the influential news site that rose to prominence in the shadow of the Bush administration and helped define progressivism during the Obama years, is shutting down.

The outlet, which served as an editorially independent project of the Democratic Party think tank Center for American Progress (CAP), will stop current operations on Friday and be converted into a site where CAP scholars can post.

Top officials at CAP had been searching for a buyer to take over ThinkProgress, which has run deficits for years, and according to sources there were potentially three serious buyers in the mix recently. But in a statement to staff, Navin Nayak, the executive director of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, said the site was ultimately unable to secure a patron.

“Given that we could find no new publisher, we have no other real option but to fold the ThinkProgress website back into CAP’s broader online presence with a focus on analysis of policy, politics, and news events through the lens of existing CAP and CAP Action staff experts,” said Nayak. “Conversations on how to do so are just beginning, but we will seek to reinvent it as a different platform for progressive change.”

A dozen ThinkProgress employees will be losing their jobs, a CAP aide said, as many who were on staff had already gone to work elsewhere and some were incorporated into the larger CAP infrastructure. Those who are being laid off will be given a severance package that runs through the end of November and health care coverage that lasts through the year, said the CAP aide.
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🇬🇧 **Sticking to Brexit plan, Johnson will not seek a delay**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/rCnRx>

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is sticking to his Brexit plan and will not seek a delay to Britain’s departure from the European Union at a summit next month, two ministers said on Sunday despite the latest resignation
from his government.

After work and pensions minister Amber Rudd’s quit late on Saturday over his Brexit policy, the ministers said Johnson was determined to “keep to the plan” to leave the EU by Oct. 31 with or without a deal to ease the transition.

Johnson’s strategy to leave “do or die” by that deadline has been shaken by the events of recent days, which have prompted critics to describe him as a “tin pot dictator” and deepened uncertainty over how Britain’s 2016 vote
to leave the EU will play out.

He has lost his Conservative government’s majority in parliament, expelled 21 rebels from the party and failed to force through a new election. Then his own brother quit, saying he was torn between family loyalty and the
national interest.

Saturday’s resignation of Rudd - who backed remaining in the EU in the 2016 referendum when Britain voted 52%-48% to leave - over what she called the government’s disproportionate focus on preparing for a no-deal Brexit
has only heightened the sense of crisis.

On Sunday, Rudd denied she was accusing the government of lying over its efforts to negotiate a Brexit deal, saying she was just reporting what she had seen.

“I am saying that 80 to 90% of the work that I can see going on on the EU relationship is about preparation for no deal. It’s about disproportion,” she told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show.

“The purpose of this resignation is to make the point that the Conservative Party at its best should be a moderate party that embraces people with different views of the EU.”
----------------

🇮🇱 **Israel's Netanyahu announces post-election plan to annex West Bank's Jordan Valley**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/PL1SZ>

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his intention on Tuesday to annex the Jordan Valley, a large swathe of the occupied West Bank, if he wins a closely contested election just a week away.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement that “all signed agreements with Israel and the obligations resulting from them would end” if Netanyahu went through with the move.

Israel captured the West Bank in a 1967 war and Palestinians, who signed interim peace deals with Israel in the 1990s that include security cooperation, seek to make the area part of a future state.

Israeli political commentators saw Netanyahu’s declaration, in a speech broadcast live on Israel’s main TV channels, as a bid to siphon support away from far-right rivals who have long advocated annexation of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

“Today, I announce my intention, after the establishment of a new government, to apply Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea,” Netanyahu said in a speech broadcast live on Israeli TV channels, calling the area “Israel’s eastern border”.

That step, he said, could be taken “immediately after the election if I receive a clear mandate to do so from you, the citizens of Israel”.
----------------

🇺🇸🇳🇱 **Dutchmen arrested at secret US airbase Area 51 with drones and cameras**
*DutchNews* - <https://archive.fo/pAojs>

Two Dutch men have been arrested in the US for trying to enter an area of desert in Nevada known as Area 51, which is controlled by the military.
Area 51, around 120 miles north of Las Vegas, is home to a heavily guarded US military base. According to UFO conspiracy theorists, it is also home to the remains from a flying saucer that supposedly crashed in Roswell,
New Mexico in 1947.

The two men, Ties Granzier aged 20 and Govert Sweep aged 21, had a drone, a camera and laptops with them in the car they were driving. They were arrested on Tuesday, three miles inside the security zone, after telling police they had seen the signs but wanted to look at the site anyway.
Both men have several YouTube channels with tens of thousands of subscribers. Subscribers to Sweep’s channel are told that he ‘travels around the world in search of the most challenging adventures’.

Area 51 is a popular pilgrimage for UFO watchers and other conspiracy theorists.

In July Facebook users were invited to sign up for an attempt to storm Area 51 on September 20. More than a hundred thousand people had agreed to do so before the organisers agreed to hold a festival instead, at the request of the FBI.
Alienstock was cancelled earlier this month due to ‘lack of infrastructure, poor planning, risk management and blatant disregard for the safety.’
----------------

Was this translated? Because its translated bad

rewrote it a bit. it's not translated, they're just shit writers

🇺🇸 **Felicity Huffman handed prison time over college admissions scandal**
*BBC* - <https://archive.fo/ygmre>

US actress Felicity Huffman has been sentenced to 14 days in prison for her involvement in a college admissions scandal.
The Desperate Housewives star admitted to paying $15,000 (£11,500) to have her daughter's exam answers secretly corrected in 2017.
She must also do 250 hours of community service and pay a $30,000 fine.

Parents and athletics coaches were among 50 people charged in the scheme, but none of the children were indicted.

"There are no excuses or justifications for my actions. Period," Huffman said in a statement after her sentencing. "I would like to apologise again to my daughter, my husband, my family and the educational community for my actions.
"And I especially want to apologise to the students who work hard every day to get into college, and to their parents who make tremendous sacrifices supporting their children."

Judge Indira Talwani said she believes Huffman has accepted full responsibility for her actions, but "trying to be a good mother does not excuse" what she did.

She must report to prison in six weeks. Prosecutors had asked for a month in prison and a $20,000 fine.

The parents charged in the college scam investigation allegedly paid bribes, had exams altered, and even had their children edited into stock photos to fake sporting talents on applications.
Prosecutors say they managed to fraudulently secure spots for the teenagers at elite US universities including Yale, Georgetown and Stanford.

Huffman pleaded guilty to mail and honest services fraud in May. She is the first parent sentenced in the scandal.

.
Her legal team had asked for a year of probation in lieu of jail time, 250 hours of community service and a $20,000 fine.
But prosecutors wrote in a memo last week that "neither probation nor home confinement (in a large home in the Hollywood Hills with an infinity pool) would constitute meaningful punishment or deter others from committing similar crimes".
----------------

🇸🇦 **Houthi drones hit two Aramco plants, Saudis say fires contained**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/rbwC8>

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group on Saturday attacked two Saudi Aramco plants, including the world’s biggest oil processing facility, sparking fires in the latest flare up of violence in the Gulf.

Saudi Arabia said it had brought the blazes under control, without specifying whether oil production or exports were affected. State television said exports were continuing.

The drone strikes on the world’s biggest oil exporter come as state oil giant Saudi Aramco has accelerated plans for an initial public offering to as early as this year, and follow earlier cross-border attacks on Saudi oil installations and on oil tankers in Gulf waters.

Saudi Arabia, leading a coalition of Sunni Muslim countries that intervened in Yemen in 2015 against the Houthis, has blamed regional rival Shi’ite Iran for previous attacks, which Tehran denies. Riyadh accuses Iran of arming the Houthis, a charge denied by the group and Tehran.

The extent of damage from the drone strikes in Abqaiq and Khurais provinces remains unclear. Nine hours after the pre-dawn attacks, Aramco has issued no statement and the authorities have not reported on casualties.

Abqaiq is located 60 km (37 miles) southwest of Aramco’s Dhahran headquarters. It contains the world’s largest oil processing plant, handling crude from the giant Ghawar field and for export to terminals Ras Tanura - the world’s biggest offshore oil loading facility - and Juaymah. It also pumps westwards across the kingdom to Red Sea export terminals.

Khurais, 190 km further southwest, contains the country’s second largest oilfield.

Many Western employees of Aramco live in Abqaiq. The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh said it was unaware of any injuries to Americans from the attacks.
----------------

🇧🇸 **Bahamas brace for another storm just weeks after Hurricane Dorian**
*CBS News* - <https://archive.fo/AztJn>

Tropical Depression Nine strengthened into Tropical Storm Humberto near the Bahamas Friday night, the National Hurricane Center said. The Bahamian government issued a tropical storm warning for its
northwestern islands — the same area devastated by Hurricane Dorian earlier this month.

As of 11 p.m. ET, the storm was about 130 miles east-southeast of Great Abaco Island and about 225 miles east-southeast of Freeport, Grand Bahama Island, the hurricane center said. Tropical Storm Humberto
had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph and was moving northwest at 6 mph.

A group organized by retired Navy Seals and the conservation group Sea Shepherd has been loading up supplies to send to remote islands that may be impacted by the approaching storm. When CBS News caught up
with them, the group had four tons of essentials — food, water and generators — it had loaded onto a ship.

Residents are doing whatever they can to prepare. With few boats intact, locals are shuttling them to the few dozen people who remain. "I mean, we really don't need another hurricane.
As you can see, we don't need another one. But we just have to prepare," Sinetra Higgs told CBS News.

Hurricane Dorian devastated the northern Bahamas. Entire neighborhoods were flattened, homes shredded, shipping containers and boats hurled inland. Some airports were submerged, while terminals were covered in debris.

Some residents remain frustrated at the government's response, especially with another storm on the way. Many residents said that the only assistance they've gotten came from foreigners — and that they're
still living without cell service, power and running water.

The Bahamian government said it's coordinating relief efforts from Nassau. But since most of the field teams come from private foreign aid groups, that's all the residents in hard-hit communities see.
----------------

🇬🇧 **Woman, 25, reveals she gave HERSELF a £7K pay rise because 'she earned it' - at London company that lets employees set their own salaries**
*Daily Mail* - <https://archive.fo/eWqsN>

Asking for a pay rise can be nerve-wracking, but one employee has revealed how she was able to give herself a salary increase, thanks to a unique scheme at her workplace.

Cecilia Manduca, 25, who works for London-based company GrantTree, which helps businesses secure government funding, recently decided to take her salary from £30,000 to £37,000.

GrantTree doesn't decide its employees salaries, and instead lets them set what they earn, funding expert Cecilia explained on BBC 5 Live's Wake Up to Money.

However, people cannot grant themselves a raise without discussing it with their colleagues beforehand, and it must be in line with what they would be paid for a similar role at another company.

Cecilia explained that while she struggled a lot with the idea of a £7,000 raise, she was encouraged in her choice by her colleagues.

'I felt a lot of doubts asking for that raise. It took a lot of talks with other people,' she said.

Cecilia's decision to give herself a raise came after her responsibilities had evolved.

'I was aware that my job had changed. I was aware I was going way beyond my targets,' she added.

'When I spoke with my colleagues internally and asked for advice, the advice they gave me was that, yes, I did deserve it and I was worth it,' she added.

Discussing the possibility of a raise openly with one's colleagues is one of the requirements of the GrantTree model.

Instead of going through the traditional pay review process, the employee will sit down with the whole team.

The team will discuss whether the person deserves the increase and whether this would be fair to the rest of the company.

And GrantTree employees can also decrease their salary to reflect their work and responsibilities.
----------------

🇺🇸 **What we know: 2,246 fetal remains found in Illinois home of ex-Indiana abortion doctor**
*Indianapolis Star* - <https://archive.fo/Apzkw>

After Dr. Ulrich Klopfer died in rural Crete, Illinois, on Sept. 3, authorities found "2,246 medically preserved fetal remains" in his home.

Klopfer performed thousands of abortions in northern Indiana clinics before his medical license was revoked in 2016. But it's unclear where the fetal remains came from, though the Will County, Illinois, Sheriff's office said in a news release there was no evidence that Klopfer performed abortions on his Illinois property.

Public records show that Klopfer had not been licensed to practice medicine in Illinois since 1990, when he failed to renew his license. Records do not show Klopfer holding any other state's medical license after the Indiana suspension.

Authorities are not saying if they think Klopfer, 79, transported the remains from Indiana, how the fetal remains had been preserved or why the remains may have been in his possession in the first place.

Kathy Hoffmeyer, Will County, Ill., Sheriff's spokeswoman, on Monday called this a sensitive investigation and declined to release details.

Indiana records allege the doctor, first licensed in 1979, had a history of bad record keeping in his clinics.

According to a complaint filed by the Indiana Medical Licensing Board, Klopfer worked in clinics in South Bend, Gary and Fort Wayne from 2012 to 2015.

The board in 2016 found that Klopfer failed to properly file paperwork regarding abortions performed at the clinics, including some that were dated the same day as the procedure, a violation of Indiana's 18-hour waiting period.

The licensing board found he performed abortions on two 13-year-olds without filing paperwork within three days as required by law.
--------------

🇺🇸 **The Pentagon is canceling three border wall projects because the costs went up**
*Military Times* - <https://archive.fo/wpREb>

Three proposed sections of border wall for Arizona are on hold, according to a Monday federal court filing, because they’re going to cost more than the Defense Department planned on spending.

The Army Corps of Engineers “has determined that there are insufficient contract savings to undertake the the three additional” projects, totaling 20 miles of construction on the U.S.-Mexico border, that Defense Secretary Mark Esper originally approved on Aug. 26, per court documents.

The filing is part of three ongoing lawsuits over using $2.5 billion in DoD counter-drug funding on border projects.

The Supreme Court lifted a freeze on that spending, handed down by a lower court, in July. But as the suit is ongoing, the Pentagon must file updates to its plans in federal court.

Back in August, the Corps of Engineers estimated it would be able to build that additional 20 miles of wall after crunching the numbers and finding “lower-than-expected” contract costs, meaning more money freed up for more construction.

But the final totals didn’t come back that way, and so two planned segments in Yuma and one in Tuscon are now on the back burner.

That $2.5 billion is meant to build more than 100 miles of border barriers through California, Arizona and New Mexico.

In September, Defense Secretary Mark Esper approved the use of $3.6 billion more, the cost of 127 military construction projects in the U.S. and abroad, to build or reinforce 11 more sections of wall.

At the time, defense officials told reporters on background that building more barriers meant less need for troops to deploy to the border to defend it.

The projects are on the books for throughout 2020, officials said, and border deployments are expected to continue at least that long.

As of late August, the department had spent $450 million to fund those deployments.
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🇺🇸 **Major Democratic donor Ed Buck arrested, charged with running drug den**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.fo/zJxB3>

Ed Buck, the California Democratic megadonor, was arrested Tuesday and charged with operating a drug house after a third man reportedly suffered an overdose inside his West Hollywood home last week and survived.

Buck has faced public scrutiny after two black men died from overdoses 18 months apart inside his home. He was not charged in those cases.

Buck was charged with three counts of battery and is accused of injecting the alleged third victim with methamphetamine on Sept. 11, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Prosecutors wrote in court papers obtained by the Times that Buck used his position of power to manipulate his victims into participating in his sexual fetishes.

“These fetishes include supplying and personally administering dangerously large doses of narcotics to his victims,” the prosecutors wrote, according to the Times.

Seymour Amster, Buck’s attorney, told Fox News that he would not comment on the arrest and said he is dealing with the issue. Amster has in the past defended his client and insisted that he did nothing wrong.

In July 2017, a young black man, Gemmel Moore, was found dead of a drug overdose in Buck’s apartment. Buck, who is white, was not charged.

An autopsy report said Moore, 26, died of a methamphetamine overdose. He was found naked on a mattress in the living room, which was littered with drug paraphernalia.

Eighteen months later, 55-year-old Timothy Dean also suffered a methamphetamine overdose. Prosecutors didn’t file criminal charges, citing insufficient evidence. Activists, however, have called for his arrest.

In the most recent incident, Buck allegedly brought the man to his home earlier this month and injected him with methamphetamine. About a week later, the man returned to Buck's home and was injected again and suffered an overdose, according to court documents obtained by KTLA.
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🇨🇦 **Justin Trudeau Wore Brownface at 2001 ‘Arabian Nights’ Party While He Taught at a Private School**
*Time* - <https://archive.fo/FzqFg>

Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, wore brownface makeup to a party at the private school where he was teaching in the spring of 2001. TIME has obtained a photograph of the incident.

The photograph has not been previously reported. The picture was taken at an “Arabian Nights”-themed gala. It shows Trudeau, then the 29-year-old son of the late former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, wearing a turban and robes with his face, neck and hands completely darkened. The photograph appears in the 2000-2001 yearbook of West Point Grey Academy, a private day school where Trudeau was a teacher.

Earlier this month, TIME obtained a copy of the yearbook, The View, with the photograph of Trudeau in brownface from Vancouver businessman Michael Adamson, who was part of the West Point Grey Academy community. Adamson was not at the party, which was attended by school faculty, administrators and parents of students. He said that he first saw the photograph in July and felt it should be made public.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday night, following TIME’s publication of the photo, Trudeau apologized: “I shouldn’t have done that. I should have known better and I didn’t. I’m really sorry.” When asked if he thought the photograph was racist, he said, “Yes it was. I didn’t consider it racist at the time, but now we know better.”

Trudeau said he wore “makeup” in high school to sing “Day-O,” a Jamaican folk song famously performed by African-American singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte. “I deeply regret that I did that,” he said.
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🇺🇸 **Colt suspends production of AR-15 for civilian market**
*Yahoo/AP* - <https://archive.fo/1PljO>

Gun-maker Colt is suspending its production of rifles for the civilian market including the popular AR-15, the company said Thursday in a shift it attributed to changes in consumer demand and a market already saturated with similar weapons.

The company said it will focus instead on fulfilling contracts with military and police customers for rifles.

"The fact of the matter is that over the last few years, the market for modern sporting rifles has experienced significant excess manufacturing capacity," Colt's chief executive officer, Dennis Veilleux, said in a written statement. "Given this level of manufacturing capacity, we believe there is adequate supply for modern sporting rifles for the foreseeable future."

Veilleux said the company, which emerged from bankruptcy in 2016, remains committed to the Second Amendment. He said the company is expanding its lines of pistols and revolvers.

Despite a national debate on gun control, Colt's decision seems driven by business considerations rather than politics, said Adam Winkler, a gun policy expert at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.
--------------

🇧🇷 **Without Brazil, donors unlock $500 million to preserve rainforests**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/fW0Ad>

International donors agreed on Monday to free up more than $500 million in aid to protect tropical rainforests, including the Amazon where wildfires are raging, France’s president said on Monday at a U.N. meeting shunned by Brazil.

The Brazilian Amazon is facing its worst spate of forest fires since 2010, prompting a global outcry and worries that destruction of parts of the world’s largest rainforest could hurt demand for Brazil’s exports.

Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations in August offered $20 million of emergency aid to help fight Amazon fires, a gesture Brazil at the time criticized as colonialist.

French President Emmanuel Macron had called for a wider alliance to protect rainforests worldwide using the United Nations General Assembly as a platform to garner support.

France, Chile and Colombia met on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders on Monday, despite the absence of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a climate change skeptic who is promoting development in the Amazon
region.

“Everybody thinks ‘How are you going to do without Brazil?’” Macron said during a speech. “Brazil is welcome and I think everyone wants to work with Brazil (...) It will come, it takes a very inclusive approach”.

Macron hit back at Bolsonaro’s accusations that Paris had no role to play, saying that French Guiana, a French overseas territory in South America, shared a more than 700-kilometre border with Brazil, making it a player in
protecting rainforests.

France would contribute $100 million out of $500 million in the package, Macron said. Germany, Britain and the European Union were also among the contributors to investments in biodiversity preservation and lasting development.
----------------.