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Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday night that Ukrainian diplomats and nuclear scientists are in "constant touch" with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and working to get a team of inspectors into the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The plant has been occupied by Russian troops since the start of the war in Ukraine but there have been increasing fears that a nuclear catastrophe could take place as shelling has intensified around the plant, which Ukraine says has been used by Russia to store ammunition and military equipment. Russia has accused Ukraine of shelling the plant. There are heightened fears that a catastrophe could occur at the plant, which is Europe's largest of its kind. Yesterday, Ukraine's Emergency Ministry conducted a nuclear catastrophe exercise in Zaporizhzhia in case of an accident.  In other news, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is in Lviv in Ukraine on Thursday to...

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Thursday, addressing remarks about the Holocaust made by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas during a recent visit to Berlin. Scholz had tweeted on Wednesday that Abbas's claim that Israel has committed "50 Holocausts" against Palestinians was "intolerable and unacceptable." He then wanted to address it directly with Lapid, who is the son of Holocaust survivors. "At the start of their conversation, the German Chancellor emphasized that he rejects and condemns Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s remarks, and that it was important for him to clarify this personally to the Prime Minister, as well as publicly," Lapid's office said in a press release about their conversation.  "I thanked him for this condemnation as Israel’s Prime Minister and the son of a Holocaust survivor," Lapid said in a tweet acknowledging the conversation. The two...

An explosion that erupted inside a mosque during evening prayers in Afghanistan's capital on Wednesday killed 21 people and injured 33 others, according to a spokesperson for the Kabul police chief. Security forces were investigating the incident in the city's police district 17, the spokesperson added. Health care organization Emergency said it treated dozens of victims.  "Following today's explosion, we admitted 27 patients to our Surgical Centre for War Victims in Kabul, including five minors, one of them a 7-year-old boy," Stefano Sozza, Emergency's Country Director in Afghanistan's.  "Two patients arrived Dead, one died in the emergency room," he said. Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed there were dead and wounded civilians, but did not say how many. He tweeted that the Taliban government "strongly condemns" the explosion, and vowed the perpetrators of "such crimes will be caught and punished for the...

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Turkey’s president and the U.N. chief met with Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy on Thursday in a high-stakes bid to ratchet down a war raging for nearly six months, discuss desperately needed grain exports and address the safety of Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant. The gathering, held far from the front lines in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, near the Polish border, marked the first visit to Ukraine by Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan since the outbreak of the war, and the second by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres. Erdogan has positioned himself as a go-between in efforts to stop the fighting. While Turkey is a member of NATO — which backs Ukraine in the war — its wobbly economy is reliant on Russia for trade, and the country has tried to steer a middle course. At the meetings, Turkey agreed to help rebuild Ukraine’s infrastructure, including roads and bridges, and Zelenskyy asked Guterres to seek U.N. access to Ukrainian citizens de...

One of Donald J. Trump’s most trusted executives stood before a judge on Thursday and pleaded guilty to 15 felonies, admitting that he conspired with Mr. Trump’s company to carry out a scheme to avoid paying taxes on lavish perks — even while refusing to implicate the former president himself. As part of the plea deal with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, the executive, Allen H. Weisselberg, is required to testify at the company’s trial if prosecutors choose to call on him, and to admit his role in conspiring with Mr. Trump’s company to carry out the tax scheme. That testimony could tilt the scales against the company, the Trump Organization, as it prepares for an October trial related to the same accusations. “Yes, your honor,” Mr. Weisselberg said again and again in response to detailed questions from the judge, Juan Merchan, who asked whether he and the Trump Organization committed the criminal conduct underlying each of the 15 counts. Under the terms of the ple...

Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the most ardent Republican critic of Donald Trump in Congress, vowed to carry on her fight against the former President and the election-denying movement he leads in a speech Tuesday night after conceding defeat in her primary. She'll lose to Trump-backed attorney Harriet.  "This primary election is over," Cheney said in her speech. "But now the real work begins." The last of the 10 House Republicans who voted for Trump's second impeachment to face voters, Cheney now becomes the eighth who will not be returning to the House next year. Cheney's loss, though widely anticipated, represents a significant marker in the wider fight over the direction of the Republican Party. Once considered an up-and-comer, she was booted from House GOP leadership last year over her unyielding opposition to the former President and trailed in polling back home this year as she helped lead the House select committee investigating the January...

Austin American-Statesman Republican lawmakers who voted to ban abortion in Texas say they’re committed to protecting the health of pregnant women who are now forced to bear children under the state’s extreme and punitive new law. Count us skeptical, considering that Texas suffers persistently dismal health outcomes for women and children after two full decades of Republican control of the legislature and governor’s office. However, if Gov. Greg Abbott and his abortion-banning allies in the House and Senate truly want to demonstrate that their concern for women is real, they’ll get a chance when the Legislature convenes early next year. That’s when a federal COVID-related public health emergency that enables low-income women in all 50 states to receive a full year of postpartum care under Medicaid is likely to expire, although it could lapse even sooner. Unless the Texas Legislature acts as soon as possible, some Texas women would see their access to postnatal care cut off ...

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are celebrating their newlywed life as husband and wife with a three-day wedding bash for friends and family at Affleck's private mansion in Georgia. The happy couple tied the knot nearly one month ago in Las Vegas, Nevada, during a midnight ceremony on the famous strip, witnessed by only a few people, including two of their children from previous marriages. "It’s going to be all about J.Lo," a source told Page Six. "Ben wants all of the focus to be on her for their big day." The celebrity roster heading south for the weekend is expected to include the likes of Matt Damon, Jimmy Kimmel, Ben’s brother Casey Affleck and Drea de Matteo.    Representatives for Affleck and Lopez did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. The "Waiting for Tonight" singer is expected to wear "a custom couture Ralph Lauren dress" made in Italy, with Vogue capturing her fashion journey. Affleck’s p...

Angelina Jolie has seemingly been identified as the “Jane Doe” who sued the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act, questioning why an investigation into her then-husband Brad Pitt was closed after allegations of physical and verbal assault in 2016. According to Puck News’ Eriq Gardner, Jolie is indeed the unnamed plaintiff in the suit, which had long been speculated about, given the timeline and the events described. The suit demanded that the bureau turn over documents related to an investigation into Pitt, after Jolie alleged that he had “physically and verbally assaulted” her and their children while traveling on a private plane “several years ago.”  It was also reported that, in a recent update to the filing, a statement of probable cause was drafted and given to the chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, before the FBI announced that Pitt would not be charged with assault. Among the previously detailed allegations reported i...

Microsoft is now allowing developers to access a preview version of its Microsoft Dev Box cloud-powered workstations. The software giant announced Microsoft Dev Box earlier this year, and it’s effectively an easy way for developer to spin up powerful cloud PCs for testing applications. Dev Box includes apps and services designed specifically for developers to quickly access preconfigured workstations. Windows 365 helps manage Microsoft Dev Box, and developers can now preview quickly accessing these Azure Virtual Desktop machines anywhere from a modern browser. Microsoft Dev Box machines will support any integrated development environment (IDE), software development kit (SDK), or tools that run on top of Windows.               Microsoft Dev Box runs on top of Windows 365.  Developers will be able to preview a Microsoft Dev Box configured with eight virtual CPUs and 32GB of RAM. Businesses can try out the first 15 hours of fr...

iPhones are about to get more expensive. Recent iPhone 14 leaks claim Apple will raise prices, though there is disagreement on how much and which models. Now, one of the industry’s most respected insiders has an explanation. In new tweets, TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo estimates that the “iPhone 14 series ASP [average selling price] would increase by about 15% vs iPhone 13 series ASP.” Yes, 15% is significantly higher than previous price leaks, and it has set alarm bells ringing about a potential $1300 entry-level iPhone 14 Pro Max. But the full picture is a little more complicated. Kuo explains that the average ASP for iPhone 14 models will be circa $1,000-$1,050 “due to two iPhone 14 Pro’s price hikes and higher shipment proportion.” Breaking this down is difficult, but Kuo’s numbers indicate that the iPhone 13 range’s ASP was closer to $900. This means customers are expected to pay, on average, roughly $150 more when buying an iPhone 14 compared to an ...

An unsettled dispute between the US and China over corporate auditing may lead to delistings by Alibaba and other Chinese companies, but maintaining market protections for investors is more essential to the US stock market, former president of the New York Stock Exchange Tom Farley told CNBC on Friday.  China state-run energy companies PetroChina and Sinopec and three other Chinese companies on Friday each said they plan to delist their shares from the New York Stock Exchange. The moves come as US and Chinese officials were deadlocked in negotiations in a long-running disagreement over auditing regulations. The five companies will submit delisting paperwork later this month.  In terms of those five companies, "economically, it's a non-event, no big deal," said Farley, who served as NYSE president from 2014 to 2018. "These shares trade very little here in the US, the institutional ownership is very little here in the US, they trade much more in their H-sha...

Housing starts drop 9.6%; building permits fall 1.3% Single-family starts tumble 10.1%; permits drop 4.3% Housing construction backlog rises 5.0% Manufacturing production rebounds 0.7%    U.S. homebuilding fell to the lowest level in nearly 1-1/2 years in July, weighed down by higher mortgage rates and prices for construction materials, suggesting the housing market could contract further in the third quarter. The housing market's declining fortunes brought fears of a broader economic recession back into focus. But with other data on Tuesday showing industrial production rising to an all-time high last month despite the high interest rate environment, the Federal Reserve is expected to stay on its aggressive monetary policy tightening path. "Reading the tea leaves on the economy hasn't been this difficult in years," said Christopher Rupkey, chief economist at FWDBONDS in New York. "Industrial production has turned down in every economic recession in h...

China's Yuan Wang 5 research and survey vessel arrives at Sri Lanka's Hambantota International Port on Aug. 16. COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A Chinese navy ship at the center of a diplomatic spat docked in a southern port in Sri Lanka on Tuesday, marking a small triumph for Beijing over India and the United States. The Yuan Wang 5 arrived before 8 a.m. on Tuesday and will stay for three days, according to the Hambantota International Port Group. The ship, which reportedly carried 2,000 sailors, was welcomed in a traditional Sri Lankan ceremony attended by Chinese Ambassador Qi Zhenhong and Sri Lankan lawmakers. Footage from the event showed the dignitaries sitting on a red carpet in front of the docked Chinese military vessel while its crew held a massive red banner along a deck that read: “Hello Sri Lanka, Long Live Sri Lanka — China Friendship.” Indian and U.S. officials had raised concerns about the political optics of a Chinese navy vessel docking at Hambantota Internat...

Elon Musk will receive some of the extra information he's demanded from Twitter in its lawsuit against him, and he's trying for even more, Insider has learned. Judge Kathleen St. Jude McCormick on Monday ordered Twitter to comply in part with a motion to compel from Musk's attorneys. They requested documents from 22 additional Twitter employees they said had information on the company's process of analyzing spam or "bot" accounts. Twitter is already handing over information from some 41 so-called "custodians" of information as part of the case. Musk's motion to compel for the additional documentation was filed last week confidentially, which means it doesn't appear on the court's docket. Nor did his counterclaims that accuse Twitter of a fraudulent "scheme" around its user numbers and metrics. McCormick's order was made available on the docket. Musk's attorneys also filed this week another confidential motion...

As wet weather sweeps across much of the UK, experts warn the likelihood of flooding is higher as water drains off instead of seeping through surfaces. England and Wales are covered by a yellow thunderstorm warning, with more flash flooding, transport disruption and power cuts likely, the Met Office said. Southern England will remain under the warning on Wednesday, forecasters said, adding that communities could be cut off by flooded roads and the floods could be dangerous. The Environment Agency has issued 19 flood alerts - indicating flooding is possible - in the Midlands and southeast England. No flood alerts are in place for Wales and Scotland. One of the reasons for the concern is that the heavy rain follows weeks of drought conditions - when the ground is too dry, it can't absorb the rain fast enough, so the water runs over the land and floods it. The Met Office said that Monday marked the eighth consecutive day with the temperature hitting 30C (86F). Parts of sou...

Passports belonging to former President Donald Trump that were taken by the FBI during the search conducted at his South Florida residence last week have been returned to the former president, a law enforcement source confirmed. The source said the passports were given back to Trump after they were discovered by a "filter team," a group of federal investigators who screen the materials seized during the execution of a search warrant for privileged or extraneous information.The FBI said in a statement that when executing search warrants, the bureau "follows search and seizure procedures ordered by courts, then returns items that we do not need to be retained for law enforcement purposes." In a post around 1:30 p.m. ET Monday on Truth Social, the former president's social media platform, Trump claimed the FBI "stole" three passports, one of which he said was expired, when agents conducted the search of Mar-a-Lago last week. "This was an ...

The announcement by the Minister of Budget, Planning, and Finance, Zainab Ahmed, on the depleting excess crude oil account to $376,665.09 as of June from $35.37 in May has heightened talks of Nigeria’s struggling economy and the need for urgent steps to reverse the situation, including raising revenue to avert further fiscal dislocations. There are, however, ways for the country to make revenue considered low-hanging fruits. Beyond oil and gas, which has been the mainstay of the economy since 1959, earning as much as $394.02 billion since 2011, according to the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Nigeria can bolster non-oil exports to good effect, harness remittances from abroad; encourage hot money and create an environment that will attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDI).   Improving non-oil exports According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), non-oil exports accounted for 11.32% of the total exports in 2021. In a similar ve...

The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has failed to justify the spending of N17.16 billion in 2013 with the required documents. Appearing before the senate committee on public accounts on Friday, the agency’s management claimed that some of the payment vouchers have been eaten up by termites. The N17.158 billion, as stated in the 2018 audit report of the office of the auditor-general of the federation, was the total amount transferred by NSITF from its Skye (now Polaris Bank) and First Bank accounts into various untraceable accounts belonging to individuals and companies from January to December 2013. “The management of the NSITF as shown in statements of Account No. 1750011691 with Skye Bank Plc, for the period January 2013 to December 20, 2013, and Statements of Account No. 2001754610 with First Bank Plc for the period January 7, 2013 to February 28, 2013, transferred amounts totalling N 17,158,883,034.69 billion to some persons and companies from these accounts...