North America

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The will that Jeffrey Epstein signed just two days before his jailhouse suicide puts more than $577 million in assets into a trust fund that could make it more difficult for his dozens of accusers to collect damages.

Estate lawyers and other experts say prying open the trust and dividing up the financier’s riches is not going to be easy and could take years.

“This is the last act of Epstein’s manipulation of the system, even in death,” said attorney Jennifer Freeman, who represents child sex abuse victims.

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who made fighting climate change the central theme of his presidential campaign, announced Wednesday night that he is ending his bid for the 2020 Democratic nomination.

Inslee said that he was confident that Democrats would select a nominee who would champion climate change issues but that it had become clear that he wouldn’t be the person selected. Inslee said he was not endorsing anyone but would support whoever is the nominee.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after considering cutting taxes to promote economic growth, President Donald Trump on Wednesday changed course and said he would abandon the idea because the nation already had “a strong economy.”

21 August 2019; AFP: President Donald Trump on Tuesday gave a foretaste of his convention-wrecking diplomacy at next weekend's G7 by calling for Russia -- expelled from the group of democracies -- to be readmitted.

Coming four days before he arrives at the summit in the French seaside resort of Biarritz, Trump's support for President Vladimir Putin was likely to be only the first diplomatic hand grenade unleashed on what used to be a cozy club of rich, Western allies.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. military MQ-9 drone was shot down in Yemen’s Dhamar governate, southeast of the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Wednesday.

The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the drone was shot down late on Tuesday.

A Houthi military spokesman had earlier been quoted by group’s Al-Masirah TV as saying that the Houthi movement’s air defenses had brought down a U.S. drone.

21 Aug 2019; MEMO: The UN has postponed a conference on torture that was set to take place in Cairo at the beginning of September after a wave of criticism from human rights activists who have documented the Egyptian government’s extensive use of torture against political opponents.

HAVANA, Aug 21 (NNN-Prensa Latina) — The demographic trend in Cuba points to the population decrease and aging, according to data from the National Statistics and Information Bureau (ONEI).

20.4% of Cubans are 60 years old and older, the newspaper Granma reported, which considers the Cuban demographic aging as accelerated.

Based on data from the latest Population and Housing Census, Granma noted that the incidence of single-person households where there is a significant presence of older adults is growing in the Caribbean country.

WASHINGTON, Aug 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) – The US will take every action it can to prevent an Iranian tanker from delivering oil to Syria in contravention of US sanctions, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned on Tuesday.

“We have made clear that anyone who touches it, anyone who supports it, anyone who allows a ship to dock is at risk of receiving sanctions from the United States,” Mr Pompeo said.

“If that ship again heads to Syria we will take every action we can consistent with those sanctions to prevent that.”

Newark, Aug 21 (AP) A young girl discovered something slithery at a New Jersey airport security checkpoint: a 15-inch-long snake.

Transportation Security Administration officials at Newark Liberty International Airport said in a release that it appears the thin, black snake with a yellow ring around its neck was forgotten by a traveller Monday night.

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- While the 15th California Wine Month highlighting the state's 250-year-plus winemaking history will kick off from Sept. 1, the industry is worried about losing its fastest-growing export market due to the trade war ignited by the White House last year.