North America

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is warning that bitter political divisions threaten American society, saying he views “tribalism” as a greater risk to the nation’s future than foreign adversaries.

The retired Marine general, who resigned in December 2018 in a policy dispute with President Donald Trump, said he worries about the state of American politics and the administration’s treatment of allies.

NEW YORK (AP) — Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign said Wednesday that it ejected a Breitbart News reporter from an event at a South Carolina college because it wanted to ensure that students felt “comfortable and safe.”

The Texas Democrat’s campaign found itself in a public confrontation with the aggressive conservative web site a day after its senior editor-at-large, Joel Pollak, said he was booted from an O’Rourke speech. He said the campaign told him was being ejected because he’d been disruptive at past events.

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico (AP) — A Trump administration program forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico has evolved into a sweeping rejection of all forms of migrants, with both countries quietly working to keep people out of the U.S. despite threats to the migrants’ safety.

The results serve the goals of both governments, which have targeted unauthorized migration at the behest of President Donald Trump, who threatened Mexico with potentially crippling tariffs earlier this year to force action.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand dropped out of the presidential race Wednesday, abruptly ending a campaign that once looked poised to ride strong #MeToo credentials to formidability but instead collapsed amid surprisingly low polling and major fundraising struggles.

“I know this isn’t the result that we wanted,” the 52-year-old New York senator said in an online video in which she didn’t endorse any other 2020 Democratic White House hopeful. “But it’s important to know when it’s not your time.”

NEW YORK, Aug 28 (APP): Prime Minister Imran Khan is expected next month to highlight the “gravity of the situation” in Indian Occupied Kashmir where India’s crackdown has created a serious crisis, Pakistan Ambassador to the United States, Asad Majeed Khan, has said.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 28 (APP): Pakistan has proposed the strengthening of the United Nations Military Observer Mission in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), which monitors the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir, as New Delhi’s illegal annexation of the disputed state has heightened tensions between the two South Asian neighbours, according to informed sources.

WASHINGTON, August 28. /TASS/: If US legislators sought to boost ties with Russian lawmakers, they would have long hosted them in Washington, the Russian embassy in the US pointed out, commenting on US Senator Chris Murphy’s statement about being denied a Russian visa.

(Reuters) - At least 23 people have died after a fire at a bar in Mexico’s southern port city of Coatzacoalcos, NBC News reported early on Wednesday, citing a statement by the office of Veracruz state’s attorney general.

The fire, which happened on Tuesday night, killed at least eight women and 15 men, with another 13 people being treated at hospitals after being seriously injured, according to the report nbcnews.to/2HucwVg.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China has denied a request for a U.S. Navy warship to visit the Chinese port city of Qingdao in recent days, a U.S. defense official told Reuters on Tuesday, at a time of tense ties between the world’s two largest economies.

This marks at least the second time China has denied a request by the United States this month, having earlier rejected a request for two U.S. Navy ships to visit Hong Kong, as the political crisis in the former British colony deepened.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft has returned to Earth after being released from the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday, bringing multiple scientific samples and gears.

The spacecraft left the space station at 10:59 a.m. American Eastern Time, starting its nearly 6-hour journey home. It splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 4:21 p.m. American Eastern Time, approximately 300 miles (483 kilometers) southwest of Long Beach, California, according to U.S. space agency NASA. A recovery ship is expected to retrieve the capsule from the sea.