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In a closed-door hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday morning, the American diplomat who led the negotiations, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, briefed lawmakers for about an hour. It was not clear what he disclosed, or whether his explanation satisfied the panel. Representative Eliot L. Engel, Democrat of New York and the committee’s chairman, initially had issued a subpoena to compel Mr. Khalilzad to testify publicly, but ultimately backed…

President Donald Trump. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo White House No longer hemmed in by aides, Trump has bent the presidency into the mold of the Trump Organization. By NANCY COOK 09/19/2019 05:00 AM EDT Updated 09/19/2019 10:48 AM EDT 2019-09-19T10:48-0400 The China trade war, talks with the Taliban, the response to Iran after Saudi attacks, gun control, new tax legislation and a long list of other policy issues are up…

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addresses the media Thursday in Winnipeg, Canada, regarding photos in which he is seen wearing dark makeup. John Woods/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption John Woods/Getty Images Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addresses the media Thursday in Winnipeg, Canada, regarding photos in which he is seen wearing dark makeup. John Woods/Getty Images Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized after after photos surfaced showing him wearing…

Two and a half weeks before the complaint was filed, Trump spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian and political newcomer who was elected in a landslide in May. That call is already under investigation by House Democrats who are examining whether Trump and his attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani sought to manipulate the Ukrainian government into helping Trump’s reelection campaign. Lawmakers have demanded a full transcript and a list…

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized Thursday afternoon about the controversy of him appearing in photos from years ago dressed in blackface and brownface. At least three photos have been released that show Trudeau wearing darkened makeup on his face.  “This is something I deeply, deeply regret,” Trudeau told reporters in Winnipeg. He said wearing blackface is “always unacceptable because of the racist history of blackface. I should’ve understood it then, and…

ExxonMobil started on Thursday morning to shut down its 369,024-bpd crude oil refinery at Beaumont in Texas as tropical storm Imelda brought flooding to parts of southern Texas, sources familiar with Exxon’s refinery operations told Reuters on Thursday. The Houston and Galveston areas and southeast Texas were bracing this week for the tropical storm Imelda which moved inland from just south of the coast where it had formed in the…

WASHINGTON — For the past half-century, the United States has trained and supplied the Saudi military, selling the wealthy kingdom more than $150 billion in dazzling high-technology weapons, including fighter jets and air defense systems. And yet, the kingdom could not protect a prized national asset — its oil installations — from a recent attack by low-flying cruise missiles and drones that caused the largest rise in crude oil prices…

Others see him as a powerful symbol of a humanistic country who, in the era of President Trump, helped a middle-level country punch above its weight globally. He has been taken to task for seeming inconsistencies in his policies, as well as for the image he projects. For example, even as he proposed a national carbon tax — following through on his promises to fight climate change — he used…

Unmentioned, however, was the upcoming first anniversary of an event that has deeply shaken the Saudi-U.S. relationship: the murder by Saudi government agents of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributing columnist who was critical of the crown prince’s push for reforms. The two events represent a difficult duality. Although Saudi Arabia was on the receiving end of Saturday’s attack, it is viewed unsympathetically in many nations. In general, Mohammed has…

Migrating shorebirds at Kimbles Beach, N.J. Researchers estimate that the population of North American shorebirds alone has fallen by more than a third since 1970. Jacqueline Larma/AP hide caption toggle caption Jacqueline Larma/AP Migrating shorebirds at Kimbles Beach, N.J. Researchers estimate that the population of North American shorebirds alone has fallen by more than a third since 1970. Jacqueline Larma/AP Over the past half-century, North America has lost more than…

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Adrian Lamo (center) walks out of a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., where Chelsea Manning’s court-martial was held, on Dec. 20, 2011. Patrick Semansky/AP hide caption toggle caption Patrick Semansky/AP Adrian Lamo (center) walks out of a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., where Chelsea Manning’s court-martial was held, on Dec. 20, 2011. Patrick Semansky/AP Debbie Scroggin and her husband live at the end of a series of gravel roads in…

But whatever Mr. Trump said was startling enough to prompt the intelligence official to file a formal whistle-blower complaint on Aug. 12 to the inspector general for the intelligence agencies. Such a complaint is lodged through a formal process intended to protect the whistle-blower from retaliation. Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has been locked in the standoff with Mr. Maguire…

HOUSTON — Rain from Tropical Depression Imelda deluged parts of Texas and Louisiana on Thursday, prompting water rescues, a hospital evacuation and road closures in areas east of Houston. Forecasters warned that Imelda could bring up to 35 inches of rain this week in some areas of Texas through Friday. In the Texas town of Winnie, about 60 miles east of Houston, a hospital was evacuated…

Iran’s foreign minister warned Thursday that any attack on his country over a drone-and-missile strike on Saudi Arabia’s oil industry will result in “all-out war,” further pushing up tensions across the Persian Gulf. The comments by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif represented the starkest warning yet by Iran in a long summer of mysterious attacks and incidents following the collapse of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Zarif’s comments…

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wore “brownface” makeup and a turban to a costume party while teaching at a private school in 2001, according to a photo obtained by Time Magazine. Trudeau, who was 29-years-old at the time, wore the skin-darkening makeup to an “Arabian Nights” gala hosted by the West Point Grey Academy in Vancouver, according to the Time report. The photo shows Trudeau, the son of former Prime…

President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to have the Environmental Protection Agency issue a “notice” to San Francisco over the city’s homeless issue, comments that were criticized by local officials. From Air Force One, Trump, who had been in California for a two-day fundraising trip, blamed the homeless population for environmental issues. “There’s tremendous pollution being put into the ocean,” he said, noting “there are needles, there are other things.”…

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said of his “brownface” incident: “I’m disappointed and pissed off at myself.” | Philippe Wojazer/Pool via AP Canada Canada has had these incidents before, and the aftermath has tended to follow a pattern. By ALEXANDER PANETTA 09/19/2019 01:09 AM EDT Justin Trudeau’s political career, already fragile, suddenly hangs in the balance of an explosive controversy over a two-decade-old photo of himself that he acknowledged as…

Former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson defended the newspaper’s story on a sexual misconduct allegation against Justice Brett Kavanaugh, even after an editor’s note acknowledged it left out key details. “I think my move would have been the moves that the Times has made. I mean, no one has challenged the basic accuracy of the story that they published, or of what is in the book,” Abramson said…

Washington, DC – Within a day of announcing his shortlist of five candidates for the White House’s top security job, US President Donald Trump tweeted that he picked Robert O’Brien as John Bolton’s replacement as national security adviser. “I have worked long and hard with Robert,” Trump tweeted in his announcement of the replacement. “He will do a great job!” Speaking alongside Trump after the announcement, O’Brien said…