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China says it hopes to agree with the US on tariff reductions at ‘an early date’

BEIJING (AP) — China and the United States hope to reach an agreement on lowering import taxes soon, a Chinese government spokesperson said Thursday, fueling expectations that an announcement could come when the leaders of the two countries meet in two weeks. Negotiators are striving to implement reciprocal tariff reductions on $30 billion worth of goods “at an early date,” Commerce Ministry spokesperson Huang Ling said at a weekly briefing. The $30 billion will be from each side, China’s official Xinhua News Agency said. U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi ...

Today in History

On Sept. 12, 2013, Voyager 1, launched 36 years earlier, became the first man-made spacecraft ever to leave the solar system. Also on this date: In 1857, the S.S. Central America (also known as the “Ship of Gold”) sank off the coast of South Carolina after sailing into a hurricane in one of the worst maritime disasters in American history; 425 people were killed and thousands of pounds of gold sank with the ship to the bottom of the ocean. In 1940, the Lascaux cave paintings, estimated to be 17,000 years old, were discovered in southwestern France. In 1958, the U.S. Supreme ...

Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthis seize an island in a key strait, opening a new front in the Iran war

CAIRO (AP) — Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels captured a strategic island at the southern entrance to the Red Sea, two officials said Friday, opening a new front in the Iran war and further threatening Saudi oil exports through one of the world’s key shipping lanes. The Houthis’ biggest territorial gains in years, along the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, could boost Iran’s strategy of driving up world oil and gas prices to pressure the United States. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia struck the airport in the nearby port city of Mokha that the Houthis seized Thursday, a Houthi broadcaster ...

Hurricane Lowell battered Hawaii’s western islands and is linked to at least 2 deaths

HONOLULU (AP) — Hurricane Lowell’s intense winds and storm surge that battered Hawaii’s western islands this week are suspected in the deaths of at least two people. On the island of Kauai, the storm damaged oceanfront resorts, knocked out power and ripped apart roads, while on Lanai, a cargo port where much of the island’s food and supplies arrive was inoperable, the state’s governor said. Lowell brushed by the islands in the overnight hours Tuesday with damaging winds that extended well beyond the hurricane’s center, which stayed offshore. While it has been a ...

Nepal’s flood disaster and the impact of climate change loom large in the icy shadow of Mont Blanc

CHAMONIX-MONT-BLANC, France (AP) — For centuries, French and Italian mountain communities on the flanks of Western Europe’s highest peak have gazed upon seemingly eternal glaciers and snow that gave the colossus its name: Mont Blanc, the white mountain. But climate warming is dismantling the picture at alarming speed. Europe’s record heat waves this summer savaged permafrost that for millennia has acted like glue on the Alpine landscape. Defrosting cliffs came apart as high-altitude cold gave way to higher temperatures, sending rock falls cascading from the heights. A famously ...