Inside Daily Brief Newsletter

Anuja*, 28, says that she has been on a “waiting list” for some years now as far as marriage is concerned. Because she is a diabetic and only men with some serious life-threatening medical condition or diabetic men apply. Knowing my medical status, all the ‘healthy’ prospective grooms and their families factor in family life, pregnancy, ability to perform household chores, and the cost of treatment, she says.

The U.S. economy expanded by 3 percent in the third quarter, the Commerce Department said on Friday. Gross Domestic Product grew strongly in the period despite concerns about the economic impacts of the hurricanes. Strong consumer spending, low unemployment, a booming stock market and a weak dollar contributed to growth in the period. "There are no real headwinds to growth for the first time since the expansion began," said Mark Zandi, the chief economist of Moody’s Analytics. "We are at full employment and we are in full swing, let the good times roll." – NYT   During a visit to the border between North and South Korea, U.S. Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, said dialogue is the key to defusing tensions with Pyongyang. He implied that the military build upis allowing the U.S. to negotiate "from a position of strength," but stressed that the way forward is dialogue. "We’re doing everything we can to solve this diplomatically – everything we can," he said.

There are now more billionaires in Asia than in the U.S., according to a report issued on Thursday. According to the UBS Group AG/PricewaterhouseCoopers study, there were 637 billionaires in Asia at the end of 2016, 117 more than the previous year. There were 25 new billionaires in the U.S., pushing the total to 563. U.S. billionaires control $2.8 trillion in wealth, about 40 percent more than their Asian counterparts. The wealth in the hands of the world's billionaires increased 17 percent to $6 trillion in 2016, the report says. The Swiss bank and the auditing house looked at data related to the assets of nearly 1,600 billionaires when compiling the report. –BLOOMBERG A fire that was presumably caused by an explosion has killed at least 47 people in an Indonesian fireworks factory. According to witnesses, there were two loud explosions at the factory near the capital, Jakarta: one at around 10 a.m. (0300 GMT), and another one three hours later. The first blast likely caused the fire. A police spokesman said 47 bodies have been recovered, while 46 people have been injured. Ten people remain unaccounted for. A search and rescue officer said the death toll is likely to rise. – REUTERS

A U.S. woman, her Canadian husband and their three children have been released after being held in captivity by the Taliban for five years. Caitlan Coleman was pregnant when she was abducted while traveling in Afghanistan with her husband, Joshua Boyle, in 2012. The couple had three children while in captivity. "Yesterday, the United States government, working in conjunction with the Government of Pakistan, secured the release of the Boyle-Coleman family from captivity in Pakistan," President Trump said in a statement. "Today they are free." The family was released following an exchange between Pakistani troops and U.S. commandos in a secret operation, intelligence officials said. – ABC President Trump on Wednesday said he wants the U.S. nuclear arsenal to be in "tip-top shape," but he does not see a need to increase the stockpile. The comments follow an NBC News report indicating Trump had hoped to expand the country's nuclear arsenal "ten-fold." Secretary of Defense James Mattis called the report "erroneous" and "irresponsible."

Stephen Paddock, the gunman who killed at least 59 people in Las Vegas, was a gambler who did not have a violent streak, his brother said. "He was a guy who had money. He went on cruises and gambled," Eric Paddock said, adding that his brother was a multimillionaire with investments in real estate. Eric Paddock said his brother had little interest in politics or religion and that "he was nice to my kids when they went out to Vegas." Stephen Paddock was living in a retirement community in Mesquite, Nevada, with his partner, Marilou Danley, 62, who was overseas when the shooting happened. He had previously lived in Reno, Nevada, and Melbourne, Florida. Stephen Paddock’s father was Benjamin Hoskins Paddock, a bank robber who, in 1969, escaped from jail where he was serving a 20-year sentence. Authorities have yet to figure out what the shooter's motivations were. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the shooting, but there are no signs that Stephen Paddock was affiliated with the terrorist group. – NPR

Police found 23 firearms in the hotel room from which Stephen Paddock committed the bloodiest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Officers have not revealed whether any of the weapons were automatic, but there are reasons to believe that Paddock used an automatic rifle because of the sound of the gunfire captured in several recordings. One of the weapons has been identified as an AK-47. According to Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo, the weapons’ calibers range from .223, which is associated with semiautomatic rifles, to .308, which is used in game hunting rifles. According to gun shop owners, Paddock bought some of the firearms legally. – WAPO

Workers in Catalonia are on strike today to protest a police crackdown against a referendum on the region’s independence from Spain. Protesters rallied in Catalonia’s capital, Barcelona, where shops and universities were closed and transport companies provided limited services. "This is a protest against police violence and maintaining momentum after Sunday," said protester Victor Noguer, 27, a firefighter. According to the regional government, almost 900 people were injured on Sunday in clashes with police. The government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, said that some 400 officers were injured in the clashes. It had previously declared the referendum unconstitutional and sent thousands of police officers to Catalonia to prevent the vote from taking place. Only about 42 percent of people cast votes on Sunday, and pro-independence groups blame the low turnout on the police crackdown. According to a poll commissioned by the Catalan government released in July, Catalans are divided: 41 percent are in favor of independence and 49 percent are against. – CNBC

Three U.S. scientists have won the Nobel Prize in Physics for detecting gravitational waves. In the 1980s, Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish, and Kip Thorne proposed building the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) to detect gravitational waves – ripples in the surface of the universe that were first predicted by Albert Einstein in his Theory of Relativity. In 2015, the scientists published a study explaining how they used LIGO to detect gravitational waves from the collision of two black holes. Weiss has been awarded half of the 9 million Swedish kronor ($1.1 million) prize, while the other two scientists will share the other half. After the announcement, Weiss said: "I view this more as a thing that recognizes the work of about 1,000 people. I hate to tell you but it’s as long as 40 years of people thinking about this, trying to make a detection … and slowly but surely getting the technology together to do it." – NPR

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner received hundreds of White House emails on an account to which their household staff also had access, according to a report from Politico. The emails sent to that account contained travel documents, schedules and some White House "materials," Politico said, citing three sources familiar with the matter. Most of the emails were sent by the couple’s aides in the White House, including Ivanka Trump’s assistant, Bridges Lamar. Using a private email account carries a security risk, experts say. "Even if there’s not any classified information sent, that doesn’t mean the information wasn’t sensitive," said James Lewis, director of the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. – POLITICO

In a company blog post, Facebook said that some 3,000 ads linked to Russian operatives were seen by around 10 million Americans. "Most of the ads appear to focus on divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum, touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights," Facebook’s vice president of policy and communications wrote in the post. About 44 percent of the ads ran before the election and the rest after the vote. Facebook has handed over the ads to lawmakers an...

Susan Collins has become the third Republican Senator to oppose the GOP’s latest attempt to repeal Obamacare. Previously, Senators John McCain and Rand Paul had said they planned to vote against the measure, and Republicans can only afford two defections. Collins said the Graham-Cassidy bill, which had been amended on Sunday in a bid to win her support, "was as deeply flawed as its previous iterations." There could be more defections, as other Republican Senators, including Ted Cruz, have indicated that they oppose the bill in its current form. It’s not clear whether or not House Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will go ahead with plans to hold a vote this week. – HILL   Nearly all of Puerto Rico’s 1.6 million electricity customers still don't have power, five days after Hurricane Maria hit the island with winds of 155mph. The onslaught inflicted some damage to Puerto Rico’s power plants but the biggest problem is that 80 percent of transmission and distribution lines were knocked down, according to Public Affairs Secretary Ramon Rosario.

Nearly all of Puerto Rico’s 1.6 million electricity customers still don't have power, five days after Hurricane Maria hit the island with winds of 155mph. The onslaught inflicted some damage to Puerto Rico’s power plants but the biggest problem is that 80 percent of transmission and distribution lines were knocked down, according to Public Affairs Secretary Ramon Rosario. According to the official, when Hurricane Hugo hit in 1989, it took four months to restore power to the whole island, and it took six months to repair the grid after Hurricane Georges in 1998. Part of the problem is that utility companies still don’t know the full extent of the damage. Officials want to use helicopters and drones to locate the areas that they need to prioritize, but since the airport is not operating normally, the arrival of crews, equipment and generators has been delayed. – AP

Susan Collins has become the third Republican Senator to oppose the GOP’s latest attempt to repeal Obamacare. Previously, Senators John McCain and Rand Paul had said they planned to vote against the measure, and Republicans can only afford two defections. Collins said the Graham-Cassidy bill, which had been amended on Sunday in a bid to win her support, "was as deeply flawed as its previous iterations." There could be more defections, as other Republican Senators, including Ted Cruz, have indicated that they oppose the bill in its current form. It’s not clear whether or not House Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will go ahead with plans to hold a vote this week. – HILL

Nearly all of Puerto Rico’s 1.6 million electricity customers still don't have power, five days after Hurricane Maria hit the island with winds of 155mph. The onslaught inflicted some damage to Puerto Rico’s power plants but the biggest problem is that 80 percent of transmission and distribution lines were knocked down, according to Public Affairs Secretary Ramon Rosario. According to the official, when Hurricane Hugo hit in 1989, it took four months to restore power to the whole island, and it took six months to repair the grid after Hurricane Georges in 1998. Part of the problem is that utility companies still don’t know the full extent of the damage. Officials want to use helicopters and drones to locate the areas that they need to prioritize, but since the airport is not operating normally, the arrival of crews, equipment and generators has been delayed. – AP

On Tuesday, Equifax's CEO announced that he will retire as the credit reporting firm faces a backlash over a data breach that exposed personal information from 143 million Americans. "At this critical juncture, I believe it is in the best interests of the company to have new leadership to move the company forward," Richard F. Smith, 57, said in a statement. Equifax has faced strong criticism for waiting until September 7 to make the breach public, more than two months after it was discovered that hackers might have stolen personal information from over two-thirds of adults in the U.S., including birthdays, addresses, Social Security numbers and, in some cases, credit card details. – NPR

President Trump sparked a media storm on Sunday when he retweeted a doctored GIF showing him hitting a golf ball that strikes Hillary Clinton in the back of the head. The image stitches together footage of Trump playing golf with a recording of Clinton tripping while boarding a plane in 2011. "The reaction was predictable. Critics were outraged. Supporters were gleeful. And social media lit up like a Christmas tree," said the LA Times. Former director of the Office of Government Ethics Walter Shaub said: "The President of the United States just retweeted a video vignette that imagines him assaulting his political rival. The man is unfit." Vox said the tweet was concerning because it makes light of violence against women. – CNN  

Four American women in their 20s suffered burns when a female attacker threw acid on them in a train station in the French city of Marseille. The victims, who were identified as students at Boston College in Massachusetts, were released after receiving treatment at a local hospital. "It appears that the students are fine, considering the circumstances, though they may require additional treatment for burns," said Nick Gozik, director of the college's Office of International Programs. Two of the women suffered facial injuries, while the other two were "slightly injured," a spokeswoman for the Marseille prosecutor’s office said. A 41-year-old woman was arrested at the scene. Investigators don’t know what motivated the attack, but they believe the suspect might be mentally unstable. – USAT

Hulu's "The Handmaid's Tale" was the biggest winner at the Emmys last night, taking eight awards. The show, based on the 1985 dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood, won some of the most coveted prizes for the Drama Series category, including Outstanding Drama Series, directing, and writing. Three of the show’s actresses were also recognized for their work: Elisabeth Moss, who plays the lead role, as well as Ann Dowd and Alexis Bledel for their supporting and guest roles. "To say that we are honored would be an understatement," Hulu's CEO Mike Hopkins said in a statement. HBO's mini-series "Big Little Lies" took home five trophies, including three for some of the show’s main actors: Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern and Alexander Skarsgard. Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon were honored for comedy supporting actor and supporting actress for their work on "Saturday Night Life." – WAPO

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the Trump administration might decide to close down the U.S. embassy in Cuba over mysterious health problems affecting American diplomats in Havana. Investigators have so far failed to explain why 21 people – diplomats and their families – have been affected by symptoms including hearing loss, nausea and headaches. Tillerson said that some of those affected by the health issues are back in the U.S. and that Washington is reviewing whether the embassy in Havana should remain open. "It’s a very serious issue with respect to the harm that certain individuals have suffered," he said. The Cuban government has vehemently denied causing the illnesses. – AP

NASA recently wrapped a study that held six subjects in isolation near the summit of the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii for eight months. The four men and two women lived in a dome near the summit of the Mauna Loa volcano in Mauna Loa, Hawaii, and wore spacesuits whenever they ventured outside. They feasted on tropical fruits, vegetables and a egg strata on Sunday after eating mainly frozen food. The study will provide NASA with information about the psychological impacts of long-term isolation, which will help the agency select a crew for a potential trip to Mars that would take place in the 2030s. "We’ve learned, for one thing, that conflict, even in the best of teams, is going to arise," said the project’s lead investigator, University of Hawaii professor Kim Binsted. "So what’s really important is to have a crew that, both as individuals and a group, is really resilient, is able to look at that conflict and come back from it." – AP

Secretary of state Rex Tillerson and national security adviser HR McMaster suggested that the U.S. might stay in the Paris climate accord. The U.S. officials said the Trump administration is keen to discussreforms to the 2015 deal under which most of the world’s countries agreed to reduce CO2 emissions to fight climate change. "The president said he is open to finding those conditions where we can remain engaged with others on what we all agree is still a challenging issue," Tillerson told CBS’s "Face the Nation." He said the government wants to consider "other ways in which we can work with partners in the Paris climate accord." Meanwhile, McMaster told ABC’s "This Week" that the U.S. could continue in the accord "if there’s an agreement that benefits the American people, certainly." The White House issued a statement on Saturday saying the U.S. would only stay if it can negotiate more favorable terms for the cou...

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the U.S. military is prepared to intercept any missile that North Korea may launch toward the country. He said that it would be up to President Trump to decide whether a missile aimed at waters near Guam needs to be intercepted. North Korea last week threatened to fire four missiles near Guam, but on Tuesday, state media reported that the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, had decided to review the plans. "[We] would watch a little more the foolish and stupid conduct of the Yankees," Kim was quoted as saying. – AP

An eight-member jury has unanimously decided that former Colorado DJ David Mueller groped Taylor Swift during a meet and greet in 2013. The pop star has been awarded $1 in damages. Swift took to the stand on Thursday to tell the jury that she had no doubt that Mueller had grabbed her behind under her skirt. On Monday, she released a statement thanking her legal team "for fighting for me and anyone who feels silenced by a sexual assault," and pledged to donate money to organizations that help sexual assault victims. A judge on Friday ruled against Mueller, who had filed another lawsuit asking for $3 million in damages. He argued that the groping allegations were false and had ruined his career. – E!

A girl was killed and 13 people were injured when a man drove a car into a pizzeria in Sept-Sorts, a suburb near Paris. Five of the injured are in critical condition, including the brother of the deceased girl. The suspect told police that he wanted to kill himself and that he had weapons in his car. The local prosecution office does not consider the incident a terrorist attack and has opened an inquiry into "homicide with a weapon, attempted homicide with a weapon and driving under the influence of a drug." – GUARDIAN

FBI agents have arrested a 23-year-old man in Oklahoma for allegedly trying to detonate a van that the suspect thought was loaded with explosives. Jerry Drake Varnell initially planned to blow up the Federal Reserve Building in Washington D.C. but later changed his target to the BancFirst bank in downtown Oklahoma, according to the FBI. He wanted to use a device similar to the one that killed 168 people in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, officers said. The arrest is the result of a sting operation. Varnell asked an undercover FBI agent for information on how to obtain ammonium nitrate and fuel oil to build an explosive device and the agent offered to help Varnell assemble a device that was actually inert. – ABC

President Trump has said he’s considering pardoning former sheriff Joe Arpaio and praised him for cracking down on illegal immigration. Arpaio was convicted of criminal contempt last month for ignoring a judge who ordered him to stop persecuting undocumented immigrants. When he was sheriff of Maricopa County, in Arizona, he would send agents to Latino neighborhoods to pull people over for minor infractions in a bid to arrest undocumented immigrants. "Is there anyone in local law enforcement who has done more to crack down on illegal immigration than Sheriff Joe?" Trump was quoted as saying by Fox News. "He has protected people from crimes and saved lives. He doesn't deserve to be treated this way," Trump said. – WAPO

Pantone has unveiled a custom shade of purple dubbed "Love Symbol #2" in honor of Prince. The color hue was inspired by Prince’s Yamaha purple piano. "The color purple was synonymous with who Prince was and will always be. This is an incredible way for his legacy to live on forever," Troy Carter, an advisor to Prince’s estate, said in a press release. The estate may create products using the custom color. Prince died in 2016 at the age of 57 from an accidental fentanyl overdose. – VARIETY

Hundreds of people have been killed in Sierra Leone by mudslides and flooding caused by heavy rains. Authorities have recovered the bodies of around 250 people but the death toll is expected to rise because entire neighborhoods have been overrun with mud. The worst-hit area was Regent, a suburb near the capital, Freetown. "The mudslide swept down from the hills on the outskirts of Freetown early this morning and spared nothing in its path," said Save the Children's country director Sasha Ekanayake. About 3,000 people may have lost their homes, according to the Red Cross. – AP

President Trump has ordered an investigation into whether China steals intellectual property from the U.S. The investigation could hurt relations with China at a time in which Trump has lashed out at Beijing for not doing enough to deter North Korea from advancing its missile program. The Chinese government responded saying that if the U.S. takes actions that damage trade relations between the countries, Beijing "will take all appropriate measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the Chinese side." Some U.S. government officials estimate that theft of intellectual property by China could be worth some $600 billion. – REUTERS

Iranian President ...

Over the weekend, Trump’s re-election campaign released a TV ad attacking the media and Democrats as the President’s enemies. The 30-second spot features photos of media personalities including MSNBC’s Brian Williams and CNN’s Anderson Cooper, as well as of Democrat Senators Charles Schumer and Elizabeth Warren. "The president's enemies don't want him to succeed, but Americans are saying, 'Let President Trump do his job,'" the ad’s narrator says. It will run on the internet and on cable TV. – WAPO

Hackers who have demanded $6 million from HBO in a ramson attack have leaked several episodes of the network’s shows. These include episodes of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," the latest episode of "Insecure," and some episodes of "Ballers." HBO offered to pay $250,000 to the hackers in late July as a "stall tactic," but it did not actually plan to wire the money, the media reported. The hackers may be in possession of some HBO internal documents, but there are reasons to believe that the security breach is not as bad as the one that affected Sony in 2014. – VARIETY

A man has killed his mother, his sister and his sister’s friend with a hammer in Long Island. A fourth female victim who was also attacked with a hammer is in a hospital in stable condition. A neighbor called 911 when the surviving victim jumped on the hood of his vehicle covered in blood and screaming. Bobby Vanderhall, 34, has been arrested and charged with murder and attempted murder. The suspect was found sleeping in a car about two miles from his mother's home. According to police, his mother evicted Vanderhall from her house after he allegedly slapped and harassed her. – PEOPLE

Usain Bolt bid farewell to athletics with a lap of honor at the end of the World Championships in London. During the ceremony, the Jamaican sprinter crouched by the starting mark for the 100m and 200m races. "These are my two events that I have dominated for years. I was saying goodbye to everything. I almost cried. It was close but it didn’t come," he said. Bolt came third in the 100m final and pulled a string running the 4x100m relay, but he said his performance at the championships will not tarnish his legacy. "After losing the 100m someone said to me: ‘Usain, don’t worry Muhammad Ali lost his last fight also, so don’t be stressed about that.’ I’ve proven myself year in year out, throughout my whole career," Bolt said. – GUARDIAN

The Portuguese government has asked the European Union for firefighters and firefighting airplanes to help extinguish more than 250 wildfires. The government of Prime Minister Antonio Costa fears that extreme heat and dryness forecast for the next few days will fuel the blazes. The request comes after a string of fires in June that killed 64 people. France and Montenegro have also asked for EU help to battle wildfires this summer. – INDEPENDENT

A SpaceX rocket is set to take off today with the most powerful computer ever sent to space. The Hewlett Packard machine is 30 to 100 times more powerful than a standard desktop computer and it could help scientists process image data of our planet for private companies that want to track developments such as crop growth and oil exploration. The supercomputer will allow NASA to analyze huge amounts of data in space instead of sending it to Earth. "If you can process the data on board [the space station], you then only need to send down a subset of the data that's actually needed," said Julie Robinson, the chief scientist for NASA's space station program. – CNN

A former teacher says that James Alex Fields, the man accused of driving a car into a crowd of people over the weekend, wounding 19 and killing one, held radical views. Derek Weimer, who teaches at the Ohio High school where Fields had studied, said that he "really bought into this white supremacist thing. He was very big into Nazism. He really had a fondness for Adolf Hitler." Fields, 20, graduated from the Randall K. Cooper high school in 2015 and later tried to join the Army but was turned down because he failed to meet training standards, said an Army spokeswoman. Fields, who is originally from Kentucky, is being held on suspicion of second-degree murder. – CNN

Islamic terrorists allegedly killed 18 people and wounded eight others in Burkina Faso when they opened fire at diners at a Turkish restaurant on Sunday. Three or four attackers arrived at the restaurant in the capital on motorcycles and then began shooting at people, police said. Two of the attackers were killed. The restaurant is popular with foreigners and several of the people killed were visiting from other countries. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but al-Qaida carried out a similar attack on a hotel that left 30 dead in 2016. – AP

Scientists have discovered 91 volcanoes under the Antarctic ice sheet. The volcanoes are covered in up to 4 km of ice and range in height from 100 to 3,850 meters. Scientists at Edinburgh University are scrambling to understand how a...

Two trains collided today in Alexandria, Egypt, killing at least 37 people and injuring more than 120 others. The incident occurred around 2:15 p.m. local time near Khorshid station. According to the Egyptian Railway Authority, the locomotive of one train was derailed, while two cars of the other were forced off the tracks. Experts believe that a switch error likely caused the accident, but an investigation to determine a cause is still underway. – REUTERS

According to a study, one-in-five patients are discharged from hospice care facilities before they die. The report also suggests that the hospices with the highest rate of “live discharges” are the most profitable. Now-deceased patient James B. Nelson told NPR that he “flunked the hospice program” after not dying “fast enough,” and was ultimately discharged. "It's important to continue to study this area to get a better sense as to whether profits are driving the decision to discharge patients from hospice, rather than patient preferences and needs," said lead researcher Rachel Dolin. – NPR

President Trump said he will declare the opioid epidemic a national emergency and direct more funds to fight the crisis. "We're going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money on the opioid crisis," Trump said at his golf club in New Jersey. He described the epidemic as a "serious problem the likes of which we have never had." From 2000 to 2015, about 500,000 Americans died of drug overdoses and opioids account for most of those deaths. – CNN

Taylor Swift told a jury on Thursday that she is completely confident that former Colorado DJ David Mueller groped her during a meet and greet in 2013. "It was a definite grab. A very long grab," she said while giving testimony at a trial against Mueller. The trial stems from a lawsuit in which Swift alleges that Mueller grabbed her butt while she was posing for a picture with him and his girlfriend before a concert in Denver. – E!

Using gene-editing technology, scientists have created cloned piglets that are free of retroviruses. The development is part of plans to breed swines that could one day grow organs that would be transplanted into humans. The researchers working for eGenesis, a life sciences company in Massachusetts, have used the CRISPR system to inactivate viruses in the pig genome that could transmit diseases to transplant patients. They then cloned pigs embryos that were later implanted in sows that gave birth to apparently healthy piglets. "Our animal is probably the most [genetically] modified animal on the Earth," said eGenesis co-founder Luhan Yang. Pig organs are similar in size to human organs and scientists believe that cloned piglets could potentially grow organs including hearts, kidneys and livers that could one day be transplanted into humans. – SA

Police have arrested a man on suspicion of pushing a woman into a moving bus in London. The arrest follows the release of CCTV video earlier this week that shows how the bus swerved to avoid running over the woman after she was pushed by a middle-aged man running across a bridge. Police have accused the 50-year-old suspect of "grievous bodily harm." He has been released, but he’s still under investigation. – NPR

Dutch police have arrested two men over their alleged involvement in the use of a banned pesticide that has contaminated eggs, causing a health scare in Europe. Eggs laced with the pesticide Friponil have been found in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Eggs from farms that used the illegal pesticide, or products from those farms, ended up in several countries, including Britain. The chemical may have entered the food chain after being used to treat poultry for parasites. There are no reports of people getting sick but prosecutors said the pesticide poses a health risk. – AP

President Trump lashed out at North Korea again on Thursday, saying that if the country attacks the U.S. or its allies, the U.S. would strike back "like they never thought possible." Trump said that his threat of using "fire and fury" against Pyongyang issued earlier this week was not strong enough and that he was going to "[stick up] for the people of this country and for the people of other countries." He said the U.S. is re-examining its entire military strategy for Asia and that he will increase the army’s antimissile budget. – WAPO

Amazon is negotiating with venue owners to start selling tickets for events online, sources have told Reuters. An Amazon ticket sale venture would come in direct competition with Ticketmaster, a company that has a stronghold on the market thanks to its good relations with leading venues throughout the U.S. – REUTERS

President Trump said Vladimir Putin’s decision to expel American diplomats is going to save the U.S. a lot of money. The Putin administration in late July ordered hundreds of U.S. diplomats to leave the country after Washington approved sanctions against Moscow. "I want to thank him because we’re trying to c...