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A tentative peace deal between Taliban leaders and the US fell apart after Donald Trump moved to make the accord a spectacle as part of his re-election campaign, reports have suggested.The US president announced he was calling off a secret meeting between senior members of the Taliban, the government of Afghanistan, and his own administration through a Twitter post on Saturday evening - laying blame on the Taliban’s car bomb killing of 12 people in Kabul including a US soldier.

Two people have been killed in Johannesburg, police confirmed Monday, bringing to 12 the number of deaths since violence against foreign-owned shops erupted last month. Bands of South Africans launched violent attacks against foreign-owned shops and stalls, looting and burning the small businesses and attacking some of the shopkeepers. The attacks appear to be spreading throughout Gauteng, the country's most populous province encompassing the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria.

A New York Times reporter was shown the bodies of six hurricane victims in a tour of Marsh Harbour's poorest neighborhoods this weekend.

Britain's House of Commons Speaker John Bercow, who played a key role in the three-year Brexit crisis, said on Monday he would stand down from the role, issuing a warning to the government not to "degrade" parliament. Bercow bent parliamentary rules to give lawmakers the chance to challenge government policy, most recently to pass a law seeking to block a no-deal exit from the European Union. A member of parliament since 1997, he has been speaker since June 2009 and has often been a thorn in the government's side.

Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong said he was making his way to Germany on Monday after he was released from a brief spell in custody following a mistake in his bail conditions. Wong, 22, was among multiple prominent democracy advocates who were detained late last month in a roundup by police as the semi-autonomous city reels from more than three months of unprecedented pro-democracy protests. On Sunday, he said he was detained at Hong Kong airport for "breaching bail conditions" after returning from Taiwan and as he then tried to make another overseas trip to Germany.

So while Dorian threatened historic flooding to Charleston, the reality is that it no longer takes extreme weather to inundate the city. The city's director of sustainability, Katie McKain, told NPR that flooding is often forecasted once a week, and that her department is planning for a two-to-three-feet rise in sea level over the next 50 years. Neither McKain nor Charleston's chief resilience officer could be reached by CityLab in time for publication.

The US government extracted one of their most senior covert sources inside the Russian government in 2017 amid fears over how Donald Trump was handling intelligence, a US broadcaster has alleged.  The secret removal took place amid fears over the individual’s safety and was successful, according to CNN, which broke the news. The decision reportedly came just weeks after a May 2017 meeting when Mr Trump is said to have discussed highly classified intelligence with Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, and Sergey Kislyak, then the Russian ambassador to America.  CNN referred to a person said to be directly involved in discussions claiming the removal was driven in part by concerns over the handling of intelligence by Mr Trump and his administration.  The CIA did not deny the source had been extracted in a comment given to CNN but categorically denied the suggestion that Mr Trump’s handling of intelligence “drove” the operation.  An unnamed US official told CNN that there was media speculation about the existence of such a covert source at the time, which could have posed risks.  The name and former position of the source reportedly extracted is not known. CNN said it was holding back details to protect the person in question.  Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin shake hands in 2018 Credit: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais The development is yet another twist in US-Russia relations under Mr Trump, which have dominated the US political landscape since he took office in January 2017.  A special counsel investigation lasting almost two years revealed the extent of Russian election meddling in the 2016 presidential election, but concluded no Trump campaign figure had criminally conspired with the Kremlin.  Intelligence sources tend only to be extracted - or ‘exfiltrated’ - when they are in immediate danger. Such high-level assets can take years to cultivate and are hard to replace, according to experts.  CNN alleged that there were concerns in the US intelligence community about how Mr Trump and his administration were handling classified material and talking to senior Russian government figures.  One incident said to have raised concerns was the May 2017 meeting in the Oval Office.  The intelligence Mr Trump discussed with Mr Lavrov and Mr Kislyak was about the terror group Isil in Syria and had been provided by Israel.  CNN claimed that the decision to extract the source was taken after this meeting. Donald Trump criticised CNN on Twitter minutes after the report was aired Credit: AP Photo/Evan Vucci A second episode said to have again raised concerns was Mr Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, in July 2017.  The pair met at the G20 summit in Hamburg. Mr Trump took the unusual step of confiscating the interpreter’s notes after the meeting.  Brittany Bramell, the CIA director of public affairs, told CNN: "CNN's narrative that the Central Intelligence Agency makes life-or-death decisions based on anything other than objective analysis and sound collection is simply false. “Misguided speculation that the President's handling of our nation's most sensitive intelligence-which he has access to each and every day-drove an alleged exfiltration operation is inaccurate." White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said: "CNN's reporting is not only incorrect, it has the potential to put lives in danger." The Daily Telegraph has approached the CIA and the US Director of National Intelligence for comment.  Mr Trump criticised CNN’s “bad information and fake news” in tweets on Monday morning shortly after the report appeared, though made no direct comment on the claims.

Tons of factors are at play.

With six in 10 worried about a mass shooting in their community, Americans by a 17-point margin express confidence that stricter gun control laws would reduce such incidents, and even more endorse improved mental health monitoring and treatment to that end.

Israel's prime minister on Monday unveiled what he said was a previously undisclosed Iranian nuclear weapons site, further escalating a showdown between the two enemy countries. Benjamin Netanyahu's announcement came as the U.N. nuclear watchdog held a meeting in Vienna, where he's hoping the agency will take tougher action against Iran. It also came in the final stages of Israeli national elections, drawing criticism from opponents that the sudden press conference was a campaign stunt.

One of the longest-range forecasts ever carried out has warned of freezing temperatures in January and February next year.

The trial of a Chinese businesswoman charged with lying to a Secret Service agent and trespassing at President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club bogged down Monday before jury selection over her lack of underwear, the latest bizarre moment in a case that has been filled with them. Before the potential jurors were brought into the courtroom, Yujing Zhang told Judge Roy Altman that she was wearing brown jail garb instead of civilian clothing because she had not been provided any underwear. Defendants generally wear civilian clothing during trials to not prejudice jurors against them.