Shell Workers Had To Attend Trump Speech To Be Paid, Were Ordered Not To Protest: Report  —  Workers at a massive new Shell plant in  —  Pennsylvania had to attend a speech by President  —  Donald Trump there earlier this week to be paid — and were  —  ordered not to protest, reported the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Trump has one playbook and very few plays left in it  —  After a week in which the threat of recession rocked global financial markets, his trade war with China showed no signs of progress and the government of Israel got into a nasty dispute with two members of Congress …

Inmate 76318-054: The Last Days of Jeffrey Epstein  —  The notorious jail in Manhattan was a sharp departure from his formerly gilded life.  Here's what happened inside.  —  Jeffrey Epstein, inmate 76318-054, hated his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.

Black Democrats are split along generational lines  —  (CNN)First things first: The theme song of the week is the Boy Meets World closing credits.  —  Poll of the week: A new national Fox News poll finds that among black Democratic primary voters, former Vice President Joe Biden …

Anthony Scaramucci Predicts Exact Month Donald Trump Will Abandon 2020 Race  —  The former White House communications director also turned to “Game of Thrones” to explain why Trump should be primaried.  —  Anthony Scaramucci thinks he knows when Donald Trump will decide not to run for president again.

The case of the missing tattoos: Altered photo lineup by Portland police draws objection  —  There's no mistaking the elaborate tattoos that cover Tyrone Lamont Allen's forehead and right cheek.  —  But when Portland police suspected Allen was involved in four bank and credit union heists …

Joseph Kennedy III Said to Be Eying Edward Markey's Massachusetts Senate Seat  —  WASHINGTON — Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III of Massachusetts is considering a primary challenge next year against Senator Edward J. Markey, according to a senior Democratic official.

CNN's Ward says intimidation effort made on Russia story  —  NEW YORK (AP) — CNN's Clarissa Ward says her story this week about Russian involvement in the Central African Republic came with a price: she was trailed during her reporting and made the subject of a 15-minute propaganda video denigrating her work.

Wyden Slams Republican FEC Commissioners for Blocking Probe of NRA, Possible Campaign Finance Violations  —  Senator Ron Wyden blasted the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Friday after the agency's Republican commissioners blocked an attempt to fully investigate the National Rifle Association …

'Here in El Paso, we're just a family': City turns out for widower of Walmart massacre victim  —  EL PASO — Antonio Basco, overwhelmed by loneliness and grief after his wife, Margie Reckard, was slain in a mass shooting on Aug. 3, invited the El Paso community to attend her prayer service Friday night.

America's Exclusionary Past and Present and the Judgment of History  —  On February 28, 1882, Senator John Franklin Miller, a Republican from California, introduced a bill to bar Chinese laborers from entering the United States.  Miller had been a brigadier general in the Union Army.

Activist emerges as new leader of Moscow election protests  —  MOSCOW (AP) — After a monthlong hunger strike, it's a struggle for Lyubov Sobol to even raise her hands.  Every gesture is difficult for the frail 31-year-old political activist.  —  This summer's wave of anti-government protests …

White House Mulled Ways to Block Migrant Children From Schools  — Idea was ultimately abandoned amid questions over legality  — 1982 case says can't deny education on immigration status  —  Some top aides to President Donald Trump sought for months for a way to give states the power …

Trump official has talked about undocumented immigrants as ‘invaders’ since at least 2007  —  Burnett challenges Cuccinelli on new immigration rule  —  (CNN)Ken Cuccinelli, the acting director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, was a founding member of a group more than a decade ago …

The battle cry of the politically homeless … Like millions of other Americans, I'm exhausted.  But I'm not tired from #Resisting or tired from screaming at a MAGA rally.  I'm tired of the toxic tribalism infecting the very foundations of our democracy, straining our relationships, and poisoning our view of our fellow humans.

Aides got Trump to delay tariffs by telling President it could ‘ruin Christmas’  —  Burnett: Why blame China when you can blame someone else?  —  (CNN)As President Donald Trump's trade advisers were searching last week for a strategy to forestall his threatened tariffs on China …

House speaker as US emissary: Pelosi emerges as force abroad  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — There's an American leader whose words resonate on the global stage.  Who draws attention in foreign capitals.  Who carries a message from the United States by simply arriving.  —  It's not just President Donald Trump.

Trump wants to buy Greenland.  But hey, it's not his $1.7 trillion.  —  Trump wants to buy Greenland.  But Denmark says he just can't af-fjord it.  —  President Trump has repeatedly mentioned buying Greenland in recent weeks even though it's not clear why he wants the giant Arctic island …

Top Secret Chernobyl: The Nuclear Disaster through the Eyes of the Soviet Politburo, KGB, and U.S. Intelligence  —  Memorial to Those who Saved the World, Chernobyl, Ukraine (Wikipedia)  —  Edited by Svetlana Savranskaya, Sarah Dunn, Brooke Lennox with Alla Yaroshinskaya