USA

WASHINGTON, Aug 28 (Reuters) - By Wednesday night, U.S. intelligence agencies were near certain that an attack was imminent outside Kabul airport, triggering a State Department warning to American citizens to leave the area immediately.

Just over 12 hours later, a suicide bomber walked through the large crowds to a gate manned by U.S. troops and detonated explosives, killing at least 13 U.S. service members and 79 Afghans.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- The lab leak theory to explain COVID-19's origins is losing credence as more findings are surfacing, Michael Hiltzik, a U.S. columnist with The Los Angeles Times, said on Thursday.

Claiming the virus leaked from a lab is not only a matter of "conjectures," but also probably wrong guesswork, Hiltzik wrote in a column piece published in the newspaper.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- The report on COVID-19 origins by the U.S. intelligence community "has not produced an exact answer the U.S. side wants. Continuing such an effort will also be in vain, because its subject is simply non-existent and anti-science," said the Chinese embassy in the United States on Friday.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence of the United States Friday released a summary of the intelligence community assessment on COVID-19 origins, which does not rule out either natural exposure or laboratory accident as the origins of SARS-CoV-2.

HONOLULU (AP) — In Singapore, in between a foreign policy speech and a roundtable talk about supply chain issues, Vice President Kamala Harris stopped to smell the flowers.

Specifically, she checked out an orchid that the country named after her — a light fuschia hybrid named Papilionanda Kamala Harris — a diplomatic honor also bestowed on former President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden during past visits to the country.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Friday that diplomacy was his first option, but he would consider other options if his effort to revive the Iran nuclear deal fails.

Biden made the comments as the two sat down for their first face-to-face meeting since Bennett was sworn-in as prime minister in June.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Amazon is teaming with payments company Affirm to offer online shoppers a buy-now-pay-later option that does not involve credit cards.

San Francisco-based Affirm Holdings Inc. announced Friday that its flexible payment service will soon be available on Amazon.com.

The news sent Affirm’s stock up more than 35% in after-hours trading.

With the service, Amazon customers can split the total cost of purchases of $50 or more into monthly payments, and are told the total cost of the transaction up front. Affirm said there are no late fees.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP) — Firefighters battling a stubborn California wildfire Friday near the Lake Tahoe resort region faced gusty winds and dry conditions that made vegetation ready to burn.

The Caldor Fire has proved so difficult to fight that fire managers this week pushed back the projected date for full containment from early next week to Sept. 8. But even that estimate was tenuous.

“I think that’s going to be assessed on a day-by-day basis,” said Keith Wade, a spokesman for the incident management team.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. intelligence agencies remain divided on the origins of the coronavirus but believe China’s leaders did not know about the virus before the start of the global pandemic, according to results released Friday of a review ordered by President Joe Biden.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House panel investigating the riot at the U.S. Capitol issued sweeping document requests on Friday to social media companies, expanding the scope of its investigation as it seeks to examine the events leading to the Jan. 6 insurrection.

The requests were issued to technology giants, including Google, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok, and also to Reddit, Parler, Telegram, 4chan, 8kun and other platforms.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — California’s parole board voted Friday to free Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin after two of RFK’s sons said they supported releasing him and prosecutors declined to argue he should be kept behind bars. But the governor ultimately will decide if Sirhan Sirhan leaves prison.

Douglas Kennedy was a toddler when his father was gunned down in 1968. He told a two-person board panel that he was moved to tears by Sirhan’s remorse and that the 77-year-old should be released if he’s not a threat to others.