Ahmad Massoud said his mujahideen fighters in the Panjshir Valley—which he called the “last bastion of Afghan freedom”—in the north of the country “are prepared to once again take on the Taliban” following its takeover of Kabul last weekend. He said “stores of ammunition and arms” collected over decades had been bolstered by equipment and soldiers from Afghan Special Forces and the Afghan regular army who had been “disgusted by the surrender of their commanders....

In a video uploaded by the Afghan Asvaka News agency and seemingly taken from the ground, two unidentifiable objects can be seen falling from the body of a plane as it flies overhead. “The video shows a flight from Kabul airport where two people are thrown from a plane into the people’s homes,” the agency said alongside the 11-second clip which has since garnered more than one million views....

China, for example, already pilot-tested a digital Yuan and is prepared to launch its CBDC on the national level over the next 12 months. According to the Atlantic Council CBDC Tracker, maintained by the council’s GeoEconomics Program and Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, more than 70 countries are currently conducting CBDC initiatives. In Africa, however, only nine of the continent’s 54 countries have any sort of CBDC program on the drawing board....

Despite that historic civil unrest, the BLM movement somehow earned a nomination for a Nobel peace prize. While the BLM movement didn’t intend to lay siege to cities and create incalculable tragedy for people and businesses, that’s exactly what it did. The nation’s most extreme activists felt called by the movement to literally fight and riot. That’s decidedly unpeaceful and it shouldn’t be ignored for a feel-good nomination. So how does the movement earn a peace prize nomination?...

The chamber will now face a 50-50 split with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris breaking ties for at least the first two years of President-elect Joe Biden’s administration. However, a razor thin Democratic majority could still be hamstrung by Republican use of the filibuster. The filibuster is a method of delaying a vote on an issue that usually involves a senator speaking from the floor for a long period without breaks....

HATOYAMA: Japan’s financial system has already collapsed. It has hit bottom. At this stage it will be very difficult to reconstruct. Spreading public-works spending to local areas is not going to solve Japan’s economic crisis. We hope to balance Japan’s national budget within five years. That means limiting public works and cutting the number of civil servants by 30 percent. We do not plan to raise taxes. As industries restructure and the bureaucracy is downsized, unemployment will rise....

“Some of y’all already know, some of y’all don’t care, some of y’all not gone fwm no more. but before this month ends i want y’all to listen closely to c7osure,” the rapper tweeted on Sunday, the final day of Pride month. He also tweeted artwork for the single which shows a building lit up in rainbow colors, writing, “deadass thought I made it obvious,” subtly indicating he’s queer....

The 33-year-old, who the day previous inked Marner to a six-year, $65.35-million extension, had the look of a man who just had a massive weight lifted off his shoulders. And to be fair to Dubas, he did. Tracking Mitch Marner’s career: From 2015 fourth-overall pick to $65 million man Less than 24 hours prior to presenting Marner to the media in Newfoundland, the Toronto Maple Leafs’ general manager completed the most contentious NHL contract negotiation of the offseason....

However novel its legal reasoning, Biden’s policy finds its roots in a half century of “College-for-All” education policy in the United States. Even before Biden’s boondoggle, the federal government was spending up to $200 billion in annual higher-education subsidies—up from $20 billion three decades ago and second only to Luxembourg on a per-student basis. That spending might be justified if the system worked, but even by its own standards, College-for-All has been a disaster....

The video shared by TikTok user slaydivasjnj shows Volusia County Sheriff’s Office (VCSO) Deputy Caleb Jones chasing after Cleveland Rahymes on Labor Day. The clip captioned “when you think you left the hood” saw Jones running behind Rahymes moments after he stopped the suspect. Since being shared online, the clip has been viewed more than 5 million times and has attracted 770,600 likes. VCSO later shared an extended video of the chase that showed Jones chasing Rahymes until he carried out the arrest a little further down the street....

DAVID GATES YAHLIN CHANG

Gabriel Jesus sets Man City record Reports suggest police found 200 grams of marijuana in the house of Aguero’s grandmother in Quilmes, 12 miles from Buenos Aires city centre. As a result, an arrest was made, though it is thought to be a different family member with a history of drug-related crime, rather than Aguero’s grandmother. The raid, in which weapons, other drugs and stolen phones were also found, was carried out in Los Eucaliptus, the neighborhood where Aguero grew up in....

Messi, Ronaldo, Suarez? Click here to see the countdown of the 50 best players in the world in the 2016 Goal 50 Aguero has been left out of the City side in recent weeks — most notably against Barcelona at Camp Nou — as Guardiola continues to demand various improvements in his game. It has even been suggested that the Argentine could leave the club in the summer, but Aguero insists there have never been any problems between the two of them....

Of the 10 Obama-voting counties which had the greatest shifts to Trump, and for which U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data was available, nine had a lower unemployment rate in July than the U.S. level of 10.2 percent for the same month. Several had a much better rate than recorded nationwide. One county actually increased job numbers between March—before the shutdowns of economies—and July, in the later phases of reopening....

The fight started with a second period dustup between the Utica Comets and Binghamton Senators of the AHL and was slowing down until the two goalies sized each other up for a while, complete with giggles, before going for it. MORE: Mark Stone has broken wrist | Eastern conference players without rings | Western conference players without rings Watch the whole thing develop, or skip to the 50-second mark for the good stuff....