It doesn't look like the Taliban will be heading to Camp David anytime soon.
President Trump tweeted a surprising thread Sunday claiming he'd canceled secret meetings with Taliban leaders over the terrorist group's claim of responsibility for a recent attack. And when asked about those talks outside the White House on Monday, Trump responded by saying "as far as I’m concerned, they’re dead."
The Trump administration has been working for months to slowly get the Taliban to the negotiating table, and then to wrangle a peace deal. The terrorist group would like to see the U.S. completely out of Afghanistan, but the U.S. is aiming to keep a presence in the country. Talks were supposed to progress at Camp David in the U.S. sometime in the near future, but after a recent attack in Afghanistan that left a U.S. soldier and 11 others dead, Trump said Sunday he called off the talks.
Also on Monday, Trump railed against Bahamian hurricane survivors who were seeking shelter in Florida but were turned away after they'd boarded a ferry to the states. "I don't want to allow people who weren't supposed to be in the Bahamas to come into the United States, including some very bad people," Trump said, borrowing the dubious allegation he has levied at just about any foreign group that tries to enter the U.S. Kathryn Krawczyk
Caroll Spinney, the actor and puppeteer who made Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch come alive on Sesame Street, died Sunday. He was 85.
The Sesame Workshop said Spinney, who died at his home in Connecticut, lived with dystonia for many years. Spinney began working on Sesame Street in its earliest days in 1969, before retiring in 2018.
As Big Bird, Spinney traveled around the world, conducted symphony orchestras, danced with the Rockettes, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was named a Living Legend by the Library of Congress.
In a statement, Sesame Workshop said Spinney's "enormous talent and outsized heart were perfectly suited to playing the larger-than-life yellow bird who brought joy to generations of children and countless fans of all ages around the world, and his loveably cantankerous grouch gave us all permission to be cranky once in a while." Catherine Garcia
North Korea is at it again. But this time no one is exactly sure about what they're up to.
North Korean state media reported Sunday that Pyongyang conducted a "successful test of a great significance" Saturday at its Sohae satellite launch site, a rocket testing ground, but did not reveal what was tested. U.S. officials have said North Korea promised to close the testing ground, but it appears that won't be the case any longer as Pyongyang's year-end deadline to reach a denuclearization agreement with Washington nears after talks stalled earlier this year.
It likely wasn't a missile launch, since Japan and South Korea can usually detect those. Instead, missile experts said it's possible North Korea tested a solid fuel rocket engine, which could allow the country to field intercontinental ballistic missiles that are easier to hide and faster to deploy. "If it is indeed a static engine test for a new solid or liquid fuel missile, it is yet another loud signal that the door for diplomacy is quickly slamming, if it isn't already," said Vipin Narang, a nuclear expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "This could be a very credible signal of what might await the world after the New Year."
North Korea has promised to adopt a "new path" if the U.S. does not offer sanctions relief, which analysts believe could include launching a satellite that would allow Pyongyang to continue testing missiles more covertly. Read more at BBC and Reuters. Tim O'Donnell