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Lt Gen Brent Scowcroft, a statesman who steered US national security policy for decades, has died of natural causes at the age of 95 in his Virginia home.

Scowcroft was National Security Adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford and George HW Bush - the only person to serve two administrations in the role.

In his more than 40-year tenure in Washington, he led US policies towards Russia and during the 1991 Gulf War.

He received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in 1

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UN agencies have warned of a humanitarian crisis in Lebanon after Tuesday's devastating blast in Beirut.

Lebanon was already suffering a major economic downturn before the explosion, which left at least 154 people dead, 5,000 injured and 300,000 homeless.

The World Food Programme said the damage to Beirut's port would interrupt food supplies and push prices up.

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All good art is political, said the writer Toni Morrison, but that is perhaps more true when the art is produced by a former president.

Immigration is the political issue at heart in a forthcoming book of portraits by George W Bush.

Out of Many, One - to be published 2 March - features 43 portraits of immigrants painted by the 43rd US president.

He says he hopes it will draw attention to immigration's "positive impacts".

Mr Bush writes in the introduction

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Hiring in the US slowed sharply in July as the country struggled to control the coronavirus pandemic.

Employers added 1.8 million jobs last month, down from a record 4.8 million in June.

The unemployment rate fell to 10.2%, continuing to improve from the high of 14.7% seen in April.

The figures reignited calls for Washington to approve further economic stimulus, though the slowdown was not as bad as many economists had feared.

"While this number exceeded

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Protesters in Utah who splashed paint on a prosecutor's office could be given life sentences after they were accused of acting as a "gang".

Salt Lake City District Attorney Sim Gill, whose office was targeted by Black Lives Matter marchers issued the charges.

Critics, including the city's mayor, have called the felony charges excessive.

The paint splashing occurred during a 9 July protest against racism.

According to Utah

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Italian authorities have evacuated about 75 people, mostly tourists, from an Alpine valley as huge blocks of ice threaten to crash down from a glacier.

Planpincieux glacier, in the Mont Blanc massif, has weakened because of intense summer heat alternating with night-time cold. It lies above Val Ferret valley, near Courmayeur ski resort.

A local environmental risk expert said the fragile ice could fall at any time.

The threatening glacier section is about the

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Protesters clashed with Lebanese security forces at anti-government demonstrations in Beirut on Thursday.

Officers deployed tear gas on dozens of people near parliament.

Demonstrators were angered by Tuesday's devastating blast, which officials say was caused by 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored unsafely since 2013.

Many in Lebanon say government negligence led to the explosion, which killed at least 137 people and injured about 5,000

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US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to ban transactions with TikTok's parent company ByteDance.

The executive order says the US "must take aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect our national security".

Under the order, beginning in 45 days, any US transaction with ByteDance will be prohibited.

TikTok denies accusations it is controlled by or shares data with the Chinese government.

On Thursday night, the US president also issued a follow-up executive order taking similar action to

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At least 24 people in Hong Kong have been charged with taking part in a banned candlelight vigil on 4 June to mark the anniversary of China's 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.

Pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong was among those charged with "taking part in an unauthorised assembly".

Hong Kong has long been the only place on Chinese soil where a commemoration of the crackdown is allowed.

But