Labor Day weekend fuel supplies curbed by Hurricane Harvey, Pyongyang university to start semester without American staff, and Putin’s warning on North Korea.

 

Tropical Storm Harvey

 

Travelers across the United States braced for higher prices and shortages ahead of the Labor Day holiday weekend as the country’s biggest fuel pipelines and refineries curb operations after Hurricane Harvey.  

 

Reuters TV: Harvey puts the squeeze on travel budgets

 

Live updates: Harvey provides a big test for FEMA

 

Community and commerce: reporting on a disaster

 

Oil falls after Harvey floods U.S. refineries

 

Business

 

U.S. job growth slows in August; wage growth retreats

 

Mexico and Canada would remain in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) even if the Trump administration abandoned the accord, Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo says. 

 

Diners at a KFC store in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou will have a new way to pay for their meal. Just smile. 

 

U.S. labor board files complaint against Tesla over worker rights 

 

Western Digital CEO apologized to Toshiba for friction over chip unit sale

 

Podcast: Is fintech really a thing? Or are we being influenced by marketing terms? 

 

U.S. Politics

More than two years after U.S. Senator Bob Menendez was indicted on federal corruption charges, the New Jersey Democrat finally faces trial next week in a case whose verdict could sway the balance of power in Washington. 

 

President Trump’s attacks on the media are part of a global trend of hostility to freedom of speech and damage the U.S. public interest, a U.N. human rights expert says. 

 

Two U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancers (not pictured) joined up with Republic of Korea air force F-15s during a 10-hour mission from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, into Japanese airspace and over the Korean Peninsula, July 30, 2017. The B-1s first made contact with Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-2 fighter jets in Japanese airspace, then proceeded over the Korean Peninsula and were joined by South Korean F-15 fighter jets. Photo taken July 30, 2017 

 

North Korea

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that the tense standoff between North Korea and the United States was on the verge of large-scale conflict and said it was a mistake to try to pressure Pyongyang over its nuclear missile program. 

 

Exclusive: Pyongyang university to start fall classes without American staff after travel ban

 

Reuters TV: U.S. travel ban hits Pyongyang university hard 

 

Commentary: The downside of banning Americans from North Korea

The U.S. State Department ban on Americans traveling to North Korea comes into effect today. Its implementation, spurred by the death of Michigan college student Otto Warmbier after being detained in the hermit state, is "a relatively easy picking amongst a platter of bad choices" for the Trump administration, writes columnist Andray Abrahamian. But although largely symbolic, it could have some unexpected downsides, he argues.

 

World

 

Kenya’s Supreme Court nullified President Uhuru Kenyatta’s election win citing irregularities and ordered a new poll within 60 days after last month’s voting was followed by protests and sporadic violence that killed at least 28 people. 

 

German Social Democrat (SPD) leader Martin Schulz, whose party trails Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives by 17 points, said he was going into Sunday’s television debate convinced he would win this month’s elections. “I am not in the least bit nervous,” he told Bild newspaper. 

 

British trade minister Liam Fox said Britain would not be blackmailed into agreeing on the cost of leaving the European Union and urged Brussels to move negotiations on to discuss Britain’s future relationship with the bloc. 

 

France’s foreign minister said he wanted major powers to agree on a transition calendar that would be imposed on Syrians, but ruled out any role for President Bashar al-Assad, who he said had “murdered” part of his population.