Informing, engaging & connecting the people of the world. AUGUST 31, 2020

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The United States is planning to reduce its troop levels in Iraq, President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials said. Trump tweeted the news Saturday, saying the U.S. is “planning to cut” troop levels. He did not provide numbers.

ON THIS DAY IN AMERICAN HISTORY On Aug. 28, 1955, William G. Cobb of General Motors unveils the world’s first solar-powered car at the GM car show in Chicago. The so-called “Sunmobile” was only 15 inches long and made of balsa wood, but it garnered a lot of attention from the 2 million show attendees. Despite the interest, no country has been able to successfully market a mass-produced solar car.

Indian authorities say their troops thwarted an attempt by Chinese soldiers to change the status quo in the northern Ladakh region, where both sides have been locked in a tense standoff for months. China has dismissed the allegations.

Major mosques and churches reopened in Cairo over the weekend after a more than five-month shutdown. This comes as the number of Egypt’s new COVID-19 cases rise again after weeks of decline.

VIDEO: Across Africa, more than 140 million children are out of school amid coronavirus-related closures. Of those, 14 million are in South Africa, which also is the continent’s viral hot spot. In September—after several attempts at closing and reopening—the nation’s school system is trying to remain open this time.

Activists of Iran’s Gonabadi Dervish religious minority who have been forced to live far from home after release from prison have rejected an Iranian official’s contention that Tehran has no policy of exiling freed convicts to impoverished and remote parts of the country.