Wildfires kill at least 26 in US West since August Embers light up a hillside behind a bridge in Oroville, California, the U.S. A blitz of wildfires across Oregon, California and Washington have destroyed thousands of homes and a half dozen small towns this summer, scorching a landscape the size of New Jersey and killing at least 26 people since early August. In California, tens of thousands of firefighters were battling 28 major wildfires as of September 12 afternoon, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.SD-Agencies Suga to succeed Abe Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga was elected September 14 as the new president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to take over from outgoing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Suga, who has been one of Abe’s closest confidants for almost eight years, said after the election that he will continue Abe’s policies amid the coronavirus outbreak. The election was triggered by Abe’s abrupt announcement late last month that he was stepping down due to a recurrent health issue. ByteDance not to sell TikTok’s US operations Bytedance will not sell TikTok’s U.S. operations to Microsoft or Oracle, nor will the company give the source code to any U.S. buyers, CGTN reported September 14, citing sources. U.S. media NBC News reported that TikTok has reached an agreement to partner with software giant Oracle. ByteDance and Oracle still face several hurdles in completing a deal. First, they will need to win approval from the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, an interagency group that is tasked with overseeing foreign investments in the U.S. Normalization of ties between Bahrain and Israel Bahrain has become the latest Arab nation to agree to normalize ties with Israel as part of a broader diplomatic push by U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration to fully integrate the Jewish state into the Middle East. However, the Bahrain-Israel deal has enraged the Palestinian Authority, Iran and Turkey. They expressed strong condemnation and concern about Bahrain’s decision. Motorcycle rally a ‘superspreader event’: study In early August, more than 460,000 motorcycle enthusiasts converged in Sturgis, South Dakota, the United States, for a 10-day celebration where few wore facial coverings or practiced social distancing. A month later, researchers have found that thousands have been sickened across the nation, leading them to brand the Sturgis rally a “superspreader” event. Joseph J. Sabia, a professor of economics and the director of the Center for Health Economics & Policy Studies at San Diego State University, described the “public health costs” of the rally as “substantial and widespread,” which could have infected as many as 266,796 people. He and his co-authors estimate that dealing with the fallout from the rally will involve more than US$12 billion in health care costs. UK admits to breaking EU treaty Britain will unveil legislation that it admits breaks international law by rewriting parts of its Brexit divorce treaty relating to Northern Ireland, sparking widespread criticism and clouding the latest round of fraught EU trade talks. After leaving the European Union earlier this year following a bitterly divisive referendum, Britain is racing to agree to a trade deal with Brussels as the clock ticks down to a crunch EU summit in mid-October. An eighth round of talks began in London on September 8. (SD-Agencies) | 