Hong Kong’s embattled top official, Chief Executive Carrie Lam, has stuck to her approach to ending Hong Kong’s political crisis, despite the poor reception shown to her announcement yesterday that she was formally withdrawing a divisive extradition bill.

Appearing stiff and formal at a press conference Thursday morning, Lam largely repeated the plan outlined a day before, when she said that aside from withdrawing the bill she would support the work of the territory’s Independent Police Complaints Council (IPCC) in looking into allegations of police brutality, as well as “start a direct dialogue” with “people from all walks of life,” inviting “community leaders, professionals and academics to advise the government” on policy.

“After more than two months of social unrest,” she said, “it is obvious to many of us that discontent in society extends far beyond the bill—to housing and land supply, income distribution, social justice and mobility, and opportunities for the young, and how th..

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A large car bomb rocked the Afghan capital on Thursday and smoke rose from a part of eastern Kabul near a neighborhood housing the U.S. Embassy, the NATO Resolute Support mission and other diplomatic missions.

Firdaus Faramarz, a spokesman for Kabul’s police chief, told The Associated Press that the explosion took place in the city’s Ninth Police District. It appeared to target a checkpoint in the heavily guarded Shashdarak area where the Afghan national security authorities have offices.

There was no immediate word on casualties. An Associated Press reporter on the phone with the U.S. Embassy when the blast occurred heard sirens begin there.

Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said a car bomb had exploded on a main road and police were sealing off the area. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

The blast occurred as U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has been in Kabul this week, briefing the Afghan government and others on a deal he say..

The U.S. is closing in on a deal with the Taliban that is designed to wind down America’s 18-year war in Afghanistan, but the best indication of how risky the pact may be is this: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is declining to sign it, according to senior U.S., Afghan and European officials.

The “agreement in principle” that U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has hammered out in nine rounds of talks with Taliban representatives in Qatar would take the first tentative steps toward peace since U.S. and allied forces deployed to Afghanistan following the attacks on 9/11, according to senior Afghan and Trump Administration officials familiar with its general terms. Defense Secretary Mark Esper was scheduled to discuss the closely held details of the deal with President Donald Trump in a Sept. 3 meeting, according to senior administration officials. If Trump approves and a deal is struck, it could begin a withdrawal of some 5,400 U.S. troops, roughly a third of the present force, from five bases ..

(ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE) — Pope Francis acknowledged his growing opposition within the conservative right-wing of the U.S. Catholic Church and said in off-hand remarks aboard the papal plane Wednesday it is “an honor if the Americans attack me.”

Francis commented on critics of his papacy when he received a copy of a new book about his detractors in the United States, “How America Wants to Change the Pope.” Author Nicholas Seneze, who covers the Vatican for the French Catholic newspaper La Croix, presented it to Francis on a flight to southern Africa.

The plane landed in Maputo, Mozambique late in the afternoon. Francis is on a trip this that also takes him to Madagascar and Mauritius.

In his book, Seneze charts the fierce criticism of Francis among American conservatives who loathe his outreach to migrants and China, his denunciation of free-market capitalism, his environmental concerns and his relaxation of church rules on the death penalty and sacraments for civilly remarried Cath..

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson was dealt two harsh rebukes in a showdown with Parliament this week over his plans to take a hard line in Brexit negotiations with the E.U.

First, a “rebel alliance” of opposition lawmakers and members of Johnson’s own Conservative Party voted Tuesday and Wednesday to make a “no deal” Brexit illegal. (Johnson has repeatedly said the U.K. will Brexit by the Oct. 31 deadline, no matter what.)

Johnson had pinned his short tenure so far on using the threat of crashing out of the E.U. without a deal––and the chaos and economic pain that’s likely to cause––to get the bloc to agree to more favorable terms.

When lawmakers––including respected former members of Conservative governments and Winston Churchill’s grandson––voted to take that option off the table, Johnson said the only option left was a general election.

Then, they denied him that, too. Late Wednesday, his bill to hold an early election on Oct. 15 failed to win over the two-thirds of lawmakers r..