HBO is green-lighting a new “Game of Thrones” prequel after reportedly canceling another that starred Naomi Watts. The cable channel said Tuesday that it’s given a 10-episode order to “House of the Dragon,” set 300 years before the original series that ended its eight-season run in May. The prequel is based on George R.R. Martin’s “Fire & Blood,” HBO said. The new drama was co-created by Martin and Ryan Condal, whose credits include “Colony.” It will focus on House Targaryen, made famous in “Game of Thrones” by Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys and her fearsome dragons. “House of the Dragon” was announced by HBO programming president Casey Bloys during a presentation for HBO Max, the streaming service launching in May 2020 . A spinoff of HBO megahit “Game of Thrones” would be a key attraction in the increasingly crowded streaming marketplace. HBO declined comment on reports Tuesday that it had dropped another “Game of Thrones” prequel set thousands of years before the original. A pilot episode starring Watts had been filmed in Northern Ireland. The straight-to-series order for “House of the Dragon,” whether a sign of faith in the project or pressure to get it into production, avoids letting devotees of the …

The U.S. State Department’s top diplomat for the Middle East on Tuesday called Egypt’s treatment of a prominent journalist and activist “outrageous,” saying he had raised the issue with Egyptian ambassador. Journalist and activist Esraa Abdel Fattah was arrested by plainclothes security officers in Cairo on Oct. 12 and was reportedly beaten after she refused to unlock her mobile phone, according to the U.N. human rights office. David Schenker, assistant secretary for the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, told a congressional hearing: “I met her several times, I think it is outrageous. Know that I’ve had the Egyptian ambassador in my office last week to talk about Esraa,” he said and added: “Egypt has a long way to go on human rights.” Protests against President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo and other cities have followed online calls for demonstrations against alleged government corruption. Sissi, who came to power after, while army chief, leading the 2013 overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, has overseen a broad crackdown on dissent that has extended to liberal and Islamist groups, and which rights groups say is the most severe in recent memory. During an April visit to Washington by Sissi, U.S. President …

Protests over a disputed presidential election convulsed Bolivia on Tuesday as police fired tear gas in the capital and the sitting president and opposition candidate wrestled over an audit of the results. The brief suspension of publication of the results from an electronic count of the Oct. 20 presidential election has triggered protests and strikes that have closed roads, schools and businesses around the nation for more than a week. President Evo Morales, a leftist seeking a fourth term, was eventually declared the winner, prompting accusations of fraud from opposition candidate Carlos Mesa and his supporters.  In La Paz, opposition protesters mounted road barricades of rope, wooden boards and sheets of metal. Rows of helmet-clad riot police lined some streets, separating Morales’ supporters from protesters opposed to the president. Demonstrators hold a sign reading “Fraud” in La Paz, Bolivia, Oct. 29, 2019. Tear gas was used in at least two locations to disperse protesters. Morales, who has been in office nearly 14 years and is Latin America’s longest-serving leader, has said the Organization of American States (OAS) will audit the election and that he will go to a second round if fraud is found. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) and …

The head of the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank pushed back on Tuesday against U.S. assertions that China’s Belt and Road lending has unfairly saddled poor countries with unsustainable debt. Jin Liqun, AIIB’s president, said during an investment conference panel discussion that debt problems associated with China’s massive infrastructure drive were often the result of long-standing fiscal mismanagement. “The debt problems of these poor countries were accumulated over the years. I don’t think it’s fair to put it down to the Belt and Road initiative,” Jin said at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh. He appeared on a panel with World Bank President David Malpass, who as a senior Treasury Department official in the Trump administration was highly critical of Belt and Road lending, telling the U.S. Congress in December 2018 that it “often leaves countries with excessive debt and poor-quality projects.” Jin defended the program’s purpose as being aimed at upgrading infrastructure to improve the growth and development potential of many countries. “But we should learn from the history. For many countries I think the issue is not whether you borrowed the money from outside, it’s how you spend the money you borrow,” Jin said. “You spend it …

The number of people threatened by climate change-triggered flooding is about three times higher than previously thought, a new study says. But it’s not because of more water. It’s because the land, especially in Asia and the developing world, is several feet lower than what space-based radar has calculated, according to a study in the journal Nature Communications Tuesday. So instead of 80 million people living in low-lying areas that would flood annually by 2050 as the world warms, this new study finds the population at risk is closer to 300 million people. And if emissions of heat-trapping gases continue unabated and Antarctic ice melts more in a worst-case scenario, around 500 million people could be at risk by the end of the century, according to the study by Climate Central , a New Jersey based non-profit of scientists and journalists. Space-based radar says 170 million are at risk in that scenario. For big picture global mapping of flooding threats, the go-to technology for elevation is NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission . But that doesn’t accurately show ground, instead mistaking rooftops and tree canopies for ground with an average error of 6.5 feet (2 meters), said Climate Central chief executive …

A proposal to allow for the prosecution of Mexican presidents for a wide range of crimes overwhelmingly passed the lower house of Congress on Tuesday, giving the proposal backed by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador a shot of momentum. Under current law, presidents can only be prosecuted for treason. If ratified by the Mexican Senate and then passed by a majority of state legislatures, the proposal would reform the country’s constitution to allow presidents to be charged for crimes including corruption and organized crime. Lawmakers in the lower house approved the proposal on a vote of 420 to 29, and it now moves to the Senate. Lopez Obrador, who took office late last year, has made rooting out corruption a signature issue. His MORENA party and its allies control Congress. Constitutional amendments in Mexico require two-thirds support in both chambers of Congress, as well as ratification in a majority of Mexico’s state legislatures.   …

Panic, joy, shock: Dan Piepenbring felt them all when Prince plucked him to collaborate on his first memoir, followed by more shock and profound sadness at news of the superstar’s death while the book was in its early stages. Though the project was thrown into chaos when Prince died on April 21, 2016, of an accidental drug overdose, his estate ultimately decided to press on, allowing Piepenbring and his publishing team free access to the pieces of his life left behind at his beloved Paisley Park, including the contents of his vault. Now, the highly anticipated collaboration, “The Beautiful Ones,” is out in the world with its release Tuesday as many fans continue to mourn, propelling the 33-year-old journalist into the spotlight to explain how he sorted it all out. Dan Piepenbring poses for a portrait at The Associated Press in New York City, Oct. 22, 2019. “There was a sense even from the start that it couldn’t really be happening,” Piepenbring told The Associated Press of his involvement. “It felt very surreal. There was also just a sense of joy, I think, at the possibility of meeting someone that I held in such high regard, someone whose music had …

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy promised to create a level playing field for businesses on Tuesday as he made an investment pitch for Ukraine in the unlikely venue of Mariupol, a port city 20 km (12 miles) from a rumbling separatist conflict. A popular comedian who won a landslide election in April with no prior political experience, Zelenskiy came to office promising to end Ukraine’s war with Russian-backed forces that has killed more than 13,000 people since 2014. In a battle for the hearts and minds of those living in the eastern Donbass region, he sited his government’s first major investment conference in Mariupol, more than 700 km (435 miles) southeast of the capital Kyiv. FILE – Workers pass in Mariupol trade port in Mariupol, eastern Ukraine, Dec. 2, 2018. A hub for exporting steel and grain and importing coal, the Black Sea port was briefly under rebel control in 2014 and suffered what Ukraine called a de facto economic blockade by Russia last year. The conference took place on the same day as Ukrainian soldiers and rebel forces began a troop withdrawal in a town on the front line, a confidence-building measure ahead of peace talks Ukraine hopes will take place …

For the second time in two weeks, U.S. Border Patrol agents in Arizona discovered dozens of migrants hidden in a tractor-trailer on a highway near the Mexican border. The truck was stopped at an immigration checkpoint near Amado, on Interstate 19 about 60 kilometers south of Tucson, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Among the 29 individuals from Mexico and one from Ecuador was an unaccompanied child, CBP officials said. All of the passengers held in the trailer were not legally present in the U.S. and, according to CBP, will be processed for immigration violations. It was on the same Arizona highway that agents discovered 32 people hidden among boxes of produce on Oct. 14.  As in the case earlier this month, the U.S. citizen driver and passenger stopped on Saturday also face human smuggling charges. …

Months of unrelenting militia attacks in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are driving more people from their homes, adding to the millions already displaced and threatening to spread insecurity elsewhere in Africa’s Great Lakes region, observers warn. This week, people fleeing the conflict lugged small children and possessions as they trekked across the DRC’s eastern border into Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. They fault the Mai Mai, a general name for the scores of armed fighting groups that have engaged in ethnic clashes for decades. Since May, attackers have burned about 160 villages of Banyamulenge ethnic Tutsis, killed at least 200 people, stolen cattle that provide their livelihoods, and forced more than 200,000 to flee, according to Congo Today, a nonprofit group that promotes peace and reconciliation among Congolese tribes.    FILE – Congolese families, who fled from the Democratic Republic of Congo, prepare meals at United Nations High Commission for Refugees’ (UNHCR) Kyangwali refugee settlement camp, Uganda, March 19, 2018. “They say they do not want to see people of our ethic background,” a Congolese Tutsi woman told VOA on Monday as she tried to quiet her wailing children. She said they had walked for two weeks to reach safety …

Move over, Rocky, there’s a new stairway to climb. A set of outdoor steps in the Bronx has become a tourist attraction in recent weeks since the release of the movie “Joker.” The stairs are between two buildings on Shakespeare Avenue, about a half-mile from Yankee Stadium. FILE – Cast member Joaquin Phoenix arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of “Joker” at TCL Chinese Theatre, Sept. 28, 2019. In the movie, lead actor Joaquin Phoenix dances as he goes down the steps, wearing a bright red suit and clown makeup. These days, neighborhood residents using the steps are being joined by tourists trying to recreate the scene. The visitors have been taking selfies, and some have even shown up in costume. Coming to the stairs is “really immersive,” said Oliver Bonallack, visiting from Brighton, England. “You never really get to experience a film first-hand,” he said. “I feel like it is so iconic.” Not everyone is thrilled with the upsurge in popularity. “We live in the neighborhood, it’s taking up all of our time, we’re all being inconvenienced,” said Bronx resident Cathyrine Spencer. “Every day when I come down the stairs, I have to go through a barrage of people.” …

The Trump administration has invited Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia to a meeting in Washington on Nov. 6 to try to break the deadlock in negotiations over a giant hydropower dam on Ethiopia’s Blue Nile, Egypt’s foreign minister said on Tuesday. Earlier this month, Cairo said it accepted a U.S. invitation to a meeting of foreign ministers over the project that is the source of an escalating spat between the two African countries. It was not clear if the other two countries had agreed to attend. “The U.S. administration invited the three countries to meet in the United States on Nov. 6 in the presence of representatives of the American administration to discuss breaking the deadlock in the ongoing negotiations,” Sameh Shoukry told a news conference with visiting German foreign minister Heiko Maas. FILE PHOTO: Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam is seen as it undergoes construction work on the river Nile in Ethiopia Sept. 26, 2019. Egypt is worried that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), under construction near Ethiopia’s border with Sudan, will restrict supplies of already scarce Nile waters on which it is almost entirely dependent. In recent weeks, Egypt has called for an external mediator on the issue, saying …

A top U.S. Border Patrol official has a warning: The crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border is not over. Even though crossings have been down over the past few months and news of custody deaths and teeming facilities full of children and families has faded from front pages and talking points of politicians, the number of migrants coming over border is still high. And resources are still stretched. “It is kind of a new norm. We’re at risk at any time,” if some recent deterrent efforts are blocked by the courts, like a policy forcing asylum seekers to wait out their claims in Mexico, Brian Hastings, chief of law enforcement operations at Border Patrol said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We will go back, mark the words, we will go back to the crisis level that we had before.” Immigration has been a top issue since President Donald Trump took office almost three years ago, with Democrats heavily critical of his administration on border conditions. But Washington is now dominated by talk of impeachment and immigration seems somewhat less pressing, with monthly apprehension numbers declining and Mexico and other nations enhancing cooperation with the U.S. on immigration issues. Still, …

Ninety years ago, on Oct. 29, 1929, the U.S. stock market plummeted nearly 13%. Wall Street investors panicked and unloaded their stock. The unprecedented financial crash became known as Black Tuesday. …

Russia’s defense minister said Tuesday that Syrian Kurdish fighters have completed their withdrawal from areas along the Syrian border, in line with a recent Russia-Turkey deal. Sergei Shoigu said Russian and Syrian troops have moved into the border zone following the Kurdish withdrawal.   Separately, a Russian military statement said an explosive device went off near Russian armored vehicles near the Darbasiyah border checkpoint, but there were no injuries or damage.    Last week’s Russia-Turkey deal to divide control of northeast Syria has halted the Turkish invasion of the area. Ankara aimed to drive out Syrian Kurdish forces there.    The Kurdish-led forces had been U.S. allies during a five-year campaign against the Islamic State group in Syria. But U.S. forces withdrew from the area, allowing the Turkish offensive. The Kurds have since turned to Russia and the Syrian government in Damascus for protection.   Moscow and Ankara have agreed that Turkey gets to retain control over the areas it seized when it launched its offensive on Oct. 9. Russian and Syrian troops will control the rest of the frontier.    Russia and Turkey are set to conduct joint patrols of areas east and west of the Turkish-held parts of …

A Catholic parish priest in the United States says he refused to let former Vice President Joe Biden, one of the leading 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, partake of Holy Communion last Sunday because Biden supports abortion rights against Catholic teaching. Father Robert Morey of St. Anthony Catholic Church in Florence, South Carolina, told a local newspaper, “Sadly, this past Sunday, I had to refuse Holy Communion to former Vice President Joe Biden. Holy Communion signifies we are one with God, each other and the church. Our actions should reflect that. Any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of church teaching.” He added, “I will keep Mr. Biden in my prayers.” According to Roman Catholic Church doctrine, worshippers during Mass receive the Holy Eucharist, a wafer and wine that when consecrated by a priest is believed to become the body and blood of Jesus. A lifelong Catholic, Biden, like all the Democrats running to oppose Republican President Donald Trump’s reelection bid next year, supports a woman’s right to an abortion as sanctioned in the U.S. by a landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision. Trump, once an abortion supporter, now opposes it. Abortion remains a controversial issue in …

Police say gunmen have shot and killed five Indian laborers working in disputed Kashmir. Top police officer Muneer Ahmed Khan said late Tuesday gunmen also shot and critically injured one laborer near southern Kulgam town. Another police officer said a group of gunmen came to a building housing the laborers and shot and critically wounded one. He said the gunmen later abducted five laborers and shot them dead after taking them to some distance. The officer speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media said the injured laborer was taken to a hospital in critical condition. In recent weeks, at least 10 non-local laborers and truck drivers have been killed by gunmen in separate incidents. Police have blamed militants for the killings. …

What is an inspector general? …

Embattled Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri announced his resignation Tuesday after two weeks of unprecedented anti-government protests demanding political reform. In a televised address, the prime minister said the protests prompted him to submit his resignation to President Michel Aoun, saying he had “reached a dead end.” Anti-government protesters shout slogans against the Lebanese government in Beirut, Lebanon, Oct. 22, 2019. His resignation came two weeks after people launched a largely peaceful protest movement, demanding an overhaul of the political class considered corrupt and incompetent. Earlier in the day, counter-demonstrators armed with sticks attacked the main protest site in central Beirut, setting many tents on fire and tearing down others. The counter-protestors, believed to be Hezbollah supporters, started fighting with protestors who were blocking roads in the capital. The attack forced security forces to deploy to the protest site to contain the violence The protests have paralyzed the country, forcing the closure of schools and banks.       …

Yemeni officials say the defense minister of the internationally recognized government has survived an attack in a central province. They said a large explosion hit his convoy Tuesday while it was inside a complex of buildings used as the ministry’s interim headquarters in Marib province. Two guards were killed and four others wounded. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to brief the media. It was not immediately clear if blast was caused by an explosive device or a projectile fired from outside the compound. No group claimed responsibility for the attack. Defense Minister Mohammed al-Maqdishi was to hold a meeting with top military officials. Yemen’s Saudi-backed government has been fighting the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels since the rebels overran the capital Sanaa in 2014.   …

As hundreds of Iraqi protesters are hunkered down in Baghdad’s central Tahrir Square and other provinces, analysts say the country is facing a precarious moment, one which bold and concrete action is needed from the government. But can and will Iraq’s leadership deliver? A renewed wave of anti-government demonstrations has seen at least 250 killed and more than 4,000 wounded this month. Teachers and lawyers’ unions, even Planning Ministry employees, are joining young protesters. Analysts say that nobody, be it Iraq’s leaders or the protesters, know where the demonstrations will go. The protests are leaderless, without an organizational structure, and are not unified. But the disparate groupings of the young jobless, activist intellectuals or poor Shiites are clearly demanding an end to widespread corruption, unemployment, the lack of public services, like electricity, and cronyism engulfing Iraq. Anti-government protesters gather in Tahrir Square during a demonstration in Baghdad, Iraq, Oct. 28, 2019. “We’re here to bring down the whole government, to weed them all out,” one protester told the French AFP news agency. Renad Mansour at Chatham House in London believes the protests won’t die out and the also status quo won’t continue. “I think that kind of muddling through is …

Every year, an estimated 100 billion plastic bottles are produced in the U.S., the bulk of which come from three of America’s biggest beverage companies: Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Keurig Dr. Pepper. The problem? Only one-third of those bottles get recycled; the rest end up in the trash. That bleak trend has persisted for more than a decade because of spotty collection, outdated processing facilities and other issues, according to the American Beverage Association. Now, Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo and Keurig Dr. Pepper are trying to change that by investing $100 million to improve recycling collection and processing. They also plan to come out with new packaging next year reminding consumers to recycle. The American Beverage Association is coordinating the investment, which will be distributed through The Recycling Partnership, a Virginia-based nonprofit that works with local governments to improve recycling rates, and Closed Loop Partners, a New York firm that invests in recycling facilities and new research. The World Wildlife Fund will track the companies’ progress. China Plastic Waste Ban Throws Global Recycling into Chaos From grubby packaging engulfing small Southeast Asian communities to waste piling up in plants from the US to Australia, China’s ban on accepting the world’s used plastic …

Hong Kong’s embattled leader Carrie Lam said on Tuesday she expects the Asian financial hub to record negative economic growth for the full 2019 year, as the city grapples with five months of often violent anti-government protests. Lam was speaking two days after Financial Secretary Paul Chan said Hong Kong has fallen into recession and was unlikely to achieve any growth this year. The protests, which have evolved into calls for greater democracy, escalated in June, plunging the city into its biggest political crisis in decades and posing the gravest popular challenge to Chinese leader Xi Jinping since he came to power. Beijing-backed Lam said the government would announce fresh measures to boost the economy once unrest in the Chinese-ruled city settles. She did not elaborate. The government last week announced relief measures of HK$2 billion, following a HK$19.1 billion package in August to support the economy. On Sunday, black-clad and masked demonstrators set fire to shops and hurled petrol bombs at police following a now-familiar pattern of protests, which show no sign of letting up. Lam said the central government in Beijing was confident her administration could return the city to normal and had been supporting her in upholding …

Iraqi security forces killed at least 14 people overnight in an attack on protesters in the city of Karbala. Security officials said hundreds more were wounded as the anti-government demonstrations went into a fifth consecutive day. The protesters defied a new curfew after Iraqi authorities ordered people to stay off the streets between midnight and 6 a.m. At least three people were killed and more than 100 hurt Monday in clashes between protesters and police. A move in parliament to approve a bill to cancel privileges and bonuses for senior politicians, including the president, prime minister and Cabinet ministers, did little to calm the marchers. Students and other protesters are angry at alleged corruption, a slow economy and poor government services, despite Iraq’s oil wealth. Students are boycotting classes and demanding the government resign. The latest wave of violent protests in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities has killed at least 86 people since Friday. That is on top of the nearly 150 killed during marches earlier this month. …