South African authorities have reportedly begun to seize white-owned farms after negotiations on buyouts broke down. So far the ruling ANC party has refused to make public the names of the farms involved and called the action ’addressing the injustices of the past’. Local media reported that the government offered only 20% of the market value for one large game farm.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday that Russia will help Lebanon return Syrian refugees there return to their country. Lavrov said further that the US refusal to provide assistance for rebuilding Syria would deter Syrians from returning to their homes. He also accused the West of pressuring the UN to stay away from reconstruction efforts in Syria.

Three people have been injured after a car mounted a pavement in the northern Spanish town of Casetas on Monday. The driver and a fellow passenger, who initially fled the scene, have been arrested. Police are reportedly treating the incident as a ’traffic accident’ and not as an intentional act.

On Monday, 29 years old Algerian immigrant Abdelouahab T attacked officers in a police station in Barcelona with a knife while shouting ’Allahu Akbar’. He was shot and killed by an officer. The attacker had been living in Spain for several years, had a foreigners’ identity number and was married to a Spanish woman.

Some 180 families from North and South Korea, torn apart by the 1950-53 Korean War, met on Monday for the first time since the peninsula was divided by war. The three-day reunion follows a diplomatic thaw on the peninsula. The meetings are taking place at Mount Kumgang, a resort in North Korea.

Pope Francis on Monday wrote a letter addressed to all the world’s Catholics promising that no effort will be spared to prevent sex abuse and its cover-up. Francis begged forgiveness for the pain suffered by victims and criticized the self-referential clerical culture where church leaders are more concerned for their reputation than the safety of children.

Italian actress Asia Argento, one of the most prominent activists of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment, herself reportedly assaulted an underage actor, and paid him to stay silent. Argento, 42, settled the notice of intent to sue filed by Jimmy Bennett for $380,000. Argento sexually assaulted Bennett when he was 17. The age of consent in California is 18.

Two people have been reported dead in Texas, including a woman who opened fire at the Ben E. Keith Foods warehouse early Monday. Another person has been reported injured. The shooter and the two victims were employees at the warehouse. There remains no clarity on the motive. The shooter was confronted by police outside the complex and there was an exchange of gunfire.

Several gunshots were reported fired from a vehicle at the US embassy in Turkey’s capital city, Ankara, on Monday. No injuries had been reported. The US embassy is closed this week as Turkey celebrates the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. Police are searching for the assailants who are said to have fled in a white car after the attack, which occurred around 5 am local time.

Esperanza Franco, who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2015, could face deportation after concerns over a work visa application. Franco, who immigrated from Spain in 2013, had used her legal training in Tucson at the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, a non-profit advocacy group. Her employers have rejected her claims that they erred in the visa paperwork.

Apple has removed nearly 25,000 apps from its Chinese App Store following state media complaints. At least 4,000 of these were tagged with the word ’gambling’, which is illegal in China outside of state-sanctioned lotteries. Apple faced criticism in China recently for failing to prevent issues such as spam, gambling, and pornography.

Fitbit announced the launch of the new Fitbit Charge 3. The latest fitness tracker brings extra features including an improved workout tracking and a new, more curvaceous, design. The new look includes an aluminium build and Gorilla Glass 3. Expected to go on sale later this year with prices starting from £129.99, it is cheaper than the previous Charge 2.

Following up on an announcement made in July, Netflix has removed all customer-contributed reviews of TV shows and movies from its site. Citing lack of use as a reason for doing so, Netflix has discontinued the desktop-only feature.

Staff at London’s Gatwick Airport are writing flight information on whiteboards after a technical problem affected the airport’s digital screens. Vodafone, which provides the service, said a damaged fiber cable was responsible for the problem. The airport, 30 miles south of London, is Britain’s second busiest.

First lady Melania Trump spoke out against cyberbullying Monday as part of her Be Best campaign. In a speech to a conference on the subject in Rockville, Maryland, she said it was time to educate children about the need for responsible behavior online. Mrs. Trump’s campaign focuses on children’s well-being, the fight against opioid abuse and positivity on social media.

The former CIA director John Brennan says he is willing to go to court to block President Trump from removing any further security clearances from him. Speaking on NBC’s ’Meet the Press’, Brennan said his name was being pulled through the mud. He called court action a small price to pay if it prevented the President from doing the same thing to others.

Federal prosecutors are preparing criminal charges against President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, who is under investigation for possible bank and tax fraud and campaign finance violations. The Cohen investigation was referred to the Southern District of New York by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Jurors in the trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort will begin a third day of deliberations Monday. Manafort is charged with 18 counts of tax evasion, bank fraud and hiding foreign bank accounts. The 12 jurors concluded their discussions on Friday without sending any notes to the judge.

Shares of Tesla fell 7 percent early on Monday as JPMorgan Chase cut its price target for the electric car maker. The investment firm slashed the price target for Tesla from $308 to $195. The brokerage claimed it did so as it did not believe CEO Elon Musk had the funding for a plan to take the company private.

PepsiCo is buying Israel-based SodaStream fizzy drink maker, in a deal valued at $3.2 billion. PepsiCo is acquiring all SodaStream’s outstanding shares at $144 per share, a 32 percent premium to the 30-day volume weighted average price. SodaStream’s products are marketed as a healthy alternative to sugary sodas.

The US bull market is close to a new record long run, bringing with it both celebration and warnings. Wednesday could see it reach 3,453 days long, which would be a record according to market experts. It began in the aftermath of the financial collapse of 2008 and has been built on asset purchases by the Federal Reserve.

Divyesh Darji, the Asian head of defunct cryptocurrency platform BitConnect, was arrested by Indian authorities at Delhi Airport on August 18. Bitconnect, the high-yield investment program, ceased its operations in January 2018 after coming under scrutiny for appearing to be a fraudulent Ponzi scheme. BitConnect is regarded as the most notorious scam in the crypto space.

Three individuals have been arrested by Chinese police across several states in connection with a crypto heist worth around $87 million. The investigation has been ongoing since March 2018. The three hackers, reportedly working for IT firms, split the stolen cryptocurrencies by selling them in small portions.

New research from the investment management firm Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. suggests that despite the recent market downtrend, income generated by cryptocurrency exchanges could more than double in 2018. The paper found that exchanges brought in an estimated $1.8 billion in income from transaction fees in 2017.

Despite a July 2018 announcement by Google Play that cryptocurrency mining apps would not be permitted on its platform, reports indicate that such apps continue to be listed. Some apps that continue to exist on the platform include JSEcoin, MinerGate, Crypto Miner, Neo Cryptocurrency Miner, Monero Mobile Miner, DroidMiner, and CryptoTab.

Porn website Tube8 has revealed plans to create a blockchain-based platform that will enable users to earn crypto tokens as they watch and interact with Tube8 videos. Tube8, a subsidiary of Pornhub, announced a partnership with Vice Industry Token to implement the same. Details were not revealed, but the platform expects the system to be launched by the end of the year.