Trump's approval rating amongst black voters gets big boost following the Republican National Convention

Host of 'Reality Check' on Fox Nation, David Webb weighs in.

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As Trump rails against Portland protesters, Wisconsin governor tells him to stay home

Portland police are investigating the shooting death of a man in clashes between demonstrators at a pro-Trump vehicle rally and counterprotesters.

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Mnuchin eyes new spending proposal, says Democrats won't negotiate

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday said Republicans will soon unveil a new spending bill to aid the coronavirus-battered economy amid an ongoing impasse with Democratic lawmakers.

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What’s a ‘Corn Moon’? What to know about summer’s final full moon

It’s your last chance to see a full moon this summer.

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Here Is the Bloody Face of Putin’s New Crackdown

MOSCOW—Yegor Zhukov is the face of a new generation of Putin opponents using social media as well as student rallies to stand up to the regime. On Sunday night, he was beaten up outside his home in Moscow hours after posting a YouTube video criticizing Putin. In a statement to the police, he said: “I have not suffered any property damage, but my face is broken.”An image of the 22-year-old’s bruised face, with bleeding lips and a swollen eye, has already gone viral online—an instant new symbol of Putin’s latest crackdown.The country’s leading opposition figure, Aleksey Navalny, was already comatose in a hospital bed in Berlin, fighting to regain consciousness after what German doctors describe as exposure to a poisonous substance whose effects are consistent with a nerve agent. This has been a summer of doom for Putin’s opponents. The Russian president prevailed in a constitutional referendum in July, which is likely to keep him in power until 2036. Since then, Russians have watched bloody police crackdowns on protesters in Belarus, including alleged cases of torture and rape, ordered by Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian dictator now being aided and abetted by Putin. Last week, the country was horrified to wake up to the news of Navalny’s poisoning in Siberia. The attack on Zhukov—who is really just a kid—only added to a widespread sense of repression. On Sunday, Zhukov posted a video on his YouTube channel, which has 227,000 subscribers, about a crackdown against Putin’s critics at his university, the Higher School of Economics. The school used to be a bastion of free speech in a country where that is increasingly rare.Zhukov, who was arrested last year during anti-government protests and threatened with eight years in prison, was due to begin his studies on the Masters program this fall. The video was posted in response to university administrators who abruptly told him that he would not be enrolled this year, even though he had already been accepted and had paid to start the course.Almost 200,000 people online watched Zhukov say: “Clearly, no professional person, who is serious about political science, would describe Vladimir Putin’s regime as effective.”  Within hours, the student opposition leader was badly beaten outside his house in Moscow by unknown assailants. In the two decades of the Putin era, Russia has seen crackdowns on the media, human rights defenders, and opposition parties. Universities are the latest target. Professors and students believe potential students are blacklisted from enrolling at the Higher School of Economics by the FSB, Russia’s successor to the KGB. “Authorities must be aware of Russia’s history: students have always united in political movements,” former Higher School of Economics professor and founder of Transparency International, Yelena Pamfilova, told The Daily Beast. “There is a giant crisis and not only in Russia: people in trouble, like Zhukov, want to call police for help but there is no trust for police and that is very dangerous.” Intellectuals have long used the Higher School of Economics as a safe space where progressive political and economic ideas could be formulated and shared. “Recently, all professors with skeptical attitudes toward the government have lost their contracts,” Zhukov said. “Our opposition student media was deprived of its status as a student organization.”Last summer, Zhukov, who is morer libertarian than liberal, joined protests triggered by numerous violations at Moscow City Council elections. He was arrested and charged with public appeals for extremism. He could have been sentenced to eight years in prison, but he became a cause célèbre with thousands of students, professors, and ordinary Russians protesting that the charges should be dropped. The case against him was eventually dismissed but the university took action to avoid a repeat of the controversy, and in January all students and university staff were banned from making any political declarations in public or engaging in political activity. Zhukov believes the university was forced to make these announcements by the authorities. “The government got scared of our unity, that we were together with the university’s management. It is hard for me to believe that people who for years built ‘the most liberal university of the country,’ all of a sudden turned into the guardians of the government,” he said. It is unclear who or what scared the university management into the sudden policy change, but some of its best professors stopped working, including Yulia Galyamina, a linguist and opposition leader. Police broke her jaw, cracked her teeth, and gave her a severe concussion when she took part in a protest.  Yelena Lukyanova, another professor who left the university, said kicking out Zhukov had forced the crackdown into the public eye. “At least they told the man everything openly, while all we heard was some indirect hints,” she wrote on social media. Lukyakova and three other former professors have started “the Free University,” an independent educational project free of political pressure and censorship. “There will be no ‘disloyal’ students at the Higher School of Economics, we spoke about these horrible changes six months ago, and here is the nail in the coffin of my alma mater,” wrote former student Roman Kiselyov-Augustus on Facebook. “They can ban you from studying for your political activity.”Zhukov returned home on Monday still badly bruised, but doctors said there would be no lasting damage from the attack. From the hospital, he had repeated the favorite slogan of former Putin nemesis Boris Nemtsov: “Russia will be free.” The Russian opposition leader was assassinated beneath the walls of the Kremlin in February 2015, when Zhukov was 18 years old. In neighboring Belarus, crowds are also demanding freedom after discredited elections. More than 100,000 protesters marched across the bridge in Minsk to the presidential residence, demanding Lukashenko’s resignation on Sunday. The Kremlin had stayed quiet for the first couple of weeks of the protests, while hundreds of Belarusians were detained, many beaten and tortured. Putin has since signaled growing support for the Lukashenko regime. To demonstrate Moscow’s backing, Putin called Lukashenko on Sunday with birthday greetings, while a crowd of protesters was outside chanting, "Happy birthday, Lukashenko, you are a rat!"Putin has also promised to send men from Moscow to help Lukashenko “halt extremist activity in the republic if an urgent need arises,” a spokesman said.Veteran human rights defender and chairwoman of the Civic Assistance Committee, Svetlana Gannushkina, said the two autocrats from the former Soviet Union had been emboldened by President Donald Trump’s calls to violently put down protests in the U.S. “Looking at Trump, they think it is OK to solve problems with the opposition outside of the rule of law,” she said. “In Russia the first target for the Kremlin’s reprisal is always the intelligentsia. Until recently, Zhukov’s university, the Higher School of Economics, was the source of progressive liberal ideas. Clearly it was an unpleasant place for the authoritarian government.” Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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VOA reporters say Trump appointee puts journalists at risk

It's the first time VOA reporters issued an on-the-record protest of Michael Pack, Trump's pick to run the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

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You Can’t Be Pro-Life Unless You Oppose Abortion

Election times in non-pandemic years can bring out some of the best and the worst of America. Both parties, in their convention productions, were maybe a mix of both. The aspirational, inspirational moments are the best, which, of course, may be a bit too much of a promise about what electing one ticket to the White House could ever possibly do. At the same time, they are important reminders that policy isn’t mere ideological adherence -- it affects human lives, family lives. It’s important, noble work. In campaign season, it can become harder to remember it isn’t everything, though.We don’t get our meaning from politics, politics is a necessary exercise -- our vote and our engagement in politics is one way we live out our civic responsibilities. Politics is not a never-ending reality-TV show for our entertainment or distraction. It’s not religion. As Sister Deidre Byrne put it during her Republican Convention segment, there’s such a thing as eternal life, and this life -- including politics -- should be part of our expressions of gratitude for our very lives and part of how we express hope for something greater. Anything inconsistent with that journey should have no place in politics.This leads us to abortion. There’s a lot of dismissal of “single-issue voters” these days. Believe me, I see it in my inbox. That makes an assumption that isn’t a given -- not everyone who is opposed to abortion is planning on voting for Donald Trump. There are debates about whether voting for someone other than Trump is a cop-out -- “blood on your hands” some on the right will argue. But set that debate aside for a moment: In recent weeks I’ve expressed my disappointment in Joe Biden. The Democrats have refused to give an option to people who consider abortion the preeminent human-rights issue. For that, I have been told I am a “so-called” pro-lifer.I actually agree with all those who insist that pro-life needs to mean more than defending the life of the unborn -- we as individuals and as a society must do all that we can to make life plausible, to ensure that single mothers and families have a fighting chance. We can’t look away from the children in foster care who will never have a shot if someone doesn’t give them the love of a family. Absolutely, pro-life should mean more than opposition to abortion. And anyone who has been around the pro-life movement has seen that it so often is people full of love for a mom who just needs some confidence and resources -- people walking with her, and, yes, for more than nine months.The other day, a Catholic priest responded to one of my columns mentioning Joe Biden and abortion. He explained that he considers Biden pro-life and that he’s voting for him. Here’s the problem with that: While I’m with the priest and believe that we absolutely must help vulnerable children in all kinds of situations, you can’t be pro-life and adhere to the extremist abortion policies of the Democratic Party.There’s a reason that the Democrats didn’t talk much about abortion during their convention -- because that’s not the pitch they want to make to people. The vast majority of Americans want to see some restrictions on abortion, they don’t see abortion as a good, but they want women in desperate situations to have options. “There but by the grace of God go I.” But like other words we use in our politics, the word “pro-life” is drained of meaning if it means contrary things -- if “pro-life” means that you can claim to be personally opposed to abortion but publicly supportive of it through all nine months of pregnancy, and even to the moments after a baby is born, having survived an abortion attempt. Democrats’ current abortion stance is a radical expansion of abortion. Just look to Andrew Cuomo for an example of that. A supposed leading light of Democratic politics expanded legal abortion in a state that was already considered the abortion capital of the country, and he celebrated it by lighting up the Empire State in pink neon. And he is lauded despite his decision that caused so many COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes in the state.The Democratic Party has chosen to double down on the death of innocents. That is what abortion is: It is a law that says the unborn can be treated as inconvenient and thrown away. The value of that human life is determined by the mother under the influence of the circumstances and pressures she finds around her. That they have to use euphemisms to make it attractive exposes the underlying rot.I have hopes that in a non-election year, people who call themselves pro-life and those who choose the pro-choice label can work together on foster care and adoption and paid family leave and other issues that we can agree on that are not the A-word. I’d like to see a day when fewer people consider themselves pro-choice, because they see the pregnancy help centers and communities who truly live the Beatitudes and help women and anyone in need. In the meantime, let’s not lose our heads -- or our souls -- over an election. There’s more to life, there’s more to do.Essential to that, too, though, is honesty: The Republicans are far from perfect, to say the least. And the Democrats refuse to stand for the vulnerable unborn. It’s a lie to call them pro-life and an abdication of responsibility not to insist on something better.This column is based on one available through Andrews McMeel Universal’s Newspaper Enterprise Association.

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UN labor body: Qatar 'dismantles' kafala employment system

New labor rules in the energy-rich nation of Qatar “effectively dismantles” the country's long-criticized “kafala” employment system, a U.N. labor body said Sunday. The International Labor Organization said as of now, migrant workers can change jobs before the end of their contracts without obtaining the permission of their current employers. Qatar also has adopted a minimum monthly wage of 1,000 Qatari riyals ($275) for workers, which will take effect some six months after the law is published in the country's official gazette, the ILO said.

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The alt-right group Patriot Prayer, associated with a man killed in the Portland protests, has a history of provoking left-wing groups: 'This was just a matter of time'

An Anti-Defamation League researcher fears that Aaron Danielson's killing will spur more bloodshed between right- and left-wing groups.

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Schiff vows to 'compel' intelligence on election security after DNI head Ratcliffe ends in-person briefings

"This intelligence paid for by taxpayers doesn't belong to Donald Trump," Schiff said. "It belongs to the American people."

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Russian opposition activist hospitalised after attack outside his home

A 22-year-old Russian opposition activist has been hospitalised after what supporters said was a vicious attack by two men outside his house in Moscow. Yegor Zhukov, who came to prominence last year when he was arrested and tried over opposition protests, posted pictures of his bruised and bloody face to social media following the attack. He was taken to hospital for an MRI scan which showed he had “fortunately managed to avoid serious injuries or internal bleeding,” a spokesman said. The activist “remained calm and even joked about what happened,” his team said in a social media post, adding that he was allowed home following tests.

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Letters to the Editor: California's blackouts prove it: We still need oil and gas for energy

California's leaders need to set aside ideology and admit that in the near term, the state still needs fossil fuels to prevent blackouts.

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Worth the wait: Yellowstone’s Giantess Geyser erupts for first time in six years

Giantess is one of the biggest geysers in the national park, and typically explodes between twice and six times a year In these troubled times there comes a point where we all need to let off steam.For this huge geyser in Yellowstone park, the moment was now and the eruption was spectacular, after a six-year wait.But, for the rest of us, watching this natural phenomenon is strangely meditative and beautifully distracting from much of the bad news around, despite the violent geothermal forces propelling it.Giantess Geyser spouted for the first time in more than six years in Yellowstone National Park, which straddles part of Wyoming and a little of Montana, on 25 August, according to the US National Park Service (NPS).“She” has more typically erupted between twice and six times a year in the past, according to the NPS website, and blasts a spout up to 200ft high.“The surrounding area may shake from underground steam explosions just before the initial water and/or steam eruptions,” the NPS website adds.Giantess is one of the biggest geysers in the park, alongside phenomena such as the super-tall Steamboat geyser, the largest active geyser in the world, and the park’s most famous, Old Faithful, renowned for its punctual regularity as it soars from the ground about 20 times a day.Colorful hot spring features in the park include the blue-hued Morning Glory Pool and the psychedelic Grand Prismatic spring, as well as whiffy, sulfurous bubblers and roiling natural pots of scalding hot water fizzing out of the rocks.The features are among more than 10,000 hot springs and geysers in the park, a Unesco world heritage site.

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Soldier who made ‘vile’ Holocaust joke to 3 million TikTok followers punished, Army says

“He wrote: ‘For legal reasons this is a joke.’ ... Would he look into the eyes of Survivors liberated by @USArmy and tell them this?” the Auschwitz Memorial Museum said in a tweet.

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Indiana Congressman introduces bill to ban protest 'thugs' from receiving unemployment aid

U.S. Rep. Jim Banks introduced a bill that would ban people from receiving unemployment aid if convicted of a federal offense related to protests.

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World Bank: Lebanon blast caused damage up to $4.6 billion

The massive explosion in Beirut earlier this month that killed and injured thousands of people has caused up to $4.6 billion in physical damage, the World Bank said in a report released Monday. The Aug. 4 blast was caused by the explosion of nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate stored at the Port of Beirut since 2014. The blast was the most destructive single incident in Lebanon’s history with thousands of buildings, including residential homes, hospitals, schools and museums suffering considerable damage.

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Far-right Patriot Prayer group says fatal shooting victim in Portland was a supporter

“I have regrets that Jay was shot," group founder Joey Gibson said of Saturday night's deadly confrontation that followed a pro-Trump caravan entering the city.

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Appeals court keeps Flynn case going, won't order dismissal

A federal appeals court will not order the dismissal of the Michael Flynn prosecution, permitting a judge to scrutinize the Justice Department's request to dismiss its case against the former Trump administration national security adviser.`

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German govt condemns 'unacceptable' attempt to storm Reichstag

The German government Sunday slammed the "unacceptable" behaviour of protesters during a mass rally against coronavirus restrictions in which hundreds were arrested and an attempt was made to storm the Reichstag parliament building.

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Mom rips gun and shoe from man accused of kidnapping her 1-year-old, Georgia cops say

The child has since been found safe, officials say.

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'Rest in peace Jay': sympathy for the far right foretells Trump's election strategy

The president has shown a lifelong penchant for inflaming racist hatreds and fears – expect much more of this before NovemberSix months into the coronavirus pandemic, Donald Trump tweeted a rare statement of condolences, as the confirmed death toll in the US climbed past 183,000.But the expression of regret was not for victims of Covid-19. Instead the president memorialized a member of a far-right group killed in Portland, Oregon on Saturday night.“Rest in peace Jay,” the president tweeted, referring to Aaron “Jay” Danielson, shot dead in clashes after a convoy of Trump supporters drove through an anti-racism protest.Trump is not often given to expressions of sympathy or understanding. But going back to the days when he took out a full-page ad in the New York Times to call for the deaths of five wrongfully accused Black men in the 1989 Central Park jogger case, he has shown a lifelong penchant for inserting himself at raw public moments to inflame racist hatreds and fears.The difference now is that Trump is president, and that penchant has become the centerpiece of his re-election strategy. That much is plain from his Twitter feed, which on Sunday included footage of a Black man assaulting a white woman on a subway platform, apropos of nothing.“I think he only means to agitate things,” said Karen Bass, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. “He is campaigning. It’s clear his campaign is all about ‘law and order’, it’s a throwback to the past, and he’s going to do everything to disrupt law and order in this time.”It has been three years since Trump defended the “very fine people” among the white supremacist marchers in Charlottesville, Virginia. It has been only two months since he branded anti-racist protesters “terrorists” and two weeks since he tweeted that “the history and culture of our great country [is] being ripped apart” with the removal of statues to Confederate leaders and generals.Trump has announced that he will visit Kenosha on Tuesday. The Wisconsin city has been the scene of protests after a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, four times in the back as Blake reached into a car in which his children were sitting.Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old who was both a Trump admirer and a self-styled law enforcement enthusiast, brought a semi-automatic rifle to the scene of protests in the city and killed two people, prosecutors say.Trump has expressed his support: on Friday the president “liked” a tweet thread beginning: “Kyle Rittenhouse is a good example of why I decided to vote for Trump.”Of the caravan of trucks flying Trump flags that drove into the anti-racism protests in Portland on Saturday, spraying mace and firing paintballs, Trump tweeted: “GREAT PATRIOTS!”A suspect held in the death of Danielson reportedly described himself as a supporter of “antifa”, a broad label applied to “anti-fascist” groups that Trump and the far right have accused of unsubstantiated acts of violence. Danielson was identified as a “friend and supporter” of the Patriot Prayer group, whose founder, a former Republican candidate for US Senate, has condemned white supremacy but which attracts white supremacist sympathizers.Trump’s planned Kenosha visit was seen by Bass and others as likely to inflame tensions at a time when calls for calm and mutual understanding are needed.“I think his visit has one purpose, and one purpose only, and that is to agitate things and to make things worse,” Bass said.For others, Trump’s plan to visit Kenosha was ominously reminiscent of visits to scenes of other conflicts critics say he has fomented with incendiary tweets and by cheerleading violent actors.After a white gunman who warned of a “Hispanic invasion” killed 22 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas last year, Trump visited despite urging from local officials not to. At the scene, Trump boasted about progress on his border wall.A year earlier, Trump paid a similarly controversial visit to Pittsburgh, where a gunman who accused Jews of “committing genocide to his people” killed 11 at a synagogue.Joe Biden has directly tied Trump’s rhetoric to such incidents of violence, and accused the president of unleashing “the deepest, darkest forces in this nation”.“How far is it from Trump’s saying this ‘is an invasion’ to the shooter in El Paso declaring ‘this attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas’?” Biden has tweeted. “Not far at all.”The Democratic nominee for president planned to visit Pittsburgh on Monday, “to lay out a core question voters face in this election: are you safe in Donald Trump’s America?”In released excerpts of his speech, he said: “This president long ago forfeited any moral leadership in this country. He can’t stop the violence – because for years he has fomented it.”Trump, Biden added, “may believe mouthing the words ‘law and order’ makes him strong, but his failure to call on his own supporters to stop acting as an armed militia in this country shows you how weak he is.”Writing for the Daily Beast, the columnist Michael Tomasky said trying to convince voters that Biden represents chaos would not work. The piece was titled “White People Aren’t as Racist or Stupid as Trump Thinks”.But four years ago, Trump showed he knew white voters, who made up 74% of the 2016 electorate, better than a lot of people. They voted 54%-39% for Trump, putting him where he is today.

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Hamas says deal reached to calm violence with Israel

Gaza’s Hamas rulers said Monday they have reached an agreement through international mediators to end the latest round of cross-border violence with Israel. Under the deal, Hamas is to halt the launches of explosives-laden balloons and rocket fire into Israel, while Israel said it will ease a blockade that has been tightened in recent weeks. The Israeli restrictions have worsened living conditions in Gaza at a time when it is coping with a new coronavirus outbreak.

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Will my child be sent home for cough, runny nose? What to know about day care guidelines during COVID-19

With flu, cold and allergy season around the corner, experts say a runny nose or cough is almost inevitable at daycare facilities.

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Trump retweeted a message from the far-right OAN network calling anti-racism protests an attempted 'coup'

The president has been accused of exploiting fear for political gain, and refusing to address the legitimate concerns that have led many to protest.

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If the police officer who shot Jacob Blake can prove he feared an 'imminent risk of death or great bodily harm,' his shooting could be legally justified

An officer shot Jacob Blake while he had his back turned toward them. If they reasonably feared for their lives, it may be legally justified.

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New Jersey mayor rescinds $2,500 police overtime bill sent to student who organized BLM protest

After holding the protest in July, Emily Gil received a letter from Mayor Mario Kranjac saying she owed $2,499.26 for police overtime.

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Kentucky AG has received ballistics in Breonna Taylor case

Kentucky's attorney general has received a long-awaited FBI ballistics report in the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor. Attorney General Daniel Cameron tweeted Sunday that there is additional analysis needed now that the report is in his hands, and there would be no announcement on the investigation this week. “We continue to work diligently to follow the facts and complete the investigation,” Cameron tweeted.

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Boat carrying nearly 370 migrants reaches Italy's Lampedusa

A fishing boat carrying nearly 370 migrants landed overnight on the Italian island of Lampedusa, where the main holding centre is already overcrowded, prompting the local mayor to call for a general strike to push the government take action.

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Joe Biden to go on the road again as poll lead shrinks

With his poll lead narrowing, Joe Biden is ready to campaign in person after months of being hunkered down in his Delaware basement because of the coronavirus pandemic. The former vice-president will go on the road after the September 7 Labour Day public holiday in the US. No itinerary has been set, but Mr Biden is expected to visit key swing states including Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Urban unrest and an aggressive performance by Donald Trump at last week’s Republican National Convention have cut Mr Biden’s lead by several points. According to Morning Consult, Mr Biden now has a six-point lead over the president, compared with 10 points before the Republican convention. Other polls have shown Mr Trump edging into the lead in two pivotal states: Michigan and Wisconsin.

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Africa's week in pictures: 21-27 August 2020

A selection of the week's best photos from across the continent and beyond.

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Dramatic last-second launch abort grounds spy satellite

The "hot-fire abort" derailed plans for three launches in just two days from Florida's Space Coast.

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India records world's biggest single-day jump in virus cases

India registered 78,761 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, the biggest single-day spike in the world since the pandemic began, just as the government began easing restrictions to help the battered economy. The surge raised India's tally to over 3.5 million, and came as the government announced the reopening of the subway in New Delhi, the capital. A country of 1.4 billion people, India now has the fastest-growing daily coronavirus caseload of any country in the world, reporting more than 75,000 new cases for four straight days.

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Marijuana is only legal in 11 states but a House vote coming next month could expand legalization to the entire US

The MORE Act, if passed by Congress, would remove marijuana from the controlled substances list and erase criminal records with marijuana charges.

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1 dead in Portland after Trump supporters, protesters clash

It wasn’t clear if the shooting was linked to fights that broke out as a caravan of about 600 vehicles was confronted by counter-demonstrators in the city’s downtown.

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Trump resumes campaign rallies and utters the unthinkable: 'If Biden wins...'

One night after accepting the Republican nomination, Donald Trump resumed campaigning for reelection as though the coronavirus pandemic was a thing of the past, rallying hundreds of supporters at New Hampshire airport hangar.

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Hundreds of protesters arrested by Belarusian police as 100,000 rally against Lukashenko

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters marched through the Belarusian capital of Minsk on Sunday calling for an end to strongman Alexander Lukashenko's rule, despite heavily armed police and troops blocking streets and detaining dozens of demonstrators. Protests have now entered a third week since the disputed presidential election on August 9 in which Mr Lukashenko claimed victory, while opposition rival Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said she was the true winner. An AFP journalist and local media estimated that more than 100,000 people came to Sunday's protest, equalling the scale of the rallies on previous weekends, the largest demonstrations the country has seen since independence from the USSR.

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A teen activist in New Jersey received a $2,500 bill to pay for police presence at a Black Lives Matter protest she organized

Mayor Mario Kranjac of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, said the bill covered police presence and their overtime hours.

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Fact check: Biden tax plan would raise rates for those who make more than $400K, corporations

The claim that families who make $75,000 would see their tax rate double under the Democratic nominee's plan is false.

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Death toll in China restaurant collapse climbs to 29

The number of people killed when a restaurant in northern China collapsed has climbed to 29, state media said Sunday, with efforts to find survivors brought to a close.

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Kim Klacik: President Trump is producing real results for the Black community

Republican congressional candidate Kim Klacik joins Maria Bartiromo on 'Sunday Morning Futures.'

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Trump to visit Wisconsin city on Tuesday where police shot Black man in the back

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday will visit Kenosha, Wisconsin, the city that has seen unrest since a white police officer shot a Black man in the back, a White House official told reporters on Saturday. Trump will meet law enforcement officials and assess damage in the city where the officer shot Jacob Blake, who is paralyzed from the waist down and remains in hospital, the official said. A 17-year-old boy is being held by authorities in Kenosha on suspicion of shooting three people who were protesting the shooting of Blake.

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Teslas were 3 of the 10 fastest-selling used cars amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to the data — see the full list

iSeeCars compiled a list of the 10 fastest used cars from March to June 2020. Tesla vehicles take up three of the 10 spots.

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Report: New York tenants were not aware they would be featured at the Republican National Convention

The tenants were interviewed by a HUD official, they said. The RNC was criticized for blurring the lines between the government and partisan politics.

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China restaurant collapses during birthday party, killing 29

Rescue efforts ended at a two-story restaurant in a northern Chinese village that collapsed during a local resident's 80th birthday celebration, leaving 29 people dead, authorities said Sunday. The Ministry of Emergency Management said another 28 people were injured, seven of them seriously, when the building suddenly crumbled on Saturday. Hundreds of rescue workers using sniffer dogs, cranes and high-tech sensors had searched the rubble, lifting slabs of concrete in hopes of freeing survivors.

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French lieutenant-colonel stationed at a NATO base in Italy charged with spying for Russia

A senior French military officer has been charged with espionage for allegedly passing top secret documents to Russian intelligence, Florence Parly, the defence minister, said on Sunday. The lieutenant-colonel, who has not been named, is stationed at a NATO base in Italy. He was detained by France’s General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI), the equivalent of MI5, 10 days ago. The officer was about to return to Italy after a holiday in France, Europe 1 radio reported, and is being held at La Santé prison in Paris. Ms Parly said the defence ministry had referred the case to public prosecutors. She declined to give details about the nature of the information allegedly given to Russia, saying the matter was sub judice. “We have taken all necessary measures. Now justice must be allowed to take its course while respecting the secrecy of the investigation… It is for the judicial system to decide what he is guilty of and whether he is guilty.” If convicted, the officer risks life imprisonment and a €750,000 (£669,000) fine. The case is likely to embarrass France in the eyes of its western allies if security failings that could potentially compromise NATO are revealed. It comes after two former agents of France’s external intelligence service, the DGSE, were handed prison sentences of 12 and 8 years last month for spying for China. The highly sensitive trial was held behind closed doors and little is known about the case against the agents, who had already retired when they were charged three years ago. One of them, named as Henri M, served as the DGSE’s Beijing station chief in the 1990s. He was recalled after starting an affair with the French ambassador’s Chinese interpreter. After his retirement, he returned to China in 2003 and married the former interpreter. The couple took up residence on Hainan Island, off China’s southern coast. Now 73, he was arrested in France in 2017. Around the same time the other agent, named as Pierre-Marie H, 68, was arrested at Zurich airport carrying a large amount of cash after meeting a Chinese contact on an island in the Indian Ocean. Under French law, the full names of former intelligence agents may not be made public.

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Rally supporting police draws scores to downtown Kenosha

Scores of police supporters gathered Sunday in downtown Kenosha where protesters have been demonstrating against police brutality since the shooting of Jacob Blake last weekend. A Kenosha police officer shot Blake in the back Aug. 23, leaving the 29-year-old Black man paralyzed. Protesters have marched in Kenosha every night since Blake’s shooting, with some protests devolving into unrest that damaged buildings and vehicles.

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Israel strikes Gaza after Palestinian militants fire rockets

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Biden, aiming at Trump, says he won't use military as 'prop'

Joe Biden said on Saturday that as president, he would never use the military “as a prop or private militia” and accused President Donald Trump of employing U.S. forces to settle “personal vendettas" and violate citizens' rights. The Democratic presidential nominee, in a virtual address to the National Guard Association of the United States' general conference, said Trump recommended "that you should be deployed to quote, ‘dominate,’ your fellow citizens for exercising their right to peacefully protest.” “We’re so much better than this," Biden said.

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Trump to Biden: Hands off my savior shtick

"In this country," President Trump said Thursday night at the Republican National Convention, "we don't look to career politicians for salvation. In America, we don't turn to government to restore our souls. We put our faith in almighty God." After a long applause break, he continued: Democratic nominee "Joe Biden is not a savior of America's soul. He is a destroyer of American jobs, and, if given the chance, he will be the destroyer of American greatness."Trump's phrasing and themes here are reminiscent of two memorable lines which bookended his 2016 campaign — lines which suggest Trump has no problem with a politician playing savior, so long as the politician is him."I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created," Trump said in his announcement speech at Trump Tower in the summer of 2015. In fact, it was the first promise he made after officially declaring his candidacy. A year later, at the 2016 convention, Trump accepted the GOP nomination. "I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves," he said. "Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it." Where past Republican presidents told Americans to rely on God and each other, Trump invited us to rely solely on him.These lines point to mainstays of Trump's political style: his self-aggrandizement ("I am the chosen one"), intense demands of personal loyalty, fixation on personal and national greatness, and heavy-handed use of American civil religion to give himself a messianic sheen. In his comments Thursday, then, notice Trump's use of "career," an adjective that isn't necessary if the point is about devotion to God.So "we don't look to career politicians for salvation," but what about "the greatest jobs president that God ever created" who entered politics because he "alone" can defend the defenseless? Trump may be willing to leave souls to God, but he'd undoubtedly welcome the title of savior of American jobs and greatness.More stories from theweek.com Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman dies at 43 McConnell inexplicably claims that Democrats want to tell Americans 'how many hamburgers you can eat' 5 more scathingly funny cartoons about the Republican National Convention

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Iranian man sentenced to nine years in prison for beheading daughter while she slept in 'honour killing'

An Iranian has been sentenced to nine years in jail for beheading his teenaged daughter in her sleep, local media reported Friday, adding that the mother wants him executed. The so-called "honour" killing of 14-year-old Romina Ashrafi on May 21 sparked widespread outrage, with media condemning "institutionalised violence" in the Islamic republic. Media said Romina was decapitated at the family home in the village of Talesh in the northern province of Gilan. "Despite the judicial authorities' insistence on a 'special handling' of the case, the verdict has terrified me and my family," Rana Dashti, the mother, told ILNA news agency. "I don't want my husband to return to our village ever again," she said, calling for the verdict to be reviewed and changed to "execution". Having lived with the man for 15 years, Dashti said she now fears for the life of the rest of her family. Ebtekar newspaper said at the time of Romina's killing that Iran's "eye for an eye" retributive justice does not apply to a father who kills his child, for which the customary sentence is jail time and fines. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has "expressed his regrets" following the girl's killing and called for the speedy passing of several anti-violence bills. Romina had reportedly run away after the father refused to give permission for her to marry a man 15 years her senior. But she was detained by authorities and taken home, despite having pleaded with a judge that she feared for her life if returned. The man she wanted to marry, Bahman Khavari, was sentenced to two years in prison, local media said, without specifying the charge. The legal age of marriage for women in Iran is 13.

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Marijuana is only legal in 11 states but a House vote coming next month could expand legalization to the entire US

The MORE Act, if passed by Congress, would remove marijuana from the controlled substances list and erase criminal records with marijuana charges.

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