Supreme Court Pick Upends Unpredictable US Election

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The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has placed the political battle over her replacement at the center of the U.S. presidential election that is six weeks away. VOA’s Brian Padden reports that President Donald Trump’s determination to quickly fill the vacancy, and Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s call to let the winner of the presidential contest put forth a nominee, are reminding voters of the hot-button issues from health care to abortion rights that the court may soon decide. …

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Trump Considering Five Women for Supreme Court Vacancy 

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U.S. President Donald Trump met at the White House on Monday with one of the five women on his list to replace Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, according to sources.  The 87-year-old liberal icon died last Friday after a lengthy battle with cancer. Trump said he would announce his nominee after funeral services for her later this week.  The president mentioned Amy Coney Barrett by name, along with Barbara Lagoa, as he spoke to reporters before boarding his Marine One helicopter on the South Lawn. He did not confirm meeting with Barrett.  U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuitmore

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House Democrats File Bill to Fund US Government But Leave Out New Farm Money

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The U.S. Congress this week considers legislation to fund the federal government through mid-December, but a dispute over farm aid raised questions about whether lawmakers can avoid a government shutdown amid a pandemic just weeks before the Nov. 3 elections. With government funding lapsing on Sept. 30, House Democrats announced Monday they had filed the stopgap funding legislation, but angered Republicans by leaving out new money that President Donald Trump wanted for farmers. The House will take up the bill Tuesday, a Democratic aide said. The Senate could then act later this week. The new federal fiscal year starts Oct. 1. The billmore

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Trump Plans to Promote ‘Patriotic Education’

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U.S. President Donald Trump recently announced plans to promote “patriotic education” in U.S. schools, saying he wants to protect children from indoctrination by the “radical left” which, he said, sees America as a “racist nation.” This latest move by Trump reflects the debate on racial justice that’s heating up ahead of the November election, with both candidates holding starkly different views. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this story. …

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Trump Considering 5 for Supreme Court Vacancy

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U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday he has narrowed his list of possible Supreme Court nominees down to five people and expects to announce his choice to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Friday or Saturday.Trump has said he will name a woman and identified three of his choices as Amy Coney Barrett, Barbara Lagoa and Allison Jones Rushing, three conservatives he appointed to federal appellate court judgeships in recent years. He declined to name the other two possible choices in a wide-ranging interview on the court vacancy and other issues on the Fox & Friends show.“The bottom linemore

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Democrats, Republicans Clash Over Naming Supreme Court Pick Before Election

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As the country mourns Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Friday, President Donald Trump has vowed to nominate a successor this week. The head of the Senate said he would move to confirm the nominee, but Democrats are pushing back. Two key Republican senators said they would argue to wait for a Supreme Court confirmation vote until after election. What’s clear is that both parties see this as a key battle just six weeks before Election Day. Michelle Quinn reports. …

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Democrats, Republicans Draw New Battle Lines Over Supreme Court Ahead of Election

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As the country mourns Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Friday, President Donald Trump has vowed to nominate a successor this week. The head of the Senate said he would move to confirm the nominee, but Democrats are pushing back. Two key Republican senators said they would argue to wait for a Supreme Court confirmation vote until after election. What’s clear is that both parties see this as a key battle just six weeks before Election Day. Michelle Quinn reports. …

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Political Brawl Erupts Over US Supreme Court Vacancy

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Battle lines were drawn across America’s political landscape Saturday over the replacement of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose death Friday silenced the court’s best-known liberal voice and raised the possibility of a 6-3 conservative majority on the bench.The vacancy came weeks before the November 3 general election that will decide whether President Donald Trump gets a second term in office as well as which party will control the chambers of Congress. How and when the vacancy is filled will have immediate political impact and could leave a permanent imprint on how the Senate functions and America ismore

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Ginsburg’s Death to Trigger Confirmation Process for Successor

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Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell promised shortly after the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was announced Friday that he would bring President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace her to a full Senate vote.“President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate,” McConnell said in a statement that did not indicate when it would happen.Nonetheless, the death of the liberal Supreme Court justice triggers a confirmation process mandated by the Constitution that begins with the president.Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution provides that the president “shall nominate, and by and withmore

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Trump Calls on Senate to Vote ‘Without Delay’ on His Supreme Court Pick

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President Donald Trump on Saturday urged the Republican-run Senate to consider “without delay” his upcoming nomination to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg just six weeks before the election.The White House was making preparations to select a nominee for the seat held by Ginsburg, who spent her final years on the bench as the unquestioned leader of the court’s liberal wing.Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, vowed on Friday night, hours after Ginsburg’s death, to call a vote for whomever Trump nominated. Democrats said Republicans should follow the precedent they set inmore

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More US Coronavirus Relief Still Possible After Trump Signals Interest

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U.S. President Donald Trump rekindled hope this week for a second coronavirus relief package for millions of financially ailing Americans who lost jobs because of the pandemic-induced economic slowdown, when he urged Republican lawmakers to support economic relief legislation.Trump suddenly expressed support Wednesday for a $1.5 trillion bill proposed by the Problem Solvers Caucus, a bipartisan group of House members, that would provide a fresh round of $1,200 stimulus checks to individuals.A new round of stimulus checks was excluded from a roughly $500 billion plan Senate Republicans failed to pass earlier this month, capping months of unsuccessful negotiations to bringmore

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FBI Director Warns of ‘Drumbeat’ of Russian Disinformation, Stoking Trump’s Ire

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FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday warned lawmakers that Russia is not letting up in its efforts to sway the outcome of the November presidential election by trying to hurt the campaign of Democratic candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden – testimony that appears not to be sitting well with U.S. President Donald Trump.Wray, testifying before the House Homeland Security Committee, described the Kremlin’s influence operations as “very, very active” on social media, on its own state-run media and through various proxies.The aim of these influence operations is “primarily to denigrate Vice President Biden and what the Russians seemore

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Virus Clusters at French Universities Give Europe a Lesson

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Can mandatory masks offer enough protection in lecture halls so packed that late arrivals have to sit on the floor?  That’s what worries many students at the centuries-old Sorbonne University in Paris as the coronavirus is on the rebound across France.  At least a dozen COVID-19 clusters have emerged since French campuses and classrooms opened this month. The clutches of cases are a warning sign for countries elsewhere in Europe, where most universities are readying to resume teaching and research in coming weeks.  “We go back to university in conditions that are a bit extreme, and we fear we mightmore

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FBI Director Warns of ‘Drumbeat’ of Russian Disinformation, Stoking the Ire of President Trump

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FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday warned lawmakers that Russia is not letting up in its efforts to sway the outcome of the November presidential election by trying to hurt the campaign of Democratic candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden – testimony that appears not to be sitting well with U.S. President Donald Trump.Wray, testifying before the House Homeland Security Committee, described the Kremlin’s influence operations as “very, very active” on social media, on its own state-run media and through various proxies.The aim of these influence operations is “primarily to denigrate Vice President Biden and what the Russians seemore

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Trump, Biden Question Each Other’s Fitness for Office

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U.S. President Donald Trump and his election challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, on Thursday accused each other as being unfit for office.Trump, who is 74, characterized his 78-year-old opponent as “shot” and “weak” and alleged that “something is off” with Biden’s mental state.Speaking at a political rally in the Midwestern state of Wisconsin, 47 days before the election, the Republican president added that Biden “doesn’t know he’s alive.”Biden, in Pennsylvania, criticized Trump as being “totally irrational” in his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and discouraging people from following the scientific advice of the government’s own health experts.“You’ve got tomore

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Battleground State of Michigan Key in 2020 Path to White House

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Michigan is one of several battleground states that could determine the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.  President Donald Trump narrowly won the state in 2016, but current polls show his opponent, Democrat and former Vice President Joe Biden, in the lead.  As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, concerns about voter turnout and the pandemic weigh on the campaigns of both candidates.    Camera: Kane Farabaugh  Produced by: Kane Farabaugh …

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US Judge Blocks Postal Service Changes That Slowed Mail

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A U.S. judge on Thursday blocked controversial Postal Service changes that have slowed mail nationwide, calling them “a politically motivated attack on the efficiency of the Postal Service” before the November election.Judge Stanley Bastian in Yakima, Washington, said he was issuing a nationwide preliminary injunction sought by 14 states that sued the Trump administration and the U.S. Postal Service.The states challenged the Postal Service’s so-called leave behind policy, where trucks have been leaving postal facilities on time regardless of whether there is more mail to load. They also sought to force the Postal Service to treat election mail as first-classmore

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Trump’s Advantage Over Biden on Economy Slipping

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While former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden has held a steady six or seven-point lead over President Donald Trump in the national public opinion polls, Trump has held one clear advantage over Biden — on the question of who voters believe is best suited to handle a troubled economy.  As recently as mid-August, a CNN poll indicated that 53% of voters believed Trump, the one-time New York real estate magnate, was the better candidate for economic issues, with 45% in the survey preferring Biden. But even that advantage has begun to dissipate. Just two weeks later, the same poll foundmore

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Infection Rates Soar in College Towns as Students Return

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Just two weeks after students started returning to Ball State University last month, the surrounding county had become Indiana’s coronavirus epicenter. Out of nearly 600 students tested for the virus, more than half have been positive. Dozens of infections have been blamed on off-campus parties, prompting university officials to admonish students. University President Geoffrey Mearns wrote that the cases apparently were tied not to classrooms or dormitories but to “poor personal choices some students are making, primarily off campus.”   “The actions of these students are putting our planned on-campus instruction and activities at risk,” he said. Similar examples aboundmore

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No Signs of Cyberattacks Targeting US Election Systems

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Top U.S. law enforcement, military and intelligence officials are expressing confidence in their ability to maintain the security of the upcoming presidential election, despite mounting evidence that several countries remain intent on meddling with the vote.Officials have been bracing for some sort of attack on the election for nearly four years, ever since the U.S. intelligence community concluded Russia sought to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. But with less than 50 days until voters head to the polls on November 3, they say there are no signs Russia or anyone else is trying to hack critical election systems.”Wemore

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Issues Important to Young Voters  

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“My name is Natalie Bergeron. I’m 20 years old.” “My name is Daniel Hendrick. I’m 19 years old.”  “Nelson Quezada, 22 years old.” “Michael Rotstein, age 20. I go to Stetson University.” Daniel Hendrick “I am a sophomore at Stetson University.” Natalie Bergeron “And I go to Stetson University.”   Nelson Quezada  “I attend Stetson University.” Daniel Hendrick “So, for me, as a queer-identifying man, like, this election is super important.” Nelson Quezada  “So, immigration reform is really important to me.” Natalie Bergeron “Environmental issues that are smaller scale than just saying a blanket statement about climate change.”   Michael Rotstein “I’m very pro-Second Amendment; I like my gun.” Natalie Bergeron “So,more

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US Lawmakers Clash Over State Department Oversight 

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Top State Department aides Wednesday defended President Donald Trump’s firing of State Department Inspector General (IG) Steve Linick earlier this year, telling lawmakers the decision was within the White House’s executive authority.“The IG’s removal was not about retaliation on any specific report or investigation,” Brian Bulatao, State Department undersecretary of management, told lawmakers.But congressional Democrats allege Linick’s firing was connected to two investigations his office was conducting into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s conduct.The first investigation involved Pompeo’s emergency declaration that allowed the Trump administration to circumvent the U.S. Congress to approve $8 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia.more

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US Health Official to Take Leave of Absence After Accusing Government Scientists of ‘Sedition’

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A top U.S. spokesman on the coronavirus is taking a leave of absence after accusing government scientists of “sedition” and alleging their handling of the pandemic was meant to undermine President Donald Trump.     In a statement Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said Michael Caputo, the agency’s assistant secretary of public affairs. will be on leave for the next 60 days “to focus on his health and the well-being of his family.”   Caputo contended without evidence Sunday that a “resistance unit” of medical personnel “deep in the bowels” of the government’s Centers for Diseasemore

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Major US College Football Conference Will Attempt to Play in October

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In a reversal of its decision to cancel its 2020 U.S. college football schedule due the COVID-19 pandemic, the Big Ten Athletic Conference on Wednesday announced plans to resume play in October. In a statement posted on its website, the conference said its Council of Presidents and Chancellors voted unanimously to resume the football season starting the weekend of Oct. 23, 2020. Last month, the collection of colleges and universities voted 11-3 to postpone the season, with The Ohio State University, University of Iowa and University of Nebraska voting against. The conference said the emergence of daily rapid-response COVID-19 testing, not availablemore

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