Trump, Biden Spar Over US Protest Violence

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Nine weeks from the national U.S. election, President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, sparred Monday over blame for street violence linked to racial injustice and police treatment of minorities that erupted in recent days. Trump tweeted Monday that he plans Tuesday to visit Kenosha, Wisconsin, where protests turned violent last week in the aftermath of a police shooting of a Black man as they attempted to arrest him. A white teenage vigilante claiming to protect businesses in Kenosha was accused of fatally shooting two people and wounding a third during a street demonstration. Referring to Biden, Trumpmore

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US Court Denies Ex-Trump Adviser Flynn’s Bid to Halt Criminal Case 

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A U.S. appeals court on Monday denied a bid by Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, to immediately end the criminal case against him for lying to the FBI about his talks with a Russian official before Trump took office in 2017. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, rehearing an earlier decision by three of its judges, declined to issue an emergency order directing the judge hearing the case to grant the Department of Justice’s request for dismissal. The ruling allows U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan to hear arguments on whether he must grantmore

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Trump, Portland Mayor Clash Hours After Fatal Shooting

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President Donald Trump exchanged barbs Sunday with the mayor of Portland, Oregon, less than 24 hours after a man was killed as Black Lives Matter protesters and Trump supporters clashed in the Pacific Northwest city’s streets.At a press conference Sunday afternoon, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler urged protesters not to turn violent or attempt retribution in the wake of Saturday night’s shooting death.The president, apparently watching the broadcast, tweeted his criticism.Ted Wheeler, the wacky Radical Left Do Nothing Democrat Mayor of Portland, who has watched great death and destruction of his City during his tenure, thinks this lawless situation should gomore

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Top US Intelligence Official Ends In-Person Election Security Briefings for Congress

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U.S. counterintelligence officials will no longer brief lawmakers on threats to the upcoming presidential election in November, telling them such in-person briefings have led to leaks of “sensitive intelligence” and the politicization of information.Officials with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) verbally informed key lawmakers and congressional committees of the change Saturday, saying the intelligence on threats to the November 3 presidential election would still be provided, just in a different form.”We are committed to meeting our statutory responsibilities and keeping Congress fully and currently informed,” an ODNI official told VOA on the condition of anonymity.”For claritymore

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Young Activists Take Center Stage at March on Washington

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When the son of famed civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. took to the stage in Washington on Friday – 57 years after his father’s famous “I Have a Dream” address – he stepped aside for yet another King.“I am so honored to be here,” Martin Luther King III said while standing at the Lincoln Memorial. “But before I say something, I want you to hear from the future of our nation.”Wearing a bright teal headband and a black-and-white dress, 12-year-old Yolanda Renee King adjusted the microphone lower and glanced sideways at her father, smiling nervously.The younger King launchedmore

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College Athletes Add to Voices to Those Protesting Injustice

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College athletes across the country added their voices to those calling for an end to racial injustice Friday with football players and others marching on campus or stepping away from practices to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin.In Oklahoma, the Sooners football team walked in rows of three to the Unity Garden, where they held a 57-second moment of silence in honor of the 57-year anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.Assistant coach Dennis Simmons led a prayer before the team returned to its facilities.”The problems outmore

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College Towns Growing Alarmed Over Outbreaks Among Students

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As more and more schools and businesses around the country get the OK to reopen, some college towns are moving in the opposite direction because of too much partying and too many COVID-19 infections among students. With more than 300 students at the University of Missouri testing positive for the coronavirus, the local health director Friday ordered bars to stop serving alcohol at 9 p.m. and close by 10 p.m. Iowa’s governor ordered all bars closed this week around the University of Iowa and Iowa State University, while the mayor of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, did the same in the hometown of themore

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Republicans, Democrats Adapt Conventions to COVID Pandemic

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It may not have been as large as he had hoped, but President Donald Trump got his wish to deliver his acceptance speech before a live crowd to close the 2020 Republican National Convention. Both political parties had to grapple with the reality that the coronavirus pandemic would not allow the staging of a traditional convention, with thousands of people crowded into sports arenas. Democrats, instead, held a “virtual convention,” using a combination of messages from party leaders recorded from their homes, slickly produced promotional videos and user-generated content woven around a handful of live events to produce what could be describedmore

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US House Panel Announces Contempt Proceedings Against Pompeo

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The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee announced contempt proceedings against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday, citing his refusal to comply with a subpoena for records into his “transparently political misuse” of department resources.   The Democratic chairman of the committee, Eliot Engel, also cited Pompeo’s speech from Jerusalem before the Republican National Convention and said “he has demonstrated alarming disregard for the laws and rules governing his own conduct and for the tools the constitution provides to prevent government corruption.”   The committee last month issued a subpoena to Pompeo demanding documents he provided to Republicans investigating Democraticmore

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Small Businesses in College Towns Struggle Without Students

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Perry Porikos sat in the street outside one of his five businesses, in a makeshift patio area that didn’t exist before the COVID-19 pandemic  sent his best customers — University of Michigan students — back home in mid-March. The Greek immigrant arrived here more than four decades ago as a 20-year-old soccer player for the Wolverines and part-time dishwasher at The Brown Jug Restaurant, which he now owns. He nonchalantly dropped names of sports stars like Tom Brady and Michael Phelps, two of the many former Michigan students he counts as friends, and recalled hustling enough to own more thanmore

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Protesters Try to Drown Out Trump Speech, Yell at Sen. Paul

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Hundreds of demonstrators gathered around the White House for a “noise demonstration and dance party” in an attempt to drown out President Donald Trump’s speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination.   And later, a crowd enveloped U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky as he left the convention, yelling for him to say the name of police shooting victim Breonna Taylor, who was killed in his state, but there was no indication the protesters were the same.   “I hope you hear us, Trump,” the leader of the popular local band TOB shouted near the site of Trump’s speech. The bandmore

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Trump Accepts GOP Nomination, Slams Biden on China, Economy

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During his White House address Thursday accepting his party’s nomination for a second term, President Donald Trump said the November election “will decide whether we will defend the American way of life or whether we will allow a radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it.”  Trump, who faces a strong challenge from former Vice President Joe Biden, told a large crowd on the White House South Lawn “this is the most important election in the history of our country.” People watch video screens before President Donald Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, Aug. 27, 2020, in Washington.The 1,000-plus invited attendees,more

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Trump Accepts the Republican Party’s Nomination

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President Donald Trump concluded the final night of the Republican National Convention with an acceptance speech delivered in front a live audience of about 1,500 people on the South Lawn of the White House. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this recap. Camera: Virginia Gunawan Produced by: Barry Unger  …

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Trump Accepts GOP Nomination, Calls Biden ‘Destroyer of American Greatness’

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During his White House address Thursday accepting his party’s nomination for a second term, President Donald Trump said the November election “will decide whether we will defend the American way of life or whether we will allow a radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it.”Trump, who faces a strong challenge from former Vice President Joe Biden, told a large crowd on the White House South Lawn “this is the most important election in the history of our country.”The 1,000-plus invited attendees, including many Republican members of Congress, were seated close to each other and most did not wear facemore

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Five Former CDC Directors Speak Out About Ending Coronavirus Pandemic

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Former directors of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the world-renowned American agency that has long taken the lead in fighting communicable diseases, are voicing unusual criticism of the U.S. handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic and the CDC’s limited role in that effort.COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, has killed more than 180,000 people in the U.S., and those are only the confirmed cases. The CDC says the actual number of COVID-19 deaths is much higher and that the virus will be a leading cause of deaths in the U.S. in 2020.Five former CDC directors, appointedmore

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New Study: Voting by Mail Raises Turnout, Offers No Party a Significant Advantage

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A new study published this week suggests voting by mail would not bring chaos to the elections process, and could, in fact, boost turnout.Voting by mail has become something of a controversy in recent months, with the COVID-19 pandemic raising safety concerns about going to the polls, and U.S. President Donald Trump insisting voting by mail would be fraud-ridden and unfair to his Republican Party.Two political scientists, one from the University of Virginia and the other from Brigham Young University, examined the issue and FILE – A man walks by a United States Postal Service mailbox in downtown Washington, Augustmore

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Biden Rejects Suggestion He Not Debate Trump  

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Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is rejecting calls that he not formally debate President Donald Trump.  “I’m going to debate him. I am going to be the fact-checker on the stage while I’m debating him,” Biden said Thursday during an interview with MSNBC. The former vice president added, “I think everybody knows that this man has a somewhat pathological tendency not to tell the truth.”  Trump and Biden are scheduled for debates on September 29, October 15 and October 22. Biden made the statements shortly after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she did not think there should be any presidential debates this year.more

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White House, Democrats Resume Coronavirus Aid Talks; No Progress Reported

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The White House and congressional Democrats made no progress Thursday on a coronavirus financial relief package that has been stalled for weeks, as benefits ran out for millions of unemployed Americans.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said a Thursday afternoon call with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows “made clear that the White House continues to disregard the needs of the American people as the coronavirus crisis devastates lives and livelihoods.”Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer last met with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Meadows at the end of July, just as $600 a week in supplemental federal unemployment benefitsmore

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RNC Highlights Law & Order, Downplays Coronavirus

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President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign has made “law and order” a central theme of this week’s Republican National Convention, focusing attention on incidents of violence and vandalism that have accompanied widespread racial justice protests. VOA’s Brian Padden reports on what Trump supporters see as a growing threat to public safety and why his opponents say Trump is politicizing the crisis. …

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Republican Convention Highlights Law & Order, Downplays Coronavirus

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President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign has made “law and order” a central theme of this week’s Republican National Convention, focusing attention on incidents of violence and vandalism that have accompanied widespread racial justice protests. VOA’s Brian Padden reports on what Trump supporters see as a growing threat to public safety and why his opponents say Trump is politicizing the crisis. …

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Republican Convention Highlights Law and Order, Downplays Coronavirus

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President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign has made “law and order” a central theme of this week’s Republican National Convention, focusing attention on incidents of violence and vandalism that have accompanied widespread racial justice protests. VOA’s Brian Padden reports on what Trump supporters see as a growing threat to public safety and why his opponents say Trump is politicizing the crisis. …

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Pence Assails Biden on Police Funding Amidst US Racial Unrest

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With more racial unrest roiling the United States, Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday night told voters that “you won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America,” attacking the Democratic presidential candidate as a willing partner of those who want to curb police funding.”Joe Biden says America is systemically racist,” Pence said on the third night of the Republican National Convention. “And that law enforcement in America has a quote, ‘implicit bias,’ against minorities. And when asked whether he’d support cutting funding to law enforcement, and he replied, ‘Yes, absolutely.’””The hard truth is…you won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America,” Pencemore

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