A majority of Americans – white and black – agree that race relations are bad, getting worse

In the wake of a series of black men's shooting deaths during encounters with police and the killing of five police officers in Dallas by a sniper targeting white law enforcement officers, several of the nation's leading news organizations - The Washington Post and ABC News, the New York Times and CBS News - decided to include questions about race relations in their political polls. Among the questions: How would you describe the state of race relations? Are they getting better or worse? And should the next president focus on racial issues? Here's the takeaway.

Police tighten security after 3 officers killed in Baton Rouge

Officers Montrell Jackson, Matthew Gerald and Brad Garafola were killed Sunday after being ambushed and shot by a lone gunman in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Their deaths have kept the spotlight on a region where the July 5 shooting death of Alton Sterling at the hands of police began what has been two weeks of national turmoil.

Troubled GOP convention opens amid violence

The Republican National Convention is set to kick off as the nation reels from another deadly shooting and dissident delegates stage a longshot, last-gasp effort to deny Donald Trump the GOP nomination for president. Amid the tumult, it was undeniably Trump's moment - a week at the pinnacle of American politics that few could have imagined when the New York billionaire entered the race a year ago.

Baton Rouge gunman kills 3 lawmen

Baton Rouge police officers run from the emergency room ramp as a man is taken into custody after a gun was found in his vehicle near the entrance of Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center on Sunday in Baton Rouge, where wounded officers were taken. BATON ROUGE -- Three Baton Rouge law enforcement officers investigating a report of a man with a rifle were killed Sunday, less than two weeks after a black man was fatally shot by Baton Rouge police in a confrontation that sparked national protests.

Obama urges Americans to tamp down inflammatory rhetoric

Confronting another killing of police officers, President Barack Obama on Sunday urged Americans to tamp down inflammatory words and actions as a violent summer collides with the nation's heated presidential campaign. Obama said the motive behind Sunday's killing of three officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was still unknown.

A world in turmoil raises the bar for US party conventions

Baton Rouge police officer Randy Bonaventure takes a bouquet of flowers at the Our Lady of the Lake Hospital where the police officers were brought today. Photo / AP The deadly shootings of police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, today, coming after the coup attempt and subsequent roundup of plotters in Turkey over the weekend, which followed a devastating attack in the French city of Nice, all have combined to redraw the backdrop for the Republican National Convention, which opens in Cleveland tomorrow.

The Latest: Overflow crowd attends rapper’s gang summit

Dozens of people have gathered in New Jersey to mark the second anniversary of the death of Eric Garner, whose chokehold death became a rallying cry for protests over police killings of black men. A 59-year-old man who authorities say drove a rented car from Arizona to a rural Nevada town and detonated two bombs at the house of former co-workers shot himself dead before the blasts erupted, according to autopsy... Several officers have been shot in Baton Rouge Sunday morning while on duty less than a mile from police headquarters, police said.

Baton Rouge police shooting: What we know

Police-community relations in Baton Rouge have been tense since the killing earlier this month of 37-year-old black man Alton Sterling. Baton Rouge police shooting: What we know Police-community relations in Baton Rouge have been tense since the killing earlier this month of 37-year-old black man Alton Sterling.

Kathleen Parker, Washington Post: So whose life most matters among us?

These fractured thoughts were all I could muster upon waking Friday to news of the ambush on Dallas police. They were still fresh in my mind from the night before when I'd turned in early, exhausted by the images of 32-year-old Philando Castile dying in Minnesota after a police officer shot him.