Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Kamala Harris, a California senator and daughter of immigrants who has broken racial barriers at every step of her political career, made US history on Wednesday night as she became the first Black woman and first Asian American to formally accept a major party’s vice-presidential nomination.
In the most consequential speech of her career to date, Harris urged voters to reject the divisive and destructive leadership of Donald Trump, calling him a president who “turns our tragedies into political weapons”.
The former president spoke at the Democratic national convention and cast Donald Trump as someone who will 'tear our democracy down if that's what it takes to win' and urges Americans to get out and vote in November
Hundreds of fires are raging across California, forcing tens of thousands of residents – who were already facing blackouts and the coronavirus pandemic – to flee their homes. The flames, sparked by lightning and stoked by a searing heatwave and ferocious winds, have been moving quickly, overwhelming the state’s firefighters and first responders.
“It’s kind of an overwhelming fire siege,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.
President says followers of movement, which claims Trump is fighting ‘deep state’ paedophiles, ‘love our country’
Donald Trump has tacitly endorsed QAnon, a baseless rightwing conspiracy theory identified as a potential domestic terrorism threat by the FBI, claiming its followers “love our country” and “like me very much”.
Followers of the QAnon movement believe without evidence that Trump is fighting a Satanic “deep state” of global elites involved in paedophilia, human trafficking and the harvesting of a supposedly life-extending chemical from the blood of abused children.
Yet asked about the theory at Wednesday’s White House press briefing, the US president failed to condemn it. “I don’t know much about the movement other than I understand they like me very much, which I appreciate,” he said. “I have heard that it is gaining in popularity.”
Democrats stage the third night of their online convention after formally nominating Joe Biden as the presidential candidate for November’s election. The main speakers on Wednesday include Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi
US to activate controversial ‘snapback’ procedure, which Britain, France and Germany say it doesn’t have the right to do
President Donald Trump has announced that secretary of state Mike Pompeo will activate a controversial mechanism aimed at reimposing UN sanctions on Iran, escalating a row with European allies that has huge repercussions for the Iranian nuclear deal.
Pompeo will travel to New York on Thursday to notify the UN security council that the US is triggering the so-called “snapback” procedure, which Britain, France and Germany say it doesn’t have the right to do.
Cluster of wildfires in Napa, Sonoma and Solano counties cover an estimated 46,225 acres
Lake fire in southern California has burned more than 21,000 acres
Three wild fires and more than 10,000 acres are currently burning out of control around the San Francisco Bay area, prompting officials to issue evacuation orders for residents living near the blazes.
Gov. Newsom said today that he has asked three states — Arizona, Nevada and Texas — to provide hundreds of fire engines to help contain the flames.
Evacuation Order expanded to include all areas west of County Road 306 west to Mendocino County line. Full length of County from Tehama County line south to Colusa County line. #GlennCounty#AugustComplexpic.twitter.com/AlAizoPraM
Wildfires in northern California have made the air quality in the San Francisco Bay Area the worst in the world.
As fires blaze through eight of the nine counties surrounding San Francisco, smoke is drifting across the region and light ash falls from the sky.
It’s raining ash in California, forcing us to wear a different kind of mask than we wear for the pandemic when we go buy the generator we need for either rolling blackouts or preemptive outages so we can work from home if we haven’t been evacuated or our house hasn't burned down
What it’s like to live in California right now.
My car was JUST washed and all of this is ash from the wildfires surround us. ITS LITERALLY RAINING ASHES!!!! pic.twitter.com/XB4iLaG9l5
Islamophobe claims RNC chairwoman called her ‘rock star,’ ‘change agent’ for the party
This is Lois Beckett, taking over our politics live blog from our West Coast office.
Anti-Muslim extremist Laura Loomer claims RNC chairwoman called her to congratulate her on her Republican primary win in Florida and to tell her she was a "political rock star" and a "change agent for the Republican Party." The RNC did not offer comment.https://t.co/ONpC9mfOKz
That’s it from me for now. I will be back tonight to cover the third night of the Democratic convention.
Assurances on Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh dependent on UK handing over evidence
The US has promised not to pursue the death penalty against two British Isis members accused of taking part in the beheadings of western hostages, in return for UK cooperation with the prosecution.
The pledge was given in a letter from the US attorney general, William Barr, in the case of Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, members of the “Beatles” group of British Isis members, who were captured by Syrian Kurds and then handed over to US custody last October.
Move is part of a broad Facebook policy shift toward movements with links to violence such as baseless internet conspiracy Qanon
Facebook has taken down or restricted more than 10,000 groups, pages and Instagram accounts associated with QAnon, US-based militia groups, and organizations that promote violent acts at protests. The moves are the result of a shift in the company’s policy toward movements with links to violence that do not meet the criteria for an outright ban.
Facebook will still allow people to post content that supports these movements, but “will restrict their ability to organize” on the platform by removing them from recommendation algorithms, reducing their ranking in news feed and search results, and prohibiting them from using features such as fundraising and advertising, the company said. Facebook will also remove pages, groups and accounts that discuss violence, and said it will study the terminology and symbolism that groups typically use to disguise their intent.
The removal of the items followed pressure from Twitter users who urged people to complain to the retail giant
Amazon has removed a clothing line emblazoned with an offensive slogan referring to Kamala Harris from its website after complaints from Twitter users who branded it “unacceptable”.
The T-shirts, tank tops and hoodies which had the words “Joe and the hoe” written in red, white and blue in the style of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his running mate Harris’s campaign logo, were on sale for between $24.99 and $42.99.
Democrats formally nominated Joe Biden for president during an emotional second night of their party’s virtual convention, warning that Donald Trump was an 'existential threat' to America who had failed to get a grip on the coronavirus pandemic. Here are the key moments from the evening
The 25th edition of France’s Colmar Jazz Festival, scheduled for September, has been postponed until next year due to the coronavirus epidemic, the city said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Current progress in the health crisis does not allow us today, realistically, to consider staging concerts in September,” the statement says, adding that this edition of the festival will now take place in 2021.
American Indians and Alaska Natives have been hit harder by Covid-19 than the white US population and have been more likely to become infected by coronavirus at a younger age, a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report showed on Wednesday.
The incidence of laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 cases among people identified as American Indians or Alaska Natives was 3.5 times that of non-Hispanic whites, making them one of the racial and ethnic minority groups at highest risk, according to the study based on data from 23 US states from 22 January to 3 July.
Second night of Democratic convention saw 17 rising stars in party deliver the keynote and an elevator operator nominate Biden
Democrats formally nominated Joe Biden for president during an emotional second night of their party’s virtual convention, warning that Donald Trump was an “existential threat” to America who had failed to get a grip on the coronavirus pandemic.
The official nomination elevates a historic ticket that includes his vice-presidential running mate Kamala Harris, the first Black woman to be nominated for national office by a major party.
Prominent activist Ady Barkan called on voters to act in the forthcoming presidential election to safeguard the future of the US healthcare system.
'Even during this terrible crisis, Donald Trump and Republican politicians are trying to take away millions of people's health insurance,' Barkan said on the second night of the Democratic national convention
The New York congresswoman seconded the nomination of the Vermont senator and praised his 'historic grassroots campaign to reclaim our democracy' in convention address
Democrats attending an online convention are expected to formally pick Joe Biden as their party's nominee to face President Donald Trump in the Nov 3 election. The main speakers on the second night of the convention include Joe Biden's wife, Jill, former President Bill Clinton, liberal firebrand Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the party's 2004 presidential nominee John Kerry
The House speaker on Tuesday said Democrats would fight to protect the US Postal Service and postal voting after Donald Trump's new postmaster general announced he was halting some operational changes to mail delivery that critics warned could disrupt the November election. Speaking to reporters in front of a US post office in the Bayview neighbourhood in San Francisco, Pelosi mocked the Trump administration's stance on funding for the postal service