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Two tropical storms advanced across the Caribbean Saturday as potentially historic threats to the US Gulf Coast, one dumping rain on Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands while the other was pushing through the gap between Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and Cuba.
Tropical Storms Laura and Marco were both projected to approach the US Gulf Coast at or close to hurricane force, representing a very unusual threat to Americans in their paths.
On Saturday, however, Donald Trump appeared more preoccupied with airing grievances and promoting baseless conspiracy theories on Twitter.
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In one tweet, the US president falsely claims his own government was delaying a coronavirus vaccine in order to hurt his re-election chances.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is set to visit Israel and the United Arab Emirates on Monday, following a White House diplomatic accord with the two nations, Reuters reports.
He is expected to meet with state officials and discuss security issues concerning China.
In a preview of the 2020 Republican National Convention, Donald Trump tells Fox News he’s aiming for an “uplifting and positive” event.
The Republican National Convention is scheduled to begin on Monday, though scant details have emerged, and a schedule from campaign and GOP officials has included only broad strokes with some key remarks.
Lara Trump, wife of Eric Trump and senior adviser to Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, told NBC News on Saturday that “you’re going to see is a very different depiction of America.”
“What we saw last week from the Democrats, really their entire convention was about bashing Donald Trump, and it was a dark, dismal and really depressing vision of America I think that they presented,” she said. “We are going to have the opposite.”
As I noted in my preview of the 2020 RNC, the campaign has insisted that it is the Democrats, not the president, depicting a “dark” vision of America, despite the president’s “American Carnage” inauguration speech and ongoing attacks against other Americans splintering the US and plotting to “end America.”
Donald Trump has returned to his golf property in Virginia on Saturday.
The president been roundly criticised for frequently returning to his golf game, now as two tropical storms threaten the Gulf Coast, wildfires sear 1m acres in California, and the coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 175,000 Americans.
Donald Trump suggested this morning that the FDA, led by his own appointee, is part of a “deep state” conspiracy to delay a coronavirus vaccine until after the election.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called his remarks “a very dangerous statement” and that “even for him, it went beyond the pale.”
Biden leading Trump by larger margin than Clinton at same point from 2016, but no bump in the polls after DNC
“Compared to Monday, the share with favorable opinions of Biden rose 3 points, to 51 percent — a single-day high in Morning Consult polling — while the share with unfavorable views fell by the same amount, to 45 percent,” according to the pollsters.
The poll of 4,377 likely voters conducted on Friday found that Biden leads Trump by 9 percentage points – 52 percent to 43 percent, which is statistically unchanged a poll earlier in the week.
The president’s popularity also has not changed. Roughly 43 per cent of respondents view him favourably, while 55 per cent expressed unfavorable views.
White House officials glimpsed renovations of the Rose Garden to reporters on Saturday, ahead of the site’s backdrop for First Lady Melania Trump’s Tuesday address at the Republican National Convention.
The project marks the first time in 60 years that the garden has seen a renovation.
But White House pool reporters’ questions about the cost of the project and a list of donors who supported what officials say is a privately funded effort have not been answered.
The garden is under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service.
Just days before his inauguration, Donald Trump claimed that he was more in tune with the African-American community than a group of prominent civil rights activists, including the son of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
The meeting between Trump and the activists, including Martin Luther King III, William Wachtel, and Riverside Church pastor Dr Rev James Forbes, was arranged by Presidential Transition Team aides as a way to settle tensions between the incoming president and the African-American community.
Andrew Feinberg with an exclusive report:
Two hurricanes have never appeared in the Gulf of Mexico at the same time, according to records going back to at least 1900, said Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach. The last time two tropical storms were in the Gulf together was in 1959, he said.
The last time two storms made landfall in the United States within 24 hours of each other was in 1933, Mr Klotzbach added.
The projected track from the US National Hurricane Center would put both storms together in the Gulf on Tuesday, with Marco hitting Texas and Laura making landfall a little less than a day later, though both tracks remain uncertain.
Laura was already flinging rain across Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Saturday morning and was expected to drench the Dominican Republic, Haiti and parts of Cuba during the day on its westward course.
Associated Press
One of the biggest immediate concerns to Americans, especially ones near the Gulf of Mexico, is the impending arrival of two potential hurricanes following a very similar path.
Dozens of wildfires have scorched nearly 1m acres across California as officials scramble for aid to contain the raging blazes.
Nearly 12,000 firefighters are actively combatting more than 20 fires, each made up of several blazes, as California Governor Gavin Newsom seeks support from neighbouring states and emergency services across the US and abroad.
“These fires are stretching our resources, stretching our personnel,” the governor said during a press conference on Friday. “And not one governor has not been responsive.”
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Donald Trump is expected to address each night of a mostly virtual four-day Republican National Convention, with First Lady Melania Trump delivering remarks on Tuesday and Vice President Mike Pence speaking from Fort McHenry in Maryland on Wednesday.
The president will accept his renomination during a White House address on Thursday, concluding a schedule of events that campaign and party officials did not publicly confirm within days of the event beginning on 24 August.
At his nomination speech at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, presidential candidate Joe Biden pledged that the US would “overcome this season of darkness in America” and “choose hope over fear, facts over fiction, fairness over privilege.”
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She is trailing in the polls to Democratic candidate and retired astronaut Mark Kelly.
On Friday, Mr Trump said his government was “looking into it”, but there has been no word from the State Department or the White House since.
Mr Navalny, who is currently in a coma, was flown from Siberia on Saturday to Berlin for treatment by specialists at the German capital’s main hospital.
UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab said he was “deeply concerned” by the suspected poisoning, while Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for president, said the incident was “unacceptable”.
Brayden later received much praise after his endorsement of Mr Biden at the Democratic National Convention, which can be seen below.
Here is just a little of it:
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow admitted during an interview that she was afraid of Donald Trump attempting to stay in power should he lose the 2020 US election.
Ms Maddow made the admission during an appearance on The Tonight Show.
During the segment, she and host Jimmy Fallon discussed the book Mr Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, wrote, titled “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.”
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