North America

DETROIT (AP) — The ideological divisions gripping the Democratic Party intensified on Wednesday as presidential candidates waged an acrimonious battle over health care, immigration and race that tested the strength of early front-runner Joe Biden’s candidacy.

The former vice president was repeatedly forced to defend his decades-old political record against pointed attacks from his younger, diverse rivals, who charged that Biden’s eight-year relationship with President Barack Obama was not reason enough to earn the Democratic nomination.

SEATTLE (AP) — The 33-year-old former Amazon software engineer accused of hacking Capital One made little attempt to hide her attack. In fact, she effectively publicized it.

It’s one of many riddles swirling around Paige Thompson, who goes by the online handle “erratic.” Well-known in Seattle’s hacker community, Thompson has lived a life of tumult, with frequent job changes, reported estrangement from family and self-described emotional problems and drug use. 

PHOENIX (AP) — Three American Legion posts stand within miles of each other in central Phoenix, a curious reminder of how segregation once ruled the U.S. Southwest as well as the Deep South.

Soldiers returning after World War I in 1919 chartered one of the first posts of the U.S. veterans organization near downtown. But when black and Mexican American men returned from World War II, they opened their own posts, in their own neighborhoods farther south.

CINCINNATI (AP) — President Donald Trump’s latest rally will be a test for both candidate and crowd.

The Cincinnati gathering Thursday night will be Trump’s first since his audience chanted “Send her back!” about a Somali-born congresswoman during a July rally in North Carolina, raising the prospect of a 2020 presidential campaign increasingly fought along racial lines.

WASHINGTON, July 31. /TASS/: China confirmed its commitment to increase purchases of US agricultural exports during the 12th round of trade and economic consultations with the United States, the White House says on Wednesday.

"The Chinese side confirmed their commitment to increase purchases of United States agricultural exports," the statement says.

31 July 2019; AFP: President Donald Trump on Tuesday denied any racist "strategy" behind a string of verbal attacks on African-Americans, but found himself being accused of hate by a heckler at a high-profile speech.

"I have no strategy. I have zero strategy," Trump told reporters at the White House, when asked about his recent tirades against black and other non-white opponents, as well as the majority black city of Baltimore.

"I'm not angry at anybody," he said.

GENEVA, July 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United Nations human rights office said the Trump administration’s decision to reinstate the death penalty at the federal level goes against the domestic and international trend to abolish or halt executions.

The U.S. Justice Department last Thursday reinstated a two-decades-long dormant policy allowing the federal government’s use of capital punishment and immediately scheduled executions for five federal inmates.

LOS ANGELES, July 30 (Xinhua) -- The Trump administration had forcefully separated more than 900 children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border over the past year in defiance of a previous court ruling, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) alleged in a court filing on Tuesday.

UNITED NATIONS, July 30 (Xinhua) -- A UN report released Tuesday documented that the level of grave violations against children worldwide last year was on the raise.

The 2018 Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict said that more than 24,000 grave violations against children were verified by the United Nations in 20 country situations.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Homeland Security issued a security alert Tuesday for small planes, warning that modern flight systems are vulnerable to hacking if someone manages to gain physical access to the aircraft.

An alert from the DHS critical infrastructure computer emergency response team recommends that plane owners ensure they restrict unauthorized physical access to their aircraft until the industry develops safeguards to address the issue, which was discovered by a Boston-based cybersecurity company and reported to the federal government.