USA

Washington, Sep 3 (AP/PTI) Bracing for a contentious election with no immediate results and possible civil unrest, Facebook is enacting a host of measures to ensure its platform is not used to sow chaos and spread misinformation before, during and after the U.S. presidential election.

But it's not clear the changes are enough.

United Nations, Sep 4 (PTI) Near-record violence in Afghanistan in the last few weeks creates an atmosphere of mistrust and risks derailing the peace negotiations set to begin soon between the Afghan government and the Taliban, according to a top UN official in the war-ravaged country.

The planned negotiations stem from a landmark pact the US signed with the Taliban in February to promote a peaceful settlement to the Afghan war, the longest overseas military intervention by the American military.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- China and the United States "need to recapture the spirit of cooperation from World War II, and join hands to confront our common enemies in the new era," including COVID-19, economic recession, climate change and other global challenges, said Chinese ambassador Cui Tiankai on Thursday.

The Chinese ambassador to the United States made the remarks in a short video posted Thursday on his Twitter account in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the victory of World War II (WWII) and the World Anti-Fascist War.

(AP) --- Political battles and pending court fights threaten to upend months of planning for the pandemic election, election officials are warning. In key states, they remain hamstrung with only weeks to prepare.

Ongoing partisan litigation could dictate dramatic last-minute changes to rules and procedures in several states. Legislatures continue debating laws that could change how votes are processed. Meanwhile, money to pay for counting 150 million or more votes during the pandemic is stalled in Congress.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are seeking an investigation into what they call repeated violations of the federal Hatch Act by members of the Trump administration during last month’s Republican National Convention.

The 1939 law is intended to limit political activity by federal employees in their official capacity, although it does not apply to the president and vice president.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. trade deficit surged in July to $63.6 billion, the highest level in 12 years, as imports jumped by a record amount.

The Commerce Department reported that the July deficit, the gap between what America buys and what it sells to foreigners, was 18.9% higher than the June deficit of $53.5 billion. It was the largest monthly deficit since July 2008 during the 2007-2009 recession.

DELRAY BEACH, FLa. (AP) — A new report details multiple instances of President Donald Trump making disparaging remarks about members of the U.S. military who have been captured or killed, including referring to the American war dead at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France in 2018 as “losers” and “suckers.”

Trump said Thursday that the story is “totally false.”

RALEIGH (AP) — Mail balloting was set to begin Friday in the presidential election as North Carolina starts sending out more than 600,000 ballots to voters — responding to a massive spike in requests that has played out across the country as voters look for safer way to cast ballots during the pandemic.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States keeps regaining more of the jobs that vanished when the viral pandemic flattened the economy early this spring. Yet so deep were the layoffs that began in March that millions of Americans remain burdened by job losses that might prove permanent.

Economists have forecast that employers added 1.4 million jobs in August and that the unemployment rate fell from 10.2% to 9.8%, according to a survey by data provider FactSet. That rate would still be just below the peak unemployment level of the 2008-2009 Great Recession.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — Seven police officers involved in the suffocation death of Daniel Prude in Rochester, New York, were suspended Thursday by the city’s mayor, who said she was misled for months about the circumstances of the fatal encounter.

Prude, 41, who was Black, died when he was taken off life support March 30. That was seven days after officers who encountered him running naked through the street put a hood over his head to stop him from spitting, then held him down for about two minutes until he stopped breathing.