USA

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bone-dry vegetation fueled three wildfires near Los Angeles amid warnings Friday that the risk of new blazes erupting was high as temperatures spike and humidity levels drop during a statewide heat wave.

A huge forest fire that prompted evacuations north of Los Angeles flared up Friday afternoon, sending up an enormous cloud of smoke as it headed down to the desert floor and the California aqueduct in the Antelope Valley. Fire crews managed to stop its movement there but additional evacuations were ordered for the western Antelope Valley.

BEDMINSTER, N.J. (AP) — Seeking to amplify his law-and-order message, President Donald Trump on Friday told hundreds of New York Police Department officers that “no one will be safe in Biden’s America” if the former Democratic vice president defeats him in November .

“This guy has been taking your dignity away and your respect,”″ Trump said of former Vice President Joe Biden. “And I’m telling you on Nov. 3 you’re going to be getting it back.”

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday threw out California’s ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines, saying the law violates the U.S. Constitution’s protection of the right to bear firearms.

“Even well-intentioned laws must pass constitutional muster,” appellate Judge Kenneth Lee wrote for the panel’s majority. California’s ban on magazines holding more than 10 bullets “strikes at the core of the Second Amendment — the right to armed self-defense.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday gave the Chinese company ByteDance 90 days to divest itself of any assets used to support the popular TikTok app in the United States.

Trump’s executive order said there is “credible evidence that leads me to believe that ByteDance … might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former FBI lawyer plans to plead guilty to making a false statement in the first criminal case arising from U.S. Attorney John Durham’s investigation into the probe of ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign, his lawyer said Friday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday twice ignored a question about whether he supports QAnon, a convoluted, right-wing, pro-Trump conspiracy theory.

A reporter asked the president about the theory at a White House briefing Friday after Trump tweeted his congratulations to a QAnon-supporting candidate. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who won her House primary runoff in Georgia this week, has called the theory “something worth listening to and paying attention to” and called its source, known as Q, a “patriot.” Trump praised her as a “future Republican Star.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Postal Service is warning states coast to coast that it cannot guarantee all ballots cast by mail for the November election will arrive in time to be counted, even if mailed by state deadlines, raising the possibility that millions of voters could be disenfranchised.

Voters and lawmakers in several states are also complaining that some curbside mail collection boxes are being removed.

WASHINGTON, Aug 14 (APP): The United States looks forward to strengthening its partnership with Pakistan, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said as he greeted the Pakistani people on the occasion of their 74th Independence Day.

“On behalf of the Government of the United States of America and the American people, I extend greetings and best wishes to the people of Pakistan as you celebrate your Independence Day,” Pompeo said in a message released on Thursday.

For more than 70 years, the US and Pakistan have worked together on issues of “critical importance,” he said.

WASHINGTON, August 14. /TASS/: US President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy for Arms Control Marshall Billingslea is set to hold talks on strategic stability with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov in Vienna on August 17-18, the US Department of State said in a statement Friday.

"Special Presidential Envoy for Arms Control Ambassador Marshall Billingslea will travel to Vienna, Austria August 17-18 to meet with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov on mutually agreed topics related to the future of nuclear arms control," the statement reads.

14 Aug 2020; MEMO: The United States has seized the cargo of four Iranian fuel tankers transporting supplies to Venezuela, continuing to step up its campaign of maximum pressure on Iran and sanctions on the two allied countries.