USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — With talks on emergency coronavirus aid having stalled out, both sides played the blame game Thursday rather than make any serious moves to try to break their stalemate. Official Washington is emptying, national politics is consuming the airwaves and the chasm between the warring sides appears too great for now.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department said Thursday that it has seized millions of dollars from cryptocurrency accounts that militant groups, including al-Qaida and the Islamic State, relied on to finance their organizations and violent plots.

Law enforcement officials said the groups used the accounts to solicit donations, including by trying to raise money from the sale of fraudulent personal protective equipment for the coronavirus pandemic.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s push to cut Social Security payroll taxes for the rest of the year — and even arguing for a permanent cut — would do little to bolster the coronavirus-battered economy in the short term and could destabilize long-term funding for benefits that millions of Americans depend on.

Trump this week said that he could eliminate the tax if he is reelected without undercutting the retirement program or greatly adding to the deficit, arguing that economic growth would offset the revenue losses.

NEW YORK (AP) — Michael Cohen’s memoir about President Donald Trump will be released Sept. 8 by Skyhorse Publishing, which confirmed the news Thursday to The Associated Press. The book is called “Disloyal: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump frankly acknowledged Thursday that he’s starving the U.S. Postal Service of money in order to make it harder to process an expected surge of mail-in ballots, which he worries could cost him the election.

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — In her first two days as Joe Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris has fired off the campaign’s sharpest criticism of President Donald Trump’s shortcomings. She has vouched for Biden’s character on race and more. And the enthusiasm surrounding her historic candidacy has brought in a record $36 million, including contributions from 150,000 new donors.

The campaign hopes it is just the beginning.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday gave credence to a false and racist conspiracy theory about Kamala Harris’ eligibility to be vice president, fueling an online misinformation campaign that parallels the one he used to power his rise into politics.

Asked about the matter at the White House, Trump told reporters he had “heard” rumors that Harris, a Black woman and U.S.-born citizen whose parents were immigrants, does not meet the requirement to serve in the White House. The president said he considered the rumors “very serious.”

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 13 (APP): U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that the coronavirus pandemic not only threatens hard-won development gains in fighting global poverty and building peace but risks exacerbating existing conflicts and generating new ones.

“The concept of sustaining peace is essentially about positive peace as opposed to simply ending wars.

LOS ANGELES, Aug 13 (NNN-Xinhua) — A fast growing wildfire occurred Wednesday afternoon in the Angeles National Forest, prompting evacuation orders for over 500 homes nearby.

The blaze, dubbed Lake Fire, was first reported at local time 3:40 p.m., and spread from about 50 acres to 10,000 acres within approximately three hours, according to the InciWeb, an interstate incident information system.

As of local time 5:20 p.m., there was zero percent containment of the fire and several structures were threatened.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. state of Louisiana is tracking seven COVID-19 outbreaks tied to schools and colleges, sending an alert to other countries of risks of hasty school resumption.

Figures from the Louisiana Department of Health showed that four outbreaks were linked to colleges and three tied to primary and secondary schools. Data shows that 151 cases are connected to those college outbreaks, and 17 cases are being attributed to outbreaks at primary and secondary schools.