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Julia Carrie Wong (now), Joan E Greve and Martin Belam (earlier)

Trump and Biden attend 9/11 memorial ceremonies – as it happened

Evening summary

That’s all from me today. Thanks for following along with our politics coverage.

Here’s a rundown of the day’s biggest stories:

  • Wildfires – or “climate fires”, as Washington governor Jay Inslee has deemed them – continue to ravage the American west. At least 23 people are dead and more than 500,00 Oregonians are under evacuation orders.
  • Trump and Biden attended ceremonies to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Both of the presidential nominees traveled to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to honor the 40 passengers who died aboard Flight 93.
  • A federal appeals court ruled Florida was allowed to require former felons to repay all outstanding debts before registering to vote. Critics have denounced the requirement as a “poll tax”. The court’s decision could prevent hundreds of thousands of Florida residents from being able to vote in the November elections.
  • Bahrain is joining the United Arab Emirates in normalizing relations with Israel, Trump announced. Bahrain is expected to join the UAE and Israel for a normalization signing ceremony at the White House next week.
  • Dr Anthony Fauci said life would likely not return to normal until “well into 2021”, even if a coronavirus vaccine comes later this year. Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, told MSNBC, “If you’re talking about getting back to a degree of normality which resembles where we were prior to Covid, it’s going to be well into 2021, maybe even towards the end of 2021.”
  • A federal prosecutor reportedly resigned from the investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation to protest political influence over the inquiry. The Hartford Courant reports that prosecutor Nora Dannehy resigned over concerns that attorney general William Barr was pressuring John Durham to prematurely release findings from his investigation. Some of the president’s allies have voiced hope the investigation will deliver an “October surprise” that could help carry Trump to reelection in November.

We’ll be bringing you wildfire coverage all weekend, and you can keep on top of all the latest with our global coronavirus blog here:

Updated

Most television news coverage of the wildfires in California, Washington and Oregon fails to mention the connection between the fires and the climate crisis, according to a new analysis by Media Matters.

My colleagues Lois Beckett and Maanvi Singh report:

Reviewing coverage aired over the 5-8 September holiday weekend, the progressive media watchdog group found that only 15% of corporate TV news segments on the fires mentioned the climate crisis. A separate analysis found that during the entire month of August only 4% of broadcast news wildfire coverage mentioned climate crisis ...

Although untangling the weather conditions from climate crisis is complicated, it’s clear that overall, in recent years “fire risk is increasing dramatically because of climate change”, said Chris Field, who directs the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Global heating has given rise to drier, hotter conditions and more frequent, extreme droughts that have left the landscape tinder-dry and prone to explosive blazes.

The climate crisis is not the only factor involved in these historic fires, however. A century of fire suppression has led to a surfeit of vegetation fueling the blazes.

“A deficit of fire, concatenated with the effects of climate change have led us here,” said Don Hankins, a fire ecologist at California State University, Chico.

Washington governor Jay Inslee said at a press conference today that we should start calling wildfires “climate fires”.

“This is not an act of God,” Inslee said, according to the AP. “This has happened because we have changed the climate of the state of Washington in dramatic ways.”

Inslee ran for the Democratic presidential nomination as a single-issue candidate, focusing entirely on the need for urgent action to address climate change.

Updated

Rumors and misinformation about the origins of the wildfires across the west have frustrated officials and tied up resources, leading to pleas from public officials to stop sharing rumors on social media. Now the Portland office of the FBI is weighing in:

As I reported yesterday, much of this misinformation is circulating on Facebook. One particularly misleading article, which used a single source to allege that the fires might be part of a coordinated “attack”, on the website Law Enforcement Today was shared more than 70,000 times on Facebook, receiving nearly 350,000 engagements.

Facebook’s third-party fact checkers have rated claims that the leftist anti-fascist activists known as “antifa” are behind the fires as false.

Updated

Speaking of Georgia’s 14th district... QAnon supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene was running to fill the seat of Representative Tom Graves, who announced his decision not to run for re-election last December.

Graves has just announced that he will “step down from Congress and begin the next chapter of life in October”.

That raises questions about whether the seat will be filled for the balance of the term.

Updated

Facebook board member Peter Thiel met with “one of the most influential and vocal white nationalists in modern-day America” in the summer of 2016, BuzzFeed News reported today.

According to emails seen by BuzzFeed News, Thiel met with Kevin DeAnna at a dinner party described as “Right Wing Dinner Squad, III”. DeAnna founded a far-right youth organization and has written extensively for white nationalist outlets, including Counter-Currents, American Renaissance and VDare.

After the dinner, Thiel emailed DeAnna to say he “really enjoyed meeting” him and to suggest possible further meetings in San Francisco or Washington DC, according to the report.

The full report by BuzzFeed has many more details about Thiel’s involvement with leaders of the “alt-right” – white nationalists who saw Donald Trump’s political ascendency as an opportunity to take their ideas mainstream in 2016. These white nationalists, who want to establish a whites-only ethnostate, apparently hoped that Thiel would fund their movement and become “our George Soros”.

Neither Thiel nor Facebook commented to BuzzFeed News on Thiel’s association with white nationalists.

Facebook did not ban white nationalism until March 2019, despite the company’s longstanding ban on hate movements and pressure from experts in extremism and civil rights. The company asserted that there was a meaningful distinction between white supremacy and white nationalism until March 2019, when it changed its policy. Despite this, white nationalist publications such as VDare remained on the site.

VDare was finally banned by Facebook in May 2020, not because it is a white nationalist publication, but because it violated Facebook’s rules against coordinated inauthentic behavior.

Updated

In the latest sign of how ugly the presidential race has become, Trump baselessly accused Joe Biden of using performance-enhancing drugs in a new interview.

Fox News released a clip from Trump’s recent interview with host Jeanine Pirro, which will air in full tomorrow night.

In the clip, Trump says of Biden, “I think there’s probably — possibly — drugs involved. That’s what I hear. I mean, there’s possibly drugs.”

The evidence-free accusation appeared to be an odd acknowledgement from Trump that his Democratic opponent has delivered some successful speeches recently, including Biden’s widely praised nomination acceptance speech at last month’s virtual convention.

“I don’t know how you can go from being so bad where you can’t even get out a sentence,” Trump said. “I mean, you saw some of those debates with the large number of people on the stage,” Mr Trump added. “He was — I mean, I used to say, ‘How is it possible that he can even go forward?’”

Last month, Trump similarly called for Biden to be drug-tested before the two nominees face off in their first debate.

Hello everyone, this is Julia Carrie Wong picking up the blog from smoky Oakland, California. I’ll have more news and politics coming your way for the rest of the evening.

First up: QAnon-supporting candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene’s election to Congress is all but assured after her Democratic opponent, Kevin Van Ausdal, abruptly dropped out of the race to represent Georgia’s 14th district.

Van Ausdal attributed his withdrawal from the race to “family and personal reasons” in a statement posted on Twitter. His campaign manager Vinny Olsziewski subsequently announced that the campaign will continue and that the Democratic Party of Georgia is attempting to find a replacement candidate.

Van Ausdal’s campaign was always a long shot. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution describes the 14th district, which covers north-west Georgia, as “one of the most reliably Republican territories on the East Coast”.

But the race drew national attention due to Greene’s history of racist and bigoted statements and her embrace of the antisemitic QAnon conspiracy theory. Greene has argued that Muslims should not be allowed to serve in government, compared Black Lives Matter activists to neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan, and described the election of Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib as “an Islamic invasion”.

She refused to apologize for posing for a photograph with a white supremacist, and has refused to disavow her support for the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory, which posits that a secret cabal of Satan-worshipping Democrats and celebrities run the world while engaging in pedophilia and drinking the blood of abused children.

Despite these views, Greene has received support from prominent Republicans and praise from Donald Trump. As I reported last month, her primary campaign was backed by groups connected to the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and his wife; the chairman of the board of prominent conservative thinktank the Heritage Foundation; and multiple Republican mega-donors.

You can read more about Greene’s financial backers here:

Updated

Today so far

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Julia Carrie Wong, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • Trump and Biden attended ceremonies to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Both of the presidential nominees traveled to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to honor the 40 passengers who died aboard Flight 93. “Our sacred task, our righteous duty, and our solemn pledge, is to carry forward the noble legacy of the brave souls who gave their lives for us 19 years ago,” Trump said in a speech.
  • Bahrain is joining the United Arab Emirates in normalizing relations with Israel, Trump announced. Bahrain is expected to join the UAE and Israel for a normalization signing ceremony at the White House next week.
  • Dr Anthony Fauci said life would likely not return to normal until “well into 2021”, even if a coronavirus vaccine comes later this year. Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, told MSNBC, “If you’re talking about getting back to a degree of normality which resembles where we were prior to Covid, it’s going to be well into 2021, maybe even towards the end of 2021.”
  • A federal prosecutor reportedly resigned from the investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation to protest political influence over the inquiry. The Hartford Courant reports that prosecutor Nora Dannehy resigned over concerns that attorney general William Barr was pressuring John Durham to prematurely release findings from his investigation. Some of the president’s allies have voiced hope the investigation will deliver an “October surprise” that could help carry Trump to reelection in November.
  • A federal appeals court ruled Florida was allowed to require former felons to repay all outstanding debts before registering to vote. Critics have denounced the requirement as a “poll tax”. The court’s decision could prevent hundreds of thousands of Florida residents from being able to vote in the November elections.

Julia will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Updated

At the White House this afternoon, Trump presented the Medal of Honor to Army Sergeant Major Thomas P Payne for “conspicuous gallantry”.

Donald Trump presents the Medal of Honor to Army Sgt. Maj. Thomas P. Payne.
Donald Trump presents the Medal of Honor to Army Sgt. Maj. Thomas P. Payne. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

The White House released a statement describing the act of heroism that won Payne the Medal of Honor.

“On October 22, 2015, during a daring nighttime hostage rescue in Kirkuk Province, Iraq, in support of Operation INHERENT RESOLVE, then-Sergeant First Class Payne led a combined assault team charged with clearing one of two buildings known to house hostages,” the statement says.

“Sergeant Payne’s extraordinary heroism and selfless actions were key to liberating 75 hostages during a contested rescue mission that resulted in 20 enemy fighters killed in action.”

During the White House ceremony, Payne said the rescue raid “underlined our country’s undying commitment to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.

Updated

Trump voiced opposition to another massive coronavirus relief package, a day after the Senate failed to pass the Republican “skinny” relief bill.

Trump said of the Democratic House speaker and Senate minority leader, “Pelosi and Schumer want Trillions of Dollars of BAILOUT money for Blue States that are doing badly, both economically and in terms of high crime, as a condition to making a deal on stimulus - But the USA is coming back strong!”

Democrats have called for spending $2.2 trillion on the next relief package, but the White House has said a bill of that size is a non-starter.

The Senate voted down Republicans’ $300 billion bill yesterday, leaving no current path forward for another relief package.

Speaking in Kentucky today, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said, “I wish I could tell you we were going to get another package, but it doesn’t look that good right now.”

Florida can require former felons to pay fines before voting, court rules

The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:

Florida can require people with felony convictions to repay all outstanding debts before they are eligible to vote again, but does not have to tell them how much they owe, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

The hugely consequential decision will likely shut out hundreds of thousands of voters in the key battleground state in this fall’s presidential election.

The 6-4 ruling from the US Court of Appeals for the 11th circuit came in a lawsuit challenging a 2019 Republican-backed law imposing the restrictions.

After Florida voters overwhelmingly approved a 2018 measure - often called Amendment 4 - to automatically restore voting rights to people once they complete their criminal sentences, Republicans authored a new law requiring repayment of all fines, fees, and court costs before they can vote again. An estimated 774,000 people with felonies have outstanding debts, and many cannot afford to pay.

In late May, US District Judge Robert Hinkle ruled that Florida could not block people from voting if they genuinely could not pay. But on Friday, the majority in the 11th circuit ruled Florida officials had broad discretion to choose the conditions people with felony convictions had to meet before their voting rights were restored.

“This ruling runs counter to the foundational principle that Americans do not have to pay to vote. The gravity of this decision cannot be overstated,” said Julie Ebenstein, one of the lead attorneys for the plaintiffs in the case from the American Civil Liberties Union.

Legal experts said federal prosecutor Nora Dannehy’s resignation from the investigation into the origins of the Russia probe indicated possible corruption in the inquiry.

From a former special counsel to the general counsel of the department of defense:

From a former spokesperson for the justice department under the Obama administration:

From a University of Alabama law professor:

Prosecutor resigns from inquiry into Trump-Russia investigation over concerns about political pressure - report

A federal prosecutor has reportedly resigned from John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Russia probe over concerns about political pressure from attorney general William Barr.

The Hartford Courant reports:

Federal prosecutor Nora Dannehy, a top aide to U.S. Attorney John H. Durham in his Russia investigation, has quietly resigned from the U.S. Justice Department probe - at least partly out of concern that the investigative team is being pressed for political reasons to produce a report before its work is done, colleagues said.

Dannehy, a highly regarded prosecutor who has worked with or for Durham for decades, informed colleagues in the U.S. Attorney’s office in New Haven of her resignation from the Department of Justice by email Thursday evening. The short email was a brief farewell message and said nothing about political pressure, her work for Durham or what the Durham team has produced, according to people who received it. ...

Colleagues said Dannehy is not a supporter of President Donald J. Trump and has been concerned in recent weeks by what she believed was pressure from Barr - who appointed Durham - to produce results before the election. They said she has been considering resignation for weeks, conflicted by loyalty to Durham and concern about politics.

Durham’s investigation has attracted the interest of the president’s allies, some of whom have expressed hope the inquiry will produce an “October surprise” that will help Trump’s re-election bid.

During his press conference yesterday, the president said of the investigation, “I could be involved if I wanted to. I thought it would be better if I wasn’t. I think it’s better if our great attorney general handles it. He has Durham, who is a very, very respected man, and we’re going to see what it is.”

Updated

Fauci: life will not go back to normal until 'well into 2021'

During his MSNBC interview this morning, Dr Anthony Fauci said it would probably take another year before life returns to a sense of “normality,” even if a coronavirus vaccine is approved in the coming months.

Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease specialist, echoed previous comments that he was cautiously optimistic a vaccine would be developed by the end of the year or early next year.

“But by the time you mobilize the distribution of the vaccine and get a majority or more of the population vaccinated and protected, that’s likely not going to happen until the end of 2021,” Fauci said.

“If you’re talking about getting back to a degree of normality which resembles where we were prior to Covid, it’s going to be well into 2021, maybe even towards the end of 2021.”

Fauci, who serves as the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, also expressed concern that the country’s rate of new coronavirus cases has plateaued at the alarmingly high level of 40,000 per day.

Updated

After laying a wreath at a memorial site for the victims of Flight 93, Joe Biden visited a volunteer fire station in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to deliver beer and pastries.

The Democratic nominee said he had previously promised to deliver beer to one of the firefighters there.

“I keep my promises!” Biden said as a he offered the man a six-pack of Bud Light and a six-pack of local beer.

Harris evokes unity in 9/11 remarks

Democratic vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris, for her part, went to a 9/11 commemoration event in Fairfax, Virginia, earlier today.

She stood for a moment’s silence, alongside Virginia Senator Mark Warner, and her husband, Doug Emhoff, with all wearing face masks to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Harris delivered a tribute to victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks and the first responders who came to their aid, at the World Trade Center site in New York, the Pentagon, near Washington, DC, and in a field in Pennsylvania where passengers forced their hijackers to crash the plane en route to the capital.

“Let us also remember that honoring them is also about reminding us of who we are as Americans,” Harris said. “Because in times of tragedy, in times of despair, in times of suffering and pain, we, by our very nature as who we are, stand together. We stand together.”

Remembering those who died in the attack, she said: “We remember that they were more than victims of an unspeakable act. They were also parents and sons and daughter and neighbors and friends. And we know that they will never be defined by the story of those who stole them away. No, they will be defined by their humanity, by their stories, by their laughter that still echoes in the homes and hearts of those who love them.”

Vice Presidential Nominee Kamala Harris Attends 9/11 Commemoration In Virginia.
Vice Presidential Nominee Kamala Harris Attends 9/11 Commemoration In Virginia. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Update: This post has corrected an original transcription error in Harris’ speech.

Updated

Milley defends protest, free press in America

While Donald Trump and Joe Biden studiously kept their public words an interactions largely apolitical today at the 9/11 events they attended, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff was less neutral.

Mark Milley was at the Pentagon this morning to commemorate the loss of life when one of the four passenger jets hijacked that day in 2001 was deliberately crashed into that building, on the outskirts of Washington, DC, killing 125 people inside and all passengers and crew on the plane.

It was a rare appearance and speech for army general Milley since he apologized for being part of the Donald Trump’s photo op in Washington’s Lafayette Square when peaceful civil rights demonstrators were cleared by force in the summer.

Milley spoke in defense of the free press when listing examples of what he cited as values that the US armed forces went to war for after the 9/11 attacks by al-Qaida.

“The idea of a free press, free speech, due process … the right to peacefully assemble, and demonstrate and protest,” he said.

He added that all Americans are created free and equal and should succeed based on their merit, regardless of their backgrounds.

“Those ideas were and still are hated by our enemies – by fascists, Nazis, communists, al-Qaida, Isis, authoritarians, dictators and tyrants of all kinds. They hate those ideas. They hate those values,” he said.

US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley gives remarks during the 19th annual September 11 observance ceremony at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, earlier today.
US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley gives remarks during the 19th annual September 11 observance ceremony at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, earlier today. Photograph: Erin Scott/Reuters

Today so far

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • Trump and Biden attended ceremonies to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Both of the presidential nominees traveled to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to honor the 40 passengers who died aboard Flight 93. “Our sacred task, our righteous duty, and our solemn pledge, is to carry forward the noble legacy of the brave souls who gave their lives for us 19 years ago,” Trump said in a speech.
  • Bahrain is joining the United Arab Emirates in normalizing relations with Israel, Trump announced. Bahrain is expected to join the UAE and Israel for a normalization signing ceremony at the White House next week.
  • Dr Anthony Fauci disputed Trump’s claim that the US is “rounding the final turn” of its coronavirus crisis. Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease specialist, told MSNBC, “I have to disagree with that.” Fauci pointed to statistics indicating the country’s new coronavirus cases have plateaued at the alarmingly high rate of 40,000 per day.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden has arrived at the 9/11 memorial site in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to honor the victims who died aboard Flight 93.

The Democratic nominee and his wife, Jill Biden, spoke to victims’ families in Shanksville after attending a commemoration ceremony in New York earlier today.

Trump delivered remarks in Shanksville at a ceremony this morning, marking a rare instance where both of the major parties’ presidential nominees were in the same city on the same day.

Trump called reporters in to the Oval Office to celebrate the announcement that Bahrain would also be normalizing relations with Israel.

“This is a truly historic day,” the US president said. “So interesting that it’s on 9/11.”

Trump also boasted, “When I took office, the Middle East was in a state of absolute chaos.”

The president added, “The sand was loaded up with blood, and now we’re going to see a lot of that sand is loaded up with peace.”

Trump confirms Bahrain is normalizing ties with Israel

Trump has confirmed that Bahrain is joining the United Arab Emirates in normalizing relations with Israel.

The president announced Bahrain would join the UAE and Israel for a normalization signing ceremony at the White House next week.

The announcement comes a month after Israel and the UAE agreed to establish full diplomatic ties as part of a Washington-brokered deal.

Trump has returned to Washington after attending a September 11 commemoration ceremony in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The president took no questions from reporters as he and and the first lady made their way to the White House.

Fauci disputes Trump's claim that we are 'rounding the final turn' of coronavirus

Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease specialist, said he did not agree with Trump’s assessment that the US is “rounding the final turn” of its coronavirus crisis.

“I have to disagree with that,” Fauci told MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell.

Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, cited statistics showing new cases in the US have plateaued around 40,000 per day.

Coronavirus deaths also remain alarmingly high. According to Johns Hopkins University, another 907 Americans died of coronavirus yesterday.

Despite those numbers, Trump said during his press conference yesterday, “We’re rounding the final turn, and a lot of good things are happening with vaccines and with therapeutics.”

Trump expected to announce Bahrain is normalizing ties with Israel - report

Trump is reportedly expected to announce today that Bahrain is joining the United Arab Emirates in normalizing relations with Israel.

The Times of Israel reports:

According to [two] officials, Trump will make the announcement at the White House at 1 p.m. Eastern time. It was not immediately clear whether Bahrain will join the formal signing of the so-called UAE-Israel Abraham Accord at the White House on September 15, or simply issue a statement about its intention to establish relations with Israel.

According to another report, Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa will arrive in Washington on Monday.

Trump suggested yesterday that another country may join Israel and the UAE for the two nations’ normalization signing ceremony at the White House.

“Next week at the White House we’ll be having a signing between the UAE and Israel, and we could have another country added into that,” the president said during his press conference yesterday. “And I will tell you that countries are lining up that want to go into it.”

Some of Trump’s supporters who attended his Michigan event last night said they believed coronavirus was “fake.”

CNN reporter Jim Acosta asked multiple attendees why they were not wearing masks at the large event in Freeland, Michigan.

“Because there’s no Covid,” one attendee said. “It’s a fake pandemic, created to destroy the United States of America,.”

Acosta noted the president told Bob Woodward in February that coronavirus is “deadly.” The man replied, “That’s his opinion.”

Another attendee was asked by Acosta if he was worried about his safety, being at a large event without a mask on. “The good Lord takes care of me,” the man said. “If I die, I die.”

As politicians commemorate the 19th anniversary of September 11, wildfires continue to rage across the west coast.

At least 20 people have already died in the fires, and hundreds of thousands have been ordered to evacuate.

Washington governor Jay Inslee, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination on a climate-focused platform, said, “We talk about this as wildfires, we have to start thinking about it as more of a climate fire.”

For the latest on the fires, follow the Guardian’s live blog:

Vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris spoke at a remembrance ceremony in Fairfax, Virginia, this morning.

The California Democrat recounted the morning of September 11. She said she was at the gym when the images from the World Trade Center started appearing on screens.

“We all stood around in utter disbelief,” Harris said. “Strangers were hugging each other.”

Trump finished his remarks and has laid a wreath at the memorial.

Then he grasped the hand of his wife, Melania, who was standing alongside him, in a black belted trench coat. The two then solemnly and slowly walked away, towards awaiting vehicles.

The president is wearing a navy suit and a dark maroon tie, a departure from his usual habit of wearing red or light blue ties.

The ceremony at the site of the World Trade Center in New York is still going on.

Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump listen during a prayer at the 9/11 memorial event.
Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump listen during a prayer at the 9/11 memorial event. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

Trump just wrapped up his prepared remarks at the Flight 93 commemoration in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The president told those assembled to honor the 40 passengers who died on September 11, “Our sacred task, our righteous duty, and our solemn pledge, is to carry forward the noble legacy of the brave souls who gave their lives for us 19 years ago.”

The president and the first lady then participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Wall of Names, which lists those lost from Flight 93.

Donald Trump talks at commemoration near Shanksville, Pennsylvania

The president is making a prepared speech now at the Flight 93 national memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where the fourth hijacked jet crashed on 9/11, brought down when passengers rushed the terrorists on board.

“The community linked arms and hearts in the face of tragedy,” he said.

He talked of rescuers that day approaching the wreckage of the attacks on New York, the Pentagon just outside Washington, and the plane crash in Pennsylvania an encountering “Hell on Earth”.

Donald Trump speaks at a 19th anniversary observance of the September 11 terror attacks, at the Flight 93 National Memorial nearr Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Donald Trump speaks at a 19th anniversary observance of the September 11 terror attacks, at the Flight 93 National Memorial nearr Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

Updated

At the 9/11 commemoration in Shanksville, the names of each of the 40 passengers of Flight 93 were read aloud as a bell tolled to mark their deaths.

The audience then observed a moment of silence to honor those who died on Flight 93, 19 years ago today.

Trump is expected to soon deliver remarks at the site.

The president and the first lady have arrived at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The Trumps walked along the Wall of Names honoring those who died 19 years ago today before taking their places onstage.

While attending a 9/11 commemoration this morning, Joe Biden spoke to a 90-year-old woman who lost her son on that tragic day 19 years ago.

The Democratic nominee handed the woman the rose he had been holding and mentioned that he also lost his son, Beau, to brain cancer in 2015.

“It never goes away, does it?” Biden said.

Biden is no stranger to tragedy, having lost his first wife and young daughter in a car accident in 1972 before Beau’s death to brain cancer.

The Democrat has made understanding grief a central theme of his campaign, as the country’s coronavirus death toll nears 200,000.

This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.

About 200 White House staffers gathered on the South Lawn this morning to observe a moment of silence at 8:46 am, which is the the time when a plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center 19 years ago today.

Here are some pictures of the emotional scenes as the nation remembered 9/11 this morning.

New York City Fire Department firefighters observe moment of silence outside Ladder Co. 10, Engine Co. 10 in Manhattan.
New York City Fire Department firefighters observe moment of silence outside Ladder Co. 10, Engine Co. 10 in Manhattan. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

Ceremonies are taking place in New York, at the Pentagon, and in Pennsylvania.

A large American flag is unfurled at the Pentagon ahead of ceremonies at the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial to honor the 184 people killed in the 2001 attack on the Pentagon.
A large American flag is unfurled at the Pentagon ahead of ceremonies at the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial to honor the 184 people killed in the 2001 attack on the Pentagon. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

Joe Biden and Donald Trump will both attend the Flight 93 national memorial in Shanksville today, but their itineraries keep them apart. Biden did, however meet with vice president Mike Pence at the New York memorial this morning.

The former vice president was accompanied by his wife.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, with his wife Jill at his side, while attending ceremonies marking the 19th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, with his wife Jill at his side, while attending ceremonies marking the 19th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Photograph: Eduardo Muñoz/Reuters

The scenes of remembrance were echoed around the country.

The House marked the moment with silence as well.

The president observed a moment of silence on Air Force One while in transit to Pennsylvania.

And that is it from me this morning, I’m handing over now to my colleague Joan Greve. Stay safe, take care, and I will be back next week.

Updated

There will be a moment of silence at the White House at 8:46am. You can watch it live here.

There was another interesting data-driven story about the coronavirus this morning – suggesting we’ve got fatigued talking about it.

Neal Rothschild over at Axios has a piece looking at how interactions (likes, comments, shares) on stories about the coronavirus have fallen 88% since March, 62% since July and 36% from the August average.

He reports that Google searches for the coronavirus have also descended from a peak in mid-March, and are now back to where they were on 25 February — before, as he described it, “the virus upended life the the US”.

Read it here: Axios – We’re numb to the coronavirus

There’s a worrying poll being reported by Cheyanne Mumphrey and Jennifer Sinco Kelleher of the Associated Press which suggests that the coronavirus pandemic has taken a harsh toll on the mental health of young adults in the US.

They report that adults under 35 are especially likely to report negative feelings or experience physical or emotional symptoms associated with stress and anxiety.

56% of Americans from ages 18 to 34 say that they have at least sometimes felt isolated in the past month, compared with about 4 in 10 older Americans who feel the same, according to the latest Covid Response Tracking Study conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. Twenty-five percent of young adults rate their mental health as fair or poor, whereas 56% of older adults say their mental health is excellent or very good.

In the midst of the pandemic, young adults are navigating life transitions such as starting college and finding jobs, all without being able to experience normal social activities that might be especially essential for people who are less likely to have already married and started their own families. Some young people are just beginning their adult lives amid a recession, and older members of the group are already experiencing their second.

Christina Torres, 32, a middle school teacher in Honolulu, had to postpone her June wedding and was not able to travel to her grandmother’s funeral in California because of the pandemic. She misses being able to deal with stress by going to the gym and getting together with friends.

“And so it’s hard to not feel really hopeless sometimes, especially because the numbers keep going up,” she said.

The study found that younger Americans also consistently show higher rates of psychosomatic symptoms, like having trouble sleeping, getting headaches or crying, compared to other age groups. The likelihood of experiencing such symptoms decreases with age.

Young adults also face constant exposure to social media, and he survey found that frequently watching, reading or talking about the virus is consistently linked with higher rates of negative mental health symptoms.

Wayne Evans, 18, a freshman at North Carolina State University studying remotely after being sent home because of virus cases at the school, said social media provided daily reminders of COVID-19.

“In some ways social media has added to my stressors, yes. Just the information overload that’s unavoidable on social media platforms can be distracting,” he said.

Donald Trump has departed Washington DC to head to Shanksville in Pennsylvania, where he will attend a 9/11 memorial ceremony this morning.

Secretary of state Mike Pompeo has also posted a message about 9/11.

Julian Assange extradition court hearing to resume in London on Monday

A little bit of news from over in the UK, where Reuter report that the London extradition hearing for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange will resume on Monday, after one of the lawyers in the case received a negative test result for Covid-19.

Judge Vanessa Baraitser granted an adjournment on Thursday after being told one of the lawyers representing the United States might have been exposed to the virus. The hearing at London’s Old Bailey court will now resume as planned, a court official said.

Assange is fighting extradition to the United States where he is wanted for conspiring to hack government computers and violating an espionage law over the release of confidential cables by WikiLeaks in 2010-2011

Some more memorial messages about 9/11, starting with New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, praising the first responders.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer has also posted.

First lady Melania Trump has offered her tributes from the White House.

And Jodi Kantor, the award-wining investigative journalist, has posted a reminder of how 11 September 2001 started as just an ordinary day in New York.

As mentioned earlier, Nancy Pelosi will bring the House together for a moment of silence at 8:46am ET.

Also on an election theme, if you fancy something to get your ears around, today there’s a special edition of our Politics Weekly podcast with a focus on the US election. Specifically asking the question: When will we know who’s won?

Jonathan Freedland speaks to our Sam Levine in New York about how the Covid-19 pandemic will affect the 3 November election, and gets to reminisce about the infamous 2000 presidential election, when George W Bush narrowly (and potentially wrongly) pipped Al Gore to the Oval Office. He asks Sam whether this year’s contest might stretch from election night, to election week, or even to election month…

Back to the election for a moment, Nathaniel Rakich over at FiveThirtyEight has an analysis of recent polling numbers. He suggest that Trump and Biden both got small convention bounces, but only Biden got more popular. He writes:

Several pollsters have asked Americans whether they have a favorable or unfavorable view of both Trump and Biden since the Republican National Convention ended on Aug. 27. On average, these polls gave Biden a 48 percent favorable rating and a 46 percent unfavorable rating — or a net favorability rating of +3 percentage points. That’s a slight, 4-point increase from his net favorability rating in the same polls before the conventions.

Trump, on the other hand, went into the convention period with lower favorables than Biden and does not appear to have emerged from it any better liked. Before the conventions, his average net favorability (according to these same pollsters) was -13 percentage points. After the DNC started, but before the RNC, his net favorability rating ticked down to -15 points. And the RNC didn’t do much to boost his standing. In the most recent round of surveys from these pollsters, Trump has an average favorable rating of 41 percent and an average unfavorable rating of 55 percent. In other words, his net favorability rating is now -14 points.

Read it here: FiveThirtyEight – Trump and Biden both got small convention bounces. But only Biden got more popular

The US flag is now flying at half-staff on Capitol Hill in memory of those lost on 9/11.

The US flag flies at half-staff at the US Capitol on September 11, 2020 in Washington, DC.
The US flag flies at half-staff at the US Capitol on September 11, 2020 in Washington, DC. Photograph: Alex Edelman/AFP/Getty Images

US speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will lead members later in a moment of silence at the Capitol to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the attacks.

President Donald Trump has just tweeted out a link to his Patriot Day proclamation for 2020 from yesterday. In it, the president said:

On a day that began as ordinary as any other, terrorists carrying out a sadistic plan murdered thousands of our fellow compatriots. With shock and disbelief, we watched our first responders, encumbered by heavy equipment and hindered by debris and smoke, rush with conviction and courage into the void to rescue those in despair. With pride and sorrow, we felt the tremendous bravery of those aboard Flight 93, who summoned the courage to charge the terrorists in a counterattack that saved countless American lives. As the day closed, America steadied its resolve to hold accountable those who had attacked us and to ensure it would never happen again.

To fulfill our collective promise never to forget, we impart the memory of that fateful day to our children and grandchildren. The smoke that rose from the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and the Pennsylvania field carried away the souls of innocent Americans. As we recall the images of our American Flag raised from the ashes of Ground Zero and the Pentagon, we are reminded that good triumphs over evil. We recommit ourselves to fortifying our cherished American values so that future generations will know in their souls that the United States is the land of the free and the home of the brave.

The president’s press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, has also added her voice to the memorials on social media, tweeting a quote from John 15:13.

Court hearing over death of George Floyd at hands of police officers due today

The police officers charged in connection with the death of George Floyd which sparked a global wave of Black Lives Matter protests, will be appearing in court today.

Amy Forliti has been previewing it for the Associated Press, reporting that attorneys for the officers say that each client should get his own trial, as they try to diminish their roles in the Black man’s death by pointing fingers at one another.

Prosecutors say all four officers should be tried together because the nature of the charges and evidence is similar and “it is impossible to evaluate any individual Defendant’s conduct in a vacuum.”

The former officers are scheduled to appear in court Friday for a hearing on several issues, including the prosecution’s request to hold a joint trial. Other issues that will be argued include defense requests to move the trial away from Minneapolis and to sequester the jury and keep jurors anonymous.

A woman stands before a mural of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
A woman stands before a mural of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Photograph: Bryan Smith/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock

Derek Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter. Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao are charged with aiding and abetting both second-degree murder and manslaughter.

Defense requests to dismiss charges won’t be addressed at Friday’s hearing. A trial is scheduled for March.

Friday’s hearing will also mark the first time Chauvin is expected to appear in a courtroom. He is in state custody and has attended previous hearings via videoconference.

Prosecutors say the case should proceed with one trial because the evidence - including witness statements, body-camera video and police department policy on use of force - is similar for each officer. Prosecutors say the officers also acted in close concert.

“Here, all four Defendants worked together to murder Floyd: Chauvin, Kueng, and Lane pinned Floyd face-down, while Thao stopped the crowd from intervening, enabling the other Defendants to maintain their positions. Defendants also discussed and coordinated their actions throughout the incident,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

Prosecutors also say witnesses and Floyd’s family members would likely be traumatized by multiple trials, and it would be more efficient and in the interest of justice to hold one proceeding.

But defense attorneys are pushing for separate trials, saying they are likely to offer “antagonistic” defenses, and evidence against one officer could negatively impact another’s right to a fair trial.

Attempts at finger-pointing are already prevalent throughout court filings in the case. Attorneys for Lane and Kueng have argued that their clients were rookies, who were following Chauvin’s lead. Thao’s attorney, Bob Paule, has said that his client’s role was “absolutely distinct” from the others, because he was on crowd control and was securing the scene - while the other three restrained Floyd.

Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, also wrote that his client’s case is different. Nelson said prosecutors must prove Chauvin intended to assault Floyd, but they must also show that the other officers knew of Chauvin’s intent before it happened. As a result, he said, Chauvin will have to defend himself differently.

“The other defendants are clearly saying that, if a crime was committed, they neither knew about it nor assisted in it,” Nelson wrote. “They blame Chauvin.”

But Chauvin also points fingers at the others. Nelson wrote that Lane and Kueng the officers who responded to a forgery call initiated contact with Floyd before Chauvin and Thao arrived, and that Chauvin believes Floyd was overdosing on fentanyl. Nelson wrote that while Lane and Kueng called for a paramedic and believed Floyd was “on something,” they didn’t elevate the call to one of more urgency or give medical assistance.

Attorneys for all four men have also asked that the trial be moved from Minneapolis, saying that pretrial publicity has made it impossible for them to receive a fair trial.
Bob Paule, Thao’s attorney, said in a court filing that the state has tainted the jury pool by calling Floyd’s death a “murder.” Paule also cites protests that caused millions of dollars of damage in Minneapolis, saying an impartial jury can’t be found in Hennepin County because jurors would “shoulder the weight of their decision creating further rioting and destruction.

Updated

China to impose restrictions on staff at US embassy and consulates in China and Hong Kong

I feel like I write a slight variation of this story every day, so forgive me if you get a sense of déjà vu, but China has announced it is imposing restrictions on staff at the US embassy and its consulates in mainland China and Hong Kong, in a sign of worsening relations between the two nations.

Reuter report that China’s Foreign Ministry did not specify the measures, which it described as reciprocal.

Last week, Washington said it would require senior Chinese diplomats to get State Department approval before visiting university campuses or holding cultural events with more than 50 people outside mission grounds, which it had said were a response to China’s restrictions on American diplomats.

Earlier this week, Beijing accused the US of “racial discrimination” over plans to revoke the visas of over 1,000 students and researchers over national security fears.

Joe Biden has spoken to reporters this morning, and said that he won’t be campaigning, or “making any news” today. He said “I’m not going to talk about anything other than 9/11. We took all our advertising down. It’s a solemn day.”

The Republican party have also just tweeted a memorial message for both the victims of 9/11 and the first responders who went to their aid without regard for their own safety.

Updated

A piece that is being widely shared on social media this morning is from the Washington Post and is looking at the contrasting ad spends of the Trump and Biden Campaigns. Michael Scherer and Josh Dawsey report that the president has pulled back from ad spending, fearing “a coming cash crunch”. They write:

Republican officials have been inundated with calls from worried activists and donors who complain about constant Biden ads in their local media markets, with very few paid Trump responses. Some Republicans close to Trump have been baffled at the decision to sharply curb advertising and have told the president he should change course.

The complaints have upended the dynamics that dominated much of the race so far. With less than eight weeks before Election Day, the once-lean Biden campaign is flush with cash, while the massive Trump operation is facing tough budgetary decisions down the stretch that have increased tensions around the president.

Scherer and Dawsey report that even when you take into account outside group spending, Biden has been able to dominate the airwaves in the battlegrounds where the election will probably be decided. These details on battleground spending in particular caught Bill Grueskin’s eye.

But Trump’s new campaign manager, Bill Stepien, was pretty brusque in his response to the claims, saying:

Four years ago, those of us on the 2016 campaign got used to tuning out the Beltway experts questioning why we were spending so much time in Scranton, why we were buying fewer ads on television and more on digital and why we were making one last trip to Wisconsin. We’re pretty pleased with the outcome of those decisions and the President’s team is similarly confident in our approach this time around.

Read it here: Washington Post – Republican worries rise as Trump campaign pulls back from television advertising

The US Department of Defense has just posted some live video of them unfurling a 9/11 remembrance flag at the Pentagon.

The president has also tweeted a remembrance message.

Peter Gleick in San Francisco has written for us this morning on the subject of the environmental disaster that is unfolding on the west coast, saying “The future has arrived. These explosive fires are our climate change wakeup call”. Gleick is a hydroclimatologist and a member of the US National Academy of Sciences. He writes:

I’m not arguing any individual disaster has been caused by climate change, though the science is strengthening on that as well. I’m saying we are now seeing the unambiguous influence of climate change on these disasters. What used to be considered acts of God are now also acts of humans. Hurricanes such as Harvey in 2017 are stronger and they’re delivering more devastating floods. Heat waves are happening earlier and they’re longer and hotter than they used to be. California just experienced its hottest August on record including what may have been the hottest temperature ever recorded, in Death Valley. The wildfires, as we’ve seen, are turning into fierce, fearsome, monsters.

The influence of climate change on wildfires is easy to see. Global warming is diminishing our mountain snowpack, leading to hotter and drier summers. Eighty percent of California, 95% of Oregon, and all of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico are currently in drought. Severe droughts over the past decade have killed hundreds of millions of trees in our forests, adding to the fuels available to burn. Higher temperatures further dry out forest and rangeland soils. Unusual lightning storms are igniting multiple fires at a time, overwhelming our ability to squelch them early.

We’re not alone. The wildfire signal of climate change is being seen around the world, in southern Europe, Canada, Australia, South America, and Africa, and other climate-change impacts are accelerating too, in the form of storms, melting glaciers, rising seas, and more.

Read it here: Peter Gleick – The future has arrived. These explosive fires are our climate change wakeup call

Timothy Egan has written for the New York Times a searing attack on president Donald Trump over his response to the wildfires raging on the nation’s west coast. In an op-ed titled “I’ve never seen the American west in such deep distress” he writes:

“I have no patience for climate change deniers,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, a state with 150 million dead trees and temperatures that recently reached 121 degrees in Los Angeles County.

Meanwhile, the world’s most dangerous climate change denier continued to spout gibberish. “You gotta clean your floors, you gotta clean your forests,” said president Trump, scolding California.

That’s like telling people to drain their wading pools in advance of a hurricane. Nearly 48 percent of the land in California is federally owned. Those are his floors. And this West in distress is made sicker by his defiance of the globe’s existential threat. If ash were falling on his hair, he’d be more alert.

Read it here: New York Times – Timothy Egan – I’ve never seen the American west in such deep distress

Kremlin denies any Russian state attempts to interfere in US election

You might suspect that this is one from the “Well, they would say that, wouldn’t they?” files, but this morning the Kremlin has denied that the Russian state is attempting to interfere in the US elections.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia has no intention of meddling in other countries’ internal affairs and that Russia does not like it when others interfere in its affairs.

The moves follows Microsoft warning that hackers from Russia, China and Iran have launched unsuccessful attacks on people associated with both major presidential campaigns.

“The activity we are announcing today makes clear that foreign activity groups have stepped up their efforts targeting the 2020 election as had been anticipated,” Microsoft said in a statement yesterday.

During a press conference with his Chinese counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov added that the claims were “unsubstantiated”, and said that the United States itself promoted its own interests illegally.

Updated

'We haven’t abandoned you' firefighters tell evacuated communities in Oregon

Here’s some grim footage of the damage that is being done in Oregon by the wildfires. The drone flyover of Eagle Point shows flattened residential areas. At least three people have died in the state.

The latest reports from the Associated Press confirm that an estimated 500,000 people – that’s more than 10 percent of the 4.2 million people who live there – have been forced to evacuate.

Inmates were being moved from a women’s prison less than a mile from Interstate 5 in Portland’s southern suburbs “out of an abundance of caution,” the Oregon Department of Corrections said.

A stop sign is seen at a neighborhood destroyed by wildfires near Bear Creek, Phoenix, Oregon.
A stop sign is seen at a neighborhood destroyed by wildfires near Bear Creek, Phoenix, Oregon. Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters

With two large fires threatening to merge, some firefighters in Clackamas County, which includes Molalla, were told to disengage temporarily because of the danger. Officials tried to reassure residents who abandoned their homes, and law enforcement said patrols would be stepped up to prevent looting.

The local fire department said on Twitter: “To be clear, your firefighters are still working hard on the wildfires in Clackamas County. They are taking a ‘tactical pause’ to allow firefighters to reposition, get accountability & evaluate extreme fire conditions.”

“We haven’t abandoned you,” the fire officials said.

A charred vehicle is seen in the parking lot of the burned Oak Park Motel after the passage of the Santiam Fire in Gates, Oregon.
A charred vehicle is seen in the parking lot of the burned Oak Park Motel after the passage of the Santiam Fire in Gates, Oregon. Photograph: Kathryn Elsesser/AFP/Getty Images

The AP spoke to residents in the small Oregon town of Phoenix, near the California state line along Interstate 5. One was Jonathan Weir, who defied evacuation orders, even as flames 30 feet (9 meters) high shot from trees. Fearing for his life, he drove his car to the entrance of a nearby mobile home park, where his tires began melting. His home was destroyed as the fire hopscotched through the town of 4,000 residents.

“There were flames across the street from me, flames to the right of me, flames to the left of me. I just watched everything burn,” Weir told a reporter.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency estimated that 600 homes were burned by the fire that started in Ashland and tore through Phoenix.

The Guterrez children wait as their father, Artemio Guterrez, salvages a few items from their scorched mobile home in Talent, Oregon
The Guterrez children wait as their father, Artemio Guterrez, salvages a few items from their scorched mobile home in Talent, Oregon. Photograph: Gillian Flaccus/AP

Artemio Guterrez spoke to reporters too. He was stood helplessly next to his pick-up, surveying the rubble of his mobile home. His children sat quietly in the truck bed and waited for him to salvage what he could. He was able to find a ceramic pot with a smiley face on it, some charred miniature houses from a Christmas-themed village and a cross that formed when two pieces of glass melted together.

Artemio Guterrez, a single father of four, holds a cross made of two pieces of glass that melded together during the intense heat from the wildfire that swept through Talent, Oregon.
Artemio Guterrez, a single father of four, holds a cross made of two pieces of glass that melded together during the intense heat from the wildfire that swept through Talent, Oregon. Photograph: Gillian Flaccus/AP

Guterrez, a single father of four, had been at work at a vineyard nearby when he saw thick smoke spreading through Rogue River Valley. He raced home just in time to snatch his kids from the trailer park where they live alongside dozens of other Mexican families. They got out with just the clothes on their back.

“I’m going to start all over again. It’s not easy but it’s not impossible either. You have to be a little tough in situations like this,” said Guterrez, who had just returned from his mother’s funeral in Mexico. Entire mobile home parks with many units occupied by Mexican immigrants who worked in nearby vineyards or doing construction were reduced to ash in Phoenix and nearby Talent.

“We’re kind of like a family. We’ve known each other for years, since we came here or even before then,” Guterrez said of his neighbors at Talent Mobile Estates. “We’re living day by day.”

Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage of US politics on a solemn day. The nation observes the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks amid the ongoing coronavirus epidemic and the raging wildfires on the west coast.

  • Donald Trump will take part in a ceremony at the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania this morning. Joe Biden, will mark the day in New York, then travel to Pennsylvania in the afternoon. Mike Pence will also be in New York, while Kamala Harris delivers a remembrance day speech in Virginia.
  • Oregon fires have forced 500,000 to evacuate as blazes across the west coast kill 15. Unprecedented fire conditions have burnt more than 900,000 acres and firefighting resources are stretched thin in three states
  • Yesterday, there were 914 new coronavirus deaths and 37,786 new cases reported in the US. That takes the total number of Covid-19 cases to 6,397,227, with 191,789 deaths nationally. Trump claimed the US is ‘rounding the corner’.
  • Biden branded Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic as “almost criminal”. Trump acknowledged he had played down the dangers of the virus to avoid causing a panic – though critics note he frequently stokes fear about crime and illegal immigration.
  • The Republican ‘skinny’ relief bill failed to pass in the Senate.
  • Bob Woodward has rejected criticism that he sat on the Trump ‘deadly’ virus remarks that have appeared in his new book.
  • NFL Fans jeered the moment of silence to acknowledge inequality in the opening match-up.
  • The police officers charged in the death of George Floyd will appear for their first court hearing in Minneapolis.
  • Microsoft has warned that Russian hackers are targeting US political campaigns ahead of the election.
  • Trump will award the medal of honor to sergeant major Thomas Payne at the White House in the afternoon.

I’m Martin Belam, and you can get in touch with me at martin.belam@theguardian.com

Updated

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