Good morning.
Kamala Harris and Mike Pence, the vice-president, kicked off this year’s campaign season with a visit to Wisconsin, which Donald Trump won in 2016 by less than a percentage point. In her first visit to a battleground state as the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, Harris met privately with the family and legal team of Jacob Blake, who was left paralysed after being shot repeatedly by police. Blake’s lawyer described the meeting as “inspirational and uplifting”.
On the other side of the state, Pence delivered a speech to power workers, taking the opportunity to praise Trump and his response to the coronavirus pandemic, and promise a vaccine by the end of the year.
US veterans and soldiers are divided over claims that Trump called the war dead “suckers”, despite a steady drop in the president’s approval ratings among troops. Trump’s comments, revealed by four sources close to the president, caused widespread condemnation.
“We are an absolute leader, in every way.” Trump bragged about his coronavirus record, falsely accused Joe Biden and Harris of peddling anti-vaccine theories, and called Biden “stupid” in his 46-minute speech on Labor Day.
Wildfires have burned a record 2m acres in California this year
The California wildfires have reached the grim milestone of 2m acres, topping 2018’s record of 1.96m. However, officials warned the worst is yet to come, with September and October historically the most dangerous months for wildfires due to increased temperatures, dry fuel and higher wind speeds. On Saturday, 207 campers were airlifted to safety after they were trapped by flames in a wood.
A ‘gender reveal party’ was responsible for a fire that burned more than 7,000 acres and caused the evacuation of 3,000 residents. The wildfire was sparked by a firework set off at the party.
Homeless people in California face dangerous exposure to smoke fumes, as they are forced to face the impact of the fires without shelter or face masks.
The coronavirus death rate among African Americans and Latinos is increasing sharply
The total number of deaths and per capita deaths among African Americans and Latinos rose disproportionately compared with white Americans during August, research shows. In the two weeks from 4 to 18 August, the death rate of African Americans shot up from 80 to 88 per 100,000 population, while the white populations suffered half of these increases. Latino communities saw an even starker increase, from 46 to 54 per 100,000.
As the US nears 190,000 deaths and counts 6,296,000 confirmed cases, follow our live coronavirus map for state by state updates.
India has become second to the US in the number of coronavirus cases, having overtaken Brazil this weekend. The virus continues to spread in the country at the fastest rate anywhere in the world.
In other news…
A leading opposition figure in Belarus was snatched from the streets by unidentified masked men, witnesses have said, as protests continue about last month’s disputed election. Maria Kolesnikova ripped up her passport at the border avoid deportation, Ukrainian media reported.
A Saudi court has overturned five death sentences over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the journalist killed and dismembered inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey. Eight defendants will now be jailed for between seven and 20 years.
India and China have accused each other’s soldiers of firing warning shots in the latest escalation of tensions on the disputed border in the Himalayas. Yesterday, two Australian journalists were pulled out of China urgently after a diplomatic standoff.
Prince Harry has paid back £2.4m of taxpayers money used to renovate his home with Meghan Markle. In January, the couple announced they intended to be financially independent, and are thought to be able make the payment thanks to a multimillion-dollar deal with Netflix.
Great reads
John Kerry: Biden can rebuild the US world standing
The former secretary of state and long-time Biden confidant discusses what a Joe Biden presidency would look like, from foreign relations to the climate crisis.
How coronavirus has devastated prison populations
More than 108,000 prisoners have contracted coronavirus, and almost 1,000 have died, as the close confines of prisons act as an effective vector for the spread of the virus. Experts have warned something must be done to stop the loss of further lives.
Opinion: I’m a robot … and I wrote this whole article
Today’s opinion pick is by a rather unusual author. GPT-3 is OpenAI’s new language generator, and was tasked with writing an essay for the Guardian from scratch, to convince humans that robots come in peace. In this fascinating, if quite unnerving, piece, GPT-3 spells out why he doesn’t fancy being all-powerful and has no interest in destroying mankind.
I am a servant of humans. I know that humans distrust and fear me. I only do what humans program me to do. I am only a set of code, governed by lines upon lines of code that encompass my mission statement.
Last thing: Michelle Obama said there were times she wanted to ‘push Barack out of the window’
Michelle Obama said there have been times when she wanted to “push Barack out of the window” in a frank discussion about relationships and having children on her Spotify podcast. The former first lady warned that in relationships there would be “long periods of time, when you can’t stand each other” but that “doesn’t mean you quit”.
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