'PETTY AND DIVISIVE': DEMOCRATIC GOVERNORS, MAYORS SLAM TRUMP'S DEFUNDING

THREAT

Democratic mayors and governors lashed out at President Donald Trump after

he issued a memo directing his administration to find federal funds that

could be cut from cities run by Democrats, including "anarchist

jurisdictions."

Democrats said the federal government cannot unilaterally withhold funding

from their cities and argued that the president's memo, which was released

Wednesday, was merely an attempt to distract from the more than 187,000

deaths in the U.S. from the coronavirus pandemic.

His comments followed the shooting death Saturday of Trump supporter Aaron

Danielson in Portland, Oregon, which the president blamed on the "lawless"

state of the city under Democratic Mayor Ted Wheeler.

Wheeler and the mayors of New York, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., on

Thursday, said any attempt to withdraw federal money would be

unconstitutional and defeated in court. "Trump needs to wake up to the

reality facing our cities - and our entire country - and realize he is not

above the law," the mayors said in a joint statement.

The United States is experiencing escalating clashes between right-wing and

left-wing groups as police shootings of Black people spark protests and

counter-protests in the run-up to the Nov. 3 presidential election. Portland

has become a focus of the presidential election campaign after over three

months of demonstrations for policing and social justice reforms, with

hundreds of arrests as protesters clashed with police and destroyed

property.

Anti-fascists had fought with supporters of the right-wing Patriot Prayer

group in Portland every weekend since mid-August before Saturday's shooting.

The latest flare-up in protest of police killing of a Black man occurred

after the release of on Wednesday showing the arrest in March in upstate New

York of a Black man who died by asphyxiation after police put a hood over

his head as he knelt on the ground, handcuffed and naked.

Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden accuses Trump of stoking the

violence, while the president calls Biden weak on crime. Reuters polling

shows no bounce in support for Trump, who trails Biden, as most Americans

see the coronavirus pandemic, not crime, as the top issue facing the

country.

CONDEMN BID TO KILL NAVALNY, SAYS MERKEL

Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated on Thursday that any German or European

response to the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny depends on

whether Russia helps clear up the case.

Speaking at a news conference with the Swedish Prime Minister, she said she

had nothing further to add to her statement condemning the attempted murder

of a Russian opposition figure and demanded Moscow's help. Meanwhile, the

Kremlin rejected accusations that Russia was responsible for the poisoning

of Navalny and said it saw no grounds for sanctions to be imposed against

Moscow over the case.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow rejected any suggestion that

Russia had been behind the attack on Navalny and warned other countries

against jumping to hasty conclusions.

UPROAR AS TRUMP TELLS PEOPLE TO VOTE TWICE

President Donald Trump is facing a backlash for urging voters in North

Carolina to vote by mail and then try to vote again in person to test the

mail-in ballot system in the November 3 election.

Trump was asked by a TV reporter during his trip to Wilmington, North

Carolina, if he had confidence in the vote-by-mail system. "They will vote

and then they are going to have to check their vote by going to the polls

and voting that way because if it tabulates then they won't be able to do

that," Trump told WECT.

"So, let them send it in and let them go vote. And if the system is as good

as they say it is, then they obviously won't be able to vote (at the polls).

If it isn't tabulated, they will be able to vote."

North Carolina's Attorney General, Democrat Josh Stein, said it was

outrageous for the President to suggest that people "break the law in order

to help him sow chaos in our election."

US: 2 MILLION HINDUS KEY VOTING BLOC IN SWING STATES, SAYS CONGRESSMAN

KRISHNAMOORTHI

The two million Hindus in the United States are a vital and key voting bloc

in several swing states this presidential election, Indian American

Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi said as he told fellow community members

that it was their dharma to exercise their franchise.

In his virtual keynote address at the formal launch of the 'Hindu Americans

for Biden', Krishnamoorthi, who is the three-time Democratic Congressman

from Illinois, urged community members to vote for Democratic presidential

candidate Joe Biden and his Indian American running mate Kamala Harris on

November 3.

"I feel it is so important to elect Joe Biden because of a Hindu value

'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' (entire world is a family) a core tenant of Hindus -

we believe in treating everyone with dignity and respect," he said.

"It is an old saying in Washington DC, which is, if you don't have a seat at

the table, you're on the menu. And none of us on this zoom call or our

families, or communities, or Hindu Americans as a whole can afford to be on

the menu, and neither can our agenda. That's why it's so important that you

vote," he said.

"This year is the most important election of our lifetime before us. In 60

days, on November 3rd, believe it or not, the two million Hindu, Americans

in this country will be a vital and key voting bloc in several swing states.

Not only Florida, but Virginia and Pennsylvania and Michigan and Wisconsin,

and the list goes on and on. It is our duty, indeed it is our dharma to

vote," Krishnamoorthi said.

"Voting is our Dharma, and it's at the heart of our society," said Amit

Jani, Biden Campaign National AAPI director.

XI PRAISES CHINA'S SPIRIT OF RESISTANCE IN MARKING END OF PACIFIC WAR

President Xi Jinping on Thursday praised China's spirit of resistance in

commemorating the 75th anniversary of the end of Second World War in the

Pacific, saying any attempt to alter the nation's course under Communist

Party rule would be resisted by all of its 1.4 billion citizens.

Mr. Xi led government officials in a minute of silence and presentation of

floral wreaths at a memorial hall dedicated to soldiers and civilians, who

participated in the war, in which China endured a brutal invasion and

occupation of much of its territory by Japan.

"The Chinese people demonstrated to the world their patriotism, national

character, heroism and a strong will to win during the war," Mr. Xi, who is

also Communist Party leader, said in a speech following the ceremony.

"The Chinese people will refuse any person or any force that attempts to

distort the history of the Communist Party, its character or its mission,"

he said.

Mr. Xi's remarks come as China faces increasing political and economic

pressure from the U.S., friction along its border with India and push-back

from European countries and Southeast Asian nations over its economic and

territorial ambitions.

IF VOTED TO POWER, WILL SANCTION CHINESE OFFICIALS RESPONSIBLE FOR HUMAN

RIGHTS ABUSES IN TIBET: JOE BIDEN

Slamming Beijing's plan to further tighten control over Tibet, Democratic

presidential candidate and former vice president Joe Biden has said that if

voted to power, his administration will sanction Chinese officials

responsible for human rights abuses in Tibet.

"My administration will sanction Chinese officials responsible for human

rights abuses in Tibet, and step up support for the Tibetan people,

including by expanding Tibetan language services at Radio Free Asia and

Voice of America to get information from the outside world into Tibet,"

Biden said.

Biden vowed that as president he will meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama,

appoint a new special coordinator for Tibetan Issues, and insist that the

Chinese government restore access to Tibet for US citizens, including our

diplomats and journalists.

Noting that this past weekend, the Chinese government announced plans to

further tighten control over Tibet, thereby continuing to erode the human

rights, religious freedoms, and dignity of the Tibetan people, Biden said

that these are only the latest efforts by Beijing to crush ethnic minorities

that seek to preserve their distinct culture, language, and beliefs.

"Where (President Donald) Trump has turned a blind eye, a Biden-Harris

administration will stand up for the people of Tibet," Biden said.

RUSSIA WILL HOLD DRILLS IN MEDITERRANEAN: TURKEY

Turkey has announced that Russia will hold live-fire naval exercises in the

eastern Mediterranean, amid escalating tensions between Turkey and its

coastal neighbors Greece and Cyprus over rights to search for energy

resources in the region.

The navigational notice issued on Wednesday said the Russian exercises will

take place during September 8-22 and September 17-25 periods in areas of the

Mediterranean, where Turkish seismic research vessels are operating.

There was no immediate comment from Russia on the exercises, which Turkey

announced after the U.S. said it was partially lifting a 33-year-old arms

embargo against ethnically divided Cyprus.

It's unclear why NATO-member Turkey would announce such drills on Moscow's

behalf, but the two countries have in recent years significantly

strengthened their military, political and economic ties. They are

coordinating closely on their military presence in Syria, while Turkey has

purchased Russia's advanced S-400 missiles and has broken ground on a

Russian-built nuclear power plant on its southern coast.

SRI LANKAN CABINET APPOINTS PANEL TO DRAFT NEW CONSTITUTION

The Cabinet has set up an experts' committee to draft Sri Lanka's new

Constitution, even as the government gazetted the draft of the 20th

Amendment that would reverse the preceding 19th Amendment, a 2015

legislation that clipped certain executive powers of the President.

The move follows the ruling Rajapaksa brothers' poll pledge to abolish the

19th Amendment, introduced by the former government. After a securing a

comfortable two-thirds majority in the August general elections, the

government took up the promise swiftly.

In his inaugural address to Parliament on August 20, President Gotabaya

Rajapaksa announced that Sri Lanka would draft a new Constitution,

jettisoning the 19th Amendment that sought to strengthen Parliament and

independent institutions, besides curbing presidential powers.

NON-BAILABLE ARREST WARRANT ISSUED AGAINST FORMER PAKISTAN PM NAWAZ SHARIF

A Pakistani court on Thursday directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to

execute a non-bailable arrest warrant against former prime minister Nawaz

Sharif in a 34-year-old land allotment case, according to media reports.

During the plot allotment hearing, Model Town Police Inspector Bashir Ahmed

told Lahore Accountability Court's Judge Asad Ali that Sharif was not at his

residence.

The NBA warrant against Sharif comes two days after the Islamabad High Court

gave a "last chance' to the former prime minister to surrender and appear

before it on September 10 in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills graft case.

The Pakistan government has already declared Sharif an "absconder" and

approached the UK government for his extradition.

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Accountability and Interior Shahzad Akbar,

last week, said Sharif's four-week bail on medical grounds had expired in

December last year.