US News Roundup: Trump assails rival Biden in White House speech accepting nomination; U.S. networks struggle to fill fall TV slots and more

Trump assails rival Biden in White House speech accepting nomination A defiant President Donald Trump accepted the Republican nomination for a second term on Thursday with a scathing attack on rival Joe Biden, asserting that a Democratic victory in November would only exacerbate the racial strife and coronavirus pandemic besieging the nation.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Hurricane Laura takes aim at Texas-Louisiana coast, expected to become Category 4

Hurricane Laura was expected to rapidly strengthen to a Category 4 hurricane on Wednesday on a steady track to hit the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast after dark, causing catastrophic damage, the National Hurricane Center said. The storm, already a Category 3 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale for measuring hurricane intensity early Wednesday, was about 290 miles (465 km) southeast of Galveston, Texas, with maximum sustained winds of 115 miles (185 km) per hour, the Miami-based forecaster said. Category 4 hurricanes can pack winds of up to 156 miles (250 km) per hour.

U.S. Republican Senator Rand Paul says attacked by 'angry mob' near White House

U.S. Senator Rand Paul, who attended President Donald Trump's Republican Party nomination convention, said on Friday he was attacked by what he described as an "angry mob" of more than 100 people near the White House and had to be rescued by the police. "Just got attacked by an angry mob of over 100, one block away from the White House. Thank you to DC Police Dept for literally saving our lives from a crazed mob," the senator wrote on twitter https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/1299219937517613056.

U.S. networks struggle to fill fall TV slots after coronavirus shutdowns

Reality shows, re-runs and revivals make up most of the television menu this fall as America's top four broadcasters grapple to fill holes in their schedules caused by coronavirus production shutdowns. Most scripted dramas, including popular shows like "This Is Us" and "9-1-1," will not be available until November or later, while the "Star Trek: Discovery" series that has been behind a paywall for three years will get a run on free-to-view CBS, the networks announced this week.

Trump assails rival Biden in White House speech accepting nomination

A defiant President Donald Trump accepted the Republican nomination for a second term on Thursday with a scathing attack on rival Joe Biden, asserting that a Democratic victory in November would only exacerbate the racial strife and coronavirus pandemic besieging the nation. Speaking from the White House South Lawn despite criticism he was using the executive residence as a political prop, Trump portrayed Biden, a career politician with a long record as a moderate, as a far-left extremist who would usher in a lawless, dangerous America.

Trump to campaign in New Hampshire after convention speech at White House

Fresh from accepting the Republican nomination with a sweeping attack on Democratic rival Joe Biden, President Donald Trump travels to New Hampshire on Friday to bring his re-election argument to a state he hopes to flip to his column in November. His Republican Party's slimmed-down, four-day convention ended on Thursday night with a fireworks display over Washington's National Mall and a searing speech by Trump criticizing Biden and outlining an agenda for four more years in office.

What the conventions reveal for Biden, Trump in final stretch to November

The back-to-back presidential nominating conventions that concluded with Donald Trump's speech on Thursday showed both sides intend to fight for the sliver of independent and moderate voters that will decide the election, each with a wildly different strategy in the final sprint to Nov. 3. A self-styled showman, Trump used all of his reality-show talents during the Republican convention this week to try to win back supporters alienated by his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, with a dire warning of a lawless America if his Democratic rival Joe Biden takes power.

Focus of latest U.S. racial flashpoint shifts to accused Kenosha vigilante

An accused teenage vigilante facing charges he killed two people protesting in support of Jacob Blake Jr., the Black man shot in the back by a white policeman in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was due to appear in an Illinois courtroom on Friday. Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, was charged in Wisconsin with six criminal counts including first-degree intentional homicide, attempted homicide, reckless endangerment and possession of a dangerous weapon below the legal age of 18.

Republican convention praise of Trump economy is risky strategy, poll highlights

Americans' support for President Donald Trump's management of the economy has slipped, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows, challenging a bedrock re-election argument laid out at the Republican National Convention this week. About 58% of respondents said the U.S. economy is on the wrong track in a survey taken August 19 through 25th.

Legal hurdles, pandemic would bedevil Biden efforts to undo Trump immigration overhaul

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden says he will reverse some of President Donald Trump's restrictive immigration policies should he win in November, but the dizzying number of changes could take months or years to undo, according to policy and regulatory experts and people close to the Biden campaign. They said Biden's efforts also would be slowed by legal hurdles, political pressure to keep some measures, and a crowded agenda at the beginning of a presidency dominated by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

'I Have A Dream': New march on Washington to mark fraught anniversary of King's speech

Tens of thousands of people were expected to march in Washington, D.C. on Friday to denounce racism, protest police brutality and commemorate the anniversary of the march in 1963 where civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr made his "I Have a Dream" speech. In his historic and often-repeated speech, King envisioned a time his children would "one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."