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President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential challenger Joe Biden met Tuesday for the first presidential debate ahead of the Nov. 3 election. The 90-minute matchup was moderated by Fox News host Chris Wallace and held at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Here are three takeaways from the debate: Interruptions Trump repeatedly talked over both Biden and moderator Wallace during the debate. The result was chaotic, as both men frequently interrupted each other. The prime-time broadcast often showed a side-by-side view of the candidates with each man talking, at times simultaneously. Trump was often rebuked by Wallace, who told the president to “please let the vice president talk.” At one point Biden told Trump, “Will you shut up, man?”President Donald Trump gestures while speaking during the first presidential debate Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020, at Case Western University and Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland, Ohio.Trump’s Taxes Just two days before Tuesday’s debate, The New York Times Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden gestures while speaking during the first presidential debate, Sept. 29, 2020, at Case Western University and Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland, Ohio.’Race and violence’One of the six topics chosen by Wallace was “race and violence” in U.S. cities, such as in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last month. Last week, FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials warned that white supremacist groups pose a rising threat of violence in the U.S. A tense exchange between Trump and Wallace occurred when the moderator asked the president to condemn white supremacists and militia groups and tell them to stand down and not contribute to the violence occurring at some anti-racism rallies. Trump at first appeared to sidestep the question, and then when pushed, he said, “What do you want me to call them? Give me a name.” Wallace offered up the  group known as the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group. Trump spoke to the group, saying, “Proud Boys, stand back, stand by.” He then pivoted, however, criticizing left-wing activists. “Somebody’s got to do something about Antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem. This is a left-wing problem,” he said. 
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Republican U.S. President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, clashed in a contentious, chaotic presidential election debate Tuesday night, trying for 90 minutes to convince American voters that the other one was unfit to lead the United States for the next four years. They argued over the world-leading coronavirus death toll of 205,000 in the U.S., the integrity and honesty of the November 3 vote, Trump’s nomination of conservative jurist Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, fractured racial relations in the U.S., environmental policies and more. Trump disputed a New York Times report this week that he only paid $750 in federal income taxes in both 2016, when he first ran for the presidency, and in 2017, his first year in office. Trump said he paid “millions of dollars,” but Biden claimed Trump “pays less tax than the average schoolteacher.” Name-calling, personal attacks Mostly they insulted each other with cutting barbs, name-calling and personal attacks.  “He’s the worst president America has ever had,” Biden contended as he and Trump stood at podiums on a debate stage at a university in the Midwestern city of Cleveland, Ohio. Several times, Biden called Trump “a clown.” Trump, seeking a second four-year term after his upset 2016 victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton, retorted to Biden, “I’ve done more things in 47 months [as president] than you’ve done in 47 years” as a U.S. senator and vice president under former President Barack Obama. Trump argued that if Biden takes over as president next January, “you will have a depression like no one has ever seen” because of the Democrat’s plan to raise taxes on corporate earnings from 21% to 28% and on individuals who make more than $400,000 a year.Watch party for the first presidential debate in Lititz, Sep. 30, 2020.Early on, the two candidates, both in their 70s, clashed sharply over how to control the unchecked pandemic in the U.S. “The president has no plan,” Biden claimed. “He knew it was deadly and didn’t tell you about it.” Biden, alluding to Trump’s frequent golf outings, said the president “should get out of the sand trap” and stop the advance of the pandemic. He referenced Trump’s recent remark that the death toll in the U.S. “is what it is,” with Biden adding that was because, “You are what you are.” Trump responded, “We’ve done a great job. We’re weeks away from a vaccine.” The president accused Biden of calling Trump xenophobic for placing initial restrictions on travel from China, where the virus originated. Trump said if he had not acted, 2 million would have died in the U.S.   The debate came five weeks ahead of the election. It was the first of three times the two candidates will meet face to face to debate during the next month. At Tuesday’s encounter, the two candidates frequently interrupted each other, although the debate moderator, Fox News journalist Chris Wallace, more than an hour into the face-off rebuked Trump for not following the debate rules to allow each candidate to finish his answers unimpeded. One of the most personal attacks occurred as Biden recounted a recent Atlantic magazine article alleging that Trump, on a trip to Paris in 2018 for the centenary of the end of World War I, described U.S. war dead as “suckers” and “losers,” a claim the president has denied. Biden said that his late son, Beau Biden, who served in the armed services before dying of cancer in 2015, was not a loser or sucker.  “You’re not going to talk about my son Beau that way,” Biden emotionally told Trump.  Trump said he didn’t know Beau Biden but did know Biden’s son Hunter, whom he has claimed benefited financially with a lucrative position on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian natural gas company, at the same time Biden was vice president and overseeing U.S. policy related to Ukraine. Racial tensions in the US On fractured racial relations in the U.S., Biden accused Trump of “using everything as a dog whistle to generate racial tension,” recalling how Trump said there were “fine people” on both sides after torch-carrying white nationalists marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.From l-r, first lady Melania Trump, President Donald Trump, Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden and Jill Biden, walk off stage at the conclusion of the first presidential debate Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020.Trump rejected Wallace’s overture to condemn white nationalists, instead saying he is “doing better than any Republican” ever in political support from Black voters.  The president attacked Biden for writing anti-crime legislation in the 1990s when he was a senator, saying that he referred to Black criminal suspects as “super predators.” Trump assailed “radical left Democrats” whose mayors oversee some of the country’s biggest cities. A number of violent protests erupted in those cities in recent months in demonstrations against police abuse of minorities in the aftermath of the May death of a Black man, George Floyd, while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The president demanded that Biden commit to “law and order” in American cities. “He doesn’t want to say, ‘law and order,’” Trump contended. Biden said he advocates “law and order with justice.” The Democratic candidate said he would rejoin the international Paris climate change accord that Trump withdrew the U.S. from. Trump, asked by Wallace whether he accepts that climate change is caused by the actions of people, replied, “To an extent, yes.” But Trump contended that on-going raging wildfires in the Western U.S. could mostly be curbed by “good forest management.” Biden said that Trump’s nomination of Barrett to the Supreme Court threatened the national health care law approved during his vice presidency under Obama and imperiled the landmark 1973 court decision legalizing abortion rights in the U.S. Trump said, “I think she’s going to be fantastic. We won the election; therefore, we had the right to choose her.”   Early voting Early voting has started in some U.S. states and millions of people have requested or been sent absentee ballots, so they do not have to face other people at polling stations across the country on Election Day in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.   Trump, as he has repeatedly said in recent weeks, condemned election officials throughout the country for mailing unsolicited ballots to voters. “This is going to be a fraud like you’ve never seen,” he said, citing a handful of Trump absentee ballots found recently in a trash can. Biden urged Americans to vote and said there is “no evidence” that mailed-in ballots will lead to fraud but called for all votes to be counted in the election. Polls have shown that more Democrats favor absentee voting, while Republicans more often say they will vote on Election Day in person. The high-stakes debate, perhaps watched on television or livestreamed by 100 million people, comes as Biden has for weeks maintained about a 7-percentage-point advantage over Trump in national polls, threatening to make Trump the third U.S. president in the past four decades to lose reelection for a second four-year term in the White House.  However, the race is closer in several key battleground states, which raises the possibility that Trump could once again lose the popular vote — as he did against Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 — and still win more of the all-important state electors to claim victory. 
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The COVID-19 death toll has climbed to more than one million people worldwide.  And because of a recent surge of infections in many countries including in Europe and the United States, more coronavirus deaths are expected in the coming months. But there are also signs that death rates are dropping and people who contract the virus now are faring better than those infected early on.  VOA correspondent Mariama Diallo has more.Produced by:  Bakhtiyar Zamanov   
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At least 13 United Nations member states still criminalize transgender people, while others use morality and indecency laws to crack down on the trans community, a report showed on Wednesday.Nigeria, Oman and Lebanon are among the nations with explicit anti-trans laws, according to the latest Trans Legal Mapping Report by LGBT+ rights group ILGA World.The research details trans legislation and policies in 143 U.N. member states and 19 other jurisdictions.Many other countries apply “seemingly innocuous” regulations covering offenses such as “public nuisance, indecency, morality [and] loitering” to police trans communities, the report said.However, at least 96 U.N. member states now have provisions for legal gender recognition, according to the research.Violations of trans rights occurred across the world, said ILGA World’s director of programs Julia Ehrt.”Some of the more shining nations when it comes to legal gender recognition are based in the global south, such as Argentina,” she added.Eight years ago, Argentina joined a handful of countries that let trans people change their gender on official identity documents without physical or psychological tests.In Britain, there has been a ferocious debate in recent years over reforming the 2004 Gender Recognition Act, pitting some feminists against parts of the trans community.The British government launched a consultation two years ago on overhauling the law to allow “self-ID” in England and Wales — a reform opponents said could allow predatory men access to women-only spaces such as toilets.”In the UK, the debate is particularly fierce when you compare it with other debates in European states and I think [it] has, in a certain way, been exported to many of the other Commonwealth countries,” Ehrt said.The report also highlighted some positive developments for trans people over the past two years.Nine countries have taken steps to make it easier for people to change their name and gender classification on official documents such as birth certificates since 2018.British lawmaker Crispin Blunt, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global LGBT+ Rights, said the government’s decision to scrap the “self-ID” proposal meant it was “a particularly wretched time in the UK.””Britain continues to claim global leadership on LGBT+ rights but has just decided not to update its own processes,” Blunt said.”Now 25 nations, with more to follow, show us a better example of how to respect the basic human rights of trans and gender diverse people,” he added.
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Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was buried early Tuesday during a private ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.  Her casket was carried by a U.S. Army escort under “dependent honors” for dependents of military service members, CNN reported.She was buried next to her Army veteran husband, Martin Ginsburg, who died in 2010.Ginsburg laid in repose last Wednesday and Thursday at the Supreme Court before her casket was taken to the U.S. Capitol on Friday, where she became the first woman to lie in state there.She died Sept. 18 at age 87 of metastatic pancreatic cancer, ending a 27-year tenure on the nation’s highest court. On Sept. 26, President Donald Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett, who sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, to replace Ginsburg.
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Israel and the United Arab Emirates hailed their new peace agreement Tuesday during remarks at the final day of the U.N. General Assembly, saying it would increase the chances of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  “With the signing of a historic peace accord with Israel, supported by American efforts, my country was able to freeze the annexation decision and opened broad prospects to achieve a comprehensive peace in the region,” said UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan in a pre-recorded statement. “We hope that this peace accord will provide the opportunity for the Palestinians and the Israelis to re-engage in negotiations to achieve peace.”  Al Nahyan reiterated his government’s commitment to a two-state solution for the decades-old conflict.   FILE – Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces full diplomatic ties will be established with the United Arab Emirates, during a news conference in Jerusalem, Aug. 13, 2020.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Palestinian leadership of effectively wielding “a veto on peace” for years between his nation and other Arab countries with what he characterized as “unrealistic” demands, including that Israel withdraw to pre-1967 borders or that descendants of Palestinian refugees be allowed to settle in Israel.   “Of course, these demands, along with many others, are complete non-starters for any responsible Israeli government,” Netanyahu said in his pre-taped address. “Yet for years, many in the international community have tried to appease these absurd Palestinian demands, and as a result, they have wasted time to try to advance an illusion that won’t happen, instead of working for a realistic solution that could happen.”  He praised U.S. President Donald Trump for choosing “a path anchored in reality” and said now that two Arab states — the UAE and Bahrain — have made peace with Israel, others will follow.  The Abraham Accords, as the peace deals are known, were signed in a ceremony on Sept. 15 at the White House.FILE – Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry speaks as German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas participates remotely, during an international meeting to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 24, 2020.German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas welcomed the recent developments between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain as “grounds for hope” for the Arab-Israeli conflict, urging that the new dynamic should “be seized by the parties for fresh, credible negotiations on a two-state solution that alone holds the promise of lasting peace.”  This year’s annual gathering of world leaders was held online due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 1 million people worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.   
 
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T. Cole Newton began hosting presidential debate watch parties at his New Orleans, Louisiana bar in 2012. “It was a business decision as much as anything else,” Newton told VOA. “I knew my regulars would want to watch as much as I did, so we made an event out of it.” His bar is Twelve Mile Limit, a cross between a neighborhood dive and a cocktail bar, and he said it routinely fills up during their watch parties.   “Even during the primary debates, we’d be packed like a sports bar during a football game! Lots of beer, snacks, and hootin’ and hollerin’. We get way busier for debates than even big games.”   In 2020, however, watch parties like Newton’s are no longer permitted as local officials continue to impose restrictions on businesses and social gatherings in an attempt to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. In New Orleans, for example, bars have remained closed for months.T. Cole Newton with his child at his bar. Newton began hosting presidential debate watch parties at his New Orleans, Louisiana bar in 2012. (Courtesy/Twelve Mile Limit)This has left residents like Glennis Waterman unsure of where she’ll watch Tuesday evening’s debate, the first between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden. Waterman said she prefers viewing debates with others because of the sense of community she feels watching with like-minded people.   “I’m not sure what I’m going to do this year,” she said. “If the bars open, I’d go. If not, I hope to join a friend at her house.”    Waterman said a virtual gathering on a platform like Zoom wouldn’t satisfy her desire for companionship, and that she knows watching alone would be frustrating for her. 
 
“I want to be able to share my feelings about the debate with others,” she explained. “I’m sure I’m going to be varying degrees of joyful, amused and angry. I want to share that.” Debating the value of a debate An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released last week reported that 89% of eligible voters in the United States said they have already made up their mind on whom they will vote for. There seems to be general consensus that there isn’t much new to be learned about these two well-known candidates, particularly during a time of intense political division.   “I can’t imagine there’s anything new we could possibly learn about either candidate,” said Colin Ash, who added that — while he considers himself politically active — he doesn’t find much value in the debates beyond entertainment. “They are who they are, and most all of us will have decided who we’re voting for months ago, if not years ago.”   Aaron Luther said he has enjoyed watching past debates at a neighborhood sports bar but agreed that whatever is said is unlikely to affect how most Americans cast their vote. Still, he believes debates address a problem unique to modern politics.   “So much of our lives and our political discourse now happens online and on our devices,” Luther said, noting that the algorithms on those devices often give users information that reinforces their unique worldview and preferences. “It isn’t seen or shared by others.”   The debates, he hoped, could offer something different.“They’re one of the few remaining parts of American culture that are best watched live and with others,” he said. “The reactions and follow-ups to the debate will most likely happen in our own little online bubbles, but the debate itself happens live and we can all watch the same thing the same way.”   Luther, a Biden supporter, prefers to watch the debates at a bar so he can enjoy the communal experience. He said he’ll look to see who’s showing the debate in a COVID-safe way, but if he can’t, he has a back-up plan. “I’ll be happy to watch at home with a negroni [cocktail],” he said. “Or, half-a-dozen negronis, depending on how the debate goes.”   New options   “It’s unfortunate Twelve Mile Limit has to cancel all our events this year,” Newton said, “but it’s absolutely the right thing to do. It’s not worth getting somebody sick over.”   As many debate-watching options disappear, however, New Orleanians are finding new ways to watch that attempt to balance the desire for community with the need for safety. Laura Beauchamp, who works in the energy industry, said she has watched nearly every presidential debate since she was a student in junior high school. She believes that in a time that is so politically divided, it’s important to hear both sides of issues directly from the candidates. For all the debates she’s watched, though, Beauchamp said this was the first year she wanted to view them with others.A member of the production team uses a light meter while on stage ahead of the first presidential debate between Republican candidate President Donald Trump and Democratic candidate former Vice President Joe Biden in Cleveland, Sep. 28, 2020.“I’ve always preferred to watch alone,” she said, “but COVID has changed that. I miss people!” She found a local movie theater that will be showing Tuesday night’s debate. Because movie theaters in New Orleans can’t exceed 25% capacity, Beauchamp felt the experience would be a safe one. She also sees it as an opportunity to support small businesses struggling to stay open during the pandemic and the resultant economic shutdown.   “So many places are closing, so it’s critical we support local businesses during COVID,” she said. “Buying a movie ticket to watch this debate I already want to see is a really easy way to do that.”   While many Americans excitedly prepare to tune in as the candidates for president square off on important domestic and international issues, a lack of other options caused by the coronavirus shutdown could prompt even those who might normally skip the debate to watch.    “If I had something better to do, I’d do it,” said Colin Ash. “But I don’t.” 
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A standoff between South Florida police and President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale ended after an officer who was friends with Parscale convinced him to surrender, officials said.
Fort Lauderdale Officer Christopher Wilson wrote in a report that he had just finished a shift Sunday evening when a mutual friend called him and told him that a SWAT team was at Parscale’s home, and he was refusing to come out. When Wilson arrived at the Fort Lauderdale home, he was able to persuade Parscale to come outside. Body camera footage released Monday shows officers rushing Parscale and knocking him to the ground before taking him into custody.
The standoff started earlier Sunday after Parscale’s wife fled the home and asked for help from a real estate agent showing a nearby house, officials said. They called 911, and officers responded.
The wife told officers that Parscale had been stressed out recently and that he had made comments about shooting himself, according to a police report. Investigators said 10 guns were later removed from the home. The wife also said that Parscale drinks and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.
One of the responding officers reported that he witnessed bruising on the wife’s arm and face. She told him that the injuries had come from an altercation with Parscale earlier that week, according to the police report. The officer called Parscale and asked him to leave the house unarmed, but the report said Parscale remained in the home for about an hour, until Wilson arrived and convinced him to come outside.
Parscale was hospitalized Sunday under the state’s Baker Act. That act allows anyone deemed to be a threat to themselves or others to be detained for 72 hours for psychiatric evaluation.
Parscale was demoted from the campaign manager’s post in July but remained part of the campaign, helping run its digital operation.
Standing 6’8″ and with a distinctive beard, Parscale had become a celebrity to Trump supporters and would frequently pose for photos and sign autographs ahead of campaign rallies. But Trump had begun to sour on him earlier this year as Parscale attracted a wave of media attention that included focus on his seemingly glitzy lifestyle on the Florida coast that kept him far from campaign headquarters in Virginia.
Over the summer, he hyped a million ticket requests for the president’s comeback rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that ended up drawing just 6,000 people. A furious Trump was left staring at a sea of empty seats and, weeks later, promoted Bill Stepien to campaign manager.
Parscale was originally hired to run Trump’s 2016 campaign by Jared Kushner, the president’s powerful son-in-law. While the Republican National Committee owns most of the campaign’s data, voter modeling and outreach tools, Parscale ran most of the microtargeted online advertising that Trump aides believe was key to his victory four years ago.
Under the state’s Red Flag Law, officials could ask a judge to bar Parscale from possessing any weapons for up to a year.
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Women demanding that Mexico legalize abortion nationwide clashed with police in the capital, Mexico City, on Monday. Police fired tear gas at groups of protesters, some of whom reportedly threw projectiles, including bottles. The government said nearly a dozen police were injured in the melee. Protesters said they were victims of police brutality.Riot police get covered in red paint by abortion-rights demonstrators during the “Day for Decriminalization of Abortion in Latin America and the Caribbean” march in Mexico City, Sept. 28, 2020.The demonstration in the mostly Catholic country came on International Safe Abortion Day. Abortion is only legal in Mexico City and the southern state of Oaxaca during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Abortion is only allowed in the rest of the country under limited circumstances, such as if a woman has been raped. 
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The lifting of crippling economic sanctions against Mali by a bloc of 15-West African countries will come later than first thought, even after the appointment of Mali’s new transitional civilian prime minister, Moctar Ouane. ECOWAS imposed sanctions on Mali shortly after last month’s coup that ousted President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. The group said they would lift sanctions after civilian leaders were appointed during the transition period. But the French News Press reports a sticking point with West African leaders may be junta leader Colonel Assimi Goita’s appointment as the transitional vice president. Goita was among the junta leaders involved in the coup. ECOWAS envoy and Nigerian ex-president Goodluck Jonathan said in a statement that the military leaders have yet to satisfy ECOWAS’ demand that a civilian be named as vice president. West African leaders are expected to make a decision on their next step after Jonathan submits a formal report to the leader of ECOWAS, which will be reviewed by the member countries. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to distribute 150 million rapid coronavirus tests and urged governors to use them to reopen schools, amid reporting that a member of his coronavirus task force is concerned the president is receiving incorrect information about the pandemic.In a speech at the White House Rose Garden, Trump called the plan a “massive and groundbreaking expansion” of testing capability, “more than double the number of tests already performed.“Fifty million tests will go to protect the most vulnerable communities, which we’ve always promised to do, including 18 million for nursing homes, 15 million for assisted living facilities,10 million for home health and hospice care, hospice care agencies and nearly 1 million for historically black colleges and universities, and also tribal nation colleges,” Trump said.The administration is encouraging schools to use the rapid Abbott Laboratories tests, which deliver results in 15 minutes, to help restart and maintain in-person teaching so that parents can return to work.   “One hundred million rapid, point-of-care tests will be given to states and territories to support efforts to reopen their economies in schools immediately and fast as they can,” Trump said.   Last week Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden criticized Trump for not having a national standard to safely reopen schools and said that he had released a plan to do so in July.   Biden stressed that reopening schools should only be done with adequate protections including masks and sanitizing and based on health considerations such as the reinfection rate. “If it’s down below one then it’s rational that you can, with those protections, go ahead and open a school but watch it very closely. But it requires testing and tracing to make sure you’re still on course there,” Biden said. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield speaks during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing “Review of Coronavirus Response Efforts” on Capitol Hill, Washington, Sept. 16, 2020.‘Everything he says is false’  Trump’s announcement came amid reporting that the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, suggested in a conversation with a colleague Friday that Dr. Scott Atlas, the newest member of the president’s coronavirus task force, is arming Trump with misleading data about the virus, including on the efficacy of masks and the potential benefits of herd immunity.   “Everything he says is false,” Redfield said during a phone call made in public on a commercial airline and overheard by NBC News.   The CDC did not dispute that Redfield was speaking about Atlas in the overheard conversation. “NBC News is reporting one side of a private phone conversation by CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield that was overheard on a plane from Atlanta Hartsfield airport. Dr. Redfield was having a private discussion regarding a number of points he has made publicly about COVID-19,” said a CDC spokesman in an email to NBC.   Atlas is a neuroradiologist with no background in infectious diseases or public health who was brought on to the White House task force in August. Before he joined the task force, Atlas was a frequent guest on Fox News, where he pushed to reopen the country and espoused views that more closely align with the president’s opinions on the pandemic. Trump invited Atlas to speak during the coronavirus testing announcement. Redfield was not present at Monday’s event, neither were two other members of the coronavirus task force, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx. 
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Republican President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, are set to debate Tuesday night, five weeks ahead of the Nov. 3 election, in the first of three planned face-to-face encounters over the next month.  The high-stakes event in the midwestern city of Cleveland, Ohio, comes as Biden has maintained about a 7-percentage-point advantage over Trump for weeks in national polls, threatening to make Trump the third U.S. president in the past four decades to lose reelection for a second four-year term in the White House.  However, the race is closer in several key battleground states, which raises the possibility that Trump could once again lose the popular vote — as he did against Democrat Hillary Clinton  in 2016 — and still win more of the all-important state electors to claim victory. There are estimates that 100 million Americans will watch the two presidential contenders square off for 90 minutes in the widely televised and livestreamed event, facing questions from Fox News journalist Chris Wallace, as about 100 people watch in person. Until now, the candidates have not appeared together.FILE – This combination of file photos shows President Donald Trump, left, speaking to the media in Washington on March 3, 2020, and Democratic presidential hopeful and former Vice President Joe Biden at a Nevada Caucus watch party on Feb. 22, 2020. Wallace said he will pose questions on six topics in 15-minute segments: the candidates’ records; the coronavirus pandemic that has killed a world-leading 204,000 people in the U.S.; Trump’s nomination of conservative jurist Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court; the U.S. economy that has been buffeted by the pandemic; the integrity of the election; and “race and violence” in U.S. cities. One late-breaking topic is also sure to be a focal point — a New York Times report on Sunday that the billionaire Trump paid only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016, the year he ran for the presidency, and in 2017, his first year in office. The report detailed how Trump, who has often boasted of his business savvy, has written off hundreds of millions of dollars in business losses. Trump called the report “totally fake news,” but the Biden campaign on Sunday highlighted it to advance its contention that Trump is out of touch with U.S. workers he claims to be fighting for. The Biden campaign started airing an ad showing that a typical elementary school teacher, a firefighter, a construction manager and a registered nurse all pay thousands of dollars in taxes a year while Trump paid $750. Debates in past presidential campaigns have occasionally proved crucial to the outcome, but whether that is the case this year is open to question. Opinion surveys show that more than 90% of voters say they have already made up their minds and have no intention of changing their choice. Early voting has started in many states, occasionally with long lines of people waiting to cast their ballots. Millions more have requested or been sent mail-in ballots to avoid meeting face-to-face with other voters on Election Day amid the coronavirus pandemic. Trump has claimed, without evidence, that the sharp increase in mail-in voting this year will lead to a “rigged” election against him, and he refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power at January’s presidential inauguration if Biden wins. FILE – Fox News’ Chris Wallace moderates the third and final 2016 presidential campaign debate between Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at UNLV in Las Vegas, Oct. 19, 2016.The topics picked by Wallace for the debate reflect the news of the day in the United States, although critics say that Wallace’s description of race and violence in the U.S. mirrors Trump’s contention that protests over police abuse of minorities in recent months have been led by “thugs,” rioters and anarchists.  Democrats supporting Biden say instead, the discussion should be about systemic racism in the U.S. and the country’s national reckoning over race relations brought to the fore by the May death of a Black man, George Floyd, while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the deaths of other Black people at the hands of police.   Ahead of their encounter, Trump has questioned Biden’s mental acuity and sought to diminish Biden’s skill as a debater, claiming, without evidence, that the Democrat must have been drugged when his debate performance improved as the large field of Democratic presidential contenders was winnowed to a single opponent, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, before Sanders conceded to Biden.   “I will be strongly demanding a Drug Test of Sleepy Joe Biden prior to, or after, the Debate on Tuesday night,’ Trump said on Twitter. “Naturally, I will agree to take one also. His Debate performances have been record setting UNEVEN, to put it mildly. Only drugs could have caused this discrepancy???”The Biden campaign retorted, “Vice President Biden intends to deliver his debate answers in words. If the president thinks his best case is made in urine, he can have at it.” Trump tweeted back, “Joe Biden just announced that he will not agree to a Drug Test. Gee, I wonder why?”  Dos and don’ts Aaron Kall, the debate coach at the University of Michigan and co-author of the book “Debating the Donald,” said that even with perhaps fewer undecided voters than in past presidential election years, the two candidates need to exhibit a certain competency for voters.  Biden, now 77, served for 36 years in the U.S. Senate and eight as vice president under former President Barack Obama. Kall said Biden “needs to reassure undecided voters that he’s up physically and mentally to the task of being president, and holding your own with the incumbent president for 90 minutes is an excellent way to do this.” “Biden needs to contrast his experience, agenda and vision for the future with President Trump,” Kall said. Meanwhile, Kall said, Trump, at 74, “needs to make the case for why he should be reelected and deserves another four years in office. The economy is generally viewed as his biggest strength in opinion polls, and he must have a detailed plan to decrease unemployment and increase economic growth.”  With the latest phase of coronavirus spending in Congress stalled, Trump should make his specific vision for that be known, according to Kall. Moreover, while health care is not one of the six topics for the first debate, Trump “should be able to articulate his desired replacement for the Affordable Care Act, since this will likely come up during the Supreme Court section” of the debate, Kall said.  The debate coach said Trump “is hoping that Biden will make a major disqualifying error, but relying upon your opponent to make a mistake is not a sound debate strategy.”  Trump often exaggerates claims about the news of the day, but Kall said Biden “needs to pick his battles regarding President Trump’s falsehoods, since they aren’t all created equal, and there will likely be many of them.”  “It’s impossible to let some things go,” Kall said, “but Biden can’t spend the majority of his precious speaking time on the defensive and correcting President Trump. Biden has publicly stated that he intends to fact-check President Trump in real-time, but that would be a mistake.”He advised Trump against questioning Biden’s mental fitness for the presidency. “These accusations by President Trump prior to the debate have already decreased expectations for Biden and made the incumbent’s debate task even that much harder,” Kall said.   “President Trump has generally been successful at turning his political opponents into caricatures, but it’s much more difficult to do this when someone else is sharing the stage with you,” Kall said. “President Trump would be better off attacking the Obama-Biden record, while contrasting it with his last four years in office.” 
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This week on Healthy Living, we focus on disability, starting with the story of a nine-year-old boy from Malawi with a physical disability who defies the odds. We hear from Michelle Sie Whitten, President of the Global Down Syndrome Foundation, and a disabled person in Tanzania talks to us on the challenges he faces. Finally, how clear face masks are being made for those with hearing disabilities. These topics and more on the show this week. S1, Ep64
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On Healthy Living this week, a look into maternal health – why new mothers in the DRC are being detained in hospitals after giving birth. We hear from Faith Gitahi, Deputy Chief Nutrition Officer at Kenyatta National Hospital, on how to address breastfeeding pain while mothers in Nigeria share their tips. These stories and more on the show this week.  S1, Ep 63
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Asian markets are mostly higher Monday. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index is up 1.3%. The S&P/ASX index in Australia is down 0.2%. The KOSPI index in South Korea is up 1.2%, while Taiwan’s TSEC index is up 1.8%.   In late afternoon trading, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index is up 0.8%, Shanghai’s Composite is down 2.5 points, but is virtually unchanged percentage-wise, and Mumbai’s Sensex is up 1.2%. In commodities, gold is trading at $1,863.00 an ounce, down 0.1%.  U.S. crude is trading at $39.89 per barrel, down 0.8%, and Brent crude oil is trading at $41.61 per barrel, down 0.7%.   All three major U.S. indices are trending upward in futures trading.  
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A curfew imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus has been lifted in the Australian city of Melbourne. The Victorian state government has said that a fall in the number of infections is allowing them to gradually relax other restrictions. Melbourne was placed into a second lockdown in July because of a spike in COVID-19 cases. New cases of COVID-19 in Melbourne have fallen enough that officials are talking about re-opening the city.  In late July, authorities had reported more than 700 new daily infections.  On Monday, they recorded just five cases.   Infections have fallen sufficiently for Australia’s second-biggest city to move to the second of a four-step recovery plan.  A night-time curfew has ended, and all primary schools will reopen in two weeks’ time, while about 130,000 people will be allowed back to work.    The next step could be taken earlier than its scheduled date of October 26.  To achieve a ‘COVID-normal’ status, Victoria would need to have recorded no new infections for 28 days. Victoria premier Daniel Andrews says the state is “so close to beating” the coronavirus.   He hopes other restrictions will soon be lifted.   “This is a strategy that is designed to get us to a COVID-normal Christmas. We are well on track.  In fact, we are ahead of time when it comes to achieving that outcome.  That is a credit to every single Victorian who is staying the course, working hard, making sacrifices,” Andrews said.Many personal freedoms remain restricted in Melbourne. Residents can only leave their homes for one of four reasons, including study, work and caregiving.   A second wave of infections in Victoria is blamed on security failures in the hotel quarantine system for Australian travelers returning from overseas.  A judicial inquiry has heard that travelers infected hotel staff, who then spread the disease into the community with devastating consequences.    Victoria has had 75% of Australia’s confirmed COVID-19 cases, and most of its fatalities.    New South Wales, the nation’s most populous state, Sunday recorded no new infections for the first time since early June. Australia has had about 27,000 confirmed coronavirus cases since the pandemic began.  More than 870 people have died. 
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Former Mali foreign minister Moctar Ouane has been named the West African nation’s prime minister as it struggles to return to normalcy following last month’s overthrow of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. Ouane was named to the post Sunday by transitional President Bah N’Daw, who was installed by the ruling junta Friday, with coup leader Colonel Assimi Goita named vice president. Ouane served as foreign minister from 2004 to 2011, after representing Mali as its envoy to the United Nations from 1995 to 2002.   The installation of Ouane as prime minister could lead to the removal of sanctions imposed on Mali by the regional economic bloc ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) after the 75-year-old Keita and then-Prime Minister Boubou Cisse were arrested by military troops on August 18 at Keita’s house in the capital, Bamako.  Mali had been mired in months of protests led by the main opposition party, June 5 Movement, over an economic crisis, corruption and Keita’s failure to quell an eight-year-old Islamic insurgency that has gained a foothold in central Mali.  Anger also brewed over the results of 31 disputed legislative races held in April. ECOWAS suspended all financial transactions between Mali and its 14 other member states and closed their shared borders after the coup. The bloc has called for the junta to return the country to civilian leadership and hold elections within a year for a president and prime minister in exchange for ending the sanctions. The military has been seeking a three-year transition, to include the writing of a new constitution. 
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