Morning headlines: Postal Service sabotage; Harris boosts Biden campaign; Lebanese languish over blast

Today is Friday, Aug. 14, 2020. Let's get caught up.

These non-virus headlines are in the news this morning: President Trump said he is starving the Postal Service of money necessary to efficiently deliver mail-in ballots during the November election; running mate Kamala Harris is bringing energy, dollars and more to Joe Biden's presidential campaign; and the Lebanese people have little hope that an investigation into the Beirut port explosion will lead to the truth.

Read on for these stories, other top headlines, celebrity birthdays and more.

Top stories

Trump admits he's blocking postal cash to stop mail-in votes

President Donald Trump frankly acknowledged that he's starving the U.S. Postal Service of money to make it harder to process an expected surge of mail-in ballots, which he worries could cost him reelection.

In an interview on Fox Business Network, Trump explicitly noted two funding provisions that Democrats are seeking in a relief package that has stalled on Capitol Hill. Without the additional money, he said, the Postal Service won't have the resources to handle a flood of ballots from voters who are seeking to avoid polling places during the coronavirus pandemic.

“If we don’t make a deal, that means they don’t get the money,” Trump told host Maria Bartiromo on Thursday. “That means they can’t have universal mail-in voting; they just can’t have it.”

Trump's statements, including the false claim that Democrats are seeking universal mail-in voting, come as he is searching for a strategy to gain an advantage in his November matchup against Joe Biden. He's pairing the tough Postal Service stance in congressional negotiations with an increasingly robust mail-in-voting legal fight in states that could decide the election.

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Harris bringing energy, dollars and more to Biden's campaign

In her first two days as Joe Biden's running mate, Kamala Harris has fired off the campaign's sharpest criticism of Trump's shortcomings. She has vouched for Biden's character on race and more. And the enthusiasm surrounding her historic candidacy has brought in a record $36 million, including contributions from 150,000 new donors.

The campaign hopes it is just the beginning.

With less than three months before the election, Harris is rapidly embracing her new role. Democratic operatives and Harris allies believe she'll energize what has been a relatively quiet campaign that has often preferred to keep the attention on the turbulence of Trump's White House. She's already making a vigorous case for Trump's defeat, allowing Biden to focus more on his own policy prescriptions and less on direct attacks.

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Lebanese have little hope blast probe will lead to truth

Lebanon’s judicial investigation of the Beirut port explosion started with political wrangling over the naming of a lead investigator, military threats to jail leakers and doubts over whether a panel appointed along sectarian lines could be fully impartial.

So for many Lebanese, their greatest hope for credible answers about the blast that wrecked much of their capital may lie with outsiders: the French forensic police who have joined the probe and FBI investigators are expected to take part.

French teams have pressed ahead at their work, sending divers into the underwater crater, taking explosives samples and preparing recommendations for both French and Lebanese magistrates. Among the French judicial police on the case are men and women who responded after the 2004 tsunami in Japan, the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and the November 2015 and Bastille Day 2016 terror attacks in France.

The Beirut explosion lies at the crossroads of a disastrous accident and a crime scene. It still was not known what sparked the fire that ignited nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate that were stored for years in Beirut’s port next to densely populated residential areas.

In other news today ...

Joe Biden is poised to unveil his vision for the modern Democratic Party in the first presidential nominating convention of the coronavirus era, an all-virtual affair that will test the former vice president's ability to overcome unprecedented logistical challenges in an urgent mission to energize a winning coalition.
President Donald Trump has requested a mail-in ballot for Florida’s Tuesday primary election, despite weeks of criticizing the practice. Ballots were mailed on Wednesday to both the president and First lady Melania Trump at the Mar-a-Lago resort, which Trump lists as his legal address.
Trump on Thursday gave credence to a false and racist conspiracy theory about Kamala Harris’ eligibility to be vice president, fueling an online misinformation campaign that parallels the one he used to power his rise into politics.
One of the most powerful forces in Harris’ political career is missing from her bid for the vice presidency. Though more than a decade has passed since Shyamala Gopalan died, she remains a force in her daughter’s life as she takes a historic spot on the Democratic ticket beside Biden.
An October parole hearing has been set for a Black man sentenced to life in prison after stealing hedge clippers in a 1997 burglary, a sentence Louisiana's Supreme Court upheld despite its chief justice's insistence that the punishment was excessive and rooted in racist law.
Police have charged a 25-year-old man with first-degree murder after they say he shot and killed a 5-year-old boy last week in Wilson, North Carolina.
Belarusian authorities have released about 1,000 people detained amid demonstrations contesting the results of the presidential election, in an attempt to assuage public anger against a brutal crackdown on peaceful protests.
Apple and Google dropped the popular game Fortnite from their app stores after the game’s developer introduced a direct payment plan that bypasses their platforms. Apple and Google both take a 30% cut from in-app revenue purchases in games, which has long been a sore spot with developers.
Josephine just barely held on to its tropical storm status early Friday as it moved over the Atlantic Ocean as the earliest “J-named” storm in a record-setting hurricane season.
The Justice Department said it has seized millions of dollars from cryptocurrency accounts that militant groups, including al-Qaida and the Islamic State, relied on to finance their organizations and violent plots.
Iran and Turkey lashed out at their regional rival the United Arab Emirates on Friday over its decision to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel in a U.S.-brokered deal, accusing it of betraying the Palestinian cause.

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