Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris met the family of a Wisconsin man shot by police last month to kick off her Labor Day visit to a critical swing state, while President Donald Trump assailed the Democratic ticket and tried to put the halting economic recovery under the best light. Harris gathered with Jacob Blake’s father, two sisters and members of his legal team at the airport in Milwaukee while Blake’s mother and attorney Ben Crump joined by phone. Blake joined the conversation by phone from his hospital bed, and Harris told him she was proud of him for how he was working through his pain, his attorneys said in a statement. Harris also spoke individually to each member of the family and discussed Biden’s police reform agenda, they said.

A U.S. soldier was wounded and two Somali soldiers were killed when an al-Shabab suicide bomber tried to pass a checkpoint and attack a military compound in southern Somalia but was stopped by the partner forces, the countries said Monday. A Somali information ministry statement said the attack occurred Monday morning about 60 kilometers (10 miles) north of the port city of Kismayo. Three other Somali soldiers were wounded and an al-Shabab extremist was killed, it said. “The U.S. service member is in stable condition and receiving treatment for injuries that are not assessed to be life-threatening,” U.S. Africa Command spokesman Christopher Karns said in a separate statement.

New York state marked a milestone of progress in fighting coronavirus infections on Monday, with a full month of fewer than 1% of virus tests coming back positive. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the 30-day stretch of good news while urging people to remain cautious during Labor Day weekend get-togethers. He attributed the state’s progress to its statewide mask mandate and an approach to reopening that’s been slower than in many other states. “It took the work of all of us to get here, and to protect this progress we will need to all continue to wash our hands, wear our masks, remain socially distant and above all, stay New York tough,” Cuomo said in a statement. There is concern that case counts could rise as schools, college campuses and more businesses reopen.

Tomorrow Night: PCS IT Desktop and Network Support Course Open House Join the sought after field of IT that has been rated as 3 of the best 10 tech jobs for 2020 by US News and World Report! Receive hands-on training in: computer hardware and configuration, operating systems and software, network hardware and technologies, active directory and more… Open house: Wednesday September 9, 7:30 PM at PCS, 1771 Madison.   To join remotely, email: nj@nj.pcsjobs.org  For more info: call  732-905-9700 ext. 606 or email nj@nj.pcsjobs.org  or visit https://pcsnynj.org/#course-12  

The Knesset’s Ministerial Committee on Declaring Restricted Zones approved a list of 40 “red cities” that will be subject to a nightly curfew and other restrictions beginning on Tuesday evening at 7 p.m. The schools in red cities will also be closed as part of the partial lockdown, except for special education schools, and gatherings of over 10 people in closed spaces and over 20 in open spaces are forbidden. Only essential businesses can be open past 7 p.m. and residents must stay within 500 meters of their homes. The curfew will extend from 7 p.m. until 5 a.m. in the designated cities, which include Bnei Brak, Elad, Beitar Illit, Emmanuel, Netivot, Rechasim and neighborhoods in Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Sderot.

Wildfires have burned more than 2 million acres in California this year, setting a state record even as crews battled dozens of growing blazes in sweltering temperatures Monday that strained the electrical grid and threatened power outages for millions. The most striking thing about the record is how early it was set, with the most dangerous part of the year ahead, said Lynne Tolmachoff, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. “It’s a little unnerving because September and October are historically our worst months for fires,” she said. “It’s usually hot, and the fuels really dry out. And we see more of our wind events.” The previous high was 1.96 million acres (793,184 hectares) burned in 2018. Cal Fire began tracking the numbers in 1987.

Thousands of absentee ballots get rejected in every presidential election. This year, that problem could be much worse and potentially pivotal in hotly contested battleground states. With the coronavirus creating a surge in mail-in balloting and postal delays reported across the country, the number of rejected ballots in November is projected to be significantly higher than previous elections. If ballots are rejected at the same rate as during this year’s primaries, up to three times as many voters in November could be disenfranchised in key battleground states when compared to the last presidential election, according to an Associated Press analysis of rejected ballots.

US President Donald Trump has urged New York City to drop its anti-coronavirus restrictions immediately, accusing its leadership of “destroying the place.” Trump criticized the persisting anti-coronavirus measures in the city on Tuesday, personally attacking Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio. “New York City must stop the Shutdown now. The Governor & Mayor are destroying the place!” the president wrote on Twitter. In a subsequent tweet, the president also alleged that all the anti-coronavirus lockdowns are actually a dirty pre-election trick by the Democrats and that they will be lifted immediately after the polls. “These shutdowns are ridiculous, and only being done to hurt the economy prior to the most important election, perhaps, in our history!” Trump claimed.

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Cohen, shliach in Mariupol, Ukraine, has been airlifted to Israel after contracting COVID last week. Today, the worldwide Chabad Community is asked to unite in support of the Cohen family at helpabrother.rallybound.org to help them recover, reconnect, and rebuild amidst tremendous adversity. In the past few years, Rabbi Cohen’s family and community have endured the rockets of war, the bitterness of hunger, and the terror of anti-semitism. Earlier this year, his community was shaken when a man armed with an axe broke into the Chabad facilities in Mariupol with the intention to harm Jews at prayer. Thank G-d, the attack was prevented by a security guard who disarmed the man before anyone was hurt.

The Lost Summer of 2020 drew to a close Monday with many big Labor Day gatherings canceled across the U.S. and health authorities pleading with people to keep their distance from others so as not to cause another coronavirus surge like the one that followed Memorial Day. Downtown Atlanta was quiet as the 85,000 or so people who come dressed as their favorite superheroes or sci-fi characters for the annual Dragon Con convention met online instead. Huge football stadiums at places like Ohio State and the University of Texas sat empty. Many Labor Day parades marking the unofficial end of summer were called off, and masks were usually required at the few that went on. “Please, please do not make the same mistakes we all made on Memorial Day weekend.