New march on Washington on anniversary of Martin Luther King speech
Thousands of people took part in a march in Washington on Friday to denounce racism, on the anniversary of the march in 1963 where civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr made his historic "I Have a Dream" speech.
"You might have killed the dreamer, but you can't kill the dream," civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton told Friday's crowd.
Activists and politicians gave speeches, including Democratic vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris, who appeared in a recorded video. Many referenced John Lewis, the late lawmaker, who spoke at the 1963 march.
They also referred to the importance of voting in November's election and the links between activism for black civil rights, disability rights and LGBT rights and against gun violence, among other causes.
Trump convention speech attracts smaller TV audience than Biden
Some 23.8 million Americans watched President Donald Trump's keynote speech on the final night of the Republican National Convention, slightly less than the TV audience for his Democratic rival Joe Biden last week, Nielsen ratings data showed on Friday.
The audience reflects viewers across 13 networks between 11pm ET and 11.45pm ET on Thursday, when Trump accepted his party's nomination in a speech delivered on the South Lawn of the White House.
The figures do not include online viewers.
Paralysed black US police shooting victim shackled to hospital bed, says father
Jacob Blake is shackled to his hospital bed even though he is paralysed after US police shot him repeatedly in the back, his father said on Friday.
"Why do they have that cold steel on my son's ankle?" Blake Sr, who visited his son in the hospital on Wednesday, said in an interview on CNN. "He can't get up, he couldn't get up if he wanted to."
African American Blake, 29, was shot over the weekend by a white police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin and has no movement from the waist down.
France sees 'exponential' rise in coronavirus cases
France reported 7,379 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Friday, the most since lockdown, in what the health ministry described as an exponential surge just days before millions of children are due to return to school for the first time since March.
The daily tally was just shy of the record 7,578 high set on March 31, at the peak of an initial wave of Covid-19 infections that paralysed Europe.
The surge has raised the possibility that the government could be forced to shut the country down again.
NBA: Playoffs resume Saturday as league vows more social support
NBA playoff games will resume on Saturday after the league and players agreed Friday on plans for greater social justice and racial equality measures following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver and National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts said in a joint statement that "All parties agreed to resume NBA playoff games on Saturday."
The move came on a third day of postponed NBA playoff games after the Milwaukee Bucks refused to take the court on Wednesday for a scheduled Eastern Conference first-round matchup against Orlando in the Covid-19 quarantine bubble at Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
