Latest 2020 election updates as Trump doubles down on mail-in ballot fraud allegations

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Dr Fauci contradicted Donald Trump's optimistic assessment (AP)

Twitter has added a warning to a tweet by Donald Trump in which the president appears to again call on supporters to try to vote twice. According to the platform, the president’s post “violated the Twitter Rules about civic and election integrity”.

The update comes after a volley of Tweets in which the president threatened those behind the Mueller inquiry into alleged links between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, saying “a big price must be paid”.

Elsewhere, Dr Anthony Fauci has said that Americans cannot expect a return to pre-coronavirus normality until the end of 2021, despite Donald Trump’s claim the country had “rounded a corner” in tackling the disease.

See below to read how the day’s political action unfolded.

Key points

• Twitter adds warning to Trump tweet calling on supporters to vote twice
• No return to normal until end of 2021, says Fauci
• 8,800 children deported under coronavirus rules
• Trump hails Bahrain-Israel talks

[12 September 2020 16:48 · Louise Hall]

FURTHER READING: Twitter adds warning to Trump tweet calling on supporters to vote twice

Not for the first time, Twitter has been obliged to add a warning to a tweet by the president, or members of his inner circle after the president appeared to again call on supporters to try to vote twice, Andrew Buncombe reports.

[12 September 2020 16:01 · Louise Hall]

Twitter adds warning to Trump tweet calling on supporters to vote twice

Twitter has added a warning to a tweet by Donald Trump in which the president appears to again call on supporters to try to vote twice.

[12 September 2020 15:41 · Phil Thomas]

‘A big price must be paid’

In a volley of Saturday morning tweets, Donald Trump launched a series of broadsides against his political opponents.

Bringing up an old and enduring grudge, he threatened those behind the Mueller inquiry into alleged links between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, saying “a big price must be paid”.

The president was responding to reports that members of the special counsel’s team “wiped” their phones for different reasons during the investigation, in newly released records from the Department of Justice. The reasons given included forgotten passwords, screen damage and lost phones.

Naturally, Mr Trump sees a conspiracy against him – and an opportunity to rail against the “Mueller Scam” and the “Witch Hunt”, ending on a plaintive note of self-pity: “How different my life would have been if this fraud on America was never committed!!!”

[12 September 2020 15:36 · Louise Hall]

8,800 unaccompanied children deported under Trump coronavirus rules

Around 8,800 children have been deported from the United States along the Mexican border under the administration’s new pandemic-related measure which functionally stripped the rights of those seeking asylum, writes Kelsey Chapman .

The emergency order temporarily suspends citizens, regardless of their country of origin, from migrating into the United States via Mexico and Canada.

Donald Trump’s administration has expelled nearly 160,000 people since the emergency order proclaimed by the CDC took effect in March including roughly 7,600 adults and children who came to the US in families. 

[12 September 2020 13:55 · Jon Sharman]

Charlottesville takes down Confederate monument at site of fatal protest

Workers in Charlottesville, Virginia, have started taking down a Confederate statue close to the scene of violent protests in 2017 that left a woman dead.

[12 September 2020 13:39 · Jon Sharman]

Venezuela claims to have captured a US spy

Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro has claimed a “US spy” targeting the largest oil refining complex in the country, which is facing a severe fuel shortage crisis, has been captured, writes Emily Goddard.

Mr Maduro said the man, alleged to be a marine who served as a CIA operative in Iraq, was arrested on Thursday for spying on the Amuay and Cardon refineries in the northwest state of Falcon.

“He was captured with specialised weapons, he was captured with large amounts of cash, large amounts of dollars and other items,” Mr Maduro, an adversary of the United States, said.

[12 September 2020 12:46 · Jon Sharman]

Trump accuses Biden of drug use

Donald Trump has repeated a baseless claim that his opponent Joe Biden used performance enhancing drugs during the Democratic primary debates, writes Richard Hall.

Mr Trump made the accusation in an interview with Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, an excerpt of which was released ahead of its scheduled Saturday night broadcast.  

“I think there’s probably — possibly — drugs involved. That’s what I hear. I mean, there’s possibly drugs. I don’t know how you can go from being so bad where you can’t even get out a sentence,” he said.

[12 September 2020 12:05 · Jon Sharman]

Iran executes wrestler despite Trump intervention

An Iranian wrestler who was convicted of stabbing to death a security guard during anti-government protests in 2018 has been executed.

Donald Trump had called on Iran to spare his life.

Navid Afkari was convicted of killing Hassan Turkman, a water company security guard, and other charges. Iran's Supreme Court rejected a review of the case in late August, according to state media.

He had claimed to have been tortured into making a confession, which Iranian authorities denied.

[12 September 2020 11:45 · Jon Sharman]

Pompeo in Kabul

Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, is in Kabul as Afghanistan peace talks continue between the Taliban and the government.

Under discussion will be the terms of a permanent cease-fire, the rights of women and minorities and the disarming of tens of thousands of Taliban fighters and militias loyal to warlords, some of them aligned with the government.

The Afghan sides are also expected to discuss constitutional changes and power sharing during the talks in Qatar's capital of Doha, where Taliban insurgents maintain a political office.

Among the government-appointed negotiators are four women, who vow to preserve women's rights in any power-sharing deal with the fundamentalist Taliban. This includes the right to work, education and participation in political life — all denied when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan for five years.

[12 September 2020 11:15 · Jon Sharman]

Latest odds on election

Joe Biden has a 53 per cent chance of winning the election in November (5/6), according to Betfair, while Donald Trump has a 45 per cent chance (6/5).

The betting firm said: “Trump has closed the gap in the past month, having been adrift at the start of August, only to come in to briefly neck and neck with his Democrat rival at the start of September before moving back out to sit just 8 per cent behind Biden. ”

The incumbent is, apparently, also 20/1 to win the Nobel Peace Prize.