Good morning, NBC News readers.
President Donald Trump made his case for re-election on the last night of the Republican National Convention, Japan's longest serving prime minister bows out and more charges for the 17-year-old suspect in the Kenosha protest shooting.
Here's what we're watching this Friday morning.
Accepting Republican nomination, Trump says Biden would be 'the destroyer of American greatness'
President Donald Trump warned that Joe Biden would usher in violence and chaos if elected as he formally accepted his party's nomination on the final night of the Republican National Convention.
In a speech that stretched for about 1 hour and 10 minutes, Trump hammered home the "law and order" theme Republicans have been pushing throughout the convention.
Trump described Biden, a moderate Democrat, as "a Trojan horse for socialism" who would grant "free rein to violent anarchists, agitators, and criminals" if he were president.
Appealing to voters to grant him a second term, Trump cast this election as one that would determine whether the "American way of life" would be conserved or destroyed.
He also promised a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year, a timeline that health experts say is unrealistic, and promised to revive the pandemic battered economy. Reporters noted that few masks were seen among the audience on the White House South Lawn.
The fact that the White House, which has traditionally been considered a nonpartisan space, was transformed into a setting for a campaign rally has come under criticism by ethics experts for blurring the lines between partisan politics and governance. The evening's festivities were capped off by a massive fireworks display over the Washington Monument.
- Key takeaways: Secretly he's really nice, Trump's aides insisted as they tried to take aim at Biden's "empathy" edge.
- Fact check: What's true and what's false from the RNC speakers' claims on Thursday night.
- Catch up: Read analysis of the night's big moments as they happened.
Japan's PM Shinzo Abe says he's resigning due to health issues
Teary-eyed and taking a bow, Japan's longest-serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe, announced on Friday he was resigning due to ill health.
"I cannot be prime minister if I cannot make the best decisions for the people. I have decided to step down from my post," Abe, 65, said during a live public broadcast to the nation.
His resignation comes as Japan deals with worsening tensions between the United States and nearby China and a restive North Korea ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November.
Hurricane Laura leaves at least six dead and a trail of destruction
The most intense hurricane to hit Louisiana in more than a century left at least six people dead, hundreds of thousands of people without power and an untold number of homes and buildings in ruins.
Laura, which was downgraded to a tropical storm Thursday after making landfall as a Category 4 hurricane with 150 mph winds, was expected to weaken to a tropical depression overnight as it moves across Arkansas, the National Hurricane Center said.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards expressed relief that the state did not suffer some of the "catastrophic" damage predicted, but acknowledged that it did not come out unscathed.
"We have thousands and thousands of our fellow citizens whose lives are upside down," Edwards said.
More charges for suspect in protest shooting, as pro-sports walkout marks a sea change
The 17-year-old Illinois resident arrested in connection with the fatal shooting at a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, sparked by the police shooting of Jacob Blake now faces two charges of homicide.
Kyle Rittenhouse was arrested Wednesday on a charge of first-degree intentional homicide. Multiple additional charges were filed against the teenager Thursday afternoon by the Kenosha County district attorney, including another count of first-degree intentional homicide, as well as first-degree reckless homicide and attempted first-degree intentional homicide, according to Wisconsin court records.
Meantime, the walkout by the Milwaukee Bucks before an NBA playoff game this week to protest the police shooting set off a chain reaction unprecedented in the history of professional U.S. sports, NBC News Ethan Sacks writes.
NBA players are expected to return to the floor this weekend, league officials said Thursday.
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Plus
- As coronavirus cases surge, Paris mandated face masks in public.
- 'A black eye for the CDC': The federal agency's director walked back new testing guidance.
- Viral pro-Trump tweets came from fake African American spam accounts, Twitter says.
THINK about it
Trump's RNC speech won't please never-Trumpers. But here's why GOP voters will love it, Keith Koffler, a senior editor at the Washington Examiner, writes in an opinion piece.
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Thanks, Petra Cahill
