Video - Russia accumulating forces in Kursk Region

Source: The Russian Ministry of Defense

Russia’s Defense Ministry has announced the deployment of additional weapons and equipment to Kursk Region, where its forces are actively fighting Ukrainian troops who launched an incursion in the area earlier this week.

The ministry released footage showing the equipment moving in columns across the region, stating that the reinforcements include BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket systems, towed artillery pieces, tanks, heavy tracked vehicles, as well as Ural and KamAZ vehicles.

The equipment is set to be used against Ukrainian formations operating in the Sudzhansky district of Kursk Region, which appears to have been the primary target of Kiev’s forces.

Ukraine launched the risky cross-border attack inside Russian territory on Tuesday morning, sending in up to 1,000 troops backed by dozens of Western-supplied tanks and armored personnel carriers, according to Moscow.

The Ukrainian leadership has said the primary goal of the operation was to induce “fear” in the hearts of the Russian population. Vladimir Zelensky has also claimed that the application of “just force” would bring a “just peace” with Russia closer.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the incursion as a “large-scale provocation” and has accused Kiev of “indiscriminately” targeting civilians, residential buildings, and ambulances. At least five civilians have reportedly been killed in the attack so far, and 21 have been injured, including six children, according to local officials.

Meanwhile, Russian forces have continued to inflict heavy casualties on the invading Ukrainian troops. Kiev has lost up to 945 soldiers as well as 102 armored vehicles in the attack, including 12 tanks and 17 armored personnel carriers, according to an update by the Russian Defense Ministry on Friday.

On Wednesday, the chief of Moscow’s General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, reported that the Ukrainian incursion had been halted by the Russian military and that the operation to expel the invaders was underway.

MOD video shows winged bombs hit Ukrainian positions in Russia’s Kursk Region

Russia is using Sukhoi Su-34 multipurpose fighter jets to fend off the Ukrainian incursion in Kursk Region, the Defense Ministry said on Friday, showcasing the capabilities of the supersonic aircraft with video footage.

The short clip shows the deployment of air bombs upgraded for precision strikes with glide kits, which allow the striking of targets from afar, keeping combat planes out of the range of enemy air defenses.

The video includes footage of two separate twin strikes by the powerful weapons, which, the ministry said, hit Ukrainian troops and military hardware in the border areas of Kursk Region.

Kiev launched the high-risk attack inside Russian territory on Tuesday morning. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has claimed that the application of “just forces” would bring closer a “just peace” with Russia.

His aide Mikhail Podoliak has described the goal of the operation as that of instilling fear among the public. He has claimed that Russians do not respond to anything else.

Russian civilians have fled the border areas of Kursk Region en masse, as Ukrainian forces were deliberately targeting them during the onslaught, according to the regional government.

The Russian military has estimated that its opponent lost up to 945 troops and 102 pieces of heavy weaponry in its operation. In the past 24 hours, the expeditionary force suffered 280 casualties, according to a Friday update.

German heavy armor back to fields of Kursk Region after 80 years – media

FILE PHOTO: German Marder infantry fighting vehicles
©Global Look Press/Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert

German-made heavy armor pieces are rolling through the fields of Russia’s Kursk Region again, some 80 years since one of the biggest battles of WWII in the same area, Bild wrote on Thursday, reporting on Kiev’s cross-border incursion.

The German tabloid, citing videos posted online, said that several Marder infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) have been spotted among the equipment used by the Ukrainian military in its offensive, launched early on Tuesday. The media outlet pointed to footage published by the Russian Defense Ministry, which shows IFVs being hit with Russian kamikaze drones.

Thursday morning, the ministry published a clip showing the destruction of at least three Marder vehicles by Russian Lancet drones, among other strikes on Ukrainian military equipment. The armor pieces were hit while moving along dirt roads and through a wooded area.

Posting on X (formerly, Twitter), Bild journalist Julian Ropcke said all three Marders “fell victim” to Russian strikes just a few kilometers from the border – as the Ukrainian forces had sent them into battle “without adequate air defense.”

The news of German-made weapons being used in an attack on Russia’s internationally recognized Russian territory has prompted a mixed reaction in Germany. The head of the German parliament’s Defense Committee, Markus Faber, stated he had no issues with the development. Any weapons handed over to Kiev cease to be German and become Ukrainian ones, he told the Funke Media Group. He also described the territory of both Ukraine and Russia as a “war zone.”

“This is a highly dangerous development,” said Sahra Wagenknecht, the head of the newly formed BSW Party and a former Left Party leader. Chancellor Olaf Scholz should call the Ukrainian leadership and “demand that no German weapons be used in [attacks] on the Russian territory,” she added. Back in 1943, Soviet troops clashed with the Nazi forces on the fields of the Kursk Region in what has since become known as the Battle of Kursk. It was one of the deadliest episodes of World War II and one of the largest tank battles in history.

Nazi Germany sought to achieve victory at the time by fielding its then brand-new armor pieces, including Panther and Tiger tanks as well as Ferdinand tank destroyers. The battle involved thousands of tanks on both sides, ended with the Soviet forces inflicting a defeat on the Nazi troops.

Up to 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been involved in the incursion into Kursk Region this week, supported by armor that included several US-made Stryker armored fighting vehicles, as well as artillery and drones, the Russian Defense Ministry has said.

Kiev’s forces have lost some 660 soldiers and 82 armor pieces, including eight tanks, 12 armored personnel carriers and six infantry fighting vehicles since the start of their operation, according to estimates provided by the ministry on Thursday. Moscow’s forces have stalled the Ukrainian troops’ offensive and prevented them from getting deeper into the region, the Russian authorities said.

WATCH Russia drop high-precision bombs on Ukrainian incursion forces in Kursk

The Russian Defense Ministry has released drone footage showing glide bombs hitting Ukrainian forces during their incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region.

The video showed two strikes using FAB-500 bombs – a munition initially designed to be unguided – fitted with a modern Universal Correction and Guidance Module winged upgrade kit, the Russian Defense Ministry said. Two blasts in a patch of woodland next to a road can be seen in the collated drone footage, seen from two different angles. The munitions were deployed from supersonic multifunctional Su-34 fighter-bombers, which carried out strikes against Ukrainian forces and their military equipment, according to the statement.

“Having received confirmation from reconnaissance that the targets had been destroyed, the crews returned safely to the deployment airfield,” the Defense Ministry said. Russian glide bombs have seen more extensive use in the Ukraine conflict in the past year, with Kiev’s sources often describing them as “devastating” in their statements to Western media.

Early on Tuesday, Ukrainian forces launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region. The Ukrainian leadership said on Thursday that one of the objectives of the assault is to sow “fear” into the hearts of the Russian population, in order to lower support for their government and eke out a stronger negotiating position.

Russian President Vladimir Putin dubbed the push as a “large-scale provocation,” accusing Kiev of conducting “indiscriminate strikes” on civilians, civilian buildings and ambulances. Multiple videos circulating online in the past two days appear to show Ukrainian troops firing on civilian cars.

According to an early statement from the Russian Defense Ministry, Kiev’s assault was carried out by forces numbering up to a thousand, supported by tanks and artillery. A ministry spokesman later reported that Kiev’s advance had been stopped.

Ukrainian forces lost up to 400 service members dead or wounded, as well as 32 units of heavy equipment in the Kursk Region over the course of the day, a ministry statement said on Thursday evening. In total, Kiev has lost more than 660 troops and 82 pieces of heavy equipment in the incursion, it added.

IAEA does not see threats to Kursk power plant nuclear safety

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) does not see reasons for concerns regarding nuclear safety of the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant amid the attack of the Ukrainian army against the Kursk Region.

"The IAEA is following reports about recent developments and has channels of communication open to both sides of the conflict. At this point there is no reason for concern with regard to nuclear safety and security," agency’s press service told TASS.

©Kursk NPP Communications Office/TASS

"IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi reiterates that all nuclear power plants, regardless of where they are situated, should never be a target of an armed attack," the press service added.

The large-scale attack of the Ukrainian armed forces against the Kursk Region was launched on August 6.

Indonesia celebrates bringing Homes two Olympic golds

Veddriq Leonardo (L) and Rizki Juniansyah won gold for Indonesia at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.(AP: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi and Kin Cheung)

Indonesia brought home two gold medals at the Paris Olympic Games on Thursday, with wins in speed climbing and men's weightlifting.

Veddriq Leonardo won a gold medal in the men's speed climbing, the first win for Indonesia at the Games, and later that day, Rizki Juniansyah won the men's 73kg Olympic weightlifting title, bringing another gold home.

Juniansyah lifted a total of 354kg, setting the Olympic record in the clean and jerk as China's reigning champion Shi Zhiyong failed to finish.

Rizki Juniansyah celebrates after finishing first to win the gold medal during the men's 73kg weightlifting event at the 2024 Olympics.(AP: Kin Cheung)

He lifted 155kg in the snatch to put himself in a good position and then strained every sinew in the second round of the clean and jerk with a 199kg lift that secured gold.

"I am happy, proud and very emotional winning this, my first gold medal and creating history. Thank you to all the Indonesians for their support, to those who are watching at home," Juniansyah told reporters.

"There are no words that can describe how I am feeling. You saw me crying because it's been such an emotional and beautiful experience and I am already looking towards the future."

Rizki Juniansyah set an Olympic record in the clean and jerk.(AP: Kin Cheung)

Leonardo's win gave speed-climbing powerhouse Indonesia their first Olympic gold in a sport other than badminton, and only their ninth since the country's first appearance at the Games in 1952.

Leonardo improved his time with each race starting with the quarter-final, ultimately beating China's Wu Peng by two-hundredths of a second with a personal best of 4.75 seconds.

"I feel very happy, very joyful," Leonardo said.

"My heart raced [in the competition], but I stayed focused and finished it."

Veddriq Leonardo won Indonesia's first gold medal for the 2024 Olympic Games.(AP: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

He is a three-time World Cup champion and the first speed climber to break the five-second barrier.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo took to social media platform X to congratulate Leonardo.

"The Paris 2024 Olympics has brought new pride to Indonesia, thanks to Veddriq Leonardo, our proud speed climbing athlete, who secured Indonesia's first gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics," he wrote.

Sport climbing made its Olympics debut in Tokyo in 2021 but speed was controversially combined with the boulder and lead disciplines, which require a completely different skill set.

'Targeted Harassment': Scott Ritter Blasts Raid on His Home as US Gov 'Fishing Expedition'

©Sputnik/Andrey Bortko/Go to the mediabank

The former USMC intelligence officer's home was raided Wednesday over allegations he had violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires anyone who acts on behalf of a foreign nation to register as such to the US government. However, individuals accused of such a violation are typically notified by letter, not a raid.

The recent raid carried out on the New York home of former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter was another chapter in the US government's harassment campaign against him and his family, he said.

"It's a fishing expedition. It's harassment," Ritter told Radio Sputnik's Critical Hour on Thursday, noting that the US government's end goal is to discredit him in the eyes of the public as he continually works to shed light on US policy.

Within the more than two dozen boxes that were carried out of Ritter's home were documents that substantiated his findings that Iraq never had weapons of mass destruction, a key claim that encouraged the US to undertake its invasion of the Middle Eastern nation in 2003.

"This is the archive that backs up my allegations, my assertions that Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction, that the US policies ... that accused Iraq of such were premised on a lie. It's an archive that I was relying upon to write a book that's in draft form right now, and they seized that archive," Ritter told show hosts Dr. Wilmer Leon and Garland Nixon, adding that the confiscation of those documents were out of the scope of the search warrant.

"This is not about FARA. It literally isn't. This is targeted harassment. This is a frontal assault on free speech and free press."

Touching on how the legal system has outlined that sharing a viewpoint with a foreign government does not equate the status of foreign agent, Ritter recalled he had told one of the agents on the scene that his "main premise is stopping a nuclear war" and less about throwing his support behind another government.

"My main premise is to, you know, support diplomacy over militarism, to promote dialogue instead of confrontation, you know, and to promote arms control instead of an arms race," he said. "If this is a crime in America, then convict me and throw the key away. But it's not. Having acted as a journalist for some 20 years now, Ritter has published works in numerous publications that include the Washington Post and the New York Times. Ritter told Nixon that he's no different than any other journalist being paid for their work.

"But they're trying to twist this into somehow saying that I am in the employ of the Russian government, and that I am acting on instructions from the Russian government. The good news is that nothing they seized will back up these assertions. The bad news is I don't think it matters," he said.

"They kept saying you're trying to shape the opinion of the American people. You're damn right I'm trying to shape the opinion of the American people. Everybody engaged in journalism is doing this. This is what you're supposed to do to empower people with knowledge and information, fact-based knowledge and information so they can make their own decisions. The most dangerous thing in a democracy like America is a knowledgeable citizen, a citizen empowered with information to make an informed, you know, choice on election day, not dumb sheep being herded down the path."

"This is harassment designed to silence me. It's designed to intimidate me. And for everybody listening, understand this is a frontal assault on the Constitution of the United States," Ritter stressed. "A frontal assault on free speech. A frontal assault on the free press."

"Free speech isn't free if when you execute your right to speak freely, you get raided by the FBI. And a free press cannot exist if, carrying out your journalistic duties, you are accused because of the position you take of, you know, working for an entity because these positions have to clash with the official policy objectives of the United States."

Asked if the raid was tied to the June seizure of his passport or a recent event he attended in New York to discuss his latest work and efforts to encourage an ease of tension between the US and Russia, the former intelligence officer admitted "they're all connected."

Ritter detailed he had planned additional trips to Russia later this year that would help to gain information that would help "empower the American audience about, you know, the reality of Russia and the danger of American policy."

"The United States government did not want any of these trips to happen. They seized my passport and now they're just extending the harassment," he said. "They fear what I'm doing, and they fear what we are doing and this is what happens when governments get afraid of their own citizens. Citizens who, again, I remind everybody, are simply executing their rights of free speech and, as a journalist, my participation in the free press."

"I never want to be a foreign agent. I'm not acting as one and I don't want to act as one. I will never represent another country. I represent America, only America," he continued. "I believe in the potential of my country to be that which we, you know, purport to be, what we want to be, and I recognize that we're not there and one of the reasons we're not there is because of the policies of my government."

"And, therefore, as an American citizen, it is my duty to speak out and shine a light on where I think my government is going wrong so that we, the people, can take corrective action and get the government back on track because the government serves us, we don't serve the government."

Trump and Harris Agree to September Debate on ABC, Network Says

Former President Donald J. Trump during a news conference at his Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago. Credit... Doug Mills/The New York Times

Former President Donald J. Trump proposed three dates for debates in September with Vice President Kamala Harris, suggesting he was eager to face off with the new Democratic presidential nominee this fall.

Mr. Trump spoke at a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, where he repeatedly mispronounced Ms. Harris’s first name, criticized her intelligence and resurrected a series of familiar attacks casting her as “a radical left person.” As he continued answering questions, ABC confirmed that the network would host the two candidates for a debate on Sept. 10.

The event was the former president’s first public appearance since Vice President Kamala Harris officially became the Democratic presidential nominee, transforming the contest into a more competitive race. Mr. Trump insisted that little had shifted in the contest, despite polling showing a tightening race and even as Democrats draw tens of thousands of supporters to rallies in swing states.

“I haven’t recalibrated strategy at all,” Mr. Trump said. “It’s the same policies — open borders, weak on crime.”

Mr. Trump’s news conference marks an effort by the former president to recapture some political momentum. After years of Mr. Trump dominating news coverage, headlines about the new Democratic ticket have overtaken the focus on him in recent weeks. He accused Ms. Harris of lacking the competency to participate in a news conference or media interview, which she has not done since becoming her party’s nominee.

Mr. Trump appeared particularly vexed by the size of Ms. Harris’s crowds, which he insisted were far smaller than his — and then claimed that his were bigger than those who attended Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech in 1963.

As is typical for the former president, his remarks were littered with falsehoods. He falsely accused Democrats of violating the Constitution by replacing President Biden on the ticket. He said nobody was killed on the Jan. 6, 2021, siege on the Capitol, when in fact several people died, including one Trump supporter, who was shot dead by the Capitol Police.

Republicans have struggled to unify around a central line of attack against Ms. Harris and her new running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota. At the same time, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, has been damaged by a series of controversial statements.

Ms. Harris and Mr. Walz spoke in Michigan at an event with Shawn Fain, the president of the influential United Automobile Workers union, which endorsed Ms. Harris last week.

Here’s what else to know:

• Canceled campaigning: Efforts to define the Democratic ticket to voters are being diminished by severe weather from Tropical Storm Debby, leading both campaigns to postpone events on Thursday in North Carolina. The Harris campaign canceled a rally in Raleigh, N.C., on Thursday and an event in Savannah, Ga., on Friday morning, while the Trump campaign canceled Thursday events led by Mr. Vance in Raleigh and Oakboro, N.C. Both campaigns will head west to resume events on Friday evening.



• Biden to Delaware: Mr. Biden, who ended his campaign last month, will surely show encouragement when he visits the Harris campaign headquarters — formerly the nerve center of his re-election operation — in Wilmington, Del., on Thursday evening.



• Antiwar protesters: Pro-Palestinian protesters heckled Ms. Harris during her rally in Detroit on Wednesday, resurfacing divisions over the war in Gaza that have roiled the Democratic Party for months. Members of the Uncommitted National Movement said they asked Ms. Harris before the rally for a meeting to discuss an arms embargo on Israel. Her reaction to the protesters on Wednesday showed how she can turn efforts to rattle her to her own advantage.



• Two running mates with military records: Mr. Vance, who served for four years in the Marines, attacked Mr. Walz, whose career in the National Guard spanned 24 years, on his military record, accusing him of retiring early to avoid being deployed to Iraq in 2005. The Harris-Walz campaign pointed to past comments from fellow guardsmen who said that Mr. Walz had been considering running for office for some time and that the decision to retire from the military had weighed heavily on him.

To hear former President Donald J. Trump tell it, he has just been heartsick over all that has happened to poor old President Biden these past few weeks.

“The presidency was taken away from Joe Biden,” Mr. Trump said at a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence in Palm Beach, Fla., on Thursday afternoon. “I’m not a fan of his, as you probably have noticed. He had a rough debate. But that doesn’t mean that you just take it away like that.”

It has been 18 days since the 46th president was shoved aside by his own party, and the 45th president has yet to get over it. He agonized on Mr. Biden’s behalf, telling a tale of treachery perpetrated against him by former President Barack Obama, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and, most of all, Vice President Kamala Harris.

Recounting how Ms. Harris had attacked Mr. Biden in a Democratic primary debate in 2019 — “She was nasty with calling him a racist and the school bus and all of the different things” — Mr. Trump said Mr. Biden had made a grave mistake by choosing her as his running mate.

“For some reason, and I know he regrets it — you do, too — he picked her,” Mr. Trump said. “And she turned on him, too. She was working with the people that wanted him out.” (Mr. Biden endorsed Ms. Harris for president 27 minutes after he dropped out of the race.)

There was none of the usual, malicious glee in Mr. Trump’s voice as he rehashed all the drama. He told reporters that Mr. Biden was trying to “put up a good face” but that his exit from the race was “pretty severe” and “pretty horrible.”

“I hate to be defending him,” Mr. Trump said, “but he did not want to leave. He wanted to see if he could win.”

This sudden outpouring of sympathy for a man he recently called “a broken-down old pile of crap” was somewhat surprising.

Perhaps there was some projection at play: Was the dismay Mr. Trump expressed for his erstwhile opponent really just dismay at the predicament in which he now finds himself?

It was all going so well for him until Mr. Biden decided to drop out. Now, Mr. Trump is up against a more energetic challenger, one who has erased his fund-raising edge and who can compete with him in his most sacred metric: crowd size.

Really, it seemed like it was Mr. Trump who was trying to “put up a good face” when he said, “We were given Joe Biden, and now we’re given somebody else. And I think, frankly, I would rather be running against the somebody else.”

And yet, just two days ago, Mr. Trump was wondering aloud on social media if there might be any chance that Mr. Biden would crash the Democratic National Convention in Chicago later this month to try to “take back the Nomination, beginning with challenging me to another DEBATE.”

What is curious about Mr. Trump’s seeming inability to adapt to his new political reality is that he and his supporters predicted earlier than anyone that Mr. Biden would be switched out for another Democrat at some point. “I cannot believe he’s going to be the nominee,” Mr. Trump said in an interview last year. His supporters hardly seemed surprised when the Democratic establishment began braying that Mr. Biden must exit the race.

At certain points on Thursday, Mr. Trump’s ruminating on how Mr. Biden felt forced to forfeit power seemed maybe like a window into Mr. Trump’s own thinking. The idea of the former president ever voluntarily giving up a powerful position seems alien.

Was he was speaking from experience when he said Mr. Biden was “not happy with any of the people that told him, ‘You’ve got to leave’”?

“He’s a very angry man right now,” Mr. Trump said. “I can tell you that.”

The independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has qualified to be on the ballot in Texas, according to the secretary of state there. The presence of Kennedy will be a wild card in the reliably red state, not only in the race for the White House but also in Senator Ted Cruz’s fight for re-election against a well-funded Democratic opponent, Colin Allred.

Trump said in his press conference that he and Willie Brown, the former mayor of San Francisco and a long-ago boyfriend of Kamala Harris, once rode in a helicopter together and had to make an emergency landing. “We thought maybe this was the end,” Trump said. Brown countered in a interview with The Times that he has never ridden in a helicopter with Trump, and the story was completely made up. Brown, who loves to regale anyone who will listen with stories, said, “You know me well enough to know that if I almost went down in a helicopter with anybody, you would have heard about it.”

Trump also said that Brown told him in their apparently nonexistent helicopter ride that “he was not a fan” of Harris. Brown said that, too, was untrue. “Are you kidding me?” Brown said. “I’ve been a fan of Kamala’s for many years.” The two dated in 1994 and 1995 before Harris broke up with Brown. Brown said there are no hard feelings, and he has always supported her

Kamala Harris fielded a handful of questions from journalists after her rally in Wayne, Mich. Her answers were brief, but she defended Tim Walz from Republican criticism about his representation of his military service, saying, “I praise anyone who has presented themselves to serve our country and I think that we all should.”

Harris was also asked about the fact that she has not granted an interview since ascending to the top of the Democratic ticket nearly three weeks ago. Her answer suggested that she had no plans to do so soon: “I want us to get an interview scheduled before the end of the month,” she told reporters.

“If you look at Martin Luther King, when he did his speech, his great speech. And you look at ours, same real estate, same everything, same number of people. If not, we had more.”
— Former President Donald J. Trump

This lacks evidence.

Mr. Trump was talking about the crowds gathered for his speech on Jan. 6, 2021, and for the “I Have a Dream” speech the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered during the March on Washington in 1963. While it is difficult to gauge exact crowd sizes, estimates counter Mr. Trump’s claim that the numbers gathered were comparable. Dr. King’s speech drew an estimated 250,000 people. The House Select Committee responsible for investigating the events of Jan. 6 estimated that Mr. Trump’s speech drew 53,000 people.

The debate is on.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump will face off in a televised prime-time matchup on Sept. 10, ABC News said on Thursday, setting up the latest crucial moment in an already unpredictable presidential campaign.

The 90-minute debate is expected to be held in Philadelphia, according to two people with knowledge of the plans. The ABC anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis will serve as moderators. The debate will probably be held without a live audience, but the exact format and ground rules are still being determined, the people said.

In one sense, the announcement maintains the status quo: Mr. Trump agreed months ago to debate President Biden on ABC on that same date. But the Republican nominee wavered on that commitment after Mr. Biden withdrew from the race, arguing that he had not agreed to those terms with Ms. Harris.

This year’s previous debate, in June, was perhaps the most consequential in the 64-year history of televised presidential matchups. Mr. Biden’s shaky and diminished performance set off a panic among Democrats that ultimately led to the president ceding his spot atop his party’s ticket.

More than 51 million Americans watched that debate live, the sort of mass gathering that is vanishingly rare in a fractured media age. The coming ABC telecast could attract an even larger audience, given that it will be the first time that Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump meet face-to-face on a debate stage.

The extraordinary events of recent weeks, including Mr. Biden’s withdrawal and an assassination attempt on Mr. Trump, have prompted many Americans to refocus on a presidential election that, until June, was shaping up as a rerun of the 2020 race. The ABC debate will most likely be a post-Labor Day kickoff moment of sorts for the campaign’s final two-month stretch.

Mr. Trump said at a news conference on Thursday that he would debate Ms. Harris on two other occasions, at events hosted by NBC News and Fox News. But the Harris campaign has not agreed to those debates, which were not part of the original debate schedule that Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump had agreed upon in May.

NBC News is in active discussions with both campaigns about a potential debate, including one on Sept. 25, but Ms. Harris has not committed, according to a person familiar with the discussions. The Harris campaign has also not agreed to a debate hosted by Fox News.

Ms. Harris, after speaking at a campaign event in Michigan on Thursday, told reporters that she was “looking forward” to the debate on Sept. 10. “Hope he shows up,” she said of Mr. Trump.

She demurred when asked about the additional dates that Mr. Trump had mentioned, signaling that she was unlikely to consider another debate until after the ABC event. “I’m happy to have that conversation about an additional debate after Sept. 10,” she said. “For sure.”

The ABC debate was negotiated with the campaigns by John Santucci, the network’s executive editorial producer, and Rick Klein, its Washington bureau chief. Mr. Trump’s campaign managers, Chris LaCivita and Susan Wiles, negotiated terms with the network.

Brian Fallon, a senior adviser for communications, played a lead negotiating role for the Harris campaign, according to the people with knowledge of the conversations. When Mr. Biden was still a candidate, that role was primarily occupied by the advisers Ron Klain and Anita Dunn.

Vice President Kamala Harris makes her pitch for organized labor to the U.A.W.: “It’s about the collective,” she said. “It’s about understanding no one should ever be made to fight alone, that we are all in this together.”

Responding to Trump’s remark that his support from white males was “way up. White males have gone through the roof,” the recently formed group White Dudes for Harris posted on the social media platform X that “we know 350,000 white dudes who are rejecting MAGA and charting a path forward for future generations.” A virtual meeting hosted by the group last week attracted over 200,000 participants and raised more than $4 million; since then, the group has continued to sign up members.

Former President Donald J. Trump claimed at his news conference on Thursday that no one died during the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. But, in fact, four of his own supporters in the crowd that day died of various causes — and others, including a Capitol Police officer, died within days.

Among those who were killed on Jan. 6 itself was Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran who was shot by the police while trying to force her way into the chambers of the House of Representatives. Ms. Babbitt, who came under the influence of the QAnon conspiracy group, was trying to push her way through a door of the Speaker’s Lobby when an officer fatally shot her.

The Justice Department ultimately decided not to pursue charges against the officer, Michael Byrd. But Ms. Babbitt’s family has sued the government on her behalf in a wrongful death lawsuit filed in Washington.

Three other Trump supporters died during the attack. Rosanne Boyland, a Georgia woman, suffered an amphetamine overdose, according to the Washington medical examiner’s office, and then was trampled in the crush of her fellow rioters who were pressing at police lines.

Kevin D. Greeson, 55, died of a heart attack, collapsing on the sidewalk west of the Capitol. And Benjamin Philips, the founder of a pro-Trump website called Trumparoo, died of a stroke.

One day after the attack, a Capitol Police officer, Brian M. Sicknick, died. The authorities initially said that Officer Sicknick, who had been sprayed with chemical spray while protecting the Capitol, had died “due to injuries sustained while on-duty.” The medical examiner later found that he had suffered two strokes and had died of natural causes, noting, however, that the stress of being in the riot had still played some role in his death.

At least four Capitol Police officers killed themselves in the weeks and months that followed Jan. 6. In response, Congress passed a bipartisan law extending a public benefits program for the families of public safety officers who were killed or severely injured in the line of duty so that it also covered those who died by suicide or suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Altogether, about 150 officers were injured in the Capitol attack, with some describing it in court and at other public hearings as a “medieval” battle with rioters who wielded hockey sticks, two-by-fours, batons and even flagpoles against them.

From Tips to TikTok, Trump Swaps Policies With Aim to Please Voters

At his convention speech last month, former President Donald J. Trump declared that his new economic agenda would be built around a plan to eliminate taxes on tips, claiming that the idea would uplift the middle class and provide relief to hospitality workers around the country.

From TikTok to cryptocurrencies, the former president has been reinventing his platform on the fly as he aims to attract new swaths of voters. During a Bitcoin conference in Nashville in July, former President Donald J. Trump said that he wanted America to be the “crypto capital of the planet.” Credit... Doug Mills/The New York Times

“Everybody loves it,” Mr. Trump said to cheers. “Waitresses and caddies and drivers.”

While the cost and feasibility of the idea has been questioned by economists and tax analysts, labor experts have noted another irony: As president, Mr. Trump tried to take tips away from workers and give the money to their employers.

The reversal is one of many that Mr. Trump has made in his bid to return to the presidency and underscores his malleability in election-year policymaking. From TikTok to cryptocurrencies, the former president has been reinventing his platform on the fly as he aims to attract different swaths of voters. At times, Mr. Trump appears to be staking out new positions to differentiate himself from Vice President Kamala Harris or, perhaps, just to please crowds.

To close observers of the machinations of Mr. Trump’s first term, the shift on tips, a policy that has become a regular part of his stump speech, has been particularly striking.

“Trump is posing as a champion of tipped restaurant workers with his no-tax-on-tips proposal, but his actual record has been to slash protections for tipped workers at a time when they were struggling with a high cost of living,” said Paul Sonn, the director of National Employment Law Project Action, which promotes workers’ rights.

In 2017, Mr. Trump’s Labor Department proposed changing federal regulations to allow employers to collect tips that their workers receive and use them for essentially any purpose as long as the workers were paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. In theory, the flexibility would make it possible for restaurant owners to ensure that cooks and dishwashers received part of a pool of tip money, but in practice employers could pocket the tips and spend them at their discretion.