Wednesday morning news - September 2, 2020

President Trump tours Kenosha, Wisconsin » President Trump visited the city of Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Tuesday where he toured some areas hard hit by looting and rioting after a police shooting last month.

TRUMP: So this store was here 109 years, and we’re going to help them a lot. I think we’re going to help them a lot. 

The president heard there alongside a small business owner—amid the charred remains of his camera shop. 

Trump also met with law enforcement and community leaders. 

TRUMP: So I came to thank the law enforcement, the police, they’re incredible. And the National Guard has been truly amazing. 

And he thanked Wisconsin’s Democratic Governor Tony Evers for asking for federal help to quell violent protests. He criticized Democratic leaders elsewhere for rejecting federal help in restoring order. 

Evers, though, had asked the president not to make the trip to Kenosha, saying his visit would only stoke division. 

Protests began after the August 23rd shooting of 29-year-old Jacob Blake. 

The president told reporters Monday that he was not meeting with Blake’s family while in Kenosha because the family wanted attorneys present.

Protest erupt after police shooting in Los Angeles » AUDIO: [Sound of protest]

Meantime, protests have erupted in Los Angeles after a police shooting there on Monday. 

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies shot and killed a black man that family members later identified as Dijon Kizzee. 

Sheriff’s Lt. Brandon Dean told the LA Times that deputies “tried to stop the man for riding his bicycle in violation of vehicle codes,” when he “dropped his bike and ran. When they caught up to him he punched one of them in the face and dropped a bundle of clothes he was carrying. The deputies spotted a handgun in the bundle and opened fire.”

Dean added that the suspect was—quote—“in possession of a firearm and did assault a deputy.”

But protesters are questioning why the officers fired if Kizzee wasn’t actually holding the weapon. 

Trial of suspects in 2015 Charlie Hebdo attacks begins » The first trial begins today for more than a dozen people charged in the 2015 terrorist attacks against Charlie Hebdo.

And to mark the occasion, the French satirical paper has reprinted the caricatures of Mohammed that prompted the attack. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports. 

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: Thirteen men and a woman accused of providing the attackers with weapons and logistics go on trial today. 

Islamic terrorists staged the attack at Charlie Hebdo’s Paris offices in January, 2015. They killed 12 people during an editorial meeting, as well as two police officers. The attackers cited the paper’s caricatures of Mohammed as the reason for the killing. 

On Tuesday, the paper reprinted the Mohammed cartoons, declaring “history cannot be rewritten nor erased.”

In an editorial this week accompanying the caricatures, Charlie Hebdo said that although it had declined to publish caricatures of Mohammed since the attacks, doing so for the opening of the trial was necessary. It said “The only reasons not to stem from political or journalistic cowardice.”

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin. 

COVID-19 surge recedes across Sun Belt as Fla. lifts ban on nursing home visits » After an alarming surge of coronavirus cases across the Sun Belt, the numbers are now moving in the right direction in most of those states. 

New cases, the percentage of positive tests, and COVID-19 deaths have dropped recently from California to Georgia and Florida and every state in between, except one. Those numbers are still rising in Alabama. 

In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday that he’s lifting the state’s ban on visiting nursing homes. 

DESANTIS: It’s not back to fully normal, but it is allowing visitation, which is important. So all visitors have to wear the PPE and then pass through a screening. 

All visitation will be by appointment only, with only two visitors at a time. 

Facilities have to go 14 days without any new cases of the virus to allow the visits.

FAA approves Amazon drones, Walmart launches answer to Prime » Amazon.com is one step closer to delivering packages from the sky while Walmart launches its answer to Amazon Prime. WORLD’s Anna Johansen has that story. 

ANNA JOHANSEN, REPORTER: The Federal Aviation Administration said this week that it has granted Amazon approval to deliver packages using drones.

Last year, the online retailer unveiled self-piloting drones that are fully electric and can carry 5 pounds of goods. They’re designed to deliver packages within 30 minutes by dropping them in customers’ backyards. 

Amazon is still testing aerial delivery. No word on when it might roll out a fleet of drones. 

Meantime, Walmart is launching a new membership service to compete with Amazon Prime. 

The service is called Walmart+. It will cost about $13 a month or roughly $100 a year if paid annually. It will give members same-day delivery on 160,000 items. And the company says members will also get fuel discounts and can check out at Walmart stores without having to wait at a register.  

Walmart has a long way to go to catch up with Amazon Prime. Launched in 2005, Prime has more than 150 million members worldwide.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen.

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci) President Donald Trump tours an area on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2020, damaged during demonstrations after a police officer shot Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis. 

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