President Joe Biden warned in a primetime speech Thursday that Donald Trump and his supporters pose an existential threat to democracy in the United States. Biden spoke in Philadelphia in front of Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were debated and signed.

President Joe Biden: “But as I stand here tonight, equality and democracy are under assault. … Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”

Biden’s remarks came less than 10 weeks before midterm elections, with control of both the House and Senate at stake. After headlines, we’ll air extended clips of Biden’s speech.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has sentenced a former New York City police officer to 10 years in prison after he was filmed attacking a Capitol police officer with a flag pole during the January 6, 2021, assault on Congress. Thomas Webster’s sentence is the longest of about 250 handed down so far against people who followed then-President Donald Trump’s order to march on the Capitol to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election victory.

The House select committee probing the January 6 attack has asked Newt Gingrich to testify, saying the former Republican House speaker helped to incite the anger of Trump supporters by repeatedly making false claims about the 2020 election.

Newly revealed public records show the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas pressured Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory. Emails show that two days after media outlets called the election for Biden, Ginni Thomas messaged a Wisconsin state representative and the chair of the Wisconsin Senate elections committee, asking them to “take action to ensure that a clean slate of Electors is chosen for our state.” The Washington Post previously reported Ginni Thomas emailed 29 Arizona lawmakers, asking them to choose an alternative slate of pro-Trump presidential electors. The revelations have prompted calls for Justice Clarence Thomas to step down — or face impeachment. But so far, he has refused to recuse himself from cases related to the 2020 election and the January 6 insurrection — even though his wife took part in the January 6 so-called Stop the Steal rally in Washington, D.C.

In Ukraine, inspectors with the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency arrived at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, after intense shelling near the site delayed their arrival by several hours. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said after touring the site that the physical integrity of the plant had been repeatedly violated by fighting between Russia and Ukraine.

In Moscow, Russia’s Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of “nuclear terrorism” by continuing to fire artillery at the nuclear complex.

In Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the IAEA’s visit but said Russian soldiers had blocked inspectors from entering the power plant’s crisis center. He called for the establishment of demilitarized zones near Ukraine’s nuclear sites.

President Volodymyr Zelensky: “For more than three decades, our specialists have managed five facilities: the Chernobyl station and four working nuclear power plants. The IAEA had never had concerns regarding the activities of any of these facilities, until Russia invaded our territory and brought its madness here.”

Ukraine denies it’s shelling Zaporizhzhia, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.

In Moscow, the chair of the Russian energy giant Lukoil has died under mysterious circumstances. Russia’s TASS news agency reported Ravil Maganov fell from the sixth-story window of a Moscow hospital Thursday morning, then later reported he had taken his own life. Magonov presided over a meeting of Lukoil’s board shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, where board members called for a speedy end to the conflict and expressed sympathy for the war’s victims. Maganov is the latest of several high-profile Russian business elites to die under unusual circumstances in recent months.

Russia has begun live-fire military exercises involving troops from China and other nations. The week-long war games in Russia’s far east and the Sea of Japan involve some 50,000 troops from Russia, China, several former Soviet republics, as well as Algeria, Syria, Mongolia, Laos and Nicaragua. India also sent a small 75-soldier-strong contingent to join the drills.

This comes as a combined force of South Korean and U.S. troops are staging their largest live-fire exercises in years less than 20 miles from North Korea’s border, and just two weeks after troops from Australia and Canada joined U.S.-led war games off the coast of Hawaii with the militaries of South Korea and Japan.

Taiwan’s government says it has shot down a civilian drone from China for the first time. On Thursday, Taiwan’s premier said his government had taken the “appropriate” response to repeated incursions by pilotless aircraft crossing the Taiwan Strait.

Premier Su Tseng-chang: “China has drones flying into our country, and they even take videos to send back for use as internal propaganda. We have repeatedly warned and repeatedly asked China not to invade and intrude. Also, the Taiwanese people feel resentment toward these actions.”

In Afghanistan, at least 18 people were killed today and 21 injured in an explosion at a mosque in the western Afghan city of Herat. The blast went off during Friday noon prayers. The dead included the prominent cleric Mujib-ul Rahman Ansari, who was close to the Taliban. He is the second pro-Taliban cleric to be killed over the past month.

In Argentina, Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner survived an apparent assassination attempt outside her home in Buenos Aires Thursday evening. Video from the scene shows Kirchner greeting supporters when a man suddenly points a pistol at her face at point-blank range. The weapon apparently misfires, and after several seconds of confusion, the attacker is taken into custody. Police later named the gunman as a 35-year-old Brazilian man who’s lived in Argentina since 1993 and has a history of carrying weapons. His motive remains unknown. The attack came just days after prosecutors called for a 12-year prison sentence and a ban on public office for Kirchner, who is accused of a scheme to divert public funds during her term as president from 2007 to 2015. Kirchner denies the charges.

In Chile, thousands of people rallied in the capital Santiago Thursday evening as campaigns both for and against a new constitution came to a close ahead of a national referendum on Sunday. Voters will decide whether to replace the constitution created under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, who came to power in a 1973 coup supported by the United States. Chile’s new draft constitution enshrines human rights and social programs, including free universal access to healthcare, higher education and reproductive rights. This is Carlos Díaz, president of the Chilean Teachers College.

Carlos Díaz: “The teachers of Chile on the 4th of September will vote 'I approve,' because we will finally have a constitution where education is conceived as a fundamental human right.”

The niece of a Palestinian American journalist who was shot dead by Israeli troops is demanding the Biden administration launch a formal independent investigation into her killing. On May 11, Shireen Abu Akleh was wearing a press uniform while reporting on an Israeli army raid in the occupied West Bank when she was fatally shot in the head. Several media organizations, including CNN, The New York Times and Al Jazeera, have all determined the Israeli military killed Abu Akleh. Her niece, Lina Abu Akleh, spoke from the National Press Club Thursday after it honored Shireen with a posthumous award. Lina said President Joe Biden has done nothing to hold Israel accountable for her aunt’s killing.

Lina Abu Akleh: “He still has not taken action. He continues to ignore the importance of this case. And most importantly, he isn’t upholding the values that he continues to preach.”

The number of sexual assaults reported by U.S. military service members rose by 13% last year. That’s according to the Associated Press, citing U.S. defense and military officials, who blamed a rollback of coronavirus restrictions for the rise in sexual violence. In a survey, nearly 36,000 military members reported they had experienced unwanted sexual contact — that’s almost double the number reported in 2018.

California state lawmakers have approved $54 billion in new spending to combat the climate crisis. The legislation puts new limits on oil and gas drilling and orders California to transition to 90% renewable electricity by 2035. It also provides billions of dollars for electric vehicles — and, controversially, postpones the planned closure of California’s last nuclear power reactors at the half-century-old Diablo Canyon Power Plant north of Los Angeles. Construction of the nuclear plant began in 1968; several seismic fault lines have since been discovered near the site, prompting fears that an earthquake or tsunami could trigger a disaster like the 2011 meltdowns at Fukushima, Japan.

In Columbus, Ohio, the family of an unarmed Black man shot dead by police in his own apartment is calling for the officer responsible to be held accountable. Early Tuesday morning, 20-year-old Donovan Lewis was fatally shot by an officer after police burst through the door to his bedroom to arrest him on what police said were outstanding warrants. Bodycam footage shows officer Ricky Anderson, a 30-year police veteran, shot Lewis just one second after opening a door to the bedroom. Officers then handcuffed Lewis, who died less than an hour later at a hospital. Rex Elliott is an attorney for Donovan Lewis’s family.

Rex Elliott: “Donovan was unarmed, and he was abiding by police commands to come out of his room, when he was shot in cold blood by officer Anderson. There was no justification — let me be clear — no justification for officer Anderson to shoot an unarmed man trying to get out of bed, as police officers were instructing him to do.”

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders has joined a rally of striking British rail workers in London, saying workers need to stand together to fight against corporate greed and billionaires amassing more wealth. It’s the latest in a series of strikes impacting Britain’s transport network over the summer, with workers demanding better pay and working conditions in response to high inflation.

Sen. Bernie Sanders: “What we have seen is a massive distribution of wealth going in exactly the wrong way. The middle class is shrinking, and the people on top are getting wealthier. Our job is to take on these oligarchs. And our job is to imagine a world of justice. It is not radical. It is not radical to say that every worker in the U.K. and in the United States is entitled to a decent standard of living. That’s not a radical idea.”

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, speaking in Britain. And tune in to our Labor Day show on Monday, when we bring you a Howard Zinn special, including a major address he gave at the University of Vermont, Burlington.