International news brief: US President Biden to deliver prime-time speech on 'battle' for democracy and more

Washington, Aug 30: US President Joe Biden will deliver a prime-time address "on the continued battle for the soul of the nation" Thursday outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the White House announced Monday.

Billed as a major address just over two months before the midterm elections, Biden, the White House said, will discuss how the nation's standing in the world and its democracy are at stake. "He will talk about the progress we have made as a nation to protect our democracy, but how our rights and freedoms are still under attack,'' the White House said. ''And he will make clear who is fighting for those rights, fighting for those freedoms, and fighting for our democracy."

Biden has increasingly sought to portray the November elections as a choice for voters between "ultra-MAGA Republicans" - a reference to former President Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan - and Democrats. He told supporters last week that they had "to vote to literally save democracy once again" - and labeled some Republican ideology as "semi-fascism.'' NBC News was first to report on Biden's plans for the address.

First lady Jill Biden tests negative for COVID after rebound

First lady Jill Biden tested negative for COVID-19 on Monday and will return to Washington on Tuesday, nearly a week after she came downwith a "rebound" case of the coronavirus.

Her communications director, Elizabeth Alexander, announced the negative test in a statement Monday night.

Jill Biden had been isolating at her family's house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, since testing positive on Aug. 24, and at the time, her spokesperson said she was not experiencing any symptoms. She first tested positive for the virus on Aug. 15, when she and President Joe Biden were vacationing in Kiawah Island, South Carolina. The president, who had his own back-to-back cases of COVID-19, was identified as a close contact of his wife and the White House said he was undergoing more frequent testing for the virus as a precaution. While Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines called for Biden to wear a face covering in close proximity to others indoors, he was seen without a mask hugging and taking selfies with supporters during an indoor rally on Thursday in the Washington suburbs.

US: Russia running into problems with Iran-made drones

Russia has faced technical problems with Iranian-made drones acquired from Tehran this month for use in its war with Ukraine, according to Biden administration officials.

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the U.S. intelligence assessment, did not detail the "numerous failures.'' They added that the U.S. assesses that the delivery of Mohajer-6 and Shahed-series unmanned aerial vehicles over several days this month is likely part of a Russian plan to acquire hundreds of Iranian UAVs.

Zombie ice from Greenland will raise sea level 10 inches

Greenland's rapidly melting ice sheet will eventually raise global sea level by at least 10.6 inches (27 centimeters) -- more than twice as much as previously forecast - according to a study published Monday.

That's because of something that could be called zombie ice. That's doomed ice that, while still attached to thicker areas of ice, is no longer getting replenished by parent glaciers now receiving less snow. Without replenishment, the doomed ice is melting from climate change and will inevitably raise seas, said study co-author William Colgan, a glaciologist at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland.

Labor board rules Tesla must let workers wear union clothing

The National Labor Relations Board has reversed a Trump-era decision by finding that Tesla can't stop factory employees from wearing clothing with union insignias while on the job. The board, in a 3-2 decision released Monday, overruled a 2019 NLRB decision involving Walmart and union clothing. The board wrote that a 1945 Supreme Court decision established the precedent for allowing the clothing.

It ordered Tesla to stop enforcing an "overly broad" uniform policy that effectively stops production workers at Tesla's Fremont, California, factory from wearing black shirts with the United Auto Workers union's logo.

The board said by ruling against Tesla, it reaffirmed a longstanding precedent that it is "presumptively unlawful" for employers to restrict union clothing without special circumstances that justify the ban.

NASA scrubs launch of new moon rocket after engine problem

NASA called off the launch of its mighty new moon rocket on its debut flight with three test dummies aboard Monday after a last-minute cascade of problems culminating in unexplained trouble related to an engine.

The next launch attempt will not take place until Friday at the earliest and could be delayed until mid-September or later.

The mission will be the first flight in NASA's Artemis project, a quest to put astronauts back on the moon for the first time since the Apollo programme ended 50 years ago.

As precious minutes ticked away Monday morning, NASA repeatedly stopped and started the fuelling of the Space Launch System rocket because of a leak of highly explosive hydrogen, eventually succeeding in reducing the seepage. The leak happened in the same place that saw seepage during a dress rehearsal in the spring.