On the version of Hot off the Wire posted Aug. 21 at 7:45 a.m. CT:

CHICAGO (AP) — Warning of a difficult fight ahead, former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have called on the nation to embrace Kamala Harris in urgent messages to the Democratic National Convention that were at times both hopeful and ominous. “America, hope is making a comeback,” the former first lady declared. She then tore into Republican Donald Trump, a sharp shift from the 2016 convention speech in which she told her party, “When they go low, we go high.” Barack Obama, the first Black president in U.S. history, insisted the nation is ready to elect Harris, who is of Jamaican and Indian heritage and would be the nation’s first female president.

HOWELL, Mich. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has pledged to “make America safe again " while campaigning in Michigan as the Democrats who gathered in Chicago to nominate Kamala Harris branded him a career criminal. Trump campaigned Tuesday in Michigan as part of a battleground campaign swing designed to counter the Democratic National Convention.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities say Moscow has come under one of the largest attacks yet by Ukrainian drones since the start of fighting in 2022, and that it destroyed all of them. The Ministry of Defense says Russia downed 45 Ukrainian drones overnight.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A bus carrying Shiite pilgrims from Pakistan to Iraq has crashed in central Iran, killing at least 28 people. The crash happened Tuesday night in the central Iranian province of Yazd. 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tim Walz and JD Vance have vaulted themselves out of national obscurity as they hustle to introduce themselves to the country, but the senator from Ohio has had a rockier start than the Minnesota governor. A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that Walz had a smoother launch as a running mate to Vice President Kamala Harris than Vance did for former President Donald Trump. 

In other news:

—The Associated Press

About this program

Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate.