Judah Philip Benjamin, QC (August 11, 1811 – May 6, 1884) was a lawyer and politician who was a United States Senator from Louisiana, a Cabinet officer of the Confederate States and, after his escape to the United Kingdom at the end of the American Civil War, an English barrister.  Benjamin was the first Jew to be elected to the United States Senate who had not renounced that faith, and was the first Jew to hold a Cabinet position in North America.

Stewart was born in Duluth, Minnesota.^[69]  He transferred to Georgetown University after a year at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, and was the first member of his family to graduate from college.^[70]  He also graduated from the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, and afterward settled in Virginia.^[70]  Stewart works as an international trade attorney, and he and his family live in Bel Air, a historic colonial-era plantation house in Woodbridge, Virginia that was regularly visited by Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.^[70]   He met his wife, Maria, who is from Sweden, while spending a year teaching English in Japan before law school.[70]   The couple has two sons.^[70]

Corey Stewart, the Republican nominee for a US Senate seat for Virginia, praised in a speech last year Virginia's decision in 1861 to secede from the Union, putting it on par with rebellions during the American Revolution and today.

The Virginia Republican made the comments in April 2017 at an event in South Boston, Virginia, hosted by an unapologetic secessionist.  A video of his remarks, given during his failed 2017 gubernatorial run, was posted on his Facebook account.

Democrats running in November's midterms were warned Friday not to use devices produced by Chinese manufacturers ZTE and Huawei.  The warning, which came from the Democratic National Committee, was sent out after the DNC learned that a Democratic organization was considering buying ZTE phones for its staff, a senior Democratic source told CNN.
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FBI Director Christopher Wray told the commitee the FBI is "deeply concerned that any company beholden to foreign governments that don't share our values are not companies that we want to be gaining positions of power inside our telecommunications network."

"It provides the capacity to maliciously modify or steal information," Wray said.   "And it provides the capacity to conduct undetected espionage."

The Battle of Amiens, also known as the Third Battle of Picardy (French: 3ème Bataille de Picardie), was the opening phase of the Allied offensive which began on 8 August 1918, later known as the Hundred Days Offensive, that ultimately led to the end of the First World War.  Allied forces advanced over 11 kilometres (7 mi) on the first day, one of the greatest advances of the war, with Henry Rawlinson's British Fourth Army playing the decisive role.  The battle is also notable for its effects on both sides' morale and the large number of surrendering German forces.  This led Erich Ludendorff to describe the first day of the battle as "the black day of the German Army".  Amiens was one of the first major battles involving armoured warfare and marked the end of trench warfare on the Western Front; fighting becoming mobile once again until the armistice was signed on 11 November 1918.

The infantry had outrun the supporting artillery,^[27] and the initial force of more than 500 tanks that played a large role in the Allied success was reduced to six battle-ready tanks within four days.^[28]

The US is to place sanctions on Russia after determining that it used nerve agent against former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the UK in March.
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The US determined "that the government of the Russian Federation has used chemical or biological weapons in violation of international law, or has used lethal chemical or biological weapons against its own nationals", US state department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

The sanctions are to take effect on or around 22 August, she added.

The two final polls suggest that this is a toss-up.  Emerson has the Democratic contender 1% ahead while Remington gives it to the Republican by 2 points.  Both these are within the margin of error.
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My betting rule in toss-up elections is that the option with the longest odds is the value bet.  I got on the Democrat with Ladbrokes at 11/10 this morning.  That has now tightened to odds-on.