WILMINGTON, Del. — President Joe Biden will host a White House summit next month aimed at combating a spate of hate-fueled violence in the U.S., as he works to deliver on his campaign pledge to “heal the soul of the nation.”

The White House announced Friday that Biden will host the United We Stand Summit on Sept. 15, highlighting the “corrosive effects” of violence on public safety and democracy. Advocates pushed Biden to hold the event after 10 Black people were killed at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket in May, aiming as well to address a succession of hate-driven violence in cities including El Paso, Texas, Pittsburgh and Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

“As President Biden said in Buffalo after the horrific mass shooting earlier this year, in the battle for the soul of our nation ‘we must all enlist in this great cause of America,’” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. ”The United We Stand Summit will present an important opportunity for Americans of all races, religions, regions, political affiliations, and walks of life to take up that cause together.”

Biden will deliver a keynote speech at the gathering, which the White House says will include civil rights groups, faith leaders, business executives, law enforcement, gun violence prevention advocates, former members of violent hate groups, the victims of extremist violence and cultural figures. The White House emphasized that it also intends to bring together Democrats and Republicans, as well as political leaders on the federal, state and local levels to unite against hate-motivated violence.

Biden, a Democrat, has frequently cited 2017’s white supremacist protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, with bringing him out of political retirement to challenge then-President Donald Trump in 2020. He promised during that campaign to work to bridge political and social divides and to promote national unity, but fulfilling that cause remains a work in progress.

Sindy Benavides, the CEO of League of United Latin American Citizens, said the genesis of the summit came after the Buffalo massacre, as her organization along with the Anti-Defamation League, the National Action Network and other groups wanted to press the Biden administration to more directly tackle extremist threats.

“As civil rights organizations, social justice organizations, we fight every day against this, and we wanted to make sure to acknowledge that government needs to have a leading role in addressing right-wing extremism,” she said.

The White House did not outline the lineup of speakers or participants, saying it would come closer to the event. It also would not preview any specific policy announcements by Biden. Officials noted Biden last year signed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act and released the nation’s first National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism.

Benavides said Biden holding the summit would help galvanize the country to address the threats of hate-inspired violence but also said she hoped for “long-term solutions” to emerge from the summit.

“What’s important to us is addressing mental health, gun control reform, addressing misinformation, disinformation and malinformation,” she said. “We want policy makers to focus on common sense solutions so we don’t see this type of violence in our communities. And we want to see the implementation of policies that reduce violence.”

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Follow AP’s coverage of hate crimes at https://apnews.com/hub/hate-crimes.

UNITED NATIONS — Addressing the U.N. General Assembly last week, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina noted a milestone: the 25th anniversary of the Beijing women’s conference that produced a global roadmap for gender equality and a ringing rallying cry that became part of the event’s official declaration: “Women’s rights are human rights.”

The international community has “come a long way to ensure gender equality” since then, Hasina said, but “we need to strengthen our resolve and mutual cooperation.”

Hasina didn’t really have to say more to show that there was still a long way to go. She was one of nine women among the more than 180 presidents, premiers, monarchs and ministers who spoke at the planet’s top diplomatic meeting this year.

While the U.N. is preparing for a separate summit Thursday to mark the anniversary of the landmark female empowerment plan, women’s rights were a steady thread but hardly a top theme of leaders’ remarks at the world body’s signature assembly.

Some leaders took time to recall the 1995 conference, detail domestic initiatives or lament that progress toward female equality is lagging or even retreating. Rwandan President Paul Kagame, whose country has a rare majority-female Parliament, spotlighted the Beijing conference by mentioning it just a minute into his speech.

“The empowerment of women has made all of us safer and wealthier,” he added, “but true gender equality has still not been attained in any country.”

Yet with the coronavirus pandemic shoving numerous other issues out of the spotlight, many speakers gave the status of women and girls a passing mention, if any, even as the U.N. warns that the virus crisis is exacerbating gender inequities.

“If the General Assembly statements are a kind of snapshot into what the world is prioritizing at the moment … this is too low down on the agenda,” says Rachel Vogelstein, who runs the Council on Foreign Relations’ Women and Foreign Policy Program.

“I certainly understand that COVID-19 is at the top of any country’s agenda at this moment,” she said, “but I would argue that it’s a mistake to see the participation, the economic well-being and the status of 50% of the population as a back-burner issue.”

Mala Htun, a University of New Mexico political science professor who focuses on women’s rights, said the U.N. has played an important role in spreading ideas about gender equality around the globe, but they haven’t proven easy to realize even within the organization itself, which has yet to have a female secretary-general.

“People desire inclusion, and it’s widely accepted as a goal, but it’s more challenging to put into practice,” Htun said.

The 1995 work of what was officially called the U.N.’s Fourth World Conference on Women is considered a signal moment in women’s rights.

It drew tens of thousands of activists, and delegates from 189 countries hammered out a sweeping declaration including the famous statement that “women’s rights are human rights,” echoing a line in then-U.S. first lady Hillary Clinton’s speech to the delegates.

Delegates also produced a lengthy, detailed plan of action on economic issues, education, health care, political inclusion and more.

In the years since, there have been important gains in girls’ enrollment in primary school, maternal mortality and legal protections against violence and discrimination, according to the U.N.

There are 21 female presidents and prime ministers worldwide, about twice as many as in 1995. The proportion of women in national legislatures has more than doubled since 1995, to nearly 25%, according to statistics compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an independent group.

Yet women’s participation in the workforce has dropped since 1995, according to the World Bank. More than a third of female 15-to-24-year-olds aren’t in school, jobs or training, more than twice the proportion of their male counterparts, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed noted at an event last week. And over 2.5 billion women and girls around the world live in countries where laws give men advantages in inheritance, divorce and other areas, according to a December U.N. report.

“Twenty-five years since Beijing, today’s generation of girls must be able to realize their unlimited ambitions and potential,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the virtual General Assembly, which the pandemic forced online. But “unless we act now, gender equality could be set back by decades.”

He said the pandemic is compounding the disadvantages of women who, compared to men, do more of the unpaid work of caring for loved ones, disproportionately work in fields that have been hit by job losses and make less. At the same time, reports of domestic violence have increased in many countries during coronavirus lockdowns, according to the U.N.

The increase in sexual and gender-based violence against Liberian girls and young women was “unprecedented,” said President George Weah, even for a country where rape was rampant during civil wars that spanned from 1989 to 2003. Liberia later passed some of the region’s toughest laws against the crime and chose Africa’s first elected female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Calling rape an “epidemic within the pandemic,” Weah has declared it a national emergency, appointed a special prosecutor and set up a sex offender registry, he told the assembly. Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said his country is working to ensure its pandemic recovery efforts “include a gender perspective and harness the full potential of all members of society as leaders, innovators” and change-makers.

Other leaders spotlighted policy and political moves that predate the pandemic, from Argentina’s new Ministry of Women, Genders and Diversity to the fact that Moldova has a female speaker of parliament. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pointed to his country’s 2017 law requiring some employers to provide 26 weeks of paid maternity leave.

Still, many leaders, including some female ones, didn’t devote much time or detail to women’s issues in their speeches. Chinese President Xi Jinping made no mention of the 1995 conference that his country hosted, though he listed women and children among other causes poised to benefit from Chinese international aid.

In Norway, the prime minister, the parliament speaker and over 40% of parliamentarians and government ministers are women. Public companies’ boards must be 40% female; that’s twice the current percentage in the U.S., where there is no such nationwide quota. (Norwegian researchers have noted, however, that the requirement hasn’t translated into similar gains for women as CEOs or other top executives.)

Prime Minister Erna Solberg told the assembly her country’s experience shows that promoting women’s rights “is not just the right thing to do – it is the smart thing to do.”

“Gender equality,” she said, “is well worth the investments.”

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Associated Press writer Peter Prengaman contributed. Follow New York-based AP journalist Jennifer Peltz on Twitter at http://twitter.com/JennPeltz

MINNEAPOLIS — Vice President Mike Pence and Ivanka Trump are bringing President Donald Trump’s law-and-order campaign message to Minneapolis on Thursday, showing support for law enforcement in the city where George Floyd’s death sparked angry and sometimes violent protests that spread around the world.

Pence and President Trump’s daughter planned to host a listening session with a “Cops for Trump” group, as well as with residents who the Trump reelection campaign says have been “negatively impacted by crime and violent extremism.”

The visit comes about a month after Donald Trump met with small-business owners whose stores in Minneapolis were damaged in violence that erupted after Floyd’s death. Trump did not visit the scene of protests nor the site where police held Floyd down as they tried to arrest him for allegedly passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store; the schedule for Thursday doesn’t include those places either.

The visit also will be a day after a Kentucky grand jury weighing charges in Breonna Taylor’s death indicted a single former police officer on charges of shooting into neighboring apartments, but chose not to indict any officers directly in her death.

Trump is eager to put Minnesota in play four years after he narrowly lost the state to Hillary Clinton, with a strategy that depends largely on driving up turnout in the rural areas where he runs strongest. For some in Minneapolis, the campaign’s law-and-order message is calculated, divisive and damaging.

“Hate and fear are good for getting votes, but it’s not good for governing,” said Paul Eaves, a Minneapolis resident who regularly tends to artwork and flowers at the intersection that has become a memorial to Floyd.

Eaves, 72 and white, called the president a “vile politician.”

Floyd died after a white police officer pressed his knee into the handcuffed Black man’s neck on May 25 during an arrest attempt that was captured on bystander video. His death set off protests around the world, including some that became violent. Property damage in Minneapolis is estimated at roughly $100 million.

After Floyd’s death, a majority of City Council members pledged to abolish the Police Department and replace it with a new agency that would take a more socially minded approach. Their hopes of taking the idea to voters in November was blocked by a city commission and won’t happen before 2021, if ever.

The talk of abolishing police came as Minneapolis this summer saw spiking violent crime, as many other big cities did, and as some residents complained that police response times had slowed. Some of the same council members who supported ending the department pressed Police Chief Medaria Arradondo last week to address the rising crime.

Police union President Bob Kroll did not respond to a message seeking comment for this story. He has complained that city leaders have abandoned rank-and-file officers. Roughly 175 officers are seeking work-related disability, according to an attorney helping file the claims, with post-traumatic stress disorder being cited as a main reason for most departures.

A Star Tribune analysis found that as of last week, violent crimes such as homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assaults were up 17% from the five-year average. Serious assaults, including shootings and stabbings, were up 25%.

Belal Hijazi, owner of the Full Stop gas station in north Minneapolis, spent a night protecting his business while others around him burned during the height of the unrest that followed Floyd’s death. Since then, he said, he’s seen people taking advantage of a reduced police presence to more freely deal drugs, loiter and shoplift around his station.

“If you try to talk to these guys, they show you guns sometimes,” said Hijazi, who hired an off-duty officer to help with security. “To be honest with you, the police — it looks like they gave up too. … I’m afraid. I’m stressed. I have a dream to move to a different spot. I have six kids, and they need me.”

Jeanelle Austin, 35, a racial justice leadership coach, has emerged as a lead caretaker of the George Floyd Memorial. Austin, who is Black, said Trump’s law-and-order message is code for increased law enforcement aiming to “make white people feel safe, but it is a direct threat to Black and brown communities,” she said.

Rozenia Fuller, a pastor at Good News Baptist Church in Minneapolis, called the visit from Pence and Ivanka Trump a “good idea” because she said interaction can change how the current social justice movement is perceived and further its goals.

“I think that proximity is everything. I think that they need to be here, boots on the ground, because they are receiving a false narrative about who we really are and what we really want,” said Fuller, who is Black. “I think any movement that cannot withstand the scrutiny of outside forces is a myth, so they are welcome. Everybody is welcome in this space.”

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Mohamed Ibrahim is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In the wake of the decision not to prosecute Kentucky police officers for killing Breonna Taylor, authorities and activists alike wrestled Thursday with the question of what comes next amid continued demands for justice in the Black woman’s death.

“The question obviously is: What do we do with this pain?” Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said during a news conference. “There is no one answer, no easy answer to that question.”

Fischer pleaded for calm a day after peaceful protests in Louisville turned violent, and a gunman shot and wounded two police officers. Activists, who were back out chanting Taylor’s name and marching for a second night as police in riot gear blocked roads, vowed to press on after a grand jury Wednesday didn’t bring homicide charges against the officers who burst into her apartment during a drug investigation in March.

Taylor, an emergency medical worker, was shot multiple times by white officers after Taylor’s boyfriend fired at them, authorities said. He said he didn’t know who was coming in and opened fire in self-defense. Police entered on a warrant connected to a suspect who did not live there, and no drugs were found inside.

State Attorney General Daniel Cameron said the investigation showed officers acted in self-defense; one was wounded. A single officer was charged with wanton endangerment for firing into neighboring apartments.

The FBI is still investigating whether Taylor’s civil rights were violated. But the burden of proof for such cases is very high, with prosecutors having to prove officers knew they were acting illegally and made a willful decision to cause someone’s death.

Returning Thursday to the park in downtown Louisville that has been the hub for protesters, Reginique Jones said she’ll keep pressing for increased police accountability and for a statewide ban on “no knock” warrants — the kind issued in the Taylor case, though Cameron said the investigation showed police did announce themselves before entering.

“I believe that we are going to get past this,” Jones said. “We can still get some justice.”

Taylor’s family planned to weigh in at a news conference scheduled for Friday in the park that’s become known as Injustice Square.

Demonstrators kept gathering there Thursday, while others marched through downtown, where police in riot gear turned out in force as the nighttime curfew passed and crowds blocked some roads.

Officers blocked the exits of a church where protesters gathered to avoid arrest for violating the curfew. Several people were detained, including state Rep. Attica Scott, a Louisville Democrat. Police eventually pulled back and the demonstrators left.

Kenyatta Hicks said he’s encouraged by increasingly diverse crowds that have turned out to protest.

“Nobody should give up,” Hicks said.

Activists, celebrities and everyday Americans have called for charges against police since Taylor’s death. Along with George Floyd, a Black man killed by police in Minneapolis, Taylor’s name became a rallying cry during nationwide protests this summer that called out entrenched racism and demanded police reform.

The grand jury’s decision set off a new wave of protests nationwide, with people marching in cities like Philadelphia and Rochester, New York, on Thursday, a night after violence marred some demonstrations in cities like Seattle and Portland, Oregon.

Louisville’s mayor has instituted a curfew through the weekend, and Gov. Andy Beshear called up the National Guard for “limited missions.” Protesters streamed through the streets, where stopped cars honked and one man leaned out a sunroof, his fist in the air and shouted, “Black lives matter.”

Earlier, it got heated between some protesters and a group of 12 to 15 armed white people wearing military-style uniforms, but it didn’t turn physical.

Peaceful protests a night earlier gave way to fires set in garbage cans, damage to several vehicles and thefts at stores. Then, two officers were shot.

Larynzo D. Johnson, 26, was charged, and an arrest citation said police had video of him opening fire. Court records did not list a lawyer for Johnson, who was scheduled to be in court Friday.

The two officers were “doing well and will survive their injuries,” interim Police Chief Robert Schroeder said.

Maj. Aubrey Gregory was shot in the hip and has been released from the hospital. Officer Robinson Desroches was shot in the abdomen and underwent surgery.

Taylor’s case has exposed the wide gulf between public opinion on justice for those who kill Black Americans and the laws under which those officers are charged, which regularly favor police.

Since Taylor’s killing, Louisville has taken some steps to address protesters’ concerns. The officer who was eventually charged has been fired, and three others were put on desk duty. Officials have banned no-knock warrants and hired its first Black woman as the new permanent police chief.

Last week, the city agreed to more police reforms as part of a settlement that included a $12 million payment to Taylor’s family. But many have expressed frustration that more has not been done.

A grand jury returned three charges of wanton endangerment against Officer Brett Hankison that each carries a sentence of up to five years. The other officers involved weren’t charged.

Hankison’s attorney, David Leightty, did not return calls requesting comment. He previously said Hankison’s firing in June was a “cowardly political act.”

Trump told reporters Thursday that the case was a “sad thing.”

“I give my regards to the family of Breonna. I also think it’s so sad what’s happening with everything about that case, including law enforcement,” he said.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, called for policing reform.

In the Louisville square where protesters have repeatedly gathered, Rose Henderson has been looking after the flowers, signs and letters placed at a memorial there for Taylor and hopes officials won’t try to remove them.

“We’re going to stay out here and hold this place,” Henderson said.

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Associated Press writers Rebecca Reynolds Yonker, Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, Bruce Schreiner and John Minchillo in Louisville, Kentucky; Kevin Freking and Michael Balsamo in Washington; Aaron Morrison in New York; and Haleluya Hadero in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, contributed.

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Hudsbeth Blackburn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

LOS ANGELES — “Schitt’s Creek,” the little Canadian show about a fish-out-of-water family, made history at Sunday’s Emmy Awards with a comedy awards sweep, something even TV greats including “Frasier” and “Modern Family” failed to achieve.

Zendaya, 24, became the youngest lead drama actress winner for her role as a troubled teenager in “Euphoria.” She’s only the second Black actress to win the award, following Viola Davis’ groundbreaking 2015 win for “How to Get Away With Murder.”

“I know this seems like a really weird time to be celebrating,” Zendaya said. “But I just want to say there is hope in the young people out there. I know our TV show doesn’t always feel like a great example of that,” but young people are out there “doing the work.”

“Succession,” a family power struggle over a media empire, was honored as best drama series, and creator Jesse Armstrong used the opportunity to offer “un-thank-yous,” including to President Donald Trump for what Armstrong called his “crummy and uncoordinated” response to the pandemic.

“Succession” star Jeremy Strong won the drama actor trophy for his role as a potential heir to the throne.

The virtual ceremony, with a hard-working Jimmy Kimmel as host, went smoothly despite producers’ concerns that the plan to link 100-plus nominees remotely could result in glitches.

Although the rise of streaming services including Disney+ and Apple TV+ dominates the TV landscape, it was Emmy stalwart HBO that stole the show, with winners including “Succession” and “Watchmen” making up for its now-departed awards giant “Game of Thrones.” ViacomCBS-owned Pop TV and its quirky comedy also proved unbeatable.

The awards for Pop TV’s “Schitt’s Creek” included best comedy series and trophies for its stars, including Catherine O’Hara and father-son Eugene and Daniel Levy.

“It is absolutely incredible. I think my dad said it best earlier this evening: it’s a dream you don’t want to wake up from, to be honest. What an absolutely unbelievable way to end our series,” Daniel Levy said backstage.

His character’s comfortable pansexuality led to story lines that Levy called personally “cathartic.”

In his acceptance speech, he said the sitcom was about “the transformational effects of love and acceptance, and this is something we need more now than ever before,” encouraging people to register and vote to achieve that goal.

Other winners, including “Watchmen” star Regina King, made a point that the Nov. 3 general election was near.

All the winners accepted their awards virtually in the pandemic-safe ceremony, including O’Hara, but she wasn’t alone.

“Though these are the strangest of days, may you have as much joy being holed up in a room or two with your family as I had with my dear Roses,” O’Hara said from Canada, surrounded in a decorated room by mask-wearing co-stars who play the Rose family members.

Levy called it “ironical that the straightest role I ever played lands me an Emmy for a comedy performance. I have to seriously question what I’ve been doing” for the past 50 years.

Moments later, his son won the award for comedy writing for “Schitt’s Creek” episode, then shared a directing award and captured the supporting actor comedy trophy. The supporting actress trophy went to his co-star Annie Murphy.

Daniel Levy thanked his father and O’Hara for an extended “master class” in comedy. The show’s sweep came for its much-acclaimed final season.

References to coronavirus were an ongoing part of the ceremony, with essential workers — including a teacher and a UPS deliveryman — presenting awards and Jason Sudeikis ostensibly getting a COVID-19 test onstage.

In a year with a record number of Black nominees, 35, there was a notable lack of diversity in the show’s early going. As “Schitt’s Creek” gobbled up comedy awards, that left acclaimed “Insecure” and its creator Issa Rae empty-handed.

That was also true of Ramy Youssef, creator-star of the semi-autobiographical comedy “Ramy,” about a young Muslim American’s love and religious life. Youssef tweeted a video of a haz-mat suit-wearing person clutching an Emmy and waving goodbye after Youssef lost the lost the comedy actor category.

There were signs of change with the drama awards, which came in the latter part of the ceremony, and Black actors ultimately won a record nine trophies. But there was a familiar pattern, with actors of color doing exceptional work in limited series but not finding as much opportunity in ongoing shows, with Zendaya this year’s exception.

“Watchmen” is a case in point. The graphic novel-adaptation, steeped in racial pain, was voted best limited series and King won lead actress for her work. She was showered by confetti as she accepted in an armchair, wearing a T-shirt that honored police shooting victim Breonna Taylor.

“This is so freaking weird,” said King, who regained her composure and called on viewers to vote and, backstage, explained why she wore the message shirt.

“The cops still haven’t been held accountable,” she said. “She represents just decades, hundreds of years of violence against Black bodies. Wearing Breonna’s likeness and representing her and her family and the stories that we were exploring, presenting and holding a mirror up to on ‘Watchmen,’ it felt appropriate to represent with Breonna Taylor.”

Her co-star, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, won the Emmy for best supporting actor in a limited series. Uzo Aduba won the counterpart actress award for her portrayal of Shirley Chisholm in “Mrs. America.”

Anthony Anderson, a nominee for “black-ish,” came on stage to make his disappointment vigorously known, saying the awards should have been “Howard University homecoming Black.”

“This isn’t what it should have been. … But Black stories, Black performances and Black Lives Matter,” he said, urging Kimmel to shout with him.

Tyler Perry, the actor turned media mogul and influential booster of African American talent, accepted the Governors Award.

Supporting drama awards went to Billy Crudup for “The Morning Show” and repeat winner Julia Garner for “Ozark.”

“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” was again honored as best variety-talk series, with David Letterman announcing the award after being abandoned roadside by an annoyed ride-share driver.

Oliver joined the ranks of winners calling for Americans to vote, as did Mark Ruffalo, who won the limited series acting trophy for “I Know This Much is True.”

Kimmel opened the show with a monologue that appeared to be defiantly delivered in front of a packed, cheering theater — until it was revealed clips were played from past Emmy shows.

“Of course I’m here all alone. Of course, we don’t have an audience,” he said. “This isn’t a MAGA rally. It’s the Emmys.”

A minor gaffe marred Saturday’s virtual creative arts Emmys for technical and other honors, when Jason Bateman’s name was announced for a guest acting award that belonged to Ron Cephas Jones of “This Is Us.”

In the cumulative awards handed out Sunday and at the creative arts events, HBO was the leader with 30 trophies, followed by Netflix with 21, Pop TV with 10 and Disney+ and NBC with eight each.

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AP Writer Beth Harris contributed to this report.

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Online: https://www.emmys.com/