1. Focus on the Middle East

President Trump presided over the signing of a Middle East peace agreement between Israel and two Arab nations at the White House yesterday. The Abraham Accords, brokered by the U.S. and signed by the U.S., Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, will normalize relations among the nations, upending nearly a century of regional politics. Notably, the agreement leaves out the Palestinians, who have not engaged with the Trump Administration since the U.S. recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital. The agreement is seen as the foundation for a sorely needed broader alliance against Iran in the turbulent region. —The Wall Street Journal

• — "They'll be hit 1,000 times harder than they hit us." On Sunday, reports surfaced that Iran was plotting to kill U.S. Ambassador to South Africa Lana Marks, a handbag designer and longtime Trump friend. She was placed under extra security protection, and the president tweeted on Monday, "Any attack by Iran, in any form, against the United States will be met with an attack on Iran that will be 1,000 times greater in magnitude!" —The Guardian
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• — Iran is ticked at the U.S. So what else is new? "We hope that they do not make a new strategic mistake," government spokesman Ali Rabiei said yesterday in response to Trump's comments. "In the case of any strategic mistake, they will witness Iran's decisive response." Iran also argued to the United Nations' top court today that U.S. nuclear sanctions are destroying the Iranian economy and "ruining millions of lives." —Al Jazeera
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• — "I would have rather taken him out. I had him all set." Trump also acknowledged this week that he wanted to assassinate Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for using chemical weapons in 2017. Not surprisingly, the admission directly contradicts his own previous denial of the incident and undercuts a recent assertion that he stands up to Pentagon leaders who, he claims, seek to start new wars. —Defense One

2. Leaf & Stroul: Will arms sale obstruct the peace?

"For the United Arab Emirates, only the third Arab country to establish relations with Israel, the U.S. sweetener appears to be a commitment to sell it F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, as well as other advanced weaponry long sought by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed. ... Beyond the president and his closest advisors, is there sufficient support for this sale in Washington? As former government officials serving in the State and Defense Departments, as well as in Congress, we are confident that the process going forward will be messy and time-consuming, specifically because the current case breaks precedent in so many ways." —War on the Rocks

Ed. Note: Barbara Leaf is a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and former U.S. ambassador to the United Arab Emirates from 2014 to 2018. Dana Stroul is a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Previously, she covered the Middle East on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

3. All eyes on Pennsylvania

At an ABC News town hall moderated by George Stephanopoulos in Philadelphia, Pa., last night, President Trump was hit with tough questions from Pennsylvania voters on policing, income inequality, and his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. In one of several testy exchanges, a student asked Trump why he had downplayed the pandemic, as the president openly indicated he had done in interviews with writer Bob Woodward. Trump defended his response, saying, "Well, I didn't downplay it. I actually, in many ways, I up-played in terms of action. My action was very strong." The student interjected, "Did you not admit to it yourself?" Ouch. —Politico

• — On the other end of the spectrum is Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, whose proactive measures against the coronavirus were judged "unconstitutional" by a federal judge on Monday. "There's no sense debating a ruling that will be appealed," Wolf said yesterday. "But what's not up for debate is that our early and decisive action saved lives." —NPR
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• — Ballot delay in PA. Monday was the first day any county in Pennsylvania could have started mailing out ballots for the November election, but it didn't happen. The state Democratic Party's effort to keep the Green Party off the ballot is awaiting a decision from the state Supreme Court. Until then, the ballots can't even be printed—a delay that threatens an election that's already expected to be messy. —CBS News
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• — Why does Pennsylvania matter? According to FiveThirtyEight's presidential forecast, it's by far the likeliest state to provide either Trump or Joe Biden with the decisive vote in the Electoral College, with a 31% chance of being the tipping-point state. In fact, Pennsylvania is so important that the FiveThirtyEight model gives Trump an 84% chance of being re-elected if he carries the state, and gives Biden a 96% chance of winning if the state goes blue. —FiveThirtyEight

MORE: 5 key takeaways from President Trump's town hall in Pennsylvania —ABC News

4. Coronavirus vaccine plan released

In a report to Congress and an accompanying "playbook" for states and localities released today, federal health agencies and the Defense Department sketched out complex plans for its COVID-19 vaccination campaign. Assuming a safe and effective shot is developed, it would be made available for free to all Americans, beginning gradually and eventually ramping up to reach any American who wants one. Discussing the plan before Senate lawmakers today, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield said a vaccine could be out in limited supply as early as November, but likely won't be available for the general public until 2021. —Associated Press

• — Not a moment too soon. U.S. coronavirus cases are on the upswing again, with 52,081 new cases reported yesterday, up from about 34,000 on Monday. The latest figure is the highest daily tally since Aug. 14, according to Johns Hopkins University. The nation's death toll is approaching 196,000.
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• — Natural disasters complicate matters. Both the wildfires that have been burning in several western states and the hurricanes battering the Gulf Coast have opened potential pathways for the virus to spread further. States are making efforts to keep displaced families out of congregate shelters, where typically hundreds of people would spend a few nights huddled in a single building, eating buffet-style food. —The Wall Street Journal
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• — "We've been set back about 25 years in about 25 weeks." The pandemic has wiped out decades of global development in everything from health to the economy, according to a report published on Monday by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Progress has not only stopped but has regressed in some key areas, and vaccination coverage, seen as an indicator for how health systems are functioning, has dropped to levels last seen in the 1990s. "What the world does in the next months matters a great deal," the report says. —Politico

5. Honig: DOJ's Bolton investigation is political payback

"In the broader view, the Bolton investigation signals an escalation in the use of the Justice Department for political purposes (or at a minimum, the public appearance of such). It is bad enough that Attorney General William Barr already has selectively intervened in prosecutions to seek unprecedented leniency for Trump's former political aides Michael Flynn and Roger Stone. Using the Justice Department to protect the president's political allies is a gross abuse of power. But it is even worse to use the Justice Department, with its staggering might, as a vehicle for political payback." —CNN

Ed. Note: Elie Honig is a former federal and state prosecutor. 

MORE: DOJ opens criminal inquiry into John Bolton's book —The New York Times

6. Some justice for Breonna Taylor

After months of protests that turned Breonna Taylor's name into a national slogan against police violence, city officials in Louisville, Ky., have agreed to pay her family $12 million and institute changes aimed at preventing future deaths by officers. Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician, was shot to death in her home by police in a botched drug raid six months ago.

• — The agreement, announced yesterday, settled a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by Taylor's family. The state's attorney general has not yet determined whether the officers involved in the shooting will be criminally charged.
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• — Months of nightly, sometimes violent demonstrations have left parts of Kentucky's largest city boarded up. Mayor Greg Fischer agreed to adopt a dozen policing reforms in an effort to quell the protests.
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• — The changes would require more oversight by top commanders, and make mandatory safeguards that were common practice but were not followed the night of the March 13 raid. They would also put in place an early-warning system to flag officers who have been accused of excessive force. —The New York Times

7. WaPo Ed Board: In Florida, SCOTUS should step in

"When Floridians voted overwhelmingly in 2018 to allow felons to vote, they were entitled to expect that their own votes would count—that people who had served their time would soon regain access to the ballot box. Two years later, a Republican campaign aided by a conservative majority on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has stifled the voters' will and prevented potentially hundreds of thousands of would-be eligible voters from registering. Only the U.S. Supreme Court now can restore released felons' voting rights, as the people of Florida intended." —The Washington Post

MORE: Democrats, advocates seethe over Florida voting rights ruling —The Hill

8. Trump + disinformation: A love story

President Trump continues to spread disinformation about his opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden. While at an event in Florida yesterday, Biden pulled out his cellphone and played the song "Despacito," as a tribute to the singer Luis Fonsi, who introduced him at the event. Trump tweeted a manipulated video of that event that replaced "Despacito" with the N.W.A. song, "F--- tha Police."

• — Trump has made little to no effort to tamp down on disinformation about his opponent. In fact, he retweeted the manipulated Biden video twice, the second time saying, "China is drooling. They can't believe this!"
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• — Twitter labeled the tweet "manipulated media." The social media platform has labeled several of the president's tweets as "manipulated" and has even removed media after the president retweeted it.
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• — Disinformation is expected to continue to be spread by the Trump campaign as Election Day gets closer. Just yesterday, the president shared a tweet that outrageously claimed that Biden is a pedophile. —The Washington Post

9. SA Ed Board: 'We do not do this lightly'

"Scientific American has never endorsed a presidential candidate in its 175-year history. This year we are compelled to do so. ... The evidence and the science show that Donald Trump has badly damaged the U.S. and its people—because he rejects evidence and science. The most devastating example is his dishonest and inept response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which cost more than 190,000 Americans their lives by the middle of September. He has also attacked environmental protections, medical care, and the researchers and public science agencies that help this country prepare for its greatest challenges." —Scientific American

MORE: What happens if Trump loses but refuses to concede? —Financial Times

10. An American Story: Teens are stepping up

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, communities across the country have discovered a powerful resource that has stepped forward to make a difference: America's teenagers.

• — Around the country, they have delivered groceries to older adults, offered online tutoring, emailed sick children, and helped feed the hungry. Others, like 15-year-old Valerie Xu, of Dallas, Tx., have raised money. 
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• — Xu so far has raised more than $23,000 to buy masks to donate to a Dallas hospital and homeless shelter. The 52,600 masks she's purchased thus far include surgical, FFP2, and three-layer varieties.
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• — Dr. John Warner, executive vice president for health system affairs at UT Southwestern, which received a donation from Xu, says it has been encouraging to see how many young people are pitching in. "They're so bright and so innovative," he said, "so that's been very fun to watch." —Associated Press

Thanks for the true words about "pro-life." I didn't vote for Trump, but gave him space to grow. That ended with his treatment of migrants, especially the separation of children. When Republicans weren't repulsed but supportive, I determined not to vote for them again in any capacity. Some Evangelicals also have lost any respect I had for them. The dishonesty, money-grubbing grift, espousing ridiculous and harmful conspiracy theories, and happily making a cult around a dangerously ignorant and lawless man show their lack of human judgment, much less Bible acquaintance of any kind. —Anna K., Washington

Genocide, mass killings, assassinations—we see and condemn those acts throughout history. We are now going on 200,000 American citizens who have died from COVID-19 because our president lied to us. —Kerry S., California

The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Stand Up Republic Foundation.