Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Lois Beckett (now), Joan E Greve, Joanna Walters and Martin Belam (earlier)

'The Trump show' continues as RNC heads to second night packed with Donald's family – as it happened

President Donald Trump speaks during the first day of the Republican national convention
Donald Trump speaks during the first day of the Republican national convention. Photograph: Travis Dove/AP

Evening summary

We’re wrapping up our live politics coverage here for the night, but you can continue to follow along on our dedicated Republican national convention liveblog here.

An updated summary of today’s key news:

  • The family of Jacob Blake, the African American man who was repeatedly shot in the back by Kenosha, Wisconsin, police officers, held a press conference. Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing the Blake family, said the father of six is still in surgery, fighting for his life. “It is going to take a miracle for Jacob Blake Jr to ever walk again,” Crump said.
  • The Wisconsin governor, Tony Evers, declared a state of emergency amid protests over the shooting of Blake. The Democratic governor also said he was increasing the number of Wisconsin national guard members in Kenosha to 250.
  • Trump will nominate the acting homeland security secretary, Chad Wolf, to fill the post permanently, despite questions over the legality of his appointment in the first place.
  • The New York attorney general is filing a lawsuit challenging operational changes at the US Postal Service, amid concerns that delays in mail delivery could hamper voting by mail in the November elections. “This USPS slowdown is nothing more than a voter suppression tactic,” New York attorney general Letitia James said in a statement.
  • Jerry Falwell Jr resigned as the president of Liberty University. The evangelical leader, one of Trump’s most prominent religious supporters, submitted his letter of resignation after Reuters reported that Falwell and his wife were involved in a years-long affair with one of their business partners.
  • A planned RNC speaker was reportedly removed from tonight’s lineup after a report about how she encouraged her Twitter followers to read a thread of virulently antisemitic conspiracy theories about a Jewish plot to enslave the world.
  • A QAnon conspiracy theory supporter who is likely to win a congressional seat said she had been officially invited to the White House later this week to hear Trump’s speech accepting the Republican nomination.
  • The House foreign affairs committee will investigate whether secretary of state Mike Pompeo’s planned partisan speech tonight from Jerusalem, where he is on official business, violates state department guidelines and the Hatch Act.

Follow the Republican national convention:

Updated

One planned RNC speaker will not contribute after antisemitic tweet, another endorsed ‘one household, one vote’ (husband’s choice)

A few minutes ago, I posted about a report from the Daily Beast that one of tonight’s RNC speakers, the mother of a young man killed in a drunk driving accident that involved an undocumented immigrant, had shared a thread of infamous antisemitic conspiracy theories with her Twitter followers earlier today. (The thread, from a QAnon conspiracy theorist, includes references to the Rothschilds and to the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, perhaps the most infamous antisemitic hoax text.)

Now, CNN is reporting that Mary Ann Mendoza will not be speaking tonight as a result, and that she has apologized.

Meanwhile, a CBS News journalist is reporting that a different RNC speaker tonight “tweeted earlier this year that one of her most controversial takes is she supports bringing back household voting, in which each household gets one vote, not allowing women their own individual vote”.

Anti-abortion activist Abby Johnson, who is slated to speak tonight, also said in a video posted in June that it would be “smart” for a police officer to racially profile her adopted son, who is biracial, because “statistically, my brown son is more likely to commit a violent offense over my white sons”, Vice News reported earlier today.

Johnson added that she would be upset if a police officer treated her brown son “more violently” than her white sons.

“Now if [the officer] acts in an unjust manner toward my brown son than my white son, that makes me angry. But statistically if he’s on more high alert, I’m not angry about that,” she said, according to Vice News.

Updated

Melania Trump and president’s children will tout Trump in speeches tonight

The Associated Press has a new preview of tonight’s speeches:

The people closest to President Donald Trump — his family — are starring on the second night of the Republican National Convention as the GOP works to reintroduce the president to American voters in the midst of the campaign and pandemic.

First lady Melania Trump is delivering Tuesday evening’s keynote address before a small audience at the White House, while the president’s daughter Tiffany and son Eric will be featured, too.

The focus on Trump’s family comes as the first-term president labors to improve his standing in a 2020 presidential race he is currently losing. Most polls report that Democratic rival Joe Biden has a significant advantage in terms of raw support; the former vice president also leads on character issues such as trustworthiness and likability.

Report: scheduled RNC speaker shares virulently antisemitic thread

Just hours before she is scheduled to address the Republican National Convention, Mary Ann Mendoza urged her Twitter followers to read a virulently antisemitic Twitter thread about a Jewish plot to take over the world, the Daily Beast reported.

The thread is from a QAnon conspiracy theorist, the Daily Beast reported. Mendoza is slated to speak about her son, who was killed in 2014 in a drunk driving accident that involved an undocumented immigrant.

Read the full story here.

Updated

House foreign affairs committee will investigate Pompeo’s speech from Jerusalem

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s decision to give a partisan speech at the Republican national convention from Jerusalem, where he is conducting official state department business, has prompted condemnation from other diplomats. They have pointed to the multiple explicit guidances from the state department about the importance of not spending time on party politics while you’re a doing a job paid for by all the taxpayers.

Now, the Texas congressman Joaquin Castro, the Democratic vice-chair of the House foreign affairs committee, has said the committee will investigate whether the speech “may violate the Hatch Act, government-wide regulations implementing that act, and state department policies”.

Updated

Where’s the GOP condemnation for an extremist, conspiracy theory candidate?

Guardian reporter Julia Carrie Wong, who has reported extensively on the QAnon conspiracy theory, notes that there is an interesting historical precedent for what Republican politicians could do when an extremist candidate is running for office as part of their party, as QAnon supporter congressional candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene is now doing.

That precedent: former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. The GOP reaction: prominent condemnation from the leaders of the party.

You can learn more about the political choices made in response to Duke’s campaigns in 1989-1991 on the latest season of Slow Burn, the Slate podcast.

What’s happening now is quite different, as my colleague has reported.

Thunderstorms might disrupt Melania Trump’s Rose Garden speech tonight

This is Lois Beckett, taking over our live politics coverage from our west coast office in California, where wildfires across the state have displaced more than 100,000 people, and smoke and particles from the fires have made the air unhealthy to breathe for millions of other residents. (You can follow our wildfires live coverage here.)

In Washington, Melania Trump was scheduled to speak at the digital Republican national convention tonight from the White House Rose Garden, which she recently redesigned. But the weather forecast from Washington is not favorable for an outdoor speech tonight: there’s a “severe thunderstorm watch”.

Updated

QAnon Congressional candidate says she's been invited to the White House

Marjorie Taylor Greene is a QAnon conspiracy theorist with a history of making racist and bigoted statements. She’s also expected to be elected to Congress this fall, as the Republican candidate in a strongly Republican congressional district in Georgia.

Her belief in QAnon, the baseless conspiracy theory that Donald Trump is waging a secret war against a Satanic cabal of pedophiles that includes Democratic politicians, major Hollywood stars, George Soros and Bill Gates, has not stopped her from receiving campaign donations from powerful mainstream Republican donors, or receiving congratulations on her primary win from Trump himself.

Now, the candidate has tweeted that she’s been invited to the White House on Thursday to hear Trump give a speech accepting the Republican nomination for president.

We’ll be asking the White House for comment on Greene’s tweet.

Updated

Today so far

That’s it from me for now. I’ll be back later tonight for the second night of the Republican National Convention.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • The family of Jacob Blake, the African American man who was repeatedly shot in the back by Kenosha police officers, held a press conference. Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing the Blake family, said the father of six is still in surgery, fighting for his life. “It is going to take a miracle for Jacob Blake Jr to ever walk again,” Crump said.
  • Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers declared a state of emergency amid protests over the shooting of Blake. The Democratic governor also said he was increasing the number of Wisconsin National Guard members in Kenosha to 250.
  • Trump will nominate acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf to fill the post permanently, despite questions over the legality of his appointment in the first place.
  • The New York attorney general is filing a lawsuit challenging operational changes at the US Postal Service, amid concerns that delays in mail delivery could hamper voting by mail in the November elections. “This USPS slowdown is nothing more than a voter suppression tactic,” New York attorney general Letitia James said in a statement.
  • Jerry Falwell Jr resigned as the president of Liberty University. The evangelical leader, one of Trump’s most prominent religious supporters, submitted his letter of resignation after Reuters reported that Falwell and his wife were involved in a years-long affair with one of their business partners.

My west coast colleague, Lois Beckett, will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Jacob Blake’s sister expressed sadness and anger over her brother becoming the latest African American to be shot by police.

She said she has heard from a number of people who have said they are sorry about her brother, who was repeatedly shot in the back by Kenosha police.

“I’m tired. I haven’t cried one time. I stopped crying years ago. I am numb. I have been watching police murder people that look like me for years,” Blake’ sister said. “I’m not sad. I don’t want your pity. I want change.”

Jacob’s Blake’s mother, Julia Jackson, spoke at the press conference moments ago, calling for national healing and peaceful protesting after her son was repeatedly shot by Kenosha police.

Jackson said she had noticed a fair amount of damage in Kenosha as she was traveling through the city.

“If Jacob knew what was going on as far as that goes, the violence and the destruction, he would be very unpleased,” Jackson said.

“So I’m really asking and encouraging everyone in Wisconsin and abroad to take a moment and examine your hearts.”

Jackson said she has been praying for America to heal. “God has placed each and every one of us in this country because he wanted us to be here,” Jackson said.

“I have beautiful brown skin, but take a look at your hand and whatever shade it is, you are beautiful as well.”

Crump: 'It is going to take a miracle for Jacob Blake Jr to ever walk again'

Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump provided an update on the medical condition of Jacob Blake after he was shot multiple times in the back by Kenosha police officers.

Crump said Blake was back in surgery, still fighting for his life. Confirming an earlier update from Blake’s father, Crump said Blake was paralyzed from the waist down and that the paralysis was likely permanent.

“It is going to take a miracle for Jacob Blake Jr to ever walk again,” Crump said.

Another lawyer said Blake also suffered damage to multiple organs and had much of his colon and small intestine removed.

Jacob Blake's father: 'My son matters'

Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing the family of Jacob Blake, held a press conference in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

“This large, black family all stand here united in prayer for Jacob Blake to recover from this brutal use of excessive force,” Crump said.

Blake, an African American father of six, was shot in the back multiple times by Kenosha police officers on Sunday. Bake is reportedly now in stable condition, but his father previously said he is paralyzed from the waist down.

“They shot my son seven times, seven times, like he doesn’t matter,” Blake’s father, Jacob Blake Sr, said at the press conference. “But my son matters. He is a human being, and he matters.”

The Guardian’s Victoria Bekiempis has more on the latest in Ghislaine Maxwell’s case:

The judge overseeing Maxwell’s case also rejected her request that the Bureau of Prisons ease up on restrictions in the Brooklyn federal jail where she’s awaiting trial.

While Maxwell’s lawyers argued that she needed “increased access” to legal documents, as to prepare for trial, Judge Alison J Nathan said the bureau is providing her with adequate access.

Nathan did say, however, that prosecutors needed to submit “written status updates” every three months on changes in Maxwell’s jail conditions that might impact her defense.

Maxwell, 58, pleaded not guilty on 14 July. If convicted at trial, which is scheduled for July 2021, Maxwell faces up to 35 years in prison.

The Guardian’s Victoria Bekiempis reports:

A Manhattan federal judge on Tuesday denied Ghislaine Maxwell’s request that prosecutors immediately name three alleged victims in her criminal case.

The British socialite was arrested on 2 July at an 156-acre estate in Bradford, New Hampshire, for allegedly helping longtime friend Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking of minor girls.

Maxwell’s attorneys on 10 August asked Judge Alison J Nathan to order prosecutors to disclose the accusers’ identities to them, writing in a filing that she “cannot prepare for or receive a fair trial without this information”.

“This is especially true in this case where the alleged misconduct took place on unspecified dates roughly 25 years ago in multiple locations – namely, New York, Florida, New Mexico, and the United Kingdom – and where the central figure, Jeffrey Epstein, is alleged to have engaged in misconduct with dozens, if not hundreds, of alleged victims,” they argued.

“The defense should not have to speculate which of these individuals are Victims 1-3 referenced in the indictment.”

In her decision, Nathan disagreed, saying Maxwell’s request is “premature”. Nathan also said prosecutors have only just started sharing evidence materials with Maxwell’s lawyers. She also said that there had not yet been scheduling discussions for when certain materials might be turned over.

“The Court is mindful of the factors pointed to by the Defendant – in particular the fact that charges in this matter relate to conduct that allegedly took place many years ago – and anticipates that such a schedule would require the disclosure of alleged victims and witnesses substantially in advance of trial,” Nathan wrote. “But that alone does not justify such relief at this very early stage.”

If both sides don’t come to an agreement, however, Maxwell’s attorneys can ask for Nathan to step in.

Updated

Wisconsin governor declares state of emergency over protests

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers has signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency amid protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

The Democratic governor also announced he is increasing the number of Wisconsin National Guard members in Kenosha county to 250.

The news comes two days after Blake, an African American father of six, was shot multiple times in the back by Kenosha police officers.

Blake is reportedly in stable condition, but his father said he is now paralyzed from the waist down, although it’s unclear if that paralysis is temporary or permanent.

Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, said he has agreed to appear on Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show.

“You asked for it and I am complying...just agreed to appear on @maddow,” Cohen said in a tweet.

The news comes one day after Cohen appeared in an anti-Trump ad for the Democratic group American Bridge.

In the ad, Cohen urged Americans not to trust the president. Cohen, who pleaded guilty to charges of tax evasion and campaign finance violations in 2018, says in the ad, “You don’t have to like me. But please, listen to me.”

Falwells resigns as president of Liberty University

Jerry Falwell Jr has resigned as the president of the evangelical school Liberty University – for real this time.

Liberty University, which was founded by Falwell’s father, said yesterday that the school’s president had agreed to resign, but Falwell then walked back that decision.

However, the university announced in a statement today that Falwell had later submitted his letter of resignation, which was accepted by the school’s board of trustees.

“After agreeing yesterday to immediately resign then reversing course, Falwell, through an attorney, sent the resignation letter late last night to members of the Board’s Executive Committee pursuant to the terms of his contract of employment,” the statement said.

The news comes one day after Reuters reported that Falwell and his wife had a years-long sexual relationship with one of their business partners.

Falwell’s downfall could complicate things for Trump, considering the evangelical leader has been an enthusiastic supporter of the president and evangelical Christians made up a key portion of Trump’s base in the 2016 election.

Updated

Trump trade adviser, hydroxychloroquine hawk and Deep State conspiracy theory propagator Peter Navarro had a tetchy exchange earlier with Andrea Mitchell of NBC, about the administration’s move to approve convalescent plasma therapy for the coronavirus, despite its efficacy being very much in doubt.

On air, the veteran host of Andrea Mitchell Reports said to Navarro: “FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn has now apologised. He, along with the president, [Health secretary Alex] Azar, on Sunday night, said that, out of 100 people with Covid-19, 35 were saved by convalescent plasma in a study.

“He now says that the criticism of those false claims, exaggerated claims, was entirely justified, and that he should have said there is a relative risk reduction, not an absolute reduction. And, in fact, the study was only a subset of a subset, not a randomized study.

“You are a PhD economist. You’re an expert. You know statistics inside and out. Emergency approval of using plasma this way reduces the possibility of having a proper randomized study, and it falsely inflates hopes.”

Navarro – in fact a China trade hawk who has published books in which he extensively quoted an expert by the name Ron Vara, an anagram of “Navarro” – said he did not “accept that premise”, which was “like a crazy talking point”, and added: “On the issue of … not being able to do randomized trials, I mean, what is the calculus here?

“Are we going to wait to use something that can save thousands of lives, just so we can have a study that tells us what we already know, which is that plasma works?”

Mitchell replied: “Yes, that is scientific practice, sir.”

And it carried on from there.

Talking of “crazy talking points”, Axios reported at the weekend that during attempts by the Trump White House to get Hahn and the FDA to hurry up on vaccines and therapeutics, Navarro aggressively confronted FDA officials, saying: “You are all deep state and you need to get on Trump Time.”

Here’s a paragraph I’ve written before: The “deep state” conspiracy theory holds that a permanent government of bureaucrats exists to thwart the president’s agenda. Former Trump campaign manager and White House adviser Steve Bannon, an enthusiastic propagator of the theory, has also said it is “for nut cases” and “none of this is true”.

Popular rightwing commentator Tomi Lahren called Donald Trump a jackass in a video that’s now been shared at least half a million times on social media.

And it’s all because of a prank.

Ali-Asghar Abedi, a comedy writer based in New York, said he used the Cameo app, which allows people to access celebrities, to have Lahren read a message that she thought was directed to Indian Trump fans.

In the video Lahren thanks the Indian community for supporting Trump, because he is, “wise like an owl”. She then continues, “or as you guys would say in Hindi … president Trump is wise like an ullu. Hope I said that right.”

Unfortunately, Lahren, you did not. While ullu does technically mean owl, it is most often used when saying someone is an idiot, fool or jackass. Which is, I suppose, what Abedi made out of Lahren for the price of $85 paid through the app. The idiomatic translation is not hard to figure out through a cursory Google search, or asking any Hindi/Urdu speaker or Bollywood fan.

Meanwhile, Abedi, who sent the request on Monday, said he’s hoping people realize that “America’s intellectual class has failed.”

“They will say anything for money,” he said, “without doing the due diligence required to offer an informed view.”

Updated

New York sues over Post Office disruptions

New York Attorney General Letitia James has announced that her office has filed a federal lawsuit challenging changes to United States Postal Service operations, with the presidential election just over two months away.

“This USPS slowdown is nothing more than a voter suppression tactic,” James said in a statement. “Yet, this time, these authoritarian actions are not only jeopardizing our democracy and fundamental right to vote, but the immediate health and financial well-being of Americans across the nation.”

The suit marks the third state-backed lawsuit against the USPS, pushing back on operational changes to the Postal Service that has disrupted mail delivery across the country just months before the general election, in which voters are expected to utilize mail-in voting in much larger numbers due, in large part, to the coronavirus pandemic.James had previously announced her intentions to file a lawsuit on the matter earlier this month, CNN writes on its website.

My colleague Sam Levine covered Republican donor and now postmaster general Louis DeJoy (who had no experience with the federal agency before being appointed this summer, whereupon he set about making drastic changes to the service that have led to delays in the mail and fears that there would be a threat to democracy as people try to vote by main in the pandemic) on Capitol Hill in two hearings, yesterday and on Friday. Read his latest report here.

Former DHS chief of staff: Trump offered pardons for breaking immigration law

Miles Taylor, formerly chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, now a stringent Republican critic of Donald Trump, says in a new ad the president did offer pardons to government officials “for breaking the law to implement his immigration policy”.

Trump’s offer has been reported before, and he has denied it.

“It was April of 2019,” Taylor says in the ad, made by Republican Voters Against Trump.

“We were down at the border, and the president said to the senior leadership of the homeland security department, behind the scenes, we should not let anyone else into the United States. Even though he’d been told on repeated occasions that the way he wanted to do it was illegal, his response was to say, ‘Do it. If you get in trouble, I’ll pardon you.’

“It was made clear to the president that it was against the law for us to simply deny entry to anyone seeking entry across the southern border, including people who were fleeing violence, persecution, danger. Under the law they had the right to come in and try to seek refuge.

And the president of the United States, he said, ‘I don’t care.’ His exact words were: “The bins are full.”

Trump has said he does not know who Taylor is. In an episode of the Daily Beast podcast The New Abnormal posted earlier on Tuesday, Taylor told hosts Rick Wilson and Molly Jong-Fast he had plentiful evidence of time spent working in close proximity with the president.

He also said Trump imagined “sickening” medieval plots “to pierce the flesh” of migrants, rip families apart, “maim”, and gas them.

“This was a man with no humanity whatsoever,” Taylor said. “He says, ‘We got to do this, this, this, and this,’ all of which are probably impossible, illegal, unethical. And he looks over me and he goes, ‘You fucking taken notes?’”

Afternoon summary

It’s another busy day in US political news. And the second night of the Republican National Convention is just hours away. We’ll have all the action from that event with our top team reporting from Washington. Meanwhile, there will be plenty more news this afternoon, so stay tuned.

Today so far:

  • Donald Trump will nominate acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf to fill the post permanently, despite a row over the legality of his appointment in the first place.
  • Shots have reportedly been fired at protesters marching from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Washington, DC, overnight. The Black Lives Matter marchers aim to arrive in time to bring the protest against police brutality and systemic racism to the capital for the anniversary on Friday of Martin Luther King Jr’s 1963 “I have a dream” speech there calling for racial equality.
  • Texas and Louisiana are bracing for Hurricane Laura to roar ashore tomorrow night. Oil production is being halted and communities are evacuating.
  • Top public health expert Anthony Fauci has issued a fresh warning about the risks of rushing to approve America’s first coronavirus vaccine, with a threat not only to safety but to progress on other prospective such vaccines.
  • The father of Jacob Blake, the man shot in the back by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Sunday night has told the media his son is paralyzed from the waist down right now. Blake is in hospital and his prognosis is unclear.

Trump to nominate Chad Wolf for permanent position as secretary of homeland security

Wolf is currently acting secretary.

The expected promotion of Chad Wolf to be confirmed permanently to the position of homeland security secretary has immediately brought comment from both left and right.

Georgia Republican congressman Doug Collins is delighted.

Fierce pushback from elsewhere, with assertions that Wolf is not legitimately in his position.

Here’s Politico reporting earlier this month that:

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli were invalidly appointed to their positions and are ineligible to serve, a congressional watchdog determined Friday.

The Government Accountability Office — Congress’ independent investigative arm — concluded that after the resignation of Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in April 2019, an improper succession occurred, with Kevin McAleenan taking on the position. McAleenan then altered the order of succession for other officials to succeed him after his departure.

“Because the incorrect official assumed the title of Acting Secretary at that time, subsequent amendments to the order of succession made by that official were invalid and officials who assumed their positions under such amendments, including Chad Wolf and Kenneth Cuccinelli, were named by reference to an invalid order of succession,” GAO’s general counsel Thomas Armstrong concluded.

GAO has referred the matter to the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security for further review and potential action.

And here’s CREW at the weekend:

My colleague Amanda Holpuch reported last month that Wolf was the figurehead for the federal government’s intervention in Portland, Oregon, where his department’s militarized agents have been recorded pushing protesters into unmarked vehicles.

Updated

Latest on protesters marching from Milwaukee to Washington, DC, campaigning for end to police brutality and racism

At least one person was wounded overnight when a shooting broke out as demonstrators marched from Milwaukee to Washington, DC, in response to the police killing of George Floyd, police said.

Frank Sensabaugh, the leader of a Black Lives Matter group, near Warsaw, Indiana, earlier this month as part of a protest march from Milwaukee to Washington, DC.
Frank Sensabaugh, the leader of a Black Lives Matter group, near Warsaw, Indiana, earlier this month as part of a protest march from Milwaukee to Washington, DC. Photograph: Amanda Bridgman/AP

Milwaukee activist Frank “Nitty” Sensabaugh, one of the march’s organizers, told WJAC-TV in Johnstown that the shooting happened around midnight on Monday in rural Pennsylvania, the Associated Press reports.

The wounded person was brought to Conemaugh Memorial medical center in Johnstown. Sensabaugh said the injury appears minor.

Pennsylvania state police said two people were being questioned in connection with what they called an argument between a group of people and a resident on Route 30 in Schellsburg, in rural Bedford county, that led to gunfire.

“Gunfire was exchanged between the activists and the residents, and one activist was struck,” Trooper Brent Miller said, without taking questions or elaborating.

In a video posted early Tuesday morning to Facebook, marcher Tory Lowe said the group had parked to organize before they walked up an incline when a man emerged from a house and started shooting at them with a rifle, firing at least seven shots.

“He was like three feet away from us shooting and I told him there was a minister here,” Lowe said in a video posted to Facebook.

“He started talking to us and talking about God and then tried to shake our hands and stuff like that … He just started talking to us like nothing ever happened, like he never shot at us or nothing,” Lowe said.

The group began marching on 4 August and planned to arrive in the nation’s capitol by Friday, the 57th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported.

Sensabaugh, Lowe and another marcher were arrested in Indiana after police said they were blocking traffic on a highway earlier in the march.

While en route, the police shooting of Jacob Blake has occurred in Kenosha, 40 miles south of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, late on Sunday, with Blake in hospital and currently suffering from waist-down paralysis, according to his family.

Updated

Melania Trump will speak at the Republican national convention on Tuesday night, from the rose garden at the White House, which she recently gave a makeover as one of her summer activities.

The Trumps.
The Trumps. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

The speech, however, will be delivered in the shadow of an extraordinary report that she was taped making derogatory comments about her husband’s adult children and even Donald Trump himself, my colleague Martin Pengelly reports.

On Monday the media reporter Yashar Ali cited unnamed sources in reporting that Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former friend and adviser, “taped the first lady” and plans to share the remarks in her book.

They include “harsh comments about Ivanka Trump, the president’s elder daughter and a senior adviser”, Ali wrote.

Melania & Me is out on 1 September.

The US continues to digest the publication, by the Washington Post, of tapes of Donald Trump’s older sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, calling the president “cruel” and criticizing his character and behavior.

Those tapes were made surreptitiously but legally by Mary L Trump, the president’s niece, who released a bestselling book in July, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.

Simon & Schuster published Mary Trump’s book and one by John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser. It will publish Melania & Me.

Read Martin’s full story today, here.

Louis DeJoy, the US postmaster general, spent Friday and Monday appearing before Congress for the first time to explain recent controversies at the post office amid reports of widespread mail delays.

While DeJoy reassured the public that USPS has ample capacity to hold the November election, with millions more than usual expected to vote by mail because of the coronavirus pandemic, he left many big questions unanswered. Here are a few of them:

What exactly happened with the removal of mailboxes and sorting machines?

DeJoy repeatedly testified that he had nothing to do with the removal of mailboxes and mail sorting machines, and in fact only learned about it after the fact. While he portrayed their removal as routine, he didn’t say who made the decision to remove them and how the post office typically makes the decision to remove these things. This was an opportunity for the postmaster general to restore public confidence in the way the post office went about making these changes, but all he chose to say was that he wasn’t involved. That only invites more speculation and uncertainty about why it was done.

Why won’t USPS restore the machines that were already removed?

DeJoy repeatedly firmly said that he would not reinstall sorting machines that had already been removed, “because they’re not needed”. But DeJoy offered no explanation of how USPS knows this and what the cost or burden of restoring the machines would be. David Williams, the former vice chair of the USPS board of governors, said last week he was puzzled by the decision to remove sorting machines and mailboxes because it wouldn’t save the agency significant money.

Who drafted a controversial memo saying USPS overtime would be eliminated?

The postmaster general also sought to distance himself from two memos from earlier this year that said overtime for workers would be eliminated (USPS denies there is an overtime ban). But even though documents have been public for more than a month, DeJoy said he did not know who wrote them or why. These documents exploded into controversy and it was remarkable that the postmaster general offered no understanding of how it came to be.

What exactly is causing delays?

DeJoy conceded to Congress that after he became postmaster general, he made a change instructing all trucks to leave on time. This, he conceded, led to mail delays, because the truck schedules became unaligned with plant schedules, leading to mail being left behind. But even DeJoy said he was unsure why the problem had lasted for weeks and it remains unclear what exactly he’s doing to fix the problem. DeJoy also said on Monday that this summer seemed like a good time to try and implement the changes because mail volume was down and it was ahead of USPS’s peak holiday season. But many experts and observers have questioned why USPS would tweak its processes in the midst of a pandemic and just months before an election when a record number of people are expected to vote by mail.

How will DeJoy secure the election?

DeJoy forcefully repeated that USPS has the capacity and will be able to guarantee the timely delivery of mail-in ballots this fall, even ones mailed close to election day. But how exactly the agency will do this remains unclear. USPS still faces a severe financial crisis and is under pressure to make cuts – what specific procedures will be in place to ensure that no election mail gets left behind?

Those famous blue mailboxes.

Updated

More on Hurricane Laura, as thousands of people were ordered to evacuate the Texas and Louisiana coasts Tuesday with Laura strengthening into a hurricane that forecasters said could slam into land as a major storm with ferocious winds and deadly flooding.

More than 385,000 residents were told to flee the Texas cities of Beaumont, Galveston and Port Arthur, and still more were ordered to evacuate low-lying south-western Louisiana, where forecasters said more than 11 feet of storm surge topped by waves could submerge entire towns.

Forecasters said ocean water could push onto land along a more than 450-mile-long stretch of coast from Texas to Mississippi, and hurricane warnings will be issued later as the storm nears.

If the path goes as forecaster think it might, veering west, it could be the first hurricane to hit the Houston area since the devastating Hurricane Harvey hit in 2017. That slow-moving storm caused catastrophic flooding. Laura is expected to move faster, but hurricanes are, obviously, quite unpredictable as they barrel towards landfall.

As the Guardian reported exclusively in June, via my colleague in London, Fiona Harvey: At least $67bn of the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 can be attributed directly to climate breakdown, according to research that could lead to a radical reassessment of the costs of damage from extreme weather.

The climate crisis is intensifying hurricanes, my New York colleague Oliver Milman has reported.

Guardian US has a special series ongoing: Climate Countdown, 100 days to save the Earth, before the US pulls out of the Paris climate accord on 4 November, if Donald Trump has his way - and wins the election …

Updated

Hurricane Laura: Gulf coast communities, political leaders, markets on edge

Hurricane Laura is expected to make landfall as a major hurricane near the Louisiana-Texas border late tomorrow into Thursday, with winds of around 115mph and a storm surge up to 11ft, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Laura was declared a hurricane this morning, when a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency hurricane hunter aircraft recorded maximum sustained winds of 75 mph as the storm’s center entered the Gulf of Mexico from the Caribbean.

The open, warm gulf waters will allow the storm to accelerate.

“Significant strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours,” NHC forecaster Eric Blake said this morning.

As of this morning, oil production shutdowns in the region are approaching the level of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, and coastal refiners are scrambling to cut processing, Reuters reports.

Louisiana Prepares For Direct Hit From Hurricane Laura: Wesley Jacobs, David Bouillion and Peter Guilbeau board up the windows on a business in Lake Charles today before the possible arrival of Hurricane Laura.
Louisiana Prepares For Direct Hit From Hurricane Laura: Wesley Jacobs, David Bouillion and Peter Guilbeau board up the windows on a business in Lake Charles today before the possible arrival of Hurricane Laura. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

On Monday, the storm had shut 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil output, 82% of Gulf of Mexico’s offshore production, near the 90% outage that Katrina brought 15 years ago.

Refiners are halting facilities that process at least 1.17 million bpd of oil processing, 6% of the U.S. total capacity, according to Reuters tallies.

Officials in Port Arthur, a city of 54,000 people, and similar-sized Galveston, Texas, ordered mandatory evacuations as Laura began its march up the central Gulf of Mexico.

Laura is expected to become a major hurricane with sustained 115mph (185km/h) winds before striking the US coast, according to the National Hurricane Center. It follows hard on the heels of storm Marco, which didn’t become a hurricane, instead weakening and dumping rain on coastal Louisiana in particular.

Updated

Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer called the first night of the Republican national convention last night “grim”.

Gretchen Whitmer gives a speech in Lansing, Michigan, earlier this month.
Gretchen Whitmer gives a speech in Lansing, Michigan, earlier this month.
 Photograph: AP

Speaking at a Zoom press conference with Senator Cory Booker, Whitmer drew a sharp contrast with the Democratic national convention last week.

“It was optimistic, it was inclusive,” she said.

Whitmer said the RNC last night was “a grim spectacle, fear-inducing”.

My Washington colleague Daniel Strauss wrote of the RNC that the Republicans used the first night of their national convention to issue dark warnings about the future of America, arguing that re-electing Donald Trump was the only way to save the country from falling into socialism, economic ruin, violence and anarchy.

Monday night’s theme was officially the “land of promise”, but the collection of speeches offered an almost apocalyptic vision of what’s at stake in November’s elections, and a dizzying array of misleading claims.

Read more of Daniel’s piece here.

Updated

A video press conference is under way called ‘Trump’s economy in crisis’, featuring Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey and the Biden for President campaign’s Bill Russo.

Booker, who unsuccessfully ran for the 2020 Democratic nomination, just said that America is ready for Joe Biden and his VP pick Kamala Harris.

He slammed the president for failing to get coronavirus under control as the best way to reversing the cratered economy.

“More than 5.4 million Americans have lost their health care, 100,000 small businesses are now closed for good,” he said, adding that Trump had instead given hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to big business.

“This is not a president who has handled a crisis well, this is a president who has failed,” Booker said.

Referring to the legislative impasse on approving fresh economic benefits payments for those who have been thrown into pecuniary jeopardy by the crisis, Booker said Trump had, instead: “Signed an executive order that does little or nothing and does not remotely meet the scale of the crisis we face.”

Booker said Trump was not fit to be commander in chief.

Pic from early March, before the widespread coronavirus lockdown, of, left to right, Kamala Harris,Joe Biden, Gretchen Whitmer and Cory Booker at a Democratic campaign rally in Detroit.
Pic from early March, before the widespread coronavirus lockdown, of, left to right, Kamala Harris,
Joe Biden, Gretchen Whitmer and Cory Booker at a Democratic campaign rally in Detroit. Photograph: Paul Sancya/AP

Updated

Fauci warns against rushing first US vaccine approval - could chill progress on other contenders

Anthony Fauci, America’s top US infectious diseases expert, is warning that distributing a Covid-19 vaccine under special emergency use guidelines before it has been proved safe and effective in large trials is a bad idea that could have a chilling effect on the testing of other vaccines.

Scientists and health experts have expressed concern that President Donald Trump will apply pressure on the US Food and Drug Administration to deliver a vaccine before November to boost his chances of re-election, Reuters writes.

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, declined to comment on the president, in an interview with the news agency, but said there are risks in rushing out a vaccine despite the urgent need.

“The one thing that you would not want to see with a vaccine is getting an EUA (emergency use authorization) before you have a signal of efficacy,” Fauci told Reuters by phone.

“One of the potential dangers if you prematurely let a vaccine out is that it would make it difficult, if not impossible, for the other vaccines to enroll people in their trial.”

Large-scale clinical trials of leading vaccine candidates from Moderna, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca, which aim to enroll tens of thousands of volunteers, were launched in the US in recent weeks.

Johnson & Johnson last week said it hopes to include 60,000 subjects in its Phase 3 vaccine trial.

This post has been updated.

Fauci testifies on Capitol Hill in late July.
Fauci testifies on Capitol Hill in late July. Photograph: Getty Images

Updated

This is Joanna Walters in New York taking over from my colleague in London, Martin Belam. There will be a lot going on today, so stay tuned.

The St Louis couple who waved guns at protesters at a Black Lives Matter march walking past their house in late June spoke at the Republican National Convention last night.
At the time, Donald Trump retweeted news footage of the incident. The couple were charged in July with felony unlawful use of a weapon and a misdemeanor charge of fourth-degree assault.

“It is illegal to wave weapons in a threatening manner – that is unlawful in the city of St Louis,” the circuit attorney Kim Gardner told the Associated Press at the time.

Now the couple, personal injury attorneys have put out a rather surprising statement saying they support Black Lives Matter and that the folks they feared on the day were white.

Here’s another tweet:

My politics reporter colleague Joan Greve wrote early this morning, after the McCloskeys spoke at the RNC, that they baselessly accused Democrats of “protecting criminals from honest citizens” and trying to “abolish the suburbs”.

In a pre-recorded speech to the Republican national convention on Monday night, Mark and Patricia McCloskey said the Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, would invite unchecked lawlessness into American suburbs if he wins the November election.

Updated

Jacob Blake's father tells Chicago Sun-Times his son is paralysed from waist down after police shooting

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that it has spoken to Jacob Blake’s father, and that Blake is paralysed from the waist down after being shot multiple times by the police in Kenosha at the weekend. Jacob Blake Sr says doctors don’t yet know if the injury is permanent.

“What justified all those shots?” his father said. “What justified doing that in front of my grandsons? What are we doing?”

His father said there are now “eight holes” in his son’s body, and he’s paralyzed from the waist down. Doctors don’t yet know if the injury is permanent.

The elder Blake is now making the drive from Charlotte, North Carolina, to be with his son in the hospital Tuesday.

“I want to put my hand on my son’s cheek and kiss him on his forehead, and then I’ll be OK,” his father said. “I’ll kiss him with my mask. The first thing I want to do is touch my son.”

Read it here: Chicago Sun-Times – Jacob Blake’s father says son paralyzed from waist down after police shooting in Kenosha

LeBron James has spoken out on the latest police shooting to spark Black Lives Matter protests, that of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. James says:

I know people get tired of hearing me say it, but we are scared as black people in America. Black men, black women, black kids, we are terrified. If you’re sitting here and telling me that there was no way to subdue that gentleman or detain him or just before the firing of guns, then you’re sitting here and lying to not only me, but you’re lying to every African American, every black person in the community.

My colleague Tom Lutz has more here: ‘Men, women, kids, we are terrified’: LeBron James condemns latest police shooting

Here’s one for CNN to print out and pin on the wall.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo is visiting Sudan, after flying non-stop from Israel on what he said was the first official direct flight between the two countries.

A US official told Reuters that Sudan had offered the direct flight, dropping the requirement “that such a flight make a cosmetic stop en route”.

Pompeo is making the regional tour following the historic accord between Israel and the United Arab Emirates this month to forge full relations. Israel and the US are pushing more Arab countries to follow.

The US is also improving relations with Sudan, following the ousting of former Islamist leader Omar al-Bashir in April.

During the brief stopover, Pompeo is discussing US support for the civilian-led government there and for “deepening the Sudan-Israel relationship”. A US official hinted that “It’s possible that more history will be made.”

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L) posing for a picture with Sudan’s sovereign council chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in Khartoum
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L) posing for a picture with Sudan’s sovereign council chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in Khartoum Photograph: Sudan's Foreign Media Council/AFP/Getty Images

Sudanese prime minister Abdalla Hamdok has already tweeted describing the meeting as “direct & transparent”, with the Sudanese side directly addressing US sanctions on the country.

Trade sanctions were lifted in 2017, but Sudan remains on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism, which prevents it from accessing badly needed funding from international lenders.

Updated

Hallie Jackson and Rebecca Shabad report for NBC News on more red-on-red Republican attempts to defeat Donald Trump in November, as Miles Taylor and other former and current administration officials form an anti-Trump group called the Republican Political Alliance for Integrity and Reform, or REPAIR. NBC report that:

At least two senior officials currently serving in the Trump administration are joining the group, “anonymously at least at the outset,” Taylor said, predicting that will “irk” the president.

“We’ll have a broad group of Republicans focused on denying Trump a second term, and most importantly, planning for a post-Trump GOP and America,” he said.

Taylor, who served at the Department of Homeland Security from 2017 to 2019, including as chief of staff, came out against Trump in a Washington Post op-ed last week entitled “At Homeland Security, I saw firsthand how dangerous Trump is for America”

Many were critical that he appeared to have no self-reflection on his own role in pushing through Trump’s policies. For his part, the president reacted last week with predictable calm to Taylor’s defection.

Read it here: NBC News – Miles Taylor, other former and current admin officials form anti-Trump group

There’s some hope this morning that the situation with the California wildfires may be easing slightly.

Aided by weather and reinforcements, firefighters were cautiously optimistic as they struggled to control California wildfires that have killed at least seven and burned more than 1,200 homes and other buildings.

A warning about dry lightning and strong winds that could spark more fires was lifted for the San Francisco Bay Area on Monday morning, a huge relief to commanders battling three enormous blazes in the area and in wine country.

The deadliest and most destructive of the three, the LNU Lightning Complex in the wine country, was 25% contained.

Officials said progress was made against the CZU Lightning Complex in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties with the help of rain on Sunday evening and calmer weather Monday. It was 13% surrounded and fire lines on the southern border were holding.

Read it here: California fires: hope as warning lifted and deadliest blaze is 25% contained

Just one of the elements fuelling local anger in Kenosha, Wisconsin, over the shooting of Jacob Blake, is that officers were not wearing body cameras, even though city and law enforcement leaders endorsed their use as long ago as 2017.

Ryan J. Foley, reporting for the Associated Press states that since then, they have balked at the price tag, raised policy concerns and put off implementation. The delays meant that officers who were on the scene of Sunday’s shooting while responding to a domestic call were not equipped with the technology.

“This is a tragedy. But at least some good could come from this if this is finally the incident where Kenosha says, ‘we’ve got to get body cameras on these cops right away’,” Kevin Mathewson, a former member of the common council, told Associated Press.

Mathewson pushed the city to buy cameras during his tenure on the council from 2012 to 2017, saying he saw them as a tool to remove bad police officers from the department after a series of troubling use-of-force and misconduct incidents.

Mathewson recalled proposing a budget amendment to buy the equipment in early 2017 and hitting resistance from the mayor, police chief and other council members, who argued that would be unwise without clear state regulations governing their use.

Gov. Tony Evers signed a law in February outlining body camera regulations for police departments. Kenosha then planned to buy the cameras this year, but funding shortfalls and technological concerns prompted the city to push that back to 2022, said Rocco LaMacchia, chairman of the council’s public safety committee.

“We have moved it back so many times,” he said. “I got a feeling this is going to move up on the ladder really fast because of what’s going on around the United States right now. Body cameras are a necessity. There’s no doubt about it.”

Of the Blake shooting, he said, “The body camera footage on this one would have told right from wrong right away.”

Poll: more than a quarter of Americans trust neither Trump nor Biden to tell Covid-19 truth

It is Tuesday, so there is new polling data from the weekly Axios-Ipsos coronavirus index. If you’d wanted to invent something new that would show up how starkly polarised American politics is, I’m not sure you could have done a better job than with Covid-19.

Here are some of the headline figures:

  • 22% of Americans now say they know someone who has died of coronavirus.
  • However, Black (39%) and Hispanic (31%) Americans are much more likely than white (18%) Americans to have had that experience.
  • Joe Biden is more trusted (46%) than Donald Trump (31%) to tell the truth about coronavirus, though more than a quarter of Americans (28%) don’t trust either.
  • 68% of people say they wear a mask at all times when leaving the home.
  • 80% of parents report having concerns about their child falling ill if they return to school.

Read it here: Ipsos – Between Democratic and Republican conventions, Americans more likely to trust Biden on Covid-19 than Trump

Director of the National Security Agency Paul Nakasone and his senior adviser Michael Sulmeyer have penned a piece together looking at US efforts to prevent digital interference in elections. Nakasone is also the commander of US Cyber Command.

“How to Compete in Cyberspace” appears in Foreign Affairs magazine, and has just gone online this morning. In it, the two explain the actions the US took to protect elections in Montenegro last year, and specifically talk about how they attempted to proactively protect the 2018 mid-terms from interference, and will be doing so again in 2020.

The power of this partnership can be seen in how Cyber Command and the NSA worked together to protect against meddling in the 2018 midterm elections. Experts from both organizations formed the Russia Small Group (RSG), a task force created to ensure that democratic processes were executed unfettered by Russian activity. It shared indicators of potential compromise, enabling DHS to harden the security of election infrastructure. It also shared threat indicators with the FBI to bolster that organization’s efforts to counter foreign trolls on social media platforms.

And Cyber Command sent personnel on several hunt forward missions, where governments had invited them to search for malware on their networks. Thanks to these and other efforts, the United States disrupted a concerted effort to undermine the midterm elections. Together with its partners, Cyber Command is doing all of this and more for the 2020 elections.

Of course, not everybody in the Trump administration believes there has been any foreign interference…

Read it here: Foreign Affairs – How to Compete in Cyberspace

Just as Donald Trump seemed unable to prevent himself from tweeting along to the Democratic convention last week, this week it looks like we’ll be seeing running social media commentary on the RNC from rising progressive star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Last night she suggested progressive Democrats should co-opt the Republican elephant masco logo, because “elephants deserve so much better than to be a mascot for this”.

She had this proposal:

For Jamelle Bouie at the New York Times, all Donald Trump was offering at the RNC last night was “a nonstop parade of conspiracy, demagogy and grievance”

It’s easy, observing all of this, to say that the Republican Party has fallen fully into a cult of personality around Trump and his family, a shocking number of whom have featured speaking roles at the convention. It’s also easy to say the party has no ideas or plans for the future. But that would be a mistake. For the Republican Party, the situation now isn’t too different from what it was in 2016. Trump lacked a serious agenda then just as he lacks one now. Rather than bring a new program to bear on the party, he has made the equivalent of a trade: total support for his personal and political concerns in exchange for almost total pursuit of conservative ideological interests.

The last three and a half years have only shown the wisdom of this pact. Republican indifference to the president’s corruption, criminality and prejudice — which freed him to profit from the office and turn the bureaucracy into an instrument of his will — has been rewarded with deregulation, cuts to the social safety net and the installation in the federal judiciary of a large new cohort of reliably conservative judges.

Read it here: New York Times – Jamelle Bouie – Four More Years of What Exactly?

Some more reaction now to last night’s RNC. Jennifer Rubin writes for the Washington Post on how she did not get the ‘optimism’ that she had been promised.

In contrast to the upbeat videos and testimonies of the Democratic nominee’s good character, Republicans have largely relied on a parade of angry individuals standing on a podium. The setting had the feel of a local tea party confab, with many people speaking VERY LOUDLY to people already fully in their club.

The white supremacy was barely disguised as 26-year-old Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA and Students for Trump said Trump is the “the bodyguard of Western civilization.” Let me translate: Anyone who is not a White American is foreign, alien and “the other.”

Read it here: Washington Post – Jennifer Rubin – I was promised optimism!

Amanda Holpuch in New York has been looking for us at the looming evictions crisis. About 19 to 23 million people are estimated to be at risk of being evicted after federal programs to help 30 million unemployed Americans expired in late July.

On 8 August, Donald Trump signed an executive order which he said would minimize evictions and foreclosures. The actual order is not, as was hoped, an extension of the moratorium which expired in late July and has fallen short of what is needed to protect vulnerable renters.

It is impossible to calculate exactly how many evictions have taken place during the pandemic because the government doesn’t track that data. Cea Weaver, campaign coordinator at a coalition for tenants and advocates in New York, Housing Justice For All, said with eviction protections fizzling out, the system which favors landlords over renters was laid bare.

“I think what we are experiencing is a baseline of how weak tenants protections are in this country compared to other places in the world,” Weaver said.

Read it here: ‘I am beside myself’: millions in the US face evictions amid looming crisis

More on Kenosha, the press conference that took place yesterday was intended to feature more voices from the local community and civil rights movements, but this didn’t happen when it was moved indoors.

Local media report that some groups have issued written statements of the address they were due to give. It’s worth reading this one from Wendell Harris, president of the NAACP Wisconsin State Conference of Branches:

The Kenosha community is grieving as a result of this tragic shooting; but also, we grieve for what seems to be a loss of civility in Kenosha.

When any of us contacts the police, we seek help, not bullets; we are looking for peace, not terror; we are desperate for relief, not an ever-enduring grief.

In the most tragic way, we are finding ourselves with police authorities who seem more concerned with ammunition and escalation.

Those who have been ordained with the privilege to act under the color of law continue to disappoint the communities that they are serving. And, our police must be held to a greater standard and accountable in this tragedy.

Police officers in Kenosha do not wear body cameras, despite them being approved for use there three years ago.

There’s been a second night of unrest in the Wisconsin city of Kenosha, with police again firing tear gas at hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters who defied a curfew to demand racial justice over the shooting of Jacob Blake.

Local media kenoshanews.com described “loud and chaotic” scenes outside the Kenosha Public Safety Building on Monday afternoon when Mayor John Antaramian tried to address the crowd.

Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian, tries to speak to protesters using a megaphone on Monday afternoon
Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian, tries to speak to protesters using a megaphone on Monday afternoon Photograph: Morry Gash/AP

They say Antaramian left the crowd to head into the building to deliver his press conference, but some of the protesters, angry that Antaramian would not address them and they were not allowed into the press conference, attempted to block the mayor’s entry.

Police officers guarding that entrance to the Public Safety Building and protesters then got into a scuffle, and an entrance door was broken off its hinges. At that point, officers wearing riot gear jumped outside the entrance with batons and pepper sprayed several protesters closest to the entrance.

People hold placards as they gather for a protest outside the Kenosha County Courthouse yesterday
People hold placards as they gather for a protest outside the Kenosha County Courthouse yesterday Photograph: Stephen Maturen/Reuters

Antaramian had vowed that “justice is done for everyone” and that all of those involved were entitled to “due process.”

The officers involved have been placed on administrative leave, which is standard practice in a shooting. Authorities have released no further details about the officers.

As the evening progressed the peaceful demonstration became a violent clash. Reuters report that arsonists set several buildings ablaze, including commercial and government buildings, along with vehicles in at least two car dealership lots. Police again fired tear gas, rubber bullets and smoke bombs to disperse the crowd.

Cars are set on fire in a used car lot on in Kenosha
Cars are set on fire in a used car lot on in Kenosha Photograph: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Protester Porche Bennett, 31, of Kenosha, told Reuters: “It’s people from out of town doing this. We’ve been shopping there since we were kids and they set it on fire”

As mentioned earlier, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo is expected to break political convention by appearing at the RNC tonight while still serving as the nation’s top ambassador. He is travelling today from Jerusalem to Khartoum, where he will meet with Sudanese prime minister Abdalla Hamdo.

Pompeo has tweeted this morning about the historic nature of his journey – throwing into even sharper relief the partisan nature of appearing at the RNC in the same week.

One of the break-out hits of last night’s RNC, on social media, anyway, was Kimberly Guilfoyle’s loud and enthusiastic speech to an empty room. Give it a watch here.

Good morning. We were promised an uplifting optimistic view of the future of America, but the first night of the Republican nation convention (RNC) seemed mostly spent painting an apocalyptic vision of a Joe Biden presidency instead. Here’s a catch up on what happened, and some of what we might expect from today.

  • Donald Trump and Mike Pence were formally adopted as the Republican party ticket for November.
  • It’s been very much a one-man show. There is no Republican policy platform this year other than “the party’s strong support for president Donald Trump and his administration”. David Smith described last night as “a two-hour glimpse into the upside-down world of Trump TV”.
  • Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who face charges for pointing guns at peaceful protesters in June, claimed Democrats want to ‘abolish suburbs’.
  • The convention also kept factcheckers busy as the RNC peddled falsehoods about the coronavirus pandemic. 503 deaths and 40,309 new coronavirus cases were reported in the US yesterday. The totals, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker are now 5,740,909 Covid-19 cases with 177,279 US deaths. The highest incidence and death toll in the world.
  • US postmaster general Louis DeJoy struggled to answer basic questions about the price of mail as he continued to defend his leadership amid the USPS crisis.
  • There’s been a second night of protest and unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin over the shooting of Jacob Blake at the weekend. Elsewhere there’s been a riot declared by police in Portland, Oregan.
  • Speakers expected at the RNC tonight include Melania Trump, Eric and Tiffany Trump, Kentucky senator Rand Paul, Iowa gov Kim Reynolds and Covington teen Nick Sandmann.
  • Mike Pompeo is also due to appear, breaking convention by appearing at a partisan campaigning event while holding the US secretary of state role. He’s currently travelling from Israel to Sudan on a mission as the nation’s top diplomat.
  • Primary season isn’t quite over yet – there are some Republican run-offs in Oklahoma today.

I’m Martin Belam, and I’ll be here with you for the next few hours. You can get in touch with me at martin.belam@theguardian.com

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fact check: Are FaZe Banks and Kendall Jenner dating? viral photo sparks buzz after alleged sighting
A viral claim about FaZe Banks and Kendall Jenner dating is false. The image that started the rumor was edited using AI, as confirmed by the original X post. There is no real proof linking them. Both have separate dating histories, but currently, no verified information suggests any relationship between…
The Times of India
The Times of India
Hey, Netflix, Stop Suggesting Movies To Me I Can't Watch With My Plan (You're Not Amazon!)
Hoo boy, this set me off.
Cinemablend
Cinemablend
I’m Getting Stressed Out Just Hearing Jack Black’s Take On What It’s Like Hosting SNL
Feels like the only show that could rattle Jack Black!
Cinemablend
Cinemablend
Disclosure day: If ET made contact, how would we handle the news?
How would people react if an alien civilization actually made contact with us? Space.com talked to experts, who shared a variety of opinions about a possible real-life "disclosure day."
Space
Space
No one at Waffle House remembers Trump’s FEMA official who claims he was teleported there
None of the two dozen workers and regulars interviewed by The New York Times noticed any metaphysical activity
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Three-week-old mountain lion cub rescued by California biologists
Crimson, seen alone in Santa Monica mountains for days, gets care in Oakland zoo after mother nowhere to be found
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.
Download on the AppStore Get it on Google Play