Donald Trump shared a Twitter post on Monday that called on authorities to let “Democrat cities” such as New York City “rot” amid unrest and demonstrations in several metropolises over the killing of George Floyd in May.
The president has previously hinted at sending in troops to bring "law and order" to major cities across the country facing increases in crime amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has now killed more than 170,000 Americans.
Meanwhile, the president's postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, has agreed to testify before Congress as Democrats and even some Republicans speak out against proposed changes to the US Postal Service just months before an election in which millions of voters plan to cast their ballots by mail.
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Trump-appointed postmaster general agrees to testify before House panel about USPS problems
House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat of New York, confirmed the news in a statement released on Monday, adding Robert Duncan, the chairman of the USPS Board of Governors, also agreed to testify.
"I'm pleased that the Postmaster General will testify voluntarily before the Oversight Committee on Monday (24 August) about the sweeping operational and organisational changes he has been making to the Postal Service," Ms Maloney said.
She added: "The American people want their mail, medicines, and mail-in ballots delivered in a timely way, and they certainly do not want drastic changes and delays in the midst of a global pandemic just months before the election."
Pelosi recalls House for emergency vote to ‘save’ the postal service from Trump’s ‘campaign to sabotage the election’
Andrew Naughtie writes: Nancy Pelosi has decided to recall the House of Representatives to vote on legislation that would undo recent changes at the US Postal Service (USPS) which many fear will undermine the integrity of the 2020 election.
In a letter to her Democratic colleagues, Ms Pelosi wrote that “lives, livelihoods and the life of our American Democracy are under threat from the president, whose efforts to “sabotage the election” and “disenfranchise voters” may yet “deny the ability of eligible Americans to cast their votes through the mail”.
“I am calling upon the House to return to session later this week to vote on Oversight and Reform Committee chairwoman [Carolyn] Maloney’s ‘Delivering for America Act’,” she wrote, “which prohibits the Postal Service from implementing any changes to operations or level of service it had in place on January 1, 2020. House democratic leader [Steny] Hoyer will soon be announcing the legislative schedule for the coming week.”
Ms Pelosi had already suggested the house might return from recess to take action, but has been under pressure from Democrats to up the ante as the postal service crisis continues.
By preventing the USPS from altering its services until either the end of the official Covid-19 state of emergency or 1 January 2021, whichever is later, the Delivering for America Act, would oblige the service to rewind any changes made in the previous few months and then remain at its 1 January level until after the November election.
The footage, that was widely circulated on social media on Monday morning, was filmed on Sunday evening as they climbed down the steps of the president’s plane Air Force One.
In the footage, the president attempted to hold the first lady’s hand as they both left the aircraft, but Ms Trump seemingly moved her hand away from his.
The president then appeared to attempt to hold Ms Trump’s hand again, but the first lady moved it away, before he put his hand on her lower back as they walked down the steps in windy conditions.
Twitter users were mixed on the reason why the first lady repeatedly moved her hand away from the US president.
New reports of US Postal Service workers hauling away mailboxes in flatbed trucks and locking shut convenient drop slots have caused widespread concerns among Oregon residents about mail-in voting during the presidential election in November.
Photos that spread across social media in recent weeks showed truck beds stacked with dropbox mailboxes — large, blue Postal Service boxes in which mail can be dropped off on the side of the road without having to visit a Post Office.
The Postal Service confirmed some mailboxes have been removed from neighbourhoods in recent weeks, The Oregonian reported, with residents in Eugene and Portland alerting the local newspaper their access to contactless USPS mailing options have become increasingly limited just ahead of the crucial vote.
Ernie Swanson, spokesperson for the USPS, told the publication that “duplicate” boxes were being removed from regions with multiple collection boxes, alleging “first-class mail volume has declined significantly in the US, especially since the pandemic” and noting how that “translates to less mail in collection boxes”.
While the USPS spokesperson said the removal of some mailboxes “shouldn’t affect people at all”, residents said they were quickly losing access to ways they can send mail without potentially risking their health amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump spoke about the reported plans to open up the refuge to drilling while slamming his presumptive Democratic opponent Joe Biden over the issue of fossil fuel, claiming the former vice president and Democratic leaders want to “totally ban” things like fracking. Mr Biden does not support a ban on fracking.
“They don’t like oil, guns or religion. Other than that, they’re wonderful,” Mr Trump said about the Democratic Party.
Approving auctions for oil drilling by the end of the year and paving the way for new oil operations in the arctic before January would make it increasingly difficult for Democrats to overturn the Trump administration’s plans in the event Mr Biden wins the 2020 elections.
Shortly after the news broke, it was reported that Mr Bernhardt signed a Record of Decision that would essentially determine where companies can begin drilling for oil within the refuge’s coastal plain.
Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt signed the Record of Decision, which will determine where oil and gas leasing will take place in the refuge's coastal plain, a 1.56-million acre swath of land on Alaska's north shore with the Beaufort Sea.
"Congress directed us to hold lease sales in the ANWR Coastal Plain, and we have taken a significant step in meeting our obligations by determining where and under what conditions the oil and gas development program will occur," Bernhardt said in a statement.
Congress approved the program in 2017, and the Interior's Bureau of Land Management in December 2018 concluded drilling could be conducted within the coastal plain area without harming wildlife.
"Today's announcement marks a milestone in Alaska's forty-year journey to responsibly develop our state and our nation's new energy frontier," Gov. Mike Dunleavy said.
The Republican governor called Monday's decision "a definitive step in the right direction to developing this area's energy potential," which he estimated at 4.3 and 11.8 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil reserves.
Environmental groups immediately assailed opening the refuge and promised litigation.
Donald Trump has confirmed his White House administration was “looking at” opening up Alaska’s Arctic Refuge to oil drilling for the first time in history during a wide-ranging interview with Fox News on Monday morning.
The president spoke as a new report in the Wall Street Journal revealed how Mr Trump’s interior secretary, David Bernhardt, was planning to allow for the auctioning of oil leases “right around the end of the year” in the 19-million-acre region.
Asked about the report during a live interview with the network's morning show, Fox & Friends, Mr Trump responded: "We may or may not do it ... Well no, we are looking at it."
He added: "I've been very good to Alaska."
The president’s interior secretary signalled he was willing to open up the massive region for wildlife to drilling, a goal of the fossil fuel industry ever since Congress approved protections in 1980 for the refuge, which is nearly the size of South Carolina, as WSJ reported.
Kamala Harris has responded to a racist birther conspiracy theory promoted by Donald Trump which falsely claims she is not eligible to serve in the White House, telling a prominent black-oriented media outlet: “They’re going to engage in lies. They're going to engage in deception."
The California senator selected by Joe Biden to join his presidential campaign spoke to TheGrio on Saturday in a wide-ranging interview after the president claimed in a White House press briefing last week that he had “no idea” whether she met the requirements to become vice president, adding: “I heard today that she doesn't meet the requirements."
Ms Harris was born in Oakland, California and can serve as both vice president and president — despite racist claims published by Chapman University professor John Eastman in Newsweek that the president later attributed during his briefing with reporters.
“They're going to engage in an attempt to distract from the real issues that are impacting the American people,” Ms Harris said. “And I expect that they will engage in dirty tactics. And this is going to be a knockdown, drag-out. And we're ready.”
Ms Harris has previously shot down the unfounded accusations when she ran for president in March of last year, telling the popular radio programme The Breakfast Club: “So I was born in Oakland, and raised in the United States except for the years that I was in high school in Montreal, Canada.”
Story to come...
Trump says Belarus situation terrible
Donald Trump on Monday said the situation in Belarus was terrible, according to Reuters, as mass protests and strikes have erupted after a presidential election on 9 August 9 that protesters say was rigged.
The United States, according to Mr Trump, had been watching events closely.
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said on Monday he would be willing to hand over power after a referendum in an apparent bid to pacify mass protests and strikes that pose the biggest challenge to his 26 years in office.
Warren calls for Senate to return to stop postal service changes
Senator Elizabeth Warren has called on Mitch McConnell to bring the Senate back into session amid concerns about changes at the US Postal Service (USPS) ahead of November's presidential election.
Her call for the Republican leader to reconvene the Senate comes as Democratic speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on Sunday that the House of Representatives would return this week to vote on a bill that could reverse recently implemented changes at the USPS.
“Good for Nancy Pelosi for bringing the House back," said Ms Warren on NBC News on Monday. "I believe Mitch McConnell needs to bring the Senate back as well, people depend on the post office. We're depending on it for our democracy."
House Democrats are expected to vote on the Delivering for America Act, which would stop the Postal Service from making any changes to its operations until the pandemic has ended, in a bid to ensure that it can process mail ballots.
Republicans counter Democratic convention
President Donald Trump plans on putting himself front and centre as the Democratic National Convention begins on Monday, with trips to crucial swing-states that could tip November's election in his favour - or not.
In doing so, his public appearances this week will attempt to circumnavigate attention away from Joe Biden, who will become the Democratic presidential nominee during the party's four day event.
Mr Trump, whose Republican National Convention is next week, will travel to Mankato, Minnesota, and Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on Monday, Yuma, Arizona, on Tuesday and Mr Biden's home town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Thursday.
Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday that the campaign expects Mr Biden to get a convention bounce from the week of Democratic activities.
It comes as polls continue to show the incumbent trailing Mr Biden in national polling.
Reuters
Alaska oil drilling gets green light
The Trump administration has now approved an oil and gas leasing program for part of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, reports the Associated Press.
It comes after president Donald Trump said on Monday that he was considering whether to allow oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a 19 million acre (7.7 million hectares) refuge that has been off-limits to drilling for decades.
Biden hits-back at claims he doesn't energise voters
The presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Joe Biden, appeared to hit-back at claims that his campaign does not energise voters, saying that his success in the Democratic primaries showed "people are ready" for his presidency.
In an Elle interview with American rapper Cardi B, Mr Biden said: "In the primaries, they kept saying, 'Well, you know, there aren’t that many people voting, Biden’s not going to excite anybody.' We had [some of] the largest turnout in the primaries ever."
"Seventy percent more people voted in Virginia, 40 percent more people in Mississippi, 30 percent more in South Carolina. People are ready," he added.
Cardi B had commented on how young Americans needed to go out and vote, asking the Democrat "why don’t we [young people] make a change for real and vote?"
Mr Biden said young people had the power to swing November's election, with the comparison that Donald Trump could not have won last time.
"In 2016, if 18- to 24-year-olds had voted in the same percentage as the rest of the population, there would have been 5.2 million more votes. We wouldn’t have [Trump]; we would have had Hillary Clinton. The vote matters."
Trump shares tweet calling for 'Democratic cities' to rot
Donald Trump has been criticised for sharing a tweet that called for “Democrat cities” to be left to “rot” amid continuing unrest in several metropolises over the killing of George Floyd.
The president retweeted a post by Brandon Straka, a right-wing activist, which called for people to “leave Democratic cities”, as Black Lives Matter protesters took to the streets for an 11th week running.
Mr Straka, a Trump supporter who started the #WalkAway movement in 2018 after renouncing the Democratic Party, was commenting on a video of demonstrators in New York City.
Twitter users and political commentators were quick to denounce the president's comments.
Matt Mathers reports:
Trump administration looking at Arctic oil drilling
Donald Trump has confirmed his White House administration was “looking at” opening up Alaska’s Arctic Refuge to oil drilling for the first time in history during a wide-ranging interview with Fox News on Monday morning.
It follows a Wall Street Journal report that Mr Trump’s interior secretary, David Bernhardt, was planning to allow for the auctioning of oil leases “right around the end of the year” in the 19-million-acre region.
Here's the latest:
Trump says 'I want to make the post office great again'
Donald Trump on Monday defended his administration's efforts to implement changes at the US Postal Service ahead of November's election.
In an interview with Fox & Friends, Mr Trump said he would support more voting booths, early voting and other efforts but reiterated his attacks against mail-in voting.
"I want to make the post office great again," he said. "We're making it so it's going to be good."
"It's not a 'Trump thing'," he added, saying that recent administrative changes were not an effort to "tamper" with ballot efforts ahead of the general elections.
Young Democrats leader dies
The leader of the Young Democrats of Maryland has been found dead in Washington, DC just as the Democratic National Convention begins.
Joseph Kitchen, who was 34, had been missing for nearly a week, with his parents saying they had been unable to reach him since Tuesday. His death was confirmed by the Prince George’s County Police Department.
Andrew Naughtie reports:
