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US elections 2020
Louis DeJoy announces pause following widespread outcry
Pelosi says suspension ‘does not reverse damage already done’
The US women leading the fight against voter suppression More
Biden: ‘Every governor should mandate mandatory masks’
Yang and Bloomberg to speak at virtual Democratic convention
Biden campaign gets $26m boost in donations after Harris pick
Highest daily Covid-19 deaths recorded in US since mid-May
US unemployment claims dip below 1m for first time in 20 weeks
Postal service changes pose threat to voting, says ex-USPS deputy
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LIVE
Updated
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1:28
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris call for nationwide mask mandate – video
Key events
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5.17pm EDT17:17
Today so far
4.28pm EDT16:28
Senate adjourns until 8 September without stimulus deal
3.44pm EDT15:44
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris call for a nationwide mask mandate
3.02pm EDT15:02
Biden says Trump’s USPS comments are “pure Trump”
1.05pm EDT13:05
Kamala Harris to deliver DNC speech in Wilmington, Delaware
11.25am EDT11:25
Trump announces normalization of relations between Israel and UAE
9.45am EDT09:45
Kamala Harris brings in $26m to Biden campaign in first 24-hours as VP candidate
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5.44pm EDT17:44
“Sleepy Joe rejects the scientific approach,” Trump said, in a peak case of projection.
As we have reported before — Trump has devalued and undermined science throughout the pandemic.
Here’s me, looking back at how Trump has contradicted science:
Play Video
5:28
From miracle cures to slowing testing: how Trump has defied science on coronavirus – video explainer
Here’s my colleague Oliver Milman, on how Trump’s habit of rejecting scientific fact has raised alarm among health experts:
5.33pm EDT17:33
Trump, who has lied, misled and misrepresented the reality of the coronavirus pandemic in the US, contradicting and ignoring his own public health experts, has begun but attacking Joe Biden: “At every turn, Biden has been wrong about the virus – ignoring the scientific evidence.”
He said Biden’s immigration policies would allow “the pandemic to infiltrate every US community.” The pandemic is already widespread
5.25pm EDT17:25
Hi there, it’s Maanvi Singh, reporting from the West Coast.
We’re expecting Trump to deliver his press conference in a few minutes — and will keep you updated with news and fact checks.
5.17pm EDT17:17
Today so far
Here’s a quick summary of what’s been happening today:
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are continuing to make the rounds as a president-vice-president duo. The pair announced they are calling for a nationwide mask mandate and said every governor should implement a mask mandate in their state.
The Senate adjourned today with no coronavirus stimulus package in sight and will be out of session until after September 8. This means that millions of Americans will be left with low unemployment insurance for at least a few more weeks.
Donald Trump announced a normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, with Israel agreeing to halt plans to annex parts of the West Bank. While Trump called it a “historic peace agreement”, Israel’s prime minister said on Thursday that the country will still annex parts of the West Bank but had agreed to a temporary halt.
Former Trump fixer Michael Cohen released a teaser for his new book, Disloyal, which is slated to be released in September after attempts to stop publication from the Trump administration.
Updated
at 5.19pm EDT
5.07pm EDT17:07
Vice president Mike Pence is continuing to put out some jabs toward his new Democratic opponent, sentor Kamala Harris, this time criticizing remarks she made about Americans’ eating habits and the environment.
Speaking at the “Farmers and Ranchers for Trump” launch event in Iowa, Pence told the crowd that Harris said during her primary campaign that she was concerned about the impact Americans’ diet was having on the diet. “She would change the change the dietary guidelines of this country to reduce the amount of red meat that Americans can eat,” Pence said, the crowd booing in response.
“Well I’ve got some red meat for you: We’re not going to let Joe Biden & Kamala Harris cut America’s meat!”
The Hill
(@thehill)
VP Mike Pence: “Sen. Kamala Harris said she would change the dietary guidelines of this country to reduce the amount of red meat that Americans can eat.”Crowd boos.VP: “Well I’ve got some red meat for you: We’re not going to let Joe Biden & Kamala Harris cut America’s meat!” pic.twitter.com/TPqcy92rdw
August 13, 2020
That supporters of the Green New Deal are out to ban hamburgers altogether has long been a talking point of conservatives. While Green New Deal advocates have indicated they want to work with farmers and ranchers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a complete ban on red meat has not been a part of the plan.
4.46pm EDT16:46
The teaser for Michael Cohen’s book is now out after the justice department issued a gag order, which has since been dropped, to stop the book’s publication.
The book, titled Disloyal: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J Trump, is slated to be released sometime in September, ahead of the presidential election in November.
Michael Cohen
(@MichaelCohen212)
The day has finally arrived. I have waited a long time to share my truth. To read the foreword and pre-order my book DISLOYAL, visit https://t.co/Va4Rt0Zear
August 13, 2020
The book’s foreword is now available online and details Cohen’s feelings of bewilderment at seeing Trump for who he really is after being “Trump’s first call every morning and his last call every night”.
“In some ways, I knew him better than even his family did because I bore witness to the real man, in strip clubs, shady business meetings, and in the unguarded moments when he revealed who he really was: a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man,” Cohen, Trump’s former fixer, writes.
Cohen was serving a three-year prison on federal charges of tax evasion, making false statements, lying to Congress and facilitating illegal payments to silence women about their affairs with Trump. But Cohen was released in May after fears of Covid-19 spreading in federal prisons.
After tweeting that he was nearly finished with his book in July, Cohen was sent back to prison. The ACLU ended up joining a suit on his behalf to get him out, which was ultimately successful. A gag order from the justice department to halt the book’s publication was also dropped.
The Trump administration has made very obvious efforts to stop the publication of high-profile tell-alls, all which have been ultimately unsuccessful. Former national security adviser John Bolton book The Room Where It Happened was published was published in June and Mary L Trump’s, Trump’s niece, book Too Much and Never Enough was published in July.
Updated
at 5.13pm EDT
4.28pm EDT16:28
Senate adjourns until 8 September without stimulus deal
The Senate has adjourned its session this afternoon without reaching an agreement with House Democrats on a new stimulus package. The Senate is slated to go back into regular session 8 September.
Steven Dennis
(@StevenTDennis)
McConnell adjourns the Senate for August, save for pro forma sessions. Next regular session scheduled for *Sept. 8* — 26 days from today. pic.twitter.com/1gxFDmlvjq
August 13, 2020
The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, told senators that they would be called back to Capitol Hill with a 24-hour notice if a deal is reached. McConnell said that he hopes that a bipartisan deal can be reached “in the coming weeks”.
Earlier today the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said that Democrats will come back to the negotiating table when Senate Republicans agree on a larger stimulus package. “We’re not inching away from their meager piecemeal proposal,” she said.
At the press conference, Pelosi had beside her a chart comparing the Democrats’ $3tn Heroes Act, which passed the House in June, to the $1tn Heals Act in the Senate. One line indicated that House Democrats want $100bn for rental assistance while Senate Republicans want nothing.
Without a new stimulus package, millions of Americans are left with much lower unemployment insurance since the federal government stopped giving an additional $600 a week at the end of July. The steep drop in income is expected to lead to widespread evictions.
Robert Reich
(@RBReich)
In which the Senate leaves town for 25 days as 30,000,000 are receiving $0 in extra unemployment benefits and 40,000,000 are on the brink of eviction. https://t.co/Ieh1JdZ58V
August 13, 2020
Updated
at 5.05pm EDT
4.09pm EDT16:09
Two new speakers slated to make appearances at next week’s Democratic National Convention were announced today. Billionaire and former NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg and entrepreneur Andrew Yang both announced today that they will be speaking at the virtual convention.
Andrew Yang🧢🇺🇸
(@AndrewYang)
And it’s official – we have been added to the DNC Convention speaker lineup! Thank you #YangGang and everyone else who made this happen! 😀👏🇺🇸#YangIsSpeaking
August 13, 2020
Mike Bloomberg
(@MikeBloomberg)
This November, America has the opportunity to turn the page on the last four years & invest in our future.That starts at the @DemConvention when we nominate @JoeBiden & @KamalaHarris.I’m honored to be speaking at the DNC next week. I hope you’ll join us.
August 13, 2020
Yang and Bloomberg will be joining a list of former candidates including senators Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar. Pete Buttigieg is also slated to speak at the virtual convention.
After the Democratic National Committee, which runs the convention, announced the DNC’s speaker lineup, Yang tweeted that he was disappointed that he was not asked to speak. “I’ve got to be honest I kind of expected to speak,” he tweeted on Tuesday.
Ted Lieu, a US representative from California, tweeted in response his disappointment that there was little Asian American representation at the convention. “Asian Americans are the fastest increasing group in America, including in multiple swing states,” Lieu tweeted. “The gross underrepresentation of Asian American speakers in the four days of the DNC Convention is tone deaf and a slap in the face.”
3.44pm EDT15:44
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris call for a nationwide mask mandate
In other mask news, Joe Biden and senator Kamala Harris emerged from a briefing with a panel of public health experts announcing their call for a nationwide mask mandate.
“Every single American should be wearing a mask when they’re outside for the next three months, at a minimum. Every governor should mandate — every governor should mandate mandatory mask wearing,” Biden said.
Biden, referring to Americans who refuse to wear a mask and say that it infringes on their individual rights, said “it’s not about your rights” but rather a person’s responsibility as an American.
“Be a patriot. Protect your fellow citizens,” he implored. “Protect your fellow citizens. Step up. Do the right thing.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently recommends that people wear masks in public to prevent the spread of Covid-19. More
California
Speculation has already begun as to who might be appointed by Gavin Newsom – and several contenders are in the running More
The Squad is only getting strongerCori Bush used to be homeless – now she’s on her way to the House of Representatives.On Tuesday the nurse, pastor and Black Lives Matters activist defeated the powerful long-term incumbent William Lacy Clay, a centrist, in Missouri’s Democratic primary election. As Bush’s district is heavily Democratic, the progressive activist is almost guaranteed to win in November, and will become the first black woman to represent Missouri in Congress.When Bush won a very strange thing happened to me: I felt a glimmer of hope. It has been hard to feel hopeful about politics lately. The pandemic has accelerated already unconscionable inequality: billionaires have seen their wealth surge while the poor get poorer. The inequality we’re seeing now, of course, is nothing compared with the hell that the climate crisis will unleash. And yet the Democratic establishment doesn’t seem to see the urgency of the moment. They keep telling progressives to calm down and carry on with business as usual; that incrementalism rather than bold ideas are the way forward. That you must water down your progressive views if you want to connect with the American voter.Bush refused to do that. She refused to water down her views on defunding the police; she refused to cater to corporate interests; and she refused to be cowed by underhand attacks. When Clay criticized Bush for being sympathetic towards the non-violent Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to pressure Israel to comply with international law, she did not back down. “Cori Bush has always been sympathetic to the BDS movement, and she stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people, just as they have stood in solidarity with Black Americans fighting for their own lives,” her campaign said days before the election.Clay, who is part of a half-century political dynasty, levelled a number of disgusting personal attacks against Bush. His campaign circulated a mailer stating that Bush had failed to pay taxes four times, been evicted three times and had her nursing license suspended. But Bush’s personal history is exactly why we need her in politics. We need politicians who understand what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck and get caught up in a cycle of predatory loans. We need politicians who understand what it’s like to get into debt working for a nursing degree only to then have your license suspended because you couldn’t afford to pay state taxes. (Bush’s nursing license was restored after she made her necessary payments.) We need politicians who understand the urgency of the moment and are fighting for people’s lives, not corporate interests.“Tonight, Missouri’s first has decided that an incremental approach isn’t going to work any longer,” Bush declared at a victory party. “We decided that we the people have the answers, and we will lead from the frontlines.”Bush’s victory wasn’t the only win American progressives have had lately. In July Jamaal Bowman, a former teacher, ousted 16-term Eliot Engel, a committed centrist, in New York. And this week congresswoman Rashida Tlaib beat her centrist opponent by a landslide, in what was supposed to be a close primary. “Headlines said I was the most vulnerable member of the Squad,” Tlaib tweeted. “My community responded last night and said our Squad is big. It includes all who believe we must show up for each other and prioritize people over profits. It’s here to stay, and it’s only getting bigger.”For far too long centrists have sneeringly considered leftwing voices part of a bothersome fringe rather than a growing movement. Nancy Pelosi, for example, has dismissed the progressive congresswomen known as the Squad as “like, five people”. But, as is becoming increasingly clear, it’s a lot more than five people. “Progressives are on the move”, Bernie Sanders tweeted on Wednesday. “Don’t let anyone fool you … we are transforming American politics. The political revolution is gaining more and more support.” Let’s hope the establishment is paying attention.Lisa Rendle named Clorox’s first female CEORendle’s appointment brings the total number of women running Fortune 500 firms to 38, an all time high. While women are often made CEOs when a company is going through a tough time (a phenomenon known as the “glass cliff”), Rendle is taking up the mantle as sales of Clorox soar amid the pandemic.Trump calls AOC ‘real beauty’ who ‘knows nothing’ about economyYet another example of how Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez lives rent-free inside Trump’s empty head.Female doctors in menopause retiring early due to sexismExperienced doctors are leaving the profession early because they are struggling with menopause symptoms and getting no support from their management or peers, a study by the British Medical Association has found. A significant number of women surveyed said they would be “ridiculed” if they spoke about the menopause and worried bringing it up would damage their career.Study measuring the attractiveness of women with endometriosis has been retractedI thought this was an Onion article when I first saw it. Alas it is all too real. It took seven years for the “study” to be removed.Nigeria’s first lesbian feature film goes onlineLGBT Africans are growing “increasingly vocal and visible”, Reuters reports.The US air force now allows women to wear pantsUntil now women in the air force have only been able to wear floor-length skirts during formal ceremonies.The week in paw-triarchy: drug smuggling cat escapes prisonA cat that was detained at a high security prison in Sri Lanka on suspicion of smuggling drugs to inmates has reportedly escaped. Police reckon the cat had been trained by the same cartel that once used an eagle to smuggle drugs and had hoped the sneaky feline would lead them to the purrpetrators. More
TikTok
Executive order comes as TikTok faces scrutiny from US lawmakers and Trump administration over national security concerns More
House of Representatives
Jones, set to be one of the first openly gay, Black members of Congress, will likely join growing group of diverse Democrats More
Opinion
Coronavirus outbreak
The painful truth about Covid and the economy – Trump is to blame
Robert Reich
Lies about the economy are as dangerous as lies about the virus. Thanks to the Republicans, millions are about to be hurt More
Raúl Grijalva condemns colleagues for failing to take crisis seriously as they ‘strut around the Capitol with no mask’A Democratic congressman diagnosed as positive for the coronavirus has condemned Republican politicians for their carelessness around Congress and blamed them for spreading the virus.The Arizona Democrat Raúl Grijalva tested positive for the coronavirus, it was revealed on Saturday, and has immediately quarantined, though he is asymptomatic and feeling well, his office said. But Grijalva issued a fiery condemnation of Republicans and their behavior around the halls of Congress. Continue reading… More
