Trump news: President boasts about being in rap songs after press secretary shares police 'propaganda' video and contradicts CDC coronavirus study
Millions of out-of-work Americans lose out on unemployment benefits extension as president complains about 'downer' pandemic
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During a Friday briefing, White House secretary Kayleigh McEnany shared a video of Portland protestors described by critics as "propaganda" following Donald Trump's call to send federal law enforcement to cities across the US.
The United Nations has pleaded with the US to halt the use of force against journalists, at least 70 of which have been placed in custody during Black Lives Matter demonstrations.
Trump's administration has defended pushing for schools to reopen in the coming weeks, following the release of Centres for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines that downplay the agency's own findings about the risks of infections among school-aged children.
During a Friday briefing, Ms McEnany said: "Even if there is transmission ... we believe that students should be going back to school because the effect on a child we know scientifically they are not affected the same way as an adult."
Mr Trump meanwhile sat for a softball interview with Barstool Sports in which he admitted regretting some late-night posts on Twitter and boasted about being in rap songs while calling the Covid-19 outbreak a "downer".
"We were doing a great job," he said. "We were sailing. George Washington would've had a hard time beating us ... And then when the China virus came in. It's a dampener, it's a downer."
The president has also signed a series of orders in an effort to lower prescription drug costs, despite pushback from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell over similar legislative efforts from Democrats.
Without any deal in sight, Congress has failed to extend federal unemployment benefits, which expire for most Americans this week. More than 30 million people – or roughly one in five workers – are unemployment amid the pandemic.
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AOC praised for speech against sexism
The Democrat congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been praised by politicians and celebrities alike for the address she gave to Congress on sexism.
Her comments on Thursday came after reports that Republican congressman Ted Yoho issued a non-apology over his violent remarks against her on Monday.
Mr Yoho is thought to have called her a "f***ing b****" on Capitol Hill at the start of the week.
“This issue is not about one incident,” declared Ms Ocasio-Cortez. “It is cultural”.
American model Chrissy Teigen and actor Olivia Wilde were among those who hailed the politician's speech, with Ms Teigen writing on Twitter that she “will have won” if her daughter “turns out to be half the woman Alexandria is”.
Ms Wilde said in a tweet that the speech was "fierce and true", before expressing her discomfort at men invoking their daughters to signal empathy for women, as Mr Yoho did earlier this week.
Data reveals female leaders outperformed men in coronavirus crisis
A report has suggested that female leaders have done better than their male counterparts in handling the pandemic, writes Anthony Cuthbertson.
According to the economists who analysed the data, the top 10 worst affected countries are led by men.
The study comes after leaders such as Germany's Angela Merkel and New Zealand's Jacinda Ardern have been praised for their quick and effective responses to the threat posed by Covid-19.
“Our findings show that Covid-19 outcomes are systematically and significantly better in countries led by women and, to some extent, this may be explained by the proactive policy responses they adopted,” the researchers said:
Read more here:
Iran condemns US fighter jet incident
Tehran has strongly criticised the US after American fighter jets allegedly "harassed" an Iranian civilian aircraft over Syria on Thursday.
Two US planes got within 100 metres of a Mahan Air Flight that was on its way to Beirut, according to Iranian state TV.
However, the US officials told a different version of events, saying that one plane was involved and that it was at a "safe distance" from the airliner.
Footage has emerged showing the passengers on board the Iranian flight in a state of panic during the incident.
Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif described the incident as "lawlessness upon lawlessness" and stressed that it had endangered the passengers' lives.
'Serious threats' directed at Fauci
The US' leading infectious disease expert has said that he and his family have received "serious threats" as the Trump administration reportedly attempt to discredit him, writes Chris Riotta.
Dr Anthony Fauci made the revelation during an interview on Thursday on David Axelrod's podcast show "The Axe Files".
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) disagreed with the Trump administration's plans to allow states with rising infection levels to reopen.
In the new interview, he said that people had made “serious threats against me, against my family … my daughters, my wife”, adding: “I mean, really? Is this the United States of America?"
Stocks drop amid US-China tensions
Stocks fell on Friday in Wall Street and elsewhere as tensions continue to escalate between the US and China, the world's biggest two economies.
The S&P 500 dropped by 0.9 per cent, a larger percentage than it gained this week, while the Down Jones Industrial Average likewise fell.
In addition to worries about the pandemic, investors are concerned by the uncertainty created by the souring of diplomatic relations between the US and China.
The countries' most recent spat concerns the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston, Texas, and China's retaliatory decision to shut the American consulate in Chengdu.
Second Columbus statue in Chicago removed
Authorities in Chicago have taken down a second statue of the explorer Christopher Columbus, whose voyages across the Atlantic paved the way for the European colonisation of the Americas.
After one statue was removed early on Friday from the city's Grant Park, another of the same historical figure was brought down from its plinth in Arrigo Park.
The action by the local authorities came two days after Donald Trump threatened to send federal law enforcement agents to quell protests in Chicago.
Trump confirms names of US military bases will not change
The president has said that the chairman of the armed services will not be changing the names of the country's military bases.
In a tweet posted on Friday, Donald Trump expressed his support for the decision by
Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma.
After saying that the US "won two World Wars" from the bases, Mr Trump added: "Like me, Jim is not a believer in “Cancel Culture”."
The president's comments follow a bipartisan push to rename posts named after Confederate leaders.
New Lincoln Project ad mocks Trump's cognitive test statements
A damning new advertisement shared by a group of prominent former Republicans mocked Donald Trump after he claimed he "aced" a cognitive test, by comparing his bizarre statements with historic speeches made by past presidents.
The advertisement was released on Wednesday by The Lincoln Project, founded by current and former Republicans like George Conway, a Washington attorney and husband of White House Senior Adviser Kellyanne Conway.
It began with presidents like Ronald Reagan and John F Kennedy delivering some of the most famous presidential American speeches, before cutting to a clip of Mr Trump discussing a cognitive test he took earlier this year — which he has since challenged Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, to take as well.
The test assesses whether patients may have signs of dementia or another cognitive disease, and does not provide any indication about a subject’s intelligence or mental fitness. But the president has claimed his doctors were “very surprised” by his performance on the exam, saying during an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity: “They said ‘That’s an unbelievable thing. Rarely does anybody do what you just did.’”
In the new Lincoln Project ad, Mr Trump can be heard discussing a portion of the test in which he was made to repeat five words.
Story to come...
Trump to release Spanish-language ads defending Goya
James Crump writes: President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign has reignited a controversy surrounding Goya Foods by releasing a group of Spanish-language ads that reference a boycott against the brand.
The ads, which will air on both TV and radio, have been created to highlight the “Democrats’ shameful smear campaign against Goya Foods, a beloved Hispanic-owned family business,” the Trump campaign announced on Wednesday.
Cuban actress Susana Pérez, who narrated the TV ad, claimed in Spanish over video of Cuban refugees being airlifted to the US that “we sacrificed so much to be free and respected.”
Ms Pérez added: “Now the left has launched a smear campaign against Goya, the brand we love, just because Goya is working with president Trump,” and encouraged supporters to text “GOYA” to receive updates from the Trump campaign.
Trump to sign flurry of controversial executive orders after consulting Bush ‘torture memo’ author
Via the AP: President Donald Trump is relying on an outlier interpretation of a recent Supreme Court decision to assert broad new powers as he prepares to sign a series of executive orders in the coming weeks.
The expansive view of presidential authority has been promoted by John Yoo, a Berkeley Law professor known for writing the so-called “torture memos” that the George W. Bush administration used to justify using “enhanced interrogation” techniques after the 9/11 terror attacks.
Mr Yoo told the Associated Press on Thursday that he has had multiple conversations with senior administration officials in which he has made the case that a June Supreme Court ruling that rejected Mr Trump’s effort to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme (DACA) opened the door to enormous new presidential power.
“I said, ‘Why not just take the DACA opinion itself and do a search-replace. And every time it says ‘DACA’ ... replace it with ‘skills-based immigration system’,” Mr Yoo said he told the White House. “This gives President Trump an alternative to create such a programme, at least for a few years.”
Not long after the conversations, Mr Trump began promising a series of new executive orders on a range of issues.
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