AP News in Brief at 9:04 p.m. EDT
Pelosi to call House back into session to vote on USPS bill
WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday she is calling the House back into session over the crisis at the U.S. Postal Service, setting up a political showdown amid growing concerns that the Trump White House is trying to undermine the agency ahead of the election.
Pelosi is cutting short lawmakers' summer recess with a vote expected the Saturday after the Democratic National Convention on legislation that would prohibit changes at the agency as tensions mount. President Donald Trump's new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, has sparked nationwide outcry over delays, new prices and cutbacks just as millions of Americans will be trying to vote by mail to avoid polling places during the coronavirus outbreak.
“In a time of a pandemic, the Postal Service is Election Central," Pelosi wrote Sunday in a letter to colleagues, who had been expected to be out of session until September. “Lives, livelihoods and the life of our American Democracy are under threat from the president.”
The decision to recall the House, made after a weekend of high-level leadership discussions, carries a political punch. Voting in the House will highlight the issue after the weeklong convention nominating Joe Biden as the party's presidential pick and pressure the Republican-held Senate to respond. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sent senators home for a summer recess.
Earlier Sunday, Democratic lawmakers demanded that leaders of the Postal Service testify at an emergency oversight hearing Aug. 24 on mail delays.
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Trump makes call for new White House doctor's virus advice
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has found a new doctor for his coronavirus task force — and this time there's no daylight between them.
Trump last week announced that Dr. Scott Atlas, a frequent guest on Fox News Channel, has joined the White House as a pandemic adviser. Atlas, the former chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center and a fellow at Stanford's conservative Hoover Institution, has no expertise in public health or infectious diseases.
But he has long been a critic of coronavirus lockdowns and has campaigned for kids to return to the classroom and for the return of college sports, just like Trump.
“Scott is a very famous man who’s also very highly respected," Trump told reporters as he introduced the addition. “He has many great ideas and he thinks what we’ve done is really good.”
Atlas' hiring comes amid ongoing tensions between the president and Drs. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert, and Deborah Birx, the task force's coordinator. While Birx remains closely involved in the administration's pandemic response, both she and Fauci have publicly contradicted the rosy picture the president has painted of a virus that has now killed more than 167,000 people in the United States and infected millions nationwide.
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Telephone calls between UAE, Israel ring for the first time
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Telephone calls began ringing Sunday between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, marking the first concrete step of a U.S.-brokered diplomatic deal between the nations that required Israel to halt plans to annex land sought by the Palestinians.
Anger over the deal however continued as well, with protesters in Pakistan criticizing the UAE and Iran making new threats about the accord, which will see the Emirates become only the third Arab nation to currently recognize Israel. The UAE responded by summoning Iran's chargé d’affairs to criticize earlier comments by Iran's president it described as threatening.
But for Dubai's small expatriate Jewish community, which has worshipped for years at an unmarked villa in this city-state, the calls represented so much more than just the convenience of being able to directly dial loved ones in Israel.
“There’s a sense of a miracle upon a miracle upon a miracle, as all of these hurdles fall away and people at last can come together and start talking,” Ross Kriel, the president of the Jewish Council of the Emirates, told The Associated Press.
Direct telephone calls have been blocked in the Emirates, a U.S.-allied federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula, since its founding in 1971. That backed the standing position of Arab nations at the time, that Israel must first grant concessions to the Palestinians before being recognized — one of their few points of leverage.
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Taller cubicles, one-way aisles: Office workers must adjust
NEW YORK (AP) — Bergmeyer, a design firm in Boston, has erected higher cubicles, told employees to wear masks when not at their desks and set up one-way aisles in the office that force people to walk the long way around to get to the kitchen or the bathroom.
“The one-way paths take me a little out of the way, but it was easy to get used to,” said Stephanie Jones, an interior designer with the company. “It actually gives me the opportunity to see more people and say a quick hello when I might have just walked directly to my desk before.”
Around the U.S., office workers sent home when the coronavirus took hold in March are returning to the world of cubicles and conference rooms and facing certain adjustments: masks, staggered shifts, spaced-apart desks, daily questions about their health, closed break rooms and sanitizer everywhere.
For some at least, there are also advantages, including the opportunity to share chitchat with colleagues again or the ability to get more work done.
Employers in some cases are requiring workers to come back to the office, but most, like Bergmeyer, are letting the employees decide what to do, at least for now. Some firms say the risks and precautions are worth it to boost productivity and move closer to normal.
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Texas police say 3 officers shot, but in stable condition
CEDAR PARK, Texas (AP) — Three police officers were shot Sunday and a person remained barricaded inside a home located in a suburb of Austin, Texas, authorities said.
The Cedar Park Police Department said on Twitter that officers were responding to a call at a home off Natalie Cove when three were shot. They said one person was barricaded inside the home.
The officers were in stable condition at a local hospital, Interim Police Chief Mike Harmon said on Twitter. The scene in Heritage Park Subdivision was still active, he said.
The city of Cedar Park has asked residents to avoid Bagdad Road between Osage Drive and New Hope Drive, the city said on Twitter. The Cedar Park police and fire departments have closed the southbound lane of Bagdad Road at Heritage, the post said.
“Our hearts are with the police officers who were injured while protecting the Cedar Park community this afternoon. We must never take for granted the service and sacrifice of our law enforcement officers, and the State of Texas stands ready to provide the support and resources needed to bring justice to those involved,” Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement.
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Lightning sparks new wildfires across California
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A rare summer thunderstorm brought lightning that sparked several small blazes in Northern California on Sunday and stoked a huge forest fire that has forced hundreds of people from their homes north of Los Angeles.
More than 4,500 buildings remained threatened by the wildfire, which was burning toward thick, dry brush in the Angeles National Forest. Firefighters already battling the blaze in steep, rugged terrain in scorching heat faced more hurdles Saturday when hundreds of lightning strikes and winds up to 15 mph (24 kph) pushed the flames uphill.
“We set up a containment line at the top of the hills so the fire doesn't spill over to the other side and cause it to spread, but it was obviously difficult given the erratic wind and some other conditions," said fire spokesman Jake Miller.
The Lake Fire was just 12% contained as of Sunday morning and has burned nearly 28 square miles (72 square kilometers) of brush and trees. Fire officials said 33 buildings had been destroyed, including at least a dozen homes.
Temperatures reached more than 110 degrees (43 Celsius) and a pyrocumulus created erratic fire behavior, fire spokesman Tom Ewald said.
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1st Mediterranean cruise sets sail after virus tests
ROME (AP) — Cruise ship passengers had their temperatures checked and took COVID-19 tests Sunday so they could set sail on what is being billed as the first Mediterranean cruise after Italy's pandemic lockdown.
The cruise ship company MSC has made the procedures, for crew as well as passengers, part of its new health and safety protocols. The MSC Grandiosa, which was christened last year, set sail from the northern Italian port of Genoa on Sunday evening for a seven-night cruise in the western Mediterranean.
Any one testing positive, or with a fever, or having other COVID-19 symptoms was denied boarding, the company said. Guest must wear face masks in elevators and other areas where social distancing is not possible. The crew spent time in quarantine before the start of the cruise.
Earlier this month, the Italian government gave its approval for cruise ships to once again depart from Italy’s ports but limited cruise ships to sailing with 70% capacity.
MSC declined to say how many passengers were sailing on this cruise. Among the port calls for the Grandiosa, MSC's flagship, are Naples, Palermo, Sicily and Valletta, Malta.
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Police: At least 18 shot, with 4 dead, across Cincinnati
CINCINNATI (AP) — At least 18 people were shot, including four killed, as gunfire erupted in several places around the city overnight, authorities said Sunday.
Officers responded just after 12:30 a.m. Sunday to the Avondale neighborhood and found 21-year-old Antonio Blair with gunshot wounds, police said in a statement. He was taken to University Hospital and died there, they said. Three other gunshot victims were also taken to the hospital.
At about 2:15 a.m., officers responded to a report of gunfire in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood where 10 people were shot, police said. One died at the scene and another at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center; they were identified in a statement as 34-year-old Robert Rogers and 30-year-old Jaquiez Grant.
Three people were shot at about midnight Saturday in the Walnut Hills neighborhood, about a block away from the Harriet Beecher Stowe house, police said.
News outlets reported the shootings took place within 60 to 90 minutes of each other, but Assistant Police Chief Paul Neudigate told reporters that they “seem to be separate independent incidents but horrific and tragic.”
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Black Portland reflects on role of white allies in movement
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — More than two months of intense protests in Portland, Oregon — one of America's whitest major cities — have captured the world's attention and put a place that's less than 6% Black at the heart of the conversation about police brutality and systemic racism.
Since May, nightly demonstrations in Oregon’s largest city have featured overwhelmingly white crowds — from middle-aged mothers marching arm in arm to the mayor getting tear-gassed by federal agents to teenagers dressed in black smashing police precinct windows and tossing fireworks at authorities.
The weeks of often-chaotic protests have transformed Portland into a microcosm of the national debate on race and police brutality. It's also prompted introspection in the liberal city's small Black community about the role of white demonstrators in the Black Lives Matter movement and what it means to be a white ally in this transformational moment.
The violence and vandalism that have marked the protests, often done by white people, have divided the Black community, along with a debate over what's next. Some want to keep marching, while others want to use the momentum to work with elected officials on cementing long-term change.
“It’s a perfect storm with everything that’s been happening, and add to that the attention of the world being on Portland, Oregon, right now — we have a unique space," said Sam Thompson, who founded the group Black Men and Women United last month to push the movement toward long-term Black resilience.
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Road king: Elliott wins at Daytona for 3rd straight roadie
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Chase Elliott was already NASCAR royalty. Now he's also the sport's road king.
Elliott won the Cup Series' first road course race at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday, holding off hard-charging Denny Hamlin following a late restart and notching his third consecutive victory away from ovals.
“I had a phenomenal car. I don't think I did anything special today,” Elliott said.
NASCAR’s most popular driver, the son of Hall of Famer Bill Elliott, also won on road courses at Charlotte and at Watkins Glen last year. He got a tougher challenge than many expected down the stretch in his latest roadie.
The 24-year-old driver had a 10-second lead with 10 laps to go and was pulling away when Kyle Busch blew a tire and brought out a caution that gave his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr., a chance.