USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — Help for the U.S. Postal Service landed in stalemate Sunday as the White House dismissed an emergency funding bill aimed at shoring up the agency before the November elections as “going nowhere” and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged senators to act quickly.

“The public is demanding action on this now,” Pelosi said. “I can’t see how the Senate can avoid it unless they do so to their peril.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — He’s broken his pledge never to take a vacation or play golf for pleasure. His plan to update the nation’s infrastructure has become a running punchline and he’s dropped his threat to throw Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl out of a plane without a parachute. But behind the drama, chaos and tumult that has defined President Donald Trump’s administration, the president has fulfilled a wide range of promises he made during his 2016 campaign.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Kellyanne Conway, one of President Donald Trump’s most influential and longest serving advisers, announced Sunday that she would be leaving the White House at the end of the month.

Conway, Trump’s campaign manager during the stretch run of the 2016 race, was the first woman to successfully steer a White House bid, then became a senior counselor to the president. She informed Trump of her decision in the Oval Office.

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. (AP) — Three massive wildfires chewed through parched Northern California landscape Sunday as firefighters raced to dig breaks and make other preparations ahead of a frightening weather system packing high winds and more of the lightning that sparked the huge blazes and scores of other fires around the state, putting nearly a quarter-million people under evacuation orders and warnings.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Gulf Coast braced Sunday for a potentially devastating hit from twin hurricanes as two dangerous storms swirled toward the U.S from the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. Officials feared a history-making onslaught of life-threatening winds and flooding along the coast, stretching from Texas to Alabama.

A storm dubbed Marco grew into a hurricane Sunday as it churned up the Gulf of Mexico toward Louisiana. But, Marco’s intensity was fluctuating, forecasters said, and the system was downgraded to a tropical storm Sunday night.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday announced emergency authorization to treat COVID-19 patients with convalescent plasma — a move he called “a breakthrough,” one of his top health officials called “promising” and other health experts said needs more study before it’s celebrated.

The announcement came after White House officials complained there were politically motivated delays by the Food and Drug Administration in approving a vaccine and therapeutics for the disease that has upended Trump’s reelection chances.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 22 (APP): UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of a rise in racism since the spread of coronavirus across the world in a message released Saturday to mark the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Violence Based on Religious Belief.

The UN chief underlined that the pandemic has been accompanied by “a surge in stigma and racist discourse vilifying communities, spreading vile stereotypes and assigning blame.”

22 Aug 2020; MEMO: US media reported that on Wednesday the Open Society Justice Initiative filed a lawsuit with the office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) requiring it to release intelligence findings about Jamal Khashoggi’s murder.

Washington, Aug 23 (PTI) Aiming to woo the influential Indian-American voters numbering over 2 million, the Trump campaign has released its first video commercial that has short clips from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speeches and US President Donald Trump's historic address in Ahmedabad.

Modi and Trump addressed a huge crowd in Ahmedabad during the US president's visit to India in February this year. Trump was also accompanied by his wife Melania, daughter Ivanka, son-in-law Jared Kushner and top brass of his administration on his trip to India.

NEW YORK, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- Global COVID-19 deaths surpassed 800,000 on Saturday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

As of 1356 GMT Saturday, 22,984,824 confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported globally, according to the tally.

The United States and Brazil remain the top two in both confirmed cases and deaths, with 5,626,284 cases and 175,429 deaths reported from the United States, and 3,532,330 cases and 113,358 deaths from Brazil.