Trump news - live: President makes bizarre comments about his hair and lightbulbs in freewheeling White House speech

Governor Brian Kemp has banned cities in Georgia from ordering people to wear masks in public spaces

The governor is instead encouraging voluntary mask wearing. 

Said the Van Johnson, Mayor of Savannah: "It is officially official. Governor Kemp does not give a damn about us. Every man and woman for himself/herself. Ignore the science and survive the best you can.”

17 weeks of more than one million Americans seeking unemployment benefits

More than a million Americans sought unemployment benefits for the 17th consecutive week as infections began surging in some of the nation’s most populous states. Layoffs in places like Florida, Georgia and California rose by tens of thousands of people.

Hope early this month that the country had made it through the worst of the pandemic has been shaken and the rising number of infected Americans threatens to push what appeared to be a recovering nation into critical condition.

The number of laid-off workers seeking unemployment benefits remained stuck at 1.3 million last week, the Labour Department said on Thursday. It’s a stunning number that, while fewer than the previous week, showed that companies continuing to cut jobs as the outbreak scythes through the Sunbelt.

Case counts are rising in 40 states and 22 states have either paused or reversed their efforts to reopen their economies, according to Bank of America.

Applications for aid paralleled rising infections geographically. Claims in Florida doubled to 129,000, and in Georgia they rose nearly one-third to 136,000, according to the Labour Department report. In California they increased 23,000 to nearly 288,000. Applications also rose in Arizona and South Carolina.

Those seeking jobless aid shrank in New Jersey and New York. They also fell in another hot spot, Texas, a state that has been hammered by job cuts this year in the energy sector.

Associated Press

New York DA: ‘Bring it on’

The New York District Attorney’s office has made it clear that they are up for a fight when it comes to Donald Trump’s tax returns.

In today’s court hearing, conducted over the phone, the president’s legal team, sought to challenge the Manhattan grand jury subpoena for the returns.

Assistant District Attorney Carey Dunne said: “Our office’s position is ‘bring it on’.”

The DA’s office wants access to eight years of Trump’s tax returns as part of their investigation into hush payments to women who allege they had extramarital affairs with the president in the past — claims he denies. 

Mr Trump’s legal team says that the subpoena is “not properly tailored”, is overly-broad, and motivated out of a wish to harass the president.

Ms Dunne sees this as a legal delaying tactic to keep the tax records private until beyond the election.

“Let's not let delay kill this case,” she said. “Justice delayed becomes justice denied.”

US District Judge Victor Marrero gave the Trump team until 27 July to file papers formally opposing the subpoena.

In a Reuters/Ipsos poll this week, 66 per cent of adults agreed that Trump should release his tax returns from earlier years, and 68 per cent said Americans have a right to see presidential candidates' returns before the 3 November election.

Trump overhauls environmental laws to boost infrastructure

Yesterday saw the president fly to Atlanta to announce an overhaul of a key piece of environmental legislation to cut red tape on infrastructure projects.

Watering down the National Environmental Policy Act, which was enacted half a century ago by Richard Nixon, is one of the most profound moves of deregulation by the Trump administration. The president, who calls the climate crisis a “hoax”, has made good on his promises to dismantle and rollback dozens of major environmental and climate protections during his time in office.

NEPA has given environmental activists and communities where projects are planned the opportunity to challenge them, often mounting legal battles.

Lousie Boyle reports. 

Major changes to the Postal Service announced by Trump appointee

The new head of the United States Postal Service (USPS) has established some major operational changes in a Monday memo, including slowed mail delivery in an effort to cut costs.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major donor to President Donald Trump, took over the mail service last month and has since enacted “difficult” changes to help the USPS financial situation.

Changes include mail delivery being delayed by one day or more to reduce costs.

Despite hack, president will remain on Twitter

President Donald Trump will not stop using Twitter and his account was secure during a hack of the social media platform, according to the White House press secretary.

"The president will remain on Twitter," Kayleigh McEnany told reporters. "His account was secure and not jeopardized during these attacks."

Press secretary evasive on police killings 

​Press secretary says Maryland governor is engaging in 'revisionist history'

Questioned about Republican governor Larry Hogan's Washington Post op-ed in which he said that the president has left governors to fend for themselves during the pandemic. Ms McEnany said that he was engaging in "revisionist history" given previous statements he had made.