THE BIG STORY

The US Postal Service is now a Trump target in the 2020 election. Here’s what’s going on.

You’ve been hearing a lot about the US Postal Service lately. That’s because President Donald Trump has been stepping up his attacks on the agency ahead of the 2020 election.

The short version is: Trump has been on a crusade against voting by mail, a contingency that has come in to play because of the coronavirus pandemic. The president has said he won’t fund the USPS to hinder its ability to deliver mail-in ballots.

The long version involves the USPS’s precarious position. The agency’s limited resources are stretched even thinner during the pandemic, while the Trump administration’s threat to dismantle the USPS looms.

Not to mention Louis DeJoy, a top Trump donor who was appointed postmaster general and CEO of the USPS in early May, much to the alarm of Democrats and ethics watchdogs.

Clarissa-Jan Lim and Ryan Brooks thoroughly explain what the Postal Service has to do with voter suppression, and what might happen next.

A USPS carrier makes his rounds on August 5, in New York City. Spencer Platt / Getty Images

STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

Belarus is detaining thousands of peaceful protesters. Many are telling stories of physical and psychological abuse by police.

Police forces loyal to the authoritarian regime of Alexander Lukashenko have detained more than 6,000 people after mass protests rocked Belarus. The protests erupted after last week’s presidential election was widely rejected as fraudulent.

Many protesters came staggering out of detention centers, and they brought with them horrific accounts of their experiences. Many recalled being refused water and food and forced to endure stress positions.

Some described walking over weeping detainees lying facedown on floors soaked with blood, and hearing the screams of other detainees being brutally beaten.

Dan Peleschuck, a journalist and BuzzFeed contributor, described his own experience being detained: “I just wanted to live, and for someone to find me.”

Sergei Gapon / Getty Images

SNAPSHOTS

An Arizona school district cancelled all its classes after teachers staged a sickout over coronavirus fears. Monday would’ve been the first day back for the J.O. Combs Unified School District. Instead, the district was forced to cancel all classes after teachers staged a protest.

ICE guards have a “pattern and practice” of sexually assaulting immigrants, a complaint says. A recently filed complaint says Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers would take advantage of camera blind spots and tell women no one would believe them if they spoke out.

Robert Trump, the president’s younger brother, has died at 71. Robert died a day after his older brother, President Donald Trump, visited him at a New York City hospital. “He was not just my brother, he was my best friend,” the president said in a statement.

Trump refused to denounce the preposterous QAnon conspiracy theory. The president congratulated Marjorie Taylor Greene, a QAnon follower who won a primary runoff in Georgia, and refused to reject the baseless far-right conspiracy theory.

The Crown casts Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana for the final two seasons. The Australian actor, who has starred in Widows and will be seen in Christopher Nolan's Tenet, will play the iconic royal in the show's fifth and sixth seasons.

Stefania D'alessandro / WireImage, Tim Graham / Getty Images

A NEW MEASURE

The Trump administration is preparing to treat asylum-seekers as security threats

We’ve obtained a draft of a new Trump administration rule that would take effect immediately, and treat those seeking protection from persecution at a US land border as security threats if they had been in Mexico or Canada within the last two weeks of their arrival.

If implemented, the draft rule would block affected asylum-seekers from legal protections and be in effect for 90 days immediately after it’s issued.

The draft rule cites the coronavirus as the reason, but comes in a larger context: it would represent the latest attempt by the Trump administration to restrict asylum protections at the border.

One expert we spoke to said, “The pandemic has allowed the Trump administration to accomplish what they had been working towards for years — a complete shutdown of asylum at the southern border.”

AFTER THE MEMES

Rebecca Black is going viral again — this time on her own terms

You remember “Friday.” Of course you do. It may have been a 2011 viral hit, but its hook still rattles around in your brain.

“Friday” went viral when Rebecca Black was only 13. Now 23, the singer had an excellent chat with Tanya Chen about the consequences of virality and being mocked in your early teens, the difficult years that followed, and how she finally found her way. It’s an incredibly charming read.

I hope you have an easy time celebrating compliments today,

Elamin