‘Dangerous power grab’: top Democrats decry USPS system that could thwart mail-in voting
Representative Robert Garcia, ranking member of the committee on oversight and government reform, is speaking out following disclosure of a whistleblower report alleging the US Postal Service is poised to launch a computer system that could derail mail-in voting. Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal disclosed this whistleblower statement, which warned of potential mail-in voting chaos, on Tuesday.
“The Oversight Committee has received whistleblower reports that President Trump’s attack on vote-by-mail for the 2026 election is more serious than previously understood,” Garcia said in a statement. “This new secret tracking system at the US Postal Service is faulty, untested, and threatens to totally disrupt ballot delivery for millions of American citizens.”
“We are fighting in court to protect the right to vote by mail for all and will continue to investigate. This unconstitutional and dangerous power grab must be permanently and immediately blocked.”
Donald Trump in March signed an executive order requiring the creation of a national voter file. Trump’s executive order mandated that the US Postal Service make rules about a process that would require states to apprise them of voters who want mail-in ballots.
Trump’s executive order would require that the Postal Service prevent these voters from receiving mail-in ballots unless they are on a the USPS-approved eligible voter list. While the US Supreme Court paved the way for Trump’s efforts to limit mail-in voting, the issue is still being litigated in lower courts.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also slammed what he claimed were Trump-backed efforts to derail the mail-in voting.
“A whistleblower is warning of a ‘catastrophic failure’ in our mail-ballot system—all because Trump is turning USPS into a voter suppression machine,” the New York Democrat said on X. “Vote-by-mail is safe and secure. Trump himself voted by mail just last month. He knows he’s failing the American people, so he’s doing everything he can to rig the midterms.”
Key events
Polls have just closed in Massachusetts where progressive Ed Markey, 80, faces a younger challenger in the US Senate Democratic primary in what is being described as a generational fight. His rival US representative Seth Moulton has argued Markey is too old to serve another term.
Read more on the race here:
Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he will nominate Hung Cao to serve as the next secretary of the US Navy.
Cao, a former Senate candidate in Virginia and retired navy captain, has been the acting secretary since April and was previously the under secretary.
“The Senate needs to confirm this Warfighter, ASAP, so he can continue the fantastic work he has been doing over the past 4 months,” Trump said of the nomination.
The news comes amid a shake up in US military leadership under defense secretary Pete Hegseth. This week army secretary Daniel Driscoll left his role after 18 months on the job, prompting Democrats to accuse Hegseth of having “hollowed out” the army’s senior ranks.
House votes 413-2 to censure Republican congressman after bipartisan panel found he ‘engaged in sexual harassment’
Chris Stein
The US House of Representative has voted to censure Chuck Edwards, a Republican congressman who the ethics committee found violated rules against sexual harassment in his conduct towards two young female staffers.
The vote was 413-2, with 207 Republicans joining 205 Democrats.
The largely ceremonial punishment saw Edwards stand in the well of the House chamber and be read the resolution. First elected in 2022 to represent a western North Carolina district, Edwards dropped his bid for re-election following the release of the bipartisan panel’s determination that he “may have created or fostered a hostile work environment and engaged in sexual harassment” by giving gifts and lavishing attention on the two women.
“A member of Congress should not single out a staffer and isolate them from other staff, make frequent comments regarding that person’s appearance and weight, send messages in the middle of the night, text staff deeply personal and seemingly romantic thoughts, intrude on personal occasions without invitation, pay for personal vacations, and spend thousands of dollars on gifts for staffers,” the report read.
In a speech on the House floor before the vote, Edwards defended himself, noting that the committee found he did not engage in sexual activity with the staffers or suggested it. He argued the ethics committee overreached in its conclusions, while apologizing both to the unnamed staffers and his wife.
“Regret is not an admission of sexual harassment, I can acknowledge poor judgment, regret the discomfort that some of my actions may have caused, and apologize to those who were hurt by this episode, while still disputing a conclusion that the evidence just simply does not support,” Edwards said.
North Carolina Republicans have replaced him on the ballot with state representative Jennifer Balkcom, who will face the Democratic nominee Jamie Ager in the November midterms.
Kathy Hochul, New York’s governor, criticized Donald Trump for withholding $87m in counterterrorism funds from the state, describing the move as a betrayal of 9/11 victims.
“Don’t undermine our public safety efforts. Don’t defund the police who thwart terror attacks. Don’t play political games with people’s lives,” Hochul said at a press conference on Tuesday alongside Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
The funding is essential to keeping New Yorkers safe, Mamdani said, adding that it funds 12 bomb squads across the city, among other programs.
The US Department of Homeland Security told CBS News Hochul “is manufacturing a funding crisis” and accused Hochul and Mamdani of “[shielding] criminals from the law”.
“New York works with federal law enforcement every day to take dangerous criminals off the streets. So spare us the theatrics,” Hochul said in response. “And while you’re here, cut the $87 million check you owe our cops and counterterrorism officials.”
The MapQuest app jumped to No 1 on US Apple after defying Donald Trump’s move to rename Lake Ontario as trade tensions between the US and Canada continue to escalate.
The 30-year-old company has found itself in the spotlight for dismissing the president’s executive order that directed federal agencies to use “Lake America” to refer to the smallest of the Great Lakes.
Read more here:
Donald Trump will meet with oil refiners and distributors as part of what the president described as an effort to increase US refining capacity and lower gas prices.
Since the war with Iran began earlier this year, gas prices in the US have risen more than 30%, hitting American consumers hard. Trump has at various points argued that gas prices were not particularly high, increased costs at the pump were a small price to pay to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and that oil companies have made too much money from the conflict.
In a statement posted on social media, the president said he was “laser-focused” on ensuring his “energy dominance” agenda brings the “most cost savings possible at the pump”.
Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security has apparently taken steps to advance the president’s efforts to limit voting.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) now has a webpage with a blue box that reads “Coming Soon” and “State Citizen Lists Portal.” According to Democracy Docket, this webpage is newly published.
This portal is in keeping with Trump’s March executive order mandating that DHS and the Social Security Administration gather data and compose lists of eligible voters from all 50 states.
Democracy Docket notes that a DHS memo released in June said the department plans on having this portal up and running by 4 September.
Voting rights advocates have insisted that federal authorities lack the legal power to make and manage lists of voters. A federal voter eligibility database has not existed previously as US states and localities are supposed to manage elections, Democracy Docket explained.
Donald Trump’s airplane catering truck caper is getting the Netflix treatment.
The streaming service announced Tuesday on X that “Instadocs: The Decoy Plane,” would premier on 4 September.
The program “unpacks the incident through firsthand accounts from members of the press corps who were aboard Air Force One as well as a former Secret Service agent and a former Air Force One crew member.”
Trump was secretly transported to a different plane from the one press and public believed he would take to depart Turkey in July. The decision to switch planes came after US intelligence purportedly found a credible threat that Iran wanted to kill him.
Trump exited Air Force One in a catering truck, a move first reported by the Washington Post and New York Times. More than one hundred reporters, officials, and aides were kept on this plane.
They were not apprised that there was a threat to their lives.
Two congressional Democrats are demanding that a government watchdog probe the Trump administration’s use of an obscure law to surreptitiously gather records on journalists, unions, and non-profits – without judicial oversight.
The Guardian’s Sam Levine exclusively reports that Oregon Senator Ron Wyden and Rep Pramila Jayapal of Washington sent their request to the government accountability office (GAO), the non-partisan congressional watchdog.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently employed its ability to issue administrative summonses for customs matters to demand information.
They wrote in their request:
“Crucially, the recipients of these subpoenas – often third-party companies and service providers – maintain a first amendment right to notify their customers of the demand, allowing the actual targets of the subpoenas the opportunity to assert their own legal rights or challenge the demand in court … We request an audit of HSI’s use of non-disclosure language in immigration subpoenas and customs summonses, as well as the circumstances under which HSI has used customs summonses unrelated to import violations or customs duties.
President Trump seems to think there’s no point in reaching a deal with Iran.
“I think an agreement with them isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. We gave them a lot of chances,” Trump told Fox News.
His comments come as US strikes on Iran resumed Tuesday amid allegations that the country was trying to put mines in the strait of Hormuz. Trump said that the strikes would intensify greatly if Iran retaliated.
House passes short-term funding bill to avoid shutdown before midterms
The US House on Tuesday passed a short-term funding bill that will keep the federal government operating at current levels until 11 December.
This bill, which has already been green-lighted by the US Senate, will now go to President Trump’s desk. If Trump signs the legislation, this will postpone more permanent funding discussions until after the midterm elections, per NBC News.
Democrats and Republicans have quarreled over the extent of federal spending in their talks to forge a one-year deal. Democrats, for example, rebuffed Trump’s demands for a $1.5bn military budget – up significantly from the record $1 bn military budget approved in 2025.
Trump warns of ‘much harder’ action if Iran retaliates to ‘very justified’ US attacks
After the US announced Tuesday that it is striking targets in Iran, President Trump threatened “much harder” action if the country retaliated.
“They will be hit again at a much harder and higher level, but it will not be the biggest attack of them all, that is waiting in the wings and, when it is over, there will be very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Trump said on Truth Social.
Trump said on his social media platform that the US strikes were in response to Iran’s alleged failed effort to place mines in the strait of Hormuz. He also said the strikes were responsive to Iran’s intercepted attack on a US base in Jordan.
Trump’s comments bring to mind his past statements about attacks on Iran that could constitute war crimes if conducted, such as threatening numerous times to destroy critical civilian infrastructure and to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages.”
Trump also made a now notorious threat in April that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if they didn’t reach a deal.
Trump taps Christian pastor to become adviser on tobacco health concerns
Donald Trump has appointed a Christian pastor to advise his administration on tobacco health concerns.
“I am pleased to announce that Pastor Darrell Scott, a longtime friend, respected Faith Leader, and tireless Advocate for America’s Underserved Communities, will be serving my Administration and me as an Advisor for tobacco health issues on the Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD) in the CDC,” Trump said in a Tuesday afternoon Truth Social post.
Trump said that “for far too long, tobacco-related disease has taken an enormous toll on American Families, including Communities that have too often been overlooked and underserved.” Scott, Trump said, “understands these Communities, and the challenges they face, and he knows how to bring people together to get RESULTS.”
Trump said that in keeping with a campaign promise, Scott’s appointment will support “solutions to reduce harm and SAVE LIVES.” The president wrapped his post by saying “MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AND SAFE AGAIN!”
Scott has long had a reputation as being one of Trump’s earliest and dedicated Black supporters. Trump in 2016 thanked Scott for encouraging his presidential run.
In 2018, Scott called Trump “the most pro-Black president we’ve had in our lifetime”. Scott co-founded the National Diversity Coalition with Michael Cohen, who was the prosecution’s star witness at Trump’s New York hush-money trial.
The coalition marked a clunky effort during the 2016 race to show that he had support from Black and Latinx voters.
The US oil behemoth Chevron is poised to increase operations in Venezuela, The Associated Press reported on Tuesday.
The AP, citing a US official who told reporters about Chevron’s planned announcement, said the petroleum giant’s officials and US energy secretary Chris Wright are meant to travel to Venezuela on Wednesday. There, Chevron’s new investment is expected to officially be revealed.
Chevron, which according to the AP is the second-largest US oil concern, presently has one “major presence” in Venezuela. The White House on Monday confirmed that it is teaming up with North American Blue Energy Partners in keeping with Donald Trump’s efforts to capitalize on Venezuela’s oil industry.
