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Here’s some unsurprising news: the National Rifle Association’s political arm has officially endorsed Trump’s reelection bid.

In a new statement, the gun rights group said the endorsement was announced in a letter sent to Trump yesterday.

“On behalf of America’s 5 million NRA members, the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF) is proud to endorse your reelection as president of the United States of America,” the letter reads.

“You have done more than any president to protect the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. The NRA stands behind you and your administration.”

The endorsement is unsurprising considering Democrats have been pushing for years to pass more stringent restrictions on gun ownership, which the NRA has resisted.

Despite the many mass shootings that have taken place since Trump took office, the president has embraced his role as a champion of gun rights as he seeks reelection.

During her weekly press conference this morning, House speaker Nancy Pelosi also offered an unflattering comparison between Trump and some of his Republican predecessors.

“I yearn for other Republican presidents,” the Democratic speaker said. “While we may disagree on many points, at least we had a shared commitment to the governance of our country.”

Pelosi has previously admitted to some nostalgia for former president George W Bush, who she criticized a “total failure” when he was in office.

Pelosi said in late 2018 that she and Bush “had our differences of opinion, especially on the war in Iraq, but we had many areas of agreement and we were able to work together in respectful ways.”

House speaker Nancy Pelosi harshly criticized Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic during her weekly press conference this morning.

“Observing his behavior, I have concluded that he is like the man who refuses to ask for directions,” Pelosi said moments ago. “All of the answers are there.”

The Democratic speaker accused Trump of a “massive dereliction of duty,” as the number of coronavirus cases in the US continues to surge.

“Mr President, admit it, you’ve gone down the wrong path,” Pelosi said. “Ask for directions. Ask for directions from our scientists, who know better.”

Trump spoke to Dr Anthony Fauci by phone yesterday, according to CNN. The call marks the first conversation between the two in more than a month.

Fauci told the Financial Times in an interview published last week that he has not briefed the president in at least two months and has not seen him in person at the White House since June 2.

The phone call between Fauci and the president also comes as some of Trump’s advisers attack the infectious disease expert’s credibility.

Trade adviser Peter Navarro wrote an op-ed earlier this week criticizing Fauci. The president sought to distance himself from the op-ed, but admnistration officials have privately told reporters that Trump encouraged Navarro to write the piece because of his frustration with Fauci’s recent comments about the pandemic.

Florida has once again broken its single-day record of coronavirus deaths, as the state struggles to get the virus under control.

Florida health officials announced 156 residents died of coronavirus yesterday, breaking the record of 132 deaths reported on Tuesday morning.

The new figure brings the total number of coronavirus deaths in Florida to 4,677. The state has also confirmed more than 315,000 cases.

The grim news comes as Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, refuses to issue a statewide mask mandate, despite the state’s climbing case count.

Mary Trump’s tell-all book set a sales record for Simon & Schuster, Trump’s publisher said in a statement about the book, which was released on Tuesday.

According to Simon & Schuster, the book sold more than 950,000 copies through Tuesday, setting a new company record.

The book details the president’s relationship with his family and includes a number of unflattering anecdotes about Trump, including an accusation that he paid someone to take his high school exams.

Despite the rising number of coronavirus cases in Georgia, the state’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, issued an executive order yesterday that voids local mask mandates.

The order encourages residents to wear masks, but it goes on to state, “Any state, county, or municipal law, order, ordinance, rule, or regulation that requires persons to wear face coverings, masks, face shields, or any other Personal Protective Equipment while in places of public accommodation or on public property are suspended.”

The policy prompted immediate outcry, particularly because it comes less than a week after Georgia once again broke its single-day record of new coronavirus cases reported. Overall, the state has confirmed nearly 128,000 cases of coronavirus and lost more than 3,000 residents to the virus.

The Democratic mayor of Savannah, one of more than a dozen Georgia cities that had issued a mask mandate, said in a tweet, “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.”

The new mandate seems to be purely political, considering Kemp has encouraged Georgia residents to wear masks to mitigate the spread of coronavirus.

The Republican governor even took a “Wear a Mask” tour of the state earlier this month to highlight the precautions residents can take to avoid contracting the virus.

House minority leader Kevin McCarthy is introducing a bill aimed at protecting America’s statues, which has become a pet project of Trump’s since a number of controversial statues were torn down during the George Floyd protests.

“Leftwing mobs are trying to erase history by destroying statues of George Washington, General Grant, and Christopher Columbus. Enough is enough,” McCarthy said in a tweet about the bill, which is very unlikely to advance given that Democrats control the House.

McCarthy’s tweet echoes the president’s recent complaints about statues being taken down. According to reports, Trump even pushed to have a DC statue of Confederate general Albert Pike, which was torn down by protesters, put back up.

The president also signed an executive order on “Protecting American Monuments, Memorials, and Statues and Combating Recent Criminal Violence” late last month.

Trump’s focus on protecting statues has attracted some criticism, given that he has simultaneously downplayed the recent surge in coronavirus cases and police violence against black Americans.

This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said she will hold a briefing at 1 pm ET today, an addition to the previously announced White House schedule.

McEnany will likely be pressed on the recent tension between Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, and Peter Navarro, the president’s senior trade adviser.

Navarro wrote an op-ed earlier this week criticizing Fauci, which Trump has since tried to distance himself from.

But some administration officials have told reporters that the president actively encouraged Navarro to write the op-ed, as Fauci and many other public health experts’ cautious approach to reopening frustrates Trump.

The US government on Thursday carried out its second federal execution this week, killing by lethal injection a Kansas man whose lawyers contended he had dementia and was unfit to be executed.

Wesley Ira Purkey was put to death this morning at 8:19 a.m. EDT at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Purkey was convicted of kidnapping and killing 16-year-old Jennifer Long before dismembering, burning and dumping her body in a septic pond. He also was convicted in a state court in Kansas after using a claw hammer to kill an 80-year-old woman who had polio.

Legal action to halt the execution had centred around Purkey’s mental capacity to understand what was taking place. However the Associated Press report that he
expressed remorse right before he was executed.

“I deeply regret the pain and suffering I caused to Jennifer’s family,” he said. “I am deeply sorry. I deeply regret the pain I caused to my daughter, who I love so very much. This sanitized murder really does not serve no purpose whatsoever.”

Michelle Obama is launching a podcast, which will exclusively debut on Spotify on 29 July.

The former first lady said of the “The Michelle Obama Podcast” that her hope “is that this series can be a place to explore meaningful topics together and sort through so many of the questions we’re all trying to answer in our own lives.”

The new podcast is the first title in an ongoing collaboration between Spotify and Higher Ground, a production company founded by Barack and Michelle Obama. Last year, the former president and first lady partnered with Spotify to produce exclusive podcasts for the platform.

In a press release it is stated that Michelle Obama’s new podcast expects to hold candid and personal conversations with a focus on topics concerning relationships and health. She expects to have several guests on the series including talk-show host Conan O’Brien and Valerie Jarrett, business woman and former senior advisor to Barack Obama.

“Perhaps most of all, I hope this podcast will help listeners open up new conversations and hard conversations – with the people who matter most to them,” Michelle Obama said. “That’s how we can build more understanding and empathy for one another.”

The Department of Labor have released the latest unemployment stats. They say that in the week ending July 11, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 1,300,000. That represents a slight decrease of 10,000 on the week before.

The number of people seeking aid has now been slowly declining after the initial spike in March caused by economic lockdown, but still remains historically high.

Nearly 32 million American workers in total are now receiving jobless benefits.

Here’s our full report: 1.3m more file for unemployment as US economy continues to reel

There will be more reaction to these figures over on our live business blog.