US News Roundup: Texas, California governors take the heat in the battle over school reopenings; U.S. rejects Ghislaine Maxwell's complaints about treatment in jail and more

Trump holds up coronavirus aid to block funding for mail-in voting President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was blocking Democrats' effort to include funds for the U.S. Postal Service and election infrastructure in a new coronavirus relief bill, a bid to block more Americans from voting by mail during the pandemic.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Texas, California governors take the heat in the battle over school reopenings

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Thursday sought to reassure parents he is doing all he can to keep students safe as most schools in the state prepare to reopen next week. But a top adviser to Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden's campaign in Texas blasted Abbott, a Republican, for what he called a lack of planning and funding for safely reopening schools, with the statewide coronavirus positivity rate hitting a record 24.5% this week.

U.S. rejects Ghislaine Maxwell's complaints about treatment in jail

U.S. prosecutors on Thursday rejected Ghislaine Maxwell's claim that she is being treated "worse" than other inmates at the Brooklyn jail where she is being held on charges she facilitated late financier Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuse of underage girls. In a letter to U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan, prosecutors also said it was "at best premature" to require they disclose the identities of three alleged victims named in Maxwell's indictment.

As COVID-19 cases rise in U.S., precious plasma donations lag

In late April, a coalition of New Mexico healthcare systems began asking local COVID-19 survivors to donate their plasma, the antibody-rich blood product used to help treat people hospitalized with the disease. More than 50 people donated in May, but then the numbers starting falling, according to data from Vitalant, a nonprofit blood bank that works with the coalition to recruit donors. In June, 34 people gave plasma to the effort, the data show; in July it was just 29.

U.S. crackdown on Confucius Institutes demonises the program, says China

A U.S. crackdown on Confucius Institutes demonises and stigmatises the normal functioning of the program, China's foreign ministry said on Friday. The Institutes have been observing local laws, and China deplores the move, ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a news briefing.

Trump pushes anti-immigrant message even as coronavirus dominates campaign

U.S President Donald Trump is powering ahead with his anti-immigration agenda, even as voters say they are more concerned with the coronavirus pandemic and the economic destruction it has wrought. The Republican president won the White House in large part due to his hard-line stance on immigration, a bedrock issue that animates his base. His administration has maintained that focus despite intense pressure to respond to the world's worst coronavirus outbreak and nationwide protests against police brutality and racism that have fueled a summer of discontent.

Oregon State Police leaving Portland over lack of prosecutions

Oregon State Police on Thursday said they were withdrawing protection from Portland's federal courthouse over frustration at a prosecutor's decision not to indict many people arrested in protests there. The state police were deployed to Portland two weeks ago under an agreement between Oregon Governor Kate Brown and Vice President Mike Pence to withdraw federal agents after weeks of clashes with protesters. President Donald Trump threatened to send National Guard troops to Portland, if requested by Oregon authorities, if local law enforcement was unable to protect the federal courthouse.

U.S. requires Confucius Institute center to register as foreign mission

Washington said on Thursday it was requiring the center that manages Chinese government-funded Confucius Institutes in the United States to register as a foreign mission, in a further sign of deteriorating bilateral relations. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a statement, labeled the Confucius Institute U.S. Center in Washington "an entity advancing Beijing's global propaganda and malign influence campaign on U.S. campuses and K-12 classrooms.

" Exclusive: U.S. to make coronavirus strain for possible human challenge trials

U.S. government scientists have begun efforts to manufacture a strain of the novel coronavirus that could be used in human challenge trials of vaccines, a controversial type of study in which healthy volunteers would be vaccinated and then intentionally infected with the virus, Reuters has learned. The work is preliminary and such trials would not replace large-scale, Phase 3 trials such as those now under way in the United States testing experimental COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna Inc and Pfizer Inc, according to a statement emailed to Reuters by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

Explainer: How the coronavirus changed U.S. political conventions, perhaps forever

The U.S. political convention, a presidential campaign ritual dating to the 1830s, is being reinvented on the fly after being short-circuited by the coronavirus pandemic - much like the campaign itself. Here is a look at how the Democratic and Republican conventions will be different this year - and maybe for campaigns to come.

Trump holds up coronavirus aid to block funding for mail-in voting

President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was blocking Democrats' effort to include funds for the U.S. Postal Service and election infrastructure in a new coronavirus relief bill, a bid to block more Americans from voting by mail during the pandemic. Congressional Democrats accused Republican Trump of trying to damage the struggling Postal Service to improve his chances of being re-elected as opinion polls show him trailing presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.