Black Lives Matter protester replaces slave trader statue

An artist has erected a statue of a Black Lives Matter protester atop the plinth in the English city of Bristol formerly occupied by a statue of a slave trader.

Marc Quinn, one of Britain’s bestknown sculptors, created the life-size resin and steel likeness of Jen Reid, a protester photographed standing on the plinth after demonstrators pulled down the statue of Edward Colston and dumped it in Bristol’s harbor on June 7.

The statue, titled “A Surge of Power (Jen Reid)” was erected before dawn Wednesday without approval from city officials.

Reid, who came to inspect her likeness, said “it’s something that fills me with pride.”

Colston was a 17th-century trader who made a fortune transporting enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas on Bristol-based ships.

To stay solvent, Postal Service to delay some deliveries, cut OT

Mail deliveries could be delayed by a day or more under cost-cutting efforts being imposed by the new postmaster general. The plan eliminates overtime for hundreds of thousands of postal workers and says employees must adopt a “different mindset” to ensure the Postal Service’s survival during the coronavirus pandemic.

Late trips will no longer be authorized. If postal distribution centers are running late, “they will keep the mail for the next day,” Postal Service leaders say in a document obtained by The Associated Press.

The changes come a month after Postmaster General Louis Dejoy, a major donor to President Donald Trump, took over the sprawling mail service. In a memo, the agency said the changes are aimed at “making the USPS fundamentally solvent which we are not at this time.”

The memo cites deep revenue losses from a decadelong decline in mail deliveries that has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic and says an overdue “operational pivot” is needed to ensure the agency’s health and stability.