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'Unconstitutional slop': Democrats blast Trump's executive actions on coronavirus relief

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the "kindest thing I could say" after looking at President Trump's executive orders was that he "doesn't know what he's talking about."

Mauritius oil spill: Fears vessel may 'break in two' as cracks appear

The MV Wakashio, which ran aground on a coral reef on 25 July, is now leaking oil off the island.

Man says he wasn’t allowed into an Arkansas casino because ‘men do not carry purses’

The casino has since apologized.

AOC slams New York Governor Cuomo over reopening schools in autumn

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has taken a swipe at New York Governor Andrew Cuomo over his decision to allow schools to open this fall, a rare case of Democrat-on-Democrat sparring during the pandemic."If it's not safe enough for indoor dining, what makes it safe enough for indoor schooling?" Ocasio-Cortez asked in a tweet. "And restaurants actually have soap in the bathrooms."

Fact check: Quarantine 'camps' are real, but COVID-19 camp claim stretches truth

An Instagram post is correct about expansion of quarantine sites during the pandemic, but falsely claims personal information will be accessed there.

Louisville police said protesters, who have been marching against Breonna Taylor's death for more than 70 days, can no longer use public roads

A handful of people have been arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and blocking a roadway since the ban started, local media reported.

Chicago protests: Restrictions imposed after chaotic night of unrest

Chicago officials say over 100 arrests have been made after a night of violence and looting.

Appeals of Nazi camp guard conviction in Germany dropped

All appeals against the conviction of a 93-year-old Nazi concentration camp guard have been dropped, a Hamburg court said Monday, making the decision legally binding and easing the way for possible future prosecutions. Bruno Dey was convicted last month of 5,232 counts of accessory to murder in Hamburg state court — equal to the number of people believed to have been killed at Stutthof during his service there in 1944 and 1945. Because he was 17 and 18 at the time of his alleged crimes, Dey’s case was heard in juvenile court and he was given a two-year suspended sentence.

U.S. Attorney General Barr says the left wants to tear down system

Barr also told a Fox News TV host he was worried that an increase in mail-in voting could lead to a contested presidential election in November, sounding in on an issue often raised by U.S. President Donald Trump. In an interview with conservative pundit Mark Levin, Barr said Democrats had pulled away from classic liberal values and now were akin to the "Rousseauian Revolutionary Party" aimed at destroying the institutions upon which the country was built.

Inside McDonald's year of scandals and its race to fix its reputation as the fast-food giant sues its ex-CEO over alleged sexual relationships with employees

McDonald's is suing its former CEO. And, it's just the latest scandal in a dramatic year for the fast-food giant.

Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in South Florida on August 9

We’re keeping track of the latest news regarding the coronavirus in South Florida and around the state. Check back for updates throughout the day.

Senate cafeteria workers reportedly face layoffs if Congressional stalemate continues

Up to 80 people who are part of the Senate cafeteria staff in the capitol could face layoffs by October if Congress can't emerge from its coronavirus relief deadlock, CNN reports.The company that employs the workers, Restaurant Associates, did not confirm the number, but did not deny issuing warnings of potential layoffs, which are the result of having to close some of its restaurants because of the pandemic.Senators told CNN they believe they will pass a bill that will fund the Architect of the Capitol — the federal agency that oversees the day-to-day function of the Capitol and has a private contract with Restaurant Associates — in time, allowing employees to continue to receive their paychecks, like the CARES Act did.Lawmakers said they were committed to protecting the workers' jobs, although Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) blamed Restaurant Associates, which he said "has been a problem to deal with," rather than his colleagues for the layoffs threat. As Murphy sees it, the company is simply trying "get more money out of the Architect of the Capitol," which he said could mean it's "time to find a vendor that's not going to use the threats of layoffs as a cajole to try to get more money." Read more at CNN.More stories from theweek.com Donald Trump's impotent tyranny QAnon goes mainstream Athletes and celebrities join 100 Black male leaders calling on Biden to pick a Black woman running mate

Health directors told to keep quiet as Florida leaders pressed to reopen classrooms

Following a directive from the governor, health directors across Florida refuse to give school boards advice on reopening schools amid the pandemic.

Maskless woman filmed telling grocery store worked she could be sued for enforcing rules

A maskless woman was filmed falsely telling a grocery store worker she could be prosecuted for telling customers to wear masks - insisting that she was from an organization called the ‘Freedom to Breathe Agency’.The now-viral video shows the woman claiming she’s from the 'agency', which she says protects people's “constitutional rights” and makes sure civil and federal laws are not broken.

Women who use marijuana during pregnancy are 1.5 times more likely to have a child with autism, according to the largest study of its kind

In the largest study of its kind, marijuana use in pregnancy was linked to a 50% higher risk of having a child with autism.

Trump allows some unemployment pay and defers payroll tax

President Trump on Saturday claimed the authority to defer payroll taxes and replace an expired unemployment benefit with a smaller amount after negotiations with Congress on a new COVID-19 rescue package collapsed.

Nigerian singer sentenced to death for blasphemy in Kano state

Musician Yahaya Sharif-Aminu broadcast a song about Prophet Muhammad in March.

Number of Americans giving up US citizenship skyrocketing in 2020, report says

The number had been in steep decline over the last few years, according to the report.

Belarus Riots After Dictator Clings to Power in Election

MOSCOW—Riots erupted in Belarus on election night as a crowd of thousands protested the apparent victory of “Europe’s last dictator,” Alexander Lukashenko, and authorities fired tear gas, rubber bullets, water cannons and grenades at the crowd.Natalia Vasilyva, The Telegraph's correspondent on the ground in Minsk, told The Daily Beast, “Things look really bad here; my ex-colleague, an AP photographer Mstislav Chernov, has been hospitalized after riot police beat him severely.”Earlier this evening, witnesses also saw a heavy army vehicle run through the crowd on the Masherova Avenue; it is unclear how many people got injured in the incident. Belarusian journalists have been publishing photographs of severely injured people at the protests. > Belarus The police went violent in Minsk pic.twitter.com/CwMxwsas2P> > — Hanna Liubakova (@HannaLiubakova) August 9, 2020Lukashenko lead official exit polls in Belarus’ presidential election around 8pm local time with almost 80 percent of the vote, with only 6.8 percent of the vote going to the main opposition candidate, 37-year-old Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who joined politics after her husband’s arrest earlier this year.On the morning of election day, at least 28 observers were detained and eight more people were missing, including seven team members of Tikhanovskaya, who by various accounts was either in hiding or planning to vote in public later in the day. (She eventually emerged at a polling station surrounded by staffers and journalists, with her press secretary telling The Guardian, “We can’t defend ourselves physically against armed people or the security services … This is the most trustworthy defense we have.”)Was Belarus’ Arrest of Russian Wagner Soldiers Staged in a Ploy to Postpone Elections?For millions of Belarusians, the election represented the best chance in the past 26 years to finally end the long, authoritarian rule of Lukashenko. The opposition blames Lukashenko for political repressions and for serious human-rights violations, including allegedly ordering the murder of four people long ago. Lukashenko’s critics want to see him in court.  For Lukashenko, Sunday was the day that his long-running political machine needed to work to keep him in power. Aware of the dark ramifications of any disgraceful defeat in an actual election, Lukashenko has clearly turned once more to repression of opponents and independent observers. Belarusians complained about problems with the Internet on election day. First, accessing YouTube, Viber and Telegram appeared to be difficult, then the entire country was left without internet; cell phones did not work either.  But that was only after more than one million people voted online in a parallel, unofficial vote run by the independent Golos platform. “This is the closest we’ve ever been to victory,” film director Yury Khashevatsky told The Daily Beast. “Lukashenko does not have enough money to pay all his KGB agents [in Belarus, the domestic intelligence agency is still called the KGB], police and army officers to stay loyal, cover up for him, provide him with rigged elections. Change is coming close, so are the investigations for members of Lukashenko’s death squad, who remain unpunished,” he said, referencing the murders of four opposition figures in the 1990s. (A man claiming to be a former elite police officer emerged in 2019 to say that he helped assassinate Lukashenko’s enemies.) Khashevatsky warned the world about the newly emerging dictatorship back in 1996 with a film called An Ordinary President. A year later, he was attacked, and police broke both of his legs and destroyed his video equipment. Khashevatsky, now a member of Tikhonovskaya’s campaign, is full of hope that justice and democracy might prevail in Belarus. But the diverging interests of millions of Belarusians and one authoritarian over his retirement plans is hard to bridge.  “There is no plan for Lukashenko’s peaceful retirement, he sometimes says it is only China he could run to, but knowing his character, we realize he would not trust Chinese authorities for giving him a shelter, either,” Khashevatsky said on the phone from Minsk. “So the scenario of repressions and violence will repeat—that is the only solution he knows; as one of my characters said in the end of Ordinary President, “we live in a fairy tale, the further, the scarier,’” the film director laughed. But on Sunday, he said he believed his country was “one step away from winning freedom.” This violent scenario has played out for years in the country: anti-Lukashenko protests in Minsk in 2010 were followed by the arrests of four presidential candidates, Lukashenko’s key opponents. Police beat those who participated in the opposition. Lukashenko filled prisons with his critics. Anger simmered. Andrei Sannikov, the key opposition candidate at the time, told The Daily Beast that his interrogators in prison threatened to kill his wife, a well-known Belarusian journalist, Irina Khalip. The population of political prisoners, dissidents, and exiles grew larger. All of those, whose lives were ruined, blamed Lukashenko for human-rights violations and crimes. “Today more than a million Belarusian abroad and millions at home dream to see Lukashenko on trial, punished for violating our state Constitution, taking over the power with help of police and army,” Pavel Marinich, another opposition leader, told The Daily Beast in a telephone interview from Lithuania, where he lives in exile.As history shows, when most authoritarian leaders and dictators fall, they have ended up in prison, or executed; the lucky ones have found shelter in a friendly country. “Lukashenko has been obviously thinking of his retirement plan; his eldest son, who works as a presidential aid, has traveled to Dubai a lot,” Khalip told The Daily Beast. “We don’t want him to escape justice, there are plenty of reasons for international courts to charge him with crimes.”  While Belarusian police detained journalists and activists all over the country on Sunday night, hundreds of people wearing Belarusian traditional shirts gathered in front of Belarusian embassy in Moscow. “Go away, go away, Lukashenko!” people chanted.There is no easy way out for an authoritarian in this situation. “We hear about European experts discussing a safe retirement with Lukashenko,” but that doesn’t seem very likely, Marinich added. And yet, Marinich said, Belarus’ opposition has never been as inspired as this year: every tiny village and town protested against Lukashenko during the last two months of the presidential campaign. “This is incredible, 1,000 people came out even in Gancevitchi village with a population of 1,900 people,” he said. “But of course he is going to rig the election and draw in 70 percent for himself. It is not going to help him win people’s trust.” Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

Sturgeon sorry for exams fiasco and admits student outrage a 'bigger problem' than grade inflation

Nicola Sturgeon has issued an apology to teenagers hit by this year’s results day fiasco and promised to fix the "unfair" system. After spending much of last week defending the arbitrary downgrading of 124,000 qualifications, under a “moderation” process put in place following the cancellation of this year's exams, the First Minister on Monday confirmed a government u-turn over results. Opposition parties said the First Minister’s apology did not go far enough, and claimed the reversal was motivated by a desire to keep her under-fire Education Secretary and deputy, John Swinney, in his job. The furious row over school qualifications threatened to overshadow the reopening of Scottish schools, for the first time in almost five months, from Tuesday. Many are welcoming pupils back on a “phased” basis over the coming days ahead of a full-time return next week. The EIS, the country’s largest teaching union, said a major survey of almost 30,000 members showed that only one in five were confident that schools are currently safe, with two thirds believing face coverings should be made mandatory among older pupils. However, on school qualifications, Ms Sturgeon admitted: “We did not get this right and I'm sorry for that.” Details of an overhauled system will be unveiled on Tuesday at Holyrood. It is likely that many, if not all, of the 124,000 downgrades will now be reversed. Ms Sturgeon said she had come to the conclusion that the injustice and disillusionment felt by teenagers was a “bigger problem” that the impact widespread grade inflation would have on the credibility of this year’s results.

Riot declared as fire burns in Portland police union offices

A fire inside a police union building led authorities in Portland, Ore., to declare a riot and turn protesters away from the offices as demonstrations continue in the city after federal agents withdrew more than a week ago.

At least 1 person died and several others, including children, were trapped after a 'major explosion' in Maryland

Baltimore authorities were working to rescue at least one person trapped after an explosion destroyed multiple homes Monday morning.

Trump lashes out at Republican who called his executive orders 'unconstitutional slop'

Donald Trump lashed out on Monday at a Republican senator who is criticising recent executive orders the president says would provide relief to those out of work due to the coronavirus and protect some from being evicted.Mr Trump used a Monday morning tweet to call Nebraska GOP Senator Ben Sasse a "RINO," short for "Republican in name only," and mocked him over his last Senate campaign.

'We're going to go over the cliff': Evictions in S.C. signal housing crisis for renters nationwide

"It ain't no fun when your stomach hurts from hunger. It ain't no fun — especially in a pandemic," said one South Carolina woman who lost her home.

Jimmy Lai: Hong Kong media tycoon held amid sweep of arrests

The arrests of Jimmy Lai and other prominent pro-democracy activists raise fears of a broad crackdown.

Injured cruise ship worker ‘forgotten’ after seven months in South Florida hotels

From behind the locked window of his 10th-floor hotel room, Paúl Córdova watches dozens of airplanes take off and land each day at Miami International Airport.

Ron Johnson Subpoenas FBI Director Wray in Probe of Crossfire Hurricane Origins

Senator Ron Johnson (R., Wisc.) subpoenaed FBI director Christopher Wray last week for documents pertaining to the Russia investigation.Johnson, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, issued the subpoena as part of the committee's probe into the origins of the Russia investigation, dubbed Crossfire Hurricane by the FBI.The subpoena, obtained by Fox News, demands that Wray make available "all records related to the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. This includes, but is not limited to, all records provided or made available to the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Justice for its review.""The FBI has already been producing documents and information to the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which are directly responsive to this subpoena," the FBI told Fox. "As always, the FBI will continue to cooperate with the Committee’s requests, consistent with our law enforcement and national security obligations."Both the Homeland Security committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee are conducting investigations into the origins of the Crossfire Hurricane probe, whose stated aim was to uncover alleged collusion between Russian operatives and 2016 Trump-campaign officials. Intelligence officials have already declassified various documents pertaining to Crossfire Hurricane as part of the Judiciary Committee's investigation.Many of those documents were uncovered by DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz as part of his own investigation into the FBI's applications for FISA warrants to surveil former Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page. Horowitz found "at least 17 significant errors or omissions in the Carter Page FISA applications."

Sweden looks to US model to curb deadly gang shootings

Police in Stockholm are considering using a strategy against gun violence pioneered in gang-ridden US cities to counter a wave of shootings including an incident in which a 12-year-old girl was killed in crossfire last week. Senior officers from the Swedish capital have visited the southern city of Malmö, which has greatly reduced its shootings by using the Group Violence Intervention (GVI) methods pioneered in the 1990s in US cities. “They reacted very positively,” Rolf Landgren, the police commissioner who leads the Group Violence Intervention (GVI) programme in Malmö, said. The shooting of the girl at a petrol station in Stockholm has led to renewed calls for police to clamp down on the gang violence that has resulted in close to 100 shootings in the first four months of this year alone. Police believe she was hit by a bullet fired at two men with links to a known gang. Malmö is on track this year to record its lowest number of shootings in a decade, with only nine registered so far, down from a peak of 65 in 2017. This is in line with results in US cities. A study of GVI in Boston found that it led to a 63 per cent fall in youth homicide. Mr Landgren said it had taken years of deadly violence before Malmö’s police began to consider GVI – a method developed by David Kennedy, a criminologist, for Boston during the peak of its gun violence in the Nineties. “We had figures way, way higher than we had ever seen before. We needed to break that spiral,” he said. In Malmö, the programme, called Ceasefire, was launched in late 2018. Known or suspected gang members are offered help to leave gang life and warned that if they continue to engage in gun crime, they risk continual police harassment. Suspects are continually targeted using laws that were designed to tackle football hooligans. The bullet-proof car owned by a 30-year-old suspected gang leader was stopped so frequently that he reported the police to Sweden’s parliamentary ombudsman for harassment. The man has since been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison, after drugs and weapons were found during a raid. He has appealed the sentence.

Australia says COVID-19 outbreak shows signs of peaking

Australia recorded its biggest one-day rise in COVID-19 deaths on Monday although a slowdown in new cases gave hope that a second wave of new infections in the state of Victoria may have peaked. Nineteen people had died from the virus, all in Victoria, in the past 24 hours, a national daily record. "This is an agonising day for the members for the 19 families who have lost a loved one to COVID-19 today," Michael Kidd, Australia's deputy chief medical officer, told reporters.

Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb says the US could experience 300,000 coronavirus deaths by the end of 2020

In an interview with CBS "Face The Nation" Dr. Gottlieb said the death toll will be between 200,000 and 300,000.

Catholic bishop rejects idea Trump is ‘pro-life’, saying president is ‘only concerned about himself’

A Kentucky bishop has claimed Donald Trump cannot be pro-life, because he is “only concerned about himself”.Reverend John Stowe, the Lexington Diocese Bishop in Kentucky, questioned the president’s stance on abortion during a Facebook Live panel with Catholic organisation Pax Ramona.

Small farmers left behind in Trump administration's COVID-19 relief package

The uneven distribution of funds is stark. The top 10 percent got over 60 percent of the pot, while the bottom 10 percent got just 0.26 percent.

Venezuela: Former American soldiers jailed over failed coup

Luke Denman and Airan Berry were arrested in May while entering Venezuela by sea from Colombia.

Iran sank a replica US aircraft carrier, then left it in the Strait of Hormuz — now it can seriously disrupt ships in a vital oil route worth $878 million a day

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps sunk the replica during a July 28 and July 29 operation meant to show how it would take on a US carrier.

Sudan rains and floods claim 20 more lives

At least 20 people were killed and 13 others wounded Sunday in torrential rains and flooding, the latest victims of days of flooding in Sudan, the civil defence said. Heavy rains typically hit Sudan between June and October each year, and this week the country has been badly battered by the downpour. "20 people have died and 13 have been injured while 345 houses were destroyed or badly damaged" across the country Sunday, the civil defence said.

Arrest made in shooting that injured an 11-year-old and a woman in Fort Lauderdale, police say

A 60-year-old man with a history of felony convictions has been arrested for his connection to a weekend shooting in Fort Lauderdale that sent an 11-year-old boy and a woman to the hospital, police said.

Macron pledges to continue fight against terrorism after seven aid workers murdered in Sahel

Emmanuel Macron has pledged to continue France’s fight against terror in the Sahel after seven aid workers — six French and one Nigerien — were murdered and set on fire by gunmen on Sunday in a wildlife reserve in the west African nation of Niger. “Several of our compatriots and Nigeriens were cowardly murdered yesterday in Niger in a deadly attack,” the French president said on Twitter. “I share the pain of their families and loved ones. Some were hired for the most altruistic of missions: to help people.” The aid workers were killed on Sunday morning while driving through the southwestern area of Kouré, an area famed for being home to the last remaining population of west African giraffes, about an hours drive from the capital Niamey. The French humanitarian group ACTED issued a statement on Monday confirming the deaths of seven of their aid workers. The group said that they were ‘horrified’ by the ‘senseless and barbaric killing’. “This heinous crime must not go unpunished, nor will it distract us from our commitment to support the people of Niger,” it said. Kadri Abdou, the president of the Association of Kouré’s Giraffe Guides was also killed in the attack. The area is popular with expatriates living in Niamey, as it one of the few places NGO staff are allowed to visit on days off. It is understood that Nigerien and French forces have been combing through the reserve, searching for the gunmen. Local media reported that the US was also helping with drone surveillance and that one of the gunmen had already been found by Nigerien commandoes. No group has claimed responsibility for the killing but groups allied to both Al Qaeda and Islamic State have both been active in the surrounding Tillaberi region. Some 5,100 French soldiers are battling jihadist groups across the Sahel region which runs underneath the Sahara desert.

A woman claiming to be from the 'Freedom To Breathe Agency' filmed telling a grocery employee that she could face legal action for making people wear face masks

The mask-less woman gave the employee a piece of paper claiming she could go to prison for up to five years for telling customers to wear a face mask.

Navarro Defends Trump, Claims ‘the Lord’ Created Executive Orders

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro continued his reputation for saying outrageous things on Sunday, claiming “the Lord” created executive orders to cut through partisanship and calling Donald Trump the “hardest-working president in history” when confronted on Trump’s latest golf weekend.Amid stalled coronavirus relief negotiations between Democrats, Republicans, and the White House, the president issued a series of executive actions and memos from his New Jersey golf club this weekend. The potentially illegal orders Trump signed reduces the unemployment benefit bonus to $400 a week, requires states to fund 25 percent, provinces a payroll tax holiday, and calls for a continued eviction moratorium.Appearing on NBC News’ Meet the Press to defend the president’s orders, Navarro was asked by host Chuck Todd whether he’s confident that the orders will stand up to legal scrutiny since Congress is the branch tasked with budgetary powers.“Well, one of the things I learned here, Chuck, at the White House going through a lot of work on executive orders is what we have the statutory authorities to do, and I’m confident that every single one of those orders which cleared through the office of legal counsel will stand up,” Navarro declared, adding that the orders deliberately included non-decisive language.The Trump aide then shifted course and laid blame for the stalled negotiations at Democrats’ feet, taking personal potshots at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi while suggesting Democrats purposely want a coronavirus relief package to fail.“The question the president has is whether the Democrats really are sincere when they come to the table, and I’m not sure,” he huffed. “It doesn’t help when Speaker Pelosi goes out after every day, with her scarves flying and just beats the heck out of us for being cruel people.”Todd, meanwhile, followed up by pressing Navarro on the president’s own role in the failed negotiations.“Where is the president? Why was he at his golf club all weekend?” Todd wondered aloud. “Why isn’t he negotiating? Look, I understand you guys don’t like each other, that Nancy Pelosi and the president — where is he? Why isn’t he involved?”“You have to understand this is the hardest-working president in history,” Navarro shot back. “He works 24/7.”After that bit of obsequiousness, Navarro insisted the real problem is “the swamp” in Washington before heaping praise on executive orders—a tool the president had previously derided when used by his predecessor.“The Lord and the Founding Fathers created executive orders because of partisan bickering and divided government,” Navarro exclaimed. “That’s what we have here, but the president has taken action.”“His constituency is mainstream Republicans and blue-collar Democrats and independents who are sick and tired of the swamp and he reached out and he took action,” he added. “He didn’t have to — he could have just let this keep going, and he did not. He took action, action, action, and action.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

Despite federal guidance, schools cite privacy laws to withhold info about COVID-19 cases

Federal guidance say those laws don't bar disclosure. Schools can publicly share coronavirus case counts as long as they don’t identify individuals.

Hillary Clinton says Biden needs to consider three things when choosing a VP

Former Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is offering her take on Biden's upcoming VP pick; Peter Doocy reports from Delaware.

Wild bear that sniffed woman's hair is caught and castrated

The black bear was captured after he was filmed approaching a visitor at an ecological park.

Iran says European insurers should pay compensation for downed Ukrainian plane

Iran will not compensate Ukraine International Airlines for its plane Tehran accidentally downed in January because the passenger jet was insured by European firms, the head of Iran's Central Insurance Organisation said on Monday. "The Ukrainian plane is insured by European companies in Ukraine and not by Iranian (insurance) companies," said Gholamreza Soleimani, according to the Young Journalists Club news website affiliated with state TV.

Litman: New York wants to dissolve the NRA; it will probably decapitate it instead

Even if the NRA survives New York's lawsuit, dethroning its CEO and heaping it with humiliation and penalties will be a victory.