Why a Black man from Louisiana is serving a life sentence for stealing hedge clippers

According to Louisiana law, the crime of attempted simple burglary carries no more than 12 years behind bars, but because the 1997 offense was his fourth felony, Bryant, who is Black, received a life sentence in 2000. The justices declined to review the sentence, which was upheld by the state appeals court in 2019, according to the decision. One justice recused himself.

Conspiracy-mongering Republican seeking John Lewis seat gets social media boost from Trump

On Thursday evening, amid a fairly typical burst of presidential Twitter activity, President Trump retweeted two recent posts from the account of Angela Stanton-King, a Republican congressional candidate who has repeatedly used her social media feeds to promote content related to QAnon and other fringe conspiracy theories, including wildly implausible internet rumors about sex trafficking of children. Trump has also flirted with QAnon memes on social media, although his retweets of Stanton-King were not related to the loosely knit group whose followers have been described by the FBI as “conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists.” In the first tweet, which was originally posted last week, Stanton-King describes herself as “a proud Black woman who supports @realDonaldTrump” and is “done with the Democrat Party lying to my community.”

Should Judge Sullivan Be Disqualified from Flynn Case? An Appeals Court Is Asking

At the time, that court's three-judge panel had not yet heard oral argument on Michael Flynn's mandamus petition — i.e., Flynn's request that the panel find that federal district judge Emmet Sullivan was acting lawlessly. Sullivan had not only failed to grant the Justice Department's motion to dismiss the criminal case against Flynn; he had appointed a former federal judge (the overtly anti-Trump John Gleeson) to posit the argument abandoned by DOJ — to wit, that Flynn should proceed to sentencing because he had pled guilty to a false-statements charge, waiving his right to contest the case any further in exchange for the government's agreement not to file any other charges.

Christiane Lemieux and Anthropologie Team Up for the Launch of Her Newest Collection

Lemieux Et Cie's Artisanal Modernism is now available through Anthropologie Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

Nasa to change 'harmful' and insensitive' planet and galaxy nicknames

Nasa has signaled it is joining the social justice movement by changing unofficial and potentially contentious names used by the scientific community for distant cosmic objects and systems such as planets, galaxies and nebulae. In a statement last week, the space agency said that as the “community works to identify and address systemic discrimination and inequality in all aspects of the field, it has become clear that certain cosmic nicknames are not only insensitive, but can be actively harmful”. Nasa added that it is “examining its use of unofficial terminology for cosmic objects as part of its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion”.

Woman confronting vandals covered in paint during renewed Portland protests

Protesters in Portland allegedly threw white paint over a woman, as demonstrators clashed with police for a third consecutive day. On Friday, following two days of protests marred by vandalism, more than 200 people clashed with police, as two other Black Lives Matter protests marched peacefully through the city. As the peaceful demonstrations took place, a separate group gathered at a park in east Portland and marched to the local precinct.

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  Woman Tries to Block Portland Protesters Targeting Police Station With Paint

  Storyful
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  Portland Protesters Target Police Association Building

  Storyful

A 17-year-old high school student developed an app that records your interaction with police when you're pulled over and immediately shares it to Instagram and Facebook

Aaditya Agrawal A 17-year-old New Jersey high school student has developed an Android app that allows users to record their interactions with police and then notify a loved one or share it to social media, like Instagram. Aaditya Agrawal told Business Insider that he was compelled to create the app in part after a close friend of his, who is Black, was pulled over without cause. "You see it in the news all the time, but when it happens to one of your close friends — and he tells you how it felt for that to happen to him — then you understand the significance," he said.

GOP appeals after Judge dismisses lawsuit over House's proxy voting system established due to COVID-19

WASHINGTON – A federal judge on Thursday tossed out a Republican-led lawsuit aiming to halt an unprecedented proxy voting system established by the House of Representatives due to the coronavirus pandemic, ruling that the House was immune from such a legal challenge. The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in the District of Columbia by nearly two dozen House Republicans – led by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. in May, argued the proxy voting rules violated the U.S. Constitution because under the Constitution, a majority of lawmakers must be present to take up business and vote on legislation.

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  Don McGahn: Democrats can subpoena Trump's former White House counsel, court rules

  The Independent
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  Court rules House can enforce McGahn subpoena, but law professors say Trump's stalling already did its job

  The Week

Former US soldiers sentenced to 20 years for bungled Venezuelan coup plot

A Venezuelan court sentenced two former US special forces soldiers to 20 years in prison for their part in a failed beach attack aimed at overthrowing President Nicolas Maduro, prosecutors announced late on Friday. Former Green Berets Luke Denman and Airan Berry admitted to taking part in the May 4 operation orchestrated by a third ex-US soldier who remains in the United States, Venezuelan's chief prosecutor Tarek William Saab announced on Twitter. "THEY ADMITTED THEIR RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE FACTS," Saab wrote, adding that the case will continue for dozens of other defendants.

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  Venezuela jails two Americans over failed 'invasion'

  AFP
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  Ex-Green Berets sentenced to 20 years for Venezuela attack

  Associated Press

Bars over schools: Why your kids will probably learn from home this fall

But he has not provided any federal guidance on how, exactly, schools can reopen safely and what the federal government will do in order to ensure that they are safely able to do so. Everyone is looking to our federal government to show some leadership here,” Duncan told lawmakers on Thursday, adding that it was unfair to ask school superintendents to make “life-or-death public health decisions. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did issue a nine-page checklist for schools, but it contains broad, sometimes obvious recommendations, such as appointing a person to consult “local health officials about the school's approach to planning for COVID-19.

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  New York schools OK'd for in-person classes. Here's where nation's big districts stand on reopening.

  USA TODAY
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  'The virus took hold': Teacher writes own obituary to protest reopening schools

  NBC News

The Latest: Qatar emir says Lebanon can't recover on its own

President Nicos Anastasiades says Cyprus will send 40 more tons of medical supplies, generators, clothing and nonperishable food to Lebanon on top of the five tons that have already been dispatched. Anastasiades said in a statement during Sunday's Lebanon support teleconference that Cypriot rescue crews and sniffer dogs are already in Beirut and more could be dispatched if Lebanese President Michel Aoun requests it. Additionally, the Cypriot president pledged 5 million euros in financial aid.

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  My dear Beirut, I am far away but I am feeling your pain

  The Independent
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  Officials resign in Lebanon in wake of deadly blast

  Associated Press

Hong Kong hits back at 'shameless' U.S. sanctions on leader Carrie Lam

The Chinese and Hong Kong governments strongly criticized Washington Saturday after the United States imposed sanctions on the territory's leader Carrie Lam, and other officials, dismissing the move as "clowning actions" that would not intimidate Chinese people. Hong Kong's government said the sanctions were "shameless and despicable" and represented a "blatant and barbaric" interference in China's internal affairs, warning that Hong Kong was being used as a "pawn" in the U.S.-China relationship. The Trump administration announced Friday it would impose sanctions on Lam and Luo Huining, the head of China's Liaison Office in Hong Kong, along with nine other current and former officials that Washington accuses of curtailing political freedoms, following the imposition of a draconian new security law in June.

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  U.S. sanctions branded 'clowning actions' as Hong Kong vows it won't be intimidated

  Reuters
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  US slaps sanctions on Hong Kong leader in new offensive on China

  AFP

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

New York state Atty. Gen. Letitia James has pointed a loaded gun at the National Rifle Assn., accusing its leaders of fraud and self-dealing. James' 164-page civil complaint is chock-full of allegations of brazen and embarrassing corruption. It devotes 17 pages alone to the conduct of the organization's controversial frontman, Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre.

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  The NRA’s $64 Million Theft and 23 More Shocking Money Scandals

  GOBankingRates
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  Texas offers a big welcome to the NRA

  FOX News Videos

Coronavirus: India is turning to faster tests to meet targets

In order to increase its testing capacity, the Indian authorities have been switching over to a cheaper and quicker method called a rapid antigen test, more globally known as diagnostic or rapid tests. These isolate proteins called antigens that are unique to the virus, and can give a result in 15 to 20 minutes. But these tests are less reliable, with an accuracy rate in some cases as low as 50%, and were originally meant to be used in virus hotspots and healthcare settings.

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  $800 a week to test employees for COVID-19. Could rapid, cheap tests help?

  NBC News
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  Shortages threaten Trump’s plan for rapid coronavirus tests

  Politico

U.S. health chief arrives in Taiwan on trip condemned by China

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar arrived in Taiwan on Sunday as the highest-level U.S. official to visit in four decades, a trip condemned by China which claims the island as its own, further irritating Sino-U.S. relations. Beijing, already arguing with Washington over everything from human rights and trade to the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, has threatened unspecified countermeasures to Azar's visit. China considers Taiwan a wayward province, to be brought under its control by force if needed.

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  Azar leads highest-level US delegation to Taiwan in decades

  Associated Press
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  As China tensions soar, US embraces Taiwan with visit, but cautiously

  AFP

A Mercedes-Benz Sprinter was converted into a tiny luxury home on wheels starting at $172,500 — see inside the 2021 Daycruiser 144 RV

Midwest Automotive Design built the 2021 Daycruiser 144, a luxury Sprinter RV camper with its own separate bathroom. Midwest Automotive Design built the 2021 Daycruiser 144, a Sprinter camper RV with luxurious interior amenities. The RV and camper van conversion company, which has been around for over 16 years, specializes in luxury vans — whether it be offices on wheels or Sprinter limos — and Class B RVs built on Promasters and Sprinters.

New 'threat' against former Saudi spy in Canada: media

A former senior Saudi intelligence official who has accused Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of trying to have him assassinated in 2018 has been placed under heightened security after a new threat on his life, a Canadian newspaper reported. The Globe and Mail said Canadian security services had been informed of a new attempted attack on Saad Aljabri, who lives at an undisclosed location in the Toronto region. Aljabri served as a counterespionage chief under a rival prince, Mohammed bin Nayef, who was ousted in 2017 by Prince Mohammed.

Kim Jong-un sends aid to North Korean border city in lockdown

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered the distribution of aid to the border city of Kaesong after the area was locked down last month to fight the coronavirus, state media said on Sunday. Authorities raised the state of emergency to the maximum level for the city in July, saying they had discovered the country's first suspected virus case. A train carrying goods arrived in the "totally blocked" city of Kaesong on Friday, the official KCNA news agency reported.

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  North Korea brings aid supplies to border town under lockdown: state media

  Reuters
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  Biden says he'd bring back lockdowns despite drop in COVID-19 cases

  FOX News Videos

Editorial: Eighteen (years) is enough: Limit the terms of Supreme Court justices

And if a Democratic Congress expanded the Supreme Court to influence its rulings, what would prevent a future Republican Congress and president from following suit? The Democrats' exasperation with Trump and McConnell is understandable, but the solution isn't tit-for-tat partisanship but rather a depoliticization of the process for appointing justices. Liberal and conservative legal experts have joined in proposing that justices — who now serve for life unless they choose to retire — be appointed instead to fixed terms.

Coronavirus: Nine test positive at Georgia school where photo of crowded corridor went viral

Nine people have tested positive for Covid-19 at a Georgia high school just days after a photo of a packed hallway went viral. Six students and three staff members who were at North Paulding High School in Dallas, Georgia last week have tested positive, according to a letter sent to parents on Saturday. The letter stated: "We have anticipated that Covid-19 would impact us as it has nearly every community, and the district has worked in partnership with the Department of Public Health (DPH) to proactively implement safety precautions and response plans.

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  250 students and staff quarantined in Georgia school district after one week of school

  USA TODAY
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  More than 200 students in Georgia are quarantining after the district's first week open saw several test positive for coronavirus

  INSIDER

A white person and a Black person vote by mail. Whose ballot is more likely to be rejected?

But the changes that states are scrambling to make ahead of November to help protect voters from COVID-19 — expanding their mail and absentee voting systems while reducing the number of polling locations — risk supersizing the issues of racial discrimination and disenfranchisement that Black, Hispanic and other voters of color have already spent generations fighting. The cause was dear to the late Rep. John Lewis, the longtime Democratic congressman from Georgia and a giant of the civil rights movement, who was beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, for marching in support of voting rights in March of 1965 at a time when poll taxes and literacy tests were written into law.

Coronavirus: New Zealand marks 100 days without community spread

New Zealand has gone 100 days without recording a locally transmitted Covid-19 case, a milestone that has both been welcomed and brought warnings against complacency. The last case of community transmission was detected on 1 May, days after the country started easing its lockdown. New Zealand has fared better than other countries, recording 1,219 confirmed cases and 22 deaths since the virus arrived in late February.

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  New Zealand marks 100 days of virus elimination

  Associated Press
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  Coronavirus: New Zealand marks 100 days without domestic case

  The Independent

Police Officer Fired After Allegedly Mishandling Explicit Photos of Slain University of Utah Student

A police officer in Logan, Utah, was fired after a state investigation concluded he “mishandled” explicit photographs that were used to extort University of Utah student Lauren McCluskey, the Logan Police Department announced Friday. In October 2018, 21-year-old McCluskey told the University of Utah Police Department that her ex-boyfriend Melvin Rowland was extorting her for money by threatening to release explicit photographs of her. She then sent those photographs to Officer Miguel Deras, the on-duty campus police officer, according to a report summarizing the Utah Department of Public Safety's (UDPS) investigation into Deras' conduct.