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.”

After fatal great white shark attack in Maine, debate intensifies over culling seals

Two weeks ago Maine recorded its first fatal great white shark attack. Julie Dimperio Holowach, 63, of New York City, was splashing with her daughter approximately 20 yards off the coast of Bailey Island when a large shark, likely mistaking Holowach for a seal, struck her with such force that she was launched out of the water, witnesses said. Beaches across the Northeast have closed repeatedly in recent days after great white sharks were spotted swimming close to shore, a worrying trend that has led some people to suggest that states thin the population of seals, the sharks' primary source of food.

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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  Texas offers a big welcome to the NRA

  FOX News Videos
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  NRA's 'From Our Cold, Dead Hands' Attack On Shutdown Threat Does Not Go Well

  HuffPost

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.

Explosives expert: It's only a matter of time before human error leads to another Beirut blast

One of the world's leading experts on ammonium nitrate told The Daily Telegraph: “It's only a matter of time before something similar happens again.” Vyto Babrauskas, a fires and explosives forensics expert based in New York, said that there were tens of thousands sites around the world where the chemical was stored unsafely. About 2,750 tonnes ignited to devastate Beirut on Tuesday. In the UK, it is legal to store up to 1,250 tonnes.

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  Beirut blast: Two Lebanese ministers resign as protesters clash with security forces

  The Telegraph
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  Electric night of Lebanon protests after blast

  AFP

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

In a viral TikTok video, a woman claiming to be from an anti-mask group told a grocery store supervisor in Orange County, California, that she could face legal action for asking people to wear face coverings. The mask-less woman, who claimed she was from the "Freedom to Breathe Agency", was filmed giving the employee a piece of paper that stated she could go to prison for up to three to five years for telling customers to wear a mask. The "Freedom To Breathe Agency" is not a real governmental agency and has previously received a warning from the Department of Justice after it distributed fake "face mask exempt" cards.

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  Dollar Tree, Family Dollar reverse mask policy again. Now requiring customers wear masks amid COVID-19.

  USA TODAY
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  A Dermatologist Answers Your Questions About Acne and Masks

  Scary Mommy

Rescuers shaken by 'blood and death' of India jet disaster

Indian authorities had practised for years for a jet overshooting the "table-top" runway at Kozhikode airport, but local resident Fazal Puthiyakath was not prepared for the "blood and death" of the real thing. The 32-year-old businessman and his neighbours were first on the scene after an Air India Express plane crashed over the runway down a 10-metre (35-foot) bank and broke in two during a fierce storm late Friday, killing 18 people and injuring more than 120. Kozhikode airport in southern India's Kerala state is considered a potential hazard because it has a "table-top" runway with a steep bank at either end.

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  Death toll in India plane accident rises

  Reuters Videos
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  Survivors of deadly India crash say plane swayed violently

  Associated Press

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.

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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  A Florida teacher wrote her own obituary, calling herself a 'human shield' as schools prepare to reopen

  INSIDER
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  Gov. Ricketts on educators protesting push to reopen schools amid COVID pandemic

  FOX News Videos

A father, a sister, a son: Beirut blast takes a heavy toll

A DOTING HUSBAND AND FATHER Soha Saade and her husband, Jihad Saade, were at Saint George Hospital, caring for their 6-year-old daughter, Gemma, who was being treated for Hodgkin lymphoma. The daughter had one more day of treatments left at the hospital before they were scheduled to leave. They saw smoke billowing outside and Soha went with nurses to see if there was any reason for worry.

97,000 kids test positive for COVID-19 in two weeks, report says

Nearly 100,000 children tested positive for the coronavirus in the last two weeks of July, a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics finds. Vanderbilt University's Dr. Tina Hartert hopes increased testing of children will help determine what role they play in transmission, as school districts around the country return to some form of school. In New York City, home to the nation's largest school district, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a return to in-person schooling in the fall and pledged officials "have worked incessantly to get this right."

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  US hits five million COVID-19 cases: Johns Hopkins tally

  AFP
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  U.S. coronavirus cases top 5 million as pandemic rages on

  CBS News

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.

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 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. Accountability in law enforcement has been thrust into the national discourse surrounding how Black Americans are treated by police even more so since the police killing of Minneapolis resident George Floyd in May.

New York is moving homeless people into luxury hotels to protect them against coronavirus and wealthy neighbourhoods aren't happy

But in recent days, residents of some wealthier areas of New York where some of the hotels are located have complained about what they describe as anti-social behaviour and drug use by homeless people in their neighbourhoods. In the Upper West Side, where the median house price is more than $1.8m, some residents have started a Facebook group to express their displeasure over the use of three high-end hotels in the area. Our community is terrified, angry and frightened,” one member of the 'Upper West Siders For Safer Streets' group told the New York Post.

A stranded tanker carrying 4,000 tons of fuel has breached and is leaking oil into the pristine, azure waters of the Indian Ocean

A stranded Japanese-owned oil tanker, sailing under the Panamanian flag, has breached and is flooding waters of the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius with fuel. Mauritius is famous for its coral reefs and abundant marine wildlife. Authorities are racing against the clock to secure a stranded tanker carrying 4,000 tons of oil leaking fuel into waters near a tropical Indian Ocean island.

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  Grounded Mauritius ship operator apologises for oil leak

  Reuters
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  Mauritius races to contain oil spill, protect coastline

  Associated Press

India landslide: Dozens feared dead after flooding in Kerala

At least 22 people have been killed after monsoon-season floods triggered a landslide in the southern Indian state of Kerala. Houses in Idukki district were swept away after torrential rain and flooding late on Friday night. Rescuers have been recovering bodies from under debris but 44 people remain missing, Idduki MP Dean Kuriakose told the BBC.

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  India tea plantation landslide death toll rises to 43

  Reuters
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  Deadly landslide causes dozens of fatalities in India

  AccuWeather

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.

Trump calls audience at his Bedminster golf club a 'peaceful protest'

At a surprise press briefing Friday at his private golf club in Bedminster, N.J., President Trump said his audience of well-to-do supporters was involved in a “peaceful protest” and therefore did not need to adhere to state coronavirus guidelines prohibiting large gatherings. Trump was asked about his earlier assertion that the pandemic was “disappearing” by a reporter who noted that the crowd in attendance seemed to be violating New Jersey restrictions meant to slow the spread of the virus. “You're wrong on that because it's a political activity and they have exceptions, political activity and it's also a peaceful protest,” Trump responded.

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  Trump order could mean $400 in added unemployment benefits — but states would have to help

  Miami Herald
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  Trump signs executive actions on coronavirus economic relief

  NBC News

Celebrate the VP nominee, not Biden's decision to pick a woman. It's the least he can do.

In over two centuries of American presidential politics, just three women and only one person of color have ever been on a major party presidential ticket. This year's Democratic nominee for vice president will join this small club and has a very real shot at becoming the first woman to hold one of the top two most powerful positions in U.S. politics. Selecting a woman nominee is not an act of sacrifice for Joe Biden's presidential campaign.

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  President Trump says Joe Biden is no longer worthy of the Black vote following diversity remark

  FOX News Videos
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  Joe Biden defended Native American rights as Trump administration plans to lift uranium mining ban around 'sacred' Grand Canyon

  Business Insider

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.

Afghan council frees Taliban prisoners to set up peace talks

A traditional Afghan council concluded Sunday with hundreds of delegates agreeing to free 400 Taliban members, paving the way for an early start to negotiations between Afghanistan's warring sides. No date has been set for the release, but negotiations between Kabul's political leadership and the Taliban are expected to begin as early as next week, and will most likely be held in the Mideast state of Qatar, where the Taliban maintain a political office. At the time of its signing it was touted as Afghanistan's best chance at ending decades of war.

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  Afghanistan to release 400 Taliban prisoners, says peace talks imminent

  NBC News
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  Afghanistan to free 'hard-core' Taliban prisoners

  Reuters Videos

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

Though five repatriation flights for crew members have left since April, the company either did not respond to his pleas or said his repatriation was impossible at the time. After receiving questions from the Miami Herald on Friday about Córdova's situation, the company indicated it is going to send him home on Sept. We have been working with Mr. Córdova to get him home in a challenging international travel environment and currently understand the next opportunity to do so is on Sept.

Japan's Abe to avoid visit to war-linked shrine on 75th war anniversary: Jiji

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will refrain from visiting the Yasukuni shrine for war dead on the 75th anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War Two, Jiji news agency said on Sunday, but will make an offering on the emotive day, as he has done in the past. The shrine, dedicated to Japanese who have died during past wars including World War Two, is seen as a potent symbol of the controversy that persists over the conflict's legacy in East Asia. "He will make a ritual offering to the shrine out of his personal expenses as the leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, as he has done in previous years," sources close to the matter said, according to the report.