St. Louis couple charged for pulling guns at protest

St. Louis’ top prosecutor, Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, said Monday she is charging Mark and Patricia Mccloskey, who are both personal injury attorneys in their 60s, with felony unlawful use of a weapon for displaying guns during a racial injustice protest outside their mansion.

They also face a misdemeanor charge of fourth-degree assault.

Gardner said the Mccloskeys’ actions risked creating a violent situation during an otherwise nonviolent protest.

“It is illegal to wave weapons in a threatening manner — that is unlawful in the city of St. Louis,” Gardner said.

Gardner is recommending a diversion program such as community service rather than jail time if the Mccloskeys are convicted. Typically, class E felonies could result in up to four years in prison.

Supporters of the Mccloskeys said they were legally defending their $1.15 million home. Photos emerged as memes on both sides of the gun debate.

UK suspends extradition arrangements with Hong Kong

Britain suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong on Monday and blocked arms sales to the former British territory after China imposed a tough new national security law.

Amid growing tensions with Beijing, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told the House of Commons that he had concerns about the new law and alleged human rights abuses in China, particularly the treatment of the Uighur minority. He described the measures announced Monday as “reasonable and proportionate.”

“We will protect our vital interests,” Raab said. “We will stand up for our values and we will hold China to its international obligations.”

Britain followed the example of the United States, Australia and Canada by suspending extradition agreements with Hong Kong, which became a special administrative region of China after the U.K. returned control of the territory to Beijing in 1997.

Events in Hong Kong are particularly sensitive for the British government because China agreed to a “one country, two systems” policy that was supposed to protect the economic and social traditions of the territory for 50 years after the handover.

Insults, flaring tempers mark marathon EU budget summit

Weary European Union leaders expressed cautious optimism Monday that a deal was in sight on their fourth day of wrangling over an unprecedented $2.1 trillion budget and coronavirus recovery fund, following a weekend of walkouts, flaring tempers and insults.

It took an emotional dinner speech by European Council President Charles Michel about leaders not failing their union, French President Emmanuel Macron venting his deep frustration and a new set of budget numbers to send the marathon summit onward.

“There were extremely tense moments. And there will be more that no doubt will still be difficult. But on content, things have moved forward,” said Macron, stressing his partnership with

German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Without Franco-german agreement, the EU has never taken momentous steps.

“An extraordinary situation demands extraordinary efforts,” Merkel said as the leaders pushed on with one of the bloc’s longest summits ever. What was planned as a two-day summit scheduled to end Saturday was forced into two extra days by deep ideological differences among the 27 leaders.

“It looks more hopeful than when I thought during the night: ‘It’s over,’” said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, a target of criticism for keeping a compromise impossible.

UAE’S Amal spacecraft rockets toward Mars in Arab world 1st

A United Arab Emirates spacecraft rocketed into blue skies from a Japanese launch center Monday at the start of a seven-month journey to Mars on the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission.

The liftoff of the Mars orbiter named Amal, or Hope, starts a rush to fly to Earth’s neighbor that is scheduled to be followed in the next few days by China and the United States.

Amal is set to reach Mars in February 2021, the year the UAE celebrates 50 years since the country’s formation.

Supreme Court won’t speed House legal fight with Trump

The Supreme Court on Monday declined a House request for a shortcut in the legal push to enforce subpoenas for President Donald Trump’s personal and business financial records before this session of Congress ends Jan. 3.

The Democratic-led House wanted to quickly restart the legal fight in cases about committee subpoenas for Trump records from auditing firm Mazars USA and two banks, Capital One and Deutsche Bank.

To do so, the House asked the justices to immediately issue a judgment in cases the Supreme Court issued opinions on July 9. Those opinions did not resolve the Trump-house dispute over the subpoenas, but instead sent the cases back to lower courts to reexamine.

The House argued that it couldn’t restart that lower court action until the judgment is issued Aug. 3. The House sought to advance that because the committees’ “window of opportunity” to litigate and legislate “diminishes by the day.”

States try again to block coal sales that Trump revived

A coalition of states on Monday renewed its push to stop the Trump administration from selling coal from public lands after a previous effort to halt the lease sales was dismissed by a federal judge.

Joined by environmentalists and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, Democratic attorneys general in California, New York, New Mexico and Washington state filed a lawsuit challenging the administration’s coal program in U.S. District Court in Montana.

They alleged that the administration acted illegally when it resumed coal sales that had been halted under Obama due to climate change and other concerns.

Under Trump, the Department of Interior lifted a 2016 moratorium on federal coal sales and concluded they have limited environmental impacts.