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<p>COLUMBIA, SC (AP) - The South Carolina Supreme Court has temporarily ordered judges to stop issuing “no-knock” search warrants.</p> <p>The announcement, signed by Chief Justice Donald W. Beatty on Friday, said circuit and summary judges cannot sign off on the warrants until they receive further instruction from the state’s judicial branch on how to issue the warrants.</p>

In an effort to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus among younger people, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster is restricting when bars and restaurants can serve alcohol. Starting Saturday, establishments will not be able to serve alcohol past 11 p.m. under McMaster’s new order. Bars and restaurants caught serving alcohol past 11 p.m. face suspension of their liquor licenses. “We know that young adults who are rapidly contracting the virus and spreading it into our communities frequently congregate in late-night atmospheres which simply are not conducive to stopping its continued transmission,” McMaster said. “This measured, carefully tailored approach will...

As the top human rights body of the United Nations seeks international scrutiny of systemic racism in response to the recent killings of African Americans by police, some countries are wondering if there is a double standard at play for America rather than the ways other countries are targeted for human rights violations because of dehumanizing their people. A draft resolution, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, singles out the United States and could become the centerpiece of a hastily scheduled debate by the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday. The text calls for a...

Trump admin vows to combat Chinese manipulation of global body China is working to assume control of multiple key United Nations agencies in order to subvert U.S. influence and advance its anti-democratic agenda, current and former senior Trump administration officials told the Washington Free Beacon. China currently holds 4 of the top 15 leading positions within the organization, including a seat on the powerful Security Council. The country’s sway was on full display this year when it successfully pressured the World Health Organization (WHO) to hide information about the coronavirus pandemic. The Communist Party is also using its influence at...

Responsibility for combating the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. lies mainly with governors and not President Trump, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley says. "The federal government can provide crucial resources, but the burden is on the governor and her team to distribute them. No two states are alike, and blanket approaches won’t work," Haley, who previously served as a Republican governor of South Carolina, wrote in a New York Times op-ed piece Wednesday. She seemed to oppose Dr. Anthony Fauci’s endorsement last week of a nationwide stay-at-home order, which came as a handful of the nation's...

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley called out presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden on "Hannity" Wednesday for seeming to cave to pressure from many in his party who have called to defund the police. "If we go with a President Biden," Haley warned, "we will lose our rule of law, we will have the progressives really running away with everything, getting all of what they want and we will get closer and closer to the socialist countries that we have fought so hard not to become." By contrast, Haley said, "we've had true results with President Trump....

The Lincoln Project, a Republican super PAC, in a new ad slammed some of President Trump’s top GOP allies in the Senate, accusing a slate of Republican lawmakers of “cowardice” and “betrayal.” The ad, released Wednesday, states, “Someday soon, the time of Trump will pass. This circus of incompetence, corruption and cruelty will end. When it does, the men and women in Trump’s Republican Party will come to you, telling you they can repair the damage he’s done. They’ll beg you to forgive their votes to exonerate Trump from his crimes, ask you to forgive their silence, their cowardice and...

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) torched former Ambassador Nikki Haley on Friday, saying that she is opposed to combating big tech “tyranny,” Breitbart News has learned exclusively. Breitbart News obtained a copy of Gaetz’s latest Hot Takes with Matt Gaetz podcast episode, in which he slams Haley’s critique calling for regulations that would curb big tech censorship of conservative and alternative voices. Haley wrote on Thursday that, although she decries censorship of conservatives, regulating big tech would “go too far in the other direction.” “Censorship by tech companies, esp censorship of conservative opinions, violates the spirit of the law & the...

A shooting at a nightclub early Sunday left two people dead and eight wounded in South Carolina, a sheriff’s official said. Two Greenville County sheriff’s deputies noticed a disturbance at Lavish Lounge just before 2 a.m., and saw a large crowd running out of the building, Sheriff Hobart Lewis said at a press conference. There was “active gunfire from inside the building,” Lt. Jimmy Bolt said in an initial statement, and Lewis said all the shots were fired inside. Both Lewis and Bolt initially said 12 people had been wounded — with at least four in critical condition, Lewis said...

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WMBF) – Myrtle Beach City Council has approved a mandate requiring face masks to be worn in certain public places. The order starts at 11:59 p.m. Thursday, July 2, and will remain in effect for 67 days, which is through Labor Day, or until rescinded, or until the expiration of the declaration of a civil emergency. According to the executive order, individuals would be required to wear the face coverings, defined as a “uniform piece of cloth, fabric, or other material that securely covers a person’s nose and mouth and remains affixed in place without the use...

Senators aim to limit Trump's ability to remove troops from Germany BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 06/29/20 03:19 PM EDT A bipartisan group of senators is trying to place limits on President Trump's ability to remove troops from Germany unless the administration is able to meet a slew of requirements. The proposal, spearheaded by Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), would prohibit the administration from reducing the number of active-duty troops in Germany below 34,500 unless the Pentagon can certify to Congress that it is in the national security interest of the United States and would not negatively undermine European alliances or NATO....

ANDERSON, S.C. (WSPA) – Ahead of the Fourth of July weekend, an emergency ordinance requiring people wear face masks in certain circumstances failed to pass the Anderson City Council. Council members instead approved a resolution asking, but not requiring, people to wear face coverings, social distance and wash hands. The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control said a lack of mask-wearing has been adding to the increase of cases statewide. With the holiday weekend approaching, state health officials have been urging everyone to celebrate at home.

When Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warned of a French Revolution taking place in the Democratic Party, liberals either mocked him or insisted that the French Revolution was good because it toppled a monarchy. Yet Graham’s warning came amid nationwide riots following the death of George Floyd — riots with more than one echo of Jacobin lawlessness. On Sunday, instigators camped out in front of the home of Jeff Bezos with that quintessential symbol of the French Revolution — the guillotine. Drew Hernandez, host of the web show “Lives Matter,” shared horrifying footage of a guillotine in front of Bezos’s house...

President Trump removed Sunday his retweet of a protest video that showed a supporter yelling “white power,” a comment that the White House said he never heard. “President Trump is a big fan of The Villages. He did not hear the one statement made on the video,” said White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere. “What he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters.” The two-minute video taken at The Villages, a retirement community in Florida, showed anti-Trump protesters yelling at Trump supporters as they rolled by in golf carts decorated with pro-Trump signs and American flags. After...

Three events last week showed that Democrats do not want a mere transfer of power if they win the November election: they intend to revolutionize our entire system of government. The first happened Wednesday, when Democrats blocked the Senate from considering a bill on police reform by Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC). Scott, who is African American, has been working on the issue for years. He had the full support of the rest of the Republican caucus. He also agreed to consider whatever amendments Democrats offered. They still used the filibuster to block the bill from even being debated. The episode...

That, of course, was blocked and filibustered by the Democrats. They didn’t want to talk about it. Debated, amended. She said that you and your Republican colleagues supporting the Justice Act were basically complicit in the murder of George Floyds, saying that you were trying to get away with his murder. As someone who’s worked very hard on this issue as a black man. What was your reaction when you heard that from Speaker Pelosi? SEN. TIM. SCOTT: It was the most outrageous, sinful comment I’ve heard as a public official period. I thought to myself that how in the...

It is taking longer than originally expected for crews to remove a statue of John C. Calhoun from Charleston’s Marion Square Wednesday morning. ....Work began to remove the monument began shortly before 1 a.m. Wednesday, hours after Charleston City Council voted in favor of relocating it. But shortly before 6 a.m. Wednesday, word came from crews at the scene that it would be another hour to an hour-and-a-half because...

The successor to prison-bound former Rep. Chris Collins and the challenger to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will be decided Tuesday along with nominees for dozens of House seats as six states hold elections. But it may take several days for votes to be counted as states cope with an expected surge in mail-in ballots because of the coronavirus pandemic. Elections in Kentucky, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina and Virginia had already been delayed, while South Carolina’s runoffs for state-level offices were always planned for Tuesday.In New York, Kentucky and North Carolina, which is hosting a GOP runoff for White...

GOP rallies around Trump after firing of Manhattan US attorney BY ALEXANDER BOLTON - 06/22/20 08:05 PM EDT — GOP rallies around Trump after firing of Manhattan US attorney Senate Republicans on Monday largely defended President Trump following his controversial decision this week to fire Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said Trump was within his right to fire Berman, who was involved in a number of politically sensitive investigations that touched on Trump and his advisers. “It’s kind of like previous firings, I would say,” Thune said....

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Monday that the order President Trump signed earlier in the day suspending certain temporary work visas through the end of the year will have a “chilling effect” on the nation’s economic recovery amid the coronavirus pandemic. “This decision, in my view, will have a chilling effect on our economic recovery at a time we should be doing all we can to restore the economy,” Graham said in a series of tweets. The order Trump signed Monday applies to H-1B visas, H-2B visas, H-4 visas, L-1 visas and certain J-1 visas. “Under ordinary circumstances, properly administered...