SOUTH CHINA SEA DISPUTE: CHINA'S PURSUIT OF RESOURCES 'UNLAWFUL', SAYS US

China's pursuit of offshore resources in parts of the South China Sea is "completely unlawful", US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said.

Mr Pompeo said he wanted to make clear that Beijing's "campaign of bullying to control" the disputed waters was wrong.

China said that the US "deliberately distorts facts and international law".

China has been building military bases on artificial islands in the region also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

The countries have wrangled over territory in the South China Sea for centuries, but tension has steadily increased in recent years.

Beijing claims an area known as the "nine-dash line" and has backed its claim with island-building and patrols, expanding its military presence there.

In a statement on Monday, Mr Pompeo denounced China's claims on the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, saying Beijing had "no legal grounds to unilaterally impose its will on the region".

"Any [People's Republic of China] action to harass other states' fishing or hydrocarbon development in these waters - or to carry out such activities unilaterally - is unlawful," he said.

"The world will not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire."

CHINA BANS US SENATORS CRUZ, RUBIO, SMITH, BROWNBACK OVER CRITICISM

China on Monday said it will ban entry to US Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, Representative Chris Smith and Ambassador for Religious Freedom Sam Brownback over their criticism of the ruling Communist Party’s policies toward minority groups and people of faith.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said actions by the US had “seriously damaged China-US relations” and that China was determined to uphold its national sovereignty against what it sees as interference in its internal affairs.

“China will respond further according to the development of the situation,” Hua said.

There was no indication that any of the four had plans to travel to China.

The travel bans appear to be direct retaliation for the US imposition of sanctions on four Chinese officials, including Chen Quanguo, who heads the northwestern region of Xinjiang, where more than 1 million members of Muslim minority groups have been incarcerated in what China terms de-radicalization and retraining centers.

WHITE HOUSE SEEKS TO DISCREDIT FAUCI AS CORONAVIRUS SURGES

The White House is seeking to discredit Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's leading infectious disease expert, as President Donald Trump works to marginalize him and his dire warnings about the shortcomings of the U.S. coronavirus response.

In a remarkable broadside by the Trump administration against one of its own, a White House official said Sunday that "several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr. Fauci has been wrong on things." The official gave a list of nearly a dozen past comments by Fauci that the official said had ultimately proven erroneous.

Tension between President Trump and Fauci that has been simmering for several weeks now bubbled over this past weekend when the White House released statements detailing the number of times the scientist, who has served six presidents, has been wrong about the pandemic since it surfaced early this year. They also indicated Fauci has lost Trump’s confidence, letting it be known that he no longer briefs the president or enjoys access to the Oval Office. It was also disclosed that his public appearances are controlled so that contradiction between Trump’s roadmap, which is primarily aimed at reviving the economy, and his outlook, which emphasises getting the pandemic under control, are minimised.

White House officials listed nearly a dozen past comments by him earlier in the pandemic that they said had ultimately proven erroneous. They range from his doubts about asymptomatic transmission, to advising people not to rush to wear masks, to suggesting the pandemic is not too serious and would recede, including advice in late-February that “at this moment, there is no need to change anything that you’re doing on a day-by-day basis.”

Fauci’s supporters acknowledge some of those early mistakes, attributing them to a learning process about a pathogen that is still revealing itself.

CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC IS GOING TO GET WORSE AND WORSE AND WORSE: WHO CHIEF

The United States was grappling with the worst coronavirus outbreak in the world on Monday, as Florida shattered the national record for a state’s largest single-day increase in new confirmed cases and the World Health Organization warned that the pandemic is worsening globally and that “there will be no return to the old normal for the foreseeable future.”

The WHO director-general said that while numerous countries have now brought their previously explosive outbreaks under control, namely those in Europe and Asia, “too many countries are headed in the wrong direction.”

Without naming specific politicians, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also chastised political leaders for their “mixed messages” amid the coronavirus outbreaks, saying that they are “undermining the most critical ingredient of any response: trust.”

“If the basics aren’t followed, there is only one way this pandemic is going to go,” Tedros said. “It’s going to get worse and worse and worse.”

US NAVY BATTLES FOR 2nd DAY TO SAVE BURNING WARSHIP IN SAN DIEGO

Hundreds of firefighters battled through a second day from the air, land and water on Monday to save a US war vessel swept by flames while moored at a San Diego shipyard, as the number of sailors and civilians injured in the blaze rose to nearly 60.

The USS Bonhomme Richard, an amphibious assault ship whose size ranks second in the US Navy fleet to that of an aircraft carrier, remained largely shrouded in thick, acrid smoke on Monday as the vessel began listing to its starboard side.

The fire, accompanied by at least one large explosion, erupted Sunday morning in the lower cargo hold of the 844-foot-long (257 meter) ship, docked for routine maintenance at its home port at US Naval Base San Diego.

Since then, flames have spread upward throughout much of the ship and into the tower and other structures on the top of the vessel, Rear Admiral Philip Sobeck told a late-morning news conference.

Helicopters dropped water over the ship throughout Monday while fire boats on the perimeter streamed water on the hull to cool it from the outside. San Diego fire crews discontinued blasting water into the ship from shore, apparently out of concern for destabilizing the vessel’s buoyancy.

Asked whether the ship might be burned beyond repair, Sobeck said he was “hopeful” it could be spared. “Once we get the fire out, which is our priority, then we’ll make that assessment.”

CORONAVIRUS: FRANCE'S HEALTH WORKERS GIVEN PAY RISES WORTH €8BN

The French government has agreed to give pay rises worth €8bn (£7.2bn; $9bn) to health workers, as it hailed their role in fighting coronavirus.

The deal was signed with trade unions on Monday after seven weeks of fraught negotiations.

Health workers have been revered as heroes during the pandemic with regular displays of public appreciation.

But they wanted more than recognition and have held protests to demand pay rises and better funding for hospitals.

Some demonstrators were fined for breaking social-distancing rules. More than 200,000 infections and 30,000 deaths have been recorded in France, one of Europe's worst-hit countries.

Now the government has reached an agreement on pay that will see the wages of health workers rise by €183 a month on average.

The agreement, which most trade unions have signed up to, was hailed by the new French Prime Minister, Jean Castex, as a "historic moment for our health system".

"This is first of all recognition of those who have been on the front line in the fight against this epidemic," Mr Castex said at a signing ceremony.

"It's also a way of catching up the delay for each and every one - including perhaps myself - has their share of responsibility."

Most of the pay-rise package will cover the wages of nurses, care workers and non-medical staff.

Some - around €450m - has been reserved for doctors who work exclusively in the public sector.

US DEFENDS BAN ON STUDENT VISAS FOR ONLINE-ONLY CLASSES

The Trump administration defended new rules barring visas for foreign students taking only-online classes at US colleges.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement filed a brief Monday opposing a lawsuit by Harvard University and MIT against a government policy requiring international students to take at least one in-person class, despite the risks of the coronavirus pandemic.

The colleges, supported by dozens of states and cities and some of the country’s largest tech corporations, argue the policy violates the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to adequately consider the ways its enactment could harm students.

The government wrote in its brief that “if ICE had not considered the schools impacted by its decision, or the vast differences among them regarding plans for reopening in the fall, perhaps the agency would have completely rescinded its March 9, 2020 broadcast message” that students could take all their classes online during the pandemic.

Instead, ICE now requires at least one in-person class for schools under a hybrid model but permits more online classes than it normally would.

The new directive was announced last Monday, after Harvard announced a reopening plan involving almost exclusively online classes.

JUDGE BLOCKS FEDERAL EXECUTIONS; ADMINISTRATION APPEALS

A U.S. district judge on Monday ordered a new delay in federal executions, hours before the first lethal injection was scheduled to be carried out at a federal prison in Indiana.

The Trump administration immediately appealed to a higher court, asking that the executions move forward.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said there are still legal issues to resolve and that “the public is not served by short-circuiting legitimate judicial process." The executions, pushed by the administration, would be the first carried out at the federal level since 2003.

Chutkan said the inmates have presented evidence showing that the government''s plan to use only pentobarbital to carry out the executions “poses an unconstitutionally significant risk of serious pain.”

Chutkan said the inmates produced evidence that, in other executions, prisoners who were given pentobarbital suffered ”flash pulmonary edema,” which she said interferes with breathing and produces sensations of drowning and strangulation.

The inmates have identified alternatives, including the use of an opioid or anti-anxiety drug at the start of the procedure or a different method altogether, a firing squad, Chutkan said.

The Justice Department immediately appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.