US passes 5m Covid cases as Republican calls Trump order unconstitutional slop

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The US on Sunday passed the grim milestone of 5m coronavirus cases, as Donald Trumps executive orders seeking to break a political impasse over further economic relief were denounced by a Republican as unconstitutional slop. Recriminations have been flying in Washington since talks on further aid for the unemployed and for states struggling with a public health crisis collapsed on Friday. Trump intervened on Friday and Saturday, holding press conferences in the jarring setting, amid a pandemic that his own experts say is out of control, of his luxury golf club in New Jersey. Well-heeled members gathered with wine but without much social-distancing or mask wearing in the ornate ballroom to cheer on the president. On Sunday, there was loud Democratic and some Republican criticism of the presidents unilateral proposals on reduced federal enhanced unemployment benefits, payroll tax cuts and protection against evictions. Trumps plan encroaches on Congresss control of federal spending, drawing claims it is illegal, as well as accusations of his proposals being unworkable and failing to address the most pressing financial hardships facing American families. These are illusions, Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, told Fox News Sunday of Trumps list of proposed actions. The same morning, the US continued its unwelcome role as the nation that has by far the highest number of cases of Covid-19 in the world, crossing the five million threshold according to figures from the Johns Hopkins University data tracker, with the pandemic far from under control, according to repeated warnings in recent days and weeks by top federal public health experts. Brazil, the country with the next highest number of cases, has just over 3m in total and just surpassed 100,000 deaths. India, with the third highest total of cases, has recorded just over 2. 1m, although it is surpassed by the United Kingdom and Mexico in the