Incoming: An El Paso Widower Invited Everyone To His Wife's Funeral. They're All Coming.

A Trump proposal would let some businesses discriminate, a standoff in Philadelphia ends after six officers were shot, an overwhelming response to an El Paso victim's husband. This is the BuzzFeed News morning update for Aug. 15

Trump's latest proposal would let some businesses discriminate based on LGBTQ status, race, religion, and more

The rule would let businesses with federal contracts cite religious objections as a valid reason to discriminate against their workers on the basis of LGBTQ status, sex, race, ethnicity, national origin, and other characteristics — thereby skirting worker protections created by past presidents.

The move marks President Donald Trump’s latest effort to weaken the civil rights of minorities with ambiguous rules that grant agencies wide discretion to let companies off the hook when accused of discrimination.

The 46-page draft rule would apply to a range of so-called religious organizations — including corporations, schools, and societies — provided that they claim a “religious purpose.”

Elsewhere in politics

👉 John Hickenlooper will drop out of the presidential race.

👉 Elizabeth Warren took on Obama over student debt forgiveness. How she won is central to her 2020 campaign.

👉 Michael Bennet joked his New York Times editor brother was "unenthusiastic" about his presidential bid.

Six police officers were shot by a gunman during an hourslong standoff in Philadelphia

Officers serving a warrant for narcotics were in the kitchen area of the home when the gunman began to fire around 4:30 p.m., Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross said.

It wasn't until shortly after midnight that the suspect, who police did not immediately identify and who shot at them for hours, was taken into custody. All six of the officers who were shot Wednesday were released after being treated at local hospitals.

Snapshots

A woman in El Salvador who had a stillbirth was convicted of aggravated murder and jailed, but was released. Now she's on trial again for the same crime. Evelyn Hernández is one of dozens of women in the country, which bans abortion entirely, who have been accused of murder by the state after having miscarriages or stillbirths.

A group of LGBTQ creators are suing YouTube, saying the platform is unfairly targeting their content for demonetization and restriction. Five LGBTQ channels have joined together for the suit, which alleges that YouTube unfairly targets any video tagged with words like "gay," "transgender," or "bisexual," even when the videos have no mature content.

Racist Iowa Rep. Steve King asked if there'd "be any population left" without rape and incest. The Republican lawmaker, who was reprimanded by Congress earlier this year for making racist comments, was filmed defending the place of rape and incest in human history during a speech to a local group of conservatives.

US rapper A$AP Rocky has been found guilty of assault and handed a suspended sentence for his role in a street fight in Stockholm. The 30-year-old rapper, alongside two associates, was found guilty of assaulting 19-year-old Mustafa Jafari on June 30. Rocky and his codefendants have been ordered to pay damages to the teenager, whose injuries included broken ribs.

When their book deal blew up after sexual misconduct allegations, Glenn Thrush kept his advance. Maggie Haberman had to pay hers back. After the allegations came to light, Thrush was initially demoted, but later given another high-profile role at the New York Times. After a period of limbo and attempts to salvage the project, Haberman decided not to do the book after losing her writing partner — and then had to give her share of the advance back to the publisher.

A woman tweeted a picture of a man who had shown her kindness as a child refugee 25 years ago. Within 36 hours, they were reunited.

Mevan Babakar lived in a refugee camp near Zwolle in the Netherlands with her parents in the 1990s. She is currently retracing the journey her family took after fleeing Iraq during the Gulf War.

On Monday she tweeted a picture of the man who worked at the refugee camp, asking for people's help in identifying him. She wrote that when he gave her a bike, "My five year old heart exploded with joy. I just want to know his name. Help?"

Within 24 hours, not only had the man been found, but he was close enough for Babakar to meet him in person that day.

The husband of an El Paso victim got an overwhelming response after inviting "everyone" to attend his wife's funeral

Antonio Basco had been sleeping on the pavement next to his wife's new cross for nearly a week. The 61-year-old, who goes by Tony, isn't sure what else to do. He's been waking up next to Margie Reckard every morning since he met her 22 years ago in Omaha, Nebraska. "She was my world," he said.

When faced with the overwhelming task of planning his wife's funeral, Basco realized that he didn't really have anyone to invite. He decided to ask everyone, Harrison Johnson, the director of Perches Funeral Homes, told BuzzFeed News. So on Tuesday, the funeral home's Facebook page posted details for the event and invited anyone to the service.

Since then, so many people have vowed to attend that the home said Wednesday night that it was moving the service to a larger venue.

"It's going to be full," Basco chuckled. "Makes me feel wonderful."

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