News You Ought to Know
Suicide blasts kill dozens at Istanbul airport
ISTANBUL (AP) — Suicide attackers killed dozens and wounded more than 140 at Istanbul’s busy Ataturk Airport, the latest in a series of bombings to strike Turkey in recent months. Turkish officials said the massacre was most likely the work of the Islamic State group.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said 36 people died Tuesday as well as the three suicide bombers, who arrived at the airport in a taxi and blew themselves up after opening fire. Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said 147 were wounded.
Yildirim said in a press statement early Wednesday that air traffic had returned to normal and “our airport has been opened to flights and departures from 02:20 (local time) on.”
There were conflicting accounts of the attack.
A Turkish official said authorities are going through CCTV footage and witness statements to establish a preliminary timeline and details of the attack. “It is a jigsaw puzzle” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government protocol.
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10 Things to Know for Today
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:
1. ISLAMIC STATE GROUP BLAMED FOR TURKISH AIRPORT ATTACK
Suicide attackers kill dozens and wound more than 140 at Istanbul’s busy Ataturk Airport, the latest in a series of bombings to strike Turkey in recent months.
2. DIVISION, CONFUSION AS EU RETHINKS FUTURE WITHOUT BRITAIN
European Union leaders meeting in Brussels will talk about Europe without the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, Britain’s Conservative Party will reveal the candidates for a new leader to replace David Cameron.
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Trump’s ‘America First’ echoes old isolationist rallying cry
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump boils down his foreign policy agenda to two words: “America First.”
For students of U.S. history, that slogan harkens back to the tumultuous presidential election of 1940, when hundreds of thousands of Americans joined the anti-war America First Committee. That isolationist group’s primary goal was to keep the United States from joining Britain in the fight against Nazi Germany, which by then had overrun nearly all of Europe. But the committee is also remembered for the unvarnished anti-Semitism of some of its most prominent members and praise for the economic policies of Adolf Hitler.
‘AMERICA FIRST’ FORMED
The America First Committee was founded in spring 1940 at Yale University by students that included future U.S. president Gerald Ford and future Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart. Future President John F. Kennedy contributed $100. Within months, France had capitulated to the Germans and England appeared on the verge of collapse. The committee was soon the largest anti-war organization in U.S. history, with more than 800,000 dues-paying members.
As the committee grew, it attracted celebrities, politicians and business leaders opposed President Franklin Roosevelt’s lend-lease aid to the British. Among them was the admired aviator Charles Lindbergh, who was the first man to fly non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean more than a decade earlier.
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Division, confusion as EU rethinks future without Britain
BRUSSELS (AP) — EU leaders are meeting Wednesday without Britain for the first time to rethink their union and keep it from disintegrating after Britain’s unprecedented vote to leave — but conflicting visions of Europe’s future are complicating the high-stakes summit.
British Prime Minister David Cameron left Brussels Tuesday night without any clear divorce plan, fending off pressure for a quick exit and punting the complex departure negotiations to his successor.
With Britain’s fate in Europe uncertain, the 27 remaining presidents, chancellors and prime ministers meeting in Brussels are focusing Wednesday on what the EU will look like without Britain. They all seem to agree that something must change after Britain quit, but disagree about how.
The initial EU founding nations in the west lean toward a tighter, closer union while newer nations in the east want to keep more control with national governments — notably of their borders.
Europeans are disenchanted with the EU project and it’s up to member states to inspire them with concrete changes and progress, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said upon arrival Wednesday. “We have to show that Europe brings a real added value that can be felt by our fellow citizens,” he said.
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North American leaders confront rising tide of protectionism
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — The leaders of North America confront a rising tide of economic protectionism and nationalism as they hold a summit Wednesday in the Canadian capital.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for the first time is hosting U.S. President Barack Obama and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto in Ottawa for the North American leaders’ summit. Obama will also address the Canadian Parliament.
The meeting comes one day after presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in the United States blamed globalization for the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs, and he threatened to extricate the U.S. from the 2-decade-old North American Free Trade Agreement. Trump also vowed to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an agreement among 12 Pacific Rim nations that has yet to take effect, if he were elected president. And it comes less than a week after Britain voted to exit the European Union.
Canadian International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, chair of the Canada-U.S. cabinet committee, noted that the meeting of the three pro -trade leaders comes at an important moment.
“This is a time when a lot of leaders in the world are talking about building walls,” Freeland said in an interview with The Associated Press. “What you are going to hear from the leaders of Canada, the United States and Mexico is that we are a continent and we believe in building bridges. We really believe in the open society. Those are core Canadian values, open to immigration, open to visitors and open to trade.” Trump has also advocated building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
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Records: City lawyers weak link in police accountability
CHICAGO (AP) — When a federal judge concluded that a lawyer employed by the city of Chicago concealed audio evidence in a civil trial, the court issued a sharp rebuke, saying the recordings showed police lied about the events that led officers to shoot and kill a black motorist.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel portrayed it as an isolated instance of unscrupulous lawyering, but City Hall lawyers have, in fact, faced similar criticism in nearly half a dozen police-misconduct cases in recent years.
And it’s not just Chicago. An Associated Press review of hundreds of court records nationwide revealed similar patterns of behavior involving municipal attorneys in other cities, including New York, Baltimore, Denver and Spokane, Washington. Lawyers deliberately hid important facts, delayed their disclosure or otherwise sought to subvert evidence in civil cases, the review found.
Municipal lawyers represent city employees in noncriminal matters and rarely attract public attention because they operate far behind elected leaders. Court records indicate they are often a weak link in systems designed to expose police misdeeds and hold officers accountable.
Attorney Jared Kosoglad, who has been involved in multiple lawsuits alleging abuses by police, expresses a stark view held widely by fellow Chicago lawyers: “The city has a clear, widespread practice of destroying and lying about unfavorable evidence.”
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Drug pusher deaths jump as Philippine leader takes office
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The bodies of dozens of suspected drug peddlers have turned up in the Philippines in recent weeks, providing an eerie backdrop to the swearing-in on Thursday of Rodrigo Duterte, who has warned of a bloody presidency in his bid to eradicate crime.
Some of the dead were killed in gunfights with police; others mysteriously turned up on the street. One was dumped with sign: “Don’t follow me or you’ll die next.”
The numbers of bodies have spiked since Duterte swept the May 9 elections on promises to wipe out crime and corruption within six months. That bold pledge won him huge support but also sparked concerns about vigilante justice and a lack of due process.
Nicknamed “Duterte Harry” after a Clint Eastwood character with little regard for rules, he says he plans to fulfill his promise despite criticism from human rights advocates and church officials and dares his critics to impeach him.
“If I couldn’t convince you, I’ll have you killed. Just imagine if I kill 10 persons a day for the next six years,” he was quoted as saying by Cebu Daily News in his native Visayan language, referring to drug suspects. “If you’re into drugs, I’m sorry. I’ll have to apologize to your family because you’ll surely get killed.”
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Jordan widens IS crackdown; signs of home-grown extremism
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Two dozen men charged with supporting the Islamic State group squeezed into a cage in Jordan’s state security court. After brief questioning from a judge, they filed back out, and guards ushered in the next group of accused militants.
The court’s heavy load is part of a widening domestic crackdown on the extremist group.
Hundreds have been sentenced to prison, are awaiting trial or are being held for questioning about links to IS. Under toughened anti-terror laws, even liking or sharing the group’s propaganda on social media can land someone a prison sentence.
Some say the crowded court rooms — along with recent attacks — signal that the pro-Western kingdom has a more serious problem with home-grown extremism than it has acknowledged in public.
“We have an extending of the network of IS in Jordan,” not just among the poor, but also the middle class, said Mohammed Abu Rumman, an expert on extremists. “It is a minority but it is very dangerous.”
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Scotty Moore, Elvis Presley’s first guitarist, dies at 84
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Scotty Moore, the pioneering rock guitarist whose sharp, graceful style helped Elvis Presley shape his revolutionary sound and inspired a generation of musicians that included Keith Richards, Jimmy Page and Bruce Springsteen, died Tuesday. He was 84.
Moore died at his home in Nashville, said biographer and friend James L. Dickerson, who confirmed the death through a family friend.
“As a musician, I consider him one of the co-founders of rock ‘n’ roll because of the guitar licks that he invented,” Dickerson said, calling Moore an icon.
Presley’s ex-wife Priscilla Presley echoed that sentiment in a statement Tuesday night: “Elvis loved Scotty dearly and treasured those amazing years together, both in the studio and on the road. Scotty was an amazing musician and a legend in his own right. The incredible music that Scotty and Elvis made together will live forever and influence generations to come.”
Moore, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, was the last survivor of a combo that included Presley, bassist Bill Black and producer Sam Phillips.
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Pyonghattan 2.0: More skyscrapers go up in N. Korea capital
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Hoping to show the world his country is doing just fine despite sanctions and outside pressure over its nuclear weapons program, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has put his soldier-builders to work on yet another major project — a series of apartments and high-rises that are once again changing the Pyongyang skyline.
The project is intended to show “the spirit of the DPRK standing up and keeping up with the world, despite all sorts of sanctions and pressure by the U.S. imperialists and their followers,” and “the truth that the DPRK is able to be well-off in its own way and nothing is impossible for it to do,” state-media quoted Kim as saying when he ordered the beginning of construction in March.
Under giant red banners calling for “Mallima Speed” — a reference to a mythical winged horse that could travel tremendous distances at supernatural speed — his soldier-builders are now putting up the frames for each new floor at the reportedly breakneck-pace of 14 hours to get it all done by the end of the year.
The project comes as North Korea is mobilized on its second “speed campaign” this year and follows the recent completion of “Future Street,” a cluster of high-rise apartments, office buildings and riverside parks dedicated to the nation’s scientists.
In something of a defiant wink at all the international criticism of the country’s nuclear weapons program, that whole district has a nuclear motif. Its centerpiece high-rise is shaped like the classic illustration of an atom when seen from above, a metallic atom sculpture stands over the entrance to its main avenue and neon atoms glow from the sides of two of its larger buildings at night.
