The Daily News for Wednesday, May 17, 2017

The Daily News for Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Russian Scandal

In a fiery speech on the House floor, Rep. Al Green called for President Trump’s impeachment on Wednesday morning. “It’s a position of conscience for me,” the Texas Democrat said. “This is about what I believe. And this is where I stand. I will not be moved. The president must be impeached.” Noting that no one – including the president – is above the law, he called on the American people to let their members of Congress know where they stood. He also said members of Congress had to “make their own decisions” on where they stood about the issue. – USA Today

Congressional Republicans are increasing pressure on the Trump administration to produce documents related to the latest string of controversies involving President Trump, amid flagging confidence in the White House and a growing sense that scandal is overtaking the presidency. Some members of the GOP began predicting that the party will rally behind some sort of independent investigative body to probe Trump’s White House. Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), co-chairman of the moderate Tuesday Group, said Wednesday that the collective political fallout from the past week “will make it difficult” for Republicans to resist a change in approach. Dent said he does not like investigations by independent prosecutors because they “tend to take on a life of their own” and instead preferred an independent commission of outside experts. The collision of the two stories Tuesday night left Republicans reeling, with a senior GOP senator comparing the situation to Watergate, and Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) directing the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to immediately seek records from the FBI. – Washington Post

Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives said on Wednesday they would try to force a vote on an independent commission to investigate Russia and the 2016 U.S. election, and whether there was collusion between President Donald Trump’s associates and Moscow. They said two Republicans, Representatives Walter Jones and Justin Amash, backed the effort. – Reuters

Stocks dropped and foreign currencies gained against the U.S. dollar as the weeklong drumbeat of bad news surrounding the Trump administration sows doubts over whether the president’s pro-business policies will be enacted. The Dow Jones industrial average, Nasdaq, the Russell 2000 and the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index were all down more than 1 percent each in early trading Wednesday as markets worldwide reacted to reports that Trump allegedly asked then-FBI Director James Comey to drop his probe into former National Security Advisor Michal Flynn’s relationship with Russia. – Washington Post

On a brief escape from the political firestorm brewing in Washington, President Trump protested the media coverage of his four-month-old administration in a commencement address Wednesday at the United States Coast Guard Academy. “No politician in history – and I say this with great surety – has been treated worse or more unfairly,” Trump said during his speech in New London, Conn., of both the Washington media and his political critics. – USA Today

North Korea

South Korea’s unification ministry on Wednesday expressed a need to reopen an inter-Korean communication hotline, which was severed early last year following North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests. In February 2016, North Korea cut off two inter-Korean communication channels as it expelled remaining South Koreans from a joint industrial park in response to South Korea’s closure of the Kaesong complex. – Yonhap News Agency

A group of hackers claiming responsibility for the global ransomware cyberattack that began Friday said they would soon “dump” data related to North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. The Shadow Brokers made the statement in a blog post, while saying they would also divulge information on the weapons of Russia, China and Iran. The announcement published Tuesday is another twist in the developing story of the global attack, and challenges statements from Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Labs that the attacks were tied to North Korea. – United Press International

Trump and Friends

A reverse mortgage lending company that was previously connected to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has agreed to pay $89 million to settle claims that it abused a federal home insurance program. Federal officials had been investigating the company’s failed home loans to a mostly-elderly clientele. The company, Financial Freedom of Austin, Texas, agreed to make the payment to close a U.S. government investigation into its practice of allegedly speeding home foreclosures without following Department of Housing and Urban Development requirements. Mnuchin led a group of investors that bought IndyMac Bank and its Financial Freedom unit in 2009. The investors realized a large profit when they reorganized IndyMac, based in Pasadena, Calif., as OneWest Bank. – NBC News

The Nation

The National Weather Service reported more than 20 tornadoes occurred throughout the central United States, where one person died in Wisconsin and another in Oklahoma. The tornadoes occurred in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Wisconsin on Tuesday. – United Press International

Reports that Israel was the source of highly classified information that President Trump shared with Russian officials last week left a chill among current and former intelligence officials here. Israeli intelligence officers are taking the matter seriously, a military intelligence officer said Tuesday. The officer, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said Israel was warned months ago to be careful about sharing information with Trump’s staff, and now that warning has been realized. – USA Today

Nine people were injured and two were arrested on Tuesday after violent protests broke out at the Turkish ambassador’s home in Washington, D.C., where Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited earlier, authorities said. DC Fire and EMS spokesman Doug Buchanan told ABC News that two people were transported to a local hospital with serious injuries, while seven others were “walking wounded” and headed to the hospital via the mass casualty medical bus. He did not elaborate on the circumstances of the fight. The altercation occurred Tuesday afternoon as supporters and opponents of the visiting president clashed at the residence, which is located about half a mile away from the Turkish Embassy in the U.S. capital, authorities said. – ABC News

Hundreds of federal and local law enforcement fanned out across Los Angeles, serving arrest and search warrants as part of a three-year investigation into the violent and brutal street gang MS-13. The FBI is heading the probe. Agents and officers served warrants early Wednesday at 41 locations, including a storefront along a strip of dilapidated buildings near downtown. The targets included some members of the gang’s leadership. – ABC News

Early Wednesday, just hours after Louisiana’s Republican-dominated House advanced a bill prohibiting the removal of virtually any plaque, monument, memorial or statue connected to a war or military service before a referendum, work crews in New Orleans peeled a 102-year-old mounted statue of Confederate Gen. P.T.G. Beauregard from his stone pedestal at the entrance to New Orleans City Park. The monument is the third of four Confederate memorials the New Orleans City Council voted in 2015 to be removed from prominent locations around the city. Monument removals have been delayed by a host of competing historical arguments, litigation in state and federal courts, protests, threats and, in one case, the handiwork of an arsonist. – Washington Post

Oscar Lopez Rivera, the Puerto Rican nationalist and one of the longest-serving political prisoners in US history, has been released from house arrest in Puerto Rico. Lopez Rivera was sentenced to 55 years in prison in 1981 for his involvement with FALN, a Puerto Rican group that claimed responsibility for dozens of bombings in New York, Chicago, Washington and Puerto Rico in the 1970s and 1980s. He was never tied to specific bombings, which caused few injuries. Thousands of supporters are expected to cheer Lopez Rivera’s release later Wednesday at a celebration in Puerto Rico. – Al Jazeera

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) has told the Trump administration he will no longer pursue the post of FBI director. The second-ranking GOP senator interviewed for the job last weekend.  – Politico

The World

Africa

Central African Republic – Red Cross on Wednesday said its workers had found 115 bodies in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) border town of Bangassou after several days of militia attacks, raising by more than four times a previously reported death toll. – Al Jazeera

Democratic Republic of Congo – Supporters of a jailed Christian sect leader on Wednesday attacked the prison holding him in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) capital, Kinshasa, freeing him and about 50 other inmates, according to officials. Ne Muanda Nsemi – a self-styled prophet and leader of the Bundu dia Kongo movement – was arrested in March after a series of deadly clashes between his supporters and police. – Al Jazeera

The Americas

Bahamas – The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for two adults and two young children after their small plane mysteriously disappeared from radar while flying over the infamous Bermuda Triangle on Monday. The Coast Guard said it recovered debris and parts of an MU-2B aircraft — the plane type the group was traveling in — 15 miles east of Eleuthera, Bahamas, during the search. On board the flight was 40-year-old Jennifer Blumin from New York and her two sons, ages 3 and 4, as well as 52-year-old Nathan Ulrich from New Hampshire. Blumin is the CEO of a prominent New York City event planning firm, Skylight Group. – ABC News

Brazil – A congressional commission in Brazil led by a powerful farming lobby has recommended dismantling the country’s indigenous rights agency, Funai. It said the agency currently run by anthropologists should be replaced with one controlled by the justice ministry. The panel also said about 80 Funai officials should be prosecuted for backing what it considered illegal land claims by indigenous groups. Critics said the move was an attack on indigenous rights by the farming lobby. They said the reform would leave indigenous tribes unprotected as farmers were trying to move further into the Amazon rainforest. – BBC

Asia

Afghanistan – At least six people, including a police officer, have been killed after assailants wearing suicide vests stormed a national television and radio station in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, government officials say. The attackers, carrying AK-47s, entered Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) on Wednesday, in the latest assault on news media workers in the country. The raid on the RTA state broadcaster was carried out by four attackers, one of whom had detonated a suicide bomb at the entrance to the compound, said Gulab Mangal, governor of Nangarhar. – Al Jazeera

Europe

Austria – Austrian members of parliament have approved a new bill that bans garments that fully cover the face of women – the latest restriction for the country’s Muslim population. The provision, adopted on Tuesday night, was backed by both ruling parties and means that people wearing full-face veils in public will be subject to 150-euro ($166) fines starting in October. The measure was first announced by Austria’s coalition government in January as part of wider proposals aimed at countering the rise of the far-right, anti-Islam Freedom Party. – Al Jazeera

Greece – Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Athens and Thessaloniki to express anger at new pension and tax-break cuts forced on Greece by its EU-IMF creditors in return for bailout funds. Wednesday’s walkout cut off maritime traffic for a second day while dozens of flights had to be cancelled or rescheduled and hospitals ran on emergency staff. Nearly 12,000 people turned up for the protests in Athens and another 6,000 in Thessaloniki, according to police, a day before the measures were to be approved by parliament. – Al Jazeera

Middle East

Iran – The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, who slammed the Iran nuclear deal as a candidate, on Wednesday will extend sanctions relief for Iran that was called for under the 2015 pact, two U.S. officials told Reuters. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the administration would formally announce it was renewing sanctions waivers that were granted to Iran as part of the deal, under which Tehran agreed to limit its nuclear program. – Reuters

Saudi Arabia – The United States is close to completing a series of arms deals for Saudi Arabia totaling more than $100 billion, a senior White House official said on Friday, a week ahead of President Donald Trump’s planned visit to Riyadh. The official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the arms package could end up surpassing more than $300 billion over a decade to help Saudi Arabia boost its defensive capabilities while still maintaining U.S. ally Israel’s qualitative military edge over its neighbors. “We are in the final stages of a series of deals,” the official said. The package is being developed to coincide with Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia. Trump leaves for the kingdom on May 19, the first stop on his maiden international trip. – Reuters

Syria – The US-led coalition against so-called Islamic State (IS) has denied it was behind an attack on a Syrian town that reportedly killed dozens of civilians. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 42 people, including 11 children, died on Monday when warplanes bombed Al-Bukamal, near the border with Iraq. IS news agency Amaq put the death toll at 25 and released video of the strike. The coalition said it had not targeted the area on Sunday or Monday, but added that unnamed countries had done so. – BBC