In Brief: Nation & World: 5-29-17

Trump eyes White House overhaul, outside lawyers and PR team

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is considering overhauling his White House staff and bringing back top campaign strategists, frustrated by what he views as his team’s inability to contain the burgeoning crisis involving alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Expanding teams of lawyers and experienced public relations hands are being recruited to deal with the drumbeat of new revelations about Moscow’s interference and possible improper dealings with the Trump campaign and associates. The disclosures dogged the president during his first trip abroad since taking office and threaten to overwhelm and stall the agenda for his young administration.

As he mulls outside reinforcements to his operation, Trump returned late Saturday from his nine-day journey to a White House seemingly in crisis mode, with a barrage of reports hitting close to the Oval Office and involving Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and influential adviser.

A rally planned Thursday in Iowa was postponed due to “an unforeseen change” in Trump’s schedule.

After maintaining a limited social media presence throughout his trip, Trump on Sunday unleashed a furious flurry of tweets, lashing out at what he called the “fake news” media. He focused heavily on leaks — both those coming out of the White House and an intelligence leak blamed on Americans about this week’s deadly bombing at a concert in England.

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Kushner’s Russia ties questioned as Trump cites media ‘lies’

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Democrats on Sunday demanded to hear directly from top White House adviser Jared Kushner over allegations of proposed secret back-channel communications with Russia, saying the security clearance of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law may need to be revoked.

Trump, having returned from a nine-day overseas trip, immediately railed against administration leaks, calling them “fabricated lies,” in a flurry of tweets.

And his Homeland Security head defended the idea of establishing that kind of communication as a “smart thing” and said he didn’t see “any big issue here” for Kushner.

But to the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, it’s “obviously very concerning” that a key Trump campaign figure was possibly seeking secret communications with a country that intelligence experts say intervened in the 2016 election.

Rep. Adam Schiff of California said the government needed to “get to the bottom” of the matter and urged a review of Kushner’s security clearance “to find out whether he was truthful.”

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NKorea fires apparent Scud-type missile into eastern waters

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired an apparent ballistic missile that landed in the waters of Japan’s economic zone Monday, South Korean and Japanese officials said, the latest in a string of launches as the North seeks to build nuclear-tipped ICBMs that can reach the U.S. mainland.

The suspected Scud-type missile launched from the coastal town of Wonsan flew about 450 kilometers (280 miles), the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. It landed in western waters that are Japan’s exclusive maritime economic zone, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said. He said there was no immediate report of damage to planes or vessels in the area.

North Korea is still thought to be several years away from its goal of being able to target U.S. mainland cities with a nuclear ICBM, but each new test puts it closer to success. The North has a strong arsenal of short- and medium-range missiles that target Japan and South Korea and U.S. forces in the region, and it is working to perfect its longer-range missiles.

There was no immediate comment from North Korea’s state controlled media. But the launch followed a report from the North that said leader Kim Jong Un had watched a successful test of a new type of anti-aircraft guided weapon system. It wasn’t clear from the report when the test happened.

After the test, Kim said the weapon system’s ability to detect and track targets had “remarkably” improved and its accuracy also increased, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. KCNA cited Kim as ordering officials to mass-produce and deploy the system all over the country so as to “completely spoil the enemy’s wild dream to command the air.”

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‘I ain’t fit to live’: Police say Mississippi gunman kills 8

BROOKHAVEN, Miss. (AP) — A man who got into an argument with his estranged wife and her family over his children was arrested Sunday in a house-to-house shooting rampage in rural Mississippi that left eight people dead, including his mother-in-law and a sheriff’s deputy.

“I ain’t fit to live, not after what I done,” a handcuffed Willie Corey Godbolt, 35, told The Clarion-Ledger (http://on.thec-l.com/2rbQIq5 ).

The gunfire erupted Saturday night at Godbolt’s in-laws’ home in Bogue Chitto after the deputy arrived in response to a domestic disturbance call, and spread to two houses in nearby Brookhaven.

Godbolt was hospitalized in good condition with a gunshot wound, though it wasn’t clear who shot him.

The slain deputy, William Durr, was a two-year sheriff’s department veteran and former police officer in Brookhaven, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of Jackson.

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To many Americans, Memorial Day has lost its meaning

ANNVILLE, Pa. (AP) — Allison Jaslow heard it more than once as the long holiday weekend approached — a cheerful “Happy Memorial Day!” from oblivious well-wishers.

The former Army captain and Iraq War veteran had a ready reply, telling them, matter-of-factly, that she considered it a work weekend. Jaslow will be at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday to take part in the annual wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. She’ll then visit Section 60, the final resting place of many service members who died in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“You can see it in people’s faces that they’re a little horrified that they forget this is what the day’s about,” said Jaslow, 34, who wears a bracelet bearing the name of a fallen comrade. “Culturally, we’ve kind of lost sight of what the day’s supposed to mean.”

While millions of Americans celebrate the long Memorial Day weekend as the unofficial start of summer — think beaches and backyard barbecues, mattress sales and sporting events — some veterans and loved ones of fallen military members wish the holiday that honors more than 1 million people who died serving their country would command more respect.

Or at least awareness.

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US official mulling greatly expanded airplane laptop ban

WASHINGTON (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said Sunday he’s considering banning laptops from the passenger cabins of all international flights to and from the United States.

That would dramatically expand a ban announced in March that affects about 50 flights per day from 10 cities, mostly in the Middle East. The current ban was put in place because of concerns about terrorist attacks.

The ban prevents travelers from bringing laptops, tablets and certain other devices on board with them in their carry-on bags. All electronics bigger than a smartphone must be checked in.

Kelly was asked on “Fox News Sunday” whether he would expand the ban to cover laptops on all international flights into and out of the U.S.

His answer: “I might.”

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Muslims thankful for support after rant, deadly attack

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Muslims in Portland, Oregon, thanked the community for its support and said they were raising money for the families of two men who were killed when they came to the defense of two young women — one wearing a hijab — who were targeted by an anti-Muslim rant.

“I am very thankful as a Muslim, I am very thankful as a Portlander … that we stand together here as one,” Muhammad A. Najieb, an imam at the Muslim Community Center, said Saturday.

The two young women “could have been the victims, but three heroes jumped in and supported them,” he said.

A fundraising page launched by his group for the families of the dead men, a surviving victim and the two young women had raised $50,000 in its first hours, Najieb said.

Police said they’ll examine what appears to be the extremist ideology of suspect Jeremy Joseph Christian, 35, who is accused of killing the two men Friday. Christian’s social media postings indicate an affinity for Nazis and political violence.

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Florida could pave new changes in ‘stand your ground’ laws

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Lucy McBath is afraid many more people will die if Florida Gov. Rick Scott signs a bill making it harder to prosecute when people claim they commit violence in self-defense.

She already lost her son, an unarmed black teenager, when a white man angry over loud music and claiming self-defense fired 10 times at an SUV filled with teenagers.

The measure before Scott would effectively require a trial-before-a-trial whenever someone invokes self-defense, making prosecutors prove the suspect doesn’t deserve immunity.

Scott hasn’t revealed his intentions, but he’s a National Rifle Association supporter, and this is an NRA priority.

“If it passes in Florida, then they take that same legislation and they push it on the legislative floors across the country,” said McBath, whose 17-year-old son Jordan Davis was killed by Michael Dunn outside a Jacksonville convenience store in 2012.

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Cannes Palme d’Or goes to Ruben Ostlund’s “The Square”

CANNES, France (AP) — The Cannes Film Festival awarded its coveted Palme d’Or award to Ruben Ostlund’s Swedish comedy “The Square” on Sunday, while Sofia Coppola became only the second woman to win the best director award.

“Oh my god! OK,” the Swedish filmmaker exclaimed after he bounded onto the stage to collect the prestigious Palme, in a rare and somewhat surprising win for a comedy.

In “The Square,” Claes Bang plays a museum director whose manicured life begins to unravel after a series of events that upset his, and the museum’s, calm equilibrium. The movie’s title comes from an art installation that Bang’s character is prepping, which invites anyone who enters a small square to be kind and generous.

The film’s satire and exploration of moral dilemmas culminated in one of the festival’s most eye-catching scenes. A muscled, grunting man pretending to be a gorilla upsets a black-tie dinner for the museum, sniffing attendees and dragging a woman by the hair.

The president of the Cannes jury, Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar, praised the film for exploring the “dictatorship” of political correctness and those trapped by it.

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BA says most flights running; angry passengers face delays

LONDON (AP) — British Airways said many of its IT systems were back up and running Sunday, but some travelers will likely face cancellations and delays for a third straight day after a global computer failure grounded hundreds of flights.

BA chief executive Alex Cruz said Sunday the airline was running a “near-full operation” at London’s Gatwick Airport and planned to operate all scheduled long-haul services from Heathrow. But he said there would still be delays, as well as some canceled short-haul flights.

The airline said it will run a full schedule at Gatwick on Monday and intends to run its full long-haul flight schedule and a “high proportion” of its shorter flights at Heathrow.

BA canceled all flights from Heathrow and Gatwick Saturday after the IT outage, which it blamed on a power-supply problem. The glitch threw the plans of thousands of travelers into disarray, on what is a holiday weekend in Britain.

BA operates hundreds of flights from Heathrow and Gatwick on a typical day — and both are major hubs for worldwide travel.