7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 2017
WORLD IN BRIEF
Associated Press
Embattled White House
lurches from crisis to crisis
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump personally
appealed to FBI Director James Comey to abandon the bureau’s
investigation into National Security Adviser Michael Flynn,
according to notes Comey wrote after the meeting.
The White House issued a furious denial after the notes were
disclosed late Tuesday, near the end of a tumultuous day spent
beating back potentially disastrous news reports from dawn to
dusk.
The bombshell Comey news came as the beleaguered admin-
istration was still struggling mightily to explain Monday’s reve-
lation that the president had disclosed highly classified informa-
tion to the Russian foreign minister and the country’s ambassador
to the United States.
Defending Trump’s actions, officials played down the impor-
tance and secrecy of the information, which had been supplied by
Israel under an intelligence-sharing agreement, and Trump him-
self said he had “an absolute right” as president to share “facts
pertaining to terrorism” and airline safety with Russia. Yet U.S.
allies and some members of Congress expressed concern border-
ing on alarm.
As for Comey, whom Trump fired last week, the FBI direc-
tor wrote in a memo after a February meeting at the White House
that the new president had asked him to shut down the FBI’s
investigation of Flynn and his Russian contacts, said a person
who had read the memo. The Flynn investigation was part of a
broader probe into Russian interference in last year’s presiden-
tial election.
Trump lashes out at critics,
‘naysayers,’ unfair treatment
NEW LONDON, Conn. — President Donald Trump lashed
out today at his “critics and naysayers” following more than a
week of negative news coverage beginning with his sudden deci-
sion to fire James Comey as FBI director.
In an address to the newest group of U.S. Coast Guard offi-
cers, Trump urged the 195 graduates in the Class of 2017 to “put
your head down and fight, fight, fight” when life presents them
with challenges and adversity.
Trump’s appearance at the academy came the day after reports
that he had personally appealed to Comey to abandon the FBI’s
investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael
Flynn. Trump fired Flynn earlier this year for misleading top
White House officials about his contacts with Russian officials.
The White House has denied the latest report, which landed
amid a furor over the president’s recent Oval Office meeting with
Russian diplomats in which Trump is said to have disclosed clas-
sified information. The White House has said it was “wholly
appropriate” for Trump to share the information.
“Look at the way I’ve been treated lately, especially by the
media,” Trump said. “No politician in history, and I say this with
great surety, has been treated worse or more unfairly. You can’t
let them get you down. You can’t let the critics and the naysayers
get in the way of your dreams.”
“I guess that’s why we won,” he said, before continuing to
offer the graduates his advice.
“Adversity makes you stronger. Don’t give in, don’t back
down and never stop doing what you know is right,” Trump said.
“Nothing worth doing ever, ever, ever came easy and the more
righteous your fight, the more opposition that you will face.”
US, Europe discuss
new laptop ban on flights
BRUSSELS — U.S. and European officials will discuss today
plans to broaden a U.S. ban on in-flight laptops and tablets to
include planes from Europe.
The move would create logistical chaos on the world’s busiest
corridor of air travel — as many as 65 million people a year travel
between Europe and North American on over 400 daily flights,
many of them business travelers who rely on their electronics to
work during the flight.
The ban would dwarf in size the current one, which was put in
place in March and affects about 50 flights per day from 10 cities,
mostly in the Middle East.
Airlines have said it is merely a matter of time before the ban
is put in place, but the prospect has alarmed officials in the Euro-
pean Union, who want to know more about any new threats and
the disruption such a move would create.
There is also the question of the relative safety of keeping in
the cargo area a large number of electronics with lithium batter-
ies, which have been known to catch fire.
No more holding of phones
under new law in Washington
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Texting or holding a phone to your ear
is already against the law in Washington state, but soon Washing-
ton drivers will be prohibited from doing all the other stuff some
do while driving or sitting in traffic: checking Facebook, reading
emails or anything else that requires them to hold their electronic
devices while behind the wheel.
The measure, signed by Gov. Jay Inslee on Tuesday in
Tacoma, prohibits holding an electronic device — including
phones, tablets and other electronic gadgets — while driving,
including while in traffic or waiting for a traffic light to change.
Inslee vetoed a section that had the measure take effect in
2019. He said it was too important to wait for the provisions to
take effect, so the law will now take effect in mid-July.
Under the measure, “the minimal use of a finger” to activate,
deactivate, or initiate a function of a personal electronic device
while driving will still be allowed.
Voices of Iranians ahead
of presidential election
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s presidential election is seen as a ref-
erendum on Hassan Rouhani’s outreach to Western nations and
the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which lifted crippling
international sanctions.
The average Iranian has yet to see benefits from the deal, mak-
ing Rouhani vulnerable in his bid for another four-year term.
Many Iranians believe Friday’s election will not bring any
major change regardless of who wins. Reformist candidates and
women were again excluded from the ballot by a clerical vetting
committee. Of more than 1,600 hopefuls who registered to run,
only six were allowed in the race. Ultimate power remains with
the supreme leader, who is chosen by a clerical body.
Hard-liners are backing Ebrahim Raisi, considered close to
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Authorities blocked
a bid by former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a Holo-
caust-questioning hard-liner who had championed the country’s
disputed nuclear program.
Rouhani remains the favorite. Every Iranian president since
1981, when Khamenei himself took the presidency, has won
re-election.
New Orleans Police
Mounted Patrol stand by
the Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard
Confederate monument in
City Park after moving the
public back in New Orle-
ans on Tuesday. Workers
in New Orleans took down
a Confederate monument
to Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard
early today.
Matthew Hinton
The Advocate
New Orleans takes down third
Confederate-era monument
NEW ORLEANS — Workers in New Orleans took down a
Confederate monument to Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard early today
as onlookers watched from lawn chairs, while defiant statue sup-
porters waved Confederate battle flags and opponents celebrated.
It was the third of four such monuments to come down under
a plan proposed by Mayor Mitch Landrieu and approved by the
City Council more than a year ago. As with two earlier removals,
it happened under cover of darkness. Work began soon after sun-
down and news outlets showed the statue being lifted off its base
shortly after 3 a.m.
The statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee will be the last to come
down. The city already had taken one the Confederacy’s only
president and a memorial to a white rebellion against a biracial
Reconstruction-era government in the city.
“Today we take another step in defining our City not by
our past but by our bright future,” New Orleans Mayor Mitch
Landrieu said in a news release. “While we must honor our his-
tory, we will not allow the Confederacy to be put on a pedestal in
the heart of New Orleans.”
Landrieu called for the monuments’ removal in the lingering
emotional aftermath of the 2015 massacre of nine black parishio-
ners at a South Carolina church. The killer, Dylann Roof, was an
avowed racist who brandished Confederate battle flags in photos,
recharging the debate over whether Confederate emblems repre-
sent racism or an honorable heritage.
Dubai firm dreams of
harvesting icebergs for water
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A Dubai firm’s dream of
towing icebergs from the Antarctic to the Arabian Peninsula
could face some titanic obstacles.
Where many see the crumbling polar ice caps as a distress-
ing sign of global warming, the National Advisor Bureau Limited
sees it as a source of profit, and a way of offsetting the effects of
climate change in the increasingly sweltering Gulf.
The firm has drawn up plans to harvest icebergs in the south-
ern Indian Ocean and tow them 9,200 kilometers away to the
Gulf, where they could be melted down for freshwater and mar-
keted as a tourist attraction.
“The icebergs are just floating in the Indian Ocean. They
are up for grabs to whoever can take them,” managing director
Abdullah al-Shehi told The Associated Press in his Dubai office.
He hopes to begin harvesting them by 2019.
It is perhaps no surprise that the idea would originate in Dubai,
which is already famous for its indoor ski slope, artificial islands
and the world’s tallest building. But the plan to harvest icebergs
faces a wide array of legal, financial and logistical hurdles — and
environmentalists are less than thrilled.
Pvt. Manning set for release
after seven years in prison
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Pvt. Chelsea Manning, the transgen-
der soldier convicted of giving classified government materials
to WikiLeaks, is due to be released from a Kansas military prison
today after serving seven years of her 35-year sentence.
President Barack Obama granted Manning clemency in his final
days in office in January. Though she’s set to be released from Fort
Leavenworth, Manning’s lawyers and the Army have refused to say
when and how she’ll be freed due to potential security concerns.
Manning, who was known as Bradley Manning before transi-
tioning in prison, was convicted in 2013 of 20 counts, including
six Espionage Act violations, theft and computer fraud. She was
acquitted of the most serious charge of aiding the enemy.
The Crescent, Oklahoma, native tweeted after being granted
clemency that she plans to move to Maryland. Neither she nor
her attorneys explained why, but she has an aunt who lives there.
Manning, a former intelligence analyst in Iraq, has acknowl-
edged leaking the materials, which included battlefield video.
She said she wanted to expose what she considered to be the U.S.
military’s disregard of the effects of war on civilians and that she
released information that she didn’t believe would harm the U.S.
Consult
a
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Q: Can you be
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A :
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Several natural toothpaste
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JEFFREY M. LEINASSAR
DMD, FAGD
503/325-0310
1414 MARINE DRIVE,
ASTORIA
www.smileastoria.com
can I protect myself
Q: How
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LEO FINZI
Avoid attachments from
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Best.com
503-325-2300
Loop-Jacobsen
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Q: What
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We carry money
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Frank & Judy VanWinkle
A family owned and
operated jewelry
store since 1919
(503) 325-6181
1360 Commercial
Astoria, Oregon
garden is infested
Q: My
with moles. How do I
Georgia carries out first
execution of the year
JACKSON, Ga. — Today, Georgia carried out its first exe-
cution this year, putting to death a man convicted of killing his
73-year-old neighbor 25 years ago.
J.W. Ledford’s time of death was 1:17 a.m., after an injec-
tion of compounded barbiturate pentobarbital at the state prison
in Jackson, Warden Eric Sellers told witnesses. Ledford, 45, was
convicted of murder in the January 1992 stabbing death of Dr.
Harry Johnston in Murray County, northwest Georgia.
Ledford smiled broadly as witnesses entered the execution
viewing area. When given a chance to make a final statement, he
appeared to quote from the movie “Cool Hand Luke.”
“What we have here is a failure to communicate. Some men
you just can’t reach,” he said, later adding, “I am not the failure.
You are the failure to communicate.”
“You can kiss my white trash ass,” he added, continuing to smile.
get rid of them?
BRIM’S
Farm & Garden
34963 Hwy. 101 Business
Astoria • 503 - 325-1562
For beautiful gardens
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www.brimsfarmngarden.com
Q: Are chiropractors
real doctors?
Tornadoes in Wisconsin,
Oklahoma leave two dead
CHICAGO — Two people died and dozens were injured
when tornadoes flattened a mobile home park in Wisconsin and a
housing subdivision in Oklahoma during powerful spring storms
that battered an area from the South Plains of Texas to the Great
Lakes.
The storms hit late in the afternoon Tuesday and into the eve-
ning, leveling the Prairie Lake Estate Mobile Park near Chetek,
Wisconsin, about 110 miles northeast of Minneapolis. When first
responders arrived at the scene, they could hear the people cry-
ing for help in the rubble, Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzger-
ald told KMSP-TV.
One person died at the mobile home park, the Wisconsin
Emergency Operations Center said in a statement late Tuesday.
More than 25 people were injured, the state said.
You are in good company!
Moles are best controlled
with traps and baits. We can
show you how they work.
Castor oil in spray or pellet form is a
very good deterrent. Smoke bombs
are also available with varying
degrees of effectiveness as are
various breeds of canines. Since
moles are primarily carnivores, they
do the most damage to the roots of
plants by undermining them as they
dig. On the brighter side, moles do a
lot of good in the garden by eating
crane fly larvae and aerating the soil.
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ASTORIA
CHIROPRACTIC
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503-325-3311
2935 Marine Drive
Astoria, Oregon
graduate school including two
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