A6
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2019
WORLD IN BRIEF
two cases could produce such different deci-
sions. His great uncle, the Rev. Marvin
Hunter, told reporters that the verdict means
“that if you are a police offi cer you can lie,
cheat and steal.”
The trial was watched closely by law
enforcement and critics of the department,
which has long had a reputation for condon-
ing police brutality.
Associated Press
Pentagon IDs Army Ranger
killed in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon says
a U.S. Army Ranger has died as a result of
gunshot wounds suffered during combat in
Afghanistan on Jan. 13.
Sgt. Cameron A. Meddock, 26, of Spear-
man, Texas, died Thursday in Landstuhl,
Germany. The attack was in the Jawand Dis-
trict in northwestern Afghanistan.
Meddock was assigned to the 2nd Battal-
ion of the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment. He
enlisted in the Army in 2014 and was based
at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washing-
ton state. He served as a machine gunner,
automatic rifl eman, gun team leader and
most recently as a fi re team leader.
His battalion commander, Lt. Col. Rob
McChrystal, says Meddock’s selfl ess ser-
vice represents the best of the United States.
Meddock was on his second deployment
to Afghanistan.
Pelosi cancels Afghanistan
trip, cites Trump ‘leak’
Trump, North Korean envoy
discuss second summit
WASHINGTON — President Don-
ald Trump met with a North Korean
envoy today as the two sides worked to
resume stalled efforts to end the North’s
nuclear weapons program by arranging
a second summit with leader Kim Jong
Un.
Trump and former spy chief Kim Yong
Chol were to discuss relations between
the two countries and continued prog-
ress on what White House press sec-
retary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said
was “North Korea’s fi nal, fully verifi ed
denuclearization.”
Kim Yong Chol earlier held talks with
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a
Washington hotel. A State Department
spokesman, Robert Palladino, said they
had a “good” discussion toward prog-
ress on commitments Trump and Kim
Jong Un made at their June summit in
Singapore.
Several private analysts have pub-
lished reports detailing continuing North
Korean development of nuclear and missile
technology.
The talks have stalled over North
Korea’s refusal to provide a detailed
accounting of its nuclear and missile
facilities.
Independent analysts are highly skepti-
cal that North Korea will easily abandon
a nuclear arsenal constructed in the face
of deep poverty and likely seen by Kim
as his only guarantee of his government’s
survival.
Juan Oliphant
Ocean Ramsey swims with a large great white shark off the shore of Oahu.
Researchers come face to face
with huge great white shark
HALIEWA, Hawaii — Two shark
researchers who came face to face with
what could be one of the largest great
whites ever recorded are using their
encounter as an opportunity to push for
legislation that would protect sharks in
Hawaii.
Ocean Ramsey, a shark researcher
and conservationist, said she encoun-
tered the 20-foot shark Tuesday near a
dead sperm whale off Oahu.
Her fi ancé and business partner, Juan
Oliphant, who photographed now-viral
Judge acquits 3 Chicago
offi cers of McDonald
shooting cover-up
CHICAGO — A judge on Thursday
acquitted three Chicago offi cers of trying
to cover up the 2014 shooting of Laquan
McDonald, dismissing as just one perspec-
tive the shocking dashcam video of the black
teenager’s death that led to protests, a federal
investigation of the police department and the
rare murder conviction of an offi cer.
In casting off the prosecution’s entire
images, said it’s unclear if the shark is
the famed Deep Blue, believed to be
the largest great white ever recorded.
Ramsey said the images of
her swimming next to a huge
great white shark prove the pred-
ators should be protected, not
feared.
Still, the veteran shark diver doesn’t
think the general public should reck-
lessly get into the water with the giants,
especially around a food source like a
rotting whale carcass.
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi today canceled her plans to travel
by commercial plane to visit U.S. troops in
Afghanistan, saying President Donald Trump
had caused a security risk by talking about the
trip.
It was the latest twist in what has become
a Washington game of brinkmanship between
Pelosi and Trump, playing out against the
stalled negotiations over how to end the par-
tial government shutdown.
Earlier in the week, Pelosi had asked
Trump to reschedule his Jan. 29 State of
the Union address, citing security issues
at a time when the Homeland Security
Department and other agencies remain
unfunded.
Trump responded by canceling the mili-
tary plane that was to have carried Pelosi and
a congressional delegation to Afghanistan on
the previously undisclosed troop visit. Trump
suggested she travel by commercial plane
instead.
Denying military aircraft to a senior law-
maker — let alone the speaker, who is second
in line to the presidency after the vice presi-
dent, traveling to a combat region — is very
rare.
On the road to make an
affordable car, Tesla cuts jobs
Tesla will cut 7 percent of its workforce
as it tries to lower prices and break out of
the niche-car market to produce an electric
vehicle that more people can afford.
Tesla’s cheapest model right now is the
$44,000 Model 3, and it needs to broaden
its customer base to survive.
“Looking ahead at our mission of accel-
erating the advent of sustainable transport
and energy, which is important for all life
on Earth, we face an extremely diffi cult
challenge: making our cars, batteries and
solar products cost-competitive with fossil
fuels,” CEO Elon Musk said in a letter to
staff. “While we have made great progress,
our products are still too expensive for most
people.”
51
case, Judge Domenica Stephenson seemed to
accept many of the same defense arguments
that were rejected in October by jurors who
convicted offi cer Jason Van Dyke of sec-
ond-degree murder and aggravated battery.
He is scheduled to be sentenced today.
The judge said the video showed only one
viewpoint of the confrontation and that there
was no indication the offi cers tried to hide
evidence.
McDonald’s family questioned how the
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