Page 10 The Skanner June 21, 2017
News
Dem Loss in Georgia
Special Election
Underscores Challenges
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans
just got a big argument for sticking
with President Donald Trump and
pushing forward with dismantling
“Obamacare.” And Democrats are look-
ing almost incapable of translating the
energy of their core supporters into
actual election wins.
Tuesday night’s outcome in a Geor-
gia special House race was a triumph
for the GOP, and the most recent, and
devastating, illustration of the Demo-
crats’ problems, from a weak bench and
recruiting problems to divisions about
what the party stands for.
Instead of a win or even a razor-thin
loss by Democrat Jon Ossoff that many
had expected, Republican Karen Han-
del ended up winning by a relatively
comfortable 5 percentage point mar-
gin in the wealthy suburban Atlanta
district previously held by Health and
Human Services Secretary Tom Price.
That followed another recent Dem-
ocratic disappointment in Montana,
where the Republican candidate won
even after last-minute assault charges,
and an earlier loss for the Democrats in
Kansas.
Indeed the best news Democrats got
Tuesday night was that a different
special House race, in South Carolina,
ended up closer than the Georgia con-
test even though it had drawn little
national attention. Republican Ralph
Norman beat Democrat Archie Parnell
by around 3 percentage points in South
Carolina, closer than expected and a
warning sign to the GOP not to take any
seat for granted.
Uber CEO Kalanick
Resigns Under Investor
Pressure
DETROIT (AP) — Travis Kalanick,
the combative and troubled CEO of
ride-hailing giant Uber, has resigned
under pressure from investors at a piv-
otal time for the company.
Uber’s board confirmed the move
early Wednesday, saying in a statement
that Kalanick is taking time to heal
from the death of his mother in a boat-
ing accident “while giving the company
room to fully embrace this new chapter
AP PHOTO/PAUL SAKUMA, FILE
World News Briefs
In this July 10, 2012, file photo, Uber CEO and co-
founder Travis Kalanick arrives at a conference
in Sun Valley, Idaho. Kalanick said in a statement
to The New York Times on Tuesday that he has
accepted a request from investors to step aside.
Kalanick says the move will allow the ride-sharing
company to go back to building itself rather than
become distracted by another fight.
in Uber’s history.” He will remain on
the Uber Technologies Inc. board.
The move comes as Uber, the world’s
largest ride-hailing company, was
having trouble morphing from a
free-wheeling startup into a mature
company that can stanch losses and
post consistent profits.
After eight years of phenomenal
growth by upending the taxi business,
Uber had reached a point where the
culture that created the company had
become an albatross that threatened to
kill it.
In a statement, the 40-year-old
co-founder said his resignation would
help Uber go back to building “rather
than be distracted with another fight,”
an apparent reference to efforts on the
board to oust him.
It was unclear who would replace Ka-
lanick.
Brussels Attacker
Moroccan, Shouted ‘Allahu
Akbar’
BRUSSELS (AP) — The quick shooting
of an attacker who tried to detonate a
nail bomb and shouted “Allahu akbar”
at a Brussels train station averted fa-
talities, officials said Wednesday, as
Belgium increased security measures
around the country.
The attacker was a 36-year-old Mo-
roccan national not known to authori-
ties for being involved in terror activ-
ities, federal magistrate Eric Van der
Sypt told reporters. He declined to say
if the man had a criminal record.
The man charged soldiers at Brussels
Central Station on Tuesday after his
suitcase, containing nails and gas can-
isters, failed to fully explode, Van der
Sypt said. It was a lucky escape for sev-
eral travelers nearby.
The man then shouted “Allahu akbar,”
Arabic for “God is great,” before the
soldiers shot him dead, the magistrate
said. Nobody else was injured.
“It was clear he wanted to cause much
more damage than what happened,”
Van der Sypt said.
“The bag exploded twice but it could
have been a lot worse.”
Saudi King Upends Royal
succession, Names Son as
1st Heir
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi
Arabia’s King Salman on Wednesday
appointed his 31-year-old son Moham-
med bin Salman as crown prince, plac-
ing him first-in-line to the throne and
removing the country’s counterter-
rorism czar and a figure well-known
to Washington from the line of succes-
sion.
The monarch stripped Prince Mo-
hammed bin Nayef from his title as
crown prince and from his power-
ful position as the country’s interior
minister overseeing security. The an-
nouncements were made in a series of
royal decrees carried on the state-run
Saudi Press Agency.
The all-but-certain takeover of the
throne by Mohammed bin Salman
awards near absolute powers to a
prince who has ruled out dialogue with
rival Iran, has moved to isolate neigh-
boring Qatar for its support of Islamist
groups and who has led a war in Yemen
that has killed thousands of civilians.