Nation and world news briefs
Trump announces Brouillette as nominee to replace Perry at Energy
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said Friday he is nominating Dan Brouillette to be the top official at the Energy Department, a day after Energy Secretary Rick Perry told the president he would resign from the post later this year.
In statements on Twitter, Trump thanked Perry, who the president said is leaving “to pursue other interests” before 2020.
“At the same time, I am pleased to nominate Deputy Secretary Dan Brouillette to be the new Secretary of Energy. Dan’s experience in the sector is unparalleled,” Trump said. “A total professional, I have no doubt that Dan will do a great job!”
It is unclear when Perry will leave and when Brouillette, who has served as deputy secretary since August 2017, will take over as acting secretary before a confirmation process in the Senate.
In recent weeks, Perry emerged as a key figure in the House’s Trump impeachment inquiry, and Democratic investigators on House committees are examining Perry’s connections to Trump’s effort to extract political favors from Ukraine in exchange for military aid.
Perry has until Friday to comply with a subpoena from the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, and Oversight and Government Reform committees. DOE did not respond to a request for comment over meeting the subpoena deadline.
“Rick has done a fantastic job,” Trump told reporters Thursday in Texas. “But it was time.”
Protesters clash with police on fifth day of Catalonia protests
BARCELONA – Police in Barcelona deployed water trucks late on Friday, in the fifth day of protest in Catalonia against jail sentences imposed by Spain’s Constitutional Court on nine separatist leaders.
According to police estimates more than half a million people took part in demonstrations in regional capital Barcelona.
The main demonstration along the city’s Passeig de Gracia remained peaceful, with protesters demanding the release of the “political prisoners” and singing the Catalan national anthem.
However, a demonstration nearby involving several hundreds of mostly young people in front of the police headquarters led to renewed clashes with authorities.
Masked activists dressed in black threw stones and eggs at police officers, among other things, and set bins on fire.
The Mossos d’esquadra regional police said they deployed water trucks to get through burning barricades, in what the daily El Pais said was a first.
The newspaper reported that 17 people were arrested on Friday and 62 people, 41 in Barcelona, were injured in protests across Catalonia.
Spain’s Ministry of the Interior meanwhile said that more than 200 agents with the security forces, the Mossos and the National Police were injured in Catalonia.
“The Criminal Code stipulates sentences of up to 6 years in prison for assault to authority,” the ministry said in a tweet.
A general strike protesting the jail sentences also brought public life to a standstill in the northeastern region on Friday.
In Barcelona, protesters blocked the entrances to the landmark Sagrada Familia, forcing the basilica to shut its doors.
A crowd calling for Catalonia to secede from Spain formed during the morning outside the famous unfinished basilica designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi.
The basilica said later on Twitter it was closing to guarantee the safety of visitors, staff and workers.
Demonstrations persisted for a fifth day, with protesters blocking roads in the region.
Numerous people have been reported injured in the unrest that has followed the ruling.
The separatist leadership has spoken out against the violence, calling for the demonstrations to be peaceful.