Nation & World Watch
vWashington: Senate OKs Zinke as Interior secretary
Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke won Senate confirmation Wednesday as President Donald Trump’s Interior secretary, giving him responsibility for overseeing the nation’s 400 million acres of public land, mostly in the West.
The Republican-controlled Senate approved the nomination 68-31, as 16 Democrats and one independent joined with 51 Republicans to support the choice.
Several Democrats from Western states as well as those facing tough reelections next year, including Montana’s Jon Tester, Indiana’s Joe Donnelly and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, voted for Zinke.
vBaltimore: 7 officers face federal corruption charges
Seven Baltimore police officers assigned to a gun tracing task force stole money from victims they falsely detained, wrote fake police reports, lied to investigators and filed for overtime they didn’t work, according to a federal indictment.
Federal prosecutors announced the indictment Wednesday. The officers were assigned to the Gun Trace Task Force, a squad formed to reduce violent crime by tracking and removing illegal guns from the streets.
vLos Angeles: Accountants off Oscar show after flub
The president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences says the two accountants responsible for the best-picture flub at Sunday’s Academy Awards will never work the Oscars again.
Cheryl Boone Isaacs said Brian Cullinan, the PwC representative responsible for handing over the errant envelope that led to “La La Land” mistakenly being announced as best picture rather than “Moonlight,” was distracted backstage.
He tweeted (and later deleted) a photo of Emma Stone with her new Oscar minutes before giving presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway the wrong envelope for best picture.
Cullinan and his colleague, Martha Ruiz, have been permanently removed from all film academy dealings, Boone Isaacs said.
vGreat Britain: Report: Trump postpones visit
President Donald Trump has postponed his state visit to Britain by several months amid concerns over protests and snubs by lawmakers, according to a media report.
The trip, originally planned for the summer, has been provisionally set for Oct. 5-8, although those dates might change, Britain’s newspaper the Sun reported.
Trump and Prime Minister Theresa May agreed to postpone the trip during a phone call two weeks ago until controversy over his proposed temporary immigration ban on people from seven Muslim-majority countries abates, the newspaper said.
The dates fall when Britain’s Parliament is in recess, meaning Trump would avoid an address to lawmakers there.
vSwitzerland: UN panel alleges Aleppo war crimes
A U.N. panel said Wednesday the evacuation of eastern Aleppo, after months of siege and aerial bombing by Russian and Syrian forces, was one of many war crimes committed by those fighting for control of the city.
The Commission of Inquiry on Syria unveiled a report looking at violations by all parties in last year’s battle for Aleppo, including indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas, and the use of chemical agents and cluster munitions.
“The scale of what happened in Aleppo is unprecedented in the Syrian conflict,” said the commission’s chairman, Paulo Pinheiro.