U.S. ENDORSES ISRAEL’S GOLAN SOVEREIGNTY
JERUSALEM» President Donald Trump abruptly declared Thursday the U.S. will recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights, a major shift in American policy that gives Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a political boost a month before what is expected to be a close election.
The administration has been considering recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the strategic highlands, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967, for some time, and Netanyahu had pressed the matter with visiting Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just a day earlier.
U.S. and Israeli officials said Wednesday they had not expected a decision until next week, when Netanyahu is to visit the U.S.
Florida man pleads guilty to mailing bombs to Trump foes.
Florida man pleaded guilty Thursday to sending pipe bombs to CNN and prominent critics of President Donald Trump in a wave of attacks that harmed no one but spread fear of political violence across the U.S. for days leading up to last fall’s midterm elections.
Cesar Sayoc, 57, sobbed as he entered the plea before a federal judge in New York.
“I’m extremely sorry,” he said, adding that he never intended for the devices to explode.
He could get life in prison at sentencing Sept. 12 on 65 counts, including using weapons of mass destruction and mailing explosives with intent to kill.
In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors dropped a charge that carried a mandatory life sentence.
Death toll from cyclone surpasses 500 in southern Africa.
BEIRA, MOZAMBIQUE»
A week after Cyclone Idai lashed southern Africa, flooding still raged as torrential rains caused a dam to overflow in Zimbabwe, threatening riverside populations. The confirmed death toll in Zimbabwe, neighboring Mozambique and Malawi surpassed 500 on Thursday, with hundreds more feared dead in towns and villages that were completely submerged.
Ferry packed with Iraqis celebrating holiday sinks; 94 die.
MOSUL,
IRAQ» A ferry overloaded with people celebrating the Kurdish new year and Mother’s Day capsized in the Tigris River near Mosul on Thursday, killing nearly 100 people, including families, officials said.
Many of the dead were women and children who could be seen struggling to swim against a strong current, their heads bobbing in the water opposite restaurants and an amusement park, where people had been celebrating minutes earlier.
An Interior Ministry official said 94 people were killed in the accident, which residents said was the worst in recent memory.
Guaido aide is seized; U.S. and allies protest.
VENEZUELA» Opposition CARACAS, leader Juan Guaido’s top aide was taken away in the middle of the night by masked intelligence agents who broke down his door early Thursday, drawing condemnation from the United States and other countries pushing to oust President Nicolas Maduro.
Washington demanded the immediate release of Guaido chief of staff Roberto Marrero, whose whereabouts after the raid on his Caracas home were not immediately disclosed.
Marrero was detained as part of an operation against a “terrorist” cell conspiring against the Venezuelan government, Interior Minister Nestor Luis Reverol said on national television.
Interior boss order aims to protect U.S. public land access.
BILLINGS,
Acting U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt is ordering federal land managers to give more consideration to public access concerns when selling or trading public land.
Thursday’s secretarial order comes amid longstanding complaints that millions of acres of state and federal land in the American West can be reached only by traveling across private property or small slivers of public land.
The order requires the Bureau of Land Management to identify alternatives to access that would be lost during land sales or exchanges.
The order could help boost Bernhardt’s credentials among conservation groups before a Senate confirmation hearing next week in which Democrats are likely to highlight his past work as an energy industry lobbyist.
Bernhardt has been nominated to replace former Secretary Ryan Zinke, who resigned in January.