Nation & World Watch
vWashington: Feds lift Trump’s hiring freeze
The federal hiring freeze implemented by President Donald Trump as one of his first acts in office was lifted Wednesday. But budget director Mick Mulvaney says many jobs will remain unfilled during a governmentwide effort to overhaul the executive branch and reduce its workforce.
Mulvaney told reporters the move was part of the president’s campaign pledge to “drain the swamp” in Washington and save taxpayers money.
“It does not mean that the agencies will be free to hire willy-nilly,” he said. The across-the-board freeze is being replaced “with a smarter plan, a more strategic plan, a more surgical plan.”
vWashington: Spicer: Nazi remarks ‘inexcusable’
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Wednesday that his attempt to compare the Nazis’ Holocaust and Syrian President Bashar Assad’s use of chemical weapons was “inexcusable and reprehensible.”
He said the comment, made Tuesday at the White House briefing, was personally and professionally disappointing, and he asked for “folks’ forgiveness.” He noted that Jews are celebrating Passover.
It was Spicer’s second apology in as many days, after an initial mea culpa Tuesday during an interview with CNN.
vWashington: NASA to give ocean world findings
NASA on Thursday will unveil its latest discoveries about ocean worlds in our solar system “and the broader search for life beyond Earth.”
The briefing will provide information gleaned from the Cassini spacecraft and Hubble Space Telescope, NASA says. The agency says the new discoveries will help “inform future ocean world exploration” — including NASA’s upcoming Europa Clipper mission planned for launch in the 2020s.
In a few months, Cassini, which has been orbiting Saturn for almost 13 years, will puncture Saturn’s top clouds, disintegrate and vaporize, ending 20 years of unprecedented scientific discoveries.
vGermany: Suspect held in soccer team bus attack
One suspect has been detained as a note left at the scene suggests a possible Islamic extremist motive for the attack on Borussia Dortmund’s team bus, German prosecutors said Wednesday.
Frauke Koehler, a spokeswoman for federal prosecutors, said investigators were focusing on two suspected Islamic extremists and have searched their homes. But authorities said other motives are still possible for the three explosives that hit the soccer team’s bus Tuesday. One of the suspects, a man, was arrested.
The note demanded Germany withdrawal Tornado reconnaissance jets that are helping the fight against the Islamic State militant group. The note also called for closing the U.S. Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Koehler said.
vTaiwan: Government bans sale of dog, cat meat
Taiwan is the first government in Asia to make it illegal to slaughter dogs and cats for human consumption, and has increased the fines for cruelty toward animals, according to the island’s Central News Agency.
Parliament amended its Animal Protection Act on Tuesday to ban the sale, purchase or consumption of cat and dog meat. Offenders face a maximum $8,300 fine, according to the Associated Press.
The bill toughened the penalty for those abusing animals, raising it from a one-year sentence to a two-year sentence, and the fine from $33,000 to $66,000, with repeat offenders facing a maximum five-year sentence or $167,000 fine, the AP reported.