10 things you need to know today: June 19, 2017

Police officers near Finsbury Park in London

(Image credit: Carl Court/Getty Images)

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1. 1 dead after van hits crowd near London mosque
2. Trump lawyer denies president is under investigation
3. Macron's new party wins large parliamentary majority
4. U.S. plane shoots down Syrian fighter jet
5. Navy identifies 7 sailors killed in ship collision
6. Gunmen kill at least 2 at Mali resort
7. Megyn Kelly scolds Alex Jones for conspiracy theories
8. Brooks Koepka wins U.S. Open with record-tying performance
9. Heavyweight Tim Hague dies after suffering knockout in boxing match
10. Taurasi sets WNBA scoring record

published 19 June 2017

1. 1 dead after van hits crowd near London mosque

A van plowed into a crowd of worshippers leaving a London mosque early Monday, leaving one person dead and 10 injured in what British police said they were treating as a terrorist attack. A suspect was arrested. "When he was running, he said 'I want to kill more people, I want to kill more Muslims,'" said Abdulrahman Aidroos, a witness who tackled and helped restrain the suspect. Witnesses said the pedestrians were hit as they left late-night prayers, part of observances of the holy month of Ramadan. Video posted on social media showed bystanders performing CPR on a victim as people screamed. Police said it was "too early to tell" if the man who died was killed by the van, because he was receiving first aid before the van hit the pedestrians. London Mayor Sadiq Khan, the city's first Muslim mayor, called the "horrific" incident "an assault on all our shared values of tolerance, freedom, and respect."

One of President Trump's outside lawyers, Jay Sekulow, said Sunday that Trump was not under federal investigation. Sekulow repeated the statement on several news programs, contradicting a tweet Trump made two days earlier in which he said, "I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt." Sekulow said Trump has received no formal notification that he is the subject of an investigation, "So that — nothing has changed in that regard since James Comey's testimony." Trump fired Comey as FBI director last month, and Comey said in a congressional hearing that at the time of his firing Trump was not being targeted in the investigation. The Washington Post reported last week that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was investigating whether Trump obstructed justice, presumably by firing Comey to disrupt the investigation into Russia's attempt to meddle in last year's election, and possible collusion with Moscow by Trump's campaign.

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French President Emmanuel Macron's pro-Europe, pro-business Republic on the Move (En Marche!) party was projected to win a big majority in Parliament after dominating the second round of legislative elections on Sunday. The victory by Macron's year-old party cemented the transformation of a national political system long run by France's center-right and center-left parties, which are now left as relatively weak opposition parties. Pollsters projected that Macron's party would win at least 355 of 577 seats in France's National Assembly, fewer than once expected but still enough to give him a powerful majority to help advance his agenda.

A U.S. warplane shot down a Syrian government fighter jet near Raqqa on Sunday after the Syrian aircraft bombed U.S.-backed local forces fighting the Islamic State in northern Syria. The incident was the first time a U.S. jet has shot down a Syrian warplane since the start of the country's civil war in 2011, marking an escalation in America's involvement in the conflict. It was the fourth time in a month that the U.S. has targeted pro-Syrian-government forces. Syria said the plane's pilot was killed, and that the aircraft had been on a mission to strike ISIS. Also, Iran responded to recent attacks in Tehran by firing missiles at ISIS targets in Syria.

The U.S. Navy on Sunday night identified the seven sailors who died when their destroyer, the USS Fitzgerald, collided with a container ship off of Japan on Saturday. The sailors, who were listed as missing before their bodies were found in a submerged compartment, were identified as: Dakota Kyle Rigsby, 19, of Palmyra, Virginia; Shingo Alexander Douglass, 25, of San Diego; Ngoc T. Truong Huynh, 25, of Oakville, Connecticut; Noe Hernandez, 26, of Weslaco, Texas; Carlosvictor Ganzon Sibayan, 23, of Chula Vista, California; Xavier Alex Martin, 24, of Halethorpe, Maryland; and Gary Leo Rehm Jr., 37, of Elyria, Ohio. The Navy said the collision almost sank the destroyer. Vice Adm. Joseph Aucion, commander of the Navy's 7th Fleet, said the damage was "significant," and the crew's response was "swift and effective."

Gunmen on Sunday attacked a Malian luxury resort popular with Western tourists outside the capital city of Bamako, killing at least two people. An undetermined number of people were injured, and another 30 people were rescued by Malian anti-terror forces that rushed to Le Campement resort. "They [the armed men] exchanged gunshots with members of the special anti-terrorist force (FORSAT) who had arrived just a few minutes after the attack," an official statement said. "FORSAT managed to secure the surroundings of the site." The U.S. embassy in the West African nation warned Americans that there could be an increased threat of attacks against Western diplomats and places frequented by Westerners, and urged U.S. citizens to "avoid vulnerable locations with poor security measures in place."

Megyn Kelly grilled Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist and founder of Infowars, for touting baseless claims that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax in a 17-minute segment on her new NBC show Sunday night. She said he recklessly caused victims' families great pain despite having "no evidence" to support the claims. Kelly, a former Fox News host, had faced intense criticism before the show aired, with relatives of Sandy Hook victims denouncing NBC and urging it not to air the segment, and critics like New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio saying NBC was helping Jones spread his views. NBC re-edited the material in recent days, however, and the show received positive early reviews. Media Matters, a liberal advocacy site that criticized NBC before the show aired, called the segment "a well-edited investigation of the dangers posed by an unstable megalomaniac with millions of loyal fans," although some critics still said the show needlessly boosted Jones' profile.

Brooks Koepka won the U.S. Open on Sunday to claim his first major golf title, tying the tournament record for total under par with a 16-under-par 272 over 72 holes. Koepka now shares the mark with Rory McIlroy, who set the record in 2011. Koepka won by four shots over Hideki Matsuyama and Brian Harman. Koepka's victory also marked the seventh straight time a first-time champion had won in a men's major. At 27, Koepka is the youngest of those first-time winners by a few months.

Former UFC heavyweight Tim Hague has died, after being knocked out in a Friday boxing match in Canada, his sister Jackie Neil announced Sunday. "He was surrounded by family, listening to his favorite songs," Neil wrote in a family statement. "We will miss him with so greatly. We ask for privacy during this difficult time." Hague, 34, was rushed to the hospital Friday after a knockout loss to Adam Braidwood in a heavyweight bout in Edmonton. Braidwood knocked Hague down numerous times, but the bout was allowed to continue until Braidwood knocked Hague unconscious.

Diana Taurasi of the Phoenix Mercury broke Tina Thompson's WNBA career scoring record on Sunday, scoring 19 points in a 90-59 loss to the Los Angeles Sparks to finish the game with 7,494 career points. Taurasi passed Thompson's mark of 7,488 late in the first half by moving around a screen set by a teammate to make a layup. The game was paused as the crowd gave Taurasi an ovation. She took only 13 seasons to set the record, which Thompson set over 17 seasons.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.