1. SECRET DOCUMENTS SHOW GOVERNMENT IS SPYING ON INTERNET COMMUNICATIONS
The National Security Agency and FBI are tapping into the servers of nine U.S. internet giants — including Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Apple — to access foreign users' emails, pictures, and other information, according to secret documents obtained by The Washington Post and The Guardian. The program, code-named PRISM, was started in 2007. The revelation came just hours after the government acknowledged a separate collection of phone-call records in the U.S. [Guardian, Washington Post, New York Times]
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2. A COMBATIVE ERDOGAN DEMANDS AN END TO PROTESTS
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan defiantly demanded an end to a week of anti-government protests early Friday as he returned from a four-day overseas trip. Throngs of supporters cheered him at Istanbul's airport in the first pro-government rally since the demonstrations began. Crowds protesting what they see as Erdogan's authoritarian and Islamist policies had demanded an apology for a police crackdown. Instead, Erdogan said: "No power can stop Turkey's rise except God." [Bloomberg]
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3. NORTH KOREA REOPENS A KEY HOTLINE TO SEOUL AS TENSIONS EASE
North Korea said early Friday that it would reopen a key hotline to South Korea, the latest in a series of signs that the threat of war is easing on the Korean Peninsula. The two countries also agreed this week to hold talks on restarting operations at their jointly run Kaesong industrial complex. Pyongyang cut the Red Cross hotline in March, and padlocked Kaesong a month later as tensions escalated following the North's February nuclear test. [BBC News]
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4. CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS DEFEND PHONE SNOOPING
On Thursday, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees, defended the National Security Agency's searching of telephone records, saying the program had helped thwart terrorism attacks in recent years. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said "programs like this have great utility." Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) — like Rubio, a potential 2016 presidential candidate — disagreed, calling the effort an "assault on the Constitution." [Huffington Post]
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5. OBAMA CONFRONTS CHINA'S PRESIDENT ABOUT CYBER-SPYING
President Obama is meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping at a summit in California on Friday and plans to complain about alleged Chinese hacking of U.S. secrets. The showdown comes at an awkward moment, as the White House is facing questions this week about government surveillance at home. But U.S. officials say Obama wants assurance from Xi that he takes seriously accusations of Chinese cyber-spying, which has reportedly included peeking at advanced weapons designs. [Reuters]
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6. CHRISTIE APPOINTS CHIESA TO BRIEFLY FILL LAUTENBERG'S SEAT
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday appointed his Republican attorney general, Jeff Chiesa, to fill the seat left vacant when Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg died Monday at age 89. Chiesa is expected to be sworn in Monday once his paperwork is in order, but he will serve only a few months until voters can pick a new senator in a special election that Christie scheduled for Oct. 16. [Washington Post]
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7. TROPICAL STORM ANDREA MOVES UP THE EAST COAST
Tropical Storm Andrea, the first of the Atlantic hurricane season to be named, moved through Georgia and began heading up the East Coast early Friday, after hitting parts of northern Florida with heavy rains, high winds, and even some tornadoes. Andrea, which formed in the Gulf of Mexico, hit shore Thursday with sustained winds as high as 60 miles per hour, but lost intensity as it crossed land, with its top winds dropping to 45 miles per hour. [Associated Press]
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8. DINGELL SETS A RECORD ON CAPITOL HILL
Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) officially becomes the longest serving member in the history of the U.S. Congress on Friday. Dingell, 86, first strolled onto the House floor at the age of 6, when his father was elected in 1933. When his father, still in office, died in 1955, Dingell successfully ran to replace him. He has now been on the job for 57 years, 5 months, and 26 days, beating out a record set by the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.). [New York Times]
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9. PRINCE PHILIP UNDERGOES EXPLORATORY SURGERY
Britain's Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II's husband, is scheduled to have exploratory abdominal surgery in a London hospital on Friday. Philip, 91, the Duke of Edinburgh, has checked into hospitals four times in the last two years, and is expected to spend up to two weeks in the clinic recovering. He checked in after attending a Buckingham Palace garden party. "He is not in pain and is in good spirits," a palace source said. "He walked into hospital." [Mirror]
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10. PUTIN AND HIS WIFE ANNOUNCE DIVORCE
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his wife, Lyudmila, announced on state TV Thursday that they are getting divorced after 30 years of marriage. Lyudmila Putin has rarely joined her husband in public during his long political career, and said she didn't like being in the public eye — or flying, a constant for political families. "We practically never saw each other," the Russian president said. "To each his own life." [Associated Press]
