10 things you need to know today: July 7, 2014
- 1. TSA bans uncharged cellphones from U.S.-bound flights
- 2. Washington prepares to open legal pot sales
- 3. Air strikes follow arrests for teens' killings in Israel
- 4. CHP vows to investigate videotaped beating
- 5. Kenya opposition presses on with demonstration despite killings
- 6. Sterlings go to court over deal to sell the L.A. Clippers
- 7. Pistorius lawyer protests airing of shooting reenactment video
- 8. Sixty-three Nigerian women and girls escape from Boko Haram
- 9. Brazil demands punishment for player who injured soccer star Neymar
- 10. Djokovic holds off Federer to take men's Wimbledon crown
1. TSA bans uncharged cellphones from U.S.-bound flights
The Transportation Security Administration said Sunday that it was banning uncharged cellphones from U.S.-bound flights from some overseas airports. Passengers will have to power up their mobile gadgets to prove they are not explosive devices — or leave them behind. The enhanced security measures appear to be in response to reports that terrorists in Syria and Yemen have developed bombs that can slip through existing airport screening methods.
2. Washington prepares to open legal pot sales
Washington on Monday became the second state, after Colorado, to allow sales of recreational marijuana. Adults can buy pot in heavily regulated and taxed stores, about 20 of which are expected to receive licenses Monday and open statewide as early as Tuesday. The system was approved by voters in November 2012. Experts expect a shortage of legal pot, however. A state board has licensed fewer than 80 of the 2,600 growers who have applied for licenses.
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3. Air strikes follow arrests for teens' killings in Israel
Israeli air strikes overnight killed nine Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Six of the dead were members of Hamas who were killed when a missile hit a tunnel, according to the military arm of Hamas, the Islamist group that runs Gaza. The attacks came after a Palestinian was arrested in connection with the killings of three Israeli teens, and three Israelis were arrested for the apparent revenge murder of a Palestinian teen. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said both cases were terrorism stemming from "the same evil."
4. CHP vows to investigate videotaped beating
The California Highway Patrol is promising a thorough investigation of the videotaped beating of a woman by a uniformed officer beside a Los Angeles freeway. A CHP spokesman said the officer was trying to restrain the woman after she reportedly walked onto Interstate 10, posing a danger to herself and to motorists. The video shows the woman, 51, struggling to get up as the officer punches her repeatedly in the face until an off-duty officer arrives and helps him handcuff her. The officer is on leave. The family plans to sue.
The Associated Press NBC Los Angeles
5. Kenya opposition presses on with demonstration despite killings
Kenya's leading opposition politician, Raila Odinga, vowed on Sunday to hold a scheduled demonstration in downtown Nairobi on Monday despite the gruesome killings of 20 people in two attacks on Kenya's coast over the weekend. The violence raised fears of escalating ethnic-fueled political clashes. The Kenyan government suspects that the opposition demonstrators will try to occupy a public park to trigger clashes with police, and has deployed 15,000 security officers to contain the demonstrators.
The New York Times The Associated Press
6. Sterlings go to court over deal to sell the L.A. Clippers
The battle for ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers goes to court on Monday, as a trial begins to determine whether Shelly Sterling had the authority to unilaterally negotiate the sale of the team to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. The deal came after the NBA moved to oust her estranged husband, Donald Sterling, as owner over secretly taped racist remarks attributed to him. The sale can't proceed unless the judge decides the deal met the terms of the family trust that owns the team.
7. Pistorius lawyer protests airing of shooting reenactment video
A lawyer for Oscar Pistorius is slamming Australian broadcaster Channel Seven for airing footage of the double-amputee runner reenacting the way he says he fatally shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in his South Africa home. The footage, made last year during defense preparations, shows Pistorius with his arm outstretched as if holding a gun. Pistorius says he shot Steenkamp through his bathroom door thinking she was an intruder. Prosecutors say he intentionally killed her after an argument.
8. Sixty-three Nigerian women and girls escape from Boko Haram
Sixty-three women and girls escaped their Boko Haram captors in Nigeria and have made it back to their burned-out village, according to a Nigerian security official and members of a vigilante group fighting Boko Haram. The hostages were kidnapped June 18 during a four-day attack on their village by the Islamist insurgent group. They were able to flee when their captors left their camp to launch an attack on security forces. Boko Haram is still holding more than 200 schoolgirls abducted in April.
9. Brazil demands punishment for player who injured soccer star Neymar
Brazil's soccer federation has petitioned FIFA, soccer's international governing body, to punish the Colombian player who sidelined Brazil's top star, Neymar, for the rest of the World Cup. Colombia defender Juan Camilo Zúñiga kneed Neymar in the back late in a quarterfinal match Friday. Brazil won 2-1 and advanced to the semifinals, but Neymar sustained a lumbar vertebra fracture. Zúñiga, who was called for a foul, said the clash was "a normal challenge" as both men went for the ball.
10. Djokovic holds off Federer to take men's Wimbledon crown
Top-seeded Novak Djokovic bounced back from near defeat to beat Roger Federer — 6-7 (7-9), 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), 5-7, 6-4 — and take his second Wimbledon men's singles title in four years. Federer, who was after a record eighth Wimbledon title, had the crowd on his side and a 5-2 lead in what could have been the deciding fourth set, but Djokovic then won five straight games to stay alive. Djokovic had lost his last three finals in major tennis tournaments. "I needed this win a lot," he said.
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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.
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