10 things you need to know today: June 23, 2015

Nikki Haley announces she supports taking down the Confederate flag.

(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

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1. South Carolina governor calls for removing Confederate flag
2. Airstrike in Iraq kills ISIS militant suspected in Benghazi attack
3. Fugitives' DNA found in New York cabin
4. Obama to deliver slain pastor's eulogy
5. U.N. report says both Israel and the Palestinians may have committed war crimes
6. Revived fast-track trade bill faces crucial Senate test
7. Greek reform proposal eases investor fears
8. Walmart to stop selling Confederate flag items
9. Hundreds die in Pakistan heat wave
10. Hollywood composer James Horner dies in plane crash

published 23 June 2015

1. South Carolina governor calls for removing Confederate flag

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R), joined by a bipartisan group of political leaders, on Monday called for removing the Confederate battle flag from the State Capitol grounds. The move came days after white suspect Dylann Roof, shown holding a pistol and the rebel flag in photos posted online, was charged with murdering nine people at a black church in Charleston. Haley said the flag was integral to the state's past, but not its future. She can't take it down, though. It will take a two-thirds majority of both state houses to do that.

A U.S. airstrike in Iraq has killed an Islamic State operative suspected of involvement in the 2012 Benghazi, Libya, attacks that killed ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, the Pentagon said Monday. The suspect, Tunisian national Ali Awni al-Harzi, worked closely with extremists linked to ISIS in North Africa and the Middle East. His death will make it harder for ISIS to "integrate North African jihadists into the Syrian and Iraqi fight," a Defense Department spokesman said.

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The DNA of fugitive murderers Richard Matt and David Sweat was found inside a burglarized hunting cabin in upstate New York, about 25 miles from the maximum-security prison they escaped from two weeks ago, police said Monday. Prison-issue underwear also was found in the building. Police swarmed the wooded area after a witness reported seeing a man running from the cabin on Saturday. There have been several unconfirmed sightings of the pair. New York state is offering $50,000 apiece for information leading to their capture.

President Obama will deliver the eulogy at the Friday funeral service of Rev. Clementa Pinckney, one of the nine people killed in last week's shooting at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, a White House official said Monday. Vice President Joe Biden also will attend the service. Obama last week called the killings "senseless," and noted that he personally knew Pinckney, a Democratic state senator, and others at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

A United Nations commission on Monday released a report finding that both Israel and the Palestinians committed "what may amount to war crimes" during a bloody confrontation in the Gaza Strip last summer. A two-member independent commission told the U.N. Human Rights Council that Israeli troops attacked residential buildings with impunity, and that armed Palestinian groups fired rockets and mortar shells in an "inherently indiscriminate nature" at Israeli civilians.

A bill that would give President Obama fast-track trade authority faces a crucial vote in the Senate on Tuesday. If it clears this procedural hurdle — with 60 senators on board to avoid a filibuster — the bill is expected to pass easily on Wednesday. The measure is considered key to sealing a Pacific trade deal because it would guarantee Obama an up-or-down vote with no amendments. Sixty-two senators backed the first version of the measure, but House Democrats blocked it earlier this month.

Global stocks rose on Monday — with Greek bank shares surging by 20 percent — in a burst of optimism after Greece offered a package of financial reforms demanded by its European creditors. The concessions included tax hikes and restrictions on early retirement. Euro zone leaders are demanding more such austerity measures before they will unfreeze bailout money Greece desperately needs to avoid defaulting on a 1.6 billion euro International Monetary Fund loan that is due by the end of June.

Walmart said Monday that it would stop selling Confederate flag merchandise in the aftermath of the murder of nine people at a Charleston black church, allegedly by a white gunman who embraced the rebel flag as a symbol of white superiority. Before the announcement, Walmart.com carried Confederate flags and garments emblazoned with the emblem. "We never want to offend anyone with the products that we offer," said Brian Nick, a spokesman for Walmart, the nation's largest retailer.

The death toll from a heat wave in Pakistan's southern Pakistani port city of Karachi this week rose to more than 500, Pakistani health officials said Tuesday. Hundreds more are being treated in local hospitals for fever, dehydration, and other heat-related ailments. The elderly have been hit hardest as temperatures reached 113 degrees Fahrenheit over the last three days. Schools and public offices have been closed until the weather cools, which could happen soon with rains predicted in coming days.

Academy Award-winning composer James Horner, who worked on Titanic, Braveheart, Field of Dreams, Avatar, Apollo 13, and dozens of other Hollywood films, died Monday in a plane crash near Santa Barbara, California. He was 61. Officials said he was piloting the aircraft when it went down in a remote area 60 miles north of Santa Barbara. "We have lost an amazing person with a huge heart and unbelievable talent," his assistant Sylvia Patrycja wrote on Facebook. "He died doing what he loved."

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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.