10 things you need to know today: July 8, 2016

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1. Snipers kill five Dallas police officers after protest
2. Comey defends FBI recommendation against charges over Hillary Clinton's emails
3. Minnesota governor calls for federal investigation of Philando Castile's death
4. Trump and GOP lawmakers give conflicting accounts of unity meeting
5. North Korea calls new sanctions a 'declaration of war'
6. Obama tells NATO leaders Brexit won't weaken defense alliance
7. Officers were cleared in use-of-force complaints before Alton Sterling killing
8. State Department resumes its investigation of Clinton emails
9. Powerful typhoon kills 2 in Taiwan
10. Venus Williams' loss means no all-Williams Wimbledon final

published 8 July 2016

1. Snipers kill five Dallas police officers after protest

Snipers killed five police officers and wounded seven others, alongside two civilians, in Dallas late Thursday at the end of a peaceful protest against recent police shootings of African-Americans in Louisiana and Minnesota. At least one gunman exchanged gunfire with police before reportedly being killed around 3 a.m. Friday. Police said as many as four gunmen "triangulated" fire from elevated positions along the protest's route in an ambush. Police searched for explosives one suspect said had been planted in downtown Dallas, but found none. President Obama called the attack "vicious, calculated, and despicable."

In a House hearing, FBI Director James Comey on Thursday defended his decision to recommend no criminal charges be filed against Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. Comey said there was no evidence Clinton knowingly exchanged classified information even though she showed "great carelessness" at times. Republicans grilled Comey, suggesting the FBI was setting a dangerous precedent by giving the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee special treatment. Comey replied that he and his agents did not "give a hoot about politics."

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Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton (D) on Thursday said "justice will be served" and called for the Justice Department to launch an independent investigation into the fatal shooting of Philando Castile, an African-American motorist, by a white police officer during a traffic stop. "Would this have happened if the driver and the passenger were white? I don't think it would've," Dayton said. President Obama said such shootings were "symptomatic" of racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

Donald Trump met with GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Thursday in an attempt to unify the Republican Party, but lawmakers said later the encounter turned combative. Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) said he left the meeting doubting whether Trump had a basic understanding of the Constitution, while Trump reportedly threatened Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) after Flake criticized the presumptive presidential nominee's inflammatory rhetoric. Trump, however, insisted the meeting went well, tweeting: "Had great meetings with Republicans in the House and Senate. Very interesting day!"

North Korea on Thursday said U.S. sanctions against the isolated communist nation's leader, Kim Jong Un, and other top officials amounted to a "declaration of war" and threatened retaliation. The Treasury imposed the sanctions a day earlier on Kim and 10 other senior officials over the regime's human rights abuses — a first. U.S. officials said North Korean leaders need to accept that their actions bring consequences. One Treasury Department officials said that North Korea has inflicted "intolerable cruelty and hardship on millions of its own people" under Kim.

President Obama on Friday said at a NATO summit that the U.K. vote to leave the European Union should not be allowed to weaken the western military alliance. He also said America's "special relationship" with Britain would survive Brexit, and that he had "no doubt that the U.K. will remain one of NATO's most capable members." Obama also called on NATO leaders to stand firm against a resurgent Russia after its seizure of Crimea from Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council in an apparent bid to defuse tension ahead of the NATO summit.

The two white Baton Rouge, Louisiana, police officers involved in this week's fatal shooting of an African-American man, Alton Sterling, faced four prior complaints over their use of force, but were cleared in all of them, according to internal affairs records released Thursday. The complaints were filed by three black men and a black juvenile. One of them was shot after allegedly pointing a gun at officers, two were injured during arrests, and the fourth was hurt in a car chase. The Justice Department has launched a civil rights investigation into Sterling's death.

The State Department said Thursday it had reopened its internal review of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she served as secretary of state. The announcement came a day after Attorney General Loretta Lynch accepted the FBI's recommendation not to file criminal charges in the case. The FBI asked the State Department to pause its inquiry in April so it could complete its investigation. The State Department said it would now resume its review. "We will aim to be as expeditious as possible," a State Department spokesman said.

Super Typhoon Nepartak slammed into southeastern Taiwan early Friday with top sustained winds of 150 miles per hour, killing two people and injuring 72. About 15,000 people were evacuated from coastal areas before the powerful storm hit. Nepartak quickly weakened into a medium-strength typhoon, with its top sustained winds dropping to 100 mph as it headed back to sea on its way to an expected landfall in mainland China on Saturday.

Venus Williams lost 6-4, 6-4 in the Wimbledon semifinals to fourth-seeded Angelique Kerber on Thursday, missing out on a chance to play her sister, No. 1 ranked Serena Williams, in the finals. Serena Williams earned a shot at the title by demolishing 50th ranked Russian player Elena Vesnina 6-2, 6-0 on Thursday. Venus Williams' loss came in her first appearance in a Grand Slam semifinal in six years. Also on Thursday, the Williams sisters advanced to the women's doubles semifinals by beating Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova, 7-6, 4-6, 6-2.

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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.