10 things you need to know today: August 1, 2016

Khizr Khan and Ghazala Khan speak at the DNC

(Image credit: Getty Images)

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1. Mother of slain Muslim U.S. soldier pushes back against Trump
2. France arrests two men for alleged ties to church attackers
3. Turkey captures members of alleged team that targeted Erdogan
4. Clinton accuses Russia of DNC hack, suggests pro-Trump motive
5. Taliban claims responsibility for attack on heavily guarded guesthouse
6. Federal investigators say balloon likely hit power lines before deadly crash
7. New York assemblyman files complaint against police
8. Tokyo elects its first female governor
9. Pope Francis blames terrorism on unjust global economy
10. Jimmy Walker wins PGA Championship

By Harold Maass, The Week US

published 1 August 2016

1. Mother of slain Muslim U.S. soldier pushes back against Trump

The public sparring between Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and the parents of an American Muslim soldier killed in Iraq escalated Sunday, as Ghazala Khan, the mother of slain Capt. Humayun Khan, pushed back against Trump for suggesting she did not speak at last week's Democratic National Convention because her husband and religion did not allow it. "Here is my answer to Donald Trump," she wrote in a Washington Post op-ed. "Because without saying a thing, all the world, all America, felt my pain." She said Trump "doesn't know what the word 'sacrifice' means." Several GOP congressional leaders called Trump's criticism of the Khans appalling, and Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, said Khan is "an American hero and his family, like all Gold Star families, should be cherished by every American."

French authorities on Sunday detained two people in connection with the murder of a priest last month in an attack on a church in Normandy. One of the two suspects, identified as Farid K., was charged with "terrorist association." He is a 30-year-old cousin of one of the two attackers, Abdel Malik Petitjean. The second man, identified as Jean-Philippe Steven J, is suspected of having tried to travel to Syria with Petitjean last month. The arrests came on a day when Muslims across France attended Catholic Mass in a show of solidarity.

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Turkey announced Monday that special forces had arrested 11 soldiers in an overnight raid, completing the roundup of all but one of the soldiers who tried to seize President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during last month's failed coup. The government has detained, fired, or suspended thousands of military, judicial, civil service, and education workers since the coup attempt. Over the weekend, Erdogan announced sweeping reforms to bring the military fully under civilian control.

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on Sunday blamed Russia for recent hacks into her party's computer systems and suggested Moscow might be attempting to help the campaign of her rival, Republican nominee Donald Trump, because Russian President Vladimir Putin prefers him. "We know that Russian intelligence services hacked into the DNC and we know that they arranged for a lot of those emails to be released and we know that Donald Trump has shown a very troubling willingness to back up Putin, to support Putin," she said during an interview on Fox News Sunday.

The Taliban on Monday claimed responsibility for a truck-bomb and gun attack in Afghanistan's capital city, Kabul. The blast targeted the Northgate Hotel, a high-security residential compound used by foreign military and civilian contractors. Three heavily armed attackers stormed the compound and were killed, one by his own exploding vest. Afghan authorities did not immediately provide any information on damage or casualties, but Taliban officials said the attack had killed or wounded dozens of people.

The hot air balloon that crashed in Central Texas on Saturday, killing all 16 people on board, probably hit power lines before falling to the ground in flames, the National Transportation Safety Board said Sunday. It was not immediately clear whether the fire erupted before or after the balloon hit the live wires, NTSB member Robert Sumwalt said. The victims' bodies were found near the basket in a pasture, which came to rest about three quarters of a mile away from the balloon material.

A New York State assemblyman, Michael Blake, has filed a formal complaint saying that a police officer bear-hugged him and "slammed" him against a gate after he approached officers to ask about a woman being held in handcuffs. The encounter occurred while Blake, an African-American assemblyman from the Bronx, was attending a family event in New York City. "It was not a pleasant interaction," he said. The Police Department confirmed that a sergeant and an officer had been at the event responding to an argument between neighbors, but said Blake had approached the sergeant from behind and "grabbed" his shoulder without identifying himself.

Tokyo voters elected their first woman governor on Sunday. Yuriko Koike won a resounding victory over 20 candidates, including former regional governor Hiroya Masuda — the chosen candidate of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling party. Koike campaigned promising to enact sweeping reforms and contain spending on preparations for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Koike is a former television journalist and Middle East expert who has also served, briefly, as Japan's first female defense minister. She also has published essays on international issues — in one she called Donald Trump's presidential campaign "loutish."

Pope Francis said Sunday a global economy that marginalizes Muslim youth is the root cause of terrorism. The pope said young people are driven into extremists' arms by a lack of opportunity. "Terrorism grows when there is no other option, and as long as the world economy has at its center the god of money and not the person," the pope said as he flew back to the Vatican after a five-day trip to Poland. "This is fundamental terrorism, against all humanity."

Jimmy Walker won the 98th PGA Championship on Sunday with a dramatic finish on the 18th hole of the tournament's final round. The 37-year-old Texan's three-shot lead shrank to one stroke as he headed to his final tee shot, after defending champion and world No. 1 Jason Day eagled his last hole. Walker held on by sinking his final putt to par the 18th hole, beating Day by one stroke and winning his first major championship. "Sometimes things just don't come easy," Walker 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.