10 things you need to know today: August 22, 2016

Fireworks over the Rio Olympics closing ceremony

(Image credit: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

Jump to category:

1. Rio wraps up Summer Olympics
2. Trump aides say his deportation plan is 'to be determined'
3. Iraq hangs 36 for Camp Speicher massacre
4. ISIS claims responsibility for 2 suicide bombings in Somalia
5. Wedding bomber who killed 50 in Turkey was a child
6. Mislabeled pills reportedly found in Prince's home
7. Health official warns Zika could spread to Gulf Coast
8. Brother of wounded Syrian child in viral video dies
9. U.S. men's basketball team wins third straight Olympic gold
10. Ryan Lochte and 3 teammates to be disciplined, U.S. Olympic chief says

published 22 August 2016

1. Rio wraps up Summer Olympics

The Rio Olympics ended Sunday night with a Closing Ceremony inspired by the South American nation's famous Carnival. Simone Biles, who won four gold medals and a bronze in gymnastics, carried the U.S. flag in the ceremony. She led a U.S. team that collected 121 medals — the country's biggest haul in a non-boycotted Olympics since 1904. The rainy, three-hour ceremony marked the official handover of the Olympic flag to Tokyo, which hosts the next Summer Games in 2020. Despite complaints about preparations and the high cost of hosting the Games, the Rio Olympics were widely seen as a success and a welcome distraction from Brazil's economic and political troubles.

Donald Trump is reconsidering his campaign promise to deport the nation's 11 million undocumented immigrants, aides said Sunday. The Republican presidential nominee's new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, told CNN that it was "to be determined" whether Trump would call for a deportation force, and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who has advised Trump on immigration, said the billionaire businessman is "wrestling" with how to handle deportations. Campaign analysts said the comments suggested that Trump's newly hired campaign leaders are searching for ways to broaden his appeal as he falls in polls.

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Iraq on Sunday hanged 36 men convicted of participating in the massacre of at least 800 and possibly up to 1,700 military recruits at Camp Speicher near Tikrit in 2014. Islamic State fighters killed the mostly Shia recruits after taking over the area surrounding the camp, a former U.S. base. ISIS released photos and videos of the massacre, and mass graves were discovered a year later when Iraqi government forces drove ISIS out of the area. The massacre helped Iraq get Shia militias to join the fight against ISIS.

Double suicide bombings killed at least 20 people in Somalia on Sunday. The Islamist militant group al Shabaab, which is trying to topple the country's Western-backed government, claimed responsibility. A spokesman for the group said the attack was carried out with two car bombs. Witnesses in the town of Galkayo in north central Somalia confirmed that two automobiles had exploded at a local government headquarters in the semi-autonomous Puntland region. "There were two huge bombs," first a truck and then a car, said local resident Halima Ismail, whose brother was injured.

Turkish officials are waiting for the results of DNA tests on Monday to determine the identity of the suicide bomber who killed at least 50 people at a wedding in Gaziantep, Turkey, on Saturday. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday that the bomber appeared to have been a child between the ages of 12 and 14. Most of the victims were also children. One official said 22 of those killed were under age 14. Erdogan said the Islamic State was the "likely perpetrator" of the terrorist attack.

Pills discovered at Prince's Minnesota home after his death were labeled hydrocodone but contained fentanyl, the opioid that killed him, said the Minneapolis Star Tribune, citing a source with knowledge of the investigation. The musician's autopsy report says he died from an accidental, self-administered overdose of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 100 times more powerful than morphine. Investigators are not sure how the recording superstar obtained the drug — he didn't have a prescription — but they are leaning toward the theory that he did not know the pills contained the drug.

A top U.S. public health official said Sunday that the mosquito-borne Zika virus could spread across the Gulf Coast. The warning came after five cases were confirmed in the popular tourist destination of Miami Beach following an outbreak in Miami's Wynwood neighborhood. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the allergy and infectious diseases unit of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), said that record flooding that has killed 13 people in Louisiana has increased the odds that Zika, which can cause severe birth defects, could spread into the state, as standing water could hamper efforts to control mosquitos that spread the virus.

The older brother of bombing survivor Omran Daqneesh, 5, died Sunday from wounds he suffered when their family's house was bombed in the divided city of Aleppo, Syrian opposition activists said. Omran's late older brother, Ali, was 10. Video of Omran sitting bloodied and stunned in a bright orange ambulance seat went viral on social media, with more than 3.4 million views since last week. The images have stoked renewed opposition to the Syrian war.

The U.S. men's basketball team beat Serbia 96-66 to win the gold medal at the Rio Olympics on Sunday. It was Team USA's third straight Olympic title. The U.S. finished strong after scaring fans with three near losses in the preliminary round. Serbia led early in the game, but the U.S. broke loose with the help of a burst by Kevin Durant, who scored 18 points in the second quarter alone. By halftime, the U.S. was up 52-29. The win kept Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski undefeated as he ended his tenure as Olympic coach, with a 24-0 record across three Olympics.

U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun on Sunday promised disciplinary action against 12-time swimming medalist Ryan Lochte and three teammates over Lochte's debunked claim that they had been robbed at gunpoint by men posing as police in Rio. "They let down our athletes," Blackmun said. "They let down Americans. And they really let down our hosts in Rio who did such a wonderful job, and we feel very badly about that." Lochte apologized, saying he "overexaggerated" the story, which his teammates said they never mischaracterized. Police say the swimmers vandalized a gas station bathroom, and armed security guards made them pay for the damage.

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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.