ISIS claimed responsibility for the New Year’s attack at Istanbul’s Reina nightclub that left 39 people dead, but authorities are still scrambling to find the killer.
ISIS’ claim, made in a statement posted to Twitter, cannot be independently verified by CNN. But it boasted about the first major terrorist attack of 2017.
“In continuation of the blessed operations which ISIS carries out against Turkey, a soldier of the brave caliphate attacked one of the most popular nightclubs while Christians were celebrating their holiday,” the statement read.
Both Turkish and US officials have called the attack an act of terrorism.
At least one gunman shot his way into an Istanbul nightclub packed with hundreds of New Year’s revelers on Sunday, killing 35 people and wounding more than 40 in what the provincial governor described as a terrorist attack.
One assailant shot a police officer and a civilian as he entered the Reina nightclub before opening fire at random inside, Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin said at the scene. Some reports suggested there were multiple attackers.
“A terrorist with a long-range weapon … brutally and savagely carried out this attack by firing bullets on innocent people who were there solely to celebrate the New Year and have fun,” Sahin told reporters.
The attack again shook Turkey as it tries to recover from a failed July coup and a series of deadly bombings in cities including Istanbul and the capital Ankara, some blamed on Islamic State and others claimed by Kurdish militants.
President-elect Donald Trump praised Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday afternoon, after the Russian leader said he would not expel any U.S. diplomats from his country.
Trump tweeted, “Great move on delay (by V. Putin) – I always knew he was very smart!”
It’s shockingly direct praise from an incoming American president for a Russian leader who’s been accused by U.S. intelligence agencies and President Barack Obama of overseeing hacking efforts aimed at influencing the 2016 election.
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Sean Gallup via Getty Images
A woman walks past a mural showing President-elect Donald Trump (R) blowing marijuana smoke into the mouth of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the wall of a restaurant on Nov. 23, 2016, in Vilnius, Lithuania.
President-elect Donald Trump took credit Wednesday for bringing a total of 8,000 jobs to the U.S., when those jobs were part of a previously announced commitment that there’s no evidence Trump was involved in.
During brief remarks outside his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Trump said 5,000 jobs at Sprint Wireless would be returning to the U.S. from abroad and 3,000 would be created at OneWeb “because of what’s happening and the spirit and the hope.”
“I was just called by the head people at Sprint and they’re going to be bringing 5,000 jobs back to the United States,” Trump said. “They’re taking them from other countries, they’re bringing them back to the United States. And also OneWeb, a new company, is going to be hiring 3,000 people.”
Media outlets quickly ran with the news that Trump was bringing jobs back to the U.S., in some cases connecting it to the president-elect’s intervention at Carrier several weeks ago that kept 800 jobs at the company from moving to Mexico.
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Donald Trump Tricks The Media Into Crediting Him For Creating More U.S. Jobs
President Barack Obama sanctioned top Russian officials on Thursday in response to Moscow’s reported hacking during the U.S. presidential election.
“All Americans should be alarmed by Russia’s actions,” the president said in a statement.
Obama’s successor, president-elect Donald Trump, has cast doubt on the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia was responsible for unearthing and releasing material damaging to Trump’s Democratic opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. On Wednesday, Trump said it was time to “move on” and repeated that he believes it’s impossible to know who targeted Clinton.
But Obama appears committed to proving Russia’s responsibility. His administration wants Congress to receive intelligence reports showing the proof before Trump enters office and is able to call off such investigations. Officials may release some public details on its findings soon, according to The New York Times.
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Sputnik/Kremlin/Alexei Druzhinin/via REUTERS
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, China, on Sept. 5, 2016.
Talal Al-Johani, a high school student in Saudi Arabia, couldn’t imagine going to college anywhere else but the United States. For the last two years, the 17-year-old has been collecting university applications and making connections with admission counselors in an effort to land at a leading American institution.
But after American voters elected Donald Trump as president, Al-Johani is having second thoughts.
Leery of unclear policies and a potentially hostile social environment under a Trump presidency, international students may now be reconsidering higher education in the United States — and that potential “brain drain” could take a hefty financial toll on America’s education economy, international education experts say.
“I am concerned about how I’m going to be treated and how people will see me as a Muslim from Saudi,” said Al-Johani, a student at Dhahran High School in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. “I feel Trump has affected people’s social attitudes, especially towards someone like me.”
Last year, more than one million international students, a record number, came to America to pursue higher education — pumping $32.8 billion into the U.S. economy, according to the Association of International Educators (NAFSA)
A driver who plowed a truck through a Christmas market in Germany’s capital, killing 12, acted deliberately in an incident that authorities said early Tuesday was probably terrorism.
At least 48 other people were injured in the incident Monday night at Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz, a public square in the center of the city. German police said Tuesday morning that investigators now believe the truck was “intentionally directed” into the crowd.
Police said a man who was found dead in the truck, which bore Polish license plates, was a Polish citizen but was not the driver.
A second person was arrested near the public square, police said. No further details of the arrest were provided.
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Police take a suspect into custody Monday near the Christmas market at Breitscheidplatz in Berlin. Moe Zoyari/Redux / Redux Pictures
The American political landscape has changed a lot over the past 25 years but there is no more dramatic shift than the one that has pushed this state from deep blue to ruby red.
In the 1992 presidential election, Democrat Bill Clinton won West Virginia by a solid 13 percentage points. In November, Republican President-elect Donald Trump captured the state in a walk — winning it by more than 40 percentage points.
The forces behind that turnaround are complex. The decline of the coal industry and the changing demographics of the political parties explain part of it. But underneath that are the peaks and valleys of the Appalachian Mountains that make West Virginia what it is: picturesque, resource-rich and remote.
Coal has dominated much of the state’s story, and the industry’s declines are very real. Coal production in West Virginia has declined by 30 percent since 2010 and, in that time, coal mine employment in West Virginia has fallen by more than 27 percent. Some places have been hit especially hard.
As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to be sworn in as the country’s commander-in-chief next month, a majority of Americans say they are either uncertain or pessimistic about his presidency, even as the country is sounding a more optimistic tone about the future of the economy and Trump’s ability to bring positive change to Washington D.C.
A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds 54 percent of adults saying that they are either uncertain (25 percent) or pessimistic and worried (29 percent) about how Trump will perform during his presidency, compared with 45 percent with either an optimistic and confident view (22 percent) or a satisfied and hopeful view (23 percent).
That’s a significantly worse outlook than Americans expressed after the elections of both Barack Obama and George W. Bush. A combined 66 percent were either optimistic or hopeful about Obama in January 2009, according to the same poll, while 59 percent were optimistic or hopeful about George W. Bush in January 2001.
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Back in 2011, “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane subjected then reality TV personality Donald Trump to one of Comedy Central’s most memorable roasts.
Virtually no topics were out of bounds, as roast-master MacFarlane led celebrities in poking fun at the now president-elect over his multiple wives, the inheritance he received from his father and his mispronunciation of the word “huge.”
Trump “took his lumps like a champ that night,” MacFarlane recalled Thursday on “The Late Late Show with James Corden.”
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
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James' World 2 