District of Columbia
Trump OKs sanctions against ICC employees
WASHINGTON — In a broadside against the International Criminal Court, President Trump on Thursday authorized economic and travel sanctions against court workers investigating American troops and intelligence officials and those of allied nations, including Israel, for possible war crimes in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Trump’s executive order was his administration’s latest attack against international organizations, treaties and agreements that don’t hew to U.S. policies. The order would block the financial assets of court employees and bar them and their immediate relatives from entering the United States.
While Israel welcomed the move, there were expressions of concern and condemnation from the United Nations, the European Union and human rights groups.
People are also reading…
The Hague-based court was created in 2002 to prosecute war crimes and crimes of humanity and genocide in places where perpetrators might not otherwise face justice. The court has 123 state parties that recognize its jurisdiction. The U.S. has never been an ICC member.
Washington
Trump fumes over protesters in Seattle
SEATTLE — Following days of violent confrontations with protesters, police in Seattle have largely withdrawn from part of a neighborhood where protesters have created a festival-like scene that has President Trump fuming.
Trump taunted Gov. Jay Inslee and Mayor Jenny Durkan about the situation on Twitter and said the city had been taken over by “anarchists.” “Take back your city NOW. If you don’t do it, I will,” Trump tweeted.
The president continued his complaints in a Thursday interview with the Fox News Channel. “If we have to go in, we’re going to go in,” Trump said. “These people are not going to occupy a major portion of a great city.”
The “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” stretches over a couple of city blocks and sprung up after police on Monday removed barricades near the East Precinct and basically abandoned the structure after officers used tear gas, pepper spray and flash bangs over the weekend to disperse demonstrators they said were assaulting them with projectiles.
California
Several police officers ambushed, wounded
LOS ANGELES — Several police officers were wounded Thursday in separate shootouts with a man suspected of ambushing and seriously injuring a deputy a day earlier. The suspect was “secured and unresponsive,” authorities said.
Scores of police officers had been searching for Mason James Lira, 26, since early Wednesday when authorities said he opened fire on the Paso Robles police station on California’s Central Coast and then shot a San Luis Obispo County sheriff’s deputy in the face. The deputy is in serious condition.
An Arroyo Grande police officer helping with the search was wounded in an exchange of gunfire with Lira at about 3 p.m. Nicholas Dreyfus, 28, was hit in the face. His partner fired back and dragged Dreyfus behind a police car. Dreyfus, who was able to radio that he’d been shot, underwent surgery Thursday and was in guarded condition.
Later, after a second exchange of gunfire, the Paso Robles Police Department tweeted “Suspect down. Several officers wounded.” There was no immediate word on their conditions.
Wire reports
