Ailes is out as Fox News head, Murdoch named acting chief
NEW YORK (AP) — Roger Ailes is out as chief executive at Fox News Channel, his career at the network he built from scratch and ran with an iron hand for nearly 20 years over with stunning swiftness following allegations that he forced out a former anchor after she spurned his sexual advances.
Network parent 21st Century Fox said that Rupert Murdoch, the company’s executive chairman, would run Fox News and its sister Fox Business Network, which Ailes had also led, until a successor could be found.
Murdoch and 21st Century Fox did not address the widening scandal in the statement on the resignation but lauded Ailes for his contributions. Ailes did not comment in the statement, and no details were given on a settlement agreement.
“I am personally committed to ensuring that Fox News remains a distinctive, powerful voice,” Murdoch said. “Our nation needs a robust Fox News to resonate from every corner of the country.”
Cutting short a vacation, the 85-year-old Murdoch addressed Fox News employees in New York on Thursday. Details were not given on the settlement agreement for a contract that was supposed to run through 2018, but Ailes is expected to get a payment of at least $40 million.
Brazil nabs 10 IS backers in Olympics anti-terror swoop
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Ten Brazilians who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group were arrested Thursday, authorities announced, describing them as “amateurs” who discussed on social media the possibility of staging attacks during next month’s Olympics.
Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes said in the capital, Brasilia, that the 10 were being held on two terrorism-related charges and that two more people were being sought.
Authorities said any attack plan would have had little chance of coming to fruition, citing the group’s lack of resources and skills.
But officials and security experts argued that police were justified in being aggressive in light of “lone wolf” attacks staged in the U.S. and Europe by men with little or no training.
Moraes said police acted because the group discussed using weapons and guerrilla tactics to potentially launch an attack during the Olympics, which begin in Rio de Janeiro on Aug. 5. They will remain in police custody for at least 30 days.
Cruz defiant as GOP slams him on Trump non-endorsement
CLEVELAND (AP) — A defiant Sen. Ted Cruz declared Thursday he’s no “servile puppy dog” as he faced a torrent of GOP criticism over his refusal to endorse Donald Trump on the Republican National Convention stage.
Irate convention delegates predicted Cruz had committed political suicide by accepting a prime-time speaking slot Wednesday only to urge Republicans to “vote your conscience,” not vote for the nominee. Although the Texas senator had not been expected to offer an effusive endorsement of his primary foe, many GOP delegates had hoped and expected to hear some expression of support as they struggle to unite their party to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton this fall.
Instead they got the opposite Wednesday night as Cruz’s defiance ripped apart their showcase of GOP unity moments before vice presidential nominee Mike Pence took the stage. The result was a moment of high drama in the convention hall, as delegates booed Cruz angrily and waved their arms, and some even rushed the stage. Only Trump’s sudden appearance in his family’s box, dispensing smiles and waves, quieted the simmering crowd.
Trump himself declared Cruz’s move “no big deal!” in a late-night Twitter post Wednesday. But on Thursday the Texan met anger and denunciations from many sides and was even heckled at a breakfast meeting of his own Texas delegation where a vocal minority of the large crowd was furious.
“Get over it, this is politics!” one man yelled, while another told Cruz he could unite the party by saying just a few words in support of Trump and “You need to do it now!” A third told Cruz to “Stop spinning it!”
Truck attacker in Nice had accomplices, planned for months
PARIS (AP) — The truck driver who killed 84 people on a Nice beachfront had accomplices and appears to have been plotting his attack for months, the Paris prosecutor said Thursday, citing text messages, more than 1,000 phone calls and video of the attack scene on the phone of one of five people facing terror charges.
Prosecutor Francois Molins said the five suspects in custody faced preliminary terrorism charges for their alleged roles in helping 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel in the July 14 attack in the southern French city.
Molins’ office, which oversees terrorism investigations, opened a judicial inquiry Thursday into a battery of charges for the suspects, including complicity to murder and possessing weapons tied to a terrorist enterprise.
Details about the investigation came as France’s interior minister faced criticism that a faulty security plan may have opened the way for the truck attack and as France extended its state of emergency for six months.
The prosecutor said the investigation made “notable advances” since the Bastille Day attack by Bouhlel, a Tunisian who had been living legally in Nice for years. Bouhlel was killed by police after barreling his 19-ton truck down Nice’s famed Promenade des Anglais, mowing down those who had come to see holiday fireworks.
Turkish lawmakers give leader Erdogan sweeping new powers
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey will be able to extend detention times for suspects and issue decrees without parliamentary approval under a three-month state of emergency approved Thursday by lawmakers following last week’s attempted military coup.
Parliament voted 346-115 to approve the national state of emergency, which gives sweeping new powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had been accused of autocratic conduct even before this week’s crackdown on alleged opponents. Erdogan has said the state of emergency will counter threats to Turkish democracy.
Even without the emergency measures, his government has already imposed a crackdown that has included mass arrests, mass firings and the closure of hundreds of schools. Erdogan said the new powers would allow the government to rid the military of the “virus” of subversion, blaming the coup attempt on a U.S.-based Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen. The cleric has denied any knowledge of the attempted coup.
“This is a state of emergency imposed not on the people, but on (the state) itself,” declared Prime Minister Binali Yildirim. “We will, one by one, cleanse the state of (Gulen’s followers) and eliminate those who are trying to harm the country.”
The government hopes the state of emergency will be lifted within 40 to 45 days, said Yildirim’s deputy, Numan Kurtulmus.
