Nation and World briefs for September 15

Trump dispenses hoagies, handshakes in hurricane zone

NAPLES, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump doled out hoagies and handshakes in the sweltering Florida heat on Thursday as he took a firsthand tour of Irma’s devastation and liberally dispensed congratulatory words about the federal and state recovery effort.

Trump, who was in and out of the state in about three hours, got an aerial view of the water-deluged homes along Florida’s southwestern coast from his helicopter, then drove in his motorcade along streets lined with felled trees, darkened traffic lights and shuttered stores on his way to a mobile home community hit hard by the storm.

Walking along a street in Naples Estates with his wife, Melania, the president encountered piles of broken siding and soggy furniture sitting on a front porch, and residents and volunteers who were happy to get a presidential visit.

“We are there for you 100 percent,” Trump said before donning gloves and helping to hand out sandwiches to local residents from a lunch line under a canopy. “I’ll be back here numerous times. This is a state that I know very well.”

As he left the state, Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he planned another hurricane-related trip, to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, which were both badly hit by Irma.

Russian navy fires cruise missiles into eastern Syria

ABOARD THE ADMIRAL ESSEN (AP) — Russia fired a salvo of cruise missiles from the Mediterranean on Thursday and said they struck Islamic State targets in eastern Syria. Activists there said at least 20 civilians were killed in what they described a “fanatical” bombardment — blaming some of it on Russia and some on the United States.

It was not clear whether there was a connection between the Russian military strikes and the activists’ accounts, reflecting the challenge of verifying the conflicting claims in the hostile environment of Syria’s civil war, now in its seventh year.

The seven Kalibr cruise missiles, launched from the submarines Veliky Novgorod and Kolpino, hit IS installations in Deir el-Zour province, the Russian Defense Ministry said. The province is where forces backed separately by Washington and Moscow are racing to seize territory in the jihadist group’s shrinking Euphrates River valley domain.

But Turkey-based activist Omar Abou Layla said their local contacts reported “fanatical” levels of bombardment on three IS-held towns and villages along the valley — far more than could be accounted for by seven missiles — including an attack on the national hospital in the IS stronghold of al-Mayadeen, where six civilians were reported killed. Abou Layla put the toll at 20 killed across the province. He added that the provincial capital, also called Deir el-Zour, suffered heavy airstrikes as well.

Russian-backed pro-government forces have been on the offensive to take back the city after breaking an IS siege there last week. It was the first time reinforcements were able to reach the city in nearly three years.

US extends Iran sanctions relief while bemoaning behavior

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Thursday extended sanctions relief to Iran, avoiding imminent action that could implode the landmark 2015 nuclear deal, even as President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson accused Tehran of not respecting the entire agreement.

The extensions of the waivers on nuclear sanctions, first issued by the Obama administration, were accompanied by new penalties imposed against 11 Iranian people and companies accused of supporting Iran’s ballistic missile program or involvement in cyber-attacks against the U.S. financial system.

The combination of steps — known internally as “waive and slap” — came as the administration nears completion of a monthslong review of its Iran policy that is expected next month, perhaps as early as October 15 when Trump must inform Congress if Iran is complying with the terms of the nuclear agreement and whether the deal remains in U.S. national security interests.

In comments to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump repeated his campaign pronouncement that the deal is bad and again said he believes Iran is violating its terms and spirit.

“The Iran deal is one of the worst deals I’ve ever seen,” he said. “Not a fair deal to this country. It’s a deal that should have never ever been made. You’ll see what we’re doing … it’s going to be in October.”

Cuba mystery grows: New details on what befell US diplomats

WASHINGTON (AP) — The blaring, grinding noise jolted the American diplomat from his bed in a Havana hotel. He moved just a few feet, and there was silence. He climbed back into bed. Inexplicably, the agonizing sound hit him again. It was as if he’d walked through some invisible wall cutting straight through his room.

Soon came the hearing loss, and the speech problems, symptoms both similar and altogether different from others among at least 21 U.S. victims in an astonishing international mystery still unfolding in Cuba. The top U.S. diplomat has called them “health attacks.” New details learned by The Associated Press indicate at least some of the incidents were confined to specific rooms or even parts of rooms with laser-like specificity, baffling U.S. officials who say the facts and the physics don’t add up.

“None of this has a reasonable explanation,” said Fulton Armstrong, a former CIA official who served in Havana long before America re-opened an embassy there. “It’s just mystery after mystery after mystery.”

Suspicion initially focused on a sonic weapon, and on the Cubans. Yet the diagnosis of mild brain injury, considered unlikely to result from sound, has confounded the FBI, the State Department and U.S. intelligence agencies involved in the investigation.

Some victims now have problems concentrating or recalling specific words, several officials said, the latest signs of more serious damage than the U.S. government initially realized. The United States first acknowledged the attacks in August — nine months after symptoms were first reported.