TOP BREXIT OFFICIAL QUITS POST IN TIFF
Britain’s most senior official in charge of negotiating the country’s exit from the European Union resigned Sunday, two days after Prime Minister Theresa May announced she had finally united her quarrelsome government behind a plan for Brexit.
The Press Association news agency, the BBC and others said Brexit Secretary David Davis resigned Sunday.
Davis’s late-night resignation undermined May’s already fragile government. He was a strong pro-Brexit voice in a Cabinet divided between supporters of a clean break with the bloc and those who want to keep close ties with Britain’s biggest trading partner.
The staunchly proBrexit Conservative lawmaker Andrea Jenkyns tweeted: “Fantastic news. Well done David Davis for having the principal and guts to resign.”
Steve Baker, a junior minister, also quit.
French far-right leader says withheld funds doom her party.
PARIS
» French far-right leader Marine Le Pen lashed out Sunday at a decision to withhold the payment of a public subsidy for her party, saying it amounted to “certain death” for the National Rally.
Le Pen said two judges decided Friday to withhold a payment of 2 million euros, or nearly half of the 4.5 million-euro subsidy the party was allocated for the year. The funds were due for disbursement Monday.
The judges made the decision amid an investigation into whether funds for European Parliament assistants were misused.
Le Pen said the subsidy was already six months overdue and was essential for the party, formerly called the National Front, to meet its running costs, notably salaries and rent.
“Ant-Man and the Wasp” buzzes to $76 million debut.
NEW
Despite its heroes’ diminutive size, “AntMan and the Wasp” opened with typical Marvel might at the box office, with an estimated $76 million in ticket sales.
According to studio estimates Sunday, the “Ant-Man” sequel easily surpassed the $57 million debut of the 2015 original in North America. The 20th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — and the 20th to debut no. 1 at the box office — “AntMan and the Wasp” comes on the heels of two mammoth Marvel successes this year: “Black Panther” and “Avengers: Infinity War.”
While the first “AntMan,” starring Paul Rudd, had a rocky road to release due to a late director change, the rollout of the sequel, directed by Peyton Reed, was smoother. Cathleen Taff, head of distribution for Disney, credited a marketing campaign that played up the film as a more light-hearted change-of-pace for Marvel following the grandiosity of “Infinity War.”
Turkey: Train derailment kills at least 10, injures 73.
At least 10 people were killed and more than 70 injured Sunday when a passenger train derailed in northwestern Turkey, Turkish authorities said.
Five of the train’s six cars derailed in a village in Tekirdag province after “the ground between the culvert and the rail collapsed” due to heavy rains, the Ministry of Transport said.
Health Ministry Undersecretary Eyup Gumus put the number of fatalities at 10 and the number of people injured at 73 based on initial reports from the scene, according to Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency.
Slain newspaper editor hailed as shy but brilliant writer.
OLNEY,
A shy man who expressed his brilliant intellect through his editorials, Gerald Fischman wrote hundreds of thousands of words for the Capital Gazette before a gunman burst into the newsroom and killed him and four other co-workers.
Capital Gazette editor Rick Hutzell wiped away tears Sunday as he read aloud some of those words for more than 150 relatives, friends and coworkers who gathered for Fischman’s funeral service and burial at Judean Memorial Gardens cemetery.
Hutzell said his friend and 61-year-old colleague dedicated his life to telling “hard truths,” no matter the topic. And the small-town editorial page editor tackled a broad range of subjects, from local politics and civil rights to annual takes on Mother’s Day and high school graduations.
“His voice as a writer will be greatly missed. His wisdom cannot be replaced,” Hutzell said.
Fischman and four other staffers were killed June 28 when a gunman who had a grudge against the newspaper attacked its offices in Annapolis, authorities said. The suspect, Jarrod Ramos, is charged with five counts of first-degree murder.
Insider attack in Afghanistan killed soldier from California.
WASHINGTON
The Pentagon says the U.S. service member killed in an apparent insider attack in southern Afghanistan was a soldier from California.
In a statement, the Pentagon identified the soldier as Cpl. Joseph Maciel of South Gate, California. He died Saturday in Tarin Kowt District, Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan.
Maciel was assigned to 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Benning, Georgia. Task Force 1-28 Infantry is deployed in support of the 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade.
The U.S.-led coalition headquarters in Kabul has said that two other U.S. service members were wounded in the attack.
Former Gov. Ray, who helped relocate refugees to Iowa, dies.
» Former MOINES, IOWA longtime Iowa Gov. Robert D. Ray, who helped thousands of Vietnam War refugees relocate to the state and defined Iowa’s Republican politics for years, has died. He was 89.
Ray, who never faced a serious election challenge during his 14 years as governor, died Sunday morning at a nursing home in Des Moines, said his former chief of staff David Oman. Ray had been battling Parkinson’s disease for several years.