Protesters hit the streets in Turkey again. Battle brews over Benghazi committee. And a mystery verdict and sentence is handed down in Iran.
It’s Monday, and here are five things to know for your new day.
TURKEY BOMBING
Shocking: Thousands took to the streets of Ankara yesterday, just hours after two bomb blasts tore through crowds taking part in a peace rally. No group has claimed responsibility for the bombings — though ISIS is the No. 1 suspect — which come at a politically sensitive time for the nation, which has national election in just three weeks.
BENGHAZI INVESTIGATION
Skirmish: Is the House Select Committee’s Benghazi investigation partisan? Democrats would say, ‘Duh!’ Republicans would say it’s anything but. So who’s right? Well, over the weekend a former committee staffer accused the GOP of only being interested in sticking it to Hillary Clinton. That’s music to the ears of Clinton’s campaign, which promptly told anyone who’d listen that the probe is a “partisan sham.” The committee flatly denied those allegations and accused the staffer of harboring his own bias against members of the Obama administration.
MIDEAST VIOLENCE
Israel: The violence seems to continue without end: stabbings, shootings, an explosion. In the West Bank yesterday, a 13-year-old boy died after being shot by a rubber bullet. Ten Palestinians died during the violent weekend. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered police reinforcements in Jerusalem and some 1,300 reserve border police have been mobilized, both in Jerusalem and throughout the country.
IRAN
Unknown: Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian is facing a sentence after a verdict was handed down in his case yesterday. But no one (outside of Iran, at least) knows what the verdict or sentence is. We do know that Rezaian or his lawyer have 20 days to appeal.
TAMIR RICE SHOOTING
‘Reasonable’: His family disagrees, but that’s the word that sums up a pair of new reports on the fatal police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice of Cleveland. The reports — written by experts not affiliated with the prosecutor in Cuyahoga County, Ohio — basically said the decision to shoot Rice was “objectively reasonable” because the officer legitimately believed the boy posed a threat. Rice’s family was outraged, accusing the prosecutor’s office of trying to “whitewash” the case.