Nation and World briefs for May 18

Senate confirm Haspel as 1st female CIA director

WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed Gina Haspel on Thursday as the first female director of the CIA following a difficult nomination process that reopened an emotional debate about brutal interrogation techniques in one of the darkest chapters in the spy agency’s history.

The 54-45 vote split both parties, with six Democrats joining most Republicans in support. It was the closest vote for a CIA nominee in nearly seven decades, since the law was changed to require Senate confirmation.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called President Donald Trump’s choice of Haspel to lead the agency “the right woman at the right time.”

McConnell steered the confirmation swiftly past opponents, including the ailing Republican Sen. John McCain, whose long-distance rejection of the nominee over her role in the CIA’s torture program hung over an impassioned debate. McCain, who was captured and tortured in the Vietnam War, is at home in Arizona while battling brain cancer and did not vote.

Before voting began, McConnell said Haspel “demonstrated candor, integrity, and a forthright approach” throughout the confirmation process and “has quietly earned the respect and admiration” of intelligence community leaders at CIA headquarters and abroad.

School bus ripped apart in dump truck crash, killing 2

MOUNT OLIVE, N.J. — A school bus taking children on a field trip to a New Jersey historic site collided with a dump truck Thursday, ripping the bus apart and killing a teacher and student.

The crash left the bus lying on its side on the guardrail of Interstate 80 in Mount Olive, its undercarriage and front end sheared off and its steering wheel exposed. Some of the victims crawled out of the emergency exit in the back and an escape hatch on the roof. More than 40 people were taken to area hospitals.

“I heard a scraping sound and we toppled over the highway,” said student Theo Ancevski, who was sitting in the fourth row of the bus and was treated at a hospital for cuts and scrapes. “A lot of people were screaming and hanging from their seatbelts.”

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said that one adult and one student were killed. Murphy said the driver of the truck was alive at the hospital, but officials didn’t reveal his condition.

The front end of the red dump truck was mangled in the wreck, which took place about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of New York. The truck was registered to Mendez Trucking, of Belleville, and had “In God We Trust” emblazoned on the back of it.

Ex-boyfriend of blast victim arrested on bomb charge

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A former boyfriend and business partner of a woman killed in an explosion at the spa she owned in California was charged Thursday with a federal count related to explosives found in his house.

Stephen Beal was not charged with causing the blast that killed his former girlfriend and seriously injured two patrons of her spa when she opened a box that erupted in a fiery explosion.

Beal, 59, a rocket enthusiast and actor in several short films, and Ildiko Krajnyak, 48, a cosmetologist, had recently broken up, his son, Nathan Beal, said.

Stephen Beal was arrested late Wednesday after investigators found two improvised explosive devices in his Long Beach home, investigators said.

He was handcuffed when he arrived in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana on a charge of possessing an unregistered destructive device.

Markle’s dad too ill for royal wedding

WINDSOR, England — Ending days of speculation, Meghan Markle said Thursday that her father will not be able to attend her wedding to Prince Harry due to health problems. The news came as British military personnel rehearsed for a gala procession through Windsor that will follow Saturday’s ceremony, which will be televised live around the world.

“Sadly, my father will not be attending our wedding,” Markle said in a statement. “I have always cared for my father and hope he can be given the space he needs to focus on his health.”

Markle also thanked “everyone who has offered generous messages of support” and said she and Harry are looking forward to “sharing our special day with you on Saturday.”

Kensington Palace has not revealed any details about Thomas Markle’s health issues, but the celebrity website TMZ says the 73-year-old retired Hollywood cinematographer is hospitalized in California after undergoing a procedure to clear blocked coronary arteries. He reportedly told the website he was OK after three stents had been inserted, but needed to rest.

Thomas Markle had been scheduled to walk his daughter down the aisle when she weds her prince Saturday in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.

Trump defends ‘animals’ remark, says he’ll always use it

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday defended his use of the word “animals” to describe some immigrants who enter the country illegally, saying he would continue to use the term to refer to violent gang members in spite of a sharp rebuke from Democratic leaders.

Answering a reporter’s question during a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Trump said his comment a day earlier had clearly been directed at members of the MS-13 gang.

“MS-13, these are animals coming onto our country,” Trump said, repeating his language from Wednesday. He added: “When the MS-13 comes in, when the other gang members come into our country, I refer to them as animals. And guess what? I always will.”

Trump has been under fire for comments he made Wednesday while railing against California for its so-called sanctuary immigration policies. Trump was speaking at a roundtable with local California officials when he responded to a comment that had referenced MS-13.

“We have people coming into the country, or trying to come in — and we’re stopping a lot of them,” Trump said after Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims complained about state restrictions that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. “You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people. These are animals.”

Beset by leaks, White House talks firings, not apologies

WASHINGTON — A West Wing aide’s morbid remark about gravely ill Sen. John McCain has not yielded widespread White House soul searching. Instead it has produced a push to fire those responsible for leaking that story and others that have bedeviled President Donald Trump’s administration.

Nearly a week after Kelly Sadler dismissed McCain’s opinion on Trump’s CIA nominee during a closed-door meeting by saying “he’s dying anyway,” a torrent of criticism has rained down upon the White House. The administration has repeatedly declined to publicly apologize, but the fallout has shaken the West Wing, where the focus remains on who leaked to the media.

Trump is demanding that whoever let the story go public be fired, according to a White House official and an outside Trump adviser. Neither was authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.

Leaks have long been a problem for Trump’s White House, but this one has drawn particular scrutiny within the building due to the staying power of the damaging story. Several senior officials, including chief of staff John Kelly and counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway, have called closed-door meetings to warn junior staffers that a shake-up could be in the offing. The mood has grown increasingly tense.

“It’s an honor and a privilege to work for the president and to be part of his administration. And anybody who betrays that I think is a total and complete coward and they should be fired,” said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders this week. “We’ve fired people over leaking before.”