Today's News: March 28, 2017

Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, known as “Carlos the Jackal,” was handed a third life sentence Tuesday by a French court for a 1974 grenade attack on a Paris shopping center that killed two people and injured more than 30 others. The 67-year-old, who described himself to the court as a 17-year-old (“give or take 50 years”) professional revolutionary, denied his involvement in the attack and denounced the trial for the decades-old crime as “absurd.” As my colleague J. Weston Phippen reported, the case, which began in court earlier this month, took decades to reach trial because it was previously dismissed due to lack of evidence. Sanchez was previously serving two life sentences in France for a string of deadly attacks in the 1970s and 1980s.

Democrats are demanding that Representative Devin Nunes, the California Republican who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, step aside from the panel’s investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election. At issue are Nunes’s actions and his comments on Trump’s claims—since discredited by lawmakers from both parties, as well as heads of U.S. intelligence agencies and the FBI—that he was the subject of President Obama’s wiretapping. Last Wednesday (March 22), Nunes said at a news conference that “on numerous occasions the Intelligence Community incidentally collected information about U.S. citizens involved in the Trump transition.” Nunes said that while this wasn’t illegal, the unmasking and sharing of the names of Trump’s aides was “inappropriate.” He then went to the White House to deliver this information without informing his colleagues—Republican and Democrats—on the House panel. Representative Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who is the ranking member on the panel, questioned Nunes’s independence. Two days later, on Friday, March 24, Nunes made two announcements: that Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, had offered to testify before the panel as it investigates Russian interference in the presidential election; and that he wanted to cancel a public hearing scheduled for this week with senior former intelligence and Justice Department officials. This time Schiff called it a “serious mistake.” Cut to yesterday, Monday, March 27: CNN reported Nunes was seen on the White House grounds on the day before his announcement on March 22. Nunes told CNN he was there “to confirm what I already knew” and that he needed a secure location to examined the intelligence information he’d received. My colleague David Graham writes:

But why did Nunes need to go to the White House to see the information? There are secure facilities at the Capitol. Nunes has refused to say whether his revelations came from White House officials, saying will not confirm or deny anything about his source. How does he know that no administration figures knew he was at the White House Tuesday? (Clearly, someone saw him and tipped off CNN. Who else did?) And if, as he told CNN, he was simply confirming what he already knew, where and when did he obtain that insight in the first place?

Schiff once again questioned whether Nunes can objectively oversee the investigation into the Russian interference in the election. He and other Democrats in the House and Senate urged Nunes to step aside. CNN reported Tuesday the House Intelligence Committee has canceled all its meetings this week, indicating, it said, “the panel is facing serious turmoil and questions about whether it can proceed.”

Cyclone Debbie, a category-four storm with winds of up to 163 mph, battered the coast of Queensland, Australia, downing power and telephone lines in the northeastern part of the country. “Everyone is going to be in shock tomorrow, just to see the full impact of this cyclone,” Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said. “I'm bracing myself for it.” Debbie, now a category-two storm, still packs powerful winds as it moved inland. One serious injury was reported. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull urged those affected to be “prepared to shelter in place until Wednesday.” It’s unclear when power will be restored to the affected areas. Those in Bowen, Airlie Beach, Proserpine, the Whitsundays, and Mackay were advised to stay inside Tuesday night.

President Trump is expected this afternoon to sign an executive order on energy independence at the Environment Protection Agency. The order is expected to dismantle the Clean Power Act, President Obama’s signature environmental legislation, and, among other things, make it easier for the coal industry to operate. On the presidential campaign trail, Trump had labeled Obama’s policies job-killers, and had vowed to reverse them, restoring jobs to the coal industry. That may be easier said than done, however. Robert Murray, the CEO of Murray Energy, told The Guardian though he welcomed Trump’s expected policy changes, the president should “temper his expectations” on bringing coal jobs back. “He can’t bring them back,” Murray said. Indeed, coal’s share of U.S. electric production declined sharply in the Obama years, partly due to regulation, but also because of increased competition from cheaper sources of energy such as shale gas.