ISIS claims responsibility for New York City attack

ISLAMIC STATE (ISIS) this morning claimed responsibility for the Tuesday truck attack in lower Manhattan that killed eight people and wounded 12, and the United States should prepare itself for Jihad 3.0, said Pakistan’s former Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani.

Abundant clues support the radicalization of Sayfullo Saipov, the Uzbek national and green card holder driving the truck.

AL QAEDA: The bin Laden files released this week by the CIA make clear that Iran provided key support to al-Qaeda for years, including leading up to the launch of the 9/11 attacks. When some of us covered this back in the early 2000s, we were laughed at. Now, thanks to Navy SEAL Team 6, you can actually read Osama bin Laden’s handwritten journal.

ASIA: President Donald Trump and the first lady are en route Friday morning to Hawaii, their first stop before a five-nation tour that includes Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam, and the Philippines. On Air Force One, the menu is the “All-American Breakfast” with melon.

Don’t be confused: When the Trump team says “Indo-Pacific,” they mean Asia. But the tweak in terminology may be a pointed way of leaving China out of the picture.

Expect the president’s longest foreign trip yet to focus on economic issues and tensions with North Korea, highlighted by Trump’s sit-down with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Don’t expect it to headline the talks, but the resurgence of religion in China “is a crucial national issue that gets to the heart of a lot of social issues,” said Ian Johnson, author of the new book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao.

EGYPT: The Great Pyramid of Giza contains a hidden void at least 100 feet long. The discovery, the first to crack some of the mysteries of the structure in more than a century, is made possible via recent muon imaging techniques.

RUSSIA: A rundown of what the week’s indictments over Russian interference may look like for Trump, and a look at those fake Russian ads you may have seen on Facebook.

CUBA: U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez went mano a mano Thursday as the United States rejected a nonbinding UN resolution condemning the U.S. embargo of Cuba, joined only by Israel.

UNITED STATES: Globe-trotting evangelist Billy Graham turns 99 next week, and his library in Charlotte, N.C., will be serving his favorite—lemon cake with lard icing—to mark the occasion.

ENGLAND: British composer and piano and violin virtuoso Alma Deutscher gets compared to Mozart—and she’s 12 years old.

I’M READING Making Haste from Babylon: The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World by Nick Bunker.

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