Midday Roundup: Education Secretary Arne Duncan resigns

Administration graduation. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is stepping down, saying he plans to move back to Chicago to live with his family. Duncan is one of the longest serving Obama administration officials, one of just a few remaining original appointees. In the letter he gave to President Barack Obama, Duncan said he did not know what he would do after next but hoped it would “continue to involve the work of expanding opportunity for children.” Given the short time remaining in his term, Obama does not plan to nominate a successor for Duncan. Instead, he will ask a senior Education Department official, John King Jr., to head the department in an interim capacity. His signature education reform centered around Race to the Top grants, which called on public schools across the country to compete for federal funding. Critics said the grants were just a way to force adoption of Common Core standards. Duncan dismissed his opponents, calling them “white suburban moms” faced with the sudden realization “their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were, and that’s pretty scary.”

Cease and desist. A broad coalition of world powers is denouncing Russian airstrikes in Syria, which are targeting rebel groups fighting President Bashar al-Assad, rather than Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL). “We call on the Russian Federation to immediately cease its attacks on the Syrian opposition and civilians and to focus its efforts on fighting ISIL,” said the coalition, which includes the United States, major European powers, Arab states, and Turkey. “We express our deep concern with regard to the Russian military build-up in Syria and especially the attacks by the Russian Air Force on Hama, Homs and Idlib since yesterday which led to civilian casualties and did not target [ISIS].” Russian officials have denied claims they want to keep Assad in power but say the Syrian army is the only legitimate force in the country that can defeat ISIS. Russia’s critics says its airstrikes are helping ISIS because it reduces the amount of opposition the terror group faces on the ground.

Teen terrorist. A British judge has sentenced a 15-year-old boy to life in prison for his role in coordinating an attack on a popular parade in Australia. The boy, who has not been named because of his age, must spend at least five years in jail before being considered for parole. He is the youngest person ever sentenced on terror charges in Britain. The judge called the evidence of his thorough radicalization “chilling.” An investigator said he had never seen evidence of such radical beliefs in a terror suspect. The judge said he determined the boy’s sentence based on his ongoing threat to the public. The plot, coordinated with an Australian youth, included killing police officers and other parade-goers. Using his cellphone, the boy had been in contact with radical clerics in England and an ISIS recruiter.

Storm surge. Hurricane Joaquin, now battering the Bahamas, is not expected to make landfall on the East Coast as initially predicted. Forecasters now say the storm will make a northerly turn as it leaves the Caribbean. Although currently a Category 4 storm, Joaquin should lose strength significantly as it moves over cooler water. But feeder bands could still cause heavy downpours along the East Coast, and officials in the Carolinas are warning about possible flash floods in areas already saturated with about a week of rain. Fearing the storm could follow Hurricane Sandy’s destructive path, governors in New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Maryland declared states of emergency on Thursday. “I cannot stress enough that we are talking about the real possibility of deadly flooding in many areas around our state,” North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory said during a news conference.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.