Midday Roundup: GOP chairman pleads for peace between Trump, Ryan

Chairman’s challenge. Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus vows to bring his party’s leaders together, but spanning the rift might take a miracle. After Donald Trump became the party’s presumptive presidential nominee on Wednesday, Priebus called for Republicans to unite behind their November standard-bearer. But on Thursday, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told CNN he was not ready to endorse Trump: “I’m just not ready to do that at this point. I’m not there right now.” Shortly after Ryan’s interview aired, Priebus reportedly told Trump that Ryan would come around—eventually. “My view is just relax and be gracious and I’ll talk to Paul and we’ll try to work on this,” Priebus said he told the business mogul. Priebus is trying to broker a meeting between the two next week.

It’s a monster. The wildfire licking up homes and everything else in its path in Alberta, Canada, has only grown since officials evacuated the entire town of Fort McMurray earlier this week. Alberta Premier Rachel Notley warned area residents it would be more than just a few days before they could return home. But many won’t have much to return to. Photos taken in areas of Fort McMurray where the fire has already moved through show apocalyptic scenes of smoking rubble piles and ash-covered streets. After the fire cut off the main evacuation route, Canadian officials began airlifting residents to safety. On Thursday, 8,000 people flew out of the fire’s path. More than 1,100 firefighters, 145 helicopters, 138 pieces of heavy equipment, and 22 air tankers are battling the blaze, which now covers 210,000 acres.

Back to earth. SpaceX stuck another landing early this morning, successfully returning a Falcon 9 rocket to earth after it launched a Japanese television satellite into orbit. The rocket touched down on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean, a success SpaceX executives had tried to downplay ahead of the launch. Although the company’s last rocket landed safely on an unmanned ship last month, they were less hopeful for this mission because the Falcon 9 was coming in “a lot faster and hotter than last time,” CEO Elon Musk said. The successful landing proves that rockets traveling into a higher orbit, which most will need to do, can return successfully. If SpaceX can continue to build on its success, it will significantly cut launch costs and turnaround time for successive launches.

Muslim mayor. London voters appear to have elected the first Muslim mayor of a major Western city. Although votes are still being counted, exit polls showed Sadiq Khan with a wide victory over rival Zac Goldsmith. London’s mayor holds less power than leaders of other big cities, but the position has become a more high-profile one and something of a bully pulpit in recent years. Khan, 45, is the son of a Pakistani bus driver and a seamstress. He trained as a human-rights lawyer before being elected to Parliament with the Labor Party. Kahn has faced accusations, including from Prime Minister David Cameron, that he supports Islamic extremists. He said his work defending human rights has led him to rub elbows with “unsavory characters.”

Tarnished legacy. Joe Paterno’s son is lashing back at claims his father, who was the head football coach at Penn State University from 1966 to 2011, knew much earlier than previously thought about allegations of child molestation against his assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky. The new revelations came as part of the court case involving claims against Penn State’s insurers. Documents made public in the case include a line that says, “[I]n 1976, a child allegedly reported to PSU’s Head Coach Joseph Paterno that he (the child) was sexually molested by Sandusky.” The documents also note other assistant coaches witnessed “inappropriate contact between Sandusky and unidentified children.” Penn State disclosed in November it has settled 32 claims of allegations against Sandusky, paying out $93 million. Sandusky, who retired from Penn State in 1999, was convicted in 2012 of 45 counts of child sex abuse and sentenced to between 30 and 60 years in prison. Paterno maintained he didn’t know about allegations against Sandusky until 1998. Scott Paterno, whose father died five months before Sandusky’s conviction, dismissed as “bunk” claims the famous coach knew about the crimes earlier.