Midday Roundup: Obama tries to soothe terror fears with Oval Office speech

Presidential response. President Barack Obama addressed the nation from the Oval Office last night, calling the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., an “act of terrorism designed to kill innocent people.” It was the first time he defined the incident as terrorism. He also suggested the Muslim couple who murdered 14 people Wednesday likely acted on their own. “So far, we have no evidence that the killers were directed by a terrorist organization overseas or that they were part of a broader conspiracy here at home,” he said. The president said the military would ultimately prevail against terrorism overseas, but he remained steadfast in his opposition to sending U.S. ground troops to overthrow the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Here at home, he said he is directing the departments of State and Homeland Security to look for ways to tighten the visa waiver program that allowed one of the San Bernardino shooters to enter the country. And he called on Congress to pass more laws restricting gun ownership: “Our intelligence and law enforcement agencies, no matter how effective they are, cannot identify every would-be mass shooter. What we can do, and must do, is make it harder for them to kill.”

Under scrutiny. The U.S. Justice Department announced today it will investigate the Chicago Police Department following the death of a black teenager, Laquan McDonald, who was shot 16 times by a white police officer. Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder Nov. 24, more than a year after the killing and just hours before the city released dashboard camera footage of the incident. U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the investigation will look into racial, ethnic, and other disparities in the use of force by the Chicago Police Department. The civil rights probe follows recent ones in Baltimore, Md., and Ferguson, Mo., and comes as the police department and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel are under intense scrutiny over their handling of the October 2014 shooting.

Terror in the Tube. Police in London wasted little time labeling a Saturday knife attack in one of that city’s subway stations as an act of terror. A man wielding a 3-inch knife stabbed three people before police were able to bring him down with stun guns. Witnesses say the suspect shouted, “This is for Syria,” before attacking bystanders. Britain began carrying out airstrikes against ISIS in Syria last week. Muhyadin Mire, a 29-year-old Londoner, has been charged with attempted murder in the attack.

The day that lives in infamy. Today marks the 74th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that propelled the United States into World War II. At the USS Arizona memorial today, the remains of the battleship’s last surviving crew member will be interred. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Joe Langdell died in February at age 100. The bodies of many of the 1,177 sailors who were killed aboard the ship when the Japanese bombed it are still entombed underwater in the wreckage. Two years ago, officials estimated between 2,000 and 2,500 survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack were still alive.

Positive results. Former President Jimmy Carter told his church Sunday that recent tests showed no signs of the advanced cancer that afflicted his brain over the summer. Doctors said the results of the treatment were exceptional for stage IV melanoma such as Carter’s. The president received a newer form of treatment called immunotherapy that does not have the harsh side effects of traditional chemotherapy. “This week was just horrible in the world in terms of all the bad things happening,” Jan Williams, a friend of Carter, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “How wonderful in the midst of all this to get such wonderful, encouraging news.”

WORLD Radio’s Jim Henry and The Associated Press contributed to this report.