Editor’s Note: Shaun Rein is the managing director of China Market Research Group and the author of The End of Cheap China and The End of Copycat China. He appears as a guest on the latest episode of “On China” on CNN International. The opinions expressed here are solely his. Changing tastes, not an anti-graft campaign, hurting China's luxury market Consumers prefer to spend their money on travel and art, says Shaun Rein Over the past decade, Chinese consumers have been the largest buyers of luxury products in the world,  accounting for around a third of all luxury purchases. With a new billionaire minted every week in the past six months, and a doubling to over one million millionaires since 2010, many expected the luxury boom to continue in China. Yet the exact opposite has happened. Related video On China: Why don't rich Chinese donate? Chinese luxury spending growth has actually declined in the past twelve months with growth expected to drop 2% in 2015, according to an estimate by my company China Market Research Group. Prada announced a 44% profit drop in the second quarter of 2015 due to slowing China sales, and French luxury group Kering, which owns Gucci, Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney, saw sales drop 10% in the first quarter in Asia-Pacific. Sales of Louis Vuitton have also been struggling Many analysts point to President Xi Jinping’s corruption crackdown for the profitability decline. Are they right? READ: The website that knows what China’s wealthy want Corruption has played a part but the sales drop is not due solely to the corruption crackdown – the drop is a product of changing Chinese consumer tastes as people shift from buying tangible items to experiences. Brands need to adjust to this new reality. For example, my firm interviewed several dozen wealthy Chinese worth $12 million each this past year. Related video On China: Are we at the end of the bling dynasty? Respondents said they no longer gain status by buying expensive handbags. Rather, they gain status by buying a third or a fourth home overseas in places like California or Sydney or by going on a once-in-a-lifetime, exotic trip – like wine tasting in France. Sharing these experiences with friends on social media site WeChat is the new status symbol in China, not buying the latest Louis Vuitton luxury bag. The first area expected to see major growth is international travel. Chinese want to go where other Chinese have never been before. Last year, I interviewed a billionaire at a six-star hotel in Dubai. Despite the splendor of the hotel, the woman looked depressed and glum. When I asked her why, she told me that there were “too many Chinese around.” She wanted to go to a place that few Chinese had ever been before so she could share that experience with her friends on WeChat. Vogue editor: Luxury brands don’t get Chinese consumers Chinese are now actively pursuing once-in-a-lifetime adventures. They go on safaris in Africa and stay at ultra high-end lodges like Singita. They even travel to Antarctica. In fact, China is becoming one of the fastest growing markets for tourism there, with more than 2,300 tourists having traveled to the Antarctic Circle from mainland China during November 2011 to March 2012. Related video China's parliament 'full of ultra rich' Chinese are also the single biggest per capita spenders on tourism in the U.S., and they were the biggest spenders during the 2012 Olympics in London. In addition to travel, Chinese are looking to buy items that are one of a kind. For instance, Chinese currently drive the high-end art market sale globally. Wang Jianlin, the richest man in Asia with a fortune worth more than $35 billion, recently bought a Picasso painting for $28.2 million at auction. Wang Zhongjun, who founded Huayi Brothers with his brother Wang Zhonglei, bought a Van Gogh masterpiece for $62 million. Chinese are no longer buying items just to show off. It is more about a mix of investment and showing off, and they are concerned about lifestyle. Wealthy Chinese now spend money on experiences and unique items rather than luxury products. Many people blame the corruption crackdown, but the decline in profitability of sales of luxury items is really about consumers becoming more sophisticated. Brands need to understand these recent trends in Chinese consumer tastes and adjust their strategy accordingly. The views expressed here are solely those of the author


A Russian company accused of interfering in the 2016 US presidential election continues to play hardball with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, now asking a federal judge to look closely at whether the prosecutors pursued a sham criminal case. Concord Management and Consulting said in a court filing Monday that foreign interference in the election is a “make-believe crime.” The company accused Mueller of trying to “justify his own existence” and needing “to indict a Russian – any Russian” for political reasons. Mueller’s office has accused Concord Management of funding the Russian conspiracy that favored Trump’s candidacy and using online accounts posing as Americans to distribute propaganda. RELATED: Russian company charged in Mueller probe plans to plead not guilty The company is the only one among three Russian companies and 13 Russian individuals indicted by Mueller that has responded to the charges in court. Concord Management has pleaded not guilty to a conspiracy charge related to its involvement in the use of social media before the election. Mueller’s office has struggled to reach the other defendants in the case, as expected with the indictments of foreigners. Two US lawyers for Concord stepped up in recent weeks to pick away at the prosecutors’ approach. At first, the Concord attorneys took issue with the way Mueller’s team had contacted them with a summons, then they demanded more details about the information prosecutors have in the case. Judges have not yet stepped in on those issues. Concord said in its filing Monday that it plans to ask the court to dismiss the charge. The company has also asked the federal judge to examine instructions Mueller’s team gave to the grand jury that approved the indictment. Related article Special counsel hits snag in bringing a criminal case against Russians On Monday, the company’s defense lawyers parroted an argument that the Trump administration and another Mueller defendant, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, had surfaced previously: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has “rejected the history and integrity of the DOJ, and instead licensed a Special Counsel who for all practical political purposes cannot be fired, to indict a case that has absolutely nothing to do with any links or coordination between any candidate and the Russian Government,” Concord writes. The Treasury Department sanctioned Concord Management and a related company, Concord Catering, which Mueller also indicted, last June for their ties to “Putin’s chef” Yevgeny Prigozhin. He was sanctioned in December 2016 and indicted by Mueller along with the companies and other Russians in February. Concord’s attorneys and Mueller’s team will be back in DC federal court on Wednesday – the day before the first anniversary of Mueller’s appointment as special counsel – before Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump administration appointee. Related article Former Trump campaign aide is helping Russian firm shed sanctions Friedrich has not yet handled the lawyers in person, and Concord has indicated it will play to her sympathies: In Monday’s filing, the company used details of a case Friedrich worked on decades ago as part of its argument. Concord argues that Mueller’s team must prove the company tried to disrupt the functioning of the Federal Election Commission and knew what it was doing was illegal. To make the point, the attorneys attached an indictment from 1998 against a California fundraiser accused of disguising contributions to the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign. That case was brought by Friedrich, née Dabney Langhorne, who was at the time a public integrity trial attorney with the Department of Justice.


The Italian Navy approached the rickety wooden ship with caution, and a wide berth. Go in too quickly, and the people onboard become so excited about their impending rescue that they capsize by all moving to one side. This is how so many of the drowning disasters have happened. As European leaders decide on measures to tackle the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean, the race to save lives on the high seas goes on, as our CNN team witnessed firsthand. We started our day on a helicopter bound for the frigate Virginio Fasan, one of the Italian Navy’s most modern warships, currently in international waters facing the Libyan coast. Along with four other Italian naval vessels they patrol an area of sea about the size of the United Kingdom; some 80,000 square miles. It’s a huge effort for the 1,000 men and women continuously at sea, because each rescue takes several hours. Related gallery Images from the rescue Barely 30 minutes into our chopper flight journey the pilot tells us they have spotted a boat, possibly full of migrants. And onboard screens beaming imagery of a wooden vessel packed to the gills confirms their suspicions. The blue boat is on course for Lampedusa, they’ve completed almost half the journey from Libya 85 miles from where we are… now in international waters the smugglers use their cell phones to call the Italian coast guard for help! That’s their MO. The warship Sfinge (Sphinx) is closest, and is promptly dispatched to rescue those onboard. Crew on smaller boats hand out the distinctive orange life vests as soon as they arrive. To get closer and at sea level—we fly back to the Fasan and get into the ship’s speed boat, and watch as navy teams move people to the warship in small groups. All personnel involved in the operation are dressed head to toe in white biohazard suits, face masks and gloves, in case of infectious disease. We’re told that in all the crossings not a single case of Ebola has been brought over. The boat has been checked for hostile intent, and once the navy is satisfied they are all migrants, they begin the slow process of off-loading these people and transferring them by their two small boats to the warship. One by one they bring each person up the stairs—give them a medical, hand out bottles of water, and sit them in rows on the top deck, under the broiling sun.  Men are separated from the women and children. One person died, suffocated during the overcrowded boat ride from Libya. Three people had to be medevaced off—but in all this mission saved 289 lives. They are among 900 who were saved on Wednesday in three different wooden boats, because it was sunny and calm. Most of the migrants saved on this day are from Ethiopia, Sudan, and Eritrea in East Africa, escaping a dictatorial regime and military service that they say amounts to slavery. Almost nobody on board speaks English, but one man tells us his story, saying he left his wife and children over a year ago, and hopes his arrival in Europe will mean he can afford a better life for them back home. And even though he knows a lot of people have died trying to make this dangerous crossing, he tells he was not afraid. “We have one chance, to live or to die,” he says. We also talk to 25-year-old Juri, who tells us that God answered their prayers in the form of the Italian Navy. “God is good,” she says with a big smile on her face, “they save our lives.” UPDATE: On Friday, UNHCR reported that 180 of those rescued had been transferred to four facilities in eastern Sicily. The rest, they say, are still at the port and will be transferred soon. The one fatality was a 17-year-old Eritrean man, who reportedly died of asphyxiation in the hull of the boat. CNN’s Mick Krever contributed to this report.


The leaders of countries along the Western Balkans migration route meet in Belgium They agree on a 17-point plan to handle the influx of migrants across their borders EU foreign ministers meet in Luxembourg to discuss the crisis Monday Leaders of countries along the Western Balkans migration route have agreed on a 17-point action plan to deal with the influx of migrants into Europe. Thousands of migrants and refugees from the Middle East and North Africa have landed on European shores this year, flummoxing European policymakers and swamping the ability of authorities to care for them. Restrictions at borders along the migration route from Europe’s main migrant entry point of Greece through to Germany have caused bottlenecks, with shortages of food and aid for those making the journey. The leaders of Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Macedonia, Serbia ,Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Austria and Germany gathered with European Union officials and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Brussels, Belgium, on Sunday to discuss the flow of migrants across their countries. The leaders agreed to create an additional 100,000 places in Greece and the western Balkans to help accommodate the flow of migrants. Their plan will also see an increase in migrant patrols off the coast of Greece. Countries also agreed to discourage migrants from moving to the border of another country, in an effort to limit secondary movement. Related video The Netherlands may house refugees in shipping containers Other measures include taking steps to improve communication and coordination on migrants, tackling smuggling, and informing migrants and refugees on rights and obligations. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said he was pleased a plan had been agreed on “to ensure people are not left to fend for themselves in the rain and cold.” “Refugees need to be treated in a humane manner along the length of the Western Balkans route to avoid a humanitarian tragedy in Europe,” Juncker said. European Union foreign ministers are meeting Monday in Luxembourg for further talks on the crisis. Read: In Serbia, every shoe has a story The London-based International Organization for Migration said Friday that 680,928 migrants had arrived in Europe by sea so far this year, with a further 3,175 dead or missing in the Mediterranean Sea. The wave of migrants shows no sign of abating. The IOM said it had just recorded the highest influx of migrants to Greece yet in 2015. “Despite deteriorating weather conditions, approximately 48,000 refugees and migrants crossed from Turkey to the Greek islands – or about 9,600 migrants and refugees in each of the past five days,” it said in a statement. The largest number of refugees entering Europe has come from war-torn Syria. Read: Turkish fishermen rescue baby: ‘Brother, he is alive’ Rights campaigners have warned that increasingly wintry weather is making migrants’ journeys more perilous. A spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency told reporters Friday that  freezing temperatures, rain and storms were already affecting migrants in central and south eastern Europe. Related video Slovenia grapples with huge migrant influx “In the coming weeks, 15 million displaced Syrians and Iraqis in the Middle East will face another winter away from home. Winter will be especially tough for the many who are living in insulated garages, basements or unfinished buildings, animal stalls or other flimsy makeshift structures,” spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said, according to a UNHCR statement. “For many Syrians, this will be their fifth winter in exile as the war gripping their country digs deeper. Today, refugees are now more vulnerable than ever: their savings long gone, jewelery and other valuables sold off, and increasing numbers in debt to cover basic needs. “People are skipping meals, begging, pulling children out of school, or resorting to high-risk or degrading jobs. In Iraq, 3.2 million internally displaced people uprooted from their homes by fighting since the start of last year will face their first or second winter away from home,” the statement said. CNN’s Radina Gigova, Don Melvin and Jethro Mullen contributed to this report.

Western Balkans migration route countries


Identical twins aren't really identical: They can have "typos" in their DNA that make them unique You can also be identified by your unique ear shape, iris pattern and tongue texture Move over fingerprints. From your ears to your toes, there are many body parts that make you uniquely special. And all of them are being examined as a way to identify you from others in a crowd. Do your ears hang low? Wobble to and fro? It turns out the ridges, bumps and shape of your outer ear are so unique that it may soon be one of the best ways to identify you. According to University of Southampton biometrics expert Mark Nixon, studies have shown up to 99.6% accuracy when ears were scanned using computer software that recreates their position, scale and rotation. That’s the same accuracy as fingerprints. Your ear is fully shaped when you are born, and changes little after about age 10. It does grow larger and begin to sag as you age because of the effects of gravity, but that is a measurable effect; in fact it has been calculated to be just 1.22 mm per year. So unless you damage your ears, by say getting into a fight with Mike Tyson, it’s a pretty reliable measurement. Research in this area is exploding. A recent study showed you can even identify gender by 2-D and 3-D images of ears (and women do tend to have smaller ears than men). Of course you can easily hide ears with hair, hats, scarves and other clothing, but when a profile is all you have to work from to identify someone, that unique ear shape could be very helpful. The eyes have it Look in the mirror at both your eyes. Now look closely at each iris. That’s the muscle that opens and closes your pupil to control the amount of light that enters your eye. You’ll see small, random patterns of texture in one of your irises, which are completely different from the texture in your other iris.  How does that happen? While your DNA does set the ultimate color and structure of each iris, the furrows, rifts and pits you see happen randomly during fetal development in the womb. It’s called “chaotic morphogenesis,” and is thought to occur when iris tissue tightens and folds as the fetus opens and shuts its developing eyes. Just like fingerprints, identical twins don’t share the same iris swirls and patterns, so each of their irises is also unique. Because the iris is protected behind the cornea, it was long though that these unique patterns never changed, making an iris identification nearly foolproof. However, recent studies show the iris does degrade, perhaps from age or from damage, such as contact lens use. Still, researchers such as Marios Savvides of Carnegie Mellon’s CyLab are excited by the possibilities. “As long as the part of the eye over the iris region remains unaltered from disease then iris recognition will not be affected,” said Savvides. “We are working on extracting iris features from high resolution visible photos and matching them against other high resolution photos of irises” and have been able to match those, which is “an exciting finding.” “We have also demonstrated capturing an iris from a person in a stopped vehicle to depict the scenario where a police officer could identify who the driver is before approaching. Iris recognition and in particular long-range iris recognition can [also] help identify victims of human trafficking or abduction and alert authorities,” added Savvides. You can tell by the way I walk No, I’m not talking about John Cleese’s “Ministry of Silly Walks.” You don’t have to be that outrageous to be identified by your gait. “Several decades ago researchers put lights on ankles, knees, hips and figured out you could recognize friends by the way they walk,” said University of Notre Dame biometrics expert Kevin Bowyer.  Today computers can identify a person in a crowded city block by their walk. Nixon pioneered much of the research in gait analysis.  “We removed every other variable we could to test the hypothesis, which is why we used a green screen,” he said. “All we had was a person walking in a series of images.  We look at the motion of the body and the body parts, then measured those with a computer to get a set of numbers. And as long as we get the same set of numbers for each person, we can achieve recognition.” Nixon recently put his computers to the test in a murder trial in Australia. “The guy killed a man and his wife in a shop.  He had cased the joint in the morning and we had surveillance footage of him.  Then when he came back in the evening he wore a mask and gloves and covered his head.  All we could see of him was the way he walked.  We presented evidence that the gait was the same; the guy put his hands up and said ‘Yeah, it was me’.” The mouth has spoken The next time someone sticks out their tongue at you, take a closer look.  See all those tiny bumps and ridges?  “It’s the different distribution of size and shape, just as fingerprints,” said Bowyer, that makes your tongue unique to you and no one else.  The bumps contain more than 10,000 taste buds, each one filled with microscopic hairs called microvilli.  Microvilli function like tiny food critics, sensing if your meal is sweet or sour, salty or bitter, and sending reviews up to the brain. Your voice is another way to identify you, and each of us have unique characteristics formed by the length of our vocal tract, the frequency and intensity of our vocal quality, and how we’ve learned to speak.  Because it’s so easy for someone to mimic another voice, you have to use a computer to tell the differences, and science is working hard on that. Each person’s set of teeth is also unique, but that’s because of what you do to them, like clenching or grinding or sucking your thumb. Because of those environmental differences, even identical twins do not have exactly the same set of teeth. Dental records are often used to identify a body in forensics, but you don’t see anyone running out to take tongue prints, although it is the only internal body organ that can quite easily be exposed for inspection.  Say ah! The window into your nervous system, and maybe your soul The very back of your eye, the part where light rays focus, is called the retina. The pattern of blood vessels displayed there is a very precise snapshot of your nervous system — unique to you. While it’s widely used in the animal world to verify the identity of show cattle and purebred horses, as well as track food safety and disease outbreaks, use in humans has been limited. Except in your eye doctor’s office. The retina is the only place in your body where doctors can see your central nervous system without surgery. Ophthalmologists can see first signs of diabetes, multiple sclerosis, high blood pressure, even brain health during your annual checkup. Fingerprints no longer the gold standard No one else has your exact fingerprints, even your identical twin. How can that be? It starts when you’re a fetus, between 1 and 3 inches long, and the pads on your fingers and palms begin to grow. As the skin forms and thickens over the next month or two, it comes into contact with other structures in the womb, which start to create ridges on the skin of the fingertip.  The density of your mom’s amniotic fluid, how much you move, and your position in the womb are all thought to affect how those ridges form. “Where the lines end or join is determined randomly,” Bowyer said. “We know you’re supposed to have 10 fingers and 10 fingerprints, but the detail of the pattern isn’t predictable.” By the time mom is in her sixth month of pregnancy, your fingerprints have fully formed the arches, loops and whorls we use to match fingerprints, with lots of other unique patterns scattered in between. Once considered the “gold standard” of identification, fingerprints have lost some of their luster because they can be degraded or damaged, such as by chemical burns or having a career as a bricklayer. In one case, a man lost his fingerprints when a common cancer drug caused the skin to peel. Still, fingerprints are commonly used by law enforcement, forensics and companies such as Apple for personal identification. Recent studies believe we can now even tell gender from fingerprints. Related: 5 biometric alternatives to the password Some people are born without fingerprints. It’s called adermatoglyphia, and is a very rare disorder caused by mutations in the SMARCAD1 gene. According to the National Institutes of Health, it’s also called “immigration delay disease” because those who have it have lots of problems when they try to enter countries requiring fingerprinting for identification. DNA is still the gold standard DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid as it is rarely pronounced, is the genetic formula that tells your cells how to build you into you, and no one else. Think of your DNA as four Legos that like to play in pairs along a spiral staircase called a double helix. Those pairs (A and T; C and G) form building blocks of code called genes that become the blueprint for your hair, eyes, body shape and everything else that makes you unique. There are nearly 20,000 human genes, created from about 3 billion bases, so it’s easy to see why no other human will have the exact same pattern of DNA. Unless you have an identical twin, right? But wait, that truism is no longer true. Breakthrough studies in the last year show even identical twins have different DNA. Using second generation genome sequencing, said Bowyer, “you find that once that fertilized egg splits there are random mutations that are happening and that can be used to identify differences between twins.” Called single nucleotide polymorphisms, or “Snips,” these “typos” in the DNA sequence are being studied to shed light on how we differ in our response to drugs, environmental toxins and why one of us might get a particular disease, even if our twin didn’t.


Editor’s Note: Now you can get “5 Things You Need to Know Today” delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here. A new MH370 clue… A new low in the campaign… And a new reason to be wary of sugar (maybe). It’s Tuesday, and here are the 5 things you need to know to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door. Blaine Gibson, the Seattle lawyer who’s self-funding a search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, says he has found fresh debris that appears to show scorch marks, perhaps from a fire. Is this significant? It could be. If the debris is indeed from the plane and experts conclude the marks are from a fire on board, it’ll make the pilot suicide theory less likely. Israel’s mostly been sitting on the sidelines as the Syrian civil war next door grinds on – except for when fighting spills into its territory. That’s happened five times in the last week. In the latest incident, a projectile hit the Israeli-occupied part of Golan Heights. So, Israeli planes struck army positions in Syria. Syria then fired at the flights and says it knocked down a warplane and a drone. Israel says that’s bunk. Confused?  What isn’t confusing about this conflict? President Obama will veto a bill that allows families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom’s denied any role in the attacks, but 15 of the 19 hijackers were of Saudi descent. The White House says if the bill becomes law, other countries could haul American diplomats or service members into courts. Lawmakers say they’ll try to override the veto but it’ll take 2/3rds of both the House and Senate. If they do though, it’ll be a first for the Obama’s presidency. This election appears to have a transparency problem. Hillary Clinton hasn’t provided a full account of her health and Donald Trump is still refusing to release his tax returns. The health issue is relevant because Trump, 70, and Clinton, 68, would be the oldest and second oldest presidents inaugurated for a first term in the job. The wealth issue is relevant because it could provide key details about their financial interests. Here’s Stephen Collinson’s great write. Sorry to spoil your morning muffin, but it looks like you’ve been conned. It’s no secret sugar isn’t great for you, but new research shows that, decades ago, the sugar industry sponsored research that downplayed the ingredient’s role in heart disease. (Did you also know new guidelines recommend kids consume no more than six teaspoons of added sugar a day? That’s 25 grams – way less than the sugar in one can of Coke.) Get off our lawn, Oxford dictionary The OD has added YOLO and ‘Merica to its hallowed annals. Also included: Kegerator (a refrigerator for a beer keg). Shrinking … in a bad way The CEO of Weight Watchers has resigned in the middle of a bad year. Its stock has fallen more than 50% in 2016. Do dolphins have a spoken language? Eeeeeeeeeee eee! Eeeeeee eeeeee eeeeeee. Walmart: The machine uprising is nigh The retailer wants to roll out (heh) self-driving carts that roam the aisles and parking lots waiting for victims – er, shoppers – to request their presence. “Why couldn’t you just keep your knees together?” That’s a Canadian judge to a woman in a rape case. And that’s not the only questionable thing he said during that trial. Wait for it… Sometimes you’re the cat. Sometimes you’re the dog. Sometimes you’re the human laughing at it all.


Nazanin Zinouri recently earned her Ph.D. from Clemson and works in South Carolina "I will stay hopeful that I'll go back to my home," she said When Nazanin Zinouri was removed from a flight to the United States on Saturday, she first thought about what would happen to her house in Greenville, South Carolina. She thought about her personal belongings, strewn across the room. She thought about her car, still sitting at the airport. And she thought about her 6-month-old puppy, Baxter, and what would happen to him. But after thinking of those “simple things,” she said in an interview with CNN, she realized: “I actually might lose my entire life there.” Zinouri, an Iranian citizen who has lived in the United States for the past seven years, is one of a number of foreign workers who were blindsided by President Trump’s executive order banning residents of seven Middle Eastern countries from visiting the United States. Zinouri recently earned her Ph.D. in industrial engineering from Clemson University, and was awarded the Janine Anthony Bowen Graduate Fellow award for her outstanding academic performance in her field. She has worked at the tech company Modjoul in South Carolina for the past six months under a worker visa. Zinouri went on vacation on January 20, the same day Trump was inaugurated, intending to visit family and friends in Tehran, Iran, through February 10. But her peaceful vacation was cut short when she learned that Trump’s executive order suspends all citizens of Iran from traveling to the United States. She rushed to buy a plane ticket to the States and was set to board a flight from Dubai to Washington on Saturday. That’s when security pulled her off the flight and briefly told her she would not be allowed to return to the United States. Zinouri told her story in a Facebook post that has since gone viral, garnering nearly 175,000 shares. I normally don't write long posts or any kind of political or religious comments. I apologize in advance and I don't... In the post, she expresses frustration with the lack of communication on the travel ban. “No one warned me when I was leaving, no one cared what will happen to my dog or my job or my life there,” she wrote. “No one told me what I should do with my car that is still parked at the airport parking. Or what to do with my house and all my belongings.” “They didn’t say it with words but with their actions, that my life doesn’t matter. Everything I worked for all these years doesn’t matter,” she wrote. Speaking with CNN over the phone from Tehran, Zinouri said she was with family in Tehran and still trying to go back to South Carolina. “I’m trying my best and I’ll do everything in my power, and I will stay hopeful that I’ll go back to my home,” she said. In the meantime, she said she’s received “amazing” support from friends, co-workers and others who have heard her story. Baxter is still being watched by a neighbor, though there is not yet a long-term plan. But if and when she does return to the United States, she said she can’t wait to take Baxter on a walk by the waterfall in downtown Greenville.

President Trump's executive order banning residents of seven Middle Eastern countries from visiting the United States


Claims of a Soviet plot to assassinate President John F. Kennedy as early as 1962 – which the CIA ultimately dismissed – were included in a 1963 memo to a top US investigation official, this week’s dump of declassified JFK assassination files reveals. The memo to James Lee Rankin – then-general counsel for the Warren Commission – details a tip that the CIA had received in the immediate aftermath of the killing from “an individual who described himself as a Polish chauffeur for the Soviet Embassy (in Canberra, Australia).” The memo says that the individual “touched on the possibility that the Soviet government had financed the assassination of President Kennedy.” Crucially, the memo also notes “the receipt of a similar anonymous telephone call on 15 October, 1962” – more than a year before the assassination – by “a man believed to be the same person.” Related article Government releases another JFK trove Richard Helms, then the CIA deputy director for plans and the author of the memo, wrote: “It appears that the caller, who professes to be the Polish chauffeur of a Soviet Embassy car in Canberra [Australia] first phoned in over a year ago, on 15 October 1962, repeat 1962. At that time, he told a story about five Soviet submarines carrying 400 to 500 Soviet soldiers on their way to Cuba. One purpose of this troop movement, he said, was to support the Governor of Mississippi. He added that there was a plot to pay one hundred thousand dollars to kill President Kennedy. Behind the plot, he said, were the ‘Iron Curtain countries,’ and ‘communist men in England, Hong Kong, and probably other countries.’” Helms continued, linking the 1962 call to the call received a year later. “On 23 November 1963, repeat 1963, the day after the assassination of President Kennedy, and over a year after the first telephone call, a man believed to be the same person phoned the embassy again and spoke to the assistant naval attaché. The caller referred to his call a year back and stated he had said that the USSR had put up $100,000 for the assassination of President Kennedy.” As with many of the threads chased down by law enforcement and intelligence services in the wake of Kennedy’s assassination, the CIA says it dismissed the claim. Helms wrote that the CIA determined the call “was a crank” after being unable to identify “any Polish employee of the Soviet embassy, the automobile described by the caller as the one he drove, or the license plate number given by him.” But Helms also noted that the caller had told them that at the Soviet Embassy, “they often change plates, have 50 sets in reserve, and can change them in five seconds.” In closing, Helms wrote that “this conclusion” – that the call was a crank – “cannot be confirmed,” and noted that authorities in Australia, the location of the Soviet Embassy where the caller professed to work, had continued to investigate the claims. The government made thousands of files related to the JFK assassination public on Thursday, the latest installment in the collection’s delayed release. Many of the documents in Thursday’s release show the intelligence community grappling with – and griping about – investigations that further underscore covert activities in the Cold War as well as the difficulty they faced chasing down the torrent of tips the agency received after the assassination.


Editor’s Note: Kurt Bardella is a political commentator and columnist and the former spokesperson for Reps. Brian Bilbray (R-San Diego) & Darrell Issa (R-Vista), both California. Follow him on Twitter: @kurtbardella. The views expressed here are solely those of the author. How enthusiastic were Republicans about Donald Trump’s first visit to the Golden State since becoming President to inspect prototypes for his proposed border wall? A column in the San Diego Union-Tribune from Republican Mayor Kevin Faulconer, directed at Trump, was headlined: “there’s more to our border than a wall.” The reality is Trump’s brand of xenophobia is toxic to what little is left of the Republican Party in California. Consider that California is home to one of the most diverse populations in the world. In 2015, the Latino population there surpassed the white population. That’s right, the largest group of people in the state are the ones that the President of the United States has more than once referred to as “bad hombres.” To say that Republicans in California are on life support would be an understatement. The GOP has been shut out of every statewide political office. They are a permanent minority in the state Legislature. They may not even have a candidate qualify for the November ballot in either the gubernatorial or senatorial contests. That didn’t stop Trump from using his remarks at the border on Tuesday to attack Gov. Jerry Brown for doing “a very poor job running California.” It’s worth noting that Gov. Brown enjoys a 53% approval rating (only 28% disapprove, according to a December poll from the Public Policy Institute of California) while according to Real Clear Politics, Trump’s average disapproval rating stands at nearly 54%. Related video Trump touts wall prototypes in San Diego To understand how dire the situation is for California Republicans – look no farther than 90 minutes north of the border, in what used to be the Republican stronghold of Orange County – which is showing signs of decay. My former boss, Congressman Darrell Issa, and Rep. Ed Royce are retiring. Reps. Mimi Walters and Dana Rohrabacher are facing two of the most targeted contests in the country. Hillary Clinton was the first Democrat to win Orange County since FDR. The GOP registration advantage has gone from 18 percentage points in 1992 to just four in 2016. Instead of evolving with the changing demographics, Republicans in California have continued to embrace the fringe policies and rhetoric of the most extreme edges of the GOP. No one embodies those policies more than Donald Trump. He has labeled Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists who bring drugs and crime to the United States. Perhaps that explains why so many Republicans hoping to successfully get elected in November are avoiding Trump’s visit to San Diego. Three of the Republicans running to replace Issa have confirmed they have no plans to be seen with Trump. There was a time when the visit of a sitting president of the same party would have candidates tripping over themselves to be seen and be photographed with the president. This time, Republicans are hiding from their President. Sign up for CNN Opinion’s new newsletter.Join us on Twitter and Facebook Trump’s visit to the border comes at a time when Hispanics in California are under siege from his administration. Just a few days ago, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced at an event in Sacramento a federal lawsuit against California over the issue of sanctuary cities. Meanwhile, reports surfaced that Trump’s supporters in Congress are planning to use the upcoming debate over government funding as an opportunity to cut off funding to sanctuary cities. This war against California and push for extreme policies will only further the divide between the GOP and Hispanic community – in California and nationwide. There is no viable path to political relevancy for Republicans without support from the Latino community. If the famous phrase “as goes California, so goes the country” is true, Republicans are about to follow Donald Trump into a permanent political exile.


Defense Secretary James Mattis is learning to jump in the political ring on Capitol Hill. The retired four-star Marine general was confirmed as President Donald Trump’s Pentagon chief to great fanfare among Republicans, but many congressional defense hawks were disappointed with his opening act as he was outmaneuvered by others within the administration and his defense budget fell short of fulfilling their desire to inject the military with a massive spending boost. Now there’s been an “evolution” in recent weeks, lawmakers and congressional aides say, Mattis has gotten more involved with the politics of Capitol Hill and helped Republicans sell their desired defense budget increases. CNN interviewed more than a dozen lawmakers, congressional aides, defense officials and lobbyists about Mattis’ relations with Congress, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to offer a candid assessment of the defense secretary’s performance. They say Mattis’ performance in a gauntlet of congressional hearings – four committees in four days – was impressive, as he gave a blunt assessment of the military’s readiness problems and endorsed the higher budget topline congressional Republicans are pushing, even though it differed from his own budget request. Related article Mattis on Afghanistan troops decision: 'We are working to get it right' They also gave him high marks for getting involved in the House’s debate of the National Defense Authorization Act, writing a letter to support one amendment and calling a lawmaker personally to urge her to drop a controversial provision. “I think we’re finding him to be more and more interactive with Congress now that I think he’s got a better grip on this,” a Republican House member told CNN. But Mattis, who has often sought to stay above the political fray, still struggles with the politics of the Trump administration and a chaotic White House. The disconnect was clear last week when Trump rolled out a ban on transgender service members over Twitter — catching the Joint Chiefs off guard and directly contradicting Mattis’ desire to study the issue further before making any decisions. Republican lawmakers also still have lingering concerns that Mattis is not doing enough to solidify his standing within the administration, particularly when it comes to budget matters. They worry he will continue to lose political battles to Trump’s budget director, Mick Mulvaney, a former congressman who has frequently clashed with Republican defense hawks over the military budget. “He’s a military leader, he wins wars, he inspires people. He’s been fighting for us. But he’s not an experienced infighter on the budget issue,” said a Republican senator. Mattis could find a new White House ally in retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, who was sworn in as Trump’s chief of staff on Monday. But at the same time, Mattis has clashed with Trump’s national security adviser H.R. McMaster as Trump’s national security team has struggled to come up with a strategy for the war in Afghanistan that the President will endorse, according to congressional and administration officials. Mattis, who retired from the military in 2013 as chief of US Central Command, was cheered by Republicans for his military bona fides and his blunt, straight-talking style. He was confirmed as defense secretary on the first day of the Trump administration. But key deputy positions at the Pentagon remained vacant for months. There were several false starts with the administration’s picks for Army secretary and Navy secretary withdrawing, and several senior positions were unfilled over disagreements between the Pentagon and White House. Mattis faced resistance from both the White House and Republicans over his favorite for policy chief, Anne Patterson, and an official has yet to be named to the role. Related article How 2 high school journalists landed an interview with the US defense secretary Republicans also grew frustrated that Mattis kept President Barack Obama’s Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work in the role until a replacement was confirmed, which only happened earlier this month. “His background is not in politics – that’s why he needs good people around him,” said a Republican House member. “You have an Obama holdover as deputy and his people and all these acting (officials). … You just go down the list. And it’s a problem.” House Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry publicly blamed Work and other Obama holdovers in acting roles for the Pentagon’s $603 billion budget proposal. The Trump administration touted a 10% increase above the Budget Control Act Spending caps, but Republicans charged the Trump budget was just a 3% bump above Obama’s plan and well short of the $640 billion they were seeking for the military. Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, acknowledged there had been some challenges with personnel early on, but he said that Mattis was “non-denominational” when it came to the political leanings of the people he wants working for him. Mattis is concerned with picking the best candidate for the job, Davis said. On the congressional concerns about the budget, Davis noted that Mattis considers “fiscal solvency” to be part of national security. Congressional aides say Republicans were also concerned when Mattis instructed the services to quit talking about details of the military’s readiness problems, which Republicans have focused on as a key reason increased spending is needed. But those early worries largely dissipated when Mattis testified before the Hill, where the Pentagon chief said he was “shocked” by poor military readiness and he endorsed extra spending. “If this is the will of the Congress, I’m confident that the commander in chief would be in your corner all the way,” Mattis said. One Republican congressional aide noted that Mattis took the rare step of actually endorsing the military services’ $30 billion “wish lists” of items that the Pentagon didn’t include in its budget request. Related article How Congress is taking back power from Trump on national security Mattis’ standing was also bolstered when the defense policy bill was on the floor earlier this month. He helped Ohio Rep. Mike Turner, a senior Republican Armed Services member, with a rare letter weighing in on a specific amendment. Turner was trying to kill the creation of a new Space Corps, but the House Rules Committee did not allow his measure to get a vote. Then Mattis conducted some behind-the-scenes lobbying, making a phone call to Missouri Republican Rep. Vicky Hartzler to ask her to withdraw her controversial amendment targeting transgender health costs for service members. The amendment, which was defeated in a 209-214 vote, threatened to overshadow the typically bipartisan defense bill, and many Republican leaders preferred to avoid the fight, according to congressional aides. “There’s been an evolution,” one House GOP aide said of Mattis. “At the end of the day, it’s a two-party political system. It’s not the same as being a CoCom (combatant) commander.” But Mattis’ efforts on the amendment eventually came back to bite him, with Hartzler going around the Pentagon straight to the White House. She lobbied for the White House to kill the Pentagon funding for medical treatments. Mattis had urged her to wait for him to study the issue, and he told Congress he was taking six months to make a decision. Instead, Trump blasted out over Twitter he was instituting a full ban on transgender service members, catching the Pentagon off guard and unaware of what the President meant. While Republicans say Mattis has improved on the Hill, they’re still concerned he will lose out to Mulvaney again when next year’s budget is released. Mattis has vowed that next year’s budget will fund a rebuilding of the military after he’s had time to conduct a full strategy assessment, but there are already warnings that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is looking at lower numbers than congressional defense hawks will deem sufficient. Related article Marines facing 'discouraging' challenges in Afghanistan “The Trump administration really hasn’t given him the deference that he needs to move OMB,” said another Republican House member. “The fact that he is actively participating in voicing support or opposition for provisions in the NDAA shows increased activism. Now he just has to do it in his own administration.” Lawmakers and aides say Mattis has preferred to stay out of the political fights inside the administration, an instinct they say stems from the military’s apolitical ideal. But if he wants results, Republicans argue, he’ll have to be willing to step in the ring to slug it out. “If he wants a 5% budget increase annually, if he wants to escape (continuing resolutions) CRs and omnibuses, then he cannot do it by strictly being apolitical,” said a Republican congressional aide. “If he decides that’s what he wants, he can get it. So far, he’s chosen not to go out and get it, which I think confounds people.” CNN’s Barbara Starr contributed reporting


Additional US troops will include special operations forces, trainers and bomb disposal teams They will work with fighters preparing for a final assault on ISIS' Syrian stronghold, Raqqa Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said Saturday the US would send up to 200 additional US troops to Syria to help train and assist US-backed local forces that are driving towards ISIS’ self-declared capital in Raqqa, Syria. “The United States will deploy approximately 200 additional US forces to Syria,” Carter said, adding that the new contingent would include special operations forces, trainers, advisers, and explosive ordinance disposal teams. “This latest commitment of additional forces within Syria is another important step in enabling our partners to deal ISIL a lasting defeat,” Carter said, using the government’s preferred acronym for the terror organization. Carter made the announcement while speaking at the Manama Dialogue, a regional security summit hosted in the capital of the Gulf state of Bahrain. The decision will nearly double the number of US troops authorized to operate in Syria. President Barack Obama had in April set a cap of 300 for the number of military advisers permitted in Syria, though the actual number of advisers on the ground is thought to be fewer than that. US military: 50,000 ISIS fighters killed Forces in Syria have been primarily working with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an umbrella organization that includes Kurdish and Arab units. Related article Military: 50,000 ISIS fighters killed Those fighters have enjoyed some success against ISIS, coming within 15 miles of Raqqa, according to Carter. A senior defense official told CNN that the actual adjustment to the troop cap would be 203 personnel and that their purpose was to boost the assault on Raqqa. The deployment “had been anticipated for some time” the official added, as the final battle looms against the several thousand ISIS fighters believed to be in Raqqa. The new deployment of American personnel could help in the final assault on that city by enabling the training of additional fighters that could be key to ejecting ISIS. Related video US and Turkey agree to long-term plan on Raqqa “We’re getting into what is predominantly traditionally more Arab territory,” so more Arab fighters are needed, the defense official said. “We’ve always been very conscious of the fact that Raqqa is an Arab city.” The official noted that “more and more Arab fighters have wanted to be part of the coalition we have fighting in northeast Syria,” but said that this influx has presented challenges in terms of training and equipping these new recruits, thereby requiring the additional US personnel. Col. John Dorrian, a spokesman for the counter-ISIS coalition, told reporters Thursday that, in anticipation of the push on Raqqa, the SDF was boosting its ranks with more than 1,000 new recruits. US aircraft carrier readies for ISIS fight The United States is also using its air power to lay the ground for the coming battle. Dorrian said coalition aircraft had conducted nearly 300 strikes against ISIS in support of the offensive, with America’s Syrian allies capturing more than 270 square miles of territory. Related video Women secretly film inside ISIS stronghold Carter drew attention to a counter-ISIS strike on Thursday that involved the destruction of 168 oil tanker trucks. Carter called it “the largest airstrike of this kind to date.” But US military officials anticipate a tougher fight in the days ahead. “Daesh considers Raqqa their capital in Syria, so we expect resistance to stiffen as forces move closer to the city,” Dorrian told reporters last month, using another name for the terror group. And even after Raqqa and Mosul are captured, Carter predicted that the fight against ISIS would continue for some time. “There will still be much more to do after that to make sure that once defeated, ISIL stays defeated,” he said.

United States military deployment in Syria


Ambassador-designate to Israel faced the Senate Foreign Relations Committee David Friedman, a New York bankruptcy attorney, has backed Israeli settlements President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the next US ambassador to Israel faced a grilling from senators a day after Trump backed off the long-held US and international position that the key to Middle East peace lies in a two-state solution. That shift, which Trump revealed Wednesday at a White House news conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayahu, is just one reason the confirmation hearing for David Friedman, a New York bankruptcy lawyer, immediately veered into contentious territory. Protestors repeatedly interrupted the proceedings in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and lawmakers assailed Friedman for previous comments they deemed insulting. Friedman has backed Israeli settlements, which are seen as illegal under international law and as an impediment to a peace deal by Palestinians. He has called Palestinian statehood an “illusion,” raised millions of dollars for a settlement near the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the West Bank and he has excoriated critics in print, referring to a liberal Jewish group as “kapos,” the word for Jews who cooperated with Nazis during the Holocaust. Lawmakers quizzed the ambassador-designate on his position on statehood in the wake of Trump’s remarks. In answer to a question Wednesday, Trump said that he was “looking at two-state and one-state and I like the one that both parties like.” He added that, “I can live with either one. I thought for a while that two-state looked like it might be the easier of the two, but … if Israel and the Palestinians are happy, I’m happy with the one they like the best.” On Thursday, Trump’s ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said of the administration that “we absolutely support a two-state solution, but we are thinking out of the box as well, which is: What does it take to bring these two sides to the table?” RELATED: Trump backs off two-state framework for Israeli-Palestinian deal Over the course of Thursday’s confirmation hearing, Friedman walked back many of his previous public statements, saying that the two-state solution “remains I believe the best possibility for peace in the region” and that settlements “may not be helpful.” Any future Palestinian state would ideally be “demilitarized,” he said, Israel retaining control over the western border with Jordan. And he pushed for a focus on Palestinian economic development instead, which many Palestinians see as a delaying tactic for coming to a peace deal. Sen. Benjamin Cardin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, questioned Friedman’s dismissal of the two-state solution as a “damaging anachronism” and told him his views “constitute an unprecedented break” from US policy. Friedman answered that if the Israelis and Palestinians were able to reach an agreement “through direct negotiations along parameters agreeable to them … I would be delighted to see peace come to this region where people have suffered on both sides for so long.” He continued, “I have expressed my skepticism solely on the basis of my perception of the Palestinians’ failure to renounce terror and accept Israel as a Jewish state.” In a February 2016 article in an Israeli newspaper, Friedman described the idea of a two-state solution as a “scam.” Friedman went on to mentioned the 1993 Oslo Accords’ requirement that Palestinian leaders end incitement against Israel: “We haven’t made progress since then. In the aftermath of Oslo, terrorism has increased four-fold.” He made no mention of Israeli actions such as settlement construction, the destruction of Palestinian homes and seizure of Palestinian land in the West Bank as possible obstructions to a peace agreement or drivers of violence. And he said that if there are attempts to move forward on Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy, it should happen behind closed doors. “I happen to believe that with respect to the state of Israel, discretion is incredibly important and public comments can be defeating,” Friedman said. “If there’s progress to be made in the Middle East and the peace process, it’s through private diplomacy … behind the scenes.” At one point, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida asked whether Friedman thought Palestinians were the major obstacle to peace; whether he disagreed with the “orthodoxy” that the US needs to be an honest broker between Israel and the Palestinians; and whether he felt “professionals in the State Department and the foreign policy elite” unfairly maligned Israel. “Yes,” Friedman replied. New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, a Democrat, noted that Friedman is “very passionate about Israel,” and then asked Friedman to assure the committee that his loyalty and commitment lay with the US. Friedman agreed that it does. Related video One-state solution explained But much of the hearing was taken up with rhetoric rather than policy. As Friedman began his opening remarks, a series of protesters stood to denounce him, interrupting him at regular intervals. “We will not be silent, you do not represent us and you will never represent us,” shouted one young man wearing a kippah, the Jewish head covering. A young man waving a Palestinian flag shouted that in the West Bank, “Palestinians are there and will always be there.” Even before Friedman began speaking, his representatives tried to defuse anger about some of the insults he has previously leveled at President Barack Obama and members of Congress. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, introduced Friedman to the panel, saying the “deal-making bankruptcy lawyer” is “very passionate, he has said some things I don’t agree with, but … what’s encouraging to me is he’s said, ‘Maybe I should watch my rhetoric.’ “ New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall detailed many of the insults Friedman had hurled in print before being selected for the ambassadorial role. “He has insulted and denigrated members of the Senate,” Udall said. He quoted Friedman’s comment about senior Democratic New York Sen. Charles Schumer, after Democratic colleagues voted to approve the Iran nuclear deal, that “Schumer is validating the worst appeasement of terrorism since Munich,” where Palestinian terrorists killed Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games. Udall also said that Friedman had “slandered” President Barack Obama when he described “the blatant anti-Semitism emanating from our president and his sycophantic minions.” And he pointed out that Friedman once said of the Anti-Defamation League that “frankly, they sound like morons.” The ADL released a statement Thursday saying that Friedman had expressed regret for his words. “We accept his apology and appreciate his outreach,” the ADL said. Friedman will “represent all segments of the Jewish community and the broader country.” Democratic senators, however, told Friedman that his use of rhetoric raised questions about whether he was suited for the job and whether he would represent all Americans. “The language you have regularly used against those who disagree with your views has me concerned about your preparedness to enter the world of diplomacy,” Cardin said. Sen. Christopher Coons, a Delaware Democrat, put it unusually bluntly: “Your comments have been “intemperate inappropriate and insulting.” Friedman didn’t try to defend himself, telling Cardin at one point that “there is no excuse. If you want me to rationalize or justify it, I can not. I regret” using those words. But he also made clear he was apologizing only for his word choices, not for his positions. “I have profound differences of opinion with the J Street Organization,” the group he compared to Nazi collaborators. “My regrets are as to the language and the rhetoric,” he said. “I’m not withdrawing my personal views as to the organization.” RELATED: Netanyahu and Trump push reset of US-Israel relationship Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, pressed Friedman about Trump’s announcement that he would move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a highly sensitive issue traditionally left for final status negotiations as both Israelis and Palestinians claim the city as their capital. That announcement was originally folded into Trump’s statement that the New York lawyer was his pick for ambassador to Israel. The President has since walked it back, saying Wednesday that, “I’d love to see that happen. We’re looking at it very, very strongly. We’re looking at it with great care, great care, believe me, and we’ll see what happens.” “There will be ramifications if we move” the embassy, Paul told Friedman, and went on to ask if he was “a thoughtful individual” who would think through the implications of a move with the President. “Will it be worth our while,” he said. “The decision obviously will be made by the President and I will support him considering the political, security and other ramifications of it,” Friedman said.


As Russia significantly increases its support of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Sunday that backing Syria’s “central government” is the only way to defeat ISIS. “In Syria, when our first objective is to drive out terrorists and combating terrorists to defeat them, we have no solution other than to strengthen the central authority and the central government of that country as a central seat of power.” Related article GOP opponents of nuclear deal couldn't find Iran on a map, says Rouhani “So I think today everyone has accepted that President Assad must remain so that we can combat the terrorists.” “However, as soon as this movement reaches the various levels of success and starts driving out the terrorists on a step-by-step basis, then other plans must be put into action so as to hear the voices of the opposition as well.” Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, Iran has put its full weight behind Bashar al-Assad’s regime, supporting him politically, financially and militarily. Russia, Iran and al-Assad are united in their opposition to ISIS. But al-Assad, since the beginning of the conflict, has used the term “terrorists” to refer to groups that the United States and other Western powers would consider part of the legitimate opposition. The U.S. appears to be switching tactics in an effort to end the Syria war, by involving Iran in negotiations. But Rouhani said there are no direct talks with the United States. “Iran, with the United States, does not have any direct talks vis-a-vis Syria. But Iran simultaneously with the European Union, as well as other countries, does have talks regarding Syria,” he said through an interpreter. Related article Iranian President calls for prisoner exchange with U.S. “And those parties to the talks with Iran about Syria are in direct conversations with the United States as well. So perhaps not direct, but there are talks.” The conflict may be on the verge of its most significant development yet, as Russia moves heavy military equipment and personnel into the country. Iran and Russia, like the U.S., are fervently opposed to ISIS, but Russia’s intentions are so far unclear. Rouhani said the United States, which has expressed outrage at Russia’s move, should not be surprised. “The few times that we have met with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, he spoke in quite a bit of detail about this very issue,” Rouhani said. “Russia has decided to undertake a much more serious level of operations in combat against the terrorists in Syria.” “And during the last meeting he did announce that some countries such as Iran, Iraq, or Russia must form a semi, a quasi, coalition in order to assist in this fight against Daesh or ISIS and other groups resembling it.” Daesh is the Arabic acronym for ISIS. “And he told me that he had even spoken with Mr. Obama about this topic, and he would like to renew his commitment to the fight and the defeat of Daesh or ISIS.” “And he told me, President Putin said, that Mr. Obama welcomed that analysis and that plan. So even previously the United States of America was made aware.”


Fidel Castro: "Soon I will turn 90 years old. ... It's not the outcome of any effort; it was fate's whim" His younger brother, Raul Castro, is re-elected as head of the Cuban Communist Party Fidel Castro on Tuesday once again did what no else in Cuba can and addressed his mortality. “Soon I will turn 90 years old, never would such a thing have occurred to me and it’s not the outcome of any effort; it was fate’s whim,” Castro said, discussing his health, usually a taboo subject on the island. “Soon I will be like everyone else. To all of us comes our turn.” Castro’s unprecedented comments came at the end of the three-day Cuban Communist Party Congress where his younger brother, Raul Castro, was re-elected as head of the party, the only political organization allowed in Cuba. A gaunt and hoarse-sounding Fidel Castro was shown on Cuban State-TV in a blue tracksuit and seated on stage next to Raul Castro while receiving thunderous applause from the party faithful. Members of the international news media were not given access to the Party Congress, which only happen roughly every five years and plots the future of the island’s political establishment and beleaguered economy. Castro resigned as President and head of the party after a 2006 intestinal illness nearly killed him. Cuban officials say Castro no longer sets government policy but that he is consulted before major decisions are taken by the island’s communist-run government. But the former leader’s pronouncements on world affairs still carry weight in Cuba’s state-run media. In March, a column written by Fidel Castro blasted President Barack Obama’s visit to the island, saying the American’s words had been so sugary they nearly gave Castro “a heart attack.” During this month’s party congress, top Cuban officials echoed Castro’s words, accusing Obama of trying to “seduce” Cuban youths and private entrepreneurs and that the United States is still Cuba’s “enemy.” OPINION: New hope for Cuba Although Raul Castro, 84, began the party congress calling for a 70-year age limit for Cuban officials, on Tuesday he accepted another five-year term as party head. That would mean Castro would continue as party communist secretary until 2021. He has said he will step down as President of Cuba in 2018 and that the next generation of Cubans will take over running the island. But the Congress made clear that Cuban officials will stay true to Fidel Castro’s vision of a government that exercises tight control over the island’s political system and economy. “This may be among the last times I address this room,” Fidel Castro told the 1,000 delegates. “But the ideas of Cuba’s communists will remain as proof that on this planet if one works with fervor and dignity, you can produce the material and cultural things that human beings need,” he said. Castro blasts Obama’s trip


A pair of mammoth-tusk Chukchi snow goggles, an allosaurus dinosaur skull and a self portrait fragment from the sculptor Jamie Salmon are some of the eccentric offerings going under the hammer at Sotheby’s Hong Kong Curiosity III auction at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre on April 4. Now in its third incarnation, the auction format was inspired by the curiosity cabinets of the 16th century, which housed encyclopedic collections of objects – religious relics, preserved animals, precious gems, objets d’art – that were precursors to museums. With estimated value of $6.4 million, the 76 lots that make up the auction bring together objects from the Jurassic Period to the present day and span a wide geographical space from the Siberian tundra to Egypt. The improbable array of items illustrates how Sotheby’s is encouraging existing clients to get more creative with their collections. “A lot of collectors in Asia are still consigned to one area of collecting, such as Chinese painting, and with ‘Curiosity,’ we’re trying to promote a more eclectic style of collecting and encourage collectors to be more sensitive to antiquities, say, or African art,” says Nicholas Chow, deputy chairman of Sotheby’s Asia, and international head and chairman of the Chinese works of art department. Inspired by the aesthetics of an early surrealist movie, Chow shot a minute-long Super 8 film to promote the auction, which has received around 40,000 hits across various online platforms including Instagram and Weibo. Morbid and macabre: Dark obsessions of the world's most extreme collectors One of the lots Chow is particularly excited about is the Chukchi snow goggles, which would have belonged to a wealthy native of the Northern Siberian tundra. “They were probably made 200 years ago, and are one of the very earliest examples of sunglasses. They’re crafted from mammoth ivory from tusk found in the permafrost and are incredibly streamlined. Aesthetically they’re not rooted in space or time, and that makes them quite extraordinary.” Another piece that has made a big impression on Chow is the Bamana statue from Mali, a standing female figure with an ethereal quality that dates to the 15th or 16th century. Uli Sigg: How I built the world's biggest collection of Chinese contemporary art “A colleague helped me find me this in Paris from a very grand collector of contemporary art who was intrigued by what we were putting together and willing to consign one important piece.” A lot of the discoveries were due to serendipity, he adds. “In London, I met a collector of Chinese art with a cabinet of curiosity, and he consigned a Roman marble bust that made the cover of the auction catalogue. There’s another bust, a torso of a man that’s so withered it looks like a Chinese scholar’s rock; all that wear and abrasion has made the piece appear very abstract.” Sotheby's eyes a new generation with K-pop icon T.O.P In addition to encouraging collectors to extend their repertoire, Sotheby’s is targeting millennials with celebrity collaborations. K-pop icon T.O.P, who has everyone from Rudolf Stingel to Jina Park in his collection, curated a contemporary art evening sale, #TTTOP, last October. It represented the highest-value sale of Western contemporary art ever held during a major auction series in Hong Kong, realizing more $17.4 million (HKD$136 million). “As he’s a collector of contemporary art, T.O.P has a strong relationship with one of our specialists here so that’s how it came about. It was hugely successful in terms of publicity – the social media exposure was off the charts. Collaborations are a great draw for people, and we’d definitely look at doing a similar auction again,” says Chow. Extraordinary in the ordinary: These warped works will melt your mind Hosting more unusual lots and departing from the traditional auction format is a tactic all the major auction houses have employed as they attempt to keep themselves relevant. Since 2013, Christie’s has held an annual sale, “Out of the Ordinary,” that has previously seen everything from a taxidermy specimen of a two-headed lamb that fetched $16,320 to a lifesize waxwork figure of Sigmund Freud that sold for $9,600 at auction. Introduced in 2008 to offer the finest examples in collecting categories across the traditional decorative arts including silver, porcelain and clocks, Christie’s “Exceptional Sale” made waves in Paris last September by selling the gun that poet Paul Verlaine almost shot his lover Arthur Rimbaud with in 1873. It fetched $460,000 (435,000 euros) – almost seven times its estimate. Like Sotheby’s, Phillips is also attempting to encourage its clients to take a more holistic approach to collecting. Jonathan Crockett, Phillips’ head of 20th century and contemporary art and deputy chairman for Asia, says, “We’re making things as relevant as possible to today’s collecting community by engaging the younger generation on Instagram, who are discovering art online from the very first time and buying with us. We like to promote collection categories across the board – younger collectors might start off buying photography then move onto fine art. We don’t want to categorise them as just photography collectors, or art collectors.” So if the weird and the wonderful appeals, why not bag a wax anatomical model of a head or a Songye chief’s ceremonial judgement thorn crown? There’s no reason why you can’t position it among your cutting edge contemporary art collection. Curiosity III is on display at the Hong Kong Exhibition Centre from 31 March. The auction will take place on 4 April.


A professor at Arizona State University has resigned after allegations that he sexually abused at least three minors when he was a priest. James “Jaime” Lara was ordained as a priest in 1973 and served in the church until 1992 when he was removed him from active ministry. In a statement last week, the Diocese of Brooklyn included him in a list of those who had been “dispensed from the clerical state.”  The decree was issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “which is the Vatican office authorized to deal with cases involving sexual abuse of minors by a cleric.” After he was barred from the church, Lara went on to teach at many prominent universities, according to his curriculum vitae. He had been a research professor at Arizona State University since 2013. Three male victims recently came forward to accuse Lara of sexual abuse while Lara was associated with St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Brooklyn in the 1970’s and 1980’s, the victims’ lawyer, Michael Garabedian, told CNN. When Arizona State officials learned about the abuse late last week, they asked Lara to resign. “Jaime Lara is no longer affiliated with Arizona State University, effective Thursday, November 9,” the university said in a statement to CNN. The victims were all between the ages of 9 and 11 at the time of abuse, Garabedian said.


Melania Trump will become just the second foreign-born first lady in US history She has been a balancing force for her husband A foreign-born, former supermodel who married an eccentric billionaire is about to become the United States’ next first lady. Melania Trump, who will become just the second foreign-born first lady in US history, will assume the very public role after having spent much of her husband’s presidential campaign avoiding the campaign trail and the limelight, saying she preferred to remain home in New York to care for the couple’s only son, who is 10. She will succeed First Lady Michelle Obama, who has taken on a very public and active role in advocating for health and wellness issues. Trump delivered only a handful of speeches as her husband bounded from one unlikely phase of his campaign to the next. But she did lay out in broad terms what her priorities would be as first lady in the final week of the campaign – and to accomplish at least one of those, she may have to begin in the West Wing. That’s because Trump said in a speech last week outlining the priorities she would bring to the East Wing that in addition to “helping children and women,” she said combatting cyber bullying will be “one of the main focuses” of her work as first lady. While Donald Trump has repeatedly mocked his opponents on Twitter over their looks and intelligence, Melania Trump vowed to combat meanness on the Internet, saying “our culture has gotten too mean and too tough,” particularly as others are mocked over their “looks or intelligence.” “It is never OK when a 12-year-old girl or boy is mocked, bullied or attacked. It is terrible when it happens on the playground, and it is absolutely unacceptable when it is done by someone with no name hiding on the internet. We have to find a better way to talk to each other,” Melania Trump said, delivering a rare speech in Pennsylvania last week. “We must find better ways to honor and support the basic goodness of our children, especially in social media.” But while her agenda as first lady may be tinged with irony, Melania Trump has in many ways been a balancing force for her husband – chiding him in private when his temper flared and he lashed out on Twitter at his political opponents and urging him to be more “presidential” in their private conversations. RELATED: How Donald Trump won She has also served as a symbolic counterweight to her husband’s hardline rhetoric on immigration. While the Slovenian-born former model has said she agrees with her husband’s immigration proposals, Donald Trump and his supporters have frequently touted Melania Trump’s status as an immigrant to push back on attacks that Trump is anti-immigrant. Melania Trump has said becoming a naturalized US citizen in 2006 has been “the greatest privilege in the world.” She will become the second foreign-born first lady, 192 years after England-born Louisa Adams became first lady. But her immigration history also risked becoming a liability during the campaign amid reports that she may have worked as a model in the United States before obtaining the proper paperwork to work legally in the US. She and her attorney have insisted she followed all appropriate laws. Before her speech last week, Melania Trump delivered only one major speech in the campaign – at the Republican National Convention before her husband accepted the Republican presidential nomination. While initially well-received, the speech was ultimately tarnished by controversy after it came to light that parts of the speech were lifted from Michelle Obama’s speech to the 2008 Democratic National Convention.


At first, photography was just a hobby for Boris Mikhailov. It was only after was fired from his engineering job following a KGB raid in the 1960s (they discovered nude photos he’d taken of his wife) that he decided to dedicate himself wholly to the craft. Eastern promise: How Stalin rebuilt Moscow in his own image “I became a photographer under conditions of public irresolution, prohibitions and restrictions. In the USSR, official art only reflected a singular opinion, and everything else was considered not only wrong, but also harmful … I wanted to break through this wild bias and to find ways to circumvent these ‘prohibitions,’” Mikhailov said in an email. “There was no resistance to official ideology, and this encouraged me to search for a new language in art. I was certain that it was impossible to photograph ‘the normal’ without reflecting on the wicked.” Today, Mikhailov is regarded as one of the most important artists to emerge from the former USSR. While much of his work – including the “Yesterday’s Sandwich” series for which he overlaid color photos taken during the ’60s and early ‘70s – trades in metaphor (and often eroticism), it was his ability to document the truth that first brought him worldwide acclaim. His most famous series, “Case History,” intimately shot photographs of people living in devastated conditions in Ukraine after the fall of communism, has been displayed and celebrated around the world. Balancing national pride and personal politics at the Venice Biennale “Almost half a century ago, I began to accumulate my photographic material, which, like a mountaineer, I dragged all these years uphill, believing in its value and fighting for it,” Mikhailov, now 78, said in an email. “But it wasn’t until the beginning of the 1990s, marked by the collapse of the USSR and the formation of Ukraine, that my past proved to be important for many.” This year, the photographer is showing a new series, “Parliament,” at Ukraine’s pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale. First ever Nigerian Pavilion opens at the Venice Biennale By capturing glitches in televised broadcasts, Mikhailov distorts the images of politicians like abstract paintings. The distortion seems a reflection of many people’s feeling about modern politics. “These pictures are both of parliament and they are not of parliament, highlighting the uncertainty, we are living under,” he explained during the exhibition’s opening. “Parliaments are the main reason we have ended up with the state we have in the world, so I felt the need to interpret this common denominator.” Mikhailov is waiting for the inspiration for his next big idea to strike him. Looking at the sociopolitical landscape, he is not enthusiastic for what may come next. However, as he puts it, “the worst has already happened.”


It has shown us everything from Chewbacca Mask Lady to U.S. House sit-ins It can draw attention to social injustice or crime The video can be powerful, but too much could desensitize us Facebook Live has only been available to the masses since January, and in that time we’ve pretty much witnessed the full scope of humanity. We laughed along with “Chewbacca Mask Lady” and delighted in the (accidental) live stream of a childbirth. Live streams via Facebook (and Periscope and Snapchat) of House sit-ins made us feel engaged in the democratic process without the hassle of leaving home. Recently, things have taken a serious turn, with videos of shootings, protests, beatings and more shootings served up in our feeds, often without warning. If you feel like you’re becoming inured to it all, expressing a sentence of outrage, clicking share and moving on, you’re not alone. This is not Periscope or Meerkat, after all. It’s Facebook, where your grandmother has an opinion on the live stream of a Georgia woman beating her teenage daughter. Before you bemoan the demise of civilization and threaten to quit social media (never gonna happen), consider the following: Protesters from Turkey to Minneapolis sidestepped traditional media when they live-streamed demonstrations, leaving viewers to draw their own conclusions. Or, imagine if Diamond Reynolds had called the local news station after a police officer shot Philando Castile instead of hitting record on her smartphone. Would the station have been able to capture the intimate and shocking point of view that put the July 6 shooting in the national spotlight? As a result of the video and the subsequent furor over the killing, Gov. Mark Dayton has called for a federal investigation. On Friday, a Minnesota prosecutor said he has appointed an outside attorney to help him decide whether to pursue criminal charges. Related video Woman streams graphic video of boyfriend shot by police Amateur video is more personal and raw, compared to what you see in a newscast or edited video, where you’re prepared for what you’re going to see. We would be remiss to downplay the benefits of editorial gatekeepers like, say, CNN, which go to great lengths to vet videos for their source and context before sharing it with viewers. Same goes for law enforcement, which evaluates the circumstances surrounding a video to form a complete picture before making an arrest. “The technology can be used to help us understand what happened in that space and time, but it’s not the end-all be-all,” said CNN law enforcement analyst Cedric Alexander, the public safety director at the DeKalb County Police Department in Georgia. “Depending on where you enter the video there’s also a beginning, a middle and an end, and you have to be mindful of those circumstances.” Watching Castile’s life slip away in a car after being shot by an officer may have been hard to watch. But it galvanized a social justice movement and compelled a response from government agents at various levels up to President Barack Obama. Already, there are numerous examples of Facebook Live events leading to arrests in shootings, beatings, even in allegations of sexual harassment. Related video Three men shot while streaming on Facebook Live All of which is basically what Facebook hoped for when it launched the product. Here’s what the company said on July 8, after the video of Castile went viral. “Live video allows us to see what’s happening in the world as it happens. Just as it gives us a window into the best moments in people’s lives, it can also let us bear witness to the worst. Live video can be a powerful tool in a crisis – to document events or ask for help,” the statement said. Research suggests that binging on televised violence can lead to apathy. While it’s too early to say whether live-streamed violence on Facebook will make you antisocial, information overload is a legitimate concern, some psychologists say. “I worry that any given live feed is getting supplanted by the next live feed and we may be getting desensitized to all of it,” said Kaveri Subrahmanyam, associate director of California State University’s Children’s Digital Media Center, which focuses on media psychology. “If we’re watching a lot of this, you have to wonder how memorable any live video is. Do we just watch it and forget it immediately after happens? I fear that may the case.” For all the power of live video, the downside is that it can make us fearful, said psychologist Jerri Lynn Hogg, the former president of the American Psychological Association’s Society for Media Psychology and Technology. “There’s a numbness that we develop to protect ourselves. We withdraw into families where we feel secure and resist engaging in the issues, rather than work with others to develop solutions,” she said. But Hogg and others, including Facebook, say the benefits far outweigh the perceived drawbacks – and, we’re already seeing the benefits. “When I look at recent efforts on behalf of political leaders, for example, to live-stream events like party conventions in the U.S. or debates over policy like the recent Brexit vote in the UK, I’m overwhelmingly encouraged by this technology’s audience-magnifying potential,” said California State University Professor Michael Germano, who teaches courses in internet law and information policy. Related video Lewis: 'It is always right to do right' “It feels like an evolutionary step in media consumption and not necessarily a frightening or disturbing one. With that said, there will be disturbing bumps along the road as the discourse adapts and standards evolve. That’s all part of the process.” None of what’s happening on Facebook is unprecedented or unusual when it comes to media innovation. Twitter, which Facebook leapfrogged over to become the leader in live-streaming, is dealing with similar anxieties in the form of trolling and abuse. Developing standards is the task at hand right now for Facebook, said industry analyst Scott Kessler of S&P Global Market Intelligence, who covers Facebook. “They have to figure out how to strike a balance between decorum and freedom,” he said. “The onus is on these companies to make clear they actually have a process.” Facebook says the same community standards exist for all content on Facebook, including live video. Viewers can report potentially offensive material 24/7 to real people dedicated to responding to such reports. If a live stream starts blowing up, staffers monitor it for possible violations and interrupt it if need be. Take, for example, the recent video of a mother repeatedly slapping and hitting her teenage daughter on Facebook Live. The original video, which sparked allegations of child abuse and prompted a law enforcement investigation, is gone from the original account it was posted on. However, copies remain on Facebook, in posts condemning the violence. As Facebook explains in their statement: “One of the most sensitive situations involves people sharing violent or graphic images of events taking place in the real world. In those situations, context and degree are everything. For instance, if a person witnessed a shooting, and used Facebook Live to raise awareness or find the shooter, we would allow it. However, if someone shared the same video to mock the victim or celebrate the shooting, we would remove the video.” One line in their community standards hints at how far they’re willing to go in the name of an open, connected society: “Because of the diversity of our global community, please keep in mind that something that may be disagreeable or disturbing to you may not violate our Community Standards.” If seeing those violent acts in your feed disturbs you, remember that you can always look away, scroll past or otherwise avoid your feed. In other words, put the phone down.