Read more about this story at CNN Turk. NEW: A Peruvian was wounded and 2 victims are still unidentified, Peru's foreign ministry says The blast took place in Sultanahmet Square, in the heart of Istanbul's heavily guarded tourist area Official: The suicide bomber wasn't being tracked by Turkish authorities, came from Syria The suicide bomber who killed at least 10 foreigners Tuesday in a popular central Istanbul tourist area belonged to ISIS, officials said – an attack that shows the group’s nerve, reach and capacity for terror. No group claimed responsibility for the blast, yet Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu pinned blame on the group that calls itself the Islamic State, which has entrenched itself in neighboring Syria and Iraq while proving willing time and again to lash out elsewhere. At least eight Germans died in the blast between the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque tourist attractions in Istanbul’s cultural and historic heart, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, warning that figure may rise. A Turkish official earlier told CNN that at least nine Germans were killed. Davutoglu indicated that the 15 wounded were from inside and outside his country, with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier saying nine of those were German. “They haven’t just targeted those who died,” Davutoglu said. “They have targeted the whole of Turkey and the whole world.” Born in 1988, the man responsible for the blast was not among the thousands being tracked by Turkish authorities, having “newly (come) into Turkey from Syria,” Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said. Just to Turkey’s south, Syria has been embroiled in a civil war for nearly five years – a conflict that, according to the United Nations, has cost more than 250,000 lives, spurred more than half the country’s 17 million residents to flee and caused humanitarian crises for those left behind, as illustrated by the hundreds starving in the siege of Madaya. Related gallery The ISIS terror threat This violence can be pinned on many groups, including forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Yet ISIS has been behind many of the worst atrocities there and elsewhere in the region, a fact that’s made the terror group a top target for civilized countries. A member of NATO, Turkey has increasingly been engaged in this fight – including allowing the United States to launch strikes from Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey and clamping down to curb more fighters from going through its territory to join the group. ISIS has responded by singling out Turkey as a primary target, and a recent issue of its Dabiq magazine had a cover showing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan alongside U.S. President Barack Obama. And Davutoglu stressed Turkey wouldn’t back down after Tuesday’s attack, urging his countrymen and people worldwide to unite against this threat. “We will continue our fight against terror with the same firm attitude,” said the Prime Minister, insisting his country will continue working with the U.S.-led coalition to combat ISIS. “We will never compromise, not one single inch.” Tuesday’s blast rattled Sultanahmet Square around 10:20 a.m. (3:20 a.m. ET) and brought a rush of ambulances and security forces to an area that would have been heavily guarded on any day. “I’ve never heard such a loud explosion in my life,” Sener Ozdemir, a 45-year-old shop owner, told Turkey’s semi-official Anadolu news agency. “…Just after the incident, I saw shocked tourists falling to the ground.” Targeting outsiders would be in line with attacks executed or inspired by ISIS, which has enemies everywhere and has proven willing to strike those who don’t subscribe to its twisted, hard-line version of Sharia law. We mourn the victims of the #Istanbul terror attack. #Sultanahmet pic.twitter.com/4dgbLLyg0o Turkey is a popular destination for Germans, and Germany’s foreign ministry urged travelers in Istanbul “to avoid public gatherings (and) tourist attractions for now” after the attack. The Peruvian foreign ministry said in a statement that one of its citizens is in stable condition at a hospital after being wounded. A Norwegian citizen was taken to a nearby hospital after the incident, foreign ministry spokesman Frode Andersen told CNN. Sajjan Gohel, international security director at the Asia-Pacific Foundation, doesn’t think it’s a coincidence this suicide blast happened in a square that’s both a draw for tourists and significant to Turkey’s history and its diverse cultural identity – the type of place, he said, “that ISIS is so deeply opposed to.” “The type of monuments that are in Sultanahmet Square are the type that ISIS has been blowing up in Syria,” Gohel told CNN. “It’s seen as a place where you have a mesh of different entities. It’s a real melting pot.” The blast comes as Turkey deals with multiple security threats – from longstanding nemesis the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, as well as ISIS, which has taken over swaths of Syria and Iraq on its quest to form a far-reaching caliphate. Ankara has persistently battled the PKK, which the United States and other governments have branded a terror group. Turkey’s actions against ISIS, which first emerged out of Iraq but now has its de facto capital in Syria, are more recent but have nonetheless made it a target of that terrorist group. Its military cooperation with the United States and other NATO nations in particular has angered ISIS, said Fadi Hakura, associate fellow at Chatham House. ISIS goes global: 60 attacks, 19 countries Investigators honed in on ISIS after two suicide blasts in October hit a lunchtime peace rally in Ankara, in which demonstrators were calling for an end to the renewed conflict between the PKK and Turkish government. Those explosions killed as many as 100 people and injured more than 240 more. Tuesday’s blast – if it’s confirmed to be the terror group’s work – ups the ante for Ankara, forcing it to step up its anti-ISIS fight even more, according to the Asia-Pacific Foundation’s Gohel. “An attack like this is designed to create economic, political and social consequences,” Gohel told CNN. “Turkey has to realize that the pipeline that feeds ISIS from Turkey to Syria has to now be cut off, because incidents like this are not one-offs. This could be part of a series of plots.” And given that the dead aren’t Turkish, this attack directly impacts other countries as well. While it’s not known if the bomber targeted any one nationality, the idea of terrorists targeting tourists is not new – as illustrated in last March’s attack on Tunis’ Bardo Museum and June’s mass shooting at a Tunisian beachfront hotel. “We have a free society … but there are people who want us harmed,” said Merkel, referring to the Tunisia attacks and the more recent ones targeting civilians in Paris. “… We will persevere.” CNN’s Arwa Damon, Gul Tuysuz and journalist Zeynep Bilginsoy reported from Istanbul. CNN’s Greg Botelho and Ed Payne reported and wrote from Atlanta.


Bernie Sanders defended his policy proposals against Hillary Clinton's attacks Sanders argued that other countries prove his ideas aren't "fantasy" Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders defended his policy proposals Sunday, saying that “this is not fantasy – this is reality” in an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.” The Vermont senator cited other nations as models: Canada, the United Kingdom and France for his Medicare-for-all health insurance proposal and Germany and Scandanavia – a region that typically includes Norway, Sweden and Denmark – for free public college tuition. He was pushing back against rival Hillary Clinton who has cast his policy proposals as unrealistic. “All of that may be fantasy to the ruling class and the big money interests in this country. I don’t think that’s fantasy to the working people in this country who have worked longer hours for lower wages, who are tired of establishment politics and establishment economics,” Sanders said. “Every proposal that we have brought forward, we’ve paid for … Maybe the drug companies don’t like it and the insurance companies don’t like it. I think the American people do like it,” he said. In the interview, Sanders also stuck by his claim that he’ll stay in the Democratic presidential race through the convention in July. He predicted wins in West Coast states, including California, which doesn’t vote until June. He wouldn’t answer directly, though, whether he’d drop out if Clinton accumulated enough delegates to win the Democratic nomination before the convention starts. “You are speculating – I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Sanders said. “We think we have momentum and we think we’re going to do just fine.”


The Pentagon's investigation into the Niger ambush continues Lawmakers said there are still many unanswered questions The Pentagon on Thursday provided lawmakers with a classified briefing detailing what the agency has uncovered so far in its investigation of the Niger ambush that left four US service members dead, amid swirling questions on Capitol Hill about the larger US strategy in Africa in the wake of the attack. Leaving the back-to-back briefings for the House and Senate Armed Services Committee, lawmakers said there are still many unanswered questions, including why it took 48 hours to recover the body of Sgt. La David Johnson, who was separated from the rest of the team, and how the attackers were tipped off to the presence of US troops. Related article US team in Niger was collecting intel on terror leader But the briefing has for now satisfied Arizona Sen. John McCain, the powerful Armed Services chairman who blasted the Pentagon last week for not being forthcoming about the attack and threatened to issue subpoenas if he did not get the information he was seeking. “I am pleased at the cooperation we’re getting now,” McCain told reporters. “It was an excellent briefing, we got a lot of good information. It’s progress and we expect more, but this is what we’ve been asking for.” However, McCain did express particular concern about why it took that much time to recover Johnson’s body. The Arizona senator said he was told the investigation is expected to last about 30 days, and once the Pentagon has finished with its assessment he’ll decide whether to hold a public hearing on Niger. The October 4 attack has sparked questions not just about the specifics of the ambush but also about the role US forces are playing in Africa. The US Army team that was attacked had been gathering intelligence on a terrorist leader operating in the area before it was ambushed. Related article US sought to arm drones in Niger prior to attack US officials told CNN that the unit was not under orders to conduct a kill or capture mission on the leader, and the team was not directed to “take direct action” against enemy forces, according to a US defense official. “I was encouraged by the testimony that on the initial assessment, there were not significant steps that could have been taken to prevent this assault,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican. “The detailed investigation may produce different conclusions, so I’ll certainly await the results of that investigation to ascertain what exactly occurred, but I was encouraged by the initial testimony.” But the lack of drone support for the Niger mission and others like it was a significant concern to both Democrats and Republicans. Several noted that the head of US Africa Command, Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, told Congress in testimony earlier this year that he only had 20% to 30% of his command’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance needs fulfilled. Related article Haley warns African conflicts becoming 'breeding ground' for terrorists “That shortfall has not changed, and the tragic outcome of this incident in my view, can be attributed to lack of support in intelligence and resources that are necessary,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat. The attack has also sparked new questions about whether the war against ISIS is moving to Africa as operations wind down in Iraq and Syria, and whether the US needs to adjust its strategy accordingly. “The more we succeed in the Middle East, the more we’re going to see snakes run to Africa,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican. “And we’ve got to be prepared to advise and assist the nations there that are willing to work with us.” House Armed Services chairman Mac Thornberry told reporters that he’s hoping to get all the answers to what happened in Niger as quickly as possible, but he understands it’s going to take time – particularly because US investigators will need the cooperation of the French and Nigerien governments. “You’re never satisfied because there’s an urgency to find out what happened,” Thornberry said. “So I expressed concern about how long the investigation is taking, until one of my colleagues reminded me we don’t really know all the situation from Las Vegas yet. So it’s a fair point, but we need to be right about it. We need to find the answers.” CNN’s Ted Barrett, Jamie Crawford, Jim Sciutto  and Ryan Browne contributed reporting

Pentagon investigation into the Niger ambush


Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae cause an estimated 9,300 infections each year in the US A Nevada woman died of a strain of CRE she is thought to have picked up in an Indian hospital One family of superbugs, known as carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae or CRE, may be spreading more widely than previously thought, according to a study published Monday (PDF) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In fact, transmission of these bacteria person-to-person may be occurring without symptoms, say the researchers, from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Broad Institute. “We often talk about the rising tide of antibiotic resistance in apocalyptic terms,” said William Hanage, senior author of the study and an associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard Chan School.  “But we should always remember that the people who are most at risk of these things would be at risk for any infection, because they are often among the frailer people in the health care system.” Related article 5 things you need to know about antimicrobial resistance When an illness-causing bug won’t disappear with the usual drugs, patients are given last-resort antibiotics such as carbapenem. Still, some “nightmare bacteria” continue to thrive even when given the strongest medicines reserved for the toughest cases. CRE, which tend to spread in hospitals and long-term care facilities, cause an estimated 9,300 infections and 600 deaths each year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And they are on the rise. Over a 16-month period, the Harvard-MIT research team examined genetic sequences from about 250 samples of patients who had CRE in four hospitals in Boston and Irvine, California. “A lot of people have done a lot of really good work by focusing on things like outbreaks,” Hanage said. He and his colleagues were aiming instead to get a “population snapshot” of CRE, to define how frequently these infections occurred and to understand which bacterial strains were causing infections within hospitals. “We tried to get an idea of what the population was, and that enabled us to capture the diversity of these things, which were causing disease in the hospitals we studied,” Hanage said. First, the researchers found very little evidence of direct transmission between patients who became sick. “There’s one, maybe two, in all the samples we looked at,” Hanage said. Based on this, he and his colleagues believe transmission may be occurring without causing symptoms. Related article 'Patient zero': The misunderstood stories of how disease spreads In other words, people colonized with these germs may spread them, a la Typhoid Mary, without ever becoming sick themselves. According to Dr. Alex Kallen, a medical officer in the CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, who was not involved in the study, “the most common source of transmission with CRE is asymptomatic.” Most patients will not have any symptoms of CRE, which lives in the gastrointestinal tract, according to Kallen. The study also documented “the identical gene in different species. … The extent to which this has happened is really quite surprising,” Hanage said. Also, “we found two cases of high-level resistance we could not explain.” This he compared to “dark matter: We know it’s there because we can see its effects, but what’s actually making it happen at the moment is unknown.” “If I were to criticize my own work, I would say it is a shame that we weren’t able to get more hospitals and more samples from elsewhere within the health care systems,” Hanage said. Limited by funding, the researchers could not track whether transmission had occurred in a long-term care facility or in the community, outside the hospitals they studied. This was the case in one recent CRE infection in a hospital in Reno, Nevada. The patient, a Washoe County woman in her 70s, had been living for an extended period in India. She returned to the US in early August. Related article Gonorrhea outbreak in Hawaii shows increased antibiotic resistance On returning, the woman suffered systemic inflammatory response syndrome – a whole-body immune system reaction to an infection – and was admitted to a Reno hospital. Notably, she had been hospitalized in India just two months before, one of several hospitalizations due to complications from a thighbone fracture. She was in the Reno hospital almost six days before the CDC confirmed her infection as a strain of CRE called NDM. “There are two primary types of CRE. One of them is called New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase, or NDM, and another one is called Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase, or KPC,” said Lei Chen, senior epidemiologist for the Washoe County Health District. Both strains both have specific enzymes that can break down carbapenem antibiotics, rendering these powerful drugs ineffective, explained Chen. Generally, KPC is more prevalent in the US than NDM: The CDC recorded 175 NDM cases as of January 6. In the case of the woman in Washoe County, her infection was resistant to all 26 antibiotics available in the US, which is very rare. “The treating physicians were trying their best,” Chen said. Once they received the advanced lab results, the doctors switched antibiotics accordingly, but their patient still developed septic shock and died in early September. “Unfortunately, the patient progressed very fast,” Chen said, explaining that things are sometimes just beyond the doctor’s control: “They just run out of options.” However, there was still work to be done in order to protect the community. To find out whether others had been infected, Chen and her colleagues performed a survey among patients admitted to that same unit. “We did a rectal swab for those patients, and the laboratory didn’t identify any additional CRE,” she said. The ongoing surveillance program for monitoring CRE, which had been in effect since 2010, also has not identified any additional cases up to and including today. Related article Human nasal bacteria might be superbug killer “I think the hospital did an excellent job in identification of the case and putting contact precautions immediately after,” Chen said. “This hospital is doing an excellent job in terms of hand-washing compliance, according to the infection-control people, so I think that contributed to that, as well.” Another lucky break: The woman was in a single-patient room from the start of her hospitalization and so did not spread her infection to a roommate. Hanage sees this case as “an illustration of the sort of thing that we are up against. These bacteria are deadly. … So we would be well-advised to do everything we can to keep them rare.” “If we want to keep them rare, we have to understand first how much of them are out there, how many there are out there, where they are and how they’re transmitting from person to person,” he said. “The best way to stop a person from dying from this is to stop them from getting sick with this, and the best way to stop them from getting sick with it is to make sure they never pick it up in the first place,” he said, adding that “it’s incumbent upon us to understand transmission.” The Dutch have one of the lowest rates of antibiotic resistance globally, he noted, because they identify people who are at risk before they come into the hospital. Though it is easy to feel helpless, each of us can play a role in preventing the spread of these terrifying bacteria. Hand hygiene and environmental sanitation are essential to preventing the spread of all bacteria, according to Kallen. Related article See for yourself: A giant petri dish models antibiotic resistance “Make sure people are washing their hands when caring for you. Make sure they are cleaning equipment,” he said. Though we may feel at our weakest while staying in a hospital, it is important to speak up if health care providers do not stop and clean their hands. Chen and her colleagues suggest an approach quite like that of the Dutch, where health care facilities get a history of health care exposures outside their region upon admission, and consider screening for CRE when patients report having visited a place with a higher incidence of CRE. “Of course, obtaining the history is not difficult, right? It can just be implemented into the intake questions,” Chen said. After Ebola, measles and Zika, many hospitals are already noting travel history during admission. “For CRE testing/screening, every hospital can do that. It’s just a routine bacteria culture first, and then after identifying the organism, they perform the antibiotic susceptibility testing,” she said. See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter. Not every hospital has the capacity to detect the exact CRE mechanism. Still, she said, the patient can be immediately isolated while the hospital waits for more advanced results. According to Hanage, the trend is toward using genomics to identify patterns of transmission, the amounts of gene diversity and the presence of resistant organisms. In 10 years, he imagines a system that is “rapidly taking environmental samples.” “New threats would be identified and flagged quickly so we can direct our resources most effectively,” Hanage said. “In order to be able to do that, you have to know what you are looking for, and so work like this is helpful to tell us what we should be looking for and where we should be worried.”


President Trump criticized Pakistan in a speech on Monday "To scapegoat Pakistan will not help in stabilizing Afghanistan," Pakistan's council said Pakistan’s National Security Council issued a strongly worded rebuttal on Thursday to President Donald Trump’s remarks that Pakistan provided “safe havens for terrorist organizations.” “The (National Security) Committee outrightly rejected the specific allegations and insinuations made against Pakistan,” the council said in a statement. “To scapegoat Pakistan will not help in stabilizing Afghanistan. In fact, being its immediate neighbor, Pakistan has an abiding interest in peace and stability in Afghanistan.” The rebuttal comes days after Trump’s speech Monday in which he announced that the US military would expand its presence in the war in Afghanistan, now in its 16th year. In particular, Trump had harsh words for Pakistan, the US ally that borders Afghanistan to the south. He said Washington could “no longer be silent about Pakistan’s safe havens for terrorist organizations.” Related article Trump calls out Pakistan, India as he pledges to 'fight to win' in Afghanistan “We have been paying Pakistan billions and billions of dollars. At the same time, they are housing the very terrorists we are fighting … that must change immediately,” Trump added. In its statement, Pakistan defended its role in the lengthy war and said it has worked to promote peace in Afghanistan. “The Committee observed that Pakistan has consistently supported all international efforts for a stable and peaceful Afghanistan,” the council’s statement said. “On its own part, Pakistan has taken indiscriminate actions against all terrorist networks and sacrificed tens of thousands of troops and civilians in this fight.” US officials have long accused Pakistan’s leadership of not doing enough to stabilize Afghanistan and have suspected that Pakistan knowingly hid terrorists. For example, when US soldiers killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Ladin in a raid in Pakistan in May 2011, White House officials did not inform Islamabad ahead of time. In addition, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar died in April 2013 in Pakistan, a spokesperson for Afghanistan’s president said in 2015. “Pakistan has much to gain from partnering with our effort in Afghanistan (and) much to lose from harboring criminals and terrorists,” Trump said in his speech Monday. CNN’s James Griffiths contributed to this story.


NEW: President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton will attend funeral for Shimon Peres Peres died at 93 after suffering a massive stroke two weeks ago Tributes and condolences poured in Wednesday following the death of Israeli statesman Shimon Peres. President Barack Obama will lead the US delegation to Israel for Friday’s funeral, according to the White House. Current and former world leaders, including former President Bill Clinton and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, were invited to services for the former Prime Minister, President and Nobel laureate. Peres, 93, died two weeks after a stroke. Also invited are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, US Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry, UK Prime Minister Theresa May, Prince Charles, the leaders of Canada, Germany, France and Australia, and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands. Former President Clinton, who worked and regularly met with Peres as president, will attend the funeral on behalf of the Clinton family, according to a spokesman. Hillary Clinton has no plans to go, an aide said after some earlier reports indicated that she would attend. Those invited have described the ninth Prime Minister of Israel as both a friend and an inspiration. Shimon Peres: He was a warrior for peace Related article Why Israel will miss Shimon Peres Addressing reporters Wednesday from Sheba Medical Center outside Tel Aviv, his son, Chemi Peres, said his father “did not have any other purpose in life other than serving those he loved,” referring to the people of Israel. He recalled his father once told him: “You are only as a great as the cause you serve.” Chemi Peres said his father had “bequeathed a future to us. We will continue building the state of Israel and will also seek peace. “The loss we feel today belongs to all of Israel, we all share this pain.” Rafi Walden, Shimon Peres’ son-in-law and a physician, said the Israeli leader’s final contribution was to donate his corneas for transplant. Related article Shimon Peres: Israel's warrior for peace dies He said Peres had remained healthy and vibrant up until a stroke two weeks ago, adding that his family was always in awe of his lasting influence, recalling how world leaders would stand before him “like students standing before the rabbi.” Obama was among those who called Peres a friend. “There are few people who we share this world with who change the course of human history, not just through their role in human events, but because they expand our moral imagination and force us to expect more of ourselves,” he said in a statement from the White House. “My friend Shimon was one of those people.” Former President Bill Clinton, who together with Peres had championed the 1993 Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Peace Accords, said in a joint statement with his wife that “Israel has lost a leader who championed its security, prosperity, and limitless possibilities from its birth to his last day on earth.” I will miss Shimon Peres, my brilliant and eloquent friend. His life was a blessing to all who strive for peace. https://t.co/7aIk3mt3Og pic.twitter.com/Iosr09jQq9 “He was a genius with a big heart who used his gifts to imagine a future of reconciliation not conflict, economic and social empowerment not anger and frustration,” added Clinton, whose spokesman said the former President would attend Peres’ funeral. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his sadness for the country’s ninth leader, calling him “a man cherished by the nation.” Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair tweeted that Peres was “a political giant, a statesman who will rank as one of the foremost of this era or any era.” Shimon Peres was a political giant, a statesman who will rank as one of the foremost of this era or any era, and someone I loved deeply. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sent a message of condolence to Peres’ family and called him a partner for peace, according to WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency. Abbas’ message refers to Peres’ efforts as foreign minister in the early 1990s to conclude the Oslo Peace Accords. Peres was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for that contribution in 1994 with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Ban, the UN chief, said in a statement: “I met Mr. Peres on many occasions, and always benefited from his views. Even in the most difficult hours, he remained an optimist about the prospects for reconciliation and peace.” Other voices added to the tributes. UK and Commonwealth Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis called him “a born leader, a uniquely talented diplomat (and) a relentless campaigner for peace,” and David Quarrey, British ambassador to Israel, said he was “a towering figure of our time.” Facebook post not found. Post has been removed or is no longer public. Peres held virtually every position in Israel’s Cabinet, including minister of defense and Prime Minister. Beyond his efforts with the Oslo Peace Accords, he called for peace talks in 2011 with the Palestinians and warned the United Nations against recognizing the Palestinian territories as an independent state outside a peace plan. Peres remained in the public eye after retirement. In a 2015 interview with CNN, he expressed support for a nuclear deal with Iran and said it would be feasible for inspectors to enforce the terms of the agreement. Peres’ body will lie in state at the Knesset – the Israeli parliament that Peres was a member of for more than 45 years – on Thursday, with doors open starting in the morning, the country’s Ministry of Culture and Sport said. A farewell ceremony will be held Friday at the national cemetery at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl, where he will be buried, the ministry said. Peres was rushed to the hospital in mid-January after suffering a minor heart attack. He underwent emergency surgery and received a stent. He returned to the hospital 10 days later after suffering from an irregular heartbeat. He suffered a massive stroke September 13 but was reported to be making progress. Doctors said he took a turn for the worse Tuesday. Peres’ family was believed to be at his bedside when he died. CNN’s Oren Lieberman and Abeer Salman reported from Tel Aviv. CNN’s Euan McKirdy wrote in Hong Kong and Jason Hanna wrote in Atlanta. CNN’s Dan Merica contributed to this report.


First lady Melania Trump is expected to attend a White House event on Monday evening to honor Gold Star families, her spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, confirms to CNN. Although the President and Mrs. Trump hosted a similar event last year, the attendance of the first lady at this year’s reception will mark the first time she has participated in an official event, either alone or by her husband’s side, since May 10 when the first couple greeted freed American prisoners upon their return to Andrews Air Force Base following captivity in North Korea. Four days later, the first lady entered Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, for what her spokeswoman described as a benign kidney procedure. Trump remained hospitalized for five nights following the procedure, returning to the White House on May 19. Since then, Trump has not been seen in public, nor did she join the President, his children Donald Trump Jr., and Tiffany Trump, daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, at Camp David this weekend. Despite her planned attendance at Monday’s event, the first lady will not be traveling to the G7 summit this year or join the President when he goes to Singapore for the planned June 12 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, her spokeswoman told CNN. Much speculation has surrounded the lengthy, 24-day lack of first lady sightings, spawning conspiracy theories ranging from plastic surgery to a stealth move back to New York City, all of which Grisham has denied. The first lady herself weighed in on the rumors, tweeting Wednesday, “I see the media is working overtime speculating where I am & what I’m doing. Rest assured, I’m here at the @WhiteHouse w my family, feeling great, & working hard on behalf of children & the American people!” Monday’s reception is closed to the press, but following last year’s Gold Star families event, the White House released the following statement about the event with these remarks from Mrs. Trump: “Gold Star families have lost an immediate family member who was serving during wartime, and they are a unique and distinct category of individuals who should be cherished. These families have endured the ultimate in pain and sacrifice on behalf of our country, and I am honored to have spent the evening with them. My husband and I commit to always pay tribute to our active service military, veterans, and the families who love them.” Grisham tells CNN the first lady has been holding meetings with her East Wing staff about her platform initiatives, as well as planning for upcoming White House events.


Editor’s Note: Leon V. Sigal is director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project at the Social Science Research Council in New York. The opinions expressed here are solely his. As a candidate, President Trump seemed open to talks on North Korea All other options are fundamentally flawed, says Leon V. Sigal The United States is going through the five stages of grief over negotiations with North Korea. First came denial: that North Korea cheats so there is no point to negotiating, which denies that past deals did stop its fissile material production and missile tests for nearly a decade and that Pyongyang was not the only one to renege. So did Washington and Seoul. Next came anger: since North Korea was violating UN resolutions by continuing to test nuclear weapons and missiles, it should be punished with sanctions and isolation. Third has come bargaining: hopes that missile defense, cyberattacks or some other technological fix could somehow shield the United States and its allies from the threat. Those hopes have so far been in vain. Fourth came depression: the problem had no solution, which was summed up by characterizing North Korea as the “land of lousy options.” Is now the time for acceptance: that negotiating is worth another try before it is too late? Candidate Donald Trump seemed to reach that conclusion during his election campaign. He first broached talking to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on January 6, 2016, the very day North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test. “You have this madman over there who probably would use it, and nobody talks to him other than, of course, Dennis Rodman,” he told “Fox and Friends.” “But nobody is talking to him whatsoever, and nobody is discussing it with China.” Trump was more explicit on May 17. “Who the hell cares? I’ll speak to anybody,” he said. “There’s a 10% or 20% chance I could talk him out of having his damn nukes, because who the hell wants him to have nukes?” In a campaign appearance on June 6, he disparaged experts’ “qualms about bargaining with North Korea.” To a master of “The Art of the Deal,” that posed “no problems at all.” Trump rebuffed critics, “They say ‘we would never, ever, talk.’ How foolish they are!” President Trump backed up his words with deeds. After President Obama on January 19, his last full day in office, had authorized a token amount of US aid for North Korea for flood relief – the first in five years – the Trump administration made the gesture public on January 25. Trump kept creeping to the negotiating table. Despite North Korea’s test-launch of a solid-fueled missile on February 12 and the killing of Kim’s estranged half-brother with VX nerve agent on February 13, his State Department issued visas – the first in five years – for a North Korean delegation to come to New York to meet with former officials. That outreach was abruptly reversed shortly thereafter. Will Trump try for talks again? Or will he revert to denial and try to outsource the problem to China, impose sanctions tough enough to compel the North to the negotiating table and commit to complete denuclearization upfront, wait for the regime to collapse, attempt cyberattacks, or risk a preventive war. Trump’s policy review may examine those options. All are fundamentally flawed. China did suspend its coal imports from North Korea for a year – but only after it had already purchased its allowed quota under UN sanctions. Beijing may have anticipated that talks were in the offing and positioned itself to claim credit for coaxing Pyongyang to the negotiating table. Pyongyang has indicated it is open to talks – but not to commit to complete denuclearization first. It may be willing to suspend its nuclear and missile programs only if Washington addresses its security concerns in return. Will tougher sanctions compel it to the table on US terms, even force it to collapse? Proponents say they will take time to work. How long? Two years? Five years? Ten years? In the meantime, how many nuclear and missile tests will the North carry out? How much fissile material will it make? How many ICBMs will it field? It could take three years or more for the North to develop its ICBM. Cyberwarfare could at best delay the inevitable – if that. Contemplating preventive war could rupture US alliances in Asia. The only way out of Trump’s predicament is acceptance - resume talks with North Korea, the sooner the better, to probe whether it is willing to suspend arming. Editor’s Note: Leon V. Sigal is director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project at the Social Science Research Council in New York. The opinions expressed here are solely his.


Turkey intensified its shelling of Kurdish fighters in neighboring Syria on Friday as it ramped up threats to launch a full military offensive across the border, a move that would stoke tensions with the United States. Senior Turkish officials have been warning for days of an imminent strike into the Kurdish-held region of Afrin in northern Syria, after the US announced it was training a 30,000-strong border force in Syria made up predominantly of Kurdish fighters. The Turkish Defense Minister said that the operation was “de facto” underway. Related article Turkey sees betrayal as US backs Syrian Kurds Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the US – its most powerful NATO ally – of creating an “army of terror” along its southern border. Ankara, which has long fought Kurdish unrest in southeastern Turkey, is determined to prevent the establishment of a Kurdish state across the border in Syria. It has used military force in the past against Kurds in northern Syria, who have seized control of swathes of territory in the fight against ISIS. But launching a new operation solely targeting Kurdish fighters could open up a new frontier in the Syrian civil war, which has lasted for nearly seven years. It would also sharpen tensions between Turkey and the US, which supports and now openly arms Kurdish militias fighting ISIS. A US official told CNN that Washington was seriously concerned about a new operation and that the possibility of a full Turkish military incursion into Syria is the “major topic we are watching this weekend.” More than 50 Turkish vehicles, including artillery, tanks, rocket launchers and heavy equipment transporters have been observed on the Turkish-Syrian border, according to another US defense official. In a sign of mounting tensions in the region, two other US defense officials told CNN that Turkish backed rebels near Manbij, Syria are regularly firing on US military patrols and that US forces occasionally return fire. Another US military official said US troops advising local allies in the Manbij area came under fire from these Turkish backed rebels “within the last week.” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the US called on Turkey to refrain from launching the operation. “The focus needs to be on ISIS. So we don’t want them to engage in violence, but we want them to keep focused on ISIS,” she told reporters Thursday. Turkish Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli told A Haber TV that the shelling showed that the “operation has de facto begun.” “What we can say is this: This operation will be carried out. The area will be cleansed of terrorist organizations. This could be today, it could be tomorrow, it could be tonight. The Afrin center operation may take a while but the terrorist organization will disassemble quickly,” he said. Turkish media has reported the movement of a large number of troops and tanks to the Syrian border in recent days. The Turkish news agency Anadolu reported that Russian forces were leaving the area and that the Turkish army’s chief of staff, Hulusi Akar, met with senior Russian defense officials in Moscow on Thursday to seek Russia’s support. Related article Tillerson sees long-term US presence in Syria Russia is Syria’s most powerful ally. Turkey is working with both Russia and Iran to broker a peace deal to end the war. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that officials were consulting Russia and Iran about the use of airspace for the operation, CNN Turk reported. He called on Russia to support the operation and said Turkey would work with the country “to prevent any mishaps” that could affect Russian forces in the area. The Russian Defense Ministry has not yet responded to a request for comment from CNN. Turkish state-run media has suggested that the new operation would involve airstrikes from warplanes and drones, and that Turkish-trained militia from the Free Syrian Army alliance would be first on the ground in any land offensives. Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad warned the operation would be considered a “hostile act” against the country and that Syrian army was “ready to destroy” Turkish planes in Syrian skies. “Our worry is deep and the beating of war drums by the Turkish leadership is displeasing,” Mekdad said. CNN’s Gul Tuysuz reported from Istanbul, Eyad Kourdi reported from Gaziantep and Angela Dewan reported from London. Nick Paton Walsh, Paula Newton, Mary Ilyushina, Barbara Starr, Ryan Browne and Tamara Qiblawi contributed to this report.


Migrants were rescued from small, barely seaworthy boats Italian coast guard also says 14 bodies were recovered during rescue efforts Rescuers pulled 5,700 migrants and refugees to safety during dozens of operations Friday and Saturday in the Mediterranean Sea, the Italian coast guard said. But 14 bodies were recovered in a span of two days, the coast guard said. On Saturday alone, 2,400 migrants were rescued in the central Mediterranean in more than 20 operations involving ships from nongovernmental organizations and the Irish Navy, according to the Italian coast guard. Video from the scene shows the migrants being pulled to safety from rubber boats and other small vessels. On Friday, 3,300 migrants and refugees were rescued off the coast of Libya in 24 operations, the Italian coast guard said. That operation was a coordinated effort by the coast guard, the European Union Naval Force and nongovernmental organizations, the coast guard said via Twitter. Libya is a popular jumping-off point for migrants seeking to reach Europe from North Africa via what is known as the Central Mediterranean route. Smuggling networks are well-established there, and the lack of an effective central government makes the job of traffickers easier. ‘These crossings are nothing but fatal’ But the crossing can be treacherous, with too many migrants – some fleeing war or persecution, others seeking a better life – crammed into what are often barely seaworthy boats. According to the EU border agency Frontex, the number of migrants crossing the Central Mediterranean fell to nearly 12,700 in September, down 40% from the previous month due to poor weather conditions, but the overall trend for the first nine months of 2016 is in line with 2015. Most of them were rescued off Libya, the agency said in a statement Friday. Between January and September, 127,600 migrants headed to Italy via the Central Mediterranean route, the agency said. Nationals from Nigeria and Guinea accounted for the largest share of those in September, Frontex said. Doctors Without Borders, or Medecins Sans Frontieres, is among those involved in rescue operations off Libya. Its ship, the Argos, picked up 802 people Thursday from six rubber boats and one small wooden boat. The #Argos 802 guests are claiming any space they can find. It's uncomfortable but no one cares. They're far from #Libya and that's enough. pic.twitter.com/CxwFCK78Nl Doctors Without Borders also responded to a pre-dawn rescue Saturday morning, describing it as “awful.” On its official Twitter account, it said an “unknown number of people drowned.” The organization has called for European nations to provide safe and legal channels for people seeking asylum, so they do not have to risk their lives trying to reach European shores. CNN’s Simon Cullen and Julia Jones contributed to this report.


From a 2002 robbery to rants in court, Christian's own words reveal him Police are searching for evidence of the "suspect's extremist ideology" He once got shot in the head – and lived. The bullet flew from the gun of the officer who stopped Jeremy Joseph Christian as he fled on bike from an armed robbery and kidnapping. Christian, armed with a .38-caliber revolver, had demanded a convenience store clerk handcuff himself to a pole, then stole cash, cigarettes and other items, the clerk told police. Christian did it, court records show, because the clerk didn’t “sell any winning lottery tickets.” Now, 15 years later, Christian’s own words again have come back to implicate him – this time in a deadly incident that has rocked Portland, Oregon, in what investigators say may be a hate crime. Christian, 35, was in court Wednesday in connection with his indictment on charges stemming from the fatal stabbing last month of two men who defended a 16-year-old and her Muslim friend on a commuter train. Another Good Samaritan was wounded. That day – and on other occasions before and since then – Christian’s rants, often political in nature, have drawn the attention of strangers, even as his life otherwise has unfolded in the shadows and behind bars. Police now are investigating “the information publicly available about the suspect’s extremist ideology,” they said. Christian faces two counts of aggravated murder, attempted murder, two counts of second-degree intimidation, being a felon in possession of a restricted weapon and other charges, police say. Standing at least 6 feet tall and weighing 250 pounds, Christian identified himself in court last week as a transient who “does not know the last time he had a permanent address,” court documents show. He had no income before the May 26 stabbings, he told police. A self-described “nihilist,” Christian dropped out of high school as a freshman and later earned a high school equivalency certificate and attended Portland Community College for a year, he told police. Related article Portland stabbing suspect yells in court: Free speech or die He’s known to have lived with friends and briefly stayed at his parents’ home in Portland around 2002, during a four-year stint working at a local pizza restaurant, a police report shows. Christian’s mother told police at that time that her son had a marijuana problem, and police staff noted that he might need help for depression. That same year, Christian was charged in the convenience store holdup. He served 7 1/2 years in prison, then was convicted in 2011 on a federal charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm, court documents show; it’s not clear whether he served time for that crime. Under federal supervision, Christian in 2012 attended a Lifeworks treatment program for marijuana use, documents show. After that, his paper trail vanishes. Then in April, just weeks before the stabbings, Christian caused a stir at a rally for free speech in Portland. At the event, he shouted at people and at least once uttered the N-word, videos from reporter Doug Brown of The Portland Mercury weekly newspaper show. “I’m a nihilist,” he says while draped in a Revolutionary War-era flag, the footage shows. “This is my safe place.” On the MAX light-rail train on May 26, Christian yelled racial and religious epithets, police documents show. Destinee Mangum, 16, said he confronted her and her friend, who was wearing a hijab, with hateful remarks. Related article Teen on Portland train: 'They lost their lives because of me and my friend' “He told us to go back to Saudi Arabia, and he told us we shouldn’t be here, to get out of his country,” Mangum told CNN affiliate KPTV. “He was just telling us that we basically weren’t anything and that we should just kill ourselves.” Just after his arrest, as he sat in the backseat of a squad car, Christian continued to bluster, documents show. “I just stabbed a bunch of (expletive) in their neck. … I can die in prison a happy man,” he was recorded by police video saying, according to an affidavit. “Think I stab (expletives) in the neck for fun? Oh, yeah, you’re right I do. I’m a patriot.” Related video Suspect rants on train one day before attack Some passengers on the train had resisted him, he said, adding, “That’s what liberalism gets you.” The previous day, he was caught on video – again on a train – making racist comments. During his first court appearance on May 30, Christian, flanked by two guards, again ranted, this time about the First Amendment. “Death to the enemies of America. Leave this country if you hate our freedom,” he said. “Get out if you don’t like free speech. You call it terrorism; I call it patriotism. You hear me? Die.” CNN’s Dave Alsup, Carma Hassan, Samira Said, Paul Vercammen, Dakin Andone, Michelle Krupa and Madison Park contributed to this report.


Myanmar’s President Htin Kyaw, one of the most loyal allies of the country’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi, has resigned due to ill health, the government said Wednesday. Htin Kyaw, 71, was sworn in as Myanmar’s official president in 2016 after Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party won landmark elections. During his two years in office he’s essentially acted as a proxy for Suu Kyi, who is constitutionally barred from holding the presidency because her children are foreign nationals. A new position, State Counselor, was created to enable the long-time opposition politician to take a leading role in government. Htin Kyaw’s resignation comes as international pressure increases on Nobel Laureate Suu Kyi to do something to ease the suffering of the country’s minority Rohingya population. Almost 700,000 of the Muslim ethnic minority have crossed the Bangladesh border in the last six months, fleeing what the UN has described as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing” by Myanmar troops. The Myanmar military, which shares power with Suu Kyi, has denied the allegations, blaming the violence on members of the Rohingya militant group Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ASRA). A close friend and confidante of Suu Kyi, Htin Kyaw served as an executive officer for the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation, a charitable organization named after Suu Kyi’s late mother. His father-in-law was also active in the establishment of the NLD. He was one of a handful of people allowed to visit her while she was under house arrest, studied alongside her in England, and was close to her husband. The economics graduate was elected in 1990 as a parliament executive of the NLD, and assumed the role of president after the party swept national elections, taking around 80% of the available seats, in November 2015. Htin Kyaw was elected to the position of President by 360 votes, more than a third of the parliament’s available 652 votes.


A brain-computer system may decipher the thoughts of completely locked-in patients Such patients have brain function but can't move, speak or blink "This can be considered to be an important advance," one expert says You can hear those around you, but you can’t speak. You can feel a touch, but you can’t touch back. You can see, but you can’t move, even to blink your eyes. That’s the life of a completely locked-in patient, someone who has brain function but complete paralysis, which can be caused by stroke, traumatic brain injury, medication overdose or diseases of the circulatory or nervous system, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease). It was generally thought that completely locked-in patients were unable to communicate with the outside world – but a new study has showed otherwise. Related video What is ALS? An international team of scientists has communicated with completely locked-in patients using a noninvasive brain-computer interface system. The researchers used the system to decode the patients’ thoughts while the patients were asked yes or no questions, according to the study, published in the journal PLOS Biology on Tuesday. Niels Birbaumer, a researcher at the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering in Switzerland and lead author of the new study, said he wasn’t surprised by the findings. “No surprise, but pleasure,” Birbaumer said. “One patient’s family is using it regularly,” he said of the new system. “With some training, every caretaker of average intelligence can learn it.” To decode what patients were thinking, the system involved functional near-infrared spectroscopy, a tool that can measure blood flow and oxygenation in the brain, and an electroencephalography (EEG) cap, which can measure electrical activity in the brain. “Since no other technique allows any communication with these subjects, this can be considered to be an important advance,” said Andrew Schwartz, distinguished professor of neurobiology at the University of Pittsburgh who was not involved in the new study. Four patients – a 68-year-old woman, a 76-year-old woman, a 61-year-old man and a 24-year-old woman – who were in completely locked-in states participated in the study. Over several weeks, the researchers repeatedly asked the patients “yes or no” or “true or false” questions while the patients were connected to the communication system. As the patients thought about their answers, the researchers analyzed changes in the system’s measurements to determine whether the patient was thinking about a yes or no response. The mental states for yes or no were different due to oxygenation changes, but the system could not decipher specific letters or words. Related video Could this help treat ALS? The researchers first asked the patients to respond to questions or statements with known answers, such as “You were born in Berlin,” “Your husband’s name is Joachim,” “Paris is the capital of Germany” or “Paris is the capital of France.” The patients responded correctly at a rate of about 70%, the researchers found. Once the researchers determined that the patients were trained on how to respond to the questions, they repeatedly asked open questions with no known answers, such as “Are you happy?” The researchers found that the patients repeatedly answered quality of life questions with a “yes” response, indicating that they had a positive attitude toward life. A total of at least 200 known questions and 40 open questions were constructed for the patients with input from family members. Birbaumer and his colleagues had used only near-infrared spectroscopy to communicate with just one completely locked-in patient in 2014 and published their findings in the journal Neurology. He said the new findings mark about 25 years of research. Related article Brain implant helps woman with ALS communicate The new study was successful in showing a creative approach to establishing some communication with completely locked-in ALS patients, said Dr. Brian Litt, a professor and director of the Penn Center for Neuroengineering and Therapeutics at the University of Pennsylvania. “Their conclusion is, this could be a promising, minimally invasive technology that you could use,” said Litt, who was not involved in the new study. “I think it’s pretty convincing that they could get ‘yes or no’ answers out of these patients. Now, whether they could get to more sophisticated results, like being able to get language or being able to type, for example, from just your thoughts, that takes more research,” he said. “Keep in mind what the goal would be. The goal would be for somebody to think their thoughts and really give you more meaningful communication.” Some researchers have used implantable brain chips or blinking as a way to communicate with locked-in patients, depending on the severity of the patient’s locked-in state. Though some locked-in patients have some control of their eye movements, those who are completely locked-in have lost such control. One of the earliest-known records of locked-in syndrome appeared in Alexandre Dumas’ 1844 novel “The Count of Monte Cristo,” in which Noirtier de Villefort suffers a stroke and is unable to move and speak but can control his eyes, exhibiting symptoms of being locked-in (PDF). Related video He can open doors with his eyes Another well-known locked-in case occurred more recently. After French journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby suffered a massive stroke in 1995, he lost the ability to move and speak but could control his eyes, exhibiting a locked-in state. Locked-in syndrome is thought to affect about 1% of stroke victims, although the number could be underestimated. Before he died in 1997, Bauby authored a memoir about his condition, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” He produced the book by blinking to indicate which letters his transcriber should use to write. The memoir, which was turned into a 2007 film, was written with about 200,000 blinks. At Northeastern University in Boston, students developed a brain-computer communication device in 2014 that allowed a locked-in patient to control an on-screen keyboard with only his eyes in order to type messages. The patient would blink to select certain letters on the screen and put them into sentences. Related article Man designs home he can control with his eyes “We still regularly get contacts from people all around the world who ask, ‘Where can I buy this device?’ ” said Waleed Meleis, associate professor and associate chairman of the department of electrical and computer engineering at Northeastern University, who advised students. The device is not on the market for sale or use. In the past few years, more communication systems intended for locked-in patients have emerged, including the brain-computer interface system demonstrated in the new study. Meleis was impressed by the study’s thoroughness, he said. “Usually in computer science, you train a computer to do something using machine learning. But here, they are training a person who cannot communicate to manipulate their brain states to produce an answer,” Meleis said of the authors of the new study, with which he was not involved. “They’re tackling a problem that is real and very challenging,” he said. Meleis thinks it will still take time before any such communication device may be commonly used with locked-in patients. First, research needs to be replicated and conducted in real-world settings, he said. “There is a long way to go,” he said. “Many of these users are not in hospitals; they are in nursing homes or care facilities. So I think there’s another leap to be made to adapt these processes to the lifestyles of a user, but I think we’re going to get there.” Additionally, more research is needed to ensure that questions can be asked to patients with a higher accuracy, as in the new study, patients answered known questions with only a 70% correct response rate. The extent to which brain-computer technology might be used with completely locked-in patients may depend on how easily and economically the technology can be transformed for real-world settings with everyday caregivers, said Gerwin Schalk, associate professor at the University at Albany School of Public Health and research scientist at the National Center for Adaptive Neurotechnologies. “The biggest barriers to widespread use are probably the economics of the substantial cost of developing and maintaining the system, combined with the fact it only really helps very few people, so it’s sort of like an orphan drug. … It’s very helpful but only to very few people,” said Schalk, who was not involved in the new study. “There are also important ethical implications,” he added. For instance, doctors might recommend that a patient’s life support be terminated, but then a brain-computer interface might allow that patient to communicate that he or she still wants to live. What should happen next? See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter. Such brain-computer interfaces can put the power to make decisions about their own care back into patients’ control, said Dr. Karunesh Ganguly, associate professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco and a staff neurologist at the San Francisco Veterans Affair Medical Center. “It certainly allows the possibility for this noninvasive communication to have important implications for these types of patients’ care,” Ganguly said of the new study, with which he was not involved. “Often, for example, for medical care, you need to be able to gain consent,” he said. “This would give patients that power to make choices about their own care.”

brain-computer interface system for completely locked-in patients


Obama announced his decision to commute Chelsea Manning's 35-year sentence "Thank you to everyone who campaigned for Chelsea Manning's clemency," WikiLeaks said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appears to be standing by his offer to submit himself for extradition to the US in exchange for the commutation of Chelsea Manning’s sentence. “Everything that he has said he’s standing by,” WikiLeaks quoted an Assange lawyer as saying in a tweet. Assange has lived in the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he was granted asylum in 2012 to avoid potential extradition to the United States and extradition to Sweden, where he risked prison time over accusations of sexual assault. He has denied the validity of the sexual assault claims. The exchange offer struck a puzzling note because the US has not made an extradition request for Assange. If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutionality of DoJ case https://t.co/MZU30SlfGK WikiLeaks also tweeted Tuesday that “Assange is confident of winning any fair trial in the US.” The group celebrated Tuesday’s news that President Barack Obama commuted Manning’s sentence, hailing it as a “VICTORY” on Twitter. VICTORY: Obama commutes Chelsea Manning sentence from 35 years to 7. Release date now May 17. Background: https://t.co/HndsbVbRer WikiLeaks followed up later with a short statement from Assange: “Thank you to everyone who campaigned for Chelsea Manning’s clemency. Your courage & determination made the impossible possible.” Assange: "Thank you to everyone who campaigned for Chelsea Manning's clemency. Your courage & determination made the impossible possible." The Justice Department has not charged Assange with a crime, but US law enforcement officials have publicly acknowledged he is the subject of a criminal investigation. “(Manning) should never have been prosecuted and sentenced to decades in prison. She should be released immediately,” said Barry Pollack, an attorney representing Assange, following the commutation announcement. “For many months, I have asked the DOJ to clarify Mr. Assange’s status. I hope it will soon.” By Tuesday evening, WikiLeaks posited that the commutation was pacifying advocates and distracting from their other criticisms of the Obama administration. “Manning’s clemency stifles howls over Obama’s failure to pardon Snowden, keeping civil-liberties crowd & NSA+CIA+IC onside for war v Trump,” WikiLeaks tweeted. Manning's clemency stifles howls over Obama's failure to pardon Snowden, keeping civil-liberties crowd & NSA+CIA+IC onside for war v Trump. Manning was convicted in 2013 of stealing and disseminating 750,000 pages of documents and videos to WikiLeaks. The material, which WikiLeaks published in 2010, included a classified video of a US helicopter attacking civilians and journalists in Iraq in 2007. Labeled “Collateral Murder,” the film drew criticism from human rights activists for the deaths of innocent people. Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor who provided troves of government documents to journalists and currently resides in Moscow to avoid facing arrest and prosecution in the US, wrote to Manning, “In five more months, you will be free. Thank you for what you did for everyone, Chelsea. Stay strong a while longer!” and linked to the Guardian’s story about her commutation. Snowden – whom the White House said earlier in the day had not submitted a request for clemency – added, “Let it be said here in earnest, with good heart: Thanks, Obama.” He also went on to thank “all who campaigned for clemency on Manning’s behalf.” In five more months, you will be free. Thank you for what you did for everyone, Chelsea. Stay strong a while longer! https://t.co/PaLvJDvDbl Let it be said here in earnest, with good heart: Thanks, Obama. https://t.co/IeumTasRNN To all who campaigned for clemency on Manning's behalf these last hard years, thank you. You made this happen: https://t.co/PaLvJDvDbl “Since she was first taken into custody, Chelsea has been subjected to long stretches of solitary confinement – including for attempting suicide – and has been denied access to medically necessary health care. This move could quite literally save Chelsea’s life,” said Chase Strangio, an attorney for Manning in an ACLU statement. Glenn Greenwald, one of the journalists to whom Snowden leaked the NSA documents to and a supporter of Manning’s release, posted the letter he wrote advocating for her clemency and said, “Chelsea Manning is probably the most empathetic person I’ve ever met. So thrilled!! Can’t wait to see what she does.” Chelsea Manning is probably the most empathetic person I've ever met. So thrilled!! Can't wait to see what she does. My clemency letter: pic.twitter.com/j9CQhRmxhm “Beyond the whistleblowing, ponder Manning’s courage: she publicly announced her transition in a military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas,” Greenwald added. Beyond the whistleblowing, ponder Manning's courage: she publicly announced her transition in a military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. An outpouring of support from other advocacy groups also came out in response to Manning’s commutation. Amnesty International, Fight for the Future, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and many others rushed to celebrate Obama’s decision. National security hawks, however, expressed confusion and agitation. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, told reporters on Capitol Hill that he considered Manning a “traitor” and said he was “disappointed” about the commutation. “If somebody leaks our state secrets, endangers Americans directly, we need to set an example that is severe and consistent,” he said. Speaking with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey, said, “There are very serious questions when you release the type of documents that she did, and at the end of the day, what message do we send for the next person?” Sen. Menendez: "What message do we send" with Chelsea Manning's commutation? https://t.co/Uq8y1RoiBM https://t.co/7zXdqDRtid In a statement calling the commutation “outrageous,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said, “Chelsea Manning’s treachery put American lives at risk and exposed some of our nation’s most sensitive secrets.” Chelsea Manning's treachery put American lives at risk and exposed some of our nation's most sensitive secrets. My full statement ↓ pic.twitter.com/PcQrgK2SI3 CNN’s Evan Perez and Ashley Killough contributed to this report.


Proclamation is "a preventative measure," governor's office says Hawaii is also trying to eradicate dengue fever The governor of Hawaii has signed an emergency proclamation regarding Zika and other mosquito-borne illnesses. Gov. David Ige signed the declaration Friday as “a preventative measure” to guard against Zika, dengue fever and other diseases,  his office said in a statement. The action follows the recent decision by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to take emergency steps to prepare for and mitigate the Zika risk, the statement said. “There have been no locally acquired Zika cases in the U.S. or Hawaii, and we’d like to keep it that way,” the new release quoted the governor as saying. “This is about getting in front of the situation across the state.” 5 things to know about Zika However, there have been some cases of dengue fever on the island of Hawaii. The statement from the governor’s offce said such cases “continue to be fewer” and further between, but the battle to break the cycle of transmission continues. The Zika virus is prompting worldwide concern because of an alarming connection to a neurological birth disorder and its rapid spread across the globe. The World Health Organization described it as an “extraordinary event” while declaring a public health emergency this month. What real threat does Zika pose to the Rio Olympics?

Governor David Ige's emergency proclamation on Zika and mosquito-borne illnesses


People seem surprised, for some reason, that the White House has not issued a public apology to Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain. But they shouldn’t be. If there’s an implied mantra of President Donald Trump’s political life, it is this: Don’t apologize. For anything. Ever. In this case, it would be for an aide’s leaked comment during a private meeting that McCain’s opposition to CIA nominee Gina Haspel doesn’t matter because McCain, who is suffering from brain cancer, is dying anyway. It was an obnoxious comment about an American hero. But it was not apology-worthy in Trump’s White House. In the pantheon of Trumpian insults, it barely registers. The New York Times examines his apology record and suggests one reason Trump doesn’t apologize is that there is a feeling at the White House that President Barack Obama apologized too much. There might be something to that, but Trump’s no-apology record extends far earlier than his time in the White House He didn’t apologize during the 2016 campaign when he made fun of McCain for being a prisoner of war. Why apologize now? He didn’t apologize to Mexicans, writ large, for calling them rapists, writ large. He didn’t apologize to Megyn Kelly for a disgusting comment about women or retweeting that she was a “bimbo.” The closest he came to an apology was a “did I say that?” a chuckle and an “Ooh, OK, excuse me” when she confronted him about it. “Not the most horrible,” he said. “Over your life, you’ve been called a lot worse,” he said to her during an interview. He might back off. He might pivot. But don’t apologize. He didn’t apologize to Carly Fiorina for disparaging her looks in front of staffers. In fact, he defended himself, telling Sean Hannity he was being held to a double standard. He backed down during a debate when he said she had a “beautiful face” – a dubious compliment in that context. But he didn’t apologize. Never apologize. He didn’t apologize to Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz for saying his wife was ugly or for suggesting his father was involved in the Kennedy assassination. He didn’t apologize for calling Haiti and African countries s***holes. Trump is aware of the concept of the apology. He has tweeted about apologies during his time as president and a candidate – he’s demanded them from other people repeatedly. From Cruz to Hillary Clinton. His frequently injured ego and demands for apologies were noticed by The Atlantic last year and they guessed apologies are like a contest for him. Getting an apology is like winning. Issuing an apology is like losing. Trump does not view himself as a loser. Taking one of his demands for an apology at random, here’s a tweet from June 2017 directed at the entire news media. “Fake News is at an all time high. Where is their apology to me for all of the incorrect stories???” We could find two Trump apologies in recent history and they prove the rule. The first is the most telling and it occurred during an interview in Davos, Switzerland, this year with Piers Morgan, who pushed Trump hard to apologize for retweeting anti-Muslim videos by the deputy leader of ultra-nationalist political group Britain First. First, Trump pleaded ignorance about the group. “I don’t know who they are. I know nothing about them,” Trump said. “It was done because I am a big believer in fighting radical Islam terror, this was a depiction of radical Islamic terror.” But he ceded to an apology only if Morgan wanted one. “If you’re telling me they’re horrible people, horrible racist people I would certainly apologize if you would like me to do that,” Trump said. “I am the least racist person that anybody is going to meet. Certainly, I wasn’t endorsing anybody.” That’s not exactly a willing apology. The only clear apology of his political career also came with caveats. It was incredibly scripted. It came at the end of the 2016 campaign when the “Access Hollywood” tapes leaked of him basically copping to assault, saying he likes to grab women “by the p—-” (his defense is that it was locker room talk and not a real statement). “I said it, I was wrong and I apologize,” he said in a video statement released on his Twitter feed. He said his campaign had changed him and promised to be better in the future, but also argued that the tapes were “a distraction from the important issues.” Then he turned the apology into a broadside against Bill and Hillary Clinton, against whom he was competing. And won.


China is Africa's largest investor It has been criticized for working with undemocratic African regimes Despite this, an overwhelming majority like the Chinese Increasing Chinese investment in everything from small food enterprises to massive railway projects across Africa has drawn criticism and warnings of a future dependency on Asia’s superpower. But what do Africans themselves think about Chinese investors? Turns out, they love them. According to a recent report by Afrobarometer, almost two-thirds (63%) of Africans say China’s influence is somewhat positive or very positive, while only 15% see it as somewhat or very negative. “There is a negative narrative of China in Africa,” says Anyway Chingwete, co-author of the study and project manager at Afrobarometer and the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in Cape Town, South Africa. “But I believe ordinary citizens have a positive sentiment because of the contribution China has made to Africa.” The attitudes vary from country to country, with people in Mali (92%), Niger (84%), and Liberia (81%) being particularly glad to have them around. “This shows that African citizens are welcoming China’s involvement,” Chingwete adds. It appears it’s not the Chinese culture or language Africans like best. It’s the potential financial investment China brings. When asked which factors contributed most to China’s positive image, it was investment in infrastructure that came out on top. China invests more in Africa than any other country, with Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Angola among the biggest recipients of Chinese funds. Infrastructure development, for example highways and railways, is the main area of business for the Chinese in Africa, Chingwete says. They also invest in smaller enterprises and food outlets, according to the report. Africans also like the Chinese for bringing affordable cars and mobile phones to the continent, says lead author Mogopodi Lekorwe, a professor of Politics at the University of Botswana. “They used to be very expensive, but because these are now flooding the market, the prices have dropped. “People can now pick and choose among things that they didn’t have access to in the past,” he adds. But the Chinese are not the only ones looking to do business with African countries. Colonial powers still have an influence, particularly in Francophone countries, Lekorwe says. However, this influence appears to be waning in some countries, says Chingwete. “Of the largest players in Africa, China and the U.S. are the main countries.” Some African countries now prefer the Chinese development model to that of the US and former European colonial powers, the study revealed. When asked which country would be the best model for the future development of their country, 24% of Africans picked China. However, across all countries surveyed, the US still came out on top, with nearly a third (30%) of all respondents preferring it. About one in 10 respondents prefer their former colonial power (13%) or South Africa (11%). At a closer look, this varies greatly from country to country. Out of the 36 countries surveyed, people from 10 countries were particularly keen on the Chinese development model, with Cameroon, Sudan and Mozambique being the top three. On the flipside, Liberia, Cape Verde, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and Morocco all put the American model above the Chinese. Some former French colonies said they preferred the French model. “In Tunisia, Benin, Mauritius and Burkina Faso, for example, there is still some level of influence from France which they find positive, and so they choose France’s development model,” Chingwete says. South Africa scored particularly high in neighboring countries such as Lesotho, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. It’s not all rosy, however. Negative opinions of China are present among Africans too, with some saying that Chinese products weren’t always of the highest quality. They are also afraid of losing jobs to the Chinese, and some say they can’t compete with the Chinese work ethic, Lekorwe says. “The Chinese are available 24 hours to do work, whereas a local will say: ‘Look, I have a family here.’” “That’s some of the things that people have been complaining about, but they certainly do have a positive image overall.” Globally, the attitude towards China is somewhat positive, according to a 2014 study by Pew Global. Across the 43 nations surveyed by Pew, a median of 49% expressed a favorable view of China, compared to 32% thinking of them unfavorably. However, China’s overall image in Europe and the U.S. was mostly negative. Only 35% of Americans had a positive view of China, whereas 55% were negative. The U.S. and China are competing fiercely over African business, says Lekorwe. “I think the Chinese do everything they possibly can to become number one,” he says. “They want to become the number one superpower.” However, an increased Chinese influence over Africa may cause trouble in the future, and perhaps stifle the development of democracy, Lekorwe says.


Donald Trump responded to Tuesday’s terror attack at a Turkish airport by calling for the U.S. to “fight fire with fire” when it comes to battling ISIS, including the use of waterboarding. “You know, you have to fight fire with fire,” Trump told an Ohio rally as he described ISIS’s brutal tactics, including decapitating and burning prisoners to death. Trump reiterated that U.S. leadership is “weak” and “stupid” and that he is in favor of using waterboarding and “worse” torture methods on terror suspects. Trump described waterboarding as “not the nicest thing, but it’s peanuts compared to many alternatives,” standing by previous comments he’s made on the practice, which have drawn sharp criticism throughout his presidential campaign not just from the left, but also from some fellow Republicans. At least 36 people died and 147 others wounded in a terror attack at Istanbul Ataturk Airport, according to Turkey’s Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag. There has been no immediate claim of responsibility. In March, Trump called for broadening laws to allow for the use of torture, including but not limited to waterboarding. His stance has put him at odds with some members of his own party including Sen. John McCain. Trump, whose foreign policy pitch to voters has included calls for a stronger response to ISIS, also spotlighted that toughness on Tuesday. “Folks, there’s something going on that’s really, really bad. All right? It’s bad. And we better get smart and we better get tough,” he said. “Or we’re not going to have much of a country left, OK?” He deemed American enemies in a statement to be “brutal and ruthless and will do anything to murder those who do not bend to their will.” Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton instead responded by calling for international cooperation. Clinton said the attack meant the U.S. “cannot retreat.” “We must deepen our cooperation with our allies and partners in the Middle East and Europe to take on this threat,” she said in a statement. “Such cooperation is essential to protecting the homeland and keeping our country safe.” CNN’s Dan Merica and Jeremy Diamond contributed to this report.


Editor’s Note: Now you can get “5 Things You Need to Know Today” delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here. Good Thursday morning. Still, 11 days to go until the election. (But hey, just 1 more until the weekend!) Here’s what you need to know today to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door. Central Italy was rocked by earthquakes again. This time, the ground shook about 50 miles north of where the devastating quakes hit in August. There are no reports of injuries yet, but in one town a 15th century church is gone. The first quake severely damaged the structure. The second one finished it off. Fewer people have attempted the perilous trip across the Mediterranean to Europe this year. And yet, it’s been the deadliest year ever for migrants - 3,800 deaths. That’s 13 a day. Blame it on more crowded boats, unscrupulous smugglers and bad weather. Here’s a startling big picture look at the crisis. Four days and still no sign of Michael Vance. He’s accused of killing two relatives and shooting two police officers. And he bragged about it all on Facebook. Vance is also facing child sex charges and has threatened to spread a communicable disease if cornered. So, yeah, a bad dude, cops say. California National Guard members won’t have to pay back enlistment bonuses – for now. That’s some relief for outraged vets and their families who were ordered to give back the bonuses – some as large as $15,000 – they got for re-enlisting during the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The drive to stomp out ISIS is going beyond Mosul. The US and its allies are “weeks” away from attacking the big prize: ISIS’ defacto capital of Raqqa, Syria. The Defense Dept. says ISIS is planning a big terror attack somewhere in the world from inside the city. People are talking about these. Read up. Join in. WTH? Ok, this is just scary: Two-thirds of the world’s wildlife could be gone by the end of this decade, WWF reports. That’s just FOUR YEARS from now! Bright as the sun Mosques and churches in Kenya are suddenly turning a loud yellow. Party hardy If Hillary Clinton wins the presidency, she’ll break the ultimate glass ceiling, so of course she’s holding her election night party under a real one. NSFW obviously Pussy Riot’s been a thorn in Vladimir Putin’s side for years. Their new song is a not-so-veiled-barb at The Donald. Unselfie-ish act Kenny Lofton almost missed his chance to throw out the first pitch at the World Series, until a fan gave up his seat on the plane – for a selfie. Wanna play a game? Don’t like your co-workers? Dealing with them is probably still better than working with Jigsaw from the “Saw” movies.


Fierce fighting rages in northwest of Iraq's second-largest city 5,000 have fled each day since push to retake Mosul began ISIS used 22 car bombs in first 72 hours of operation The little boy in the yellow jacket runs and jumps, alternatively waving and wiping the dust off his face. In his right hand is a strip of white cloth, intended to show he and his family are civilians. His parents are exhausted and wary, having left their home in west Mosul’s Mushairfa neighborhood, but the little boy can barely contain his excitement. Behind him, struggling against the dusty headwind, stretches a line of dozens of people, their heads bent down, trudging up a dirt track. A teenage boy in a red track suit carries a bundle on his head, his mother to his left, in the mandatory black abaya, or robe, a bundle on her head as well. Somewhere along the way she has discarded her face cover, khmar, without which ISIS would not let women in Mosul leave their houses. Since last Friday, the day after Iraqi forces began what they hope is the final push to crush ISIS in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, around 5,000 residents have fled the city every day, according to Iraqi officers processing civilians. “People are dying,” says Khalda, a bearded man carrying his son in his arms. “For the past four or five months, there has been nothing. No food, no medicine, nothing.” It’s hard to speak for long with the people fleeing Mosul. They’re in a hurry, and they’ve been walking for hours. Khalda’s young son, holding a box of juice in one hand and a pack of biscuits in the other, is impatient and squirming. Khalda’s wife has gone on ahead and calls for him to get moving. Related: ‘We don’t belong here anymore’ “God save us from that rotten gang,” Abu Hussain tells me. Orange-yellow dust covers his windblown face and gray beard. His voice is hoarse. “They’ve stomped on everything that means life. They’ve destroyed education and culture, there were no schools, no way to make a living.” Despite gusts of dusty wind, three-month-old Mariam is sleeping peacefully in her uncle’s arms. “She’s fine,” he told me with a smile, clearly happy to have made it out of the city. “She’s from a well-off family so she hasn’t suffered,” he said. He declined to give me his name. Like many, he is worried about the safety of relatives still inside Mosul. “Red death” – “mawt ahmar” in Arabic – is how he describes life under ISIS. All the while the roar of battle echoes nearby. Attack helicopters fire into the city, rockets roar over head, small-arms fire crackles and pops. A handful of unarmed Iraqi soldiers help carry tired children. Some of the adults embrace and kiss them, the women ululate. “Damarouna!” shouts one man to a soldier. “They destroyed us,” referring to ISIS. Not everyone is so happy. “Damartouna bil-qasaf,” grumbles one man to a soldier. “You destroyed us with your bombardment.” And that bombardment is indeed intense. From a rooftop overlooking the edge of the Mushairfa neighborhood in northwest Mosul, we watch thick columns of smoke rise from between the houses. Tanks and armored personnel vehicles pour round after round at point-blank range down the street, while helicopters circle overhead, their heavy machine guns barking. “There are no civilians in there,” Major Mustafa Al-Azawi tells me as he radios orders to his men at the front. I borrow one soldier’s binoculars to get a better look. Just as I focus in, a huge plume of flames and black smoke rises from the neighborhood, just about 400 meters from our position. It’s a VBED – a vehicle-borne explosive device – in plain English, a suicide car bomb. VBEDs are ISIS’ weapon of choice, but the Iraqis are having none of them. “If you see a vehicle, assume it’s a VBED and hit it!” shouts Major Al-Azawi over the radio. Read more: Finding the family who sheltered us in Mosul The night before, the commander of the Iraqi Army’s Ninth Armored Division, Lt. Gen. Qassim Nazzal, told me in the first 72 hours of the operation, ISIS had used 22 car bombs. Most, however, aren’t able to reach Iraqi troops. On a hilltop across a valley from the Mushairfa neighbourhood, a group of Iraqi officers and American advisers sit on sofas and chairs around a big TV screen. They’re directing drones over the battle, looking for anything that seems suspicious. Lt. Col. Jim Browning of the 82nd Airborne Division has his eyes glued to the screen, a telephone pressed to his ear. He’s been in Iraq since New Year’s Day and took part in the battle for east Mosul, and is now busy with the west. Since the beginning of the year, there has been an important change in how US and coalition forces operation, he says. In the past, before an airstrike could be called in, a request had to go far up the chain of command for approval. It was time-consuming, and for the forces on the ground, profoundly frustrating. In February 2015 I was on a hilltop position with Kurdish forces. Their commander was unhappy. “When we see a target, like an ISIS car, we call the coalition for an airstrike. With the Americans, the request has to go to a lawyer and all the senior commanders. By the time they make a decision, the target is gone.” That’s all changed, says Lt. Col. Browning. “All it requires is for me to be able to see it [a target] with my Iraqi partner, and we are able to communicate that, yes, emphatically, that is an enemy. Let’s deliver a strike, and let’s deliver it quick.” Earlier this month the Iraqi Army Chief of Staff Othman Al-Ghanmi said he expected this final push to crush ISIS in Mosul to take just three weeks. It’s possible, but in this war, the business of predictions is risky. Last summer then-defense minister Khalid Al-Obaidi told me with a confident smile that Mosul would be free by the end of 2016. Read more: As the caliphate crumbles, ISIS evolves The closer you get to the front, the more cautious people become. When I ask Lt. Gen. Qassim Nazzal how soon Iraq would be able to declare victory in Mosul, he takes a deep sigh. “Timetables in conventional warfare are possible,” he says. “But this is guerrilla warfare, with a well-trained enemy using snipers, booby traps and car bombs.” Back at the front, what that means is vividly clear. As we film the fighting, mortar rounds come roaring in, crashing nearby. We run back to the main Iraqi observation post, and find six soldiers lying on the ground. Iraqi and foreign volunteer medics frantically dress their shrapnel wounds. One of the soldiers, a young man, blood-stained battle tunic hastily cut open, is groaning. More rounds explode nearby. “Take cover in the house!” someone shouts. Here, victory is in sight. But it’s not going to be easy. This story has been updated to correct the ranks of Lt. Gen. Qassim Nazzal and Lt. Col. Jim Browning.

Iraqi forces' operation to retake Mosul from ISIS


Editor’s Note: Now you can get “5 Things You Need to Know Today” delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here. Debates, deliberations and Darth Vader. And enough legal drama to fill an entire season of Law & Order. It’s Tuesday, and here are the 5 things you need to know to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door: Trading spaces:  Which is worse - five years in Taliban captivity or the rest of your life in jail? Bowe Bergdahl might find out -  if he’s convicted of desertion. Yesterday, the U.S. Army decided he’ll face a court-martial. Bergdahl was held by the Taliban after he disappeared from his base in Afghanistan in June 2009. Six U.S. troops died looking for him. He was later exchanged for five Taliban detainees. Some in the military consider him a deserter, and the Pentagon’s caught some heat for the prisoner swap. Let us not go quietly into the night: Let’s see if we can sum this up concisely. Seven women accuse Bill Cosby of sexual assault. His reps call them liars. So they sue for defamation. Now, the disgraced comedian has countersued them, saying they were the ones who defamed him. He says their accusations damaged his reputation so much that plans for a new sitcom got canned. Yeah, but Bill, there’s still the matter of 40+ other women who’ve accused you of the same thing. (He’s denied those, and hasn’t been charged.) Uncharmed city: Will the jury find Baltimore cop William Porter guilty or innocent in Freddie Gray’s death? The city’s not waiting to find out. It erupted in riots after Gray died of a spinal cord injury in police custody in April.  No one wants a repeat. The mayor and police commissioner have urged calm. An emergency operations center has been activated. All police leave have been canceled. Deliberations resume this morning. Let’s get ready to rumble … or (in some cases) stumble: We know, we know. There seems to be a debate seemingly every other week. But the one tonight is your last chance to see all the Republican presidential hopefuls in one place this year. The Donald is riding even higher in national polls, but the Ted is surging in Iowa. And, for the umpteenth time, this may be Jeb!’s last chance to  … live up to that exclamation point. For your viewing pleasure, here’s a handy primer on tonight’s #GOPDebate. Every rose has its thorn: And for Pete Rose, it’s MLB Commish Rob Manfred. He says Rose still hasn’t taken full responsibility for betting on baseball back when he managed the Cincinnati Reds. And so, Charlie Hustle – MLB’s all-time hits leader – still can’t play ball. Rose will let his feelings known later today. The Donald already has. People are talking about these. Read up. Join in. Quote of the day: “It’s not going to be very interesting this year, honey. Sorry.” The first lady, on what she’s getting the President for Christmas. Namely, “workout stuff.”  Hmm, what are you implying, Mrs. Obama? Mo’ money, no problems Quit yer whining, America. A new analysis finds the U.S. has surprisingly low taxes compared with other developed nations. Take a look at me now Is this the face of Jesus Christ? One British researcher thinks so. I’m freeeee, free falling GoPro’s stock has plummeted 75% this year. Analysts are channeling Tina Turner: We don’t need another HERO. Darth braider When you change your name to Darth Mykolaiovych Vader but lose the race for mayor of a Ukrainian town, you gotta occupy your time somehow. Luke, I’m (not gonna be) your father There are now Star Wars condoms. [Insert your own joke here because the editor nixed ours]. Here’s what’s coming up later. The ‘disappeared’ Have Chicago police been running a secret detention site out of a former Sears warehouse, where mostly black residents were taken, beaten and denied access to lawyers? A hearing today will try to get to the bottom of this. Give peace a chance A ceasefire goes into effect in Yemen today. Let’s hope this one holds. Because who’s benefiting from the security vacuum there? ISIS. Always ISIS. Number of the day: 34 The number of Islamic nations that are part of a new Saudi-led coalition to kick some ISIS butt. When your dog has better moves than you This mutt’s really feeling Mark Mark and The Funky Bunch’s “Good Vibrations.”