"I just thought that guy was a dimwit," Trump said of Bush in 2009 on Imus. "I voted for Bush because I think he's got certain things that are excellent," Trump said in 2005. In a 2009 radio interview with Don Imus uncovered by CNN’s KFile, Donald Trump claimed he did not vote for President George W. Bush. Four years earlier, in an interview on Fox News following the 2004 presidential election, Trump said the exact opposite: that he did vote Bush despite his opposition to the Iraq War. As recently as January of this year, Trump said he voted for Bush in both the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. Speaking with Imus in February 2009, Trump said, “You know how I feel about Bush, and I think you got to feel that way, also.” “I never voted for him,” responded Imus. “I never voted for him, Donald.” “You’re good, then. I didn’t either, by the way,” Trump said, “You’re good. I just thought that guy was a dimwit. You looked at it, and he just didn’t look like he was all there.” “You could ring that doorbell, and nobody was going to answer that door,” says Imus. “You look at his eyes, I mean he’d make a speech and you’d look at him and you’d say, ‘Does he even know what he’s reading?’ This guy, he was a horrible president,” said Trump. Trump’s answer on Imus is a direct contradiction to what he told Bill O’Reilly in January 2005, the day before then-president Bush was to be inaugurated for his second term. “All right. You didn’t vote for Bush, did you?,” O’Reilly asked Trump. “Actually, I did,” said Trump. “Did you really? You were bad-mouthing him,” interjected O’Reilly. “No, I wasn’t,” Trump responded. “I was bad-mouthing the war in Iraq. I’m not a big fan of the war in Iraq. “So you voted for Bush,” O’Reilly said. “I voted for Bush because I think he’s got certain things that are excellent, including a tax policy that’s excellent and going to prove to be excellent,” Trump said. “But I am not a big fan of the war in Iraq, and I’ve let a lot of people know about it, and perhaps that’s being proven to be correct.” In a January 2016 interview, also with O’Reilly, Trump was asked if he voted for Bush twice. “I did vote for Bush twice, yes,” Trump said. “I don’t think he did a particularly good job. I think he got us into Iraq which was a disaster. But I voted for Bush, yes.” In Bush’s first term and into his early second term, Trump repeatedly praised the president while still being critical of the Iraq War. In a 2007 biography of Trump, now-deceased author Robert Slater also says Trump supported Bush in 2004. The biography was written with access to Trump and is sold at Trump Tower in New York. A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not return a request for comment on whether Trump voted for Bush or why he gave different answers to the question at different times.


Border protection agents arrested a man after they found four people stuffed in the trunk of his car. The man, they said, was trying to smuggle the people in to the US. Agents at the San Ysidro border  stopped the car for inspection at the border from Mexico to the US on Tuesday. When they opened the trunk, they found four Chinese nationals: three women and one man. The photograph from the scene shows the man and women, contorted to fit all together in the tight space of the Chrysler 200’s trunk. The officer said the Chinese nationals had no authorization to legally enter the US. They were taken from the trunk into custody and will be removed from the country following criminal proceedings. The driver, a 24-year-old American citizen, was arrested and  awaits federal charges. “Concealing persons in vehicles is dangerous and could have severe consequences,” Pete Flores, director of Field Operations for US Customs and Border Protection  in San Diego, said.


As of Sunday night, there is still no deal between McConnell and Schumer amid shutdown Many at the Las Vegas #powertothepolls event carried signs that read 'immigrants' rights are women's rights' Attendees at the Power to the Polls rally in Las Vegas on Sunday came energized, ready to celebrate and build on the momentum of last year’s inaugural Women’s March. Related article Thousands of women have one message: Vote But some rallygoers were also fueled by another emotion: Frustration with the congressional stalemate over immigration. On Friday, the government shut down after congressional leaders from both parties failed to reach a funding deal and find a fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which granted legal status to undocumented immigrants who came to the United States with their parents. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pledged Sunday to take up legislation to address the expiring DACA program if enough Democrats vote to re-open the government. He scheduled a key vote for noon Monday. A meeting earlier Sunday between McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer did not lead to a spending deal involving when to hold votes on the DACA program and whether to support the three-week funding solution, two sources told CNN. Nevada has a large immigrant population. Several thousand Nevada residents from El Salvador will likely become deportable in September 2019, the Las Vegas Sun reported earlier this month, following the Trump administration’s decision to end temporary protected status for citizens of El Salvador. “They are toying with our lives and that’s not right,” Dulce Valencia, a 22-year-old whose family immigrated to Nevada from Mexico, told CNN. Valencia, who sported an “I am an immigrant” t-shirt and “resist” pin,” wasn’t the only one at the rally who felt that way. Numerous others carried signs saying “immigrants rights are women’s rights” posters. People are starting to pack in @womensmarch #powertothepolls pic.twitter.com/YMEm8c3mjh Women’s March organizers – who spent much of 2017 uniting as many people as they could for 2018 – aim to turn the movement’s momentum into political action. They hope to register 1 million voters in 2018. But in addition to talking about the importance of voting, many speakers – including Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards – who addressed rally attendees also touched on DACA. Related video Pro-choice activist: White women can do better “Our government is failing to protect our undocumented brothers and sisters,” Carmen Perez, Women’s March co-chair, said during her speech. “Let’s be clear, some of us didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us … no human being is illegal. When we think about our influence, and how many millions of people marched yesterday and last year, we know we are capable of grabbing Congress by the midterms and making sure our values are prioritized.” She ended her speech by starting a “Sí, se puede” – “yes, we can” – chant. Astrid Silva, a Las Vegas resident who co-founded a Dreamer advocacy nonprofit called Dream Big Vegas, also spoke. “In Nevada, our immigrant community matters, our lives matter, I will not allow my family to continue living in fear,” Silva told rallygoers. “My mother gave everything to be here in this country, for me to have a better future. My father gave his life working under the hot Las Vegas sun so I could be here. And now they live in fear every single day that ICE will come and take them. And that’s not a fake fear. That’s not a fear that we can just, overnight, wish away. But you can protect us. Every single one of you here. Those of you who are undocumented, estamos juntos, we’re all together.” There were also a handful of groups at the rally working to both register voters and encourage people to vote for candidates who will fight for immigrants’ rights. Valencia works for Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN), which advocates for immigrant rights. Also at the rally was the Nevada chapter of Our Revolution, an American progressive political action organization formed after Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign. “We’re not happy with what’s happening right now,” said Ambar Diaz, who works for Our Revolution. “That’s why we are here.” Diaz’s parents are from El Salvador. They immigrated from the country when her mom was 16. “As far as the Dreamers go, (I’d like to see) a clean DACA Bill,” she said. “This is their home, this is what they know. It’s unfair for them to be sent back to their parents’ land. Obviously their parents came here for a reason. If my mom had come here 20 years later, I could have easily been a Dreamer.” “Part of the American dream is immigrants from other places,” she said. “It’s a shame our administration now is denying that and wanting to fight against it.”


If history is any guide, provocative actions from North Korea can be expected around the time of US elections, a new study says. Over the past 60 years, North Korea’s leaders have attempted to incite tensions around the time of American elections – especially in recent years, the study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies says. For example, North Korea conducted a missile test and then a nuclear test shortly after President Barack Obama was elected. Related article Are North Korea's missile tests a practice run for evading THAAD? “Doing a major test would be a way of trying to intimidate the incoming president,” said Victor Cha, one of the study’s authors. “North Korea chooses particular windows that they know will gain maxmum attention from the world, and the US in particular.” “It could be a sixth nuclear test, it could be launching of their rocket which put a satellite in orbit,” Cha added. The study is scheduled to be published this week on the CSIS website Beyond Parallel. Related article North Korea at UN: US faces 'consequences beyond imagination' But some analysts see a shift in North Korea’s provocations, from symbolic actions to concrete military tests, since Kim Jong Un took power after his father’s death in 2011. These analysts see a decrease in deadly provocations that are primarily symbolic, such as the 2010 shelling of the disputed South Korean island Yeonpyeong, or the 2010 sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan with a torpedo. Only one has occurred recently – the placing of land mines in the demilitarized zone, which injured two South Korean soldiers last year. “Nothing as aggressive as we saw under his father,” said Ken Gause, who analyzes North Korea’s leaders for CNA Corp. “Kim Jong Un, with the exception of the August crisis of last year, he has pretty much restricted his provocations to missile tests, nuclear tests, and cyber attacks.” The past few years have seen an exponential jump in the number of North Korean weapons development tests, according to statistics from 38North, including 15 missile tests in 2016 alone. Related article US, South Korean missile destroyers in fresh show of force to North Korea Any provocations carry an increased risk of escalation these days, analysts say, for two reasons. First, the South Korean government after 2010 made it easier for military commanders to respond to a provocation without waiting for politicians to consider a response. “They are more likely to retaliate earlier than in the past; they are also more likely to respond exponentially,” said former CIA analyst Bruce Klingner, now with The Heritage Foundation. And second, Klingner said, the North’s growing nuclear capability could give North Korean leaders a sense of impunity. Related article What if North Korea's missiles come from underwater? “They may feel more emboldened conducting not only provocations, but actual attacks,” he said, “feeling that they have immunity from any kind of US response, because North Korea has a nuclear deterrent to the US nuclear umbrella.” North Korea is one of the most difficult national security challenges the next president will face, according to CIA director John Brennan. Asked to identify America’s biggest risk across the globe, he told CNN’s Erin Burnett last week: “Kim Jong Un’s nuclear arsenal missile capability. Not just to threaten his neighbors, but also to have intercontinental capability. That’s something that the new team and the current team is looking at very, very closely and will need to be able to address.” Related article South Korea reveals it has a plan to assassinate Kim Jong Un But, national security analysts say, the US appears to have little leverage to stop the country’s nuclear program from racing ahead. “I don’t think we can solve it diplomatically, that much is clear. Every administration in the last 20 years has tried a diplomatic approach, and the North Koreans have blown through every one,” said CSIS’s Michael Green, who himself handled such efforts when he was director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council. “What the US can do, with allies and partners – and hopefully China – is constrict North Korea’s access to technology, to money, slow down their nuclear program, and start setting the stage for negotiations,” he said.


This political season is not like the others Political opponents have become sassier, savvier and funnier when it comes to attacking rivals This political season is not like the others. Political opponents have become sassier, savvier and funnier when it comes to attacking rivals – using social media and humor to add insult to political injury. Some – including Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump and New York Democratic Congressman Charlie Rangel – have made trolling into an art. Now that it’s the end of the year, here’s a look back at some great examples of trolling: Known as one of the most memorable moments from the already colorful presidential election cycle (so far), Trump made waves by releasing Lindsey Graham’s cell phone number live at a campaign event. He urged attendees at the event in South Carolina, where Graham serves as a senior senator, to call the number. “Give it a shot,” Trump said. The cell phone number turned out to be, indeed, Graham’s personal cell phone number. Later, the then-Republican presidential candidate, who dropped out of the race last week, partnered with Independent Journal to release a joke video about him destroying his flip phone now that everyone had the number. Ever since his response to the State of the Union in 2013 – where Marco Rubio awkwardly grabbed for and drank from a bottle of water just off screen mid speech – the incident has been a rolling political joke around the Internet. In October, Trump revived the meme sending Rubio “Trump Ice Natural Spring Water.” Rubio himself has poked fun at himself after the incident in the past, and has even brought it up during one of the 2015 Republican debates. On October 8, Rangel decided to skip the first House Speaker vote and make himself a smoothie – and then tweeted about it. The 85-year-old congressman from New York tweeted, “Made myself a smoothie in my office & watching news about GOP mtg to elect next Speaker not going smoothly” with photos of him in his office making the smoothie and then holding it at his desk. Made myself a smoothie in my office & watching news about GOP mtg to elect next Speaker not going smoothly pic.twitter.com/rlSd3AJIn6 The tweet came during the news that House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy dropped out of the race to succeed then-House Speaker John Boehner, causing chaos within Congress because the move was unexpected among his colleagues. The smoothie tweets didn’t end there. After New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was kicked out of an Amtrak car after talking to loud on his cell phone while holding a McDonald’s smoothie, Rangel saw an opportunity. He tweeted at the presidential candidate on October 26, “Unlike @GovChristie I keep quiet in quiet car & blend my own smoothie w/ real fruit (tho it 2 may not go smoothly)” Unlike @GovChristie I keep quiet in quiet car & blend my own smoothie w/ real fruit (tho it 2 may not go smoothly) pic.twitter.com/lrKy0bdplr Chris Christie didn’t respond to Rangel’s tweet. Also in October, Hillary Clinton’s campaign said that they sent her newest autobiography “Hard Choices” to her GOP presidential rivals as a way to show off her accomplishments while she was secretary of state. “I understand that you and your fellow Republican candidates for president were questioning my record of accomplishments at your last debate, so I thought you might enjoy reading my book, ‘Hard Choices,’” Clinton’s letter to her potential rivals said. “From working to restore America’s standing in the world to bringing crippling sanctions to Iran to negotiating a ceasefire in Gaza, please enjoy all 596 pages of my time as secretary of state. With 15 candidates in the race, you’ve got enough people for a book club.” Sen. Rand Paul placed his copy of Clinton’s book – signed by both him and Clinton – on eBay, promoting it by writing “GET YOUR OWN SIGNED COPY OF A GREAT FICTION BOOK!” Related gallery 2015: The year in politics “Hillary, your refusal to provide security for our mission in Benghazi should forever preclude you from higher office!” the Kentucky senator wrote in black ink before affixing his signature, according to a photograph in his online store. He listed the item’s condition as “brand new” and its subject as “fantasy.” A pro-Clinton super PAC called Correct The Record mailed versions of Donald Trump’s well-known “Make America Great Again” trucker hat to Republican candidates, each with a candidate-customized take on what the group considers anti-Muslim rhetoric. “The hateful proposals of the rest of the Republican presidential field are just as outrageous as Trump’s,” the group said in a statement. He may have retired after being the longest serving congressman in history, but John Dingell is also well known for his entertaining political Twitter accounts. He is always tweeting his take on current events, taking fun stabs at politics when the opportunities arise. During the summer, he weighed in on the guacamole pea-gate, after the New York Times published a controversial guacamole recipe that included peas. It stirred a reaction from people from both political aisles, including President Barack Obama and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Even Dingell weighed in with some trolling, writing, “Why would anyone add guacamole to perfectly good peas?” Why would anyone add guacamole to perfectly good peas? On November 10, he live-tweeted during the Fox Business Republican debate, writing one tweet that said, “Politics aside, can you imagine voting for any of the people on this stage?” Politics aside, can you imagine voting for any of the people on this stage? Later, he followed up with his own version of the winners and losers for the debate, writing, “Winners: Advertisers, pundits. Losers: Viewers, middle class families, science, common sense, reason, sanity, our future.” Winners: Advertisers, pundits.Losers: Viewers, middle class families, science, common sense, reason, sanity, our future. On December 15, the day of the most recent Democratic debate, the former congressman from Michigan tweeted, “Anything good on TV tonight?” Anything good on TV tonight? CNN’s Dianna Heitz contributed to this report.


Mixing the tense international situation with the qualities of a spy thriller, “Frontline’s” latest documentary, “North Korea’s Deadly Dictator,” provides what’s described as “a rare glimpse” inside Kim Jong Un’s regime, as well as the bizarre circumstances surrounding the assassination of his half-brother in a Malaysian airport. Framed by President Trump’s U.N. speech in which he belittled the North Korean leader as “Rocket Man,” the PBS program explores Kim’s ruthlessness through the murder of Kim Jong Nam, but also offers dimension regarding his nuclear ambitions while expressing skepticism that Kim is irrational or suicidal. The New Yorker’s Evan Osnos, meanwhile, who recently reported extensively from inside North Korea, notes that officials there are “mystified” by Trump’s threat to unleash “fire and fury,” underscoring the inherent risks of employing what President Nixon called the “madman theory” as a means of gaining leverage against rogue states. Much of the hour is devoted to the killing of Kim Jong Nam, who had lived in the west and was killed in February when he was poisoned with VX nerve agent. The strange mechanics included enlisting two women who claim they were duped into carrying out the brazen plot in plain view. The women pleaded not guilty in a Malaysian court on Monday. Beyond the strange details, the murder highlights both the family’s longstanding grip on the country and just how thorny it is seeking to understand North Korea through the prism of more conventional nuclear powers. As Ken Gause, the director of CNA’s International Affairs Group, puts it, this is a country “ruled by individuals; it’s not ruled by institutions.” Experts interviewed for “North Korea’s Deadly Dictator” reiterate the warning that dealing with the regime – as it presses ahead to fulfill its nuclear ambitions – presents only bad options. As is so often true, it also reinforces Frontline’s value as a venue that impassively lays out a framework for such discussions. Other hot-button topics on the docket for this month include “War on the EPA” (Oct. 11) and the two-part “Putin’s Revenge,” beginning Oct. 25. That is, admittedly, a lot of sobering material to absorb; still, Frontline earns its stripes by reflecting the benefit of soberly addressing a complicated world, one unsettling crisis at a time. “Frontline: North Korea’s Deadly Dictator” premieres Oct. 4 at 10 p.m. on PBS.


North Korea is in a constant state of readiness for war It comes from the country's experiences of devastating US bombing during the Korean War North Korea is a country prepared for conflict. Still technically at war with its southern neighbor, ordinary North Koreans are warned to be in a state of constant vigilance to threats from the outside, particularly from the US. Those fears seemed to be confirmed this month, after US President Donald Trump launched a surprise strike on a Syrian airfield and dispatched a naval battle group – which he described as “an armada” – to northern Asia. Trump’s saber-rattling – he has accused Pyongyang of “looking for trouble” – is familiar to consumers of North Korean state media, who have been warned for decades by their leaders of imminent US attack and attempted regime change. “The aggressive acts of war on the part of the United States are getting increasingly reckless,” a North Korean official told CNN in Pyongyang this week. “In response, we will continue to strengthen our self-defense capability.” Looking at the country’s history, paranoia over a potential US attack is understandable. It’s estimated that during the Korean War, American planes dropped some 625,000 tons of bombs on North Korea – more than during the entire Pacific theater of World War II – including 32,000 tons of napalm. Around 600,000 North Korean and 1 million South Korean civilians were killed, along with hundreds of thousands of troops. Curtis LeMay, an air force commander at the time, estimated in 1988 that US planes killed 20% of the population “over a period of three years or so.” According to Blaine Harden, author of “The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot,” Kim Jong Un, like his father and grandfather before him, “(has) kept memories of the war and the bombing terrifyingly fresh. State media warn that, sooner or later, the Americans will strike again.” To this end, North Korea maintains a massive standing army of more than 1.2 million soldiers, with millions more paramilitary troops and reservists, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). South Korea also maintains a high state of alert, with more than 500,000 people in its armed forces, IISS says, plus the thousands of US troops deployed in the country. The North Korean constitution states that “national defense is the supreme duty and honor of citizens,” and the country is governed by the “songun” – or military-first – policy, which places the armed forces above all else. In recent years that has meant huge investment in the development and deployment of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles. Intense focus on the military in a cripplingly poor country like North Korea can cause much hardship, but Pyongyang justifies its policies based on a narrative of imminent threat from foreign forces. That narrative was on clear display this week, with North Korean state media – which usually tightly controls information about the outside world – going big on the deployment of the USS Carl Vinson and Trump’s surprise strike in Syria. One Pyongyang resident told CNN, “we’re at the brink of war, but if that happens, we’ll all go to the front lines to fight the Americans.” The regime has held up Trump’s actions in Syria, as well as those of his predecessors in Iraq and Afghanistan, as justification for seeking to further the North Korean nuclear weapons program, which it claims is vital for defense. “Previous US administrations have been attacking those countries who haven’t gotten nuclear weapons, and the Trump administration is no different from previous US governments in pinpointing those non-nuclear states,” a North Korean official told CNN. Pyongyang fears that if it was not nuclear armed, it would suffer the same fate as Syria and plunge into chaos and civil war. South of the border, the situation is much different. On Tuesday, officials sought to reassure South Koreans that the US would not take unilateral action against North Korea without consulting Seoul. “The United States makes it clear that it will not take a new policy or measure without consultations with us,” South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuck told reporters. Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun warned people against being “blinded by exaggerated assessments on the security situation of the Korean Peninsula.” Moon Jae-in, leader of the opposition Democratic Party and frontrunner to be the country’s next President, said on Facebook that there “should never be a pre-emptive strike without South Korean consent.” “Neighboring countries are taking advantage of the absence of a president in South Korea to try to exclude us and handle issues on the Korean Peninsula according to their own understanding,” Moon said. The country’s former President, Park Geun-hye, was impeached after a corruption scandal. On the streets of Seoul, South Koreans who spoke to CNN were far less worried about a potential of war than their northern neighbors. “I do feel uneasy about North Korea provoking war,” said Jeon Hyung-min, 26. “But I don’t think a US strike would happen and if North Korea can judge the situation, they will not continue any armed provocation for now.” Seo Deok-il, in his 70s, said he was “not anxious” about the news. “I don’t think war will break out,” he said. “If I was scared, I would have immigrated to another country.” CNN’s Paula Hancocks and Jeung-un Kim contributed reporting from Seoul, South Korea. Will Ripley reported from Pyongyang, North Korea. James Griffiths reported and wrote from Hong Kong.


NEW: Former Turkish ambassador to the Vatican calls use of the word "genocide" a "one-sided evaluation" Pope discusses massacres of Armenians a century after they took place Turkey denies the mass killings constituted a genocide Pope Francis risked Turkish anger on Sunday by using the word “genocide” to refer to the mass killings of Armenians a century ago under the Ottoman Empire. “In the past century, our human family has lived through three massive and unprecedented tragedies,” the Pope said at a Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian massacres. “The first, which is widely considered ‘the first genocide of the 20th century,’ struck your own Armenian people,” he said, referencing a 2001 declaration by Pope John Paul II and the head of the Armenian church. His use of the term genocide – even though he was quoting from the declaration – upset Turkey. The nation recalled its ambassador to the Vatican for “consultations” just hours after Francis’ comments, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. Earlier, Turkey summoned the ambassador from the Vatican for a meeting, Turkish state broadcaster TRT reported. Turkey’s former ambassador to the Vatican, Kenan Gursoy, told CNN in a telephone interview that while it is the first time Turkey has summoned its ambassador home from the Vatican, “This does not mean that our diplomatic ties with the Vatican are over.” “Since this is a situation that we do not approve of, as a first reaction, (the ambassador) is summoned to get consultation,” Gursoy said, adding that the Pope’s use of the word “genocide” was “a one-sided evaluation.” In a tweet Sunday on his official account, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called the Pope’s use of the word “unacceptable” and “out of touch with both historical facts and legal basis.” “Religious offices are not places through which hatred and animosity are fueled by unfounded allegations,” the tweet reads. This consternation over the use of the word ‘genocide’ occurs regularly. And Armenians are equally upset, when Turkey protests it. Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian rebuked Turkey. “We are in a situation in which Turkey speaks a different language from the rest of the international community and it seems that it doesn’t understand that it is speaking a different language,” he said to Italian News Agency Adnkronos. “During these past days there have been several international organizations that adopt resolutions or issue statements that recognize the Armenian genocide and that appeal to Turkey to make this step,” he said. “The Pope’s statement are in this context of universal value. When Turkey is able to understand this, it will be able to understand what the International community and big personalities (or better translations ‘leaders’) are saying.” Armenian groups and many scholars say that Turks planned and carried out genocide, starting in 1915, when more than a million ethnic Armenians were massacred in the final years of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey officially denies that a genocide took place, saying hundreds of thousands of Armenian Christians and Turkish Muslims died in intercommunal violence around the bloody battlefields of World War I. The Armenian government and influential Armenian diaspora groups have urged countries around the world to formally label the 1915 events as genocide. Turkey has responded with pressure of its own against such moves. Pope Francis said Sunday that “Catholic and Orthodox Syrians, Assyrians, Chaldeans and Greeks” were also killed in the bloodshed a century ago. He said Nazism and Stalinism were responsible for the other two “massive and unprecedented tragedies” of the past century. CNN’s Gul Tuysuz in Turkey, Nimet Kirac and Karen Smith in Atlanta contributed to this report.


Editor’s Note: Jen Psaki, a CNN political commentator and spring fellow at the Georgetown University Institute of Politics and Public Service, was the White House communications director and State Department spokeswoman during the Obama administration. She also was a consultant for Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Follow her: @jrpsaki. The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers. Jen Psaki says a lack of preparation by the US gave Russia an easy victory On paper, Putin should not have had the upper hand going into the meeting, she writes The Russians just played the President. It was predictable. And he let it happen. On paper, Vladimir Putin should not have had the upper hand going into the meeting. To start with, Russia has been living with sanctions put in place more than three years ago because of their annexation of Crimea. And most Americans, save a few people including the President of the United States, are confident that Putin led the Russian intervention into the American election and into many other elections around the world. President Obama booted out nearly three dozen spies in December and closed two compounds, and there are many, from both parties, calling for an additional round of sanctions on Russia. We should have had some leverage. So what happened? To start with, the Russians are skilled public manipulators. When I was at the State Department, the country that was easiest for our team to work with on logistics – whether it was access to the press, or when to do statements or take questions – were the Russians. They understand, better than most, the importance of the public side of diplomacy. It made planning easy, but it also required on-the-fly adjustments to make sure that the Russians didn’t read out meetings or characterize conversations without the perspective of the United States. And they still got the best of us from time to time. They know how to stage-manage and how to set the expectations for global events. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is a smooth operator who knows how to charm cameras and international audiences. He is visible at international events and followed by a gaggle of adoring state-run media. He also rarely shies away from answering questions, holding press conferences, or reading out meetings. He has been on the international scene as foreign minister for 13 years, and as the UN ambassador for 10 years before that, and it shows. Related article A great day for Putin, a good one for Trump Putin may have less of a warm diplomatic bedside manner, but he understands the art of presentation and how to set a trap. And set a trap is exactly what he just did. The Russians telegraphed in advance of the meeting that their agenda was to 1) publicly mend the relationship, 2) gain a better understanding of US policy, and 3) discuss joint concerns over terrorism. They scored on all three. Their previewing kept expectations low and made clear that there simply would not be enough time to talk about Ukraine. And how did the United States preview the meeting and set the table for the most important diplomatic engagement this summer? Related video Coons: Trump raising election meddling with Putin 'long overdue' Just yesterday, President Donald Trump questioned the validity of American intelligence on foreign soil and then questioned whether other countries or actors were involved in the hacking. But before that, H.R. McMaster, the President’s national security adviser, previewed the meeting with President Putin by saying there was “no specific agenda – it’s really going to be whatever the President wants to talk about.” The problem is that the expectation-setting and previewing of important diplomatic meetings does more than just fill wire reports and cable air time. It sends the message about what the United States expects to accomplish, how prepared we are for the engagement and also puts the difficult topics on the table that are the core purpose of these meetings. We did a background briefing with policy experts in advance of nearly every trip Secretary John Kerry did when I was at the State Department. These briefings were often on the plane late at night or early in the morning, sometimes at Andrews Air Force Base and even on the ground. They were demanded by the press corps, but also benefitted the United States because they allowed us to set the table for our engagements. Related video Things Trump has said about Putin Immediately following the meeting, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appeared on television making clear that President Trump had repeatedly raised Russian meddling in the meeting. That sounded like a positive development until he said President Trump has decided to focus on “how do we move forward from something that may be an intractable disagreement at this point.” This statement was quickly followed by Foreign Minister Lavrov appearing on television to say that President Putin had denied involvement, Trump said reports of meddling were exaggerated and he accepted Putin’s denials. Leading American intelligence agencies, Republicans and Democrats in Congress and many members of his own administration are confident that the Russians intervened in the American election last year. But a simple assurance from President Putin overrides that. You don’t get a lot of shots at pressure in diplomacy.  And after you’ve let your adversary off the hook, you certainly don’t get to apply that pressure again. As far as the Russians are concerned, the public case is closed. Sign up for CNN Opinion’s new newsletter.Join us on Twitter and Facebook The problem is that the free public pass doesn’t make it harder for Russians to proceed with their ongoing efforts to intervene in American democracy, to create confusion and disarray in our system. And there are ample opportunities. There are two governor’s elections this November, and an additional 36 in 2018. There are 34 Senate seats up in 2018 and every single seat in the House of Representatives. Not to mention that just last year, the Russians potentially hacked into 21 states’ electoral systems. And instead of presenting evidence during his meeting with President Putin and making clear that he would stand with Democrats and Republicans and the leading intelligence agencies, Trump accepted the assurances of Putin all while smiling in front of the cameras. And the Russians have photos – that they are already expertly spreading around the Internet – to prove it.


UK Prime Minister Theresa May has mounted a stern attack on Russia, claiming that it interferes in elections and plants fake news stories to sow discord and undermine Western institutions. In a significant escalation of rhetoric, May accused Moscow of attempting to “weaponize information” as part of a “sustained campaign of cyberespionage and disruption.” Russia’s actions were “threatening the international order,” she said. “We know what you are doing. And you will not succeed. Because you underestimate the resilience of our democracies, the enduring attraction of free and open societies, and the commitment of Western nations to the alliances that bind us,”  May said in a speech at the annual Lord Mayor’s Banquet in London on Monday. Since its annexation of Crimea, May said Russia had fomented conflict in eastern Ukraine, violated airspace of European countries, and hacked the Danish ministry of defense and the German Parliament. May said Britain would act to defend itself. “The UK will do what is necessary to protect ourselves, and work with our allies to do likewise,” she said. “So we will take the necessary actions to counter Russian activity. But this is not where we want to be – and not the relationship with Russia we want.” Her criticism comes amid mounting allegations that groups linked to Russia or the Kremlin itself meddled in elections and referendums, including Brexit, Catalonia’s independence vote, and the 2016 US presidential election. Senior Russian officials reacted angrily to May’s comments. “The world order that suits May, with the capture of Iraq, war in Libya, creation of [ISIS], and terrorism in Europe, has outlived itself. It can’t be saved with an attack on Russia,” tweeted Alexey Pushkov, a Russian lawmaker who is also head of the Federation Council Committee on Information Policy. He also accused the British media of peddling “fake news” on issues such as the Iraq war and Syria. Konstantin Kosachev, Head of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs, said in a Facebook post Tuesday that May’s speech was “surprisingly full of ideological cliches.” “The mistake is that this conflict is not ideological and there will be no “triumph of Western values” this time, no one is fighting them here,” he wrote.  “However, to force the West to behave in a democratic and not in an authoritarian way on the international arena is not only Russia’s desire, it’s the desire of the whole world. And this cannot be ignored.” May’s comments contrast starkly with US President Donald Trump’s recent comment that he believed Vladimir Putin’s denials of interfering in the 2016 US presidential elections. The UK Prime Minister said that even as the United Kingdom leaves the European Union, it remains committed to maintaining Europe’s security through strong economic ties with allies and NATO. Such relationships will protect against security threats from Russia, she said. “That is why we are driving reform of NATO, so this vital alliance is better able to deter and counter hostile Russian activity.  It is why we have stepped up our military and economic support to Ukraine. It is why we are strengthening our cybersecurity and looking at how we tighten our financial regimes to ensure the profits of corruption cannot flow from Russia into the UK,” she said. She cited Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent comment that “when a state fails to observe universal rules of conduct and pursues its interests at any cost, it will provoke resistance and disputes will become unpredictable and dangerous.” “I say to President Putin, I agree. But it is Russia’s actions which threaten the international order on which we all depend,” she said. “We do not want to return to the Cold War, or to be in a state of perpetual confrontation.” International order faces other threats from regions where “the absence of strong states” has created instability and conflict, such as the Middle East. “We see the spillover effects of this instability in the challenge of mass migration and humanitarian crises in countries like Yemen,” she said. She urged European and American allies to join the UK in stepping up efforts to contain and solve conflicts. She called attention to Yemen, Libya and Iraq and called for continued work toward a two-state solution in the Middle East peace process. “As part of this, while we will stand firm in our support for the Iran nuclear deal, we are also determined to counter destabilizing Iranian actions in the region and their ballistic missile proliferation, working with the US, France and Germany in particular,” she said. “It is in all of our interests to get this right: to bring long-sought stability to the Middle East, ensure these growing economies can play their full role in the global system, and reinforce a rules-based international order.”


Editor’s Note: As the rescue and recovery efforts continue, many charities and NGOs are sending teams, aid and medical assistance. Click here to find out about the organizations you can assist. The death toll in Nepal rises to 3,218, a government official says The number of injured is reported to be more than 6,500, he says Another 56 people are dead in India, and 20 in China The death toll from the devastating earthquake that struck Nepal two days ago surged past 3,000 on Monday, a government official said. The desperate search for survivors from the country’s worst natural disaster in more than 80 years continued. The number of people confirmed dead in Nepal stands at 3,218, said Nepalese Ministry of Home Affairs spokesman Laxmi Dhakal. India has reported 56 deaths, and China another 20. The death toll is expected to climb further as officials get information from the rugged countryside that makes up most of Nepal. As day broke Monday, Nepal was still in survival mode after suffering a series of aftershocks following the huge initial quake on Saturday. The damage was everywhere. Stunned residents wandered the streets of Kathmandu, the capital city of roughly 3 million people that’s now the focus of international disaster relief efforts. People dug through piles of debris where their homes once stood, seeking pieces of their former lives and, possibly, family members. Many of the injured were treated outside overflowing hospitals, where crowds of people gathered looking for relatives. Related gallery Powerful earthquake hits Nepal Dhakal, the government spokesman, said Monday 6,525 people were reported to have been injured. One video aired on Nepal State Television captured a rare bright moment amid the death and devastation. It shows uniformed officers digging though rubble, desperately trying to free a man who is hurt but alive. Rescuers lift him up, and cheers of joy erupt from the crowd. The clip shows him being put on a stretcher and carried to safety. But often, searchers have found bodies rather than survivors. And the odds of saving the living decrease as the crucial first 72 hours tick by. The earthquake and its aftershocks have turned one of the world’s most scenic regions into a panorama of devastation. “The journey towards my family home in Sitapaila was a map of quake destruction, with many houses – old and new – torn apart,” wrote freelance journalist Sunir Pandey. “A high wall surrounding a monastery had collapsed and the nuns had run to a nearby field,” he wrote. “A mud-and-brick cottage had fallen on a blue motorbike but no trace could be found of its rider. Everywhere, survivors gathered wherever they could find open space – fields, private compounds, empty roadside lots.” At night, many Nepalis slept in the open, shivering in the frigid air of the Himalayan Mountains but at least safe from falling debris. “The entire city was under darkness,” Christina Berry of England wrote for CNN affiliate IBN from Kathmandu. “There was not a single light anywhere. The power supply had been cut off. Our caring hotel manager gave us some food and some candles, too. Me and Alexandra were so scared. We slept in the open verandah of the hotel fearing more quakes in the night.” Read earthquake stories from social media CNN producer Ingrid Formanek, who arrived Sunday night, said Kathmandu “looks like a city where buildings have been abandoned. People are hanging out in public squares and at intersections to avoid rubble from buildings.” Related video Nepal: A nation in ruins “We were able to drive the main road to the hotel we’re staying at, but they’re not allowing anyone inside because of the aftershocks. The guests are in a big tent used for functions on the lawn. People are squeezed in. There are probably about 100 people in there,” Formanek said. “The tents are covered, but water is seeping in from streets puddled with water, especially around the edges of the tent.” Residents of Kathmandu are banding together to get by, with stores shuttered and very few sources of food and drinkable water. “Communal kitchens have been set up for cooking,” Formanek said. “Not by the government – people set them up on their own.” Many of the city’s centuries-old buildings, which had stood stalwart for generations and provided a sense of national pride, have been toppled. Related video Strong aftershock hits Kathmandu during interview Dozens of bodies were pulled from Dharahara, the historic nine-story tower that came crashing down during the quake. A backhoe chipped away at the nub left protruding through its crumbled ruins. When it seemed as if things couldn’t get worse, a powerful aftershock jolted Nepal on Sunday, sending people screaming into the streets and causing new injuries for already traumatized residents. Climbers said it set off fresh avalanches on Mount Everest, where at least 17 people were reported to have been killed on Saturday. The magnitude of the new quake Sunday was initially estimated at 6.7 by the U.S. Geological Survey, considerably weaker than the magnitude-7.8 of the devastating one of a day earlier. Four Americans were confirmed to be among the dead. Google executive Dan Fredinburg was one of them. According to an Instagram post by his sister on his account, an avalanche killed Fredinburg on Mount Everest. Marisa Eve Girawong, who went by her middle name, of New Jersey also was killed by an avalanche on Everest. The physician’s assistant was working as an Everest base camp doctor for Seattle-based Madison Mountaineering, when she was swept away to her death. Tom Taplin, a filmmaker from Santa Monica, California, was making a documentary on Everest climbers, when wind stirred by the avalanche caused him to take a fall, CNN affiliate KABC reported. Looking for missing loved ones in Nepal? CNN iReport wants to help The mountains that define Nepal make it difficult to deliver relief, though international efforts are in full swing. Aftershocks are also complicating operations. A team of 260 emergency responders was about an hour away from departure at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport when an aftershock in Kathmandu delayed its departure. The U.S. Agency for International Development’s Disaster Response Team, made up of 54 urban search and rescue specialists from Fairfax County, Virginia, and six K-9s, headed to Nepal on Sunday on a C-17 military transport plane. The dogs are trained to find signs of life in rubble after a disaster. But the trip was expected to take about 24 hours, reducing the precious hours left in which survivors are likely to be found. #Nepalquake: An estimated 4.6 million people were exposed to the #earthquake shaking pic.twitter.com/JfGkel2G0r Are you in Nepal or do you have loved ones affected? Please share with us if you are in a safe place. How to help the earthquake victims Fast Facts on earthquakes CNN’s Manesh Shrestha reported from Kathmandu; CNN’s Ralph Ellis wrote and reported from Atlanta; and CNN’s Jethro Mullen wrote and reported from Hong Kong. CNN’s Harmeet Shah Singh, Sumnima Udas, Oren Liebermann and Brian Walker also contributed to this report.


NEW: Court takes into account time served, orders hikers' release Residents said their behavior caused a quake that killed 16 people The mountain is considered sacred in Malaysia Four foreign hikers who posed  naked on Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia were freed Friday after they were fined and sentenced to time served. The backpackers – from Britain, Canada and the Netherlands – were arrested after stripping naked May 30 and posing for photos on the mountaintop, the nation’s Bernama news agency reported. The mountain is considered sacred in Malaysia. They had pleaded guilty to “committing an obscene act.” CNN has verified the identity of the two Canadians as Lindsey and Danielle Peterson. The Briton is named Eleanor Hawkins. The name of the Dutchman has not  yet been confirmed by CNN. The court in Kota Kinabalu on Friday evening fined the four 5,000 Malaysian ringgits, about $1,332, each and sentenced them to three days in prison. Taking into account the time served already, the court ordered  them freed. Local residents had said their behavior caused the Kota Kinabalu earthquake this month, which killed 16 people. The indigenous people of Sabah believe the tourists disrespected local culture and angered the spirit of the mountain, Bernama reported. Among those who appeared in court was a British citizen who was arrested at the airport this week as she was about to leave for the capital of Kuala Lumpur. The other three turned themselves in. They could have faced three months in prison. It is not the first time tourists have made headlines for stripping off their clothes at major attractions. Cambodia deported two U.S. tourists for allegedly taking nude pictures at Angkor Archaeological Park after a string of nudity-related incidents hit the religious sites this year. At least eight tourists were detained last year in separate incidents for getting naked and posing for photos in Machu Picchu, the 15th-century attraction in Peru. CNN’s Kevin Wang and Don Melvin contributed to this report

foreign hikers posing naked on Mount Kinabalu


Andreas Lubitz had informed his Lufthansa training school of an episode of severe depression, airline says A police spokesman say reports about video found in Germanwings wreckage are "completely wrong" Journalists at Bild and Paris Match are "very confident" the video clip is real, an editor says Years before he was at the controls of a Germanwings plane that plunged into the French Alps, Andreas Lubitz told the airline he worked for that he’d had a bout with depression. Lubitz, the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 who authorities accuse of deliberately crashing the plane, told his Lufthansa flight training school in 2009 that he had a “previous episode of severe depression,” the airline said Tuesday. Email correspondence between Lubitz and the school discovered in an internal investigation, Lufthansa said, included medical documents he submitted in connection with resuming his flight training. The announcement indicates that Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings, knew of Lubitz’s battle with depression, allowed him to continue training and ultimately put him in the cockpit. Lufthansa, whose CEO previously said Lubitz was 100% fit to fly, described its statement Tuesday as a “swift and seamless clarification” and said it was sharing the information and documents – including training and medical records – with public prosecutors. What was mental state of Germanwings co-pilot? It’s a development that will likely be a part of the crash investigation, but it’s only one piece of the puzzle, CNN aviation correspondent Richard Quest said. “We need to know what happened after he returned in 2009 and finished his training, because that tells us whether there was the correct procedure and process,” he said. A Lufthansa spokesperson told CNN on Tuesday that Lubitz had a valid medical certificate, had passed all his examinations and “held all the licenses required.” Related video Prosecutors: Co-pilot suicidal at one time Check out the latest from our correspondents The details about Lubitz’s correspondence with the flight school during his training were among several developments as investigators continued to delve into what caused the crash and Lubitz’s possible motive for downing the jet. Earlier, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in Dusseldorf said Lubitz suffered from suicidal tendencies at some point before his aviation career. Medical records reveal that Lubitz was suicidal at one time and underwent psychotherapy before he got his pilot’s license, prosecutor’s spokesman Christoph Kumpa said. Kumpa emphasized there’s no evidence suggesting Lubitz was suicidal or acting aggressively before the crash. Investigators are looking into whether Lubitz feared his medical condition would cause him to lose his pilot’s license, a European government official briefed on the investigation into last week’s crash told CNN on Tuesday. While flying was “a big part of his life,” the source said, it’s only one theory being considered. Another source, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation, also told CNN that authorities believe the primary motive for Lubitz to bring down the plane was that he feared he would not be allowed to fly because of his medical problems. Lubitz’s girlfriend told investigators he had seen an eye doctor and a neuropsychologist, both of whom deemed him unfit to work recently and concluded he had psychological issues, the European government official said. Lubitz told the neuropsychologist that he was too stressed with work, the official said. But no matter what details emerge about his previous mental health struggles, there’s more to the story, said Brian Russell, a forensic psychologist. “Psychology can explain why somebody would turn rage inward on themselves about the fact that maybe they weren’t going to keep doing their job and they’re upset about that and so they’re suicidal,” he said. “But there is no mental illness that explains why somebody then feels entitled to also take that rage and turn it outward on 149 other people who had nothing to do with the person’s problems.” Reports say a cell phone video shows the nightmarish final seconds of Germanwings Flight 9525, but a police spokesman said the accounts were “completely wrong.” French magazine Paris Match and German newspaper Bild reported that a video recovered from a phone at the wreckage site showed the inside of the plane moments before it crashed. “One can hear cries of ‘My God’ in several languages,” Paris Match reported. “Metallic banging can also be heard more than three times, perhaps of the pilot trying to open the cockpit door with a heavy object.  Towards the end, after a heavy shake, stronger than the others, the screaming intensifies. Then nothing.” The two publications described the video, but did not post it on their websites. The publications reported that they watched the video, which was found by a source close to the investigation. “It is a very disturbing scene,” said Julian Reichelt, editor-in-chief of Bild online. An official with France’s accident investigation agency, the BEA, said the agency is not aware of any such video. Lt. Col. Jean-Marc Menichini, a French Gendarmerie spokesman in charge of communications on rescue efforts around the Germanwings crash site, told CNN that the reports were “completely wrong” and “unwarranted.” Cell phones have been collected at the site, he said, but that they “hadn’t been exploited yet.” Menichini said he believed the cell phones would need to be sent to the Criminal Research Institute in Rosny sous-Bois, near Paris, in order to be analyzed by specialized technicians working hand-in-hand with investigators. But none of the cell phones found so far have been sent to the institute, Menichini said. Asked whether staff involved in the search could have leaked a memory card to the media, Menichini answered with a categorical “no.” Reichelt told “Erin Burnett: Outfront” that he had watched the video and stood by the report, saying Bild and Paris Match are “very confident” that the clip is real. He noted that investigators only revealed they’d recovered cell phones from the crash site after Bild and Paris Match published their reports. “That is something we did not know before. … Overall we can say many things of the investigation weren’t revealed by the investigation at the beginning,” he said. While investigators search for clues to Lubitz’s motivation, recovery workers continue the grim task of searching for the remains of those killed in the March 24 crash. The remains of at least 78 people on board the plane have been identified so far using DNA analysis. Naffrechoux warned Monday that “it may not be possible to find the human remains of all the 150 passengers, as some of them may have been pulverized by the crash.” But French President Francois Hollande, speaking alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, was more positive, saying that it should be possible to identify all the victims by the end of the week. Related gallery Germanwings plane crashes in France A simple stone memorial has been set up at Le Vernet, where grieving relatives of those killed have laid flowers and held prayers. Germanwings crash compensation: What we know Who was the captain of Germanwings Flight 9525? The BEA, France’s accident investigation agency, said its ongoing safety investigation was focusing on a more detailed analysis of the flight history leading up to the crash, based on the audio recovered from the cockpit voice recorder and any other available data. “A deliberate act by a man with a disturbed psychological profile is a possible scenario,” BEA spokeswoman Martine Del Bono told CNN. “The first step of the investigation is to describe more precisely what happened.” This will be based mainly on analysis of the cockpit voice recorder, to be supplemented by data from the flight data recorder if it is found, she said. “But we will also look at other events with possibly similar scenarios, try to understand if there are systemic weaknesses which may contribute or facilitate such scenarios. “We will in particular look at the cockpit door locking as well as the criteria and procedures applied to detect specific psychological profiles.” CNN’s Pamela Brown reported from Dusseldorf and Frederik Pleitgen from Cologne, while Catherine E. Shoichet wrote from Atlanta. CNN’s  Laura Smith-Spark, Josh Levs, Pamela Boykoff, Antonia Mortensen, Sandrine Amiel, Margot Haddad, Anna-Maja Rappard and Mariano Castillo contributed to this report.


Death leads tour group to end visits to North Korea for Americans Family, politicians blame North Korea for American college student's death American college student Otto Warmbier only intended to spend five days sightseeing in North Korea in 2016. Instead, he spent 17 months there in detention where his family believes he was tortured into a vegetative state. On Monday, less than a week after returning to the United States with severe brain damage, his family announced Warmbier had “completed his journey home.” The 22-year-old died Monday afternoon in Cincinnati, Ohio, with his family at his side. “It would be easy at a moment like this to focus on all that we lost – future time that won’t be spent with a warm, engaging, brilliant young man whose curiosity and enthusiasm for life knew no bounds,” his family said. “But we choose to focus on the time we were given to be with this remarkable person.” Related article Who is Otto Warmbier? The student’s death elicited strong repudiations of the regime from the highest levels of the American government. The news could lead the US to take a tougher line on China, the hermit regime’s closest ally, as the two superpowers begin high level talks this week. It also prompted the tour group that facilitated Warmbier’s visit to end trips to North Korea for Americans. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who helped push for Warmbier’s release, said the United States holds North Korea “accountable” for an unjust imprisonment. The North Korean government said he fell into a coma after contracting botulism and taking a sleeping pill in March 2016. But US doctors said they found no evidence of the illness. “Let us state the facts plainly: Otto Warmbier, an American citizen, was murdered by the Kim Jong Un regime,” said US Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona. President Donald Trump condemned the “brutal regime” and lamented the loss of a young man “in the prime of life.” “Otto’s fate deepens my administration’s determination to prevent such tragedies from befalling innocent people at the hands of regimes that do not respect the rule of law or basic human decency. The United States once again condemns the brutality of the North Korean regime as we mourn its latest victim.” South Korean President Moon Jae-in sent his condolences to Warmbier’s family, as well as a letter, the presidential spokesman confirmed. Related article What is unresponsive wakefulness? Warmbier had not spoken or moved in any purposeful way since his return, a condition his doctors called “unresponsive wakefulness” also known as persistent vegetative state. He had suffered significant brain damage during his imprisonment. The family thanked the staff at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for doing everything they could for their son in his final days. “Unfortunately, the awful torturous mistreatment our son received at the hands of the North Koreans ensured that no other outcome was possible beyond the sad one we experienced today.” Otto Warmbier was a University of Virginia student when he was detained in January 2016. He had signed up for a trip to North Korea with Young Pioneer Tours travel group. It was to be a brief stay followed by a visit to Beijing. Related article Is North Korea's tourism industry luring Americans into a trap? But as he tried to depart from Pyongyang’s airport, he was stopped in security. According to the North Korean government, Warmbier was detained because he had stolen a political poster from a restricted floor in his hotel. The next time the world saw Warmbier he was distraught, breaking down in front of Korean journalists in a video North Korea released in February 2016. He admitted to the crime and begged for forgiveness. He pleaded to be released. Instead, he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. His death led Young Pioneer Tours to announce it would no longer offer US citizens trips to North Korea. The group said it was denied requests to meet Warmbier or anyone who’d been in contact with him in Pyongyang, only receiving assurances that he was fine. “The devastating loss of Otto Warmbier’s life has led us to reconsider our position on accepting American tourists. There had not been any previous detainment in North Korea that has ended with such tragic finality and we have been struggling to process the result. Now, the assessment of risk for Americans visiting North Korea has become too high.” Kenneth Bae, a US citizen who was detained by North Korea for 735 days before his release in 2014, described Warmbier’s death as an “outrage” and a “tragedy.” “We plead with the US government, the international community, and leadership in North Korea to value human lives. Every life is important – Otto’s life, lives of the American detainees, and the lives of each person in North Korea,” Bae said. “I pray that these innocent people suffering in North Korea are not forgotten in this high-stakes game of weapons, sanctions, and international diplomacy,” he added. Three US citizens and a Canadian pastor are still being detained in North Korea. Warmbier’s father last week praised the Trump administration for bringing his son home and criticized the Obama administration’s approach, saying the family heeded the US government’s initial advice to take a low profile “without result.” After being briefed on the situation, Trump directed Tillerson to take appropriate measures to secure the release of American hostages there, a senior State Department official told CNN. Tillerson began the effort and routinely updated the President. Then, on June 6, State Department special representative Joseph Yun learned of Warmbier’s deteriorating health in a meeting with North Korean UN Mission Ambassador Pak Kil-yon in New York City, the senior State Department official said. Related article What does it take to get an American released from North Korea? Yun went to North Korea on June 12 with a medical team to secure Warmbier’s release, the official said. Yun and two doctors visited Warmbier that morning, marking the first time the United States was able to confirm his status since he was sentenced in March 2016. Yun immediately demanded that Warmbier be released on humanitarian grounds and arrangements were made for him to leave. He was evacuated the next day and reunited with his family in Cincinnati. “When Otto returned to Cincinnati late on June 13 he was unable to speak, unable to see and unable to react to verbal commands. He looked very uncomfortable – almost anguished,” the family’s statement said. “Although we would never hear his voice again, within a day the countenance of his face changed – he was at peace. He was home and we believe he could sense that.” CNN’s Kevin Liptak, Elise Labott, Zahra Ullah and Miguel Marquez contributed to this report.


Khizr Khan is a Pakistani-American lawyer whose son was killed in Iraq He and his wife have been exchanging words with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump A week seems like an eternity in an election cycle, especially in one as eventful and incendiary as this year’s presidential contest. And yet, almost a week after his fiery speech at the Democratic National Convention, we are still talking about Muslim-American Gold Star father Khizr Khan. Khan’s brief speech made him an unexpected star of the convention and kicked off days of debate between his family and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. It was, and is, a lot to process, and the complexity of the situation has driven people to revisit the basics: Who is Khizr Khan, and how did he and his family come to be such a public example of American values? Since Trump and the Khans have locked horns, some Google searches have risen that are related to the controversy. Below, we answer those, and more. "What did Trump say about Khan?" & more top questions on Khan family since @realDonaldTrump comments on the family pic.twitter.com/s3Q2E1z6hQ Related video Khan: Idea to show the Constitution was last minute Khizr Khan is the father of Humayun Khan, an Army captain who was killed in Iraq in 2004. The younger Khan is considered a war hero and was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. Prior to their DNC debut, Khizr Khan and his wife Ghazala had been mentioned by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who called their son “the best of America” in a December 2015 speech in Minneapolis. The Khan family are American citizens, and also Muslim. The son who put the Khans in the spotlight Captain Humayun Khan was an immigrant and an American hero. This is his story.https://t.co/6herqIGbcI Khan’s big moment came when he denounced Donald Trump’s proposed immigration policies during his DNC speech and held up a small copy of the U. S. Constitution. Since then he has sparred indirectly with Trump and he and his wife have appeared on numerous national news outlets, including CNN. Khan and his wife were both born in Pakistan, but moved to the United Arab Emirates. There, Humayun was born in 1976. They moved to Boston with their three sons in 1980 and then settled in Silver Spring, Maryland. When explaining why he moved from his birth country, Khan told The Washington Post it was because, in the 1970s, Pakistan was under military rule. Ghazala Khan has also spoken about the hardships she endured growing up in the country. In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Mrs. Khan said her son’s deployments scared her because she knew about the pain of war. “I had already been through one war, in Pakistan in 1965, when I was just a high school student,” she wrote. Related video Khan wants McConnell and Ryan to fully reject Trump Khan is a lawyer. According to the website for his law offices, based in New York City, Khan holds degrees from Punjab University and Harvard Law School. Also according to his website, he works with immigration and international business law and founded a pro bono project to provide legal services for the families of men and women serving in the military. The contact number for Khan’s office is a D.C.-based number, and as of Tuesday morning, it directs to an automatic voice-messaging system. Former colleagues of Khan have expressed praise and support following his DNC speech. Helen Trilling, a former colleague from a firm in Washington, D.C. told Law.com that Khan is “a lovely man, and was a great colleague.” “We were proud of the impressive speech he gave, but not surprised at its power,” she said, “given what we know of his character.” Related video Lt. Gen. Flynn: Bigger issue is radical Islam Following Khan’s speech, Donald Trump responded during an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopolous. “I saw him. He was very emotional, and probably looked like a nice guy to me. His wife, if you look at his wife she was standing there, she had nothing to say. Probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say, you tell me, but plenty of people have written that. She was extremely quiet and it looked like she had nothing to say, a lot of people have said that, and personally I watched him, I wish him the best of luck.” Trump’s comments were criticized by some military supporters and politicians, who considered it unacceptable that Trump would insult a family that had lost a son in war. Ghazala Khan responded in an op-ed for the Washington Post. She said her silence was not, as Trump implied, because of some restrictions placed on her by her religion. It was because she was still grieving her son. “Walking onto the convention stage, with a huge picture of my son behind me, I could hardly control myself,” she wrote. “What mother could?” In the Stephanopoulos interview, when asked to comment on Khan’s claim that Trump had “sacrificed nothing and no one,” Trump replied: “Who wrote that? Did Hilary’s scriptwriters write it?” Following that interview, Khizr Khan told CNN’s Jim Acosta that Trump had a “black soul” for making implications about his wife and the authenticity of his own words. “[This behavior] is totally unfit for the leadership of this country,” he said. Trump defended himself on Twitter, saying that while Humayun Khan is a hero, the GOP candidate’s policies are about “radical Islamic terror and the weakness of our leaders to eradicate it.” I was viciously attacked by Mr. Khan at the Democratic Convention. Am I not allowed to respond? Hillary voted for the Iraq war, not me! Mr. Khan, who does not know me, viciously attacked me from the stage of the DNC and is now all over T.V. doing the same - Nice! There has been a lot of talk about the Khans being a “Gold Star” family or Ghazala Khan being a “Gold Star” mother. The term “Gold Star” refers to any family who has lost an immediate member who was serving in the military while in a time of conflict. The term comes from World War I, when a banner was flown by families who had a member serving in the war. A blue star represented each member, and if one of them was killed in the war, it would be replaced with a gold star. After Trump’s comments about Khizr and Ghazala Khan, representatives from 23 Gold Star families wrote an open letter defending the Khans. “Ours is a sacrifice you will never know,” they wrote. “Ours is a sacrifice we would never want you to know.”


Russian military withdrawal "a positive step," rebels' umbrella group's spokesperson said Diplomats in Geneva puzzled over Putin's plans Western diplomats doubt regime's negotiator has power to broker real deal I first met Salem Meslet on a rain-soaked street of the Swiss city back in January. It was a dark time for him. Now, not so much: he’s the happiest I’ve seen him. The English-speaking Syrian opposition spokesman has been reveling in the possibilities of a Russian military drawdown in Syria. “It is a positive step if we see action on the ground,” he told journalists gathered outside the U.N.’s sprawling Geneva Headquarters, which is hosting peace talks in the same year that this conflict has entered its sixth year. “What’s really keeping Assad in power, what keeps crimes until this moment, is the presence of the Russian forces there. “It has had an effect on the political atmosphere,” he told me, “one more reason to feel they are engaged in a process.” READ: Why this round of Syrian peace talks may be different? It’s a far cry from January when it was Russia’s bombing that caused the talks to be suspended and left Meslet dejected.  We have met many times since then: in Munich, Riyadh and again this week. He is always well dressed and generous to a fault with his time, greeting you with a friendly handshake. For the international audience, Meslet has become the face of the HNC, the High Negotiations Committee, which represents close to 100 rebel factions. They range from a former prime minister to conservative Islamists and are the group that the U.N. has taken to negotiate with the Assad government. Related video Peace talks comes amid fragile ceasefire Meslet is always optimistic and chooses his words carefully as he appears before the media. He is urbane and diplomatic, a family man and a far cry from the image of the hardened Islamist fighters that he speaks for. Even before Putin’s surprise announcement, Meslet and the HNC were already more positive. The cessation of hostilities was holding – proof, they said, that they could control the armed groups they claim to speak for while validating their claim to represent Syria’s opposition and be at the talks. READ: Assad’s status not up for debate at Geneva talks But that’s not how the Syrian government delegation sees it, with their lead negotiator Bashar Jaafari continuing to push broader opposition representation. Western diplomats doubt he has any power to negotiate at all, saying that the Syrian government delegation are “window dressing” or “not the real deal”  or “classic front of house, none of the deep state.” Related video Analyst: Iran joins talks to set terms in its favor It’s an analysis that might surprise some of Meslet’s colleagues, who privately told us they think that Jaafari picked a more moderate Syrian delegation than previously. Some among the government delegation think they might even be sympathetic to the opposition. By contrast, the HNC is keen to push forward with the talks, to put forward their proposals for constitutional change and political transition and the end of Assad’s rule. But if there is to be a serious dashing of hopes it may be Russian intentions – and not Assad’s double dealing – that does it. Related video Russia to pull its troops out of Syria Across Geneva and beyond, diplomats have been scrambling to understand what Putin is really planning. “We don’t have information verifiable of a pullout” one western diplomat told me of Monday’s announcement. “It could be a troop rotation, we don’t know.” Analysis is going to take some time, the diplomat continued. “We need to test we are seeing a sustained reduction of Russian presence on ground and in the air. So far we haven’t got that yet” What is clear for Meslet, the opposition and all Geneva’s diplomats, the ups and downs of negotiations have barely begun.


Editor’s Note: William Bell is the Mayor of Birmingham, AL, and is an ambassador with Human Rights First’s Bankrupt Slavery campaign. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his. Pope Francis will soon visit the United States to speak before Congress and address the U.N. "I hope the Pope will urge action against modern slavery," writes Mayor William Bell American economy has the capacity to enable -- or deter -- trafficking, he writes After recently having the privilege of travelling to Vatican City to attend a summit hosted by Pope Francis about the intersecting challenges of modern slavery and climate change, I came away with renewed resolve to do my part as the Mayor of Birmingham and ambassador for Human Rights First’s campaign to dismantle the business of human trafficking. Born in Alabama into a deeply rooted system of segregation, this issue is close to my heart. Like the historical Trans-Atlantic system of slavery, so-called “Jim Crow” was a structure of oppression and exploitation based on race. But it was also about preserving the economic profits of the exploiters. Modern day slavery is similarly a system of oppression driven by profit. Human trafficking generates an estimated $150 billion annually in illicit revenue. It’s the fastest-growing criminal enterprise in the world. Pope Francis will soon visit the United States to speak before a joint session of Congress in Washington and address the United Nations General Assembly in New York. I hope and expect that the Pope will continue to urge action against modern slavery and encourage the United States to be a global leader on this cause. Despite growing public awareness of human trafficking, many Americans continue to believe it’s a problem only “over there.” In fact, the United States is both a source and destination of trafficking victims, and the American economy, with its global power, has the capacity to enable – or deter – trafficking. Given our nation’s particular history with slavery, we have an added moral obligation to lead the fight against human trafficking. But what would that leadership look like? Informed by the fact that it’s money that drives this industry, we need to flip the risk-reward equation. Although slavery is illegal everywhere, perpetrators operate with near impunity while they rake in immense profits. The International Labor Organization estimates that over 20 million people are enslaved worldwide. Yet the State Department reported only 4,443 trafficking convictions around the world in 2014. In the United States, only 184. To secure more convictions, we need more investigations launched with coordination between federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. All perpetrators must be targeted, from the masterminds to document forgers to recruiters. Without higher risk for every criminal in this complex network, there will be insufficient disincentive to continue operating. We also need the cooperation of businesses, which may be unwittingly abetting traffickers by using corrupt labor contractors and allowing illicit funds to be transferred through legitimate financial streams. The business and finance sectors must demand clean supply chains and enact fiscal safeguards, and work with law enforcement to ensure that human traffickers do not amass profits while operating in the blind spots of industry leaders. But to achieve any of this, the men and women who have dedicated their lives to the anti-trafficking cause need the resources to fight this fight. To put the problem in perspective, the United States spends more in a month combating the illicit drug trade than it has spent combating the human being trade for the last 15 years. With sufficient funds, we will be able to provide victims with essential aid, law enforcement with a comprehensive and collaborative framework, and prosecutors with the capacity to pursue cases at unprecedented levels. Without enough resources, laws against trafficking have no teeth and efforts to eradicate it languish. True leadership requires putting our money where our mouth is. Pope Francis has a knack for uniting diverse groups around a cause. The fight against modern slavery requires just such a coalition – including faith leaders, captains of industry, elected officials, and members of law enforcement. I’m grateful for his championing of this issue, and I hope he uses his visit to encourage American leadership on this pressing human rights issue.


UN to meet to discuss large movement of migrants and refugees UNCHR found a total 65.3 million people were displaced at the end of 2015 On the day the United Nations meets in New York to discuss the refugee crisis, organizers in London created a poignant reminder of the plight facing refugees. Volunteers arrived in London’s Parliament Square Monday to construct a “life jacket graveyard” where over 2,500 were laid out, including 625, which had been used by children. A post shared by Isa Soares (@isasoarescnn) On average, 11 men, women and children have died across Europe every day over the past 12 months, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). On the day of the UN summit we are #WithRefugees. Lifejacket graveyard appearing in Parliament Sq. #LifeJacketLondon pic.twitter.com/ZgzGoIdASP Between January 2015 and August 2016, an estimated 6,940 people drowned or went missing while attempting to reach Europe. A post shared by Isa Soares (@isasoarescnn) The life jackets on display were used by refugees attempting to cross from Turkey to the Greek island of Chios. According to the UNCHR, 281,740 people have made the sea crossing to Europe during the first eight months of 2016. The number of refugees arriving in Greece has dropped from over 67,000 in January to 3,347 in August. The decrease is largely due to the implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement and the closure of the so-called Balkan route. UNCHR says the number of arrivals to Italy has remained at more or less the same level with an estimated 115,000 refugees and migrants landing as of the end of August compared to 116,000 at the same time of the previous year. In June, the UNCHR found that 65.3 million people were displaced at the end of 2015, compared to 59.5 million just 12 months earlier.


While some women are doing everything they can to get rid of extra weight, a larger behind is so desirable in some countries that it’s fueling a whole industry of creams, surgery and padding. 2015 was called “the year of the rear” by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. “In some social circles it’s like, ‘You haven’t had your butt done? What’s wrong with you?’”, explained Dr. Stanley Okoro, a plastic surgeon who works in Atlanta, Georgia, and Lagos, Nigeria. When he’s in Nigeria every two months, Okoro said he’s able to do four to six butt lifts in a week. Each one usually takes six to eight hours, and Okoro is often booked up until late. “Sometimes I’m in surgery until 1am. It’s exhausting,” he said. Dr. Okoro says the biggest contributor to the rise in buttock surgery is without a doubt social media. “It is a combination of increased popularity of Kim Kardashian, known for her ample backside, as well as increased popularity of social media,” said Dr. Matthew Schulman, a plastic surgeon in New York City. A post shared by Kim Kardashian (@kimkardashian) “The pressure to look good is what’s driving people,” said Okoro. He said in Nigeria, the massive film industry, commonly referred to as Nollywood, has driven the demand for the perfect butt. A growing middle class has significantly contributed to the growth of cosmetic plastic surgery – once a forbidden industry – in Nigeria and Ghana, added Okoro. The availability of smartphones in Africa and access to social media has also fuelled the rise in cosmetic surgery, Okoro said. Over the past three to five years increased economic power and awareness of cosmetic surgery has fueled the popularity of such procedures, said Dr. Ojochide Ebune, a Nigerian surgeon and assistant secretary general of Nigerian Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons. The number of trained and certified plastic surgeons in Nigeria has grown in the last five years, says Ebune, from 70 plastic surgeons five years ago to around 100 now. “The prosperity of patients is starting to increase. In a few years, it [cosmetic surgery] will be a mainstay in Nigeria and parts of Africa,” said Ebune, adding that the demand mostly comes from more cosmopolitan cities such as Lagos and Abuja. In South Africa, in a suburb in Johannesburg, “Surgeon and Safari” helps clients facilitate their cosmetic procedures, and perhaps go on safari too. Many clients come from abroad, said owner Lorraine Melvill, who started back in 2000 and told CNN there is an emergence of local Africans that chose to come to South Africa for elective surgery. “There is quite a big market coming out of Angola, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana. Their economies are growing and therefore their middle classes are growing and… the need increases,” she said. For those who can’t afford surgery, there are cheaper alternatives in the form of pills and creams. Dr. Okoro advises caution, though, as their contents can be unclear and their effectiveness unproven. The trend in Africa is definitely on the rise, he said. “The same trend in Nigeria [for butt lifts], we are seeing in other West African countries.” ASPS’s report in February showed that 15.9 million surgical and less-invasive cosmetic procedures were performed in the U.S. in 2015, a two percent increase from 2014.  Dr. Schulman says he saw the demand for butt lifts start five years ago, and he has patients from all over the world. “I think this trend is here to stay, at least for the near future.” Schulman does warn about choosing an experienced and board certified plastic surgeon, however, as many of his clients come to him for corrective surgeries after bad results from other doctors. His advice: only select a surgeon who does six to eight of these procedures per week, and can show over 100 of their own before and after photos.

cosmetic plastic surgery industry in Nigeria and Africa


Sekulow denied that Trump's tweet from last week was a confirmation that he is under investigation Cuomo challenged the argument, calling it "illogical" A lawyer for President Donald Trump clashed with CNN anchor Chris Cuomo Monday morning over whether his client is the target of an FBI investigation into possible collusion with the Russians. “As I said all weekend, there has been no notification to any of us that the President is under any investigation and as I said, James Comey has said on three separate occasions that the President is not under investigation,” said Jay Sekulow, repeating an argument he also made on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper on Sunday. On both occasions, Sekulow denied that Trump’s tweet from last week – “I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director!” – was a confirmation that he is under investigation. Cuomo challenged the argument, calling it “illogical.” Related video Trump lawyer: Comey firing doesn't violate law “To say, ‘Comey told him he’s not under investigation, so he can’t be’ – that’s illogical,” Cuomo said. “What’s being said right now is that the special counsel is looking at everything, including the circumstances around Comey’s firing. Doesn’t that make sense?” Sekulow continued, saying that because the President had not been notified of any investigation, reports that he is the target of a probe must be false. Related article Trump says he is being investigated over Comey firing “Just because you haven’t been notified doesn’t mean you’re not under investigation,” Cuomo replied. “There is no duty to inform you.” “There is a fundamental threshold question there that the President’s authority to terminate the FBI director is based on the Constitution,” Sekulow responded. Related video Sekulow: POTUS has power to fire FBI director The two lawyers then went back and forth, talking over one another. Cuomo maintained that the special counsel in the Russia probe, Robert Mueller, will be looking into the circumstances around Comey’s firing as Sekulow said he couldn’t be sure Mueller would be doing that at all, as the President is able to fire the FBI director per the Constitution. Ultimately, Sekulow conceded there is “no duty” for the investigators to notify the White House if Trump is being investigated “in the sense of an obligation to tell.” “But you know how it works in Washington,” Sekulow continued. “If you were a target, if you were being investigated, you would be told really quickly into the investigation.” Related video Lawyer says Trump isn't under investigation “Why don’t you just pick up the phone and call Bob Mueller and ask whether or not your client has any role in their investigation?” Cuomo countered. “It’s not like this White House is averse to making any kind of inquiries about the Russia probe. Why not just find out?” From there, Sekulow pivoted to the topic of leaks, saying, “The only reason we’re talking about this is because of what? Because of a leak from The Washington Post.” “That’s absolutely not true. That’s not why I’m asking you about it,” Cuomo said. The anchor continued, “The idea that Mueller wouldn’t be looking at the circumstances surrounding the firing of the director of the FBI defies common sense.”