Donald Trump often acts like a President touting a solution in search of a problem. Whether it’s because of his own conspiratorial mindset, a desire to keep political loyalists engaged or a lack of interest in dry policy details, Trump frequently acts to address an idiosyncratic version of reality. On immigration in particular, but also on gender issues or electoral reform, Trump has often waded in to tackle what he bills as a national emergency that few other people see. Trump’s announcement Thursday that he wants to send “anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000” National Guard troops to the southern border, following a week of rising fury on the issue of immigration, is a prime example of how his oft-challenged beliefs drive government policy. Also on Thursday, he revived one of his most notorious and misleading claims, the idea that Hillary Clinton’s win of the popular vote in 2016 was the result of massive fraud. He claimed that many people in the Democratic bastion of California voted many times, portraying the state of the electoral system as a grave national crisis. “They always like to say, ‘Oh that’s a conspiracy theory.’ It’s not a conspiracy theory.’ Millions and millions of people, and it’s very hard because the state guards their records,” the President said. The problem is that there is no evidence to support his claims, and even a commission set up by the White House ended up failing to prove Trump’s portrayal of events that would represent an existential crisis for American democracy if they were true. In no area has Trump been so willing to create his own version of reality as on immigration policy, a topic that more than any other electrified his base and propelled him to the White House. The decision to deploy the National Guard came in a week when he consciously stoked the flames of crisis, apparently set off by a Fox News report Sunday, about a “caravan” of Central American refugees trekking across Mexico toward the US border. With midterm elections looming, he’s been taking fire from conservative media disappointed with his failure to do more, let alone build his signature border wall. The White House billed the National Guard move as a last-ditch step to stem a torrent of people and drugs across the border in the face of congressional inaction. But it actually comes after a period of historically low transgressions – despite a rise in crossings in March – a fact that the President previously celebrated. But it’s not clear that sending the National Guard to the border, as his predecessors Barack Obama and George W. Bush both did on occasion, is a proportionate response to the current situation. After all, members of the caravan actually want to get swept up by border authorities because they plan to apply for asylum, so they are unlikely to try to evade capture. Anyway, they represent the hordes of aliens descending on US borders that might merit a military response. Indeed, critics of the border wall project itself say it addresses a problem that does not exist, and it would not deal with one of the most pressing immigration issues: the number of people who enter the country legally and then overstay their visas. Trump’s claims on voter fraud seem to be the fruit of a conspiratorial mind. It all started even before he took office, when Trump made clear he wasn’t satisfied with simply winning the White House via the Electoral College – he wanted to establish that Clinton hadn’t won the popular vote. Although Trump beat Clinton by 306 to 232 electoral votes, the Democrat outpaced him in the popular vote by almost 2.9 million votes. “In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally,” Trump wrote in a tweet in November 2016 that caused shock, bafflement and even derision. In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally In an apparent attempt to spare the President’s blushes, the administration eventually set up a commission to probe voter fraud in the 2016 election, on which Vice President Mike Pence was a key member. Perhaps not surprisingly, the commission was dissolved after failing to produce any evidence, though Trump blamed the move on the failure of several states to cooperate. But as with the current row over immigration, Trump opponents saw not just an attempt to indulge the President’s prejudices at work, but also an attempt by Republicans to make it harder for minorities – a key Democratic constituency – to vote. “The mere mention of voter fraud is a dirty tactic to suppress voters and turn people off from participating in elections. This undermines the public trust in our election system,” said Chris Carson, president of the League of Women Voters. One of the first big battles over immigration last year erupted after Trump announced plans to bar visitors from a number of mainly Muslim nations in what he said was an effort to thwart Islamic terrorists from infiltrating US soil. “We need a TRAVEL BAN for certain DANGEROUS countries, not some politically correct term that won’t help us protect our people,” Trump tweeted on June 5, 2017, months after the original iteration of the travel ban executive order was blocked in the courts. One logical problem with the travel ban, modified after several court challenges, was that if it was meant to stop terrorism, it was directed against the wrong people. Trump’s original executive order banned travel to the United States from seven majority Muslim countries: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. Yet none of the terrorists who conducted deadly jihadist attacks in the US after September 11, 2001, came from those nations. Many national security experts believe that the biggest threat to US shores from foreign-born terrorists is represented by those who can get into the United States under the visa waiver program covering European and other nations. Still, as a political device, new versions of the travel ban, which is still being challenged in various courts, allowed Trump to deliver on his campaign promises to get tough on terrorism, even if it was not the most appropriate way to combat the threat. In a classic in his long history of volcanic tweets, the President set off a huge controversy last July by announcing that he would bar all transgender individuals from serving in the nation’s armed forces. “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail,” Trump wrote. Yet his move appeared to catch the military off guard, since there was no plan in place to put the commander-in-chief’s order into action. It also appeared to be another attempt by Trump to solve a crisis that many of those involved did not believe really existed. On the issue of medical costs, for example, a Rand Corp. study released earlier this year debunked the idea that transgender troops represented a huge burden because of gender transition therapy. Rand found that medical costs for transgender personnel would be between $2.4 million and $8.4 million a year – less than a quarter of 1 percent of the value of all health care costs for people on active duty. This week, the largest association of doctors in the US took aim at Trump’s other claim: that transgender troops could harm the morale and effectiveness of US armed forces. “We believe there is no medically valid reason – including a diagnosis of gender dysphoria – to exclude transgender individuals from military service,” the American Medical Association wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary James Mattis dated Tuesday. As with other fronts in Trump’s war on nonexistent crises, there is also a political explanation. In March, the administration formalized the President’s decision barring people with a “history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria” from serving in the military except in limited circumstances. The policy, popular with evangelical groups vital to the President’s electoral coalition, happened to come out at a moment when Trump was under extreme political and legal pressure over lawsuits brought by women who claimed they had had affairs or had been sexually harassed by him.


Obama said the US could not 'sit on the sidelines' as the planet heats up The Obama administration brokered the Paris Agreement on climate change Former US President Barack Obama praised his administration’s record on climate change Tuesday, just as the Trump administration struggles with an internal rift over whether to pull out of the Paris climate accord. The Paris Agreement was in part brokered by Obama and was seen as a major breakthrough after the previous accord, the Kyoto protocol, failed to include the US and China, the world’s two biggest polluters. Related article Obama returns to spotlight to speak up on climate change US President Donald Trump vowed during his campaign to “cancel” US participation in the accord, which obliges countries to slash their greenhouse gas emissions to keep global temperatures from rising to catastrophic levels. At a summit in Milan, Italy, focused on climate change and food availability, Obama defended the Paris Agreement and said that the US must show leadership and not “sit on the sidelines.” “During the course of my presidency, I made climate change a top priority because I believe that of all the challenges that we face, this is the one that will define the contours of this century, more dramatically perhaps than any other,” Obama said at the Seeds & Chips summit. “We have been able to bring our emissions down even as we grow our economy. The same is true in many parts of Europe,” he said. In a question-and-answer session, Obama said his policies had helped the United States improve its wind power production and increase solar power production 10-fold, explaining that the costs for renewable energy were now comparable to oil and gas. He did not, however, make any direct criticisms of the Trump administration’s policies. “The current administration has differences with my administration in terms of energy policy, and that’s part of what happens in democracy. So there will be useful debate that takes place in America,” he said. Related video Undeniable climate change facts He defended the Paris Agreement as a deal that would not reverse climate change but that had “put together the architecture” for a meaningful response. The speech is Obama’s first abroad since leaving office in January, and the former president appeared relaxed, ditching his usual tie for an unbuttoned collar. Climate change and nutrition are issues close to the Obamas’ hearts and were centerpiece policies of the eight-year Obama period. Fresh in office in 2009, Obama initiated his “Feed the Future” campaign that by some accounts has helped 9 million farmers and more than 17 million children, many under 5 years of age, have a chance of improved nutrition in more than 19 countries worldwide. At the same time, former first lady Michelle Obama championed the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act in 2010, providing much needed healthy meals for schoolkids, an early Trump target in scything back the Obamas’ legacy. Meanwhile, Trump aides are openly airing their differences on the issue and a final decision on the US stance is expected soon. A planned meeting on Tuesday of Trump’s advisers on whether to pull out of the agreement, however, was postponed, a White House official said, citing a scheduling conflict. Related article Unusually public debate over Paris climate accord nears conclusion, officials say Trump has maintained he is committed to taking the US out of the accord, which would severely weaken the agreement as the United States is the world’s second-largest polluter. Trump Chief Strategist Steve Bannon has pressed the President to uphold his campaign promises to withdraw from the plan, and thereby signal a commitment to American energy producers, including coal miners. Trump, who once remarked that climate change was a Chinese hoax, has since backed off those claims. The debate between Trump’s aides has turned from whether climate change is real to discussions on how the administration plans to position itself at the international negotiating table on global warming. Trump has resolved to announce his intentions by this month’s Group of 7 meeting in Sicily, meaning a decision to withdraw could isolate him at his first gathering of world leaders. In March, Trump signed an executive order designed to prioritize American jobs over addressing climate change. It could roll back several Obama-era climate policies, including a review the Clean Power Plan initiative, which is designed to curb man-made carbon emissions. The Paris agreement is a global deal that was drafted in 2015 to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. It entered into force on 4 November 2016. So far, 145 countries have ratified or accepted it, including China, the world’s top polluter. Every nation involved in the talks, except Syria and Nicaragua, signed onto the deal. Related article There's one sentence that could decide the fate of the planet (yes, really) Each country must commit to a voluntary plan to reduce emissions, with the goal of keeping the global rise in temperatures to below 2°C above pre-industrial levels. Obama called it “a turning point for the world” and made it the legacy of his administration’s climate policy along with the Clean Power Plan. If the United States does decide to pull out of the agreement, it won’t be a quick process. UN rules mandate a one-year notice period, starting three years after the accord has entered into force. That would mean November 2019, plus one year to complete the withdrawal in late 2020. CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.


Michael Morell, former CIA acting director, told CNN that he finds it unusual the intelligence community would present President-elect Donald Trump and President Barack Obama with a summary of information they had not yet verified. “I was a bit surprised that our intelligence community would take a private document and summarize it for the President and President-elect if they didn’t know anything about the credibility of the information in it,” Morell told Christiane Amanpour. “That would be, quite frankly, unprecedented – to take a private document, right – you’d be doing that every day, if that’s the way you were operating,” he added. “If there was some reason why they thought some part of it or certain aspects of it were credible, that they had actually done some work, then it might make sense to bring it to his attention.” “We just don’t know which one it is right now.” Related article Intel chiefs presented Trump with claims of Russian efforts to compromise him He also said that the memos on which the summary from the intelligence community was based contain information that he knows to be true, some that he knows to be false, and some that is contradictory. “This is what you see when you look at raw intelligence,” he said. “I last night read the entire 18 memos, the 35 pages,” Morell  said. “I was looking at things that I knew – small bits of information that I knew were true.” Related video Watch the full interview “I saw stuff that was absolutely not true – small bits. I saw a bunch of stuff that I had no idea. I saw stuff that was contradictory.” It’s “very important to remember that sources, even the best CIA sources, get things wrong all the time,” Morell added. “They lie to enhance their credibility, right – to try to get more money.” “So my bottom line,” he said, “was I can’t tell what’s true here and what’s not. This needs a lot more work.”


This page includes the show Transcript Use the Transcript to help students with reading comprehension and vocabulary At the bottom of the page, comment for a chance to be mentioned on CNN Student News.  You must be a teacher or a student age 13 or older to request a mention on the CNN Student News Roll Call. The Weekly Newsquiz tests students' knowledge of events in the news November 6, 2015 As investigators try to figure out what brought down a plane over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, we’re exploring the flight tracking information that could offer some clues. As voters in Myanmar (Burma) prepare to head to the polls, we’re looking at the political and social influence of Aung San Suu Kyi. And as high-resolution video provides incredible images of the sun, we’re comparing the heat on its surface to that of a lightning bolt on Earth. Plus: random hot dog facts! On this page you will find today’s show Transcript and a place for you to request to be on the CNN Student News Roll Call. TRANSCRIPT Click here to access the transcript of today’s CNN Student News program. Please note that there may be a delay between the time when the video is available and when the transcript is published. WEEKLY NEWSQUIZ Click here for a printable version of the Weekly Newsquiz (PDF). 1. President Obama recently announced the deployment of dozens of U.S. Special Operations troops to what civil war-torn country? 2. What world capital is preparing to host the “COP21” meeting, where more than 40,000 delegates from 195 countries will be gathering in late November? 3. On Tuesday’s show, what U.S. city was mentioned as having recently received earthquakes of magnitudes 3.2, 4.1 and 4.0 on the same night? 4. Name the region of Egypt, a peninsula, where Kogalymavia (Metrojet) Flight 9268 crashed en route to Russia last weekend. 5. Including Tropical Cyclone Chapala, which made landfall this week, how many tropical cyclones have been recorded in the Middle Eastern country of Yemen? 6. The Peshmerga and the YPG are two combat units of what Middle Eastern ethnic group? 7. As reported on Wednesday’s show, roughly what percentage of vehicle crashes in the U.S. are due to human error? 8. Name the popular, Pacific resort island where many travelers were stranded after a volcano erupted nearby, prompting the cancellations of hundreds of flights. 9. According to a new study, how many hours per day, on average, are U.S. teenagers spending with all forms of electronic media? 10. In what Asian country, home to politician and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, are people to set to vote in their first free election in decades? CNN Student News is created by a team of journalists who consider the Common Core State Standards, national standards in different subject areas, and state standards when producing the show. ROLL CALL For a chance to be mentioned on the next CNN Student News, comment on the bottom of this page with your school name, mascot, city and state. We will be selecting schools from the comments of the previous show. You must be a teacher or a student age 13 or older to request a mention on the CNN Student News Roll Call! Thank you for using CNN Student News!


Police say farmer killed by Scottish Highland bull Cattle breed is "even-tempered" but can become aggressive Cattle have been sent to other farms A New Hampshire farmer is dead after being gored by one of his animals. State police say Christopher Merrill, 51, was killed by a Scottish Highland bull on his family farm in Hampton Falls. Authorities were notified after Merrill didn’t return from tending his cattle last weekend. His body was found in a pasture the day after he was reported missing. Search crews had some difficulty with the cattle as they worked to recover the body. “They were relatively aggressive, so we had to deal with that as a part of the search, and also as part of the recovery of the victim,” New Hampshire State Police Lt. Chris Vetter told CNN affiliate WMUR. The details of Merrill’s fatal injuries were not released and it’s unclear whether he had a confrontation with a bull or whether his death was accidental. The breed of cattle, which originally came from the Scottish Highlands, is known for shaggy hair and long horns. “The Highland is considered an even-tempered animal – bulls as well as cows,” according to the Department of Animal Science at Oklahoma State University. But animal experts say any breed of cattle can be dangerous when startled or nervous or in an attempt to show dominance. Merrill’s wife, Elizabeth, told the affiliate that the family wanted to open a Christmas tree farm on the property and that the cattle would keep the brush down. She said the cattle will now be sent to other farms.


A freshly made white chocolate and raspberry mix is carefully poured into a piping bag by chef Yasumasa Takagi, one of the most renowned patissiers in Japan. After snipping the end of the bag, he squeezes the delicious pink paste into a tray of oblong, white plastic molds. Surprisingly, Takagi isn’t creating an elaborate confection for customers to his fashionable Tokyo cafe; this is something far more modest. It’s a KitKat. Most of the world knows the KitKat as an ordinary coffee break snack made from wafers and milk chocolate. In Japan, it’s in a completely different league. Here, gourmet versions, pioneered by Takagi, compete with a mind-boggling array of mass-produced flavors that to some palates might border on the bizarre. 25 Japanese foods we love – from tempura to miso Wasabi KitKat anyone? How about lemon vinegar? Or pumpkin pudding, green tea, Shinshu apple or adzuki bean sandwich? It’s a long way from the KitKat’s humble origins in 1930s England. Born in the northern city of York, the chocolate treat was relatively unknown globally until local manufacturer Rowntree was bought by Swiss food giant Nestle in the 1980s. Meet Japan’s most French chef Even as it spread across the planet, success was never guaranteed in Japan – a market notoriously difficult to break into for non-domestic brands. So how has it become such a phenomenon? That’s down to some hard work and smart ideas from KitKat’s Japanese marketing gurus in the western city of Kobe. And also a lucky quirk of language. KitKat sounds very similar to “kito kato,” which in Japanese means “to surely win.” It’s a common phrase said to students sitting exams, particularly high-pressure university entrance tests. Soon after they arrived in Japan, KitKats were being given by parents to their children and friends were giving them to each other with hand-written messages – and not just around exam time. “There was strong emotional bonding going on and the ‘gifting emotion,’” says Ryoji Maki, marketing manager for KitKat in Japan. A guide to the world’s finest meal He says Japan’s gift-giving tradition and particular culinary habits – prizing seasonal and regional products – were tapped into. But it wasn’t until the early 2000s that KitKat in Japan began to show its true colors with a riotous expansion in flavors. Consumers in Japan demand choice and novelty as much as they prize tradition. According to Maki, about 2,000 new confectionery products are released each year in Japan, so it’s not enough to just offer dark or milk chocolate variations. To date there have been more than 300 different KitKat flavors. Ingredients are sourced from regions across the country, often produced and sold to coincide with food seasons in limited edition boxes of KitKat minis. Shizuoka prefecture provides the wasabi. Okinawa gives up its purple potatoes and matcha green tea. Other unlikely flavors are sakura (cherry blossom) and sake (non-alcoholic). Taking the bars out of the shops and into Japan’s eateries has also been another strategy. Tie-ins have gone beyond straightforward desserts like cheesecake, resulting in curiosities like KitKat pizzas and “baking bars,” designed to be cooked before eating. Since 2012, KitKat has started to eclipse homegrown confectionery brands such as Meiji. The world’s most delicious national cakes About four million KitKat minis (a smaller, two-finger version of the classic bar) roll out of the chocolate factory each day –  that’s close to 1.5 billion each year. And it doesn’t stop there, which is where patisserie supremo Takagi comes in. “After I gained training at various famous shops in France and Belgium, I thought that it was my mission to fill the gap between Western countries and Japan,” says Takagi. Initially approached about a collaboration with KitKat, he rejected it. “I believed I couldn’t create chocolate freely without ties,” he says. A decade of discussions and negotiations later, convinced he had free rein to experiment within his own high standards, Takagi agreed to open his kitchens to KitKat. They now produce very limited edition high-quality KitKats, using couverture chocolate, that can only be found in his shops and eight of Japan’s high-end department stores through KitKat “Chocolatory” concessions. The first opened in Tokyo in January 2014 and sold out of Chef Takagi’s specialty bars in hours. Since then he’s been advocating for new flavors and pushing out new products, from the single-finger Sublime range to “special” flavors that include fruit or tea-infused minis. Visitors to Japan can get their hands on Chef Takagi’s current range from under KitKat chandeliers (yes, really) at the Chocolatory concessions. Gift boxes in limited-edition flavors are on sale at major train stations and airports. There are no concrete plans for export, but if Takagi is able to convince a global food giant operating in one of the most competitive markets in the world to change their approach, don’t rule it out. “What I would most like to achieve is to deliver Japanese KitKat Chocolatory with craftsmanship to the people around the world,” he says. Chocolatory, Seibu Ikebukuro department store, 1-28-1 Minami Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo; +81 3 5949 2026


The Department of State's initial reward offer was $10 million ISIS, under al-Baghdadi, has grabbed swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria The United States is offering $25 million for information leading to the capture of  ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The Department of State released a statement Friday announcing the $25 million dollar reward for the self proclaimed caliph of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria – more than doubling the reward announced previously. “The threat that al-Baghdadi poses has increased significantly since the Department of State’s initial $10 million reward offer for information leading to his location, arrest, or conviction was announced in 2011,” the department’s Rewards for Justice Program said on its website. Under al-Baghdadi, ISIS grabbed swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria – earning a reputation for unparallelled  brutality. Related article Who might lead ISIS if al-Baghdadi dies? Officials have long described al-Baghdadi as enemy No. 1 in the fight against the militant group, and speculation has swirled over his whereabouts. Though al-Baghdadi has been elusive, he has spoken out occasionally in videos and audio messages. In October 2015, Iraq’s military claimed its air force had struck a convoy in western Anbar province that included a vehicle carrying al-Baghdadi. For weeks, reports circulated that he was seriously injured in the airstrike. Those reports have since been disputed by US officials. CNN’s Joe Sutton and Catherine Shoichet contributed to this report.


The texts point to Paul Manafort's possible influence in Ukraine, the lawyer says A hacker website posted thousands of texts, apparently from Andrea Manafort A Ukrainian human rights attorney representing the victims of mass police shootings in Kiev in 2014 has asked prosecutors to investigate what are purported to be the hacked text messages of one of Paul Manafort’s daughters, saying the texts point to possible influence Manafort had with Ukraine’s president during that period. “You know he has killed people in Ukraine? Knowingly,” Andrea Manafort allegedly wrote of her father in March 2015 in an angry series of texts to her sister, Jessica, about her father’s personal and professional life. “Remember when there were all those deaths taking place. A while back. About a year ago. Revolts and what not,” reads another text in reference to the bloodshed in Kiev. “Do you know whose strategy that was to cause that, to send those people out and get them slaughtered.” “He has no moral or legal compass,” Andrea allegedly wrote about her father earlier as part of the same conversation. The messages were obtained from a hacker website that in February posted four years’ worth of texts, consisting of 300,000 messages, apparently taken from Andrea Manafort’s iPhone. Paul Manafort currently faces an FBI investigation over millions of dollars’ worth of payments he allegedly received while working as a political strategist for Ukraine’s Russia-backed president, Viktor Yanukovych. Manafort has denied receiving the undeclared cash payments. Protesters descended on Kiev’s central square in a peaceful protest in the winter of 2013 when Yanukovych unexpectedly backed out of a trade deal with the European Union under pressure from the Kremlin. Close to 100 people died in the shootings in the weeks before Yanukovych fled in February 2014. Ukrainian authorities say Yanukovych created conditions that allowed security forces to kill the pro-Western protesters in Kiev, but so far have not been able to charge him because he is in Russia. Manafort has not been linked to the shootings. Asked by CNN to comment, Manafort said via text message: “Comment on what. There is nothing.” Manafort would not confirm whether the texts were genuine, but in a Politico story last month on the texts, he indicated that some of them were. The texts suggest that Manafort and his daughter were together in Florida on the day of the worst violence in Kiev on February 20th, when close to 50 people died. Thursday, the human rights lawyer, Eugenia Zakrevska, filed a motion in Kiev requesting that prosecutors verify the contents of the text message dump and take measures to compel US authorities to question Manafort. “I call on Mr. Manafort to clarify the allegations contained in the text messages and to contact us with any information he may have on those events,” Zakrevska told CNN. Zakrevska and a special prosecution unit have been working together on several concurrent cases looking into the violence in and around Kiev’s Independence Square. Zakrevska said all of the killings would have already taken place by the time Manafort met his daughter the evening of the 20th, if the texts’ timestamps are accurate, and she thought it was unlikely that Andrea actually witnessed Paul Manafort personally directing Kiev police forces. “But this doesn’t rule out Manafort’s influence on Yanukovych’s actions and decisions during that period,” Zakrevska said. Serhiy Gorbatyuk, Ukraine’s prosecutor for special investigations, confirmed to CNN that his office received Zakrevska’s motion and said the text messages would be investigated and potentially entered into evidence. “We will check thoroughly to verify if they are real or not.” Asked by CNN about the prospect of an investigation by the general prosecutors’ office, Manafort replied: “Total BS on GP (general prosecutor).” Manafort began working for Yanukovych in 2004 and grew to be an influential figure in Ukraine who had the ear of the President. After Yanukovych was ousted and pro-Western forces took the reins, Manafort stayed on in the country to help rebrand Yanukovych’s Party of Regions as “Opposition Bloc.” Manafort joined the Trump campaign in March 2016 and was pushed out in August. The text messages, if genuine, shed light both on the last days of the Yanukovych regime in Ukraine and a turbulent period in the Trump campaign last summer, when Trump shook up his team’s leadership structure. They also cover the time period when Russia, according to US intelligence agencies, may have been conducting hacks into email accounts associated with the Democratic Party. In the same 2015 conversation with her sister, Andrea allegedly suggests to Jessica that their father used covert methods to send messages to Ukraine. “I was there when it happened. I saw him on his shady email,” she allegedly wrote. “They don’t write emails. They log on and write in the drafts So it’s never transmitted over any servers.” In another alleged exchange with Jessica, in June 2016, Andrea plays down her father’s involvement in the hacks of the Democratic Party emails. “Pretty crazy about all the email hacking huh?” the texts read. “Dad must be over the moon.” “Oh i saw.” is the reply. “The russians.” “Well it wasn’t dad’s doing. It was hackers,” Andrea allegedly writes back. “No clue who the hackers were. Fbi is looking into it.” CNN’s Tal Yellin in New York and Jeremy Diamond in Washington contributed to this report.


More Cubans have access to the Internet than ever before Wi-Fi hotspots were installed in major city parks last year Giorgio Palmera first visited Cuba 20 years ago and fell in love with the island country and its people. So in recent years he’s watched with interest as the country’s communist-run government has gradually welcomed technology that makes the nation more open to the world. “A year ago, when I came back to Cuba after 20 years, Internet existed only in large tourist hotels where it was forbidden for Cubans to buy Internet cards,” the photographer said in an email interview. “Now that the squares are covered by Wi-Fi and the cost of an hour’s connection (has) dropped to 2 euro, Cubans have the option of having the world’s information in real time.” In June, the state communications company installed 35 Wi-Fi hotspots in the parks of the country’s major cities. Suddenly, the country was fully ushered into the digital age. Some of Palmera’s photos could have been taken in almost any modern city. In one, two teens are hunched over devices in the darkness, screen light reflecting on their faces. In another, a woman stares at her phone, headphone wires dangling. Teenagers in colorful clothes hang out in a city square, talking and texting. Discovering Deco: A tour of Havana’s eye-catching architecture But there are unmistakable signs of the old, familiar Cuba, the one more closely associated with 1950s bulgemobiles and 19th-century architecture than smartphones and Internet. In the second photo above, three young adults sit in a late-’50s Chevrolet. Two of them chat casually, as if passing the time on a Saturday night; the third, a woman in the front passenger seat, focuses intently on her phone. Social mediaFollow @CNNPhotos on Twitter to join the conversation about photography. For now, Palmera says, Cubans are using Wi-Fi to talk with relatives in the United States or elsewhere. But they’ve also started using social networks, such as Facebook, and creating their own blogs, such as jovencuba.com (Young Cuba), which features contributions from university students. Almost a year after Wi-Fi appeared, Palmera still sees a sense of wonder. “My feeling went back to the first time me and my friends were discovering the Internet and smartphones,” remembering, he said, how they behaved like children. “The Cubans are acting the same, with the big difference that we had the opportunity to express all of these emotions in private places. However, for Cubans, all this takes place in the square, creating an interesting and colorful live theater.” The recent improvement in U.S.-Cuba relations has sparked chatter at how American money might change Cuban politics and infrastructure. Is Wi-Fi having the same effect? Palmera is still watching. “The new ability to access Internet could be an important factor for the creation of a new Cuban generation able to face the changes, taking the best from capitalism and socialism in order to create their own new economic model,” he said. “Let’s hope.” The five best ways to enjoy Havana Havana: Insider Travel Guide Giorgio Palmera is a photographer based in Rome. He is represented by Echo Photojournalism. You can follow him on Facebook and Instagram.


A week after Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi declared victory over ISIS in Mosul, Iraqi troops are continuing to clear the country’s second biggest city of remaining fighters but US and coalition officials are already focusing on the next objectives in the campaign to defeat the terror group. The next major prize being eyed by the coalition is the Syrian city of Raqqa, the would-be caliphate’s one-time “capital.” Lt. Gen. Townsend told CNN last week that following the capture of Mosul, Raqqa was “now job number one.” Speaking to reporters on Monday Pentagon spokesman US Navy Capt. Jeff Davis called Syria “our biggest focus of effort.” The US and its coalition allies are using artillery and airstrikes to back the Syrian Democratic Forces, a mix of Arab and Kurdish fighters, in their assault on Raqqa. There are about 55,000 SDF fighters, made up of 31,000 Kurds and 24,000 Arabs, but the coalition says it will primarily be Arab fighters that take part in the battle for Raqqa. Related article ISIS brides flee caliphate as noose tightens on terror group The US-led coalition has trained some 8,000 SDF fighters and US military advisers have accompanied SDF units as they have pushed into the inner areas of Raqqa. But despite some rapid initial progress, coalition officials have said that the SDF has encountered tougher resistance in recent days. “The SDF have incurred casualties as they have met some stiffening resistance from ISIS as they move closer into the city center,” US Army Col. Ryan Dillon, a spokesman for the coalition, told reporters last week. Davis said ISIS was mounting a robust defense, using improvised explosive devices, car bombs and drones, but added that the terror group was “struggling to counter the SDF’s multiples avenues of advance.” Some reports had suggested that the SDF had paused its push on Raqqa because of casualties. However coalition officials said that this was not in fact the case, with Davis noting the group had gained territory from ISIS over the last 24 hours. The coalition estimates that the ranks of ISIS fighters in Raqqa has been reduced from 2,500 to 2,000 since the assault began about 40 days ago. The coalition is also training a “hold-force” to secure Raqqa after ISIS is ejected from the city. A US defense official told CNN that some 250 members of this force had been trained and the goal is that number will reach 3,000. “Much work remains to be done in Iraq even after the liberation of Mosul,” Davis told reporters Monday. He called Tal Afar, Hawija and the town of Al Qaim in the Middle Euphrates River valley “the three large areas that I would say are still on the to-do list” The ISIS-held town of Tal Afar is only about 50 miles west of Mosul and Davis said that Iraq’s 15th Armored Division is already making preparations to advance on the city. The coalition estimates that there are about 700 ISIS fighters in Tal Afar. Related article Is ISIS leader Baghdadi dead or alive? Nobody knows “The coalition continues to support the (Iraqi Security Forces) as they carry out detailed clearance operations in Mosul and prepare for follow on operations in Tal Afar,” Davis said while adding that there was still significant work to do in Mosul. Davis said that Iraqi soldiers, counterterrorism units and federal police were still performing “detailed clearance operations” of tunnels and caves in Mosul and were “on the lookout for ISIS fighters that are hiding and working to identify explosive devices that could threaten friendly forces and civilians.” Iraqi officials have expressed confidence that they have enough personnel to clear ISIS from Tal Afar and elsewhere in Iraq. “We have enough forces to liberate what is remaining,” Iraq’s military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Brigadier Yahya Rasool told reporters at the Pentagon last week. “There are enemy enclaves in Hawija, enemy enclaves in western Anbar. The Iraqi Security Forces and the coalition have a plan to get after them and we will move with all due speed to do that,” Townsend told reporters last week. Al Qaim is a town in western Anbar province on the Iraq-Syria border that sits along the Euphrates River Valley. It is connected to a swath of territory that ISIS controls in Syria. The coalition believes that ISIS has about 1,000 fighters in Al Qaim. Related article In the heart of Raqqa, the impact of ISIS is all around Hawijeh is close to the city of Kirkuk, an area currently controlled by US-backed Kurdish Peshmerga forces. Coalition officials believe that the fewer than 1,000 ISIS fighters left in Hawija are largely isolated. ISIS is “largely contained in Hawija,” Townsend said, adding that they were “contained to the east by the Kurdish defensive line, and contained to the west by an Iraqi defensive line.” Perhaps the most challenging ISIS target will be in the Syrian section of the Middle Euphrates River Valley. US defense officials have said that they have observed top ISIS officials increasingly abandoning Raqqa for towns and cities further south along the Euphrates River, such as Mayadin and Deir-e-Zor. The coalition has been conducting numerous airstrikes in the area, killing several ISIS leaders. Dillon said “the majority” of airstrikes targeting senior ISIS leaders were taking place in that area. “We do continue to strike the middle Euphrates River Valley and those are deliberate strikes, there’s not full-on combat operations going on there,” Dillon said. There are some pro-regime forces fighting ISIS in the area near Deir-e-Zoir but the thousands of ISIS fighters in that area are relatively far from any coalition-backed forces at this point in time, casting doubt on when an offensive could take place there. CNN’s Nicole Gaouette contributed reporting


Two Americans unaccounted for, senior U.S. official says Obama says "scourge of terrorism" must be fought Algerian state news: At least 55 people, including hostages and militants, have died The militants targeted an eastern Algerian gas facility where many foreigners workers Algerian troops ended a hostage crisis at a remote gas facility Saturday with one last, bloody assault, Algerian and Western officials said, after three days of chaos and confusion left dozens dead and fanned fears of a new terror front in Africa. At least 23 hostages and 32 “terrorists” were killed around the sprawling facility in eastern Algeria’s desert, the Algerian interior ministry said Saturday. Some 685 Algerian workers and 107 foreigners have been freed, it said. Read more: Power struggle: The North African gas industry targeted by militants It is not clear just how many people are still unaccounted for. A senior U.S. official said two Americans were among that number. The saga closed after a “final” assault, which itself contributed to the deaths of seven hostages and 11 militants, according to Algerian state media reports. An Algerian Radio report did not specify the nationalities of those killed. CNN is unable to verify the state media figures on the deaths. Related video Balancing profits, security in Algeria Related video Escaped hostage's family tells tale Related video Libya's connection to hostage crisis Related video Who is Moktar Belmokhtar? Afterward, Algeria’s military continued to clear mines planted by militants, the official Algerian Press Service reported, citing the country’s state-owned oil and gas company. “While the site is still dangerous and there may be explosives that will need to be dealt with, the terrorist incident is now over,” said British Prime Minister David Cameron, citing his conversation with his Algerian counterpart. The militant siege caught the world’s attention as it ensnared citizens from several nations and dragged on for days. Algerian authorities said they believe the attack was revenge for allowing France to use Algerian airspace for an offensive against Islamist militants in neighboring Mali. Whatever the rationale, the scale and gore of the terror has stirred world leaders to press for action beyond Algeria, especially with Islamic extremists asserting themselves more and more in recent weeks. “Let me be clear: There is no justification for taking innocent life in this way,” Cameron said. “Our determination is stronger than ever to work with allies … around the world to root out and defeat this terrorist scourge and those who encourage it.” British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Algerian authorities “certainly worked very hard to try to save the lives of people from other countries. I think it’s actually too early to pass judgment on (the Algerian military operation).” U.S. President Barack Obama said his administration would work with other countries to “combat the scourge of terrorism in the region, which has claimed too many innocent lives. This attack is another reminder of the threat posed by al Qaeda and other violent extremist groups in North Africa.” In a statement, Obama said the United States will work with Algeria to prevent future such incidents. Crisis highlights pressure, potential on Algeria Algerian special forces moved in because the terrorists wanted to flee for Mali – apparently to pressure France and others who have recently intervened in that country – Algerian state TV reported Saturday. The Islamic extremists also planned to blow up the gas installation, a threat that initially prompted Algeria to halt its military operation. The location was rigged to explode, with mines planted throughout, according to the senior U.S. official. Algeria’s status as Africa’s largest natural gas producer, and as a major supplier of the product to Europe, heightens its importance to other nations and businesses who want to invest there. Yet that interest is coupled with pressure to make sure foreign nationals, and their business ventures, are safe. The targeted plant in In Amenas, which is just 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of the Libyan border, is run by Algeria’s state oil company, in cooperation with foreign firms such as Norway’s Statoil and Britain’s BP. Saturday’s last push there follows another one two days earlier, which spurred criticism from some countries that Algeria had unnecessarily endangered hostages’ lives. British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond said Britain was still pressing the Algerian government for full details, while confirming the Saturday assault resulted in more deaths. He called the loss of life “appalling and unacceptable,” laying blame solely on the terrorists. Like Cameron, Norwegian foreign ministry spokesman Svein Michelsen confirmed that the Algerian military offensive was over, but did not offer further details. Nations scramble to account for missing The overall death toll could rise, Algerian state TV reports, as authorities are still combing the area. Amid the uncertainty, individual nations are scrambling to find out what happened to their citizens. It is not clear how many hostages were seized by the Islamist militants in the first place. Five Norwegians are missing while “eight are now safe,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said. Five British nationals and one UK resident are missing or feared dead in Algeria, Hague told reporters. This is in addition to one Briton, whose death was previously announced. Colombia’s president said a citizen was presumed dead. The Scottish government said eight of its residents are safe. There are no known French hostages unaccounted for, a Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Saturday. Three French nationals who were at the site are safe, the foreign ministry has said. One man – identified as Yann Desjeux – died after telling the French newspaper Sud Ouest on Thursday that he and 34 other hostages of nine different nationalities were well-treated. Of the BP employees, 14 are safe, and four BP employees are still missing in Algeria, BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley said. At least one American, identified as Frederick Buttaccio, is among the dead, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. The senior U.S. official told CNN that six freed Americans left Algeria and one remained. One Romanian lost his life, a spokeswoman for the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs told CNN on Saturday. Four other Romanians were freed. And there are 14 Japanese unaccounted for, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said. Malaysia’s state-run news agency reported Thursday that two of its citizens were held captive. Dramatic tales of escape from terror When the crisis began Wednesday, militants gathered the Westerners into a group and tied them up, survivors said. The kidnappers wielded AK-47 rifles and put explosive-laden vests on some hostages, according to a U.S. State Department official. Some survivors described their harrowing escapes by rigging up disguises, sneaking to safety with locals, and in at least one case, running for his life with plastic explosives strapped around his neck. That man was Stephen McFaul, who – according to his brother Brian – was among a group of hostages who had been blindfolded, gagged and then packed into five Jeeps on Thursday, during Algerian forces’ first offensive. An explosion “wiped out” four of the vehicles, while McFaul’s vehicle crashed. He was able to get out and, eventually, contact his family. “I haven’t seen my mother move as fast in all my life, and my mother smile as much, hugging each other,” Brian McFaul of Belfast, Northern Ireland, said upon his family hearing his brother was safe.  “… You couldn’t describe the feeling.” Al Qaeda-linked group offered prisoner-hostage exchange A spokesman for Moktar Belmoktar, a longtime jihadist who leads the Brigade of the Masked Ones – a militant group associated with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb – reportedly offered to free U.S. hostages in exchange for two prisoners. Behind the group claiming responsibility for the attack and kidnappings, he is known for seizing hostages and has long been targeted by French counterterrorism forces. The prisoners are Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, who orchestrated the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman jailed in the United States on terrorism charges, the spokesman said in an interview with a private Mauritanian news agency. Nuland rejected the offer, restating U.S. policy of not negotiating with terrorists. Opinion: Algeria situation is a wake-up call for the U.S. CNN’s Barbara Starr, Per Nyberg, Dan Rivers, Greg Botelho, Tricia Escobedo, Josh Rubin, Joe Sutton,  Mitra Mobasherat, Saskya Vandoorne, Laura Perez Maestro, Saad Abedine, Elise Labott and Tim Lister contributed to this report, as did journalists Peter Taggart from Belfast and Said Ben Ali from Algiers.


Editor’s Note: Dr. Seth Berkley is CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance,  an international organization that aims to bring together the public and private sectors. The views expressed are his own. Seth Berkley: Number of measles cases in Sudan could explode At least a temporary ceasefire needed to make mass immunization possible, he says Once their remoteness and inaccessibility made the Nuba Mountains a refuge in Sudan, offering sanctuary and protection to people fleeing persecution. Today, a lack of access has made the same mountains a deadly prison to hundreds of thousands trapped in a bitter struggle between the Sudanese military and rebel forces, with reports that the government is cluster-bombing its own people. If the cluster bomb reports are true, it is an outrage that must end. But we shouldn’t have to wait until the bombs drop, or until a U.S. president visits the region, to be prompted into action. Ever since South Sudan’s independence, this disputed border territory around the South Kordofan region has struggled to see vital humanitarian aid that is quite literally a lifeline. The moment supplies of vaccines and medicines stop flowing, lives are as good as lost. With that in mind, we need to start reading the signs and sound the alarm as soon as children are denied access to immunization, rather than waiting for the inevitable consequences. With the largest measles outbreak in years currently sweeping its way across Sudan, we may soon see why. So far this year, according to UNICEF, Sudan has already seen some 2,700 cases of measles, considerably more than the 600 cases in a typical year. Of these roughly one in 10 will die. The fear now is that, with around 150,000 children under 5 in the Nuba Mountains who have had no reliable access to immunization since 2011, the situation could explode. As a result, there is real potential for more lives to be lost than in the recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa, except here the vast majority will be children. The priority must be to enable immediate humanitarian access to South Kordofan – and other regions such as Eastern Jebel Marra and several Blue Niles states where a further 45,000 children under 5 are believed to be cut off – to ensure that food and medical supplies are made available and mass immunizations carried out. Since 2011, when access was first denied, there have been a wide range of diplomatic efforts to negotiate at the very least a temporary ceasefire, all of which have foundered. For the partners of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and others, that leaves few options. One is continued diplomacy. The front line may be impenetrable, but it is quite flexible, with brief periods where the government forces gain control over an area before losing it again days later. During these periods there are fleeting opportunities to gain access, and operational plans are indeed prepared to carry out vaccination campaigns and provide vital health interventions, as well as food, to the people of that area. Nothing is guaranteed, and this involves partners such as UNICEF and the World Health Organization supporting intense efforts by the Ministry of Health – including Minister Bahar Idriss Abu Garda, who is a Gavi Board member and committed to childhood immunization – in negotiating with the military to gain access during these times. It is a quite perverse situation, with the government of Sudan paying toward the cost of hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses for children in this region, only to allow its military to deny them, although the rebels must take responsibility for this, too. And even when negotiations are successful, the difficult terrain can severely limit the numbers of children reached during these excursions. Option two is to try to get vaccines in through partner organizations still working in this area, such as Doctors Without Borders and faith-based organizations such as Caritas, which have had at least some success in finding less conventional ways to gain access, such as via the South Sudan border. However, while forces seem to turn a blind eye to their presence, they are by no means afforded immunity, and earlier this year a Doctors Without Borders hospital in South Kordofan was bombed. Meanwhile, with the situation getting more desperate, the capacity of these organizations is becoming increasingly limited as conflicts on the South Sudan side of the border make it more difficult for supplies to enter the area and for people to flee. It is not naïve to believe that it shouldn’t have to be this way. Even at the height of Sri Lanka’s long and ferocious civil war, vital medicines and vaccines continued to flow across the front line, thanks to an agreement between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger leaders. Today, political leaders need to put more pressure on both the Sudanese government and the rebels to negotiate a similar ongoing agreement and to demand an immediate ceasefire. But in all conflicts we also need to be more proactive about not just responding to humanitarian disasters but also preventing them, by recognizing the warning signs, the most obvious being a child’s right to vaccination. After all, for any country to have a future it must protect its children. Join us on Facebook.com/CNNOpinion.Read CNNOpinion’s Flipboard magazine.


Jacob Malone, 33, is accused of sexually assaulting and impregnating a young member of his church He is also accused of furnishing liquor to the underage alleged victim, and endangering the welfare of a child Malone, who has resigned as a pastor, returned to the United States from Ecuador on Monday An eastern Pennsylvania man accused of sexually assaulting and impregnating a young parishioner while he was her church pastor has returned to the United States to turn himself in, according to police. Jacob “Jake” Malone landed at Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey, on Monday afternoon, according to Detective Scott Pezick of the West Whiteland Police Department. Malone is being held in custody in Essex County and is expected to be brought back to Pennsylvania following an extradition hearing, Pezick said. A video arraignment in Chester County Prison is expected to follow shortly afterward, he added. Police in West Whiteland Township, Pennsylvania, allege that Malone, 33, developed a relationship with the alleged victim when she was a minor, then invited her to move in with him and his family, and sexually assaulted her after she turned 18 and was living with them. Police say Malone first met the girl in 2009, when she was 12 and a member of a church in Mesa, Arizona, where Malone was an associate pastor, according to the news release. A few years later, Malone moved to Minnesota to be a pastor at another church. He contacted the girl, who was 17 at that time, and invited her to stay with his family, according to the release. “While in Minnesota, the victim alleged that Malone began trying to have inappropriate contact with her,” the release says. In July 2014, the teen moved with Malone, his wife and three children to Pennsylvania, where Malone took a pastor position at Calvary Fellowship Downingtown, a nondenominational church, according to Pezick. Shortly afterward, the teen told police, he began sexually assaulting her. The victim, then 18, was given alcohol by Malone, according to Pezick. On at least one occasion, she was sexually assaulted and impregnated by the pastor, the detective said. Malone is wanted for rape, sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child, furnishing liquor to a minor and other related offenses, according to Pezick. Charles Proctor, Malone’s attorney, told CNN he would not comment on the charges at this time, but said he is in daily contact with both the West Whiteland police and Malone, who had been in Ecuador. Malone went to visit acquaintances in Ecuador in recent weeks as an opportunity to give him and his wife “space,” according to Proctor. Police were expecting Malone to return last week, according to Pezick, but Proctor said it was “logistically impossible” for his client to get the 2 a.m. flight back to the United States. Malone, Pezick said, “was somebody from the church offering to help her, guide her. And that was the problem. She was looking for guidance and an adult to look up to, and she was taken advantage of.” Malone joined Calvary Fellowship in the summer of 2014. As pastor of leadership development, he was responsible for organizing volunteer teams around the church for programs such as worship and Bible studies, according to Bill Bateman, the church’s pastor for global outreach. “He was very good at it,” Bateman said. The church became aware of allegations against Malone in November 2015, according to Bateman, after they received a call from police detectives in Mesa, where similar allegations had been made against him. “It was a complete shock. Complete shock,” Bateman told CNN. Supervisors at the church confronted Malone with the allegations shortly after finding out about them, Bateman said. Malone immediately resigned, Bateman added. “Jake Malone passed every check and participated in every educational forum,” the church said in a statement. “He flew completely under the radar, deceiving even those who were closest to him. We know this is hard to imagine, but we assure you that no one suspected anything until very recently.” Bateman said that the situation was “heartbreaking.” No other church members have come forward with allegations, he said. The Police Department in Arizona reached out to Calvary Fellowship after a different woman came to them and said that she was sexually offended by Malone as a minor, according to Detective Esteban Flores of the Mesa Police Department. That alleged victim, who is now 20, said Malone had “sexual contact” with her beginning in 2009 and continuing until 2011, Flores said. She was a member of the Trinity Church in East Mesa, where Malone was an associate pastor for youth, Flores said. The Mesa investigation is ongoing, and charges have not yet been brought in that case, Flores said. The two women do not know each other, he added. “We’re still waiting for our detectives to get ahold of him and conduct an interview,” Flores said. “Our detectives have been in contact with his attorneys. If he returns back to Pennsylvania, we would like to talk to him.”


Cruz, Rubio spar over NSA, phone records Trump trades criticism with Bush over leadership, dealing with ISIS The simmering rivalry between Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz spilled into the open Tuesday night during the final Republican presidential debate of the year, as the two senators tussled over a string of issues that served to highlight front-runner Donald Trump’s discomfort with policy substance. CNN’s two-hour prime-time event here was dominated by national security and terrorism in the aftermath of the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California. But Trump, who has fueled intense controversy by proposing a ban on Muslims entering the United States, often faded into the background. He even struck an uncharacteristically conciliatory tone by pledging his commitment to the Republican Party – putting to rest rumors of an independent run – and holding his punches from the surging Cruz. Related video CNN Republican debate in 90 seconds There was no one on stage more eager to hit Trump than Jeb Bush. With his campaign floundering as his poll numbers have dropped to the low single-digits, Bush asserted himself more effectively than in previous debates. Right out of the gate, the two men exchanged tense words on Trump’s plan Muslim ban proposal, as well as the real estate developer’s recent vow to go after family members of ISIS terrorists. The latter, Bush said, was “another example of (Trump’s) lack of seriousness.” Trump, visibly annoyed, mouthed: “Give me a break.” He delivered his usual attack line on the ex-governor: that he is simply too nice. “I think Jeb is a very nice person, very nice person,” Trump said. “But we need toughness.” When Bush interjected, Trump taunted: “You’re trying to build up your energy but it’s not working.” Bush shot back: “Donald, you’re not going to be able to insult your way to the presidency.” In stark contrast to Trump and Bush’s open personal hostiliy – which at times seemed petty against the backdrop of weighty issues like terrorism – Rubio and Cruz dug deep on policy. The long-simmering feud between the two men has intensified as they’ve risen in the polls and the senators have sought to seize the second-place spot after Trump. Cruz has attempted to straddle the line between presenting himself as an outsider and making the case that he can be commander-in-chief. Rubio has tried to blunt Cruz’s rise by attacking his national security policy as too isolationist – a potent attack at a time when national security is dominating the campaign. READ: Republican debate: CNN’s Reality Check team inspects the claims The two senators struck vastly different tones on issues including the National Security Agency’s surveillance program, immigration reform and how the United States should respond to dictators in the Middle East. Rubio blasted Cruz for voting for the USA Freedom Act, which made it more difficult for the government to access certain kinds of information about people’s telephone records. Related video Gov. Jeb Bush: Trump's rhetoric is 'dog whistle talk' “Here’s the world we live in. This is a radical jihadist group that is increasingly sophisticated,” said Rubio, who voted against the act. “We are at a time when we need more tools, not less tools.” Cruz called Rubio’s accusation false, and said the law ultimately “strengthened the tools of national security and law enforcement to go after” terrorists. He also hit Rubio on one of his biggest political vulnerabilities: his work on the “Gang of Eight” comprehensive immigration reform bill. Calling the legislation a “massive amnesty plan,” Cruz accused Rubio of working with Democrats to give President Barack Obama a “blanket authority” to accept refugees. “He was fighting to grant amnesty and not to secure the border. I was fighting to secure the border,” Cruz said. Rubio hit back, saying Cruz supports the legalization of people who are in the country illegally. He also slammed his colleague for supporting a controversial H-1B visa program, which supports immigration of highly skilled foreign workers. Cruz and Rubio were also split on whether the turmoil in the Middle East would ease if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was removed from power. “If we topple Assad, the result will be ISIS will take over Syria and it will worsen U.S. national security interests,” Cruz said. Rubio rejected this notion, saying while the United States must sometimes work with “less than ideal governments,” Assad was simply an “anti-American dictator.” Related gallery Who's running for President? Heading into Tuesday’s debate, the stakes were higher than ever for the White House hopefuls. The Iowa caucuses are just seven weeks away and ISIS-inspired terror attacks have shifted the dynamics of the 2016 campaign. The anxiety was evident on Tuesday when public schools in Los Angeles took the unprecedented step of closing in response to what the superintendent called a “rare” threat. Trump remains the undisputed national GOP presidential front-runner. A Monmouth University poll on Monday placed him at 41%, the first time he’s cracked the 40% threshold in a national survey. A poll from The Washington Post and ABC News conducted entirely after Trump proposed the Muslim ban found support for Trump at 38% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents – up six percentage points from a Post/ABC poll in mid-November. Related video Donald Trump commits to the Republican Party Trump does, however, face a real threat from Cruz in Iowa. Recent polls showed the senator either neck-and-neck with or ahead of Trump in the state. On Tuesday night, Cruz continued to show little appetite for publicly engaging Trump. Asked to respond to Trump’s Muslim ban proposal, the Texas senator said he could certainly “understand why Donald made that proposal.” Trump was the target of plenty of criticism during the earlier so-called “undercard” debate. Four lower-polling White House hopefuls kicked off the evening by raising alarm about the threat of radical Islam – and went after Trump for the Muslim proposal. READ: Lindsey Graham’s best lines from CNN’s undercard debate “You may think this makes us safe, but it doesn’t,” said South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s most vocal critics. “Donald Trump has done the one single thing you cannot do – declare war on Islam itself.” Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said it’s “not the right proposal.” But Santorum blasted a culture of political correctness that he faults for blunting debate over the role of Muslims in society. “Not all Muslims are jihadists,” he said. “All jihadists are Muslim.” Santorum and Graham – who dominated the discussion – were joined by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former New York Gov. George Pataki. All four are at risk of being next on the chopping block if they’re unable to gain real momentum soon.


Tomb of Bronze Age warrior-king unearthed in Pylos, Greece 1,400 objects, including jewels, weapons and armor, found inside Discovery should yield insights on ancient world at dawn of European civilization Archaeologists in Pylos, southwest Greece, have excavated the intact tomb of a wealthy Bronze Age warrior-king buried about 3,500 years ago, in a discovery the team’s co-leader hailed as “one of the most magnificent displays of prehistoric wealth discovered in mainland Greece in the past 65 years.” Greece’s Ministry of Culture announced the discovery of the trove, which contained more than 1,400 objects, including a three-foot long bronze sword with an ivory hilt, four solid gold rings – more than found at any single burial elsewhere in Greece – and ivory combs and carvings, depicting griffons and a lion. Also in the shaft tomb was a unique necklace of box-shaped golden wires, gold and silver goblets, and more than 50 intricately carved seals – made in the style of the Minoan culture of the large island of Crete, to the southeast – depicting goddesses, reeds, altars, lions and men jumping over bulls. The find has astonished and excited the archaeological community, both for the rare richness of the trove and the insights it promises to reveal on the ancient world at the dawn of European civilization. “We were certainly not expecting to find anything like this,” said Sharon Stocker who, along with husband Jack Davis, led the team of archaeologists from the University of Cincinnati in discovering the site. “We were not looking for tombs in the first place and finding an unlooted tomb is so extremely rare. This is truly phenomenal.” The team was digging about 150 meters from the Palace of Nestor in ancient Pylos, an important center of Mycenaean Greece mentioned in Homer’s “Odyssey,” when they discovered the intact shaft tomb, which predates the palace by several centuries. The wealth of objects found within the single burial site – in an area where sites of multiple burials were the norm – was a “virtually unique situation within the entire Aegean world,” Davis told CNN. The find promised to shed light on how the more developed civilization on Crete at the time – Europe’s first advanced civilization – would inform what would develop into the Mycenaean palace culture on the mainland. For example, the large amount of seals found at the site appeared to have been produced in Crete, where they played an important, functional role in the bureaucratic culture of the island. Their presence on the mainland, centuries before a palace culture arose, suggested that to the warrior-king they held a different meaning, and were likely being collected “for their precious nature, their exotic nature and ideographic content,” said Davis. “It’s the contextual information – what was found where and together with what – that gives us the tools we need to tease out the meaning that these objects would have had to the community that buried them with him.” The team’s predecessors at the University of Cincinnati have impressive credentials in the area. Carl Blegen, a noted archaeologist from the institution, first located the palace at Pylos in 1939. So who was the man in the tomb? “So far we have no idea of the identity of this man,” said Stocker – other than he was someone very important and very rich. “We are looking at a period in Greece where people where usually buried with ceramic objects but this man was so rich that there were no ceramics. He was buried with bronze, silver and gold.” His bones showed he had been of a robust stature – which, along with martial objects found in the grave, suggested he was a warrior, she said – although he could also have been a priest, as many of the objects found with him had ritual significance. The find also offered clues to understanding gender at the time. “Here we have a man buried with combs, necklaces and a bronze mirror. If this was a multiple burials tomb containing women, we would assume these object belonged to the women,” she said. Greece’s general secretary of the Ministry of Culture Maria Vlazaki said the find showed “the immense wealth of Greece’s history and civilization and reminds us every once in a while yet another extraordinary find, like this tomb, will see the light of day.” She said it was “extremely rare for an unlooted tomb of such great significance to be unearthed.” “The finds are very impressive as is the scale of wealth that they display about the person buried there. Finding so much gold and silver is very unusual.” Dylan Rogers, assistant director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, said the discovery of the site had been the talk of the archaeological community for some time. “We’ve all kind of known about it here in Athens and we’ve had to keep a lock on it,” he said. “This is unique in that it’s one of the largest assemblages of this Bronze Age material that’s been found in a long time.”


Sacha Jenkins is the director of “Fresh Dressed,” which will premiere as a CNN Films broadcast on Thursday, September 3, at 10 p.m. ET. He is also the creative director for Mass Appeal magazine. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author. Silver Spring, Maryland, seemed like Candy Land when my mother, sister and I moved to Astoria, Queens, in 1977. My father, who was a professor at Howard University in Washington, D.C., had run his relationship with my mother into the ground. He wound up moving to New York after my parents split, and I’m pretty sure that our arrival in Queens was connected to the idea of being able to maintain a fairly consistent, real-time relationship with pops. Back then, New York City offered single mothers many more affordable housing options. And there were more employment opportunities for my mom in the Rotten Apple, too. We wound up moving to a building that was directly across the street from the Astoria Housing projects. Ma got a job down the block at a place called Harbor Light Silk Screen, where they printed T-shirts and some of the ads that ran on the interiors of subway cars. Anyway, there was a park just outside my bedroom window – this park was just beyond the park that was attached to the apartment building we lived in. It was littered with the guts of broken bottles; shards of glass glistened from every square inch of the place. Back then, two-liter bottles were made out of glass! Man, we used to love to smash those things. What a beautiful sound it would make. This is long before you could get five cents per returned bottle – otherwise, we would have cashed them in … I mean, money was tight. But I digress. The park with all of the glass on 8th Street was the place where these phantom DJs would spin well into the night. I was too young to be in the mix of what was happening in the park after dark, but the music was so loud that my bed would shake. Folks used to make their own speakers back then, and these units were like hand-crafted, stand-alone Godzillas, a byproduct of the sound system culture that Caribbean immigrants shared with their new inner-city neighbors. Speaking of Caribbean immigrants, my mother was the Haitian lady who would always call the cops to complain about the loud noise (It was LOUD). Still, she had no idea – and I had no idea, and no one I grew up with had any idea – that what was being spun outside my bedroom window would go on to become a musical form that humans from Brooklyn to Bangladesh would go on to admire, emulate and respect. Related video AFROPUNK: The new counter culture It was the musical representation and manifestation of hip-hop culture. The DJ was the main attraction back then. The individual on the mic would talk smack and occasionally check in with the audience. “How y’all doing out there?!” In my neighborhood, the famous phantom DJs were known as the Disco Twins, and they played a little bit of everything as there wasn’t any rap music committed to vinyl in 1977. (That would come the following year via King Tim III’s “Personality Jock.”) One thing I did know about the party people in the park is that they looked sharp. Everybody looked sharp in my neighborhood, regardless of whether or not your parents could actually afford it. Looking good or looking “fresh” was important on multiple levels. For one, if you were dressed in a manner that was universally considered to be “bummy” or unhip, you could potentially be ridiculed to tears. In the ‘hood, as elsewhere, we often judge each other by the way we dress. As an adult, it’s easy to see there are larger issues of class and self-esteem – but that is serious fodder for a whole other essay. Fashion functions as a language in this world, announcing your status and the life you lead – or the life you want people to believe you lead. Looking good, very simply, makes people of all hues feel good. As someone who has been writing about hip-hop for 25 years, I’d realized that the story of the culture’s rise hadn’t been told through the fashion, the fabric of the movement itself. From the self-stylized gang jackets of the 1970s to the billion-dollar, hip-hop fashion industry trail blazed by designers Carl Jones and Karl Kani, and by rap icons like Sean “Puffy” Combs. Inside of the dominion we call hip-hop, fashion has always been a strong reflection of the environments we lived in – be it the formerly bombed-out South Bronx or the working class, single-storied blues of Compton, California. Related video Meet the money makers of the natural hair movement My mom worked hard for her money at Harbor Lite Silk Screen, which was a block or so away from where a lighthouse used to be. This is back when people would get paid cash on a Friday and young toughs would lurk in between cars on the streets outside. The early darkness that is the calling card of winter would deliver us to evil; I remember my mom getting “mugged” a few times. Ma started to roll with mace spray in her coat pocket; New York was a dangerous place back then. The music and fashion being generated by the youth of that day was a reflection of what was going on. How we dressed and how we expressed ourselves through the music, the art (what some people call “graffiti”) and the dance – b-boying, breaking, popping – was how we escaped the realities of inner-city life. What we wore was a reflection of where we were – geographically. You were able to determine where someone was from based on the way they dressed. Brooklyn, Queens, Money Makin’ Manhattan, the Boogie Down Bronx – every region had its own distinct look, and that was partly based on the fact that different areas’ local stores stocked different brands and different colorways of the brands. Related video A brief history of high fashion sneakers Brooklyn had a strong Jamaican influence, for instance. For some reason, Jamaicans loved Clarks shoes and Kangol hats (brands that were also popular in England, another strong Jamaican enclave). When you saw a cat with Clarks on and a Kangol hat and Cazal frames hugging his face, you knew that that dude was from Brooklyn. Hip-hop and her fashion sense has come a long way, baby. Today, Dr. Dre and Puffy and Shawn “Jay Z” Carter are rich. Like, beyond belief rich. Like, richer-than-white-people rich! They can afford to get fresh for countless lifetimes. Even their ghosts can stay fresh. These moguls break bottles on yachts, not in parks. Because of the influence of the Internet (wherein your shopping options are unlimited), it might be impossible to distinguish which borough a kid is from based on the way he or she dresses today. Still, the way we wear things – be it how a cap is tilted on our heads or the sag of one’s jeans – continues to identify members of the hip-hop tribe, whether on the runway or on the boulevard. “Fresh Dressed” is about expression, oppression and cold, hard cash made by people who had no idea that they were pioneers in a movement that will never die. Roll over Beethoven – and rock ‘n’ roll.


Editor’s Note: Mike Rogers is a national security commentator for CNN and a former chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence. Ellen Tauscher served as the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs from 2009 to 2012 and is now a strategic adviser at Baker Donelson, which represents firms including defense contractors. The views expressed are their own. Mike Rogers, Ellen Tauscher: Access to space has benefited U.S. national security U.S. should not be reliant on nonsecure foreign supply chains, authors write The United States has gained much from its position as a space-faring nation. Indeed, U.S. access to space has provided incredible benefit to U.S. national security, defense and the economic well-being of the nation. And in order to effectively confront current and future conflicts, combat terrorism and counter the proliferating threats worldwide, our military depends on space-based capabilities, including intelligence, GPS, and communications satellites. Unfortunately, as global threats increase and the need for assured space access accelerates, the U.S. is faced with a troubling reality – we are far too reliant on Russian technology to meet our national security obligations. How? For a start, we depend on the Atlas V rocket, which carries many of our most important satellites and is powered by the Russian-made RD-180 rocket engine. The fact that we rely on Russia, currently under sanctions for invading a sovereign nation, should reinforce the need for a change in our current course. Assured access to space is an area where the U.S. should not be reliant on nonsecure foreign supply chains, which are subject to disruption, threats, unfavorable contracts and undue leverage against the interests of the U.S. The Ukraine crisis should have served as a wake-up call, highlighting the danger of dependence on Russia to launch national security satellites into space. And the United States should play no part in supporting the defense industry of a country that continues to abrogate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighbors. Simply put, it is bad policy to rely on others for critical national security requirements, and worse policy when this reliance supports countries taking action in direct contradiction to U.S. national security interests. Dmitry Rogozin, a Russian Deputy Prime Minister in charge of defense and space industries, has called American taxpayer outlays for the Russian engine “free money” that goes directly back into Russia’s missile modernization programs. It is high time the U.S. government turn to its existing domestic capability and turn off this flow of funds. Fortunately, there are some signs of progress. Last year, Congress took bipartisan action to phase out reliance on the RD-180 engine by the end of the decade, and to transition to an all-American space launch capability. The defense authorization for fiscal year 2015 included restrictions on the future use of the RD-180 for the Atlas V, authorizing $220 million to begin development of a U.S. alternative. This was a wise move, but it’s not enough. There are steps that the United States can take now to ensure our access to space and secure our comparative advantage in space – and in the world. True, development of a new launch system will take time; there are no overnight answers. However, a combination of existing capabilities and dynamic development of new capabilities by the private sector can serve as a foundation for eliminating any capability gap in the U.S. space program. Indeed, new entrants are coming online using launch vehicle systems fully designed and manufactured in America. The two main launch competitors – United Launch Alliance and SpaceX – each have all-American systems, namely ULA’s Delta IV family of rockets and SpaceX’s Falcon 9. Having both options will put America on the path to fielding its indigenous space capabilities for the next generation, while strengthening a space industrial base weakened since the end of the Cold War. The short-term goal should be to transition to existing American-manufactured launch vehicles, as opposed to phasing out systems such as the Delta IV, which continue to provide critical capability. In the long term, next-generation development programs should not involve major Russian subsystems and components. It is time to end America’s reliance on Russia’s rocket engine. This would be good for national security, good for American innovation and the industrial base – and good for our country’s future. Read CNNOpinion’s new Flipboard magazine. Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion. Join us on Facebook.com/CNNOpinion.


Trump continues to raise questions about the dossier's backers Fusion GPS's bank records were subpoenaed The law firm for the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee has acknowledged its clients’ role in paying for opposition research on Donald Trump that helped fund the now-infamous dossier of allegations about the now-President and Russia. A source familiar with the matter told CNN on Tuesday that the law firm Perkins Coie, as part of its representation of the Clinton campaign and the DNC, retained the intelligence firm Fusion GPS and entered “into an engagement for research services that began in April 2016 and concluded before the election in early November.” A letter to Fusion GPS, which was written by Perkins Coie general counsel Matthew Gehringer, notes that it is revealing its role in hiring Fusion to aid the firm in its fight not to be forced to reveal its confidential list of clients. Fusion GPS is fighting a legal battle to prevent Fusion’s bank from providing the House intelligence committee records that the panel subpoenaed. The letter was filed with the court on Tuesday. Trump told reporters on Wednesday that the campaign and DNC’s involvement with the dossier was a “very sad commentary on politics in this country.” “Hillary Clinton always denied it. The Democrats always denied it, and now, only because it is going to come out in a court case, they said yes they did it. They admitted it and they are embarrassed by it. I think it is a disgrace,” he said. Gehringer wrote that in March 2016, Fusion approached Perkins Coie to see if its clients would be interested in paying Fusion “to continue research regarding then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, research that Fusion GPS had conducted for one or more other clients during the Republican primary contest.” The DNC and Clinton campaign engaged Fusion in April to “perform a variety of research services during the 2016 election cycle.” As CNN has previously reported, the Fusion efforts researching Trump were first funded by Republican foes of Trump, and Democrats began paying the research firm later on, after Trump became the presumptive nominee. The identity of the Republican client or clients has not yet been publicly revealed. Without noting the party affiliation, Gehringer calls for other Fusion presidential campaign clients to step forward as well. “We believe it would be appropriate for all parties who hired Fusion GPS in connection with the 2016 presidential campaign to release Fusion GPS from this obligation,” he wrote. The Washington Post was first to report news of the Clinton campaign and DNC’s involvement with the dossier, and a source familiar with the matter confirmed the Post’s reporting to CNN on Tuesday. The newspaper, citing people familiar with the matter, said a lawyer representing the Clinton campaign and the DNC hired Fusion GPS, which in turn hired former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, whose research makes up the document. The Post said Perkins Coie lawyer Marc Elias retained the research firm in April 2016 as the GOP primary was winding down and Trump was increasingly likely to clinch his party’s nomination, and that Fusion GPS hired Steele after the Democratic funding began and the general election picture grew clearer. Brian Fallon, the Clinton campaign’s national press secretary and now a CNN political contributor, tweeted Tuesday that he wasn’t aware of the connection between the campaign and the dossier authored by Steele, but “if I had, I would have volunteered to go to Europe and try to help him.” “I have no idea what Fusion or Steele were paid but if even a shred of that dossier ends up helping (Justice Department special counsel Robert) Mueller, it will prove money well spent,” he tweeted. DNC communications director Xochitl Hinojosa said in a statement Tuesday: “Tom Perez and the new leadership of the DNC were not involved in any decision-making regarding Fusion GPS, nor were they aware that Perkins Coie was working with the organization. But let’s be clear, there is a serious federal investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, and the American public deserves to know what happened.” And a source familiar with the matter said Elias didn’t possess the entire dossier before the election. “It’s important to note that the question raised at the time was if Marc had a ‘dossier’ before the election and put together pitches to media outlets on information in it. Neither of those statements were true,” the source said. “What was eventually published as the ‘dossier’ by Buzzfeed wasn’t in Marc’s possession before the election, and like most people, he read it when it was published. While he was certainly familiar with some, but not all, of the information in it, from the research that was being done, he didn’t have and hadn’t seen the full document, nor was he involved in pitching it to reporters.” But White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Tuesday that the news of the Clinton campaign and DNC funding the dossier research was “the real Russia scandal.” “The real Russia scandal? Clinton campaign paid for the fake Russia dossier, then lied about it & covered it up,” Sanders tweeted. Sources told CNN that Mueller’s investigators met with Steele over the summer as part of their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and allegations of coordination between Russia and Trump’s associates. The confirmation that the Democratic Party and the Clinton campaign contributed funding that led to the dossier comes as Trump continues to train his fire on the explosive document, most recently tweeting, “Workers of firm involved with the discredited and Fake Dossier take the 5th. Who paid for it, Russia, the FBI or the Dems (or all)?” Workers of firm involved with the discredited and Fake Dossier take the 5th. Who paid for it, Russia, the FBI or the Dems (or all)? House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes signed subpoenas for Fusion GPS’s financial records, and the research firm asked a federal court to block the request, citing First Amendment concerns. Fusion GPS also claimed that Nunes should have notified it about the subpoena of its bank records. Nunes stepped aside from the House intelligence committee’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the election in April following an ethics investigation into his handling of classified information. The California Republican delegated authority on the Russia matter to Republican Rep. Mike Conaway of Texas. The federal court noted the settlement talks Tuesday afternoon. Fusion GPS and the bank must let the court know by 3 p.m. Thursday if the parties reach a settlement. The judge in the case also extended a deadline for the bank to reply to the case from Wednesday until Friday morning. Earlier Tuesday, Fusion GPS lawyer William Taylor issued a statement that Congress’ request was overly broad and that it was “designed to punish President Trump’s political foes while chilling future investigative research into his actions.” The dossier helped fuel the ongoing investigations into Trump and Russia, including the special counsel probe led by Former FBI Director Mueller. CNN reported in February that investigators had been able to corroborate some information in the dossier, although not the most salacious allegations. The US intelligence community asserted in January that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered an effort to disrupt the US presidential election. This story has been updated with details from Gehringer’s letter.

Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee


On Thursday, a transcript published by The Washington Post showed Trump attributing his win in New Hampshire to the opioid epidemic Earlier this week, a White House commission recommended the President declare a national public health emergency New Hampshire’s governor said Friday that Donald Trump’s comment calling the state a “drug-infested den” was an “aspersion upon the entire state.” “We know the President has the tendency to speak in hyperbole and tweet things out and all that stuff, but you can’t go out and just cast this misconception, aspersion upon the entire state,” Gov. Chris Sununu told WMUR. On Thursday, a transcript of a phone call between Trump Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto in which Trump attributed his win in New Hampshire to the opioid epidemic was published by The Washington Post. “I won New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a drug-infested den,” Trump said, according to the transcript from January 27. Earlier this week, the White House commission dedicated to analyzing the opioid crisis in the United States recommended the President declare a national public health emergency over the epidemic. “Of course, of course, look, when you have the fastest-growing economy, all of the great things we have with travel and tourism, that fact that we are still the best state in the country to live and work and raise a family, this mischaracterization of words like that, there is no place for that,” Sununu said to WMUR.


CNN has released an investigation exposing the inappropriate and potentially fraudulent use of a popular nursing home drug called Nuedexta. Read it here. Related article The little red pill being pushed on the elderly During the reporting process, CNN analyzed payment, prescriber, adverse event and inspection report data from various government agencies and dug through internal company emails and documents. Reporters also interviewed dozens of doctors (including critics and paid promoters of Nuedexta), other medical experts, nursing home employees, family members of Nuedexta patients and both former and current employees of the drugmaker, Avanir Pharmaceuticals. CNN used keywords “Nuedexta,” “pseudobulbar affect,” “PBA,” “uncontrollable laughing,” “uncontrollable crying,” “Avanir” and “dextromethorphan-quinidine” (Nuedexta’s generic name) to analyze data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and identified cases where Nuedexta use had resulted in a citation by state health officials. CNN analyzed data from the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System to identify reports made involving Nuedexta since 2011, the year the drug hit the market. This database includes “adverse events” voluntarily reported by doctors, nursing home employees, family members and patients themselves. These events can include everything from minor side effects to hospitalization and death, and the FDA said reports do not necessarily “constitute conclusive evidence of a problem with the product.” CNN analyzed the adverse event data to find incidents where Nuedexta was deemed a “suspect” medication, meaning it was considered by the event’s reporter to be a potential cause of harm. CNN analyzed this data to identify the number of incidents where patients experienced hospitalization, death or symptoms such as sedation (using keywords “somnolence,” “sedation,” “fatigue,” “flat affect,” “stupor” and “unresponsive to stimuli”) or dizziness and falls (using keywords “dizziness,” “confused state,” “confusion,” “falls,” “gait disturbance,” “fear of falling,” and “confusional state.”) In addition, reporters read the full text of roughly 500 reports obtained through a federal Freedom of Information Act request. Several data sources from The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services were used to track Medicare spending on the drug and identify doctors who were top Nuedexta prescribers and/or recipients of Nuedexta-related payments or meals. CNN used drug cost data from Medicare Part D, the main prescription drug insurance program for those 65 and over and the disabled, to show how government spending on the medication has spiked. This data includes all program payments for the drug, including patient copays, and does not take into account manufacturer rebates, which CMS is barred by law from disclosing. CMS’ Open Payments data from 2013 to 2016 was analyzed to determine how much Avanir and its parent company, Otsuka, have spent on payments to doctors for promotional speaking, consulting and other services as well as on travel reimbursements and free meals given to doctors targeted by salespeople. Using these doctors’ names, addresses and medical specialties, CNN used 2015 Part D prescriber data to look up how many Nuedexta claims they filed with Part D in 2015 to determine that at least 45% of the Part D Nuedexta claims came from doctors who received at least one Nuedexta-related payment or meal between 2013 and 2015. The 2016 prescriber data is not available. The reporters also obtained hundreds of pages of internal Avanir emails and other documents, read through US and Japanese investor presentations and company filings, and gathered prescription drug data from a number of sources. These included sales figures and capsule counts from data provider QuintilesIMS (Nuedexta sales and profit data are not publicly available from the company). Reporters also reviewed government reimbursement data from EvaluatePharma and January 2017 pricing data from First Databank Inc., which tracks a commonly used drug price indicator known as the wholesale acquisition cost (WAC). According to First Databank, the WAC “represents published catalogue or list prices and may not represent actual transactional prices.” Read more about the firm’s methodology here. CNN sought comment from Avanir and outlined these findings, but the company declined to be interviewed – providing a written statement that can be read here. CNN’s David Health and Aaron Kessler contributed to the physician payment and claims analysis.