Executive order specifically aimed at nationals of seven countries ISIS and al Qaeda are "trans-national" -- with members from dozens of countries The circular issued by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) could not be clearer. “For the next 90 days, nearly all travelers, except US citizens, traveling from Iraq. Syria, Sudan, Iran, Somalia, Libya and Yemen will be temporarily suspended from entry to the United States.” But why this mixed bag of countries? The Trump administration points out that all were previously on a list of “countries of concern.” This is true. The DHS compiled the list last year, following the passage of the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act. On January 21, 2016, Iran, Iraq, Sudan and Syria were the first countries put on the list. The following month, the DHS added Libya, Somalia and Yemen after consulting the director of national intelligence and the State Department. Related video World leaders condemn Trump's travel ban But – and it’s a substantial “but” – those new restrictions were not aimed at citizens of these countries. They were aimed at those eligible for the Visa Waiver Program (VWP): people of dual nationality or – for example – someone of French or Belgian nationality who’d been to Yemen or Iraq. Those restrictions did not amount to a ban on entry but demanded much more information from applicants. The main reason, according to the US Customs and Border Patrol, was “the risks posed by the situation in Syria and Iraq, where instability has attracted thousands of foreign fighters, including many from VWP countries. Such individuals could travel to the United States.” (The US maintains a Visa Waiver Program with 38 countries.) By contrast, President Trump’s executive order is specifically aimed at nationals of the seven countries, not those who have traveled to those states, and it is an outright ban. The executive order does not explain why these countries have been selected and others not, except to say that “deteriorating conditions in certain countries due to war, strife, disaster, and civil unrest increase the likelihood that terrorists will use any means possible to enter the United States.” The conditions in these countries offer at least some reasons for their inclusion, if not a complete picture. There are still thousands of foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria. ISIS has a substantial presence in both countries and is pledged to take its fight to western Europe and the United States, especially as its core territory shrinks. In most instances, ISIS has used its pool of foreign fighters – especially Belgian and French citizens – to plan and carry out its overseas attacks, or sought to encourage others already living in the West to launch terror attacks. However, in October, a Syrian refugee allegedly with links to ISIS was arrested in Germany after explosives were found in his apartment. Two other Syrians turned him in to authorities. Another Syrian who had applied for asylum in Germany blew himself up in July in an attack in Ansbach. Al Qaeda is strong in Syria and Yemen and has repeatedly demonstrated its intent to launch attacks on the West. But not – so far – by trying to send Syrians or Yemenis abroad. The brothers who attacked the Charlie Hebdo offices were French but had spent time with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Other AQAP conspiracies have focused on trying to smuggle bombs on board civilian aircraft bound for the US. AQAP is explicit in making the US its number one target – but largely by encouraging lone-wolf attacks. And it’s not, by any means, exclusively a Yemeni organization. The group’s master bomb-maker is a Saudi, Ibrahim al Asiri, and AQAP’s “underwear bomber” in 2009 was a Nigerian. Both ISIS and al Qaeda are “trans-national” in nature, with members from dozens of countries. Somalia has endured nearly three decades of civil war and terrorism. Al Shabaab, an al Qaeda affiliate, regularly launches suicide attacks in the capital, Mogadishu, and across the country, as well as in neighboring Kenya. An unknown number of Americans of Somali descent – probably in the dozens – have joined the group; many have been killed in Somalia. But much as Shabaab would like to launch an attack in the West, there is no evidence that it has tried to. Libya has become a base for ISIS in the last two years, but the group has lost its urban footholds in Derna and Sirte and retreated to the desert. In any case, many of its more important figures are not Libyan but Tunisian. There are also plenty of Tunisians in ISIS ranks in Syria and Iraq, and the Berlin Christmas market attacker was Tunisian, but it’s not one of the countries covered in the new executive order. Sudan was a base for al Qaeda in the 1990s, when Osama bin Laden lived there, and has been designated a state sponsor of terrorism by the US for more than 20 years. But nowadays the Sudanese regime, while still embracing conservative Sunni Islam, tries to combat jihadist groups. President Obama recognized the change last year; he lifted some sanctions because of Sudan’s “cooperation with the United States on addressing regional conflicts and the threat of terrorism.” Unlike the other six, Iran is a predominantly Shia Muslim country that’s been involved in fighting ISIS in both Syria and Iraq. But the US says it remains the leading state sponsor of terrorism through its “support for (the Lebanese militia) Hezbollah, Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza, and various groups in Iraq and throughout the Middle East.” In only one instance have elements from Iran been allegedly involved in a plot in the US. In 2011, an Iranian-American who had lived in the US for decades hatched a plan to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador in Washington. Then US Attorney General Eric Holder said the plot had been endorsed by parts of the Iranian government, but Iran denied any involvement. In 2014, more than 55 percent of terror attacks worldwide occurred in five countries, according to the State Department. Only one of those countries – Iraq – is covered in the executive order. The other four – India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria – are not. “Every jihadist who conducted a lethal attack inside the United States since 9/11 was (an American) citizen or legal resident.” New America Foundation Nor are other countries – such as Morocco, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia – thousands of whose citizens are active in jihadist groups around the world. The executive order mentions the failure to properly scrutinize visa applications of the 9/11 hijackers, but most of them were Saudis. In its comprehensive review of terror cases in the US since 9/11, the New America Foundation notes that “every jihadist who conducted a lethal attack inside the United States since 9/11 was (an American) citizen or legal resident.” Some have had no confirmed links with terror groups; others have associated themselves with ISIS. Some appear to have been driven primarily by personal issues. Some have had training overseas – such as Najibullah Zazi – others have not. Related video How many refugees are actually terrorists? There have been a handful of non-lethal attacks in the US by migrants, including two last year by men of Somali origin. One of them had come to the US from Pakistan; the other had been born in Kenya. There was no evidence of any link to terror groups in either case. Shutting down any terror “pipeline” in an age of transnational jihad and online radicalization has to be driven by sophisticated intelligence networks. The record of terror conspiracies and attacks suggests that a blanket ban on travel or immigration from any one country is – at best - a blunt instrument. As al Qaeda ideologue Anwar al-Awlaki put it in 2010, “Jihad is becoming as American as apple pie and as British as afternoon tea.”


Editor’s Note: Michael D’Antonio is author of the book, “Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success” (St. Martin’s Press). The opinions expressed in this commentary are his. In the space of a day, President Donald Trump’s legal troubles have taken a series of hairpin turns for the worse. A New York judge ruled that Summer Zervos, who accused Trump of sexual harassment, can proceed with defamation claims against him. With her lawyer revealing a photo of her passing a lie detector test of her claims years ago, adult film star Stormy Daniels is pressing her demand to be freed to tell her story of an affair with him. And former Playboy model Karen McDougal who also alleges an affair with Trump, is suing the company that owns the National Enquirer, American Media Inc., which allegedly bought her story so it could kill it. She too wants to be released from an agreement mandating her silence. Related article 3 Trump-related lawsuits: Porn star, Playboy model, harassment accuser There’s more: Special counsel Robert Mueller has demanded documents from Trump’s businesses, and superstar lawyer – and former solicitor general – Theodore Olson turned away the notion that he would join the President’s legal team. Sources familiar with the matter had told CNN the team was interested in adding Olson. Into this fray comes Joseph diGenova, who a hemmed-in Trump has added to the crowd of lawyers helping him deal with Mueller’s probe of Russia’s attack on the 2016 presidential election.  In hiring diGenova, Trump is staying true to the style that has landed him in this mess — all of it. DiGenova’s new role signals that Trump wants more help making the specious public argument that he is a victim of the so-called “deep state,” which, by his lights, includes many at the Federal Bureau of Investigation — which, in turn, he says is out to get him. Having assumed office with only an electoral college majority – and amid Russian interference— Trump became President under a cloud of controversy that threatened his legitimacy from the start.  It is easy to see where diGenova will find common cause with the President. A former prosecutor who made the leap to conservative pundit 30 years ago, diGenova has reliably sputtered about this supposed conspiracy against Trump all over right wing media. Among his recent claims on Fox News: Related article Former Playboy model who alleges affair with Trump sues company that didn't publish her story “There was a brazen plot to illegally exonerate Hillary Clinton and, if she didn’t win the election, to then frame Donald Trump with a falsely created crime.” “It wasn’t the Russians who corrupted the presidential election; it was the American officials at the Department of Justice and the FBI.” “We are headed toward a very sad ending for the FBI and senior DOJ officials. … I believe that several high FBI officials will be charged criminally. And it is conceivable that some DOJ people will also be charged criminally. … I would consider this the largest law enforcement scandal in history for this reason. These performances, tuned to Trump’s ear, no doubt made diGenova a go-to guy for the frustrated President. Decades past his service in 1997 as a special counsel in a case against a labor union, diGenova could not be expected to offer much lawyering that couldn’t be done by the attorneys already at work. However, he can make a public case for his client, and his long record of commentary surely fits Trump’s ideal for this duty. In January 2016, long before anyone linked the Trump campaign and Russia, diGenova was advocating for Trump and against his likely opponent. In his telling, the FBI was reaching “critical mass” in its investigation of Clinton’s emails and he declared she would be “charged with a crime” and be unable to run for president. She never was charged. Earlier, diGenova was a gadfly participant in the effort to create a scandal over then-Secretary of State Clinton’s handling of the attack on American facilities in Benghazi, Libya. Years of investigation confirmed no scandal. Related article Tillerson exits a weakened and disillusioned State Department In fact, diGenova’s record of loose talk and as a conspiracy theory con man appear to be his main qualifications for an appointment to the Trump team. Trump, who tried to con America into believing, among other things, that Barack Obama was born abroad, likes to hire in his own image. Thus he has surrounded himself with cons, bullies and grifters whom others would find underqualified. A few examples: Last week chief of staff John Kelly demonstrated a very Trump-like appetite for bullying when he told the press corps that he and not the President informed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that he was being fired. For good measure Kelly revealed that Tillerson, having fallen ill during a mission abroad, was on the toilet when he received the news. Not to be outdone in the practice of humiliation, on the day when Kelly told his Tillerson-on-the-toilet tale, Attorney General Jeff Sessions decided to fire career FBI man Andrew McCabe just before he could qualify for his full federal pension.  McCabe was a key ally of former bureau Director James Comey, whom Trump himself fired over the Russia probe. The excuse offered for the McCabe dismissal was a currently secret report indicating that McCabe had not been forthcoming about his involvement in giving the press information on the FBI’s investigation of Clinton. Coming from Sessions, who repeatedly misled Congress on his own contacts with Russia, the firing seems more like brutality exercised to make a point with Trump, Sessions’ boss. Of course, Sessions had previously established his penchant for cruelty with his appetite for anti-immigrant obsession and his desire to reinstate lengthy mandatory sentencing policies that fall disproportionately on the poor and minorities. Sign up for CNN Opinion’s new newsletter.Join us on Twitter and Facebook Compared with the bullies, the grifters in the Trump administration seem less unpleasant, but their transgressions are no less outrageous. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price indulged in $400,000 worth of travel in private aircraft before he quit after less than a year of service. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had spent $800,000 on just seven flights, and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke paid $53,000 on just three helicopter flights, including one taken so he could ride a horse with Vice President Mike Pence. When it comes to American values, Trump has led the descent of his government with authoritarian-style doublespeak claims that would have us accept that the firing of McCabe marked a “great day for democracy.” His denunciations of the women alleging affairs with him, and his refusal to accept his lawyers’ cautions mark Trump as the model of a leader out of his depth. We will see how well he is served by his decision-making as multiple controversies unspool inside the legal system.   And we will see how well served Trump is by his newest lawyer, who will be right at home with the bullies, the grifters and the cons that this President has drawn to his side.


Watch Fareed Zakaria GPS on Sundays at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET. Trump is scheduled to make a decision on whether Iran is in compliance with the nuclear deal Former CIA deputy director David Cohen says Trump "stands the intelligence process on its head" Tensions between the United States and Iran have been red hot in recent weeks – and they might be about to get even hotter. Amid warning shots fired by US ships against Iranian ones, as well as very close calls when Iranian drones have buzzed the US military, President Trump will be called upon to certify that Iran is in compliance with the nuclear deal. His administration has declared Iran in compliance, as required by law, twice during his tenure so far. But Trump has said he expects the US to declare Iran non-compliant when the next review is due in September. The President has put together a team of aides to pull together the intelligence so he can do just that, according to a report in Foreign Policy. Related article Rouhani says Iran could quit nuclear deal in 'hours' if new US sanctions imposed David Cohen, former deputy director of the CIA, said it was “very disconcerting” that it appears Trump may have made a conclusion about Iran before finding the intelligence to back it up. “It stands the intelligence process on its head,” he told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria. “Our intelligence analysts, who have access to all of our clandestine collection, access to what our allies around the world are collecting and access to IAEA reports and other open source information are in the best position to make that assessment of whether Iran is complying with the nuclear deal.” “If our intelligence is degraded because it is politicized in the way that it looks like the president wants to do here, that undermines the utility of that intelligence all across the board,” said Cohen. “If it’s politicized, that credibility and reliability is undermined.” Earlier this week, presumably responding to these news reports, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said his nation’s nuclear program could be re-started within hours if new US sanctions are imposed. Related article Iran: US sanctions designed to derail nuclear deal Cohen said the international community likely would not unite with sanctions against Iran even if the United States finds Iran not in compliance. “As a practical matter, you’re not going to have the rest of the international community, you’re not going to have our allies in Europe, you’re certainly not going to have the Russians and the Chinese coming along with us to re-impose real pressure on the Iranians.  So you’ll have this fissure between the United States and essentially the rest of the world in trying to reinstate pressure on Iran.” “On the other side of the coin, the Iranians, with the US having pulled out of the deal, will feel that they are absolved from adhering to their commitments under the nuclear deal.  So maybe they will begin to spin more centrifuges,” he said.

Trump administration's approach to Iran nuclear deal compliance


Zimbabwe’s first lady Grace Mugabe is seeking diplomatic immunity over allegations of assault in South Africa. Mugabe was supposed to present herself at a police station in a Johannesburg suburb on Tuesday to give a statement but failed to appear, despite her appointment being rescheduled several times throughout the day, South African police said. Mugabe’s attorneys informed authorities that she had “changed her mind” about speaking to police and subsequently requested diplomatic immunity, according to a police statement. The alleged assault took place Sunday at a hotel in Sandton, a wealthy suburb north of Johannesburg, according to police, who were called to the scene where a case of “assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm” was registered. The move comes after Gabriella Engels, a 20-year-old woman, used her personal Twitter feed to accuse Mugabe of attacking her, according to Vishnu Naidoo, a spokesman for South Africa’s police. Engels said she was in a hotel room with Mugabe’s two adult sons when the attack took place. “I had no clue who this woman was when she started beating me,” Engels said in a radio interview with CapeTalk 567AM. “I only found out this after I came out the hotel room. “I walked by a security guard and asked him who the woman was because I wanted to lay a case against her.” Engels also claimed on Twitter that Mugabe “split my head open in 3 places. With an extension cord and plug to hit me.” CNN has reached out to Mugabe’s representatives for comment. Police initially claimed Mugabe had turned herself before revealing that she had not. Her attorneys and representatives of the Zimbabwean government met police on Tuesday to establish “channels of cooperation,” police said. The wife of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who has governed the country since 1980, is reportedly in South Africa to have a foot injury examined and to take part in diplomatic meetings.


US-backed troops continue to close the net around ISIS' self-declared capital ISIS has occupied the Syrian city since 2013 Civilians in Raqqa faced uncertainty after ISIS ordered the evacuation of the Syrian city, and then rescinded the command. Residents began to flee the city Sunday and take to higher ground after ISIS issued a statement warning of the expected collapse of the Euphrates Dam, according to local activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS). RBSS said ISIS later announced via loudspeaker that the dam was fine and requested residents remain in the city. Raqqa is the latest city targeted by coalition forces in their attempts to rid Iraq and Syria of the extremist group. The city, which is is the extremist group’s operational command headquarters, is now largely surrounded – its main supply routes cut off by advancing forces. The activist RBSS posted videos that purport to show Raqqa civilians fleeing, with groups of people clamoring to leave the city by car and foot. It also posted pictures that allegedly show coalition aircraft targeting the dam, which would endanger the northern Syrian city should it fail. Related video Officials: Marines aid rebels in Syria The dam is 25 miles west of Raqqa and supplies electric power to a wide area of Syria, according to the US. The area has been under ISIS control since 2013. Anti-ISIS partners want US to clarify strategy US-backed troops continued to close the net around Raqqa, which ISIS has occupied for since 2013. Related video Major Gen: 'Tough days ahead' in fight for Mosul On Sunday the SDF, a coalition of mostly Kurdish and Arab militia, assumed control of Tabqa airbase from ISIS, about 50 kilometers west of Raqqa, according to a group spokesman and the London based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Backed by coalition warplanes, the fighters “took control of wide parts of the airport and cut the road between Salamia and Tabqa,” SOHR said. Clashes between the SDF and ISIS in the town of Tabqa are still ongoing, SDF spokesman Talal Silo told CNN. The base had been held by ISIS since August 2014 and was the site of an ISIS massacre that year when the jihadist group murdered more than 200 Syrian soldiers stationed at the airbase after marching them into the desert. Late last week, France’s defense minister said, the battle to recapture Raqqa will begin in “days.” “France has always said that Raqqa was a major objective,” Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on French TV outlet CNews. “Today, one can say that Raqqa is encircled, that the battle for Raqqa will start in the coming days. It will be a very hard battle, but a battle that is going to be of utmost importance.” US military investigating if airstrikes caused nearly 300 civilian deaths A US-backed rebel group which operates in the area – the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – denied that coalition forces had caused any damage to the Euphrates Dam. Related video US official: ISIS ranks reduced by 75% “We do not assess the dam to be in imminent danger unless ISIS plans to destroy it,” the rebel group said in a statement posted by the Combined Joint Task Force. “(Tabqa) Dam has not been structurally damaged to our knowledge,” the statement continued, referring to the Euphrates Dam by another name. “The Coalition seeks to preserve the integrity of the dam as a vital resource to the people of Syria.” Reports: Airstrike on Syria school near Raqqa kills dozens Should the dam fail, it could “could lead to a severe humanitarian crisis,” Col. Joseph Scrocca, a coalition public affairs officer, said last week. Scrocca was speaking as fighters began a major ground offensive, backed up by US forces, to retake the vital dam from ISIS. The attack also included an unprecedented air assault involving US helicopters landing behind enemy lines – flying about 500 local US allies and coalition military advisers across the Euphrates River and Lake Assad so they could attack the ISIS-controlled dam and neighboring town and airfield from the south. “This is the first time we have conducted an air movement, air assault, with the Syrian Arab Coalition and Syrian Democratic Forces,” he said. On a call with reporters from Baghdad Wednesday, Scrocca called the air operation a “daring assault behind enemy lines.” “We believe there are foreign fighters there, probably in the hundreds,” he said. “The (SDF) and our partners there are facing a pretty heavy fight – that’s what makes this type of operation so daring. I think we were lucky we caught ISIS by surprise. They are still reacting to this maneuver.” CNN’s Ghazi Balkiz in Erbil, and Merieme Arif, Deborah Bloom and Susanna Capelouto in Atlanta contributed to this story.


Rangers arrested five men and sealed off the party's headquarter for hours MQM is based in Karachi and is one of Pakistan's largest political parties Businesses, gas pumps and schools remain closed in Karachi due to raid aftermath Pakistani Armed Forces paramilitary personal stormed the headquarters of one of the country’s most powerful regional opposition political parties in a predawn raid on Wednesday, seizing a stash of weapons and arresting several wanted criminals, officials said. The Rangers arrived unannounced early Wednesday morning, arrested five men and sealed off the party’s headquarter for four hours. According to a press release from the MQM (Muttahida Qaumi Movement) one of their party workers was shot fatally by rangers during the raid. “All telephone lines have been disconnected and premises ransacked. Computers and other electronic items have been confiscated. The Rangers also destroyed the electronic surveillance system that had been set up following the May 2013 bomb attacks by the Pakistan Taliban (TTP),”  the release said. Rangers officials have not responded so far to these accusations. In a statement to the media, the Pakistan Rangers released a list of those arrested, including Faisal Mota, a former MQM worker who had been convicted and sentenced to death in absentia for the murder of journalist Wali Khan Babur.  Speaking to the media, Rangers spokesperson Col.Tahir Mahmood also confirmed that a large amount of illegal weapons had been seized during the raid. “The weapons that we had were legal and there as a precautionary measure to deal with real threats from the Taliban against our party and its workers,” Faisal Sabzwari, a senior MQM party leader told CNN. MQM is based in Karachi and is one of Pakistan’s largest political parties. It has the second-largest contingent in the provincial assembly, with 54 of 130 seats. It styles itself as a voice for the downtrodden, the middle class and immigrants from nearby India, but political rivals accuse the party of using heavy-handed tactics, including intimidation, to stay in power. “The raid is meant to send a clear message that law enforcement agencies and Rangers in particular are not going to bow to any political convention,” said Zarrar Khuhro, a senior journalist and political analyst in Karachi. MQM’s party leader Altaf Hussain, who has been living in self-imposed exile in London called for calm, but criticized the raid saying that “it should not be the role of the armed forces to conduct extrajudicial operations on lawful organizations, least of all the headquarters of a democratically elected political party.” Pakistan’s Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said late Wednesday night that the raid was legal. The MQM  has the clout to shut down the city in an hour, sparking general strikes which could last for days, locals say. In the aftermath, locals say businesses in Karachi have shut down, and gas pumps and schools are closed for fear violent protests could erupt in the streets.


President Donald Trump will give “eye-opening” remarks Tuesday on US efforts to curb North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, a source familiar with the President’s State of the Union speech said. The President will talk about the North Korean threat in a “strong and serious way,” the source said. “It will be eye-opening,” the source added, predicting the portion of the address dedicated to North Korea is likely to drive headlines on Wednesday. Everything you need to know about the SOTU addressHow to watchMeet Trump’s closest friends in CongressMeet Joe Kennedy, who will deliver the Democrats’ SOTU responseMelania Trump’s SOTU guestsSOTU history Everything you need to know about the SOTU addressHow to watchMeet Trump’s closest friends in CongressMeet Joe Kennedy, who will deliver the Democrats’ SOTU responseMelania Trump’s SOTU guestsSOTU history Trump’s aides and allies now point to North Korea’s recent decision to engage in talks with South Korea and participate in the upcoming Winter Olympics as evidence that the President’s “strategic rhetoric” is effective. The President will also touch on his proposal to provide a path to citizenship to more than 1 million undocumented immigrants, including the recipients of the expiring Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Trump believes his offer to give the DACA recipients an opportunity to obtain citizenship in exchange for a border wall to be “generous,” the source said. The President is also expected to make a strong pitch for his infrastructure proposals in a show of bipartisanship to Democrats. The source acknowledged the infrastructure portion of the speech, as well as other items on the President’s laundry list in Tuesday night’s address, may come across as somewhat dry to viewers. “Is it sexy? No. Can he make it sexy? He can make anything sexy. That’s the problem,” the source quipped, hinting the President could decide to ad-lib at times during the State of the Union to drive up interest in his speech.


Xi calls the British Parliament "the mother of all parliaments" Visit designed to strengthen economic ties between China and UK Prime Minister David Cameron has said it marks a "golden era" in the bilateral relationship Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed both houses of the British Parliament on Tuesday afternoon as he and his wife began a four-day visit that has aroused concern among human rights activists. Xi called the British Parliament “the mother of all parliaments.” The visit is designed to strengthen economic ties between Britain and China – including Chinese investment in the UK and commercial ties between the two countries. The rhetoric in advance of the meeting has been warm. Xi was met with a royal gun salute. He will stay in Buckingham Palace and he was greeted by members of the royal family. Supporters of Xi turned out early Tuesday to welcome him on his way to the palace. “He’s our President. We are very proud of him,” said Lin ze Qing, 31, who carried a huge portrait of Xi. British Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking on CCTV, China’s state broadcaster, said the visit would mark a “golden era” in UK-China relations. But some human rights activists have raised concerns about the increasing coziness. Related video Protests greet Chinese President Xi in the UK “We’re not against trade,” said David Mepham, the UK director for Human Rights Watch. “We’re not against investment. “But I think it is deeply disturbing that the British government appears to be saying this week that it just wants to talk about trade, and it just wants to talk about investment,” Mepham said. “And moral issues and human rights concerns and people suffering at the hands of the Chinese state should be shunted to one side.” Among the concerns is the level of executions in China – a number that is not officially announced but is believed to be greater than the number of executions in the rest of the world put together, according to rights group Amnesty International. The British government has said it will raise human rights issues with Xi, although the topic will not be on the official agenda. At the same time, there concerns about some publicly discordant notes. Prince Charles, who greeted Xi on Tuesday, is a personal friend of the Dalai Lama, whom the Chinese government considers an opponent. The longtime heir to the British throne will skip the state dinner being held for Xi and meet him instead for tea. And there are concerns in government circles as well that the new Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, will raise the issue of human rights in public. CNN’s Michael Martinez in Los Angeles, Katie Hunt in Hong Kong, and Don Melvin in London contributed to this report.


White House lawyer Emmet Flood attended the start of two classified Justice Department briefings with lawmakers on a confidential intelligence source, adding to Democratic concerns that White House staff were taking part in the briefings on classified information that was related to the Russia investigation. Flood and White House chief of staff John Kelly attended the start of the briefings before leaving. Their attendance was just one of the many twists that accompanied the remarkable back-to-back briefings between senior Trump administration officials and two different groups of lawmakers. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Flood and Kelly were there to “facilitate meetings” between the Justice Department officials and Congress and that both men left the meetings “after making brief comments.” Related article Giuliani media blitz, legal team's reshuffle hint at new Trump strategy “Neither Chief Kelly nor Mr. Flood actually attended the meetings but did make brief remarks before the meetings started to relay the President’s desire for as much openness as possible under the law,” Sanders said. “They also conveyed the President’s understanding of the need to protect human intelligence services and the importance of communication between the branches of government.” But Democrats slammed the fact that Flood was there at all. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said, “Never seen a Gang of Eight meeting that included any presence from the White House. Those individuals left before the substance of it.  Unusual times.” California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence panel, called Flood’s presence “completely inappropriate.” “Although he did not participate in the meetings which followed, as the White House’s attorney handling the Special Counsel’s investigation, his involvement — in any capacity — was entirely improper, and I made this clear to him,” Schiff said in a statement. Schiff pointed to comments Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani made to Politico on Thursday, in which Giuliani said: “We want to see how the briefing went … today and how much we learned from it.” “If we learned a good deal from it, it will shorten that whole process considerably,” Giuliani added, suggesting the briefings could speed up the process for special counsel Robert Mueller’s team to interview Trump. Giuliani later told CNN that he assumes Flood went to the meeting because the President wanted him there. When asked if Trump told him that, Giuliani said no but that it’s a safe assumption. Giuliani also said that learning about the confidential source is a prerequisite for any special counsel interview with the President. He defended Flood’s attendance at the briefings Thursday. “I can’t understand why it is inappropriate for White House counsel to be there. Maybe it would be for me, or Jay [Sekulow] but not the person representing the President inside the White House,” he said. Senior Justice Department and intelligence officials met with the lawmakers Thursday in a bid to end the standoff between House Republicans and the Justice Department over a confidential intelligence source in the Russia investigation. RELATED: Nunes, in spat with Justice Department, threatens Sessions with contempt over Russia materials It’s still not clear whether the pair of meetings — which became chaotic affairs over repeated changes to the invite list, time and place of the classified briefings — would satisfy House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, who has threatened to hold Deputy Attorney Rod Rosenstein in contempt of Congress for not providing the documents he’s seeking related to the confidential source. The Trump administration officials met at noon at the Justice Department with Nunes, House Speaker Paul Ryan, South Carolina GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy and Schiff. Then they went to a separate 2 p.m. briefing on Capitol Hill with the bipartisan “Gang of Eight,” the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate and the Intelligence Committees. Nunes and Gowdy both declined comment after their briefing. Ryan said in a statement afterward that the Intelligence Committee was “now getting the cooperation necessary” to complete their work. “I look forward to the prompt completion of the intelligence committee’s oversight work in this area now that they are getting the cooperation necessary for them to complete their work while protecting sources and methods,” Ryan said in a statement. RELATED: 5 easy steps that explain just how out-of-bounds Donald Trump’s FBI move really is Schiff said in a statement on behalf of the Gang of Eight Democrats, “Nothing we heard today has changed our view that there is no evidence to support any allegation that the FBI or any intelligence agency placed a ‘spy’ in the Trump Campaign, or otherwise failed to follow appropriate procedures and protocols.” President Donald Trump and his conservative allies have claimed that the FBI was using the confidential source to spy on the Trump campaign, although US officials have told CNN that the source was not planted inside the campaign. But the briefings themselves over the source became the latest political confrontation in the Russia investigation after the White House initially only had invited Republicans to the Justice Department briefing on the confidential source. Democrats demanded to receive the same briefing. After the White House initially said it would hold that second briefing two weeks later, the administration agreed late Wednesday to give the “Gang of Eight” briefing the same day. And in a sign that the partisan tensions continued to simmer, Schiff was a late add to the briefing given to the House Republicans. The lawmakers were briefed by Rosenstein, FBI Director Chris Wray and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats. The first meeting was held at the Justice Department while the “Gang of Eight” briefing was on Capitol Hill. Nunes and Schiff were seen heading into both meetings. Republicans have argued that they need the classified information as part of their oversight work on the FBI and Justice Department’s handling of the investigation into Trump and Russia. The request for the latest documents are the latest in a series of subpoenas to the Justice Department for sensitive information. Democrats have argued that the briefings never should have happened in the first place, charging that Republicans were seeking information in order to undercut special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. “The White House’s plan to provide a separate briefing for their political allies demonstrates that their interest is not in informing Congress, but in undermining an ongoing criminal investigation,” Warner said in a statement. “If they insist upon carrying out this farce, the White House and its Republican allies in the House will do permanent, longstanding damage to the practice of bipartisan congressional oversight of intelligence,” Warner said. CNN’s Ted Barrett, Liz Landers, Daniella Diaz and Dana Bash contributed to this report.


Michael James Riddering was one of dozens killed in Burkina Faso terror attack "I am having trouble believing he is gone," wife posts He was at a cafe with a friend when the attackers opened fire An American who died in a terror attack in Burkina Faso moved halfway across the world with his wife to run an orphanage and women’s crisis center. Michael James Riddering was one of 28 people killed after terrorists opened fire Friday night at a cafe in the capital, Ouagadougou. The al Qaeda-linked militants then raided a luxury hotel across the street, shooting some and taking others hostage in an overnight siege that lasted hours. Sheltering Wings, a missionary group that supports Riddering’s orphanage, provided a detailed account of his ordeal. It said the Florida resident and his wife, Amy Riddering, worked at the orphanage in Yako, 115 kilometers (70 miles) from the capital. Riddering, 45,  was in Ouagadougou to pick up a team of missionaries visiting from the United States and stopped by Cappuccino cafe with a friend, the group said. Attackers stormed in and started shooting. The friend, identified only as Pastor Valentin, hastily called Riddering’s wife and told her they “urgently” needed prayers. Then the phone went dead. “It appears that Pastor Valentin was somehow separated from Mike during the attack and hid somewhere in the Cappuccino cafe,” the missionary group said. Riddering’s body was found in a morgue later. The pastor was rescued by security forces. In a Facebook post, Amy Riddering said the pastor called using her husband’s phone. “Heaven has gained a warrior! I know God has a purpose in all things but sometimes it is a complete mystery to me,” she posted. “My best friend, partner in crime and love of my life. The best husband ever. … My heart is so heavy and I am having trouble believing he is gone.” Amy and Michael Riddering moved to the West African nation five years ago from Hollywood, Florida. Before that, he owned a boat company in his home state. The parents of four adopted two children in Burkina Faso, according to the missionary group. “The Ridderings and their team care for about 400 orphaned children (and) provide direct assistance to disenfranchised widows,” Sheltering Wings said. U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby sent his condolences to the family. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this difficult time, as they are with all those affected by this brutality,” he said. Others killed in the terror attack included French, Canadian and Ukrainian nationals. Read: Burkina Faso attack demonstrates al Qaeda revival in Africa


Currently, there are 4,565 US troops in Iraq President Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi have a deal to increase those levels The US and Iraq have agreed on a plan that could send approximately 500 additional US troops to Iraq in the coming days to assist Iraqi forces in the battle to retake Mosul from ISIS. The plan has been under discussion for weeks but President Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi have now agreed on the details, a US defense official tells CNN. “In consultation with the Government of Iraq, the US is prepared to provide additional US military personnel to train and advise the Iraqis as the planning for the Mosul campaign intensifies,” the official said. This is expected to be the final addition of US military troops in Iraq, according to officials. Currently, there are 4,565 US troops in Iraq. The approved ceiling is of troops is 4,647. The Iraqi government generally has to approve and agree to any significant change in US troop levels. There are also hundreds of additional troops in Iraq on so-called temporary duty status that may only involve weeks or months of deployment. The US troops are to be based largely in northern Iraq at various locations. US officials have indicated as the battle for Mosul unfolds some small teams of US military advisers are likely to be placed closer to combat than previously but not at the front lines. In a statement, Abadi said Wednesday, “American President Barack Obama was consulted on a request from the Iraqi government for a final increase in the number of trainers and advisers under the umbrella of the international coalition in Iraq.”


12 hours after President Donald Trump’s stunning firing of FBI Director James Comey, there are a whole lot more questions than answers. I’ve been jotting down the questions I still have about all of this since hearing of the Comey dismissal last night. Here’s what I came up with – in no particular order other than when they occurred to me. In his internal memo making the case for Comey to be fired, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein pegged much of his argument on the Director’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server. But, Comey announced that he wouldn’t bring charges against Clinton on July 5, 2016. And Trump praised Comey in late October for re-opening the Clinton investigation after more emails were found on a computer owned by top Clinton aide Huma Abedin and former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner. Trump has been president for 109 days. Why make the decision to get rid of Comey now rather than in January or February? There hasn’t been “new” news on the FBI investigation in that time. There’s no obvious catalyst here. The White House quickly released a memo from the deputy attorney general detailing Comey’s wrongs – and fireable offenses. Did Trump commission that report? Did Attorney General Jeff Sessions? If so, why?  Was there something that triggered that review?  Or did Rosenstein do it on his own accord?  Reporting suggests that he did.  But, why?  And did he expect it to lead to Comey’s dismissal? Amid the barrage of coverage of the Comey firing, you might have missed this CNN exclusive: That associates of fired national security adviser Michael Flynn received grand jury subpoenas over the last few days. That represents a significant ramping up of the Justice Department investigation into Flynn and the broader attempts by Russia to meddle in the 2016 election. Our reporting suggests the subpoenas went out several days ago. Was Trump aware of that fact?  If so, did it have any impact on the timing of his decision to fire Comey? In Trump’s publicly-released letter firing Comey, the president asserted that the now-former FBI director had “inform[ed] me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation.” If that’s accurate, Comey would be breaking with a whole heck of a lot of protocol. So, when were these occasions? Does Comey corroborate them? If so, why did he do it? If not, then why did Trump say it? Is it possible Trump misunderstood conversations with Comey to be assertions that he wasn’t a target of an investigation? If so, how did he misunderstand that so badly? Trump built his reputation in American culture as the guy who would sit across a boardroom table from someone and tell them, “You’re fired.” He built his reputation as a politician on the idea that he would stand up to anyone and everyone – telling them exactly what he thought and why. So, why then did he send a former bodyguard to the FBI with the news that Comey had been fired? And why did he wait until Comey was in California before making the move? Why did Comey, who, whatever you think of his actions around the 2016 election, had served admirably and well, have to find out he was fired by seeing it on television like the rest of us? One nugget from CNN’s Dana Bash jumped out at me last night: “Senior White House officials did not think the firing would be a big political explosion.” Um, what?  Unseating the FBI Director in the midst of a Justice Department investigation into connections and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence officials might not be a big deal?  Did the White House forget that Comey was effectively in charge of the Russia investigation because Attorney General Jeff Sessions was forced to recuse himself after not disclosing two meetings he had with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the course of the 2016 campaign? Firing an FBI director under ANY circumstances is a big deal.  Doing it under these circumstances is a MASSIVE deal. The Trump White House is trying to have it both ways in their post-firing spin. Trump was decisive in that on the same day he received the memo from Rosenstein, he acted and fired Comey.  Trump was thoughtful in that he made a considered decision based on a series of missteps by Comey. Both of those things can’t be true.  And, if Trump was really preparing to make this decision for quite some time, why didn’t he have any sort of replacement for Comey lined up?  Why did it feel as though he made a snap decision without much forethought or future planning over what it might mean? Trump had been adamant that the whole Russia story was a “total hoax.” And while Republican members of Congress didn’t go that far, there seemed to be little appetite on Capitol Hill to appoint an independent counsel to investigate Russia’s hacking of the 2016 election. Trump’s decision to fire Comey changes that calculus. Already Senate Intelligence Committee chair Richard Burr has said he is “troubled by the timing and reasoning of Director Comey’s termination.” Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake tweeted this: “I’ve spent the last several hours trying to find an acceptable rationale for the timing of Comey’s firing. I just can’t do it.” I've spent the last several hours trying to find an acceptable rationale for the timing of Comey's firing. I just can't do it. While some other Republicans have been more supportive of the firing – Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, for one – it’s difficult to imagine that the political pressure to support an independent counsel will grow unbearable at some point soon for Congressional Republicans. Of course, an independent counsel appointment requires presidential sign off. And who knows what Trump would do..


Attorney General Jeff Sessions gave several answers on his meetings with Russian officials Senators proved despite the end of Tuesday's hearing they're not quite done with Sessions Attorney General Jeff Sessions captivated Washington Tuesday, beating back rumors of a private meeting with Russia’s ambassador to the US and mounting a defense for President Donald Trump, one week after former FBI Director James Comey artfully unloaded on both men. Sessions routinely said he would not answer questions regarding his conversations with Trump, but he delivered more than enough answers over two and a half hours of testimony Tuesday afternoon. Here are the top five things we learned. Sessions had one major goal – to protect himself after Comey thrust him into the center of the Russia maelstrom. And he appeared to do that effectively in a strong opening statement, where he slammed the door shut on even the possibility that he had a third meeting with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. “I did not have any private meetings, nor do I recall any conversations with any Russian officials at the Mayflower Hotel. I did not attend any meetings at that event separate,” Sessions said. But in the rat-a-tat-tat of follow-up questions, Sessions slowly pried that door open again, by increasingly hedging his answers. Related article Once again, senators try to cut off Kamala Harris Shortly after his opening, Sessions said that if he had talked with Kislyak, “It would’ve been certainly, I can assure you, nothing improper, if I’d had a conversation with him. And it’s conceivable that that occurred. I just don’t remember it.” Later, under an intense grilling from Sen. Kamala Harris – which earned a rebuke from Sen. John McCain – Sessions explained his hedging. “Will you let me qualify it? If I don’t qualify it you’ll accuse me of lying. So, I need to be correct as best I can,” Sessions said. “And I’m not able to be rushed this fast, it makes me nervous.” The chief law enforcement officer of the United States was never briefed on Russia’s hacking of one of its major political parties, or any other efforts by Russia to mess with the elections – past and future. Why? Because he personally recused himself from all things related to the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia the day after he was sworn into office. What Sessions didn’t explain is why he waited a month to tell the public – and his own associates – that he had stepped aside from the probe. Comey testified last week that as of February 14, he still believed Sessions had not recused himself – but that he almost certainly would. In fact, according to Sessions, he had recused himself two weeks earlier. Also, he’s not 100% sure that Russia messed with the election, because he’s only read news reports about it. It’s not clear if Sessions intended to pay penance to Trump after their relationship strained over the President’s concerns that Sessions burned him by stepping aside from the Russia probe – but he did a good job defending the White House anyway. Sessions is now the only Trump official on the record, under oath, countering Comey’s testimony last week under oath. In particular, Sessions tamped down Comey’s recounting of the February 14 meeting Comey had with Trump – where Trump reportedly asked him stop investigating former national security adviser Michael Flynn. READ: James Comey’s prepared testimony First, Sessions discounted Comey’s report that Sessions didn’t want to leave the room because he felt like something might be amiss. “I left. It didn’t seem to me to be a major problem. I knew that Director Comey, long-time experienced in the Department of Justice, could handle himself well,” Sessions told Sen. Marco Rubio. Then Sessions downplayed Comey’s request that he never be left in the room alone with Trump again, saying, “he gave me no detail about what it was that he was concerned about.” Later, Sessions directly blasted Comey for his testimony in private last week, “This is a secret innuendo out there being leaked about me – and I don’t appreciate it.” The White House said Trump thinks Sessions “did a very good job” in his testimony. In the gaggle on Air Force One on Tuesday, White House deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders said the President wasn’t able to watch “much of it,” but from “what he did see and what he heard, he thought that attorney general Sessions did a very good job and in particular was very strong on the point that there was no collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.” Sanders confirmed that the President did interview Robert Mueller as a candidate for FBI director the day before he was named special counsel of the federal investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia ties. Sanders would not, however, say whether the President has confidence in Mueller in that role. “Beyond that, what I said earlier, I don’t have anything more to add,” Sanders said, when a reporter asked if Trump has confidence in Mueller. When Comey testified, there was nobody carrying water for the White House on the Senate Russia probe – even though half of the panel is comprised of Senate Republicans. But that changed Tuesday, with a variety of Republicans coming to Sessions’ (and the White House’s) aide. Related article Winners and losers from Jeff Sessions' testimony on Russia It could be because they didn’t like seeing one of their former colleagues – Sessions was in the Senate 20 years – under the hot glare of the national spotlight. Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican who has frequently supported Trump and worked with Sessions when he was in the Senate, offered him a hand, painting a comical portrait of an alleged spy scheme. “Have you ever, ever in any of these fantastical situations heard of a plot line so ridiculous that a sitting United States senator and an ambassador of a foreign government colluded at an open setting with hundreds of other people to pull off the greatest caper in the history of espionage?” An apparent fracture on the committee even emerged when, after Chairman Richard Burr said they were intensely focused on Russian interference in the election, Sen. Jim Risch muttered, “doesn’t seem like it.” Warner made clear in his opening remarks they were already planning to bring Sessions in for questioning later this year, well before Sessions offered to appear before them. And lawmakers throughout the hearing pressed Sessions on providing emails and other documents to them. What’s not clear is if Trump will be forced to invoke executive privilege to stop Sessions from testifying again, or from handing over the documents senators requested Tuesday. Sessions cited a Justice Department policy which blocks officials from testifying about private discussions with the President. (Sen. James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican, later noted that former Attorney General Eric Holder used that policy to stall Congress’ investigations of the Obama White House.) Burr made it clear Tuesday that National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers followed through on his promise to the Senate intelligence committee and returned to answer questions in private that he said he could not answer. Sessions would not make that promise Tuesday. But lawmakers aren’t done with him yet. CNN’s Liz Landers contributed to this report.


Editor’s Note: Ed Finn is the founding director of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University, where he is an assistant professor with a joint appointment in the School of Arts, Media and Engineering and the Department of English. A former journalist for Time, Slate and Popular Science, he is the co-editor of “Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future” (William Morrow, September 2014) and author of “Culture Machines,” a book about the present and future of algorithms (MIT Press, forthcoming). The opinions expressed in this commentary are his. Ed Finn: Smartphone camera is not a de facto tool of democracy Political strongmen often use social media to consolidate power, he says Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s response to the botched coup attempt this weekend revealed something important about the laws of power in social media. Like other turning points in the Middle East since 2011, the news was relayed first and foremost by smartphones. But unlike the events in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, which many called the “Facebook Revolution,” in Turkey the revolutionaries were not the ones pointing the cameras. Instead, the world watched in amazement as the military units operating on the night of July 15 seemed to follow a classic 20th-century model for a coup d’etat: seizing the state TV studio, which the insurrectionists duly accomplished at 12:13 am on the 16th, forcing the announcer to read a statement on their behalf. Eleven minutes later, Erdogan cleverly responded by getting himself on the air via a FaceTime call to CNN Turk. It was a remarkable moment to watch, with the head of CNN’s Ankara bureau, Hande Firat, holding a lapel mic up to an iPhone. Erdogan managed to appear at once presidential and intimate, striking a balance between his assured rhetoric and the tenuousness of his connection to the media universe. At one point, the video cut out while someone else tried to call the phone, underlining the leader’s luck at managing to get on air from (we presume) his vacation in the beach town of Marmaris in the midst of an extremely chaotic night. Perhaps realizing their mistake, the junta took over the CNN Turk studios three hours later, emptying the facility even as the staff continued to broadcast. But, of course, it was too late: Erdogan had successfully sent the message to his supporters to get out on the streets, and that is exactly what they did. There are many reasons why this coup failed, and why Erdogan maintains such a powerful grip on Turkey. But this particular moment signals a broader truth about the nature of politics in an age of social media. Tahrir Square, the recent documentation of incendiary police killings in the United States and countless other stories have shown us how ubiquitous smartphone cameras and proliferating social media platforms can empower individuals. But Erdogan reminded us that not all social media users are created equal. The laws of power apply, and those with influence find it easiest to use social media to get even more. The smartphone camera is not a de facto tool of democracy. It just magnifies whatever it is turned on – and strongmen like Erdogan and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are learning to use that immediacy to their advantage. The design of the iPhone tells us how FaceTime conversations should be conducted: we cradle the phone a few inches from our face, bringing us into close connection with someone else doing precisely the same thing. Erdogan’s turn with FaceTime gave viewers an intimate, almost visceral experience of his presence in a moment of crisis. Assad has been trying for more modest propaganda gains with the Syrian presidential Instagram feed, offering a – shall we say – tightly curated view of life filled with family cameos and humanitarian photo ops. That digital intimacy is transforming all kinds of political exchanges, creating a new kind of cinema verité that is as familiar to Katy Perry as it is to Donald Trump. Live video is empowering powerful eyewitness testimony, but it is also giving politicians another way to leverage the cult of celebrity and to short-circuit traditional media filters. Join us on Facebook.com/CNNOpinion. When that happens, the ground rules of discourse shift from news reporting to the comments section. Savvy politicians use social media to say things they can only get away with on those platforms, maximizing their (theoretically) unscripted nature as a way to push the envelope far beyond what would be acceptable in other media formats. Donald Trump’s circulation of the now-infamous Star of David image is one recent example. At the same time, live video amps up the relationship between politicians and constituents even further by creating the visual impression that we are an arm’s length away from power. Consider President Obama trading friendly Twitter barbs with Prince Harry over the Invictus Games, a Paralympics-style competition for wounded military service members and veterans. The premise of Prince Harry’s response video is that we are watching an unscripted reaction from Queen Elizabeth to the Obamas’ original taunt; we have a front row seat to a form of 21st century public banter between world leaders that would have been unimaginable in the halls of Kensington Palace even a decade ago. Related article Recep Tayyip Erdogan Fast Facts This kind of high-wattage digital intimacy brings unintended consequences. In many ways we’re just beginning to discover what persuasion and decision-making mean in the era of constant connection. Trump swept aside challengers in his primary field because he understood this new reality far better than anyone in the Republican Party, and the coming election will be a kind of referendum on the business of politics in the United States. But for Turkey at least, the answer is already settled: through massive purges Erdogan has eliminated even the hint of opposition, drawing his country ever closer to him, as he did his iPhone camera during the coup.


Elmgreen & Dragset are an artist duo celebrated for their darkly comic artworks mocking art world conventions The two have been working together for 21 years Their famous works include fashionista's favorite Prada Marfa For an artist duo with global acclaim, Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset don’t sound very interested in pleasing the galleries that show their work. The pair don’t mind biting the hand that feeds them – “biting can be pretty sexy,” they’ve said – which might explain why their two new exhibitions are gleefully taking aim at some of the art world’s most well-worn conventions. The mischievous cross-disciplinary Scandinavian double-act are best known internationally for Prada Marfa: a lifeless recreation of Prada boutique, found deep in the Texas desert, which has become a pilgrimage site for fashion fans – Beyonce included – who line up to photograph themselves in front of the never-opened store. But their chaotic back-catalogue also covers naked men in unexpected places, an exhibition of imagined artworks, an opaque telescope, a triumphant, golden anti-war monument in London’s Trafalgar Square, and a dead art collector floating in a swimming pool. This month, the pair have two exhibitions in Aarhus, Denmark (at Dokk 1 and ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum) and are looking forward to a major show at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, where they plan to stage a glitzy art fair, with only their own work on display. We caught up with them at their recent London show “Self-Portraits” at Victoria Miro Gallery Mayfair, where the pair put together an exhibition “selfie” consisting entirely of recreations of art gallery name labels, and learned five surprising facts about the artists behind the mischief. How can art labels be a self portrait? 54-year-old Copenhagen-born Elmgreen explains the duo have been questioning how they represent themselves as duo with a shared process and output. “There is this weird situation where you’re a duo working together, how do you actually write your biography, how do you make a self-portrait of yourself?” “In recent years it has become very common to be obsessed with doing selfies, which is a weird situation, because people use the whole world as just a background for themselves.” He sees the rash of Instagram images – faces transplanted in front of famous landmarks – as part of a bigger trend: for people to create their “social media image’” through references to cultural touchstones, fashion trends, and role models. “We have brought it to the extreme in this situation and just been making self-portraits through other artists’ works… especially the titles,” explains Elmgreen. The exhibition takes you from the artists’ teenage days (Keith Haring and painter Ross Bleckner were heroes before the two met) to their later passions. Each artist selected has held a place in their heart at some point. The pair say the works, which include “Clean Boy” (by David Hockney) and “Lonesome?” (by Martin Kippenberger), were picked because the original works aren’t easy for audiences to call to mind. Instead they hope viewers will reflect on the work at hand: these blown-up labels. Here, the names – often considered peripheral to the gallery experience – are pushed into center-focus. It’s a stroll down memory lane, but also an exercise in old fashioned, “high art” technical skill, with labels reproduced in paint on canvas and engraved on two pieces of perfectly white, unblemished, extremely expensive marble, the pair say they had to smuggle out of Italy. You can see why, despite the pair’s jeering, the art world hold Elmgreen and Dragset as far more than just jokers – with international awards in their cabinet and major exhibitions at Oslo’s Astrup Fearnley Museum and Denmark’s National Gallery. In person, the tombstone-like marble recreations, especially, are beguiling, and the lowly label is elevated to something greater. The plush Mayfair environs of the Victoria Miro gallery is the ideal setting for their unusual exhibition, explains Elmgreen: “We try to create situations in settings where people normally feel slightly uncomfortable… where they’re a little bit tense, like posh galleries in Mayfair – and then provide a situation where they can have a little laugh.” Both agree that a particular shared sense of humor has been a cornerstone on their fruitful working relationship. But at the heart of the joke, Norwegian-born Dragset explains, is making the audience feel a little uncomfortable: creating something “a bit too private for the context.” Often this is coupled with a dark edge: their interests involve giving  voyeuristic insights into sad, tragic lives, such the art collector they drowned, post-party, in his own pool for “The Collectors” at the Danish and Nordic Pavilions at the 2009 Venice Biennale. The aim is to unnerve. “The extreme” Dragset says is the seemingly oblivious, and at ease “guy sitting naked in the chair, reading a book and listening to music on his headphones.” At Victoria Miro, Elmgreen points to a “scruffy old butcher’s table” in front of an uncomfortable wooden chair and bottle of “very cheap” whiskey. He says it’s a treat for London’s sheltered, wealthy art-lovers “because a lot of the people that are coming to this gallery, they have never tasted cheap whiskey before, so that’s a complete new experience for them.” They’ve said before they want to give viewers a little “thrill” – seemingly whether pleasant or not. In the past, this has meant erecting a bed in a Louis Vuitton store and encouraging employees to jump in and catch a catnap in front of bemused customers. Or a potential future work, hatched midway through the interview, when they see a friend struggling to get out through the gallery’s futuristic sliding door: “Next year there will be just a hand stuck out the door – just a child’s hands stuck in the door,” Elmgreen giggles. Elmgreen and Dragset spent their first decade as a couple, before separating romantically, while remaining creatively united. A decade later, Elmgreen & Dragset, the double-act, is still developing says Dragset – and quite possibly, at 21, just entering the prime of creative life. Elmgreen is confident of staying sharp: “It’s always also a kind of cat-and-mouse situation, where you try not to be trapped in the corner… as soon as you’re pinned down or boxed in, it’s over. “So it’s like trying to entertain yourself, and hopefully your audience, in new ways every time. Even after 20 years.”


Shiite-led Popular Mobilization Units are now a legal fighting force The group has been at the forefront of the fight against ISIS in Iraq Sunni politicians raised an alarm Monday after the Iraqi Parliament passed a law recognizing Iraq’s Shiite-led Hashad al-Shabbi, known as the Popular Mobilization Units, or PMU, as an independent military force. The more than 110,000 strong fighting group has been at the forefront of the fight against ISIS in Iraq. Its role is critical but controversial with human rights groups, which allege the units have committed atrocities in the battlefield against the minority Sunni population. The bill, officially passed Saturday, makes the units an independent entity of the Iraqi Armed Forces that answers directly to the Prime Minister. Under the new rules, the units will be overseen by the Popular Mobilization Unit Committees, or PMUC. Critics argue this effectively legitimizes a militia, which does not maintain the same standards of training or battlefield conduct as the national military. Of the 328-seat Parliament, 208 voted in favor of the law. A majority of the Sunni members boycotted and left the chamber. “I believe this committee has been politically motivated and it will have similar impact as Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, and aims to weaken the Iraqi army,” Raad al Dahlaki, a Sunni member of  Parliament, said Monday. “We should definitely support and show appreciation to Popular Mobilization Units, but there is absolutely no need for an alternative force separate from the Iraqi army and police,” he said. Many fear the ongoing battle to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, will reignite sectarian tensions and inflame calls of autonomy from various religious and ethnic groups. Sunni politicians say the legislation is part of a continuing trend by the Shiite-led Baghdad government to sideline their interests in the country’s political future. “We have expressed our rejections to this law but they did not listen to us,” Osama al-Nujaifi, Iraq’s Sunni vice president, said in a press conference Saturday. “The majority does not have the right to determine the fate of everyone else.” Those who defend the law say it brings the units under the purview of the government, which means more oversight and greater accountability. “If this law had not passed, we would be worried that we could end up with various militant groups who are not under the umbrella of the military committee,” said Adnan al-Assadi, a Shiite member of Parliament. Assadi argued the law will unify Iraq’s various fighting factions and pointed to the percentage of Sunni fighters in the units as an example of diversity. Some 9,000 Sunni fighters are part of the PMU, said Ahmed al-Assadi, a PMU spokesman. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi also welcomed the new law and said the fighting force “will represent and defend all Iraqis wherever they are.” The PMU’s forces have been fighting ISIS militants in Iraq since 2014. They are made up of dozens of militia groups affiliated with various political parties. Some have varying degrees of support from the Shiite-run government in Tehran. The new law requires the PMU to end loyalties and affiliations with all political parties. The head of each division and any higher-ranking commanders within the PMU now must be approved by the Iraqi Parliament. In October, the Iraqi government announced the military offensive to retake Mosul from ISIS. Human Rights Watch called on Iraqi commanders to prevent the PMU from taking part in the planned operation, citing a record of abuses against the Sunni population, including summary killings, enforced disappearances, torture and the destruction of homes. The Prime Minister has said repeatedly the PMU will not be allowed to enter the city of Mosul but will participate in other battles in Nineveh province. Thousands of fighters are engaged in an offensive to wrest control of Tal Afar from ISIS. The 50,000 predominantly Sunni resident say they fear the forces will enter the city and carry out retribution killings.


New: Family "relieved and thrilled" about coming to US for baby's surgery, lawyer says Girl needs urgent surgery to fix heart defect; family had been denied visas to US An Iranian baby with a serious heart defect will soon get the medical attention she needs in the United States. The girl and her family – caught up in President Donald Trump’s immigration ban – have received an all-clear to enter the United States for critical surgery, officials at the Oregon Health & Science University’s Doernbecher Children’s Hospital said. Fatemeh Reshad and her parents are expected to arrive in the United States in a few days, the Portland hospital said Saturday. They initially had been scheduled to meet Sunday with doctors in Portland but had been barred from traveling from Tehran, Fatemeh’s uncle, Samad Teghizadeh, told CNN. Several congressional Democrats released a letter Friday evening asking Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to grant a waiver for the child and her parents. The delay came after Trump’s executive order put an abrupt stop on travel to the United States for citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, including Iran. A federal judge on Friday temporarily stopped the order. Family attorney Jennifer Morrissey told CNN, “The family decided that it would be best to have their daughter treated at OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital because of the hospital’s pediatric cardiology expertise and family support in Portland.” The uncle, Teghizadeh, who has been an American citizen for seven years, lives in Portland with his parents – Fatemeh’s grandparents – who also are US citizens. “Everything is going great, and we are bringing her here to Portland,” Teghizadeh told CNN. Fatemeh’s family is “overwhelmingly relieved and thrilled that the baby is coming for surgery,” Morrissey said at a press conference at the Portland hospital Saturday. The International Refugee Assistance Project is arranging the family’s travel. Last month, Iranian doctors in Tehran told Fatemeh’s family that the 4-month-old has structural abnormalities and two holes in her heart, but they lacked the resources to treat the infant. Fatemeh and her parents boarded a flight to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, but they were rerouted back to Iran and told to reapply for a US visa in 90 days. Teghizadeh worried his niece wouldn’t make it until then. State and federal officials intervened on behalf of the family, Amber Murray, a Washington-based immigration attorney working on the case, told CNN. Attorneys contacted State Department officials to help the family obtain an emergency waiver to navigate around the ban. “I find it deplorable that an infant, who was supposed to come to Oregon to receive much needed lifesaving care, was not able to access that care at Oregon Health Sciences University,” Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said at a press conference Thursday. The governor’s office connected with the family to determine if medical help could be provided, Brown spokesman Bryan Hockaday told CNN. Fatemeh’s family contacted the office of Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, for help. Merkley took “interest in the case and assigned a case worker from his office to work as a facilitator between the family and immigration lawyers,” the senator’s communications director Sara Hottman told CNN on Thursday. “He’s involved and very personally interested in this issue, being very opposed to this ban as it’s having potentially devastating effect on lives,” Hottman said. That leverage apparently included the letter to Tillerson, which Merkley’s office sent with other congressional Democrats from the state. “Whether Fatemeh and her family are allowed access to this urgent and necessary medical care in the United States will determine whether she lives or dies,” they wrote. The Democrats said granting the waiver would be “moral and humanitarian” as well as send a signal that “even in the face of highly strained diplomatic relations, the United States offers help to those suffering tragic circumstances.” Doctors from around the country and from Canada and Germany responded to calls for help, Murray told CNN. “She has a fairly complicated anatomy with a muscular VSD,” Murray said, referring to a ventricular septal defect. It’s a common heart defect present at birth due to an abnormal connection between the ventricles or lower chambers of the heart, according to the Mayo Clinic. Doctors are awaiting more of Fatemeh’s medical records, but the initial diagnosis indicates she also has other heart complications, including an atrial septal defect – a “hole” in the wall that separates the top two chambers of the heart. Physicians in Tehran sent the results of Fatemeh’s echocardiogram to doctors in Portland, who reviewed her case and said she needs to be operated on urgently. Doctors at OHSU Doernbecher have agreed to waive their fees, and the hospital will ensure the majority of the surgery is covered, the hospital said. “This is my home. We live here. My work and everything is in the US,” said Teghizadeh, the child’s uncle. “Believe me, if I didn’t have a brother and sister in Iran, I wouldn’t go there. This is our home.” He said he just wants his sister’s baby to get the care she needs. CNN’s Eli Watkins and Rob Frehse contributed to this report.


President Joe Biden will caution the U.S.'s British allies during remarks in Ireland on Friday Biden said earlier he and President Barack Obama had wished for a different outcome Instability in Europe and beyond is providing “fertile terrain for reactionary politicians and demagogues,” Vice President Joe Biden cautioned during remarks in Ireland on Friday. Listing global irritants like mass migration, terrorism, climate change, Biden said those factors are leading to leaders “peddling xenophobia, nationalism, and isolationism,” including in the United States. “To play to our fears rather than, as Abraham Lincoln said, to appeal to our better angels, build walls instead of bridges – it has been un-American what we have been seeing,” Biden said in Dublin. “It’s not who we have become. It is not who we are.” Biden’s remarks came as the world reacts to the United Kingdom’s vote to exit the European Union. He warned against global trends toward nationalism “in Europe and other parts of the world.” Earlier Friday, Biden said the U.S. “respects” the UK’s decision, but admitted he and President Barack Obama had wished for a different outcome. “I want to ensure all of you in this room that America’s special bond with the United Kingdom runs deep and will endure. And our relationship with Ireland and the European Union will remain the cornerstone of our global engagement,” Biden said at Trinity College in Dublin. Biden is on a mutli-day trip to Ireland, meeting with leaders there and visiting sites in the West that relate to his ancestry. Before the Brexit vote, he discussed the potential ramifications of the referendum with the Irish Prime Minister and President. The White House was vocal in its opposition to Britain’s exiting the EU, a rare foray into another country’s political affairs. Obama took the unusual step of traveling to London in April to make his case against leaving, drawing on the personal ties between the two countries. Biden on Friday issued similar warnings against those fears in the United States, making plain allusions to Donald Trump. “Some politicians find it convenient to scapegoat immigrants rather than welcoming them,” he said. Drawing on the powerful history of Irish immigration to the U.S. — including by his own relatives — Biden expounded upon the importance of allowing those fleeing hardships entry into the country. “We’re defined by a common creed that says to our children that if they work hard, if they struggle, if they are loyal, if they are courageous — they will have an opportunity to live a better life than the generation before them,” Biden said. “It’s defined by a simple belief that anything is possible.  And it’s a belief shared by the vast majority of immigrant families that have come to the United States from many other nations over the years.”

United Kingdom's decision to exit the European Union (Brexit)


Just-released emails seem to support U.S. claims that an Iranian nuclear scientist was not abducted, but defected The emails could provide more evidence that Clinton's aides were using veiled references to keep her apprised of sensitive matters on her private email account New Hillary Clinton emails released by the State Department appear to lift the curtain on the bizarre circumstances surrounding Shahram Amiri, an Iranian nuclear scientist who claims to have been abducted by the CIA. The just-released emails, which were sent to Clinton back in 2010, seem to support what State Department sources have long maintained: that Amiri was not abducted, but a defector and paid informant who changed his mind about helping the U.S. The emails also appear to offer insight into the department’s plans to get Amiri back to Iran safely. Amiri’s complicated story began in 2009, when he mysteriously disappeared while on a religious pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. Almost immediately, Tehran accused the U.S. of abducting him. The U.S. denied the accusation, saying it had no knowledge of Amiri’s whereabouts. Fast forward to nearly a year later, when a series of videos surfaced online of a man claiming to be Amiri. Related video Clinton wrote classified emails using private server In them, he denied being a defector and claimed to have been hiding out from CIA operatives in Virginia. In a subsequent video, however, he said he was living freely in Arizona. Two weeks later, on July 14, 2010, CNN reported that Amiri had returned to Tehran after going to Iran’s interest section at the embassy of Pakistan in Washington. CNN’s report appears to directly correspond with an email Clinton’s top foreign policy adviser Jake Sullivan sent her, now being released by the State Department. RELATED: Iranian scientist says he was abducted, state media reports In the email – written two days before the CNN report – Sullivan expressed fear of the media catching wind of the story, writing: “The gentleman you have talked to Bill Burns about has apparently gone to his country’s interests [sic] section because he is unhappy with how much time it has taken to facilitate his departure. This could lead to problematic news stories in the next 24 hours. Will keep you posted.” An earlier email seemingly shows how the State Department worked to carefully craft Amiri’s return to Iran. The email, written by Richard Morningstar, acting special envoy of the U.S. secretary for eurasian energy at the time, was sent to Clinton on July 5, 2010, just days after the videos purportedly of Amiri were posted online and less than two weeks before he left the U.S. The email appears to reference Amiri’s hesitation at continuing on as a defector and his wish to leave the U.S. “Per the subject we discussed, we have a diplomatic, ‘psychological’ issue, not a legal issue,” Morningstar wrote. “Our friend has to be given a way out. We should recognize his concerns and frame it in terms of a misunderstanding with no malevolent intent and that we will make sure there is no recurrence. Our person won’t be able to do anything anyway. If he has to leave, so be it.” After arriving in Tehran, Amiri repeated his allegation that he was kidnapped by American intelligence agents. In an interview with state-run Press TV, he said he faced “psychological warfare and pressure that are much worse than being in prison.” Following his return to Iran, a U.S. official stressed Amiri was not kidnapped or coerced and claimed Amiri received about $5 million from the United States in return for his information. A second official referred to the payment as a “long-term benefits package” that enabled Amiri to defect and comfortably resettle in the United States for many years. The first official went on to say Amiri left because he “wanted to see his family and – unfortunately – he chose a dumb way to do it, lying about what happened to him here to try to build up his credibility back home.” Neither Clinton nor State Department spokespeople would confirm the emails referred to Amiri, but dates of emails correspond exactly with news reports about him. Related video New Clinton emails released While not marked classified, the emails could provide more evidence that Clinton’s aides were using veiled references to keep her apprised of sensitive matters on her private email account. Use of the non-government email and re-classification of emails as classified has become a main point of criticism against Clinton by Republicans. Two of Clinton’s top aides at the State Department, Sullivan and Cheryl Mills are set to be privately interviewed this week about their emails by a special congressional committee set up to probe reaction to the 2012 Benghazi terror attack.


Here’s what you might have missed on CNN today: – The FBI raid on President Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, on Monday sought information about payments allegedly made to keep women silent about affairs with Trump more than a decade ago. Trump raged over the raid on Twitter. – President Trump canceled an upcoming trip to South America to instead oversee the US response to an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria over the weekend, the White House announced. – Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is testifying before Congress for the first time to answer lawmakers’ questions about Cambridge Analytica, a Trump-linked data firm that could have had information on more than 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge. Follow live updates from the hearing here. Ahead of the hearing, an army of 100 life-sized Mark Zuckerberg cutouts took over the US Capitol lawn. – Another Trump administration official has been pushed out of the White House. This time, it’s homeland security adviser Tom Bossert. He was pushed out of his position by the newly installed national security adviser John Bolton. – It’s Equal Pay Day, but the gender pay gap isn’t just about what you make. Also, Roxanne Jones writes about why she’s disconnected from the fight this year. – The investigation into the SUV crash in Northern California that killed at least five members of the Hart family continues. An autopsy is scheduled today for a body found near the site where the vehicle plunged off a cliff. – The Obamas will not be attending Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding (though it’s not been confirmed if they were invited or not). The couple decided against inviting world leaders and political figures “in their official capacity.” – The impact of diseases, life expectancy and the probability of dying young vary drastically across the United States, and a new study shows just how wide those differences are from state to state. See how your state stacks up. – Break out the popcorn tonight: Two biographies take a look at these larger-than-life figures.


Japanese tapeworm larvae were found in wild Alaskan salmon Illness and symptoms are probably the same as other tapeworms, experts say If you eat raw or undercooked fish, you risk developing an infection from parasites. One of the most gruesome is tapeworm, a species of digestive tract-invading parasites that includes Diphyllobothrium nihonkaiense, or the Japanese broad tapeworm. Though this worm was commonly believed to infect only fish in Asia, a study published Wednesday in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s monthly journal Emerging Infectious Diseases says wild salmon caught in Alaska had also been infected by this parasite. Based on those results, researchers warn that salmon caught anywhere along the Pacific coast of North America may be infected. The most common fish tapeworm is Diphyllobothrium latum. In 1986, scientists identified another member of this family, the Japanese broad tapeworm, and believed it had been responsible for about 2,000 infections reported to that point, making it the second most common cause of tapeworm infection. Related article Tapeworms and four other disgusting parasites you should know However, continuing to study the tapeworms using new molecular methods, researchers funded by the Czech Science Foundation discovered they’d been wrong. Almost all of the previous cases of tapeworm infections occurring in Japan, South Korea and the Pacific coast of Russia had actually been caused by Japanese tapeworms rather than D. latum. In fact, Japanese tapeworm larvae, known as plerocercoids, could be found in salmon caught off the coasts of eastern Russia and Japan. Could Japanese tapeworms also be infecting salmon caught in the United States? In July 2013, a team of scientists examined 64 wild Alaskan salmon. After filleting the musculature into narrow slices, the scientists observed these and the internal organs of each fish under a magnifying glass. They discovered larvae, between 8 and 15 millimeters long, that continually elongated and contracted (as worms are known to do). With gene sequencing, they were identified as Japanese tapeworms. Based on the study results, four species of Pacific salmon are known to carry Japanese tapeworm infections: chum salmon, masu salmon, pink salmon and sockeye salmon. Because these salmon are exported on ice – unfrozen – and then appear in restaurants around the world, infections caused by the Japanese tapeworm may occur anywhere, from China to Europe, from New Zealand to Ohio. Compared with an infection resulting from D. latum, “we think this Japanese version would not be any different, although very little is actually known about this variant of tapeworms,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine who was not involved in the new study. Related article The worms that invade your brain Because the Japanese version is from the same family of tapeworms, illness and symptoms should be largely the same, he said. But D. latum and related species (including the Japanese tapeworm) can grow up to 30 feet long, according to the CDC. “Actually, most of the people who are infected don’t have symptoms,” Schaffner said. Some feel a little bit of abdominal discomfort, some have nausea or loose stools, and some even lose a little weight. Most often, tapeworm leads to only minor symptoms, but in exceptional cases the infection can turn into a serious medical problem, according to Roman Kuchta, lead author of the study and a research scientist at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. “Massive infections may result in intestinal obstruction” and painful inflammation of the bile ducts, said Kuchta. “The infections can have a substantial emotional impact on patients and their families, because segments are evacuated over a long period of time. More severe cases may require specialized consultations and complementary analyses, which are costly.” Related article Parasites worm their way into back-to-school season Along with emotional impact and expenses, there’s also the initial shock – terror, really – of discovery. “The reason you know you have tapeworms is you look in your stool and you find bits of tapeworm floating in the water – and that usually panics you enormously,” Schaffner said. After all, tapeworm infection is very unusual in the United States. After discovering that you’re infected, you can collect a sample from your toilet bowl and send it to a lab for testing, and then, with your doctor’s help, the tapeworm can be identified and “treated very effectively,” Schaffner said. According to Dr. Patrick Okolo, chief of gastroenterology at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, the medications used are not typical antibiotics but specialized drugs targeting specific types of parasites. Though the study suggests that infections by Japanese tapeworm may be much more common in the US than anticipated, there’s still “no evidence at all about how common it is,” Schaffner said. “Is this a teeny-tiny proportion of the population, or is this something the average family doctor better learn about?” he asked. Those who prefer the safe side can stick with adequately frozen or cooked fish, according to the CDC. “Cooking for 145 Fahrenheit for four or five minutes will destroy the tapeworm,” said Okolo, who was also not involved in the study. “Freezing fish under certain conditions will also destroy the worm and its larvae.” Schaffner admits the new study has given him “a little bit of pause – because I like salmon sushi.” He said talk of “emerging infections” or new infections comes about, in part, because new scientific methods are able to identify them. See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter. This view is supported by Jayde Ferguson, a co-author of the new study and a scientist at Alaska Department of Fish and Game. “The tapeworm itself is probably not new – it’s just that more skilled parasitologist started looking for it.  Identifying these parasites is challenging,” said Ferguson. “This was simply a more detailed evaluation of the Diphyllobothrium that has occurred here for over a millennium.” Still, there’s another important reason “old” infections from one part of the globe emerge as “new” infections on another part of the globe, said Schaffner. “Because we do things that we haven’t done before,” Schaffner said. “Now, we have these fresh caught fish that can be transported anywhere and eaten raw. … I am sure we will be on the lookout for this kind of tapeworm going forward.”


Civilians fear a new danger: the approaching winter Syrian ambassador to Russia says a major battle for Aleppo looms From under a mattress, a small child emerges on all fours, oblivious to the danger in the skies. Out from another mattress crawls a baby. Rare amateur video obtained by CNN shows entire families in farm fields cowering under mattresses as they attempt to shield themselves from airstrikes – as if bedding could protect them from aerial bombardment. The video, reported to be from the countryside south of Aleppo, provides a harrowing view of the toll Syria’s war is taking on mothers, fathers, children and babies. Aid agencies say tens of thousands of people may be on the move from this swath of poor farmland as fighters from the Syrian regime, Iran and Hezbollah move through on their way to Aleppo. The situation is confused in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, with a population of over 2 million people. It’s about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the Mediterranean coast and the same distance from the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep. Aleppo has been the focus of a great deal of fighting in Syria’s brutal 4 ½-year civil war, and much of the city has been reduced to rubble. It is clear that a major battle is looming for control of the city, a sometime stronghold of the Free Syrian Army, which opposes the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Syria’s ambassador to Russia, Riad Haddad, was quoted by Russian state media as saying there was “heavy fighting” ahead as Syrian troops braced for a “decisive battle” to retake the city. He acknowledged that there were Russian airstrikes in the area. “Our troops, backed by Russian aviation, are encircling the city and preparing for a ground invasion,” Haddad said in an interview with the news site Gazeta.ru. And the anti-Assad Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported clashes in, among other places, the countryside south of Aleppo. The group said it has no information on casualties. The group also said that regime aircraft have launched strikes in the Aleppo area – making it uncertain whether the strikes shown in the amateur video came from the Syrian regime or its Russian allies. On the ground, the people driven from their homes have yet another enemy to face: the approaching winter. A mother shown in the video grabs her young daughter’s pajamas. They were all right for summer, the mother says, but will not be enough when the temperature drops. In the heat, the mother says, their faces burn. “In the cold days,” she says, “the cold kills us.” CNN’s Brian Walker and Schams Elwazer contributed to this report.