Disillusioned and disappointed Palestinians took to the streets in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem on Thursday following US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Some were angry, others resigned, saying a peace process appeared all but impossible. Dozens gathered outside the Damascus Gate, in the eastern part of the city. “We are Jerusalemites, we belong to Jerusalem,” they chanted. Jerusalem is “my life,” said Nawal Sahtay, 45, who grew up in Jerusalem. “For Trump to come just like that and to say, Jerusalem is not yours anymore … this means he is taking everything from me.” She said she’s expecting more measures to be put in place by the Israeli government that will make life harder for Palestinians in the city. “We are hardly able to live in Jerusalem without it being declared the capital of Israel. What about now?” “A third intifada is knocking on the door,” she added. READ MORE: Why declaring Jerusalem Israel’s capital is so controversial George Assad, 43, a Christian Palestinian who was also at Damascus Gate on Thursday, believes Trump’s announcement exposes the true face of American policy over the last 25 years. “The fig leaf is off,” he said. “This only shows that the Americans’ position hasn’t been [as] an honest broker, as they claim. And this is the final nail in the coffin of the peace process, of the two-state solution.” He doesn’t believe that Trump will continue to work for that solution, as the President pledged in his speech. “The position of Trump is basically an Israeli position,” he said. “The Israelis have continuously said they want to pursue peace … but on the ground, nothing happens.” Protesters had also been gathering since early Thursday morning in al-Manara square in central Ramallah, chanting and calling for an uprising. Rania, a 48-year-old Palestinian, came with a group of women to join the protest. “We should cancel all agreements, Oslo in particular,” she told CNN. “No more relations with Israel, and a third intifada should start … to the Arab leaders I say shame on you, you sold us.” The Oslo Accords, which created the Palestinian Authority, granting it self-governance over parts of the West Bank and Gaza, were signed by Israeli and Palestinian leaders in 1993. The agreement included the aim of achieving a final status peace agreement within five years, but implementation and subsequent negotiations foundered. Naim Masarweh, an elderly Palestinian man, was angry too. Unable to speak because of a medical condition, he had come armed with a pen and paper, determined to spread his message however he could. “What Trump declared is worse than what Balfour did and is more dangerous than Nakba,” he wrote. The Balfour Declaration, made in 1917, was a letter from the British government expressing support for the “establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” The “Nakba” – the Arabic word for “catastrophe” – is the term given to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Arabs from their homes – some expelled, some fleeing – in the period surrounding the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Hana Dreidi, 50, had come to the square with her sister and her sister’s children. “We are Palestinian-Americans,” she said. “We don’t see Jerusalem as anything but Palestine.” She believes that Israelis also have rights in the city and hopes for a two-state solution, but she is frustrated by Trump’s announcement and thinks it will only lead to violence in the region. “We know our rights and we know Jerusalem is our right. He won’t take it away with some words that he announced,” she said. In other parts of the West Bank, tensions were running high. Palestinians in Bethlehem and on the outskirts of Ramallah clashed with Israeli soldiers, who used water cannon and rubber bullets on the protesters. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, at least 49 people were wounded in clashes on Thursday in the West Bank, with most of the injuries from tear gas and rubber bullets. WATCH: Protests erupt over Trump’s Jerusalem decision Protests in Gaza began on Wednesday and continued on Thursday, with some demonstrators burning American flags and images of Trump. Among Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, feelings were muted. At Beirut’s Shatila refugee camp, home to thousands of Palestinian refugees, the location of the American embassy in Israel is likely to have little impact on the daily lives of the people here. Most of them have never stepped foot in the Palestinian territories. Abdullah Talib, 92, does feel angry, but his anger is focused on Arab leaders, who he says profess support for the Palestinians’ claim to Jerusalem, then do nothing. Ahmad Hadid, 77, has a little more hope that he could one day live in a Palestinian Jerusalem. “Until judgment day I will wait,” he said. “I will tell my children and my grandchildren, our land is Palestine.” CNN’s Abeer Salman and Nic Robertson reported from Ramallah and Jerusalem and Judith Vonberg wrote from London. CNN’s Vasco Cotovio, Ian Lee, Andrew Carey and Ben Wedeman contributed to this report.

US President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel


After more than two decades of development and testing, Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet has made its combat debut. The Israel Defense Forces announced Tuesday on Twitter that its version of the aircraft – dubbed the F-35 “Adir” – is already flying in operational missions. “The Adir planes are already operational and flying in operational missions. We are the first in the world to use the F-35 in operational activity” “The Adir planes are already operational and flying in operational missions. We are the first in the world to use the F-35 in operational activity,” the IDF tweet said. Related article Israel greets first F-35 fighter jets from US Israeli Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin said the stealth fifth-generation aircraft was used to strike two different targets in the Middle East, The Jerusalem Post reported. The F-35 fighter jet is touted as the future of military aviation; a lethal and versatile aircraft that combines stealth capabilities, supersonic speed, extreme agility and state-of-the-art sensor fusion technology, according to Lockheed Martin, the plane’s primary contractor. However, the aircraft, which is the most expensive weapons system in history, has also drawn sharp criticism in recent years after facing a long list of setbacks – including problems with the software, engines and weapon systems. And critics have continued to express skepticism about the F-35’s combat capability despite reassurances by US military leaders who say the kinks are being worked out. The US Air Force became the first military service to declare its version of the F-35 ready for combat in August 2016. The Marine Corps accomplished a significant milestone last year by deploying its variant to Japan – the aircraft’s first permanent overseas deployment. But Israel’s announcement on Tuesday marks the first time that the F-35 has been used in an actual combat situation – a significant moment given the program’s checkered past. Over the past five decades, Israel has sought to maintain its superiority in the skies over the Middle East – perceiving many threats in its neighborhood, including the Syrian conflict and missile attacks from Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group based in Lebanon. In recent years, Russia has also introduced its S-300 and more advanced S-400 surface-to-air missiles systems in Syria – a challenge to Israel’s regional air superiority. Israel acquired the F-35 in response. The fighter can fly virtually undetected but stealth technology does not guarantee a jet can fly unseen. Related article US shows off new F-35 fighter jets ahead of US-South Korea drills Nicknamed the “Mighty One” by the Israeli press, the F-35 is part of a $38 billion Memorandum of Understanding between Israel and the US covering a 10-year period beginning in 2019. The Israeli Air Force has ordered 50 F-35s from the US – each with a price tag of more than $100 million. It received its first aircraft in 2016 and declared its fleet operationally capable in December of 2017. CNN’s Ian Lee contributed to this report.


Editor’s Note: Euan Graham is director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney. The opinions in this article are those of the author. The funny thing about tension on the Korean Peninsula is that the further away from it one is, the closer to war it appears. South Koreans have been living in the shadow of North Korea’s threats longest of all. They understand bluster. They also know that bluster spills over into real violence periodically. Seoul’s inhabitants live within artillery range of North Korea, but life goes on. Across the water, Japan’s government has launched a public information campaign about how to prepare for a ballistic missile attack, which the Prime Minister has warned could include chemical weapons. Related article The 'axis of evil' is back Farther away still, in Washington, war talk is more prevalent. “All options” remain on the table, including preventive strikes to prevent North Korea from developing an Inter-continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). What explains this inverse ripple effect? The primary factor is North Korea’s own efforts to develop the capability to project mass destruction in ever-increasing concentric circles, with the ultimate goal of a nuclear-tipped ICBM that can hit the US – something that only Russia and China can do at present. Following on from North Korea’s latest series of rocket trials, a cornucopia of ballistic missiles paraded in Pyongyang on April 15 – including ICBM launchers – was a bold signal of intent to do just that. They are not there yet, but practice makes perfect. There is a strong chance Pyongyang will realize this capability within Donald Trump’s time as president. As the ultimate guarantee of regime survival, it is unrealistic to expect that Kim Jong Un can be persuaded to deal his nuclear ace out of the pack. The nuclear ICBM is the incendiary game-changer that explains why the US has gone to deliberate lengths to confront North Korea since Trump took office. To be sure, North Korea’s nuclear missile program would feature near the top of any White House security watch-list. But it’s not clear the Trump administration has developed a coherent strategy to counter it yet. As the State Department’s former North Korea point man Christopher Hill said recently, it’s as if the Trump administration is trying to out-North Korean the North Koreans. Matching brinkmanship with brinkmanship. Yet for my money, we are in a phony war phase. If there’s an underlying motive to Washington’s increased belligerence, including the accumulation of strike assets around the Korean Peninsula, it is to get the Chinese sufficiently rattled that they become serious about sanctions beyond tokenistic enforcement. If not, then the US will get serious about sanctioning Chinese entities doing business with North Korea. And if that fails – and only then – will we see a genuine momentum toward US military action. To be crystal clear, there are no easy or risk-free options for that scenario. This isn’t Syria. A second Korean War would be a bloody and unpredictable affair. Recent US interventions in the Middle East would pale by comparison. It is, however, possible that an ICBM test, intercepted over the water, or even destroyed on the ground would not automatically trigger the North Korean escalation that is frequently assumed. Given its overall inferiority, North Korea’s military relies on rapid escalation to deter US and South Korean invasion. That is likely to include use of nuclear weapons to target US bases in the region, in the early stage of any conflict. The North Koreans, Kim Jong Un included, are calculating and rational survivalists. Threat is their leverage. But brinkmanship also relies on knowing when to pull back. The absence of a nuclear test in recent weeks suggests Kim is calibrating his demonstrations of defiance. He presided over a mass artillery drill to mark a major military anniversary this week, but no more. Related article The North Korea rhetoric is angry -- but is conflict closer? Kim Jong Un now faces a growing risk: not simply an emboldened US under Trump, but its estranged ally, China, applying the economic thumbscrews. We should never forget that Kim is also looking over his shoulder at his generals, whose material wants he must continue to please, and who likely have no appetite to fight a conventional or nuclear war that will spell their demise. The internal enemy is always trickiest to deal with. Trump and Kim have more in common than many realize. Neither wants a war. But there is still a risk they will box each other in, or else Kim concludes Trump is bluffing and oversteps the mark. That would be the most destabilizing outcome from the current episode. I do not believe that the US is about to launch strikes any time soon. My guess is that it will give China some months to produce results, an approach that could drift on for longer if the North Koreans continue to play it safe. Unfortunately, that’s not really in either man’s nature.


A Russian Su-27 jet performed an unsafe intercept of a US Navy surveillance plane while it was flying in international airspace over the Black Sea Monday, three defense officials told CNN. The American pilots reported that the Russian jet came within 5 feet of the US plane, according to two of the officials. The Russian jet’s action forced the US Navy aircraft to end its mission prematurely, one of the officials said. The US State Department issued a statement late Monday accusing the Russians of “flagrantly violating existing agreements and international law.” “This is but the latest example of Russian military activities disregarding international norms and agreements,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in the statement. “We call on Russia to cease these unsafe actions that increase the risk of miscalculation, danger to aircrew on both sides, and midair collisions.” US Naval Forces Europe, which oversees US operations in the region, provided more detail about the intercept, which it said lasted a total of two hours and 40 minutes. “This interaction was determined to be unsafe due to the SU-27 closing to within five feet and crossing directly through the EP-3’s flight path, causing the EP-3 to fly through the SU-27’s jet wash,” US Naval Forces Europe spokesman, Capt. Pamela Kunze told CNN. “Unsafe actions increase the risk of miscalculation and midair collisions,” Kunze said, adding, “The US aircraft was operating in accordance with international law and did not provoke this Russian activity.” The Russian Defense Ministry said its fighter jet flew “strictly in accordance with international rules” when it intercepted the US surveillance plane. In a statement, the Defense Ministry said that an “unidentified air target” was detected approaching Russian airspace at about midday over the neutral waters of the Black Sea. “A Su-27 fighter was sent to intercept the target and approached the aircraft at a safe distance and identified it as an ER-3E (Aries II) US reconnaissance aircraft,” the statement said. “The crew of the fighter jet reported the identification of the American reconnaissance aircraft and accompanied it, preventing it from violating Russian airspace, observing all necessary security measures.” “The entire flight of the Russian Su-27 was strictly in accordance with international rules for the use of airspace and there were no extraordinary events,” the statement added. Several unsafe interactions between Russian and US military forces have taken place near the Black Sea. Russian, US and NATO forces operate in close proximity to one another in the area, particularly since Russia boosted its military presence in the region following its annexation of Crimea in 2014. Related article Russian jet makes 'unsafe' intercept of US Navy aircraft The US Navy has upped its presence in the area in recent years. CNN military analyst John Kirby said the Russian jet’s action was “inexcusable, provocative & potentially fatal.” He added that “while it is difficult to determine the degree to which senior levels in the chain of command are involved in the specific conduct of any particular intercept, one thing is absolutely clear: The Kremlin desires to challenge US military patrols in and above the Black Sea and elsewhere.” “It’s a policy we must presume the Russian defense establishment is acting concertedly and aggressively to pursue. Russian military leaders are known for a lot of things. Independent thinking is not one of them,” he said. A Russian Su-30 fighter jet made an “unsafe” intercept of a US P-8A Poseidon aircraft in November while it was flying over the Black Sea. The Russian jet’s actions were deemed unsafe because the aircraft crossed in front of the US plane from right to left while engaging its afterburners, forcing the P-8 to enter its jet wash, an action that caused the US plane to experience “a 15-degree roll and violent turbulence,” according to  Lt. Col. Michelle Baldanza, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon. Related article US F-22s intercept Russian jets over Syria, fire warning flares The last reported incident between US and Russian aircraft occurred in December in the skies over Syria, when US F-22s intercepted Russian attack jets after they flew over the de-confliction line intended to ensure safety. The US jets fired warning flares during the intercept of the two Russian Su-25 close air support jets after they crossed the de-confliction line multiple times, US officials said. The Russian Ministry of Defense issued a statement denying the incident took place west of the de-confliction line, accusing the F-22s of interfering with the flight of the Su-25s while they were operating along the western bank of the Euphrates River in the vicinity of the town of Mayadin. This article has been updated to include statements from the US State Department, US Naval Forces Europe and the Russian Defense Ministry. CNN’s Emma Burrows contributed to this report


"We have two 6-year-olds figuring out who can piss higher on a tree," he said The White House Press Secretary said Trump was aware of Russia's involvement Debates about Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election – and ongoing alleged hacking – have become politicized and are putting the American people at risk, according to one counterintelligence expert. “As a loyal American, let me tell you, I’m disgusted by the White House and disgusted by the incoming president. This is non-partisan,” CNN counter-terrorism analyst Philip Mudd said Friday on “New Day.” “We have two 6-year-olds figuring out who can piss higher on a tree about what happened with the intelligence.” GOP on brink of new Cold War over whether to work with Russia Mudd said the White House and Trump transition team must come together to address ongoing concerns about Russia’s involved in the digital world, the Iran nuclear program and Syria. “My message is ‘Shut-up to the White House! Shut up to the Trump office. Figure out what we do going forward and stop trying to figure out what happened six months ago,” he said. Clinton says Putin grudge led Russia to hack Dem groups Mudd, a CIA and FBI veteran, suggested that if the two camps don’t come together to address Russia, bigger problems could lie ahead. “The conversation about Russia can not be isolated to deal with the hacks,” he said. “I think the conversation has to be broader.” “What’s the new approach to Russia that includes conversations about Iran and Syria? Can the Obama administration do something to put the ball on the tee for the Trump campaign,” Mudd asked. “They’ve got to work together. And Right now its like two kids in a sand box. It’s disgusting.” Phil Mudd on reaction to Russian hacks: I'm disgusted by the White House and disgusted by the incoming president. https://t.co/nyYjZhs8wz Donald Trump attacked John Earnest during a rally Thursday after the White House Press Secretary alleged the President-elect was knowledgeable of Russia’s involvement in the election.”This foolish guy, Josh Earnest, I don’t know if he is talking to President Obama. You know, having the right press secretary is so important because he is so bad the way he delivers the message,” Trump told supporters in Hershey, Pennsylvania. “He can deliver a positive message and it sounds bad. He could say ladies and gentlemen, today we have totally defeated ISIS and it wouldn’t sound good.” Obama vows action against Russia for hacks Trump’s attack was a response to Earnest telling the media earlier Thursday that Trump “obviously” knew Russia was involved in the hacking. “It’s just a fact – you all have it on tape – that the Republican nominee for president was encouraging Russia to hack his opponent because he believed that that would help his campaign,” Earnest said. “I don’t know if it was a staff meeting or if he had access to a briefing or he was just basing his assessment on a large number of published reports, but Mr. Trump obviously knew that Russia was engaged in malicious cyberactivity that was helping him and hurting Hillary Clinton’s campaign,” he added.

Russia's involvement in the 2016 election


George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole spoke at at the Bush Center at Texas A&M University The two had a hard-fought GOP primary fight in 1988 Former President George H.W. Bush and former Sen. Bob Dole – their lives linked through service in combat and as rivals for the presidency – shared another experience Wednesday: remembering the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. “Pearl Harbor Day changed President Bush’s life. It certainly changed my life, later. But that’s the price we pay for freedom,” said Dole, who was severely wounded while fighting in Italy during World War II. Bush joined the Navy after the attacks and his plane was shot down in 1944. “We love our country. We want to keep our freedom,” Dole added. The two members of the Greatest Generation commemorated the occasion at the Bush Center on the campus of Texas A&M University, where Dole was presented with the Bush library’s award for public service. Both men sat in wheelchairs as Dole made brief remarks during which he praised Bush’s leadership, including after their hard-fought GOP primary fight in 1988. “Many people doubted I could serve the President since we had a rather rough campaign, but it wasn’t true – because of the man he was, not because of me,” Dole said. “I was proud to be his leader in the Senate because I liked what he stood for. He wanted to make America – well I won’t say great again – I think that somebody else already said that,” Dole quipped, drawing laughter from the audience. With feelings still raw following the most recent presidential campaign, Dole offered a lesson from his own experience. “I think at that time you turned the page and said, ‘OK, I can either go backwards or forwards. I’d rather read a book by turning a page and going forward.’” Dole singled out one achievement of Bush’s that demonstrated his leadership as President: his signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act. He called it his “proudest moment” working with Bush, saying it represented a “giant step forward” that “opened many doors for disabled Americans who had been in effect at the curb.” “And thanks to President Bush all that changed,” Dole said. “This man has a heart.” Dole also mixed in some of his trademark humor with his emotional testimonial, talking about his and Bush’s life after office. “He retired and, well, I’m in a law firm. I go to work every day. Well, I show up every day – don’t do anything. Kind of reminds me of serving in Congress.” Dole’s remarks only last about five minutes, which he forecasted to the audience by saying, “I don’t get paid a lot for speaking so I’m not going to talk long.”


Editor’s Note: In her 2015 memoir “Reckless: My Life as a Pretender,” Chrissie Hynde recounts in vivid detail leaving her home state of Ohio in search of a new life and a career in music. In this excerpt from the chapter “Limeytown!” she lands in London for the first time with “a couple hundred dollars to last me for what would turn out to be the rest of my life.”After a series of misadventures rumbling around London’s mid-1970s punk rock scene, Hynde founded The Pretenders, a band that went on to sell millions of records worldwide and tour the globe performing. The band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.“Reckless: My Life as a Pretender” is available in bookstores worldwide and online. I stepped off the plane at Heathrow and onto English tarmac with “I-G-G-Y” on one lens of my wraparounds, and “P-O-P” on the other, written in Old English lettering, which I’d carefully applied in Halbert’s white-out. I’d stitched “Bernice” on the back of my denim jacket in snakeskin. Sartorially, I was a victim of the Summit Mall, but I was trying my best to look cool enough for London. “I’m here!” It was 1973, the month of May, the best month of my life thus far. We exited Heathrow, got in a black cab and told the driver to “Take us to a hotel in London.” My first sightings of Victorian and Edwardian buildings, cobbled streets, red pillar postboxes and phone booths and the double-decker buses driving on the wrong side of the road were more beautiful than all my schoolgirl imaginings. It wasn’t the sixties, though. Former dolly birds in miniskirts now looked like tired versions of the teenage daughters they were with. (Those mother-and-daughter sets seemed to be everywhere.) Girls walked arm in arm with each other in a way I could never imagine doing with my pals. (Walk arm in arm with Annie down Copley Road? Good Lord, no. She’d think I’d gone crazy.) We passed a hundred pubs, their amber lights ever so inviting. I tried to peer in and get a good look at every traffic light. “Old boys,” men in pubs, didn’t seem to mind sharing the bar with people half their age. I would soon discover that they all bopped along to the same music on the jukebox like it was perfectly normal. It seemed kind of freaky. A man my dad’s age listening to the same music as me? Very strange. The cabbie dropped us at a bed and breakfast in Bayswater. The Lion Court Hotel was more of a student hostel than a hotel, with shoes drying on window ledges, bunk beds and cheap towels. I hadn’t brought much: a few changes of clothes and the three records I didn’t feel I could leave behind – “White Light/White Heat,” “Raw Power” and “Fun House.” I had a couple hundred dollars to last me for what would turn out to be the rest of my life. I needed to find a job. We stashed our suitcases and walked up Queensway to the Bayswater Road (not “Bayswater Road,” but “the Bayswater Road”) and wandered along a parade of outdoor market stalls selling paintings and handbags and crafts. I’d never seen anything like it before. This was real Alice in Wonderland stuff for sure. I went from stall to stall and asked anybody I could collar if there was a job going. We ended up with some sleazebag back in the Lion Court Hotel. The following day, I started my first job, selling handbags in an indoor market called Point on Oxford Street, near Tottenham Court Road. There were about 30 stalls specializing in all sorts: cheesecloth shirts; “loons” (bell-bottoms); Indian scarves and incense; smoking paraphernalia. There was a protocol for everything that I had to learn. For example, you’d never walk into a “newsagent” and say, “Gimme a pack of Rothmans!” That would be considered rude. You’d have to say, “May I have a box of Rothmans, please, and some matches.” Writing about it now, it all seems so insignificant, but it was the beginning of my assimilation into English life. After all, immigrants have to learn the language. My stall in Point was at the back, and I would sit there quietly fascinated all day, watching people mill around. English people: lank-haired guys with seedy complexions wearing short brown leather bomber jackets with lousy collars; girls in flowered dresses and wavy, nondescript haircuts that owed nothing to Vidal Sassoon. It looked like the sixties had been hijacked by the Amish. I didn’t see one Jean Shrimpton lookalike – not a nod to anything that so much as hinted at Terence Stamp. Still, even the most dowdy English were more glamorous than anyone at the Summit Mall. Everyone was underweight with undernourished, pallid skin tones, greenish in hue. But anything was always going to be better than bulging stomachs spilling over the waistbands of polyester slacks or “shorts,” an unfortunate American craze virtually unknown to the English. Best of all were the shoe stalls. Debbie Smith would have gone crazy. By day three I met some guys who took me to a pub, and I discovered that pubs didn’t serve wine. Maybe a bottle of sherry was stashed behind the counter for the publican’s wife, but it was mainly beer, which they drank warm. If I’d served warm beer at any establishment I ever worked in I’d have been out on my ear. They didn’t seem to mind. Even a Coke came without ice. Nobody was bothered. I asked for a tequila and that too drew a blank. “Okay, then, I’ll have a whisky.” That was when I noticed old boys in flat caps side by side with teenagers listening to the latest charts: Wizzard, Peters and Lee, Alvin Stardust, David Essex. Weird! There were pictures at every newsstand of the hairy-chested Gary Glitter, shirt unbuttoned. He was on the cover of all the teeny-bopper magazines! Why would a teenage girl want to look at that? Where was Marc Bolan? I thought girls wanted effete little things, not big, burly, manly-looking men. It was outrageous! London was throwing a lot of curveballs I didn’t see coming, but I didn’t care. The weirder it got, the more I loved it. Yes, I was in love with it. You never asked for “the bathroom” in a public place unless you wanted a bath. If you wanted to relieve yourself you asked for “the toilet.” You could never say that in the States. It was starting to occur to me that Americans had odd habits too. Seeing them from a new perspective was fun. (Why would you ask for a bath when you wanted a toilet?) I’d never been on an overground or underground train before. At the “top” of my new street, Englewood Road, there was a “Tube station,” which was what they called the subway. Crazy language was English in the hands of the English. I could jump over the turnstiles at Clapham South and go anywhere I wanted on the Northern line for free, as long as I didn’t get caught. I didn’t get caught – I couldn’t afford to get caught. I had to be frugal and careful. Public transport! (What genius thought that one up? When the word got out in America, they’d all want it!) I could now go wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted. The days of waiting for someone to pick me up in a car were over. For the first time I felt like my own person; I didn’t have to answer to anyone. It felt so right, like something I’d been waiting all my life for. Civilization: you could smoke on the top deck of the bus; you could smoke in movie theaters too. They called them cinemas – how quaint. (Everyone coughing their lungs out.) You could drink alcohol in public; the bottle didn’t need to be concealed in a brown paper bag. A self-proclaimed DJ came into the market one day. Disc jockeys in England weren’t just on the radio; they could play records at parties or events. He was a sixties type – lanky, checked suit, gray teeth, thin colorless hair, vestiges of acne – nothing special but a look I found to my taste. A two-bit hustler, he claimed he could get me a job in a clothing store: “Mates by Irvine Sellar.” “You need to get onto a good scene,” he kept telling me. He wasn’t on one himself, as it turned out. He never got me the job, but one afternoon took me by his folks’ council flat. (What we Americans would call “the projects,” except this was where a variety of working-class people lived, not just those on welfare – socialism!) I waited in the living room with his brother, who was watching a horse race on the TV. “Do you like horses?” I asked, excited to meet a fellow enthusiast. “Only when they win,” he replied, disdainfully. Betting on horses was an everyday pursuit for millions of English. Betting shops were on every corner of every high street. Men, old and young alike, spilled out of them and into the nearest pub. I lost the job selling handbags in the market when I stopped showing up. I didn’t even go to collect my wage. I never sold a bag anyway. Everything was in black and white, even television. I was walking past an appliance shop with a guy one day who stopped and pointed to the window, saying, “That’s what I want, one of those.” I couldn’t work out what he was talking about – I presumed he already had a television – but he was pointing to a color one. Good grief – it was a new thing. Every part of town had a High Street, local shops like a mini-downtown in every neighborhood, all of which had their own names and personalities, all different. Kensington High Street, St. John’s Wood High Street (I remembered that name from the Stones song “Play with Fire”), Kilburn High Road, Shoreditch High Street: the list was endless; they were all places in which to hang out and shop and drink and eat and buy flowers. When I saw the destination Muswell Hill on a bus I jumped on and rode to the end of the line, where I wandered around knowing that Ray and Dave Davies must have walked there too. London – I was a kid in a toy store. I found every aspect of the city totally fascinating. I woke up every morning, a girl in love – at that stage of love where the object of desire has no faults. Next door to Kensington Market was a huge emporium, a clothes store called Biba. It was the best place I’d ever seen. You could get blue lipstick and purple nail polish and all sorts of metallic clothes. It was the place that Alex from “A Clockwork Orange” would have hung out, and, for me, something of a concession for missing out on the sixties London that I mourned. Life was almost perfect and I knew it. Reckless: My Life as a Pretender is available in bookstores worldwide and online.


Duckworth's paternal ancestors served in the American Revolution Kirk has also faced criticism for misrepresenting his military career Sen. Mark Kirk apologized Friday to his Democratic challenger Rep. Tammy Duckworth after using her Thai heritage to deride her family’s military history during a debate. “Sincere apologies to an American hero, Tammy Duckworth, and gratitude for her family’s service. #ilsen,” he tweeted. Duckworth accepted the apology, writing on Twitter, “Thanks, Sen. Kirk. Let’s honor my family’s service - and your own - by sticking to the issues for the final week. See you Friday in Chicago.” Thanks, Sen. Kirk. Let’s honor my family’s service - and your own - by sticking to the issues for the final week. See you Friday in Chicago. https://t.co/INdBtm5K3G The Illinois Republican questioned the military veteran’s ties to the American Revolution during a Senate debate Thursday. Duckworth was speaking about how her father’s family served in the military since the American Revolution. “My family has served this nation in uniform going back to the Revolution. I am a daughter of the American Revolution. I’ve bled for this nation. But I still want to be there in the Senate when the drums of war sound because I want to be there to say, ‘This is what it costs. This is what you’re asking us to do. And if that’s the case, I’ll go,’” she said at the University of Illinois Springfield. “Families like mine are the ones that lead first. But let’s make sure the American people understand what we’re engaging in. And let’s hold our allies accountable because we can’t do it all,” she added. Kirk responded: “I forgot your parents came all the way from Thailand to serve George Washington.” When he said that, Duckworth was drinking a bottle of water and put it back on the table as he finished his sentence. She smiled and the moderator moved on to the next question. “Sen. Kirk’s statement speaks for itself, as does Tammy’s response,” Duckworth campaign spokesman, Matt McGrath, told CNN after the debate. Kellyanne Conway, the campaign manager of Donald Trump – whom Kirk has publicly broken with – mocked the Illinois senator over the episode, linking to a story about the debate and tweeting, “The same Mark Kirk that unendorsed his party’s presidential nominee and called him out in paid ads? Gotcha. Good luck.” Duckworth was born in Thailand, but her father was a Marine veteran who traced his family’s American roots to before the Revolutionary War. She is an Iraq War veteran who lost her legs and partial use of her right arm during a mission and was awarded a Purple Heart. In the past, Kirk has also faced criticism for misrepresenting his military career. In 2010 he accepted responsibility misstatements about his Navy Reserve career, including that he served in the Gulf War, that he once commanded the Pentagon war room and that he came under fire while flying intelligence missions over Iraq. And in 2016, Kirk falsely asserted on his campaign website that he was a veteran of the Iraq War. He actually stayed in the United States during the Iraq War when he served in the Navy Reserves. Duckworth’s opponents have faced criticism over their attacks on her. In 2012 then-Rep. Joe Walsh – who is facing criticism this week after saying he’s going to pick up a musket if Donald Trump loses the 2016 election – attacked Duckworth over her war record, saying she talks too much about her war record. CNN’s David Mark contributed to this report.


British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was forced to backtrack Tuesday amid growing criticism over his comments about a jailed British-Iranian woman, saying his remarks “could have been clearer” but insisting they should have no impact on her prison sentence. Johnson had been urged to retract comments that could complicate the fate of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who is currently serving a five-year term in Iran after being accused of espionage – charges she denies. Last week, Johnson told a British Parliament committee that Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was detained at Tehran airport along with her young daughter in April 2016, had been teaching journalism during her visit. “When you look at what Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing, she was simply teaching people journalism as I understand it,” Johnson told the committee, adding that he found the situation “deeply depressing.” Both Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her employer have always maintained she was simply visiting family while on vacation. The comments appeared to lead to Zaghari-Ratcliffe being summoned to an unscheduled court hearing in Iran over the weekend, at which Johnson’s remarks were cited as proof that she had engaged in “propaganda against the regime.” There are now fears that a longer sentence could be imposed. On Tuesday, amid an outcry from Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband and fellow lawmakers, Johnson held a call with his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif in an attempt to clarify his remarks and call for her release, while admitting that his comments to the committee “could have been clearer.” During the call, Johnson “expressed concern at the suggestion from the Iranian Judiciary High Council for Human Rights that his remarks last week at the Foreign Affairs Committee ‘shed new light’ on the case,” the UK Foreign Office said in a statement. “The Foreign Secretary said this was absolutely not true. It was clear, as it always had been, that Mrs. Zaghari Ratcliffe had been in Iran on holiday when arrested. “The Foreign Secretary concluded by emphasizing that his remarks could form no justifiable basis for further action in this case and urged the Iranian authorities to release Mrs Zaghari Ratcliffe on humanitarian grounds.” Johnson will travel to Iran before the end of the year to discuss the matter further, the Foreign Office said. The phone call came after Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband, Richard Ratcliffe, urged Johnson to retract his comments. “The worst thing the Foreign Secretary could do is to now suddenly go quiet and to create this problem without making any clarifications,” Ratcliffe told the UK Press Association on Tuesday. “I think that’s really important. You can’t make a muddle and then leave it. That would be the worst of both worlds.” Johnson’s remarks were described as a “slip of the tongue” by International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, who added that he did not believe it was a “serious gaffe.” But fellow Conservative MP Anna Soubry described Johnson’s remarks as “appalling,” writing on Twitter that “in ‘normal’ times” the Foreign Secretary would have been “sacked long ago.” Opposition Labour lawmaker Yvette Cooper also registered her disgust on Twitter, writing: “Hard to find words for how appalling this is. For him it’s just another lazy, arrogant failure to check facts. For her it’s incarceration.” Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who is being held on allegations relating to espionage, has denied the charges, persistently maintaining that she was in Tehran to visit family and was not working in the country at the time of her arrest. The head of the London-based media foundation that employed Zaghari-Ratcliffe welcomed Johnson’s actions and urged him to meet with her in jail. “Nazanin has never trained journalists in Iran and we are pleased that he has admitted to the Iranian Foreign Minister that she was in Iran purely on holiday,” Monique Villa, CEO of Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of the news service, said in a statement. “It’s time now for the Foreign Secretary to meet Nazanin in jail, as he proposed last week, and to bring her back home.” Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained at the airport in Tehran in April 2016 on her way back to the UK from visiting family with Gabriella, her then 22-month-old daughter. The Iranian government accused her of working for a UK media network involved in activities against Iran. She was sentenced to five years in jail and her child was placed in the care of her parents. Last month, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) opened a new case against her, accusing her of having joined organizations specifically working to overthrow the regime. She was also charged with having attended a demonstration outside the Iranian Embassy in London. In September, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that his hands were tied on the issue of dual nationals imprisoned in his country. In October, when the new charges were filed, husband Richard Ratcliffe said the British government should be doing more to help his wife, and that it should not be making business deals with the regime that has imprisoned her. CNN’s Euan McKirdy and Hilary McGann contributed to this report.


Russia's influence on the election is currently the subject of four separate congressional probes The White House has consistently argued there is no connection with Moscow The 100-day mark is traditionally a time for presidents to examine their accomplishments (or lack thereof), but nothing has placed a cloud over President Donald Trump’s early presidency quite like the issue of Russian meddling into the election last year and the White House’s relationship to Moscow. Russia’s influence is currently the subject of four separate congressional probes, and has led to the resignation of the national security adviser and the recusal of the attorney general for the Justice Department investigation into the matter. The steady drip of leaks coming from intelligence sources familiar with the federal investigation has turned into a consistent stream of embarrassing news for the new administration. As the Trump White House heads into the 100th day, House and Senate investigators are on a slow, methodical track, pulling together the many threads of Russia’s ties to a core group of Trump’s top advisers, all of which promises to extend the steady stream of news related Russia much farther into the President’s term. The White House has consistently argued there is no connection between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives. In an amusing exchange during his daily briefing last month, White House press secretary Sean Spicer made the point that overzealous reporters are seeking something that doesn’t exist. “If the President puts Russian salad dressing on his salad tonight, somehow that’s a Russia connection,” Spicer said. The Russia investigations stand at a juncture now – with questions of whether they will turn out more like Watergate, which led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon (a president Trump is often compared to stylistically) or closer to Whitewater – a fiasco which harangued President Bill Clinton through his first term in office, but ended with no criminal charges against the president. The one thing that is certain is this cloud of Russia questions is not moving from over the administration any time soon. The very run-up to Trump’s 100-Day mark was dominated by news first that former national security adviser Michael Flynn may have broken the law by not disclosing payments from RT-TV on his security clearance application – a revelation not from the House intelligence committee, but instead the House oversight committee. RELATED: How Michael Flynn lost his job in 23 days “On the one hand I want to make sure people are held accountable, I want to make sure this doesn’t happen again, but you know you still want them to conduct business in the best interest of the country. And I hope they do that,” said Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat on the House intelligence committee. “But for our purposes, we just don’t want them obstructing. That’s all we ask. We’ve already seen this coverup behavior for the last few months: the number of people who met with Russians who didn’t disclose it, the information that we’ve asked for – whether it’s Flynn, or Sessions, or Kushner – that they won’t turn over is concerning.” The White House has distanced itself from the four major targets of both the FBI probe and Congressional investigators – Flynn, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page and former Trump aide Roger Stone. Spicer has said Manafort played a “very limited role” in Trump’s campaign – despite Manafort’s essential role in helping the campaign win the Republican nomination. On the 60th day of Donald Trump’s presidency, FBI Director James Comey stunned the nation with the announcement he had been investigating ties between the President’s campaign and Russian operatives since July 2016. The announcement from Trump’s own FBI director, and approved the Justice Department, led the President to begin sub-tweeting his own administration in real time, as the House Intelligence Committee’s hearing continued. By the 61st Day of Trump’s presidency, Trump’s closest ally on the House Russia investigation – the very leader of that probe, House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes – took a secret trip to the White House to review documents provided by the White House that allegedly supported Trump’s own counter-attack to the Russia questions, false accusations that he was the victim of surveillance by former President Barack Obama. RELATED: Who cleared Devin Nunes into the White House? From Days 62-76 of the presidency, one of the very probes that could derail Trump’s administration, was instead knocked off course by the fog of chaos that engulfed much of Trump’s own campaign and administration but was foreign to the staid, closed-off world of intelligence investigations. But on the 77th Day of his presidency, Trump’s biggest supporter on House Russia probe, Nunes, was pushed to the sidelines, the subject of a newly launched House probe himself into whether he broke the law by releasing classified intelligence. In three weeks the Trump gambit built on allegations that he was wiretapped, had been sidelined, along with his biggest supporter – and the House Russia investigation was chugging along. But whether there is any proverbial fire creating the massive smoke cloud that is the Russia investigations is almost irrelevant at this point. Undisclosed meetings with Russian ambassador the US Sergey Kislyak have led Flynn to be fired and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from the investigation. Sessions’ recusal: What’s next? Veteran congressional investigators say the best answer is to simply not fight the inquiries, by either withholding documents or distracting. “The way this normally works is for the investigators to request and then perhaps subpoena documents, for the White House to resist providing documents – either in whole or in part – then there’s a public discussion and eventually, over the objections of the White House the documents are substantially produced,” said Richard Ben-Veniste, a former lead prosecutor on the Senate Watergate investigation and a veteran Democratic investigator on numerous Congressional investigations after that. The White House does not appear to heeding at least some of that advice, telling the House oversight committee earlier this week that for several reasons it would not be handing over documents they requested related to Flynn. The peril for the Trump administration is that it now faces not just an active FBI investigation, but two major, functioning Congressional probes and additional inquiries – all churning slowly in quiet, digging deeper into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russian operatives. The House investigation is beginning to resemble the Senate Russia investigation more – methodical, planned and focused – after a reset under the new leadership of Rep. Mike Conaway, a Texas Republican brought in to replace Nunes. The Senate investigation, meanwhile, is nearing interviews of the Trump aides at the center of the Russia allegations, after spending months on a detailed review of the intelligence report detailing Russian meddling in the US election. RELATED: Senate Russia investigation to add 2 more staffers after pace criticized Both committees have secured access to top-level intelligence – a sensitive process of intense negotiations with the intelligence agencies (and one that, for at least three weeks, was stalled by Nunes’ close ties to the White House). Senate investigators have spoken with more than 30 witnesses. The leaders of the House investigation – Conaway and top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff – have agreed on a schedule of interviewing witnesses. Meanwhile, outside the Capitol, “Tax Returns!” has become a chant in rowdy town hall meetings where Democratic and Republican lawmakers are bombarded with questions about Trump’s financial holdings that, progressive activists say, could easily show Trump’s own ties to Russia. So far, Republicans in the House and Senate have resisted calls to subpoena Trump’s tax returns. But House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has noted that, if Democrats win back the House in 2018, they could easily seek his tax returns. The 100-Day benchmark is typically a victory lap for a new administration – but the parade of Russia stories from this fledgling White House and the outstanding questions – almost guarantees the story far away from its ending.


Editor’s Note: Lt Col Rick Francona is a CNN military analyst and retired US Air Force intelligence officer with over 4000 flight hours in a variety of reconnaissance aircraft. The views expressed here are solely his. China and U.S. have no agreement on protocols for intercepts This could lead to repeat of lethal 2001 incident when Chinese pilot died Two Chinese J-11 fighter aircraft carried out an “unsafe” intercept of a United States EP-3E “Aires II” reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace over the South China Sea, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. During the incident, which took place Tuesday, the fighters reportedly came within 50 feet (15 meters) of the Navy plane. Flying two supersonic fighter jets within 50 feet of a four-engine turboprop aircraft is dangerous, especially when the pilots cannot communicate effectively with each other, nor are the intentions of the intercepting aircraft clear. One mistake, either in judgment or airmanship, could result in a lethal incident. This is not theory – it has happened in this same airspace with almost the identical participants. In April 2001, a Navy EP-3E was intercepted by a Chinese J-8 fighter. The Chinese pilot misjudged the distance between his fighter and the Navy aircraft. He attempted to do a zoom climb from under the aircraft and pull up immediately in front of the cockpit. He clipped the aircraft, lost control and crashed, resulting in his death. The EP-3E was severely damaged and was saved only by the skill of the flight crew. Unfortunately, the crippled plane made an emergency landing at a Chinese air base - thereby compromising the technical capabilities of the aircraft’s electronic intelligence gathering capabilities. READ: Showdown in the South China Sea: How did we get here? Every time the Chinese intercept either the United States Air Force (USAF) or Navy reconnaissance aircraft that routinely operate in international airspace off the Chinese coast, the 2001 incident is at the forefront of everyone’s mind. Unless the Chinese exercise control of these situations, we could have another collision, needless deaths and yes, an international incident that lead to even greater consequences. There is nothing untoward about intercepting aircraft operating close to a country’s coast or borders. The United States routinely intercepts unidentified aircraft approaching our coasts or borders. Armed fighters will approach the aircraft and identify it to officers at the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD). Once the aircraft is deemed to not be a threat, or in the case of a foreign reconnaissance flight (the Russians conduct flights routinely) when it turns away, the fighters return to base. Although there is an agreement in force with the Chinese to prevent military incidents, it only calls for annual meetings to discuss the issue. There are no specific protocols on how the military forces are to conduct themselves when in close proximity to each other. Contrast this with the agreements between the United States and Russia which spell out very specifically minimum separation distances. That protocol calls for a minimum vertical distance of 1,000 feet and a horizontal distance of 1,500 feet. Fortunately, these incidents with the Chinese are not that common. Usually the Chinese broadcast verbal warnings on international distress frequencies demanding that the U.S. aircraft change course and depart the area, often claiming that the aircraft are violating Chinese airspace. The area in which this incident occurred is particularly sensitive for the Chinese. Not only are they enlarging uninhabited islands and reefs in the South China Sea and building airstrips, they have deployed military aircraft and air defense missile systems as well. The sovereignty of these islands is contested by other countries in the region. The Chinese may be watching the increased tensions between the United States and Russia. On several occasions over the last few months, the Russians have harassed U.S. Air Force reconnaissance aircraft flying in international airspace over the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea and the Sea of Japan in what is almost certainly an orchestrated attempt to provoke an American reaction. If the United States alters its behavior based on the Russian recent aggressive intercepts, it may embolden the Chinese to act in a similar confrontational matter, hoping to keep American reconnaissance flights from operating close to their coast. It won’t work. The United States will continue to conduct lawful aerial reconnaissance missions in international airspace off China. The Chinese have already provoked one incident – with lethal consequences. One misunderstanding, one misjudgment, one mistake - that’s all it takes to move us to the brink of an international crisis. These incidents are likely to continue until specific protocols are worked out between the two countries. Thus far, the Chinese have shown no interest in lessening the tension – they believe this is Chinese airspace.


Members of the Iranian opposition group MEK settled at Camp Liberty in 2012 More than 2,000 people live there, the U.N. refugee agency says Rockets slammed into a former U.S. military base housing Iranian exiles near the Baghdad airport, reportedly causing numerous casualties. At least 80 rockets struck Camp Liberty, where members of the main Iranian opposition group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq, or MEK, have been living since February 2012, said Shahin Gobadi, a spokesman for the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran. According to the group, the Thursday attack killed 23 residents of the camp and injured dozens more. “This is a most deplorable act, and I am greatly concerned at the harm that has been inflicted on those living at Camp Liberty,” said U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres. “Every effort must continue to be made for the injured and to identify and bring to account those responsible.” About 2,200 people live at Camp Liberty, according to the U.N. refugee agency. The U.S. State Department also weighed in on the attack. “The United States strongly condemns today’s brutal, senseless terrorist attack … that killed and injured camp residents,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement. “Our condolences go out to the families of the victims, and we hope for the swift recovery of those injured.” The exiled Iranian opposition group was moved to Camp Liberty more than three years ago from another camp inside Iraq. The camp was billed as a temporary facility at the time. A senior U.S. administration official said there were plans to keep it open until all of the camp residents were resettled outside Iraq. Members of the Iranian opposition group have been housed in Iraq for more than 25 years. Exiles, described as Iranian resistance figures and their sympathizers, live at Camp Liberty, also known as Camp Huriyya. The MEK formerly was on the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations, because of the killing of six Americans in Iran in the 1970s and an attempted attack against the Iranian mission to the United Nations in 1992. However, the State Department removed the MEK from the list in September 2012, citing the group’s renunciation of violence and the passage of a decade without its carrying out any attacks. And since 2004, the United States has considered the residents of Camp Ashraf “noncombatants” and “protected persons” under the Geneva Conventions. In the 1980s, then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invited members of the MEK to relocate to Iraq in an effort to undermine the Iranian government, which was then at war with Iraq. Iran also considers the group to be a terrorist organization. The current Iraqi government has closer ties to Tehran, and some opposition figures are afraid the camp will be subject to more attacks. Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly characterized the status of the MEK. The U.S. State Department removed the MEK from the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations in September 2012.


Sergey Kislyak downplayed his contact with members of the Trump campaign in an interview with CNN on Wednesday "It's nonsense," Kislyak said when asked if he tried to recruit members of the Trump administration Russia’s former ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak downplayed his contact with members of the Trump campaign on Wednesday, calling allegations that he worked as a spymaster and tried to recruit people within President Donald Trump’s orbit “nonsense” during an exclusive interview with CNN. Kislyak left the US for Russia last month after concluding his tour of service but remains a central figure in the federal and congressional Russia probes – causing extensive problems for Trump campaign aides because of multiple failures to disclose talks with him. In March, CNN reported that Kislyak is considered by US intelligence to be one of Russia’s top spies and spy-recruiters in Washington, citing senior US government officials. Russia’s Foreign Ministry strongly rejected the allegations. CNN managed to catch up with Kislyak in the Russian city of Saransk where he was attending a campaign event as a candidate for the Federation Council – a governing body akin to the US Senate. During the interview, Kislyak again denied allegations that he worked as a spymaster while in Washington and that he tried to recruit people close to Trump. Related article Longtime Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak heads home “You should be ashamed, because CNN is the company that keeps pointing to this allegation. It’s nonsense,” Kislyak said when asked if he tried to recruit members of the Trump administration. When asked about US intelligence and security officials’ conclusion that Kislyak had attempted to recruit individuals close to Trump, Kislyak pointed to others, including a former FBI director – possibly meaning James Comey – who only referred to him as a diplomat: “I’ve heard that other statements by them, also by (the) former head of the FBI that said I was a diplomat. I have no – no reasons to doubt that he knew what he said. OK.” Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from overseeing the federal Russia probe in March, shortly after The Washington Post revealed Sessions met twice with Kislyak during the campaign. Sessions, at the time, said he was recusing himself because of his work on the campaign. Months later, Trump openly blamed Sessions for his ongoing Russia woes, saying that Sessions never should have stepped aside. And Trump fired former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn after reports that Flynn had discussed lifting sanctions on Russia with Kislyak in previously undisclosed phone calls. Related article Russia's Kislyak: 'No secrets' in talks with Flynn Earlier this year, leaders of the House Oversight Committee revealed that Flynn did not disclose payments for a speech he gave to RT-TV and for his lobbying work on behalf of a Turkish businessman on his security clearance application filed last year – a possible crime, if he purposefully left off those payments. Asked Wednesday if he and members of the Trump campaign – specifically Jared Kushner – discussed setting up secret channels to the Kremlin, Kislyak responded: “I’ve said many times that we do not discuss the substance of our discussions with our American interlocuters. Out of respect to our partners.” Kislyak also pushed back on claims that Trump disclosed secretive information about Syria during the now infamous Oval Office meeting between between the President and high-profile Russian diplomats. “I’m not sure that I heard anything that would be secretive, but it was a good meeting and we were discussing things that are important to your country and to mine,” he said. Ultimately, the former Russian ambassador told CNN that the future of US-Russian relations is going to be difficult due to new sanctions levied on Moscow by the US government last month. “It’s the sanctions law, but sanctions is an instrument, it’s basically a statement of being anti-Russian,” Kislyak said. “It’s not going to be wished away, it’s going to stay  and it’s going to spoil ability of both countries to resume a normalcy in our relations. And normalcy in our relationship is exactly what is missing.” CNN’s Mary Ilyushina, Cameron Stewart and Tom LoBianco contributed to this report.


Nearly 2,000 people have died in 2015 trying to get from Africa to Europe across the Mediterranean The European Commission is putting forward plans for quotas on the number of migrants each EU country takes in UK Home Secretary Theresa May argues this could encourage more migrants to come Nearly 2,000 migrants are estimated to have lost their lives attempting the perilous sea crossing from North Africa to Europe in 2015, and it’s not even fully five months into the year. To try to stem this deadly tide, the European Commission – the European Union’s executive arm – on Wednesday outlined a new migration policy, in an effort to share responsibility across Europe for the mass influx of migrants. The plan includes a call for quotas on the number of migrants each EU country would be required to take in, based on population size, gross domestic product and unemployment rate, as well as the number of past applications received. The proposals will likely be controversial, with immigration a hot-button issue in many of the 28 EU member nations. Germany backs the plans, for example, but the UK government strongly opposes them. What’s not in question, though, is that something must be done to curb the often deadly trafficking of migrants across the Mediterranean. Presenting the new migration policy on Wednesday, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said: “With this bold agenda, the European Union has proven itself ready to address the plight of those escaping from wars, persecution and poverty. “Migration is a shared responsibility of all member states and all member states are called now to contribute to tackling this historical challenge.” EU foreign and defense ministers are due to meet as soon as Monday to take some initial decisions on measures outlined in the proposals, she said. Mogherini on Monday asked the United Nations to authorize military action to destroy boats used illegally to smuggle people from Africa to Europe. Many of the migrants are from sub-Saharan Africa and Syria, or are foreign workers who have lost their livelihoods. They know that people-traffickers can take them to Europe from Libyan shores, often arriving in Italy. But many die at sea. More than 3,400 migrants died in 2014, according to estimates from the U.N refugee agency, many more than in the previous year. In her Monday speech to the U.N. Security Council, Mogherini said 2015 looked likely to be worse yet. The U.N. refugee agency estimates that close to 2,000 have already died attempting the journey so far this year. Related video EU refugee proposal rejected by UK “Our first priority must be to save lives; to prevent the loss of lives at sea. We believe, in the European Union, that this is a huge responsibility we all share, not only as Europeans but also globally,” Mogherini said. She also assured those listening that “no refugees or migrants intercepted at sea will be sent back against their will” and that their rights under the Geneva Conventions would be respected. Answering reporters’ questions Wednesday, Mogherini restated the EU’s commitment to those rights, but clarified that not every migrant rescued at sea would be allowed to stay in Europe. However, those individuals will not be returned to unsafe countries or sent back before their case is properly considered, she said. European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans also made the point that the return of migrants whose asylum claim was not accepted was “a cornerstone of the plan.” Other proposed elements include: • Additional funding for operations by Frontex, the EU’s border agency, in the Mediterranean to help rescue migrants in trouble and deter people smugglers; • An extra 50 million euros ($56 million) for an EU-wide resettlement scheme, to offer 20,000 places across member states to displaced people in clear need of international protection in Europe; • A possible joint security operation in the Mediterranean to dismantle traffickers’ networks by capturing and destroying their boats; • Working with migrants’ countries of origin and nations that are major transit points to try to stem the flow of migrants before they are put on boats, including by helping them to strengthen their borders; • Working with the International Organization for Migration and U.N. refugee agency to set up a pilot center in Niger, a major transit route for migrants, that would try to limit the number of people coming from West Africa; • Introducing a new policy on legal migration to reduce the incentive for people to seek to enter illegally and making sure all EU states share a common policy on asylum process. UK Home Secretary Theresa May argued in an opinion piece published Wednesday by The Times of London that the introduction of quotas for migrants would only encourage more people to make the hazardous journey. Related video CNN goes on migrant search and rescue flight Instead, May said, “The EU should work to establish safe landing sites in North Africa, underpinned by an active programme of returns.” She also rejected Mogherini’s remarks on not sending migrants back to their countries of origin, saying, “Such an approach would only act as an increased pull factor across the Mediterranean and encourage more people to put their lives at risk.” And she called for differentiation in the way asylum seekers and economic migrants are treated. “We must distinguish between those genuinely fleeing persecution and economic migrants crossing the Mediterranean in the hope of a better life,” she wrote. Under EU treaties, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark have a special status allowing them to opt out of the proposed migration measures. According to figures released by Eurostat on Tuesday, 27 EU member states “granted protection status to 185,000 asylum seekers in 2014, up by almost 50% compared with 2013.” No figures were available for Austria. Of those asylum seekers whose claims were accepted, 37% – or 68,400 people – were from war-torn Syria. Germany and Sweden combined took in 60% of those asylum seekers. Eritrea and Afghanistan were the next most common countries of origin, with their citizens each making up 8% of those granted protection. More than three-quarters of the Eritreans were taken in by three countries: Sweden, the Netherlands, and Britain. More than half the Afghans were taken in by Germany and Italy. Others came from Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Pakistan, Russia and elsewhere. CNN’s Don Melvin, Livia Borghese, Richard Allen Greene and Lucy Pawle contributed to this report.

European Commission migration quota plan


"Look at my desk. Papers. You don't see presidents with that on their desk," Trump said The same desk has typically appeared mess-free when used by former presidents Throughout his time in the public eye, President Donald Trump has often been photographed behind his desk at Trump Tower alongside a mountain of papers, photographs and other trinkets he proudly displayed. Now, he’s bragging about his cluttered desk in the Oval Office. “Look at my desk. Papers. You don’t see presidents with that on their desk,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity during an interview that aired Thursday. Less than a week into his presidency, Trump’s desk appears to already be the sight of disorder. However, when he signed his first executive orders, it appeared clean, meaning he has quickly gotten to work. Trump’s desk in the presidential plane, Air Force One, appeared strikingly tidy Thursday when he was photographed during his trip from Washington to Philadelphia for the Republican congressional retreat. But it was just his first time on board, so he may not have had the opportunity to properly clutter the desk. The sight of the desk during Trump’s meeting Friday with British Prime Minister Theresa May was yet again the sight of cleanliness. Historically, the desk of the President has been clean, lacking clutter. Sometimes neatly stacked files or paperweights can be seen, but all orderly and neat as opposed to Trump’s discombobulated set up of folders jutting out or piled several inches high. The same desk, known as the Resolute Desk, has typically appeared mess-free when used by former presidents, including George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. According to the White House Museum, every president since Rutherford B. Hayes – except Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford – has used the Resolute desk. However, some chose to use it in their private study in the private residence as opposed to the Oval Office, where Trump uses it. The desk became especially notable after a photograph was released in Life magazine of President John F. Kennedy working while his son, John Jr., peeked out the front through the kneehole panel. It became an iconic image of the Kennedy’s life in the White House. The kneehole panel was installed after Franklin D. Roosevelt requested it to hide his knee braces.


People living near Puerto Rican dam being evacuated Dangerous storm surge expected in Turks and Caicos and parts of Bahamas Puerto Rico grappled with damages and deaths caused by Hurricane Maria on Friday as the storm hurtled across the Caribbean and slapped the Turks and Caicos Islands. Related article Hurricane Maria leaves more than 3 million Americans without power. Is help on the way? People in the northwest part of the island were urged to evacuate in the afternoon after a dam on the Guajataca River failed, according to a tweet from the National Weather Service. The storm hit Puerto Rico two days ago and knocked out power in the US commonwealth of more than 3 million people, Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said. And it could be months before the electricity returns. A gradual weakening of Maria is forecast over the next two days, but the Category 3 hurricane still socked the Turks and Caicos, a British overseas territory of more than 52,000 people. Maria’s core left the Turks and Caicos in a north-northwestward direction and was gradually moving away from the Bahamas, the center said in its 8 p.m. advisory. A dangerous storm surge and large waves will raise water levels by as much as 9 to 12 feet above normal tide in the Turks and Caicos and southeastern Bahamas, the center said. Related video Puig's emotional interview on Hurricane Maria The giant storm’s death toll continues to mount. At least 15 people are confirmed dead on Dominica, and dozens more remain missing. One person died in the US Virgin Islands, probably from drowning, authorities said. At least six people were killed in Puerto Rico, said Héctor M. Pesquera, the island’s public safety director. Earlier, Puerto Rico’s governor told CNN’s “New Day” that 13 people had died in the storm. The figure was based on reports from mayors on the island, but law enforcement hasn’t confirmed that total, the government said. “Flash flooding continues in portions of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic due to persistent heavy rainfall from Maria’s trailing rain bands,” the hurricane center said. The rain could spur “life-threatening flash floods and mudslides.” Maria is producing winds of near 125 mph (more than 200 kilometers per hour) with higher gusts. Moving at 9 mph (15 kilometers per hour), it was 375 miles (600 kilometers) east-southeast of Nassau, Bahamas. The government of the Bahamas changed the hurricane warning for the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas to a tropical storm warning, the weather service said. A tropical storm warning is in effect for the central Bahamas. Heavy rainfall is expected through Saturday. In Turks and Caicos, 8 to 16 inches are predicted, with 20 inches in some places, and in Puerto Rico, an additional 3 to 6 inches is likely, with isolated maximum storm totals at 40 inches. Heavy rains are expected in parts of the Dominican Republic, Haiti and the Bahamas. Maria will move closer to the US East Coast and Bermuda by the middle of next week, “but it is too soon to determine, what, if any direct impacts there might be in these areas,” the hurricane center said. Swells from the storm are expected to begin reaching the US Southeast coast, the center said. “These swells are likely to cause dangerous surf and life-threatening rip currents along the coast for the next several days, even with Maria forecast to remain well offshore over the western Atlantic Ocean,” it said. Survivors of Hurricane Maria need assistance Parts of the Caribbean that Maria has already struck are just coming to terms with the extent of their losses. CNN’s Michael Holmes, who is on Dominica, said that almost all trees from the lush paradise have been denuded, leaving a stark, brown landscape in its place. Aid had been stockpiled before Hurricane Irma, the storm that recently preceded Maria, but it was distributed to neighboring islands after Dominica appeared to have avoided the worst of it. Then came Maria. Dominica knocked to its knees by Hurricane Maria’s might In Puerto Rico, every inch of the island was hammered when Maria made landfall Wednesday. As many as 4,500 Army reservists have been brought in to complement the Puerto Rican National Guard, says Brig. Gen. Dustin Shultz, who is commanding the reserves in the Caribbean during rescue effort. Gov. Kenneth E. Mapp of the US Virgin Islands is calling for “all hands on deck” as the territory expands recovery efforts after both Irma and Maria struck in less than two weeks. The Royal Navy’s flagship HMS Ocean arrived in the British Virgin Islands with about 650 personnel and 60 tons of cargo, including construction equipment, hygiene kits and water purification tablets. The ship’s arrival means there are now more than 2,000 UK military personnel working on relief. US President Donald Trump has pledged federal help for Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. In San Juan, Ashford Presbyterian Community Hospital suffered damage. It’s part of life in the “hurricane corridor,” hospital planning director Margo Silva told CNN. “We’re used to dealing with this. Unfortunately, being so close to the ocean, these circumstances come up,” Silva said The air conditioning had failed, meaning patients such as 103-year-old Diosa Alarondo were suffering in the heat. She’s been at the hospital for two months, and her daughter Jacqueline Alarondo was distressed. Water only arrived Thursday afternoon, she said. “It was bad, messed-up organization from the administration.” But another patient, Ana Rivera, said it might have been the best place to ride out the storm. The food comes on time, and they’ve been treating her well, she said. Ten miles west of the capital, residents trudged through floodwaters to reach their homes – many of which no longer had roofs. Sylvia Colon fought back tears as firefighters and the National Guard reached her 84-year-old neighbor. She refused to leave the woman who, she says, is like a grandmother to her. One girl, Marytere, 16. had to cross floods with her family, clutching small dogs, along with bags filled with food, toiletries and pillows, to reach the rescue team. The family had left to find help when the water got too high. “I’m scared of what’s going to happen now to us,” she said, wiping away tears. “What’s the family going to do now?” CNN’s Nick Valencia and Leyla Santiago reported from Puerto Rico, while Joe Sterling reported and wrote from Atlanta, and Euan McKirdy reported and from Hong Kong. CNN’s Marilia Brocchetto contributed to this report.


Umm Sayyaf is being held by Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish government, U.S. says She was the wife of  Abu Sayyaf, an ISIS leader killed in a U.S. military raid in Syria Umm Sayyaf – the widow of an ISIS leader killed by U.S. Special Operations Forces – was transferred from U.S. custody to the Iraqi government, the Defense Department said Thursday. Sayyaf, also known as Nasrin As’ad Ibrahim, was married to Abu Sayyaf, a key ISIS commander. In May 2015, Abu Sayyaf – also known as Fathi Ben Awn Ben Jildi Murad al-Tunisi – was killed in a U.S. military raid in eastern Syria. Shorty thereafter, Umm Sayyaf was captured by U.S. forces and was held in Iraq. She’s suspected of being a member of ISIS. Sayyaf was transferred after the U.S. government determined such a move would “be appropriate with respect to legal, diplomatic, intelligence, security, and law enforcement considerations,” the Pentagon said in a statement. Officials said the transfer is consistent with U.S. policy. Umm Sayyaf is being held by the Iraqi Kurdistan regional government’s Interior Ministry, according to the U.S. military. Kurdistan is a semiautonomous region in northeastern Iraq that has its own fighters battling ISIS. Abu Sayyaf oversaw ISIS oil and gas operations, an integral source of the terror group’s revenue, National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said after Sayyaf’s death. The United States has been considering the possibility that wives of ISIS figures may play a significant role in the Sunni Islamist extremist group’s operations. Meehan said at the time that Umm Sayyaf “played an important role in ISIL’s terrorist activities.” ISIL is an  acronym commonly used by U.S. authorities for ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic state. U.S. officials believe the couple possessed information about American and Western hostages in Syria. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said then that Abu Sayyaf’s death was a “significant blow” to ISIS.

U.S. government policy on transfer of ISIS detainees


Editor’s Note: Seni Sulyman is Country Director of Andela Nigeria. He is passionate about building an ecosystem of exemplary African businesses and leaders and has an MBA from Harvard Business School. Andela this week announced a $40M round of funding  from two Africa-focused venture funds.The views expressed in this article are solely his. Africa has missed out on two of the most important episodes of global advancement The internet has revolutionized how knowledge and opportunities can be accessed and shared Humans have done a poor job of equipping the majority of our seven billion peers to contribute meaningfully toward our collective future. As a result, humankind is not advancing at the pace it should be. Today, millions of children lack access to education and healthcare, and are all too familiar with poverty and hunger. Our planet is exhibiting severe side effects resulting from human activity while we still debate the existence of climate change. Elections in developed countries are no longer guaranteed to be free and fair, thanks to hackers. This is 2017. Africa, home to a massive young and growing population, could possess the solution to the global human capital dilemma. Africans, working alongside and leading global teams, can help humankind avoid catastrophes in healthcare, education, climate change, and cybersecurity. By producing the next wave of global leaders, Africa (and Africans) will play a critical role in building the future. If we’re going to actualize this promising future, we need to first come to terms with our difficult past. Over 12,000 years ago, humans shifted from hunting and gathering to organized agriculture. Africans participated actively in what is widely known as the Agricultural Revolution, spanning several centuries across several kingdoms. We’ve since slid in both productivity and innovation, failing to achieve food security, and have some of the highest rates of undernourishment globally. The reasons vary and we can debate them, but the consequences are irrefutable. Related article The startup that's harder to get into than Harvard In the 18th and 19th centuries, humans developed the steam engine, created the textile industry, invented machine tools and factories, and built telecommunication, transportation and power infrastructure. The Industrial Revolution, as we know it today, is commonly referred to as the most important event in human history since the domestication of animals. Africa was a source of key raw materials and labor that fueled this revolution, yet once again the benefits of this revolution skipped most African economies. Today, the repercussions of these missed opportunities are vast. With the collapse of most of Africa’s major empires either via self-destruction or colonization, our interactions with the world have become severely imbalanced and our development has been disappointingly slow. Many African countries are net importers of necessities like food, fuel, equipment and consumer goods. In Nigeria, 75 percent of land is arable, yet we import unreasonable quantities of rice, tomatoes and other basic agricultural produce. We literally can’t feed ourselves. In terms of industry, things are equally appalling. While banking and telecommunications (which we’ve basically imported) are shining examples of success in many countries, our public transport infrastructure is rudimentary at best, hospital conditions are deplorable, and electricity is a luxury. Related article Africa's surprising future For the past few centuries, Africans have certainly not been sitting around resigned to stagnation and exploitation. Yet we’ve largely missed out on two of the most important episodes of global advancement. The prayers, hopes and aspirations of our colonized ancestors did not propel us into the 21st century. Today, our prayers, hopes and aspirations will not propel us into the future. This is our history. Let’s embrace it. Let’s learn from it. Today, the world is on the precipice of its third major revolution: The digital revolution. This time, Africa will not be left behind and history will not repeat itself. We are fortunate to have a massive advantage over previous generations: the internet. The internet is the global equalizer. It has fundamentally changed how knowledge is shared and opportunities are accessed. With a connected device and a desire to learn, anyone can tap into the knowledge, experience and insights from the world’s greatest minds and communities, irrespective of where they are. As a result, our continent’s ability to partake in the digital revolution is contingent upon the strength of our human capital and our leadership. Related article UN: Half of world's population growth is likely to occur in Africa Africa is projected to account for half the world’s population growth by 2050, and has the sheer capacity and the raw brainpower to produce technologists who will go on to build the future. The emergence of a new crop of young, thoughtful and upright leaders – who are committed to creating immense value and leaving their communities better off – is what will fully unlock the potential of millions of Africans in ways we can’t yet possibly imagine. Just 10 years ago, “young and tech-savvy Nigerian” was synonymous with “internet fraudster.” Today, the world recognizes that some of our future technology leaders are located in cities like Lagos, Abuja, Nairobi and Kampala. By investing in young African leaders, one at a time, and then applying the learnings to rapidly scale those efforts to millions of others, we can catalyze an entire generation. It’s already happening, led by young Africans. We don’t need anyone’s permission. The world’s human capital shortage – the constraint to the digital revolution and to the advancement of humankind – is a global dilemma that affects all of us, regardless of ethnicity, geography or socioeconomic status. Related article Optimism is rising in Africa, here's why Changing Africa’s history of getting left behind is not a choice, it’s a necessity. The role that future generations of Africans will play is already being determined by the actions and decisions we make today. Having an African fund lead what is easily one of the largest venture rounds on the continent is nothing short of remarkable. If Africans are successful at accelerating our participation in the global technology revolution, we will not only begin to solve Africa’s most pressing challenges, we will in fact begin to solve the world’s.


Editor’s Note: Kavitha Rajagopalan is a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute and nonresident senior fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. She is the author of two books and has been an op-ed contributor for The New York Observer, Newsday and PBS. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. Kavitha Rajagopalan: Budget cuts to the NIH could affect rare-disease patients Most hospitals can't devote time or resources to rare-disease research, she writes On the eve of the new year, my four-month-old son was diagnosed with leukocyte adhesion deficiency type I, a very rare primary immunodeficiency disease, so life-threatening that he could die from a diaper rash. As Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president, my son was admitted to Memorial Sloan Kettering, where he now awaits the only known cure for his disease: a stem cell transplant. This week, as we count down the days until his life may be saved, President Trump has proposed to slash the budget of the National Institutes of Health by 22%. Only about a dozen scientists worldwide specialize in my son’s disease, and three of them are at the NIH. The $7.7 billion this administration proposes to cut from the NIH budget will restrict biomedical research, jeopardizing the health of millions of Americans with diseases like my son’s. Scientific research conducted at the NIH was instrumental in both my son’s diagnosis and in developing his cure. One team in the NIH’s Clinical Pathophysiology Section researches genetic causes of diseases like LAD, an autosomal recessive disease produced when both I, an Indian woman, and my African-American husband had an error on the same part of the same gene on the same chromosome. NIH scholars also study how the disease behaves, and helped my son’s doctors determine that an abscess on his leg was not an allergic response but a cluster of immune cells produced by his hyperactive immune system. Related video Trump budget proposal could hurt many from his base Of course, my son isn’t alone in his struggle. The NIH estimates that more than 25 million Americans have rare genetic diseases. Research from the Institute’s Office of Rare Diseases Research and the NIH Undiagnosed Diseases Program informs their care, and it also helps diagnose and treat millions of people with more common diseases. The hallmark of rare disease research and care is consultation – between advocating parents and attentive doctors, between clinicians and researchers and between medical experts and elected officials. Consultations get sick babies diagnosed, keep their treatment regimens from killing them and help scholars devise the cures that save lives of millions more like them. My son’s doctor at MSK routinely consults with one of the world’s few specialists in his disease, a distinguished principal investigator at the NIH’s Intramural Research Program, who is often able to guide his treatment based on research that has not yet been completed and published, and whose research in turn evolves based on information about my son’s case. To save my son’s life, his doctors will destroy his faulty immune system with chemotherapy and regenerate a new one for him over the course of a year, during which time he will undergo surgeries to insert a feeding tube and central intravenous line, and will be vulnerable to even the most harmless bugs. Related article This isn't how to honor veterans Gene therapies, experimental techniques that use or manipulate genes in order to treat genetic diseases, would spare future babies such suffering and would cost much less in time and money. In fact, an NIH researcher consulting on my son’s case is currently developing cutting-edge gene therapies that could edit the errors on faulty genetic codes like my son’s. This means that future babies might be spared the extremely risky, painful, costly and lengthy cure of bone marrow transplant. But without funding from the federal government, this research may be discontinued. General care hospitals have neither the incentive nor the resources to undertake the kind of research that will save my son’s life. NIH is one of very few institutions that functions as a home for diseases that would otherwise be orphaned if such research was left to commercial or general patient-care-focused hospitals. Related article Trump's budget isn't the disaster you think, ex-CBO chief says Proponents of the administration’s budget suggest that a reorganization of the NIH would improve efficiency and streamline taxpayer monies. But taken together with this administration’s positions and policies toward health care access, immigration, scientific research and even education, it stands to reason that rare-disease research will suffer from far more than reduced funding. It will wither in a harsh political climate that disputes not only the claims but inherent value of science, that deprives our research institutions of expertise from all over the world and that forces millions to consult Google rather than doctors they can’t afford without health insurance. Trump’s budget also proposes to cut NIH’s Fogarty International Center, devoted to global health research. Along with the administration’s haphazard and often uncompromising approach to international relations, we may also see the end of such global initiatives as the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium. The NIH launched this consortium with the European Commission to deliver 200 new therapies for rare diseases and the means to diagnose more rare diseases by 2020. Sign up for CNN Opinion’s new newsletter.Join us on Twitter and Facebook But now millions of lives may be lost because people don’t have access to the kind of care they once did. In the battle against these kinds of diseases, access to care isn’t so much about the ins and outs of health insurance coverage, it is about the way doctors, patients and research scientists create knowledge together. Investing in medical research means investing in these relationships, and these investments could not only save millions in treatment and care in the long run, but also leave us with a stronger, healthier society. My son and the millions of others with diagnosed and undiagnosed rare genetic disorders rely on an uninhibited, unhindered community of scientists and researchers who are supported by humane, curious governments. I join the thousands of scientists who marched on Washington and stand beside the millions of mothers with sick children in pleading with Congress to kill this inhumane budget.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget cuts


Secretary of Defense James Mattis has warned the Syrian regime against the use of chemical weapons, telling reporters Friday “you have all seen how we reacted to that, so they’d be ill advised to go back to violating the chemical convention.” Mattis was referring to the April 2017 military strike when the US launched Tomahawk missiles against Syria in response to a chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of civilians. Asked if the Syrian regime was using chlorine weapons Mattis said he believed they had done so “repeatedly” but said that the US is “even more concerned about the possibility of Sarin use, the likelihood of Sarin use, and we’re looking for the evidence.” Mattis said he does not believe that Syria has kept to the 2013 agreement brokered by the US and Russia that required the Assad regime to relinquish their chemical weapons. “We think that they did not carry out what they said they would do back when in the previous administration when they were caught using it. Obviously, they didn’t, because they used it again during our administration, and that gives us a lot of reason to suspect them, and now we have other reports from the battlefield, from people who claim it’s been used, we do not have evidence of it, but we are not refuting them, we are looking for evidence of it, since clearly we are dealing with the Assad regime that has used denial and deceit to hide their outlaw actions.” Mattis acknowledged that the US has not seen direct evidence of the use of Sarin gas but pointed to open source reports. “I don’t have the evidence. What I’m saying is that groups on the ground, NGOs, fighters on the ground have said that Sarin has been used,” he said. “We are looking for evidence. I don’t have evidence credible or uncredible.” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert on Thursday said the US is “extremely concerned about yet another report of the use of chlorine gas by the Syrian regime to terrorize citizens” in east Ghouta. Nauert said this is the third reported incident in east Ghouta in the last 30 days.  “We call on the international community” to hold the responsible parties accountable, Nauert said. Recent alleged attacks have suggested that Syria continues to produce weapons, US officials told reporters Thursday. The Assad regime may also be producing new kinds of weapons, the officials said, with the goal either to improve military capability or avoid accountability from the international community, the officials added. Following the April strike against the regime airbase, Mattis told reporters the regime “the Syrian regime should think long and hard before it again acts so recklessly in violation of international law against the use of chemical weapons,” adding, “if they use chemical weapons, they are going to pay a very, very stiff price”