Editor’s note: This story was originally published on December 7, 2012. To learn more about Gullah culture, watch “United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell” Sunday at 10 p.m. ET/PT. The Gullah/Geechee is a group of people based in the North Carolina-Georgia seaboard Their descendants came from West Africa, brought to America as slaves around the 1700s The Gullah/Geechee are trying to hold onto the way of life of their African ancestors They pass on their traditions from one generation to the next Along the lush sea-islands and the Atlantic coastal plains of the southern East coast of America, a distinctive group of tidewater communities has stuck together throughout the centuries, preserving its African cultural heritage and carving out a lifestyle that is uniquely its own. The Gullah/Geechee people are direct descendants of West African slaves brought into the United States around the 1700s. They were forced to work in rice paddies, cotton fields and indigo plantations along the South Carolina-Georgia seaboard where the moist climate and fertile land were very similar to their African homelands. After the abolition of slavery, they settled in remote villages around the coastal swath, where, thanks to their relative isolation, they formed strong communal ties and a unique culture that has endured for centuries. “The Gullah/Geechee Nation is an extremely tightly knit community,” says Chieftess Queen Quet, who was chosen to represent the Gullah/Geechee people in 2000. “It is as tightly knit as a sweet grass basket that’s sewn together and as tightly knit as a cast net is sewn together – there’s strength in it and that means if you pull on it, you can’t just get it to break apart.” See also: Tracing the slaves who shaped America Brought to America from rice-producing Sierra Leone and other surrounding countries, the enslaved Africans came from a wide variety of ethnic groups. For many of them, the first contact with the New World was Sullivan’s Island – just off Charleston, South Carolina – a place of huge emotional value for the Gullah/Geechee community to this day. “This is the landing point for over 40% of all the African people enslaved in North America,” says Queen Quet. “It represents a place of pain; it also represents a place of connection because we’re standing at the shore and we’re looking eastward – we’re looking back home, we’re looking to our mother, the mother land, mother Africa.” Carlie Towne, minister of information of the Gullah/Geechee Nation, says the Africans brought to the island were quarantined in pestilence houses to make sure they didn’t have any diseases. “A lot of people refer to this as the Ellis Island, but it’s not, because we did not come freely,” says Towne. “It didn’t kill the spirit, because we are here today and paying homage today to our ancestors. It actually gave us a sense of community, of living together. Everything we did, it was a way for us to actually become who we are. It actually made us stronger and we continue today the legacy of our ancestors.” Related video Gullah basket weaving is an ancient tradition To this day, the Gullah/Geechee people are trying to hold steadfastly to the way of life of their African ancestors, passing on their traditions from one generation to the next. They gather sweet grass to practice the ancient African art of basket making; they pay homage to their West African traditions by keeping alive the ring shout music folk tradition; they make a living by fishing shrimps and harvesting oysters, using handmade nets and casting them the way their ancestors did centuries ago. “I fished with my father ever since I’ve been seven or eight,” says Ricky Wright, vice president of the Gullah/Geechee Fishing Association. “It passes down because it’s just a natural thing for us – my parents did it, I’m quite sure my parents’ parents did it, and it just descended down.” It is this natural connection that helps the Gullah/Geechee community tie their past to their future survival. “[It’s] almost like history repeating itself, what goes around comes around,” says Wright. “OK, we’ve entered the computer age, but we still have to have hands-on for most of the things we do and fishing is like hands-on. You’ve got to do it to know it – to keep the culture strong is to keep what you do intact.” Related video The importance of preserving the Gullah language Another key trait marking the population’s distinctive cultural identity is the use of an English-based creole vernacular known as Gullah. Professor Salikoko S. Mufwene, of the department of linguistics at the University of Chicago, says the enslaved Africans and their descendants created the dialect in response to their own linguistic diversity. “It is English modified under the influence of African languages,” he says. “Any population that appropriates the language that is not their own, they are going to modify it.” Estimates about the current number of Gullah/Geechee people vary and exact figures are hard to verify. Gullah/Geechee leaders say that an approximately one million people belong to the nation, while other reports put the number closer to 250,000. Mufwene says that after the Second World War there were several migrations out of the region towards cities like New York and Washington in search of jobs. He adds, however, that many of those who’d depart would often become disenchanted with life in the city and return back home. Watch video: Slave descendants uphold African roots What seems to be more certain is that Gullah/Geechee people have preserved the cultural heritage of their ancestors more than any other black Americans in the United States. Related video The Gullah are fighting to preserve their culture “We have the highest retention of African tradition in America,” says Towne. “African-Americans have assimilated more so they don’t have those African traditions that we have – they don’t treasure them, they don’t honor their tradition like we do. And we’ve been able to hold onto that because of isolation, because of the strong will and our self-determination. We still eat the same foods [as] our ancestors [when they] came from Africa.” Mufwene agrees. He says the Gullah/Geechee people cook differently from continental African-Americans and the ways they interact with each other are very reminiscent of traditional life in Africa. “They have also kept animal tales that are very similar to animal tales in Africa,” he adds. “The characters are not exactly the same, because the ecology has changed, but the themes of the tales are very similar to the themes that you find in Africa.” Back on Sullivan’s Island, overlooking the vast ocean that brought her ancestors to the shores of enslavement, Towne says Gullah/Geechee people should not lose sight of their past. “This is actually the bloodline of our people, the water,” she says. “I must come here and my children come here. And my children’s children must come here too. Because we must never forget.”


The arrested man is reported to be a former British soldier A 2010 report by the British government placed most of the blame for the massacre on British soldiers British PM David Cameron apologized following release of the report A 66-year-old man has been arrested in Northern Ireland in connection with an investigation into the “Bloody Sunday” shooting deaths of 14 people in Derry in 1972, according the Police Service of Northern Ireland. The shootings at a civil rights march in Derry, a city also known as Londonderry, hardened anti-British sentiment in Northern Ireland, according to analysts, and led to many fresh recruits for the Irish Republican Army. Three decades of violence, known as The Troubles, followed. Almost 3,000 people died. British news organizations, citing security sources, say the man arrested is a former British soldier. In 2010, the British government released a damning report about the Bloody Sunday massacre, placing blame overwhelmingly on British soldiers. There was some provocation by the Irish Republican Army in Derry on that day, but nothing that justified the shootings of civilians, the British government’s report found. British paratroopers had no reason to believe they were under threat from the victims, gave no warnings before firing, and lied to the far-reaching official inquiry into the seminal event, the inquiry concluded. Only one victim was associated with the IRA, and he was probably not posing a threat when he was fatally shot, the report found. Members of the British Army fired more than 100 rounds in violation of orders issued to every British soldier serving in Northern Ireland at the time, the report found. Bloody Sunday has been considered by many as one of the greatest injustices of Northern Ireland’s troubled history. Even the name of the city is disputed, with pro-Irish nationalists calling it Derry and pro-British unionists calling it Londonderry. The Bloody Sunday arrest is a reminder that soldiers and our military do not deserve the wholehearted support they often receive “Some members of our armed forces acted wrongly … and for that, on behalf of the government, indeed on behalf of our country, I am deeply sorry,” British Prime Minister David Cameron said after the release of the report. Bloody Sunday ?? What sort of justice is this, 1 soldier arrested 43 years after event?? Sounds like scapegoating to me CNN’s Richard Alan Greene contributed to this report.


It’s meant to fan your wanderlust – and maybe envy. In one photo, an impeccably dressed lady with gorgeous hair and a toned, sun-kissed back holds your hand, leading you into the lush hills of the Philippines. In the next, she’s guiding you to a stunning turquoise pool in Morocco. Such is the narrative of Moscow-based photographer Murad Osmann’s “Follow Me To” Instagram account, which feeds its 4.1 million followers with images of the same pose shot against beautiful backdrops all over the world. MORE: Beautiful scenes from Japan’s most underrated region A post shared by MURAD OSMANN (@muradosmann) And now, it’s fodder for parody. Forrest Lu, a 36-year-old interior designer from Taiwan, found himself with thousands of fans this week after photos of him gripped by the hair as he’s dragged unceremoniously by his wife, Agnes Chien, went viral. In another photo in the Facebook album, called “Honeymoon Hawaii,” he’s being pulled along by his nostrils. “I wanted to take a picture of us holding hands like the ‘Follow Me To’ ones, but my wife (a mechanical procurement engineer) didn’t want our pictures to look like other people’s,” Lu told CNN. “So I said she could grab anything but my hand, and she just went for my hair and we took our first picture.” Their honeymoon snaps have since gathered thousands of Facebook “likes” and appeared on various Chinese-language lifestyle and news sites. MORE: Journey to Ni’ihau, Hawaii’s ‘forbidden island’ of diving A post shared by MURAD OSMANN (@muradosmann) The photos are a comical antidote to Osmann’s perfectly staged snaps. Osmann co-founded the original “Follow Me To” series with his then girlfriend/now wife Nataly Osmann, the subject of his viral photos. They’ve since inspired many others to recreate their own romantic moments under the #FollowMeTo hashtag. The project began accidentally, in 2011, during a holiday in Barcelona when Nataly got frustrated with Murad, who was preoccupied with taking pictures of the city. So they’re normal, after all.

Murad Osmann's "Follow Me To" Instagram account


Former FBI Director James Comey now believes that President Donald Trump was trying to influence his judgment about the Russia probe, a person familiar with his thinking says, but whether that influence amounts to obstruction of justice remains an open question. “You have to have intent in order to obstruct justice in the criminal sense,” the source said, adding that “intent is hard to prove.” Comey will testify publicly before the Senate intelligence committee after Memorial Day, the panel’s leaders announced Friday. The central question at that blockbuster hearing will be whether Comey believed the President was trying to interfere with his investigation. At a news conference Thursday, Trump angrily denied that he had asked Comey to end the investigation, which is now in the hands of new special counsel Robert Mueller. The President blasted the probe into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election and possible collusion with his campaign as a “witch hunt.” Comey’s view of Trump’s intent in their conversations is nuanced, sources say. He initially believed that he could school the new President and White House in what was appropriate during their communications. But after his firing, the question of Trump’s intent could become more problematic, one source said. Trump told NBC’s Lester Holt in an interview that he was thinking “of the Russia thing” when he dismissed Comey. Related article First on CNN: Russian officials bragged they could use Flynn to influence Trump, sources say Sources say Comey had reached no conclusion about the President’s intent before he was fired. But Comey did immediately recognize that the new President was not following normal protocols during their interactions. As The New York Times has reported, after numerous encounters with the administration, Comey felt he had to set the parameters of appropriate protocol very clearly. After the President asked Comey to let it be known publicly he was not under investigation, Comey told the President that if he wanted to know details about the bureau’s work he should ask the White House counsel to communicate with the the Justice Department, according to the Times. Related article Senators: Comey to testify publicly before intelligence panel According to one source with knowledge, Comey’s relationship with Trump was uncomfortable from the start. The director had some hope that, over time, he could effectively point out the appropriate procedures and guidelines to both Trump and the White House staff about how the process of communications normally works. It didn’t turn out that way. One Comey memo reportedly claims that Trump asked the FBI director to “let this go”– referring to the FBI investigation into Gen. Michael Flynn’s contacts with the Russians – although the President himself has flatly denied that he ever did that. While it is unknown whether the President has either tapes or notes of his conversations with Comey, the FBI director kept meticulous memos and shared them with his team contemporaneously. Related article It's not possible for Donald Trump to have handled the Russia 'nut job' meeting any worse Benjamin Wittes, editor in chief of the Lawfare blog and a Comey friend, writes that Comey called his interactions with Trump “training” in order to “re-establish” appropriate boundaries. In his conversations, Wittes writes, “Comey never specifically said this was about the Russia matter” but he assumed that it was. Comey saw his job, Wittes writes, as an effort to “protect the rest of the bureau from improper contacts and interferences from a group of people he did not regard as honorable.” Wittes told The New York Times that the now-infamous hug from the President – from which Comey tried to hide behind a blue curtain – left the director “disgusted.” Wittes writes “he regarded the episode as a physical attempt to show closeness and warmth in a fashion calculated to compromise him before Democrats who already mistrusted him.” The dinner with the President, which Wittes describes as “the loyalty dinner,” took place five days after that hug. CNN’s Brian Rokus contributed to this story.


Ongoing crisis in the Middle East following blockade of Qatar by other Gulf states Saudi Arabia has accused Qatar of supporting terrorism and being too close to Iran Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has blamed the US for creating ISIS and fostering instability in the Middle East amid an ongoing crisis in the region. “That (the) US arms a terrorist group is what causes instability,” Khameini wrote on Twitter Monday. “Who created ISIS? The US!” He added that while US President Donald Trump accuses Iran of supporting terrorists, “terrorism in this region has American roots.” US president accuses Iran of terrorism, while terrorism in this region has American roots. Trump last week responded to terrorist attacks in the Iranian capital of Tehran by warning “states that sponsor terrorism risk falling victim to the evil they promote,” a reaction described as “repugnant” by Iran’s foreign minister. Those attacks, which left at least 12 people dead, were claimed by ISIS. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards, a powerful branch of the country’s military, vowed revenge for the attacks and blamed them on longstanding regional rival Saudi Arabia. ISIS has its roots in al Qaeda in Iraq, which took part in the insurgency that followed the 2003 US-led invasion of the country. While Saudi Arabia has been threatened by the group, officials in the region and their Western counterparts have claimed ISIS receives funding from backers inside the Kingdom as well as from other rich Middle Eastern countries. US talks w/Saudi medieval regime, a stigma that won't be cleaned off US, on human rights of Iran--a country which is symbol of democracy! Khamenei’s comments come as tensions in the Middle East are among their highest in years, following the cutting of ties between major regional powers led by Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, which has been accused of supporting terrorism in the region. Qatar has been ejected from the Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthis in Yemen, and transport links between it and three other Gulf countries have been severed, with Qataris living in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE ordered to leave. Turkey and Iran have stepped into the gap, raising the specter of a reshuffling of alliances in the Gulf region. Qatar’s Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said Monday that the country’s government still has “no clue what are the main reasons behind all these measures.” Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain accuse Qatar of supporting terrorism networks in the region. UAE Foreign Minister Anwar Gargash, and key architect of the blockade on Qatar told CNN’s John Defterios that Qatar offers “very, very huge logistical, financial support for extremist groups.” “There is no more trust,” he said, adding, “it is time for cooler heads to restructure Qatar’s approach on foreign policy.” Gulf leaders have also been critical of Qatar’s relatively neutral stance on Iran, which they view as a prime destabilizing force in the region. The diplomatic rift came two weeks after Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt blocked several Qatari media outlets, including Al Jazeera, over comments allegedly made by Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Al Thani reportedly hailed Iran as an “Islamic power” and criticized US President Donald Trump’s policy towards Tehran. Qatar said the official news agency which reported the comments was hacked – and on June 6, US officials told CNN that US investigators believe Russian hackers were behind it. Two large regional powers on either side of the Sunni-Shiite Islamic sectarian divide, Saudi Arabia and Iran have been engaged in a longstanding cold war, tussling for influence in countries in their sphere of influence, especially Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, where Saudi-led bombing has left thousands of civilians dead. Qatar and Iran share the largest underwater natural gas field in the world. But recent Gulf reports have charged the relationship goes beyond resource management, accusing Qatari officials of meeting with the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. But al Thani disputed that Monday, saying that “if the problem is Iran, why have those measures been taken against Qatar, why not taken against Iran?” Both Qatar and Saudi Arabia are major US allies, and have close ties to European powers. But while Trump has signaled support for Riyadh despite efforts by the Pentagon and State Department to remain neutral, his European counterparts have been active in trying to tamp down tensions. Al Thani praised French President Emmanuel Macron Monday for being “very active” in attempting to find a “solution to the problem.” British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who is currently in the Gulf for a series of meetings, on Monday “urged all sides (to) refrain from any further escalation and to engage in mediation efforts.” Johnson encouraged Qatar to “take seriously their neighbors’ concerns” but also expressed alarm at the blockading of the country and called for it to be eased. “Qatar is a partner of the UK in the fight against terrorism but they urgently need to do more to address support for extremist groups, building on the steps they have already taken,” Johnson said. CNN’s Katie Polglase and Katie Hunt contributed reporting.


Iraqi Counter-Terrorism forces have cleared key government complexes in Mosul Some of Mosul's bridges had already been damaged in US-led coalition airstrikes ISIS has destroyed all five bridges crossing the Tigris River in Mosul, an attempt to slow the advance of Iraqi troops toward the western side of the city, according to Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir Rasheed Yarallah, the commander of Iraqi Forces in Nineveh province. The bridges had already been damaged in airstrikes by the US-led coalition in recent weeks. In previous instances of ISIS taking out bridges ahead of Iraqi troop advances, including in the cases of military operations in Qayyara and Anbar, Iraqi forces built temporary or floating bridges, causing troops to slow down but not to stop. On Friday, Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Forces announced troops had reached Mosul’s “Second Bridge,” located on the east bank of the Tigris River, according to Iraq’s Joint Operations Command. This follows a milestone earlier this week when Iraqi Counter-Terrorism forces reached the east bank of the Tigris River in Mosul for the first time since the kick-off of the large scale military operation to reclaim the city started on October 17, 2016. Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Forces have also cleared key government complexes as of Friday, including the new government complex in eastern Mosul as well as several Mosul University buildings in eastern Mosul – which had at one time been a headquarters and killing ground for ISIS fighters. The Tigris River divides eastern and western Mosul. Iraqi-led forces have not crossed into or started any anti-ISIS operations in western Mosul to date.


The state visit is the first of its kind for a Southeast Asian country under Obama Obama plans to reiterate his commitment to seeing the TPP deal through President Barack Obama stressed Tuesday that he still he plans to move ahead with the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership deal while he’s in office despite bipartisan opposition on trade. “Right now I’m president, and I’m for it,” Obama said at a midday press conference with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. “And I think I’ve got the better argument. I’ve made this argument before. I’ll make it again. We are part of a global economy. We’re not reversing that.” The remark seemed a rebuke not only to Donald Trump – who has lambasted the TPP deal on the campaign trail – but also Hillary Clinton, who also opposes the plan. “I’ve got some very close friends, people I admire a lot, but who I just disagree with them. And that’s okay,” Obama said. “I respect the arguments that they’re making. They’re coming from a sincere concern about the position of workers and wages in this country. But I think I’ve got the better argument.” But Congress has shown little urgency in moving forward with a vote to ratify the deal, leaving in limbo one of Obama’s signature foreign policy objectives. Obama, however, expressed optimism that once the election was over, lawmakers would give the TPP due consideration. “Hopefully after the election is over and the dust settles there will be more attention to the actual facts behind the deal and it won’t just be be a political symbol or a political football,” Obama said. Obama says Trump ‘unfit’ for presidency Earlier, Obama acknowledged the concerns over trade. “Forces of globalization and technology have not always benefited everybody evenly,” Obama acknowledged. “There are fears and anxieties that people may be left behind. These anxieties are legitimate. They can’t be ignored.” He continued, “It means we have to do everything we can to make sure everybody shares in prosperity.” But he still stressed the benefits that would accrue to the US under the massive deal. Obama also noted that he and Lee had discussed the contentious maritime claims in the South China Sea, where countries are locked in disputes over small islands and freedom of navigation. “We reaffirmed our shared commitment to building a regional order where all nations play by the same rules and disputes are resolved peacefully,” Obama said. The White House is honoring Singapore’s Prime Minister with the highest form of Washington flattery: a formal state visit capped by a black-tie dinner featuring Maryland blue crab and American Wagyu beef. Midday, the leaders will hold a joint news conference. The grand welcome – the first of its kind for a Southeast Asian country under Obama – is another attempt to advance the historic TPP deal, which has been agreed to by 12 member nations but needs congressional ratification. Despite the lack of traction on Capitol Hill and regular beatings the topic gets on the campaign trail, Obama plans to reiterate his commitment to seeing the deal through Tuesday. “He will once again say to the Prime Minister that he’s committed to getting TPP done, and doing so before the end of his term,” Daniel Kritenbrink, Obama’s Asia director, said on Friday. Related video Sanders: Democratic platform is against TPP trade deal But it’s unclear what assurances Obama can provide to the visiting leader from Singapore, one of the 12 signatories to the agreement. Republican leaders in Congress have said they don’t plan to bring TPP up for consideration until after November’s general election, if at all. And both Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, and Hillary Clinton, the Democrat, rail against the deal. Delegates at last week’s Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia voiced strong anti-TPP sentiment, claiming the deal would destroy American jobs. But Obama insisted in an interview published Monday that he would succeed in getting approval for the deal. “I know that the politics around trade can be very difficult – especially in an election year,” Obama told Singapore newspaper The Strait Times. “There are legitimate concerns and anxieties that the forces of globalization are leaving too many people behind – and we have to take those concerns seriously and address them.” “The answer isn’t to turn inward and embrace protectionism,” Obama said. “We can’t just walk away from trade. In a global economy where our economies and supply chains are deeply integrated, it’s not even possible.” During talks Tuesday morning, Obama and Lee are also expected to discuss efforts to combat terror, including in Southeast Asia, where Islamist cells are known to operate.


Xi Jinping and Donald Trump set to meet at the President's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida More than a third of those polled say China is principally a military threat rather than an economic one President Donald Trump may have bashed China on the campaign trail, but as he prepares to meet with President Xi Jinping, Americans’ feelings towards the country are warming. Xi and Trump will meet at the President’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida later this week for a series of high-stakes sit-downs. The timing is good for Xi, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, which found 44% of Americans now say they have a favorable opinion of China, up from 37% a year ago. The number who felt unfavorably towards China was also down, from 55% a year ago to 47% now. Pew surveyed 1,505 people in the United States from February 16 to March 15 for the poll, which has a margin of error of 3 percentage points. According to the report, “the growth in positive ratings for China may be due in part to declining concerns about economic threats from China.” The proportion of Americans who see a trade deficit as a very serious problem has declined from 61% in 2012 to 44% this year, Pew found. Unsurprisingly, Republicans express more negative attitudes toward China than do Democrats, Pew found, noting that 71% of Republicans feel job losses to China are a very big problem, compared to 47% of Democrats. Ahead of his meeting with Xi, Trump said that “we can no longer have massive trade deficits and job losses.” He also signed two executive orders aimed at combating trade practices the White House said are abusive. But analysts warn that attempts to persuade American firms to make their goods somewhere other than China could backfire, and there’s no guarantee they’ll bring factories back to the US. Many US brands – including the shoe firm owned by Trump’s daughter Ivanka – still use Chinese suppliers. Producing more of those goods in the US would create low-paying jobs, but it would also make them more expensive, pushing up the cost of living for Americans. “On balance, Americans today tend to be more concerned about China’s economic strength than its military prowess,” the report said. Despite that, the share of the public which views China as primarily a military threat has risen over time, from 28% in 2012 to 36% now. Military tensions between Washington and Beijing have risen in recent years, primarily related to US commitments to its allies in the region. The US has attempted to pressure China to act on controlling its ally North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, with Trump saying this week that he would go it alone if necessary. US Defense Secretary James Mattis has also promised American military support for a chain of disputed islands controlled by Japan but claimed by China. For its part, Beijing has accused Washington on encroaching on its areas of interests in the South and East China Seas, and attempting to contain it militarily.


Sen. Rand Paul is criticizing Gina Haspel, President Donald Trump’s pick to head the CIA, for not declassifying her role in the agency’s “extreme rendition and torture-by-proxy,” arguing that the lack of candor disqualified her from the role. In an article for Politico Magazine published Friday, the Kentucky Republican wrote that Haspel’s CIA was “rendering accused terrorists to unfathomable torture in Syria, as well as Egypt and Jordan.” In his piece, Paul questions her involvement in the case of Maher Arar, a Canadian engineer whose transfer to and torture in Syria was recounted in a 2005 New Yorker article. Related article Here's how senators say they'll vote on CIA director nominee Haspel “Was Haspel simply a loyal dupe, unable to protest an accused man being sent to certain barbaric torture? Or was she an eager participant in this dark chapter in our history?” Paul asks. “If she had any criticisms at the time, Haspel, who is currently the acting head of the CIA, has the power to declassify them. And yet all we’ve gotten are select records that don’t address her participation in extraordinary rendition,” the senator wrote. “Know this: That fact alone should be enough to cause the Senate to reject her nomination,” he concluded. At her confirmation hearing Wednesday, Haspel vowed that she would not restart the CIA’s detention and interrogation program if confirmed to the top job. She also said she “would not allow CIA to undertake activity that I thought was immoral, even if it was technically legal.” Haspel made clear in the hearing that she did not think it was the role of the CIA to interrogate suspects, but failed to condemn its use of waterboarding and other advanced interrogation tactics in the wake of 9/11. “I’m not going to sit here with the benefit of hindsight and judge the very good people who made hard decisions who were running the agency in very extraordinary circumstances at the time,” Haspel said. Paul, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has spoken out against Haspel’s candidacy in the past, even vowing to filibuster her nomination. Fellow Republican Sen. John McCain has also called on the Senate to reject Haspel for refusing to acknowledge “torture’s immorality.” CNN’s Jeremy Herb and Lauren Fox contributed to this report.


This story contains spoilers for the finale of HBO’s “The Night Of.” Riz Ahmed knows some fans would love a second season of his hit HBO series “The Night Of.” But would he do it? “I think it was conceived of as a one-season one-off and perhaps there’s a second season they might do a different case like they did in the British version of the show,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “I think sometimes it’s said, ‘Better to quit while you’re ahead.’” The actor, 33, who played Nasir “Nas” Khan, a Pakistani-American who is accused of murdering a young woman named Andrea Cornish, said despite some viewers being frustrated with the inconclusive finale, he found it “satisfying.” Related Link: ‘The Night Of’ finale delivers satisfying verdict for HBO series “I think you might watch the conclusion and say, ‘I’m sorry, but I still think he might have done it’ or you might watch it and go, ‘No. OK, finally. I knew all along that he’s innocent,’” Ahmed said. “In my mind, it’s quite conclusive about who did it,” he said. “Regardless of who killed Andrea or not, you see that Naz becomes an accessory to murder in prison by the end of [the series]. Certainly he leaves with blood on his hands, one way or another.”


If the results of the investigation show an impact, it could lead to more tariffs on imported goods It is unclear when Trump might sign the order President Donald Trump’s administration is drafting an executive order to investigate the extent to which the unfair dumping and subsidization of certain imports adds to the US trade deficit. If the results of the investigation show an impact, it could lead to more tariffs on imported goods, an administration official told CNN. The investigation could result in “everything from no action at all to the levying of supplemental duties,” the official said. “But whichever action we take would be informed by the results of the investigation and not by predetermined conclusions,” the official added. Axios first reported the potential executive order, saying it would target steel and aluminum imports and possibly household goods. The US steel industry largely blames China for a glut of steel on the global market that has driven down prices. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has reported that global crude steelmaking capacity more than doubled from 2000 to 2014, with global capacity growth led by an unprecedented expansion of production in China, the Office of the United States Trade Representative notes. The USTR reported last year that steel imports increased by nearly 38 percent in 2014, although imports dropped in 2015. Meanwhile, the agency said, US steel exports have been decreasing steadily over the last several years, dropping by 17 percent between 2014 and 2015. The New York Times reported last week that the Trump administration was looking to roll out its first measures against China on trade. The new initiative comes on the heels of a meetings between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the President’s Mar-a-Lago resort, where trade and North Korea’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons were at the top of the agenda. The proposed executive order is Trump’s latest attempt to follow through on his campaign pledge to go after other countries that take advantage of US trade policies. In late March, the President signed two executive orders aimed at combating foreign trade abuses that contribute to the United States’ half-trillion-dollar trade deficit. Those orders initiate a large-scale review of the causes of the US trade deficits with some of America’s largest trading partners and also require stricter enforcement of US anti-dumping laws to prevent foreign manufacturers from undercutting US companies by selling goods at unfair prices. Vowing that the “theft of American prosperity will end,” Trump said on March 31 that his administration “will take necessary and lawful action” to end trade abuses. Jeremy Diamond contributed to this report.


Editor’s Note: Frida Ghitis, a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She is a frequent Opinion contributor to CNN and The Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. The opinions expressed in this commentary are her own. Frida Ghitis: Saudi Arabia's Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been pushing for changes on many fronts in his country His priority, above all, is maintaining power, and he will let nothing stand in his way, she writes Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed bin Salman, first in line to inherit the throne from his 81-year-old father, is not a patient man. The 32-year-old is driving a frenetic pace of change in pursuit of three goals: securing his hold on power, transforming Saudi Arabia into a very different country, and pushing back against Iran. In the two years since his father ascended the throne, this favorite son of King Salman bin Abdulaziz has been spectacularly successful at achieving the first item on his agenda. He has become so powerful so fast that observers can hardly believe how brazenly he is dismantling the old sedate system of family consensus, shared privilege and rigid ultraconservatism. In the process, however, MBS, as the crown prince is known, is making a lot of enemies. To put it in poker terms, the prince is, quite plainly, all in. He will either sweep the table, winning it all and becoming the all-powerful, transformative ruler of the desert kingdom, or fail spectacularly, with unforeseeable consequences for the region. Related article Saudi Arabia Fast Facts Much of the prince’s agenda is laudable and long overdue. He has no interest in democratic reforms, but he does want to introduce social reforms, and is making some progress on that front. That, too, is making him enemies among the old guard. He has vowed to improve the status of women, announcing that the ban on women driving will be lifted next year, and limiting the scope of the execrable “guardianship” system, which treats women like children, requiring permission from male guardians for basic activities. He has also restrained the despised religious police. And just last month he called for a return to a “moderate Islam open to the world and all religions,” combating extremism and empowering its citizens. On the economic front, bin Salman wants to reinvent an economy that became complacent from fantastic oil riches – only to see oil prices crash – and bring it into the 21st century with his ambitious Vision 2030 plan. But the prince’s revolutionary changes require, above all, making sure he remains in charge, and he is letting nothing stand in his way. The prince is not bluffing. That became startlingly clear last Sunday, when he unexpectedly ordered the arrest of some of Saudi Arabia’s most powerful men. Related article Saudi anti-corruption sweep leads to high-profile arrests In what some are calling the Night of the Long Knives – an unflattering comparison to a 1934 purge in Germany – authorities detained princes and ministers who had, moments before, wielded great influence and lived in luxury. The fact that their temporary prison is Riyadh’s lavish Ritz-Carlton hotel, (the gilded home for Donald Trump during his recent visit) makes their situation no less perilous or humiliating. The government says the wave of arrests, which by some accounts numbers as many as 500, was part of a new anti-corruption campaign. King Salman has just made MBS chair of a new supreme committee on corruption, with the power to “take any precautionary measures” against corruption, including arrest and seizure of assets. The new position gives bin Salman even more power in addition to his role as heir to the throne, minister of defense, president of the council for economic development, and others. Saudi Arabia is riddled with corruption – that is no secret. And it’s true that MBS’ economic reform program, which calls for diversifying the economy and attracting foreign investment, would greatly benefit if corruption were uprooted. But no impartial observer would believe this was all about corruption. By all appearances, the principal objective was fortifying bin Salman’s hold on power. In fact, the arrests of prominent businessmen and the possible confiscation of their wealth is more likely to spook foreign investors than to make them risk their money in the new Saudi Arabia. Outside the kingdom, the most famous detainee is Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, one of the world’s wealthiest men. He had, interestingly, disparaged Trump on social media in 2015. He is one of the dozens purged, which include numerous ministers and deputy ministers, top advisers and business personalities, many now crammed into a ballroom at the Ritz-Carlton. Among those purged is a top economic adviser to the crown prince, the commander of the Saudi navy, the former governor of Riyadh, and many others who are well known and well connected. Related article Iran's actions may be 'act of war,' Saudi crown prince says It’s hard to imagine that their public humiliation will not produce a reaction in the tight-knit kingdom. Also removed from power was the minister of the National Guard, Prince Mutaib bin Abdullah, son of the previous king. The move is striking because it takes the 100,000-man National Guard from the family of the late King Abdullah. MBS’ rise dismantled the division of power among Saudi brothers and cousins. When he became crown prince in June, he removed the previous heir to the throne, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who in turn had taken the place of Prince Muqrin, who was removed from the succession in 2015, when King Salman took power. In a mysterious development that occurred almost simultaneously with the wave of arrests, the son of the former crown prince, Prince Mansour bin Muqrin, died in an aircraft crash on Sunday, adding to the sense that there’s much more happening in Saudi Arabia than meets the eye. The stakes, to be sure, could not be higher for a kingdom unaccustomed to change. Perhaps King Salman is preparing to step down, and his son is pushing away against potential challengers. Sign up for CNN Opinion’s new newsletter.Join us on Twitter and Facebook As the prince moves forward aggressively to secure power, he is also pushing just as hard toward other goals. His campaign against Iran and its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon is heating up and he is avidly luring investors. But of his three priorities, it is only the first, strengthening his grip, on which he is making measurable progress. The economy has not started reviving; on foreign policy, his war against Iran’s allies in Yemen looks like a quagmire. Iran continues to gain ground, and a blockade of Qatar has not succeeded in breaking Doha’s ties to Iran. MBS’ main foreign policy success so far is gaining the backing of President Trump. With so many enemies, the crown prince needs to produce more than a vision, he needs to show tangible results. The days of a quiet, patient Saudi Arabia are now over.


On Monday morning, former Trump presidential campaign chairman Paul Manafort was indicted on charges of money laundering and filing false foreign lobbying reports, among other counts. The indictment, which was long expected, is the first example of charges filed by special counsel Bob Mueller, who is investigating Russia’s attempted meddling in the 2016 election and whether any collusion occurred between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. That, plus Manafort’s lofty title and central role in Trump’s campaign, makes it HUGE news. But, it’s important to take a minute and detail what these charges against Manafort prove vis a vis Trump’s campaign and what they don’t. Let’s start with what the Manafort charges prove in regards Trump. Trump hired Manafort in the spring of 2016 as he was working to beat back what was, at the time, seen as a likely delegate fight with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at the Republican National Convention. Manafort had two things that Trump needed: A knowledge of establishment Washington and a willingness to work for Trump. (Lots and lots of establishment Washington types – even back then – wouldn’t go within a country mile of Trump’s campaign.) Manafort also had long been someone with a demonstrated willingness to work for controversial/authoritarian foreign leaders and businessmen with questionable pasts  – most notably with his involvement in Ukraine, where he represented pro-Russian interests. No one – and I mean no one – in political Washington didn’t know that about Manafort. Which leads to one of two conclusions about Trump (neither of which are a terribly good look): 1) He knew about Manafort’s sketchy past and didn’t care – or thought it was not a big deal 2) He didn’t know about Manafort’s sketchy past. I’m not sure which one reflects more poorly on Trump. In the first scenario, he’s willing to overlook what had to be doubts raised by his advisers about the issues of bringing Manafort on in such a senior role.  In the second, Trump simply didn’t do the research necessary when hiring someone at such a senior level. Either way, the Manafort indictment – along with that of Rick Gates, a Manafort protege who served as liaison between even the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee even after Manafort was fired in August 2016 – raises real questions about Trump’s judgment in regard to staffing at the highest levels of not just his campaign but the federal government. Trump repeatedly made his judgment an issue during the campaign. “I’m going to surround myself only with the best and most serious people,” Trump told the Washington Post during the 2016 race. “We want top of the line professionals.” That quote seems a million miles away from Manafort’s indictment. Now to what Manafort’s indictment doesn’t mean for Trump. Nothing in the unsealed indictment makes any mention of Russian collusion. While it’s possible future indictments – if they come – will go into that territory, this one does not. The White House is already playing up that angle. “Today has zero to do with the White House,” one administration source told CNN’s Jim Acosta. Remember that Trump has been adamant – as recently as Sunday on Twitter – that there is no proof (and there will be no proof) of collusion between his campaign and the Russians. Manafort’s indictment deals specifically with financial dealings  – money laundering etc. – and therefore allows Trump to insist that what Manafort did is all about Manafort and nothing about Trump or the 2016 campaign. It’s important to take a breath here and remind yourself that it’s likely – though not certain – that we are at the beginning of the legal proceedings stemming from Mueller’s special counsel investigation, not the end. Meaning that drawing hard and fast conclusions about what the Manafort indictment tells us about the broader Mueller investigation is a mistake. What’s clear is this: When your campaign chairman is indicted on charges of money laundering and filing false forms, it is never a good day for your presidency. But, what’s also clear is that, as of right now, this Manafort indictment is far from Trump’s worst case scenario.


Suspect's wife "surprised to find out what her husband did" Police: Suspect spoke to wife in Bangladesh 30 minutes before attempted attack The wife of the suspect in a pipe bomb explosion in New York was “surprised to find out what her husband did,” police in Bangladesh told CNN, despite speaking to him 30 minutes before the attempted attack. Akayed Ullah, who is accused of detonating a homemade explosive in a pedestrian subway tunnel at a bus terminal near Times Square, was born in Bangladesh but legally moved to the US in 2011. His wife, who remained in Bangladesh when he moved Brooklyn, said he “never mentioned radicalization or planning these types of activities,” Bangladeshi police spokeswoman Sahely Ferdous said. “Akayed’s conversations with her were very normal,” Ferdous said. “Akayed talked to his wife around 30 minutes before the explosion, but he didn’t mention anything about the plan or what he was going to do.” Ferdous added that she said Ullah’s activities around his family were “very much normal. His wife didn’t know anything about this side of Akayed,” Ferdous said. The couple were married in 2016 in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka. When Ullah returned to the US, his wife remained in Dhaka with their baby and her parents. Ullah has no criminal record in Bangladesh, according to Ferdous. She said Ullah last traveled to Dhaka in September. The federal law enforcement source said Ullah’s travel overseas was not significant for the planning of the attempted attack. Ullah posted on Facebook earlier in the day, saying, “Trump you failed to protect your nation,” according to a criminal complaint. Akayed Ullah: What we know about the Manhattan explosion suspect He faces a number of federal and state terrorism charges after authorities say he detonated a device made of a battery, wires, metal screws and a Christmas tree lightbulb during the busy morning commute on Monday. The blast detonated around 7:20 a.m. in an underground walkway connecting two subway lines beneath the Port Authority Bus Terminal, which accommodates 220,000 passenger trips a day. On grainy surveillance footage, commuters are seen walking through a tunnel when a burst of smoke erupts into the hallway, quickly filling it. Commuters flinch and take cover. When the smoke clears, a man can be seen on the ground in the hallway. Five people were treated for minor injuries at area hospitals, while the suspect was said to be seriously injured. He is at Bellevue Hospital, where he is being treated for lacerations and burns to his hands and abdomen, New York City Fire Department Commissioner Daniel Nigro said. Anthony Manfredini, the first responding officer, described the injuries to the suspect as what appeared to be shrapnel-type wounds. These officers stopped the New York pipe bomb suspect According to a law enforcement official, through his comments to investigators, Ullah indicated he was prepared to die. The source also said the suspect was wired up with the self-made device during his entire subway ride from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Investigators said Ullah admitted that he built and detonated the device, saying he was inspired to do so by ISIS. He said he acted in response to Israeli actions in Gaza. Ullah’s ISIS radicalization began in 2014, according to the complaint, and was at least in part inspired by the truck attack in New York last month, which killed eight people. He began researching how to build improvised explosive devices about a year ago, began collecting the necessary items two to three weeks ago and built the bomb in his home a week ago, the complaint states. Investigators recovered a passport in his name with a handwritten message: “O America, die in your rage.” He faces five federal terrorism-related charges and three state terrorism-related charges, according to court documents. Ullah’s family released a statement through the Council on American-Islamic Relations saying they are heartbroken by the attack, but simultaneously “outraged” by the behavior of unspecified law enforcement officials during the investigation. Opinion: The internet is a terror battle ground – and we’re losing US President Donald Trump said Monday that the attack bolstered the need for his preferred immigration policies, which the White House said would have prevented the suspect from entering the country. Trump has called on Congress to end the diversity immigration lottery, which provides visas to people randomly chosen from countries where there is a low rate of immigration to the United States. He also has called to end chain migration, a term that describes immigration based on family connections. “Today’s terror suspect entered our country through extended-family chain migration, which is incompatible with national security,” Trump said Monday. L. Francis Cissna, the director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, reiterated that call Tuesday. “We need to be able to select the types of people that are coming here based on criteria that ensure their success. Criteria that ensure their ability to assimilate successfully in our country,” Cissna said. “Random lotteries, extended family connections – that’s not the way we want to run an immigration system.” Bergen: Amateur terrorists can kill, too CNN’s Eliott C. McLaughlin, Emanuella Grinberg, Kwegyirba Croffie, Keith Allen, Elizabeth Joseph, Tal Kopan, Dan Merica, Brynn Gingras, Sonia Moghe, Shimon Prokupecz, David Shortell, Chieu Luu, Ellie Kaufman, Sarah Jorgensen, Chris Boyette and Eric Levenson contributed to this report.


More than 80 Jewish Community Centers and schools have received bomb threats For elderly survivors it's a struggle to again understand why people hate On a frigid morning in Washington, about 200 high school students file into the auditorium at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. On the stage, frail and in a wheelchair, sits 100-year-old Fanny Aizenberg, a Holocaust survivor. She’s a featured speaker in the museum’s program to have individuals who were persecuted by the Nazis share their stories of seven-plus decades ago, keeping their stories alive as long as long they can, so the world doesn’t forget. Now, anti-Semitism is back in Aizenberg’s life. For elderly survivors, it’s a struggle to again understand why people hate. In recent weeks, more than 80 Jewish Community Centers and schools across the country have received bomb threats, including the community center where she lives in a Maryland suburb just outside Washington DC. “I live at the Hebrew Hall and next door is the JCC, and they got two warnings about (a) bomb,” Aizenberg told CNN in an interview after her talk. “That’s next door to where I live and that’s in the civilized world.” When asked how she feels about it, Fanny says quietly, “It hurts me … It kills me. It’s not good.” “America is still the biggest power in the world, so why don’t we do anything about it?” Aizenberg asks. In addressing the crowd of students, Aizenberg tells the young audience that they can ask her “anything.” Her blunt talk is part of her personal commitment to keeping talking about her history even now. “We were scared to death,” she explained about everything that happened to her. After the Nazi invasion of Belgium, Aizenberg joined the resistance working as a courier. She put her young daughter in hiding, and they were not reunited until after the war ended. At some point, someone – she still doesn’t know who – turned her in to the Nazis. She was sent to Auschwitz, where she found herself a victim of Nazi medical experimentation and beatings. After she finishes recalling her experience, teenage boys and girls line up to hug her. Diane Saltzman works with Aizenberg and other survivors at the museum, and says that she hears them talk about the current wave of anti-Semitism. “They live in the communities where these events are occurring and in some cases, people have expressed fear and not really being able to understand why this is happening,” Saltzman says. “They’re determined – determination and even some defiance that they’re not going to stop, their message is really important.” Aizenberg’s life is a testimony to that kind of survival even now, continuing to confront the resurgence of anti-Semitism – any why people hate. “I try to make people understand you cannot love each other, but you can understand others,” she said. “You don’t have to hate anybody.”


All people living near the Guajataca River in northwest Puerto Rico should evacuate immediately because of an “imminent dam break,” the National Weather Service in San Juan said Friday afternoon. “All Areas surrounding the Guajataca River should evacuate NOW. Their lives are in DANGER! Please SHARE!” an earlier tweet said. All Areas surrounding the Guajataca River should evacuate NOW. Their lives are in DANGER! Please SHARE! #prwx About 70,000 people in the area of the Guajataca Dam have been told to evacuate, National Guard spokeswoman Yennifer Alvarez told CNN’s Leyla Santiago. Buses have been brought in to help people leave. Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello said on Saturday afternoon that the dam was holding up, but residents should still evacuate the area until further notice. “We don’t know how much longer it will hold,” said Rossello. “The structure has been significantly compromised.” Due to damaged telephone lines and lack of radio contact, Rossello said authorities have to physically go to the area and alert residents of the dangers posed by a possible dam breach. Speaking on CNN’s “Out Front” with Erin Burnett, Puerto Rican Secretary of State Luis Gerardo Rivera Marín said the evacuations are difficult because the island was heavily damaged by Hurricane Maria, which struck earlier this week. Many parts of Puerto Rico are flooded and more than 3 million people don’t have electricity. 215PM FLASH FLOOD EMERGENCY for A Dam Failure in Isabela Municipality y Quebradillas Municipality in Puerto Rico... #prwx pic.twitter.com/L3utOjxspR “It is (done) in the blackness of the night,” he said. “There’s lack of energy, especially in the mountain regions where the winds were higher speeds.” The NWS issued a flash-flood notice for the towns of Isabela and Quebradillas, which are about 6 miles apart. Isabela has about 45,000 people, Quebradillas 25,000 people. The dam was constructed by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority to create a lake that provides drinking water to residents of the area, according to the US Geological Survey. CNN’s Gisela Crespo in Atlanta contributed to this report.


Paleontologist Xu Xing has discovered so many dinosaurs he’s lost count. A spreadsheet he brings up on the desktop computer in his fossil-filled office in Beijing stops at 57, but Xu says he thinks it’s more than 60. Whatever the exact number, Xu has named more dinosaurs than any other living paleontologist, unearthing fossils in some of China’s remotest corners that have revolutionized our understanding of prehistory. They include the 8-meter long gigantoraptor, which stood twice as high as any man and the one-fingered linhenykus that could have danced on your hand. But it’s not just the sheer number of dinosaurs. Xu and his Chinese colleagues have found evidence that dinosaurs were not the scaly, reptilian killers depicted in movies but feathered, furry and a lot more bird-like. In fact, it’s now widely accepted that the birds that flap around our backyards are descended from dinosaurs. But this was just a controversial theory until 1996, when the first feathered fossil was unearthed in Liaoning Province, northern China – the sinosauropteryx. “When that fossil made its way to the West, actually photographs of it, it was scintillating… it blew people away,” says Richard Stone, international news editor at Science magazine. Since then, some 35 feathered dinosaurs have been discovered, mainly in China. Although the fossil evidence has yet to be found, Xu believes the vast majority of dinosaurs would have had feathers or bristles – including the fearsome tyrannosaurus rex and hulking, pea-brained sauropods. Why dinosaurs had feathers is a hotly debated question. Few fuzzy dinosaurs flew – at least in the conventional sense. It appears more likely their plumage was used to keep warm or for display – potentially to attract mates like a peacock and only later in their evolutionary history did feathers become useful for flight. “We’ve found strange combinations for tail feathers that we just don’t see in living birds,” says Zhou Zhonghe, Xu’s colleague and the director of China’s Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology. Zhou discovered the world’s oldest beaked bird and his research has shed light on the origins of flight. China’s most renowned feathered discoveries include the epidexipteryx, which has four ribbon-like display feathers on its tail, the anchiornis huxley, the oldest feathered dinosaurs and, more recently, the four-winged zhenyuanlong suni. At two-meters high, the zhenyuanlong is the largest winged dinosaur found but, although its short arms have substantial quill-like feathers, researchers think it couldn’t fly. It was memorably described by one paleontologist as a “fluffy feathered poodle from hell.” Popular culture has been slow to embrace these feathered dinosaurs that feel so different to the scaly, green creatures of childhood books. The velociraptors that stalk the Jurassic movie franchise were reptilian predators, although the raptors in Disney Pixar’s new animated movie “The Good Dinosaur,” which premieres in the United States on Thursday, sport hairy mullets. “A scaled animal looks cooler than a furry or feathered animal. They (film directors) want dinosaurs to be cold-blooded killing machines,” says Xu. Pinned on the wall of Xu’s office are crayoned pictures of dinosaurs and hand-written letters from young fans and wannabe dinosaur hunters. But growing up in the poor and remote province of Xinjiang in China’s far west, Xu hadn’t heard of dinosaurs until he went to university in Beijing, where his assigned major was paleontology. He quickly took to the field and is now the most visible of a new generation of Chinese paleontologists – equally at ease on a remote dig and poring over fossils in the lab. Xu says he’s addicted to his summertime trips into the wilds of the Gobi desert – living in tents and braving sandstorms, wolves and high temperatures. The team brings along live chickens for food. “It’s like smoking – when I don’t go I miss it,” he says. China’s reputation as a paleontological powerhouse is largely thanks to one fossil site – in Liaoning in northern China. Here, 100 million years ago, ago dinosaurs died en masse, caught up in a massive series of volcanic eruptions, leaving behind a treasure trove of exquisitely preserved fossils with a level of detail seen at few other sites. Some of the fossils of the feathered dinosaurs are so well preserved that researchers have been able to capture information from “melansomes” – tiny structures buried within feathers that give them color. The results so far have been surprising. The sinosauptryx, the first feathered dinosaur, had a ginger and brown striped tail.  The microraptor, a tiny relative of the T-Rex and one of Xu’s favorite discoveries, was a dark iridescent color – like a crow. Even as China makes discoveries at an astonishing pace, the field faces challenges. Many of the feathered fossils that have made Xu’s name were dug up by local farmers, uncovered as they worked their fields. Trade in fossils has become a lucrative sideline for many local families but Xu, Zhou and their colleagues work with the farmers to make sure scientists gain access to the best specimens and they don’t end up in private hands. But many are still lost from science. “There are so many beautiful fossils in private collections – enough to make a good museum,” says Zhou. The grey market trade thrives and it’s given rise to fakery – composites pasted together to look more spectacular – and Xu says that discoveries made by Chinese paleontologists are subject to extra scrutiny because of these concerns. When Xu discovered the four-winged microraptor in 2003 there was still a great deal of skepticism over the existence of feathered dinosaurs and he faced questions from Western academics over the authenticity of the fossil. Chinese authorities are cracking down on unauthorized digs – but Xu says that harsh measures are counterproductive. “They are just farmers. They’re simply digging fossils to make some money to improve their life.” Thanks to the discoveries made by Xu, Zhou and other researchers, Chinese paleontology’s standing in world science is at an all-time high. But, worryingly for some, the field isn’t attracting much fresh talent. Few students choose paleontology as a college major – so few that Peking University, the country’s top institution, has been lucky to admit one each year. In two of the last seven years, there were no applicants at all, according to the China Daily newspaper. Experts say tuition fees have led to a preference for “useful” degrees such as business. Up until the 1980s, a university education was free and majors were assigned on enrollment. And unlike Washington D.C. and London, Beijing doesn’t have a national museum of natural history that could inspire the next generation. Most of China’s biggest fossil finds are stored off the beaten track in underfunded provincial museums, where exhibits are often poorly displayed. “We do need more people to be curators in museums and teach in universities,” says Zhou. But Xu is confident that China’s golden age of paleontology won’t be short-lived – though his own sons prefer computer games and pop music to dinosaurs. In 2005, Xu published what he considers his biggest achievement – a simple 1,000 word essay that features in a textbook read by almost all Chinese grade-schoolers. “It’s given me the chance to tell young kids about paleontology in China,” he says. “This is way more important than any scientific paper.”


This page includes the show Transcript Use the Transcript to help students with reading comprehension and vocabulary At the bottom of the page, comment for a chance to be mentioned on CNN Student News.  You must be a teacher or a student age 13 or older to request a mention on the CNN Student News Roll Call. January 11, 2016 We’re starting the week with a rare look inside North Korea: A CNN reporter has perspective from some science students about their Communist government’s claim to have recently tested a nuclear weapon. From there, we’re headed to South Korea for a look at how the Republic has found a way to broadcast messages across the border. And we’re also visiting Europe, where a highly divisive debate is taking place over whether Adolf Hitler’s manifesto should be reprinted and sold in Germany. On this page you will find today’s show Transcript and a place for you to request to be on the CNN Student News Roll Call. TRANSCRIPT Click here to access the transcript of today’s CNN Student News program. Please note that there may be a delay between the time when the video is available and when the transcript is published. CNN Student News is created by a team of journalists who consider the Common Core State Standards, national standards in different subject areas, and state standards when producing the show. ROLL CALL For a chance to be mentioned on the next CNN Student News, comment on the bottom of this page with your school name, mascot, city and state. We will be selecting schools from the comments of the previous show. You must be a teacher or a student age 13 or older to request a mention on the CNN Student News Roll Call! Thank you for using CNN Student News!


President Donald Trump will not kill the Iran nuclear deal on Friday. But when he declares that it has not been in US interests, he will consign the proudest legacy achievement of President Barack Obama’s second term to a deeply uncertain future – and could even set off a train of consequences that could eventually lead to its collapse. Should that be the case, Trump, or one of his successors in the Oval Office, may one day face the fateful choice that the deal was supposed to circumvent – whether to use military force to stop the Islamic Republic racing toward the bomb. The President has fumed against what he has called a “very bad deal” and an “embarrassment” to the country despite all available evidence that Iran is complying with terms which imposed limits on its nuclear program in return for a lifting of sanctions that had crippled its economy. “I think it was one of the most incompetently drawn deals I’ve ever seen,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday. Trump’s move, which had been previewed to CNN by government sources and foreign diplomats, will give Congress 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions lifted under the terms of the agreement. Related article Decertifying the Iran deal: A crisis of Trump's own making While the administration is not expected to push Congress to go that far, since it would likely cause Iran to immediately walk away, proponents of the nuclear deal fear that Trump’s decision will strike a severe blow at the deal’s legitimacy. A significant stiffened US policy toward Iran designed to tackle what the White House says are Tehran’s destabilizing activities and support for terrorism could return the enemies to the cycle of confrontation and proxy wars of most of the last four decades, that could in itself cause the deal to slowly begin to unravel. “If the President chooses to not certify, that already will be a negative step – for one thing it will start a process of isolating us from our allies,” Ernest Moniz, Obama’s former energy secretary who helped negotiate the agreement, said on CNN’s “New Day.” “If we went all the way and reimposed sanctions while Iran is in compliance … this would be a slippery slope towards a bad outcome, something very much not in our national security interest,” Moniz said. The potentially grave consequences of Trump’s decision, and the fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency, US allies and even the US government have said that Iran is in compliance with the agreement, have focused attention on Trump’s motivations. Critics say Trump is recklessly risking the deal, and thereby endangering US national security, simply to satisfy his fierce antipathy toward the agreement and to showcase a rare political win to his supporters. Related article Why Turkey-US tensions have come to a boil Trump has twice previously been forced certify Iran’s compliance, against his inclination and made clear he doesn’t intend to do so again, even though Tehran is still honoring the pact. The President is not alone in opposing certification of the deal. Some Republicans in Congress, including Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, and members of the conservative foreign policy establishment believe that his move on Friday will force America’s European allies, China and Russia and eventually Iran back to the table to improve the deal. The President has also complained that the 2015 deal does not allow UN inspectors access to military sites, an argument one foreign diplomat dismissed while wondering whether Trump understands what is in the pact. “I’m not sure he’s privy to all the details,” the diplomat said. Trump’s supporters however argue that the deal puts the Iranians on a North Korea-style glide path to a nuclear weapon when it expires in 2025 – a claim that proponents of the deal dispute. Those who back Obama’s approach also slam the idea that there is a “better deal” to be had, as Trump has often said, as a myth or that other partners will agree to renegotiate. “I don’t know there is any guarantee that ever happens, there are just so many stakeholders here,” said Brian Fleming, an official in the Obama Justice Department who worked extensively on the Iran deal and is now at the Miller & Chevalier law firm. The decertification by the President is only one aspect of the new Iran policy he will roll out on Friday. Trump is also expected to unveil a toughened approach to respond to Iran’s ballistic missile development, political maneuverings throughout the region and what the administration says is its support for terrorism, including for groups like Hezbollah and Houthi rebels in Yemen, officials have said. By punting a decision on the ultimate destiny of the Iran deal to Congress, Trump can also try to personally avoid blame for the consequences that would follow if he formally killed the deal. Once Trump has engineered the new policy direction, the deal’s fate will be in limbo. Should Congress go ahead and decide to reimpose sanctions, it is all but certain that Iran would walk away. It could then likely reinstall centrifuges disengaged under deal and could race toward development of a nuclear device, a process that experts believe could take only a year or so. Diplomats and sources who have spoken to CNN say they don’t believe that even Republican hawks opposed to the deal want to destabilize it, and end up paying the political price for a potential march to war by the US. Alternatively, lawmakers could decide to do nothing, effectively leaving the deal untouched. In that case, Iran could decide that it is in its interest to remain in the agreement since it will still be reaping the economic benefits it gained via the lifting of sanctions. Even so, it is uncertain whether this option would preserve the deal in the long term. Should European firms for instance reconsider investments in Iran under the shadow of potential future US sanctions, they could decide not to invest in Iran, and thereby lower the dividend that Tehran won by supporting the deal. That could bolster hardline opponents of the deal inside Iran, as could the administration’s desire to sanction individuals and entities in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, which controls vast business interests in the country a state sponsor of terrorism. “Longer term, this will be very humiliating and embarrassing for the Rouhani government,” said Trita Parsi, author of the book “Losing an Enemy,” Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Diplomacy.” “They may be committed to the deal and they may not want to start messing with us, but their political strength will weaken and lead to a scenario in which they may lose power.”


The Republican senator from South Carolina said his credentials on foreign policy made him uniquely qualified to be President Graham said Iran would be one of the highest priorities of the next administration Lindsey Graham on Wednesday gave his first foreign policy speech since announcing his presidential campaign, touching upon ISIS, a potential nuclear deal with Iran and the possibility of more U.S. military involvement in the Middle East. Speaking at the Atlantic Council, where he also sat down for a question-and-answer session with CNN’s Jake Tapper, the Republican senator from South Carolina said his credentials on foreign policy, coupled with the importance of a strong commander-in-chief, made him uniquely qualified to be President. RELATED: Graham takes on Clinton, Trump over immigration “When it comes to foreign policy, Lindsey Graham offers a very clear and different path,” he said. “The foundation of my foreign policy is superior capability, overwhelming capacity and most important of all, determined will.” Graham, who currently chairs three military, foreign policy and terrorism-related Senate subcommittees and is considered one of the most hawkish senators, said Iran will be one of the highest priorities of the next administration. He’s been critical of Obama and his approach to reaching a nuclear deal with Iran, and he has been a part of passing a bill that requires that Congress approve the final deal. “There are some things you can get wrong and live to fight another day,” Graham said. “There are some things you have to get right, because if you don’t, you throw the world in chaos.” If Iran’s leaders want to start a military confrontation with the U.S., Graham said, the U.S. will be ready to respond. RELATED: Iran talks deadline extended “I would love to end the nuclear ambition of the Iranians without firing a shot, but you have to know who you’re talking to and what they actually want,” he said. “This is North Korea in the making.” Related video Sen. Lindsey Graham's World is Full of Doom and Gloom As for ISIS, Graham said the Obama administration’s response to the terror group has been insufficient. “As recently as Monday of this week, Obama claimed that his strategy against ISIS is working,” he said. “In my view, the President consistently oversells our successes and minimizes the threat to our nation.” The war on terror is not limited to Iraq, said Graham, who served in the Air National Guard during the Gulf War. He said that there are more Syrian refugee children in Lebanese schools at the primary level than Lebanese children. Iraq and Syria must be viewed as safe havens for terrorists that need to be addressed, Graham added. RELATED: Lindsey Graham is running on doom and gloom He also said Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton was an architect of Obama’s foreign policy and would continue his approach if elected. At one point in the Q&A portion of the event, Graham was interrupted by a protester from the anti-war group Code Pink, who called his foreign policy “a prescription for endless war.” “I couldn’t disagree with you more,” Graham fired back. “I think people like you make the world incredibly dangerous. I think people like you are radical Islam’s best hope, because you don’t understand. … We got attacked on September 11, 2001. This is a religious war, and if you don’t understand that, you shouldn’t be President of the United States.” CNN’s Sophie Tatum contributed to this report.


Editor’s Note: John Thune, a Republican, is the senior senator from South Dakota and the chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. The views expressed are his own. John Thune: Large crowds of people congregating in unsecured areas of an airport make appealing targets New FAA bill is the most significant airport security package in a decade, he says On June 28, terrorists entered Istanbul’s airport and opened fire on travelers, before detonating explosives that killed 45 people and left more than 200 injured. The attack came just three months after a similar attack on Brussels Airport in Belgium, which also resulted in numerous injuries and a number of deaths. Since September 11, airport security efforts have emphasized securing aircraft against hijackings, but the Brussels and Istanbul bombings highlighted other vulnerabilities. As these attacks demonstrate, it’s not just planes that are vulnerable. Both the Brussels and Istanbul attacks sought to exploit the largely unprotected areas outside of the principal security checkpoints, where the attackers could detonate bombs outside of screening. The large crowds of people who congregate in unsecured areas of an airport – like security checkpoints, check-in counters, and baggage claim – make appealing targets for terrorists, who like nothing better than maximum loss of life with minimum effort. This week, the Senate passed the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization bill, which directly addresses these security vulnerabilities. This legislation passed with overwhelming support from both parties, and we expect the President to sign it into law immediately. The reforms in this legislation – the product of months of work at the Senate Commerce Committee that began long before the attacks – will help ensure that attacks like those that happened in Brussels and Istanbul don’t happen at American airports. To address the tempting terrorist target offered by large crowds of people in unsecured areas of airports, the FAA bill includes provisions to get more Americans enrolled in the TSA’s PreCheck program, which will help reduce the size of crowds by reducing wait times at security. Related article Keep traveling: Choose flights, not fright It also requires more effective deployment of TSA personnel to reduce wait times at checkpoints, and it requires the TSA to develop and test new security systems to expedite the movement of passengers. It also adds more prevention and response security teams and expands training for local airport security personnel, so that airports are better prepared to deter and respond to bombers or active-shooter threats. In addition to securing U.S. airports, part of protecting the traveling public is making sure that Americans traveling to other countries are safe when they return to the U.S. Americans travel internationally on a regular basis, and on their return flights they depend on the quality of airport security in other countries. To increase security for Americans traveling abroad, the FAA bill authorizes the TSA to donate unneeded screening equipment to foreign airports with direct flights to the United States. It authorizes the TSA to support training for foreign airport security personnel, and it requires the TSA to conduct assessments of security at foreign airports and of foreign cargo security programs. Another aspect of airport security that has received less attention, but that is equally important, is the need to make sure that individuals who work behind the scenes at airports don’t pose a threat. In October 2015, terrorists killed 224 people when they brought down Russian Metrojet Flight 9268 shortly after it departed Sharm el-Sheikh airport in Egypt. Many experts believe that the terrorists responsible had help from an airport worker. Clearly, ensuring that airport workers are trustworthy is essential to keeping passengers safe. However, at times the security badges that permit individuals to work behind the scenes at airports have been issued to individuals who have no business holding them. Right now in the United States, individuals with convictions for crimes including embezzlement, sabotage, racketeering, immigration violations and assault with a deadly weapon can all obtain security badges granting them access to restricted sections of an airport. While most criminals are not terrorists, there are too many criminals who would happily expand their criminal activity for the right price, even if it involved assisting terrorists. In March of this year, for example, an airline ramp agent was arrested at a Florida airport with $282,400 in cash that he allegedly intended to hand off to an unknown individual. News reports suggested that he was aware the money was connected to illegal activity, but knew little else. In other words, he could easily have been transporting money for terrorists without knowing it. Join us on Facebook.com/CNNOpinion. The FAA bill tightens vetting of anyone with access to secure areas of an airport and expands the list of criminal convictions that could disqualify someone from holding a security badge. This bill also provides for an increase in random searches of behind-the-scenes airport workers, who are not always subject to security screening the way passengers are. Since we took control of the Senate in January of 2015, Republicans have focused on passing legislation to address the challenges facing our country. I’m proud that with this bill, we’ve found a way to make our increasingly dangerous world a little safer for Americans. Of course, as the horrific attacks in Nice remind us, airports are by no means the only target of those wanting to kill large numbers of people. But terrorists have consistently shown a determination to attack aviation targets. With this in mind, the FAA bill is the most significant airport security package in a decade, and it will help us make real progress toward keeping airline passengers safer. It’s a good example of what can happen when Democrats and Republicans work together to get things done for the American people.


Iranian nuclear talks get an extra day. Lufthansa knew about co-pilot’s depression.  And another state may join Indiana in the religious freedom chaos. It’s Wednesday (April Fool’s Day!), and here are the 5 things to know for your New Day One more day: Talks to reach a deal on Iran’s nuclear program will continue today. Yesterday was the deadline to work out a framework agreement, but negotiators in Lausanne, Switzerland, felt enough progress had been made to continue talks for another day. It’s unclear how long the talks will continue. It is believed that the main sticking points remain the pace at which U.N. sanctions on Iran will be lifted and how much nuclear research and development Iran will be allowed to do while the deal is in effect. Airline knew: Andreas Lubitz told his Lufthansa flight training school about his depression in 2009, the airline said yesterday. The revelation was discovered when crash investigators found emails between Lubitz – the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 who authorities accuse of deliberately crashing the plane – and the flight school which included medical documents. This means Lufthansa, parent company of Germanwings, knew about Lubitz’s depression, allowed him to continue training and ultimately put him in the cockpit. Arkansas’ turn: The Arkansas House on yesterday approved a religious freedom bill similar to Indiana’s new controversial law. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, now has to decided if he will sign the measure. He’s set to release a statement about his decision later this morning. If Hutchinson signs the bill, Arkansas may face the same backlash that has whipped Indiana the past few days. The CEO of retail giant Walmart, which is based in Bentonville, Arkansas, urged the governor to veto the bill. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence said yesterday that he wanted a “fix” for his state’s law, to make sure that it won’t be used as an excuse to discriminate against gay and lesbian people. Kicked out: Iraqi forces in Tikrit say they have pretty much kicked ISIS out of the city, which the terror group has had in its clutches since June. Iraq’s Prime Minister said Iraqi forces had reached the center of the city and placed the nation’s flag on top of a key government building. Pockets of fighting continued, however, in the outskirts of Tikrit, the birthplace of former dictator Saddam Hussein. The victory in Tikrit sets the stage for Iraqi forces to take back an even bigger prize: Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city. Unexplained death: A cause of death has not been determined in the case of Andrew Getty, the 47-year-old grandson of J. Paul Getty who died yesterday in his home in Los Angeles. A woman, described as a friend of Getty’s, who was at the home at the time is cooperating with investigators, Los Angeles police said. In a statement, Getty’s parents, Gordon and Ann Getty, requested privacy for the family. Gordon Getty is one of three sons of J. Paul Getty, the oil tycoon who was thought to be the richest man in the world at the time of his death in 1976. Gordon Getty, 81, has an estimated net worth of $2.1 billion. April Fool’s?: Amazon’s new Dash Button sure sounds like an April Fool’s Day joke to us.  But then again … we’re all for convenience. Great escape: The driver of this vehicle REALLY didn’t want to get towed. Wake up call: Florida resort uses “Circle of Life” song to rouse sleepy spring breakers. It’s his party: And this kid will dance if he wants to (while loading the dishwasher). Too cute alert!: A dad and baby bond … with water bottles.


Donald Trump lost his cool at times against Hillary Clinton in Monday night's debate Trump hit Clinton on emails and TPP but didn't follow up effectively Hillary Clinton stepped onto the debate stage Monday night determined to show that only one candidate is ready to be president. Clinton poked, prodded and quoted Trump’s own words, goading the famously thin-skinned Republican nominee. Trump took the bait, repeatedly interrupting angrily or dismissively throughout the night. He couldn’t resist attacks, even when it was obvious they would backfire – such as his criticism of Clinton for dropping off the campaign trail ahead of the debate to prepare. CNN’s Reality Check Team vets the claims “Yes, I did. And you know what else I prepared for?” Clinton shot back. “I prepared to be president.” Here are six takeaways from the first presidential debate: Trump is the self-proclaimed counterpuncher, but it was Clinton whose restraint was on display: She waited for Trump to create an opening before she pounced. She let moderator Lester Holt grill Trump about his refusal to release tax returns before delivering her own withering assessment of his insistence that a “routine audit” be completed first. Related video Trump: I'll release taxes if Clinton releases emails “Maybe he is not as rich as he says he is,” Clinton said. “Maybe he is not as charitable as he claims to be… Maybe he doesn’t want the American people to know that he has paid nothing in federal taxes.” “There is something he is hiding,” she said. QUIZ: Are you more like Clinton or Trump? Trump lost his cool – at a cost. He came close to admitting that he didn’t pay federal taxes, saying that “makes me smart” and that the money “would be squandered” anyway. At another point, he insisted his refusal to pay contractors who’d done work for his businesses was smart. “I’m certainly relieved that my late father never did business with you,” Clinton said. Related video Tapper: 'Unbelievable' how quickly Trump took the bait Trump, meanwhile, paid the price for his decision to wing it. Unlike the GOP primary debates, where Trump would often disappear while other candidates bickered, only to interject with a zinger, he had no other candidates or aggressive moderators to save him – and it showed. Despite opportunities to do so, he never hit Clinton on the 2012 Benghazi attacks or Clinton Foundation donors’ access to the State Department, and he only briefly mentioned her use of a private email server. All three attacks – elevated by Trump himself at his rallies – are at the core of the GOP case that Clinton is untrustworthy. Trump’s brightest spots came early in the debate, when he invoked Clinton’s 2012 praise of the Trans-Pacific Partnership as the “gold standard” of trade deals. (Clinton now opposes the deal.) “You were totally in favor of it,” Trump said. “Then you heard what I was saying, how bad it is, and you said, ‘I can’t win that debate.’” It was part of a theme he worked hard to drive in the debate’s early stages: Clinton, he said, has been in Washington for nearly 30 years, and has done little to improve economic conditions for Americans – a message that could resonate in manufacturing-heavy states like Ohio and Pennsylvania that are crucial to Trump’s electoral math. Attacking Clinton’s comments on solar energy powering “new economic activity,” Trump said: “You’ve been doing this for 30 years. Why are you just thinking about these solutions right now? For 30 years, you’ve been doing it, and now you’re just starting to think of solutions.” After a barrage of Trump attacks, Clinton sarcastically said, “I have a feeling that by, the end of this evening, I’m going to be blamed for everything that’s ever happened.” Trump shot back: “Why not?” Trump lied repeatedly Monday night – including some real whoppers. When Clinton claimed Trump “thinks that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese,” Trump shot back: “I do not say that. I do not say that.” Of course, Trump did say that. On November 6, 2012, Trump tweeted, “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” It became the most-retweeted item on Twitter during the debate. He called Holt’s factual citation of a 2002 interview in which Trump endorsed the war in Iraq “wrong, wrong, wrong,” as fact-checkers disagreed. He falsely blamed Clinton for birtherism. He said murder rates in New York City are climbing, when they are on the decline. And he said Clinton had been fighting ISIS “her entire adult life.” Clinton was born in 1947; ISIS only formed in  the mid-2000s. “I hope the fact-checkers are turning up the volume,” Clinton said at one point. Trump questions whether Russia behind hacks Trump said he knew he’d face questions about his five-year history of birtherism. Yet he had no new answers to offer. When Holt asked why Trump decided to finally acknowledge that President Barack Obama was born in the US, Trump said it was because he wanted to change the topic. Related video Donald Trump: We have to bring back law and order “I want to get on to defeating ISIS, because I want to get on to creating jobs, because I want to get on to having a strong border, because I want to get on to things that are very important to me and that are very important to the country,” he said. While falsely blaming Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign for the questions about Obama’s birth, Trump also took credit for bringing up the non-issue in the first place. “I was the one that got him to produce the birth certificate,” he said. “And I think I did a good job.” Clinton responded by turning the spotlight back on her GOP foe. “Well, just listen to what you heard,” Clinton said. She pointed to the 1970s Justice Department lawsuits that Trump faced over accusations of racial discrimination in housing properties he owned. “He has a long record of engaging in racist behavior,” Clinton said. “And the birther lie was a very hurtful one.” Trump has long polled better with men than women – and that gap could grow after Monday night’s debate. He interrupted Clinton dozens of times, and talked over Holt when he tried to interject. He blasted Clinton’s “stamina.” And when Clinton attacked Trump over his remarks about women, Trump proved her point by digging in against an old foe. “Rosie O’Donnell, I said very tough things to her, and I think everybody would agree that she deserves it and nobody feels sorry for her,” Trump said. Related video Inside two of the toughest debate moments ever He zealously defended himself, but didn’t attack Clinton with the same gusto. And because of it, Clinton was able to easily move past potential problem areas. Asked about her use of a private email server during her tenure at the State Department, Clinton gave a shorter, simpler answer than she has before. “I’m not going to make any excuses, it was a mistake,” she said. Trump shot back that it was “more than a mistake. That was done purposely.” But then he dropped the topic. Later, he briefly came back to it, saying he’d release his tax returns “against my lawyers’ wishes,” under one condition: “I will release them as soon as she releases her 33,000 emails.” The crowd cheered, violating Holt’s admonition to keep silent. And then, again, Trump moved on – never mentioning that James Comey, the FBI director, also harshly criticized Clinton’s email practices, and never again returning to the topic. …And it shows. With two debates to go, this is going to get nastier. A preview of what’s in store came at the end, when Clinton – attacking Trump’s treatment of women – called him “a man who has called women pigs, slobs and dogs.” She said he’d referred to a Latina beauty contestant as “Miss Piggy. Then he called her Miss Housekeeping.” An agitated Trump twice asked, “Where did you find this?” The woman, 1996 Miss Universe Alicia Machado of Venezuela, told The New York Times and “Inside Edition” this year that Trump repeatedly mocked her weight. Who is Alicia Machado? Former Miss Universe said Trump called her Miss Piggy Trump went into the spin room after the debate – a move unheard of at general election debates - and credited himself with not taking a shot at Bill Clinton’s extramarital affairs. He told Fox News conservative host and Trump supporter Sean Hannity afterward that it seemed inappropriate with Bill and Chelsea Clinton in the front row – but implied he might in the future. For Clinton’s campaign, the challenge will be turning a debate-night victory into sustained success – pressing the same themes in the days ahead as she attempts to reverse Trump’s climb in national and battleground state polls. Trump will have to wait until Oct. 9 for another shot at Clinton.


The Russian oligarch and Russian lawyer who were key players in the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting reached out to Trump’s team after Donald Trump was elected President to try to lobby on the Russian sanctions they sought to overturn, according to Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee. Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the intelligence panel, told CNN’s Jim Sciutto on Friday that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya reached out to the Trump family after the election with a request to follow up on efforts to repeal the Magnitsky Act, the 2012 Russian sanctions the US enacted over human rights abuses. Veselnitskaya was the Russian lawyer at the center of the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, where Donald Trump Jr. expected to receive damaging information on Hillary Clinton but instead Veselnitskaya focused on the repeal of the sanctions. Related article House Republicans release redacted Russia report “Clearly, there’s an expectation there on the Russian side that they may now have success with the Magnitsky Act, given that the prior meeting and communications dealt with the offer of help,” Schiff said. “It certainly seems like the Russians were ready for payback.” In addition, another effort to reach out to Trump’s team after the election came from Aras Agalarov, the Azerbaijani-Russian oligarch who also has ties to the Trump Tower meeting. Agalarov, along with his pop-star son, Emin Agalarov, also worked with Trump to bring the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant to Moscow. The outreach from the Russians after the 2016 election was one of the new details that stemmed from the release of the Republican report on the Russia investigation, as well as a lengthy Democratic dissent that disputed the Republican conclusion there was no evidence of collusion between Trump’s team and Russia. In the dissent, Democrats cite a November 28, 2016, email from publicist Rob Goldstone to Trump’s assistant, Rhona Graff, which said that “Aras Agalarov has asked me to pass on this document in the hope it can be passed on to the appropriate team.” “Later that day, Graff forwarded to Steve Bannon the email with Agalarov’s document regarding the Magnitsky Act as an attachment, explaining, ‘The PE [President Elect] knows Aras well. Rob is his rep in the US and sent this on. Not sure how to proceed, if at all.’” Trump’s team has denied there was any follow up after the Trump Tower meeting. It’s not clear that there was any response from the Trump team to the request from Veselnitskaya, or Agalarov. The Trump administration has not moved to roll back the Russian sanctions, and, in fact, new sanctions against Russia have been enacted. CNN has previously reported additional outreach that came after the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, in which Goldstone sent emails to Trump’s team in the weeks following that meeting. But the overtures from Veselnitskaya and Agalarov are the first indication that the same Russians were still pushing to change the sanctions law after Trump was elected. While the Democratic report released Friday does not mention Veselnitskaya’s post-election outreach, a committee source said that she approached the Trump team following the election before the appeal from Aras Agalarov. In the lead-up to the Trump Tower meeting, Goldstone told Trump Jr. that Veselnitskaya had damaging information about Clinton that he claimed came from the Russian government. At the meeting, however, Trump Jr. said she did not provide damaging information, and instead focused on the repeal of the sanctions law.