As young architects in Hong Kong in 2005, Joshua Bolchover and John Lin were in the right place at the right time. China was urbanizing at an unprecedented rate and had become a playground for architects. Zaha Hadid’s design for the Guangzhou Opera House had broken ground, Rem Koolhaas had unveiled plans for Beijing’s CCTV Headquarters, and dozens of other headline-grabbing, big-budget projects were being built in cities across the country. But Bolchover and Lin weren’t interested. “At the time, many people were talking about the cities in China,” Bolchover recalls. “But we were thinking, ‘What else is going on? What’s happening to the rest of the country? What does the rural look like in China, given that this process of urbanization is occurring?’” Do these village homes have the best view in China? These questions led the duo to establish Rural Urban Framework (RUF), a design lab operating out of the University of Hong Kong. The not-for-profit organization works on public service projects – including hospitals, schools and houses – for rural communities around China. Just like the country’s cities, China’s villages underwent rapid transformation in the 2000s. Between 2005 and 2015, as many as 900,000 Chinese villages disappeared, either being absorbed into expanding cities or abandoned as residents migrated to urban areas. Bolchover and Lin found plenty of ghost towns during their travels through China. But they also discovered communities experiencing building booms fueled by money sent home by rural migrants. In some areas, tower blocks were being erected in empty fields. In the rush to build, good design was often being ignored in the countryside. By opting for low-risk, copy-and-paste blueprints, local authorities were hindering their ability to deliver effective public services. Saving China's abandoned Tulou homes “Certain institutions and buildings end up looking the same in China,” Bolchover says. “Whether it’s a hospital, a school or an orphanage, they’re all concrete-frame, standardized building types. Design is critical, and through it we’re able to bring other facilities (and) nicer spaces into these environments.” RUF’s projects in rural China range from designing stimulating new classrooms to building bridges that reconnect communities divided by new highways. One of its most innovative projects is the redesign of Angdong Hospital in Hunan province. Previously an impractical, boxy building, RUF replaced it with an ambitious pentagonal structure with a central courtyard. The original building was a three-story walk-up, which meant that family members had to carry ill relatives up and down the stairs. RUF’s new building solved this by connecting all the floors with a wide, spiraling ramp. “It (would have) cost exactly the same to put an elevator in as it cost to build the ramp,” Lin says. “But what we gained by building a ramp was the creation of this interesting public space in which elderly people from across the street can come and exercise. And children love to go there.” A major addition to Angdong Hospital was a perforated exterior made from concrete blocks with circular holes in them. In the hope of improving construction expertise in the village, RUF developed the facade in collaboration with local manufacturers. “Making standardized molds [for concrete blocks] is a very typical construction process in China,” Bolchover explains. “We thought, ‘How can we intervene and make something different?’ Should China move its historic monuments? “Our work isn’t about bringing something that’s completely new – it’s about working with villages to develop new technology and new materials. We work with what’s there, and take it to another level.” Bringing such ambitious designs to rural communities presented unique challenges. Often faced with local government officials and villagers who are suspicious of bold buildings, RUF must dedicate time and effort to getting communities on board. As a result, projects can take up to three years, even when the construction time is less than a year. Following the success of their work in rural China, Bolchover and Lin are currently working on the reconstruction of an entire village destroyed during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. The Hong Kong architects have redesigned Jintai village from scratch, building 22 earthquake-resistant homes and an innovative animal-rearing facility that will generate energy from biogas. From ghost towns to megacities: The extreme transformation of Asia's city skylines Not only is this environmentally friendly, but it also helps the community become more economically self-reliant, curbing villagers’ dependence on energy companies. In RUF’s projects, form follows function. But the aesthetics of its buildings are carefully considered. The stepped roofs of Jintai Village’s new houses give residents extra space to grow crops, but their peaked design also resembles the community’s mountain surroundings. When the village is completed in July, its buildings will not only be safer and more energy efficient – they’ll also be more beautiful. “Through design you can add different forms of value. You add social value, you strengthen the community – it can even be ecological value,” Lin says. “But we’re also saying that design itself is a form of value. We believe in design.” RUF’s research on housing has led Bolchover and Lin to Mongolia, where they’re working on their first project outside China. Mongolia is experiencing similar patterns of urbanization, but in its capital, Ulaanbaatar, migrants aren’t moving into houses – they’re simply pitching their ancestral tents on the outskirts of the city. Move over Sydney -- the Harbin Opera House is a work of art These traditional yurts, known in Mongolia as gers, are off-grid. This can lead to problems with waste disposal, so RUF designed a ‘hybrid’ ger that retains the characteristics of a tent but can be plugged into the sewage system, electrical grid and water mains. A Mongolian couple will move into the first prototype this summer. “This project is not just about creating a modern house,” Lin says. “It’s also a project which preserves the ger as a traditional form of living. We’re very much working through the urbanization process to preserve the traditions of these places.”


More than half of Americans say they’re bothered by Russian hacks of Democratic emails in an effort to help Donald Trump win the election, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows. Fifty-five percent of Americans say they are at least quite a bit concerned about the Russian hacks, the poll shows. There is a sharp partisan divide, with 86% of Democrats saying they are concerned compared with 29% of Republicans. However, most Americans do not believe Russian hacking influenced the outcome of the election. Just 37% say they believe Russian hacking helped Trump defeat Hillary Clinton, while 57% say they think it had no impact. Broadly, at 31%, more Americans said Trump is “too friendly” toward Russian President Vladimir Putin than the 24% who said he’s “not too friendly.” Another 44% had no opinion. And about 50% of Americans said they approved of Trump’s handling of the transition, while 41% disapprove, the survey shows. That approval number is significantly below President Barack Obama’s in 2008 (73%) and Bill Clinton’s in 1992 (77%). The poll of 1,000 adults was conducted December 12-15 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.


When a dark green train adorned with yellow stripes was spotted traveling toward Beijing on Monday, rumors began to swirl that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was on board. Those rumors were later confirmed and pictures began to emerge showing Kim on his first foreign trip since assuming power in 2011, meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping and other high-level Chinese officials. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) has now published footage revealing new details of the historic trip. The train – which appears to be the same one used by Kim’s father and grandfather – made its first stop Sunday in China at Dandong, a city close to the border and around 840 kilometers (520 miles) from Beijing by road. READ MORE: Why Kim Jong Un would make a secret trip to China A group of Chinese officials met the train at Dandong and boarded one of the carriages to greet Kim, who was seen smiling and posing for the cameras as he was handed a bouquet of flowers, which were then passed to his wife Ri Sol Ju. Along with Kim and his wife, the North Korean delegation included leading members of the Workers’ Party of Korea Central Committee. The Chinese officials who boarded the train included China’s ambassador to North Korea, Li Jinjun, and the head of the International Liaison Department of the Communist Party’s Central Committee, Song Tao, according to KCNA. Seated in two rows of pink couches on either side of the train carriage, Kim opposite Tao, the two groups held talks. Three members of the Chinese delegation – including Tao and Jinjun – stayed on the train and traveled with Kim on the next leg of his journey, to Beijing, according to KCNA. As the train departed Dandong, the footage shows the other Chinese officials who stayed behind waving to Kim – and Kim waving back. READ MORE: Kim Jong Un’s cunning strategy could lead the world down a dangerous path Arriving in Beijing on Tuesday, Kim was welcomed by the Chinese military and a red carpet. More bouquets awaited the leader and his wife as they alighted from the train and were met by officials from the ruling Communist Party of China, the footage shows. Cameras flashed and the military stood to attention as Kim and his wife led the delegation down a platform adorned with a red carpet. The next day, Kim boarded the green train once again, this time for the return journey. After a final onboard sendoff from Tao and members of the Beijing welcome delegation, Kim, standing next to his wife, smiled and waved out of the window. The footage shows Chinese officials on the platform waving goodbye. READ MORE: Trump says Xi told him Kim meeting went ‘very well’ According to a 2009 report in South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo, the train used by Kim’s father, Kim Jong II – which appears to be the same one used for this trip – had 90 carriages and was so heavily armored that it traveled at an average speed of 60 kilometers an hour (about 37 mph). It contained conference rooms, an audience chamber and bedrooms and featured satellite phone connections and flat screen televisions, the paper reported. A New York Times report from 2002 said that memoirs by former Russian official Konstantin Pulikovsky purportedly claimed that Kim Jong Il had his train conducted by beautiful women and loaded with extravagant dishes and wine. ”It was possible to order any dish of Russian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and French cuisine,” Pulikovsky wrote, according to the report. His account drew largely on a report that was supposed to be confidential by a note taker from the Russian Foreign Ministry, who was on board during Kim Jong Il’s one-month ride across Russia in 2001, according to the Times. Live lobsters were taken to train stations along the route, Pulikovsky wrote in his memoirs, and cases of Bordeaux and Burgundy red wines were reportedly delivered, too. CNN could not independently verify the Times account or the South Korean report detailing the Kim family train. Before this week, the most recent international train trip reported was in August 2011, months before the elder Kim’s death, when he visited Moscow to meet with then-President Dmitry Medvedev. CNN’s Angela Dewan contributed to this story


After hearing bizarre sounds, Americans in China and Cuba experienced similar symptoms resembling types of brain injury Experts don't think the sound was directly responsible for the symptoms The cause in both cases is still being investigated The US State Department is looking into what could be a new “sonic attack” in China, “similar to what happened in Cuba” over a year ago, a US diplomatic official told CNN. A US government employee stationed in the city of Guangzhou in southern China reported “subtle and vague, but abnormal, sensations of sound and pressure,” which may resemble sensations among at least two dozen US diplomats and family members previously stationed in Havana, Cuba. “We are working to figure out what took place both in Havana and now in China, as well,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who called medical details in both locations “very similar and entirely consistent” with each other. In both cases, people experienced symptoms resembling types of “traumatic brain injury,” according to multiple sources. Many of those stationed in Havana reported hearing “intensely loud” sounds coming from a specific direction, which they described as “buzzing,” “grinding metal,” “piercing squeals” and “humming,” according to a study published in February. “The sounds were often associated with pressurelike or vibratory sensory stimuli,” according to the study. “The sensory stimuli were likened to air ‘baffling’ inside a moving car with the windows partially rolled down.” One patient reported hearing two 10-second pulses, while others said they could hear the sound for more than 30 minutes, the report said. A recording obtained by The Associated Press and released in October became the first publicly reported audio sample said to be related to the attacks. The noise itself is unlikely to have caused the symptoms directly, according to the authors of the February study. They noted that audible sound “is not known to cause persistent injury to the central nervous system.” “We actually don’t think it was the audible sound that was the problem,” said Dr. Douglas Smith, one of the study’s authors and the director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Brain Injury and Repair. “We think the audible sound was a consequence of the exposure.” Experts whom CNN spoke to described how sounds could be weaponized, but none of them is known to cause the symptoms seen in Cuba and China. Related article Pompeo says China incident is 'entirely consistent' with Cuba 'sonic attacks' For example, authorities have used long-range acoustic devices, or LRADs, to disperse crowds of protesters with a loud, painful sound over a long distance. Some countries have used a “mosquito” – which produces a very high-pitched sound that can be perceived by teenagers but not adults – to prevent teens from loitering. “I know of no acoustic effect that would produce concussion-like symptoms; according to my research, strong effects on humans require loudness levels that would be perceived as very loud noise while exposed,” said Jürgen Altmann, a physics professor at Technischen Universität Dortmund in Berlin. According to the alert issued by the State Department on Wednesday, the cause of the injuries to the employee in China remains unknown. Officials have not identified any other similar cases among the diplomatic community in the country. Similarly, State Department and federal investigators have testified that they were unable to determine the source or cause of the ailments in Havana, stating only that they “were most likely related to trauma from a non-natural source.” Smith and his colleagues wrote that their study raises “concern about a new mechanism for possible acquired brain injury from an exposure of unknown origin.” “If you took any one of these patients and put them into a brain injury clinic and you didn’t know their background, you would think that they had a traumatic brain injury from being in a car accident or a blast in the military,” Dr. Randel Swanson, another of the study’s authors and a specialist in brain injury rehabilitation at the University of Pennsylvania, said in a separate report published with the study. Swanson and his colleagues examined the patients and found a variety of symptoms including sharp ear pain, headaches, ringing in one ear, vertigo, disorientation, attention issues and signs consistent with mild traumatic brain injury or concussion. In addition, a majority of the patients reported problems with memory, concentration, balance, eyesight, hearing, sleeping or headaches that lasted more than three months. “It’s like a concussion without a concussion,” Swanson wrote. Related article Study: US personnel suffered 'symptoms resembling brain injury' in Cuba Many reported feeling “mentally foggy” or “slowed” for months, the authors said. Some reported irritability and nervousness, with two meeting criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder. Poorer job performance was also observed. Three people eventually needed hearing aids for moderate to severe hearing loss, and others had ringing or pressure in their ears. More than half needed to be prescribed medication in order to sleep or to deal with headaches. Many were, at least for a period of time, unable to return to work. Some of the patients’ symptoms are not typically seen in a concussion, such as pain and ringing in only one ear, the study noted. The report also pointed out that while concussion patients often make a quick and full recovery, these patients experienced symptoms for months. It’s possible those were the only severe cases, the authors said, noting that other individuals may have been affected and simply didn’t know it, because they either recovered fully or had only minor symptoms. Doctors remain baffled. The events in Cuba and China are still under investigation, according to Pompeo. A spokeswoman at the US Embassy in Beijing said the State Department was taking the incident “very seriously” and was working to determine the cause and impact of it. Pompeo said the agency is moving medical teams into place in Guangzhou and has asked for assistance from the Chinese government, which has committed to providing it. See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter. The Cuban government has claimed ignorance when it comes to the cause of the incidents there, and it has aimed to discredit the accounts of affected government workers, calling the alleged attacks “science fiction.” These efforts have been met with doubt from Sens. Marco Rubio and Bob Menendez, both on the Foreign Relations Committee. The idea that such an attack would go unnoticed by Cuban security officials in heavily surveilled Havana, Rubio said, was “outside the realm of reasonable. It’s ridiculous.” CNN’s Ben Tinker, Steven Jiang, Ben Westcott, Laura Koran, Jamie Crawford, Nicole Chavez, Matt Rivers and Zachary Cohen contributed to this report.


Editor’s Note: The Axe Files, featuring David Axelrod, is a podcast distributed by CNN and produced at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. The author works at the institute. The open rift between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the military could be a “game-changer,” upsetting Israel’s fragile balance of power, says one of the nation’s leading broadcast journalists. Ilana Dayan, anchor of the investigative news program “Uvda” (“Fact”) on Israel’s Channel 2, said the resignation of Moshe Ya’alon as defense minister and the appointment in his place of Avigdor Lieberman, an outspoken and controversial leader of the right, could prompt Ya’alon to emerge as leader of a new, anti-Netanyahu coalition. Were Ya’alon, who announced his resignation Friday, to join forces with Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, the two could pose a real threat to their former ally Netanyahu, Dayan said. “If they unite together and they create a right of center (movement)… which caters to the taste of many Israelis who would otherwise vote for Netanyahu, that could be a game changer,” Dayan told David Axelrod on “The Axe Files,” a podcast produced by CNN and the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. Ya’alon resigned amid a growing rift with Netanyahu that came to a head after the controversial slaying of a wounded Palestinian assailant by an I.D.F. soldier. Ya’alon objected to Netanyahu’s statement of support for the soldier, who Ya’alon and military leaders said had violated the army’s values and its code of conduct. “(Ya’alon) knows so much and he has so much material and he has been privy to so many silent and secret and closed discussions, that if I were Netanyahu, I would be on the alert,” Dayan said. However, Dayan noted that Netanyahu is getting “better and better as a politician and as a campaigner” and “beats expectations time and again.” In the hour-long conversation with Axelrod, taped last week at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, where Dayan is a visiting Fellow, she said that a two-state solution with Palestine will happen someday, but likely not while Netanyahu is in office. Related article Israeli defense minister resigns in political shake-up “I think he doesn’t believe he can be that leader. I think he doesn’t really believe there can be a historic compromise,” she said. “He thinks it’s too much of a risk.” Netanyahu, she said, “sees reality almost always from the worst-case scenario point of view. It’s a very Jewish way of looking at things. And I would want our leaders – my countrymen – to get rid of this view of the world… If you look at us and the Palestinians, it’s really a contest of victimhood. We both feel like victims.” But, Dayan said, “at the end of the day, which is long … and sad and gloomy … there will be a historic compromise.” To hear the whole conversation with Dayan, which also touched on her views of Donald Trump, U.S.-Israeli relations, and more, click on http://podcast.cnn.com. To get “The Axe Files” podcast every week, subscribe at http://itunes.com/theaxefiles.


Editor’s Note: Frida Ghitis is a world affairs columnist for The Miami Herald and World Politics Review, and a former CNN producer and correspondent. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. This commentary has been updated from an earlier version. Frida Ghitis: Trump's spewing of falsehoods creates very real risk for U.S. security and authority in the world Ghitis points to the White House's apology to Britain for Sean Spicer saying British intelligence helped Obama spy on Trump Donald Trump’s peculiar relationship with the truth – his penchant for promoting unfounded stories and conspiracies theories – represents not just a curious quirk or a character flaw. They are a much-practiced technique that has paid dividends as self-promotion in his business career and in his political rise. Over decades spent in the company of yes men and yes women, he has been able to fire off nonsense without question or rebuke. But now he is President Trump, and his breezy spewing of falsehoods has become a national embarrassment –a threat to U.S. security and America’s standing in the world. White House officials have just had to apologize to the United Kingdom for smearing the British intelligence agency by making false statements . This is a sign of things to come. Indeed questions about Trump’s wiretapping allegations against Barack Obama, and Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s regurgitation of Fox News commentary, came up during Trump’s press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel Friday–further evidence that the rest of the world is paying attention. He took no responsibility and said if there were questions about the allegation, people should ask Fox News about it. What should concern every citizen is that Trump’s crumbling credibility will not be limited to him. America itself is losing credibility. If the president of the United States cannot be taken at his word, America’s arguments on the global stage will be easily dismissed. This will have profound and very specific consequences as the country faces new and old challenges, which will require the support of other nations. Related video Rep. to Trump: Evidence or apologize to Obama That became clear in the latest chapter in the bizarre story of Trump’s claim that Obama ordered the wiretapping of Trump Tower. The accusation, which would be extraordinarily grave if it contained a shred of truth, has been denied by intelligence officials and discredited by well-informed Democrats and Republicans. And yet, on Thursday, Trump had sent Press Secretary Sean Spicer to do battle with the truth once again. Presumably following his boss’s instructions, Spicer proceeded to repeat yet another unfounded rumor, this one slandering America’s top ally, the United Kingdom. He read a claim by Fox News commentator Andrew Napolitano that Obama maneuvered around US agencies by partnering with GCHQ, the secretive British intelligence agency, to spy on Trump. The British, not surprisingly, were furious. The phones in the White House started ringing immediately after the press briefing. The Trump administration had triggered a wholly unnecessary diplomatic crisis by once again treating the truth with casual contempt. Related article Trump's wiretapping fantasy meets reality Now Spicer and National Security Advisor HR McMaster have been forced to apologize to Britain, and the British have made sure the whole world knows the White House is making “ridiculous” statements. It is hard to overemphasize the significance of GCHQ, which almost never speaks out publicly, calling the claims “nonsense.” The spokesman for the British prime minister said the White House promised to never repeat the false allegations. The British are right to feel indignant. The two countries have partnered for decades, supporting each other on battle fields, on intelligence and on global diplomacy.  Prime Minister Teresa May has taken political risks by being one of the first foreign leaders to align herself with Trump. Now the Trump administration made an assertion that, like most libelous rumors, will never be completely erased in some people’s minds. And it did so to score political points domestically. Related article "Deep State" myth won't fix wiretapping mess It’s sadly ironic that after less than two months in office, Trump, who often criticized Obama for making legitimate apologies for America’s historical misdeeds – “We will stop apologizing,” Trump declared – had to send his deputies to apologize for brand new, unnecessary and deeply personal missteps. It’s easy to say why Trump plays games with the truth. By claiming that factual reports are “fake news,” he undermines the credibility of his critics. By “gaslighting,” the country, blurring the lines between fact and fiction, he gets to write his own version of the truth. And by putting out shocking conspiracy tales and wild allegations, he changes the subject at just the right time. The wiretapping tweet successfully knocked out of the headlines discussion over whether Attorney General Jeff Sessions committed perjury when he falsely told a Senate committee that he had no contacts with Russians. Related video Congressman apologizes for Conway comment But maneuvers that may help Trump politically hurt America on the global stage. The lying alone has already eroded America’s moral authority, which is arguably the country’s most powerful, least expensive weapon and the impetus for persuading others to follow its lead. What will happen when the U.S. needs support to impose economic sanctions or perhaps an arms embargo? Strong, credible arguments can help America avoid costly wars, just as the wrong words, ill-conceived provocations, can trigger conflicts, putting American soldiers in harm’s way and US citizens in peril. America’s strength is not just its mighty military or its giant economy. The United States is strong also because it has allies that will side with it on difficult challenges. But to persuade others that the challenges are real, Washington must have credibility, and Trump is squandering America’s credibility, discarding it as if it were the leftovers at a Mar-a-Lago brunch buffet. Trump may not care about the truth, but the rest of the world does. America’s allies do. It’s about time for the President and his staff to understand that this is no game. They cannot repeat statements they hear on television, unless they know they are factual. To do otherwise could trigger potentially grave consequences. If Trump wants to go down in history as a successful president, it’s time for him to re-examine his relationship with the truth.


Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates is prepared to testify before a Senate panel next week that she gave a forceful warning to the White House regarding then-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn nearly three weeks before he was fired, contradicting the administration’s version of events, sources familiar with her account tell CNN. In a private meeting January 26, Yates told White House Counsel Don McGahn that Flynn was lying when he denied in public and private that he had discussed US sanctions on Russia in conversations with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergei Kislyak. Flynn’s misleading comments, Yates said, made him potentially vulnerable to being compromised by Russia, according to sources familiar with her version of events. She expressed “serious concerns” to McGahn, making it clear – without making a recommendation – that Flynn could be fired. Yates’ testimony May 8 will be the first time the former acting attorney general will publicly speak about the White House meeting. A source familiar with the situation says that Yates will be limited on what she can tell the Senate judiciary subcommittee because many of the details involving Flynn are classified, meaning there may only be a few new revelations. Yates would not comment ahead of the testimony. Related article Pentagon warned Flynn in 2014 against taking foreign payments; IG launches investigation Her previously scheduled appearance in front of the House intelligence committee was canceled by its chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-California, who said he wanted to hear first in a classified setting from FBI Director James Comey and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers. Nunes’ move to cancel the hearing sparked outcry from Democrats, who believed he was trying to shield the White House from damaging new revelations. Flynn was fired 18 days after Yates met McGahn, following news reports that Flynn had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with the Russian ambassador. On February 14, the day after Flynn’s firing, White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters that Yates had simply “wanted to give a ‘heads up’ to us on some comments that may have seemed in conflict with what he (Flynn) had sent the Vice President.” Yates is highly motivated to set the record straight about her warning regarding Flynn, one source said. Related article Michael Flynn's worst week in Washington But because of the classified nature of the information, she is unlikely to explain in detail what specific information prompted her to raise concerns with the White House about his alleged ties to the Russians. She is, though, expected to give her version of events when she informed the White House about her concerns that Flynn may have been “compromised” by the Russians, contradicting Spicer’s comment that Yates was simply giving officials a “heads up” about the then-national security advisor, the source said. Her appearance will bookend a week’s worth of testimony and inquiry about the investigation, starting with Wednesday’s Senate judiciary committee hearing with Comey, where Russia will be a big topic of discussion. Comey is also expected to meet behind closed doors Thursday with members of the House intelligence committee. The Senate judiciary subcommittee hearing Yates’ testimony is also seeking to have former national security advisor Susan Rice testify before the committee next week, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, the chairman of the panel, told CNN. Related article 100 days of Russia drama for the Trump White House, with no end in sight Comey will likely resist revealing much about the ongoing investigation into Russia’s efforts around the 2016 election. But committee members are seeking to press him. Republicans will likely seek answers on how the FBI worked with Christopher Steele, the former British spy who created the reports on Trump that make up the controversial dossier. CNN was first to report in January that both then-President Barack Obama and then-President-elect Trump were briefed on the contents of the dossier by senior intelligence officials. Democrats will push Comey on what has been learned about campaign contact, according to Democrats on the committee. Sens. Chris Coons of Delaware and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut say they will also seek answers on why Comey spoke publicly about an investigation into Hillary Clinton but not about the Russia investigation that kicked off in the summer of the campaign. Comey, according to sources familiar with his testimony, is looking to set the record straight on this matter. The hearing is not solely focused on the probe, a contrast to his previous appearance on the Hill. But the Yates appearance next week, at the same hearing as former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, is perhaps the most dramatic. Yates is prepared to answer as much as she can in an unclassified setting, the source added. But, another source said, Yates is not expected to say much about the wider Russia probe. CNN’s Gloria Borger contributed to this report.


Shaker Aamer was accused of leading a military unit under Osama bin Laden, an accusation he denied Aamer, a Saudi national married to a British woman, was the last British resident held in Guantanamo The U.S. government plans to release a British resident who has been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2002, a British government spokesman said. Shaker Aamer, a Saudi national married to a British woman, has been cleared of any accusations, said his lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, in a statement. “Shaker is not and never has been a terrorist, and has been cleared by the Americans themselves for eight years,” Smith said. “I hope the authorities will understand that he has been tortured and abused for more than a decade, and what he wants most is to be left alone with his family to start rebuilding his life.” A senior U.S. defense official told CNN the Secretary of Defense has approved the transfer of Aamer following a thorough review of his case and taking into consideration the security assurances the British government will provide. Britain is one of the United States’ strongest allies and supports efforts to close the detention facilities at Guantanamo, the official said. Aamer’s daughter, Johina Aamer, said in a tweet: “Thank you everyone for all the support. The news hasnt hit yet. We can’t believe we might finally see our Dad after 14 years. #ShakerAamer.” Thank you everyone for all the support. The news hasnt hit yet. We can't believe we might finally see our Dad after 14 years. #ShakerAamer The British government spokesman said the U.S. government notified British authorities about the release. “The (British) government has regularly raised Mr. Aamer’s case with the U.S. authorities and we support President Obama’s commitment to closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay,” the spokesman said. “In terms of next steps, we understand that the U.S. government has notified Congress of this decision and once that notice period has been concluded, Mr. Aamer will be returned to the UK.” Aamer is the last British resident held at Guantanamo Bay. He gained national attention in 2013 when he and other inmates went on a hunger strike. U.S. forces arrested him in 2001 in Afghanistan for allegedly leading a military unit under Osama bin Laden, accusations that he denied. Guantanamo held 115 detainees as of September 17, according to the U.S. Defense Department. CNN’s Barbara Starr contributed to this article.


Shari Duval founded the non-profit organization K9s for Warriors in 2010 after her son returned from Iraq K9s for Warriors provides service dogs to veterans suffering from PTSD or other issues You can help by going to K9s for Warriors Shari Duval knows that dogs can heal. Duval was inspired  to do something after her son, Brett Simon, returned from two tours in Iraq.  Simon was a civilian K9 police officer before joining a special team whose main mission was to work with the Army. “I was chosen to work with explosive tracking dogs in Iraq. Once I arrived in Iraq in Baghdad, I was shipped out to Mosul, where I worked with the striker brigade working on the first tracking explosive dogs that were attempted in Iraq,” says Simon. Duval says she wasn’t prepared when her son came home diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. “He was somebody different, he was not my son that went over there. He was completely changed and that was a shock that I’ve never experienced before, so it was more of panic. What do I do? What can I do?  How do I fix it?” Duval started researching methods on how to treat persons with PTSD and found that using service dogs was a promising solution. But at the time, there weren’t many organizations providing service dogs for veterans. In 2010, she founded K9s for Warriors to help her son and other military veterans with PTSD.  To date, hundreds of veterans have received dogs and a new lease on life. Duval’s son is now the organization’s director of K9 operations and selects the dogs and directs their training. K9s for Warriors trains mostly rescue dogs to become certified service canines for military veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  The training can take up to a year before the dogs are ready to help them cope with issues like controlling anxiety attacks or fear of public places. “We evaluate the dog for being sound around people, other dogs, noises, cars, and riding in the bus,” says Simon.  “We take them to the store and walk them around. If they keep progressing through that, then they spend the next three to four months getting their basic formal obedience done.” The staff will read through applications from veterans to pair them with the right  dog. For three weeks, veterans live at the organization’s camp in Florida and go through several training courses with their dogs. After successfully completing the program, the veterans will have support when they return home including access to an online community via a private Facebook page group.  They can also come back for refresher courses. Kevin Crowell, a graduate of the program, has been back for more classes.  He is now mentoring to other veterans who go through the program. “It’s still a transition period when you bring the dog home.  My wife had to get used to me spending a lot of time with her as well as Bella coming up and comforting me,” says Kevin Crowell.  “It was about six months to a year when things really started to gel and she just became another part of the family.” Before the K9s for Warriors program, Crowell had problems going out in public.  He had been diagnosed with PTSD and would have nightmares.  His dog Bella now even wakes him up during bad dreams. Crowell’s life has changed for the better and he gives much of the credit to Shari Duval and K9s for Warriors. “Shari doesn’t even realize the impact she has on people’s lives.  I don’t think she really gets that she’s saving lives, “Crowell says.  “It’s amazing that because of one person’s dream to help her son, many other people have benefited. And I’m grateful.” If you would like to support Shari’s mission, visit K9s for Warriors website to see how.  You can also learn more by visiting their Facebook and Twitter pages.


Editor’s Note: James A. Gagliano is a CNN law enforcement analyst and a retired FBI supervisory special agent. He also serves as an adjunct assistant professor at St. John’s University in Queens, New York. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. James Gagliano: We must acknowledge the causality of the current divide between police and communities of color Historical tensions have pinned these two groups against each other and implicit biases maintain these divisions, he writes The recent story of an Australian woman shot dead by police in Minneapolis is a tragedy of epic proportions. Summoning law enforcement to report what she believed to be a sexual assault occurring in the vicinity of her home, Justine Ruszczyk, according to one of the officers on scene, startled police and was shot dead by an arriving officer still seated inside his patrol car. This appears to be a horrific split-second decision and mistake that resulted in Ruszczyk’s tragic death and a police officer’s life irrevocably altered. In the wake of this tragedy, Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau was forced to resign when the city’s mayor expressed a “loss of confidence” in the chief’s ability to lead the department. The victim was white and the officer involved has been identified as Mohamed Noor, a Somali-American in the Minneapolis Police Department. Ergo, there has been no rush to judgments condemning the Minneapolis force as “hopelessly racist,” and no demands for it to be placed under a consent decree. So how might this case fit into the larger narrative about race and policing in America? Well, it raises three points that we must acknowledge in order to begin the national conversation on how to address tensions between law enforcement and the communities they serve. First, we must acknowledge America has a deep and complicated history when it comes to African-Americans and law enforcement. The early beginnings of our nation saw slave patrols in the guise of “law enforcement” wielded as the disciplinary arm of the slave codes in the colonies and states. First implemented in South Carolina in 1704, the patrols were designed to maintain control and instill fear – a mechanism that ensured the smaller outnumbered white populations on plantations could deter slave uprisings and revolts. These patrols also enforced the fugitive slave laws, serving as the “catchers” of runaway slaves, as well as judge, jury and executioners. Related article When white lives are at stake, society takes notice Fast forward to the civil rights movement’s Selma-to-Montgomery march some two months after I was born in 1965; the appalling images still shock the senses and are indelibly ingrained in our national consciousness. Who can look away from the images of the courageous marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge meeting Alabama’s Public Safety Commissioner Theophilus “Bull” Connor’s fire hoses, police batons and attack dogs? Terrorism employed as an instrument of the state. Those of us in law enforcement must understand and appreciate this truism – that in our country’s 241-year history, injustices have been committed in the name of “justice.” And that though many wear the badge with honor, there are still some in our ranks today who abuse their power and apply the law unevenly and injudiciously. Secondly, let’s also remember what former FBI Director James Comey spoke about in a critically important speech at Georgetown University, titled “Hard Truths: Law Enforcement and Race”: We all carry in us implicit biases based upon our understanding of others and shaped by our own experiences. Individually, we must resist the uncontrollable urge to succumb to these biases. African-Americans can be distrustful of police. And, correspondingly, police working within the inner-city can be wary of African-Americans, a group that the 2010 US Census states constitutes 13% of our population, but according to the 2013 FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting statistics, some 52% of arrests for all murders and non-negligent manslaughters in the United States. This disproportionate representation of criminality might explain how even the most pure-of-heart cop can be fearful when interacting with a black motorist on a lonely stretch of highway or when investigating a crime on a street corner occupied by young men of color. Related article Fifty years after the riots that shook America, has anything changed? To acknowledge this shouldn’t make us “racist.” But in today’s hyperpolarized environment, to mention these truisms typically results in being shouted down and unjustly labeled. Rather than blaming an inherently racist criminal justice system, could we not instead attribute partial causality to the disproportionate amount of African-American interactions with law enforcement? To admit as much and seek a solution would be brave. And we could counterbalance that effort with another equally important one. This one requires law enforcement to be honest as well, and to acknowledge that it is insane that we currently have no national database to harvest, store and retrieve data related to officer-involved-shootings. How can this be? If Google can glean my web surfing tendencies and target advertising based on my apparent interests, how are we not able to accurately compile the numbers and circumstances involving police shootings? Want a solution? I suggest tying federal funding to reporting compliance. Currently, the Washington Post seems like the only reliable repository for data related to police shootings. But it shouldn’t be. Related article How US gun culture compares with the world While we’re at it, law enforcement is a wholly human endeavor, fallible and made up of mortals – like me – susceptible to making mistakes. And, yes, there are bad cops. I certainly know this firsthand from having worked as an undercover FBI agent on a case targeting police corruption in the New York metropolitan area in 2002. But these few “bad apples” don’t represent the vast majority of those who wear the badge and swear an oath to protect us. And, finally, let’s acknowledge that media coverage can also be skewed in its portrayal of officer-involved-shootings, reinforcing a trope by making it appear that unarmed blacks are seemingly always the victims of overzealous police. Does anyone believe that greater media coverage is directed at police shootings of whites? My evidence may be anecdotal, but I challenge the reader to argue that officer-involved shootings of white Americans get as much coverage when compared to shootings of people of color by police. Sign up for CNN Opinion’s new newsletter.Join us on Twitter and Facebook In short, we must address these three truisms. Until we do so, we’re simply dismissing large pieces of the causality in our current racial divide, and irresponsibly pretending that some hard truths don’t exist. That makes us afraid to confront them. So we don’t. And that’s counterproductive to the cause demanding that national conversation.


More than 300 million people across India have no access to electricity India is heavily dependent on coal-fired power stations, which serve 60% of households Country has seen skyrocketing carbon emissions -- increase of 170 million tonnes in 2014 As the sun sets on Sukhapur village in India’s Uttar Pradesh, residents fire up their only source of light, a rudimentary cooking stove. “It’s like we’re living in a cave,” resident Aarti Chauhan tells CNN’s Sumnima Udas. “All we see is darkness everywhere, my children can’t even study properly, they have no future here.” Sukhapur, only 100 miles from the capital of New Delhi, is emblematic of a contradiction at the heart of modern India. While the country has seen a skyrocketing rise in emissions – an increase of 170 million tonnes in 2014, more than any other country – some 300 million people across India still don’t have access to electricity. That’s a population roughly the size of the U.S., living in darkness. “They say India is progressing, but nothing happens here, they have forgotten about us,” said Sukhapur resident Anil Chauhan. Speaking at the U.N. Climate Change conference in Paris last week, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated his position that developed countries should shoulder a greater responsibility when it comes to reducing carbon emissions. “Democratic India must grow rapidly to meet the aspirations of 1.25 billion people, 300 million of whom are without access to energy,” he said. The cheapest and easiest way to provide those without electricity access to power is coal, one of the worst offenders when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions. India has the world’s fifth largest coal reserves, and the fossil fuel currently powers more than 60% of the country. Last year, 462 million tonnes of it were produced in India, a figure the government plans to double by 2019. Environmentalists warn that if Indian emissions continue to grow at the same rate they have over the past 10 years, they will surpass the current emissions of the entire European Union by 2020, according to the U.N. climate agency. However, while Modi has said that developing nations shouldn’t be held to the same standards as the world’s richest countries, India has been leading the way in many areas. Interactive: Can you beat the two-degree target? Modi’s government has sought to promote solar and other renewable power, with a stated goal by 2030 to have 40% non-fossil energy sources compared to the current 19%. “What we want to do with renewable energy in the next 7-10 years took Germany 21 years to achieve,” said Dr Arunabha Ghosh, chief executive of the Indian Council on Energy, Environment and Water. “In our estimates we find the Indian targets are disproportionately greater than the U.S. or Europe have put forward.” Nevertheless, Modi’s India is still highly dependent on coal. “Coal is a significant contributor to India’s greenhouse gas emissions,” said Leena Srivastava, Executive Director of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). Srivastava said that the government should shut down aging, inefficient power plants and invest in modern ones using newer, less-polluting technology. “We can’t have a binary discussion on yes to coal or no to it, but somewhere in between,” he said. Report: Global temperature hike already halfway to ‘two degree warming’ limit Related video Devastating floods swamp south India Tackling climate change is of particular concern for India, which like many tropical nations is bearing hard the brunt of existing rises in global temperature. Relief efforts are underway in flood-stricken Chennai, where some of the heaviest – and deadliest – rains in decades rains have left the coastal city reeling and death tolls nearing 300. “This kind of flood risk is something that is going to rise over time,” he said. “In Chennai, we’re witnessing the highest rainfall in a hundred years.” Around 120,000 people have been displaced by the rising waters in Chennai and surrounding Tamil Nadu state. According to Ghosh, the damage done to the country by climate change-related events has exceeded $30 billion in the last five years. By 2050, agricultural losses alone will be around $200 billion a year. If temperatures continue to rise at the current pace, Ghosh and his colleagues predict that the risk of a once-in-a-century flood would increase by up to 1,000 times in some Indian cities. Speaking at the Paris conference, Marine Franck of the U.N. Advisory Group on Climate Change and Human Mobility said that, on average, 22.5 million people have been displaced each year between 2008 and 2014 as a result of cyclones, floods and other climate change related events. The equivalent of one person every second over the last eight years. While Ghosh was skeptical of any deal that might come about as a result of the Paris talks, he was adamant that something must be done. “Whether you take renewable energy or fossil fuels, the richest countries are still continuing on a pathway that continues to raise the risk of climate change to the whole world,” he said.


Ghanaian Samuel Mensah is the founder of fashion brand Kisua The South Africa-based label works with designers from across the continent Samuel Mensah had the world at his feet. An economist by trade, he was the director of an international investment fund as well as an adviser to the African Union and various governments, advocating for the adoption of technology as a solution overcoming obstacles on the continent. But his passion lay elsewhere – in entrepreneurship. And so he gave it all up. He left the high profile career behind and sold everything for his startup: Kisua, a South Africa-based e-commerce fashion platform that sells its own clothes and collaborates with other designers to create collections for its label. Fast forward two years and today he’s dressing international superstars like Beyonce. We spoke to Mensah about going from economist to entrepreneur, worst fashion faux pas’ and dressing Beyonce. Starting KISUA. I gave up a good paying job as Africa Director for an international investment fund and sold everything I owned to raise the seed capital to start KISUA. Working and traveling extensively across the continent, I would buy ready-made African inspired clothes as gifts for friends and family overseas. Before long, people were trying to place orders with me, offering money with a request that I purchase clothing for them during my next visit to a particular African city. That was my light bulb moment: There is huge demand for good quality contemporary African fashion but few places to buy it. A post shared by Beyoncé (@beyonce) Vindicated! People thought I was crazy to believe that a homegrown African fashion company could become a global brand. And while I do admit to being a bit of a dreamer, seeing Beyonce, the biggest female superstar of our generation, who could wear any brand in the world, but chose to wear KISUA, on more than one occasion, was perhaps proof that I wasn’t completely mad. We are not there yet, but it sure is a promising start. The first rule of being a trendsetter: ignore trends and do your own thing. Stay true to yourself and be guided by what you believe and hold dear. The internet. It is the most powerful tool by which brands and consumers can interact and transact directly with each other. If there is no risk, the business is probably not worth starting.  No risk, no returns. Michelle Obama, Lupita Nyongo, Beyonce and Solange Knowles are quintessential KISUA women. Maki Oh (Nigeria), Taibo Bacar (Mozambique), Sophie Zinga (Senegal), MaXhosa by Laduma (South Africa) We collaborate with a carefully edited group of designers from across Africa to create capsule collections for KISUA. Designers from across the African continent have been scouted to work alongside KISUA on collaborative capsule collections. We also produce collections designed by our in-house design team. We have also recently launched accessories produced by African designers. KISUA is also sold on YOOX.com, taking contemporary fashion to a new global audience. Senegal and Mozambique have some exciting design talent. We have them on our radar. Baggy pants for men (a la Mc Hammer). The creative industries are not taken particularly seriously in Africa by the investment community. And fashion in particular is generally considered fickle, superficial and in the case of Africa, an unprofessional and immature industry that is not ready for serious investment. So it was incredibly difficult trying to find investors to start KISUA. In the end I just decided to sell everything I had and started the business without any investors. Once I started, the investors came running! A crisp fitted white shirt (to go with the printed suit from KISUA of course). Jesus, Prophet Mohammed, Bob Marley, 2Pac, John Lennon, Mohammed Ali, Yasser Arafat, Simon Perez, Oprah, Marilyn Monroe, Coco Channel, Michelle Obama, Bill Clinton, Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela and my dad. I am the luckiest guy in the world. I get to make women happy every day.


Part of an oil tanker that has been ablaze for days off the coast of Shanghai exploded Wednesday, forcing rescue boats searching for 31 missing sailors to retreat, Chinese authorities said. The Panama-registered tanker, Sanchi, was carrying 136,000 tons – around 1 million barrels – of oil from Iran to South Korea when it collided with the Hong Kong-registered CF Crystal freighter in the East China Sea on Saturday evening. Since then, the tanker has been ablaze and drifting in the waters between Shanghai and southern Japan. By Wednesday evening, the stricken ship had drifted 65 nautical miles southeast from the site of the collision, China’s Ministry of Transport said. The front section of the SANCHI had exploded earlier Wednesday, at around 1.30 local time (12.30 a.m ET). “Vessels at the scene have to stop putting out the fire and withdraw back to (a safe distance),” the statement said. “The fire extinguishing operation did not achieve the desired effect.” Thirty Iranian and two Bangladeshi sailors were onboard during the catastrophic collision. So far, no survivors from the tanker have been found and only one body has been recovered. The CF-Crystal had been transporting food from the United States to the Chinese province of Guangdong, the China’s Ministry of Transport said, adding that its 21 crew members has all been rescued. A spokesman for the National Iranian Tanker Company, Iran’s top oil shipping operator and a joint public-private company which owns and operates the Sanchi, told Iranian state media that China was not attempting to rescue the sailors, nor extinguish the blaze. Mohsen Bahrami, spokesman for company, confirmed to CNN that he told the Iranian Students’ News Agency, one of the country’s state outlets, that “China did not help with the rescue efforts of the people on board the Iranian tanker.” He told ISNA that despite having firefighting assets in the area, Chinese authorities were not actively trying to extinguish the blaze. “China has a lot of firefighting equipment and personnel near burning tanker but it is not using them,” he said. CNN has contacted the Chinese authorities for comment but has not yet received a reply. China’s Ministry of Foreign affairs said Wednesday that 12 vessels were searching for the missing sailors in the tanker’s vicinity before the explosion, and efforts were continuing to clean up any spilled light crude. The Japanese Coast Guard told CNN Thursday that it is sending at least one patrol ship and one aircraft to gather the information of the accident and the status of the area in order to issue navigation updates and warnings. The Coast Guard does not currently plan on sending teams to contribute to either the rescue or firefighting efforts but confirmed that Chinese teams are working to extinguish the blaze. With a length of 900 feet (274 meters) and displacing more than 85,000 tons, the Sanchi is almost as big as the US Navy’s Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, according to the ship-tracking site marinetraffic.com. Iran’s Shana news agency reported that the Sanchi was managed by the National Iranian Tanker Company and that its cargo was worth around $60 million. Shana said the oil had been purchased by South Korean customers. CNN’s Alex Felton and Yoko Wakatsuki contributed to this report.


Here’s what you might have missed on CNN today: – President Trump, in response to a question on the chemical attack in Syria, said, “I now have responsibility” for a policy regarding the country. – Meanwhile, international condemnation mounted over the apparent targeted chemical attack. Russia’s claims that a regime airstrike on a “terrorist” ammunition depot was behind the attack were rejected. – Steve Bannon was removed from his National Security Council role. – Trump defended Bill O’Reilly in an interview with The New York Times, saying, “I don’t think Bill did anything wrong.” – An F-16 crashed near Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. – The United States may add airports to the electronics ban. – Pepsi pulled its controversial Kendall Jenner ad. – Another teen was accepted by all eight Ivy League schools.


Libyan militia says ISIS supported Manchester suicide bomber After Syria and Iraq, the group may look to Libya as new base Even as the so-called Islamic State has lost territory and men in Libya, it has maintained an underground network of cells in some of the most populous parts of the country. That network, according to security forces in the capital Tripoli, supported the Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi and his younger brother Hashim. If the Manchester attack was planned in Libya, it would appear to be the first time an ISIS network has used the country to plot an attack in Europe. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack but provided no conclusive evidence it had directed Abedi. One of the many militia operating in Libya, the Special Deterrence Force, said Hashim was arrested Tuesday night in Tripoli and had confessed that both he and his brother were members of ISIS. Salman had been in Tripoli until very recently. The Deterrence Force said Hashim had been under surveillance for more than a month after leaving Britain on April 16. CNN could not verify the Deterrence Force’s statement. However, as ISIS’ last remaining strongholds in Iraq and Syria come under growing pressure, the group may look to Libya as a base to plan and direct terror in Europe. According to German officials, the man who carried out the truck attack in Berlin last December, Anis Amri, had contact with ISIS operatives in Libya via a secure messaging app. ISIS has long had an underground presence in Tripoli and in towns up and down Libya’s Mediterranean coast. It carried out a gun and bomb attack on a Tripoli hotel in January 2015, killing ten people. Related article US officials: Manchester suspect spent 3 weeks in Libya prior to attack It has also recruited young men and teenagers across Libya and neighboring Tunisia, using slick videos designed to appeal to those without jobs or prospects. A teenager for example, carried out a suicide attack at the Libyan oil port of Sidra in January 2016, according to an ISIS statement at the time. Libyan media reported he had been radicalized at a mosque in the Libyan capital. In 2015, CNN visited the southern Tunisian town of Kasserine, where unemployment is high and poverty widespread. We were told of active jihadist recruitment in local mosques. On one street, nicknamed Avenue de Jihad, locals estimated that half the young men had gone missing, many to Libya. Since then, ISIS has suffered a string of territorial setbacks in Libya. It lost control of the town of Derna near the Egyptian border in July 2015, and was ultimately driven out of the coastal city of Sirte late last year after being pounded by hundreds of US airstrikes and a ground attack by Libyan militia. In western Libya, a US air strike on a jihadist training camp near Sabratha killed more than 40 people in February 2016, likely including a senior ISIS figure involved in planning attacks in Tunisia. As ISIS fighters regrouped in a mountainous area south of Sirte, another US attack killed dozens of them in January this year – an airstrike linked to evidence gathered about the Berlin truck attacker, Anis Amri. Then US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the operation was aimed at ISIS’ “external plotters, who were actively planning operations against our allies in Europe … and may also have been connected with some attacks that have already occurred in Europe.” ISIS is far from vanquished in Libya. Its leadership has certainly been degraded: the last ‘emir’, Abdul Qasr al Najdi, was killed in the Sirte fighting, and succeeded by a Tunisian who had lived in France, according to sources in the region. But Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser, the head of US Africa Command, told a Congressional hearing in March that “ISIS-Libya remains a regional threat.” “The instability in Libya and North Africa may be the most significant near-term threat to U.S. and allies’ interests on the continent,” General Waldhauser said. In Libya as elsewhere, ISIS is transitioning from a self-declared Caliphate to a more conventional terror organization. Aaron Zelin, a long-time observer of jihad in north Africa at the Washington Institute, says that “if the Manchester attack is definitively tied to IS cells in Libya, it would show that the group can still be a lethal actor even without holding territory there.” Zelin says that’s “an important point to consider when planning for life after the fall of the group’s ‘capitals’ in Iraq and Syria.” The continuing political chaos in Libya, where rival militia compete over territory and resources and borders are porous, make the country an attractive refuge for ISIS.


Rakhine State is home to the ethnic Rohingya minority "Tensions remain high and they risk becoming worse," said former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan Eight police officers and an immigration officer were killed during a series of coordinated attacks against police in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State, authorities said Friday. At least 20 police outposts and an army base were targeted, the committee said. Authorities alleged that an estimated 150 insurgents attempted to storm the base but “soldiers fought back.” The bodies of 16 insurgents have been recovered, the State Counselor Office’s Information Committee said on Facebook. “Fighting remains in some locations and a combined forces of the Tatmadaw (Myanmar armed forces) and police forces are still waging an attack against the extremist terrorists,” the committee said. The violence erupted hours after the release a long-awaited report into the treatment of Rohingya by the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, led by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The report warned unrest in the state could spiral out of control unless concrete action is taken soon. “Tensions remain high and they risk becoming worse,” Annan said. “The status quo cannot continue.” The attack was significantly bigger than one in October 2016, which sparked the latest round of unrest in Rakhine State, according to Human Rights Watch Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson. “This was a significant attack,” Robertson told CNN. “Clearly, it doesn’t help to have the security issue come right up front again so soon after the launch of the report.” An insurgent group known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, formerly known as  Harakat al-Yaqeen – or “Faith Movement” – claimed responsibility for the attack on Twitter. “This is a legitimate step for us to defend the world’s persecuted people and liberate the oppressed people from the hands of the oppressors!” the group said. Rakhine State is home to Myanmar’s Rohingya community, ethnic Muslims who have long faced persecution in the Buddhist-majority country, especially from the country’s Buddhist extremists. The Rohingya are not formally recognized as citizens – the Myanmar government does not even use the term Rohingya, referring to the group as “illegal immigrants” from neighboring Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority country. State media has published columns in which Rohingya “terrorists” are referred to as “detestable human fleas.” The majority of Rohingya have been in Myanmar for multiple generations. Violence in Rakhine State has occurred in fits and starts in recent years, with the latest outbreak beginning in the wake of numerous attacks by militants on several government border posts in October 2016. The Rohingya are a stateless Muslim minority in Myanmar’s Rakhine state thought to number about 1 million people.Myanmar does not recognize them as citizens or one of the 135 recognized ethnic groups in the country.Myanmar regards them as illegal immigrants, a view rooted in their heritage in East Bengal, now called Bangladesh. Though many Rohingya have only known life in Myanmar, they are widely viewed as intruders from across the border.According to Human Rights Watch, laws discriminate against the Rohingya, infringing on their freedom of movement, education and employment.They are denied land and property rights and ownership, and the land on which they live can be taken away at any given time. The Rohingya are a stateless Muslim minority in Myanmar’s Rakhine state thought to number about 1 million people.Myanmar does not recognize them as citizens or one of the 135 recognized ethnic groups in the country.Myanmar regards them as illegal immigrants, a view rooted in their heritage in East Bengal, now called Bangladesh. Though many Rohingya have only known life in Myanmar, they are widely viewed as intruders from across the border.According to Human Rights Watch, laws discriminate against the Rohingya, infringing on their freedom of movement, education and employment.They are denied land and property rights and ownership, and the land on which they live can be taken away at any given time. The Myanmar military responded with a series of security operations to find what it claimed were terrorists hiding among the Rohingya population. Thousands fled across the border to neighboring Bangladesh, where refugees told stories of their villages being burned, mothers and daughters being raped and friends being summarily executed. Yanghee Lee, a UN special rapporteur told CNN in March that crimes against humanity may have been committed. “When there’s 77,000 people running away from their home towns, leaving everything … the international community should really step up to the plate,” she told CNN. The government has denied many of the allegations leveled against the military – including those of human rights abuses – and says it’s investigating others. The charges are difficult to corroborate, as most international media and aid organizations have been heavily restricted from traveling to the region. ‘The Rohingya Alan Kurdi’: Will the world take notice now? The Rakhine Advisory Commission was set up last year to analyze the situation in Rakhine State and issue recommendations. Its findings were published Thursday. “Unless concerted action – led by the government and aided by all sectors of the government and society – is taken soon, we risk the return of another cycle of violence and radicalization, which will further deepen the chronic poverty that afflicts Rakhine State,” Annan said upon announcing the commission’s finding. The commission recommended, some of which include: Human Rights Watch and other humanitarian groups lauded the recommendations. “The Commission has developed an impressive set of common-sense, focused recommendations that if fully implemented could bring the sort of progress that has been missing in Rakhine State for decades,” Roberston said. But the rise of ARSA, the first Rohingya group to take up arms in decade, has fueled worries that extremists on both sides could further damage the situation – making the report’s implementation all the more urgent said Robertson. “We’re going to see these kind of flare-ups and efforts by extremists on all sides to try to derail these recommendations,” he said. The commission was formed at the request of Aung San Suu Kyi, the State Counselor of Myanmar and the country’s de facto leader. Suu Kyi, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for her nonviolent campaign against the military junta that ruled the country for decades, came to power after her party won a landslide victory in the country’s 2015 elections, though the military still wields a significant amount of power. Related article The unwanted: Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh International humanitarian groups have so far expressed disappointment in Suu Kyi’s response to the situation, alleging that she has not done enough to stymie the unrest and protect the Rohingya population. Suu Kyi has denied some of the more severe allegations made by rights organizations, including that ethnic cleansing is occurring in the region. “Rather than deal with ongoing atrocities, the government tried to hide behind the Advisory Commission,” said Matthew Smith, the CEO of human rights group Fortify Rights. “The Commission responded with concrete recommendations to end violations, and the government should act on them without delay.” Outside observers are also concerned that authorities could ignore some of the report’s findings in favor of a similar inquiry by the Myanmar government, which Human Rights Watch called “inept.” Robertson says now that the commission’s findings are now public, “the ball is now in Suu Kyi’s court.” “We want to see a firm agreement to implement these recommendations, to say very clearly what’s going to be done,” he said. “The statement so far has been, we’ll implement what we can depending on the situation on the ground. You couldn’t get more vague than that.” Journalist Jimmy Toe contributed to this report


Editor’s Note: Timothy Stanley, a conservative, is a historian and columnist for Britain’s Daily Telegraph. He is the author of “Citizen Hollywood: How the Collaboration Between L.A. and D.C. Revolutionized American Politics.” The opinions expressed in this commentary are his. Timothy Stanley: Trump's goal is to nail down a base, grow it a little and then get it to turn out in huge numbers But controversy over his various statements is distracting from debate over more pressing issues, he says Donald Trump has had a terrible few days. He has been sucked into a row with a Muslim Gold Star family, the Khans; criticized strongly by John McCain; and branded “unfit” for high office by President Barack Obama. This might be the worst start to a fall campaign since 1972, when George McGovern was forced to drop a running mate who admitted to having received electric shock therapy. McGovern’s crisis solidified impressions that he was a dolt and a ditherer – that he was unpresidential. But we live in different times. Standards are much lower. For Trump to get this far suggests a significant proportion of the electorate just doesn’t care whom he offends. Let me play devil’s advocate, on the understanding that I am defending the devilish – just one of many epithets that Trump has used for Clinton. The Democrats, the media and certain disaffected Republicans have been quick to jump on Trump, and he’s given them a lot of material. But have they been entirely fair? For a start, the Khan family were not the only people representing someone who died in service to the United States at this year’s conventions. The Republicans featured Pat Smith, who lost a son in the Benghazi raids. Her speech, like the Khans’, was highly personal and damning of the opposing nominee – and both were exploitations of grief by political parties that ought, frankly, to be ashamed of themselves for using other people’s suffering to get votes. Yet while Smith’s speech has been rarely mentioned since, the Khans have emerged as far more eloquent critics of Trump than Clinton herself. That’s partly because of the way Trump chose to answer Khizr Khan’s criticisms: a) to suggest that he, too, had sacrificed a lot and b) to imply that Ghazala Khan might have been silent out of submission to her Islamic faith. Related article Actually, Trump has a point But for all Trump’s clumsiness on this front – which, yes, might in itself disqualify him from the role of commander in chief on the grounds of temperament – the fuss distracts from the bigger questions that really matter. Remember that Hillary Clinton voted for the war the Khans lost a son in. That should be a far bigger deal than it is. Vet Trump’s remarks; correct him when he gets it so wrong. But the question of when it’s right or wrong to intervene and who owes whom an apology over Iraq is surely a much more important matter than this. Khizr Khan himself is on record as saying that wars in the Middle East have left America more vulnerable. He’s right. But it just isn’t being discussed. It’s a more important subject, too, than the fact that Trump appeared to ask a woman with a crying baby to leave his rally – plainly a bit of banter, by the way. Or that his wife once posed for Sapphic topless photos. Or that Obama thinks Trump is just a terrible, terrible person. These are irrelevant in part because they distract us from analyzing the substance of Trump’s message, but also because they are good examples of how everything liberals perceive to be a negative about Trump actually works as a positive among his own people. What do they translate into in the minds of many conservatives? That Trump, like everyone else, hates being interrupted by screaming infants. That Trump’s wife is hot and unashamed of it. And that anyone who Obama thinks is unfit for the presidency must be getting something right. So yes, Trump has shot himself in the foot several times – and that’s reflected in polling that puts Clinton comfortably ahead nationally. But the model of a campaign that he’s working to isn’t the kind of model that sunk past contenders. His goal is to nail down a base, grow it a little and then get it to turn out in huge numbers. Related article When U.S. meddled in another country's election Whether that strategy works, it means that every time the Democrats or media think they’ve wounded Trump, he’ll just keep on fighting. And, by his own logic, he should. If Trump was to admit a mistake and apologize for it, he’d shatter his own narrative of eternal invincibility. This crudeness, love it or loathe it, is the only way he’ll win. Meanwhile, the country is denied the kind of debate it deserves. I’m far more interested to hear how Trump is going to finance his latest proposal of spending more than $500 billion on infrastructure. Or what Clinton has to say in light of the Khan controversy about her own foreign policy. She has been at the heart of a series of gross errors that have cost lives. She backed Iraq. She was at the helm during Libya. And she is now accused of overseeing the financing of rebel forces in Syria. Compared to all of that, Trump University is very small fry indeed.


The three Gulf countries and Egypt accused Qatar of supporting terrorism and destabilizing the region The feud among Washington's closest Gulf allies could disrupt US efforts to fight ISIS President Donald Trump appeared to take credit for the decision of major Gulf nations to cut diplomatic relations with Qatar, an important US ally, putting his stamp of approval on the move despite Pentagon and State Department attempts to remain neutral. “During my recent trip to the Middle East I stated that there can no longer be funding of Radical Ideology. Leaders pointed to Qatar - look,” he tweeted Tuesday. The tweet could pose difficulties for the US in explaining why it remains in Qatar, host to the one of the Pentagon’s largest military bases in the Middle East and a linchpin in the campaign against ISIS. For that reason, the President’s 140 character blast may raise concerns within the Defense Department. During my recent trip to the Middle East I stated that there can no longer be funding of Radical Ideology. Leaders pointed to Qatar - look! Pentagon officials moved quickly to limit any damage, with spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis telling reporters Tuesday that the US is “grateful to the Qataris for the longstanding support for our presence and their enduring commitment to regional security.” He added that the US has “no plans to change our posture in Qatar,” stressed that there has been no impact on military operations and urged all parties to work together to resolve the crisis. Defense Secretary James Mattis called his Qatari counterpart Tuesday to discuss the situation, a US defense official said. There was no formal readout on the call, but a second defense official said it was an effort to keep the dialogue open on positive military relations between the two countries. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the US was informed of the Gulf nation’s decision, but only “immediately prior” to the announcement being made. Nauert said Qatar has made some progress on reducing terror financing, “however, let me make this clear,” she added: “They have made progress, but they still have work to do, more work needs to be done.” And like Davis, Nauert struck a different note than Trump did, saying that the US is “grateful to the Qataris for their longstanding support for our presence in the region.” Amid the mixed messaging, White House press secretary Sean Spicer declined to say whether Trump encouraged Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries to cut ties with Qatar after Trump appeared to claim credit for the move on Twitter. Spicer said the US “wants to see this issue deescalated and resolved immediately” and said regional cooperation is “so important.” Analysts say Trump’s Twitter intervention calls into question the role of the US as an impartial arbiter in the region. “The President has just sided with everyone else rather decisively,” said Hussein Ibish, a senior resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute. “The administration’s two priorities are confronting terrorism and Iran, that’s exactly what this is about,” Ibish said. “The chance of the US siding with Qatar, giving them a face-saving way out, is totally gone.” The President did not express concern or condemn the move by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates to break off relations with Qatar in the worst diplomatic crisis to hit Gulf Arab states in decades. Instead, he offered praise, tweeting Tuesday morning that it was “so good to see the Saudi Arabia visit with the King and 50 countries already paying off. They said they would take a hard line on funding extremism, and all reference was pointing to Qatar. Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism!” So good to see the Saudi Arabia visit with the King and 50 countries already paying off. They said they would take a hard line on funding... The tweets were a 180-degree reversal of his own position on Qatar, a nation he commended during a May 21 summit in Saudi Arabia, saying relations were “extremely good.” “He highlighted the relationship between the US and Qatar as a strategic one and noted that Qatar hosts a major airbase and today he characterizes it a financier of radical ideology,” said Eric Trager a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “The question is why? Why the change?” The shift could create difficulties for the Pentagon. Trager notes that Qatar is a country in which American interests and values are “in great tension.” ...extremism, and all reference was pointing to Qatar. Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism! “The Pentagon sees Qatar first and foremost as the country hosting a major airbase and President Trump appears to have, in light of this crisis, focused more on what Qatar is promoting ideologically over what Qatar is providing for American forces. That’s the basic trade-off here.” The three Sunni Gulf countries and Egypt accused Qatar of supporting terrorism and destabilizing the region, in part because of its ties to their Shiite rival, Iran. Yemen, Libya and the Maldives also cut ties with Qatar. The squabble could disrupt the US-led campaign against ISIS, particularly since the main regional center for daily air missions and coordination of air operations is the US military’s Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. Related video Qatar accused of supporting terror The Persian Gulf nation of 300,000 people is now the subject of a blockade by some of its closest neighbors. They have closed down air and sea links with Qatar and have said they will look for ways to block other nations from flying through their airspace on the way to Qatar. The crisis could ripple globally. Qatar is the world’s top exporter of liquefied natural gas and a crucial energy supplier to Europe and Asia. Saudi Arabia has also shut the local office of the Qatar media group Al Jazeera. Qatar – which shares its only land border with Saudi Arabia – has rejected the accusations, calling them “unjustified” and “baseless.” Related video Food, fuel and flights: How Qatar may suffer Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, speaking to CNN’s Becky Anderson Tuesday, said a Saudi Arabian statement accusing his country of terrorism was “full of false information.” “With all due respect, this statement is full of contradictions because it is saying that we are supporting Iran and on the other hand supporting the  extremist groups in Syria; and we are supporting the Muslim Brotherhood in Saudi or in Yemen and we are supporting the (Iranian-backed) Houthis form the other side. In all battlefields, there are adversaries,” Al Thani said. Qatar’s independent Emirs have long pursued their own foreign policy path, to the irritation of Saudi Arabia. And while Doha admits to supporting Islamic movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, it denies any support for terrorism. “Is the government of Qatar financing terrorists? The evidence of that is very tenuous,” Trager said. “But is Qatar, through its media outlets, promoting a certain type of ideology? Yeah.” It wasn’t clear if the President had discussed his tweet with either the State or Defense departments beforehand, and queries to the White House were not immediately returned. But he struck a very different note than his Cabinet officials. Asked about the Gulf blockade at a Monday press conference in Australia, Defense Secretary James Mattis said, “I am positive there will be no implications coming out of this dramatic situation at all and I say that based on the commitment that each of these nations … have made to this fight.” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, speaking alongside Mattis, also downplayed the possibility of negative repercussions for the fight against terrorism and urged the parties to stay unified. “We certainly would encourage the parties to sit down together and address these differences,” he said. Qatari citizens have been told they have 14 days to leave Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE, and those countries also banned their own citizens from entering Qatar. CNN’s Hamdi Alkhshali in Atlanta and Eugene Scott in New York contributed to this report.


Editor’s Note: Ghadi Sary is an Academy fellow with the Chatham House Middle East and North Africa Programme. The opinions expressed here belong to the author The dire humanitarian situation for civilians on both sides boosts the urgent need for a resolution Sary: Both sides seem adamant that this ceasefire work, and that might hold the key to its success Despite the skepticism that accompanied the announcement of the ceasefire in Syria, it might indeed be, as Secretary John Kerry has said, the last hope for bringing peace to the war-torn country. Every group involved in both high-level negotiations and fighting on the ground to needs to understand this if they sincerely want the civil war to end peacefully. The ceasefire comes after months of negotiations between the US and Russia over a lasting cessation of hostilities in Syria that allows for a political transition, ultimately ending the conflict. Both sides seem adamant that this ceasefire work, and that might hold the key to its success. The agreement itself focuses on halting military operations across the country as a prelude for further negotiations revolving around political power sharing. Related video What will it take for the Syrian ceasefire to hold? On the ground, five-and-a-half years of bloody conflict have left fighters on both sides showing signs of utter exhaustion. With depleting human and military resources, both sides are relying on continued support from either the US and its allies (in the case of the Syrian opposition) or from Russia and Iran (as is the case for President Assad). The fact that the US and Russia have come together after months of tough negotiations to produce a detailed, technical, step-by-step agreement for a ceasefire will have to be met seriously by allies of both sides. Indeed, the agreement seems aimed at guaranteeing an end to the conflict between the Syrian regime and the rebels while focusing at length on mutually targeting radical Islamist fighters with links to listed terrorist groups. The provision for a joint military-operations room between the US and Russia on Syria will address one the main reasons for the collapse of the previous ceasefire – namely, Russian Air Force targeting of moderate rebel forces. Equally, Syrian opposition groups will find themselves compelled to disengage from jihadist group Jabhat-Fateh al-Sham, the rebranded former Al-Qaeda affiliate previously known as Al-Nusra. Such a move would take away one of President’s Assad’s justifications for targeting the rebel forces. Related video No deaths reported as Syria ceasefire holds Despite Assad’s latest comments about “retaking all of Syria from the terrorists,” the announcement from the Syria Arab Army of a cessation of hostilities for seven days is a clear indication of its acceptance of the Russian mediation. Given the Russian casualties and the billions the country has spent on the Syrian conflict, President Putin has earned himself the leverage he needs to convince his local allies of the latest peace plan. Should President Assad fail to abide by the provisions of this deal, he would be upsetting his own allies and not just his foes, which will affect his chances in any future political process in Syria, even a transitional one. The US on the other hand, armed with the success of its other ally in Syria, the Kurdish dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF,) will also be seeking to send a strong message about the new reality to groups on the ground. The SDF have managed in recent months to recapture large pieces of territory from ISIS, and with US support have managed to establish a form of local governance and allow the resumption of basic services in most of these areas. This is proving to be the best available scenario keeping ISIS and radical groups – as well as regime targeting of civilians – away from those areas. This suits the interest of the US administration, as combating ISIS and global jihad remains a priority for US national security and will remain so for the next administration. Groups that wish to continue receiving US support will need to distance themselves from radical groups and align behind a political settlement for the war. This ceasefire will offer moderate opposition groups the opportunity to separate from those radical groups and imitate the SDF model, something they were unable to do while continuously being targeted by Russian, Syrian and Iranian forces. It is also an opportunity for the moderate Syrian opposition to show that it still holds control over rebel groups fighting on the ground, something that the opposition High Negotiation Committee insisted on in its meetings in London last week. That was indeed one of the underlying messages communicated to Syrian rebel groups by the US administration following the announcement of the peace deal. Sign up for CNN Opinion’s new newsletter.Join us on Twitter and Facebook While many skeptics will point to the numerous technical difficulties that remain, the dire humanitarian situation for civilians on both sides is pushing the urgency for a resolution to the conflict in Syria. Fighting in Aleppo last month has left hundreds of thousands of civilians in desperate need of aid. Should aid convoys manage to make their way into besieged areas over the next couple of days, it will be very hard for anyone to claim that this ceasefire is not indeed that last real hope for peace in Syria.


Indonesia confirms that nine prisoners on death row could be executed as soon as Tuesday The condemned group includes Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran Australia has repeatedly appealed for clemency for pair, members of "Bali Nine" smuggling ring The executions of nine of 10 mainly foreign prisoners on death row in Indonesia will “go ahead as planned” and could take place as early as Tuesday, Indonesia’s attorney general’s office said Monday. The condemned group includes Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, Filipino maid Mary Jane Veloso and prisoners from Ghana, Brazil, Nigeria and Indonesia. French national Serge Atlaoui’s execution has been delayed while a court considers a legal challenge. Indonesian President Joko Widodo denied all 10 prisoners’ petitions for clemency in late 2014. Australians Chan and Sukumaran – members of the “Bali Nine” smuggling ring who were convicted for their role in a failed 2005 heroin smuggling plot – tried to challenge Widodo’s decision this month but lost an appeal for the State Administrative Court to hear their case. Related video Indonesia court rejects appeal from Bali Nine duo Their attorneys filed another review at the Constitutional Court, but a spokesman for the attorney general’s office told CNN on Monday that their legal options had been exhausted. “We do not have to wait for the constitutional review case filed by the Australians. The execution will go ahead as planned,” spokesman Tony Spontana said. Spontana confirmed Sunday that the prisoners had been given notice that a firing squad could execute them after 72 hours. It was possible that the executions would take place Tuesday, he told CNN on Monday “but only the attorney general has the authority to decide or announce that.” The Australian government has appealed for clemency for Chan and Sukumaran, unsuccessfully proposing a prisoner swap with Indonesia as a way to avoid their deaths. In a statement Sunday, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the men had been rehabilitated and were “genuinely remorseful.” “Nothing can be gained and much will be lost if these two young Australians are executed. I again respectfully call on the President of Indonesia to reconsider his refusal to grant clemency. It is not too late for a change of heart,” she said. Edre Olalia, an attorney for Veloso, told CNN on Sunday that Veloso had telephoned her sister on Saturday and said her execution would take place within 72 hours. According to her attorneys, Veloso unknowingly carried drugs into Indonesia and was set up by members of a drug syndicate. Philippine President Benigno Aquino has appealed for clemency in Veloso’s case, and Spontana said that Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi had spoken to the attorney general about the case. “The attorney general explained to her that in Mary Jane’s case, the judicial process is over. Her second judicial review was rejected by the Sleman court today,” Spontana said, referring to a district court in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. “We hope that when the Philippine government receives the message, it will understand that this is the legal process in Indonesia. “We are not at war with them, we are at war with our country’s drug problem. We respect our relations with our ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) neighbors, but we should also respect the principles of noninterference in each other’s internal affairs,” he said. Indonesia’s President reiterated that message when asked about Veloso during an interview Monday with state-owned television station TVRI. “Narcotics is damaging our nation’s youth. It should be explained – the press should explain – that every day 50 of our young people die every day because of drugs. That’s 18,000 per year,” Joko said. ‘We are serious in our war against drugs.” Opinion: Why executions won’t win Indonesia’s drug war Spontano said that Atlaoui, the French national, had filed the same case as previously put to Indonesia’s State Administrative Court by Australians Chan and Sukumaran. “They lost that case,” he said. The Frenchman could be executed separately, he said.


Here’s what you might have missed on CNN today: – President Trump disparaged “gun-free school zones” as he met with officials to discuss how to prevent school massacres, and suggested teachers who undergo gun training could get bonuses. Trump also said he supports raising the gun purchase age to 21, ending the sale of bump stocks, and opposes “active shooter drills.” – Police braced for a shootout with the gunman behind the Florida school shooting. It turns out, security footage was on a 26-minute delay and the shooter was already gone. – NRA chief Wayne LaPierre delivered a blistering speech at CPAC, accusing Democrats of pushing a socialist agenda to deprive Americans of the right to bear arms. And an NRA spokesperson said many in “legacy media” love mass shootings. – Trump is considering punishing California by withdrawing ICE agents from the state. – YouTube and Facebook were forced to issue mea culpas for the spread of conspiracy theories. Again. – The United Nations is mulling action in Syria as deaths rise in an eastern suburb that one chief describes as “hell on Earth.” – Watch out for the cryptojackers: These hackers take over computers to make some serious digital coin. – A suspicious package sent to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is being treated as a racist hate crime. – Kylie Jenner can influence people – and markets.