On January 15, a massive blast shattered the dawn calm at El Adde military base. A suicide bomber had detonated a truck loaded with explosives, the cue for hundreds of fighters clad in camouflage gear to attack. The raid lasted the entire day; thousands upon thousands of bullets fired by some 300 Al-Shabaab militants in a brutal assault on Kenyan soldiers stationed in Somalia to fight the terrorist group. By the time the sun set, as many as 141 Kenyan soldiers were dead – some shot at point-blank range. That figure would make what happened at El Adde Kenya’s largest military defeat since its independence in 1963. But in the months since, there has been no national day of mourning, no roll call of honor, and no explanation. The only clues to what happened are contained in a propaganda video made by Al-Shabaab itself. Al-Shabaab hits African Union base The exact details of what went on at El Adde – and just how many Kenyan troops died there – remains shrouded in mystery. The Somali government says 200 Kenyan soldiers, key to the African Union’s fight against al-Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab, were at the base that day. Al Shabaab, which is known to exaggerate its figures, claims to have killed 100 Kenyans. This time, though, the terror group may actually be underestimating: Two officials familiar with the recovery operations have told CNN that the Kenyan death toll from that day is at least 141. Kenya’s government is yet to release official figures. On the day of the attack the Kenyan Defense Force (KDF) first said its soldiers were helping to repel an attack on a Somali National Army base before stating that the KDF had incurred unspecified losses. But as the hours wore on and rumors intensified of just how fierce and bloody the fight for El Adde was, the press releases stopped and the KDF’s media wing went silent. Information surrounding the attack needed to be handled “carefully” and “meticulously,” Cabinet Secretary for Defense Rachael Omamo explained, “for the benefit of the families of our soldiers.” The KDF did not respond to CNN’s repeated requests for comment and information about the attack. Its only public admission of what happened at the base since then has been the return of four flag-draped caskets home to Kenya. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta paid tribute to the four acknowledged casualties from the raid as they were brought home: “Their bravery is undimmed. And for this, we as a nation are grateful to all of them.” In the months since, more coffins, more bodies have been quietly handed over, one by one, to the soldiers’ grieving families, often bringing with them more questions than they do answers. What is Al-Shabaab, what does it want? Corporal James Saitoti Kuronoi’s remains were subjected to seven DNA tests before they were finally identified and handed to his loved ones for burial, three months after he was killed. As his body was lowered into a grave near that of his mother, in a quiet farming village near Narok, his eight siblings – their faces wet with tears – clutched each other for support. Kuronoi’s was one of some 30 burials linked to El Adde that have been reported by local media in Kenya, but there are said to have been many more services that they could not cover. A tank driver and father of two, Kuronoi sent photos and talked regularly to his wife, brothers and sisters from his “new home” at El Adde. He was on his second deployment to Somalia. “[He was] our baby brother,” said Kuronoi’s sister Jackqueline. “He was always jolly. He had a permanent smile … And I don’t know, even in the family, who will ever fill that gap.” A week before the attack, Kuronoi sent a message to his family asking them to pray for him. It was their last contact; after Al-Shabaab attacked the base, there was no news from him, he was nowhere to be found. Jackqueline Kuronoi says the family went through weeks of uncertainty in the wake of the raid. “You are looking for somebody … you don’t know where,” she told CNN. “You hear that some people were taken by Al-Shabaab, others are still in hiding, others were hiding and killed, some were burned beyond recognition, and you don’t know where you belong. Where is our person?” She praises the Kenyan Defense Force for its support of their family in the aftermath of her brother’s death, but with no official information released by the government, she has many questions about what happened that day. “We would like to know who are these people? They died together. How many were they?” she said. “It is a question that will live in our minds forever, because even if you have the body, what about the rest? How many were they? How many were rescued? You don’t know.” Why Al-Shabaab is a growing threat Sergeant Juma Zahoro, 41 and a father of three, served in the Kenyan Defense Force’s intelligence unit. He was approaching his tenth year of service on that fateful Friday in January. Weeks later, his family offered prayers over his body at a mosque in Mombasa, before burying him in the city’s Mshale cemetery in a funeral attended by hundreds of family members, friends and fellow soldiers. His father-in-law, Mwalim Rama, told those gathered at the steamy burial ground that young people should not be put off joining the military because of attacks like the one in which Zahoro was killed. “Fighting and dying for your country is something one should be proud of,” he told the mourners. It is a message echoed by military commanders and Kenya’s Commander in Chief, President Uhuru Kenyatta. Related video Who are Africa's most dangerous terror groups? But with so few details of the raid out in the open, it has been left to the attackers themselves to tell the story of El Adde. Well known for sophisticated propaganda techniques, Al-Shabaab released a flashy, high-definition video three months after the attack. It shows tracer rounds lighting up the sky as a massive firefight for the base begins: Al-Shabaab militants fire AK-47s, rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns at the Kenyan troops. The bodies of 50 soldiers can be counted; many of the men are killed execution-style on camera, while others are seen surrendering in terror. A soundtrack of gunfire is laid over the entire 48-minute long film. In one heart-wrenching scene, a Kenyan soldier stands and tries to climb out through the hatch of his burning tank, arms raised in surrender, eyes wide as the enemy army encroaches. Al-Shabaab’s cameraman focuses on the man as he is shot multiple times, sliding back inside the tank. Al-Shabaab faction pledges allegiance to ISIS The apparent ease with which the militants breached barriers at El Adde has surprised many security analysts – especially since the same style of assault had been seen before in bloody attacks on AMISOM forces. One Western diplomat based in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, told CNN this was clearly a “tactical disaster” for the Kenyans. “How can two hundred Al-Shabaab walk across a field in broad daylight without the Kenyans noticing? Where were the KDF’s machine guns?” he asked. “This is contrary to everything they have been taught, and should be doing in a hostile environment.” To prevent details of what happened at El Adde from emerging, Kenya’s government used a rarely enforced law prohibiting the distribution of images or information likely to cause public fear and alarm or undermine security operations. One local blogger who tweeted a photograph showing of the aftermath of the attack was promptly arrested. He was later released without charge. “There is clearly an attempt to mislead Kenyans and to hide the truth about what happened,” said Patrick Gathara, a political commentator and cartoonist who lashed out at the KDF and Kenyan government in local newspapers after the attack.  “It is being hidden to avoid accountability.” Added Gathara, “It is all very deliberate and designed to avoid public demands for senior officials and officers to be held responsible for failures. “The truth about El Adde is being hidden from Kenyans, not from Al-Shabaab.” U.S. ups pressure on Al-Shabaab in Somalia Tellingly, Al-Shabaab’s propaganda video uses the Kenyan authorities’ own words against them, highlighting the inaccurate KDF press release sent in the immediate aftermath of the attack, and accusing the KDF of “distorting the truth and blatantly lying to their public.” Analysts say the KDF’s lack of transparency has only provided more fodder for Al-Shabaab’s ideological battle. “Although they cite national security reasons, what they end up doing is creating an opportunity for Al-Shabaab to propagandize their victories, perhaps exaggerate them,” said Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center. “But there’s no way of countering that narrative because there is no real narrative coming from the government.” “The AU [African Union] would be better served by contesting the Al-Shabaab narrative, not ceding ground to it,” said Paul D. Williams, Associate Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University, who specializes in reporting on peacekeeping missions. “Silence is not a winning strategy in the world of strategic communications,” he told CNN in late January, shortly after the attack. James Saitoti Kuronoi, Juma Zahoro and dozens of their comrades died – unassisted and outnumbered – at El Adde. Four months on, however, their own government refuses to acknowledge their sacrifice. Their families remember them by name as soldiers, sons, husbands, and fathers. But to the country they served, they remain only uncounted and unknown. Jamie Crawford, Ryan Browne and Bryony Jones contributed to this report.


Colombia's government has reached a new peace deal with FARC rebels The move comes after previous deal was defeated by voters in October Colombia’s government and the FARC rebel group signed a revised peace accord Saturday after years of negotiations and a half a century of conflict. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced the new deal in a TV address Saturday evening, saying it will build a “broader, deeper peace.” A peace deal negotiated earlier this year with FARC rebels was unexpectedly defeated by Colombian voters in October. Many were angered by what they saw as insufficient punishment for those who perpetrated a litany of crimes against their people. Negotiations for a peace deal continued after the defeat with rebels and those opposed to the original agreement. Among the new stipulations are reparations for victims which will come from FARC’s assets and money,  Santos said. FARC can still form a political party under the agreement and members with minor offenses can apply to get their records cleared. One of the chief negotiators of the FARC guerrilla movement, Ivan Marquez, tweeted, “The new peace accord is the victory for Colombia.” The accord also sets up transitional areas where FARC members stay to be rehabilitated and have “activities of reparation,” Santos said. Santos was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year for “his resolute efforts” to end the country’s civil war. US Secretary of State John Kerry issued a statement saying, “I want to congratulate the government and people of Colombia on achieving a revised peace agreement.” “President Santos and his negotiating team, those from the ‘No’ campaign, and other important sectors of Colombian society deserve credit for engaging in a far-reaching and respectful national dialogue following the plebiscite,” Kerry said. He said the United States will “support full implementation of the final peace agreement.” US National Security Adviser Susan Rice congratulated the government of Colombia for reaching the deal. “We appreciate how difficult and complicated the negotiations have been and recognize that the new provisions, while an important step forward, will not necessarily satisfy everyone,”  she said in a statement. CNN’s Kay Guerrero, Kevin Bohn and Laura Koran contributed to this report.

Colombia's government and FARC rebels peace deal


Follow us at @CNNSport and like us on Facebook Real Madrid held 1-1 by Villarreal Cristiano Ronaldo scores 30th La Liga goal of season Atletico Madrid misses chance to close gap with 0-0 draw at Sevilla Wolfsburg wins Bundesliga game subject of security alert Cristiano Ronaldo reached 30 La Liga goals for the season but could not prevent Villarreal from grabbing a share of the points in the Bernabeu Sunday in an entertaining 1-1 draw. Ronaldo put Real ahead with a second half penalty after being pulled down and had 13 shots of goal in a lively display, but his team was unable to secure a fourth consecutive win. Gerard Moreno’s thumping low strike 26 minutes from time spoiled the home party and Real has seen its lead at the top cut to two points after Barcelona’s win Saturday. The arch rivals meet in El Clasico on March 22, with the title very much up for grabs. Now only two points separate @realmadriden and @FCBarcelona... Who will win the @LigaBBVA title? pic.twitter.com/CQcb1p5oop Villarreal, coached by Marcelino, even fielded an understrength side as it bids to progress in the Copa del Rey and the Europa League, but should have been ahead early when Iker Casillas made a fine save from Moreno and then Dani Carvajal spectacularly headed Moi Gomez’s follow-up effort off the line. Real was turning up the heat and Gareth Bale went close for the European champions with a header, while Raphael Varane went even closer with a header that also just missed the target. Ronaldo was a constant threat and after the break he was pulled down inside the area by Eric Bailly and converted from the spot. Bale and Ronaldo should have doubled the scoreline, but Real was made to pay for its wasted chances when Moreno stunned the home crowd with the leveler. Related video Cristiano Ronaldo wins 2014 Ballon d'Or Champion Atletico Madrid missed the chance to close to within five points of Real at the top after being held to a 0-0 draw at Sevilla earlier Sunday. Valencia moved to within a point of Atletico after beaing David Moyes’s Real Sociedad 2-0 with a double from Pablo Piatti. Wolfsburg wins thriller In the Bundesliga, VfL Wolfsburg kept up its dogged pursuit of Bayern Munich with a 5-3 win at Werder Bremen in a thrilling eight-goal encounter. Wolfsburg striker Bas Dost scored a double to make it 14 goals in his last nine appearances but his side still trails Bayern by eight points despite its impressive recent form. The match had been under threat due to a security alert in the north Germany city of Bremen, but it was downgraded with extra police on duty at the 42,000-capacity Weserstadion stadium. Earlier police had made two temporary arrests and searched an Islamic cultural center. Monaco holds PSG In Ligue 1, Monaco, so impressive in beating Arsenal in midweek Champions League action, held Paris Saint-Germain to a goalless draw. PSG was hoping to leapfrog Lyon at the top, but could not break down the stubborn Monaco defense, keeping its 10th clean sheet in the last 11 matches. Lyon, beaten 2-1 at Lille Saturday, still leads title holder PSG by a point at the top.


French President Emmanuel Macron wants the world to seize the moment. After Friday night’s strikes against regime targets in Syria, he’s demanding a concerted drive to resurrect the international peace process, last seen late in 2016. Whether anyone listens may decide if Syria turns the corner towards peace or descends into an even more dangerous cycle of destruction. The strikes themselves were not about regime change or forcing Assad to negotiate, but about deterring the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime, which remains free to kill Syrians with conventional methods. As David Miliband, the CEO of the International Rescue Committee, puts it, the strikes “will become a historical footnote unless they are matched by a diplomatic offensive of sustained and serious character.” Speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, Macron said the priority must be to “initiate negotiations as soon as possible on a credible and inclusive political process,” according to a statement from the Elysee Palace. It was a message he repeated after the strikes to US President Donald Trump and the Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Maybe the barest bones of such preparation are beginning to emerge. The US, UK and France, supported by Germany, agree that Syria’s chemical weapons must be destroyed once and for all; there must be an immediate ceasefire; and that the Syrian regime has to accept a “substantial agenda’ at the UN Geneva talks that would lead to what the French UN ambassador, François Delattre, calls an ‘inclusive political solution.’ Bare bones indeed, and there won’t be immediate progress in the current atmosphere. There are also plenty of headwinds. For any sort of diplomacy to occur, the downward spiral of US-Russia relations needs to be arrested. In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said there were “multiple issues we have with Russia right now;” and she said more sanctions were coming this week. On a whole range of issues, from arms control to the mutual expulsions of diplomats after the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the UK and the issue of Russian meddling in the 2016 election campaign, relations are at their worst for decades. The tough sanctions imposed by Washington against members of Putin’s inner circle this month have compounded the crisis. But after three years of military engagement, Russia won’t easily give up its victories in Syria, victories designed to show it is still a great power and an effective ally, as well as give it a foothold in the Mediterranean. US policy towards Syria is incoherent. Shortly before he was fired, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson set aside $200 million to stabilize northern Syria, where Kurdish-led militias who defeated ISIS are supported by some 2,000 US troops. There were plans to build a 30,000-strong border protection force. (Tillerson’s speech, the only expression of the Trump Administration’s policy towards Syria, has now been ‘archived’ on the State Department website.) President Trump then froze the $200 million and said he wanted US forces out of northern Syria “very soon. Let the other people take care of it now,” he told a rally in March. But a unilateral US withdrawal would leave the Kurds vulnerable to the regime, the Iranians and the Turks; ISIS remnants will sniff out opportunities in the chaos. Other US officials, including Haley, have tried to temper talk of a withdrawal, but Assad may conclude that if he waits long enough, the US will lose interest. After all, Trump said on Friday: “No amount of American blood or treasure can produce lasting peace and security in the Middle East.” Why, then, make concessions? “Waiting out half-hearted enemies is a key Assad survival tool,” says Faysal Itani, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. There are certainly no signs that the regime is ready to discuss anything that would challenge Assad’s hold on power. And so the political opposition won’t come to the table. Turkey may be part of the “triad” with Iran and Russia but is very much going its own way in northern Syria, consolidating its influence into a chunky bargaining chip for the future. Its troops already occupy Afrin, a mixed Kurdish-Arab area and it is eyeing further incursions against the Kurdish militia – the YPG – that has worked with the US against ISIS.  President Erdogan has said he will not rest until the YPG are driven from every part of the Syrian border. Turkish forces, much to the Assad regime’s fury, are also in Idlib – ostensibly to guard a mythical de-confliction zone, but in reality to deter the regime from attacking the last rebel holdouts. The Iranian “Quds” force has spent some four years entrenching itself in Syria. Try getting it to leave. The dream of The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (of which the Quds is part) is a land bridge of Shia influence from Tehran to the shores of the Mediterranean, and within shooting range of Israel. Responding to the weekend strikes the IRGC promised the United States that future events in the region “will not be to their interest.” To Israel, the growing presence of the IRGC and Hezbollah in southern Syria is alarming. It has already carried out air-strikes against several Iran-linked targets in Syria, including the base near Homs which likely sent an armed drone into Israeli airspace in February. In response, the leader of the Lebanese Shia militia Hezbollah, closely aligned with Iran, warned that Israel had made a “historic mistake” which would bring the it “into direct combat with the Iranians.” Unless Russia can be persuaded to restrain the IRGC and even send some of its militia home, there is a real chance that Israel will get dragged much more deeply into the Syrian conflict. Then there is the Assad regime’s determination to recover more of Syrian territory, specifically Idlib, the last hold-out of radical Islamist groups but also home to two million Syrians, more than half of them displaced from other parts of the country. Ali Akbar Velayati, an advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in Damascus last week that the liberation of Idlib is the next target of the “resistance front.” On Sunday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian said Idlib could become the next humanitarian disaster. “Idlib’s fate must be settled by a political process,” he told Le Journal du Dimanche. Without a revived peace process, Syria’s war will be refueled by all these competing (non-Syrian) interests. More than ever it will be a sandbox for a battle among outside powers. What incentives are there to forestall the next episode of Syria’s nightmare? Firstly, Russia doesn’t want to be saddled propping up a broken state and hasn’t the resources to embark on its reconstruction. Nor does it want to get caught up in a hot war between Israel and Iran. Assad, at some point, will want to restore sovereignty over the 20% of Syrian territory controlled by the Kurds (with at the moment US support.) In Moscow, Paris and Washington there is also recognition that a deterioration in Syria will provide ISIS and other jihadi groups with fresh opportunities, and maybe spark another refugee exodus. But first there has to be a strategy to end the horror. Right now, the US doesn’t seem to have one. Democrat Senator Tim Kaine said Sunday: “They haven’t laid out a strategy, and military action shouldn’t be taken as a one-off.” Whether Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State and John Bolton as National Security Adviser bring clarity to US policy remains to be seen. Their previous pronouncements suggest they will want a hard line against both Russia and Iran. But all roads to Damascus go through Moscow. Can Vladimir Putin be persuaded to prod Assad towards meaningful negotiations and persuade the Iranians to cool it? Might he coax Turkey into leaving northern Syria, and under what conditions? And what might he want in return? CNN’s Saskya Vandoorne in Paris contributed to this report


Dario Fo, known for his sharp political satire, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1997 The Nobel Committee described him as "upholding the dignity of the downtrodden" Nobel Prize-winning Italian playwright and actor Dario Fo died Thursday at the age of 90, according to a statement on his website. He had spent the past few days in a Milan hospital as his health deteriorated. “Our country and the whole world has lost an artist today, who for his whole life fought against the theory of ‘the dominant culture is that of the ruling class,’ ” the statement on his website said. Fo, who was famed for his sharp political satire and innovative storytelling techniques, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1997. The Nobel Committee described him as someone “who emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden.” The Nobel Prize Twitter feed on Thursday marked Fo’s death, news of which came on the same day as this year’s winner for literature – Bob Dylan – was announced. Dario Fo has passed away at age 90. He was awarded the 1997 #NobelPrize in Literature. pic.twitter.com/DyjsvNf26u Among Fo’s best known works were “Accidental Death of an Anarchist,” first performed in 1970, and “Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!” from 1974. He also won renown with the one-man play “Mistero Buffo,” an exploration of language, history and local lore that he performed more than 5,000 times worldwide over three decades. People we’ve lost in 2016 Fo’s chief collaborator was his wife, the late actress Franca Rame, with whom he set up the Fo-Rame Company. They first met in 1951 while working on the same theater production in Milan. According to the Nobel website, Fo told Italian reporters in 1997 that he had never expected to be awarded the Nobel Prize and that the judges had shown courage in giving it to an actor-author for the first time. He also paid tribute to his wife’s contribution, saying he would not have won the prize without her. Besides their first love, theater, the couple also worked on television and movie productions. Fo, who was also a theater director, was born in 1926 in Italy’s northern Lombardy region in a small town by Lake Maggiore. According to the Nobel website, he learned the art of storytelling from his grandfather, who would tell tales spiced with local news and satire as he traveled the countryside selling produce from a horse-drawn cart. Journalists Simon Cullen in London and Valentina Didonato in Rome contributed to this report.


James Clapper did not name which campaigns have been hit He said that as the election progresses, attacks may increase Cyber hackers – possibly working for foreign governments – are trying to infiltrate the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns, a senior U.S. intelligence official said Wednesday. “We’ve already had some indications of that,” James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, said in Washington. During the 2008 presidential campaign, U.S. intelligence agencies traced massive cyber attacks to China. At that time, both the Democratic candidate, now-President Barack Obama, and his Republican rival John McCain, were targeted. Officials said hackers were trying to seize sensitive data, including private emails and information on high-level economic and national security briefings senior aides might have received. The Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation “are doing what they can do educate both campaigns against potential cyber threats,” Clapper said at an event at the Bipartisan Policy Center. RELATED: Sanders campaign manager: DNC chairwoman ‘throwing shade’ on Bernie He didn’t offer any detail on how the intrusions were detected or name which campaigns were targeted. But he offered a prediction. “As the campaigns intensify, we’ll probably have more,” Clapper said. California Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence committee, told CNN’s Situation Room that Clapper’s comments are “a reminder that every facet of our lives are dependent on computers, which are by their nature vulnerable to intrusion.” Schiff said that given the intense scrutiny paid to the 2016 campaign and the implications it has for U.S. foreign policy “it’s no surprise that actors are launching cyber-attacks against presidential campaigns.” Clapper was addressing the challenge of balancing the need to protect U.S. businesses and citizens’ privacy in the face of an “incredibly complex set of cyber threats.” Those threats come from a dizzying array of enemies, he said, from groups like Anonymous to nation states like Iran, which has attacked U.S. banks and infiltrated the control system of a dam in New York. RELATED: N.C. Rep: Women ready for ‘problem solver’ Trump North Korea’s attack on Sony Pictures damaged a major U.S. corporation, while China is the suspected culprit behind the 2015 theft of millions of federal workers’ security-related personal information in an attack on the Office of Personnel Management. “The Russians and Chinese are far more sophisticated and could do real damage if so inclined. Then there are terrorist groups,” Clapper said. “Each has different objectives. The one thing they have in common, they all operate on the same internet.” Clapper said in his decades-long career in intelligence, he doesn’t “recall a time when we’ve been beset by a wider array and more diverse array of threats and crises than we are today.” He puts cyber at the top of the list when he discusses risks because of the variety of intrusions that come “around the clock.” That, he said, “will likely expand” at increasing costs to U.S. businesses and economic security. The rapid pace of change in the cyber environment cuts both ways for the intelligence community, Clapper said. Pointing to the “internet of things” that links everything from household appliances to clothes to the web, the intelligence director said it “presents lots of vulnerabilities” but “it’s probably lots of opportunities for us,” too. It also presents administrative challenges. Clapper wondered how intelligence officers would be affected when their clothes might be linked to the internet. “Even now,” he said, “I need security clearance for my hearing aids” because they use Bluetooth technology. Clapper cited the attack on the Office of Personnel Management as an example of how damaging the hacks can be and the shape that future attacks might take. OPM files contained rich material available in federal workers’ background checks that could allow foreign agencies to target those employees, their families, co-workers or neighbors, Clapper said. “At this point, we haven’t seen any direct evidence of this that we can conclusively tie to the breach,” Clapper said. Future attacks, he predicted, won’t just steal information. “I believe we’ll see more cyber operations that will change or manipulate information,” Clapper said, as U.S. enemies work “to compromise its reliability” instead of deleting or simply stealing it. Ninety percent of all cyber intrusions are initiated by successful spearfishing, or the use of fake web links, Clapper said. Foreign intelligence operations very often “can and do get access to our systems just by pretending to be someone else,” he said. Clapper added that it’s even a challenge within the intelligence community to make sure employees resist the temptation to open an attachment they don’t recognize. “We still have issues with that,” Clapper said. “The Chinese in particular are cleaning us out because they know we’re supposed to do these things and we don’t do them.” He recommended companies and individuals patch their software often, keep information segmented so that any hack into your system won’t immediately mean access to all of it; stay updated on regular bulletins that DHS and the FBI put out, and learn what spearfishing looks like. “Bad cyber actors are using precisely these avenues,” he said. Jason Grumet, president of the Bipartisan Policy Center, said that not long ago, few people imagined the possibility that private companies would have to stand up to nation states like China, which has been implicated in the theft of company information. That’s become the new reality, said Mike Rogers, former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. He offered brokerage firm J.P. Morgan as an example, saying that this year the company will spend $600 million to protect itself against attacks from national actors.

foreign cyber attackers targeting U.S. presidential campaigns


Editor’s Note: Now you can get “5 Things You Need to Know Today” delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here. Aleppo is falling, a killer is in court and frankly, it’s time to go back to the basics with the whole Russian hacking thing. Here’s what you need to know to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door. A former senior law enforcement official claims Russian hackers targeted GOP officials and organizations before the election. Trump’s team still doesn’t believe there is evidence of pro-Trump hacking, but his senior adviser Kellyanne Conway said he would not interfere with any investigation into the matter. Also, here’s a primer if you’re lost on the scope of this whole thing. Aleppo is set to fall to the Syrian regime, ending a years-long battle for the city. Disturbing reports are coming out that, as neighborhoods fall, executions are being carried about by government forces. Residents of Aleppo are tweeting and messaging final goodbyes just in case, including the family of a 7-year-old who’s become famous for tweeting about Aleppo’s suffering. Trump tweeted out a promise yesterday to step away from his businesses and focus full-time on the Presidency. “No new deals will be done during my term(s) in office,” he said. He also postponed a news conference that will address his potential conflicts of interest for his presidency. That conference will now happen in January. Charleston shooter Dylann Roof is on trial for murder in South Carolina. In the courtroom Monday, an FBI agent read aloud a racist rant Roof had penned before he shot and killed nine churchgoers in 2015. Roof has confessed to the crime. On Friday the court saw a video of his confession in which he laughed and appeared calm while discussing the slaughter. Six officers in the state of Georgia have been shot in the last six days in three separate incidents. Two of the officers did not survive. The shootings occurred in small towns, and are more evidence of a particularly deadly year for law enforcement. As of today, 64 law enforcement officers have died across the US in 2016. People are talking about these. Read up. Join in. Terminally ill boy dies in Santa’s arms Yes, you will blubber like a baby. Yes, this remarkable story is worth it. This is the worst state for drivers Hint: Trying to get directions here is like listening to number salad. HGTV’s ‘Flip or Flop’ stars split Et tu, Tarek and Christina?! Orlando marks six-month Pulse shooting anniversary Survivors, staff, family and friends held a closed vigil early Monday morning. The Benghazi committee is ceasing operations The special panel to investigate Clinton’s role in the attack is officially dunzo. Here’s what’s coming up later Trump will announce his secretary of state pick this AM Spoiler alert: It’s Rex Tillerson and definitely not Mitt Romney. Here’s a kid solving a Rubik’s cube in less than five seconds Meanwhile, I can’t even unlock my own front door in less than five seconds. (Click to view)


Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe faces up to 16 years in prison and possible solitary confinement while awaiting trial Charity worker was given 5-year sentence in September 2016 for allegedly plotting against Iranian government When Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe learned she was going to court, the British-Iranian mother assumed she was about to be released from a Tehran prison. Instead, the charity worker found herself facing several new charges – and potentially another 16 years in jail – after being held for more than a year on charges of plotting against the Iranian government, her husband said Tuesday. “She thought she was having a heart attack,” Richard Ratcliffe told CNN after speaking to his wife following Sunday’s hearing. “She felt sick, her legs were paralyzed and she was crying uncontrollably.” An Iranian judge also ruled that her family would have to pay $8,000 in bail to prevent her from being moved to solitary confinement while awaiting trial, Ratcliffe says. No date has been set for the trial. In April 2016, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained at the airport in Tehran on her way back to the UK from visiting family with her 22-month-old daughter. The Iranian government accused her of working for a UK media network involved in activities against Iran. She was sentenced to five years in jail and her child was placed in the care of her parents. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was said to have been promised temporary release by the judiciary just two weeks ago, so she had written herself a note saying that she could soon be waking up somewhere else. Instead, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) opened a new case against her, accusing her of having joined organizations specifically working to overthrow the regime. She was also charged with having attended a demonstration outside the Iranian Embassy in London. Related video Amanpour questions Rouhani about prisoners The charges were published by the London-based Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of the news service, where Zaghari-Ratcliffe had worked as a project manager. The foundation’s chief executive described them as “a complete invention” and said she viewed Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s treatment as a form of torture. “The Thomson Reuters Foundation doesn’t work in Iran and has no program or dealings with Iran,” CEO Monique Villa said. “We are all shocked by this new development and ask the Iranian government to put an end to her torture and the British government to finally intervene to end the ordeal of this British national.” In September, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said his hands were tied on the issue of dual nationals imprisoned in his country. He told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that he is legally forbidden from interfering with the judiciary, but added: “I do have my own sensitivities vis-à-vis this issue.” Iran’s judiciary could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. Richard Ratcliffe said the British government should be doing more to help, and that it should not be making business deals with the regime that has imprisoned his wife. Last month, Britain and Iran unveiled a $600 million contract to develop a massive solar farm in Iran. Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it has “repeatedly” brought up the charity worker’s case with authorities in Iran and has expressed concern about her health. “The Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary have both raised all our ongoing consular cases with their counterparts in Tehran, most recently at the UN General Assembly in September,” the Foreign Office said in an email. Ratcliffe said he believes the case against his wife is politically motivated, and could be a show of strength by the IRGC. “It’s hard to have a clear sense of what’s going on. Different people are pushing in different directions and what we’re seeing is a shadow play.”


Tripoli, Libya (CNN) – Scores of people stand packed in the cramped quarters of the Treeq Alsika Migrant Detention Center in Tripoli, helplessness etched across their faces. They’re just some of 700,000 migrants the United Nations believes are now stuck in Libya. They fled poverty and repression in sub-Sahara, giving up everything to undertake a desperate – and ultimately unsuccessful – voyage to get to Europe. Exploited by shameless smugglers who care little whether they live or die, many of the inhabitants of this government-run detention center give nightmare accounts of forced labor, exploitation and inhumane conditions at the hands of the men they paid to deliver them across the Mediterranean. “I have been here three weeks now, nobody writes my name. They don’t know my name,” says 29-year-old Ali Jemma from Ghana, one of the many migrants here who feels trapped and forgotten in the Libyan capital. He had hoped to reach Italy, but six months on, all he wants is to return home. “In this area here we have above 1,000 people, and the place is very tight for them,” says Anes Alazabi, the detention center supervisor. “A few people can’t even find a place to sleep, and we’re missing a lot of stuff for the migrants, like clothes, covers, pillows, slippers, all that stuff.” In another room, hungry and thirsty men sit on the crowded floor. “We did not know the journey was going to be like this,” says Victory, a 21-year-old migrant from Nigeria who was auctioned off by his smugglers in Libya before he was eventually freed. In the warehouses where the smugglers held them, some migrants were beaten and didn’t see the sun for days at a time. Others were sold into work.  Now they are broke and awaiting deportation to their home countries. “I spent my life savings leaving the country,” Victory says. “I go back and start back from square one. It’s very painful. Very painful.” Related: Where lives are auctioned for $400 Libya has become a congested transit point along the central Mediterranean migrant route. Those rounded up by the authorities never intended to stay in the country, but are now forced to stay here until arrangements can be made to repatriate them. Outside the center, women line up in the rain to get on a bus bound for the airport, where they will be sent back to Nigeria. One woman says she’s pregnant. “Help me,” another pleads. Both are in tears as they prepare to be deported, leaving their husbands behind in Libya. The two women say they received the necessary documents from their embassy to be sent home from Libya, but their spouses have yet to. Alazabi, the supervisor, tells them that the men will follow in ten days. The women plead with him to make an exception. But without the proper paperwork, Alazabi says his hands are tied. He directs the women toward the bus, telling them they will see their husbands soon. CNN’s Lauren Said-Moorhouse contributed to this report.


Sui Muqing says he was forced to stay awake while he was interrogated for more than four days. Chen Taihe describes being held in a jail cell so crowded he couldn’t relieve himself. And Peter Dahlin was left so traumatized by his experience, he slept with a knife next to his bed. Three men, in three different parts of China. They didn’t know each other, but all had one thing in common: They advocated for human rights and became caught up in what activists say is the Chinese government’s brutal crackdown on dissent. Rights groups say President Xi Jinping’s wide-reaching sweep on perceived threats to both his rule and the Chinese Communist Party has led to the arrests of dozens of activists, bloggers, feminists, artists and lawyers. The men, who CNN spoke to in detail over the course of the last 12 months, describe being forcibly taken from their homes, detained for weeks, sometimes months, in secret prisons, denied communication with family and legal representation, strong-armed into making videotaped confessions, and ultimately released without being convicted of a single crime. Sui, Chen and Dahlin all say they were explicitly told not to talk about what happened to them, but have decided to speak out anyway. They say they want to shed light on the lengths to which China’s government will go to silence anyone it deems a threat. CNN reached out to the Chinese government for comment on each of the cases in this story, but received no response until the report published. “China is a country with the rule of law. Chinese judicial authorities fully guarantee all legal rights of criminal suspects when handling their cases. We hope foreign media outlets based in China respect China’s judicial sovereignty, respect facts, and cover the news objectively and fairly,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in fax dated November 24. While being a human rights lawyer has never been an easy path in Communist China, forced disappearances of lawyers were rare before 2015. But on July 9 of that year, prominent Beijing rights lawyer Wang Yu disappeared, along with her husband, also a lawyer, and their teenage son. The following day, police raided Wang’s law firm and detained seven of her colleagues. Seven other rights lawyers were also detained or reported missing, according to the Hong-Kong based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group, which has meticulously documented the cases. It became known as the “709 crackdown” – a reference to the date the first arrests occurred. Sui was among them. He’d earlier in the day spoken to two foreign media outlets to raise concern about Wang’s disappearance. That night, a security guard called up to Sui’s apartment and said his car had been scratched in an accident and when he stepped outside, a group of police quickly whisked him away, said Sui. He wasn’t seen again for nearly five months. Two days later, on July 12, the same thing happened to Chen. He said police asked him to come down from his apartment to answer a few questions. “I intentionally left my cell phone upstairs in my apartment because I thought I’d be back in a few minutes.” He didn’t return for six weeks. During a period of less than a week, at least 146 lawyers and their families were detained in a nationwide swoop according to China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group. Rights groups say the roots of the crackdown on lawyers can be traced back to an editorial in the overseas edition of state-run People’s Daily in July 2012, which warned the United States would use five categories of people to destabilize the Communist Party’s near seven-decade rule. Rights advocates and lawyers were at the top of the list. Dahlin, a Swedish national who co-founded a Beijing-based NGO that provided legal aid and training to Chinese lawyers, wasn’t caught up in the first wave of detentions, and assumed his status as a foreigner might offer him some protection. In early January 2016, however, he got tipped off authorities might be after him. He was about to depart for Beijing airport when 20 police officers turned up at his apartment. They detained him and his girlfriend and they ransacked his home, he says, seizing computers and documents. Dahlin says he was accused of masterminding a plan to smuggle the son of Wang Yu, the first lawyer to be detained in the swoop, into Myanmar, in an effort to evade authorities in October 2015. He said investigators realized early on he had nothing to do with it, but instead of letting him go, quickly turned their attention to his NGO – Chinese Urgent Action Working Group – pressing him to give up information about his colleagues and other activists his group worked with. Authorities said that Dahlin worked for an illegal organization that sponsored activities that jeopardized China’s national security. The NGO said it “undertakes rapid response assistance for rights defenders in need.” By October 2017, some 321 lawyers, rights activists, their family members and staff had been caught up in the 709 crackdown, according to the China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group. A key tool in the crackdown has been a relatively new form of detention. In 2012, China introduced “residential surveillance at a designated location” (RSDL) into the Criminal Procedural Law. It appeared to legalize a long-used practice of “black jails” – a means of temporarily detaining people outside the Chinese legal system who could not be immediately charged with a crime. The government denied black jails existed in 2009. But in 2011 Chinese state media reported on a campaign by the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau to crack down on them. The amended law says residential surveillance shouldn’t exceed six months but requires detainees’ families be notified within 24 hours, unless they can’t be reached, and guarantees all suspects the right to a lawyer, with whom a meeting should be granted within 48 hours of a request. Critics of the new system and former detainees say it gives arbitrary detention a legal gloss and normalizes enforced disappearances. Earlier this year, 11 countries  called on China to end the practice and investigate reports of torture against human rights lawyers. The UN High Commission on Human Rights has also called on China to halt the detention of lawyers. Although they were held at opposite ends of the country, Sui, Chen and Dahlin all describe similar conditions: Sparsely furnished rooms with black-out curtains on the windows and fluorescent lights kept on 24-hours a day. They say they slept on a single bed, and were not allowed any reading or writing materials. Guards were always in the room watching their every move, even when they used the bathroom. “There’s nothing to look at except some very beige-looking suicide padding on the wall,” said Dahlin. He described being so bored he almost looked forward to the daily interrogations, “because at least you’re taken out to another room … and have some kind of interaction with people.” The interrogators used methods which Dahlin said reminded him of “bad American movies.” “They would have lots of people rush into your cell at night surrounding your bed just trying to scare you,” he said. Just months earlier, Sui says he was held at a police training facility in Guangzhou, the free-wheeling hub of China’s manufacturing heartland where he worked as a human rights lawyer defending a number of high-profile activists. He says interrogators accused him of inciting subversion and pressed him to give them details ranging from his personal life and finances, to his work, clients, and all of his contacts. Initially he refused to answer the questions, but his resistance only made his interrogators push harder. “They wouldn’t let me sleep for four days and nights.  By the fifth day, I felt like I was going to die,” he said. Sui said it was the sleep deprivation plus threats of  torture which ultimately broke his will and made him cooperate. He said investigators threatened to shackle his hands, hang him from the ceiling and shine a flashlight directly into his eyes. “I knew someone who had a heart attack due to deprivation of sleep in jail, so I was a bit frightened my life could be at risk if I continued to fight back,” he said. Chen, a professor who advocated for a US-style jury system in China on his blog, was first accused of “picking quarrels and provoking troubles,” – a vague charge often used by Chinese authorities that can carry a 10-year prison sentence. He told CNN he refused to admit any wrongdoing during a 20-hour interrogation, but then found himself sharing a jail cell with inmates accused of crimes ranging from petty theft to murder. “The cell was so crammed I had to ask other prisoners to make room so I could urinate and defecate,” he said. “I didn’t have a spoon or chopsticks to eat with. We’d get one scoop of rice and would have to eat it with our hands.” After a month, Chen said he was told to collect his belongings. He thought he was going home – but instead was driven to what appeared to be an abandoned hotel and held for another 10 days. Earlier this year, CNN visited the nondescript building where Chen said he was held in Guilin, a southern city famed for its stunning landscape of karst mountains. Signs posted around the area in Chinese and English marked it as military property, but it otherwise appeared open and accessible. Local officials denied that the building was used as a secret detention center. The rights activists held captive weren’t just concerned about their own well being. They say their loved ones were also threatened. Dahlin’s interrogators made it clear that they’d keep his girlfriend, a Chinese national, in custody for as long as it took to resolve his case. “She was taken hostage just to put pressure on me,” he said. Dahlin asked about his girlfriend every day but got limited answers. “They said she was being treated quite well. That she was being given yoghurt and fruit and things like that. She was allowed to make a few drawings and do yoga in her room,” he said. “They knew she had nothing to give them.” Finally, after more than three weeks, Dahlin was told he was going to be released – but he had to do one thing: confess on camera. He said he knew what authorities were really going to do with it. But wanting to speed up his release – and that of his girlfriend – Dahlin agreed to play his part. He was taken into a room where a woman from state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) was sitting with a cameraman. Dahlin was handed a piece of paper with the questions that she would ask and the answers he would give. “I have caused harm to the Chinese government. I have hurt the feelings of the Chinese people. I apologize sincerely for this,” Dahlin said in the confession broadcast nationwide and splashed across state-run newspapers. Immediately after its broadcast activists denounced it as a forced confession – one of many that have been shown on CCTV in the years since Xi came to power. Sui and Chen said they had to make similar “confessions.” All three men now maintain their innocence, but they said they had no choice but to do as authorities wanted. Sui says he admitted to charges of inciting subversion. Chen told CNN he confessed to charges of picking quarrels and provoking troubles, inciting subversion and embezzlement. “You have to confess,” Chen said. “Otherwise they won’t let you go.” The crackdown on lawyers is still taking place. On Tuesday, a court in Changsha, central China sentenced human rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong to two years in prison after convicting him of inciting subversion against the state. In August, he had confessed in a trial that was streamed live online and watched by his wife Jin Bianling in California. “He used to tell me, if I ever admit to a crime like this, it means I’ve been tortured,” Jin said. Jiang was a prominent human rights lawyer who had represented some of his colleagues targeted in the 709 crackdown, and was an outspoken critic of the government. He disappeared in November 2016, en route to catching a train from the central city of Changsha to Beijing. Months went by before the authorities confirmed he had been detained. “Please give me another chance to be a human being … and to make up for my wrongdoings,” Jiang told a panel of three judges at his August trial. Albert Ho, a Hong Kong-based activist with the China Human Rights Lawyer Concern Group, said Jiang, like other lawyers his group has spoken to, likely admitted to the charges in order to live to fight another day. “Only an idiot would believe that he is truly speaking from his heart,” Ho said. Six days after his “confession” was broadcast on CCTV,  Dahlin was released and expelled from China. His girlfriend was also released without charge. Dahlin is now based in Thailand, but has trouble forgetting his time in detention. “Early on it was quite extreme. Every little noise at night would wake me up. I’d sleep with a knife next to my bed, ready to stab the first Chinese person who comes into my gate,” he said. Wang Yu, the first lawyer detained in the 709 crackdown, was charged with subversion, while her husband was charged with inciting subversion. They were both released on bail after more than a year in custody, after Wang’s taped confession was aired on CCTV. In it, Wang renounced her legal work and blamed “foreign forces” for using her law firm to undermine and discredit the government. Their son, who was detained along with them, was released soon afterward, but his movements have been heavily restricted. Authorities never aired Chen’s statement. He was released a day after recording it and the charges against him were dropped. “I have no criminal record, but they can still use the video to discredit me,” he said. Chen and his family now live in US, where he’s a visiting scholar at the University of California’s Hastings Law School and studies the US jury system. He said he won’t return to China until it becomes more democratic. Sui was released on bail after his “confession,” which was also never broadcast. He continues to practice law in Guangzhou, but said his movements have been restricted and fears the worst may still be yet to come. “It’s increasingly difficult to maintain a harmonious society through brainwashing,” Sui said. “The only resort left is violence. For anyone who’s not submissive, a brutal crackdown is on the way.” Editing by Katie Hunt


The White House is refuting reports that some of President Donald Trump’s legal team had advised that his son-in-law Jared Kushner step down from his role as White House adviser. Sources familiar with the matter told CNN the White House legal team discussed during the spring whether Kushner ought to step aside in order to protect the President from legal scrutiny over his associates’ interactions with Russians. But White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Tuesday there was “certainly no presentation” on the issue, when asked if the lawyers discussed that option. “No. No conversation that I was aware of,” Sanders said. The Wall Street Journal first reported Monday that some of Trump’s legal team believed Kushner should have stepped aside before reports about his failure to disclose contacts with Russians during the transition became public this summer. But one source tells CNN the idea was only brought up briefly in May, and others disagreed strongly with the suggestion that Kushner should step aside. The source claimed no knowledge that the idea was ever brought to Trump. The source said that Kushner addressed the issue “convincingly,” pointing to Kushner’s handling of the revelations as proof that having him step down made no sense. Although not unanimous in their conclusion that Kushner – a senior adviser to the President and the husband of his daughter, Ivanka Trump – should step down, the WSJ reported that some of the lawyers did voice their concerns to the President. People familiar with the matter told the WSJ that staffers had begun to prepare a statement in case Kushner did ultimately resign. Kushner did not resign, however, and remains at the White House. Trump attorney John Dowd denied the report, telling the paper that “to my knowledge” that line of thinking was never brought forth to the President. “I didn’t agree with that view at all. I thought it was absurd,” Dowd told the Journal. “I made my views known.” Related article Reports detail Mueller's pursuit of Trump WH aide interviews Marc Kasowitz, Trump’s personal lawyer, also issued a statement to the Wall Street Journal denying the report: “I never discussed with other lawyers for the President that Jared Kushner should step down from his position at the White House, I never recommended to the President that Mr. Kushner should step down from that position and I am not aware that any other lawyers for the President made any such recommendation either.” The paper reported that some of Trump’s lawyers were largely concerned with the fact that Kushner had the most interaction with Russians, some of whom are being investigated, while on the campaign and during the transition. Lawyers also noted that Kushner failed to accurately report his contact with foreign officials when applying for his security clearance, according to the Wall Street Journal’s report. Related article Kushner's statement on Russia: What you need to know The allegation that Russia attempted to meddle in the 2016 US presidential election has led to several probes into the extent of the interference, and whether Trump’s campaign had any involvement. This includes multiple investigations in Congress, as well as a Justice Department investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Over the summer, Kushner submitted a statement to congressional committees, in which he denied any collusion with any foreign government: “I did not collude, nor know of anyone else in the campaign who colluded, with any foreign government,” he said. CNN’s Dan Merica contributed to this report.


Shortly after tweeting the US military was “locked and loaded” should North Korea “act unwisely,” President Donald Trump returned to Twitter on Friday to emphasize his point by retweeting images of US B-1 bombers currently stationed in Guam. Featuring a series of photos depicting B-1B Lancers deployed to the US territory, the tweet from US Pacific Command said: “B-1B Lancer #bombers on Guam stand ready to fulfill USFK’s #FightTonight mission if called upon to do so.” #USAF B-1B Lancer #bombers on Guam stand ready to fulfill USFK’s #FightTonight mission if called upon to do so https://t.co/O3oVeFrNrG pic.twitter.com/IAm2qLwcWY A key part of the US military’s “tip of the spear,” US B-1 bombers have been seen regularly over the Korean Peninsula in recent months amid escalating tensions with Pyongyang – running regular training flights with Japanese and South Korean fighter jets that often provoke the ire of the North Korean regime. On Tuesday, Trump warned Pyongyang not to make any more threats against the United States or they will “face fire and fury like the world has never seen.” Soon after Trump’s comments, North Korea issued a statement saying it was “examining the operational plan” to strike areas around the US territory of Guam in the Pacific, including the Andersen Air Force base where the US B-1 bombers are stationed. While it was released Wednesday, the statement was dated Tuesday and didn’t make any reference to Trump’s comments. It did, however, express anger over a US flyby of B-1B bombers on Monday. Another statement was issued by North Korean state media Wednesday warning the US that a “preemptive strike is no longer the monopoly of the US.” Engines: four turbofans with afterburnerWingspan: 137 feet (41.8 meters) extended forward, 79 feet (24.1 meters) swept aftLength: 146 feet (44.5 meters)Height: 34 feet (10.4 meters)Weight: 95 tons (86,183 kilograms)  Speed: 900-plus mph Ceiling: more than 30,000 feet (9,144 meters)Payload: 37.5 tons (34,019 kilograms)Weapons: Joint Direct Attack Munitions. JDAMs are tail sections with GPS navigation capabilities that are attached to 2,000-, 1,000- and 500-pound bombs.Source: US Air Force The highly versatile, supersonic B-1 is considered the backbone of the US long range bomber fleet and carries the largest conventional payload of any aircraft in the US Air Force. The US is currently rotating six B-1s through Andersen Air Force Base in Guam which would serve as a key aerial assets should Trump order a military strike on North Korea either preemptively or as a quick response to escalation from Pyongyang. While the US would likely use stealth aircraft such as the F-22s, F-35s and B-2 bombers to lead an initial strike targeting North Korean air defense systems, B-1s would likely be dispatched from Guam once those defensive capabilities were disabled – utilizing its heavy payload to strike North Korea’s fortified nuclear weapons sites, according to Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center. Launching a devastating preemptive strike against North Korea is almost unanimously considered a last resort for the US and analysts said there are currently no signs that the US is planning a first strike. The US would surely use military force in response to any North Korean strike against American or allied targets, but two US defense officials told CNN on Thursday that there are no signs of any imminent launch activity from the rogue state. But the concept of preemptive military action is, at very least, being considered as an option as Trump remains committed to keeping “all options on the table” amid tensions with Pyongyang. Claims that Pyongyang is considering a missile strike near Guam, coupled with Trump’s warning “military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely,” have fueled concerns of a potential conflict. On Thursday, North Korean state media KCNA said military leaders were working on a proposal to launch four intermediate-range Hwasong-12 missiles into the sea less than 25 miles off Guam’s coast. KCNA said the plan would presented to Kim by mid-August. Related article The last resort: How a US strike on North Korea could play out Guam’s Homeland Security Advisor George Charfauros said Friday it would take 14 minutes for a missile fired from North Korea to reach Guam. “It’s a 14-minute flight time if all the factors are successful and if it gets through all the US defense layers in place,” Charfauros told CNN. North Korea had previously said the flight time would be 1,065 seconds, or just under 18 minutes. On Thursday, Trump replied to North Korea’s threat to hit Guam with a threat of his own. “Let’s see what he does with Guam,” Trump said in apparent reference to Kim. “He does something in Guam, it will be an event the likes of which nobody has seen before.” “You’ll see, you’ll see. And he’ll see,” he said.


Robert Mueller’s team of special prosecutors and the lawyers for George Papadopoulos delayed on Wednesday an upcoming check-in for the former Trump campaign staffer’s case, an indication that the Mueller investigation will stay active until at least springtime and that Papadopoulos may continue to be useful to the prosecutors. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to investigators in October, agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s team and awaits receiving his sentence. Yet neither side has even suggested putting a date for Papadopoulos’ sentencing on the calendar. The lawyers in the case were scheduled to hold a phone call next Monday with the federal judge who will sentence Papadopoulos to discuss his status. But the two sides said in a court filing Wednesday they’d rather cancel it and discuss Papadopoulos’ sentence three months from now. The deadline for the lawyers to update the court about Papadopoulos is April 23. His defense attorney couldn’t be reached Wednesday. Papadopoulos faces up to six months in prison and a fine of up to $9,500. In another sign that Mueller’s investigation isn’t close to wrapping up, Michael Flynn, the former National Security Adviser who also pleaded guilty in December to lying to investigators in the Mueller probe, doesn’t have a date for his sentencing, either. The next update for Flynn is scheduled on February 1. Last week, the judge overseeing Flynn noted that the attorneys involved had a question about producing evidence related to the case, and had called the judge’s chambers and left a voicemail. The update from the court gave no further detail, Flynn’s attorney declined to comment, and neither side asked their question through the court’s public forum, as the judge directed them to do. The hints from the Papadopoulos and Flynn case calendars have some contrast with the repeated assertions of President Donald Trump’s lawyers, who have pushed for the Russia probe to have the “earliest possible resolution,” according to Ty Cobb, who runs the legal defense strategy from the White House. Cobb previously said he expected the part of the investigation that scrutinizes the White House to end in December or early this year.


Design-driven hospitality brand PTT Family celebrates Indonesian culture, cuisine and craftsmanship The Jakarta-based hospitality company opened its first hotel, The Katamama, using 1.5 million handmade bricks from a village in East Bali PTT Family expands its reach to Hong Kong with new Potato Head restaurant and bar Can you name an Indonesian company with a global presence? Probably not. But one design-driven, Jakarta-based hospitality group is about to change that. The brand behind Bali’s famous Potato Head Beach Club, PTT Family, has ambitious plans to export the archipelago’s cuisine, crafts and heritage with its chic yet authentic range of restaurants, bars and hotels. “I am very inspired by (Indonesian artisans),” says Ronald Akili, CEO and co-founder of PTT Family. “I think we have something very beautiful here and I want to showcase that to the world.” When Akili launched the group’s first restaurant – Potato Head Jakarta – back in 2009, he didn’t have a business plan, let alone a one-year plan. Then working as a real estate investor and art collector, he opened the diner as a fun side project with his chef wife. With local artists’ works hanging on the walls and classic comfort foods on plates, the space quickly found a following among locals and travelers. Fast-forward six years later and PTT Family has grown rapidly, with more than 1,000 employees working in seven locations in three countries – with more to come. “We want to create a movement for (Indonesian culture),” says Akili. “Like what chef Gastón [ Acurio] did in Peru.” After that first Potato Head in Jakarta, the empire mushroomed. Bali’s iconic Potato Head Beach Club opened in 2010 – if you’ve been to Bali, you’ve likely stepped into the expansive lounge or taken a dip in the infinity pool – followed by Potato Head Folk in Singapore’s Chinatown in 2014, and Potato Head Hong Kong earlier this year. Japan is the next city in Akili’s sights, with Sydney and Melbourne, in Australia, and Los Angeles, in the United States, also on the to-do list. The brand’s expansion is a big win for Indonesia in terms of soft power, says Akili. “Not only is Indonesian cuisine pretty much unknown (at the moment),” he says, “most people don’t know where Indonesia is. When I was living in the U.S., I had to explain so many times that Bali is in Indonesia, not the other way around.” The 8,000-square-foot Hong Kong address is another step towards introducing Indonesian cuisine to the wider Asian region. It is also the first international property to feature Kaum – meaning “clan” or “tribe” in Indonesian – which showcases lesser-known Indonesia ingredients and traditional cooking methods with a modern twist. Look for dishes prepared using the age-old technique of bamboo cooking, still popular today in villages around Indonesia. Global ambitions haven’t stopped the Potato Head creators from expanding at home. In April, The Katamama became the group’s first hotel. Nearly everything in this all-suite property is handmade – the exterior is crafted from 1.5 million handmade bricks sourced from a village in East Bali, over a period of two years. “If I had to create my house on the beach, this is what it would be,” says Akili. “As you can see, every single thing is personal and made by artisans. We have a relationship with these people and it’s a much more authentic approach.” The interior features contemporary Indonesian artwork, hand-dyed indigo textiles, teakwood furniture, terrazzo floors and Javanese tiles. Designed in collaboration with award-winning Indonesian architect Andra Martin, and located just behind Potato Head Beach Club in Seminyak, Bali, the Katamama is the first of three PTT Family hotels to plant its flag in Bali, with the others to follow in 2018 and 2019. Each property will work with local artisans to promote Indonesian heritage. For Akili, the brand’s success has been down to its relentless instinct to move against current trends – right down to the name. “(When we started out) in Jakarta, people wanted to have something elegant and exquisite … very modern, very clean lines, minimalism, and we wanted to create the opposite. “And we wanted to name it something catchy. Potato Head just popped up on us both,” he says. Looks like it’s here to stay.


Editor’s Note: Fareed Zakaria is host of CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS.” This article is adapted from the conclusion of “The Most Powerful Man in the World,” which re-airs Sunday, March 25, at 10 a.m. ET on CNN. The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author. Fareed Zakaria: To understand Vladimir Putin, you have to understand Russia Putin understands the vulnerabilities of free societies, Zakaria says In my latest documentary, we describe Russian President Vladimir Putin as the most powerful man in the world. But why? After all, the United States – and China, for that matter – are more powerful countries than Russia. The power of a head of state is determined both by the country’s strength and the capacity he or she has to exercise that power, unilaterally, unconstrained by other institutions, parties and political forces. And combining those two metrics, it’s easy to see why Vladimir Putin rises to the top of list. Putin has created what he calls a “vertical of power,” something unlike any we see in other great nations. As the Russian chess grandmaster Gary Kasparov – himself a harsh critic of Putin – has noted, the entire structure of Russian political power rests on one man. When the czar died, you knew the structure that would endure and the process by which his successor, his son, would be elevated. When the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party died, the Standing Committee and the Politburo would select his successor. But when Putin dies – I almost wrote if – what will happen? No one knows. To understand Putin, you have to understand Russia. The last hundred years for that country have seen the fall of the monarchy, the collapse of democracy, the great depression, World War II with its tens of millions of Russians dead, Stalin’s totalitarian brutalities, the collapse of communism, the breakup of the Soviet Union, and Boris Yeltsin’s years of chaos and corruption. Then comes Vladimir Putin, who ushers in stability and, in popular perception, rising standards of living and increasing prominence and respect in the world. That respect is important. Russians have immense national pride. Russia is the largest country on the planet – 48 times larger than Germany and encompassing 11 time zones that straddle Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Sign up for CNN Opinion’s new newsletter.Join us on Twitter and Facebook Russia is also a rich country, containing some of the largest deposits of raw materials, from oil and natural gas to nickel and aluminum. Culturally, it has often thought of itself as the third Rome, preserving Christianity even as Rome and Byzantium fell to the Barbarians. Putin understands Russia. But he also understands the world. He is not foolish enough to make a frontal assault on America or Europe. Instead, he knows how to use power asymmetrically, with cyber tools and disinformation. Related video When rebellion arrived in Russia He also understands the vulnerabilities of free societies – their internal divisions and discord, and their gaping openness. He understands the fragility of institutions like the European Union and ideas like integration and diversity. In other words, Vladimir Putin understands us very well. But all that begs an important question: Do we – and does Donald Trump – really understand him?


Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday deemed Iran’s presence in Iraq to be “helpful” to American attempts to beat back the threat of ISIS, given their common enemy. The measured praise for a country with which the U.S. has a fraught relationship came at the Aspen Ideas Festival, where the secretary of state was asked to assess whether Iran was “more helpful or more harmful” there. “Look, we have challenges with Iran as everybody knows and we are working on those challenges,” Kerry said. “But I can tell you that Iran in Iraq has been in certain ways helpful, and they clearly are focused on ISIL-Daesh, and so we have a common interest, actually.” Kerry was using a different name for ISIS. The top U.S. diplomat explained that he and his Iranian counterparts could now more easily solve global crises and directly communicate. Brent McGurk, the U.S. special envoy tasked with defeating ISIS, said earlier Tuesday that Iran-backed Shi’ite militias are mostly helpful in Iraq, though some go rogue. “We think most of these popular mobilization forces do operate under the control of the Iraqi state, but about 15-20% of them actually do not,” McGurk said. “And those groups are a fundamental problem.” CNN’s Ryan Browne contributed to this report.


Iraq’s central government stepped up pressure on authorities in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region on Thursday after voters decisively backed independence in a disputed referendum. The Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority told international flight operators that all flights to and from Erbil and Sulaimaniya airports in Iraqi Kurdistan would be suspended from 6 p.m. Friday (11 a.m. ET). The order, sent in an email seen by CNN, said domestic flights operated by Iraqi airlines were exempt from the decision. Turkey’s AtlasGlobal, Pegasus and Turkish Airlines, Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines, EgyptAir and Royal Jordanian airlines announced Wednesday that they were are suspending flights to the area, in compliance with Baghdad’s request. These airlines constitute the majority of international air traffic at these two airports, according to data on the airports’ websites. Neighboring Iran had previously ceased operations to and from the two airports before Monday’s referendum. More than 92% of the roughly 3 million people who went to the polls earlier this week opted for independence, according to official results announced by the Kurdish electoral commission on Wednesday. The vote was held across the semi-autonomous region and in disputed territories including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, a flashpoint city claimed by both Iraqi Kurdistan and the central government. The vote has put Kurdish authorities on a collision course with Baghdad. Related: After defying ISIS, ‘Kurds aren’t afraid of anything’ On Wednesday, the Iraqi Council of Representatives approved a number of punitive measures against the Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, for going ahead with the plebiscite. Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar Al-Abadi has given the KRG until Friday to hand over control of its airports to the federal government. Turkey, which hosts a sizable Kurdish minority and fears the ballot could spur separatist movements there, has also consistently condemned the referendum. On Wednesday it agreed to deal only with Baghdad on oil exports. Related video Who are the Kurds? Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim confirmed this in a phone call to his Iraqi counterpart, according to a statement from Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s office. Since a trilateral agreement involving Iran, Iraq and Turkey was signed last Friday, Turkish officials have stated on several occasions they will work only with the central government in Baghdad. “We were told that from now on border crossings, airports, energy, oil pipelines and the like are under the control of the central government.  For any steps we take, the legitimate administration we will deal with is the one in Baghdad, it is the central government,” Yildirim said on Monday. After meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ankara, Turkey, on Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told journalists the two leaders agreed on “the importance of territorial integrity both in Iraq and Syria,” restating his position that “the referendum does not have legitimacy.” CNN’s Hamdi Alkhshali in Atlanta, Muwafaq Mohammed in Erbil, Gul Tuysuz in Istanbul, Jomana Karadsheh in Amman and Sarah El Sirgany in Abu Dhabi contributed to this report. Lauren Said-Moorhouse wrote from London.


Peace talks first face-to-face meeting for Syrian rebel groups and government Parties agree that there is no military solution to 6-year civil war On a cold and clear Tuesday, you can feel the competing ambitions battling on Astana’s snow-packed Konaev Street. It’s the final day of the Syrian peace negotiations, and the latest moves toward ending the bloody, six-year civil war – or at least consolidating a fragile ceasefire – are being announced. On one side of the city’s main thoroughfare, the Rixos President Hotel bustles with shabby journalists, dapper diplomats and wealthy patrons in mink coats. Across the street stands the Kazmedia center, a large, glass open space intended to showcase the city’s open approach to the world.  A block white sculpture reads #kazmedia. Large screens show glossy advertisements for the country’s attractions. A few blocks down you’ll find the Baiterek Tower, a building 100 meters high that resembles a giant lollipop. It’s a taste of Astana’s eccentric modern architecture. And here you’ll also get a sense the dreams of the leaders of the Kazakh government, who want the world to see their capital as the Geneva of the East, a place where peace is made. After two days of listening to talks and hours spent sitting on cold tile steps with microphones in hand, cameras set and ready, the media were ushered into an expansive conference room to hear the results of the negotiations. The Kazakh Foreign Minister read a communiqué issued by Russia, Iran, and Turkey – the guarantors of a ceasefire that went into effect in December. The key part of the joint statement said delegates had agreed to: “Decide to establish a trilateral mechanism to observe and ensure full compliance with the ceasefire, to prevent any provocations and determine all modalities of the ceasefire.” Related video Syrian peace talks underway in Kazakhstan The statement also reaffirmed the parties’ conviction that there is no military solution to the Syrian conflict and that it can only be solved through a political process. But as quickly as the statement was read, each of the delegations split into their respective fiefdoms. The Syrian opposition held a news conference in the lobby of the Rixos where they said they “hope” the pledges will be implemented but lament the role of Iran in the process. UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, was rushed to the media center across the street, where he praised the results and said the communiqué signals the start of more intensive efforts to revive the UN-backed Geneva peace process. The Russia delegation called the media to a small room in the Marriott hotel to give its own take on events. As journalists rushed from one place to another gathering statements, it became obvious that, while the Syrian negotiations had reached a critical moment, trust was in desperately short supply. Here, in Astana, the dance of diplomacy has seen more snubs than a high school prom. The Syrian opposition delegation would not meet face to face with the government representatives. The government representative would not meet directly with the Turkish officials. The Turkish officials would meet with the Russians – but only in their capacity as intermediaries on opposite side of the conflict. Moscow, Tehran and Ankara brokered the Astana talks. But the UN had brokered its own Geneva talks. The two tracks plan to dance in partnership, according to officials, but analysts say Russia is controlling the focus. Some rebels refused to even come to the talks, and others like Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, a former al-Qaeda affiliate, were never invited. Each of the warring factions quickly threw themselves into the drama. Just about three hours after talks started on Monday, during a tea break, the head of the Syrian government delegation suddenly marched into the lobby. Dozens of media crews immediately swarmed Bashar al-Jaafari, who also is Syria’s UN ambassador. Jaafari called the opposition “the delegation that represents the armed terrorist groups,” and accused them of of using water as a weapon of war in the fight for the strategic area of Wadi Bardi, west of Damascus. Shortly after Jaafari’s comments, two rebel spokesmen came down to respond. Their comeback: The other side started it – and now they are hiding behind their big, bad friends. “We are not the ones who are cutting the water. We said many times we want to send the water back to Damascus but the regime is shelling us in a way that destroyed the water source,” Issam al-Reis said  – before he started arguing with crews from Syrian state television “The Syrian people did not elect Bashar al-Assad!” he said. “Bashar is now collecting youth from the streets to fight alongside him and they are fleeing. He wouldn’t need to bring in the Iranians and Russians otherwise!” Still, there is cautious optimism in the lobbies of Astana’s five-star hotels. The warring factions each posed for the media. On the sidelines they conceded that ending the bloodshed is the key priority. This was, after all, the first time that opposition and government representatives had been face to face since the conflict began in 2011. And the guarantors of the ceasefire, Russia, Turkey, and Iran, wanted to spark a real connection. “We couldn’t make the two Syrian delegations talk to each other sitting in the same room,” said Aleksandr Lavrentiev, head of the Russian delegation. “However they were at the opening, they looked at each other’s eyes, they listened to de Mistura’s greetings and avoided any harsh actions towards each other. We consider it as a positive step.” The wallflower, noticeably absent from the diplomatic stage, was the United States, recently relegated to observer status. The new Trump administration opted not to send a delegation, instead tapping US Ambassador to Kazakhstan George Krol to represent Washington’s interests. CNN’s request for an interview with the ambassador was declined, part of a policy not to comment on any of the two-day proceedings and an indication of the US’ waning influence on the Syrian crisis. Astana has left much unresolved. When will the next talks be held? Where will they be? Who will attend? The UN has focused on Astana as the prelude to a longer affair in Geneva starting February 8,  when the parties are slated to discuss both the military and political future of the country. But the warring factions have said this may be too much too soon for such a new and fragile relationship. “We are waiting for a week to see if we are going to continue the whole process. Until now there is nothing specific to happen. Astana or somewhere else. Even for Geneva we didn’t talk about any date,” Issam al-Reis said. But de Mistura said he is certain the parties will meet again soon. “Remember Aleppo was a turning point,” he said. ” As long as there was a stalemate in Aleppo one could say there was no other formula … and I think the armed groups have recognized, and the Russians too, this conflict cannot continue like this.” Geneva seems a world away from Astana, a post-Soviet creation of Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Just 20 years ago it was an empty patch of land, notorious for being close to the site of a former Gulag prison camp for the wives of Soviet traitors. But with the rebels feeling deserted by the United States, there now is room for Russia – the rebels longtime bitter adversary – to make overtures to at least a portion of the armed opposition. The importance of this cannot be overstated. It already has in part triggered infighting among rebel groups in Syria’s Idlib province.  At the end of the talks, CNN asked the rebel spokesman, Issam al-Reis, if Russia is now a part of the solution. He answered with a smile and just two words: “We hope.” CNN’s Schams Elwazer and Ralph Ellis contributed to this article.


China's top prosecutor says country could become like Syria Blames U.S. for promoting Hong Kong independence Beijing has accused the U.S. of working with so-called separatists in Hong Kong and Taiwan to undermine China and plunge it into chaos. In a video posted online by the Chinese Supreme People’s Procuratorate, apocalyptic images of Syria and Iraq are contrasted with bucolic views of China today. “The haze of ‘domestic and international concerns’ has not dispersed from the Chinese sky,” the video says. “Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan separatism, as well as dissident leaders, lawyers who would fight until death and other agents of Western forces are damaging China’s internal stability and harmony. Behind all these incidents, we can often catch a glimpse of the dark shadow of the Stars and Stripes.” Hong Kong’s Brexit moment? Calls grow for independence from China In a post on Weibo, the Procuratorate urged people to “stay alert for color revolutions” or see “peaceful and stable China” become like Syria or Iraq. A warning against independence movements in Taiwan and Hong Kong is overlaid on photos of Joshua Wong – a leading Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigner and founder of Demosisto – and Taiwanese President Tsai Ying-wen. In a statement, Wong dismissed the video as laughable, adding that it was full of “false statements” and highlighting the sentencing Tuesday of Chinese human rights lawyer Zhai Yanmin for plotting to subvert state power. “(Zhai’s sentence) proves the mainland justice system has no credibility,” Wong said. Chinese court defames Joshua Wong for receiving foreign money for HK independence. We condemn such false statements. pic.twitter.com/q0ThWrE59h Beijing’s dark warnings come as authorities in Hong Kong barred several pro-independence politicians from standing in the upcoming elections to the Legislative Council, the city’s parliament. Edward Leung of Hong Kong Indigenous, who won 15.4% of the vote in a by-election last year, was blocked by the Electoral Affairs Commission from running in September’s race. Speaking to reporters, Leung denounced the commission’s decision as political censorship, warning that Hong Kong will never have true democracy as long as it is under Chinese control and he called for revolution. Hong Kong’s political divide: Young guns vs. old guards Leung is one of five candidates who have been told they will not be allowed to run, including Chan Ho-tin of the Hong Kong National Party and Alice Lai Yee-man of the Conservative Party, which advocates for Hong Kong to return to British control as a route to independence. Both Leung and Lai signed declarations vowing to uphold the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, as required by the EAC, but were nevertheless barred from running. Other candidates who have been approved to run have complained of their political leaflets – the free distribution of which is a right granted to candidates – being blocked by the EAC. Ma Ngok, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the EAC’s bungling of the registration process could lead to a bump in support for more radical candidates. “Voters may seek to send a message to Beijing by casting a vote for these groups,” he told CNN. The EAC did not respond to a request for comment. CNN interns Sean Zhong and Lavanie Yan contributed reporting from Beijing.


Kenyan who shielded Christians from Al-Shabaab attack dies during surgery Salah Farah, a school teacher, explained his courageous action: "We are brothers" Kill us all or leave. That’s what Salah Farah told Al-Shabaab gunmen who ambushed a bus he was riding in the Kenyan county of northeast Mandera in late December. The gunmen said they were going to kill Christian passengers. “They told us if you are a Muslim, we are safe,” he then recalled to the BBC. But Farah and other Muslims on the bus stood up to the terrorists and risked their lives by shielding the Christians. Farah was shot. Over the past several weeks, he has seemed in good spirits, talking to reporters and his family. But on Monday, during surgery, he died. The school teacher’s words of peace and brotherhood are being praised this week in international news coverage. “People should live peacefully together,” he told Voice of America earlier this month. “We are brothers. It’s only the religion that is the difference, so I ask my brother Muslims to take care of the Christians so that the Christians also take care of us. … And let us help one another and let us live together peacefully.” Farah’s body was flown on a police helicopter to his home where he was buried. Many gathered at his graveside, wept and prayed. His wife, Dunia Mohamed, is nine months pregnant. They have four children. Farah was his family’s primary breadwinner. The couple also lived other family members including his elderly parents. His mother, Amina Sabdow, was unable to speak when she heard her son had died. The Kenya teachers commission sent condolences and vowed to help the family financially. Mandera County Gov. Ali Ibrahim Roba also promised to help Dunia and provide an education for the children. Farah was a role model, they said. Al-Shabaab emerged largely because of weak government and law enforcement in Somalia. Most recently a small faction of the group pledged allegiance to ISIS. Al-Shabaab is largely a militant Somali jihadi insurgency that the United States designated as a foreign terrorist organization in March 2008. Their stated goal is to turn Somalia into a fundamentalist Islamic state, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. The group has been blamed for attacks in Somalia that have killed international aid workers, journalists, civilian leaders and African Union peacekeepers as well as civilians. A 2011 United Nations report stated that Al-Shabaab has raised tens of millions of dollars from extortion, illegal taxation and other illegal means. What is Al-Shabaab and what does it want? CNN’s Ashley Fantz wrote this story in Atlanta. Journalist Saddam Mohamed Hussein reported from Kenya. CNN’s Robyn Kriel contributed to this report.


Pakistan is holding back on cooperation with the US while failing to take tougher action against militant groups, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told lawmakers Tuesday. Instead, he said, it’s only trying to appear tougher. “Ongoing Pakistani military operations against the Taliban and associated groups probably reflect the desire to appear more proactive and responsive to our requests for more actions against these groups,” Coats told the Senate Intelligence Committee during a hearing about worldwide threats. But, Coats added crucially, the actions Pakistan has taken to date “do not reflect a significant escalation of pressure against these groups and are unlikely to have a lasting effect.” Coats also told the committee that intelligence agencies believe Islamabad isn’t likely to change its behavior soon – continuing to slow walk cooperation with the US, while maintaining ties with the Taliban and the Haqqani network. The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more! Pakistan “will maintain ties to these militants while restricting counter terrorism cooperation with the United States,” Coats said. President Donald Trump has very publicly emphasized US concern about Pakistan’s reliability and integrity. His first tweet of 2018 put Islamabad in the crosshairs for its “lies and deceit.” “The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools,” Trump tweeted on January 1. “They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!” Related article US intel chief says risk of global conflict highest since Cold War The online blast previewed a January 8 announcement that the US would freeze security assistance to Pakistan – close to $1 billion – over its failure to clamp down on terror groups within its borders. The Treasury Department on January 26 announced terror designations on members of the Taliban, the Haqqani Group and other groups, in an effort to boost pressure on the militants’ abilities to operate. The designations “highlight, once again, the importance of Pakistan as a safe haven for the Taliban’s senior leadership,” according to Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He noted that five of the six men listed have been based in Pakistan.


Levi Jonathan Shirley died fighting ISIS in northern Syria, YPG says United States has not publicly confirmed his death An American civilian fighting alongside Kurdish troops in Syria has been killed fighting ISIS, according to a statement from the official website of the People’s Protection Units, or YPG. The YPG said Levi Jonathan Shirley, a volunteer also known as Agir Servan, died on July 14 in Manbij, an ISIS-held city in northern Syria. Shirley first traveled to Syria in February 2015, joining the YPG in Rojava. After a short trip back to the United States, he returned to Syria in January 2016, fighting in Al-Jazira and Kobani before the offensive to recapture Manbij. The YPG, a Kurdish group of some 30,000 fighters, is the senior partner in the Syrian Democratic Forces, which also includes some smaller Arab and Christian groups. His mother, Susan Shirley, said her son always wanted to join the U.S. Marine Corps but his eyesight was not good enough. “He was born with very poor eyesight,” she said Thursday. “He had surgery as a teen. Even so, it was not enough to join the Marines.” The last contact Shirley had with his family was in April with his sister. “We were all in the dark,” Susan Shirley said. She added that her son would have wanted “to get the story out about the Kurds.” The family was notified of Shirley’s death by the U.S. Consulate in Turkey, his mother said. They called five days after her son’s death because “it took a while to verify that it was him,” Susan Shirley said. The United States has not publicly confirmed Shirley’s death. Dozens of Americans and other Westerners are fighting in Syria, mainly with Kurdish groups. “It’s better to stand up and do something if you think you can help than to just sit back and watch because, ‘Hey it’s on the other side of the world and not my problem’,” fighter Randy Roberts told CNN last year. Last month, American Keith Broomfield was killed fighting alongside Kurdish troops in Kobani, according to the State Department. CNN’s Eyad Kourdi and Annie Rose Ramos contributed to this report.