Pope Francis is visiting Myanmar and Bangladesh The Rohingya crisis will likely be Pope's main focus Pope Francis has arrived in Myanmar, becoming the first pope to ever visit the southeast Asian nation. The world’s most high-profile Christian takes center stage in a staunchly Buddhist country accused of horrifying acts of brutality against its Rohingya Muslim minority. The Pope has previously decried violence against the Rohingya, calling them his persecuted “brothers and sisters.” Experts warn that this trip will require balancing a uniquely complicated set of humanitarian, diplomatic and religious questions. Even his own cardinal has advised the Pope to steer clear of the word Rohingya for fear of stalling his message of reconciliation before it has even begun. Aaron Connelly, research fellow at Australia’s Lowy Institute, told CNN there was little chance the Pope’s visit to Myanmar was going to be a “generic Papal visit.” “Clearly the thing that motivated this visit was always a desire to talk about the Rohingya,” he said. “The question is … is he going to do that in a way which is less confrontational and engages?” Connelly added. “Or is he going to say, this is outrageous, these people have a right to be in Myanmar?” More than 623,000 Rohingya refugees have fled across the border to Bangladesh since August 25, when a new outbreak of fighting began between Myanmar’s military and armed militants in Rakhine State, a poor region of western Myanmar. The Myanmar government has repeatedly denied allegations they are conducting a systematic campaign of violence against the Rohingya, blaming the widespread damage on a militant insurgency. However, the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Nations have all accused Myanmar of ethnic cleansing and the refugees share similar stories of killings, rape and torched villages. A crowd of people began to congregate downtown to greet the Pope upon his arrival despite the stifling heat and muggy weather, many singing songs and lining up hoping to view the Catholic leader. Traffic was at a near standstill. People at a nearby teashop told CNN that they were excited for the Pope’s visit before his arrival. “Pope Francis is doing this for the good of everyone in Myanmar and the world,” attorney U Way Myint said. “Whatever you want to say about the Christian leader, he has good intentions. He is a man of peace.” The Pope will likely try to deliver that message when meeting with Myanmar’s leaders. He first met with Myanmar’s commander-in-chief, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, Monday evening. He is scheduled to later speak with Aung San Suu Kyi, who leads the country in a power-sharing agreement with the military and has been criticized for her response to the Rohingya crisis. Connelly said the Pope needs to meet with both Suu Kyi and Min Aung Hlaing if he wants to deliver a message of compassion for the country’s Rohingya, but cautioned that the strategy could backfire. “Meeting with the military really could be perceived as providing cover for what the military is doing and suggest to the world that the Pope is willing to meet with someone like this guy, who is responsible at the very least for ethnic cleansing,” he said. Francis will spend three days in Myanmar before he travels to Bangladesh on Thursday, where he’s expected to meet at least a small group of Rohingya refugees while in the capital Dhaka. The last pope to visit Bangladesh was Pope John Paul II in 1986. “As the Pope said ahead of the trip, he will bring a message of peace, forgiveness and reconciliation,” Vatican spokesman Greg Burke told reporters at a press briefing on Wednesday. In the past, the Pope hasn’t been afraid of grand gestures. When he visited Greece last year, Francis took a dozen Syrian refugees back with him to Rome. It will be the first visit by the head of the Catholic Church to Asia since the Pope’s wildly successful visit to the Philippines and Sri Lanka in January 2015. While Pope Francis’s stance on the Rohingya crisis will likely dominate headlines,  the Pope is also expected to push for greater rights for the several million  members of Myanmar’s Christian minority. Experts say the key question during the Pope’s visit to Myanmar is how he’ll choose to address the Rohingya crisis. “This is something he hasn’t shied away from the in the past,” Alistair Cook, coordinator of the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Program at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, told CNN. In February, before the latest violence, Pope Francis prayed for the Rohingya refugees during a general audience at the Vatican, saying they were “good people” who were being “tortured and killed.” After the new violence broke out in September, he called for the faithful to “pray for our Rohingya brethren.” Since the Catholic leader’s initial announcement of his visit in July, the situation in Myanmar’s Rakhine State has dramatically deteriorated. One of the big, early indicators of Pope Francis’ intentions will be whether he will say the word Rohingya,  a politically charged term in Myanmar. Myanmar’s Cardinal Charles Maung Bo in media interviews ahead of the visit warned the Pope not to use the word for fear it could spark protests against Muslims and confuse the pontiff’s message. “The argument has always been (that) using the term ‘Rohingya’ immediately puts Myanmar Buddhists offside and closes their minds to further dialogue,” Connelly, the Lowy Institute research fellow, said. “They call them Bengalis to imply they are actually people from Bangladesh,” Connelly said. Myanmar has seen an upsurge in Buddhist nationalism since the end of military rule. Many people there seem to have little sympathy for the plight of the Rohingya and react defensively to the storm of international criticism their exodus has unleashed. In a video message to Myanmar last week ahead of his visit, Pope Francis didn’t mention the Rohingya, instead focusing on a wider message of supporting each other “as members of our one human family.” Experts said if Pope Francis uses the word Rohingya in any of the 11 homilies and speeches he’s expected to make during the two-country tour, it would be a clear sign he is taking a firm stand on the issue. Myanmar’s government claims the Muslim residents of Rakhine State are relatively recent migrants from Bangladesh rather than true citizens of Myanmar, although many Rohingya say they have lived there for generations and trace their roots back centuries. Timeline: the Rohingya crisis Francis will also conduct a public mass at the Kyaikkasan Grounds in Yangon on Wednesday, the most high-profile public event he’ll take part in. “There is a downside risk (to this visit), which is pretty big. If there is an open mass in Yangon and the mainstream Buddhist monks who have become increasingly hardline on this issue, if they protest it or denounce it, if they march in the street over it … it could increase tensions quite a bit,” Connelly said. “So many people who follow this issue are saying they’re worried this could be a spark which sets off much more violence.” CNN’s Delia Gallagher and Manny Maung contributed to this report


Palestinians at a Bethlehem-Jerusalem checkpoint view visit with skepticism In Israeli resort of Haifa, travelers wonder if US understands region enough to help secure peace When US President Donald Trump travels from Jerusalem to Bethlehem on Tuesday for the final leg of his fact-finding mission to the Middle East, you can be sure he won’t be taking the bus. It is a shame. Bus stations, and the travelers you meet there, can tell you a lot about a place. From Israel to the Palestinian territories, a two-hour journey can take you just a few miles, or to the other side of the country, depending on who you are and where you are going. Last Friday, CNN went to talk to people waiting for buses at two very different locales, to gauge the mood on both sides of the divide and ask about their hopes for the US President’s visit ahead of his arrival on Monday. The first stop was the Jerusalem side of Checkpoint 300, the main crossing from Bethlehem to the Holy City, a military checkpoint through the 15-year-old wall that divides the West Bank from Israel. If President Trump and his entourage choose this way to enter Bethlehem, it will surely be a speedy passage through the concrete barrier – possibly a prototype for the one he wants to build on the Mexico-US border. The checkpoint is dreaded by Palestinians, turning what should be a short 20-minute walk into a two-hour ordeal. First they have to take a yellow taxi to the crossing, which consists of a taxi rank with a few hawkers selling food and refreshments or toys and gifts. There, their papers are checked by Israeli soldiers. If they are among the lucky ones with a permit to cross, they have no choice but to walk the rest of the way through the grim concrete tunnel. Once out on the other side, they then take the 234 bus to Jerusalem. It was the beginning of the weekend and the main flow of people we met were visiting relatives or heading to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City for Friday prayers. Yara Bahar, 36, is a Palestinian Christian who lives in the Old City of Jerusalem. She has come to the checkpoint with her daughter Rujina, 5, to pick up her son Josef, 13, who was visiting his grandmother in Bethlehem. She has been waiting an hour for him to cross the wall. “I hope Trump brings peace so both sides can live in peace,” she says. “He will come here, he will see this wall, he will see this checkpoint, but I don’t think he will see what we are going through. I have been waiting an hour to take my son back to Jerusalem and it is a nightmare. I do believe if the wall and the checkpoint are removed we can both live together peacefully. I hope Trump will be able to convince the Israeli side that the checkpoint is useless for peace.” Alia Malash, 55, is taking her 14-year-old grandson Ahmed to Al-Aqsa – the third holiest site in Islam. She said she wanted to take him now, because in two years he will not be able to freely go. Under current Israeli regulations, only women and men over 50 and boys under 16 can cross on a Friday, the Muslim holy day, without a permit, for fear of disturbances. Malash says before the wall went up, she used to walk to the mosque every Friday.  She now goes whenever she can for prayer, but not during the Jewish holidays because then she is not allowed. Work on the wall began in the early 2000s, in response to the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising. “What can I hope from Trump’s visit?” she says. “I don’t think he will do anything for us – I just hope he looks at the prisoner issue – there is not a single family in Palestine that doesn’t have a relative in an Israeli prison.” CNN also spoke to six men in their 50s and 60s, all from the same family, who are going to pray at Al-Aqsa. Their journey from northern Hebron should take half an hour but, because of the checkpoint, it now takes two hours. Two of the men, Ahmed and Mohamed, are Jordanian citizens. “It is not just Palestinian citizens who suffer,” Ahmed says. “Even us as visitors, we also suffer at checkpoints. With a Jordanian passport, I should be able to cross without permission, but what can I do? We hope that Trump can get a sense of our suffering. God willing, he can do something.” Farmer Mohamed Theeb, 85, made the trip from his village in Hebron to Jerusalem, also to pray. He expresses skepticism about Trump’s visit. “He will come with empty hands and he will leave with empty hands,” he says. “He will not find a solution for anything, that is very clear and it is obvious that Trump is biased. Look around, this wasn’t here 15 years ago, it’s only getting worse with these world leaders.” There is a very different atmosphere at the bus terminal in Haifa, 150 kilometers (93 miles) from Jerusalem on Israel’s Mediterranean coast. Most travelers here are planning more secular pursuits for their weekend. A man sells the conservative newspaper, Israel Hayom, owned by the American casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who is said to have Trump’s ear on the Middle East. Friday’s edition has a picture of Trump in the lead story, part of a special edition for the visit, but not everyone waiting at Haifa bus station knows that the President is heading their way. Ilan, a 23-year-old computer engineering student from Afula, says he is too busy studying to listen to the news and didn’t know about Trump’s visit. “I think he can make a change here, but I guess the question is what does he want to change?” he says. “I don’t think he is going for the peace path. I think his going to the other path – supporting Israel being more aggressive. Maybe for us it’s a good thing, because it will give us more freedom. Obama oppressed our government; maybe Trump will give us a free hand.” Liav, 20, and his friend Yishai are soldiers in the Israeli military and are on their way to a music festival. “When it comes to Israel, I think Obama was better than Trump because Trump is irrational,” says Liav. “He is unpredictable, you can’t trust a word he says. On the other hand, it seems that he’s more active than Obama, I don’t really know if that’s a good or a bad thing.” “What value does this visit have? None,” says Shlomit, a woman in her forties who is on her way home to the kibbutz where she lives. “All people are talking about is will the embassy be in Tel Aviv or in Jerusalem. Either way the location of the embassy is just a statement of no real content or value. Politically it would be horrible if the embassy moved to Jerusalem. Because than we would be proclaiming that we are really ‘the chosen people,’ and that Jerusalem is united,” she says. CNN also asked Sheli, 24, a college student, what she thought about President Trump’s visit. “He’s very aggressive and I don’t think he is knowledgeable about this region,” she says. “In fact, I don’t think any American really understands what’s happening here but they have that tendency to intervene here in the Middle East from the first second.” “I don’t think he can bring peace to the region. I think he can bring war – maybe in our world war is what brings about change, but I wouldn’t want that.” Adi, 29, from Acre, was traveling to Eilat to meet friends for a weekend vacation. He has a more positive view of President Trump. “He is coming here with a new agenda. Initially I wasn’t rooting for him – but we’ve already tried so many methods and leaders to bring about peace and nothing worked. So maybe it’s time to give him a chance. It will either explode in our face or succeed beyond expectations.” “Twenty or 30 years from now we won’t be able to keep living like this. Either there will be two states or there will be one state. I don’t really care. Both options will work as long as the occupation comes to an end.” Fhadi, 39, a Palestinian citizen of Israel who works as a bus conductor, is hopeful Trump will bring a fresh approach to the very old problem of Israel and the Palestinians. “Many times the people who you least count on turn out to be those who make the difference.” he says.  “So I’m optimistic that maybe that will be the case with Trump. Thing about him, he is not coming here for money or for fame, he has it all. All he wants is to surprise the world – show them that he will bring change after all the things that were said about him. He wants to be remembered.”


Planning a trip to England to see Stonehenge and Buckingham Palace? It may be cheaper to add Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate to the itinerary. UK teenager Jordon Cox saved £7.72 ($11.06) and added 1,637 kilometers (1,017 miles) to his journey by taking a sightseeing detour to Berlin on his trip from Sheffield in northern England to Shenfield in the south. He even had cash spare for a four-hour jaunt around the German capital, where he enjoyed a $2 currywurst lunch, visited Potsdamer Platz and Checkpoint Charlie, and took in the free tour at the Reichstag parliament building. Bargain-hunter Cox, 18, blogs for consumer advice website Money Saving Expert under the moniker The Coupon Kid. His thrifty cash-saving skills once saw him net more than $800 of groceries for six cents.  But even he admits in his blog that his latest adventure “is a rather extreme way of saving money.” Cox was making the 228-kilometer journey to Sheffield from his home town of Shenfield, Essex, to teach a class on – unsurprisingly – saving money by collecting coupons. Related article This guy saves on London rent by commuting from Barcelona He managed to score a cheap $27 train ticket on the way north, but the return journey was set to cost him a whopping £47 ($67). That’s 29 cents per kilometer. Using the Internet and his deal-detecting skills, he realized he could fly home via Milan, Copenhagen, Berlin or Dublin with lbudget airline Ryanair – and it’d still be cheaper than a train journey in England. Destinations: England | Germany “I chose to travel via Berlin as it was the cheapest and the farthest away so I would get my money’s worth,” he told the Daily Mail. So, skipping the three-hour train trip, he spent £4 on a train from Sheffield to Derby, £4.20 on a bus from Derby to East Midlands Airport, £11.83 on a Ryanair flight to Berlin, £9.54 on a flight from Berlin to Stansted and £8 on his bus ride home. A 13-hour journey, but a total spend of £44.07 ($63). For a 1,637-kilometer journey, that’s less than four cents a kilometer. So how do we get in on this money-saving action? Cox recommends looking for the best deals two to four weeks before the travel date, bearing in mind it’ll probably be necessary to book two separate flights, and factor in extra booking fees and travel to and from the airport. His Berlin tickets were booked three weeks in advance. “If you’re not in a rush, your focus is saving money and you fancy a little walk around a European city, it’s worth a look.” He admits it’s not an environmentally friendly way to travel, but adds: “I got to enjoy a ‘free’ mini holiday to a city I’ve always always wanted to visit. Next time you’re traveling on a train be sure to look up prices for flights as well.”


The plan was first delivered to the Pentagon on November 7 It resulted in the death of a Navy SEAL and several civilians The military has completed its after-action review of the controversial raid in Yemen in January, with several defense officials providing details of the findings to CNN Friday. They described why the raid was launched, how the battle became so intense, what led to the death of a Navy SEAL and several civilians, and the usefulness of the intelligence gained. The officials confirmed to CNN that the target was intelligence and not an al Qaeda leader, adding that the enemy did not know the SEAL team was coming, but said that once the US troops were detected an intense firefight broke out between the American personnel, al Qaeda members and armed tribal villagers. Here is what we know now about the operation. President Donald Trump first learned of the plan the morning of Wednesday, January 25, days after he had been inaugurated, a White House official told CNN. James Mattis, Trump’s new secretary of defense, had already approved the raid by the time Trump learned of it, the official added. Michael Flynn, Trump’s then-national security adviser, presented the President with a written memo about the planned raid in the morning and the two discussed it a number of times during the day, the official said. Trump then asked Flynn to arrange a meeting so he could solicit advice from Mattis and Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Flynn, Dunford and Mattis laid out the scenario for Trump over dinner, explaining to the President – who has no military experience – that there were inherent risks with the mission. He then authorized the operation. The plan was first delivered to the Pentagon on November 7, when US Central Command asked Defense Department lawyers for review and approval. Legal experts sent it to the National Security Council at the White House on December 19, Trump Press Secretary Sean Spicer said last month. Related video General says no bad decisions in Yemen raid “Clearly, that was under the last administration,” Spicer said. “On December 19, the plan was approved by the Department of Defense and recommended that it be moved ahead.” While some Obama aides dispute that the Pentagon ever approved the raid, and others maintain the administration okayed it all the way to the Oval Office, what is agreed on by everyone is that Obama himself never signed off. Such situations are remarkably fluid based on daily intelligence and conditions on the ground. The military wanted to hold off until better conditions prevailed, which didn’t occur before Obama left office. The Pentagon has called the mission an intelligence gathering operation aimed at improving the US government’s understanding of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and its relationship to various Yemeni tribal fighters. “Our intention here was to improve our knowledge against this threat, a threat that poses a direct threat to us here in the homeland,” Gen. Joseph Votel, who oversees US troops in the region, told the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday. Related video Father of slain Navy SEAL slams Trump, Yemen raid The Pentagon considers al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula the terror organization’s most capable franchise. It has exploited the civil war in Yemen to carve out a safe haven. Some reports indicated that the raid was aimed at capturing or killing the leader of AQAP, Qassim al-Rimi, and one Capitol Hill source said that the mission was intended to capture a senior AQAP leader. But multiple US defense and military officials have strongly rejected that notion. The SEAL team was prepared to snatch, grab and interrogate people, a defense official told CNN, but said the operational planners did not think extremely high-value targets were present at the compound. The raid involved elite US Navy SEALs and Special Forces from the United Arab Emirates operating on the ground, according to officials from several countries. The operation was considered relatively risky by military officials, particularly because US lacks nearby support troops like Special Operations enjoys in Iraq and Syria. In order to mitigate the risk, US Marines aboard the USS Makin Island in the Gulf of Aden were standing by to assist as a “quick reaction force,” equipped with MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, Harrier jets and Cobra attack helicopters. Surveillance drones flew over the site during the entirety of the raid, giving military planners updates on the mission. As the US-UAE combined force approached the al Qaeda-linked compound, the group was detected and an intense firefight broke out. A defense official with first-hand knowledge of the after-action review raid said the al Qaeda and tribal forces present did not know the SEALs were coming when they entered Yemen, saying there was absolutely no indication that either the US or UAE forces were seen before they started moving in on their objective, adding that the SEALs had observed the area for some time before going in. But the official noted that due to their living close to the frontline of the ongoing civil war in Yemen, the nearby local villagers were very suspicious and prepared to resist foreign military forces or Houthi rebels. As a result, the official continued, the men, women and even some of the younger people in the village were all armed. The review found that as the SEALs moved in on the target compound, they were fired upon by al Qaeda fighters and a significant number of villagers soon joined the terror operatives in their battle with the SEAL team. “We did not expect the whole village to grab their weapons and start firing at us,” the official said. During the gun battle, which featured small-arms fire, hand grenades and close air support strikes from the US aircraft, al Qaeda fighters and armed villagers – including some female combatants – took up firing positions on the roofs of nearby buildings and the US troops were prevented from moving. They called in an airstrike against the buildings, which likely led to the civilian casualties, a US military official told CNN. The Marine Harrier jets and Cobra helicopters began carrying out close support airstrikes and multiple MV-22 Osprey aircraft from the Makin Island, officials said, were sent to rendezvous with the Navy SEALs when they came under intense fire. “This was a very difficult operation where we had US service members who were pinned down and needed help to get out and that help was called in with airstrikes,” US Navy Capt. Jeff Davis told reporters Friday. US Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens was killed in the gun battle, receiving a fatal wound. Three additional US personnel were wounded and several others injured when their aircraft made a hard landing. “We lost a lot on this operation. We lost a valued operator, we had people wounded, we caused civilian casualties, lost an expensive aircraft,” Votel, who oversaw the after-action report, told a Senate hearing Thursday. On the question of why the SEALs proceeded with the mission once they came under attack, the official with direct understanding of the review said: “We don’t just stop because we get fired at.” He said Votel supported the SEAL team commander’s decision to carry on with the mission. “We believed it was worth the risk,” said a separate US military official, who noted the operational commander on the ground in Yemen could have scrapped the mission at any time. “It’s a military assault. There’s going to be risk.” Votel said the military conducted a review that determined that between two and 12 civilians were killed as a result of the raid. Local Yemeni officials told CNN that the number was 13. The London-based NGO Reprieve and a Sanaa-based human rights worker told CNN that at least 23 civilians were killed in the attack, however. The US military estimates that 14 enemy fighters were also killed in the battle. The civilian casualties were “caught up in aerial gunfire that was called in to assist US forces in contact against a determined enemy that included armed women firing from prepared fighting positions,” US Central Command said in a statement. “The villagers feel very terrified by what happened,” Mohammed al-Qawli, head of Yemen’s National Organization for Drone Victims, told CNN. “They can’t believe what happened. They feel the world has let them down. Sadness hangs over the whole area.” Local reports also indicated that the 8-year-old daughter of US-born terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki was also killed. The US raid team captured hard drives, cell phones and laptops containing over a terabyte of data, one US official said, describing the intelligence as containing information pertaining to AQAP safe havens, targets, tactics and training techniques. In an early bid to highlight what was gathered, the military suffered an embarrassing moment when it released a terrorist training video uncovered on the raid only to realize it had been previously available online. But several US officials told CNN this month that the US is now taking action to locate and monitor hundreds of people or “contacts” found as part of the intelligence retrieved during the raid. The government is also taking action to find and monitor these AQAP-linked individuals because of the threat they may pose to Europe, the officials added. The official with knowledge of the raid’s operational details said the military “absolutely believes” the intelligence obtained will help disrupt al Qaeda plots. The raid was the first of Trump’s presidency, and the fact that it resulted in the death of a SEAL, the wounding of three others, the killing of multiple civilians and the loss of a $70 million aircraft have raised questions about whether there was adequate planning, proper execution and due deliberation by Trump himself. The commander in chief has been quick to declare it a success, using the platform of his joint address to Congress in February to make that case, aided by a touching moment when he singled out Owens’ crying wife, Carryn, in the balcony. “Ryan was a part of a highly successful raid that generated large amounts of vital intelligence that will lead to many more victories in the future against our enemies,’ ” Trump told her from the floor of the House. The military has declined to weigh in on whether the raid was a “success” but has said that the raid accomplished what it was intended to. “It was a military mission,” Davis, the US military spokesman, said Friday. “It completed its objective, but it did so at a cost.” Members of Congress, however, have been among those more critical of the operation. Some have questioned whether it should have been authorized in the first place. “When you have women and children killed, as you pointed out; loss of a $70 million aircraft; you do not capture anyone … that mission is not a success,” the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain, told Votel Thursday. “But that happens in war.” Owens’ father was critical of the raid, calling for an investigation into what happened. The military has conducted several investigations and reviews into the operation per standard operating procedure anytime there are civilian casualties, lost aircraft or the death of US service members. The only investigation that is still ongoing is the examination of the loss of the Osprey. Following the after-action review, Votel told the Senate that no additional investigations were warranted. “I am looking for indicators of incompetence, poor decision-making or bad judgment throughout all of this,” Votel told the committee. “I was satisfied that none of those indicators that I identified to you were present.” As a result, he said: “I made the determination that there was no need for an additional investigation into this particular operation.”


Painting was discovered to be missing in 2001 The shipping notice to the U.S. said it was worth 30 Euros, or $37 It will be returned to the government of France The shipper said it was a $37 piece of art craft being sent to the United States as a Christmas present. The feds say it was actually a stolen Picasso, missing for more than a decade and worth millions of dollars. The work of art, painted in 1911 by the Cubist master, was recovered when it was shipped from Belgium to the United States in December. It was discovered by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and seized by Homeland Security Investigations. “A lost treasure has been found,” said Loretta Lynch, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. Lynch filed civil action to gain possession of the painting. It will be returned to the French government, which owns the painting. The work, entitled “La Coiffeuse” (“The Hairdresser”), was discovered missing in 2001. The French received a loan request and when someone went to get it out of storage at the Centre George Pompidou, the painting was gone. In December, the painting came to the United States. The label said “Art Craft / 30 E / Joyeux Noel.” Customs officials investigated further and found something worth far more than 30 Euros. Deputy Special Agent in Charge Anthony Scandiffio of the Homeland Security Investigations said: “The recovery of the La Coiffeuse sends a strong message to thieves that the market to sell stolen antiquities in the United States is drying up.” The news release from Lynch didn’t give the name of the person who shipped the painting.


Kjartan Sekkingstad was abducted from a resort last year Two fellow hostages were killed and a third was released A Norwegian man held captive for almost a year by a militant Islamist group in the Philippines was freed Saturday, according to CNN Philippines and the state-run Philippines News Agency (PNA). Abu Sayyaf released Kjartan Sekkingstad at 4 p.m. local time (4 a.m. ET), according to Western Mindanao Command spokesman Maj. Filemon Tan Jr. Sekkingstad’s release was an offshoot of ongoing military operations against the Abu Sayyaf group, Tan told CNN Philippines. The Moro National Liberation Front, which is in peace talks with the government, assisted authorities in the operation, he said. “Simultaneous land, air, naval and police operations complemented each other putting pressure on (Abu Sayyaf),” Tan said. It is unclear whether a ransom was paid to secure Sekkingstad’s release. Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said “it was a long, long negotiation.” At the same conference, Sekkingstad expressed his “heartfelt” gratitude to the President, adding that he was “happy to be alive and free and it is a beautiful feeling.” Sekkingstad was abducted from a resort on Samal Island, which lies off the coast of the major southern island of Mindanao, on September 21, 2015. Three people were kidnapped with him: Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall, and Filipina Tess Flor. Hall, Ridsdel and Flor were visiting the resort’s marina on their yacht and Sekkingstad was the manager of the property. Abu Sayyaf initially demanded a $6.3 million ransom for each of the victims to be paid by April 25, according to Philippine state media. In March a jarring video surfaced, showing the four pleading for their lives. In April, after murdering Canadian hostage Ridsdel, the group reset the deadline to June 13 for the remaining three hostages. A video obtained in May by SITE, a group that monitors extremist and terrorist groups, showed three hostages surrounded by six armed militants. Abu Sayyaf beheaded the other Canadian, Hall, in June. Flor was released June 24, less than a week before Rodrigo Duterte officially assumed the presidency. He presented Flor to the public during a police turnover ceremony in Davao. Abu Sayyaf is headquartered in the restive Muslim-majority province of Mindanao in the country’s far south. The violent extremist group split from established Philippines separatist movement Moro National Liberation Front in 1991. The Philippines is a predominantly Catholic country, but the south has historically had a large Muslim population. Abu Sayyaf’s stated aim is to establish an independent Islamic state on the southern island of Mindanao. The group first became active in the early 1990s and was responsible for bombings across the southern Philippines and in the Malaysian state of Sabah. Following the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Washington worked hard with the Philippine military to stop the group’s activities. Largely weakened by these attacks, Abu Sayyaf started to move from large-scale bombings to kidnappings.


Faced with an explosive political situation at his feet, Trump lobs a rhetorical grenade elsewhere It moves the conversation from one that has him on defense to one where he is on offense The weekend’s frenzy over President Donald Trump’s so-far unsubstantiated claim that his predecessor tried to wiretap him is the latest example of a world view in which elections are rigged, the news he doesn’t like is fake, there is mass voter fraud and the intelligence community is out to topple the White House with leaks. It’s the latest example in a pattern perfected by a president whose actions have had the effect of diversion. Faced with an explosive political situation at his feet, he lobs a rhetorical grenade elsewhere, using the resulting blast and confusion to his advantage. It moves the conversation from one that has him on defense to one where he is on offense. When Trump made the unsubstantiated claim on Twitter that his predecessor had wiretapped him in the waning days of the 2016 election, it diverted attention from the growing body of undisputed reports that his surrogates and staffers had met with the Russian ambassador before and after the election. His campaign chairman was forced out over the summer after questions about his ties to Ukraine and Russia, his national security adviser was fired last month and last week came the news that his staffers and now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions met with Russians before the election. Russians at that time were doing their own meddling in the 2016 campaign, according to a US intelligence report. There’s no evidence that the Trump campaign had anything to do with that effort, but the meetings, disputed at first but then admitted became an overriding focus in the news media. After the intelligence community concluded Russia was trying to meddle in the election, the meetings between Trump staffers and Russian officials were certainly newsworthy, even if no direct connection was established. Trump effectively parried those difficult questions when he thrust focus, without any evidence, onto former President Barack Obama. James Clapper, who was the director of national intelligence under Obama, denied the claim, saying there was “no such wiretap activity” by the intelligence agencies he oversaw. Plus, the FBI asked the Justice Department to push back against Trump’s claim, but they have not. Other examples of Trump claims that had a diversionary affect include: When he appeared to be losing in public opinion polls ahead of the November election, Trump called the entire election system into question, arguing repeatedly that it was rigged against him. When he pulled off a stunning and decisive Electoral College victory but just as decisively lost the popular vote, Trump had a new answer. He said a massive effort of voter fraud cost him winning a majority. He promised an investigation, too, although it has yet to materialize. When it became clear that false stories spread on social media platforms about his 2016 opponent, Trump turned the problem of incorrect reporting around and started a campaign to label legitimate news organizations as “fake news” purveyors. The term fake news is now almost entirely associated with his campaign against the media and not the conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton. When protesters took to the streets, shocked and dismayed after his remarkable election day victory, Trump dismissed them as professionals, incited by the media. When the first series of reports emerged that his staffers, particularly former national security adviser Michael Flynn, had spoken to Russian officials on the day the Obama administration had announced new sanctions against Russia, Trump hit back that it was leaks that were the real offense. That didn’t save Flynn his job – he was fired for misleading Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts. But Congress took Trump’s cue and is now investigating leaks with the same, or more vigor than it is investigating Russian meddling in the election. Now that he’s president and has the muscle of the federal government behind him, these efforts can have real consequences. Related article How Congress responded to Trump's request to investigate the Obama administration There may very well be a large-scale federal investigation into voter fraud for which there is no proof. Similarly with the effort to tamp down on leaks and the White House has already demanded an investigation into the idea that Obama ordered wiretaps of Trump despite a lack of evidence provided by Trump. The wheels of government will turn where the President tells them to go, even if there isn’t any evidence.


Editor’s Note: Rob Crilly is a British journalist living in New York. He was The Telegraph’s Afghanistan and Pakistan correspondent and was previously the East Africa correspondent for The Times of London. The opinions in this article are those of the author. Rob Crilly: Sean Spicer has loyally dished alternative facts and endured humiliation Leaving him out of the audience with Pope Francis could have been no accident Here’s what I see when I look at Sean Spicer, President Donald Trump’s battered press secretary: A man who chews and swallows 35 pieces of gum every day, who routinely stands up before the assembled Washington media corps to offer himself up for a ritual flogging to deflect from the President’s latest misstep, and who knows he will never again be able to walk down the street without a passer-by reminding him that his entire life’s work as a Republican communications strategist has been rendered a cartoonish joke by a comedienne on a wobbly motorized podium. I wonder if this is what he imagined it would be like to hold a senior White House position? Presumably he expected it to feel less like being a punching bag. No matter. His boss is famously loyal to those around him who show total devotion. And who could be more devoted than the man who last month touched off a philosophical discussion of the meaning of “is” as he attempted to explain away yet another one of someone else’s screw-ups. Yes, he insisted, saying a US aircraft carrier was “on her way up there” need not relate to the current reality of a ship headed away from the Korean peninsula but to some unspecified date on a military planner when she would indeed steam vaguely in that direction. Spicer has dished out alternative facts about any number of the President’s mistakes as his own reputation has diminished. He has gone from likeable flack, known for joshing with journalists, to a bitter adversary stoking feuds with individual reporters to please his boss. Related article How 'SNL' got under Trump's skin This week we learned just how much that devotion was worth to President Trump. Nothing. Along with his love of chewing gum, the other thing we all know about Mr. Spicer is that he is the sort of Irish American who drinks Guinness, owns a pair of shamrock trousers and who has made TV appearances on Ash Wednesday with the mark of the cross prominent on his forehead. He is a proper Catholic, even giving up alcohol for Lent this year. (As a lapsed Irish Catholic myself, I know faith when I see it.) This week, when President Trump traveled to Rome, should have been the moment when those merciless public flayings all became worthwhile for Sean Spicer. If working for the President was a career goal, then meeting the Pope was surely a life goal. Leaving Spicer out of the audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican this week, while more junior members of the White House were present, could have been no accident. Related article Spicer's absence in papal visit reveals Trump's family-first rule Although Trump has shown little understanding of the Christian faith – trying to put a donation on the communion plate or getting tangled in the rights and wrongs of abortion – or indeed any faith, he cannot have failed to recognize his spokesman’s religious devotion and understood what a papal audience would mean to him. In fact, the snub is the latest inflicted on his long-suffering spokesman. Remember those early briefings about how the President was unhappy with the way Spicer dressed (his suits were too light, apparently)? It all bolsters the drip, drip, drip of innuendo suggesting the press secretary is on his way out, the latest sacrifice on the reset altar. The only human response is sympathy. Even hard-bitten journalists who accuse the spokesman of lying or defending the indefensible during his news conferences have expressed shock at the slight. All of which suggests that being press secretary to this particular president is an utterly thankless task. Trump clearly believes that the daily avalanche of negative headlines stems not from his own erratic behavior, frequent u-turns and ill-considered tweets but an under-performing spokesman. Sign up for CNN Opinion’s new newsletter.Join us on Twitter and Facebook Or maybe he simply believes his press secretary should be devoted to one patriarchy at a time.


Publicly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the case in 2012 that Iran was drawing dangerously close to building a nuclear weapon. Privately the same year, the Israeli spy agency Mossad assessed the threat as more remote, according to reports by Al Jazeera and The Guardian newspaper, which both cited leaked intelligence documents. CNN cannot verify the authenticity of the documents nor whether there were actual differences between Netanyahu and Mossad. A senior Israeli official responded to the reports Monday, denying any contradiction between the two apparent positions. “There is no contradiction whatsoever between the quotes in your story – allegedly from Israeli intelligence – and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s declarations on the Iranian nuclear threat,” the official said. Netanyahu spoke to the U.N. General Assembly in September 2012, calling on the world community to draw a “clear red line” to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. He held a cartoon-like drawing of a bomb and drew a red line below the fuse. “In the case of Iran’s nuclear plans to build a bomb, this bomb has to be filled with enough enriched uranium. And Iran has to go through three stages. … Iran’s completed the first stage … and they’re 70% of the way there,” the Prime Minister said then. Just one month later, in a top-secret document sent to South Africa, Mossad reportedly assessed the danger as follows: “Bottom line: Though Iran at this stage is not performing the activity necessary to produce weapons, it is working to close gaps in areas that appear legitimate such as enrichment, reactors, which will produce the time required to produce weapons from the time the instruction is actually given.” Iran insists that like other countries, it has a right to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes. Western powers have accused Iran of trying to develop not just nuclear energy but nuclear weapons as well. CNN’s Elise Labott contributed to this report.


One of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s top officials arrived at Beijing airport on Wednesday on his way to the United States where he is expected to help lay the groundwork for on-again, off-again talks between Kim and US President Donald Trump in Singapore on June 12. Trump himself confirmed the news of Kim Yong Chol’s trip to the US early Tuesday, tweeting: “We have put a great team together for our talks with North Korea. Meetings are currently taking place concerning Summit, and more. Kim Young Chol, the Vice Chairman of North Korea, heading now to New York. Solid response to my letter, thank you!” Kim will meet Secretary of State Mike Pompeo later this week, according to White House press secretary Sarah Sanders. Once he touches down on American soil, Kim would be the most senior official to visit the United States since 2000, when Vice Marshal Jo Myong Rok traveled to Washington to meet with former US President Bill Clinton in the Oval Office. Then-US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright traveled to North Korea later that month. His trip comes as the United States and North Korea attempt to revive the summit, a potential diplomatic triumph for two countries technically still at war. The talks nearly fell apart last week when Trump said he was calling off the June 12 meeting in Singapore, following incendiary comments from a senior North Korean foreign ministry official who called Vice President Mike Pence a “political dummy.” The White House also said in a background briefing that North Korean officials hadn’t answered their calls, frustrating their attempts to plan for the meeting. But after a conciliatory statement from North Korea, Trump revived hopes for the meeting late Saturday night. Over the weekend Kim Jong Un called an impromptu meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-In at the Demilitarized Zone and reiterated his commitment to denuclearizing. Kim Yong Chol and Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, have been two of the most visible and important players in Pyongyang’s push for rapprochement with South Korea and the United States this year. Kim Yong Chol’s trip to the US indicates that Washington and Pyongyang have direct lines of communication open and are working closely together to work though issues ahead of the summit. Pyongyang’s foreign ministers regularly travel to New York to address the United Nations General Assembly, but this will be a much higher level presence with Kim Yong Chol’s appearance at the international body headquarters. “There is a power going to enemy territory. The act itself builds confidence on both sides,” said John Delury, a professor of international relations at Yonsei University’s Graduate school of International Studies. “It shows a healthy process of the two sides working with sincerity to fundamentally change the relationship.” Kim Yong Chol is the vice chairman of North Korea’s Party Central Committee, and is Kim Jong Un’s top official in charge of relations between North and South Korea. He’s often pictured with the North Korean leader and attended his two recent meetings with South Korea’s President Moon at the DMZ that divides the two Koreas. Kim Yong Chol has already met at least one senior US official. He was pictured greeting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo when the former CIA director visited Pyongyang earlier this month. Kim Yong Chol was part of the delegation from the North that traveled South  in February for the Winter Olympics closing ceremony, a decision that surprised many considering he was believed to have masterminded the sinking of a South Korean navy ship in 2010 that killed 46 sailors while serving as North Korea’s top intelligence official. The White House has dispatched officials across the globe to prepare for the possible summit. A team of US officials traveled to North Korea Sunday for talks with their North Korean counterparts. The team from Washington includes Sung Kim, a former US ambassador to South Korea and special representative for North Korea policy; Randall G. Schriver, the assistant secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs; and Allison Hooker, director for Korea on the White House’s National Security Council. Talks could potentially resume Wednesday at the DMZ, a person familiar with North Korea-US relations told CNN. Representatives from Washington and Pyongyang have also been sent to Singapore, the island city-state that has agreed to host the talks, the first between a North Korean leader and sitting US President. Japanese public broadcaster NHK posted footage online of a North Korean official at Singapore International Airport Monday, the same day US officials arrived for talks on logistics. The diplomatic scramble follows a last-minute meeting between Kim and Moon on the northern side of the DMZ Saturday to discuss the next steps after Trump’s surprise cancellation. As Moon revealed the substance of their discussion in a press briefing Sunday, President Trump announced that the meeting was back on. “We’re looking at June 12th in Singapore. That hasn’t changed.” Moon told reporters Kim requested the meeting with him on Friday afternoon, in what was only the fourth encounter between the leaders of North and South Korea. CNN’s Junko Ogura in Tokyo, Steven Jiang in Beijing and Samantha Beech in Atlanta. Zachary Cohen and Allie Malloy contributed to this report from Washington


Survivors of the Las Vegas shooting will need long-term support. Here’s how you can help. And here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door. (You can also get “5 Things You Need to Know Today” delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.) The one person who may have a clue as to why Stephen Paddock decided to kill 58 people at a country music festival will soon be talking with investigators. Marilou Danley, Paddock’s girlfriend, just flew in from the Philippines and landed in Los Angeles. She was accompanied by FBI agents and will be questioned by Las Vegas police. We’ve also gotten more details about the shooting itself through police body-cam footage, which captures the rapid staccato of the gunfire. The gunman continuously fired for about 10 minutes. Photos from Paddock’s hotel suite at Mandalay Bay were also published, showing guns, ammunition and what appears to be a body on the floor. The stories of how people pulled together to help each other during Sunday night’s chaos are starting to emerge. Like the shooting survivor who held a stranger’s hand for hours after he died at her side. Or the Iraq war vet who took a stranger’s truck to get the wounded to a hospital. We’ve profiled some of those lost to the shooting. President Trump visits Las Vegas later today. President Trump’s trip to Puerto Rico was his second chance, after his well-received address on the Las Vegas shooting, to fill the role of consoler-in-chief. It didn’t go so well. During a briefing with local officials on recovery efforts, Trump seemed to downplay the devastation Hurricane Maria brought to the US territory and pumped up praise for his administration. He compared Puerto Rico’s death toll to “a real catastrophe, like Katrina.” No, really. Later, he met with storm survivors and helped distribute supplies, at one point lobbing paper towel rolls like jump shots. CNN’s Chris Cillizza says the President just doesn’t have the empathy gene. Before leaving the island, Trump, in an interview with Fox News, floated the idea of wiping out Puerto Rico’s massive debt. A number of Russian-linked Facebook ads specifically targeted Michigan and Wisconsin, two states crucial to Donald Trump’s victory last November, according to four sources with direct knowledge of the situation. Some of the Russian ads appeared highly sophisticated in their targeting of key demographic groups in areas of the states that turned out to be pivotal, two of the sources said. The ads employed a series of divisive messages aimed at breaking through the clutter of campaign ads online, including promoting anti-Muslim messages, sources said. The King of Spain is straight-up ticked off at leaders in Catalonia over the region’s independence referendum. In a rare TV address, King Felipe said the referendum’s organizers “and their irresponsible attitude” had jeopardized Spain’s stability. He did not, however, mention the violence that occurred when Spanish police tried to forcibly remove people from the polls. Those clashes left nearly 900 people injured. The King’s tough talk must be falling on deaf ears though, because Catalonia’s leader told the BBC that the region could declare independence as early as the end of this week. Uber had already dumped founder Travis Kalanick as CEO, but that apparently wasn’t enough. Now, the embattled ride-share company is stripping Kalanick, who remains on Uber’s board, of even more power. It did that by adding six more members to its 11-person board, reducing Kalanick’s influence. Uber also now requires the board to OK a new leader by a two-thirds vote, making it much harder for Kalanick to retake his role as CEO. Uber’s recent woes include lawsuits, sexism allegations and essentially being kicked out of London. 3 billion The number of Yahoo accounts hacked in a 2013 data breach. In other words: Every. Single. One. People are talking about these. Read up. Join in. Snap, crackle, stopd Apple put out a fix for the new iOS 11 update after people complained about a crackling sound during phone and FaceTime calls. Great grandpa Meet “ICU Grandpa,” a retired marketing executive who cradles babies at an Atlanta hospital when their parents can’t. Cold case It’s one of the big mysteries from one of humanity’s saddest stories: Who betrayed Anne Frank? An ex-FBI agent’s on the case. Fantasy island Welcome to Japan’s “art island,” where cool sculptures dot the landscape and even abandoned buildings can become things of beauty. “I think they will feel some of what’s happening now as intrinsically not what they were taught.” Michelle Obama, saying young people who came of age during her husband’s presidency are hearing different messages in the age of Trump ‘Do you remember?’ A man thought it would be cool to prank his roommate by playing Earth, Wind and Fire’s “September” – every day of that month. Well, at least he picked a good song. (Click to view)


A public viewing is to be held Thursday, a public ceremony on February 3 Angélil died of throat cancer after a long battle Dion put her career on hold to help him fight the disease Singer Celine Dion has shared funeral preparations for her late husband, René Angélil, who died Thursday. He is to be laid to rest this coming Friday. In addition, a public visitation will be held a day before the funeral, and the family will host a public memorial for fans in Las Vegas on February 3, at Caesars Palace Colosseum. Angélil, 73, passed away at his home in Las Vegas, on the eve of his birthday, after battling cancer, Dion’s publicist said. An autopsy concluded the cause of death to be throat cancer. “He will be remembered as a gentle man, generous and kind, an unprecedented visionary, a modern Pygmalion, a Renaissance man,” a distributed obituary read. Rene Angelil passed away this morning at his home in Las Vegas after a long and courageous battle against cancer. https://t.co/JOeLaOfbSB Angélil, Dion’s longtime collaborator, stepped aside as his wife’s manager in June 2014 because of his battle with cancer. That August, Dion put her career on a temporary hold to help him fight the disease. Related gallery People we've lost in 2016 People we’ve lost in 2016 Dion and Angélil met after the always-singing 12-year-old Dion recorded a demo and one of her brothers sent it to Angélil, who was a fledgling producer at the time. When Angélil didn’t reply, the Dions called him directly to have him listen to it. That prompted Angélil to audition Dion in January 1981, and once he heard her, he mortgaged his house to pay for her debut album, “La Voix du Bon Dieu.” Les drapeaux de la ville de Mtl seront en berne suite au décès de https://t.co/JVNCUyKh82é Angelil. #RIP pic.twitter.com/UqhWIQMvqu By 1988, she was a star – and an adult. Dion won the top prize at the Eurovision song contest, held that year in Dublin, Ireland. That’s when they fell in love,  Angelil said on CNN’s “Larry King Live.” In 1992, “Celine Dion” hit the stores and produced four chart toppers, including a duet with Peabo Bryson for the Disney movie “Beauty and the Beast.” “And that was our key to America, at that point, ‘Beauty and the Beast’ was our first real hit in America,” Vito Luprano, then-senior vice president of artists and relations for Sony Music Canada, said at the time. The duet won an Academy Award and a Grammy. At the time, Dion was 24. A lavish wedding, children, more hit records and the top hit, “My Heart Will Go On” for the movie “Titanic,” followed. As did her current Las Vegas residency. One of Angélil’s final wishes was that his funeral be held where he married Dion in Montreal, Canada, at the Notre-Dame Basilica. “He chose to marry the one who will remain as the great love of his life, the artist for which he had the most respect, the woman who gave him light and happiness until his very last breath,” his obituary read. Angélil is survived by his wife, Dion, and the couple’s three children, René-Charles, 14, and 5-year-old twins Nelson and Eddy – and by his adult children from a previous relationship, Anne-Marie, Jean-Pierre and Patrick.


Rice is Obama's former national security adviser She denies wrongdoing Susan Rice, the former White House national security adviser battling accusations she improperly handled classified intelligence about associates of President Donald Trump, said Tuesday she never used government secrets for political ends. “That is absolutely false,” Rice said told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell in an interview, arguing that asking intelligence officials for more information about classified reports was a routine aspect of her job. Conservative media outlets have reported in recent days that Rice requested the identities of Americans included in intelligence reports derived from surveillance of foreign entities. The names included associates of Trump, which later emerged in media reports as having various ties to Russia. Related article Cillizza: Trump just keeps creating smokescreens to mask his Russia problem Rice declined to comment about specific intelligence reports on Tuesday, but said that if Trump associates’ names were speaking with foreign officials who were under surveillance, it was “possible” their names could have been gathered by US intelligence agencies. But she said that even if those names were “unmasked” by a member of the Obama administration, that information wouldn’t be disseminated broadly. And she insisted she did not play a role in revealing names of Trump associates with connections to Russia to the press. “I leaked nothing to nobody. I never have and never would,” Rice said. Trump’s allies have cited the reports about Rice as evidence proving the President’s claim that he was spied upon by the previous administration. Trump first levied the charge on Twitter one month ago, claiming that Obama wiretapped Trump Tower. Related article House Russia investigators plot next steps Rice denied those charges Tuesday, saying she was “shocked” to read the claims when they emerged. She said the White House isn’t responsible for ordering that type of surveillance. She maintained, however, that asking for more information about names included in intelligence reports was a routine and necessary aspect of her job in protecting American security. “We can’t be passive consumers of this information and and do our jobs effectively to protect the American people,” she said. “Imagine if we saw something of grave significance that involved Russia, China, or anyone else, interfering in our political process and we needed to understand the significance of that. To not understand it would be dereliction of duty.” Rice said the US intelligence community was ultimately responsible for determining whether to fulfill her requests to receive more information about unnamed US persons included in the reports, and she denied that information was shared widely, even with other government officials.


US advanced airborne early warning and control aircraft coming to Iwakuni base Planes being deployed as Japan-China tensions increasing The US Navy is sending aircraft equipped with advanced radar that can detect stealth fighters to Japan as China makes progress with its own radar-evading jets. The E-2D Advance Hawkeye airborne early warning and control aircraft will deploy to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in February, according to a statement Thursday from US Navy Japan. Deployment of the Advanced Hawkeyes is part of “a plan to put the most advanced and capable units forward in order to support the United States’ commitment to the defense of Japan and the security and stability of the region,” the US Navy statement said. The E-2D is equipped with the A/N-APY radar system, which manufacturer Lockheed Martin says has the power to “see smaller targets – and more of them – at a greater range, particularly in coastal regions and over land.” Defense journals say the A/N-APY radar can detect stealth aircraft that might evade older radar systems. A 2014 report in the US Naval Institute News says the A/N-APY-equipped Hawkeyes could be the US Navy’s “secret weapon” against cruise missiles and fifth-generation stealth fighters. Those would include China’s J-31 and J-20 fighters. Deliveries of the J-20 to China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force have begun, the state-run China Daily reported in late December. China displayed the twin-engine J-20 publicly for the first time in November when two of the planes flew at China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai. The latest prototype of the J-31, known as the FC-31, is still under development, China Daily said. Tensions between Japan and China have ratcheted up over the past year as China challenges Japanese control of the Senkaku Islands, known in China as the Diaoyus. In October, Japan said it had dispatched its warplanes 407 times between April 1 and September 30 in reaction to increased Chinese military flights near Japanese airspace. That’s almost double the number of intercepts Japan’s Air Self Defense Force made on Chinese aircraft in the same period in 2015. The Advanced Hawkeyes coming to Japan were previously operating from the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in support strikes on the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, the Navy said.

US Navy deployment of E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft to Japan


Belgian special operations forces raid a property in Molenbeek, a Brussels suburb that has a history of links to extremism Two of the Paris attackers hailed from Molenbeek, a Belgian prosecutor spokesman says Seven people had been arrested earlier in raids in Molenbeek, but five have been released The search for the perpetrators of the Paris attacks has led authorities across the Belgian border to an impoverished suburb of Brussels with a history of links to terror plots. Belgian special operations forces, clad in balaclavas and with bomb disposal robots at the ready, cordoned off two streets as they raided a property in Molenbeek, a suburb of the Belgian capital, on Monday morning, according to a CNN team at the scene. Jean-Pascal Thoreau, a spokesman for the Belgian federal prosecutor, later told CNN that no one was arrested in the raid. Terror in Paris: What we know about the attackers Earlier, Belgian state broadcaster RTBF, citing the country’s Federal Justice Department, had reported that police had made one arrest during the raid, but had not apprehended Salah Abdeslam, the French citizen at the center of a manhunt for his suspected involvement in the terror attacks. Get up to speed: Everything we know so far Two of those who attacked Paris on Friday have been identified as French citizens who lived in the Brussels suburb, Thoreau told CNN on Sunday, while two cars involved in the Paris shootings had Belgian license plates, according to his office. Seven people were arrested earlier in raids in Molenbeek after the Paris attacks, but five of them have been released, Thoreau told CNN on Monday. Among those released was Mohammed Abdeslam, brother of the wanted man. Thoreau told CNN that the released Abdeslam brother did not know his brother’s whereabouts. Authorities hunt for a French national The developments have brought renewed focus on the threat posed by jihadist networks in Belgium, a country that, according to one analysis, has exported more jihadists to the conflicts in Syria and Iraq per capita than any other Western European nation. Related video ISIS claims responsibility for Paris attacks According to figures released by the International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence in January, an estimated 440 Belgians had taken up arms for Sunni extremist groups in the Middle East, a per-capita figure about double that of France, and four times that of the UK. Molenbeek has a large, predominantly Muslim population of first-, second- and third-generation immigrants from North Africa that has gained an unwelcome reputation as a hotbed of jihadism. Belgium’s minister of justice, Koen Geens, told CNN’s Ivan Watson on Monday that his country had “a foreign fighters problem,” and he cited Molenbeek as an example of an area where more needed to be done to combat the threat. In January, police raided a suspected ISIS terror cell in Verviers in eastern Belgium, killing two men who were alleged to be on the brink of a major Paris-style attack. The cell members, including the man alleged to be orchestrating the plot from abroad, Belgian-Moroccan Abelhamid Abaaoud, all hailed from the Molenbeek area and were suspected to be ISIS veterans who had returned from fighting in Syria, according to a counterterrorism official. Related video Why is terror recruiting so successful in Belgium? Police found automatic weapons, police uniforms and chemicals to make TATP, the powerful explosive that the Paris attackers also used Friday. Inside the foiled Verviers terror plot Two houses in the suburb were also raided after Ayoub El Khazzani, a Moroccan national, opened fire with a Kalashnikov rifle on a high-speed train from Paris to Amsterdam in August. The prosecutor’s office said he had spent time in Molenbeek before the attack. The neighborhood’s links to extremist Islam extend back decades. Bassam Ayachi, a French citizen and Salafist cleric, founded the Centre Islamique Belge (CIB) in Molenbeek in the early 1990s – an organization that Belgian authorities say espoused hardline, pro-al Qaeda views and recruited jihadist fighters. The Belgian capital was also the site of atrocities in May 2014 that left four people dead at Belgium’s Jewish Museum. Mehdi Nemmouche, a radicalized French citizen who had spent a year in Syria, has been extradited to Belgium, where he awaits trial. And an arms dealer from the city was arrested for allegedly providing arms to Amedy Coulibaly, the ISIS sympathizer who attacked a Paris kosher supermarket in January. Terror in Paris: What we know so far Molenbeek Mayor Francoise Schepmans told CNN after January’s Verviers raids that the suburb was aware of the problems it faced with a cocktail of high unemployment among youths, disaffected young Muslims and jihadist propaganda. Related video Parisians to terrorists: 'We are not afraid' In February, a Belgian court convicted the leader of the Islamist group Sharia4Belgium and several followers on terror charges of sending jihadist fighters to Syria. The offenses were committed in Brussels, Antwerp, Syria and Turkey. “There are several people who left here to fight in Syria. And some who came back. That’s the danger,” Schepmans said. Abaaoud, who authorities suspect orchestrated the Verviers plot from Greece, is believed to have joined ISIS in Syria in early 2014, Guy Van Vlierden, editor of a blog on Belgian foreign fighters, told CNN this year. At some point, his 13-year-old brother joined him there, becoming the youngest Belgian jihadist in Syria. After the Verviers plot was foiled, Abaaoud evaded European authorities’ efforts to apprehend him. He later was featured in an ISIS propaganda magazine, claiming to have returned to Syria. Who were the Paris attacks suspects? Geens, the Belgian justice minister, told CNN on Monday that the jurisdictional divisions in the Brussels police force could hamper police efforts against the jihadist threat.  Brussels has 19 municipal mayors in charge of six police zones with their own local police forces. “The fact that Brussels is politically and – as to its police forces – a little bit more divided than one would expect from such a big city creates additional problems as to surveillance,” he told CNN’s Watson. “The main thing is the local and federal police have to work together continuously. Simple and normal criminality which has nothing to do with terrorism – but like false papers, false passports, weapon trade – are flourishing in certain suburbs of Brussels like in Molenbeek, and we absolutely have to counter these things with the help of local services.” In an interview with CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank in August, Alain Grignard, a senior member of the counterterror unit in the Brussels federal police and a lecturer on political Islam at the University of Liege, said the perpetrators of the Verviers plot fit a typical profile of Belgian jihadists: “men in their early 20s mostly from the Molenbeek district of Brussels moving in circles with a track record of delinquency and petty crime.” “They were radicalized very quickly, and when they came back from Syria they had no fear of death,” Grignard said in the interview, published in the Combating Terrorism Center’s publication, the CTC Sentinel. Cruickshank is also editor-in-chief of the CTC Sentinel. “These guys had maybe more experience in gun battles than our own commandos.” Like many European jihadists, they were an outgrowth of the “inner-city gang phenomenon,” he said, who had already revolted against Western society through petty crime and delinquency before having their antisocial approach “legitimized” by a radical strain of Islam. Related video Inside the Bataclan concert hall “These youngsters are getting quickly and completely sucked in. The next thing they know they’re in Syria and in a real video game,” he said. He told Cruickshank that the terror threat in Belgium, fueled by the trail of young jihadists to fight in Syria and Iraq, had “never been higher in all the years I’ve been working on counterterrorism.” “To give you an idea of the scale of the challenge, in the past two years we’ve charged more people with terrorism offenses than in the 30 years before that,” he said. “It’s impossible to do surveillance on everybody.” Since 2012, he said, al Qaeda had been “trying to talent spot” Western jihadists on the battlefields of Syria for use in potential operations against the West, while ISIS had appeared more focused on state building. But since the start of the U.S.-led air campaign targeting ISIS, the concern had grown that ISIS would also focus on directly targeting Western countries. “And the worry is that competition between al Qaeda and the Islamic State will see both groups try to outdo each other with attacks in the West,” he said. Names of victims begin to emerge CNN’s Paul Cruickshank, Ivan Watson, Nima Elbagir, Sebastian Knoops, Margot Haddad, Brian Walker, Stephanie Halasz, Vasco Cotovio and Antonia Mortensen contributed to this report.


Editor’s Note: Samantha Vinograd is a CNN National Security Analyst. She served on President Obama’s National Security Council from 2009-2013 and at the Treasury Department under President Bush. Follow her @sam_vinograd. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. Modeled on the President’s Daily Briefing, which the director of national intelligence prepares for the President almost daily, I am providing a glimpse of the kind of intelligence assessments that are likely to come across the desk of the President of the United States this week. No one, especially Vladimir Putin, considered the Russian election a nail-biter. He and the Central Election Commission may have gone through some of the motions of a democratic election – campaign speeches, letting opponents’ names appear on the ballot, urging Russians to go to the polls – but, much like previous elections, the outcome was all but guaranteed. This was Putin-esque theater, plain and simple, and with another six-year term stretching ahead of him, at least according to exit polls, we can expect the Russian threat matrix to expand. Putin may feign dismay over Western sanctions and diplomatic repercussions after his attacks around the world, but his new term will probably mean more hostility. And Putin, unsurprisingly, kicked out UK diplomats and seized some diplomatic properties. Putin doesn’t care about diplomatic fallout – he doesn’t need “diplomats” in the UK to gather information. He has other means to get intelligence. The brazenness of Putin’s attack could signal his willingness to use nerve agents in the future to send a clear message to any rogue agents and to signal to a global audience that he is willing and able to use chemical weapons wherever and whenever he pleases. Since South Korean shuttle diplomacy resulted in a purported agreement for a face-to-face meeting between the United States and North Korea (the North Koreans have yet to publicly acknowledge that Kim wants to proceed with the meeting, but reporting has indicated the CIA is working with intel partners on the potential meeting), the devil may be in the details. While we wait for official word from Kim, his foreign minister spent three days in Sweden meeting the Swedish foreign minister and the Swedish Prime Minister. Sweden has offered to host a US-NK meeting, but it is unclear whether Kim would be willing to travel based on his deep paranoia about his safety. Related article Olive branch may beat big stick when it comes to North Korea If Kim really does want to meet, convincing him he’ll be safe outside his hermit kingdom will be a Herculean task. This is where Chinese President Xi Jinping or Putin could jump in and provide some assurances if they want to really give this diplomatic “breakthrough” a shot. If Kim doesn’t confirm his desire to meet or insists on meeting in an undesirable location like Pyongyang, the timeline for the talks could endlessly extend. Or, Kim could withdraw his offer and try to paint the United States as malleable and over-eager to score a win. In the meantime, CNN is reporting that Finnish and South Korean officials have said that while Kim has not agreed to leave Pyongyang, representatives from North Korea, South Korea and the United States are set to meet in Finland. But US government officials are not currently scheduled to participate. If US officials are not at the talks in Finland, it is unclear how they could play into any official negotiations or an official meeting with Kim. Expert discussions are sometimes used to inform government discussions, but they are also sometimes wholly independent. North Korea has not commented on this meeting in Finland. So the bottom line is we don’t know if this meeting will contribute to a diplomatic engagement. Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman is in Washington this week, and he will likely use his Oval Office visit to push for a harder stance against Iran. Saudi Arabia has been in a bitter fight with Iran across the Middle East, including in Yemen where its blockade – reportedly intended to isolate Iranian-backed Houthi rebels – has resulted in a humanitarian disaster The crown prince compared the Supreme Leader of Iran to Adolf Hitler in a recent interview and said if Iran gets a nuclear weapon, Saudi Arabia will, too, kicking off a nuclear proliferation trend the United States has tried to prevent for decades. Sign up for CNN Opinion’s new newsletter.Join us on Twitter and Facebook Saudi Arabia also said late last year that Iran took advantage of the economic gain from lifted sanctions to continue its destabilizing behavior, so it will likely push for promises to reimpose sanctions, particularly with the knowledge that the United States is dissatisfied with the agreement and the new nominee for secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, shares a similar sentiment. It may be worth mentioning to the crown prince that we value our security partnership deeply, but the reports that Saudi Arabia has agreed to buy a Russian air defense system raise alarm bells here in the United States, particularly as they could violate US sanctions on countries or companies doing business with designated Russian entities. Sanctions matter, whether on Iran or Russia, and if the United States is going to be tougher on Iran, the kingdom should turn a colder shoulder toward Moscow. The recent announcement of US steel and aluminum tariffs, and comments about penalizing Mercedes Benz imports to the United States, was heard loud and clear in Germany. But it’s important to remember that Germany is our fifth largest trading partner, so taxing German automobiles could offset a lucrative relationship. And Chancellor Angela Merkel, after a post-election coalition struggle, has finally succeeded in forming a government that is ready to get to work, including on the issue of US tariffs. She met with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Friday to talk about eurozone reforms. Merkel said eurozone countries need to stand united against threats to free trade, and the two leaders presented a road map to combat potential costs of such threats. Related article Tariff tutorial: what the 45th President could learn from the 25th But Merkel also benefits from working with Washington, particularly on the issue of combating Russian aggression. She joined with the United States, France and the UK in condemning the chemical weapons attack in the UK and saying it is highly likely that Russia is responsible. However, she cautioned that Germany needs to keep lines of communication with Russia open – and critics have said that Merkel is reticent to take a tougher stance on Putin because of Russian gas exports to Germany. Nonetheless, Merkel’s position as the team captain of the eurozone hasn’t changed, particularly with Brexit diminishing the UK’s voice on the continent, so on all issues involving the eurozone and the United States, getting back to work with Germany is more important than ever.


Robbers storm security firm with grenades, large caliber weapons and dynamite 1 killed, 4 injured in Paraguay; 3 suspects killed in Brazil Eight people were arrested Tuesday in the Brazilian state of Parana, all suspects in the explosive heist of an armored car company in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay. According to a Brazilian federal police statement, six rifles, multiple automatic weapon magazines, two boats, seven vehicles and an unspecified cash amount were seized in the operation to arrest the suspects. The robbery happened early Monday in Paraguay, near the border with Brazil and Argentina, police said. Dozens of gunmen detonated explosives and set vehicles on fire as they stormed the company in Paraguay, taking millions of dollars and sparking a violent police chase into Brazil. More than 50 people carrying large caliber weapons, dynamite and caltrops took part in what authorities are calling the “robbery of the century.” The group made off with money from several vaults inside Prosegur, a private security firm in Ciudad del Este, police said. In initial reports, police said the vaults were able to store up to $40 million but neither authorities nor the firm confirmed the sum that was taken. Ciudad del Este is Paraguay’s second-largest city and is along the border with Brazil and Argentina. Authorities believe the robbers were members of Primer Comando de la Capital, one of the largest criminal organizations in Brazil. Fusiles automáticos, ametralladora antiaérea, explosivos, abatidos, detenidos y dinero en #Foz: caso #Prosegur #CDE https://t.co/EDHP6d8HNe pic.twitter.com/2zoYVeQC9z A police officer was killed during Monday’s shootout that started about midnight (local time) and lasted for about two hours. Another officer and three bystanders were injured and taken to local hospitals, police said. Grenades were set off and more than a dozen vehicles were set on fire as the robbery took place. Police said officers engaged in a gun battle with snipers and others armed with large caliber weapons, dynamite and caltrops. In a building next to the security firm, Alejandro Anisimoff and his family hid when the robbers broke into their home. “We heard non-stop turmoil for an hour. Within that hour, five grenades blew off here. We hid upstairs in one of the bedrooms,” Anisimoff, whose home is in the building next to the firm, told CNN en Español. Leaving mass destruction behind them as they fled police, the robbers were able to cross the border into Brazil. A small group was intercepted by Brazilian police in a region called Itaipulandia, about 50 miles from Ciudad del Este, officials said. Three suspects were killed and four arrested during the confrontation, said a spokesperson with Paraguay’s Interior Ministry in a news release. En poder de los detenidos y abatidos, hallaron armamentos pesados, munición gruesa,chalecos antibalas y salvavidas,cargadores #Foz #Prosegur pic.twitter.com/w3QSMTu0H9 The building had been under the police radar before, Richard Vera, chief of the Ciudad del Este police homicide department, told Argentina’s El Pais newspaper. In 2015, they found an L-shaped tunnel connecting the building to a nearby house. CNN’s Julia Jones and CNN en Español’s Sanie Lopez Garelli contributed to this report.


A recurring nightmare shakes Gilma Ramirez from her slumber in the predawn hours. She awakens with her heart palpitating, tears welling up. She finds comfort, though, in the darkness that envelops her small New Jersey bedroom. Her 8-year-old son sleeps soundly in the next room, in a bed she bought him with part of a tax refund from her cashier’s job. “In the dream, I’m forced to return to El Salvador and cannot come back,” Ramirez, 42, says of the troubled Central American country she fled nearly two decades ago. “Then I open my eyes and feel so relieved.” That nightmare came closer to reality this week when the Trump administration announced the end of “temporary protected status” for more than 250,000 Salvadorans like Ramirez. They have been allowed to live and work legally in the United States since at least 2001. Now they have less than two years to leave, find a way to legally remain in the country or face deportation. “I would be starting my life from zero,” Ramirez says. “My whole life is here. My home. My son. His future.” Trump’s latest reversal on longstanding immigration policy has sent shock waves through communities like this one in northern New Jersey. Activists say the state is home to nearly 7,000 Salvadorans with TPS. Immigration advocates believe about 200,000 Salvadorans nationwide will be affected by the decision. While the latest government figures show some 263,000 Salvadorans had TPS at the end of 2016, advocates say that number likely includes those whose immigration status has changed or who’ve left the country. In addition, they say nearly 200,000 US citizen children of Salvadoran parents with TPS will be affected. About 15,000 Salvadorans have settled in Hudson County, which lies across the Hudson River from Manhattan. Along Bergenline Avenue, one of its main commercial strips, Salvadoran bakeries and restaurants have opened alongside businesses owned by immigrants who arrived before them. Related article Decision could spell deportation for these 250,000 immigrants El Salvador, a country of 6.2 million people about the size of New Jersey, has long had a role in US immigration. A civil war from 1980 to 1992 drove out more than a quarter of its population. More than 330,000 Salvadorans migrated to the United States between 1985 and 1990, according to the Migration Policy Institute. At the offices of Centro Comunitario CEUS, a nonprofit in Union City, Ana Salgado and other workers have been taking calls and sitting down with Salvadoran TPS recipients worried about the future. “There is distrust and fear,” Salgado says. “Lives will be upended. People don’t know what to do.” On Sunday, hundreds are expected to attend an informational meeting sponsored by the center, which was founded by Salvadoran refugees in the early 1990s. “People are in a panic,” says Robin Bernstein, an immigration attorney for the nonprofit. “So many people have established lives. They have US citizen children. They have been paying into the tax system. They own homes. They have businesses. It’s pretty traumatic and dramatic.” Praised by immigration hard-liners and criticized by advocates, the administration’s decision has plunged thousands of immigrants like Ramirez into uncertainty. “We made lives here and now we’re living in limbo,” she says. “We’re trying to be hopeful that this will be worked out. Something tells me it’s going to be OK.” A bill introduced in Congress last year would give people with TPS an opportunity to apply to become permanent US residents. But US officials say conditions in El Salvador have improved enough since a series of devastating earthquakes in 2001 for migrants to return. A 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck El Salvador in January that year, killing more than 1,100 people and displacing another 1.3 million. In her 20s, Ramirez embarked on the perilous journey north – to the Mexican border city of Matamoros – after two powerful quakes shook her impoverished country the next month. “Leaving home was my only option,” she says. “My country was destroyed.” Related article Immigration, Trump and you: 5 things happening now, and why they matter The devastation back home spurred the US government to allow Salvadoran immigrants in the United States since February 2001 to apply for temporary protected status. They were shielded from deportation and granted work permits. For nearly 17 years, various administrations extended the protections after determining that conditions in El Salvador hadn’t improved enough. Until Monday, when Washington announced the end of TPS for Salvadorans effective September 9, 2019. Survival in the United States was never easy for Ramirez, but the birth of her son, Jose Zamora, eight years ago began to change that. She is separated from the boy’s father, a native of Venezuela, and has been raising Jose largely on her own. “My life changed after he was born,” she says. “They say children are a blessing. I got my own apartment. I got my car. He gave me something to fight for. Everything I do is for my son.” The single mother lives in a small two-bedroom apartment in a redbrick building on a quiet, tree-lined street in Jersey City. With the money she earns as a cashier at a Walmart in Secaucus and her yearly tax refund, Ramirez said, she has furnished the apartment. “Every year, I purchased something that we needed,” she said. “Last year, I got a used car and I’m financing it.” Ramirez said she cherishes her life in America and cannot imagine starting from scratch in El Salvador. She has family there, including her 76-year-old mother. She sends money to her mom each month; remittances like those make up more than 17% of the country’s GDP. “There is not work there for me,” she said. “There is no way to start over. … Some people may be preparing to leave, but returning is not an option for me.” Poverty and violence have fueled migration from El Salvador, where the murder rate is one of the highest in the world. Ramirez said a relative on her mother’s side of the family was killed during a robbery about two years ago. “There is no future for my son there,” she said. “I lived through the war in El Salvador. My parents sheltered me. They wouldn’t let me go out. It’s different here. We can walk the streets without fear. You don’t fear being kidnapped.” Many advocates doubt that Salvadorans will be willing to return, choosing instead a life in the shadows. Related article Trump administration ended protected status for 250,000 Salvadorans. These immigrants might be next “They’re not ready to go back in any way,” said Bernstein, the immigration attorney. “What’s there for them is a state that is out of control, run by gangs and with an incredible amount of violence. And there’s a high likelihood that they’ll be targeted even more for the extortion from gangs should they come back. Looking like Americans and dressing differently, it’s inevitable that people can tell when people have been out of the country for that long.” Ramirez said she hasn’t spoken with Jose about the possibility of her deportation. “I don’t think he will understand, but I will have to tell him,” she said. “He gets easily depressed.” On her day off this week, Ramirez left her tidy apartment to pick up her son at school. She stepped over piles of snow on street corners and walked about a block to Nicolaus Copernicus School, a public school where most of the 800 students are the children of immigrants. Under an American flag fluttering in the January chill, she tiptoed to see over the shoulders of other parents, trying to spot Jose. “He has friends from all over the world – Chinese, white, black, Indian,” she said. “I am proud that my son was born here. It would be so hard to leave all this behind.” On Tuesday night, after Jose played with his video games, Ramirez had him shower before getting him ready for bed. She hopes her recurring nightmare never becomes reality.

Trump administration's decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Salvadorans


Trump has made claims about his intelligence in the past He also told Reuters he gets "more exercise than people think" Fresh off a White House doctor declaring his health excellent, President Donald Trump swiped at his predecessors on North Korea, while saying he “scored the highest on tests.” Discussing the issue of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions in an interview Wednesday with Reuters, Trump took a swing at his predecessors, former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, for their approaches to the rogue nation. “I guess they all realized they’re going to have to leave it to a president that scored the highest on tests. What can I tell you?” Trump said. White House physician Ronny Jackson told reporters on Tuesday that he had screened Trump for neurological impairments at the President’s asking during a yearly medical exam last week, and that Trump had scored 30 out of 30 on the cognitive test. Jackson said he “found no reason whatsoever to think the President has any issues whatsoever with his thought processes.” Jackson declined during his question and answer session to compare Trump’s health to that of other presidents, and he described Trump as in good health outside of needing to lose weight and to exercise. Trump said in the Reuters interview that he already gets exercise. “I mean I walk, I this, I that,” Trump said. “I run over to a building next door. I get more exercise than people think.” Related video Trump's heart health in focus after doctor's briefing CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta said Jackson’s information indicated that the President, like most men of his age, has a common form of heart disease. Trump has bragged in the past about his health and energy as well as his IQ score, which he said in 2013 is “one of the highest.” Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest -and you all know it! Please don't feel so stupid or insecure,it's not your fault Since becoming President, Trump has continued making similar claims, offering that he could score higher on an IQ test than Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and claiming earlier this month that he is a “genius.”


Nearly a week after President Donald Trump retweeted anti-Muslim propaganda videos posted by the deputy leader of an ultra-nationalist UK political group, the White House on Tuesday could not – or chose not – to say definitively whether he rejected Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore’s assertion that Muslims should not be allowed to serve in Congress. The question was first posed to White House press secretary Sarah Sanders in September, after Moore won the GOP primary in Alabama. It became relevant again, in this setting, when Trump on Monday formally backed Moore ahead of next week’s vote. “Given the President’s endorsement,” a reporter asked, “does he agree with Roy Moore that Muslims should not be able to serve in Congress?” Related article Trump calls Roy Moore to offer his endorsement Moore in 2006 wrote an article headlined, “Muslim Ellison Should Not Sit in Congress.” It compared the decision by Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minnesota, to be sworn into office with his hand on the Quran to a (hypothetical) new member choosing, in 1943, to “take their oath on Mein Kampf.” “I haven’t asked (Trump) about past statements from Roy Moore,” Sanders said on Tuesday. Pressed, she added: “I’m saying (Moore) supports the President’s agenda; the President doesn’t necessarily support everything of Moore’s agenda.” The interaction, stripped of the particulars, was familiar enough. Reporter asks question. Spokesperson either doesn’t know answer or doesn’t want to give it. Ambiguity remains. Rinse, wash, repeat. But it was the subject matter here that made Sanders’ reply so jarring. Does the President of the United States believe Muslim people should be banned from serving in Congress? That’s one where, even if they never discussed it, you’d hope the White House press secretary would feel comfortable jumping out on a limb and saying, “No.” Alas. Mix in some more context – specifically, candidate Trump’s call in December 2015 for a much wider ban on Muslims – and the White House’s refusal to offer a clear response, twice over, becomes more difficult to brush off. None of this is to say that Trump does, in fact, agree with Moore. The President didn’t support him in the Alabama primary. And he took a while to make public his backing ahead of next week’s special election. In September, after Moore won his primary, Sanders seemed to say that Trump was not on board with some of Moore’s most disturbing past remarks. When the Ellison comments were listed among them, and a reporter asked if Trump “share(s) any of those views,” Sanders said he didn’t – at least “not that I’m aware of.” “I have not taken a deep dive on every comment that the senator – or the Senate nominee – has made, but I certainly know where the president stands on those issues and wouldn’t see any parallel between the two of them on that front,” she added. A few minutes later, a reporter asked if she wanted to “condemn some of those sentiments that you said the President, to your knowledge, does not share?” “I would certainly say we don’t agree with those comments,” Sanders responded.


They were less than an hour from their idyllic vacation when suddenly they wondered whether they would survive. “We heard a tremendous bang, and then there was a sudden vibration – a shaking because the engine mount was shaking,” Canadian tourist Wayne Smellie told CNN affiliate KITV. United Airlines Flight 1175, from San Francisco to Honolulu, had just lost the cover off its right engine. It was carrying 373 people, including many foreign vacationers. “There was this mighty noise, and you knew something was wrong,” UK tourist Alison Grennan told KITV. “There was instant shock and panic.” As pieces of metal rattled loudly, passenger Erik Haddad recorded video of the plane over the Pacific. “That looks bad, plane and simple,” he tweeted. Kathleen Clifford told CNN affiliate KHON she picked up her phone and contacted her family. “At the end, I told my family I love them,” she said. Jeff Carter posted on Instagram that he was calmly bracing for possible death. “I figured the vibration would destroy the airframe,” Carter told CNN. The Boeing 777 is powered by Pratt & Whitney’s PW4000 112-inch engines, the engine’s manufacturer said. It’s not clear why the malfunction happened. “Pratt & Whitney is supporting the authorities in their investigation,” the company said in a statement. The plane safely landed Tuesday at Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. But the incident left many passengers traumatized. “Scariest flight of my life,” Maria Falaschi tweeted after she landed. Scariest flight of my life #ua1175 pic.twitter.com/hjCvrJ9VwV Others, such as Cheryle Tillman of California, told KITV they won’t be flying again anytime soon. “I’m going to take a cruise home, because the flight was just horrible,” she said. Grennan said the experience was so bad, she’s deferring a trip to Fiji. “We are flying to Fiji in a couple of nights,” she said, “and I’m thinking Hawaii would be a nice place to live for a while.” CNN’s Steve Almasy and Janet DiGiacomo contributed to this report.