US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Wednesday the Trump administration “stands in absolute solidarity with Great Britain” following a nerve agent attack against a Russian double agent and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury last week. In the strongest statement yet from the US administration on the affair, Haley said Washington shared the UK’s assessment that the Russian state was behind the poisoning and demanded a firm international response. “The United States believes that Russia is responsible for the attack on two people in the United Kingdom using a military-grade nerve agent,” Haley said in her remarks at a UN Security Council emergency session, blasting the Russian government for flouting international law. “If we don’t take immediate concrete measures to address this now, Salisbury will not be the last place we see chemical weapons used,” said Haley. “They could be used here in New York or in cities of any country that sits on this council.” Related article UK to expel 23 Russian diplomats over spy poisoning The United Kingdom believes Russia was behind the attempted murders of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia because the nerve agent used, Novichok, was developed in the Soviet Union and could not be replicated by non-state actors. London announced Wednesday it would expel 23 Russian diplomats after Moscow failed to meet a UK deadline to give a “credible response.” Russia has dismissed the accusations as “fairy tales” and denied any involvement in the attack which landed the Skripals, along with a British police officer, in the hospital. Moscow’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, even suggested the UK might have been responsible for the attack in an attempt to smear Russia. “In the Russian Federation, no scientific research or development work under the title Novichok were carried out,” he told the Security Council. “The most probable source origin this chemical are the countries which have since the end of the 90s been carrying… out intensive research on these kinds of weapons, including the UK.” Related article New boss at State Department, but same Russia problem for Trump But Haley laid the blame firmly at Russia’s door. Highlighting Moscow’s support of the Assad regime in Syria following that government’s use of chemical weapons against civilians, Haley told fellow diplomats the world had reached “a defining moment.” “Time and time again, members states say they oppose the use of chemical weapons under any circumstance,” said Haley. “Now one member stands accused of using chemical weapons on the sovereign soil of another member. The credibility of this council will not survive if we fail to hold Russia accountable.” Presenting Britain’s case, Deputy UK Ambassador to the UN Jonathan Allen called the attack “an unlawful use of force” and invited representatives from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to conduct an independent investigation of the incident. Nebenzia, Russia’s envoy, reaffirmed his government’s denial of involvement in a lengthy and colorful response. He called on the UK government to offer proof that Novichok was used and that Russia was responsible, and slammed UK Prime Minister Theresa May for making “completely irresponsible statements” and “threats.” In questioning London’s allegations, Nebenzia cited the English fictional detective Sherlock Holmes and his “hapless” Scotland Yard counterpart, Inspector Lestrade. Related article Pompeo expected to reinforce Trump's hardline instincts on Iran and North Korea “Lestrade latches on to something that is on the surface of a crime and is in a hurry to provide banal conclusions only to be overturned by Sherlock Holmes, who always finds what is behind the crime,” Nebenzia said. “I do think we could all stand to benefit from having a Sherlock Holmes with us today.” With apparent sarcasm, Nebenzia also suggested the UK government should look inward to determine why Russian nationals in the country so often find themselves in mortal peril, and mocked Haley’s credibility as “an experienced chemist.” The White House later backed up Haley’s comments at the UN, saying it shared the British assessment of Russia’s culpability in the Salisbury attack. “The United States stands in solidarity with its closest ally, the United Kingdom,” the statement read. “This latest action by Russia fits into a pattern of behavior in which Russia disregards the international rules-based order, undermines the sovereignty and security of countries worldwide, and attempts to subvert and discredit Western democratic institutions and processes.”


Nigeria declines to sign Economic Partnership Agreement Deal aims to bring West Africa-EU trade agreement While the UK prepares to leave one of the world’s largest trading blocs, Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, is declining to join one in the first place. Nigerian President Buhari is yet to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), which aims to establish a free trade area between 16 West African countries (and Mauritania) and the European Union. Related article Free gift? China extends influence in Africa with $32M grant for regional HQ In a statement delivered in the Nigerian capital Abuja Thursday, the Nigerian president said he didn’t sign to protect national industries and the country’s youth population. “Our industries cannot compete with the more efficient and highly technologically driven industries in Europe.” “We are not enthusiastic about signing the EPA because of our largely youthful population,” he said. Presentation of credentials of the European Union Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Mr Ketil Karlsen to H.E. President Buhari today. Sharing views on the vital partnership between the EU and Nigeria. pic.twitter.com/6xPt9RuRYC The EPA plans to remove trade restrictions between ECOWAS (Economic Community of West Africa States) and the EU. The partnership covers goods as well as cooperation on development. West Africa is the EU’s top trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa. The EU is West Africa’s largest trading relationship. This isn’t the first time President Buhari has refused to sign an African free trade deal. Last month at a summit in the Rwandan capital Kigali, Nigeria was one of 10 African countries not to agree to the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCTA). Related article 44 African countries agree free trade agreement, Nigeria yet to sign The agreement plans to bring the 55 African Union member states closer by reducing barriers to trade. It’s an effort to boost intra-African trade which in 2016 stood at only 10%. If agreed, it will be the largest trade agreement since the formation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995. African free trade agreements are being accelerating by leaders committed to Pan-African integration. However, Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, appears resistant to regional and continental deals.


Speaking in Argentina Thursday on a painful anniversary of government-sponsored killings, President Barack Obama conceded that the U.S. had been slow to condemn the atrocity and offered to shine new light on the era. “Democracies have to have the courage to acknowledge when we don’t live up to the ideals that we stand for. We’ve been slow to speak out for human rights and that was the case here,” Obama said after viewing a memorial park for victims of the “Dirty War,” a military-led assault on leftists during the 1970s and 80s. His remarks came on a day of widespread protests in Buenos Aires. Some of the demonstrators said Obama’s state visit to Argentina was overshadowing an important moment to reflect and remember the nearly 30,000 victims of the dark chapter. RELATED: Obama hopes Cuba gamble has regional payoff And they objected to the American role in the conflict, which has remained unclear in the decades since the killings ended. Thousands of peaceful marchers – many born after the tumultuous Dirty War period – began in the Plaza del Congreso Thursday and moved east to the Plaza de Mayo, where mothers and grandmothers of children “disappeared” during the war hold a regular vigil. The demonstrators chanted “nunca mas,” the “never again” message that Obama referenced himself during his morning statement. But many also displayed anti-American sentiments, including messages telling Obama to return home. “We want to remember those years and the fights and the 30,000 activists that were disappeared,” said Julia Detitto, a protester in her early 20s. “The U.S. government had to do with that and it is not innocent that he is here right now.” “We don’t want him here in Argentina,” she said. “His presence here is indicating this new kind of relationship with Mauricio Macri.” Macri is a center-right politician who replaces years of leftist leaders. Many of those organizing and participating in the marches are from the left and object to his policy platform, which they see Obama’s visit as endorsing. “All that they can agree (on) goes against the wishes and the desires of the Argentinian people, in economic terms, in social terms, in all the advances that there have been in the last decade in Argentina,” she said. “We don’t want that. That is why we want him out of here.” RELATED: Obama looks for fresh start with Argentina Obama and his family left the capital during the height of the protests, decamping to the Patagonian resort of Bariloche. But before he left, Obama pledged to declassify additional U.S. military documents related to the “Dirty War.” What those documents contain has until now remained unknown, and the President refused to speculate on their content at a news conference Wednesday. The U.S. is known to have supported the military junta that led the rampage, which included killings and forced “disappearances.” But how involved the U.S. was in the campaign is still secret. “There’s been controversy about the policies of the United States early in those dark days, and the United States, when it reflects on what happened here, has to examine its own policies as well and its own past,” Obama said. “Democracies have to have the courage to acknowledge when we don’t live up to the ideals that we stand for. We’ve been slow to speak out for human rights and that was the case here.” After tossing a bunch of white roses into the La Plata river – a traditional sign of remembrance at the site – with Argentine President Mauricio Macri, Obama said that owning up to a difficult past was important for reconciliation. “It takes courage for a society to address uncomfortable truths about the darker parts of its past,” Obama said. “Confronting crimes committed by our own leaders, by our own people – that can be divisive and frustrating, but it’s essential to moving forward, to building a peaceful and prosperous future in a country that respects the rights of all of its citizens.” Macri praised the commitment to transparency, and said no country should stand by in the face of human rights violations. “This calls upon us not to be just passive onlookers of any violation, as has often been the case at other times in the history of mankind,” he said.


Super Typhoon Nock-ten has forced the closure of ports, stranding thousands The typhoon has weakened and the storm will reach Vietnam later in the week Super Typhoon Nock-ten has left more than 11,000 travelers stranded after roaring into the Philippines and forcing the closure of ports in the Southeast Asian country. The typhoon, known locally as Nina, made landfall over Bato in the province of Catanduanes at 8 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET) on Christmas day. Authorities rushed to evacuate thousands of residents from low-lying areas of the eastern Philippines ahead of Nock-ten’s arrival and the provinces of Catanduanes and Albay were declared under a “state of imminent danger/disaster.” Some 11,476 passengers, more than 1,000 cargo ships and over a dozen other vessels were stranded in various ports in the region, the Philippines National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council reported Sunday. Philippines Coast Guard spokesman Armand Balilo told CNN the storm had forced various ports to temporarily close. But he said travel was resuming in some parts and the number of stranded was expected to decrease in the coming hours. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said that as of 8 a.m local time on Monday, 77,560 families – 383,097 people – were in evacuation centers in Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol and Easter Visayas. However, Nock-ten is weakening as it passes over the Philippines. CNN meteorologist Michael Guy said winds had dropped to 150 kph – equivalent to a Category 1 Atlantic Hurricane – gusting to 185 kph. The storm was moving west at 28 kph and was forecast to further diminish in strength as it crossed the open water of the South China Sea towards Vietnam. “The storm will continue to move towards central Vietnam as a weak disturbance by Wednesday producing heavy rainfall over that region.  Some models are projecting upwards of 200 mm with locally heavier amounts near Quang Ngai, Vietnam,” he said. “This will not be welcome news for the Vietnam region which has suffered heavy flash flooding causing damage and fatalities over the past few months.” In the Philippines, Nock-ten is expected to traverse the provinces of Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte, Southern Quezon, Laguna, Batangas and Cavite. The Philippines’ tropical cyclone warning signal number 4 was earlier hoisted for Catanduanes and neighboring Camarines Sur. The warning signal, the second-highest level on the scale of alerts, indicates the storm could cause “heavy damage” to high-risk structures. Rice, corn and coconut plantations will likely suffer severe losses. A storm surge height of up to 2.5 meters is possible over the coastal areas of Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte, Albay, Sorsogon and Catanduanes, according to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA). PAGASA reported that the typhoon would cause moderate to heavy rainfall in a 500-kilometer (311-mile) radius. SEVERE WEATHER BULLETIN #6 FOR: TYPHOON #NinaPH (NOCK-TEN) TROPICAL CYCLONE: WARNING ISSUED AT 11:00 AM, 24 December... There were fears that Nock-ten could potentially bring flooding to the capital, Manila – one of the most densely populated urban centers of the country. Meantime, hospitals throughout the Philippines – private and public – are under a “code white alert,” meaning leave has been canceled for surgeons, emergency room staff and thosespecializing in trauma and injury,” Department of Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial said. The Philippines has been battered by devastating typhoons in recent years, most notably Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 – considered to be among the strongest storms to make landfall. Haiyan killed more than 6,000 people and forced nearly 4 million people from their homes. CNN’s Taylor Ward, Derek Van Dam and Jennifer Varian contributed to this report.


Editor’s Note: CNN national security analyst John Kirby is a retired rear admiral in the US Navy who was a spokesman for both the State and Defense departments in the Obama administration. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. For 38 excruciating minutes last weekend, many people in Hawaii believed they were under missile attack.  Some of them were convinced they were going to die – that Saturday, the 13th of January, was their last day. They hugged their children.  They prayed.  They uttered a few final farewells. And then they waited – for an attack that never came. We now know, of course, that the security alert issued by the Hawaii State Emergency Management Agency just after 8 that morning was false and the mistake of an operator during a shift change.  The operator has been reassigned pending the outcome of an investigation. To his credit, Hawaii Gov. David Ige took full responsibility, assigned the deputy adjutant general to lead a full review of the incident, and promised that necessary changes to the system would be made. Related article Here is what it was like being in Hawaii and getting a false missile alert “Children going down manholes, stores closing their doors to those seeking shelter, and cars driving at high speeds cannot happen again,” Ige said. “We will do a better job of educating the public.” “I am ultimately responsible,” he added. Ige is right.  The responsibility falls on him.  It was a state-run agency and a state employee who caused the panic.  And it’s reassuring to see him hold himself to account.  I would expect to see others involved in the incident likewise held to account in some way. But, in the main, the Hawaii situation underscores three other important things, for which we as a nation must also hold ourselves to account. First, and most obviously, the credibility of the threat from North Korea is palpable.  We know Kim Jong Un is advancing his nuclear and ballistic missile program at a faster clip than in the past and that, while we can’t say for sure he can effectively target an American mainland city with any degree of accuracy, he certainly has the reach to cause significant damage and loss of life to Hawaii, Guam and our Japanese and South Korean allies – with or without nuclear warheads. Related article Hawaii has been preparing for a missile attack; now its credibility is under fire That’s why the pressure campaign the Trump administration has been pursuing is so important.  It’s work at which we all desperately need them to succeed.  They have helped push through additional and quite stringent sanctions against Kim’s regime, and there appears to be at least a warming of relations between the two Koreas as together they discuss the prospects for North Korean participation in the upcoming Winter Games. All that is to the good if it can lead to meaningful negotiations about the security situation.  But if we get to that point, one would hope for both US and even Chinese participation at the table.  We must not allow Kim to drive a wedge between the US and ROK alliance, nor allow ourselves to fall prey to his whimsy, insincerity and bullishness over the issue of denuclearization. We must take full advantage of the moment before us to drive a more satisfactory outcome, even if that requires a bit of compromise at the outset.  After all, if tensions weren’t so credibly high right now, it is doubtful Hawaii would have found it necessary to test since last month its systems of sirens and alerts, which, in turn, surely contributed to the confidence people placed in the frightening alert that went out Saturday morning. The second thing underscored by Saturday’s alert is the degree to which statewide alert systems need to be re-evaluated and better coordinated with the military and intelligence community.  It is upon the military’s vast and sophisticated network of sensors and missile defense capabilities on which national policymakers – and local and state leaders – rely to determine the nature of actual missile threats.  No individual state has the ability to detect missile launches from adversary countries.  They are so advised by military authorities and then act and advise their populations accordingly. Related article Huddled in fear in Hawaii during the missile scare That’s why the US Pacific Command was able within minutes after the false alarm went out to refute it and to do so authoritatively.  By all appearances, this case seems to be one of operator error and flaws in local system architecture.  But it couldn’t hurt to take another look at the lash-up with federal authorities to see if there is anything more that can be done to validate the flow of basic information. It’s also important in this context to note that, while missile defense is hardly perfect, there has since the Obama administration been a much greater investment in those capabilities.  In response to the North Korean threat alone, Obama “increased the number of ballistic missile interceptors in Greely, Alaska, and sent an additional TPY-2 radar to Japan,” among other crucial measures. Americans should not doubt the seriousness with which the US military considers this threat, nor the continued pursuit of military options should diplomacy fail.  As Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis told reporters on his way this week to an international conference on North Korea, “We’ll show them (North Koreans) that there are military options. But it is all couched within a framework of strengthening the diplomat’s hands.” In that vein, and finally, the Hawaii alert also underscores the real risks of potential miscalculation by our adversaries.  It is fair to ask whether Kim Jong Un might see the panic caused by Saturday’s alert as some sort of deliberate pretext by the United States of launching a pre-emptive strike couched as something retaliatory.  It is also fair to ask what message the false alarm sends to our allies and partners about the soundness of our decision-making process. Sign up for CNN Opinion’s new newsletter.Join us on Twitter and Facebook For his part, Mattis confirmed that we saw no reaction from Kim Jong Un to the false alarm and expressed his confidence that Hawaiian officials will “figure out what went wrong and they will put procedures in place.” I believe him on both counts and am grateful he injected some much-needed perspective into this issue.  But the thoroughness and transparency of the investigation underway will do much to back up Mattis’ sense of confidence. It is a good thing the Federal Communications Commission will be involved in the review. Here’s hoping Hawaiian officials take full advantage of that assistance, that they hold themselves to full account, and that every other official of every other state uses this horrible mistake to do some introspection of their own. We cannot afford another 38 minutes like that endured by the people of Hawaii.


Editor’s Note: U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers is a Republican from Washington state and chair of the House Republican Conference. The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers. Cathy McMorris Rodgers: Obama administration let Syria get away with continued chemical weapons capability She says the Iran nuclear talks have the U.S. heading down the same dangerous road As the world awaits a possible nuclear agreement between the United States and Iran, let us not forget: This is the second time in two years that President Barack Obama has pursued a nonproliferation deal with an unreformed regime in the Middle East. In doing so, he has ignored the regimes’ fundamental nature and the catastrophic costs these efforts have inflicted upon regional stability and U.S. national security. This month brought familiar news: more chemical weapons attacks allegedly by dictator Bashar al-Assad against his fellow Syrians. Just in June, the administration declared the success of its deal to remove al-Assad’s chemical weapons, which had been prompted by his August 2013 sarin attacks on Syrian civilians and the threat of U.S. airstrikes in response. The deal did yield an important victory – the removal and destruction of more than 1,200 metric tons of al-Assad’s chemical weapons arsenal, which he can no longer use to threaten Syrians and Israel or fall into terrorist hands. However, with his actions as evidence, it was a deal that al-Assad likely knew he could manipulate. Even while the deal was underway, al-Assad continued to attack Syrian civilians and the opposition with weaponized chlorine bombs, exploiting a loophole in the agreement. The deal was also fundamentally flawed in that it relied upon al-Assad to declare his stockpile voluntarily without sufficient third-party verification. Just weeks after claiming success, the administration quietly acknowledged that al-Assad had secretly retained some of his most lethal chemical weapons. Al-Assad has also failed to destroy some of his chemical weapons facilities, as the agreement required. The deal made al-Assad a partner of sorts to the administration despite the grisly, mass atrocities he continued to commit. During implementation, the administration limited its support to the moderate opposition and did little else to pressure the regime to restrain its attacks on civilians or to allow a political transition. About 50,000 more Syrians were killed in the conflict during these months – mostly at the hands of the regime – and the displacement of millions of Syrians throughout the region continued. Meanwhile, ISIS further exploited the civil war, expanding into security voids. There are several troubling parallels between the administration’s deal with al-Assad and the one it is now pursuing with Tehran. Both represent deep cynicism or a fundamentally naïve understanding of the regimes with which we are negotiating. In both cases, the administration has tried to reach common ground with the world’s foremost sponsors of terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and al Qaeda – which these regimes have funded, trained or sheltered. All of this was true before the administration started these negotiations, and it remains true today. Neither Tehran nor al-Assad has changed ways and chosen normalization with the international community. To the contrary, external factors forced them into situations in which they had to cooperate at least ostensibly on isolated issues – al-Assad on chemical weapons due to threatened airstrikes and Tehran on its nuclear program due to crippling sanctions. Both have only reluctantly engaged and have taken steps to delay, obstruct and circumvent verifiable agreements. As continues to be the case with al-Assad, Tehran has been emboldened by the administration’s approach. It has increased lethal support to al-Assad in Syria, deployed troops and supported sectarian militias in Iraq, and ramped up aid to other militant groups, including the insurgent Houthis in Yemen. These activities are now exacerbating the very humanitarian and terrorist crises that Iran helped cause by preventing political compromise in Iraq and Syria. As was the case with al-Assad, a deal will effectively make Tehran a partner to the administration in which the White House accepts the Iranian regime’s legitimacy by virtue of the agreement. And there will still be little confidence that Tehran will actually honor the terms of any deal it accepts. Even while negotiations have been underway, Iran has been caught procuring illicit nuclear technology. The regime has a track record of concealing nuclear facilities and obstructing the International Atomic Energy Agency’s access to others, including its infamous Parchin base. As IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano confirmed again this week, Tehran has still only partially answered one of the IAEA’s long-standing, 12 questions on possible military dimensions of its passed nuclear activities. Amid his continued calls for “death to America,” Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, tweeted his demand just last week that sanctions be lifted immediately as a part of any deal, not as a result of verified observance of a deal. Tehran has demonstrated repeatedly that it will not allow verification of its passed activities or allow actual compliance to be a prerequisite for further sanctions relief. Without a complete understanding of Iran’s program, the international community does not have the information it needs for a responsible deal. A regime so committed to supporting terrorism, violently oppressing its own people and others, threatening U.S. national security and destroying Israel cannot be trusted. And without trust and verification there can be no acceptable deal. The world has witnessed the results of such a naïve arrangement before – an unprecedented rise of terrorism, a grave humanitarian crisis and a blatant disregard for human life. We are seeing it once again in response to the administration’s efforts with Iran. As we learned with Syria’s al-Assad, making a deal with a terrorist-supporting tyrant yields disaster down the road. Let’s not make that mistake twice. Read CNNOpinion’s new Flipboard magazine Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion. Join us on Facebook.com/CNNOpinion.

Obama administration nuclear deal with Iran


Editor’s Note: The Axe Files, featuring David Axelrod, is a podcast distributed by CNN and produced at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. The author works for the podcast. Schiff says another cyber attack from Russia is inevitable While many are focused on what Russia did in last year’s US election and whether there was collusion with the Trump campaign, the Democrat leading the House probe says he has an equally urgent concern: How to deal with the inevitable next attack. “Where I think Democrats really fell down on the job is, we failed to persuade the country why they should care,” Rep. Adam Schiff, ranking member of the House intelligence committee, told David Axelrod on “The Axe Files,” a podcast from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN. “And that’s not a mistake we can afford to make again.” Russian meddling in the US elections is now something that America must be prepared to confront in the future, Schiff said. “How do we inoculate ourselves from this in the future? Because one of the key conclusions of the intelligence community is that the Russians will do this again,” Schiff said. “This was not a one-off.” He added that a key reason he’s advocated for public hearings is so the American public has a clear understanding of how Russia successfully interfered in the election, in order to effectively prevent it from happening again. Moreover, he said the Russians could easily intensify their subterfuge in the future by taking authentic documents and altering them to create the impression of illegality on the part of their target. Schiff said the notion of injecting that kind of false information into an election “terrifies” him. “You could imagine how difficult if not impossible that would be to disprove in the final weeks of a campaign and just how enormous that impact could be,” he said. “The only way we fight that is not just by cyber defense alone, which is never going to be enough. It has to be by informing the public and inoculating the public so they care more about the fact that this is the product of a foreign intervention than they do what is said in a stolen document,” Schiff added. During the hour-long conversation with Axelrod, Schiff warned that President Donald Trump runs the risk of appearing to be a “paper tiger” by taunting North Korea with threats he probably cannot — or should not — back up. RELATED: China criticizes North Korea, praises US on nuclear issue Schiff said there is “no good or even semi-good military option” for North Korea because of Kim Jong Un’s ability to respond with a devastating attack on our South Korean allies. Related article Jim Sciutto on Axe Files: Allies want to know who the President listens to If Trump says something that “puts him in the position of either looking like a paper tiger because he can’t follow through on what he’s said or having to take some military action that could unleash a whole chain of consequences,” Schiff said, “neither one of those is necessarily a good outcome.” “What happens when the North Koreans set off another nuclear explosion?” he said. “What happens when they do fire more missiles? What is the President prepared to do? And what comes next? I’m not sure the President has really thought that out.” Instead, Schiff said, Trump should turn up the pressure on China by explaining that the United States would be forced to increase its military presence in the region to counter the North Koreans — something China is loath to see happen. “These are the ways I think you increase the costs on China for maintaining the policy it’s had over the last many years of a not-so-happy tolerance of the North Koreans’ nuclear and missile programs,” Schiff said. “That still may not be enough, but it is a chance that we have to fully explore.” The failure to make any progress diplomatically, Schiff said, would likely result in the North Koreans succeeding in miniaturizing a nuclear warhead and placing it on a missile capable of reaching the United States. “I think we’ll reach that point during this President’s term in office,” Schiff said. “We’re going to be facing this if we can’t somehow deter North Korea from what it’s doing.” To hear the whole conversation with Schiff, click on http://podcast.cnn.com. To get “The Axe Files” podcast every week, subscribe at http://itunes.com/theaxefiles.


US and South Korea conducted a mock bombing drill on the peninsula Thursday North Korea described the exercise as a "rash act" Russian President Vladimir Putin has weighed into the North Korea crisis, warning the US and others against going down a “dead-end road” and calling for talks to resolve the issue. “Russia believes that the policy of putting pressure on Pyongyang to stop its nuclear missile program is misguided and futile,” Putin said in an article released Thursday by the Kremlin, ahead of the BRICS summit in Xiamen, China. “The region’s problems should only be settled through a direct dialogue of all the parties concerned without any preconditions. Provocations, pressure and militarist and insulting rhetoric are a dead-end road,” Putin said. His comments were published hours after the US and South Korea conducted a mock bombing raid on the Korean Peninsula that was denounced by Pyongyang as a “rash act.” Russia was a participant in the six-party talks, which took place in the mid-2000s in an attempt to get North Korea to abandon its then burgeoning nuclear program. In his published comments, the Russian president said the situation on the Korean Peninsula was “balancing on the brink of a large-scale conflict.” On Thursday, four US F-35B fighter jets joined two US B-1B bombers and four South Korean F-15 fighter jets in a joint US-South Korean drill, which simulated a surgical strike on key enemy facilities, over the Pilsung Range in the eastern province of Gangwon, South Korea. In a statement, US Pacific Command said the flyover was a “direct response” to North Korea’s launch Tuesday of an intermediate range ballistic missile over Japan. Pyongyang denounced the drill Thursday, with state news agency KCNA described as “wild military acts.” “The US imperialists and the South Korean puppet forces do not hide their bellicose nature, claiming that the exercises are to ‘counter’ (North Korea’s) ballistic rocket launches and nuclear weapons development,” KCNA said. The agency added that the US and South Korea were “taken aback” by North Korea’s recent missile launch, the country’s “first military operation in the Pacific.” That launch sparked some panic in Japan, with air sirens sounding in the northern part of the country and residents there receiving a text message urging them to seek shelter in a strong structure or a basement. On Friday, scheduled emergency evacuation drills took place in multiple Japanese cities, practicing for a “missile launch from Country X.” Hundreds of local residents in Aomori and Hokkaido prefectures took shelter in community centers and public buildings at the sound of a mock siren. South Korea and the United States are currently engaged in joint military exercises, which kicked off last week. At a news conference Thursday, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying seemed to be referring to the largely simulated drills when she said the situation in the Korean Peninsula “is not like a movie script or computer game.” The annual exercises always infuriate Pyongyang, and some have called for them to be called off or scaled back as a show of good faith that might bring North Korean leader Kim Jong Un back to the negotiating table. Speaking Thursday, General Vincent K. Brooks, commander of US Forces Korea, said this was taken into consideration. “The US did not dispatch bombers during the recently concluded exercise in hopes that the reduced scale would send a positive signal to North Korea and the region,” he said in a statement. “Instead, North Korea responded to the gesture with rehearsals of special operations raids against South Korean islands, three short range missile firings, and one intermediate range ballistic missile that overflew Japan and landed in the Pacific Ocean. Apparently the changes in the exercise did not matter.” In the wake of Tuesday’s missile launch, Pyongyang said it would stage future military operations directed at the American territory of Guam. Guam has long been a focal point of North Korea’s anger against the US and is often a target of North Korean saber-rattling. It was threatened specifically by North Korea in 2013 and again in August 2017, following a fiery exchange of threats and insults between Trump and the North Korean regime. The small island in the Western Pacific is the closest US territory to North Korea and hosts two important US military installations. One is Andersen Air Force Base, from which the US B-1B bombers flew Thursday. They were joined by F-35 fighters flying from a US Marines base in Iwakuni, Japan. The F-35 stealth fighters would be a key part of any US pre-emptive strike on North Korea designed to neutralize the country’s defensive and counterstrike capabilities, Jerry Hendrix, a retired Navy captain and senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told CNN earlier this month. Corey Wallace, a security analyst at Freie University in Berlin, told CNN this week the use of the F-35s out of Japan showed the United States had various options for potentially striking North Korea. “(Washington has) platforms from Guam and Japan linking up and operating together over South Korea with South Korean assets, with all of the governments supporting this,” he said. CNN’s Taehoon Lee, Josh Berlinger, Karen Smith, Radina Gigova, Zachary Cohen and Brad Lendon contributed reporting.


Administration officials say the White House is considering its options Anger over Otto Warmbier’s fate continued to build Tuesday, with lawmakers declaring his death a “murder” and calling for travel restrictions to North Korea while the Trump administration considered how to respond. The Warmbier family announced Tuesday that the 22-year-old will be laid to rest Thursday morning in Ohio, as Republican and Democratic lawmakers decried his treatment by Pyongyang and floated the idea of banning American travel to North Korea as a first step. The calls for a response come as spy satellites detected new activity at North Korea’s underground nuclear test site for the first time in several weeks, according to two US officials who spoke to CNN. They also said military options for North Korea have recently been updated and will be presented to President Donald Trump if there is a nuclear test. However, on the eve of a high-level meeting with China, Pyongyang’s largest trade partner and closest ally, the Trump administration has sounded a more cautious note, saying that they hold North Korea responsible for Warmbier’s death but giving no indication of how they will respond. Related article Trump: Warmbier 'should have been brought home a long time ago' Officials from Trump down have expressed sadness about the college student’s fate, but say that for now, they haven’t decided on a course of action. “We hold North Korea accountable for Otto Warmbier’s unjust imprisonment,” State Department spokesman Heather Nauert said Tuesday. “We’re still considering our options.” “We have a great deal of resolve to try to handle the situation and try to hold North Korea responsible for the death of Mr. Warmbier and bring back those three Americans who do remain there,” Nauert added. Trump tweeted a somewhat conciliatory sounding message to Beijing, saying “while I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi & China to help with North Korea, it has not worked out. At least I know China tried!” He also tweeted that “the U.S. once again condemns the brutality of the North Korean regime as we mourn its latest victim.” The usual menu of retaliatory measures against North Korea include sanctions that target its businesses and officials. Many lawmakers and analysts say the next step has to be sanctioning Chinese companies that do business with North Korea. Related article US B-1 bombers fly near North Korea And lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are urging consideration of a ban on American travel to the isolated country. Sen. Bob Corker, the Tennessee Republican who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, raised the issue on MSNBC: “Examining the travel implications and the fact that Americans do end up caught up in this situation, and should there be a travel ban for US citizens going there relative to this?” Corker said. “That’s something we’re looking at.” He noted that there are three other Americans detained in North Korea with “trumped-up charges against them.” Corker added: “We have to figure out whether it’s best to allow people to do that, and then end up in a situation where we’re doing everything we can as a nation to get them out.” His colleague from Washington state, Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell, called for licensing of humanitarian groups that enter the country. “We obviously want humanitarian work to continue in North Korea, but I think we need to think hard about making it safer for our citizens who do travel there.” Related article Detained Americans Fast Facts The framework for a travel ban is already in place. Last month, California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff and his Republican colleague Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina introduced the North Korea Travel Control Act. The bill would require the Treasury to issue regulations requiring a license for transactions related to travel to, from and within North Korea by US citizens – and bar licenses for tourist travel. Schiff was among many lawmakers who deemed Warmbier’s death a “murder,” echoing Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, Minnesota Democratic Sen. Al Franken and others when he said in a statement that “the barbaric treatment of Otto Warmbier by the North Korean regime amounts to the murder of a US citizen.” Asked about potential travel restrictions, the State Department’s Nauert said, “we’re contemplating that right now.” Referring to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, she added, “the secretary has the authority to do it, he just has not come to a conclusion about how this would potentially work.” Nauert stressed that the State Department issued a travel warning for North Korea that lays out the dangers. “We think that our travel warning that we’ve had in place for some time is quite strong,” she said. Related article Is North Korea's tourism industry luring Americans into a trap? Still, Americans continue to travel there for the novelty as well as to teach in universities and do discreet missionary work. About 17 US citizens have been detained in the past 10 years, including the three Americans who remain imprisoned there. Warmbier had gone for five days of sightseeing in 2016, only to be jailed for allegedly stealing a poster from a hotel and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. He was imprisoned for 17 months before being returned to the US, comatose, on June 13. Eastern Vision, a Hong Kong-based tour company that specializes in travel for university students and new graduates, stopped taking US citizens on tours to North Korea in early 2016, after Warmbier’s arrest. The company had previously taken two other Americans on a student exchange in Hong Kong to North Korea, co-founder Rubio Chan told CNN on Tuesday. In the wake of Warmbier’s death, Chan said the company will continue that suspension. On Tuesday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in expressed regrets over Warmbier’s death and sent condolences to his friends and family, according to presidential spokesman Park Soo-hyun. In an interview with a foreign media outlet, Moon said, “it is deplorable that North Korea does not respect human rights, which are the universal norms and values of humankind.” CNN’s Kelly Chris, journalist Eric Cheung in Hong Kong and journalist Taehoon Lee in Seoul contributed to this report


A U.S. Army captain working in Iraq helped foil a terrorist plot to blow up a school in Denmark, according to a U.S. defense official. Capt. Bradley Grimm provided “actionable intelligence” gleaned from captured documents in Iraq about foreign fighters from Denmark that included information on threats against a Danish school using homemade explosives, according to Col. Steve Warren, a spokesman for the coalition fighting ISIS. “The information he provided helped to foil the plot and resulted in an arrest and the confiscation of explosives” in Denmark, Warren said Wednesday. “Brad’s work likely saved the lives of Danish citizens.” Grimm, who was based at al-Asad airbase in the western Iraqi province of Anbar, “did all of this voluntarily in addition to his duties,” Warren said. He was recently awarded the Danish Defense Medal for Special Meritorious Effort in a ceremony with Danish Chief of Defense Gen. Peter Bartram, the Danish embassy in Washington told CNN. “As we conduct operations, as we work with our Iraqi partners, we are continuously working with them to try and draw out any tidbit of information that we can find that relates in any way to an external attack or external operation that ISIL is planning,” Warren said, using another name for ISIS. Earlier this week, the Danish parliament approved an expanded role for Danish forces in the fight against ISIS to include the authority to participate in ground combat operations in Iraq and Syria. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in a written statement that the move “will further increase the military pressure” on ISIS. As a member of the anti-ISIS coalition, Denmark already contributes strike aircraft, air defense radar, training and assistance to Iraqi forces. CNN’s Ryan Browne contributed to this report


All passengers and crew members released, returned to Libya Hijackers are being interrogated, Malta's Prime Minister says Two hijackers surrendered Friday, hours after forcing a Libyan plane to land in Malta and threatening to blow up the aircraft. Authorities did not say whether the pair had made any demands. But one waved a green flag outside the aircraft, suggesting loyalty to the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Afriqiyah Airways Flight 8U209 was en route to the Libyan capital of Tripoli with 111 passengers aboard when hijackers diverted the plane. • All passengers and crew members on board were released. They returned to Libya early Saturday, according to Malta’s national security minister, Carmelo Abela. • The hijackers are being interrogated, Malta’s Prime Minister says. • The weapons they had were replicas, he says. • Egypt said the hijackers wanted to land in Alexandria. The flight, an Airbus A320, took off Friday morning from Sabha, a desert city in southwestern Libya. Hijackers forced the plane to divert to Malta, some 350 kilometers (217 miles) from the Libyan coast in the Mediterranean Sea. After the aircraft landed late Friday morning, the Maltese military led negotiations with hijackers, who threatened to blow up the aircraft with hand grenades, Foreign Ministry spokesman Etienne St. John said. By early Friday afternoon a group of women was allowed to leave the plane. Later, the remaining passengers and crew left, smiling and chatting as they stepped off the plane and onto the tarmac. Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat posted details of negotiations in real time on his Twitter account. Hijackers surrendered, searched and taken in custody. The hijackers are probably of Libyan nationality, Muscat told reporters after the standoff ended. The men are in custody and being interrogated, he said. Forensic tests revealed the weapons they had were replicas, Muscat said. Before it landed in Malta, the hijacked plane had requested to land at Burj Al-Arab airport in Alexandria, Egypt, the Egyptian Civil Aviation Ministry said in a statement. The Egyptian government didn’t allow the flight to enter its airspace, the ministry said. As the situation unfolded, several flights to and from Malta International Airport were delayed, and some were diverted to Italy. Carmen Nistor, who was waiting for a flight to Munich, Germany, said passengers were frustrated because they hadn’t been informed about the cause of the delays. Sabha, the city where the flight began its journey, has been a center of political tribal violence. Deadly clashes have erupted there between tribes that were loyal to Gadhafi and anti-Gadhafi groups. Enmity runs deep between the Gaddadfa and Suleiman tribes, the most powerful armed factions in the region. Gadhafi, who was a member of the Gaddadfa tribe and led Libya for more than 40 years, was ousted and assassinated by rebels in 2011 in the Arab Spring uprising. Libya has struggled to install a stable government since, and the leadership vacuum has allowed militant groups such as ISIS and al Qaeda to flourish. CNN’s Natalie Gallon and Bijan Hosseini contributed to this report.


"The President is not going to visit the DMZ," an official said Trump has employed increasingly volatile rhetoric in his comments about North Korea President Donald Trump will not visit the DMZ, a senior administration official announced Tuesday during a briefing from the White House podium. Last Monday, the White House first signaled Trump would most likely forgo a visit to the heavily fortified border between North and South Korea when he visits Asia next month, bypassing what has been a symbolic opportunity for US commanders in chief to stare into the Hermit Kingdom. “The President is not going to visit the DMZ,” the official said, explaining that “there is not enough time in the schedule” and that visiting the DMZ has become “a little bit of a cliché.” Related article Trump visit to DMZ unlikely, White House says The official said the White House had to pick between a visit to the DMZ or a visit to Camp Humphreys, a joint US-South Korean military base, which South Korean President Moon Jae-in invited Trump to visit. The official said the White House felt Camp Humphreys “would make more sense in terms of the President’s message” by drawing attention to “South Korea’s role in sharing the burden of supporting this critical alliance.” Last week, an official had said “we don’t think it sends any message either way.” Trump has employed increasingly volatile rhetoric in his comments about North Korea, promising to rain “fire and fury” on the regime if it continued threatening the United States. Since then, the North has conducted a massive underground nuclear test and launched several ballistic missiles. While some members of Trump’s administration have advocated talks with the North Koreans, Trump has downplayed the potential for effective diplomacy. He and his advisers have warned that no options – including military ones – are off the table. The official speaking Tuesday noted that Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis have all visited the DMZ and concluded: “It’s becoming a little bit of a cliché, frankly.” The White House also defended Trump’s approach to the North Korean crisis, insisting that Trump is not closing the door to diplomacy, but rather rejecting the possibility of direct talks with North Korea at this time. Two senior administration officials insisted Tuesday that the Trump administration is still engaged in ramping up pressure on the North Korean regime through diplomacy, despite Trump’s tweet earlier this month that his secretary of state was “wasting his time trying to negotiate” with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un. “The President did not tweet that diplomacy was a waste of time. He tweeted that direct talks were a waste of time,” a senior administration official said. “The diplomatic campaign goes on. But the administration’s position – the President’s clear position – is that direct talks with North Korea are unwise at this time.” A second administration official said that while the Trump administration has “made clear that the door was open” for talks with North Korea, “North Korea has shown zero inclination to engage in substantive talks with anyone in the world on the subject.” “The operative question is why is that the case, and it would be good to explore that,” the official said. CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.

Trump administration's policy on North Korea


Relations between Seoul and Beijing had been hurt by deployment of the THAAD missile system China has reached out to both Koreas in recent weeks South Korean leader Moon Jae-in will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing next week, as the security situation on the Korean Peninsula continues to worsen. The two presidents will discuss denuclearization and peace on the peninsula, Moon’s spokesman Park Soo-hyun said Wednesday. This will be the third time Moon and Xi have met, with their last encounter at an Asian leaders’ summit in Vietnam in November. Relations between Seoul and Beijing have been damaged by the ongoing North Korea crisis, particularly after the deployment of the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) defense system, which became fully operational in September. Beijing was strongly opposed to that deployment, set in motion by Moon’s predecessor, impeached President Park Geun-hye. While Moon also voiced skepticism over the missile system before assuming power, analysts said ongoing North Korean missile testing made it difficult for him to roll back deployment. China reacted to the roll-out with an unofficial embargo of South Korea, which hit the country’s tourism industry and prompted Chinese consumers to boycott Korean brands. Relations between Seoul and Beijing, though, began to improve in recent months. The two countries issued a statement in late October that recognized the “great importance” of the bilateral relationship. “Both sides agreed that strengthening exchanges and cooperation between Korea and China would create harmony of interests in both sides, and agreed to resume exchanges and cooperation in all areas as soon as possible,” the statement said. Tong Zhao, fellow at the Carnegie Tsinghua Center for Global Policy, told CNN at the time that it appeared the Chinese government had decided to move past the issue, which he said had led to major losses for both countries, diplomatically and economically. “China needs a smooth relationship with South Korea in order to maintain its own geostrategic interests over the Korean Peninsula,” he said. “China has great concerns about the US alliance in the region and if China can build good relations with one of those US allies, that can work to undermine (the alliance), in some sense.” Euan Graham, director of the International Security Program at Sydney’s Lowy Institute, said continued North Korean nuclear and missile testing had been pushing South Korea and the US closer together, undermining efforts by China to improve relations and increase its influence in the region ahead of the THAAD deployment. US Presidential Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that China is key to unlocking the North Korea issue. Beijing is Pyongyang’s major ally and trading partner, but many experts have cast doubt on the actual amount of influence Chinese officials have over their North Korean counterparts. China sent an envoy to Pyongyang last month, something Trump described as a “big move” in the wake of his five-country trip to Asia. Song Tao’s visit was the first by a Chinese official to North Korea in 2017, but there’s been no mention of any meeting between him and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. In a statement following Song’s return to Beijing, Chinese state news agency Xinhua said the ruling parties of the two nations had “pledged to strengthen inter-party exchange and coordination, and push forward the development of relations between the two countries.” “The two sides also exchanged views on relations between the two parties and the two countries, and on the Korean Peninsula issue and other issues of common concern,” Xinhua said. On Tuesday, a senior United Nations official arrived in North Korea for the first visit of its kind in six years. Jeffrey Feltman, the UN’s undersecretary-general for Political Affairs, will meet with officials and discuss “issues of mutual interest and concern,” during a trip that’s scheduled to end Friday, the UN said. North Korea this week said joint military drills involving the US and its allies are pushing the region to the brink of nuclear war. On Wednesday, the weeklong drills saw a US B-1B bomber which flew in from Guam, join US F-22s and F-35Bs, and South Korean F-15K fighter jets over the Korean Peninsula. A senior South Korean Air Force official told CNN on Monday that the war games will include attacks against a mock North Korean missile launch site with mock North Korean radars. The regularly scheduled drills come a week after Pyongyang conducted its most advanced missile test to date. CNN’s Yuli Yang and Ben Westcott contributed reporting.


Thousands march Sunday to remember victims of Bucharest nightclub fire Officials say the death toll from Friday's blaze has risen to 30 Hundreds of young people had gathered to listen to a band when the fire broke out More than 12,000 people took to the streets of Bucharest on Sunday to commemorate the victims of a nightclub fire that killed 30 people and left almost 150 injured, according to Romanian security forces. The fire broke out Friday at a basement club in the city’s center. Hundreds of young people were attending a free concert by a heavy metal band celebrating a new album. Eyewitnesses said many in the crowd believed the first moments of the fire were part of the show. But the blaze quickly erupted, leaving those inside scrambling through smoke toward the lone exit in one of Romania’s deadliest fires in recent memory. People gathered at University Square in Bucharest’s city center Sunday before marching silently to the scene of the tragedy. They carried flowers and candles as well as banners reading “Corruption, greed and indifference kill Romania” and “We have 18,000 churches but only 425 hospitals and we sit and watch our brothers dying on the sidewalks.” Two victims of the fire died overnight and another on Sunday, raising the death toll to 30, according to Raed Arafat, head of the country’s department of emergency situations. Authorities said the death toll could double in the coming days, with at least 35 people listed as being in a critical condition. Arafat said Saturday that many victims had suffered smoke inhalation and some had severe burns affecting up to 80% of their bodies. Health officials said Sunday that burn specialists from Israel and Germany had arrived in Bucharest to help treat the injured, and a French team was expected Sunday night. Romania is marking the tragedy with three days of national mourning. A campaign has been launched on Facebook calling on people to avoid bars or nightclubs this weekend. Many clubs closed Saturday, canceling plans for Halloween parties. The fire appears to be the deadliest nightclub blaze since a 2013 fire at a nightclub in Santa Maria, Brazil, killed more than 230 people. CNN’s Brooke Bowman, Steve Almasy, Elwyn Lopez and Ray Sanchez contributed to this report.


Editor’s Note: Jeff Yang is a columnist for The Wall Street Journal and a frequent contributor to radio shows including Public Radio International’s “The Takeaway” and WNYC’s “The Brian Lehrer Show.” He is the co-author of “I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action” and editor of the graphic novel anthologies “Secret Identities” and “Shattered.” The views expressed are his own. Jeff Yang: Asians have understandably reacted with fury to a Chinatown segment on "The O'Reilly Factor" Segment lampooned Chinese Americans via pop culture's most tired stereotypes, he says At this point, the opening notes to Carl Douglas’s classic ode to chopsocky, “Kung Fu Fighting” – at least when not accompanied by an animated panda – have become a trigger warning for most Asian Americans. It’s usually a sign of horrendous things to come. And, in “political humorist” Jesse Watters’ recent segment for Bill O’Reilly’s hoary Fox News gabfest “The O’Reilly Factor,” the sound of that refrain was paid off in full. O’Reilly set up this “Watters World” segment by talking about how in the first presidential debate, the word “China” came up a dozen times, mostly from GOP candidate Donald Trump, and almost entirely with negative connotations. This, he said, prompted the show to send roving correspondent Watters to New York’s Chinatown to get the scoop on what voters thought of the election. As soon as Douglas’s twanging riff began to play under the crude “Watters’ World” logo, it was clear the segment wasn’t going to be a thoughtful investigation of the political beliefs and foreign policy attitudes of members of the fastest-growing population group in the United States. But who would have imagined that Watters would use the opportunity to lampoon Chinese Americans through the lens of pop culture’s most tired and anachronistic stereotypes – martial artists, inscrutable elders – while mock-interviewing elderly immigrants and mugging for the approval of his largely white audience like a toddler pointing proudly to his first successful potty poo? Asians have understandably reacted with fury. In New York, officials representing Chinatown have denounced Watters and O’Reilly, and are planning a rally in front of Fox News’s Manhattan headquarters. The Asian American Journalists Association released a statement calling itself “outraged and shocked” at the segment’s “open ridicule” of Asians: “It’s 2016. We should be far beyond tired, racist stereotypes and targeting an ethnic group for humiliation and objectification on the basis of their race…Host Bill O’Reilly called the segment ‘gentle fun.’ There was nothing gentle or fun about it. It was rude, offensive, mocking, derogatory and damaging.” Related article Hollywood: Drop the bleach The source of the disconnect between Watters and O’Reilly’s view of the segment and that of the community it targeted is clear. After all, the network has provided succor to a presidential candidate whose bullying antics have normalized ridiculing those who fail to meet the standards established by white, straight, Christian, able-bodied and monied males: “Fat” and “ugly” women, the handicapped, the poor, people of color, immigrants, Muslims and, yes, the Chinese. It’s Trump who has set a new low bar on transpacific diplomacy, referring to China’s trade policies as “theft” and “rape” (it’s odd and unsettling how frequently the metaphor of rape surfaces in his speech) while using a crude broken English accent to depict Asian trade negotiators as cowering before his deal-making prowess. And it’s Trump who has dismissed critiques of his casual slurs as nothing more than “political correctness” from thin-skinned individuals who can’t handle his humor, or can’t accept his honesty. On Twitter, Watters issued a lame response to his critics that shows he’s of the same opinion: “My man-on-the-street interviews are meant to be taken as tongue-in-cheek and I regret if anyone found offense.” In classic Trumpian style, he regrets if anyone “found” offense, rather than admitting he was actually offensive. Sign up for CNN Opinion’s new newsletter.Join us on Twitter and Facebook Fortunately, we no longer live in “Watters’ World,” or for that matter, Trump’s. The era in which a single empowered race, class or gender legally held all the levers of political power ended centuries ago: By 1856, the right to vote was extended to the poor and unpropertied; in 1868, to naturalized immigrants; in 1870, to nonwhites, and in 1920, to women. And each of these groups is poised to vote against Trump in record proportions that surge higher every time he and his proxies slander them. According to the just-released results of October’s National Asian American Survey, among Asian Americans – the nation’s fastest growing population and a key swing-state electorate – the political split has gone from roughly 50-50  Democrat and Republican to a +41% pro-Democrat lean, with 55% of Asian Americans saying they intend to vote for Clinton versus 14% for Trump. Over half of Asian Americans have a “very unfavorable” view of Trump (and another 15% a “somewhat unfavorable” view of him). And among Asian American millennials, representing the community’s future for decades to come, the gap is even wider: 61% intend to vote for Clinton, versus 14% for Trump, and seven in 10 have a “very unfavorable” view of the Republican candidate. So Watters, O’Reilly and Trump may rub their little hands with glee and chuckle now, but the last laugh will ultimately be on them. Because the gonging sound they hear in their heads is no longer a cue to unleash derision on Asians. It’s a sign that it’s time to get off the stage.

Fox News segment featuring Jesse Watters and Bill O'Reilly


House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy insists that the U.S. Government won't shut down over Planned Parenthood "I do not see a shutdown happening," McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol on Monday House conservatives have spent much of the past three months attempting to force a vote to strip taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood. But key Republicans aren’t ready to force a government shutdown over it. After the shooting at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic that left three dead last Friday, it appears Republican leaders are reluctant to risk a fight with the White House and Democrats over the issue on the must-pass spending bill. “I do not see a shutdown happening,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol on Monday as lawmakers returned to Washington from their Thanksgiving recess. RELATED: Paul Ryan doubtful about defunding Planned Parenthood Congress needs to clear the giant government funding bill by Dec. 11 to avoid a shutdown.  As the deadline nears, House and Senate negotiators hope to reach a compromise soon, although McCarthy suggested lawmakers could use one extra week until Dec. 18. (A stopgap measure would be needed to keep the government open in the interim.) The desire by Republicans not to shut down the government over the emotionally-charged abortion issue was seconded by Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, a staunch abortion opponent who acknowledged Monday that a successful effort to defund Planned Parenthood won’t happen on this bill or is likely anytime soon. “This has been an ongoing issue for years now,” the freshman Republican senator said. “It has to be addressed and it might take years to get that done.” The effort to strip Medicaid reimbursements to the organization became a must-do for conservatives this fall after videos released by an anti-abortion group earlier this year featured officials from Planned Parenthood discussing the sale of fetal tissue. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said he would stand with Planned Parenthood and prevent GOP efforts to defund it. He also warned Republican leaders against using caustic language that he suggested could lead to violence against abortion clinics. “We as leaders must be mindful of our words and actions,” Reid said on the Senate floor. Monday “Whipping people into a frenzy of hate and anger while providing easy access to firearms has proven disastrous to our country.” RELATED: Planned Parenthood shooting suspect appears in court The Obama administration is warning Republicans not to include controversial policy provisions in the government funding bill. “I say with some confidence the newly elected Speaker of the House doesn’t want to preside over a government shutdown six weeks into his tenure,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said during a briefing in Paris. Lankford said the shooting was unlikely to impact the debate this week on defunding Planned Parenthood. “Obviously the Planned Parenthood folks want to rise up and say we wouldn’t have a shooting if it wasn’t for the mean folks who are talking about defunding Planned Parenthood. I don’t think that plays well, quite frankly,” he said. “It would be like saying we have complaints about education reform in America so there are school shootings. The two are not connected.” Senate Republicans are taking other steps this week that could ease the pressure to defund Planned Parenthood in the government spending bill. They hope to pass a separate budget bill for next year — called reconciliation – that can be approved on just 51 votes instead of the usual 60 required for major bills in the Senate. Senate Republicans emerged from their reconciliation bill meeting in the Capitol upbeat they will have the 51 votes to pass the package, which would repeal more parts of Obamacare than the House did as well as defund Planned Parenthood. A vote on that measure is expected by the end of the week, according to Senate GOP aides. While President Obama is sure to veto the bill, Republicans would consider its passage a major accomplishment, one they would tout on the campaign trail. There has been some question as to whether Senate GOP leaders can get the 51 votes they need because of opposition from some conservatives – like Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, both presidential candidates who want a broader Obamacare repeal – and some moderates who favor abortion rights like Mark Kirk of Illinois and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, both of whom are up for re-election in swing states. One of the holdouts on the Obamacare question was Sen. Mike Lee or Utah.  He said afterward he was “encouraged” by the more robust Senate language. That was relief to Sen. John Cornyn, the GOP whip in charge of counting votes, who said, “If he’s encouraged than I’m encouraged.” RELATED: Cruz: Maybe alleged clinic shooter is ‘transgendered leftist’ Senate GOP aides say pressure has been high from the anti-abortion community to approve the reconciliation bill and they anticipate getting enough support to pass it. Debate on reconciliation is set to begin formally Wednesday and conclude Thursday, per several aides and senators. McCarthy didn’t rule out that Planned Parenthood language could be added in some fashion to the government funding bill saying, “I expect there to be a healthy debate on every place the government spends money and that’s the way democracy works.” He made it clear the spending bill would include some mix of policy riders, but declined to describe which ones. Many conservative Republicans argue the spending bill is their main leverage with the administration, and are floating adding provisions to block implementation of climate change rules, Obamacare, and other Democratic priorities. House Speaker Paul Ryan has not signaled yet which of these he wants to press as negotiators on both sides try to hammer out a deal. McCarthy also said that after the terror attacks in Paris, “security is becoming the top issue” that he hears about from GOP colleagues. The No. 2 House GOP leader touted the veto-proof margin on legislation that passed the House before Thanksgiving that would require the Secretary of Homeland Security to certify any refugees from Iraq and Syria don’t pose a security threat. He suggested that refugee measure could be added to the government funding legislation, saying, “that bill needs to pass and become law whichever way it can.” Before the end of the year, congressional leaders also hope to pass a long-term compromise highway bill, a rewrite of the unpopular No Child Left Behind law, and a series of tax break extensions. On Monday night negotiators to the highway bill and, separately, the No Child Left Behind measure, were in the final stages of their talks and gathering signatures from conference committee members, with hopes of releasing their final language Monday night or Tuesday. Quick floor action is expected on each. CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed to this story

Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood


"There's no question it's the right view," Pence said Pence was not asked about whether he believed all Muslims should be banned from entering the U.S. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence said Friday he agrees with Donald Trump’s call to ban Muslims from countries with heavy terrorist activity from entering the U.S., a reversal from criticism he levied against the real estate mogul months ago. When Trump first called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” back in December, Pence said the proposal was “offensive and unconstitutional.” Fox News’ Sean Hannity asked Pence about the issue during an interview that aired Friday night. “I am very supportive of Donald Trump’s call to temporarily suspend immigration from countries where terrorist influence and impact represents a threat to the United States,” Pence responded. Pence added, “What I’ve heard from Donald Trump, and I believe the position he’s articulated that resonates with millions of Americans, is that we’ve got to find out what’s going on, and we’ve got to do something different, and we’ve got to put the safety and security of the American people first.” Pence was not asked about whether he believed all Muslims should be banned from entering the U.S., as Trump originally proposed in December. Last month, Trump softened his position on the ban, saying the policy wouldn’t apply to Muslims from countries not typically associated with terrorism. “It wouldn’t bother me, it wouldn’t bother me,” Trump said in Scotland when asked whether he would allow a Scottish Muslim into the U.S. under his policy. His campaign spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, then told CNN that Trump does not support banning all foreign Muslims from entering the U.S. but instead would ban Muslims from “terror states” – though he did not specify which states he believed supported terror. “There’s no question it’s the right view,” Pence said Friday. Pence also said he “absolutely” supported building a wall on the southern border and that “absolutely” Mexico would pay for it. He was also asked to defend his vote for the war in Iraq, a conflict that Trump has repeatedly said he opposed from the beginning and has cited to question presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy judgment. “Reasonable people can disagree about whether we should have gone into Iraq,” he said. Pressed if it was the right decision, Pence declined to answer: “I think that’s for historians to debate.” Hannity also asked Pence about his prior support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive 12-nation Asian trade agreement that Trump has regularly railed against. “I think when we elect one of the best negotiators in the world as president of the United States, I’m open to renegotiating these trade agreements,” Pence said.

Donald Trump's call to ban Muslims from countries with heavy terrorist activity from entering the U.S.


A decision had been expected by the end of May The delay comes amid an uptick in violence in Afghanistan President Donald Trump is not expected to make a decision on the US strategy in Afghanistan for several more weeks, a senior administration official told CNN. Trump’s national security team was expected to present him with recommendations on the path forward in Afghanistan – including adding several thousand more troops – in early May, and a US official told CNN at the time that Trump likely would make a decision upon returning from his first foreign trip. Related article US forces attacked in Afghanistan But two weeks since his return, a senior administration official said the fully fleshed out interagency recommendations are now not expected to reach the President’s desk “for another couple weeks.” The delay comes amid an uptick in violence in Afghanistan that in just the last two weeks saw 150 people killed in a major terrorist attack in Kabul and three US service members killed during a joint US-Afghan military operation. The official insisted the review process had not “stalled,” but acknowledged the administration had expected to be further along in the process. “This thing isn’t done,” the official said, adding that the complexity of the problem and different perspectives from various government agencies have slowed the process. Despite the increase in violence, the senior administration official said the President’s national security advisers are still preparing to recommend Trump commit no more than 5,000 additional US troops. US officials are also seeking an increased troop commitment from NATO military partners. The official said Trump will be presented with an “ambitious” review of the US’s policies in South Asia that will go beyond recommendations on the US fight in Afghanistan to include US policy toward neighboring India and Pakistan. Trump has not been briefed on the full strategy, but has been receiving “periodic updates,” the official said. Trump’s top Cabinet officials on national security matters, the National Security Council and the US ambassadors in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India have all been involved in formulating the administration’s policy review, the official said. Related article Official: Afghan soldier kills 3 US service members The US faces a slew of complex problems in Afghanistan that go beyond the United States’ military campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaeda, which dates back to 2001. Now, the US is also facing an increasingly aggressive insurgency from ISIS Khorasan, the terror group’s Afghanistan affiliate, and is also becoming increasingly wary of Iran’s deepening influence in the country. There are about 8,400 US troops in Afghanistan, most of whom are involved in the NATO-led mission to train and advise Afghan troops. About 2,000 US service members are also engaged in a counterterrorism mission in Afghanistan aimed at targeting groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS. Related article Kabul bombing latest reminder that America's longest war rages on The proposal to increase troop levels in Afghanistan, which is supported by Trump’s national security adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster and Defense Secretary James Mattis, continues to face pushback from West Wing officials allied with Steve Bannon, the President’s chief strategist. On Tuesday evening at a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee, Mattis made clear that administration is taking a regional approach: “We’re looking at everything from the situation between India and Pakistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan, obviously Iran, that whole South Asia area. … We are going to have to recognize that problems that come out of ungoverned space like that, … those problems do not stay there, they can come home to roost here.” Mattis also said that he wanted more support from US allies: “We’ve got to determine what level of support is necessary, and how we orchestrate the international community, not just the Americans, but the international community to deal with this.” Trump’s decision to deepen the US’s military footprint in Afghanistan would follow President Barack Obama’s attempts to draw down that troop presence and would cut against Trump’s campaign rhetoric, in which he lamented the US’s long-term involvement in Afghanistan and vowed to put a stop to the US’s “nation-building” policies. The White House is also facing increasing pressure – and frustration – from Congress to make a decision on the future of the US fight in Afghanistan. Elliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House foreign affairs committee, noted after the Kabul bombing late last month that “the Trump administration still has no strategy to wind down the conflict in Afghanistan.” CNN’s Sara Murray, Jeremy Herb and Ryan Browne contributed reporting


Clinton staffers say they told reporters about Russian links to hacking during the campaign Hillary Clinton’s former campaign aides are venting their disappointment – primarily with the media – responding to a slew of reports about Donald Trump and Russia with a bitter, yet simple, message: We told you so. Throughout the 2016 campaign, Clinton’s most senior aides blamed Russia for the hacks targeting Democrats, including into Clinton campaign manager John Podesta’s email account. In October, Clinton’s campaign – using national press secretary Brian Fallon as their narrator – released a 6-minute video detailing how, according to their experts, Putin and Russia were looking to aide Trump in an attempt to thwart Clinton’s campaign. Related article These are Trump's ties to Russia A number of Clinton’s former aides tweeted the video on Tuesday after CNN’s report published. Jenna Lowenstein, Clinton’s former digital director, tweeted, “If only anyone listened to @brianefallon,” and linked to the video. “Truth,” added Nick Merrill, Clinton’s traveling press secretary and one of a few aides who is still working for the former secretary of state. CNN reported on Tuesday that the four senior-most US intelligence leaders briefed President Barack Obama and Trump last week about how allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about the President-elect. The senior intelligence officials told Trump that Russian intelligence had compiled information potentially harmful to both political parties, but only released information damaging to Hillary Clinton and Democrats, according to sources with knowledge of the briefing. “It is frustration and disappointment that a lot of the indications of what is coming to light were out before the election but it didn’t get the focus and the attention that it deserved,” Jesse Ferguson, a former Clinton spokesman said, arguing that the content in leaked emails - controversies, perceived slights and other salacious details – were covered more closely than where the information was coming from. Clinton and her aides have long given up any challenge to Trump’s November win. But the former secretary of state, now reflecting on why she lost, has primarily blamed Russia and a grudge held by Vladimir Putin for her unexpected loss. “Vladimir Putin himself directed the covert cyber attacks against our electoral system, against our democracy, apparently because he has a personal beef against,” Clinton said at a meeting with donors in December. Her aides, many of whom are now looking for work and spending considerably more time following the ups and downs of news, are also steaming about how they tried - but failed - to successfully convey Putin’s meddling in the 2016 election. After reports of the Democratic National Committee hack went public in June, Clinton’s campaign spent the next five months looking to convince voters, reporters and Trump supporters that Russia was releasing the materials in an attempt to help Trump’s candidacy. Former aides recall countless meetings, conference calls and strategy sessions about pushing the story. For example, Clinton’s communications team was in a meeting about Russian hacking and their communications strategy around it when the Washington Post published the “Access Hollywood” video where Trump graphically talked about assaulting women. All of this contributes to what has become a common feeling among Clinton aides: It is not our fault the story didn’t get out. Instead, Clinton’s aides blame reporters for the fact the story didn’t fully take hold before voters went to the polls in November. “I haven’t been watching this thinking to myself, damn, I wish I had done this,” said one former Clinton aide. “I don’t want to sit here and be arrogant and say, ‘oh no, we did everything perfect.’ When you lose and when the story is not told, then there is always something you could have done different. But would it have changed the outcome? I don’t know.” The aide added: “Frankly, I think the media blew it.” Related video Clinton camp: DNC hack a Russian plot to help Trump Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager, told CNN in July that the campaign was being told by hacking experts that “Russian state actors broke into the DNC, stole these emails, (and are) releasing these emails for the purpose of helping Donald Trump.” In response, Mook was mocked. “What a joke,” said Jason Miller, Trump’s spokesman. A piece in the New York Observer, a publication owned by Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, compared the campaign manager to Joe McCarthy, the infamous senator from Wisconsin who led the charge in the 1950s to root out Communism in the United States. Clinton’s aides now universally hold Mook’s interview up with regard. “That held up well,” said Ferguson. Democrats may now be in a worse position for pushing this story than they were during the campaign, though. Former Clinton aides said on Wednesday that there is no “coordinated effort” before Clinton’s former employees to push the Trump story and that most aides are pushing the issue on their own. “There is a Google group about job options, but there is not that kind of structure,” joked one former aide. Democratic groups looking to oppose Trump are in the nascent process of being formed, though. The Democratic National Committee is building a “war room” to combat Trump led by Zac Petkanas, the Clinton campaign’s rapid-response director, and Adrienne Watson, a Clinton spokeswoman, and outside groups like American Bridge, an opposition research firm, have reorganized to rebuff the Republican president. “I am heartened,” Petkanas said Wednesday, “that people are taking it seriously now and I think that it is better later than never.”


Optional ceremony aims to honor the achievements of black students and share their experiences with the community More than 300 students and 500 guests have registered to attend the May 23 event Michael Huggins’ grandfather never learned how to read or write. He was born in Mississippi when Jim Crow laws still legalized racial segregation, but eventually left in the 1950s by riding in the trunk of a car that was leaving the state. Two generations later, his grandson is graduating from Harvard. “If he hadn’t made his decision to leave and find a better life for his family, I wouldn’t be here,” Huggins said.  “Graduating from Harvard, it’s spiritual for me. And I know so many people who have stories like that.” Huggins, who will graduate with a master’s degree from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, hopes that such stories will be shared and celebrated at Harvard University’s first commencement ceremony specifically honoring black graduates. The event, to be held two days prior to Harvard’s traditional commencement, aims to honor the achievements of black students at Harvard and to share their experiences with the larger community. More than 300 students and 500 guests have registered to attend the May 23 event. The event will be an optional, additional ceremony. The ceremony, Huggins said, is not meant to be divisive, but rather an affirmation of identity and community. “It’s truly about fellowship. We invite anybody to come to learn about the black, African, and African diaspora experience at Harvard. This event is truly about building relationships,” Huggins said. Huggins, along with fellow Harvard graduate students Courtney Woods and Jillian Simons, started planning the event last summer. Every school represented in the ceremony has financially contributed to the event and, so far, they’ve raised approximately $35,000 to pay for expenses. “It’s important for black students to have a safe space to celebrate their unique challenges with their families. And it’s important for us to have a space to educate others who may not have had those experiences,” Woods, a student at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, said. Woods, the daughter of a Jamaican immigrant and the first person in her family to get a bachelor’s degree (and now the first to get a master’s degree), said the ceremony also represents an opportunity to recognize the contributions their families have made to their success. “Every day, I get emails or texts or calls, saying ‘I look to you for inspiration.’  They say, ‘the fact that you went to Harvard, means that I could go to Harvard someday.’  When we walk across that stage, all of our families will know that they’re walking with us. They all know the sacrifices that they’ve made,” Woods said. Harvard has held similar black graduation ceremonies for undergraduate students in the past and already hosts an additional commencement ceremony for Latinx students. Other universities, such as Columbia and Stanford, have also held similar commencement ceremonies specifically for black, LGBT, Asian, Latinx and Native American students. However, this is the first time that Harvard’s graduate school community has come together to hold a university-wide ceremony. Harvard’s black commencement will feature speeches from students on their experiences in higher education, musical performances, and an alumni award ceremony.  All participating students will also be given a stole made of kente cloth, a representation of African diaspora history and pride, to place on top of their graduation robes. “It’s nice to have a ceremony where black people are intentionally included. We’re in the minority as far as population goes, but we’ve achieved great things,” Simons, a law student who will graduate in 2018, said. “It’s a nice time to circle back and say, we recognize you.” The ceremony comes at a time when several elite institutions have been coming to grips with their historical ties to slavery. Last spring, Harvard Law School agreed to redesign its insignia, which had been modeled on a slaveholder family crest. In January, Columbia University released a report detailing the university’s connections to slavery. In February, Yale University renamed one of its residential colleges named for a slavery proponent. “People have been frustrated that more hasn’t been done to reveal the lives of those individuals who made these institutions what they are.  Do people even know these voices exist, do people know that we exist?  A lot of the challenges have come from institutional and systemic racism that has existed in this country for hundreds of years,” Huggins said. Simons, the incoming president of the Harvard Black Graduate Student Alliance, hopes to make black commencement a tradition. “This is something that we plan to build upon and make it bigger.  We have a great foundation.  We plan to take the torch and run.  You’ll be hearing about this again next year,” Simons said.

Harvard University's black commencement ceremony


Editor’s Note: Frida Ghitis is a world affairs columnist for The Miami Herald and World Politics Review, and a former CNN producer and correspondent. Follow her @FridaGhitis. The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers. Frida Ghitis: Role of women supporting ISIS appears to be evolving The more police focus on those fitting typical terrorist profile, males, the easier it is for women to escape detection, she says The days of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria conquering vast swaths of territory for its “caliphate” seem to have come to an end. But even as it is defeated by multiple armies on the battlefield, the headline-hungry terrorist group is far from finished. The next chapter in the horror-inducing history of ISIS is likely to feature women doing the killing – and Europe could provide the principal stage. Of course, this should have been clear for months to anyone watching the philosophy, trajectory, strategy and tactics of the group. But now we have confirmation, with a string of arrests in Paris in recent days. On September 4, French police discovered an abandoned car parked in front of the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral in the always-crowded center of the French capital. Inside, they found an arsenal of everyday explosives: half a dozen cooking gas cylinders and bottles of diesel fuel. Forensic experts examining the car discovered the fingerprints of a woman they identified as Ornella G. Within a couple of days they had located and arrested her in southern France. Before long, police arrested three other women.  One of them, Inés Madani, stabbed one of the police officers as she tried to escape. Paris prosecutor François Molins said police had disrupted an all-female terrorist cell, and authorities believe they were planning a spate of attacks, including suicide bombings. The women were “totally receptive to the deadly” ideology of ISIS, Molins told reporters. Related article France wrong on burkini ban Such comments should be a reminder both that women are just as susceptible as men to radical ideology, and that ISIS has again demonstrated that it is more welcoming to women than jihadist rival al Qaeda. The caliphate has, for example, worked to draw women to its territories as part of its effort to build a functioning society, to provide wives and homes to the male fighters, and help recruit other women. Until recently, women had largely worked in a variety of functions, notably as the implacable enforcers of the social order, patrolling the streets as the morality police, punishing other women who violated rules on clothing and the like. But as ISIS has lost ground on the battlefield, such work has become less of a priority, and the role of women is predictably changing to fit the circumstances. The reality is that ISIS is under considerable pressure. Police everywhere, particularly in France, are on high alert. But by using women, ISIS can perform something of a jujitsu move, using the enemy’s force against him. The more police focus on those fitting the typical terrorist profile, males, the easier it is for women to escape detection. And if their attacks succeed, the mere fact that women carried them out somehow amplifies the attack’s propaganda value. Last week’s capture of the alleged French cell may have slowed or prevented the first wave of now-activated female networks: One of them was said to be carrying in her purse a letter swearing allegiance to ISIS and declaring, “I am attacking you and your lands in order to terrorize you.” Another, identified by police as Sarah H., had reportedly twice been engaged to ISIS killers. Her first fiancé was Larossi Abballah, the man who stabbed to death two French police officials at their home and held their 3-year-old hostage for several hours in the city of Magnanville last June. After Aballah was killed, Sarah H. was reportedly engaged to one of the ISIS operatives who slit the throat of Jacques Hamel, a Catholic priest in Normandy. The gruesome assassination of Hamel was carried out as parishioners watched in horror. But these arrests are unlikely to neutralize the threat, and French authorities have been clear there are more attacks being planned. Indeed, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said France has been disrupting terrorist plots and militant networks “every day,” noting that police are keeping track of some 15,000 people believed to be in the process of radicalization. Sign up for CNN Opinion’s new newsletter.Join us on Twitter and Facebook With ISIS losing territory in the Middle East, many European nationals who traveled to the caliphate are making their way home. So far, the worst attacks in France have been carried out directly by men. That was the case in the July 14 truck attack on the seaside promenade in Nice, in which one ISIS driver killed more than 80 and injured hundreds more; and on November 13, 2015, when ISIS killed 137 people in Paris. But police believe one of the perpetrators of a siege at a Jewish deli 48 hours after the Charlie Hebdo assault last January, Amedy Coulibaly, had assistance in planning the operation from his common-law wife, Hayat Boumeddiene. Boumeddiene is believed to have fled to Syria before the attack and has featured prominently in ISIS propaganda ever since. She remains wanted by police in France. Until now, women who have joined ISIS from the West have mostly traveled to the region in a quest, not unlike the men, for a more meaningful life within the context of their extremist religious beliefs. But while ISIS has reportedly started telling people not to come, it is far from dismantling the organization. New radical female recruits, joined by those returning from Iraq and Syria, will now play new roles as ISIS adapts to its new circumstances, and continues to try to spread terror in Europe.


Tilly stopped acting to raise her kids She's back opposite Brad Pitt in "War Machine" Meg Tilly had three very good reasons for dropping out of the Hollywood spotlight. Her children. The actress was riding high in the 1980s and ’90s with roles in films like “The Big Chill” and “Leaving Normal” when she left the industry to raise her kids. (Tilly shares a son and daughter with producer Tim Zinneman, and another son with actor Colin Firth.) “I couldn’t be gone six to nine months from my children’s lives,” Tilly told People. “I had a challenging childhood, so I didn’t feel like I could trust somebody else to raise them.” “My children didn’t ask to be born,” she added. “I had a responsibility to be there.” Tilly, who moved to Canada with her children, also stayed busy over the years writing books, including some romance novels. More recently, she’s been edging her way back to acting with roles on stage and the Canadian TV drama “Bomb Girls.” Tilly currently appears as Brad Pitt’s wife in the Netflix series “War Machine,” and notes that at 57, she is older than the 53-year-old Pitt. “It’s unheard of though, right,” she said. “At the screening, women kept coming up to me and saying how much they appreciated an age-appropriate wife for the female lead.” The actress said Pitt was so good at donning gray hair for his role as a general that she had forgotten he is a heartthrob. “I was shocked when he came to the wrap party,” she said. “I’m like, ‘Holy cow, that’s Brad Pitt!’