When Zulmarys Molina was three months pregnant, she got the Zika virus from a mosquito Zika has been linked to microcephaly, a condition where babies have unusually small heads and underdeveloped brains Zulmarys Molina arrives at the high-risk pregnancy clinic in San Juan, Puerto Rico, shortly after dawn, excited to see her baby. Inside the examining room, she raises her shirt so Dr. Alberto de la Vega can put an ultrasound wand on her belly. He heads straight for the baby’s brain. Related article Zika virus 'scarier than initially thought' When Molina was three months pregnant, she got the Zika virus from a mosquito. It wasn’t a big deal for her – she just felt sick for a few days. But it could be devastating for her baby. Zika can have an affinity for a fetus’s brain tissue, eating away and destroying it. Now five months pregnant, Molina anxiously watches the ultrasound monitor as de la Vega performs his examination on her daughter, whom she’s named Micaela. “This is a very stressful situation,” Molina says. “You don’t want to think about it, but you’re always reminded of what Zika can do to your baby.” Related article Facing Zika fears: Raising kids with microcephaly As Zika continues to spread, this scene is being repeated over and over again at doctors’ offices throughout many parts of the Caribbean and Latin America. More than 950 cases of fetal malformations potentially associated with Zika have been reported worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. And experts say it’s only a matter of time before it happens in the continental United States, too. De la Vega moves the wand carefully, taking several measurements of Micaela’s brain. He carefully calibrates the thickness of her cortex, the brain’s outer layer of neurons, and the size of the corpus callosum, the band of nerves that connects the brain’s two hemispheres. “Her brain anatomy looks normal,” de la Vega says. Related gallery Zika virus outbreak You can feel the tension in the room subside as a huge smile spreads across Molina’s face. De la Vega takes a break from measuring the brain and shows Molina 3-D images of her daughter’s face and beating heart. They both look perfect. “She has my nose!” Molina notices, still smiling. Then he goes back to the brain to take one more measurement. And something in his face tells you it’s not quite right. He measures the circumference of Micaela’s head. “Your baby’s head growth is lagging behind,” he tells her. “Given the situation, there’s reason to be concerned.” The “situation” is that Zika has been linked to microcephaly, a condition where babies have unusually small heads and underdeveloped brains. When Molina was 18 weeks pregnant, Micaela’s head size was almost average – somewhere between the 40th and 50th percentile compared with other babies, de la Vega says. But today, at 22 weeks, it’s below the 20th percentile. This might just be a fluke, he explains to Molina. Babies’ heads grow at unsteady rates, and she might speed up soon. Plus, because of Micaela’s position, it was hard to measure her head. He repeats that it’s reassuring that the structures inside Micaela’s brain look normal. Related article Stopping Zika: Should we be handing out condoms at airports? He asks Molina to come back in two weeks for another ultrasound. That will help him know if today’s number was a one-off or a sign of brain damage. It doesn’t matter to Molina what they find in two weeks. She’s already decided she’ll keep her baby, no matter what. She knows that it will be more difficult to care for Micaela if she has severe brain defects, but Molina knows about hard work. Her income as a university admissions officer supports herself, her 2-year-old son and her mother, who live together in an apartment in public housing. Raised Catholic and now a practicing Pentecostalist, Molina says her religious beliefs will not allow her, under any circumstances, to terminate the pregnancy. Other women in her situation have made different choices. On March 30, the day before Molina had her most recent ultrasound, the New England Journal of Medicine published a report about a woman with Zika in Washington who chose to terminate her pregnancy because the fetus had severe brain defects. So far, there have been 32 pregnant women in the United States who’ve had Zika, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Related article Map: Tracking Zika virus These women were not bitten by mosquitoes at home. They contracted Zika by traveling to an area where the virus is spreading or by having sex with a man who had traveled, according to Tom Skinner, a CDC spokesman. Zika virus ‘scarier than initially thought’ But in the coming months, as the weather gets warmer, experts anticipate that mosquitoes will start biting pregnant women in the continental United States, too. “It’s not a matter of whether Zika will come here, but when,” said Dr. Jose Cordero, a professor of public health at the University of Georgia and the former director of the CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. This means mothers here will have to make decisions like the one Molina has made. Related article Zika: Another puzzle piece leaves doctors with more questions Abortion decisions are never easy, but with Zika, there’s an added element of difficulty: The brain damage caused by the virus doesn’t seem to show up until relatively late in the pregnancy, when it’s more complicated, medically and emotionally, to end a pregnancy. With the patient in Washington, her baby’s brain defects didn’t appear until 19 weeks, nearly halfway through the pregnancy. The parents decided to terminate two weeks later. “This was a very difficult decision for them to make,” said the woman’s obstetrician, Dr. Rita Driggers, an associate professor of gynecology and obstetrics at Hopkins. See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter. With another patient, also reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, the defects didn’t show up until even later – 29 weeks. That mother also chose to terminate her pregnancy. Molina’s next ultrasound is April 13. She awaits it with some anxiety. “But I am feeling very positive,” she says. “I know everything will be OK.” CNN’s Debra Goldschmidt and John Bonifield contributed to this report.


A 16-year-old German girl who ran away from home in 2016 and allegedly joined ISIS has been found alive in Iraq, the German government confirmed Monday. Linda Wenzel, a schoolgirl from the town of Pulsnitz near Dresden, was one of at least five foreign women captured by Iraqi forces sweeping the old city of Mosul after the defeat of ISIS, according to sources within the counter-terror operation in Mosul. The sources added that the women have now been moved to Baghdad and are under interrogation. Wenzel was named on Monday by the German Foreign Ministry, which said a second German national was among those detained. “From what we know, she is physically fine,” Dresden prosecutor Lorenz Haase told CNN when asked about Wenzel’s condition. “However we do not know how she is psychologically.” Haase does not yet know if Wenzel will return to Germany and said she could be put on trial in Iraq. “If she is proven to be a member of ISIS her case will go to the general federal prosecutor in Germany,” he said. Wenzel’s parents first alerted the police that Linda had gone missing in July last year, Haase confirmed. When police learned that the teenager might have converted to Islam and ran away to join ISIS, the case was handed over to the prosecutor in Dresden. However, the investigation was dropped after Wenzel’s whereabouts could not be determined. “Now that Linda is identified as the missing girl from Pulsnitz, we will reopen the investigation today or tomorrow on the suspicion that she may have been supporting a terrorist organization or was planning an attack against a foreign state,” said Haase. “However, we do not know what happened to Linda after she disappeared in Istanbul last year in the summer. We do not know who she was in contact with, what she was doing or whether she was involved in criminal acts or even fighting with [ISIS]. Iraqi journalist Amir Musawy visited Wenzel last week as part of an investigative team reporting for German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung and public broadcasters NDR and WDR. According to Musawy, he was the first journalist to gain access to the teenager since she was discovered. Wenzel had a gunshot wound on her leg but was able to talk and answer questions, Musawy told CNN. He witnessed her being offered medical treatment. “It seemed to me as she didn’t fully understand what happened to her or what she did,” he said. “I just want to leave,” she said, according to the report published in the Suddeutsche Zeitung (SZ). “I want to get away from the war, away from the many weapons, the noise.” She also said she was ready to testify. Related article ISIS brides flee caliphate as noose tightens on terror group According to the report, Wenzel was a good student who was radicalized quietly. She suddenly began listening to Arabic music instead of rap and eventually started wearing a headscarf, the report says. The report says that Wenzel met her future husband – an ISIS fighter – online. After traveling to Istanbul in early July 2016, she says she was taken against her will to Mosul. She married an ISIS soldier who was killed soon after, according to SZ. More than 930 people – including children – have left Germany to fight alongside ISIS in Iraq and Syria, according to the German domestic intelligence service. Authorities estimate that 20% of them are young girls and women. Wenzel’s hometown of Pulsnitz is a quiet place with just 7,500 inhabitants, the town’s mayor Barbara Luke told CNN. And her family is a “quiet, totally normal German family,” she said, with no connection to radical Islam or even Islam at all. CNN’s calls to the Wenzel family have not been returned. They have made no public statements since she went missing. The Mayor believes the teenager must have been radicalized online as she does not know of anyone in Pulsnitz who could have been Wenzel’s contact. CNN’s Nadine Schmidt, Laura Goehler, Hamdi Alkhshali and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.


Rep. Mia Love is the first Haitian-American elected to Congress "The (President's) comments ... fly in the face of our nation's values," Love said Republican Rep. Mia Love of Utah called on President Donald Trump to apologize Thursday for his reported comments criticizing immigrants coming to the United States from what he called “shithole countries.” “The (President’s) comments are unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation’s values,” Love said in a statement Thursday night. “The President must apologize to both the American people and the nations he so wantonly maligned.” Trump asked lawmakers during an Oval Office meeting on immigration reform, “why do we want all these people from ‘shithole countries’ coming here?” a source briefed on the meeting told CNN. The source said Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin was explaining to him a proposal to end the visa lottery in exchange for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for countries such as El Salvador. Durbin was going through a list of TPS countries that would be covered. When he got to Haiti, Trump asked why the US wants more people from Haiti and African countries. The Washington Post first reported on Trump’s comments in the Oval Office meeting, which the Post said “shocked” lawmakers in attendance. Love, the first Haitian-American elected to Congress, whose parents immigrated to the US in the 1970s, went on to detail her family’s ties to one of the countries that was maligned by Trump. Related article Trump decries immigrants from 'shithole countries' coming to US “My parents came from one of those countries but proudly took an oath of allegiance to the United States and took on the responsibilities of everything that being a citizen comes with. They never took a thing from our federal government,” Love said in the statement. “They worked hard, paid taxes, and rose from nothing to take care of and provide opportunities for their children. They taught their children to do the same. That’s the American Dream.” Love isn’t the only Republican from Utah responding to Trump’s reported comments. Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, of Utah, said in response to the vulgar remark, “I look forward to getting a more detailed explanation regarding the President’s comments. Part of what makes America so special is that we welcome the best and brightest in the world, regardless of their country of origin.” HATCH: “I look forward to getting a more detailed explanation regarding the President’s comments. Part of what makes America so special is that we welcome the best and brightest in the world, regardless of their country of origin.” #utpol


Good morning. Doug is in Charlotte covering the protests, so I’m filling in. Here are the 5 things you need to know today to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door: Violent protests have hit the Charlotte area hard, but last night was peaceful (check the moving photo above). Some protesters hugged National Guard members, shook hands and took pictures. When a midnight curfew began, they dispersed on their own. Also, Keith Lamont Scott’s family got a chance to look at the video from the shooting, and they say it’s impossible to tell if he had a gun. That’s a theme in this case: Police claim one thing, and Scott’s family and advocates claim another. Where does the truth lie? Betty Shelby has been charged with felony manslaughter in the first degree. The officer fatally shot Terence Crutcher, an unarmed black man whose car had broken down in the middle of the road. The criminal complaint called her actions unlawful and unnecessary. This is a big deal, and if she is convicted, she could get four years to life. She was released on bond early this morning. Whoa. Yahoo says mysterious hackers nabbed data from 500 MILLION accounts in 2014. That would make it one of the largest cybersecurity breaches ever. The compromised info included stuff like passwords, phone numbers and email addresses. Apparently, no financial data was involved, but you should still be alert: Even basic info could lead straight to your social media and other online accounts. Here’s what to do if you were hacked. The sext-happy ex-Congressman is under investigation for allegedly sending explicit messages to an underage girl. Weiner hasn’t confirmed or denied the claims, and said he thinks he was the victim of a “hoax.” For what it’s worth, it’s only been a month since his wife, Huma Abedin, announced they were separating after he allegedly sent lewd messages to another woman while in bed with their son. Sexting: Not even once. And definitely not multiple times. Just in case you were wondering, South Korea has a plan to assassinate Kim Jong Un if it feels NK’s nuclear weapons become a threat. Kim has been ramping up his nuclear rhetoric and he’s definitely put world powers on edge. But it’s still surprising that SK just came out and announced its “worst case scenario” plan. People are talking about these. Read up. Join in. “If you’re black and you haven’t been successful in the last 50 years, it’s your own fault. You’ve had every opportunity. I don’t think there was any racism until Obama got elected.” – A Trump staffer in Ohio resigned after catching heat for this spicy quote. It’s Friday. It’s movies. Unfortunately, “The Magnificent Seven” misfires. Spider causes car crash Totally understandable. Don’t worry, the woman involved is okay (no word on the spider). Earth’s oldest civilizations are aboriginal Australians. Their presence dates back 75,000 years! People are losing it over the Harry Potter patronus charm quiz Just be prepared to get, like, a salmon or a mole. The quiz doesn’t lie. $200 million That’s how much money disgraced Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf may walk away with, even if he is ousted over his bank’s fake account scandal. Yikes. Yes, there are email jokes. If you’re into droll interviews and Zach Galifianakis, you will enjoy his bit with Hillary Clinton no matter which side of the ballot you prefer.

South Korea's assassination plan for Kim Jong Un


The dossier explicitly accuses Cohen of being a key link between the Russian government and the Trump campaign The detailed rebuttal comes as Cohen has emerged as a central figure in the Russia probes The lawyer for a close ally of President Donald Trump fought back against some of the most explosive allegations included in a Russia dossier and argued that congressional investigators should be searching for the donors who paid for it. In a detailed letter sent to members of the House intelligence committee earlier this month, Stephen Ryan, who represents Michael Cohen, a former Trump Organization executive who is now the President’s personal attorney, said the dossier’s allegations were unfounded. The 35-page dossier, compiled by a former British intelligence officer working with a former investigative reporter, explicitly accuses Cohen of being a key link between the Russian government and the Trump campaign – a charge he has repeatedly and flatly denied. “We have not uncovered a single document that would in any way corroborate the Dossier’s allegations regarding Mr. Cohen, nor do we believe that any such document exists,” Ryan wrote to Reps. Michael Conaway and Adam Schiff, the leaders of the House Russia probe, according to a copy of the letter obtained by CNN. Ryan goes on to say that House investigators should “discern and publicly disclose the entity or entities that paid for the 35-page dossier.” The New York Times first reported Cohen’s rebuttal. Many denials from Trump and others – including claims that they had absolutely no contact with Russian officials – have turned out not to be true. In particular, the dossier includes an allegation that Cohen traveled to Prague last August to meet with Russian officials as part of an alleged effort to maintain an operation between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. “Mr. Cohen has never traveled to Prague, Czech Republic, as evidenced by his US passport. He did not participate in meetings of any kind with Kremlin officials in Prague in August 2016,” Ryan wrote in his letter to the committee. Related article Trump attorney reached out to Kremlin to pursue Moscow Trump Tower project No evidence has emerged to support the claim Cohen traveled to Prague last August. However, the lack of a stamp on Cohen’s passport, does not preclude the possibility that he entered the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic is part of the European Union, and EU laws allow residents and tourists to travel freely through more than two dozen EU countries without a passport. This arrangement, which establishes what’s known as the Schengen Area, means someone could fly to one EU country and then travel to Prague without ever getting their passport stamped by Czech authorities. Cohen has said previously that he traveled last summer to Italy, which is in the European Union. His passport indicates he arrived in Italy on July 9 and departed on July 17, according to a BuzzFeed review of his passport stamps. The dossier alleged that Cohen went to Prague in late August 2016 or possibly early September to meet Russian officials. Cohen has pushed back on these still-unsubstantiated claims, saying that he was in California at the time. Earlier this year, he told The Atlantic he was in California from August 23 to 29, visiting the University of Southern California with his son. Officials at USC confirmed to The Atlantic that Cohen was on campus during that timeframe. However, Cohen’s own geotagged tweets place him in New Jersey, on August 24 – even though Cohen said his trip started on August 23. (Cohen later suggested he was in New Jersey to catch his flight to Los Angeles, tweeting, “you are aware that there is an airport in Newark?”) Ryan’s insistence that investigators uncover the political donors who paid for the dossier dovetails with an investigation by the Senate judiciary committee. Its staff grilled Glenn Simpson, whose firm compiled the dossier, for close to 10 hours last week, though Simpson, according to his lawyer, refused to disclose the names of his clients. The revealing of the detailed rebuttal comes as Cohen has emerged as a central figure in the Russia probes. In a separate statement and documents provided to the House intelligence committee, Cohen said he reached out to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman for help building a Trump Tower in Moscow and also alerted Trump three times of his efforts before abandoning the project in January 2016. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, confirmed receipt of Cohen’s emailed request this week but said he never replied. Cohen said in a statement that the project was not related to Trump’s campaign. “In late January 2016, I abandoned the Moscow proposal because I lost confidence that the prospective licensee would be able to obtain the real estate, financing and government approvals necessary to bring the proposal to fruition,” Cohen said in his statement. “It was a building proposal that did not succeed and nothing more.”


Dick Durbin is a part of a bipartisan group of senators negotiating immigration President Donald Trump's comments Thursday have muddied negotiations Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, a key negotiator in immigration talks, rebuked President Donald Trump on Friday morning for referring to African nations as “shithole” countries. In a news conference, Durbin, who had been in the White House meeting where the comments were made, described Trump’s words as “hate filled, vile and racist” and told reporters. Durbin described his shock when hearing Trump’s words. “I cannot believe that in the history of the White House, in the Oval Office, any president has ever spoken words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday,” Durbin said. “He said these hate-filled things and he said them repeatedly,” said Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate. Amid the fallout from the comments, Trump tweeted Friday morning, “The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made - a big setback for DACA!” Related article Shutdown watch: What Trump's DACA moves mean Durbin’s comments came the day after his bipartisan group of immigration negotiators found an agreement to protect hundreds of thousands of recipients of the expiring Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. In exchange for an increase in border security funding, the group had agreed to a plan that would give DACA participants a 10- to 12-year path to citizenship and even find protections for individuals with Temporary Protected Status from countries like El Salvador and Haiti. But, while Durbin has said his group will continue trying to sell its plan to fellow members, the future of the DACA negotiations are muddied now. Trump’s comments call into question whether moderate Republicans can really pull Trump to the center on immigration at all. According to one source familiar, Trump spent Thursday night calling supporters and doing a kind of victory lap over his comments. And Republicans conservative on immigration applauded Trump Friday morning. “Hang in there Mr. President @realDonaldTrump. If those countries aren’t as you described, Democrats should be happy to deport criminal aliens back to them. & End #AnchorBabies, too,” Rep. Steve King tweeted. Hang in there Mr. President @realDonaldTrump. If those countries aren’t as you described, Democrats should be happy to deport criminal aliens back to them. &End #AnchorBabies, too. Still, congressional negotiators who have worked for several months and even years trying to find a resolution to DACA say they can’t let Trump’s comments be a distraction for the work ahead. “For months, I have been involved in numerous high level bipartisan meetings negotiating DACA, including Thursday’s meeting at the White House,” said Rep. Mario Diaz Balart, a Republican from Florida, who was also in the White House meeting Thursday. “There are almost 800,000 young DACA beneficiaries who will face imminent deportation in March if we do not reach a deal. I will not be diverted from all possible efforts to continue negotiating to stop the deportations. Nothing will divert my focus to stop the deportation of these innocent people whose futures are at stake.” CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and Ryan Nobles contributed to this report.


US agents found a cross-border tunnel from Mexico to San Diego Saturday They arrested 30 illegal immigrants suspected of using the tunnel US agents have arrested 30 illegal immigrants thought to have crossed into San Diego through a cross-border smuggling tunnel from Mexico, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said. The agents discovered the tunnel after encountering several people who had apparently just been smuggled into the California city, near the Otay Mesa port of entry, early Saturday, CBP said. #USBP agents in #SanDiego arrest 30 people and uncover a smugglingtunnel.  Read: https://t.co/zxA8jfQMQ0 pic.twitter.com/chfI2DC9tT “US Agents searched the area and discovered a crude opening in the ground with a ladder inside and determined that is was a smuggling tunnel. The tunnel’s exit is located just north of the secondary fence in the vicinity of the Otay Mesa port of entry,” it said in a statement. “The 30 aliens are now in Border Patrol custody pending further questioning.” CPB said the group consisted of 23 Chinese and seven Mexican nationals. “While subterranean tunnels are not a new occurrence along the California-Mexico border, they are more commonly utilized by transnational criminal organizations to smuggle narcotics. However, as this case demonstrates, law enforcement has also identified instances where such tunnels were used to facilitate human smuggling,” it said. The San Diego Tunnel Task Force is investigating the tunnel in coordination with law enforcement in Mexico. “Preliminarily it appears this latest tunnel may be an extension of an incomplete tunnel previously discovered and seized by Mexican authorities,” CBP said.


Editor’s Note: Stephen Pollard is editor of The Jewish Chronicle, a London-based Jewish weekly newspaper. The opinions in this article belong to the author. Stephen Pollard: If you are an anti-Semite, you're pretty clear that now it is springtime Israeli leader hasn't addressed US Jews the same way he did European Jews, he says Perhaps the most shocking aspect to the wave of grave desecrations and bomb scares now rampant in the United States is the very fact that they are taking place in the United States. Whenever I speak about the rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the UK, where I live (2016 saw both the largest rise and the largest number of incidents since records began), I am always careful to say that context is key, and that it has never been safer to be a Jew in Britain than right now. That obviously goes for the United States, too. Indeed, most of my fellow British Jews look to the US as a beacon of safety – traditionally, the one place on Earth where we know we will always be safe. That includes, Israel, of course, because of the existential threats that the Jewish state has always faced. Related article Jewish families withdraw kids from schools as bomb threats top 100 So it is profoundly shocking to see wave upon wave of Jew hatred across the United States. Since the start of the year there have been 100 bomb threats against Jewish centers and schools. These threats have led to the immediate evacuation of these schools and community centers. Note when these threats started: January. Do you need me to tell you what else happened in January? None of the threats has, of course, been accompanied by words such as “I’m doing this because I support President Trump.” Indeed, some law enforcement officials believe some of the threatening calls may have originated overseas. But let’s put it no stronger than this: It is difficult to think what else might have led to this sudden and unprecedented outbreak of Jew hate. The point is not that President Donald Trump is an anti-Semite. He has, after all, told us clearly that he is “the least anti-Semitic person you’ve ever seen,” and we should take him at his word. It would indeed be odd if he were an anti-Semite, given his daughter’s conversion to Judaism. But here’s the thing: I don’t care if Trump is an anti-Semite, and more importantly it really doesn’t matter whether or not he is. What matters is not what goes on in the President’s soul; what matters is the impact of his words and his actions. Related article Clearly, the Trump administration has a problem with Jews And right from the start of his campaign, when he spoke of global elites and conspiracies, he both traded in anti-Semitic themes and, more importantly, emboldened those who are avowedly anti-Semitic to feel they were on the winning side. Trump may not be an anti-Semite, but some anti-Semites certainly believe he is on their side in the culture wars. Take his speech Tuesday night to Congress as an example. He said the right thing: “Recent threats targeting Jewish community centers and vandalism of Jewish cemeteries as well as last week’s shooting in Kansas City remind us that while we may be a nation divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all of its very ugly forms.” And yet the very same day, when asked about the threats at a meeting of state attorneys general, he is reported by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro to have offered the cryptic response: “Sometimes, it’s the reverse.” As Shapiro commented: “He just said, ‘Sometimes it’s the reverse to make people – or to make others – look bad,’ and he used the word ‘reverse’ two or three times in his comments.” Let’s be charitable. At best, the picture is murky. It took ages for Trump to condemn the threats – pointedly refusing to do so when asked by an Orthodox Jew at his infamous news conference and instead turning the question to attack the questioner. Yes, he has now condemned these attacks. But his words have clearly had no impact on whoever feels that the best response to his election as President is to attack Jews. But here’s an added twist. Cast your mind back two years, to February 2015 and the aftermath of the Paris kosher supermarket attack. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in response that there should be a “mass immigration” of Jews from Europe. “Jews have been murdered again on European soil only because they were Jews,” he said. “Of course, Jews deserve protection in every country, but we say to Jews, to our brothers and sisters: Israel is your home.” In response to such an outrage, it is understandable that Netanyahu should have spoken so boldly. Related article President Trump, denounce hate But the real point is that however pointed and direct his remarks may have seemed in the context of the Paris killings, they were actually unexceptional. Every Israeli prime minister has always and will always encourage Jews to come and live in Israel; that’s what the country is there for. And yet we wait for Netanyahu to address US Jews in the same way as he did – does – address European Jews: Leave now, come to Israel, the United States is not for you. Quite the opposite. At a period when, for the first time in living memory, US Jews are indeed feeling under threat – although so far the only physical attack has been to gravestones – Netanyahu has confined himself to praising Trump’s “strong stand against anti-Semitism.” Sign up for CNN Opinion’s new newsletter.Join us on Twitter and Facebook And at their joint news conference in Washington last month, the Israeli leader went out of his way to laud the US President: “I’ve known the President and I’ve known his family and his team for a long time, and there is no greater supporter of the Jewish people and the Jewish state than President Donald Trump. I think we should put that to rest.” To call this a double standard insults double standards. Trump may be no anti-Semite. Some of his best friends – and family – may be Jews. But if you are an anti-Semite, you’re pretty clear that now it is springtime.


Her father mentored Putin. She made it big as a socialite and reality TV star. Now Ksenia Sobchak, self-styled opposition stalwart, wants to replace President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. “I think I can really make people go and vote against the system – voting for Ksenia Sobchak,” she told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour from Moscow. She’s described in the media as Russia’s Paris Hilton, and penned a book titled “How to Marry a Millionaire,” but rejects the comparison to Hilton out of hand: Paris Hilton, for one, has never had her house raided by the authorities, she said. Her opposition bona fides are not totally lacking. She told Amanpour that starting with participating in massive opposition protests in 2011 and 2012 – her “fight against the regime” – she gained legitimacy. Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, who himself has been barred from running, nonetheless has choice words for Sobchak. Her candidacy, Navalny said, according to Reuters, is a “fairly loathsome Kremlin game that goes by the title of: ‘Let’s put a liberal laughingstock up for the elections in order to distract attention.’” An embezzlement charge against Navalny has kept him from running for president; he says that charge is politically motivated, and intended to prevent him from running. Sobchak has pledged to step aside if Navalny is allowed to run. Sobchak told Amanpour that she wants to “make a huge democratic coalition,” and pointed out that Navalny made those comments before she declared her candidacy. “I spoke with Navalny and I hope he will agree with me,” she said. “What is our second option? Just stay at home and don’t go to the election? It’s not an option.” Related video Watch the full interview with Ksenia Sobchak Many of her ideas are indeed antithetical to President Putin’s. For example, she told Amanpour that Russia is at fault for bad relations with the United States. “Crimea is Ukrainian by international law,” she said. Putin, who annexed the peninsula, believes a 2014 vote orchestrated by Moscow legitimized his move. The doubt cast on her candidacy stems not only from the fact that her father, Anatoly Sobchak, as mayor of Saint Petersburg, mentored Vladimir Putin and brought him from the KGB into politics. Sobchak also told Putin, personally, of her decision to run before formally announcing, and has generally stopped short of attacking Putin personally. “I don’t need anyone’s approval for going to elections,” she insisted, explaining that she happened to be interviewing Putin for a documentary she is doing on her father, and decided to bring up her candidacy. “I found it’s appropriate to say face to face that I will challenge Putin on these elections. But I don’t need any admittance or I don’t need to ask about this.” In a 2012 interview, Sobchak told Amanpour she was “not against Putin.” “I’m against [the] system,” she said at the time. “And I don’t think that Putin and system are all the same.” Navalny is far from her only critic. Her participation in those protests of 2011-12 was at the urging of the writer Oleg Kashin, according to his version of events. He thought that, as a celebrity, she would “attract her fans to the protest.” Now, Kashin says, Sobchak has become a stooge used by the Kremlin to legitimize next March’s presidential election. Putin has not yet declared his candidacy, but opinion polls suggest he would win easily. Putin “sees no glory in defeating the usual run of puppet buffoons,” Kashin wrote recently in The New York Times. “That’s why the Kremlin seeks fresh faces each time. … The fresh face this time will be Ms. Sobchak.” “Thank you for the compliment about the fresh face,” Sobchak responded. “Because I really believe that Russia needs a fresh face, a new generation, to be seen on the political stage.”


Finger size, rather than hand size may give a clue about a man's genitals Hormone exposure in the womb may determine finger and penis size Republican candidate Marco Rubio wandered into a recent debate perhaps more fitting for the playground than a political battleground when he criticized the size of Donald Trump’s hands. The Republican front runner, now famously, struck back in the debate reassuring voters that there was “no problem” with the size of his hands, or anything else for that matter. The candidates were playing off an age-old assumption that if a man’s hands were small so must be the size of his penis. The source of Rubio’s comment refers back to a 1988 Spy magazine article that called Trump a “short-fingered vulgarian,” perhaps insulting both his tongue and his manhood. As a medical story, this is low-hanging fruit, so to speak, but given the pervasiveness of the myth (or reality), we decided to investigate what the science says on the matter. If this were a political reality check story our meter would be stuck on “half true.” Sifting through a handful of studies we can conclude that while you won’t see the size of a man’s hands listed on a Tinder profile any time soon, a description of a man’s fingers may actually give you a tiny, and we mean tiny, bit of insight. One finger, and no, not the middle one, holds the key. If a man’s ring finger is longer relative to his index finger, chances are his penis is slightly longer than average. By “slightly” we mean a difference of centimeters, in a game normally scored by inches. Here’s how scientists figure this out: Methodology varies slightly from study to study, but most researchers took a man’s total measurements assessing his height and weight and also taking a tape measure to his fingers and his stretched penis. One enterprising group of scientists also measured this phenomenon in rats. Imagine trying to make casual cocktail conversation if that is your job. Related article Is your penis size 'normal'? All of the studies found that the finger ratio did seem to correspond with penis length. A 2011 Korean study of 144 men undergoing urological surgery found this connection. (They found a similar correlation with height too, at least in the flaccid state, for what it’s worth). Another Korean study in 2015 saw this same connection in newborns. An Egyptian study in that same year examining 2,000 healthy men confirmed the same. It did not find a correlation between weight, height or waist circumference, just the finger ratio. A 2007 Iranian study of 1,500 healthy men provided more evidence to the common methodology. Now, if you done staring at your or others’ fingers and want to know why, here’s where scientists think you really can blame/thank your mother. As every boy’s body grows (barring a fundamental developmental issue), so does his penis. It will grow slowly until age 4, at which time the penis will grow steadily until he hits puberty, which is a time of rapid growth. But what may ultimately determine the total length depends on how much the boy was exposed to the hormone androgen when he was in his mother’s womb. This is during a crucial period in development called the “masculinization programming window” during a mother’s pregnancy. That’s about at eight to 12 weeks. Different finger bones also have a different sensitivity to exposure to androgen (and estrogen for that matter). To prove this, scientists tested this theory on rats. If you were ever to get close enough to see one, you’ll notice that a rat’s tiny hands look eerily like a human’s (with a funky manicure). Their finger length ratios are also similar to humans. When researchers blocked a mother’s androgen level during the masculinization programming window of her pup’s development, when the rat pup grew to be an adult, his penis size was reduced from the average penis size. Another rat study found those that were exposed to more androgen in this cycle had slightly longer ring fingers. See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter. Are you wondering why in the world scientists would study this phenomenon? Scientists want to know more about reproductive development in general. And urologists also say it’s common for young male patients to come to them concerned about their penis size. Knowing the average length of a penis and about penis development in general can help reassure patients. “There’s no book boys get to explain this is how you are supposed to be,” said Emory University Medical School professor of urology Dr. Chad Ritenour. “It is one of those things I often tell people: Men are very attached to their penises in more ways than one.” Even in a presidential election.


More than 20 photographers from around the world picked up prizes in international event Portugal's Joel Santos is the overall winner for his images of fishermen in Ghana Here’s proof that not every travel photo needs to contain the photographer’s own grinning face. These beautiful images were selected for some of the prizes in 2016’s Travel Photographer of the Year awards. Among them, a stunning wintry shot of New York’s famous Flatiron building during a fierce January storm, a volcanic display in Indonesia and other incredible images of people, places and creatures. Overall winner Joel Santos received £4,000 ($4,970) for his “delicate and intimate” portfolio depicting traditional fishing in Ghana and an aerial shot of Ethiopia’s Danakil Depression, one of the world’s hottest places. The UK-based contest’s international panel of judges named 14-year-old Darpan Basak from India Young Photographer of the Year for his soulful images of his homeland, earning him £500. Photographers from 20 countries took awards. The winning images will go on show at exhibitions at the UK City of Culture celebrations in Hull from May 18 to June 30, 2017 and in London at the University of Greenwich from August 4 to September 2017. Click through the above gallery for a selection of some of the best images. MORE: Amazing aerial beach photos


"I just rubbed myself, soaked myself with that blood," student says Relatives still looking for the missing When the gunmen stormed in, barefoot and barking in Swahili, student Hellen Titus scampered into a closet and stayed quiet. Bullets whizzed past as her schoolmates fled in the dark. Gunshots pierced their heads, one after another. In the chaos, Titus decided she was safer in the closet.  But her refuge was short lived –  the gunmen who raided her college in the Kenyan town of Garissa on Thursday came for her an hour later. They led her and dozens of other students into a community room normally used for viewing television. Lie down, the attackers told them, lecturing them on how the Quran forbids the killing of women. They killed the men. Not much later, they turned the weapons on the women. “He was telling him, ‘shoot them, shoot them’,” she said of a terrorist. Titus survived by smearing a friend’s blood on her face and playing dead. “I just rubbed myself, soaked myself with that blood,” she said Friday at a makeshift center for evacuated students. “They skipped me.” More horrific details emerged  Saturday about the terrorist attack, the deadliest in Kenya since al Qaeda bombed the United States Embassy in Nairobi in 1998. This week’s attack by Somali militant group Al-Shabaab left 147 people dead. And two days later, some people still don’t know whether their loved ones are alive. Zeddy Godwano has not slept for hours; his brother is still missing. Godwano has looked for him at major hospitals in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, where most of the wounded were airlifted. “Since we heard news in the radios and televisions, I was worried and it made me rush here in Nairobi to look for him,” he said. Most friends and relatives streamed in at dawn, patiently awaiting confirmation of the fate of their loved ones. Others lay on the ground, wailing, too broken to stand. “They are coming when they are very shocked … when they are very confused,” said Professor Catherine Oshotha, a psychologist. “They do not know whether their loved ones are here … whether they’ve died. They are coming here because they’ve tried to contact their children and they are not getting them or they are not hearing from them.” Kenyan police arrested five suspects Friday, Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery said. The militants killed 142 students, three security officers and two university security personnel. The attack left 104 people injured, some of them in critical condition, Nkaissery said. As search and recovery efforts continued, police found a man who was not a student hiding under a bed, sources said.  He was taken into custody and was being treated as a suspect, sources close to the search said. After the man was discovered, authorities conducted an additional search of the building. Three people, all students, were found alive. One female student was under a pile of bodies; another was in a closet. A male student was hiding in a bathroom, the sources said. Most of the victims had been shot in the back of the head, a medic told CNN. “They’re facing down, always,” a worker with St. John’s ambulance service said Friday. The Education Ministry has closed the university indefinitely. The explosion and gunfire cut through Thursday morning’s quiet on the campus, 90 miles from Kenya’s border with Somalia, tearing students out of their sleep. The gunmen first stormed a Christian prayer service, where they killed some worshipers and took others hostage. Then they went across campus with them, shooting non-Muslims and sparing Muslims. They gave religious sermons as they killed, witnesses said. Al-Shabaab has intensified attacks in Kenya since the country sent troops to Somalia in 2011 to help battle the militants. The terrorist group released a statement Friday threatening more bloodshed. “Do not dream of security in your land until security becomes a reality in Muslim lands,” it said. The university will confirm Saturday whether everyone has been accounted for following this week’s attack. CNN’s David McKenzie reported from Garissa, and CNN’s Faith Karimi reported and wrote from Atlanta.


Editor’s Note: Paul Haenle is director of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center based in Beijing. The opinions in this article belong to the author. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) concluded its 19th National Congress this week, where it amended its constitution, set policy priorities, and selected new members to serve in its highest leadership bodies – handing Chinese President Xi Jinping political power not seen since Mao Zedong was in charge of the country. While the congress largely focused on domestic policy, the key announcements will be studied carefully in capitals around the world – especially in Washington. Though President Trump’s relationship with China has stabilized since his campaign claims that China was “raping” the US, the important question of where the relationship between the US and China is going remains unanswered. Related article All men and all over 60: Meet China's new ruling line-up Since Trump’s election last year, Xi Jinping has been treading on what would traditionally be considered US territory. In January, he flew to Davos to defend globalization and free trade. In May, while announcing China’s ambitious One Belt, One Road initiative, he put China forward as a nation that would take urgent action on climate change. So what will this week’s meeting – and a stronger than ever Xi – mean for Trump and the US? Though Xi’s appointment as General Secretary of the party for a second term was never in question, he managed to exceed expectations by securing the inclusion of his eponymous ideology in the party charter. In doing so, he has amassed power to a level unrivaled in China since Mao Zedong. Initiatives that have come to define Xi’s push for China to become a powerful global force – such as military overhaul and modernization, the ambitious One Belt, One Road Initiative and a comprehensive anti-corruption campaign – were indoctrinated into the party’s constitution. Potential challengers, like former Chongqing party secretary Sun Zhengcai, were sidelined as a majority of Xi’s allies were installed on the Politburo Standing Committee – which for the first time since Deng Xiaoping, includes no heir apparent. Taken together, this means that Xi will control the direction of China’s development for the next five years at least – and perhaps beyond. Xi’s three-and-a-half hour report to delegates last week mentioned several ways in which China intends to continue to shape global politics and institutions to better suit its interests. Xi suggested that China’s version of socialism provided an alternative model to Western democracy for countries who want to “accelerate their development while maintaining their independence” to emulate. The reference echoes Beijing’s longstanding foreign policy objective to increase the voices and influence of emerging nations in global governance. It also underscores the confidence of China in its ability to both provide stability and prosperity at home and be respected as a major, responsible power abroad. Xi noted that under Mao Zedong’s revolutionary leadership, the Chinese people stood up. Under Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese people became rich. And now, in China’s third historic era, the nation is becoming strong. To illustrate its new global stature, Xi mentioned China’s contributions of UN peacekeepers, a point of significant Chinese pride. He emphasized the country’s willingness to take a “driving seat in international cooperation” and be a “torchbearer in the global endeavor” to address climate change. He described China repeatedly as a “strong” and “great power,” which he said was returning to its rightful place at the center of the world after a century of humiliation at the hands of foreign imperial powers. Related article China's Xi reveals new leadership team but no obvious successor The 19th Party Congress holds particular consequence for US-China relations. President Trump will make his inaugural visit to the Asia-Pacific region and to China early next month, becoming among the first world leaders to meet with Xi under his new mandate. Since taking office, Trump has developed a stronger working relationship and personal rapport with Xi, and can use the results of the party congress to make progress on priorities like stepping up pressure on North Korea, which only Xi has the authority to allow, and establishing a stronger foundation for the bilateral relationship for the years to come. But many US allies and partners in Asia are also concerned about China’s growing clout and assertive behavior, especially in the absence of US leadership. With the backdrop of a much stronger Chinese leader, and a new directive to build a “strong” China, President Trump will need to forcefully push back against the narrative that US leadership in Asia and on the global stage is receding.  The region will be looking for reassurances that “America First” does not mean “America Alone.” These commitments must be matched by time and resources, if China is to take the US President seriously.


Phone call with Peña Nieto came seven days after Trump entered office Call shows a President working through the complicated nature of bilateral US relationships President Donald Trump boasted about his election victory, pressured his Mexican counterpart to remain quiet about a border wall and called New Hampshire a “drug-infested den” in a phone call with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, according to a transcript of the conversation revealed on Thursday by The Washington Post. Related article Trump argues he won New Hampshire because it is a 'drug-infested den' The transcript of Trump’s conversation with Mexico’s leader was one of two phone calls revealed on Thursday, which provide a rare glimpse into the private conversations of a new US President testing his negotiating powers on foreign counterparts. The January 27 phone call with Peña Nieto came seven days after Trump entered office. In it, he focused mainly on issues of trade and immigration, with contentious moments coming in his insistence that Mexico will eventually pay for a wall along with US southern border. Peña Nieto has insisted publicly his country will not pay for the wall’s construction, but Trump demanded he cease making that claim. “You cannot say that to the press,” Trump said on the phone call. “The press is going to go with that and I cannot live with that. You cannot say that to the press because I cannot negotiate under those circumstances.” A day later, Trump carried out a phone conversation with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, which grew sour when Trump questioning an agreement to take in refugees. The transcript shows Trump growing progressively more agitated, eventually telling his Australian counterpart the call was the worst of the day. “I have been making these calls all day and this is the most unpleasant call all day,” Trump told Turnbull. “(Russian President Vladimir) Putin was a pleasant call. This is ridiculous.” Trump later ended the phone call abruptly. The two conversations show a President still working through the complicated nature of bilateral US relationships, often suggesting to his counterparts that he had campaign promises to fulfill in his early days in the White House. Related article The Republican rebellion against Donald Trump Trump ran for office promising to build a Mexican-funded wall along the southern border. But since taking office, Trump has said that the US will pay for initial construction, with reimbursement from Mexico coming later. In his conversation with Peña Nieto, Trump said he was willing to say publicly that he and Mexican authorities would continue to negotiate over the wall’s payment, which he said “means it will come out in the wash and that is OK.” But he maintained his insistence that Peña Nieto remain quiet about the issue. “You cannot say anymore that the United States is going to pay for the wall,” he said. “I am just going to say that we are working it out. Believe it or not, this is the least important thing that we are talking about, but politically this might be the most important talk about.” Asked to comment on the transcripts, Michael Anton, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said only that he “can’t confirm or deny the authenticity of allegedly leaked classified documents.” Over the course of their conversation, Trump referred to his Mexican counterpart by his first name, and routinely praised his eloquence. He repeatedly raised his electoral victory, insisting he had a mandate to crack down on illegal immigration and take on drug trafficking, according to the published transcript. “I won with a large percentage of Hispanic voters. I understand the community and they understand me, and I have a great respect for the Mexican people.” He ascribed his win in New Hampshire’s presidential primary to a tough-on-crime stance, calling the state a “drug-infested den.” Sen. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat from New Hampshire, called Trump’s comments “disgusting” on Twitter. His call with Turnbull also centered on Trump’s campaign vows, this time his pledge to bar refugees from entering the United States. He said an Obama-era agreement to accept 1,250 refugees would open him up to political criticism. “Boy that will make us look awfully bad,” Trump said. “Here I am calling for a ban where I am not letting anybody in and we take 2,000 people.” Later, he went even further, telling the Australian prime minister that accepting the refugees would “kill me.” “I am the world’s greatest person that does not want to let people into the country,” he said. But despite Trump’s tough rhetoric on immigration, he appeared impressed by the extent of Australia’s border protection measures. “We said if you try to come to Australia by boat, even if we think you are the best person in the world, even if you are a Noble [sic] Prize winning genius, we will not let you in,” Turnbull told Trump according to the transcript. Related article Trump's call history called into question “That is a good idea. We should do that too. You are worse than I am,” Trump replied. The transcript confirms reports from earlier this year that Trump and Turnbull held a contentious phone call that Trump ended abruptly. Trump himself sought to downplay the reports after the call. “Thank you to Prime Minister of Australia for telling the truth about our very civil conversation that FAKE NEWS media lied about. Very nice!” he tweeted. Turnbull said he had a “warm relationship” with Trump on Friday after a leaking of the transcript, describing the call as a “courteous” and “frank” conversation. “As President Trump said we’re both adults and I stand up for Australia’s interests and he stands up for America’s interest,” Turnbull said, adding “it’s always better when these conversations remain confidential.” Correction: Trump's call to Peña Nieto was on January 27; his call with Turnbull was January 28.


Supporters of President Donald Trump are already claiming he is all but in the clear following revelations that he is not a target of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. The disclosure, which comes at a moment when Mueller’s probe appears to be gathering pace and breadth, may help the White House breathe easier, but it actually falls well short of the vindication the President seeks, at least for now. That’s partly because few observers expected Mueller to make Trump a target of his criminal investigation owing to the legal uncertainty over whether a sitting president can be indicted. Related article Trump lawyers told President is not a target at this point CNN’s Gloria Borger and Evan Perez reported Wednesday that even though the President is not the target of his inquiries, he is more than a witness in the investigation – he’s considered a “subject” of the probe. According to the Justice Department’s US Attorney manual, the “subject” of an investigation is someone whose conduct is within the scope of a grand jury investigation. A “target” is considered to be someone on whom the prospector or the grand jury has substantial evidence to suggest a criminal offense has been committed. In practice, Mueller could suspect Trump committed a crime or indulged in unethical behavior but needs to conduct further investigations. It is also possible that the special counsel never gets to the point that he makes such a determination. South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, said on CNN’s “New Day” on Wednesday that the terms used to describe Trump’s current status in the case did not add up to much. “As a former federal prosecutor, they are meaningless to me because one witness can take you from being a subject to a target,” he said. Of course, the fact that the President is the “subject” of a criminal probe into whether his campaign colluded with Russia to interfere in an election can be considered good news, is a commentary on the times and the grave legal and political story which has become the new normal in Washington. Related article Judge casts doubt on Manafort effort to kill Mueller indictments The insight into where the President stands in the Mueller investigation comes as the special counsel appears to be moving ahead on multiple fronts, some of which appear to directly approach the Oval Office and the President’s family. Mueller also currently seems to be piling pressure on Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign manager facing multiple financial charges, to agree to a plea deal. Should he do so, Manafort could potentially testify against other senior figures in Trump’s orbit, such as his son Donald Jr, his son-in-law Jared Kushner or even the President himself. In another potentially significant development last week, Mueller’s team stated in a court filing that Manafort’s former business partner and campaign deputy Rick Gates, who is already cooperating, was in contact with someone who worked for a Russian intelligence agency including in September and October 2016, weeks before the presidential election. While the latest reports may not clarify the legal situation facing Trump much, they do offer an opening for fresh political spin on the investigation and for the White House to renew its insistence that there was no collusion between Trump and Russia. “We have said many times before, there was no collusion between the President and Russia,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said. Michael Ahrens, director of rapid response for the Republican National Committee, wrote in an email blast that the latest revelations show that “after all this time, Mueller and his entire team of lawyers have still not gathered enough evidence for Trump to become a target. That’s huge news.” But in one worrying sign for Trump, The Washington Post first reported on Tuesday that Mueller was preparing a report on potential obstruction by the President, which would relate to the firing of FBI Director James Comey. Citing sources familiar with the matter, CNN’s Borger and Perez established that Mueller had raised the prospect of an interim report and said the plan would be to eventually produce a narrow report focusing on obstruction. But the sources said there was no sign such a report was coming soon. Still, confirmation that Mueller plans to report on the obstruction piece of his investigation is hardly a development that could set the President’s mind at rest. Related article Trump lawyers told President is not a target at this point Some Trump supporters still see a silver lining and interpreted the latest developments as a sign that Mueller was getting towards the end of several branches of the investigation, that has been a constant cloud over the Trump presidency. “I am feeling pretty good about it if I am in the Trump White House right now,” said James Schultz, a former lawyer for the President, on CNN Tuesday. The Post reported that Trump expressed relief when he learned how he had been categorized by Mueller’s investigators. Despite such upbeat assessments however, the latest glimpse into the Mueller probe is likely to intensify debate over Trump’s repeatedly stated desire to testify, given his propensity for not always speaking the truth. Any testimony by the President could also point to new evidence that could eventually convince the special counsel to make Trump the target of the investigation. “The easiest way to become a target is to lie to the prosecutor under oath,” former federal prosecutor Michael Zeldin, a CNN legal analyst.


"El Jefe" is the only known wild jaguar living in the United States; he roams not far from Tucson, Arizona There are other wild cats in the same range, a biologist says The big cat lurking in the mountain ranges of Arizona just miles from downtown Tucson is actually not alone. “El Jefe,” the only known wild jaguar living in the United States, made news Wednesday when video of the elusive cat was made public. This footage, captured by remote sensor cameras, showed the wild creature lurking through the brush and up a creek. The nonprofits Conservation CATalyst and the Center for Biological Diversity released video of the creature during an ongoing project to monitor the endanger species in the mountain ranges of Arizona. “Studying these elusive cats anywhere is extremely difficult, but following the only known individual in the U.S. is especially challenging,” Chris Bugbee, a biologist with Canservation CATalyst, wrote in a news release. A wild jaguar in the United States? There’s video of one in Arizona The male jaguar is believed to have made his journey to Arizona from 130 miles south of the border. Jaguars tend to be solitary animals, so it is not rare to find one living alone. He is known to biologists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services as jaguar Santa Rita, since this is the location where the jaguar roams. “El Jefe,” which means “the boss” in Spanish, was the name chosen by local school kids through the Center for Biological Diversity in October. Story behind that lonely wild jaguar & a monitoring project that photographed him 100+ times: http://1.usa.gov/20IZBAg Flickr album with some images from the survey: https://flic.kr/s/aHsjDgCRnV The endangered cat first became known in 2011 when a hunter and his dogs had treed the animal. “The hunter snapped some photos to help officials identify the animal before calling off his dogs and leaving the area to observe it from a safe distance,” Marit Alanen, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Center, wrote in a news release in 2015. Since 2011, this jaguar has been captured in hundreds of photographs. These powerful beasts have  distinctive spots on them allowing for easy identification. Jaguars use to roam from California to Texas, and as far east as Louisiana, in the 1800s. Because of farming and ranching, their habitat dwindled down. This big cat was placed on the endangered species list on 1972, and since then, a conservation effort has been put in place. “El Jefe” has been the fifth jaguar to be identified and photographed in Arizona since 1996. Although he is the only known living wild jaguar in the United States, he isn’t the only big cat roaming the mountains in his neighborhood. “He is joined by three ocelots, which are endangered, several mountain lions and bobcats,” Alanen told CNN. In conservation efforts, the University of Arizona installed cameras in area mountain ranges to monitor the movement of wildlife. “One camera did photograph the jaguar, ocelots, mountain lions and bobcats at separate times,” Alanen said. “Southern Arizona is one of the few places in the U.S. to see four wild cats living in the same area.” This shows that there are enough resources to sustain the different species. Even though these wild cats might not be playing in the same sand box together, it does give hope in the conservation efforts. Visit the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s Flickr website, where they document all the jaguar and ocelot sightings.

Conservation efforts for wild jaguars in the United States


North Korea still faces hurdles, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency said The testimony came days after a North Korean ballistic missile test North Korea will eventually obtain a nuclear weapon capable of hitting the United States if left unchecked, a top US intelligence official said. “If left on its current trajectory, the regime will ultimately succeed in fielding a nuclear-armed missile capable of threatening the United States homeland,” said Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. “While nearly impossible to predict when this capability will be operational, the North Korean regime is committed and is on a pathway where this capability is inevitable.” The only hurdle left, Stewart said in a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, is finding a way for its ballistic missile to re-enter the atmosphere. Perfecting re-entry is “really a matter of enough trial and error to make that work,” Stewart said. “They understand the physics, so it’s just a matter of design.” Ballistic missiles fly in a parabolic route, exiting and entering the Earth’s atmosphere, while cruise missiles fly in a straight line within the atmosphere. Stewart and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats spoke days after North Korea tested its second ballistic missile in the span of a week. That missile test was considered one of the country’s most successful ever, analysts said. A preliminary US intelligence analysis indicated there was successful re-entry into the atmosphere, a significant leap forward in Pyongyang’s missile program, two US officials told CNN. Though it appears North Korea hasn’t developed a working intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the contiguous 48 states of the United States, it has made significant progress on shorter-range ones. Both Coats and Stewart stressed that Pyongyang further perfects its missile technology with each test. “They’ve certainly demonstrated a range of missiles, a range of fuel types, a range of boosters,” Stewart said. Coats and Stewart were both asked if North Korea had the capability to use a nuclear weapon against US allies Japan or South Korea. Both declined to answer. Much of the hearing was focused on reports that US President Donald Trump asked Coats to publicly deny evidence of cooperation between his campaign and Russia during the 2016 election. Coats said he would not speak publicly about his private conversations with Trump. The missile tests are half the equation. North Korea must also create a viable nuclear warhead it can fit atop a long-range missile in order to reach its goal of developing a nuclear weapon that could hit the United States. Many experts believe North Korea already has developed a nuclear weapon, though it’s not clear what type of missiles it could be mounted on, says Tong Zhao, a Beijing-based fellow at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy’s Nuclear Policy Program. President Donald Trump appeared to bolster that claim in a leaked transcript of an April phone call between him and Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte published by the Intercept and also obtained by the Washington Post and The New York Times. “(Kim) has got the powder, but he doesn’t have the delivery system – their rockets keep crashing,” Trump said. A senior US official briefed on the call independently verified the basics of the conversation to CNN. CNN has reached out to the White House for comment, but has not received a response. The quotes were reportedly part of a Philippine government transcript. The Philippines Foreign Ministry had no comment on the transcript, but noted there is “criminal and civil liability attached to the hacking, unauthorized disclosure and use of illegally or inadvertently-obtained confidential government documents.” Though there have been reports of the United States using cyber methods to interfere with North Korean missile launches, Trump’s response may show he does not appreciate how far along the North Koreans are in perfecting their missile technology, said John Delury, a professor of International Relations at the Yonsei University Graduate School of International Relations. “He’s underestimating their missile program,” Delury said. “He’s wrong about how they’re doing. They’re making progress on their rocketry and missile program.” During the phone call, Trump also revealed that two US submarines were in the region. “We have a lot of firepower over there,” Trump noted. “We have two submarines, the best in the world. We have two nuclear submarines, not that we want to use them at all.” It was previously reported that only one submarine – the USS Michigan, an Ohio-class guided-missile submarine – had docked in South Korea. US Naval Forces Korea publicly said the sub’s visit was routine, but quietly officials told CNN its presence was meant to send a strong message to Pyongyang. CNN’s Elise Labott, Barbara Starr, Zahra Ullah and journalist Buena Bernal contributed to this report


Iraq War veteran Sen. Tammy Duckworth slammed John Bolton’s selection as national security adviser over his role in that conflict. “John Bolton’s disastrous record during the Bush administration is all the proof anyone should need that he lacks the judgment necessary to serve as National Security Advisor,” the Illinois Democrat said in a statement released early Friday morning. Related article Trump replaces H.R. McMaster as national security adviser with John Bolton “He didn’t just aggressively push for war with Iraq, he was confident that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction,” she continued. “When confronted with the reality that Hussein had no such weapons, Bolton stubbornly insisted that the Iraq War was still a good idea.” Bolton, whom President Donald Trump picked on Thursday to succeed H.R. McMaster, served as the President George W. Bush’s undersecretary for arms control from 2001 to 2005 before becoming US ambassador to the United Nations. In his State Department role, Bolton drew accusations that he had manipulated intelligence on weapons of mass destruction before the Iraq War, kept information from Secretary of State Colin Powell and was abusive to subordinates with differing views at the agency. Bolton said in a 2015 interview that he believed the decision to leave Iraq was a worse decision that invading it. Duckworth lost both of her legs in 2004 when her Blackhawk helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq. She was awarded the Purple Heart for her injuries. The senator also denounced Bolton’s more recent hawkish comments about Iran and North Korea – positions Bolton seemed to try to distance himself from following his selection. “The important thing is what the President says and the advice I give him,” Bolton said in a Fox News interview Thursday. Related article Bolton's move to White House signals a more hawkish turn However, Duckworth said his advice “could be catastrophic for both our national security and the troops who could be put in danger because of” it. “Presidents need intelligent people around them to debate tough issues and provide thoughtful, strategic advice on complex natural security challenges,” Duckworth concluded. “Heading into tense negotiations with north Korea, this appointment is yet another example of Donald Trump choosing chaos over the steady, pragmatic and consistent leadership our great nation deserves.” CNN’s Nicole Gaouette and Gregory Krieg contributed to this report.


Fleet of drones to deliver blood supplies across Rwanda Project a partnership of tech start-up Zipline and delivery giants UPS From Amazon’s flying delivery service to smuggling drugs over borders, the uses of civilian drones are multiplying fast. The most valuable application yet may be as a new emergency service in Rwanda for delivering vital medical supplies, starting with blood. A fleet of 15 drones will soon be buzzing around the vast country, bypassing the sub-standard road network, and making life-saving interventions. The fixed-wing crafts are the product of Californian start-up Zipline, in partnership with delivery giants UPS and vaccine specialists the Gavi Alliance. The technology is cutting edge, but simple to use, according to Keller Rinaudo, Co-Founder of Zipline. “(Users) send a text message and they’ll get a text message back saying the Zip has been discharged. They’ll be able to walk outside, see the delivery occur and have what they need to save the patient’s life,” he says. “The accuracy of each delivery is extremely high and we’re actually able to deliver into their mailbox which is approximately the size of three parking spaces.” The drones are controlled from an iPad that is programmed with coordinates and a flight plan, drawing on the delivery expertise of UPS. When the drone arrives it ejects the payload with rubber bands, to float to earth on a mini parachute. “We’ve put $800,000 into Zipline and this partnership to develop this service and we’ve invested a lot of our senior staff in terms of their logistics expertise,” says Laura Lane, President of Global Public Affairs at UPS. “We’ve got some of the most sophisticated mapping technologies and we’ve been testing these capabilities and so from our perspective it’s about mapping more of the Rwandan territory and making sure (the blood) gets delivered at that very point it should.” The demand for such a service in Rwanda is clear, where trauma injuries and avoidable deaths through haemorrhaging after childbirth are relatively common, and the infrastructure for delivering and storing blood supplies is poor. Each delivery is projected to cost between $15 and $30, roughly the same as by motorbike. The government has enthusiastically embraced drones, with plans for the world’s first droneport are well underway, and new legislation to encourage their use. The Ministry of Health is on board with Zipline’s scheme, and Rinaudo says it is far easier to operate here than at home. “The nice thing about operating in a small, fast moving country like Rwanda is that they have both a much simpler airspace and they have a small civil aviation authority that can move fast and actually adopt modern regulatory practices sooner than a country like the US,” he says. The company claims to have raised $18 million to date, with backers including Yahoo founder Jerry Yang and Microsoft Co-founder Paul Allen. Should the scheme prove successful, it is likely to extend far beyond Rwanda’s borders. “If it works here in Rwanda, we could take it everywhere,” says Lane.

Zipline drone delivery service in Rwanda


Girl, 10, who underwent emergency gallbladder surgery was detained The girl, who has cerebral palsy, has been reunited with her family, attorney says An undocumented 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who was detained last month after emergency gallbladder surgery in Texas has been released and reunited with her family, her attorney, Leticia Gonzalez, said Saturday. Rosa Maria Hernandez was taken into US Customs and Border Protection custody October 24 after her ambulance was stopped at a Border Patrol checkpoint. Border Patrol agents determined that Rosa Maria was undocumented and followed her and a cousin accompanying her in the ambulance to the hospital, where the girl underwent surgery. The agents remained at the hospital until she was discharged into their custody, Gonzalez said at the time. It is unclear whether the child’s release means she will be able to avoid deportation, said US Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat. Finally, Rosa Maria is back with her family where she belongs. @DHSgov should take steps to ensure a case like hers never happens again. pic.twitter.com/VWqWvfg73G “While this is welcome news, Rosa Maria’s future remains uncertain,” the lawmaker said. “The Trump administration has not made clear whether (it) will proceed with deportation proceedings against her. I continue to call for Rosa Maria’s case to be administratively closed.” The American Civil Liberties Union had sued for the girl’s release. “Rosa Maria is finally free. We’re thrilled that she can go home to heal surrounded by her family’s love and support,” ACLU attorney Michael Tan said. “Despite our relief, Border Patrol’s decision to target a young girl at a children’s hospital remains unconscionable. No child should go through this trauma, and we are working to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” The family and its supporters characterized the girl’s apprehension as cruel and unnecessary, while immigration officials said the procedures were routine enforcement of immigration laws. Related article Opinion: Separating mothers and kids is wrong on every level Customs and Border Protection runs checkpoints along major thoroughfares leading away from the border in the Southwest, where travelers and vehicles are checked for legal authorization to enter the United States. The ambulance was traveling from Laredo, Texas, to Corpus Christi. In a statement after Rosa Maria was detained, Customs and Border Protection said it was committed to enforcing the law. “Due to the juvenile’s medical condition, Border Patrol agents escorted her and her cousin to a Corpus Christi hospital where she could receive appropriate medical care. Per the immigration laws of the United States, once medically cleared she will be processed accordingly. The Mexican Consulate has been advised of the situation by Laredo Sector Border Patrol,” the agency said. Related article Being an immigrant in the United States today means ... Immigration advocates said the case shows the harmful extent of President Donald Trump’s hard line on immigration policies. Rosa Maria came to the United States from Mexico when she was 3 months old. She was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and has the mental capacity of a child half her age, according to her mother, Felipa de la Cruz. The child was taken to a shelter run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement as is customary with undocumented, unaccompanied minors. The office falls under the US Department of Health and Human Services. 10 year old Maria Rosa is at a hospital & @CustomsBorder is right outside her room waiting to deport her Sign&Share https://t.co/IYVjAkF37w pic.twitter.com/bIkRJzYwSa De la Cruz was able to video chat with her daughter in the children’s home and said in October that the child didn’t understand what was happening. “I told her she was only there because she was recovering, and when she was recovered that she could come with me,” she said two days after Rosa Maria was detained. “I start to think about her, and I want to start crying, and I become desperate.”  . See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter. The Department of Health and Human Services said previously it “does not identify individual (unaccompanied alien children) and will not comment on specific cases.” CNN reached out for comment Saturday but did not receive an immediate response. CNN’s AnneClaire Stapleton, Tal Kopan, Sophie Tatum, Laura Diaz-Zuniga, Jeremy Grisham, David Shortell and Kate Conerly contributed to this report.


A millionaire is arrested, the same day a docu-series of his murder case airs. Eleven Americans are flown back to the U.S. after exposure to an Ebola patient. And could Russian President Vladimir Putin turn up today after a long, mysterious absence? It’s Monday and here are the 5 things to know for your New Day. Haunting silence: It maybe the worst natural disaster in the history of the Pacific. That’s what aid organizations are calling Cyclone Pam that grinded over the island nation of Vanuatu early in the weekend. But the confirmed deaths – so far – total up to a handful. Why? Communications and transportation – like most everything – are ripped and ruined, making an exact count difficult. It could take days to get a full picture of the devastation. Arrest made: Jeffrey Williams told police he wasn’t gunning for two officers, when he wounded them in Ferguson last week. He confessed to opening fire, prosecutors said after his arrest yesterday. But Williams told them he pulled his gun after a personal dispute, as a protest wound down. He has been charged with two counts of first-degree assault. He also faces a few weapons related charges. Abundance of caution: The phrase has become synonymous with preventing the spread of Ebola. So, when 11 Americans were exposed in Africa to another American who was diagnosed with the disease, the CDC decided to nip things in the bud. All 11 got – or are getting – flights back to the States, where they’ll be monitored. Where’s the president?: Does absence really make the heart grow fonder? In the case of Vladimir Putin, it’s making the hearts of Kremlin watchers grow nervous. It’s been 11 days since the Russian President was last seen in motion – on March 5. After that he canceled some public appearances. And Putin is known for his love of the lime light, posing with a tiger, on a chopper, with his shirt off. The Kremlin released still photos of him, saying they were taken Friday, but doubters cried fake. Putin is reportedly scheduled to appear today in St. Petersburg. Will he show? Did he or didn’t he? A string of deaths has stalked millionaire real estate heir Robert Durst like a dogged spell. He’s never been convicted of them. But the combined oddity of his wife’s vanishing 30 years ago, the killing of a befriended L.A. crime writer and the dismemberment of a neighbor prompted HBO to make a documentary about him, called “The Jinx.” Durst has always maintained his innocence. But the show may have stirred up new clues. The 71-year-old was arrested over the weekend in New Orleans in the crime writer’s shooting in 2000. Where the eagles fly: Nature’s feathered flying ace swirls around the world’s tallest building in Dubai with a camera on its back. No stunt plane can take your breath away like this. Boogie fingers: The music is better with the sound turned off, when this sign language interpreter wiggles out a hit pop song. Tickle me crunchy: Every time mom chomps into a corn chip, baby cracks up. Bathroom humor: Prankster Robert Atwood rolled comedian Howie Mandel’s yard with toilet paper. Mandel wasn’t laughing. Wowch wufftato: That’s poochese for couch potato. And, dog gone, is this Great Dane one! Wanna go outside? Noooh. Woh away!


Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan appears to have threatened to resign if relations are not improved between the two neighbors. “I don’t see any reason for me to continue my current job” unless Pakistan suspended its construction of new installations at the busiest border crossing between the two countries, Dr. Omar Zakhilwal said. He made the comments in a Facebook post published on his verified account on Thursday. When asked to clarify the statement, the diplomat told CNN by telephone “I’m not going into the details of that any further than what I said there.” Related article Afghanistan making progress, but scars remain On Sunday, long-simmering tensions between the two neighbors exploded into deadly violence at the Torkham border gate. According to the Afghan and Pakistani governments, at least one Afghan border police officer and one Pakistani army major were killed in two days of clashes.  At least 23 people were also wounded in fighting that involved heavy machine guns. Since then, Torkham has remained closed, with lines of trucks now backed up and waiting on both sides of the Khyber Pass, a famous mountainous transit route linking the two countries. The apparent flashpoint for the latest round of tension has involved Pakistan’s construction of a new border terminal. “You cannot check documents of thousands of travelers without extensive infrastructure.  The gate in Torkham is being built well inside Pakistan territory,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry announced in a statement earlier this week. Related article Obama okays new authority for U.S. forces in Afghanistan Afghanistan’s ambassador in Islamabad insisted that construction on the border had to be agreed upon in advance by both governments. “What I would want is for the construction work to be paused, allowing negotiations to be conducted,” he said, speaking to CNN by telephone. The Afghan government has long accused Pakistan of providing safe haven to Taliban militants.  The Taliban has been fighting a 14-year insurgency against the Western-backed government in Pakistan. Pakistan argues that it too suffers from violent attacks by Taliban fighters.


A  family found the debris while vacationing in Mozambique Last week, a U.S. tourist found another suspected piece in the same country MH370 disappeared two years ago A South African teen may have discovered a piece of the missing MH370 plane while strolling at a beach in Mozambique. Liam Lotter said he found the piece during a family vacation in the east African nation in December. “We stumbled across what seemed like a curved sort of gray object,” the 18-year-old told CNN by phone.  “We didn’t know what it was at first.” Investigators will examine it to establish whether it’s from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, said Dan O’Malley of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. The jetliner vanished on March 8, 2014, after it took off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, en route to Beijing, with 239 people aboard. It disappeared in airspace over the Gulf of Thailand, and it has not been seen since. Australia is leading the underwater search effort in the southern Indian Ocean for the Boeing 777 aircraft. Complete coverage of MH370 Lotter said South African aviation officials plan to pick up the piece next week from his house in Wartburg, a South African town about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Durban. It will be transported to the Australian agency’s laboratory in Canberra for analysis by investigators from Malaysia, Australia and South Africa, according to O’Malley. Boeing engineers will also join the investigators. Lebo Madiba, a South Africa Civil Aviation Authority consultant, said she’s not sure when the piece will be picked up from the teenager. But once authorities have it in their possession, she said, it will be sent to Australia for examination. MH370: Did the pilots do it? Related gallery The search for MH370 The teen said he stumbled across the piece while walking with his cousin on December 30. The family was on vacation in Mozambique’s Inhambane district, which is across a bay from Maxixe. His cousin said the piece looked like part of an airplane. It’s between 3 to 4 feet long and made from stainless steel, Lotter said. The debris also has holes from, he presumes, bolts that once attached it to the rest of the plane. “You can actually see the serial number and code,” he said. “It’s quite light.” After discovering it, Lotter and his cousin hauled the piece back to the family beach house.  His relatives were skeptical, and speculated it’s probably from a boat, not a plane. When their vacation ended on January 5, they tucked it away in their boat and sailed back to South Africa. “We stuck it in the back of the boat,” Lotter said. “So we take this thing, and when we got back we stored it in a storage room where we put all our outdoor stuff.” Then school started, and he completely forgot about it. Last week, his uncle showed him a story about an American man who found another suspected plane piece in Mozambique. “That’s what made me think about it again,” Lotter said. His mother contacted Australian and South African officials to pick it up.  A radio station also interviewed the mother and son, thrusting them into the spotlight. Tourist who found debris was searching for MH370 Related video MH370 second anniversary brings few answers Meanwhile, aviation experts will examine the other plane debris found by a U.S. tourist last week, also along the Mozambique coast. That piece is from the horizontal part of an airliner’s tail. Officials have not said yet whether that plane part matches up with MH370. But the debris could be from a Boeing 777, according to a U.S. official. And its location off Mozambique is consistent with some of the drift modeling, Australian authorities said. MH370 two years on: “Where are our family members?” Investigators have said another piece of debris found last year on Reunion Island, which sits in the Indian Ocean, could also belong to the Malaysian jet. CNN’s Ingrid Formanek and Deborah Bloom contributed to this report.


Witness in upcoming US trial on Russian money laundering recently fell from his Moscow apartment Prosecutors feared for his safety back in 2015 A Russian lawyer investigating an alleged $230 million money-laundering scheme nearly died in March after he fell from his fourth floor apartment in Moscow. It’s unclear what caused the fall, but more than a year earlier, American prosecutors had feared that someone would try to “threaten or harm” that man, Nikolai Gorokhov, according to a recently unsealed federal court document. American investigators are preparing for a trial in May that will examine how stolen Russian cash allegedly made its way into New York City real estate, and Gorokhov, 53, was to be a witness. The court document shows that US investigators had “strong concerns that… individuals in Russia could attempt to threaten or harm Mr. Gorokhov and his family in an effort to prevent Mr. Gorokhov from testifying at trial.” The letter, dated Oct. 9, 2015, was written by former US Attorney Preet Bharara’s team of prosecutors and addressed to a New York federal judge. It was unsealed April 14. Attorneys for the accused Russian money launderers questioned Gorokhov for seven hours over two days in 2015. During that deposition, they served him with a subpoena that would force him to return and testify at trial. American prosecutors asked the judge to not force Gorokhov to return, and to issue an order making clear that Gorokhov’s already recorded deposition would fulfill all his testimony at trial. It was a move intended to “dramatically reduce the incentive for anyone in Russia hoping to influence this proceeding to threaten or injure him or his family,” prosecutors wrote. In her order, the federal judge granted prosecutors their wish. The Department of Justice’s Southern District of New York, which handled this case, declined to say why the document was unsealed – a month after Gorokhov’s near-fatal drop. At the time of the fall, Russian media reported that Gorokhov was trying to winch a large bathtub up to his fourth floor apartment. CNN visited the scene 24 hours later and a neighbor shared video shot with his cellphone shortly after the incident, showing an ambulance on scene and what looked like a pool of blood next to the upended bathtub. Sergei Magnitsky, the independent Russian lawyer who initially exposed this massive alleged money laundering operation, died in a Russian prison in November 2009. Gorokhov, who has continued that private investigation on behalf of Magnitsky’s family, is recovering from his fall, and has yet to speak publicly about what happened. Bharara, who initiated the American investigation into this scheme, was recently pushed out of office by US President Donald Trump. This case goes back a decade. According to US investigators, corrupt Russian government officials allegedly teamed up with a powerful Russian organized crime organization to pull off that country’s largest ever tax fraud. According to American investigators, in 2007, Russian police raided the offices of Hermitage Capital Management, at that time the largest portfolio investor in Russia. Members of the Russian organized crime ring stole Hermitage’s corporate identity, according to the U.S. federal complaint. The mobsters then created fake subsidiaries and had other corporate entities under their control launch multi-million dollar sham lawsuits against those subsidiaries, US prosecutors allege. The “owners” of the fake subsidiaries then filed for tax refunds, citing their massive losses from the lawsuits. Russian tax officials were allegedly in on it, and, in December 2007, approved the $230 million refund, the single largest in Russian history. It was processed in a mere 24 hours, the U.S. government charges. The conspirators allegedly laundered the illicit cash through shell companies, luxury cars, real estate around the world, and international bank accounts. Magnitsky was jailed on dubious charges of unrelated tax fraud when he exposed the $230 million scheme and its alleged perpetrators. According to US Senator John McCain, Magnitsky uncovered documents that “seem to suggest that Russian participants in the criminal activities… may include tax, police, and intelligence officials.” The Russian Presidential Human Rights Commission has found that Magnitsky was violently assaulted in pretrial detention before his demise at age 37. The Russian government nevertheless insists that he died of a heart failure with no signs of violence. In 2011, Russian prosecutors put Magnitsky on trial posthumously for tax evasion. He was found guilty in the first criminal case ever brought against a corpse in that country’s history. In 2012, US Congress passed a landmark human rights law bearing his name, the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, and sanctioned members of the Russian government who were allegedly involved in the massive mafia state conspiracy he uncovered. In 2013, the US government filed criminal charges to seize New York City properties that were allegedly bought with some of these stolen funds. US prosecutors are chasing after three Manhattan apartments and more than a dozen bank accounts belonging to Prevezon Holdings and other shell companies that belong to Russians. Prevezon denies the charges. While investigating the fraud back in Russia, Gorokhov “photographed a Russian court file containing documents” that the US government plans to use at trial, according to the letter from the US Attorney’s Office. A day after Gorokhov’s fall, he had been due to appear in the Moscow City Appeals Court to present new evidence that he claims support Magnitsky’s findings of a far-reaching conspiracy to defraud the Russian taxpayer. Watch the full discussion of this story on Erin Burnett OutFront, tonight at 7pm ET.