If you want to understand the profound impact Donald Trump’s candidacy and presidency have had on the Republican Party, you need look no further than Tuesday’s announcement that the DACA program will be rescinded. “We are a people of compassion and we are a people of law,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions in announcing the decision, which could jeopardize the immigration status of nearly 800,000 people who were brought to America illegally before the age of 16. “But there is nothing compassionate about the failure to enforce immigration laws.” That view – that the rule of law trumps (ahem) all else when it comes to the nation’s immigration problems – is a massive reversal from views espoused by George W. Bush in his two terms as president and in the autopsy document produced by the Republican National Committee in the wake of the party’s disastrous 2012 presidential election loss. “Family values don’t stop at the Rio Grande and a hungry mother is going to try to feed her child,” Bush famously said. That quote was cited in the RNC’s post-2012 “Growth and Opportunity Project” report – in which a large group of party leaders tried to diagnose what had gone wrong for the party and how to fix it heading into the 2016 race. These lines from the GOP autopsy, which also advocated that Republicans find a way to support comprehensive immigration reform, are particularly striking: “If Hispanic Americans perceive that a GOP nominee or candidate does not want them in the United States (i.e. self-deportation), they will not pay attention to our next sentence. It does not matter what we say about education, jobs or the economy; if Hispanics think we do not want them here, they will close their ears to our policies.” The RNC report, which was unveiled by none other than Reince Priebus, who back then was the RNC chairman but went on to be Trump’s first White House chief of staff before he was ousted in July, warned that a failure to change its attitude toward Hispanics would likely result in “our party’s appeal will continue to shrink to its core constituencies only.” Less than four years after the release of that report, Donald Trump won the Republican presidential primary on the strength of his hardline views on illegal immigration: end DACA, build a wall, Mexicans are rapists and criminals, etc. – and, in so doing, steered the party on a radically different course. The signs that a Trumpian approach to immigration would work were evident long before than RNC autopsy report. John McCain had watched his front-running campaign for the 2008 nomination nearly collapse due to his support for comprehensive immigration reform. During the 2012 primary season, Texas Gov. Rick Perry had been lambasted for saying this in a debate: “If you say that we should not educate children who have come into our state for no other reason than they’ve been brought there by no fault of their own, I don’t think you have a heart.” Mitt Romney, the party’s 2012 nominee, was cowed by the reaction to Perry’s “heart” comments. Fearing an insurrection from his ideological right, Romney adopted the incoherent policy of “self-deportation” – undocumented immigrants would simply choose to leave the country. The GOP autopsy report was supposed to put an end to all of that. It was seen – at the time – as a sort of seminal document, a chapter-closing on the struggles of high-profile Republicans to find a safe space to occupy on immigration reform. If we keep doing what we have been doing, we will not only lose, the autopsy argued, we will be something fundamentally different as a party than what we have been up to this point. Then Donald Trump started running for president. His promises to build a wall were just what many conservative activists had been longing to hear. They flocked to his rallies and his candidacy – energized by the idea that, finally, a candidate who truly stood with them on the perils of illegal immigration  had emerged. All of the calls from the Jeb Bushes and Marco Rubios (and the Rick Perrys!, who is now Trump’s secretary of energy) of the world about the potential political danger for their party in nominating someone like Trump, who famously and wrongly generalized that Mexicans coming across the border are mostly criminals and rapists, went unheeded. Anger and fear are two very powerful emotions and all of the demographic data in the world couldn’t sway voters. Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton – in which he carried more of the Hispanic vote than Romney had four years earlier – was seen as a validation for these Republicans. But, if anything, it was a delaying of the inevitable; Trump’s razor-thin margins in three predominately white Rust Belt states (Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania) handed him the presidency but didn’t change this basic fact: The GOP cannot remain a majority party at the presidential level for much longer if they can’t win more than three in 10 Hispanic voters. How Trump has governed since assuming the presidency is as problematic as how he ran for the office. The decision on DACA coupled with the pardon of controversial former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio sends a very clear signal to Hispanic Americans – and it’s the opposite signal that the GOP autopsy recommended. Hispanics are listening. In a Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted in mid-July – before the Arpaio pardon and the DACA decision – just one in five Latinos approved of the job Trump was doing while 75% disapproved. Sessions, in defending the decision to rescind DACA, noted this: “To have a lawful system of immigration that serves the national interest, we cannot admit everyone who would like to come here.  That is an open border policy and the American people have rightly rejected it.” But, in drawing the line of admission at children brought to the US without their consent or knowledge, the Republican party is re-inventing itself as something radically different than the party of Bush, McCain and even Romney. “Instead of driving around in circles on an ideological cul-de-sac, we need a party whose brand of conservatism invites and inspires new people to visit us,” the authors of the Republican autopsy wrote. “Our standard should not be universal purity; it should be a more welcoming conservatism.” That party simply doesn’t exist any longer.


Catalonia’s deposed leader Carles Puigdemont said he was not in Brussels to apply for political asylum but had traveled to the Belgian capital for “safety” after Spain filed charges of rebellion against him. In his first public remarks since criminal charges were announced over his drive for Catalan independence, Puigdemont condemned the “violence” and “oppression” of Madrid. He continued to insist his ousted administration was the “legitimate Catalan government.” Puigdemont told reporters in Brussels that his party would participate in elections in Catalonia on December 21, called by the Spanish government after it dissolved his administration in Barcelona last week. “I am not here to demand political asylum. I am here in Brussels as the capital of Europe,” he told reporters at the Belgian press club, alongside other members of his deposed government. “I’m here in order to act with freedom and safety.” Despite the defiant rhetoric, it was clear that Puigdemont and his allies are on the back foot in the month-long standoff with Madrid, which began when Catalonia pressed ahead with a disputed independence referendum on October 1 and came to a head when the Catalan parliament voted for a unilateral declaration independence last Friday. The Spanish High Court has accepted a complaint against Puigdemont, who is expected to return to Madrid by Thursday when he and other members of his cabinet will face court. Bail was set at more than $7.2 million (6.2 million euros), which the accused will have three days to deposit. Thousands of civil servants have returned to work in Barcelona under the authority of the Spanish government, after it imposed direct rule in the wake the independence declaration. The leadership of the secession movement is fractured, with key figures out of the country. Puigdemont appeared to concede the political reality, warning his supporters of an uphill battle ahead. “To the people of Catalonia, I ask them to be ready for a very long path. We are facing a state that only understands the reason of force,” he said. On Monday, as Puigdemont arrived in Brussels, Spain’s chief prosecutor Jose Manuel Maza announced he would seek charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds against the ousted leader and several members of his former government. The charge of rebellion carries a maximum jail term of 30 years. The speaker of the Catalan parliament, Carme Forcadell, will be among the first to face court. Judicial authorities summoned her and other MPs to the Supreme Court for Thursday, or face fines. Related article Catalonia's independence standoff: How we got here, what comes next Puidgemont said his party would take part in the December elections. “We take the election called for by the Spanish state as a democratic challenge – we are not afraid of them,” he said. Puigdemont called on Madrid to give guarantees it will respect the results, even if pro-independence parties  win, and to refrain from violence. Madrid sent thousands of national police into Catalonia on October 1 to shut down the referendum, which it regarded as illegal. Images of officers firing rubber bullets at protestors, dragging people by the hair from polling stations and restraining elderly voters grabbed attention around the world. The independence bid has plunged Spain into it worst political crisis since the restoration of democracy in the 1970s. Some 90% voted in favor of independence in the disputed referendum, but turnout was only 43%. It has also been deeply divisive. Hundreds of thousands of people have protested in Barcelona both for and against independence. A recent poll that surveyed 1,000 people showed that political parties backing independence would not win a majority if elections were held today. Pro-independence parties would get 61 to 65 seats in the region’s parliament, short of a majority in the 135-seat assembly, the Sigma Dos poll suggests. Pro-independence parties had 72 seats in the parliament before it was dissolved.


President Donald Trump placed a hold on more than $200 million in recovery funds for Syria this week, demanding more information on how the money is being used, senior State Department officials have confirmed to CNN. The confirmation comes just days after Trump announced he wants the United States to withdraw from the war-torn country soon. The funding was to be used for basic infrastructure projects, such as restoring power and water and rebuilding roads. Then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced the funding last month at an aid conference in Kuwait. The hold on the money, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, signals an about-face for Trump, who just months ago agreed to an open-ended strategy to defeat the remnants of ISIS and prevent a power vacuum that would allow them to return or other powers like Iran to fill the void. In January, Trump signed off on a major speech by Tillerson in which he laid out the strategy for the country, declaring “it is vital for the United States to remain engaged in Syria.” But by mid-February, Trump told top aides he wanted American troops out of Syria as soon as victory could be declared, two administration officials said. Shortly after that, Trump said the United States was in Syria to “get rid of ISIS and go home” during a press conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. During a speech in Ohio on Thursday, Trump went further, saying, “We’ll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon. Let the other people take care of it now. Very soon — very soon, we’re coming out.” Trump grew angry after reading a story in The Washington Post about the money, the officials confirmed. White House chief of staff John Kelly called Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan, who is serving as acting secretary until Mike Pompeo is confirmed, to tell him Trump was ordering the money be frozen. The hold on the aid isn’t necessarily permanent, and officials said it will be discussed this week at senior-level interagency meetings, including a National Security Council meeting, to address the status of the anti-ISIS campaign. The State Department said in a statement that it continually reviews appropriate assistance levels and continues to work with the international community, members of the anti-ISIS coalition, and partners on the ground to provide much-needed stabilization support to vulnerable areas in Syria. “The United States is working every day on the ground and with the international community to help stabilize those areas liberated from ISIS and identify ways to move forward with reconstruction once there has been a peaceful political transition away from (Syrian President Bashar al-) Assad,” the statement said. But the hold on funding, coupled with Trump’s comments this week, have raised alarm bells at the State Department that the US could leave precipitously. The department and Pentagon were planning for a gradual shift from a military-led campaign to a diplomatic mission involving rebuilding of areas liberated from ISIS to prevent their return. Officials already point to a resurgence of ISIS in some areas after Kurdish fighters had to divert their attention to fight Turkish forces conducting operations in northern Syria. “The hold on this money only compounds the problem,” one senior State Department official said. “It’s pretty depressing.” This story has been updated to reflect the actual prime minister of Australia. CNN’s Jim Acosta contributed to this story


The Russians, the Syrians, and the Iranians all pointed the finger at Israel for carrying out a strike on a Syrian military base near Homs. Israel has not commented, but a former commander of the Israeli Air Force has said it was almost certainly Israel that carried out the strike. Monday’s incident is a reminder that proxy wars continue in Syria amid the seven-year conflict’s shifting sands. Here’s what you need to know: Related article Dozens dead in possible gas attack in Syria; regime denies allegation The strikes come just two days after a suspected chemical attack in Douma, the last rebel-held town in Eastern Ghouta, on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus. Several world leaders, including US President Donald Trump, blamed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government for carrying out the attack. Syria has denied involvement and accused rebels of fabricating the chemical attack claims. Former Israel Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Eitan Ben Eliyahu said the alleged use of chemical weapons “could not have gone without a response.” But the suspected use of chemical weapons may also have provided a timely pretext for a far more pressing matter for Israel: the growing presence of Iran in Syria. Israel has repeatedly expressed its red lines when it comes to Syria. It will not allow the transfer of high-powered weapons to Hezbollah; it will not allow any breach of Israeli sovereignty; and, as apparently in this case, it will work to prevent Iran from entrenching itself in Syria. The base that was struck, known as T-4, has an Iranian presence, which Iran confirmed when the semi-official Fars News Agency said four Iranians had been killed in the strike. In addition, Israel says an Iranian drone that penetrated Israeli airspace in February was launched and controlled from this base. Speaking to Israeli Army Radio, leader of the opposition Yesh Atid party, Yair Lapid, said: “T-4, which is the base we’re talking about, is no longer just a Syrian base, it is a Syrian-Iranian base. And Israel has said – and we are clear on this – that Israel will not accept an Iranian military presence in Syria, and will not accept (Iran’s) creeping presence in Syria. This has a price.” Related article The free-for-all in Syria will make your head spin Israel considers Iran an existential threat and the biggest danger to the future of the country. Israel watches Iran’s growing influence in the Middle East – from Iraq to Syria to Lebanon – with a sense of alarm, urging Russia, the United States, and others to take action. But Israel has largely relied on itself to attempt to curb Iran’s presence in Syria. Before the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, Israel had reached an unspoken understanding with Syria that allowed the two neighboring countries to co-exist, even though Syria has never recognized the state of Israel. But Iran’s presence in Syria changed that tacit status quo, and Israel has carried out numerous strikes on the country in recent years. Iran has threatened to destroy Israel, with hardline demonstrators chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” in protests. The Iran nuclear deal, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stringently opposed, has only added to Israel’s concern, lifting sanctions against Iran while allowing it to develop ballistic missiles and continue nuclear research. Related article Trump will keep troops in Syria for short-term, but wants exit soon US President Donald Trump’s announcement that he was considering pulling troops out of Syria worried Israel, but under Netanyahu, the Israeli government is unlikely to openly criticize the US position. From Israel’s perspective, the US presence in Syria is at least a tiny foothold against Iran and a measure of leverage over the future of the war-torn country. Losing that would be a blow to Israel’s efforts to keep Iran as far away from Israel’s borders as possible. As Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said on Israel Army Radio on Sunday: “We hope that the American presence and the international presence (in Syria) will increase, otherwise the genocide is only going to worsen.” Russia and Israel have generally sought to coordinate military action over Syria, in the interests of deconfliction. The coordination mechanism was put in place after Russian forces entered Syria in 2015, and Netanyahu has made it a priority in his meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Previously, Israel has notified Russia of its actions in real time, but this time, a spokesman for Putin said there was no contact between Israel and Russia before or during the overnight airstrike in Syria. Dmitry Peskov, speaking on a daily call with media, when asked whether any such communication had taken place, said, “There were no contacts between Putin and his Israeli counterparts.” That would be incredibly unusual, since maintaining good relations with Russia is key if Israel wants to keep operating in Syria. Peskov added that Putin intends to speak with Netanyahu about the strike, since Russian advisers were still at the base. “Of course, this is the cause for our concern,” Peskov said. “The communication with the Israeli side is going via the according channels.” The coordination mechanism has begun to show signs of strain in recent months. In February, when Russia moved its SU-57 stealth fighter jets into Syria, a Russian politician appeared to be referring to Israel when he said the presence of the fighter jets was sending a political message “to aircraft from neighboring states which periodically fly into Syrian airspace uninvited.” CNN’s Angela Dewan wrote from London.


Government wants to bolster defenses Sweden is not a member of NATO Sweden has moved to reintroduce conscription “as a response to the new security situation” in Europe, the country’s defense minister told CNN Thursday. A government act on Thursday reintroduced compulsory military service in the country for the first time since 2010, and for the first time on a gender-equal basis. Peter Hultqvist, Sweden’s minister of defense, cited Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea in 2014 as one of the triggers for the decision. “After the Russian annexation of Crimea against international law, and their increased military exercises close to the border, we have a new security situation,” Hultqvist said. Hultqvist added that Sweden is “strengthening its military cooperation with Finland and with the NATO partners.” Sweden is not a member of NATO but it has contributed to NATO-led operations and enjoys bilateral ties with the alliance through the Partnership for Peace and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council. The country suspended conscription in 2010 and instead adopted a recruitment system which relied on volunteers. The decision to boost defense spending by $720 million over five years was taken in February 2015 – but Sweden is lacking suitable numbers for its defense forces. According to government figures, the armed forces were 1,000 troops short in terms of full-time squad leaders, solders and sailors. The new plan aims to ensure there are 6,000 full time members serving with 10,000 available on a part-time basis. Related video NATO's increasing close calls with Russia According to Marinette Nyh Radebo, spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense, those born between 1999 and 2000, along with marginally older volunteers, will undergo testing on July 1 to see if they are eligible. Radebo explained that 13,000 men and women will be drawn from around 100,000 which fit into the correct age category. They will then undergo physical and psychological assessments. It is the first time that Sweden has conscripted women. Not every person will be required to sign up, with only 4,000 people a year set to be conscripted until 2019. Radebo told CNN that while there will not be a quota system in terms of the ratio between male and female recruits, the “gender equal” policy for the 1999 generation should mean there will be an increase in the number of women in the armed forces. She said the new recruits will take part in their first military exercises on January 1, 2018. Conscripts will spend between nine to 11 months in training before choosing whether to pursue a career in the military or join as a reserve soldier. Related video What's the point of NATO? “We see that we have more military activities in our neighborhood, and also that the illegal annexation of Crimea and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine is of course part of it,” Radebo told CNN. “We react to the activities and we don’t talk about threats, that’s why we have a parliament decision with a 70% of the parliament behind the present defense decision to strengthen military capacity and increase cooperation with the countries around us.” Sweden has stepped up its defensive efforts in recent months. In September, it sent 150 troops to the island of Gotland, which sits between the mainland and a number of former Soviet Baltic states amid rising tensions with Russia. A Swedish government report says that a full battalion will be established on the island by 2018. Correction: This story has been updated to clarify Sweden's military alignment.

Sweden's reintroduction of conscription and defense policy


Trump said US needed to regain nuclear top spot Also discussed China, Israel and EU with Reuters President Donald Trump has expressed concern that the United States has “fallen behind” in its nuclear weapons capacity and that he would like to restore its supremacy. In an interview with the Reuters news agency, Trump said he would prefer a world free of nuclear weapons but otherwise the United States should be “at the top of the pack.” The remarks came as Trump prepares to address the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Friday. Trump takes top billing at the conference a day after his key advisers, chief strategist Steve Bannon and chief of staff Reince Priebus, appeared on the CPAC stage to discuss Trump’s agenda and rail against the media. In the Reuters interview, conducted in the Oval Office, Trump said the US needed to revive its nuclear arsenal. “I am the first one that would like to see … nobody have nukes, but we’re never going to fall behind any country even if it’s a friendly country, we’re never going to fall behind on nuclear power,” he told Reuters. Related video Is Russia's honeymoon with Trump over? “It would be wonderful, a dream would be that no country would have nukes, but if countries are going to have nukes, we’re going to be at the top of the pack.” The comments were his first on the US nuclear arsenal since taking office last month. In December – hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to enhance his country’s nuclear forces –Trump tweeted that the United States “must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.” Asked by Reuters if he would raise Russia’s apparent breach of an arms control treaty with Putin, Trump replied: “I don’t even know if they are discussing meetings right now, but if I meet, if and when we meet, I would bring it up.” Trump also dismissed the New START agreement, a key US-Russia nuclear disarmament treaty, as “a one-sided deal.” The treaty came up in a phone conversation between Trump and Putin last month. In a wide-ranging interview, Trump also declared China the “grand champions” of currency manipulation and said Beijing should be doing more to rein in North Korea, following Pyongyang’s most recent missile test. Related video President Donald Trump's pivot on Asia “I think they could solve the problem very easily, if they want to,” he said of China. Questioned about his support for the European Union, Trump said he was “totally in favor of it,” adding: “I think it’s wonderful if they are happy. If they are happy, I am in favor of it.” Senior Trump administration figures have been in Europe in recent days seeking to reassure longstanding US allies amid concerns over apparently contradictory messages coming from the White House. Asked if he was backing away from a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, Trump replied: “I like a two-state solution but I ultimately like what the both parties like. I thought that was so plain. Some people covered it accurately, other people didn’t. Very simple.” Related article Is the two-state solution dead? Speaking to reporters last week alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump appeared to dump five decades of US policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying he wouldn’t insist on a two-state solution and would simply “like the one that both parties like.” Moving to issues closer to home, Trump indicated that he might back the introduction of a tax on imports from Mexico to help pay for his border wall, saying, “I certainly support a form of tax on the border because everyone else does.” He told Reuters that such a tax would affect other countries and companies more than the consumer.


A Russian warplane was shot down Saturday in Syria, according to Russian state-run news agencies. The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed one of its Su-25 warplanes was downed in Idlib province in northwest Syria, state media outlet RIA Novosti reported. Militants shot down the plane in an area controlled by al-Nusra Front fighters, according to the RIA Novosti report. Russia and Turkey, which is responsible for a de-escalation zone in Idlib, were taking measures to return the pilot’s body, the defense ministry said. The ministry said more than 30 militants in the area were killed in a retaliatory strike, according to RIA Novosti, citing “radio intercepts.” The defense ministry said the pilot was able to eject from the aircraft before it crashed, according to state-run news agency TASS, but died while fighting al-Nusra fighters. TASS reported that “according to preliminary information, the plane was shot down from a portable anti-aircraft missile system.” But a witness who spoke to CNN via Skype on condition of anonymity said the jet was shot down by Free Syrian Army fighters with a group called Jaish al-Naser as two jets were “striking the village of Massaran on the southern side of Saraqib.” The witness said that a pilot parachuted. A Free Syrian Army fighter in the area told the source that the pilot “engaged with FSA fighters with a pistol but they killed him eventually.” The source left the area after the second jet fired more missiles. Other witnesses said the pilot was taken from the crash site, according to Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group. It was unclear whether the pilot was alive or dead, he said The Idlib Media Center, an anti-government activist group, posted images that purportedly show the plane’s wreckage. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime recently resumed airstrikes on rebel-held areas such as Idlib province, prompting tens of thousands of civilians to flee their homes, according to UN officials. Idlib has long been the region where civilians and fighters have gone as they fled rebel-friendly areas under siege by the Syrian regime. With the help of Russian forces, the Syrian government has managed to take back much of the country held by rebels. The regime has launched an offensive to retake Idlib, the only province that has come under full rebel control in the nearly 7-year-old conflict. CNN’s Eyad Kourdi, Alla Eshchenko and Mary Ilyushina contributed to this report.


"I'm not a great fan of daily tweets" but "I am a fan" of what Trump is doing, Mitch McConnell said Republicans will face constituents at town halls next week After almost one month of the wild, raucous White House of President Donald Trump, Republicans in Congress are still certain they will get the many policies he promised – even if they are a little worn out from the rollercoaster ride. “It’s been four weeks so it’s not like we’re talking about four months – I know it might feel like four months – but it’s been four weeks,” said Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican who dined with Trump Wednesday night. And that was before Trump took the podium at the White House Thursday and delivered a wild 75-minute press conference which held the Capitol rapt. “The people that love him will love him more, the people that hate him will hate him more and the people in the middle probably will look at it the way that we look at in Congress, which is that’s just the new normal. That’s just the s*** that happens. I don’t know how else to manage it,” said one Republican lawmaker after Trump’s press conference. “We’re just trying to manage this s***.” For the most part, Republicans remain confident that big items like health care and tax reform will be passed this year, notching up some long-awaited victories. Related video US Rep. compares Trump to 'Stranger Things' “I’m not a great fan of daily tweets” but “I am a fan” of what Trump is doing, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Friday. A Hill Republican who visited the White House recently said, “I was anticipating more chaos, because of media reports and everything, and it was more orderly than I anticipated. It was kind of a normal flow, in and out.” Part of what the lawmaker learned, and hopes colleagues will see is that some of this is just Trump’s management style: “His operational style is one of sort of three simultaneous conversations, on the phone quick – it’s run and gun.” Just one week into office, Trump signed his travel ban – catching even his supporters in the Capitol off-guard. And the persistent drip of stories about ties between Russian officials and Trump’s campaign has grown into a steady stream in the last two months, finally claiming former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn in the process. At times, the national focus has been on actual conservative legislative priorities. House and Senate Republicans have been working steadily behind the scenes at the Capitol, hammering out the details of the proposals they have long sought – repealing the Affordable Care Act, overhauling the tax code – and Trump promised them he would sign. And conservatives have applauded his nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court. When asked if he was concerned about the persistent questions about Russia and other problems from the White House, House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions pointed out Thursday that most of the questions he was getting were on their priority: repealing Obamacare. Now House and Senate Republicans will head back to their districts for the first serious break since the start of January, where most of them will be met by well-organized groups of protesters swarming their town halls. Democrats see a ticking clock for the unified Republican government that erodes their support, the longer that they stay distracted from their agenda and dealing with Trump issues. “It’s certainly making it harder for Republicans to get their domestic agenda through Congress. Every day that they’re obsessed about the developing scandal around Flynn and the context of the Russian government, it makes it less likely they’re going to be able to get a repeal of the Affordable Care Act or a trickle-down tax cut through Congress,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat. “It’d be a risky bet to believe that this administration is going to get radically more functional over the course of the next four years,” Murphy added. Senate Democrats are doing everything they can to contribute to that dysfunction. Related article Trump falsely claims (again) biggest electoral college victory since Reagan In lieu of actual filibusters – Democrats ended the ability to filibuster typical appointments in 2013 – they turned to committee walkouts and long, overnight debates, on many nominees. Although Democrats are outnumbered 52-48 in the Senate, they’ve scored some points – like Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s breaking of Senate rules to lure McConnell into a late-night fight. “We have 30 hours post-cloture debate that happens no matter what’s happening over here. In one way, we’ve got plenty to do, but it’s certainly not helpful to have the distraction,” said Sen. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican and routine critic of Trump’s actions. Asked if he thought Republicans would have been struggling with overnight debates and walkouts if Jeb Bush or Rubio had won, Flake said, “No. I think it’s clear we wouldn’t.” The nomination that may be the most normal is actually Gorsuch. Trump’s presentation of Gorsuch was so exceedingly normal, by White House standards, that it looked like a clear reset after the failure of the travel ban. Related article Full transcript: President Donald Trump's news conference Yet even the daily, routine tours of Gorsuch through the Senate offices since then have underscored the almost daily stories of White House dysfunction – and frequent confusion in Congress about what Trump wants. Even Hill Republicans’ shelter from the Trump storm – Vice President Mike Pence, a de facto member of Congress, complete with a new office below the House chambers – took a beating this week after it was discovered Trump kept him in the dark for two weeks about Flynn’s misleading of him. One Republican lawmaker close to the Trump administration floated Pence as a bright spot for Republicans, but then cringed when reminded he had been kept out of the loop for two weeks. “Yeah. So I would imagine there are some tough conversations happening,” the Republican said. Before his press conference, Trump invited his closest Hill allies to the White House – members who endorsed him early on in his campaign when the establishment was still on the fence about the wildcard nominee. According to sources in the meeting, there was a fair bit of reminiscing about the campaign and the connections made in those early days. No talk of voter fraud though, an issue Trump has repeatedly brought up at meetings with lawmakers as he maintains without evidence that he, not Hillary Clinton, won the popular vote. Related article After much criticism, Trump nominates first Latino Cabinet member “It was very positive,” a source in the meeting said. “He talked about health care and getting that going.” While some on the Hill fear that Trump’s White House is divided, sources in the meeting said the administration strongly pushed back against that narrative. At one point, sources in the room said the administration made light of the news coverage of the West Wing. “They feel like the image being painted or portrayed is not correct,” a source in the room said. From the meeting, sources say Trump is still very committed to ensuring he gets his border wall. One member in the meeting suggested that a double fence might work well enough, but Trump pushed back. Supporters inside the meeting say he touted a bedrock of his campaign – the border wall – and emphasized it would be a wall, not a fence. “He was going to build it,” the source said. That’s a fight yet to come.


Suspect arrested in murder of Chinese student found dead in Iowa almost a year ago Chinese prosecutors have charged Li Xiangnan, the dead student's boyfriend, with intentional homicide Victim's father Shao Chunsheng tells CNN he is relieved For a grieving father, the long quest for justice is one step closer to being over. Nearly 10 months after his daughter was found strangled to death in Iowa, Shao Chunsheng has learned that Chinese police have arrested the prime suspect in the murder. “They finally caught him. I feel relieved,” said Shao, in a telephone interview with CNN. On Monday, China’s Ministry of Public Security announced that Chinese police had recently arrested Li Xiangnan. Police in Iowa say Li, a former University of Iowa student, has long been suspected of killing his girlfriend Shao Tong, who was a student at Iowa State University. READ: Killing in the heartland; heartbreak in China Chinese authorities accuse Li of strangling Shao to death in the early morning of September 7 after arguments over their relationship. Shao was first reported missing on September 17, 2014.  It wasn’t until September 26 that police in Iowa found her body, stuffed in the trunk of her own car. By then Li, declared a “person of interest” and sought for questioning by authorities in Iowa, had already bought a one-way ticket and fled back to China. It has been nine months since Shao was notified of the death of his only child. Last February, Shao gave an exclusive interview to CNN in the hope of forcing investigators in China and the U.S. to collaborate more in the search for Li. China’s Ministry of Public Security says Li turned himself in to police on May 13, in Wenzhou, the eastern Chinese city where he and his family live. That day police placed him into criminal detention, according to a press release posted on the website of the Ministry of Public Security. On June 19,  Wenzhou prosecutors formally charged Li with the intentional homicide. There was little precedent for a case like this, where a Chinese student was wanted for questioning in the killing of another Chinese student in the U.S. There is no extradition treaty between the nations, and the likelihood of China handing Li over for questioning – when he could be found – was slim, legal scholars told CNN in the spring. At the invitation of U.S. law enforcement, Chinese authorities sent an investigative group to the U.S. to gather evidence in early June, according to the Ministry of Public Security. Chinese and American investigators studied the crime scene and questioned certain witnesses. The U.S. authorities handed over evidence, documents and video materials to the Chinese delegation. Shao told CNN he was told by Wenzhou police that they had been monitoring Li’s movements since early April. “They located him but sometimes he disappeared,” Shao said. According to Shao, Chinese officials said they couldn’t arrest Li at the time because they had yet to receive evidence from their U.S. counterparts. An arrest warrant was issued in late April, according to Shao. He learned that Li’s parents accompanied him when he turned himself in on May 13. But it wasn’t until last week that Shao learned about the arrest.  The next day, he was summoned to Wenzhou to conduct DNA tests. “I didn’t see Li Xiangnan,” he said. “I was not allowed to and I didn’t want to. Seeing him would have been too much to handle.” Shao said police in Wenzhou will need to further verify the evidence, and police told him they hoped the investigation would be finished in two months. When reached by CNN, the Wenzhou Public Security Bureau declined to give further details about this case. Shao said he was told that Li would be put on trial in China, instead of being extradited to the U.S. “I’m truly grateful that Chinese and U.S. authorities came together and solved the case eventually.” Wang Xilu, the former president of Chinese Students and Scholars Association at Iowa State University who helped facilitate communication between the Shao family and the university, told CNN he was excited by the news. “I knew the day would come when justice would be done.” Although he still has sleepless nights due to grief, Shao said some of his depression has lifted. “A Chinese saying goes, ‘A murderer should pay for his crime with his life,” he said. “I hope Li will be brought to justice.” CNN’s Ivan Watson in Beijing and Kevin Wang in Atlanta contributed to this report


In a spectacular finale to the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, the Royal Shakespeare Company has boldly embraced digital special effects for a new production of “The Tempest” in his birthplace of Stratford-upon-Avon. It’s believed that this is the first time that a character (Shakespearean or otherwise) has been “live motion captured” on stage using the latest technology. A great English stage actor, Simon Russell Beale, is Prospero, the magician orchestrating “the tempest” that shipwrecks old enemies onto his enchanted island. In the play Prospero is barefoot and dressed drably in black like a university don. Bloodied and half-naked: 400 years of Shakespeare in posters In contrast, his spirit servant, Ariel, lithely played by Mark Quartley, is in an elaborately painted skin tight Xsens body suit. Tucked inside are 17 motion capture sensors, including one strapped under his cockatoo hair and one on each foot. Uniquely, this is an Ariel that can shape-shift before our eyes. When on stage, he is always visible but can recede into the shadows and conjure up various avatars of himself at will – a blue Ariel, a sea nymph and a harpy (half woman, half bird)  – that flit around in real time moving exactly as he does. The RSC’s artistic director, Gregory Doran cites early 17th century Jacobean masques as “astonishing – the multimedia events of their time.” So why not experiment with their modern equivalent? Two years ago, Doran approached the American technology giant Intel after seeing a YouTube video of a 3-D whale exhibited at an electronics trade fair in Las Vegas. The whale emerged from a large screen and swam back and fourth over an amazed audience. The ancient art of kung fu goes digital “That,” Doran exclaimed to us, “is what I wanted for ‘The Tempest!’” After 20 years at the RSC, this is the first time he has directed Shakespeare’s last solely authored play. Motion capture expertise was additionally supplied by a British company, Imaginarium, founded by actor and director Andy Serkis – famous for playing Gollum in “Lord of the Rings.” The technology has advanced rapidly in the last few years. Serkis believes an actor “can now play anything under the sun,” and calls it “performance capture – not just capturing physical motions but emotions.” Mark Quartley’s face was scanned and Ariel avatars were sculpted from this. During the harpy sequence, he also wears a head-mounted camera. Imaginarium’s Studio Head, Ben Lumsden explained, “we drive the harpy’s facial expressions with Mark’s facial expressions.” Quartley himself found the experience, “mostly liberating. It gives you more options as an actor. My avatar can do things physically that I can’t do.” The RSC designer, Stephen Brimson Lewis has created a striking set – a galleon split asunder, its wooden ribs flanking the sides of the thrust stage. Motion capture is mostly used so that Ariel can “show off to his master.” Brimson Lewis believes the technology “can capture the spirit of an actor’s performance. It’s puppeteering on a very finite level.” This has probably been the most fiendishly complex production in the RSC’s history (four or five times more complex than anything else, according to one young computer programmer) and in all likelihood the most expensive, although neither the RSC nor Intel were prepared to discuss costs. After two years of planning and consultation it is a meld of traditional stagecraft – set, sound, music and lighting design – with extensive video projection and state of the art motion capture. Twenty-seven video projectors and 26 motion capture cameras are trained on the stage. When we dropped in during technical rehearsals, some 20 designers and programmers were encamped in the front stalls behind a flickering bank of computers. In Russell Beale’s view, “the theater has always been very catholic. I think it will nick anything of interest. As another tool in the box and a very impressive one, then yes it will be around and I’m sure it will develop.” ‘The Tempest’ is playing at the Royal Shakespeare theater, Stratford-upon-Avon, until 21 January 2017. For more information, future dates and screenings visit www.rsc.org.uk


Akayed Ullah pledged loyalty to ISIS, law enforcement official says The suspect wore an "improvised low-tech explosive device" Akayed Ullah set off a pipe bomb explosion at a bustling bus terminal near Times Square with the hope of “taking as many innocent people as he could with him,” according to a federal prosecutor in Manhattan. “Through incredibly good fortune, his bomb did not seriously injure anyone other than himself,” acting US Attorney for the Southern District Joon Kim said Tuesday. Ullah, 27, and five other people were injured Monday. Here’s the latest on the suspect: – Ullah lives in Brooklyn and is of Bangladeshi descent, two law enforcement sources said. – He arrived in the United States on an F43 family immigrant visa in 2011, DHS spokesman Tyler Houlton said, calling him a “lawful permanent resident from Bangladesh who benefited from extended family chain migration.” – He faces five federal terrorism-related charges and three state terrorism-related charges, according to court documents. – He had no criminal record in the US before the bombing, according to a preliminary background check. – Ullah has no criminal record in his native Bangladesh, according to Sahely Ferdous, a Bangladesh police spokeswoman. Ferdous said Ullah last travelled to Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka – where he was born and raised – in September, but police had no information on why he was there. –  A federal law enforcement source said Ullah’s travel overseas was not significant for the alleged planning of this attack. Related article New York bombing suspect on Facebook: 'Trump you failed' – Police in Bangladesh have been speaking with Ullah’s wife in an effort to learn more about “how he was influenced and how he joined these activities,” Ferdous said, adding that authorities went to the wife’s residence in the capital Dhaka to question her. – Ferdous said Ullah and his wife have a 1-year-old child, but she was not sure of the gender and had no information as to whether the wife was living in Dhaka or just visiting. – He recently did electrical work close to Port Authority with his brother. That brother lives in the same apartment building as Ullah, according to law enforcement. – Ullah is in custody and is now at Bellevue Hospital, where he is being treated for lacerations and burns to his hands and abdomen. He is said to be seriously injured. –  He did not pray at a mosque, according to a law enforcement source, but prayed at his home in Brooklyn. The source said that several of Ullah’s family members are not cooperating with authorities at this time. – The suspect wore an “improvised low-tech explosive device attached to his body. He intentionally detonated that device,” Police Commissioner James O’Neill said. – The device was a pipe bomb affixed to his person with a combination of Velcro and zip ties, said John Miller, deputy commissioner of intelligence and counter terrorism for the city. – Investigators confirm the suspect had at least two devices, a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN. The device that detonated was a foot-long pipe and contained black powder, a battery, wiring, nails and screws, the source said. – The explosive chemical ignited, but the pipe itself did not explode, lessening its impact, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told CNN. – The suspect made the bomb last week at his apartment in Brooklyn, a law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the investigation told CNN. – Cuomo said it was an amateur, “effectively low-tech device.” – The suspect was first spotted on a security camera as he began to climb the subway station stairs to the 18th Avenue F. train platform in Brooklyn at 6:25 a.m., according to one law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the investigation. – He then switched to the A train at Jay St./MetroTech stop in Brooklyn before leaving the train at the Port Authority Bus Terminal stop in Manhattan, the same law enforcement official says. – Grainy surveillance footage shows commuters walking through a tunnel when a burst of smoke erupts into the hallway, quickly filling it. Commuters flinch and take cover. When the smoke clears, a man can be seen lying on the ground in the hallway. – Ullah, on his way to carrying out the attack, posted on Facebook, saying, “Trump you failed to protect your nation,” according to a criminal complaint. – Recent Israeli actions in Gaza compelled Ullah to carry out the attack, a law enforcement source said. The suspect was upset, in his words, with the “incursion into Gaza,” the source said, but did not elaborate on what incursion he may have been alluding to. Israel launched airstrikes this weekend against what it said were Hamas targets in Gaza after several rockets were fired out of Gaza toward Israel. This came amid widespread protests over President Trump’s move to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. – In conversations with authorities, Ullah pledged allegiance to ISIS, according to one law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the investigation. – “I did it for the Islamic State,” Ullah told investigators, according to the federal complaint. – Ullah’s ISIS radicalization began in 2014, according to the complaint. –  He began researching how to build improvised explosive devices about a year ago, began collecting the necessary items two to three weeks ago, and built the bomb in his home a week ago, the complaint states. –  A passport in his name with a handwritten message – “O America, die in your rage” – was recovered by investigators. – Ullah told investigators he was motivated in part by pro-ISIS Christmas attack propaganda circulated about a month ago online with an image of Santa Claus over Times Square, a law enforcement source told CNN. – One of his goals in the attack was to terrorize as many people as possible – on a workday, the complaint said. – “Ullah had apparently hoped to die in his own misguided rage, taking as many innocent people as he could with him,” Kim told reporters. – Ullah held a New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission for-hire vehicle driver’s license from March 2012 through March 2015, NYC TLC Deputy Commissioner for Public Affairs Allan J. Fromberg said in a statement to CNN. – That license lapsed and was not renewed in March 2015, Fromberg said. – Ullah was not licensed to drive a NYC yellow taxi, he said. – “As taxi and for-hire vehicle drivers are independent contractors and not employees, I have no way of knowing whether he drove for any particular base, or whether he simply got the license but didn’t drive at all,” Fromberg said. “That said, since he held an FHV license, if in fact he did drive, we do know that it could not have been a yellow taxi.” – Alan Butrico owns a residential building next door to the building where he says Ullah and his family live. – Butrico said Ullah lives in the basement, his sister on the first floor and his brother on the top floor. – Neighbors told Butrico they had heard fighting and yelling at Ullah’s home during the past two nights. This story has been updated with more information based on a federal criminal complaint against Ullah. CNN’s Kristina Sgueglia, Brynn Gingras, Shimon Prokupecz, Sonia Moghe and Lawrence Crook III contributed to this report.


China’s first homegrown large military transport aircraft has entered service, with the country’s Defense Ministry calling it “a crucial step” in air power projection. The Y-20, with a maximum takeoff weight of about 200 tons, officially joined the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in a ceremony Wednesday in the southwestern city of Chengdu, the ministry said in a statement. Designed to transport cargo and people over long distances in challenging weather, the Y-20 – powered by four turbofan engines – is reportedly capable of flying 4,500 kilometers with a full load. Its range would extend to almost 8,000 kilometers when carrying 40 tons of freight. READ: Incredible aircraft that’ll shake up world’s largest airshow The plane is part of a massive program to modernize China’s armed forces, the world’s largest, which includes the development of aircraft carriers, anti-satellite missiles and stealth fighters. Nicknamed “Chubby Girl” because of its huge size, the plane goes into service as the PLA eyes a greater international role – with China building its first overseas military base in Djibouti. However, China’s neighbors, as well as Washington, are watching warily, with Beijing becoming more assertive in its stance on the South China Sea and other territorial disputes. OPINION: China’s military gearing up to compete with U.S. The Y-20 – whose maiden flight took off in 2013 – is often compared to the Boeing C-17, the large military transporter that has been carrying U.S. troops and cargo around the world for the past two decades. Although the C-17 is bigger, Boeing closed its production last year, while China is in the midst of an ambitious program of upgrading its military hardware and considers the Y-20 a breakthrough in the country’s aircraft development. Some analysts view the timing of the Y-20’s formal entry of service as a sign of China’s plan to seek potential overseas buyers at this year’s Farnborough International Airshow, to be held in England next week.


Ivanka Trump is getting a West Wing office and a security clearance But she will not have a formal role in her father's administration Ivanka Trump’s growing role in her father’s administration directly conflicts with his past statements and renews questions about nepotism in the White House. The first daughter is officially moving into a West Wing office and obtaining a security clearance, a White House official told CNN Monday. She will also receive government-provided communications devices, although she will not draw a salary or technically be a government employee, per the official. The news confirms what had been expected soon after Trump’s election, given how closely Ivanka Trump advised her father during his campaign. But for months, officials denied she would work directly from the West Wing, and her father, President Donald Trump, also claimed during the transition that he would not seek a security clearance for her. “I am not trying to get ‘top level security clearance’ for my children. This was a typically false news story,” tweeted in November. I am not trying to get "top level security clearance" for my children. This was a typically false news story. But Trump changed his mind, according to what press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters Wednesday. “Ivanka has decided to go above and beyond and act in certain ways to ensure that she complies with certain rules by maintaining the federal records act, getting a security clearance so that if she is privy to any information that is classified, she has to abide by the same rules and regulations in terms of being in a room,” he said. Ivanka Trump took a formal leave of absence from her eponymous apparel and accessories brand, as well as the Trump Organization, in January. While she will not have a formal title or role, Ivanka Trump has long been a key trusted adviser to her father, through her young adulthood to her time as executive vice president of real estate development and acquisition at the Trump Organization, and, ultimately, to his 2016 presidential campaign. Trump will continue in that capacity, serving as the President’s “eyes and ears,” per her attorney, Jamie Gorelick. “She will not be his only source of input and insight, obviously, but she may be able to provide insights into the concerns of people whom he might not meet as President,” Gorelick told CNN via email. In the first several weeks of the administration, she’s already been on hand for key happenings, including roundtable discussions with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a Florida school visit with her father and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, an Oval Office bill signing encouraging women in STEM, a visit to the National African American Museum of History and Culture and West Wing meetings on human trafficking and manufacturing, among others. However, she has not yet spoken publicly at all – at events or in media interviews — since her father assumed office. Ivanka Trump’s elevation has prompted critics to note the potential violation of the nepotism law, passed in 1967, that says no public official – from the President down to a low-level manager at a federal agency – may hire or promote a relative. But the law states that any appointee found to have violated the law is “not entitled to pay” by the federal government, which appears to offer the opportunity for Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, who is already serving in Trump’s West Wing, to forgo paychecks while still serving the administration. When Kushner officially joined Trump’s team in January, the Justice Department concluded that his post as senior adviser was not in violation of federal anti-nepotism laws. “In choosing his personal staff, the President enjoys an unusual degree of freedom, which Congress found suitable to the demands of his office,” wrote Daniel Koffsky, deputy assistant attorney general in the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel, which serves as interpreter of federal law for the White House. Koffsky reasoned in January that the anti-nepotism law covers only appointments in an “executive” agency and that the White House Office is not an executive agency within the law. He cited a separate law that gives the President broad powers to hire his staff. That law authorizes the President to appoint “employees in the White House office without regard to any other provision of law regulating the employment or compensation of persons in the government service.” Spicer said Ivanka Trump will follow the ethical standards applicable to all federal employees. “Even though she’s not a federal employee, she’ll follow the restrictions that would apply if she were. She’s taken these steps with the advice of counsel and in consultation of the Office of Government Ethics,” he said. But critics argue that even if Trump is legally in compliance with anti-nepotism laws, it’s not enough. “What’s she doing exactly? Nobody knows. What qualifies her? Apparently, being the President’s daughter. There’s a word for this: nepotism. And it makes everything Ivanka has done up to this point to position herself as an example for working women into a farce,” wrote Amanda Carpenter, a conservative commentator and CNN contributor, Tuesday on Cosmopolitan.com. The broadening of Trump’s role in her father’s administration is unprecedented by any modern member of a first family. Hillary Clinton had a West Wing office during her husband’s administration, a move she came to regret, per Kate Andersen Brower, author of “First Women: The Grace and Power of America’s Modern First Ladies” and a CNN contributor. “Hillary confided in Laura Bush when she was showing her around the second floor after the election and told her she wished she hadn’t had an office in the West Wing. She realized that the public wasn’t ready for a first lady to be so active in policy. And she blamed herself in part for the Democrats’ disastrous 1994 midterm election loss,” Brower said. In a 2007 interview, Clinton told The New York Times that she did not have a security clearance and did not attend National Security Council meetings. President George W. Bush, who worked on his father’s campaign, is the most recent parallel to Ivanka Trump, Brower said. “But even he wasn’t sitting in on high-level policy meetings when his father was in the White House. It definitely complicates matters when someone who can’t be fired – aka a family member – is this involved in an administration,” she said. CNN’s Kate Bennett, Eugene Scott, Evan Perez, Pamela Brown, Sara Murray, Daniella Diaz and Eli Watkins contributed to this report


Editor’s Note: Raul A. Reyes, an attorney and member of USA Today’s board of contributors, writes frequently for CNN Opinion. Follow him on Twitter @RaulAReyes. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his. Raul Reyes: In a perfect world, no one would vote for Trump, given his bigotry, misogyny, Islamophobia and xenophobia Our democracy is a multicultural jumble of ideas and opinions. Like it or not, Latino Trump supporters fit right in, Reyes says They are a voting block that is the object of curiosity and disbelief.  They have been covered extensively by an incredulous media.  They generate fascination as well as scorn. They are Latinos for Trump – and their existence cannot be denied. Although polls show Hillary Clinton with as much as a 50-point lead among Latino voters, Donald Trump still manages to get the support of almost 20% of Latinos. That’s nearly one in five of America’s largest ethnic minority group. So why would any Latino support the presidential candidate who has run the most anti-Mexican, anti-immigrant campaign in modern history? Latinos actually support Trump for the same reasons that some other Americans do. Although their motivation may seem misguided, their support for Trump speaks to the overall diversity of the Latino electorate. Latinos for Trump are a product of factors both prosaic and complex. US Latinos currently number around 55 million. The Pew Center estimates that 27 million of them are eligible to vote in the presidential election. These huge numbers encompass recent arrivals and people whose ancestors have been on American soil since it was part of Mexico. It encompasses bodega workers and CEOs. U.S. Latinos can be natural-born citizens or immigrants from more than 20 countries across Central and South America. US Latinos can be black, Asian, Jewish, Mormon, evangelical Christian, LGBT, and everything in between. It is unrealistic to expect such an enormous group of potential voters to fall into ideological lockstep. Assuming that Latinos will not support Trump is a simplistic way of looking at our communities. It is also a mistake to expect Latino voters to mirror African-American voters. An October CBS News poll found Trump with just 4% support from likely African-American voters (in a four-way race including Gary Johnson and Jill Stein). But Latino voters are far less monolithic than African Americans due to differences in our collective experiences. The defining moments in African-American history include slavery, the southern civil rights movement and the election of our first black president.  For Latinos these moments are immigration, relations with Cuba and the civil rights movement in the southwest.  So while the interests of Latinos and African Americans may overlap on many issues, each electorate is informed by a unique and different history. What’s more, the ugliness of Trump’s immigration rhetoric does not necessarily resonate as an issue with all Latinos. Cuban-Americans and Puerto Ricans, for example, do not share the same immigration concerns as Mexican Americans. In fact, new research from Latino Decisions breaks down the top concerns of Latino voters by region.  While immigration was the top concern of Latinos in California, in Texas Latinos were most concerned with lowering the cost of health care. New York Latinos were most concerned with improving wages, while terrorism was the top concern of Latinos in Florida. Related article The trouble with Trump's word choices Like other voters, some Latinos are attracted to Trump’s promises of change, his message on jobs, and his outsized public image. His ability to channel a populist sense of outrage has won over some Latinos, too. Trump could have probably earned more Latino support had he stayed on an aspirational message and not derailed himself by launching attacks on everyone from a Latina former Miss Universe to a distinguished Mexican-American judge. Many prominent Latino conservatives such as Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), former Bush Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and syndicated columnist Linda Chavez have refused to endorse Trump. Yet Latinos can be just as partisan as anyone else.  Among the roughly one-quarter of Latino voters who identify with or lean towards the GOP, there are no doubt those who simply cannot bring themselves to vote for a Democrat. No matter how they might feel towards Trump, they still prefer him to Clinton. Sign up for CNN Opinion’s new newsletter.Join us on Twitter and Facebook There are likely deeper forces in play here as well. Historically, Latinos have been portrayed negatively by the media. It is not far-fetched to think that some Latinos have unconsciously absorbed these messages and then acted upon them. Such “internalized oppression,” as sociologists call it, is not unlike homophobes who have been revealed to have issues with their own sexuality. Thus we have Latina Trump supporter A.J. Delgado insisting that Trump did not insult Latinos when he called immigrants “rapists” and criminals. Or the head of Latinos for Trump, Marco Gutierrez, on MSNBC warning of “taco trucks on every corner.” Their positions make more sense when we see them as a result of years of ingesting inaccurate stereotypes and fear-mongering. In a perfect world, no one would vote for Trump, given his bigotry, misogyny, Islamophobia and xenophobia. He is unqualified in virtually every relevant way for the presidency. Still, those who choose to support him have the right to do so, regardless of their ethnicity or background. Our democracy is a multicultural, messy jumble of ideas and opinions. Like it or not, Latino Trump supporters fit right in.


A Syrian dentist and his pharmacist wife moved with three children to a Georgia suburb He cannot work as a dentist and she cannot work as a pharmacist until they re-certify in the U.S. They represent a portion of the educated, middle-class Syrian refugees who have left the war-torn nation In their old life in Syria, Ahmad and Sama Keichour would tuck their children into bed in the evening, give a nod to their nanny and head out the door. They’d walk along the cobblestone streets of Aleppo, eager to find a table among the bustling market stalls and boutiques. They’d sip coffee and look north to a view they had cherished since childhood: the Citadel, a medieval palace in the center of Syria’s second largest city. It’s survived since the third millennium B.C. Now Dr. Ahmad Keichour sees the Citadel only in fitful dreams as he sleeps in an apartment just outside Atlanta. The 42-year-old is trying hard to move forward, to be very grateful for being alive and for having his wife and three children with him. He’s among the many well-educated, middle-class Syrians who’ve fled the war by the hundreds of thousands, but he’s among the few who’ve left by plane and whose emotional experience hasn’t dominated newscasts. He sits on a couch, Googling old and recent photos of Aleppo. For hours, he clicks on postcard scenes and then on pictures of bloody bodies strewn in the street, intact streetscapes and then neighborhoods in ruins. He lingers on images of the Citadel as it was and as it is now, pockmarked with bullets, damaged from shelling. “It was beautiful. So many professionals like myself and my wife, living a very good, very beautiful life,” he said, not taking his eyes off the photos. “You see – they destroy this, they kill everyone, they kill all of us.” Two of his relatives died in the fighting. “I am jealous of the dead,” Ahmad said. “They don’t have to see what’s happened to Aleppo.” More than 250,000 people have died since 2011, when violence broke out in Syria. At least 11 million people in the country of 22 million have fled their homes. Syrians are now the world’s largest refugee population, according to the United Nations. Most are struggling to find safe haven in Europe. Only 1,500 refugees have entered the United States since 2011, but the Obama administration announced in September that 10,000 Syrians will be allowed entry next year. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released in mid-September, which surveyed 1,251 U.S. adults, found that 35% said the U.S. policy  allows for too many Syrians to enter the country. Twenty-three percent said the number allowed to enter was fine, and 20% said the United States should welcome more. It’s a contentious topic in the presidential election season. GOP candidate Donald Trump has mused that Syrians coming to the United States could be terrorists or members of ISIS. Congressman Peter T. King, a New York Republican, raised that specter, too. White House spokesman Josh Earnest countered by saying that all Syrians who gain approved entry will have gone through intense FBI and Homeland Security background checks, which include biometric and biographical analysis. Atlanta-based immigration attorney Hiba Ghalib, whose parents are Iraqi and whose husband is Syrian, believes that morally, the United States should admit more Syrians. However, she worries that there’s already a lack of immigration officials spread throughout the country to process the complicated and lengthy paperwork. A backlog on asylum applications has slowed down that process even more. She tells every client to anticipate at least a year’s wait to get an interview. And that can be very challenging. Once asylum is applied for, an applicant is not allowed, under U.S. law, to work in the country for eight months. “You have to be ready financially for that,” she said. “And many who come here, especially those who didn’t plan to have to flee their countries, are not.” Which countries off Syrians resettlement; which ones do not Ahmad and Sama applied in January for Temporary Protective Status, which the United States makes available for people from 13 countries, including Syria. The status allows them to remain for one year at a time while their home countries are in a state of untenable conflict. TPS typically takes several months for approval, Ghalib said. It’s unclear why the couple’s application has not made it through the system. Every few days, Ahmad dials a toll-free immigration customer service number. “They say, ‘With your nationality, we don’t know, you just have to wait.’” The Keichours don’t have an immigration attorney. Ahmad brushes off the idea that the family might need one. He doesn’t directly say a lawyer would be a heavy weight on their already dwindling savings, but he makes it clear that their money is tight. He came to Atlanta because a dentist offered him a job, he said, and when Ahmad arrived that person stopped returning his calls. Sama, 37, was a pharmacist who owned her own apothecary in Syria. Her license is no good in the United States and she’s unemployed. Recently, Ahmad got a job as an assistant in a dental office, with a salary that he says barely covers the family’s bills. To be a dentist in the United States means he’ll have to spend years and thousands of dollars to go back to school and be certified. “I cannot pay for that,” he said. “I don’t have the time for that. I need to feed (my wife and kids) now.” The couple has two daughters – a one-year-old and 7-year-old – and a 10-year-old autistic son, Saleh. Sama recalls a horrifying day in Aleppo in 2012 when a bomb exploded near their home. She rushed to her son’s bedroom. “I saw Saleh lying on his stomach in bed with his entire body shaking violently,” she said. Hyper-sensitive to loud noises or abrupt motions, Saleh was frozen on his belly, his face contorted in agony for a long time until his mother eventually calmed him. “What I saw made me want to leave,” she said. They fled to Saudi Arabia. The family did not bring anything from the home that they built from the ground up in Aleppo, an ornate treasure that – in Syrian tradition – was constructed for several future generations to occupy. “I put my soul and energy into every stone,” Sama said. “When I locked my door in Aleppo, it did not cross my mind once that I would not be going back.” The only things they have from Syria are sentimental items they were able to carry, such as key chains they got during their earliest days as a couple. Ahmad was able to work in Saudi Arabia, but there were no programs that could help Saleh and the boy began to regress. Moving to the United States has allowed the Keichours to enroll their son in a school that caters to his needs. At least he is away from the bombs, his mother says, as the family sits down to break their fast on the first night of Eid al-Adha. The Muslim holiday, known as the Feast of Sacrifice, recalls the story of God testing Abraham by telling him to kill his son. Earlier that day, Sama had spoken online with her mother, who is still in Aleppo. Her eyes well with tears as she recounts their conversation. Sama knows that her mother will not tell her how dangerous it is. “She does not (want me) to worry,” Sama says. Eid dinner in their tiny apartment is an especially hard adjustment in their new life. It has always been spent with many family members. This is the first year the Keichours are alone. Opinion: Why U.S. should do more for refugees


Terrorist attacks hit three continents Friday – Europe, Africa and Asia. Many innocent people were killed Suddenly it felt as if a war was on. The toll was stark, as CNN.com reported: A beheading in France. An attack on tourists in Tunisia. A bombing in Kuwait. ISIS, the murderous group now rampaging through parts of the Middle East, has so far claimed responsibility for the Kuwait bombing. It is unknown whether all the attacks were the work of the same group.


Editor’s Note: CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem is the author of the best-selling “Security Mom: An Unclassified Guide to Protecting Our Homeland and Your Home.” She is a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School, a former Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security in the Obama administration, host of the national security podcast The SCIF and founder of Kayyem Solutions, a security consulting firm. The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers. The House Intelligence Committee meets Monday on Russia and the 2016 elections Juliette Kayyem: Five key players will decide how much bigger the story becomes On Monday, the House Intelligence Committee will hold its first, much-anticipated public hearing on Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election. The hearing is significant because it will determine whether all the noise regarding Russia, Trump and the relationship between the two is grounds for further investigation. There is quite a bit to look out for. But five key players will determine how much bigger this story gets. Comey’s “October Surprise” is viewed by many Democrats as hurting Clinton’s electoral odds, but Comey is likely not on anybody’s side. Indeed, it was reported that he was unhappy with the Trump team and the false allegations by the President that President Obama had the FBI spy on him. He will likely reaffirm what has already been confirmed by the Senate and House intelligence heads: that Trump’s tweet about wiretapping has no basis in fact. But the key issue is whether he will confirm – or punt – a direct question about whether there is a criminal investigation into the Trump team’s potential collusion with the Russians during the election. If he says yes, the political earth will shake. The early firing of Acting Attorney General Sally Yates was dubbed by many as Trump’s “Monday Night Massacre.” Related article Monday night massacre is a wake-up call to Senate Democrats Trump fired Yates for refusing to carry out his first Muslim immigration ban, but perhaps the most critical legacy of Yates’ brief time as acting attorney general was her warning to the White House that a top adviser in the administration, then National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, could be compromised because of ties to Russia. The White House did not do anything with the information until it was leaked to the press. What did Yates tell the White House? On Monday, she will testify and likely address this burning question. Committee Chairman Devin Nunes was on Trump’s transition team and remains unconvinced that Russia tried to help Trump, while the top Democrat, Adam Schiff, has not pulled any punches when it comes to his criticism of the President. Schiff has also made it very clear that he plans to seek testimony from former MI6 officer Christopher Steele, the author of the unconfirmed dossier containing allegations about Trump’s ties to Russia, as part of the committee’s investigation. Related video GOP's Nunes: No evidence for wiretap claim Their relationship is, in Facebook terms, complicated. When Nunes recently conceded that there was no “there there” about the Trump wiretap claims, it was a significant moment – for the first time he showed some independence from a White House that had used him as their proxy. Will that independence continue?  Meanwhile, Schiff has emerged as a party star and will not let Nunes run away with the questioning or focus. One of the most relevant players in this inquiry will not be there. Flynn, who recently disclosed ties he had to Turkey during his work on the campaign, also received significant payments from Russia for speeches and work. Related article Did Michael Flynn break the law? We have certainly not heard the last from Gen. Flynn, and it is only a matter of time before he is called before either the House or the Senate Intelligence Committee. We also do not know if he is assisting any investigation. In the meantime, the man who won’t be present at the March 20 hearing will certainly be a key topic in the testimony of others. I suspect he will be watching. His “wiretap” tweets have so captured our collective focus and time that it may be easy to forget just how damaging they were. But they are beside the point. Related video Trump on Putin: One tough cookie The real story is Russia: its influence on our elections and what Trump knew about it. This story and this investigation will continue on a path of the slow drip, drip, drip variety; there will be no smoking gun. This is just a preliminary hearing, and there are many more to come, including the Senate Intelligence Committee review. Sign up for CNN Opinion’s new newsletter.Join us on Twitter and Facebook Few in Congress have fallen in line with the Trump administration’s call to dismiss these reports as “fake news,” and so the longer the Russia issue drags on, the further the spin will shift away from partisan sour grapes. It will instead take the needed shape of a bipartisan demands for real answers. The President may not be ready for it.

Russia's involvement in the 2016 election


Editor’s Note: David A. Andelman, a contributor to CNN and columnist for USA Today, is the author of “A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 and the Price We Pay Today.” He formerly was a foreign correspondent for The New York Times in Asia and Europe, and Paris correspondent for CBS News. Follow him on Twitter @DavidAndelman. This article has been updated to reflect more recent news events. The views expressed in this commentary are his. Donald Trump has just thrown the whole steaming mess of the Iran nuclear treaty into the hands of a deeply wounded and divided Congress, having built no foundation for such an action with the five other nations that signed the accord – four of them desperately important for US national security. At the same time, he has left much of the Middle East and Europe holding their collective breath, wondering whether Iran will now take this excuse to throw the treaty out and embark on a mad dash to build a nuclear arsenal. Indeed there are many forces, even in Iran’s archenemy Israel, who recognize the value of an entire decade without a nuclear-armed Iran on its doorstep. If Iran is smart enough, and the pact’s other signatories diplomatically adroit enough, Iran could now play not the injured party, but choose a smarter path that will deeply wound the US whilst pulling the world back from the brink of a nuclear Armageddon toward which Trump has hurled us. Related article Trump to announce combative new approach to Iran As CNN has reported, Trump had long ago decided to assert to Congress that Iran has failed to comply with the pact that bars it from developing a nuclear weapon for at least a decade. None of this process of “certification” is actually in the document itself—having been tacked on by a skeptical, Republican-controlled Congress to keep President Obama in line. Now, it has put the process itself on thin ice and with the tough language of Trump in his message today, ever more confrontational with the rulers in Tehran. This certification process must be taken every 90 days. By refusing to certify compliance, he has now left it up to Congress whether to layer on new sanctions in reprisal. Iran has said that such action could lead to its refusal to recognize the terms of the pact and potentially launch it immediately into a program to develop a nuclear weapon in a year rather than a decade or more. But Iran would be making an enormous mistake. Certainly, there are forces in Iran anxious to push President Hassan Rouhani and its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who still pulls all the strings, into the path of pullout and arms development. But there are other forces, particularly Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, a suave American-educated diplomat, and his predecessor, Ali Akbar Salehi, the MIT-educated head of Iran’s nuclear agency, who should see the enormous opportunity that Trump has presented them. Iran should be shrewd enough to retaliate by simply declaring it will continue in the pact but freeze the United States out of all benefits. It will give every new foreign purchase, oil contract or trade deal to the other parties that signed the deal and continue to respect it. Let’s examine what that could mean. Recall, first, the signatories: France, Germany, Britain, Russia, China and, of course, the United States. Each has already availed itself handsomely with the conclusion of the pact, whose principal benefit for Iran has been its emergence from decades as a pariah state, to resume a prominent place in the global economy. It must be remembered that Iran is among the wealthiest nations in the Middle East, its proven oil reserves second only to Saudi Arabia. Its pre-sanctions oil exports, the second highest in the region, shrank to a trickle. Suddenly, with the ability to sell its oil abroad liberated by the lifting of sanctions, oil executives descended on Teheran. In August, Iran’s oil exports to China were expected to hit an 11-month high of 773,000 barrels a day, with Tehran offering incentives of 2 cents a barrel, according to Reuters. Iran is en route to pushing its output to 4 million barrels a day by March, Iran’s Financial Tribune says. And Iran has already certified oil giants from France (Total), Britain (Shell), Italy (ENI) and Russia (Gazprom and Lukoil) as potential partners. So far, existing congressional sanctions as a result of Iran’s missile program have kept any US-based oil company out of the running. Iran could easily reverse this process. But there is much more to Iran than oil. Iran is also an enormous customer – from commercial jets to autos and trucks, machine goods to iron and steel. Western customers stand to reap enormous profits from the booming post-sanctions trade. By June, Iran had already placed new orders for more than 200 passenger jets since the lifting of sanctions, including 100 from the European consortium Airbus worth $18 billion to $20 billion, and 80 from Boeing, worth $16.6 billion, reports say. Clearly, Airbus would be ready, willing and able to step into any breach left by the United States ditching the nuclear pact. Related article Is it time to talk about the 25th Amendment? And then there are automobiles. France’s Renault signed a nearly $800 million deal for new car production in Iran, while Peugeot said it would be arriving in the market this year as part of a $480 million joint venture to produce 200,000 new cars. Germany’s Daimler was the first to sign a major contract to return to Iran in January 2016 for production of Mercedes-Benz trucks. Again, nice markets for American producers, which a shrewd Iran could simply bar from any future business dealings. Not surprisingly, the Iranian leadership has been somewhat standoffish in terms of plunging headlong into any major American contracts, particularly with the erratic administration in Washington and a deeply damaged secretary of state and Congress it is being forced to confront. Equally, America’s European partners in the agreement will be looking greedily at the commercial opportunities that might be posed though petrified at the potential consequences should Iran pull out and launch its dash toward a nuclear weapon – far more potentially destabilizing for Europeans in easy range of any Iranian missile than anything cooked up by North Korea. And Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has scarcely been in a position to reassure any of the parties, backed as he is by an erratic President willing and able to reverse with the turn of a tweet anything he might negotiate. A deeply divided Congress is hardly capable of taking a rational position. The contrasts with Secretary of State John Kerry, who successfully undertook the delicate negotiations that led to the Iran nuclear deal, and President Barack Obama are striking. Perhaps it is time for Trump to find a secretary he trusts to develop and carry out a viable plan in the first place that will not leave our allies twisting in the wind and American businesses with empty pockets. Where are all those manufacturing jobs Trump promised, anyway? Not to mention the security of keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of two new players with apparently little self-control over their eventual use. Note: This article has been updated following news of President Trump’s strategy on Iran.


American student dies in West Bank Suspected attacker is arrested An American yeshiva student was among three people killed in the West Bank when an attacker fired shots from a vehicle and then rammed pedestrians with the car, the Israel Defense Forces said. The attack happened at a busy intersection in Gush Etzion, the IDF said. An unidentified gunman opened fire at vehicles stopped in traffic before ramming his vehicle into pedestrians, according to the IDF. The suspected assailant was arrested. Among those killed was 18-year-old Ezra Schwartz of Sharon, Massachusetts. Tori Bentkover, director of communications for the Consulate General of Israel to New England, says Schwartz graduated from Maimonides School in Brookline, Massachusetts, earlier this year and was studying in Israel at the time of his death. My heart is broken for the family of Ezra Schwartz and all those who knew and loved him, from Sharon to Brookline and across MA. A Palestinian man also was killed, emergency services told CNN. A number of Americans were injured in the attack, according to Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, the chairman of ZAKA, an emergency response organization. It was not immediately clear whether the victims were killed by gunfire or the impact of the vehicle. Gush Etzion is approximately 17 kilometers (10 miles) south of Jerusalem. Earlier Thursday, two people were killed in a stabbing attack in Tel Aviv, according to Israeli police. The attacker was arrested and is in police custody.  The two incidents make Thursday one of the deadliest days since the current spate of Arab-Israeli violence started in October.


Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman indicted on money laundering and other charges, filed a lawsuit challenging the broad authority of special counsel Robert Mueller and alleging the Justice Department violated the law in appointing Mueller. The suit brought Wednesday in US District Court in Washington, where Manafort and another former Trump campaign aide are charged, challenges Mueller’s decision to charge Manafort with alleged crimes that they say have nothing to do with the 2016 campaign, but rather relate to lucrative lobbying work Manafort and his deputy did for a former Russia-friendly government in Ukraine. That work ended in 2014, the suit says. Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates deny the allegations in the charges. Related article Read Paul Manafort's lawsuit against Mueller, Rosenstein and the Justice Department The legal action represents a new tack in a broader effort by supporters of the President to push back on the special counsel. Some Republicans have begun publicly calling for Mueller’s probe to be shut down. Manafort’s attorneys have echoed the President’s criticism that Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election is pursuing crimes that never happened. The Manafort lawsuit alleges Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Mueller have unlawfully exceeded the authorities allowed under the law governing special counsel appointments. The lawsuit contends that the order Rosenstein signed to appoint Mueller “exceeds the scope of Mr. Rosenstein’s authority to appoint special counsel as well as specific restrictions on the scope of such appointments.” A DOJ spokesperson responded with a statement, saying: “The lawsuit is frivolous but the defendant is entitled to file whatever he wants.” The lawsuit also includes new information on the scope of Mueller’s probe: In August, the Mueller prosecutors issued more than 100 subpoenas related to Manafort, the lawsuit alleges. Some of those subpoenas seek records from as early as 2005. In August, a prosecutor from Mueller’s office told Manafort that he’d be prosecuted for alleged crimes dating back to 2010, the complaint says. When Manafort’s lawyers asked Rosenstein in fall 2017 for clarification on whether Mueller’s team had the go-ahead to broaden the investigation into earlier years, they heard nothing back, the complaint says. Manafort’s indictment includes actions he took from 2006 to 2014. Related article Trump lawyers talked with special counsel team In previous court filings, prosecutors said they’ve collected 400,000 documents related to Manafort and Gates’ case, and identified 2,000 of those documents as especially relevant. The lawsuit’s focus is on a part of the Rosenstein order that says that Mueller may investigate “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.” The Manafort lawyers say that goes beyond what the law allows Rosenstein to empower Mueller to do. The Rosenstein order gives Mueller “carte blanche to investigate and pursue criminal charges in connection with anything he stumbles across while investigating, no matter how remote from the specific matter identified as the subject of the appointment order,” the lawsuit says. The Manafort lawsuit alleges that even if Rosenstein’s order is lawful, Mueller has exceeded his authority. Related article FBI raided Manafort home as part of Russia probe It also says that Manafort met in 2014 with the Justice Department and the FBI in the government’s investigation of his client, former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, ousted amid street protests that year. The Manafort suit claims the government told Manafort he was a witness in the investigation. The special counsel has now charged Manafort with conduct he had already voluntarily disclosed, the lawsuit says. Manafort “voluntarily met with DOJ prosecutors and FBI agents to discuss his offshore political consulting activities” in July 2014, the complaint says. At that time, the Justice Department told him they were working with Ukraine to locate stolen assets and focused on a former Ukrainian president, according to the complaint. “The office of the special counsel charged Mr. Manafort with the very conduct he voluntarily disclosed to DOJ almost three years prior to the appointment of Mr. Mueller as special counsel,” the complaint says. Manafort’s lawsuit notes that during his time working for the Ukrainian government he met regularly with the US ambassador in Kiev, suggesting that the US government knew what he was doing at the time. The suit also cites the July FBI raid on Manafort’s home, in which the special counsel team said it was seeking records of possible financial crimes dating to January 2006 – a decade before the presidential campaign Mueller is investigating. Manafort and Gates face a total of 12 criminal charges related to money laundering and failure to file federal disclosures. Both Manafort and Gates have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to appear again before the judge in the criminal case on January 16. CNN’s Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report.


North Korea could close its nuclear test site as early as May 23 Kim Jong Un announced it would be closed last month South Korean journalists may not be allowed to enter North Korea to cover the closure of Pyongyang’s nuclear test site, authorities in Seoul said, less than a week after they were reportedly invited. A spokesman for South Korea’s Unification Ministry, the government bureau in charge of all things North Korea, said that the North Korean government has not accepted visa applications for all of the South Korean journalists who applied to the country. North Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Saturday that the dismantlement “ceremony,” which will involve blowing up the tunnels under the sprawling complex known as Punggye-ri, could take place as early as May 23. Journalists from China, Russia, South Korea, the United States and the United Kingdom were to be invited to watch for transparency’s sake. Analysts say it will undoubtedly make for good pictures, but note that only journalists are being allowed in the country to watch. There’s been no word if nonproliferation experts with the technical know-how to properly verify the site’s closure have been extended an invitation. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announced last month that the country would shutter Punggye-ri, declaring that after six underground tests, the site had served its purpose, as the country has completed its quest to achieve nuclear weapons. Analysts say satellite imagery shows that the North Koreans have already begun dismantling equipment. Though Kim declared the site’s closure was due to his country’s success in its nuclear quest rather than acceding to global pressure, many in the international community saw his commitment to no longer test nuclear weapons underground as a positive step in the recent thaw in relations between North Korea and its adversaries. But after months of diplomatic rapprochement, the North Korean government has pulled back a bit, expressing displeasure with recent moves by Seoul and Washington. Pyongyang has threatened to pull out of next month’s planned summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump over recent statements by top White House officials about whether Pyongyang will give up its nuclear weapons. And last week, North Korea canceled talks with the South at the last minute because of a joint military exercises held by the United States and South Korea. Officials from the Trump administration say they expected hiccups like these and are moving forward with summit plans. Kim Jong Un’s father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il, was known to threaten to cancel international meetings to push for concessions. But other analysts say North Korea may be jockeying to revise the terms of the negotiations to gain an upper hand, rather than squeeze Washington and Seoul for some sort of material gain. CNN’s Paula Hancocks and Jungeun Kim contributed to this report