The risk of debris hitting anyone is minimal, experts say If wreckage falls on land, it could provide insight into China's space program China’s Tiangong-1 space lab was billed as a potent symbol of the country’s rise when it launched in 2011. Now, the lab is out of control and expected to crash-land on Earth by the end of March – posing a minuscule risk to humans but inflicting a blot on the nation’s bold push to become a space superpower. “They have a PR embarrassment on their hands,” said Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “The actual danger is small, but it is accepted international best practice nowadays that objects that big shouldn’t be able to fall out of the sky in this manner.” Space experts stress the potential danger to humans is minimal – the odds of debris from the vessel hitting a human are astronomically tiny, estimated to be less than one in 1 trillion. That compares with a one-in-1.4 million chance of a person in the US being struck by lightning. In the best-case and most likely scenario, the space lab will largely burn up as it enters Earth’s atmosphere over the ocean and a few parts will sink to the sea floor. “The worst realistic case is that the Tiangong-1 reenters over a highly populated area, and a few largest chunks hit the ground, with perhaps some minor property damage,” McDowell said. “But this has never happened in the 60-year history of reentering space debris. The chances are small.” The 8.5-ton, 40-foot Tiangong-1, or “Heavenly Palace,” was launched in September 2011. Along with its successor – the Tiangong-2, which launched in 2016 – it was a prototype for China’s ultimate space goal: a permanent, 20-ton space station that is expected to launch around 2022. It’s part of ambitious space plans that also include putting a man on the moon and sending a rover to Mars. The Tiangong-1 was last used by astronauts in 2013. “The original plan was for it to be retired soon after and sent under control into the ocean, but they were worried that its successor, Tiangong-2, might not get into orbit successfully, so they decided to keep the Tiangong-1 around as a backup,” McDowell said. But Tiangong-1 “ceased functioning” on March 16, 2016, China told the United Nations in May, without specifying why. China may have lost control of the lab because it ran out of fuel, said Roger Handberg, a professor at the University of Central Florida. Six months after Tiangong-1 went offline, Tiangong-2 went into orbit successfully. “While the Chinese would have, of course, preferred this event not to happen, this does not present a threat to their long-term human spaceflight plans,” said Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor and former chair of national security affairs at the US Naval War College in Rhode Island. As of December 24, Tiangong-1 was 286.5 kilometers (178 miles) up, compared with 348.3 kilometers (216 miles) in March, according to a weekly update on the space lab’s location published at the website of China’s manned space program. In its UN submission anticipating the craft’s fall to Earth, China said “most parts of Tiangong will be burned and destroyed in the process of reentering the atmosphere.” “It’s of little probability that it will cause harm to aviation or ground activities,” China stated. One risk is that humans could come into contact with remnants of the toxic hydrazine rocket fuel that might remain in the space vessel, Johnson-Freese said. “Worst case, it hits a populated area and curious individuals decide to investigate, thereby coming into contact with the hydrazine,” she said. Breathing hydrazine for short periods may cause coughing and irritation of the throat and lungs, convulsions, tremors or seizures, according to the US Agency for Toxic Substances. Though China has said it expects Tiangong-1 to crash-land by late March, unpredictable space weather in the outer atmosphere in the form of solar flares makes it hard to predict exactly when and where that will happen, McDowell said. He estimates the earliest reentry would be at the end of February. Experts say they know roughly the latitude at which the craft will land, putting places like Canada and the United Kingdom in the clear. But despite the international attention, it’s very likely the reentry will go unnoticed by most people. “Secret missile warning satellites will see a big flare in infrared when it burns up, but that information doesn’t usually come out to the public for a few hours,” McDowell said. “Unless it’s over a place where people actually see it happening, we won’t know until it’s all over.” China’s path to the stars has so far avoided fatal incidents like the Challenger and Columbia disasters that killed 14 US astronauts, but it’s not always been smooth. In 2007, it shot down one of its weather satellites 853 kilometers (530 miles) above Earth. The strike, which resulted in tens of thousands of pieces of debris, has forced the International Space Station to maneuver several times to avoid collisions – a scenario that played out to dramatic effect in the Oscar-winning movie, “Gravity.” If wreckage from the Tiangong-1 falls on land, it could potentially provide some insight into China’s space program. “It would be an opportunity for Western analysts to look at remnants of China space hardware. That’s a risk for the Chinese,” said Michael Listner, a lawyer and space law expert. US Congress in 2011 barred bilateral contact with individuals of the Chinese space program because of national security fears, although bilateral trade in the aviation industry has made China’s rocket program more open than it used to be. Meantime, China has ratified two international treaties that would require it recover any wreckage and assume liability for damage, Listner said. It’s common for space debris, such as spent satellites and rocket stages, to fall to Earth. In 2017, five objects heavier than 3 tons made uncontrolled reentries, McDowell said. All five melted as they entered the Earth’s atmosphere, he said. The last human space outpost to fall to Earth was the 135-ton Russian space station Mir in 2001. That was a controlled landing, with most parts burning up upon return and the rest landing in the ocean. The first US space station, the 74-ton Skylab, fell to Earth in an uncontrolled reentry in 1979. Some debris fell in sparsely populated Western Australia, incurring no damage save for a $400 fine for littering. More than 5,400 metric tons of space materials is estimated to have survived reentry in the past 50 years, with no reported casualties. Most space debris ends up in the remote southern Pacific Ocean, an area some call a space graveyard. CNN’s Serenitie Wang in Beijing contributed to this report.


Pilot stopped during security checks as the flight prepared to depart on Saturday night Cathay Pacific runs regular flights between its Hong Kong hub and London The male pilot has been bailed pending an investigation Cathay Pacific was forced to cancel a scheduled flight from London to Hong Kong after one of the pilots was arrested after trying to board the airliner with knives in his luggage. The pilot, who has not been identified, was stopped during security checks as the flight prepared to depart on Saturday night, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement Monday. “At around 21:10 hours police at Heathrow Airport were called to a staff search area. “Officers attended and subsequently the member of flight crew, a man, was arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon in a public place and possession of a knife blade / sharp pointed article in a public place.” He was then taken into custody at a local police station where he was later bailed and ordered to return in May pending an investigation, the police statement added. Cathay Pacific, which is headquartered in Hong Kong, told CNN in an email that it would cooperate with authorities, but that it was unable to provide further details as the incident is being investigated by police. It apologized to the 262 people on board Flight CX254, which eventually departed on Sunday, adding that it assisted passengers with overnight accommodation in London and alternative flight arrangements. Passengers were forced to wait in the seats on board the Boeing 777 for more than two hours before the service was canceled. “They just told us there were crew issues. The captain said ‘apologies for everything that has happened’. He said they tried to get another pilot but they couldn’t get there on time,” one passenger on the flight told the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.


Salah Abdeslam, a chief suspect in last November’s deadly terror attacks in Paris, was captured alive Friday during a raid in Belgium, a Belgian counterterrorism source told CNN. Abdeslam, 26, was injured in a shootout that ended with his capture in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek, a Belgian state broadcaster reported. Two people in total were injured in the raid, the Belgium counterterrorism source said. Even after Abdeslam’s capture, a police operation at the raided home continued, and two suspects still could be inside, Belgian broadcaster and CNN affiliate VTM reported. About 7 p.m. local time (2 p.m. ET), shots could be heard there, journalist Laila Benallal reported. Here are the latest developments as of 2:30 p.m. ET: Abdelsam was shot in the leg and has been taken to a hospital, Belgian broadcaster and CNN affiliate VTM reported, citing a police source CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank told Wolf Blitzer what happened: “The trail had gone completely cold until Tuesday when police went to an address in Brussels that they believe was linked to the Paris attacks, but they had no idea that Salah Abdeslam or any other terrorists were inside. “There was a big firefight and two of the terrorists managed to escape. They believe that one of those was probably Salah Abdeslam and then they’ve been working 24/7 since then to try to get him and they have just got him into custody and they have got him alive. “He will now be put on trial for those Paris attacks. “A big moment for the families who lost loved ones that day and a big moment for European security services. He represented still a significant threat for some kind of follow-on attack somewhere in Europe. “He was inside that safe house with a senior Algerian ISIS operative who was one of the ringmasters of the Paris attacks. That Algerian operative, Mohamed Belkaid, was killed by a Belgian police sniper in that operation on Tuesday afternoon. “He had been giving orders to the Paris attackers during the Paris attacks, including to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, coordinating that whole operation, so very significant moments indeed.” “We have him,” tweeted Theo Francken, Belgium’s state secretary for asylum policy and migration. Francken tweeted that message shortly after Paris terror attack suspect Salah Abdeslam was captured in a police raid. French President Francois Hollande said he and the Belgian Prime Minister were “aware of the ongoing operation in Molenbeek.” “I hope you will understand we will not disclose too much details for obvious security reasons. The Belgian and French intelligence services are cooperating on the investigation. “Right now, we are living an important moment, but we ought to let the Belgium police do its work without disturbance,” Hollande said. Earlier Friday, the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office revealed that Abdeslam’s fingerprints and DNA were found in a Brussels apartment that was raided on Wednesday. One person was killed and two people escaped in that operation, according to authorities. CNN’s Paul Cruickshank, Rachel Clarke, Michael Pearson, Greg Botelho, Mick Krever and Lindsay Isaac contributed to this report.


Editor’s Note: Eric D. Weitz is distinguished professor of history at the City College of New York and author of “A Century of Genocide: Utopias of Race and Nation.” The views expressed are his own. Eric Weitz: The United States has adopted what amounts to a military only approach to ISIS A more successful approach would also entail an American commitment to international justice, he says I sat 10 feet away from a genocide perpetrator. We were separated by a thick wall of bulletproof glass, but I could still feel his presence. Radovan Karadzic was cross-examining a Dutch battalion officer at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. The officer was calm and cool, but I felt immensely sad for him. The Dutchbat soldiers the officer had commanded, part of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Bosnia during the Yugoslav wars, had been excoriated by their fellow citizens upon their return home to the Netherlands. Why had they not protected Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica? Where were these Dutch peacekeepers when Serb paramilitaries slaughtered more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys and rounded up women and girls for deportation? With that kind of reception, many of the Dutchbat soldiers had succumbed to alcoholism, a few to suicide. Divorce rates among them were sky high. This despite the real culprit for the inadequate response at Srebrenica in 1994 being the United Nations, which had left its own peacekeepers terribly undermanned and underarmed, and subject to confusing orders that left them little choice but to remain passive. But I was not only sad at hearing what the Dutch officer had to say. I was enraged. Here was Karadzic, the political leader of those same Serb paramilitaries who had committed genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, a decade and a half later, smug and smart, badgering the Dutchbat officer. As I left the headquarters of the Hague Tribunal on that blustery fall afternoon, all I could think was: Where is the justice in all this? Related video What does State Dept. declaration of ISIS actions as genocide mean? Five years later, justice has triumphed. Last month, the Hague Tribunal convicted Karadzic of genocide and a host of other crimes. In fact, March has not been a good month for genocide perpetrators. Aside from the Karadzic case, the Democratic Republic of Congo turned over Ladislas Ntaganzwa, indicted as a major perpetrator of the Rwandan Genocide, to Rwanda. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry formally accused ISIS of committing genocide against Yazidis, Christians and Shi’ite Muslims. And a U.S. drone attack killed Haji Imam, ISIS’ second-in-command. Of course, the Hague Tribunal and its sister, the Arusha Tribunal – convened for the Rwandan genocide – have also been subject to withering criticism over the length and expense of the trials. Yet they have proved their mettle, winning convictions against some of the worst violators of human rights since the Nazi era. In the process, they have accumulated vast stores of documentary evidence on two of the most tragic events of the waning 20th century. Their archives will prove as vital as the Nuremberg Tribunal documents as scholars, politicians, servicemen and women, and regular citizens try to make sense of these horrific events. Related video Do ISIS' actions meet the standard for genocide? But have the Hague and Arusha tribunals, and the International Criminal Court that has now superseded them, served an even more important purpose? Have the trial and convictions of Karadovic and fellow perpetrators, along with the outstanding indictments and manhunts that have yet to be completed, deterred others from committing similar acts? Clearly, we cannot know for sure yet. But so far, the situation does not look promising. ISIS continues to engage in brutalities with impunity, and relishes the spectacles of killings and tortures that it then puts out on social media. The Great Lakes region of Africa remains one of the worst humanitarian disaster areas on the planet, a place criss-crossed by warlords and regular armies seeking mineral wealth, political power, and revenge for past atrocities. The Sudanese air force drops bombs at will that devastate the Nuba people, another population that today is subject to genocide. But this doesn’t change the reality that international justice has to be part of any effort to defeat the perpetrators of such crimes. And this is an area where the United States appears to be falling short. Related article ISIS committed genocide: Are the gloves off? Of course, military force is required against states and movements that regularly defy international law and any decent code of morality. However, the United States has adopted what amounts to a military only approach to ISIS. Meanwhile, the Republican Party presidential candidates try to outdo one another in tough-guy rhetoric: Donald Trump says he’ll just send in the troops, and Ted Cruz calls for carpet bombing to defeat ISIS. Both are displaying a boundless ignorance. Invade what? Bomb what? The cities held by ISIS, like Mosul and Raqqua? And kill tens and possibly hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in the process? Both Cruz and Trump should read the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, completed at the end of World War II. To the dismay of U.S. officers and statesmen, the survey showed that American bombing had been far less successful in disrupting the German war machine than many had believed. And as a form of psychological warfare, carpet bombing produces the opposite of the desired effect – however much a population may dislike the dictatorship under which it lives, when the bombs rain down, it usually blames the country that unleashes the bombs, not its own government. Ask the Vietnamese. Ask the Syrians. So yes, the United States is fully capable of killing ISIS leaders and other terrorists, as we have seen. But a more successful approach would also entail an American commitment to international justice. We should strive not just to kill, but also to capture ISIS leaders and other terrorists, including suicide bombers, and have them hauled before the ICC. We should make them understand that they won’t be spending the future in heaven, but in a dreary prison cell for the rest of their lives. We can’t know for certain that this will deter future terrorists and genocide perpetrators. But we do know for certain that bombs alone won’t solve the problem. Related article Karadzic conviction a reminder of genocide's horror In the waning hours of the Clinton administration, the President committed the United States to the Rome Treaty that established the ICC. Within weeks, the Bush administration rescinded the decision. Hillary Clinton, if she becomes President, has the opportunity to rekindle the commitment to international justice that Bill Clinton belatedly affirmed as one of his last acts as President. She could make the United States a signatory of the Rome Treaty. In so doing, Clinton would not merely revive one of her husband’s most important legacies, but would place America firmly on the side of international justice. After 15 years of failed American military interventions in the Middle East, imagine the impact that would have around the world: an America renowned not just for sending ground troops, F-22s, Tomahawk cruise missiles, and drones, but a United States committed to international justice and bringing to trial all those who perpetrate the worst crimes imaginable. Join us on Facebook.com/CNNOpinion.Read CNNOpinion’s Flipboard magazine. Eric D. Weitz is Distinguished Professor of History at the City College of New York and author of A Century of Genocide: Utopias of Race and Nation. The views expressed are his own.


Kate Steinle's family has balked at her name getting pulled into politics The undocumented immigrant who allegedly murdered her has yet to go on trial One minute, Kate Steinle was walking with her dad on a San Francisco pier. The next, she fell to the ground, crying out for help after a bullet hit her in the back and pierced her aorta. In a matter of hours, Steinle was dead, and police had arrested an undocumented immigrant who they accused of pulling the trigger. On that summer day in 2015, Donald Trump had barely kicked off his campaign. But the case quickly became a rallying cry for Trump as he called for a crackdown on illegal immigration and railed against sanctuary cities. In the two years since, candidate Trump has become President Trump, and Steinle’s name echoed in the halls of Congress this month as the House of Representatives passed Kate’s Law, a measure named for her. But Steinle’s family has balked at her case becoming the symbol of Republicans’ immigration agenda. The attorney defending the suspect in the case says there’s more to the story than meets the eye. And Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, the undocumented Mexican immigrant who’s accused of killing Steinle and of repeatedly entering the United States illegally, has yet to go on trial. Lopez-Sanchez appeared in court on Friday, wearing an orange jumpsuit and a blank expression through most of the proceedings. Here’s the latest on the case: His trial has been delayed a number of times since his arrest. And it’s unclear when it will begin. Prosecutors filed a motion to postpone the trial on Friday. Attorneys on both sides are juggling other cases, and Judge Philip Moscone asked them to return to court next week to give an update on when they will be free to proceed. Lopez-Sanchez is charged with second-degree murder and pleaded not guilty during his 2015 arraignment. The case stirred swift controversy after two details came to light: • Lopez-Sanchez was a convicted felon who’d been deported from the United States five times. • Before the shooting, officials in San Francisco, a so-called sanctuary city, had released Lopez-Sanchez rather than turning him over to federal authorities. Related video Did sanctuary city policy lead to San Francisco murder? His public defender has said there’s more to the story. “There’s substantial evidence that it’s a complete accident,” attorney Matt Gonzalez told CNN. “From our point of view, the bullet ricocheted off the ground.” Prosecutors have painted Lopez-Sanchez as a danger to the public, arguing that Lopez-Sanchez pointed the gun at Steinle and deliberately pulled the trigger. “This was an act of random violence,” Assistant District Attorney Diana Garcia said in 2015. “And the defendant claimed to have found this gun shortly before just firing it at somebody at close range, shooting an innocent victim in the back.” Gonzalez told CNN it’s not uncommon for a murder trial to take a few years to make it to court. But both sides, he said, are prepared to proceed. “We’re trying to avoid postponement,” he said. “I do think all the parties are ready to litigate the case now.” Across the country, Steinle’s name was back in the spotlight in Washington this month after House lawmakers passed “Kate’s Law,” a measure that would raise the maximum prison penalties for immigrants caught repeatedly entering the United States illegally. Her father told San Francisco Chronicle columnist John Diaz last week that the family supports the measure. But he wishes his daughter’s name wasn’t part of it. The family, he said, wants space to grieve and doesn’t want his daughter’s name to be part of a political controversy. “I don’t know who coined ‘Kate’s Law,’” Jim Steinle told the Chronicle. “It certainly wasn’t us.” Related article House passes 'Kate's Law' and bill declaring war on sanctuary cities A Steinle family spokesman declined to comment for this story. The family filed a lawsuit in 2016 alleging that San Francisco and its former sheriff were partly to blame for Steinle’s death, because officials never notified Immigration and Customs Enforcement when Lopez-Sanchez was released from a local jail in April 2015. City officials have said they’re not liable for a former inmate’s actions. A federal judge dismissed the family’s claims against San Francisco and former Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi earlier this year. The family has stressed that their views on immigration policies are nuanced. In a 2015 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, the Steinles said they don’t oppose sanctuary cities outright. “We realize that when (then-Mayor) Dianne Feinstein first drafted the policy, the original purpose was to protect law-abiding immigrants to allow them to call and report crimes and go to the hospital,” said Steinle’s brother, Brad. Related video Kate Steinle's family speaks Her father, Jim, added: “It was done for all the right reasons. We’re a country of kind people and people were being persecuted in Central America. I get what she did and I agree with it.” As for Kate’s Law, according to the Chronicle’s Diaz, Jim Steinle said he supports the measure on the chance that it could save one life. “He has no interest in doing further interviews,” Diaz wrote, “or otherwise seeing his daughter’s name raised by either side in such a charged and often vitriolic debate.” The Trump administration and supportive Republicans have made Steinle’s death, along with other crimes allegedly committed by undocumented immigrants, a central focus of their immigration strategy. Related video 2015: Trump waited to call Steinle family so they could grieve In addition to the namesake legislation, Steinle’s death is mentioned in virtually every conversation lawmakers have about sanctuary cities, a catch-all term for jurisdictions that do not cooperate in some capacity with federal immigration enforcement. Attorney General Jeff Sessions mentioned her killing anew on Wednesday during a speech on sanctuary cities in Las Vegas, calling it a prime example of why hardline immigration policies are needed. “Her death was preventable — and it should have been prevented,” Sessions said. “She would still be alive today if her killer had been imprisoned or deported, as he should have been.” Critics of the bill say Kate’s Law would aggressively criminalize undocumented immigrants whose illegal presence in the country carries only civil, not criminal, penalties. They also accuse the administration of unfairly and inaccurately portraying immigrants as criminals. Defenders of the bill say any crime committed by an undocumented immigrant is a crime that could have been prevented. Related article What are sanctuary cities, and can they be defunded? On Friday, Lopez-Sanchez’s attorney said “fanning the flames of public outcry” and tying the case to a larger immigration debate doesn’t make sense. In a recent column for the San Francisco Chronicle, he argued that the attention surrounding the measure could make it harder for his client to get a fair trial. “Passing Kate’s Law as a response to this tragedy is the legal equivalent of invading Iraq in response to 9/11 — a preying upon emotions to further a pre-existing agenda,” Gonzalez wrote. Though the House has passed Kate’s Law and a corresponding bill that would defund sanctuary cities and expand requirements for local law enforcement when it comes to immigration, the bills have an unclear future in the Senate, where eight Democrats would have to join the entire Republican majority for the bills to advance. The administration also has limited ability to go after sanctuary cities on its own, with a federal judge in San Francisco blocking parts of Trump’s executive order targeting the cities from going into effect. Dan Simon reported from San Francisco, Catherine Shoichet reported from Atlanta and Tal Kopan reported from Washington.


Editor’s Note: Cheryl Lankford is an Army widow who advocates for families of the military’s fallen. Her husband served in the Army for 23 years until his death in Iraq in 2007. The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers. Cheryl Lankford says she was vulnerable after her husband died in Iraq She says her experience with Trump University offers a cautionary tale I know some voters are trying to figure out which candidate is like themselves. “Who has my values? Who watches out for my interests?” My true story might help make that decision. It’s about how, while trying to start over after my husband died in Iraq, Trump University took my $35,000 and gave me nothing in return. It took money I received from the United States following my husband’s death in Baghdad. In the Army for 23 years, Jonathan was one of the extraordinary few who volunteered for Explosive Ordnance Disposal – a unit that defuses bombs and improvised explosives. For his bravery, he earned the Legion of Merit, two Bronze Stars, a Meritorious Service Medal, and he was inducted into the Ordnance Corps Hall of Fame. While Jonathan was deployed, I maintained the home front, taking care of our young son while volunteering with the Army. Before Jonathan died, I never thought of myself or my family as vulnerable. We were “Army Strong,” through and through. My vulnerability only came when I lost Jonathan, and having a child scared about what might happen to him, if anything happens to me. Vulnerability comes living each day with a broken heart. Vulnerability comes from being forced to rebuild my life in ways I never expected and never wanted. When Jonathan died, the US military gave me a crisply folded flag and a check. Nothing compensates for his loss. I didn’t want that money. I would give it back, if you could give me my husband. But once I received it, it was a sacred trust from American taxpayers so I could care for our son. I carefully invested the money. But, in 2008, the stock market crashed, and – like others – I lost a lot of it overnight. Related video Trump University pushed out of Texas to avoid lawsuit? Then I started getting mail and calls from Trump-affiliated companies offering to “build my brand,” do my taxes” and more. Then Trump University contacted me. Frankly, I was inspired by Trump and his success. I was excited that I could learn Trump’s business techniques. So I went to an all-day Trump University workshop. I told them I was a Gold Star wife, starting over. Trump staff promised to teach me everything about real estate. One expert would be my mentor. They said it was a real university, and I’d get a certification like at any school. If I paid for Trump’s program, I might make a better living: exactly what I needed. It’s exactly what we all want, isn’t it? I decided I’d already dealt with enough loss, and I would put my money in education. Related article Trump's insults embolden America's secret sexists But soon after I’d signed up, I knew something was wrong. The written curricula turned out to be a near empty three-ring binder and some DVDs. Then, within days, my “mentor” handed me off to his brother who passed me on to another guy. His only advice was to invest in a trailer park. Then he stopped taking my calls. I was shocked, frightened and ashamed. For a long time, I couldn’t tell anyone. I avoided calls from reporters asking about Trump University. One day, Trump was on TV, running for president, bragging about how rich he was. I was furious. Sure, Trump is rich. He has my start-over money – and money from countless others. But as I learned how Trump gets his money, I also learned about Hillary Clinton, how she’s dedicated 35 years to improving our lives. Every time he took, she gave. Sign up for CNN Opinion’s new newsletter.Join us on Twitter and Facebook I learned if Jonathan had died during his first Iraq deployment, the check would have been for just $12,000. That’s all it was, until Clinton, then on the Senate Armed Services Committee, worked with Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel to raise survivor benefits to $100,000. I promise you: No amount matches a family’s pain. But that check becomes a lifeline. It’s enough for a family to start over. Related article Trump tape reveals religious right hypocrisy And it came from the compassion Clinton always brings to public life. Clinton worked for us; Trump worked for himself. There’s the pattern – how Trump got and stayed rich. He starts with promises about how he’ll take us to places we all want to go. But in reality, the only person who gets there is Trump. That’s why I write now a first-hand cautionary tale. I see the false hope he’s giving millions who need and deserve better. This time, the entire country is on the line. Now I know to look closer and see who is better. That’s what I learned at Trump University. I respectfully ask everyone reading this to understand the difference this election will mean to all our lives.


President Donald Trump’s latest tirade against Robert Mueller’s investigation does not appear to have prompted many Capitol Hill Republicans to reconsider the need for legislation to protect the special counsel. Instead, GOP lawmakers maintained Tuesday that additional protections aren’t necessary all but offered a sobering warning: any move by Trump to oust Mueller would be cataclysmic for his presidency. Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley told CNN, “I think it would be suicide for the President to fire him. I think the less the President says about this whole thing, the better off he will be. And I think Mueller is a person of stature and respected and I respect him.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN, “I think he’ll be allowed to finish his job.” “I haven’t seen clear indication yet that we needed to pass something to keep him from being removed because I don’t think that’s going to happen,” the Kentucky Republican added. Related article McConnell strongly defends Mueller, criticizes Trump for calling Putin The comments from Republicans fell into a familiar pattern on Capitol Hill after Trump suggests he is contemplating taking steps to fire the special counsel. Trump’s statements on several occasions have sparked a wave of Democratic calls to protect Mueller, followed by Republican warnings that Trump should absolutely not do so — but also a belief that the special counsel is already sufficiently protected and needs no further action from Congress. While Senate Democrats huddled with party leaders on Tuesday to discuss potential responses to Trump, Senate Republicans avoided the topic altogether during their weekly party lunch. “It didn’t even come up,” said Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana. Following Monday’s FBI raid related to his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, Trump showed signs of increasing anger and his response has been to unleash – once again – on the Russian investigation. On Monday afternoon, Trump refused to say he wouldn’t fire Mueller and Tuesday morning he tweeted that the investigation was a “witch hunt” and that “Attorney-client privilege is dead!” “It’s a disgrace, it’s, frankly, a real disgrace, it’s an attack on our country in a true sense. It’s an attack on all we stand for,” Trump told reporters at the White House Monday afternoon just as news broke of the FBI raid. Related article What happens if Mueller is fired? “Why don’t I just fire Mueller? Well, I think it’s a disgrace what’s going on. We’ll see what happens,” Trump added. “And many people have said, you should fire him.” But members in his own party – just as they did weeks ago – are reluctant to intervene, saying Trump’s comments don’t change the fact that they don’t see a need to take further action to protect Mueller. “I believe that Director Mueller has an important job to do, and I believe he can discharge that job in a professional and impartial sort of way. So my advice to anybody would let Director Mueller do his job,” said the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, John Cornyn of Texas. Pressed what he’d do if Trump acted to fire Mueller, Cornyn said, “I’m not going to speculate as to what we would do because I think there would be serious repercussions.” “It’s hard to predict what that would look like. So, I think Director Mueller ought to be free to do his job and let the courts and let the lawyers work it out,” Cornyn said. Other Republicans downplayed Trump’s most recent comments, arguing they didn’t reveal anything new about the President’s posturing against the Russia investigation. “I think thematically he’s said similar things before so I don’t think that that’s anything new in my opinion,” Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, said. Related article Trump keeps up attacks on Mueller, McCabe, Comey Over and over again, Republicans insisted Trump wasn’t about to fire Mueller. “I don’t think he would do that,” Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst said. “There’s always a possibility. He has that prerogative, but so far he’s declined to do so and I think it’s in his best interest if he does not.” But sources familiar tell CNN that the latest raid on Trump’s personal lawyer and longtime confidant has shaken the President in new ways. Cohen had become a surrogate family member to the President, and has been spotted semi-regularly at the White House, at times meeting with Trump or dining with the first lady. Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut predicted that the news could lead to the President being even more “impulsive and wrathful.” Last year, there were two bipartisan bills introduced in the Senate that would protect the special counsel from being fired. The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the measures in the fall, but there’s been little action on the legislation since. Related article Jeff Flake warns of impeachment if Trump fires Mueller Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, said he would back such legislation but that it’s not yet necessary. “I would sign onto legislation that protected him, but I just don’t see a lot of momentum around it,” Corker said. “I think we’d be better off with (the President) knowing that it’d be a huge problem if he did something then unsuccessfully passing legislation.” Across the aisle, a Senate Democratic source told CNN that Democrats in the chamber just huddled with party leaders to talk about “what if” Trump fires Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein or Attorney General Jeff Sessions. They discussed immediately calling for document preservation and for Republicans who have been warning about this to join with them if it happens. Sen. Chris Coons, the Delaware Democrat who co-sponsored one of the special counsel protection bills with Tillis, said legislation is “more urgent than ever” in light of Trump’s comments Monday. “I appreciate that all of my Republican colleagues appreciate the risk to the rule of law that an inappropriate, abrupt firing of the special counsel by the President would create,” Coons said. “I am deeply puzzled by the lack of urgency or motivation to take some simple measured steps to address it.” Coons said he planned to speak with Tillis and Grassley soon for an update on the measure. Related article Republicans say Mueller doesn't need more protections, but warn against firing him Tillis said the special counsel protection bills have merit, and he would still like to see them reconciled. But he noted that there were scores of predictions that Mueller’s firing was imminent back in August 2017, when the bills were first introduced. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who co-sponsored the other special counsel bill with New Jersey Democrat Sen. Cory Booker, says he’d be happy to move a bill if Grassley wants to do so. But he doesn’t see an imminent need because he doesn’t believe Trump will fire Mueller. “I’ve talked to Trump. I think he understands the consequences,” Graham said. “I think it’d be the end of his presidency, for the political chaos.” This story has been updated with additional comments from lawmakers. CNN’s Ted Barrett, Dana Bash, Phil Mattingly, Suzanne Malveaux, Kaitlan Collins and Pamela Brown contributed to this report.


The State Department confirmed the United States and Russia can replace diplomats in each other’s countries who were expelled last week, describing the process as standard practice for cases in which targeted personnel are ejected as “persona non-grata,” and cautioning that any new diplomats would be subject to approval on a “case-by-case basis.” “As always/As with similar incidents in the past, the Russian government remains free to request accreditation for vacant positions in its bilateral mission,” a State Department spokesman told CNN in a statement Tuesday. “Any requests for new diplomatic accreditation will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.” “The Russian Federation has not informed us that it intends to reduce the total number of personnel allowed in our bilateral Mission,” the spokesperson added. “We therefore understand that the United States may request new diplomatic personnel to fill the positions of diplomats who have been expelled.” Related article US says Russia 'should not be acting like a victim' following expulsions The White House announced last week it was expelling 60 Russian staffers and their families in response to the recent poisoning of a former double agent and his daughter in the United Kingdom, allegedly at the hands of the Kremlin. Russia was also ordered to close its consulate in Seattle. The Trump administration claimed the expelled diplomats are Russian intelligence agents, and insisted their departure would make the US more secure. More than 20 countries joined the US in expelling Russian diplomats last week out of solidarity with the UK. Russia denies it was behind the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, calling the accusation “delirium and nonsense.” On Thursday, the Kremlin announced it was retaliating by expelling an equal number of US diplomats and closing the US consulate in St. Petersburg. US personnel have a week to leave Russia, but can also be replaced subject to Russian government issuing new diplomatic visas.

United States and Russia diplomatic expulsions


Ahn Yoon-joon fled his country as a teen fearing he'd be sent to the military He hasn't seen his brothers and sisters in nearly 70 years The family reunions are used for political reasons by Pyongyang, analysts say When he was 18 years old, Ahn Yoon-joon left his family in North Korea without even saying goodbye. He was working as a teacher and had heard that young men like him were being drafted into the military. He made a quick decision to get out there and then. For nearly seven decades since that fateful day, Ahn has only been able to imagine what life has been like for his family on the other side of the heavily militarized border that separates North from South Korea. “Just by looking in that direction, I can remember their faces,” he tells CNN. Ahn has been applying for a family reunion since the program started in the 1980s. Finally, at the age of 85, he’s getting a chance to be reunited with his sisters – and he knows exactly what he wants to say to them. “I would ask my younger sisters to forgive me. I left them with all the responsibilities. My heart is breaking. I abandoned them.” The reunions are a rare opportunity; this is only the twentieth that has ever been held. Less than 200 families are taking part – 96 families from the North and 90 from the South. Related video North and South Korea agree to family reunions According to the South Korean Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, more than 130,000 South Koreans have applied since 1988. The majority, like Ahn, are in their 80s and 90s and are running out of time. About 64,000 of those applicants have already died. However, the reunions have been used as a political tool – canceled at times of heightened tensions between the two neighbors. The last time they were held was in February last year. This round was agreed to as part of the deal reached during high-level talks between officials from North and South in August, after an exchange of artillery fire across the border provoked an escalation in tensions as both sides ramped up their war preparedness. READ: North Korea ‘sorry not guilty’ for DMZ tensions Some had speculated that North Korea might renege on its promise to go through with the reunions, as it has done in the past. But there have been relatively encouraging signs recently. For example, earlier this month, Pyongyang released New York University student, Won-moon Joo, who had been detained for illegally entering the country in April. State news agency, KCNA, said the release was “in line with a humanitarian measure.” North Korea has also refrained from provocative actions likely to test the patience of Seoul and its chief ally, the United States, such as a satellite launch or a nuclear test to mark the recent 70th anniversary of the foundation of the Korean Workers’ Party. Related video North Korea stages 'biggest ever' military parade READ: Pyongyang flexes military might Robert Kelly, Associate Professor of Political Science and Diplomacy at Pusan National University, sees all of this as concessions of sorts from Pyongyang. “North Korea is not doing this to be nice,” he says. “North Korea does not give up anything meaningful without getting something in return.” One thing Kim Jong Un’s regime gets out of this, he says, is good press, and it doesn’t cost North Korea anything to follow through. “It makes North Korea look less like this goose-stepping frightening place,” he explains. “It is good PR for a regime that rarely gets good PR.” But the interaction is also heavily monitored. “There is a debate about whether North Korea sees this as a threat,” says Kelly. “It’s new information, it’s unregulated information.” Related video Who is Kim Jong Un? Meanwhile, Ahn knows that many topics that could be seen as controversial will be off-limits when he meets his sisters. But he feels extremely lucky to be selected anyway. “Words cannot express how happy I am,” he says. “I feel like I am meeting people who came back from the grave.” But the letter he received confirming that his application was successful also contained some bad news – it revealed his youngest sister died in 1983. He does not know how she died, but he’s convinced it would not have happened if she had lived in South Korea. “In this part of the world, we could have cured her illness. There are no medicines or medical facilities there. My heart really ached.” He also had two brothers – twins. But they were never found. The reunion with his two remaining sisters will be bittersweet. They will only have a matter of hours to spend together, to catch up on the lifetime they missed. This time Ahn will say goodbye, but he will do so knowing it will almost definitely be for the last time.


Trump said he will ask Congress to reverse cuts to defense spending enacted in 2013 Trump did not outline how large the increase in military spending would be Donald Trump on Wednesday called for eliminating the sequester on defense spending and increasing military spending to boost troop levels and the number of ships and aircraft. Trump said in a speech to the Union League of Philadelphia that he will ask Congress to reverse cuts to defense spending enacted under the 2013 budget sequester once he takes office and submit a new budget to rebuild the US military, which Trump described as unprepared to confront the threats the US faces. Trump did not say whether the increase in military spending would match or exceed pre-sequester funding levels, but a senior campaign aide said Trump would most likely seek to boost defense spending to higher levels than when the sequester went into effect in 2013 after Congress failed to reach a new budget agreement, slashing both defense and domestic spending. Trump did not outline how large the increase would be, but the senior campaign aide said eliminating the sequester would amount to a roughly $500 billion reinvestment over 10 years, which Trump said he would seek to “fully offset” through “common sense reforms that eliminate government waste and budget gimmicks.” “History shows that when America is not prepared is when the danger is greatest. We want to deter, avoid and prevent conflict through our unquestioned military dominance,” Trump said as he lamented the cuts to defense spending, which he said is “on track to fall to its lowest level as a share of the economy.” The US spent more than $600 billion in defense spending in 2015. Trump also vowed to help offset the cost by seeking additional payments from countries where the U.S. has military bases, including Germany, Saudi Arabia and Japan. Trump’s call for eliminating the sequester cuts to defense spending sits in stark contrast to his initial reaction to the sequester’s across-the-board cuts, which Trump downplayed weeks before they went into effect. “It’s a very small percentage of the cuts that should be made. And I think, really, it’s being over-exaggerated,” Trump told Fox News in February 2013. “Frankly, this is a very minor amount of the cuts that have to be made, ultimately, and a lot of people are saying that.” And while Trump has consistently called for building out the US military, the real estate mogul said last fall that he would look to bolster the military while still spending “a lot less” than current defense spending levels. “I’m gonna build a military that’s gonna be much stronger than it is right now. It’s gonna be so strong, nobody’s gonna mess with us. But you know what? We can do it for a lot less,” Trump said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” last October. But Trump on Wednesday outlined multi-billion dollar investments to bolster the US military, mostly calling for increasing in spending to boost the elements of the military most useful in traditional warfare, not in confronting terrorism. The Republican nominee also called for increasing the number of ships and submarines and increasing the Air Force’s fighter aircraft to 1,200 from 1,113. Trump also stressed the need to bolster the US’s missile defense systems, including modernizing Navy cruiser ships. “The Obama-Clinton administration tried repeatedly to remove our cruisers from service, then refused to modernize these very old, aging, aging ships. They’re old, they’re tired,” Trump said. Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic rival, also supports ending the sequester on military spending in addition to the sequester’s cuts to domestic spending. “Here’s what we have to do – we can’t lose our military edge. That means giving the Pentagon the stable, predictable funding it needs to make smart investments,” she said last week at the American Legion in Cincinnati. “We cannot impose arbitrary limits on something as important as our military. That makes no sense at all. The sequester makes our country less secure. Let’s end it and get a budget deal that supports America’s military, our families and our country. And let’s make reform a priority, so that the Defense Department spends its budget on the right things.” Trump also contrasted his vision of US foreign policy with Clinton’s record, accusing her of being “trigger happy and very unstable” and describing a Middle East that was more stable before her tenure as secretary of state. Clinton’s campaign dismissed Trump’s criticisms, likening him to a “schoolyard bully.” “When she lays out a thoughtful speech outlining why he is unfit to be commander in chief, he calls her unhinged. She gives a speech on his disturbing history of racial discrimination and ties to white supremacists and the alt-right movement, he calls her a bigot,” Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri said in a statement Wednesday afternoon. “You could dismiss these actions as insecure schoolyard behavior but this man is running to be president of the United States.” While Trump and his advisers have argued that Clinton did not learn from the mistakes of the Iraq War – for which she voted as a senator – and drove the US into another blunder by arguing in favor of military intervention in Libya, Trump supported both of those military interventions. Despite his words to the contrary on the campaign trail, Trump said he favored invading Iraq one month before Congress voted to authorize the use of military force and continued to praise the invasion in its first months. He also called on the US to intervene militarily in Libya to stem the worsening humanitarian situation in the country. The Trump campaign, in a statement Wednesday night, denied any flip flops in the Republican nominee’s position. “Mr. Trump has been consistent with the need to adequately fund our defense and military spending to ensure that America’s national security is never compromised,” Trump Rapid Response Director Steven Cheung said. “Mr. Trump will ask Congress to fully eliminate the defense sequester and will submit a new budget to rebuild our military. As part of removing the defense sequester, Congress must fully offset the costs of increased military spending, thus, making government leaner and more responsive to the public.” CNN’s Dan Merica contributed to this report.

Trump's proposed increase in US defense spending


Editor’s Note: Sally Kohn is an activist, columnist and television commentator. Follow her on Twitter: @sallykohn. The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers. Sally Kohn: Hillary's time on the public radar may be hurting her chances in presidential race. Kohn: Vast majority of Americans favor Sanders' idea of "democratic socialism" Recently, I was in Des Moines, Iowa, for a meeting of the populist farmers organization Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. I was there to help the group celebrate its 40th anniversary and to talk about the issues it works on, including environmental regulation, farm policy and immigration reform. But all the members wanted to talk about was Bernie Sanders. They don’t seem all that unique among Democratic voters or voters in general in Iowa.  One poll in mid-September found Sanders with a 10-point lead over Hillary Clinton among likely Democratic primary voters.  And a newer poll finds that Sanders fares better than Clinton even in general election matchups against possible GOP contenders. Clinton’s ace-in-the-hole in the face of Sanders’ populist challenge was always supposed to be her better shot at electability.  But even that seems to be eroding.  As the saying goes, voters of all stripes increasingly “Feel the Bern.” A disconcerting but undeniable part of Sanders appeal is that he is the anti-Clinton both in style and substance.  Polls consistently show that Clinton and Sanders enjoy similar favorability ratings, but Clinton’s liability is her unfavorables.  For instance, in Iowa, 35% of voters hold favorable views of Clinton but 59% view her unfavorably — a 24-point gap.  In New Hampshire, that gap is 23 points. One likely factor: Hillary Clinton has just been on the public radar longer, often in scandal-ridden scenarios. They may be manufactured by the right wing, in the case of Benghazi, or the result of her own lack of transparency in the case of her State Department emails, but the fact is Clinton just comes with more baggage.  It’s hard enough to seem like a fresh candidate when you’re anything but.  It’s even harder at a time when voters are plainly clamoring for outsiders. Bernie Sanders’ case: I was right first But to define who Sanders is purely by who Clinton is not misses the mark.  The progressive populist wing of the Democratic Party that tried its damndest to draft Elizabeth Warren for 2016 has been more than willing to settle for Sanders as its standard-bearer.  Though Warren is more articulate in explaining the country’s economic inequities and what to do about them, Sanders’ heart is clearly in the same place. That’s enough for most populist Democrats — and populist voters in general — who are fed up with an economic game rigged against ordinary Americans. Related video What is Bernie Sanders' debate style? But Bernie Sanders is a socialist!  No one would elect a socialist president, right?  Not necessarily.  This past June, Gallop found that almost half of Americans say they would vote for a socialist to be president.  Plus once Americans learn more about what Sanders brand of socialism looks like, they may like him even more. Sanders isn’t for state-owned industry or anything in that extreme.  Rather, he says, “What am I trying to do in this campaign is to tell Americans what many of them don’t know: that the benefits for working people are a lot, lot stronger in many other countries around the world.” Sanders embraces the “democratic socialism” practiced in Scandinavia, for instance, where the government guarantees paid sick leave, universal health care and free higher education.  Think Americans won’t go for that?  Well actually, when social scientists polled Americans across political perspectives about whether they preferred the unequal income distribution at play in the United States (where the top 20% control 84% of the wealth) of a supposedly-hypothetical, infinitely more equal distribution that actually mirrored Sweden’s, guess what –  92% of Americans preferred the wealth distribution of Sweden. Recall that the tea party began as a protest against TARP, the government bailout of the financial industry.  Dig beneath the partisan rhetoric and over-simplifications and it turns out there’s much broader support for the ideas and ideology Sanders represents.  And if you need more evidence, look at how candidates from Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump are suddenly embracing some of the same ideas as Sanders. Sanders says some Republicans are feeling the Bern Sanders is showing he can really connect with voters across the board and articulate a populist vision that is sorely needed in America today. He isn’t a perfect candidate by any stretch.  Sanders’ persona can be a bit clunky and fuddy-duddy and more importantly, his positions and rhetoric on tackling structural racism and doing something about rampant gun violence are deeply problematic, especially to progressive Democrats.  Personally, that’s the main reason I’m not completely in Sanders’ camp. Still, he’s done more than simply move Hillary Clinton to the left, which was the original conventional wisdom about his candidacy.  It now looks like Bernie Sanders could also actually win. Join us on Facebook.com/CNNOpinion.Read CNNOpinion’s Flipboard magazine.


More than 100 Iraqis in Michigan are awaiting deportation ICE says many have criminal records ACLU: They have complied with their conditions of supervision Iraqi native Atheer Ali fled to Michigan as a child nearly three decades ago. The 40-year-old man has a tattoo of a cross on his shoulder, a nod to his faith. Now he fears his visible symbol of Christianity will make him a target for violence and persecution if he’s deported back to the Muslim-majority nation following his detention by immigration officials in Detroit this week. Ali is one of more than 100 Iraqis in Michigan and northern Ohio under the jurisdiction of Detroit’s Immigration Customs Enforcement office who have been targeted for deportation. ICE says most have criminal records. The father of one has lived in the United States since 1992. His criminal history includes a felony conviction for breaking and entering in 1996, and misdemeanor convictions for possession of marijuana more than a decade later, according to the ACLU, which  filed a class action lawsuit Thursday to stop the deportations. Brianna Al-Dilaimi’s husband is one of the seven people named in the suit. The two met the day Ali Al-Dilaimi came to America in 1998, and have been together ever since. But her husband was arrested by US immigration officers last weekend, and she has been searching for answers about his fate, fearing he’ll be sent back to Iraq. The class action lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Michigan comprises five Christian petitioners and two Muslims, including Al-Dilaimi. In the complaint, the ACLU argues it is illegal to deport the detainees without giving them an opportunity to prove they could face torture or death if returned to Iraq. The ACLU complaint was filed against Rebecca Adducci, the director of the ICE Detroit district office. It requested a Friday hearing for the detainees. Many of the petitioners are Chaldeans, an Iraqi Christian group that has historically faced problems in Iraq. The Detroit metropolitan area is home to the largest US group of Chaldeans. “Not only is it immoral to send people to a country where they are likely to be violently persecuted, it expressly violates United States and international law and treaties,” Kary Moss, executive director for the ACLU of Michigan, said in a statement. “We are hoping that the courts will recognize the extreme danger that deportation to Iraq would pose for these individuals. Our immigration policy shouldn’t amount to a death sentence for anyone.” ICE has arrested 199 Iraqi nationals since May, 114 of them from Detroit , according to its press secretary Gillian Christensen. Iraq recently agreed to accept deportees in exchange for being removed from the countries listed in President Donald Trump’s travel ban. That agreement triggered a shift in the focus of ICE raids, Christensen said in a statement. “The vast majority of those arrested [in] the Detroit metropolitan area have very serious felony convictions, multiple felony convictions in many cases. I applaud the efforts of the law enforcement personnel who, day in and day out, put their lives on the line to protect this community,” Christensen said. ACLU lawyers acknowledge the criminal history of those arrested, but say most of the detainees have complied with their conditions of supervision and have had no further run-ins with the law, according to the news release. Ali Al-Dilaimi served five months of a one-year sentence for an assault that happened 17 years ago and his record was later expunged, according to the complaint filing. He has a history of mild heart attacks, according to his family, and had a seizure when officials arrested him. He was initially hospitalized, but now awaits his fate in a detention center in Youngstown, Ohio. His wife, an American citizen born and raised in Ohio, has prepared travel documents for herself and the couple’s two sons in case her husband is sent back to Iraq. “If he leaves on a Tuesday, I’m leaving on a Thursday. I cannot let this government tear our family apart. The only option we have is to pack up and go, and hope to come back to America one day and see my family,” Brianna Al-Dilaimi said. Family members are anxiously searching for answers from the government, worried they’ll run out of time to keep their loved ones in the United States. The sprawling home of Shoki Konja, 57, with its perfectly manicured lawn and ornate furnishings, is his symbol of the American dream. He and his brother, Najah, immigrated to the United States from Tel Kaif, Iraq, nearly 40 years ago with their family. Slowly, decade by decade, hundreds of his family, who are Chaldeans, found their way to the United States, where they felt safer. But now Najah Konja, 55, does not feel safe. He calls his brother from the ICE detention center in Youngstown. “Everyone here like me is scared to death,” Najah Konja said. “Please don’t send us to Iraq, because you are sending us to our death.” Najah Konja has a criminal record. After coming to the country as a 15-year-old, his brother said he fell in with the wrong crowd. He was convicted of drug conspiracy charges as a 21-year-old and spent about 20 years behind bars. Since getting out, his brother said, he has turned his life around. He owns a tobacco shop in the Detroit area. He’s engaged and has been staying out of trouble. He lost the ability to have a Green Card because of his conviction, but he has been checking in annually with ICE, most recently in November. Then, on Sunday, he was awakened at home and taken into custody and told he would be deported back to Iraq, where he has no family, does not know the language and has not lived for 40 years. “Is this United States?” Shoki Konja asked. “Is this what this country is about?” Shoki Konja thought the country was in good hands. He voted for Donald Trump in the November election, and said he agreed with Trump’s promises to deport troublesome undocumented immigrants. “The honest truth, we thought they (were) picking up hard-core criminals,” Shoki Konja said. “We thought they (were) not going to touch innocent people, or people who turned their life around.” Two days before Najah Konja was picked up, the US Department of Justice Executive Office for Immigration Review Board of Immigration Appeals agreed to reopen his Green Card case. Now that case is in limbo. Chaldean leaders are pursuing any possible special consideration for the members of their community at risk of being sent back to Iraq, according to Chaldean Community Foundation President Martin Manna. The community has reached out to the US State Department and the US Department of Homeland Security, but have yet to make headway, Manna said. “We are pleading with the government to reconsider,” Manna said. Community members were wary of President Trump’s campaign rhetoric, Manna said, but were completely caught off guard by the sudden ICE raids. The Detroit metropolitan area is home to over 150,000 Chaldeans, according to Manna.  Since 2007, over 30,000 Chaldean refugees have come into the area, fleeing violent conditions in Iraq. The biggest wave of Chaldeans first settled in Detroit in the late 1960s, escaping the regime of Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr, and later Saddam Hussein, according to Manna. Detroit was a good fit for the community because of the job opportunities in the city and its proximity to Canada, where other Chaldean communities grew over the years, he said. “People who came as children, this is the only country that they know. They’re culturally illiterate and fearing being killed. Now we’re hoping and praying there will be some relief. They are not a threat to national security,” Manna said. CNN’s Sonia Moghe reported from Detroit, Lauren del Valle wrote and reported from New York. CNN’s Faith Karimi contributed to this report


Three men were arrested on suspicion of terror offenses in a series of counterterrorism operations in Germany, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday. Abbas R., an Iraqi national who is at least 19 years old, and Raad Riyadh A.A., who is 31, were accused of war crimes and membership of Islamic State. They were alleged to have been involved the murder of two Shiite women in Mosul, Iraq, in June 2014. They were also accused of the execution of an Iraqi officer in October that year. Prosecutors did not give their full names, in line with German privacy laws. Related article German police raid homes of suspects plotting to kill left-wing politicians After coming to Germany in July 2015, Raad Riyadh A.A. is suspected of attempting to recruit two other Iraqis on behalf of ISIS and trying to convince another Iraqi national to carry out a suicide attack, according to the prosecutor’s office. The two men were arrested in Berlin on Monday. Separately, a 24-year-old Syria national identified as Majed A., was taken into custody in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein. He is alleged to have been a member of several terrorist organizations in Syria. He was arrested on September 13.


Editor’s Note: CNN Travel’s series often carries sponsorship originating from the countries and regions we profile. However, CNN retains full editorial control over all of its reports. Read the policy. The headlines promise an impossible fantasy: finding a lost continent that eons ago split off from Africa and India and went missing. The idea conjures the sunken city of Atlantis, Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island, or King Kong’s Skull Island. Of course, none of that is even close to right, but it’s hard not to indulge in the whimsy. Scientists are calling the “new” continent Mauritia, because fragments of it were discovered on the tropical paradise island of Mauritius. It’s a science story with an unusually visceral impact, like when Pluto was demoted from its status as a planet, and the solar system was suddenly left with eight instead of nine. How can there be more than seven continents? And if there are more, then where are they? The answer is that geologists understand continents differently than most people, explains Lewis Ashwal, the scientist who made the discovery. Broadly speaking, geologists divide the Earth into two areas, continents and oceans. The continents are of course the land. They’re also the old stuff, where geologists go looking for rocks measured in billions, rather than millions of years in age. Under the oceans, the rocks are relatively new, mere millions of years old. The new discovery isn’t a massive piece of land that visitors can sail to. It’s pieces of continent that got stranded when the ancient continent of Gondwana broke apart and India, Africa and Madagascar drifted apart. Like most islands, Mauritius formed from volcanic eruptions spewing from the floor of the Indian Ocean until the lava cooled to stone, eventually allowing plants and animals to grow. “Mauritius is a volcano, a young volcano,” Ashwal says. “There is nothing on Mauritius older than nine million years old.” READ: ‘Lost continent’ found under Mauritius in the Indian Ocean And yet, locked inside the island’s rocks, crushed to sand on its beaches, hidden in the most innocuous places just off the roadside, is evidence of the Earth’s earliest beginnings from billions of years ago. Pieces of continent that no one knew about. The ancient minerals are called zircons, which are radioactive and therefore able to be dated. “The zircons in there, most of them are about five or six million years, but a small number are almost 3,000 million,” Ashwal says. The Earth is only about 4.5 billion years old, so zircons from 3 billion years ago point to the planet’s earliest days. “Where do you go on Earth to find rocks, those zircons that old? You go to continents. There is nowhere in the ocean that you’d go to find continental material that old,” he adds. “Because Mauritius is sitting in the ocean, and this rock contains ancient zircons, it must be that there is a piece of continent under there.” What this shows is that the break-up of Gondwana wasn’t as clean as previously supposed. As the continents drifted apart, bits crumbled off and got lost along the way. Chunks of continent, the continent of Mauritia, could stretch up towards India, waiting to be discovered. Unfortunately, even the zircons are only visible through a microscope. But some of the sites where zircons were found are easily accessible, near popular tourist sites. And its worth stopping for a look, if only to marvel at the mysteries hidden in unlikely places. MORE: How Mauritius rum is taking on the world These coordinates lead to an area of cane fields and mangroves, in a place that’s hard to reach but easily viewable from the monument known as Dutch First Landing, where Dutch sailors first set foot in Mauritius on September 20, 1598. Though the Arabs and later the Portuguese had known about the island, no one had settled it. The Dutch eventually formed and then abandoned a colony. The monument itself isn’t much to see, but the drive along the B28 highway is gorgeous, and dotted with old fortifications. Across on the west side of Mauritius, through Black River Gorges National Park, the road cuts through mountains around Chamarel, making hairpin turns and dropping in one place to single lane traffic with rock face on one side and a cliff on the other. Just past the traffic light controlling the single lane section, the exposed mountainside contained zircons that helped make the most compelling case for the lost chunks of continent, because they were embedded in the solid rock. That eliminated any possibility that the zircons had blown onto the island somehow. This area is home to the ultra-luxurious Lakaz Chamarel restaurant and boutique hotel, but visitors can’t just pop in. Reservations must be made well in advance. Up north past Port Louis, this beachfront offers golden sunsets over white sand beaches, where more zircons were found among the sand and the black basalt rocks. This is a beach popular with locals for picnics and evening strolls. It’s a good stopping point on the way to Grand Baie, and a place to ponder what other mysteries lie under the island. MORE: Mauritius: The best Africa destination you know nothing about Griffin Shea is a writer based in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he also runs Bridge Books – an independent bookstore in an old, columnated bank building


Editor’s Note: Julian Zelizer is a history and public affairs professor at Princeton University, editor of “The Presidency of Barack Obama: A First Historical Assessment” and co-host of the “Politics & Polls” podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @julianzelizer. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. California Democrat Adam Schiff, the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, had strong words for his own party. On Friday, in an op-ed in The New York Times, he warned fellow Democrats against a rush to talk about impeachment before all the evidence was in front of them. “Let President Trump arouse his voters as he will,” Schiff wrote, “while Democrats continue to focus on the economy, family and a return to basic decency. And in the meantime, all Americans should reserve judgment until the investigations have run their course.” Related article Trump could turn a subpoena to his advantage These are strong words for the Democrat who has been one of the most vocal critics of Republican efforts to stifle special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. This is a message that Democrats should read carefully as they head into the midterm season. After another week of Trump administration chaos, in which Rudy Giuliani has become the new star of Donald Trump’s political reality show, Democrats have a great deal to be excited about. Though their lead in the generic ballot has declined, there are many signs that the midterms will be a good day for Democrats. The high number of retirements by Republican incumbents, the outcome of special elections where Democrats took red seats or Republicans barely held on to theirs in deeply conservative territory, and many of the polls continue to point to a possible wave election. And it is important to remember that, historically, midterms almost always go poorly for the party in power. Yet Democrats, who certainly can’t forget the dangers of believing in inevitable outcomes, need to be cautious. Nothing is a slam-dunk in American politics. Related video Are billionaire's impeachment ads backfiring? The biggest challenge for Democrats is to avoid letting anti-Trump fervor drown out their own message. To be sure, attacking the President is often an important part of wave elections. Though they already had control of the House in 1982, Democrats expanded their majority by urging voters to take a stand against the Reagan Revolution. In 1994, Newt Gingrich used President Bill Clinton – and his failed health care plan – as a foil to excite voters to turn out in the election. Nancy Pelosi returned the favor in 2006 as Democrats were determined to send a message to President George W. Bush, just as Tea Party Republicans did in 2010 when they took back the House. But in each of those cases the anger toward the incumbent president was combined with a program or agenda. In 1982, Speaker Tip O’Neill rallied Democrats around a theme of “Fairness,” assuring voters the party would protect the social safety net and reverse the regressive economic policies of an administration that had left working Americans struggling in the middle of the recession. Gingrich had his 10-point Contract with America, a laundry list of promises that Republicans vowed to fulfill if they took power. They would impose term limits, reform congressional spending and boost defense spending. Related article The children are Democrats' future Democrats in 2006 vowed to bring the war in Iraq to an end and restore the social safety net policies that the administration had stripped away. Tea Party Republicans continually blasted President Barack Obama, but they also spoke to their supporters about the urgency of cutting government spending and cleaning up the way that Washington worked. Trump poses a particular challenge since the turmoil and scandal coming from the Oval Office often overwhelm the amount of public space available for discussion about other issues. Democrats are making a big political bet if they think that the news over Russia, payments to porn stars and ongoing lies will be enough to bring voters out to the polls. This is especially risky given that unemployment is now at historically low 3.9% and Trump might be on the cusp of helping to orchestrate a major peace deal between North and South Korea. Democrats are also confronting some extremely bitter internecine primary competitions that could dampen voter turnout in the general elections if they are not handled with care. The national party has been coming down hard in certain primary competitions, placing immense pressure on upstart challengers to get out of the race so that the favored candidate can run a clean race. In The New York Times, Alexander Burns has recounted the forceful intervention of the Democratic National Committee in areas in California, Arkansas and New York. The intervention has sometimes produced a backlash among voters who resent national officials making the decision for voters. The 2016 primaries revealed that there are some pretty deep and unresolved tensions within the party. As they attempt to protect “safer candidates” who stick to the economy and look like Conor Lamb – winner of Pennsylvania’s special House election – national Democrats have the potential to try to stifle candidates who are talking about crucial issues such as gun control and sexual harassment. The Intercept recently published a recording of Steny Hoyer, the second-ranking Democrat in the House, pressuring a candidate in Colorado, Levi Tillemann, to get out of a primary and make way for the party’s preferred candidate. Sign up for CNN Opinion’s new newsletter.Join us on Twitter and Facebook Given that midterm elections are primarily about turnout, primary battles that leave too many voters upset and unmotivated, rather than inspired, could have a detrimental effect when it comes time for competitive general elections. The best news for Democrats is that at the grass-roots level, hundreds of thousands of hard-working citizens have been organizing and mobilizing since the start of this presidency to take back control of Congress. As Lara Putnam and Theda Skocpol argued in Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, thousands of women in suburbs, cities and small towns in key electoral counties have been doing the grunt work that is needed to create a true political counter-mobilization for 2018 and 2020. But taking advantage of the political window that Trump has created for Democrats won’t be an easy victory. Democrats must avoid two big pitfalls – failing to deliver a compelling agenda and dampening their own turnout though excessively hard-line tactics in the primaries. And that could leave Republicans in much better shape than they otherwise would be in the age of Trump.


A Syrian couple in Georgia are urging President-elect Donald Trump to take a “more humane approach” to the Syrian refugee crisis. Throughout his campaign, Trump spoke against admitting refugees to the United States, likening Syrian refugees to a “Trojan horse,” and declaring that “we cannot let them into this country, period.” In an interview with CNN’s Carol Costello, Samer, a Syrian refugee, urged Trump to soften his stance. “The President should bring in and rescue more people for humanitarian reasons” Samer said. Samer stressed that Syrians like him are fleeing their countries out of fear and in search of safety, not by choice. “Your heart bleeds from the inside when you have to leave your country,” he said. But despite missing their home, Samer and his wife, Dania, are happy living in the United States. Along with their three children, they are doing their best to create their own version of the American dream. “We love the American people … we want them to love us back,” Dania said. To live in America, the family underwent vetting by a number of agencies, including the FBI and the National Counterterrorism Center, after paying a smuggler $100 to escape their war-torn country. Now, Samer works at a restaurant in Georgia to support the family. He said he is grateful that he and his family are safe. “Certainly I am lucky. I’m safe now. Safety is everyone’s wish,” he said.


'They Still Live' project encourages people to question and discover who they are. The project combines photography, DNA testing, maps and African art. Based around Paul Hamilton's extensive African art collection. What makes you who you are? It’s a question many of us spend a lifetime contemplating. Artist Thomas Evans sought to find the answer through a combination of photography, DNA testing and African art. Inspired by a 2014 trip to Tanzania, Evans decided to get his DNA tested to trace his heritage. “It was the first time in my life being in a place where everybody looked exactly like me,” he told CNN. “I was inspired to do a DNA test on myself to figure out lineage.” “When I returned to the US, I motivated others to have their DNA tested,” he explains. “This was right at the time when I met Paul Hamilton.” Worked on adding a simple mural piece to The Thursday (June 30th) show. Definitely come out to see everything up close.  #art #acrylic #artist #artwork #artworks #artstudio #painting #artoftheday #portrait #paint #wip #workinprogress #instaart #instacool #instadope #instagood #instafresh #urbanart #blackart #inspiration #motivation #Love #abstractart #abstractpainting #abstractartist #art_help #gallery #installationart  #mural A video posted by Thomas Evans (@detour303) on Jun 28, 2016 at 7:13pm PDT Hamilton has been collecting African art for decades and Evans decided to create a project based around his extensive collection. “The art he has inspired us to create the project,” Evans continues. “I had an idea of taking photographs of local African Americans with the artifacts, as well as conducting DNA testing on the models so that we would be able to link the item back to the models heritage.” The result is ‘They Still Live,’ a striking photography exhibition and project created by Evans and Tya Anthony to encourage people, particularly African Americans to discover and question who they are. Related video 'I wanted to create something that's hard to look at' “The project tackles what it means to be black, white, mixed, European, Native American, or other,” explains Evans. “We wanted people be comfortable asking how unique they are compared to their neighbors.” For Anthony the project strikes a particularly timely chord given the current racial tension in the US. “Defining identity for African Americans is crucial in the current climate of our country and abroad,” she says. “When one can comprehend where they started from, inevitably one will be equipped with the tools and knowledge to succeed further in life.” Related video What black men in Dallas need you to know Response to the exhibition has been overwhelmingly positive, Evans and Anthony hope to keep the project alive by recreating it in other cities. “The best part about the exhibit is that it sparks a conversation about families, race, and culture,” says Evans. “Everybody that talked about the project had a story about their own heritage. This project allows people to open up to others and share personal information you wouldn’t normally hear in a conversation.”


Hong Kong woman abused domestic helper over seven months in 2013 Law Wan-tung hit Erwiana Sulistyaningsih with mop handles, coat hangers and a vacuum cleaner rod A Hong Kong housewife has been sentenced to six years in prison for abusing a young Indonesian worker she kept prisoner in her home. In delivering her sentence, the judge said 44-year-old Law Wan-tung was a bully who showed contempt for those beneath her. Earlier this month, the mother-of-two was found guilty of 18 of 20 charges of abuse involving 23-year-old Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, and one other domestic worker. The court heard Law regularly beat Erwiana with mop handles, coat hangers and, on at least one occasion, shoved a rod from a vacuum cleaner into her mouth. The abuse only ended when Law drove her employee to Hong Kong International Airport with a one-way ticket home. Related video Guilty verdict in Hong Kong maid abuse case She instructed Erwiana to wear six layers of clothing and a diaper so the abuse wouldn’t be detected. However, other Indonesian women noticed her injuries at the airport and urged her to call police. Surrounded by supporters yelling “No reform, no justice” and “We are workers, we are not slaves,” Erwiana attended court to see her abuser sentenced.  She said she was disappointed with the duration of the sentence but happy that the ruling had shown that “slavery in Hong Kong really exists.” During the sentencing hearing, Law’s lawyer conceded it was a bad case of abuse “but not the worst of its kind.” Graham Harris said Law had very high standards of cleanliness due to her son’s skin allergy and that Erwiana had failed to meet her expectations. Describing his client as a “doting mother,” Harris said Law had been “vilified, demonized and ostracized,” and was not the “callous monster” as portrayed by some during the case. When the trial ended, Judge Amanda Woodcock described Erwiana as “a simple young lady who tried to financially better her life and that of her family.” Erwiana thought she was under surveillance at all times, and believed Law’s threats that her family would be killed if she told anyone about the abuse. “They made her compliant and more subservient,” Woodcock said. Related gallery Maid abused in Hong Kong During the trial it emerged Erwiana slept on the floor, moving the vacuum cleaner and bags of books to clear enough space to stretch out. She was only permitted to sleep between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m., when she was woken to resume work cleaning Law’s home. She was only given meager rations and one day, knocked on a neighbor’s door to ask for food. The neighbor shut the door. Erwiana said Law’s children overheard and told their mother who then threatened her again. Law’s  children – her 18-year-old son Edmund Tsui Wing-kit and 16-year-old daughter – referred to only as “Kelly” to protect her identity – testified that they didn’t see or notice the abuse that went on in their home during the seven months Erwiana worked there. Erwiana’s case was held up by campaigners for Hong Kong domestic workers as an example of how the law fails the city’s 320,000 foreign domestic workers. The majority are women, from the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and other Asian nations. Last April, Erwiana was named by Time magazine as one of the world’s 100 most influential people, which commended her bravery for drawing attention to “the plight of a vulnerable, often invisible population.” Campaigners say rules dictating that domestic workers reside at their employers’ homes expose foreign domestic workers to potential abuse. They say they’re often trapped in abusive situations because they’re only given two weeks after leaving one contract to find a job or face deportation. The Hong Kong government started allowing foreign domestic helpers to work in the Chinese territory in the 1970s to fill a shortage of local staff.  Many come via agencies direct from their home countries and don’t meet their employer before signing a two-year contract. They’re paid a minimum wage of HK$4,110 ($530) a month and by law are only entitled to one day off a week. Amnesty International says Erwiana’s case should serve as a “wake-up call” for the government to stop the “widespread exploitation” of domestic workers. “The Hong Kong authorities can no longer bury their heads in the sand and dismiss horrific abuses as isolated incidents,” said Norma Kang Muico, Amnesty’s Asia-Pacific migrant rights researcher. After the verdict, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung said the government welcomed the judgment, which he said underlined “the importance that the Government and the court attach to protecting the labor rights as well as the well-being of foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong. “We attach great importance to protecting their well-being, and ensure that their labor rights are fully respected,” Cheung said.


Editor’s Note: Ranj Alaaldin is a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University and a Doctoral Candidate at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he specializes in Iraqi history and politics. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author. Shia militias are only fighting force in Iraq that can inflict heavy blows on ISIS: Ranj Alaaldin U.S. must work with militias even though they have American blood on their hands, he adds U.S. can challenge Iranian influence in Iraq if it is proactive and realistic, Alaaldin writes The U.S. has no choice. Iraq’s armed forces collapsed last year when ISIS took control of Mosul and the Sunni Arab north; it remains, by and large, demoralized, incompetent and corrupt. Since last year, the only effective fighting force, bar the Kurdish Peshmerga, has been Iraq’s Shia militias. If it wants to defeat ISIS, the U.S. must work with these militias, include them in its strategy to defeat the jihadists and help integrate them into a reconstituted Iraqi army. The notion of working with the militias is something of a double-edged sword. Iraq’s Shia militias were responsible for many atrocities against U.S. forces during their occupation of Iraq. They have American blood on their hands, as well as Iraqi blood. Related video Bloody assault drives ISIS out of Tikrit In tandem with fighting the U.S., they fought a bloody civil war with Iraq’s Sunni insurgency, most notably when sectarian warfare reached its apex in 2006. However, for the time being, it is only Iraq’s Shia militias that can inflict heavy blows on ISIS. Speaking to officials in Iraq last month, it was clear the country’s armed forces are yet to recover from their capitulation last year and are still unable to match ISIS’ battlefield prowess. Iraq’s Shia militias, on the other hand, honed their skills against U.S. forces and Iraq’s Sunni militants. They forced Sunni militants into retreat after the 2006 civil war, preserving the post-2003 political order and preventing Baathists from returning to power. Related video ISIS retreats from liberated city These militias are battle-hardened, experienced and have fought jihadists in Syria. Just as they have helped turn the tide against Syria’s Islamist rebels, they have proven invaluable in guaranteeing the survival of the Iraqi state. When Mosul collapsed last year and Baghdad was threatened, few argued against deploying these militias. What compounds the dilemma facing U.S. policymakers is that some of Iraq’s Shia militias have links to Iran and have carried out attacks on U.S. forces, on the orders of Tehran. Iran gave Iraq’s Shia militias substantial support when Mosul fell last year, in the effort to secure Baghdad and the Shia south. It sent arms, as well as technical and intelligence support. Related video U.S. Envoy for Iraq: Tikrit victory 'very encouraging' The notion of working with Shia militias who have American blood on their hands and militias that, in some instances, receive orders from Tehran might seem absurd. But the U.S. has done so before. After 2003, faced with a resilient Sunni insurgency, U.S. forces fought the insurgents together with Shia militias. Iraq was secured through a messy effort involving U.S. forces, Shia militias and the Iraqi armed forces. Whilst the U.S. sometimes worked with the militias indirectly, the picture becomes complicated because members of the army and police, with which the U.S. worked directly, doubled as militias that engaged in targeted sectarian attacks. The argument that the U.S. cannot work with Iraq’s Shia militias becomes further implausible in light of the fact the U.S. has worked with the Sunni insurgency, its most lethal opponent in Iraq that has also received support from the Arab world. Related video Tikrit: Families wait on news of  their missing sons Iraq’s Sunni insurgents were welcomed with open arms by the U.S. after 2006, as part of the surge and the Awakening movement, which involved a coalition of Sunni tribes backed by the U.S. to maintain security in their local areas and combat Al Qaeda in Iraq. Things can be different this time round. Iraq’s Shia militias cannot be eliminated. They are a product of, and operate with the support, of their communities. They are legitimate and indigenous actors that Iraq’s Shia community recognize as being a vital part of the war on ISIS and central to the survival of the Iraqi state. The most convincing argument against working with the militias is their human rights abuses. The U.S. can make its involvement in the war on ISIS conditional on a serious integration of the militias into the armed forces. It can help Iraq achieve this by increasing its support to the Baghdad government and strengthen, in the process, its capacity to reign in the militias. This is possible to implement. Iraq is not Libya. It does not have disparate militias groups that have irreconcilable conflicting political or ideological visions. The militias are rife with rivalry but they overlap considerably with the Shia political elite and the clerical establishment. Related gallery Fight against ISIS: Destruction of Tikrit They are entrenched within the social, political and religious fabric of the Shia community. They function, to a great extent, as part of, rather than independently of, the political process and the state. Whilst Iran has influence over Iraq’s Shia militias, it does not control all militia groups currently fighting ISIS. A large number of the Popular Mobilisation Unit militias (Iraqi volunteers that were mobilized by the Iraqi state and the religious establishment after the fall of Mosul) report to local Iraqi actors, as opposed to Iran. The U.S.’ influence on the ground is also stronger than it was before Mosul fell. Baghdad’s Shia-ruling elite is vulnerable; it has been hit hard by the low price of oil and recognizes that something must give way. All of this can be capitalized on by the U.S. in its war on ISIS, whilst also challenging Iranian influence in the country but only if the U.S. starts pursuing proactive, realistic and creative policies that acknowledge realities on the ground.