USFWS
Bald eagles, gray wolves and American alligators are just a few of the animals who were brought back from the brink of extinction thanks to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) - but now these species, as well as over 1,600 other protected animals and plants, are in danger of losing protections. For the first time in more than 40 years, the law protecting native animals in the U.S. from extinction is under serious threat. "If we lost the ESA completely, hundreds of species would go extinct in the years to come," Brett Hartl, government affairs director for the Center for Biological Diversity, told The Dodo. Mexican wolf pups flourishing in the wild, thanks to a recovery program established after the ESA was passed. | U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) When Republican President Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act (ESA) into law by in 1973, he said: "This important measure grants the government both the authority to make early identification of endangered species and the means to act quickly and thoroughly to save them from extinction ... Nothing is more priceless and more worthy of preservation than the rich array of animal life with which our country has been blessed." Dodo Shows Foster Diaries This Pregnant Pittie Foster Story Is The Happiest Thing Ever Because of habitat destruction and hunting, bald eagles were once on the brink of extinction - but the ESA helped save them. | John & Karen Hollingsworth/USFWS The once-bipartisan law has become politicized in recent years - and since January, the threats have gotten worse. Twenty bills that would either directly or indirectly nix protections for endangered species have been introduced to Congress since January, according to Hartl. While it's unclear how many of the bills will come up for a vote, the sheer number of bills against the ESA is alarming. "One new piece of legislation has been introduced on average every four days to go after the ESA specifically or an endangered species," Hartl said. "In the short term, the biggest threat to the ESA will come from Congress." Handing protected public lands over to businesses is central to efforts to weaken the ESA, and would pose serious threats in the longer term. "[The ESA] was once broadly bipartisan and passed by huge margins and signed by a Republican president ... Now we're in this tragic situation," Bethany Cotton, wildlife program director of WildEarth Guardians, told The Dodo. "These moves to privatize public lands are at the behest of special interests. Folks do not want to have to think about if they'll cause the extinction of a species if they push through a pipeline or clear cut a national forest or mine public lands." Cotton explained that federal authority is key for protecting animals, especially when they live across a number of states. "Putting control into local hands on how to manage an endangered species habitat would result in mayhem for the ESA," she said. "Giving state governors the ability to veto federal protections and transferring power to protect species into local hands results in a patchwork of protections." The ESA helps protect gray wolves from becoming extinct. | Eric Cole/USFWS "Some of the bills are blatant attacks on the ESA; others, on public lands. Others are a little bit more insidious - you have to read the fine print," Cotton said. Here are a few bills that could drastically damage the future of endangered species in this country: The Federal Land Freedom Act, currently in the Senate, would give states control over fossil fuel interests on federal lands and would exempt oil and gas companies from ESA regulations and any federal reviews of environmental impacts. The 21st Century Endangered Species Transparency Act, currently in the Senate, would require all scientific data the government uses to list a species as endangered or threatened to be made public. This doesn't seem like a bad thing - until you look at the claims of some politicians that say a species only appears as endangered or threatened because of poorly conducted research. This can damage the legitimacy of the ESA in general. The Listing Reform Act, currently in the House of Representatives, would require the government to weigh the "economic costs" of listing an imperiled animal and to consider animals in need of protections not based on how urgent it is to protect them from extinction, but based only on the order in which the proposed protections are received. This means that companies would be free to conduct business as usual in the meantime, even if the survival of a species is at stake. Grizzly bear family in Alaska | Shutterstock For some animals, the ESA is more crucial than ever. Legislation is being considered that would roll back protections on endangered wolves in the Great Lakes region and would open up the gray wolf population to hunting and trapping, if it passes. Forests that the northern long-eared bat call home are under threat by the logging and energy industries - and in some areas the population of this bat has plummeted by 99 percent since 2006. "The ESA is our strongest wildlife protection law; a bulwark preventing our most cherished and ecologically vital species from disappearing forever," Jennifer Place, program associate for Born Free USA, told The Dodo. "The increasing number of attacks on the ESA from both Congress and state governments are highly concerning." A northern long-eared bat, one of the imperiled animals protected by the ESA | USFWS This week, President Donald Trump signed four bills that roll back many regulations, one of which cancels a federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rule that was opposed by the fuel industry because it gave the federal government a big role in making decisions about land use. This move suggests he'll be favorable to other rollbacks that impact animals and the environment. "Environmental protection, what they do is a disgrace. Every week they come out with new regulations. They're making it impossible," Trump said during a 2015 interview. "We'll be fine with the environment. We can leave a little bit but you can't destroy businesses." The president is also ready to sign into law a bill that just passed the Senate and would lift regulations on inhumane hunting tactics on federal wildlife refuges in Alaska, making it legal to shoot hibernating bear and wolf families in their dens. Gray wolf pups emerging from their den | Hilary Cooley/USFWS This is Jimmy - a sweet old man with a deep, dark, adorable secret. Twitter/Syl Jimmy, 85, lives in Puerto Rico with his wife. Their neighborhood is home to a number of stray cats, but the couple has never really seen eye-to-eye about how warmly to welcome them. For Jimmy, the preferred approach is to be hospitable - his wife, meanwhile, hasn't wanted them around the house at all. That's how Jimmy's clandestine work began. "My grandpa felt for the stray cats and would leave food in the back of the house near his tool shed, a spot where my grandma doesn't go," his granddaughter, Syl, told The Dodo. "This particular cat was especially friendly and got attached to my grandpa." Turns out, the especially friendly cat was pregnant - and Jimmy was pulled in even deeper undercover, as Syl writes: Dodo Shows Wild Hearts Orphaned Deer Runs Back To The Wild With Her Best Friend Apparently, Jimmy's wife nixed the idea of taking in the expectant mom cat and her soon-to-be-born babies, but he went ahead and made sure they had a place to stay inside his shed anyway. After the birth of the kittens, Jimmy wasn't regretful of that decision; his wife, meanwhile, remained blissfully unaware they were even there. Twitter/Syl Learning about his covert operation didn't come as a shock to Syl. "My grandpa is really kind and has always loved animals," she said. "So it's not really that surprising." Twitter/Syl The mama cat, safely kept and well fed behind the scenes, certainly appreciates his help with raising her babies. Twitter/Syl Despite his best efforts, however, Jimmy wasn't able to keep his hidden feline family a secret from his wife forever. Three weeks after the kittens were born, she DID find out. Though she probably wasn't thrilled to learn that her husband had transformed their place into a cat nursery without her knowledge, Jimmy's wife suddenly became much more understanding of their difficult situation. "She's okay with them staying there until they're old enough to have new homes," Syl said. Cuddly kitten faces do have a funny way of softening people's hearts. Twitter/Syl We may never know if Jimmy had planned this outcome all along, sowing the seeds for a cat-friendlier home with his covert tactics, but it seems to have worked regardless. It would appear that Jimmy is a man who needs no instruction when it comes to winning people over. His wife, no doubt, agrees. Twitter/Syl Home >Police Enforcement > Taxes and Tolls > Virginia Governor Slams Macquarie And Its Tolling Practices How Toshibas Westinghouse bet on nuclear power and lost NEW YORKWestinghouse Electric Co., once synonymous with Americas industrial might, wagered its future on nuclear power and lost. Now a unit of Japanese technology giant Toshiba Corp., Westinghouse on Wednesday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy-court protection, citing as much as $10 billion (U.S.) in debt. The company will continue operating while it comes up with a plan to repay at least part of what it owes. The move marks a potential end to a troubled era, which began in the late 1990s, when the company made a series of sales that left it with only the nuclear business. Since then, atomic power has failed to take off in part because of cost overruns, cheaper alternatives and the fallout from an accident in Japan. Read more:Toshiba chairman resigns over massive projected nuclear losses They placed a big bet on this hallucination of a nuclear renaissance, said Peter A. Bradford, a former Nuclear Regulatory Commission member who now teaches at Vermont Law School. Toshiba seemed to believe that all the nuclear plants were actually going to get built. In earlier iterations, Westinghouse, based in Cranberry Township, a suburb of Pittsburgh, was an innovator on par with todays Microsoft and Apple. George Westinghouse, a prolific inventor and rival of Thomas Edison, founded the company in 1886. Its technological breakthroughs included the commercializing of alternating current generators and transformers. In no small measure, Westinghouse helped electrify the world. Westinghouse supplied the worlds first commercial pressurized water reactor more than half a century ago in Pennsylvania. There are currently more than 430 nuclear power stations globally, with about half based on Westinghouse technology. Westinghouse tried many strategies to stay relevant with changing times. Like one-time rival General Electric, the company diversified. In the 1980s, it offered financial services, suffering heavy losses. Westinghouse went into broadcasting when it bought CBS in 1995 and took its name two years later. But it never found its footing. By the time CBS sold itself to Viacom in 2000, there was little left of Westinghouse but the nuclear business. (As CBS, the company started licensing the Westinghouse brand to makers of everything from microwave ovens to solar panels.) About 10 years ago, Westinghouse came up with an approach it hoped would revolutionize nuclear power: a simplified modular design that could be sold to more than a dozen utilities at a lower cost. It had the less-than-catchy name of the AP1000. The AP1000 was supposed to open a new era of reactors with a generic design that can be sold or licensed, said Mykel Schneider, a Paris-based nuclear energy consultant. What they did was move the problems from the factory to the construction site, where youre dealing with a labour force that hasnt built reactors in decade. And they used extremely optimistic cost and construction estimates. Toshiba bought Westinghouse for $5.4 billion in 2006. The company foresaw a golden age for nuclear power in the U.S., U.K. and China. Instead, natural gas became cheaper and the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, further soured the public on nuclear. The conglomerate has already lost $6 billion on the purchase and said Thursday its full-year net loss could more than double to 1.01 trillion yen, from 390 billion yen forecast last month, following the Westinghouse bankruptcy filing. In the U.S., only four of 30 applications for nuclear reactors using Westinghouse technology have moved forward, and even those are now at risk. Westinghouse has fallen behind on projects for U.S. utility companies Southern Co. and Scana Corp. Scana and Southern could end up dealing with billions of dollars in additional cost overruns from the power plants they hired Westinghouse to build, according to analysts at Morgan Stanley. Scana faces as much as $5.2 billion in higher costs while Southerns extra bills could reach $3.3 billion, Morgan Stanley has said. Both utility owners said Wednesday that Westinghouse contractors would continue work on the four reactors while they determine how and when they will be completed. Westinghouse said it has lined up $800 million in financing to fund work during the restructuring. Toshiba chief Executive officer Satoshi Tsunakawa said there is no risk of additional losses to the company from overseas nuclear projects. Todays filing by Westinghouse is an important step toward recovery, he said. It is also in-line with our goal of limiting risk from overseas nuclear operations. David Rubenstein, an analyst at Shared Research Inc. in Tokyo, was skeptical of the atomic focus ever since he started covering Toshiba in 2007, just a year after the Westinghouse acquisition. From the start I had a negative impression of the nuclear business, Rubenstein said. The purchase price didnt make sense. It looked like a huge risk and that was without Fukushima. SHARE: George Clooney cant stop talking about becoming a father. My wife thinks this is endearing. Then again, my wife thinks a 14-hour discussion about Benjamin Moore colour chips is riveting and necessary, so her credibility is suspect: Acapulco Sand might look dingy in direct sunlight. The Santa Fe Tan is way too dark. Im kind of torn between Foggy Morning and White Winged Dove. Wisp of Mauve is an option. What do you think? Honey, I think youre insane. Thats what I think. They all look the same. Mr. Clooney is now in the colour chip stage of his life reno, which is to say hes eager to paint over his old bachelor days, but not sure about how the future will look when his new life dries this summer and hes a dad to twins. As his friend Matt Damon recently told ET: Hes going to get prepared. He better figure it out, cause theyre on the way. But hell be great. Hell be a mess, but (wife Amal) will take care of everything. Oh, really? The partner with the busier career Amal is a human rights lawyer is going to take care of everything? I dont think so, Matt. Thats now how this works. But that is a telling quote. The transition from hell be great to hell be a mess suggests Clooneys inner circle questions his survival skills in this new milieu. Its like saying, George is a strong swimmer. And then, George may drown. I believe they are right to be afraid. Let me ask you something. You ever see one of those hostage videos in which the victim is oddly upbeat while waxing calmly about how hes fine and his captors are treating him great? The hostage rarely blinks. His message is optimistic but his tone is flat. He grins at strange moments. He sometimes emits a nervous laugh for no reason at all. Hes prone to shrugging. He says things he doesnt seem to believe. If youre unfamiliar with the propaganda reels Im describing, watch any recent interview with Clooney in which he waxes calmly about fatherhood. For example, at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Tuesday, ET asked the 55-year-old if hes got his head around the looming reality of having two babies at once. No, says Clooney, his jaw clenched in stoic profile as his eyes fix on the middle distance, where invisible clowns are assembling a crib and humming war songs. I dont know how you fully digest that, but Im excited, he adds with a shrug and then a perfunctory, Itll be fun. I cant wait to scrub vomit off my sharkskin suits. Itll be fun. When asked if the couple has picked out any baby names Im starting to worry an addled Clooney may lobby for Foggy Morning or White Winged Dove he cracks a joke that references Casamigos, the tequila company he owns and will likely be midnight raiding in the months ahead. My wife says I cant name them Casa and Amigos thats the one thing Im not allowed to do, Clooney says, as nearby Julianne Moore breaks into one of her full-faced laughs and he looks deeper into the horizon, where the invisible clowns are now changing diapers and blotting their tears with baby powder. It was just a thought, Clooney adds, turning toward the camera and not blinking. This poor fool hasnt sounded like himself all week. I played a pediatrician on ER, he told E! I know swaddling, he told Extra. I know what Im in for. Does he? Because all this talking about fatherhood seems to be masking a different reality: he does not know what hes in for. Mr. Clooney, as a father of twins, I strongly urge you to disappear from public view for the next few months. You need to decompress, to get mentally prepared for what awaits. To paraphrase Bill Murray from Lost in Translation: Your life, as you know it, will soon be gone, never to return. Lock yourself in your Italian mansion with a stack of books with titles such as, What to Do When Youre Having Two: The Twins Survival Guide from Pregnancy Through the First Year. Practise swaddling a cantaloupe while unswaddling a pineapple and then switching without letting either one roll off the table. Its harder than you might think. Or just have some fun. And get some rest, Mr. Clooney. Forget about promoting your upcoming film, Suburbicon. Crawl into a hammock and sleep 12, 16, 18 hours a day, no amount is too much. Youll thank me later. The main thing is you need to stop talking about fatherhood. Thats all anyone wants to talk about and, frankly, its a waste of your precious time. Its chewing into your final days of freedom. Youre not a hostage. Not yet, anyway. Read more about: SHARE: OTTAWAWhile many Canadians are concerned about having problems at the United States border, it is Americans who are having difficulties visiting Canada with the number turned away rising by 31 per cent last year, La Presse has learned. According to federal documents, 30,233 Americans were turned away when attempting to enter Canada in 2016. In 2015, 23,052 people were turned back, representing an increase of 31 per cent in one year. The numbers are all the more striking when compared to 2014, when 7,509 American citizens were refused entry to Canada. The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), which is responsible for border security, would not provide reasons for the increase. Read more: Don't expect to just pack up and move to Canada, Americans told View from America as immigrants head north Despite Trump policies, fewer Canadians being turned away at U.S. border The CBSA is not in a position to speculate, said Nicholas Dorion, a spokesperson for the agency. The number of people turned away at the border fluctuates from year to year. The announcement of a new intelligence sharing agreement between Ottawa and Washington in 2013 likely played a role, according to Tamara Mosher Kuczer, a lawyer specializing in immigration matters with the law office Capelle Kane in Ottawa. Under the deal, Canadian border agents can more easily detect Americans with a criminal record who show up at the border. Infractions, some decades old, could not be detected before the deal. We receive many more demands from people who travelled for years to Canada without a problem and who are now refused entry for a drinking and driving infractions that dates back 40 years, the lawyer said. The CBSA refused to detail the reasons for the 30,233 refusals of American travellers last year. People turned back at the border generally receive permission to leave, the federal agency said. If an individual is suspected of being prohibited from Canadian territory by a Canadian border agent for a reason cited by the Immigration and Refugee Act, the agent must always consider authorizing the person to leave Canada voluntarily, said Dorion. When the agent at the border authorizes a person to take back their request to enter Canada they have to proceed by providing a formula entitled authorized to leave Canada It is the authorized to leave Canada documents that La Presse was able to consult under the Access to Information Act. Since the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, Canadians are less frequently turned away at the U.S. border. According to The Canadian Press, the number of Canadians refused entry at American land crossings dropped by 8.5 per cent over the last five months. That means that 6,875 Canadians could not get across the border between October 2016 and February 2017, compared to 7,619 in the same period a year earlier. Read more: Canadas immigration website restored after crashing amid U.S. election results But those statistics haven't stopped some Canadians from thinking twice about attempting to cross the border. The Toronto District School Board, which represents 245,000 students, suspended school trips to the United States. Board officials blamed Trumps controversial travel restrictions which bans would-be visitors and immigrants to the U.S. from Iran, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Libya. We strongly believe that our students should not be placed into these situations of potentially being turned away at the border, TDSB education director John Malloy told the Stars Andrea Gordon last week. Trumps ban is being challenged by several U.S. states. Mexico accounted for the largest number of people refused entry to Canada after the United States (2,729 people in 2016) followed by China (1,783), India (1,470), Colombia (912), Ecuador (647), Saudi Arabia (563) and France (561). As for Syrians, who have been in the spotlight for several months, only 77 of them were refused access to Canada last year, as well as 15 since the start of 2017. With files from William Leclerc, La Presse Read more about: SHARE: Its the OSAP app. The provincial government is touting a new Ontario Student Assistance Program calculator designed to make it easier to qualify for financial aid to attend college or university. Weve really turned OSAP upside down, Advanced Education and Skills Development Minister Deb Matthews said Wednesday at Bishop Marrocco/Thomas Merton Catholic Secondary School on Bloor Street West. Under the new OSAP, over 210,000 students will get free tuition, Matthews told scores of high school students. Read more: Students caught in debt trap after OSAP overpayments In the past, OSAP was really complicated, she said, noting the new online application at www.ontario.ca/OSAP simplifies things for students by taking into account household income and other factors. Matthews said the government is offering young people a new deal. Were going to make sure that money doesnt stop you from going to school, she said. Read more: Mature students to get more post-secondary help Premier Kathleen Wynne stressed that OSAP includes loans and grants so students from all walks of life can qualify for help. We need people to go through all of those streams, Wynne said of college and university attendance. SHARE: Toronto councillors have watered down a proposed ban on the sale of caffeinated energy drinks in city facilities. Council on Tuesday instead voted 37-4 to merely ask city agencies to consider not selling the popular energy drinks to patrons under age 18, and to support compliance with Health Canada rules about marketing and distribution of the drinks. The vote conforms with advice from acting medical officer of health Dr. Barbara Yaffe to adopt an incremental approach to the issue, raising public awareness about potentially negative effects particularly for young people of mixing caffeine and alcohol. Toronto Public Health reviewed the evidence and found no compelling reason to deviate from the current precautionary public health approach that encourages limits in (caffeinated energy drink) consumption, rather than outright bans, Yaffe said in a report. Health board members, however, recently voted to go beyond her advice after Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker argued council should outlaw the sale, marketing, promotion or sampling of caffeinated energy drinks in any city-owned property or facility including stadiums, recreation centres and parks. Amid concerns that a ban would violate existing contractual agreements with drink providers, the health board also recommended council exempt some sites including Exhibition Place and Yonge-Dundas Square. City council did not debate the issue Tuesday, instead quickly voting to adopt Yaffes original recommendation and also to forward her report to Torontos public school boards. Councillors who voted against the motion were: De Baeremaeker; Joe Cressy; Norm Kelly; and Frances Nunziata. With files from Betsy Powell SHARE: Toronto police raided four marijuana dispensaries Tuesday, charging nine people with drug-related offences, just days after reports that Ottawa would introduce legislation next month to legalize pot by Canada Day 2018. Toronto police spokesperson Const. Victor Kwong said the raids werent meant to target average marijuana users. I know that it seems like were just shutting down places for marijuana, but its no different than people would expect us to investigate a grocery store if they were selling things that were not tested to be safe for consumption, Kwong said Wednesday. Its been a while now since weve charged anyone with simple possession, like, you know some guy walking around with a joint. Rather, he said, police are responding in cases where the city has notified them about locations with more widespread issues. Its when weve been notified by the city that there are contraventions to the zoning and bylaws, Kwong said. Its when undercover operations have shown that they dont check for age, for any other type of medical need or credentials and when theyre selling things that have not passed any type of safety inspection. Thats when search warrants are applied for. The raids occurred between 5 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. The first took place at Buds 4 Life on Broadview Ave. south of Gerrard St. E. Five people were charged with drug-related offences, and one also faces weapons charges. Police said they seized 1,146 grams of marijuana, 51 grams of shatter, a cannabis extract, 21 grams of hashish, two concealed steel expandable batons and $15,190. Cassandra Higgins, 26, Robertha Johnson, 25, Victoria Robbins, 23, Melanie Marshall-Lazou, 25, and Brennan Steinberg, 30, were each charged with possession of an illegal substance following the Buds 4 Life raid. They were also charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking and possession of proceeds obtained by crime. Steinberg was additionally charged with two counts of carrying a concealed weapon. At 6 p.m., police raided Canadian Green, at Bloor St. W. and Lansdowne Ave., and Village Cannabis Dispensary, on Church St. south of Maitland St. No arrests were made at either location. Police raided The Open Dispensary at 801 Queen St. W. at 8:20 p.m. and four people were charged with drug-related offences. Its crazy for so many reasons, said Toronto lawyer and cannabis advocate Paul Lewin. He said it was morally wrong for police to carry out the raids as the federal government gets set to legalize marijuana and blamed the Liberals for not having an interim enforcement plan as it studies how to do so. Theyve really created a complete mess for police and prosecutors throughout the country, said Lewin. This is at a time in which we have scarce judicial resources. Police budgets are tight, courts only have so much time, we only have so many judges and so many prosecutors and were going to waste court time with this? Moments before police arrived at Village Cannabis Dispensary on Tuesday, patron Froses Berkovitch described the atmosphere as very peaceful. There was music playing. There wasnt any loud talking. Everybody was just mellow, he said. But as soon as that happened, everybody came out and people filled the street. Several police officers were seen still inside the dispensary at about 7 p.m., while nearly a dozen people protested outside. Berkovitch said that as he was getting ready to leave, police showed up and told patrons that if they were not working there to leave immediately. Police then brought in a bucket to fill with marijuana and proceeded to raid the store, he said. Berkovitch streamed the event in real-time via Facebook Live and put out a call to action. Mark Harrison, a manager at the Village Cannabis Dispensary, said police took about 10 pounds of their product. The dispensary was formerly known as Cannabis Culture, and had already been raided this month. That brand was co-owned by prominent marijuana activists Marc and Jodie Emery, who were arrested on a number of drug-related charges March 8. The Emerys were granted bail with several conditions, such as being barred from going to any Cannabis Culture location or other dispensary, and from facilitating or participating in running any Cannabis Culture shop. Harrison said staff members purchased the store on Mar. 9 and changed the name following the Emerys arrests. With files from Hina Alam and Andrej Ivanov SHARE: In a rare move, Brantford city council has voted to end its use of temporary staffing agencies businesses local councillors blame for trapping workers in a cycle of poverty and insecurity. The ban, unanimously approved on Tuesday evening, is believed to be the first of its kind in Ontario and will prohibit the city council from hiring through such organizations. Councillor Brian Van Tilborg, who introduced the motion, called the decision groundbreaking. There cannot be any role for the kind of exploitation thats going on, he told the Star. Most Brantford city employees are already directly hired, but according to councillor John Sless, the motion sends an important signal to local employers and the provincial government about the risks of temp agency employment. We have a disproportionate amount of temp agencies in our city, and its really eroding the quality of life because people get caught in that cycle, he said. Its (a message) to the broader community but more importantly its going to Queens Park. There has got to be some kind of control. You cant ask other people to do what youre not prepared to. If youre not leading, youre following, he added. And we intend to lead on this. Ontario is currently reviewing its employment laws, a process that includes examining the regulation of temp agencies. The Star has previously highlighted the rise of temp agency employment, and its impact on vulnerable workers. In a statement to the Star, Minister of Labour spokesperson Michael Speers said the government wants to ensure (temp workers) rights are protected and that they remain safe on the job. No person in Ontario should ever feel under-appreciated or undervalued; no person should ever feel like they can't get ahead. We are committed to ensuring everyone in Ontario has the opportunity to reach their full potential, he said, adding that measures passed in 2014 introduced stronger safeguards against wage theft for temp agency workers. Because of the lack of regulation and protection, temp agencies and client companies who use them have had free rein and the fact that the city of Brantford has said we are not going to condone these types of labour practices, I think, is a huge message, said Deena Ladd of the Toronto-based Workers Action Centre. In its submission to the governments review, whose final recommendations are expected to be made public this spring, the lobby group representing temp agencies said they provide a vital service in the modern economy both by supporting business needs for a flexible workforce to adapt to a rapidly changing business environment and by providing a wide range of employment opportunities. As reported by the Star, Ministry of Labour inspectors have previously uncovered workplace violations at around 75 per cent of temp agencies inspected. In 2015, the Star also revealed that the Ontario government was hiring through temp agencies that its own inspectors found to be breaking the law. Sless said Brantford, a city with a long history as an industrial centre, has seen a disproportionate rise in temporary staffing businesses. (Temps) can work for years at the same place and never achieve full time employment which would mean better hourly rates, benefits, those types of things, he told the Star. And that whole segment of our society is missing out because its been made too easy to use temp agencies in this city. Theyve just flooded market. Councillors have also instructed city staff to conduct a study to estimate community-wide loss of income due to temp agency contracted jobs research they say will be presented to the provincial government to press for change. Reforms suggested by the Workers Action Centre include legislating equal pay for temp workers, banning long-term temp agency placements, making both client companies and temp agencies liable for workers rights and protections, and placing a cap on the percentage of workers that can be hired through a temp agency in a single workplace. Youre talking about people with families and children, Sless said. Youre just living always on the edge not knowing what tomorrow brings. Thats no quality of life. And it doesnt have to be that way. smojtehedzadeh@thestar.ca SHARE: GRAVENHURST, ONT.A man convicted of killing his son in a horrific case of child abuse will be allowed to temporarily leave prison while supervised to perform community service, which he said was part of an effort to atone for his crime. Edward (Tony) Dooley has been granted a series of escorted absences over the course of six months from the Beaver Creek Institution, a minimum- and medium-security facility in Gravenhurst, Ont., where he is currently serving a life sentence. In a hearing before two members of the Parole Board of Canada on Wednesday, Dooley said that while nothing can erase the harm he has caused, he sees the community work as a way to give back something. I know Ive been described as a monster and I wont quarrel with the description, he said, noting that he has worked hard since his conviction to become a better human. The 51-year-old was denied full parole last year, in part because he had never participated in escorted absences, which allow authorities to see how inmates behave outside prison. If released on full parole, Dooley who is a Jamaican citizen would be subject to a deportation order. The board heard Dooley has been a model inmate since arriving at Beaver Creek from a maximum security facility two years ago and is considered a low risk for violent recidivism. He also obtained a high school diploma while behind bars. Read more: It's only human to pity Randal Dooley Parents in beating death of boy, 7, want new trial Appeals court upholds convictions against Tony and Marcia Dooley Dooley, along with his wife, was convicted of second-degree murder in 2002 in the death of his son, seven-year-old Randal Dooley. Randal was born in Jamaica and came to Canada with his brother to live with his father and stepmother in Toronto in November 1997, 11 months before his death. He had wasted to just 41 pounds and had 13 fractured ribs, a lacerated liver, four brain injuries, and head-to-toe bruises when he died in 1998. At the couples trial, it was found that Marcia Dooley had struck the fatal blow to Randal and had inflicted the vast majority of the prior abuse. She was given a life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 18 years. Tony Dooley, meanwhile, was characterized by the judge as a coward for ignoring Randals plight as Marcias whipping boy. He received a life term with no parole for at least 13 years. Dooley maintained Wednesday that he never saw his wife do anything worse than slap the boy, but said he should have stepped in nonetheless. He said he only began to acknowledge his role about seven or eight years ago. My sons are very important to me and I have failed all of them miserably, he said. Despite this, Dooley said he maintains a close relationship with his oldest son, who witnessed Randals abuse and is now in his late 20s. Dooley, who admitted during trial to belting Randal on the buttocks, also said he no longer considers corporal punishment a valid form of discipline. I was ill-prepared and ill-equipped as a parent to deal with the situation, he said. Sharing his experience could help other parents who are struggling to handle their children, he said. What I really want is to get a do-over but that cant happen, Dooley said, adding all he can do is not repeat the mistakes of the past. The couples three-month trial made headlines across Canada as the gruesome details of Randals brief life came to light. Court heard that months of abuse had left the little boy incontinent and unable to keep down food before his death. Jurors also heard that Marcia Dooley broke Randals arm and even forced him to eat his vomit because she didnt want food going to waste. Randals teacher noticed dozens of welts on his back at some point, which led the school to notify police and child welfare authorities, though no charges were laid at that time. After Randals death in September 1998, his father and stepmother told police that the boy had tumbled from an upper bunk bed and struck his head on the floor. The couple appealed their conviction, but their bid for a new trial was dismissed in 2009. In 2015, Marcia Dooley was denied escorted temporary absences from prison after the parole board found her still reluctant to accept full responsibility for her crime. SHARE: Toronto tenants can look forward to safer, cleaner places to live, following the almost unanimous approval by city council of a new regulatory bylaw for landlords. Starting this summer, building owners must register with the city and will be expected to track tenant complaints, respond quickly to requests for repairs and provide effective pest control. This has been a truly collective, collaborative team effort, between city staff, between members of council, advocacy organizations, not-for-profits and the public at large, said Councillor Josh Matlow, on the council floor. The bylaw is a deeply substantive piece of policy that would improve the lives of tenants and hold landlords who have long put profit over people to account, he said. Read more: Tenant protection bylaw hailed as groundbreaking The rules come into force on July 1. Property owners are expected to sign up within the first three to four months and must re-register every year. Enforcement will begin precisely 12 months after the launch and the program will apply to 3,500 buildings, anything with three or more storeys and 10 or more units, or roughly 350,000 apartments. Under the new rules, landlords must respond to urgent requests in 24 hours, including if water and heat are shut off, and tackle smaller complaints within seven days. The rules also require a waste management and capital repair plan. Pest complaints must be inspected in 72 hours and handled by licensed exterminators and tenants informed by a posted notice. The unit number will not be made public and landlords cant rent an apartment with a pest problem. Read more: City council toughens rules for landlords The protections extend to Toronto Community Housing buildings, but the money will come from private properties. Tracey Cook, executive director of Municipal Licensing and Standards, described the bylaw as a meaningful tool, created with both the needs of tenants and landlords in mind and one they expect to be able to enforce. The program will cost about $5 million, with 53 per cent of costs to be recovered through an annual registration fee, costing $10.60 for each unit, 12 per cent from enforcement action, and 35 per cent from property taxes. This is a mix of carrot and sticks, said Councillor Janet Davis, asking city staff to explain when tenants can expect a crackdown on noncompliant landlords. Where are the sticks, what are the sticks? asked Davis, who has long pushed for stronger tenant protections. Daviss ward is the home of 500 Dawes Rd., a building with a long history of reported pest and maintenance problems. Prior to the launch, city staff will continue to inspect buildings and order repairs. Not complying with the new rules could mean paying $108 per hour for inspections, or $1,800 for an audit. A fine of up to $100,000 could be laid through provincial offences court, for a contravention of the bylaw. Smaller fees could be passed on to tenants, as buildings constructed after 1991 are exempt from rent control rules. What wont be allowed, council heard, are landlords passing on the cost of capital repairs ordered by the city, through above-guideline rent increases. Mark Sraga, director investigation services, with the citys licensing division said the Residential Tenancies Act has clear language around compliance with orders, or that landlords must absorb those expenses. They cannot pass those costs on to tenants, Sraga told the Star. A key voice for tenants has been the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. Natalie Hundt, chair of ACORN Institute Canada, said their long fight was fueled by widespread and appalling conditions across Toronto. The results are real life results, people will be living better, children will not have to get asthma from mould, said Hundt. This is really important. Read more about: SHARE: The end could be nigh for Torontos cube cluster landmark nestled just north of the Distillery District. The curious three-cube structure standing on a pie shaped slice of real estate between Adelaide St. East and Eastern Ave. has been up for sale for months, but so far no one has snapped it up. Its unusual in a red-hot market where homes have been sold above asking price in days, but Arthur Crapopoulos, the sales representative for the property, is unconcerned. This is very new on the market and its not really on the market. Its exclusive so not a lot of people know about it, he said of the residential zoned property. Its being marketed to a select few investors. Not everybody can afford to develop a piece of land downtown. The listing price for the approximately 9,000 square feet property is under wraps, said Crapopoulos, but a property like this, located close to downtown and with great potential for future use, could be worth around $4 million and possibly higher. Properties like this dont get purchased as quickly as a condo or a single home for a single family, he said. That is a whole different type of real estate. The cube cluster is actually three multi-story apartments each contained in its own cube and each suspended above the ground by a large metal pole. Built in 1996 based on architect Piet Bloms cube homes in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Torontos tri-cube structure has had a colourful past. They were built by a Canadian architect who didnt own the land and when the property was sold, he argued they were chattel to try and keep them. The argument was rejected by a judge and so the landowner got to keep them. In 2002 the property was purchased in a power of sale for $265,000 by the founder of the Coffee Time franchise, Tom Michalopoulos. And depending on who purchases the property next and their vision of what the land could contain, the cube could be knocked down. Rotterdams cube houses, which were designed in 1984, however, are billed as a must see in the city. The colourful cubes contain 38 homes, one of which is a museum tourists can pay to visit. Its even possible to rent one of the homes overnight. Their interiors are chic, with modern built-in furniture and more windows. Its something Martin Trainor, a producer at the CBC who has called two of the three cube units home for the last 15 years, hopes to see for Torontos cube. At the very least, he hopes it will be spared, or at least dismantled and moved to a new home where the public can appreciate it. I actually have another property that I could live in. Its a regular house. But I choose to live here because its unique, he said. Its a great architectural masterpiece, if you ask me. The interior of one of his units is bright and airy and surprisingly spacious and serene. With its soaring pointed ceiling the home seems to sail above the din of traffic, despite being so close to the roads. If the whole place was one family unit it would be excellent. Children would love this, said Trainor. SHARE: LOS ANGELESTwo anti-abortion activists who secretly recorded Planned Parenthood conversations about fetal tissue must each face more than a dozen felony charges. Californias new Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed 15 counts apiece Tuesday against David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt of the Center of Medical Progress, saying the videos showing discussions of fetal tissue were made without the consent of the people in them in violation of state law. Becerra, a longtime Congressional Democrat who took over the investigation in January, said in a statement that the state will not tolerate the criminal recording of conversations. The charges come eight months after similar charges against the pair were dropped in Texas. California prosecutors say Daleiden, of Davis, Calif., and Merritt, of San Jose, filmed 14 people without permission between October 2013 and July 2015 in Los Angeles, San Francisco and El Dorado counties. One felony count was filed for each person recorded. The 15th was for criminal conspiracy to invade privacy. Daleiden said in an email to The Associated Press that the bogus charges are coming from Planned Parenthoods political cronies. The public knows the real criminals are Planned Parenthood and their business partners, Daleiden said. The conversations included officials from Planned Parenthood and StemExpress, a California company that provides blood, tissue and other biological material for medical research and had received fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood. In one of the pairs videos, Daleiden poses as Robert Sarkis of the phoney Biomax Procurement Services and is shown discussing liver tissue with the chief executive of StemExpress at a Northern California restaurant. Read more: Some U.S. states seek to protect birth-control access despite GOP health care fail Republicans turn on Trump-supporter Tomi Lahren for pro-choice stance Trump tells Planned Parenthood it can keep its funding if it stops the abortions Abortion opponents said the recordings showed Planned Parenthood was illegally harvesting and selling the organs. Planned Parenthood said the videos were deceptively edited to support extremists false claims. As we have said from the beginning, and as more than a dozen different state investigations have made clear: Planned Parenthood has done nothing wrong, and the only people who broke the law are those behind the fraudulent tapes, said Mary Alice Carter, interim vice-president of communications for Planned Parenthood, in a statement. In April of last year, Daleiden said in a Facebook post that California Department of Justice agents raided his home, seizing all of his video footage along with personal information. Since then the case had gone largely quiet, with virtually no revelations about the investigation and no indication that the charges were coming before they were filed Tuesday in San Francisco Superior Court. The case is one of the first of high-profile prosecutions for Becerra, who left the U.S. House to take over for Kamala Harris after she became a U.S. Senator. Daleiden and Merritt had previously been indicted in Texas on similar charges in January of 2016, but all of the charges were eventually dropped by July as prosecutors said a grand jury had overstepped its authority. The grand jury had originally been convened to investigate Planned Parenthood, but after finding no wrongdoing turned around and indicted Daleiden and Merritt instead. The videos reignited the American abortion debate when they were released in 2015, and increased Congressional heat against Planned Parenthood that has yet to subside. SHARE: LONDONBritain filed for divorce from the European Union on Wednesday, with fond words and promises of friendship that could not disguise the historic nature of the schism or the years of argument and hard-nosed bargaining ahead as the U.K. leaves the embrace of the bloc for an uncertain future as global Britain. Prime Minister Theresa May triggered the two-year divorce process in a six-page letter to EU Council President Donald Tusk, vowing that Britain will maintain a deep and special partnership with its neighbours in the bloc. In response, Tusk told Britain: We already miss you. Mays invocation of Article 50 of the EUs key treaty sets the clock ticking on two years of negotiations until Britain becomes the first major nation to leave the union as Big Ben bongs midnight on March 29, 2019. The U.K.s departure could not come at a worse time for the EU, which has grown from six founding members six decades ago to a vast, largely borderless span of 28 nations and half a billion people. Nationalist and populist parties are on the march across the continent in revolt against the blocs mission of ever-closer union. And in Washington, U.S. President Donald Trump has derided the EU, NATO and other pillars of Western order built up since the Second World War. Read more: British PM May, Scottish leader meet for first time since independence dispute This is a historic moment from which there can be no turning back, May told lawmakers in the House of Commons, moments after her letter was hand-delivered to Tusk in Brussels by Britains ambassador to the EU, Tim Barrow. In the letter, May said the two sides should engage with one another constructively and respectfully, in a spirit of sincere co-operation. But for all the warmth, the next two years will be a tough test of the notion that divorcees can remain good friends. May is under pressure from her Conservative Party and Britains largely Euroskeptic press not to concede too much in exchange for a good trade deal with the EU. For their part, the other 27 members of the bloc will need to stick together and stand firm as they ride out the biggest threat in the unions history. Brexit has been hailed by populists across Europe including French far-right leader Marine Le Pen who hope the U.K. is only the first in a series of departures. EU leaders are determined to stop that happening. The European Union is a historically unique success story, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Berlin. It remains one even after Britains withdrawal. We will take care of that. Britons voted 52 per cent to 48 per cent in favour of leaving the bloc in a referendum nine months ago, and they remain deeply divided over Brexit. In the pro-Brexit heartland of Dover on Englands south coast whose white cliffs face toward France some were jubilant as May pulled the trigger. Im a local church minister, and I said to my wife, All I want to do before I die is see my country free from the shackles of Europe, said 70-year-old Mike Piper, buying a copy of the Sun tabloid with the front-page headline Dover and Out. Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage, who campaigned for years to take Brexit from a fringe cause to reality, said Britain had passed the point of no return. I can still, to be honest with you, scarcely believe today has come, he said. But many young Britons who have grown up in the EU and voted overwhelmingly for Britain to remain a member worried about how much they would lose. Read more: Tens of thousands protest Brexit in London on EUs 60th anniversary Im really anxious about it. It was a bad idea, said Elaine Morrison, an 18-year-old who was travelling to Barcelona with friends. I like travelling to other countries And it will be a trouble now. The pound is weaker so it will cost more to buy the euros, and the costs of travel will be more expensive. And there will be red tape. People in Londons financial district, the City, were anxious about uncertainty. No one knows how this is going to go, said City worker Nicola Gibson. Its a gamble, its a risk. Mays six-page letter to Tusk was polite and conciliatory, stressing that Britons want to remain committed partners and allies to our friends across the continent. But there was a hint of steel in Mays assertion that without a good deal, our co-operation in the fight against crime and terrorism would be weakened. That could be seen by some in Europe as a threat to withdraw British security co-operation if the U.K. does not get its way. Tusk said he will respond by Friday with draft negotiating guidelines for the remaining 27 member states to consider. Theyll meet April 29 to finalize their platform. Talks between the EUs chief negotiator, French diplomat Michel Barnier, and his British counterpart, Brexit Secretary David Davis, are likely to start in the second half of May. As in many divorces, the first area of conflict is likely to be money. The EU wants Britain to pay a hefty bill Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the EUs executive Commission, put it at around 50 billion euros ($63 billion) to cover pension liabilities for EU staff and other commitments the U.K. has agreed to. Britain acknowledges it will have to pay something, but is sure to quibble over the size of the tab. Negotiations will also soon hit a major contraction: Britain wants to strike a bold and ambitious free trade agreement with the bloc of some 500 million people, but says it will restore control of immigration, ending the right of EU citizens to live and work in Britain. The EU says Britain cant have full access to the single market if it doesnt accept free movement, one of the blocs key principles. Read more: EU warns of serious consequences if no Brexit deal secured Both Britain and the EU say a top priority will be guaranteeing the rights of 3 million EU citizens living in Britain, and 1 million Britons living elsewhere in the bloc. In her letter, May said we should aim to strike an early agreement about their rights but for now they remain in limbo. The two sides also appear to disagree on how the talks will unfold. EU officials say the divorce terms must be settled before negotiators can turn to the U.K.s future relationship with the bloc, while Britain wants the two things discussed simultaneously. European Parliament President Antonio Tajani was adamant that the EU and Britain must finalize the terms of their divorce agreement, including how much money London owes, before discussing trade or other issues. This is not negotiable, he said. The U.K. has raised the prospect it could walk away without a deal if talks falter, though May said in her letter that both sides should work hard to avoid that outcome. Brexit has profound implications for Britains economy, society and even unity. The divisive decision to leave the EU has given new impetus to the drive for Scottish independence and shaken the foundations of Northern Irelands peace settlement. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who says the Brexit vote means Scotland should get a referendum on independence, accused May of making a reckless gamble. But anti-EU politicians saluted Wednesday as the day Britain regained its sovereignty from Brussels bureaucrats. If youve been locked inside a dark and cramped dungeon and you step out into sunlight, its going to be a bit intimidating, said pro-Brexit lawmaker Douglas Carswell. Youre going to have to learn how to use some of the faculties you were not using for a long time. We as a country have got to rediscover the art of self-governance. Read more about: SHARE: A Canadian woman detained in Turkey has been found guilty of insulting the countrys president, but said she has been released from prison as her lawyer pursues an appeal of the case. Ece Heper said she is happy to be out of prison, where she had been held since late December after being charged for comments she wrote about President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on social media. Read more: Canadian arrested in Turkey for insulting president on Facebook, lawyer says I still havent processed this, Heper told The Canadian Press in a brief interview Wednesday. I need a break, but Im OK. Heper, a dual Canadian-Turkish citizen, said she had been awake for more than two days after a whirlwind trial in the northeastern city of Kars followed by her release and a 10-hour drive to a friends place in southern Turkey. Her lawyer, Sertac Celikkaleli, said Heper was sentenced to two years and four months but has been released from prison while an appeal is pursued, although she cannot leave the country. After the term of her sentence is up, Heper will be banished from Turkey, he said. The lawyer noted that there is a possibility Heper could return to prison depending on the outcome of the appeal. The Canadian government is providing consular assistance to Heper from its embassy in Ankara, according to Global Affairs Canada spokesperson Austin Jean. Heper, 50, has been in Turkey since November and was charged on Dec. 30, according to Celikkaleli. She got into trouble over Facebook posts about Erdogan. In one posted on Dec. 28, Heper accused the president of jailing journalists who suggest there is evidence Turkey is supporting Daesh, also known as ISIS. Heper has a log home in Norwood, Ont., about 150 kilometres northeast of Toronto, according to her friend Birgitta Pavic, where she lives with five dogs she rescued from Turkey that are like her children. Her parents are dead and she lost touch with her brother, Pavic said. Her friends previously said Heper had been spending more time in Turkey after meeting a man in southern Turkey near the Syrian border. She told friends the man had been in exile and living in a Kurdish region in Syrias north. Pavic said Heper told her the man came back to Turkey and was arrested in September purportedly for a link to the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, a group listed as a terrorist organization in Turkey. Hepers friends said she was living in Mardin, a city in southeastern Turkey, but travelled to Kars to get the mans wife and bring her to visit him in jail. She was arrested in the womans home, her friends said. Freedom of expression has become an issue in Turkey. Since becoming president in 2014, Erdogan has filed about 2,000 defamation cases under a previously seldom-used law that bars insulting the president. Read more about: SHARE: NEWARK, N.J.Two former aides to Republican Gov. Chris Christie were sentenced to prison on Wednesday for creating a colossal traffic jam at the George Washington Bridge for political revenge, a scandal that sank Christies White House campaign and was attributed by the judge to a venomous climate inside state government. Bill Baroni, Christies appointee to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was sentenced to two years in prison, and Bridget Kelly, Christies former deputy chief of staff, was sentenced to 18 months at separate hearings in the 2013 lane-closing case. Both must also serve 500 hours of community service. U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton said it was clear there was never a legitimate traffic study, as they claimed during the trial, and said the defendants sought to mislead the jury with their testimony. During Kellys portion of the hearing, Wigenton also blamed the culture in Trenton, the state capital. Trial testimony described angry tirades by the governor and detailed his subordinates using the Port Authority as a source of political favours for politicians whose endorsements they sought. Read more:Chris Christies former aides convicted in rigged traffic jam Christie was not charged with any wrongdoing in the federal case. State prosecutors have declined to pursue a citizens criminal complaint lodged against him, but questions remain over how much he knew about the plot. His version of events, that he was not aware that anyone in his office was involved until months after the fact, was contradicted by testimony from multiple people. The scandal derailed Christies presidential aspirations and likely cost him a chance to be U.S. President Donald Trumps running mate. While the sentencing was happening Wednesday, Christie was at the White House to launch a drug addiction task force. The target of the traffic jams, Democratic Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, had declined to endorse Christie for re-election in 2013. It was his town near the bridge that suffered four days of paralyzing gridlock when access lanes were realigned. The judge told the 45-year-old Baroni the traffic was intended to wreak havoc. It only served a punitive purpose, the judge said. You clearly knew, and know today, that it was not legitimate. Referring to New Jersey politics, the judge told the 44-year-old Kelly she got caught up in a culture and an environment that lost its way. Its very clear the culture in Trenton was youre either with us or youre not, she said. Kelly and Baroni were convicted in November of all counts against them, including wire fraud, conspiracy and misusing the bridge for improper purposes. The governments star witness, former Port Authority official David Wildstein, testified he and the co-defendants sought to retaliate against Sokolich. Text messages and emails produced at trial showed Sokolichs increasingly desperate pleas for help being ignored. Kelly, who sent an infamous time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee email, wiped her eyes with a tissue and apologized, saying she never intended to cause harm. Assistant U.S. Attorney Vikas Khanna called her the impetus behind the crime, but outside the courthouse a defiant Kelly promised that the fight is far from over. I will not allow myself to be the scapegoat in this case, and I look very much forward to the appeal, she said. Baroni, who also is appealing his conviction, also apologized before sentencing, saying he accepted responsibility and made the wrong choice. I let a lot of people down who believed in me and relied on me. Most of all I let Mark Sokolich down, Baroni said. I was wrong, and I am truly sorry, and Ive waited three years to say that. Sokolich said Baronis sentence was fair and he didnt hold any ill feelings. The sentencing comes the same month another Christie ally, former Port Authority chairman David Samson, was sentenced to four years probation and home confinement for using his position to pressure United Airlines to reinstate a money-losing flight route to give him easier access to his South Carolina weekend home. SHARE: Its that time of the month and all you want to do is stay in bed. If you are a woman employed in Italy, you might soon get to do that if you can prove you suffer from painful periods. The Italian parliament is considering a bill that would require employers grant women three days of paid leave every month, according to the Washington Post. To qualify for menstrual leave, the Post said, women would need a certificate from a medical specialist. The bill, which says that between 60 and 90 per cent of women suffer from painful periods, was presented on March 13 by four women lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Party. It could be approved in the coming months, the Post said, citing Romes Il Messaggero. Critics of paid menstrual leave say it raises privacy issues, and worry that it might deter companies from hiring women. Are we going to have legislation for women that goes disease by disease, disorder by disorder? said Elisabeth Ballermann, secretary-treasurer of Canadas National Union of Public and General Employees. Our preference would be to continue the route of saying we are going to get to the point where all workers have access to paid sick leave for legitimate, verifiable reasons. If a similar law were to pass in Ontario it would significantly change the current law, said Ido Katri, a Trudeau and Vanier scholar at the University of Torontos faculty of law. This would create a great imbalance of rights, between people who menstruate a group that might include also people who do not identify as women and those who do not, that would be hard to justify, he said. Ballermann said governments should avoid gender-specific or disease-specific legislation. Lets talk about getting appropriate sick leave and the privacy that people have fought for, she said. The concept of menstrual leave has been around for quite some time. Japan has had it since 1947. South Korea has allowed women to take one day off a month for menstrual leave since 2001. Indonesia, Taiwan, Zambia and three provinces in China Anhui, Hainan and Hubei give women between one and two days off for menstrual cramps. Some companies offer leave, too. Nike introduced worldwide paid menstrual leave in 2007. Coexist, a community interest firm in Bristol, which has a largely female workforce, introduced a period policy in 2016, tapping into the natural cycles so as to benefit everyone, according to the Independent. SHARE: MEXICO CITYProsecutors in southern Mexico say they are appealing a court ruling that dismissed sex assault charges against a suspect because there was no proof he acted with lascivious intent. The ruling shocked many in Mexico, where the case already had become emblematic of the impunity often enjoyed by wealthy males. The 17-year-old victim testified she was dragged into a car between two young men, one of whom fondled her breasts and one introduced his fingers into her vagina. The judge granted the youth an injunction to dismiss the case because an incidental touching or fondling will not be considered sexual acts, if proof is not presented that it was done to satisfy a sexual desire. Judge Anuar Gonzalez Hemadi also ruled the fact the victim was able to move to the front seat of the car after pleading with her attackers to stop proved she was not defenceless, as he claimed the law required. The prosecutors office in the Gulf coast Veracruz said it roundly disagreed with the ruling and would appeal it, because it violates the rights of a sexual attack victim. Mexicos Federal Judiciary Council said that in serious cases such as this, the defendant would remain in jail while the appeal is decided. The council, the countrys court oversight agency, may also decide to investigate the judges action in the case. The alleged sexual assault occurred in Veracruz in January 2015. The then 17-year-old victim was standing outside a club with friends waiting for her ride when four men, all wealthy and in their 20s, allegedly forced her into a black Mercedes. Two allegedly assaulted her in the car and when they arrived at one of their homes, she allegedly was raped by a third. No charges were brought against the men until the girls father started a public campaign denouncing them. They became known derisively through social media as Los Porkys, after the 1981 movie about misbehaving U.S. teens in the 1950s. People outraged by the latest ruling posted photos of Judge Gonzalez Hemadi on social media sites, with the slogan Judge Porky and Dont forget this face! The Network for Childrens Rights in Mexico said the ruling was absurd and called on Veracruz state to investigate the judge. This ruling represents a serious step backward in the access to justice for girls and adolescent women who are victims of sexual violence, and set a precedent for impunity, the group said in a statement. Social and traditional media played a key role in getting the defendants charged in the first place. After authorities appeared to ignore the case for months, her father took the story to the press in 2015, along with a video of three of the men appearing to confess. The men have since denied wrongdoing. Weeks of social media outrage over apparent impunity for the wealthy young men followed by daily reporting in Mexicos national television and print news outlets appeared to finally force the state to bring charges. Many complained about the judicial logic of the new ruling. (The victim) was not defenceless, given that she had the possibility of changing places (in the car) and thus avoiding the contact with the suspect, the judge ruled, despite the fact the victim said she had been pushed, had her cellphone taken away and said the perpetrators only laughed when she pleaded with them to stop. There is no evidence of a look, a comment, an intent or a suggestion in the testimony that would prove an intention by the suspect to satisfy a carnal desire or excessive (sexual) appetite or eroticism, the judge wrote. Read more about: SHARE: WASHINGTONNote to U.S. President Donald Trump and House Republicans: People really dont like your approach to overhauling Americas health care. If youre hoping to revive the effort, you may want to try something different. Sixty-two per cent of Americans turned thumbs down on Trumps handling of health care during the initial weeks of his presidency, according to a poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released Wednesday. It was his worst rating among seven issues the poll tested, which included the economy, foreign policy and immigration. Of the six health coverage changes the poll assessed from the failed House GOP bill, five drew more negative than positive reviews. An overwhelming 8 in 10 opposed the Republican proposal to let insurers boost premiums on older people. Seven in 10 disapproved of premium surcharges for people whose coverage lapses. Read the latest news on U.S. President Donald Trump By wide margins, people also disliked proposed cuts in Medicaid, which helps lower-earning people cover medical costs, a halt in federal payments to Planned Parenthood and a transformation of the Obama laws subsidies based on income and premium costs into aid linked to age. His campaign promise was great health care for everyone, for all Americans at great prices, said Raymond Brown, 64, a Republican and retired truck driver from Rio Grande, New Jersey. He isnt fulfilling his campaign promise. Overall, just over half in the poll said they worry many Americans would have lost coverage had the GOP bill become law. Would their own families and average Americans have been better or worse off? More said worse. Read more: Trump advisers want him to delay on child care after health care defeat: analysis Health-care fail not Trump's fault, supporters say Trumps political agenda gets tougher after health-care fiasco Why Trumps health care humiliation is a blow to everything else he wants to do The results underscore that annulling President Barack Obamas statute is not an issue to be trifled with. More people support than oppose that law by 45 per cent to 38 per cent, a slightly narrower margin than in January. And a slender majority say covering all Americans is a federal responsibility a view embraced by Democrats but not Republicans, who instead focus on access and lower premiums. The survey was conducted over five days preceding and following last Fridays withdrawal of the GOP health care bill. Speaker Paul Ryan short-circuited a House vote that would have spelled defeat for the Republican legislation because of opposition from conservative and moderate Republicans. It was a mortifying setback for Trump and his party. The poll suggests that health care is damaging Trumps image. Fifty-eight per cent disapproved of his overall performance as president, not much different from his negative grade on health care. Even among those approving the job hes doing in office, about 1 in 5 was unhappy with his approach to health care. The GOP bill scared off many Republican lawmakers after the Congressional Budget Office projected there would be 24 million more uninsured people over a decade and a boost in out-of-pocket costs for many, especially poorer people and Americans nearing retirement age. The negative views in the poll make any new GOP effort embracing pieces of the crumbled legislation potentially perilous for the party. Nearly all Democrats and most independents disapproved of Trumps performance on health care, but so did around 1 in 3 Republicans. In addition, Republicans in the poll had mixed views on the collapsed House GOP bill. Clear majorities of them opposed boosting premiums for older people and those whove had gaps in coverage. They were more likely to oppose than support cutting Medicaid and divided on linking subsidies to age more than income. Republicans did mostly back the Republican bills blocking of federal payments to Planned Parenthood. And they were likelier to say their own families and average Americans would have been better off, not worse, under the legislation. Rosalind Russell, 71, a retired apartment complex manager from Clifton, Texas, said she was glad to see the attempt to unravel Obamas law. Its not cheap, its not what its cracked up to be, Russell, a Republican, said of Obamas statute. Weve got to have change, its ridiculous. Of the proposed Republican changes examined by the poll, only one received a positive reception. That was its elimination of the tax penalty on people who dont buy coverage, though by a modest 48 per cent to 35 per cent margin. Strong majorities backed two Obama requirements the GOP would have left in place: Insurers couldnt deny policies to sick people and must cover children up to age 26 under their parents plans. The AP-NORC poll of 1,110 adults was conducted March 23-27 using a sample drawn from NORCs probability-based AmeriSpeak panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points. Interviews were conducted online and using landlines and cellphones. Read more about: SHARE: One morning near the end of her long-shot congressional campaign, 25-year-old Erin Schrode rolled over in bed, reflexively checked her cellphone and burst into tears. With mounting horror, she scanned a barrage of anti-Semitic emails from anonymous trolls. Get out of my country, kike, read one. Get to Israel to where you belong. That or the oven. Take your pick. Included was a photograph of Schrode digitally stamped with a yellow Jude star, the badge that Nazis forced Jews to wear during the Holocaust. Schrode, a Democrat and activist who would come in third in the June primary in her Northern California district, had become the latest target of The Daily Stormer, a popular neo-Nazi website known for orchestrating internet trolling campaigns. After the site published a post about the Jewess and her candidacy, a reader posted Schrodes contact information in the comments section. Over the past 10 months, her email and social media accounts have been polluted with a torrent of slurs and disturbing images. Her tormentors are faceless. They hide behind screen names, in the shadows. Andrew Auernheimer says he is not one of them, but he applauds their vitriolic spirit. A notorious computer hacker and internet troll associated with The Daily Stormer, Auernheimer scoffs at the notion that anyone can be harmed by mean words on the internet. For him, anonymous trolling is a modern form of a generations-old, distinctly American political tactic. Being offensive is a political act, he said. If something pushes up against polite civilization, its for a purpose. Auernheimer, whose anti-Semitic rhetoric matches the swastika tattooed on his chest, chuckled at the mention of Schrodes name. Why should I have any empathy? Whats she ever done for me? he asked. I dont feel any empathy for any Jew anywhere. The racist tools of the alt-right Trolling is a calling card of the alt-right a white nationalist movement that uses internet memes, message boards and social media to spread a hodgepodge of racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny and xenophobia. Troll tactics edged into the mainstream with the 2014 birth of GamerGate, an online campaign against feminists in the video game industry. GamerGate arguably provided a blueprint for some white nationalists and other extremists who rallied around Donald Trumps presidential campaign, flooding the internet with Pepe The Frog cartoons and other hate symbols. The Daily Stormers founder, Andrew Anglin, published a primer in August that attempted to define the alt-right and explain its origins. At the core of the movement is a trolling culture bred on the 4chan.org website, he wrote. Anglins initial June 3 post on Schrode the first of at least six about her linked to a Jewish Telegraphic Agency report on her bid to become the youngest women ever elected to Congress. A commenter posted Schrodes cellphone number, email addresses and links to her social media accounts. The initial post called her a hissing weasel. Today, a photograph of Schrode is the first image returned by a Google search for that term. The attacks werent limited to emails or tweets. She said somebody hacked her campaign website on election day, changing her name throughout to Adolf Hitler. She also said she received a voicemail from someone making a hissing noise. Schrode noticed other spikes in her harassment after she appeared on Tucker Carlsons Fox News show in December and after The Huffington Post published an article she wrote in November about her experience as the target of trolls. Every day, Im reminded that Im Jewish, said Schrode, co-founder of an environmental non-profit. Its not normal to wake up and hear that people want you dead or in another country. Some days, she can laugh it off. More often, a single nasty tweet can compound a bad day or ruin a good one, making her feel lonely and suffocated. I hate to admit thats the power these monsters have over me, but on some days thats the truth, she said. In November, Schrode posted a video on Twitter of her getting shot by a rubber bullet while she interviewed a man at the Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access pipeline. One of the responses to her post was a crudely fabricated image of her bloodied body in front of armed police officers wearing swastika armbands. The Twitter user who created and posted that image responded with a lol when an Associated Press reporter inquired about the message via a tweet. I sent her some memes that were offensive, I guess, the user wrote. Trolling is entertaining. Its become a national sport. Auernheimer is known online as weev. He trolls for the lulz, a slang term he defines as the joy that you get in your heart from seeing people suffer ironic punishments. The reality is internet trolling is entertaining. People love to watch it. Its become a national sport, Auernheimer said. Its something that anyone can jump into. Other targets of The Daily Stormers trolling campaigns have included prominent journalists, a British Parliament member and Alex Jones, a radio host and conspiracy theorist whom Anglin derided as a Zionist Millionaire. More recently, Anglin published the telephone numbers and other personal information of Jewish residents of Whitefish, Mont., where white nationalist Richard Spencer has a home. Anglin accused the families of engaging in an extortion racket against Spencers mother and has vowed to lead neo-Nazi skinheads on an armed march through the town. He also posted a photograph and Twitter handle of a young boy whose mother is one of Anglins targets in Whitefish. Keegan Hankes, a research analyst for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said Anglin and his website have fuelled a surge of trolling activity by far-right extremists over the past two years. Hes very good at manufacturing outrage, Hankes said. He tends to pick his victims for calculated reasons. Auernheimer, 31, has served as a technical consultant for The Daily Stormer. In 2014, he wrote a post for the site about his time in prison. A federal jury convicted him of identity theft and conspiracy charges in 2013 for his role in developing a program that exploited an AT&T security flaw to collect 114,000 email addresses of iPad users. A judge sentenced him to 41 months in prison. But he was released in 2014 after an appeals court panel overturned his convictions, ruling the government improperly charged him in New Jersey when all of his conduct occurred while he was living in Arkansas. Auernheimer subsequently moved to Europe and says he lives in Moldova. Twitter suspended his account in December, possibly as part of the social media companys effort to crack down on hate and abuse. Theyre only interested in curbing abusive behaviour of people whose political ideology they disagree with, he said. Although he was amused by Schrodes trolling, he said he didnt participate in it or tamper with her campaign website. Thats pretty funny, but thats probably a false flag and she did it herself, he said. Its so unreal when it targets you. Online harassment can be a crime, but Schrode learned how difficult it can be for victims to get help from law enforcement. Schrode said she received hundreds of hate-filled messages before she called her local police department in Sausalito on June 4. A police report says Schrode told an officer she didnt feel threatened by the rude comments, but Schrode disputes that characterization: I never would have called them rude comments. This was targeted hate speech, she said, citing one tweet that referred to gang raping her and bashing in her bagel eating brains. She also contacted the FBI in San Francisco. An agent, she says, told her the messages didnt communicate a true threat to physically harm her and therefore didnt rise to the level of a hate crime. Danielle Citron, a University of Maryland law professor and author of the book Hate Crimes in Cyberspace, said some state and federal officials are striving to educate law enforcement on the laws against cyberstalking and online harassment. We have a lot of the tools. We just have to use them, and theyre starting to use them, she said. Citron became a trolling target herself after she began writing about online harassment in 2008. I was never confronted offline, but Ill be honest: It wasnt fun, she said. The FBI encouraged Schrode to change her email address, but she hasnt. She blocked and reported some of her repeat tormentors on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, but never considered abandoning social media. My mom would like it if I just closed my mouth about this. Shes very worried for her daughters safety, she said. Backing down, recoiling, shutting up has never been an option for me. Thats not just an act of defiance. She needs Twitter and Facebook to maintain her personal and political connections. And speaking out about her trolling experience has become fodder for her political activism. Schrode dismisses most of the trolls as keyboard cowboys and tries to ignore them, but a question nags at her: Why me? You read about these things in the news, she said, but its so unreal when it targets you. Read more about: SHARE: For years, the Obama administration prodded, cajoled and beseeched China to make commitments to limit the use of fossil fuels to try to slow the global effects of climate change. President Barack Obama and other U.S. officials saw the pledges from both Beijing and Washington as crucial: China is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, followed by the United States. In the coming years, the opposite dynamic is poised to play out. U.S. President Donald Trumps signing of an executive order on Tuesday aimed at undoing many of the Obama administrations climate change policies flips the roles of the two powers. Read the latest news on U.S. President Donald Trump Now, it is far likelier that the world will see China pushing the United States to meet its commitments and try to live up to the letter and spirit of the 2015 Paris Agreement, even if Trump has signalled he has no intention of doing so. Theyve set the direction they intend to go in the next five years, Barbara Finamore, a senior lawyer and Asia director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, based in New York, said of China. Its clear they intend to double down on bringing down their reliance on coal and increasing their use of renewable energy. China wants to take over the role of the U.S. as a climate leader, and theyve baked it into their five-year plans, she added, referring to the economic development blueprints drawn up by the Chinese government. Even before the presidential campaign last year, Trump had made statements consistent with climate change denial, including calling climate change a hoax created by China. He has also threatened to formally withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement. Since Trumps election in November, senior Chinese officials and leaders have been taking the high ground on the issue by urging all countries, including the United States, to abide by their climate commitments. The biggest rhetorical turning point came in January, when Xi Jinping, Chinas president, said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that the Paris Agreement was hard won and should remain in force. All signatories should stick to it instead of walking away from it, as this is a responsibility we must assume for future generations, he said. Other Chinese officials at Davos repeated that message, including the energy minister, Nur Bekri, and top executives of state-owned enterprises. In an interview before the recent climate conference in Marrakech, Chai Qimin, a climate change researcher and policy adviser, said that policies adopted at a recent Communist Party meeting showed that China has attached ever greater importance to ecological civilization and green development. Everyone is taking this more and more seriously, he added. On Wednesday, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said at a regularly scheduled news conference in Beijing that all countries in the Paris Agreement should fulfil their commitments and that China would stick to its pledges regardless of how other countries climate policies change. Global Times, a state-run nationalist newspaper, used harsher language in an editorial chastising the Trump administration for brazenly shirking its responsibility on climate change. Washington is obliged to set an example for mankinds efforts against global warming, and now the Trump administration has become the first government of a major power to take opposite actions on the Paris Agreement, the newspaper said. It is undermining the great cause of mankind trying to protect the earth, and the move is indeed irresponsible and very disappointing. The editorial also questioned why China was making concessions on fossil-fuel use when the United States was scrapping its promises: How can China, still underdeveloped, give away a chunk of room for development, just to nourish those Western countries that are already rich? Chinese participation is critical for global efforts on climate change. With its economic growth and rampant infrastructure construction, China consumes as much coal as the rest of the world combined. The burning of coal, which is at the core of the power, steel and cement industries in the country, generates enormous amounts of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas. So environmental advocates and officials around the world constantly say China must break its coal addiction. But unlike in the United States, Chinese leaders and senior officials have consistently said that climate change is a serious problem and acknowledged that changing the energy mix to move away from fossil-fuel sources is important. And because of its air pollution crisis, China announced policies in 2013 to limit the use of coal in the countrys three largest population centres. More recently, scientists have said that there is a dangerous cycle at work: Weather patterns from climate change are exacerbating the smog. China is cutting back on coal because of its lethal costs to human health as well as its high carbon emissions, and plans to transition to the energy sources of tomorrow, rather than yesterday, said Isabel Hilton, founder of Chinadialogue, a prominent website that reports on environmental issues and policy. President Trump seems intent on reviving a 19th-century energy source rather than pursuing the promise of the 21st century. Trumps pro-coal talk, and the unlikelihood that his administration will pressure China to cut back on fossil fuels, might mean that pro-coal interests in China, including among state-owned energy companies, will try harder to push back against officials putting limits on coal. But in recent years, coal consumption in China has declined slightly, surprising many analysts and researchers. Chinas economic slowdown from decades of double-digit annual growth to 6.7 per cent last year has been a major factor. Analysts say there appeared to be an increase in coal use during part of 2016 because of economic stimulus policies, but preliminary statistics released in February indicate that overall coal consumption declined last year compared with 2015. Given such numbers, researchers say China may reach a carbon emissions peak in 2025 five years ahead of its stated goal of 2030. China has also made pledges on the percentage of total energy that will be generated by nonfossil-fuel sources, which include hydropower, nuclear power, wind and solar. Xi has said that by 2030, 20 per cent of Chinas energy will come from such sources. Chinese officials are now grappling with the complex problem of getting energy generated by wind and solar sources onto the grid and properly used. Trumps rejection of regulatory action on climate change creates a vacuum in global climate leadership that China can now seize, said Alex L. Wang, a law professor and China environmental expert at the University of California, Los Angeles. In recent years, a variety of factors crisis levels of pollution, economic opportunities from green development and concerns about the domestic risks of rising temperatures have pushed China to action on climate change. Trumps actions dont affect these underlying drivers. In addition, China has said that it will put in place by the end of this year a national market for greenhouse gas quotas, commonly known as a cap-and-trade program. It has experimented with seven such regional markets, and there have been problems with them, but the government is determined to set up a national program to put a price on carbon and impose a cost on companies that generate large amounts of carbon dioxide, Chinese policy advisers say. China appears to be overperforming on other targets besides its carbon emissions peak date. It had stated that by 2020, 58 per cent of its energy would come from coal consumption. Official statistics indicate China might meet that target early. Chinese officials now say they expect to get the number down to 60 per cent this year. A report released in January by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, based in Ohio, said China was the world leader in domestic investment in renewable energy and associated low-emissions-energy sectors, with $137 billion invested in 2015. And China is going global with that strategy last year, it invested $43 billion in large overseas deals involving renewable energy. There are clear differences between the Chinese approach and the Trump administration on climate change, Hilton said. While Trumps administration seems to believe that action on climate change is a waste of money and threatens jobs in the U.S., China sees investment in climate-related action as essential to secure a safe and prosperous future for Chinese citizens, as well as a strategic opportunity to develop and supply the technologies of the future. Read more about: SHARE: The mess of democracy is easy to love when youre in opposition and your job is to hold government to account. But for those in power trying to push through an agenda, robust democratic institutions a working Parliament, for instance, or watchdogs with teeth are too often seen as a nuisance. The Harper government was famously attuned to this tension, putting expediency ahead of democracy at every turn. In opposition, Justin Trudeau was an outspoken critic of Stephen Harpers autocratic tendencies. He tapped into growing public concern about the health of our democracy, promising open government and a post-partisan approach to Parliament. But a dubious set of parliamentary reforms currently being floated suggests once again that Trudeau is not, in fact, fundamentally different from his predecessors on this point. On balance, the reforms would make it easier for government to govern, but harder for Parliament to hold government to account. And the anti-democratic manner in which the government seems set on pursuing them is further proof that expediency, not democracy, is the priority. The potential changes to the Standing Orders of the House of Commons, laid out in a discussion paper last week, are a mixed bag. A few are for the good. A measure that would allow the Speaker to hive off portions of omnibus bills, for instance, would weaken one of governments most powerful shields against scrutiny. A proposal to dedicate one day a week of Question Period to interrogating the prime minister, as the British Parliament does, would also be welcome, as long as the PM showed up on other days, too. But several others are cause for concern. A proposal to limit debate by strictly scheduling the stages of a bills passage would likely increase efficiency, but at what cost to democracy? Same goes for measures that would limit speeches in committee, eliminate opposition filibustering and remove other tools for delaying government legislation or alerting the public to problems. In our version of democracy, when the government has a majority, the opposition has few tools as it is. In a richly ironic gesture, on the same day the discussion paper was released, a Liberal MP tabled a motion demanding the relevant parliamentary committee issue recommendations on reform by June 2. Why the rush? Surely democratic reform ought to be pursued by democratic means, with all the deliberation and debate that entails. In response to the motion, members of the committee filibustered to draw attention to the abuse of Parliament, using a tool they might not have for much longer. A new report from Samara, a non-profit organization dedicated to civic engagement, suggests that confidence in Canadas democracy, while low, has increased since Harpers defeat. In 2015, survey respondents gave our democratic leadership a grade of D; this year, the mark improved to a C. This jibes with an Ekos poll that found that, after decades of erosion, public trust in government spiked after Trudeaus election win. Canadians embraced Trudeaus positive vision and took hope from early signals. His openness with the media, for instance, is a clear improvement over his predecessor. The un-muzzling of government scientists and the restoration of the long-form census, too, were steps in the right direction. But in other important ways, the prime minister is falling short. His delays on access-to-information reforms, his stubborn reliance on cash-for-access fundraisers, his bogus promise of open nominations, his electoral-reform charade all of these weaken democracy. The potential proposals for procedural reform would, on balance, do the same. The spike in public trust that Trudeau brought with him to Ottawa provides a great opportunity for a government with ambitions for an active role. But it also carries a risk. We are seeing in America and elsewhere what can happen when hope turns to cynicism. Read more about: SHARE: The Trudeau government is on its way to fixing some of the worst changes that the Harper government brought in to Canadas citizenship laws. Inexplicably, though, it is hedging on repairing one of the laws most glaring flaws. This is a measure that allows an immigration official to revoke a persons citizenship without any possibility of a hearing or court process to appeal the decision. Not surprisingly, the number of people who have been stripped of their citizenship has increased dramatically since the law took effect in May 2015. Since then, in less than two years, 272 people have lost their Canadian citizenship. By comparison, over the previous 17 years a total of 167 people had their citizenship revoked under the old system. What kind of people have been losing their citizenship? A mixed bag, no doubt. But at least some of them seem to have been penalized by an unforgiving system. Independent Sen. Elaine McCoy gave the example of a woman who left an abusive husband and fled to Canada with young children without disclosing her broken marriage. Thirty years later, she has lost her citizenship because an immigration officer found out about the long-ago marriage and ruled she had misrepresented herself when she applied to be a citizen. Such an outcome makes no sense and is needlessly punitive. McCoy and some other senators are trying to change the law to provide an appeal process for people losing their citizenship as a result of such decisions. They want to add such a measure to the Liberal governments bill that will roll back some of the Harper-era laws worst features such as deporting dual citizens convicted of certain crimes. But so far at least, the government has dug in its heels and plans to keep the Conservative citizenship revocation measure for misrepresentation and fraud. During its time in office, the government has continued to apply the law vigorously, leading to the sharp increase in revocations. Those who enter Canada fraudulently or cover up past crimes should not be allowed to lie their way into the country. But innocent mistakes or understandable omissions should not automatically destroy the lives of longstanding Canadians. Certainly, there should be a way for them to appeal questionable decisions. The government should listen to the arguments being made in the Senate and include this change in its law. That would make a good bill better. SHARE: In Woody Allens 1973 comedy, Sleeper, the hero is cryogenically frozen and brought back 200 years in the future where hes promptly spirited away in a self-driving car. That futuristic vehicle, which seemed the stuff of fantasy when the movie came out, is now on the verge of becoming reality at companies such as General Motors, Google and Tesla, thanks to leaps in the field of artificial intelligence, or AI. Indeed, rather than killing jobs (as dystopian science fiction predicted) AI is proving to be the key to opening up whole new frontiers and sources of employment. Just last year, for example, GM announced 700 new high-tech engineering jobs in Ontario, dedicating largely to researching software and driverless cars. Thats just one example of why its so important that Canada not just train high tech talent, but retain it. Innovation, economic growth and future competitiveness depend on it. So its good to see the federal and Ontario governments as well as companies like Google, Air Canada, Loblaws and the Big Five banks investing $150 million in a new institute devoted to artificial intelligence. The Vector Institute, affiliated with the University of Toronto, will research new frontiers in AI and figure out how it can be used to make companies more competitive. Most importantly, it is designed to retain, repatriate and attract AI talent to feed that expertise into existing Canadian companies and startups. Happily, on that last front, Vector is already attracting interest from researchers in the United States. In fact, Geoffrey Hinton, a former U of T professor, is one. He is dividing his time between a job at Google and his position as Vectors chief scientific adviser and says hes already fielding inquiries from others interested in moving back. There are great opportunities in this approach. Ed Clark, chair of the Vector Institute board, says we want those firms to grow to be a great worldwide supplier of AI capability, so that we turn this into a service export to the world, and not have a situation where all Canada does is produce PhDs and send them south. He adds: We want Toronto, Ontario, to be one of the core intellectual centres of artificial intelligence research in the world. In fact, Canadian universities are already major incubators of the high tech talent that will create the next innovations. But keeping them in Canada is a challenge. University of Waterloo engineering and math graduates, for example, are heavily recruited for jobs in Silicon Valley. Part of the attraction is higher wages and better benefits, something Canadian companies may find hard to match. But part of it is job opportunities. Vector can be a step towards providing that. That will be a key to future prosperity. Says Yoshua Bengio, who heads the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms: AI is going to bring a lot of wealth, but if its made elsewhere we arent going to get a reasonable share of that wealth, even if we contributed to the original science. Right now the administration of Donald Trump has handed Canada an advantage in retaining and attracting AI engineers, mathematicians and scientists. For one thing, he is slashing budgets for scientific research, which is apparently driving some scientists to look here for opportunities. At the same time, his immigration policies have already benefited Vector. Two researchers on Hintons new Toronto-based team are Iranian, one of the countries targeted in Trumps immigration ban. Finally, Trump isnt focused on high tech innovation but on making America great again by bringing back rust belt jobs. Indeed, his big job announcement this week was about ending the war on coal and bringing back miners jobs. No mention of creating new jobs in areas like green energy. Far better to be looking ahead and betting on areas of future growth, including AI. Creation of the Vector Institute is a promising step in that direction. Read more about: SHARE: Lets be brutally frank: The odds of Premier Kathleen Wynne and her Ontario Liberals winning re-election in 2018 are slim to non-existent. The reasons are numerous and obvious: Wynnes personal popularity stands at just 12 per cent, the lowest of any premier in Canada; the Liberals trail the Conservatives badly in province-wide polls and even fall behind the Tories in their traditional key stronghold of Toronto; her handling of key issues, such as hydro is hugely unpopular; and the cry of time for change is powerful given the Liberals will have been in office 15 years come voting day June 7, 2018. Within the party itself, the mood is grim. Many sitting Liberal MPPs from the 905 area and suburban 416 ridings, such as Scarborough, believe their seats are already lost. Local riding organizers have virtually given up. Campaign coffers are exceedingly low. The fact is the numbers do not lie and the ability to win the next election is in grave, grave doubt, Greg Sorbara, who managed Dalton McGuintys three winning election campaigns, said last week on The AgendaTVOs The Agenda. Sorbara said the anger toward Wynne, who he backed in the 2013 leadership race, is palpable outside of Toronto. Despite all the negativity, though, Wynne plans to stick around and lead her dispirited troops into the next election. Indeed, Wynne is considering an aggressive and progressive policy agenda that her senior advisers have already started to quietly promote. Their goal is to win back middle-class working people who, rightly or wrongly, feel Wynne has largely ignored them and their concerns about jobs and the economy. As they see it, such an agenda can appeal to enough traditional urban Liberals and NDP supporters wary of seeing the Conservatives in power that Wynne might be able to eke out a minority victory. Go bold or go home is how some key Liberals describe the next 14 months leading up to the election. The initial signs of the new plan will emerge in the April budget. First, Wynne may announce a raise in the minimum wage to $15 an hour in 2018. A Forum Research poll last fall found 72 per cent of Liberals nationally and 84 per cent of New Democrats support the idea. The current minimum wage for full-time workers in Ontario is $11.40 an hour and will increase to $11.60 an hour on Oct. 6. Alberta, which already has the highest minimum wage in Canada at $12.20 an hour, has promised to raise it to $15 an hour by next year. Second, Wynne is expected to move ahead with introducing a guaranteed annual income for low-wage workers and welfare recipients with no strings attached. The first step would be a three-year pilot project that would set the basic income at about $1,690 a month for a single person. The non-taxable money would be available to people aged 18 to 65. Numerous studies have recommended such a plan as a way to help alleviate poverty without unduly increasing government costs. Third, the government may announce sweeping changes in Ontarios labour and employment laws to address issues ranging from precarious work for young people to the rise in layoffs and lost job security in todays business environment. The changes stem from the Changing Workplace Review, a major independent report that Wynne commissioned early last year. The proposals are described as the most dramatic in a generation. In addition, Wynne will try to convince voters shes got a handle on the economy by tabling the first balanced budget in years in April. Finance Minister Charles Sousa has promised the budget will be packed with measures to help curb fast-rising home prices, especially in the Greater Toronto Area. In theory, the strategy seems sounds. In practice, though, voters may have simply tuned out Wynne and are no longer listening to anything she says. For her part, Wynne has tried to remove the most virulent criticism of her government by promising a 25-per-cent cut in hydro rates that kick in this summer and by flip-flopping on her initial support for road tolls on the Don Valley and Gardiner expressways, a move that panders to 905 voters. Unfortunately, Wynne has tried several times over the past year to gain some traction with voters. She has shuffled her cabinet, offered free university tuition, put a bit more money into health care and more. None of it has worked. All that desperate Liberals can hope for is that this latest bold strategy starts to break that pattern. Bob Hepburn's column appears Thursday. bhepburn@thestar.ca Read more about: SHARE: Re: How Wynne and the Liberals can save themselves, Regg Cohn, March 28 How Wynne and the Liberals can save themselves, Regg Cohn, March 28 Is the electorate prepared to forgive and forget all the excess baggage from nearly 14 years of Liberal rule? Their green-energy debacle is only the tip of the iceberg from a government whose defining characteristic has been incompetence at a level unprecedented in Canada. A 25-per-cent reduction in hydro prices fixes nothing, as hydro costs will remain unchanged; it merely transfers the fiscal consequences of the Liberals' folly to future generations. The loss of more than 300,000 manufacturing jobs and the creation of more than 300,000 public-sector jobs during the tenure of this government has created an unsustainable fiscal environment. Teachers becoming the fourth-highest paid in the OECD, rural OPP officers paid more than New York City cops and a doubled debt that is now the highest in the world for any sub-sovereign government are all part of their legacy. Wynne and the Ontario Liberals were given a chance in 2014 to press the reset button and they chose not to. Instead, they made a bad situation worse. So in 2018, it will be time to finally jettison Wynne and her 14 years of baggage. Unfortunately, it will take at least a generation to undo all the damage. Jonathan Household, Niagara-on-the-Lake Loved Cohn's comedy piece about what the Ontario Liberals can do to have a good chance in the next election. Wynne is a boat anchor for the Liberals. As the face of scandal and government wastage, she needs to go. She has lost the room but, as Cohn points out, there is no one waiting in the wings as a potential shiny new replacement. He does discuss how the PCs made mistakes and lost the last election they should have won, but I think the coming election will be different. Fifteen years of McGuinty is enough for many Ontarians and the shine of Justin the saviour is wearing off on many Canadians, which won't help the Ontario Liberals. Unless the PCs make some serious errors, I think the Ontario Liberals could be in for a serious pasting. Andrew Frise, Orangeville, Ont. SHARE: President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday to roll back much of the Obama administration's efforts to combat climate change in hopes of spurring growth in energy jobs in the United States. Trump signed the order at the Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington, D.C., where he was joined by Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Vice President Mike Pence and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. The president celebrated the moment as a start to a "new era in American energy and production and job creation." "The action I'm taking today will eliminate federal overreach, restore economic freedom, and allow our companies and our workers to thrive, compete and succeed on a level playing field for the first time in a long time," Trump said. He addressed the 25 coal miners who attended the signing at the EPA office. "Come on, fellas. Basically, you know what this says? You know what it says, right? You're going back to work," he said. Eleven industry leaders and 20 members of Congress were in attendance as well. The order will mandate a review of the Clean Power Plan, a measure that restricts greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants, and lift a 14-month-old moratorium on new coal leases on federal lands. It also seeks to scrap regulations on methane emissions and fracking and White House guidance on incorporating climate change into federal projects. CONSOL Energy (CNX) , one of the last big publicly-held coal pure-plays, rose 11.8%. The Pittsburgh-based firm's shares are off 17% since the beginning of 2017, but are up almost 50% from their year-ago level, at which time the market was discounting Trump's chances to win the presidency. CONSOL caught the market's attention in February when Directors Alvin Carpenter and Bernard Lanigan, Jr. both doubled down on their bets in the company's shares. That was Carpenter's first open market purchase in over a year, aside from shares granted as compensation. Meanwhile, Lanigan made several purchases at that time, his first since he joined the board in 2015. Shares of Arch Coal (ARCH) , the world's sixth-largest coal producer based on volume, rose 1.2% on Tuesday. Its shares are down 12.2% for the year-to-date. In October Arch exited Chapter 11 with more than $300 million of cash on its balance sheet after cutting its debt by 93%. Peabody Energy (BTUUQ) , which is nearing an exit from Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will likely look to relist sometime later this year, was up 10% on the over-the-counter market Tuesday following the announcement. The Market Vectors-Coal ETF (KOL) was up about 1% for the day as Trump signed the order. Trent Mell, president and CEO of Toronto-based First Cobalt Corp., said while the order will certainly have an effect on some companies in the short-term, in the long term, for many businesses, the cat is out of the bag in moving towards cleaner energy. "I don't think anything that the Trump administration can do is going to put the genie back in the bottle," he said. The order was widely criticized by progressives and climate advocates concerned about its long-term effects. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said it represents an "existential threat" to the city. "We're already experiencing rising seas and hotter weather, with the last three years on record as the hottest yet. At the same time, the effects of climate change will fall disproportionately on our most vulnerable communities, exacerbating inequality," he said. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said he will lead a coalition of 23 states, cities and counties opposing the order. "Addressing our country's largest source of carbon pollution -- existing fossil fuel-burning power plants -- is both required under the Clean Air Act and essential to mitigating climate change's growing harm to our public health, environments, and economies," the coalition said in a statement. "We won't hesitate to protect those we serve -- including by aggressively opposing in court President Trump's actions that ignore both the law and the critical importance of confronting the very real threat of climate change." -- Greg Morcroft and Tom Terrarosa contributed to this report. The future of Vertex Pharmaceuticals' (VRTX) cystic fibrosis business looks stronger Tuesday night. Vertex is announcing successful outcomes from two clinical trials involving tezacaftor, a second-generation "corrector" used in combination therapies to treat the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis. Importantly, the new efficacy and safety data reported from the tezacaftor studies improves upon the performance of Vertex's existing products. Tezacaftor is a crucial drug for Vertex because it will enable the company to treat more cystic fibrosis patients and potentially blunt competitors racing to catch up. Vertex shares closed Tuesday at $89.67 but rose 19% to $107 following the release of the trial news. The stock is up 45% year to date, factoring in Tuesday's night after-market reaction. The larger of the two clinical trials announced today -- which Vertex calls EVOLVE -- enrolled just over 500 cystic fibrosis patients with two copies of a genetic mutation known as F508del. These patients represent about 40% of all cystic fibrosis cases. Over 24 weeks, the combination of tezacaftor with an already approved Vertex drug ivacaftor (sold as Kalydeco) improved lung function by four percentage points compared to a placebo. The outcome was statistically significant, achieving the primary endpoint of the trial, Vertex said Tuesday. The four percentage point improvement in lung function attributed to "teza/iva" compares well against Orkambi, Vertex's currently approved combination therapy for the same group of cystic fibrosis patients. Orkambi increases lung function by three percentage points, according to data from its own clinical trials included in the FDA label. The safety profile of teza/iva also improves upon Orkambi. Thirteen percent of the patients treated with teza/iva in the EVOLVE clinical trial reported respiratory adverse events including shortness of breath, chest tightness or abnormal breathing. The comparable respiratory adverse event rate for placebo patients was higher at 16%. In the clinical trials that led to Orkambi's approval, the respiratory adverse event rate was 22% compared to 14% for placebo. "We treated low double-digits of patients with teza/iva and we really haven't seen symptoms of chest tightness and dyspnea that we clearly observe when patients are on Orkambi," said Dr. Steven Rowe, Director of the Cystic Fibrosis Research Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Rowe was an investigator in the Vertex clinical trials of teza/iva. Vertex reported $979 million in Orkambi sales in 2016 and forecasts growth to $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion this year. It seems odd to label a billion-dollar drug a commercial disappointment, but Orkambi has not lived up to pre-launch expectations because the drug is hard for cystic fibrosis patients to tolerate. In particular, complaints about chest tightness cause a significant number of patients to skip Orkambi doses or stop taking the drug altogether. Vertex plans to submit the teza/iva combination for approval in the U.S. and Europe for the treatment of cystic fibrosis patients with two copies of the F508del gene mutation. If approved, Vertex will market teva/iva as a "new option" for these patients and not necessarily as a replacement for Orkambi, says Vertex Chief Operating Officer Ian Smith. While Vertex expects some patients to switch from Orkambi to teza/iva, "There are a number of patients who are not on therapy. To trace that through to a revenue line, I think we will end up with more patients treated by the two medicines. More patients will result in a higher revenue number for that patient population," says Smith. Teza/iva will also become the backbone of future combination therapies aimed at treating cystic fibrosis patients with genetic mutations that do not respond to Orkambi or Kalydeco. Vertex is developing additional corrector drugs that will be combined with teza/iva to create triple-combination regimens to be studied in future clinical trials. The first Vertex data from triple-combination therapies in cystic fibrosis patients is expected in the second half of the year, Smith said. The Belgian biotech firm Galapagos and partner Abbvie (ABBV) are developing their own triple-combination therapies for cystic fibrosis, seeking to catch up to or even leapfrog over Vertex. The second and smaller clinical trial from today's Vertex announcement enrolled cystic fibrosis patients that have one copy of the F508del gene mutation and a second gene mutation that results in residual CFTR function. There are approximately 1,500 such cystic fibrosis patients, Vertex estimates. Last year, regulators rejected Vertex's application to treat these patients with Kalydeco. The study met the primary endpoint with patients treated with teza/iva demonstrating lung function improvement of 6.8 percentage points compared to placebo. Another arm of patients treated with ivacaftor as monotherapy showed a lung function improvement of 4.7 percentage points. Based on these results, Vertex will also seek marketing approval for the teza/iva combination in this smaller cystic fibrosis patient population. Adam Feuerstein writes regularly for TheStreet. In keeping with company editorial policy, he doesn't own or short individual stocks, although he owns stock in TheStreet. He also doesn't invest in hedge funds or other private investment partnerships. Feuerstein appreciates your feedback; click here to send him an email. A healthy health policy The govt should make medical education more accessible and ensure fair distribution of doctors This column originally appeared on March 28 on Real Money, our premium site for active traders. Click here to get great columns like this. Since Tencent has said little about its $1.8 billion investment in Tesla Motors (TSLA) outside of a boilerplate statement praising CEO Elon Musk's "vision, ambition, and execution," it's hard to presume much for now about what kind of alliance the Chinese messaging and gaming giant envisions having with Musk's company. But a look at the breadth of Tencent's empire, along with Tesla's ambitions within the Middle Kingdom, raises some interesting possibilities. In an SEC filing published on Tuesday morning, Tencent disclosed it has bought 8.2 million Tesla shares, which is good for a 5% stake. Tesla rose 2.7% following the news to $277.45, putting shares about $10 below their February 14 peak. They've now fully recovered the late-February losses seen in response to Tesla's Q4 numbers and earnings call commentary. The investment seems to have been made via open-market purchases, and thus won't have a direct impact on Tesla's balance sheet. But it's still a nice vote of confidence for a company that just two weeks ago announced it's raising $1.15 billion in stock and convertible notes to help finance a giant production ramp for its relatively cheap Model 3 sedan. Tesla is aiming to start volume production for the Model 3, which is believed to have seen over 400,000 reservations, in September. Officially at least, Tesla still wants to produce 500,000 cars in 2018 and 1 million in 2019, up from just 83,922 in 2016. If it turns out that the company needs more cash to finance its ramp, Tencent, which had $12.2 billion in available-for-sale financial assets and $8.1 billion in term deposits at the end of 2016, could be a useful source. Like fellow Chinese Internet giant Alibaba (BABA) , which has made a string of investments in non-Chinese firms, Tencent may be looking to park some of its cash overseas. It might also see a big investment in a U.S. company as a good way to win favor in Washington. However, it's worth noting that while Tencent's platforms are supported by many American brands and game publishers within China, the company is believed to derive little revenue from the U.S. On the other hand, Tencent and Tesla could certainly be of use to each other in China. The former's WeChat/Weixin mobile messaging, commerce and social media platform is all but ubiquitous within the country, and claimed 889 million monthly active users (MAUs) as of the end of 2016, up 28% annually. Tencent also operates the popular QQ (PC/mobile messaging) and Qzone (social networking) platforms, and its WeChat Pay service claims a duopoly in the Chinese mobile payments market with Alibaba/Ant Financial's Alipay. Tesla, meanwhile, saw its Chinese sales triple last year to over $1 billion, or more than 15% of its total revenue. The company has 24 retail stores and 114 supercharger stations in the country, with more to come, and has benefited from the Chinese government's aggressive efforts to promote EV sales. Tencent could promote Tesla's lineup within WeChat and other apps, while perhaps using its data to target affluent Chinese consumers who might be in the market for a Model 3 or Model S. It could also work with Tesla on using WeChat as a way to engage with current and potential customers. Tesla, meanwhile, could integrate WeChat's messaging and payment services with its infotainment system, 17-inch touchscreen and all, within cars sold in China. Visa (V) , Honda (HMC) , General Motors (GM) and others have already been experimenting with in-car payment solutions that can be used to pay for things like gas, parking and drive-thru orders. Tesla and Tencent could collaborate on something similar. In 2015, the latter held talks with Ford (F) about a WeChat-related partnership, but no deal was announced. Around the same time, BMW said it would pre-install WeChat in its cars on its own. For now, neither side has much to say about where an alliance between Tencent and Tesla could lead. Musk merely replied to this morning's disclosure with a tweet stating he's "glad to have Tencent as an investor and advisor to Tesla." But Tencent could easily become more than just that. European Council President Donald Tusk said Wednesday that he had officially been handed Britain's formal request to leave the European Union, ending a decades-long membership and triggering a clause in the Treaty of Lisbon that allows member states to negotiate departure. Sir Tim Barrow, Britain's EU Ambassador, delivered a six-page letter, signed late Tuesday by Prime Minister Theresa May, to Tusk in Brussels, a move that essentially fires the starting gun on what is expected to a long and torturous process of negotiations between not only lawmakers in Britain but also representatives of the 27 other member states that comprise the current European Union. The pound, which had been trading in negative territory for much of the morning session, gained modestly in the minutes after the letter was delivered to trade at 1.2470 against the U.S. dollar. A modest oil price rally in the past 48 hours continued Wednesday morning despite a report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration that showed a lower than expected 900,000-barrel build in U.S. crude inventories during the week ending March 24. Shortly after the 10:30 a.m. ET release, U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil contracts for May delivery were trading up 1.4% to above $49 a barrel. The EIA said U.S. stockpiles, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, had increased by 900,000 barrels from the previous week, while both gasoline and distillate fuel inventories decreased during the frame. Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 3.7 million barrels last week, and distillate fuel inventories fell by 2.5 million barrels last week. U.S. crude oil inventories remain in the upper limit of the average range for this time of year, according to the EIA. Crude futures had been rallying between Tuesday and Wednesday after reports of a Libyan supply disruption emerged. The Libyan supply disruption is thought to be around 500,000 barrels of oil per day, Seaport Global Securities analysts wrote in a Wednesday morning note. And despite showing a 1.9 million barrel build in domestic crude inventories, a report from the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday evening did not serve to significantly stall the rally, as the organization reported that crude stockpiles at the world's largest crude oil storage facility in Cushing, Okla., had decreased by 576,000 barrels. Still, the EIA data is bullish when compared with consensus estimates, which were calling for a 2 million barrel increase in crude inventories week-over-week, according to KLR Group analysts. The stocks of major U.S.-listed oil producers, including Exxon Mobil (XOM) , Chevron (CVX) and EOG Resources (EOG) , all shot higher around the time of the 10:30 a.m. release. Oilfield services majors like Schlumberger (SLB) and U.S. refiners like Phillips 66 (PSX) , despite all being in the red during the first hour of Wednesday trading. U.S. crude oil refiners are kicking back into gear, as the EIA reported refinery inputs averaged over 16.2 million barrels per day during the week ending March 24 -- 425,000 barrels per day more than the previous week's average. Commander of the U.S. Central Command, Army Gen. Joseph Votel told the House Armed Services Committee in testimony today that Iran remains one of the greatest threats to the U.S. and has increased its "destabilizing role" in the Middle East. "I believe that Iran is operating in what I call a gray zone," Votel said. "And it's an area between normal competition between states - and it's just short of open conflict." Iran is exploiting this arena in a multitude of ways including "lethal aid facilitation," the use of "surrogate forces" and cyber attacks, Votel contended. "We need to look at opportunities where we can disrupt [Iran] through military means or other means their activities," he said. "We need to look at opportunities where we can expose and hold them accountable for the things that they are doing." Annapurna Sugar Mill fails to pay farmers and staff Locals have padlocked the warehouse of Annapurna Sugar Mill in Dhankaul after the mill failed to pay farmers who provided the sugarcane. IG Design Group plc designs, manufactures, and distributes celebrations, craft and creative play, stationery, gifting, and not for re-sale consumable products in the Americas, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It provides celebrations products, including greetings cards, gift wraps, Christmas crackers, gift bags, and partyware products, as well as gift accessories, such as tags, strings, ribbons, and bows; and gifting products comprise frames, albums, calendars and diaries, as well as food and non-food gifts. The company also offers ribbons and trims, sewing patterns, buttons, needlecrafts, and kids craft lines; stationery products, including pencils, pens, notebooks, pencil cases, clips, journals, etc. for use in education, commercial, and home settings; and bin liners, refuse sacks, food bags, and other collateral products, as well as paper twist handle bags. It serves retailers, other manufacturers and wholesalers of greetings products, service merchandisers, and trading companies. The company was formerly known as International Greetings plc and changed its name to IG Design Group plc in June 2016. IG Design Group plc was incorporated in 1978 and is based in Newport Pagnell, the United Kingdom. Best Buy Co., Inc. retails technology products in the United States and Canada. The company operates in two segments, Domestic and International. Its stores provide computing products, such as desktops, notebooks, and peripherals; mobile phones comprising related mobile network carrier commissions; networking products; tablets covering e-readers; smartwatches; and consumer electronics consisting of digital imaging, health and fitness, home theater, portable audio comprising headphones and portable speakers, and smart home products. The company's stores also offer appliances, such as dishwashers, laundry, ovens, refrigerators, blenders, coffee makers, and vacuums; entertainment products consisting of drones, peripherals, movies, music, and toys, as well as gaming hardware and software, and virtual reality and other software products; and other products, such as baby, food and beverage, luggage, outdoor living, and sporting goods. In addition, it provides consultation, delivery, design, health-related, installation, memberships, repair, set-up, technical support, and warranty-related services. The company offers its products through stores and websites under the Best Buy, Best Buy Ads, Best Buy Business, Best Buy Health, CST, Current Health, Geek Squad, Lively, Magnolia, Best Buy Mobile, Pacific Kitchen, Home, and Yardbird, as well as domain names bestbuy.com, currenthealth.com, lively.com, yardbird.com, and bestbuy.ca. As of January 30, 2022, it had 1,144 stores. The company was formerly known as Sound of Music, Inc. The company was incorporated in 1966 and is headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Regulators approved the first injected, powerful medicine to treat the most serious cases of eczema, a skin condition. On Tuesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted their approval of Dupixent or dupilumab for moderate to severe eczema, which causes red rashes that are fiercely itchy on the legs, arms and face. Get Warning: Undefined variable $CompanyName in /home/accttr/public_html/wp-content/themes/responsalambre/single.php on line 65 alerts: In three different studies of this drug that included 2,118 participants, between a third and two thirds reached clear or close to clear skin. Approximately 4 out of 10 had a sharp decrease in itching, bringing about reduced anxiety and depression and better sleep. Dupixent is set to have a price tag initially of $37,000 annually, according to Sanofi SA in Paris and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in New York, which were the developers of the drug. The drugs side effects include inflammation of the eyelid and eye and cold sores. This drug is an antibody injected by patients every two weeks. The drug binds to a protein to inhibit an inflammatory response by the immune system. Because of that many of the participants in the study, also saw an improvement in hay fever and asthma common in patients with eczema. The drug is now holding late-stage testing on patients as a treatment for allergies. Eczema treatments generally have been only topical medications, moisturizers, steroid creams as well as ultraviolet light, along with antihistamines to relieve their itching. They work quite well for mild cases of eczema but not cases that are considered severe and the form that is most common known as atopic dermatitis. Due to that, an industry analyst wrote that the market expectations for the medication are high due to a need that has been unmet in this particular patient group. Sales are expected to increase slowly and reach $3.4 billion in 8 years. Often times eczema begins in children and the majority of them grow out of it, a professor of dermatology explained, but for others it persists through adulthood, tormenting the patient with itching causing scratching and skin swelling, cracking then weeping which is the seeping of a clear fluid. Many sufferers gave up on all healthcare due to the industry not offering anything new for many years. The medication is expected to meet some criticism for its price, but will likely be discounted to a lower cost when it finally reaches the patient. Some posts on this site contain affiliate links, meaning if you book or buy something through one of these links, we may earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you). Some days are do nothing days. And, if were on vacation, hopefully doing nothing means sitting on the beach with a fruity cocktail in-hand or jumping in the waves, if were feeling particularly ambitious. And thats exactly how we spent our day at Rockley Beach in Barbados. Before we started planning for our New Years cruise, we knew almost nothing about Barbados (minus Rhianna, of course) and even less about Rockley Beach. But after a bit of research, we became convinced it would be our home for the day. Our criteria for a good shore excursion are simplenot super crowded, not super expensive, nice beach, blue water. Sometimes finding all of these elements in one place within a reasonable distance of the port can be more of a challenge than you might imagine. But we knew we made the right decision when we found Rockley Beach. Near the Bridgetown port where our ship docked, Carlisle Bay is one of the most popular places to spend the day. And while it seems to be a beautiful spot, everywhere we foundfrom the delicious-looking Lobster Alive to the destination Boatyardseemed very expensive. Not to mention that during the height of cruise season, the Boatyard is often full before 10am. Some people swear by it. Not our scene. Only 10 minutes farther down the coast was the pristine and relatively quiet Rockley Beach. We pulled up some chairs at the Tiki Bar and never looked back. Rockley Beach is dotted with a few bars and kiosks selling drinks, food, and souvenirs. At its southern end is Accra Beach Hotel, so its sometimes called Accra Beach, too. Whatever you call it, it was a little piece of Bajan heaven for us for the day. For $30 in Barbadian dollars (USD $15) at the Tiki Bar, we got two chairs, an umbrella, and $30 to spend on some fine concoctions at the bar. If youre doing the math, that essentially means our seaside real estate was free. We spent the day doing nothing. We lounged. We sipped. We floated. It was fabulous. At one point, we ordered some hamburgers. We debated whether we liked the mojito or the rum punch better. If we were being more ambitious, we could have rented a boogie board, tried stand-up paddle boarding, or even taken a surf lesson nearby. We briefly considered walking down the beach to another restaurant for the local Barbadian food (wed heard good things about the national dish: Cou-Cou with flying fish). While we were curious, it wasnt going to happen. It was the first day of vacation. And this first day of vacation was made for doing nothing. Tips for Visiting Rockley Beach - KDF soldiers have killed 27 al-Shabaab militants near the Kenya border - According to reports several other militants escaped with injuries from the battle - KDF recovered several weapons from the defeated militants Kenya Defence Force (KDF) soldiers have killed several al-Shabaab militants near the Kenya-Somalia border, TUKO.co.ke can confirm. KDF soldiers have killed al-Shabaab militants. READ ALSO: Al-Shabaab make surprising allegations on the August General Election Kenyan soldiers on Sunday, March 26, killed 27 al-Shabaab militants between Kiunga and Kolbio near the porous Kenya-Somalia border. Install TUKO New App & Enjoy News For FREE KDF had launched an operation targeting an al-Shabaab camp in the area where the militants were reportedly training. Among those killed in the KDF operation included an Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) assembly team. READ ALSO: Uhuru Kenyatta finally announces how long KDF will stay in Somalia Kenyan soldiers on Sunday, March 26, killed 27 al-Shabaab militants between Kiunga and Kolbio near the porous Kenya-Somalia border. READ ALSO: Senior al-Shabaab leader surrenders in a shocker move (photos) According to sources, dozens al-Shabaab militants escaped with injuries during the military operation. KDF soldiers recovered 4 IEDs, a PKM machine gun and a dozen AK-47 assault rifles after the raid. Subscribe to Tuko youtube channel to watch more interesting videos! KDF soldiers recovered 4 IED, a PKM machine gun and a dozen AK-47 assault rifles after the raid. TUKO.co.ke has previously reported on al-Shabaab militants planting IEDs near the Kenyan border targeting military convoys. Several KDF soldiers have been killed and others injured as the militants used the explosives in their guerrilla warfare against Kenyan troops. The terror group emerged in 2006 from the now-defunct Islamic Courts Union, which once controlled Somalias capital of Mogadishu. The militant group launched its own insurgency on major Somali cities in 2009, taking control of Mogadishu and southern Somalia. In 2015, the militant group launched a deadly assault on Garissa University College. Have anything to add to this article? Let us know on news@tuko.co.ke Source: TUKO.co.ke Attacks on Nigerian students shock India India's Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj has promised an "impartial" inquiry into attacks on Nigerian students living in Noida, near Delhi. - Check out the education qualifications of some of the top and most vocal politicians in Kenya Following the saga surrounding Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho's education history, we opted to take a look at some of the qualifications of some of the most notable politicians in Kenya. Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho READ ALSO: Kenyan university that awarded Joho a degree speaks on controversy surrounding his KCSE certificate Have a look below: 1. President Uhuru Kenyatta He went to St Marys High School and then proceeded on to Amherst College in the USA to study economics, political science and government 2. Deputy President William Ruto Went to Kerotet secondary for his O levels before proceeding to Kapsabet Boys for advanced levels. He then joined University of Nairobi to receive a BSc in Botany and Zoologu. He later enrolled for MSc in Environmental Science and recently completed his PHd from the same university. READ ALSO: Pregnant mother accused of trying to overthrow PRESIDENT and spreading state secrets 3. Raila Odinga Subscribe to Tuko youtube channel to watch more interesting videos! He attended Maranda High School and upon completion in 1962, he joined Herder Institut, a part of the philological faculty at the University of Leipzig in East Germany. He then joined the Technical School, Magdeburg now Otto-von-Guericke University on a scholarship. He graduated with a Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering. 4. Kalonzo Musyoka He attended Meru and Kitui High Schools and upon completion, he joined University of Nairobi for a degree in law and then continued with his studies at the Kenya School of Law in 1978. The following year, he joined the Mediterranean Institute of Management in Cyprus where he graduated with a diploma in business. READ ALSO: Bandits launch REVENGE attack, several people injured Tension as bandits attack 5. Moses Wetangula He attended Busakala, Teremi and Friends School Kamusinga High Schools. Upon completion, he joined University of Nairobi where he graduated with a Bachelors degree in law. 6. Musalia Mudavadi He attended classes at the University of Nairobi. Subscribe to Tuko youtube channel to watch more interesting videos! 7. Leader of Majority in Parliament Aden Duale He attended Moi University for his degree and then joined Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology for his Masters. 8. Senator Kipchumba Murkomen He has a Masters in Law READ ALSO: Rich POLITICS: Governor spends KSh 10,000 per plate to seek votes, what he gets back is UNBELIEVABLE 9. Mike Sonko He attained a C- in his final secondary school examinations and then went on to attain a bachelors degree in business administration. 10. Senator Boni Khalwale He is a certified doctor with a degree in medicine. READ ALSO: Man picks up kid hawker from the street and sends him to school (photos, video) 11. Senator Hassan Omar He has a bachelors degree in law and a post graduate diploma in Information Technology. 12. Kithure Kindiki He has a degree in law as well as a PHD in international law. READ ALSO: Police receive BRAND NEW helicopter from Russia (photos) 13. Moses Kuria He has a degree in Commerce,Accounting Option and graduated with second class honors. This is after he attended Ituri and Thika High schools. Have something to add to this article? Send it news@tuko.co.ke Source: TUKO.co.ke The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has decided to allocate UAH 100 million for the restoration works in the town of Balakliia, Kharkiv region, and nearby settlements after the emergency at the ammunition depots. This is reported by the Governmental portal. "I promised the residents of Balakliia that we would not leave them alone. We have decided to allocate UAH 100 million for residents in order to carry out the restoration works in the areas destroyed by explosions at ammunition depots," the Governmental portal quotes Groysman as saying. As reported, on March 23, at 2.45 a.m., a massive fire broke out at some sites of ammunition storage depot, located near the city of Balakliia, Kharkiv region, which triggered explosions. 362,000 people were evacuated from Balakliia and nine surrounding villages. Currently, the territory of Balakliia and surrounding villages is cleared of explosive substances, and the residents returned home. ol ProZorro electronic public procurement system has won the prize of the Davos Awards 2017 in the nomination "Trust of the Future". This is reported by the press service of the Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Ukraine. "The C4F (Communications for the Future) Davos Awards Gala Ceremony was held in Geneva on March 13-17. It is an annual award for communication professionals, which they receive for their significant professional achievements, creativity and unique vision of the future of the industry," the statement reads. The participants competed in personal, corporate and startups categories. Eighty-six applications were evaluated by 25 members of the international jury from 20 countries. As of February 2017, when the application was filed, ProZorro system saved UAH 17.72 billion in budget funds. ProZorro team enhances trust of business in Ukraine and is the foundation for building the most transparent public procurement system in Europe. In 2016, ProZorro won the C4F award in the nomination "Technology of the Future." ol The Government of Ukraine plans to reform the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine. A new model was prepared jointly with the international partners. Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman said this at a Cabinets meeting, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. "One of the main issues under consideration is the reform of the State Fiscal Service. If we do not restructure the work of our law enforcement system, the system of working with taxpayers, it will be difficult for us to form qualitative business climate. Since last year, I have been cooperating with our international partners to find a model for reforming our State Fiscal Service," Groysman said. In his opinion, the tax police, the State Fiscal Service, the customs and the economic department of the Security Service of Ukraine work against the business. ol Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko met with former British Prime Minister David Cameron. The Head of State, in particular, praised UKs financial and expert assistance in implementing the reforms in Ukraine. This is reported by the press service of the Head of State. "The Head of State thanked David Cameron for his active and firm stance in support of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and highly appreciated UKs financial and expert assistance in implementing the reforms, training the Armed Forces of Ukraine and facilitating the humanitarian situation in our country," the statement reads. The parties also discussed the situation in Donbas. "The parties discussed preservation of the existing EU sanction regime towards the Russian Federation as an effective instrument to ensure the full implementation of the Minsk agreements and complete restoration of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine," the press service informs. ol President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko on March 29-30 will pay an official visit to the Republic of Malta at the invitation of President of the European Peoples Party Joseph Daul, the Ukrainian presidents press service reports. The agenda of the visit provides for the speech of the President at the EPP Congress The Future of Europe and the participation in the expanded EPP Summit, reads a report. President Poroshenko will also meet with leadership of the EU institutions, particularly President of the European Council Donald Tusk and President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani, as well as leaders of several EU member-states. iy Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman has held a meeting with former British Prime Minister David Cameron, the governments press service reports. The parties during the meeting focused on the reforms being carried out in Ukraine, the security situation in Donbas, as well as Ukrainian governments measures aimed at attracting foreign investments into the economy. Also, Volodymyr Groysman and David Cameron discussed the issue of preparations for the High-Level International Conference on the reforms in Ukraine, which is to be held in London in July 2017. The parties also talked about practical actions to counteract Russian aggression in Donbas, in particular the need for maintaining the EU sanctions against the Russian Federation. In turn, David Cameron assured he would continue to make efforts to attract international support for upholding Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity. iy Australia cyclone Debbie prompts flood alert A 1,300km (800 miles) stretch of Australia's north-east coast is at dangerous risk of flooding after a powerful cyclone, authorities warn. Georgians, who from now on can visit the Schengen area countries without visas, have launched the flash mob in social networks in support of visa-free travels for Ukraine. Georgians post their photos on social networks with hashtag #Visa_Free_For_Ukraine. People are holding a sheet of paper reading: "I dont feel enough European until Ukraine gets visa-free regime." As a reminder, the visa-free regime between Georgia and the European Union entered into force on March 28. From now on, the Georgian citizens holding biometric passports can travel to the Schengen area countries without a visa for a period of 90 days within any 180-day period for purposes other than working. ol Ukraine and the Czech Republic will deepen scientific cooperation and establish the joint committee on scientific and technological cooperation. This is reported by the press service of the Education and Science Ministry of Ukraine. The agreement on scientific and technological cooperation was signed in Prague on December 19, 2011 between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of the Czech Republic. However, the agreement must be ratified by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for the document to enter into force. The agreement stipulates that Ukraine and the Czech Republic will jointly train specialists in the field of technology, conduct scientific researches and participate in the international programs. In addition, the sides will exchange scientific and technological information, scientists and will conduct joint workshops, conferences and exhibitions. ol Compensation rate for land for Nijgadh airport fixed The international airport project in Nijgadh, Bara has fixed the compensation amount for the land it will be acquiring to build it. Estranged ex-RPP leader Lohani forms new party Senior leader Prakash Chandra Lohani, who parted ways with the recently unified Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), on Wednesday announced the formation a new party under his chairmanship. UNICEF/Knowles-Coursin Download photos and videos from: http://weshare.unicef.org/Package/2AMZIFDD22Q NEW YORK/DAKAR/NAIROBI/AMMAN, 28 March 2017 More than a month after famine was declared in South Sudan, time is running out for more than a million children as drought and armed conflict devastate lives in northeast Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, UNICEF said today. Children cant wait for yet another famine declaration before we take action, said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Director of Emergency Programmes. We learned from Somalia in 2011 that by the time famine was announced, untold numbers of children had already died. That cant happen again. Some 22 million children have been left hungry, sick, displaced and out of school in the four countries, UNICEF said. Nearly 1.4 million are at imminent risk of death this year from severe malnutrition. UNICEF will require close to $255 million to provide these children with food, water, health, education and protection services for just the next few months, according to a new funding update. Most of the funds over $81 million will go towards nutrition programmes to screen children for malnutrition and provide them with therapeutic food. An additional $53 million will be allocated to health services including vaccinations, while over $47 million will go to water, sanitation and hygiene programmes to prevent potentially deadly diahorreal diseases. The remaining funds will help protect children affected by conflict and displacement and provide them with education services. Cash assistance will also be offered to the most vulnerable families. The resources needed over the next few months are part of a broader appeal for all of 2017, totaling $712 million a 50 per cent increase over funding requirements in the four countries at the same time last year. UNICEF has been working with partners in the four countries to respond to the famine threat and prevent it from spreading: In northeast Nigeria, UNICEF will reach 3.9 million people with emergency primary healthcare services this year, treat 220,000 severely malnourished children under the age of five, and provide more than a million people with access to safe water. In Somalia, UNICEF is supporting 1.7 million children under-five years of age, including the treatment of up to 277,500 severe acute malnutrition cases through facility-based and mobile health and nutrition services. In South Sudan, UNICEF, together with partners, has delivered life-saving assistance to 145,000 people in areas affected or threatened by famine, including 33,000 children under the age of five. In Yemen, UNICEF has scaled up activities to respond to malnutrition through health facilities, mobile teams, community health workers and volunteers reaching hard-to-access communities and displaced families. UNICEF is also supporting severely acutely malnourished children and their families with cash assistance and water and sanitation services, including the provision of safe water, supplies and hygiene promotion. Armed conflict is a major driver of this crisis, UNICEF said, calling for unconditional, unimpeded and sustainable access to the children in need and an end to the violations of childrens rights in the affected countries. UNICEF also sounded the alarm about a worsening nutrition situation in neighbouring countries. As violence, hunger and thirst force people to move within and across borders, malnutrition rates will continue to soar not just in these four countries, but also in the Lake Chad basin and the Greater Horn of Africa, Fontaine said. If humanitarian agencies do net get the access and resources they need to reach the most vulnerable, lives will be lost. ### London, England (UroToday.com) There are 1.5 million people in the UK with learning disabilities (LD). This vulnerable group may receive less benefit from public education campaigns regarding their health than non-LD counterparts. Given the concern for a decreased ability to perform testis self-examination, the authors objective was to assess testis cancer-related survival characteristics of men with LD compared to non-LD counterparts.Patient records were identified from the Hospital Episode Statistics database from 2001 to 2015. Patients coded as having a diagnosis of mental retardation or developmental disorder of scholastic skills or being admitted as an outpatient/inpatient with a diagnosis of learning disabilities were included in the study.Of 158,138 male patients identified with a learning disability, 331 (9.67%) had testicular cancer. Thirty-two men died from their cancer. In the general population, there were 713 (n = 25,675, 2.78%) total cancer-specific deaths. LD patients had a poorer prognosis with 10-year cancer specific survival of 88.4% (95% CI 84.5%-92.4%) compared to non-LD patients (96.9%, 95% CI 96.6%-97.1%).The authors concluded that LD individuals in England have worse testis cancer-specific survival than non-LD counterparts. Education regarding self-examination for testis cancer must be provided in a format suitable for individuals with moderate to severe LD. Care-takers for male patients with LD should be informed about testicular examination and symptoms of disease.Speaker(s): M. Afshar, Birmingham, UKBenjamin T. Ristau, MD, SUO Fellow, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PAat the #EAU17 - March 24-28, 2017 - London, England The American University of Afghanistan, a prestigious institution of higher education in the country, has just reopened seven months after a deadly terrorist attack that killed 13 people and injured more than 35 others. Among those killed last August were seven students, one professor, three police officers and two security guards according to the countrys Ministry of Interior Affairs. The school - whose faculty consists of Afghans and foreign nationals, including Americans -officially reopened on Saturday, but classes are scheduled to start March 28. We continued our commitment to the future of Afghanistan, David Sedney, Acting President of the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) told VOAs Afghanistan service. Sedney added that the university campus is now safer than before because of new security measures taken in the wake of last years terrorist attack. The university seemed to have been a target of the militants for a while. Prior to the attack, but during the same month, an American and an Australian professor were kidnapped at gunpoint while on their way to the campus. Both professors appeared in a video in January asking the American government to negotiate and secure their release, but they have yet to be freed. Campus is safe While the American University of Afghanistans doors remained closed for students after the August 2016 attack, we reviewed our security system to make it stronger so that our students return to a safer environment, Zubaida Akbar, director of communications at the university told VOA. Established in 2006 with the help of Zalmay Khalilzad, former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, the university offers graduate and undergraduate programs based on the American system. Today is a good day for the world. I am delighted that AUAF has reopened. I know that the university community has been eagerly waiting for this day, Khalilzad, who is also a member of the AUAF Board of Trustees, told VOA. The Afghan people and the Afghan leadership rallied in support of the University, he added. The university has about 1,700 students and is viewed as one of the countrys finest institutions of higher education. Some of its graduates are working in senior positions within the Afghan government. Our goal is to help provide a modern and prosperous future to Afghanistan and we want to help educate the future leaders of Afghanistan, Akbar said. Attack not deterring students The terrorist attack has not deterred Afghans from seeking education at AUAF. We have 80 new students this semester, the highest enrollment rate in a single year, Akbar said. Militants have increasingly targeted educational institutions, young professionals and educated members of the Afghan society. Experts believe militants are purposely targeting these institutions to deprive the younger generation from education and to disconnect them from the rest of the world. The attackers wanted to permanently close this excellent center of learning. They failed, Khalilzad said. I wish the AUAF success in delivering on its mission: to educate its students and provide them with 21st century skills, who can lead successful lives and, in turn, can help Afghanistan succeed. Initially, for many the attack on the school seemed to have been the beginning of an end for the university. But the institutions administrators told VOA that many of the universitys foreign faculty have returned. Some parents remain concerned about the safety of their children, fearing another attack by the militants. But the university says parents are welcome to visit the campus to examine the new security measures put in place by the administration in the wake of the terrorist attack. To students like Faryal Yaqubi, however, the American University of Afghanistan presents an opportunity and hope of a better tomorrow. My parents and I want to complete my studies at this university because it is one of the best universities in the country, Yaqubi told VOA. Now, we do not have any [security] issues. The university is fully functional. Business administration student, freshman Kabir Ali, told VOA that he was anxious to return to the classroom. I have been impatiently waiting for the reopening of the university. Now I feel safer and more optimistic about my higher education at AUAF, Ali said. VOAs Afghanistan service contributed to this report. Pakistans former army chief, Raheel Sharif, is set to become the first commander of a new Saudi-led counterterrorism coalition of mostly Sunni Islamic states, a move frustrating neighboring Shi'ite Iran in addition to prevailing domestic opposition and criticism. Sharif is likely to travel to Saudi Arabia as early as next month to take charge of what commentators increasingly refer to as the Muslim NATO, according to Pakistani officials and close aides. They said that putting in place the military structure of the proposed 39-nation Islamic Military Alliance to Fight Terrorism (IMAFT), which will be headquartered in Riyadh, is among Sharifs initial tasks. The general, who retired last November, is credited for undertaking an effective military crackdown against Pakistani Taliban and other militants in Pakistan during his three-year tenure as the chief of the powerful military. The counterterrorism operations led to a significant decline in militant violence in the country. An arrangement" between the two governments has resulted in Sharifs appointment and granting permission for him to become the first commander-in-chief of the alliance, said Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif while defending the decision. After having received a written request from them [Saudi Arabia], we conveyed our consent to them in writing, Asif told local Geo TV. But leaders of the minority Shi'ite community, political parties and observers in Pakistan have criticized the government, as well as Sharif for accepting the assignment, fearing it would fuel domestic sectarian rivalries and undermine the credibility as well as national goodwill he earned. Iran opposition Saudi officials announced the IMAFT in late 2015 with a mission to fight terrorism, particularly to counter the threat of Islamic State. But rival Iran has opposed the coalition from the outset and has been lobbying against it, believing it is aimed at increasing Saudi influence in the region. Irans ambassador to Pakistan, Mehdi Hunar Dost, said this week his government has repeatedly conveyed its concerns to Pakistani leaders over their decision to participate in the Saudi-led military coalition. He cautioned the move could hurt bilateral relations, which are already shaky over allegations anti-Iran Sunni militants use Pakistani soil for attacks on the Iranian side. Iran and Pakistan share a nearly 1,000-kilometer border. We are concerned about some consequences of this issue, Dost, told the local WAQT television station late Monday when asked why Tehran is opposed to General Sharifs appointment. He did not elaborate. Islamabad, instead, should try to use its influence and play the role of a mediator to help bridge gaps between Islamic countries, said the ambassador, referring to Islamabads close ties to Tehran and Riyadh. We are not so optimistic that this action [Pakistans participation in IMAFT] can solve [the problem] and can fill these gaps," Dost asserted. Pakistani Defense Minister Asif, however, said the government will "take care" of Iranian concerns, without explaining further. Pakistan has always walked a tightrope while trying to maintain a balance between Iran, a possible source of energy in the immediate neighborhood, and Saudi Arabia, hosting tens of thousands of Pakistani expatriates. Riyadh has also occasionally provided oil to Islamabad on deferred payments and sent cash grants to help the struggling Pakistani economy. Critics blame Iran and Saudi Arabia for fueling a sectarian rivalry between Shi'ite and Sunni extremists in Pakistan, which has claimed thousands of lives over the years. The Pakistan government, under extreme domestic pressure, had refused to join Saudi-led military operations against Iran-backed Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen in 2015. The parliament barred Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from joining the operation, saying Pakistan's involvement in a foreign conflict would exacerbate sectarian tensions at home and upset its friends in the Muslim world. Good political culture These days, people are constantly questioning the performance of Nepals political partiesbe it in terms of maintaining internal cohesion or having enough collaborative efforts with other parties to work towards common national interests. Congress sent proposed legislation to President Trump on Tuesday that wipes away landmark online privacy protections, the first salvo in what is likely to become a significant reworking of the rules governing Internet access in an era of Republican dominance. In a party-line vote, House Republicans freed Internet service providers such as Verizon, AT&T and Comcast from restrictions approved just last year that had sought to limit what companies could do with information such as customer browsing habits, app usage history, location data and Social Security numbers. The rules had also required providers to strengthen safeguards for customer data against hackers and thieves. The Senate has already voted to nullify those measures, which were set to take effect at the end of this year. If Trump signs the legislation, as expected, providers will be able to monitor their customers behavior online and, without their permission, use their personal and financial information to sell highly targeted ads making them rivals to Google and Facebook in the $83 billion online advertising market. The providers could also sell their users information directly to marketers, financial firms and other companies that mine personal data all of whom could use the data without consumers consent. In addition, the Federal Communications Commission, which initially drafted the protections, will be forbidden from issuing similar rules in the future. New FCC Chairman Ajit Pai may seek to roll back the agencys rules regarding net neutrality, to the dismay of consumer advocates. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg) Search engines and streaming video sites already collect usage data on consumers. But consumer activists claim that Internet providers may know much more about a persons activities because they can see all of the sites a customer visits. And while consumers can easily abandon sites whose privacy practices they dont agree with, it is far more difficult to choose a different Internet provider, the activists said. Many Americans have a choice of only one or two broadband companies in their area, according to federal statistics. Advocates for tough privacy protections online called Tuesdays vote a tremendous setback for America. Todays vote means that Americans will never be safe online from having their most personal details stealthily scrutinized and sold to the highest bidder, said Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. Supporters of Tuesdays repeal vote argued the privacy regulations stifle innovation by forcing Internet providers to abide by unreasonably strict guidelines. [Consumer privacy] will be enhanced by removing the uncertainty and confusion these rules will create, said Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who chairs the House subcommittee that oversees the FCC. Policy analysts said the deregulatory effort may be the first of several that could alter the future of the Internet. While regulators under President Barack Obama had moved to limit the power of Internet providers by restricting what they could do with customer information, and curbing their ability to block websites or slow down certain types of content momentum appears to be moving in the opposite direction. For example, consumer advocates fear that Congress or the FCCs new Republican chairman, Ajit Pai, may seek to roll back the agencys rules on net neutrality the policy that forbids Internet providers from blocking content they dont like or charging websites a fee to reach consumers over faster Internet speeds. Industry analysts said Tuesday that the FCC is also poised to deregulate the $40 billion-a-year industry for data connections used by hospitals, universities and ATMs. Tuesdays vote is a sign that Internet providers will be treated more permissively at a time when conservatives control the executive and legislative branches. That could be a boon for companies such as Verizon and Comcast as they race to become online advertising giants. Internet providers have historically made their money from selling access to the Web. But now these providers are looking to increase their revenue by tapping the vast troves of data their customers generate as they visit websites, watch videos, read information and download apps. Industry backers say that allowing providers to use data-driven targeting could benefit consumers by leading to more relevant advertisements and innovative business models. AT&T, for instance, used to offer Internet discounts to consumers in exchange for letting the company monitor their browsing history. With Tuesdays vote, such programs could see a return and be marketed as a way to access cheaper Internet though consumer groups have criticized these plans as a way for providers to charge customers a premium for their privacy. Tuesdays vote took aim at FCC rules that were approved in October over strident Republican objections. At the time, the agencys Democratic leadership argued that consumers deserved the same privacy protections governing legacy telephone service. As more Americans turn to the Internet to find jobs, do homework and seek education, the agency said, consumers needed new protections to keep pace with technology. But industry advocates said the FCCs rules defined privacy far too broadly. The industry favors the interpretation of another agency the Federal Trade Commission that does not consider browsing history or app-usage data to be sensitive and protected. But the FTC does not have the authority to punish Internet providers that violate its guidelines. That is because of a rule that leaves oversight of those companies to the FCC. As a result, Tuesdays vote may release Internet providers from the FCCs privacy regulation, but the FTC would also be unable to enforce its own guidelines on the industry without new authority from Congress. One would hope because consumers want their privacy protected that [providers] would be good actors and they would ask permission and do these nice things, Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) said in a House committee hearing Monday. But theres no law now that says they have to, and theres no cop on the beat saying, Hey, we caught you doing something. Pai, the FCC chairman, called the legislation appropriate and accused his Democratic predecessor of executive overreach. He also said that responsibility for regulating Internet providers should fall to the FTC. Moving forward, I want the American people to know that the FCC will work with the FTC to ensure that consumers online privacy is protected though a consistent and comprehensive framework, Pai said. The best way to achieve that result would be to return jurisdiction over broadband providers privacy practices to the FTC, with its decades of experience and expertise in this area. Pai has previously said his agency could continue to bring lawsuits against firms that are alleged to have violated consumer privacy, even if the FCC privacy rules were to be repealed. Westinghouse, one of the most storied names in the nuclear energy business, filed for bankruptcy Wednesday, dealing a blow to the nuclear power industry and raising questions about the fate of four reactors under construction in the United States. The filing also ends the marriage of Toshiba and Westinghouse, one of a handful of nuclear contractors left worldwide. When the Japanese giant maker of products as diverse as medical devices and home appliances bought the Westinghouse nuclear business in October 2006, it declared the dawn of a new era for nuclear energy. Together, the companies would make a powerful combination, Toshiba said. A decade later, that combination has melted down. Toshiba has written off more than $6 billion in losses connected to its U.S. nuclear business, citing accounting problems, delays and cost overruns. And it has pulled back from new nuclear projects under discussion in India and Britain. [Chaos at Toshiba: $6.3 billion write-down, chairman resigns, bankruptcy looms] The crisis for Westinghouse and Toshiba coincides with President Trumps effort to scrap former president Barack Obamas Clean Power Plan and with continuing apathy in Congress and the administration toward adopting a carbon tax. Either of those measures would have been likely to improve nuclear powers competitiveness with renewables or cheap natural gas, which have been gaining domestic market share. The bankruptcy filing will trigger legal questions about whether Toshiba remains responsible for losses at Westinghouse and whether the utilities that own the reactors under construction will have to eat more of the cost of completing them. That could mean higher rates for consumers in those areas. In seeking protection under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy act, Westinghouse could still finish building those plants. Westinghouse said it has arranged $800 million in financing so that it can continue to serve customers while restructuring its business. The collapse of Westinghouse also reverberates through the global nuclear business. The company supplied the worlds first commercial pressurized water reactor 60 years ago, and half the worlds 430 nuclear power reactors have Westinghouse technology. Westinghouse had claimed that its new AP1000 model reactor had passive technology and modular design that was safer, cheaper and faster to build. Many U.S. lawmakers and nuclear industry boosters said the AP1000 could augur in a nuclear renaissance in the United States. The company is in charge of constructing four of these new model reactors at two sites. The first two are being built by a SCANA-led group at the Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station, about 20 miles northwest of Columbia, S.C. The other two, backed by Energy Department loan guarantees, are being built at Southern Co.s Vogtle facility. Yet Westinghouse stumbled at both sites. Although the AP1000 was supposed to be a standard design, changes were made in South Carolina. Westinghouse plans also included modules built in Lake Charles, La., that were supposed to fit together like pieces of Lego, a former regulator said. But Nuclear Regulatory Commission files say that faulty modules from Lake Charles forced Westinghouse to reweld them at the reactor sites. Currently, the Vogtle project is $1.8 billion, or 29 percent, above budget and three years behind schedule. Angry about the delays and cost overruns, the owners of the nuclear plants filed claims against Westinghouse. A settlement was reached, but the legal battles are likely to restart. Both South Carolina and Georgia allow utilities to charge ratepayers for power-plant construction still in progress. But the utilities must get approval from their public service commissions, which have forced the utilities to absorb some of the costs. Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power, one of the co-owners of the Vogtle reactors, said it was working with Westinghouse to maintain momentum at the site. It said it would consult with the Georgia Public Service Commission and its partners to determine the best path forward. The company added that it would seek to hold Toshiba and Westinghouse accountable. Southerns chief executive, Thomas A. Fanning, is in Tokyo for talks. The United States relies on nuclear energy to provide about 20 percent of its electricity needs. Yet the 100 U.S. reactors, with an average age of 35, are getting old. Few nuclear contractors, many state-owned, can replace them. And many of those are struggling; shares of the French firm Areva have tumbled 84 percent over the past five years. As these units get decommissioned, to stay at that percentage you need more units, said Dan Aschenbach, a senior vice president at Moodys. But you cant get there if you cannot construct it. The Westinghouse bankruptcy also ends a chapter of nuclear energy diplomacy. The Pennsylvania-based Westinghouse, although owned by Toshiba, won U.S. political backing for its efforts to win contracts abroad. The administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama pressed the Indian government to buy reactors made by Toshiba-Westinghouse or Hitachi-General Electric. India was negotiating to buy half a dozen AP1000s. But questions of liability in the event of an accident blocked deals in India. Although Westinghouse has nearly completed four reactors in China, it had hoped to capture a bigger share of the Chinese market. In China, too, Westinghouse has grappled with delays; it told the bankruptcy court the reactors would come online in late 2017 and early 2018 four years late. Toshiba has been shopping for a buyer for Westinghouse, but few firms are able or willing. Korea Electric Power Corp. has a nuclear engineering subsidiary. While Chinese nuclear firms might be interested in the Westinghouse technology, China has its own CAP1000. Moreover, the Trump administration must approve any sale to a foreign buyer. There is a lot of value in that design going forward, and a lot of the challenges are being dealt with right now, said Jeffrey Merrifield, a former NRC commissioner now at the law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman. He said there were a variety of coalitions forming of U.S. companies interested in purchasing all or part of Westinghouse. Another wrinkle in the Westinghouse saga is the $8.3 billion in loan guarantees the Energy Department provided to help finance the Vogtle reactors. Those guarantees were given to the utilities, so taxpayers would not be liable for losses unless the utilities were unable to make payments. These AP1000s were a much better mousetrap for the nuclear industry, said Peter Davidson, who directed the Energy Departments loan programs office and is now chief executive of Aligned Intermediary, an investment advisory firm for climate projects. Its sad that there were so many implementation issues and delays. These are more arrows in the side of the large-scale nuclear industry. Author Joan Nathan will discuss her new cookbook on April 5 at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue. (Jennifer Chase/For The Washington Post) THURSDAY CHICKEN BREAKDOWN: Chef Jonny Uribe provides instruction on how to break down a chicken. Proceeds benefit families in need. 7 p.m. $85-$95. YMCA Anthony Bowen, 1325 W St. NW. ymcadc.org. SATURDAY GIN FESTIVAL: Tastings, educational seminars, workshops and more. 6:30 p.m. $55. One Eight Distilling, 1135 Okie St. NE. ginworld.com. RUM PUNCH CHALLENGE: Local distilleries, restaurants and caterers compete to make the best rum punch. Proceeds benefit Gadsbys Tavern Museums education and preservation efforts. 7 p.m. $50-$100. Gadsbys Tavern Museum, 134 N. Royal St., Alexandria. alexandriava.gov/GadsbysTavern. RESERVE NOW APRIL 5 JOAN NATHAN: The author discusses her new cookbook King Solomons Table: A Culinary Exploration of Jewish Cooking From Around the World with CNNs Wolf Blitzer. 7:30 p.m. $18-$50. Sixth and I Historic Synagogue, 600 I St. NW. sixthandi.org/event/joan-nathan. This review appears in The Washington Posts 2017 Fall Dining Guide as No. 7 on Toms Top 10. Soya chicken, slow poached chicken, crispy pork belly, char siu, steamed rice and chow chow at Tiger Fork. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post) No. 7 Tiger Fork (Excellent) Washington retreats, and Hong Kong receives whoever crosses the threshold of this Blagden Alley gem, the closest thing the region has to an Asian night market. Need a lift? Eight OClock Light Show claims to combat fatigue with rum, yuzu, ginseng and a cinnamon stick thats lit on one end before becoming a swizzle stick. The drink is one of many liquid draws, some relying on Chinese medicinals, offered at the convivial front bar. The dim interior finds brick walls painted over with dragons and lions, and balloon lights floating over chunky tables. Chef Irvin Van Oordts open kitchen, set off with red lights, comes with a message for the cooks in Chinese script: Talk doesnt cook the rice. Speaking of which, the fried rice with pearly shrimp, chunks of white fish, sweet omelet and a dusting of minced fried garlic is sensational, worth haggling over who gets any leftovers. Every table seems to have a plate of cheung fun on it, and heres why: Steamed rice noodles rising from a chile-fired sauce of black beans and sesame seeds are awesome. But the one dish I never fail to get is the barbecue plate crisp-fatty pork belly, sweet-edged pork shoulder, succulent soya chicken dropped off with condiments (green hot sauce, pickled vegetables, sweet scallion sauce) every bit as wonderful as what they kiss. 3 stars Tiger Fork: Behind 922 N St. NW. 202-733-1152. tigerforkdc.com. Prices: Mains $14-$36. Sound check: 76 / Must speak with raised voice. The Top 10: No. 10 Sfoglina No. 9 Salt Line No. 8 ChiKo No. 7 Tiger Fork No. 6 Bad Saint No. 5 Metier No. 4 Minibar No. 3 Himitsu No. 2 Pineapple and Pearls No. 1 Inn at Little Washington Diners at the large center communal table at Tiger Fork. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post) --- The following review appeared in The Washington Posts 2017 Spring Dining Guide. 6. Tiger Fork (Good/Excellent) On the wall, dragons play in heaven. In your glass, Chinese medicinals supposedly help cure what ails you. From the owners of Fainting Goat on U Street NW comes yet another excuse to explore Shaws Blagden Alley: an Asian night market with food by Irvin Van Oordt, Peruvian born and Rockville raised. His menu is small by design and thoroughly delicious, with most dishes touched by some level of heat. Bring on the wontons stuffed with shrimp and turkey and splashed with chile oil, the deep-fried dorade served with mellow eggplant and smacking of smoke (from cooking oil infused with coconut charcoal)! And by all means, make room for the crispy sour potatoes, a bowl of raw and fried spuds with a vinegar tang. Hong Kong feels close. -- The following review was originally published April 2, 2017. Down an alley, find a playful take on Hong Kong-style cooking in Shaw Cabdrivers still question my destination when I tell them Blagden Alley, a tucked-away slice of Shaw that cocktail enthusiasts know as the home of the Columbia Room and food lovers recognize as the source of Mid-Atlantic cooking at the Dabney. Maybe the debut of Tiger Fork will put the alley on more mental maps. Hong Kong-style restaurants dont pop up every day, nor do young chefs as enterprising as Irvin Van Oordt. And I know of no better steamed rice noodles in the city right now than the cheung fun, rolled into loose coils and set on a chile-lit dressing of black beans and sesame seeds. Conceived by the owners of the Fainting Goat in the U Street corridor, Tiger Fork takes over the building once occupied by Rogue 24, the epicurean journey from R.J. Cooper. Very little of the past remains, which means the new restaurant, fronted with an octagonal window, suggests youve stumbled into an Asian night market. The brick walls have been painted over with murals: dragons playing in heaven on one side of the dining room, lions playing in the mountains on the other. Bench seating is made comfortable with bolsters. The balloon lights over the rows of rough-hewed tables are one of the few carry-overs from the previous restaurant, although the fixtures now sport tassels. The past year has been a good one for Asian-food aficionados, what with the opening of Kyirisan on Eighth Street NW, Himitsu in Petworth, more and better ramen shops around the city and the rollout of Kobo, the kappo-style dining experience within Sushiko in Chevy Chase. Executive chef Irvin Van Oordt of Tiger Fork in downtown D.C. shows how the restaurant creates the rice noodles used in its Cheung fun. (Ashleigh Joplin/The Washington Post) Greg Algie and Nathan Beauchamp wanted to bring something different to the table. Inspired by a trip to Hong Kong, they settled on Chinese and Tiger Fork, the name a reference to a trident. Their search for the right chef ended with the hiring of Van Oordt, a native of Peru who was raised in Rockville but returned to his birthplace to study cooking. Only 27, he has already punched clocks at such notable restaurants as Central in Peru, hailed by the judges of the Worlds 50 Best Restaurants list as No. 4. In Singapore, he collaborated on a dim sum book with chef Janice Wong, the acclaimed pastry chef, a gig that repeatedly took him to Hong Kong. The port city gets more hat tips than royalty at Tiger Fork, where the kitchen crew works beneath red plastic lights of the sort you see in markets and stalls all over Hong Kong. And the big glass jars around the room arent just for show. Some of them, filled with licorice root and chrysanthemum leaves, are tapped for making holistic cocktails. Sitting at the round bar affords customers the best drinks experience. Show interest, and the talent behind the bar might introduce you to an ancient Chinese liquor that is just now making inroads in the States: baijiu (say bye-joo), a clear spirit derived from fermented sorghum. A thimble-size shot, faintly musky, is plenty for the novice, although the drink is apt to grow on you. Easier to knock back from first sip are the signature drinks purporting to cure what ails you. Eight OClock Light Show, for example, mixes ginseng and kola nut, among other recruits, into a rum and yuzu combination designed to combat fatigue. (Having sipped the drink right after a four-hour drive one night, I can attest to the powers of persuasion.) Bar manager Ian Fletcher, 32, prepares the Bird Market cocktail. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/For The Washington Post) You must be hungry by now. Fewer than 20 dishes, the menu is brief by design; Van Oordt thinks a small number of items, done well, is preferable to the opposite. His strategy bears fruit at Tiger Fork, and if theres a first among equals, its the aforementioned cheung fun, speckled with black sesame seeds and a choice companion to a drink here. A diner also needs to try crispy sour potatoes. My favorite thing on the menu, says a server, all but demanding we order the appetizer. It shows up as a bowl of pickled raw julienne potato and golden fried potato that together taste like a noble version of vinegar potato chips. Chopped cilantro stems on top lend color and aroma. Smashed cucumbers, a ubiquitous staple in dim sum parlors, start sweet and finish hot, spurred along by candied arbol chiles. Hong Kong inspires the chef but doesnt fence him in. The filling in an order of wontons is ground turkey and shrimp, for instance, rather than the more traditional pork. The turkey gives the dish, splashed with chile oil, a lightness I find very appealing. Van Oordt is a self-admitted chile head who graces every dish but dessert with some fire, albeit it in such a way that while you notice the heat, it never pummels the tongue. Even the Night Market Grill, skewers of soft octopus and beef tongue with liberal applications of chile paste, is not so intense you cant taste the seafood or meat. Whole dorade is fried crisp and presented in a dramatic but user-friendly way. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/For The Washington Post) One of Tiger Forks showier displays, dorade is dredged in cornstarch and potato starch, fried in rice oil, removed from the wok and filleted so that the facade of the succulent fish stays intact. Most of the work is done for you, says a server as she presents the attraction: fried chunks of snowy fish and mellow eggplant heaped beside the empty frame of the dorade. The hint of smoke in the dish comes from the coconut charcoal Van Oordt infuses in the cooking oil. The flavorful meat in the seared Kowloon bun, offered with black vinegar for dipping, and in the beef chow foon, another noodle attraction, comes from dairy cows in Virginia. Prized for their flavor, theyre the beef of choice in the chefs native Peru and more sustainable than cows bred for their meat. Like baijiu, dairy beef is something chowhounds need to check off their list. While there are no dishes I would say no to, some plates have a definite edge over others. Bright green pea shoots scattered with crushed peanuts and anointed with oyster sauce bests the Chinese cauliflower moistened with mushroom soy sauce. And the bits of pork and vegetables beneath a heap of cold dan dan noodles are too few and too sweet for my taste. Turkey and shrimp fill wontons at Tiger Fork, instead of traditional pork, resulting in a dish that feels lighter. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/For The Washington Post) Desserts tend to get short shrift in Asian restaurants. Tiger Fork bucks the general rule with a fine, not-too-sweet egg tart and a bubble waffle that looks like it sounds. Pleasing on its own, the raised-dot confection arrives with green curry ice cream, candy sprinkles and a thick chocolate sauce for spreading on the waffle. Its one of those dishes you want a bite of out of curiosity and end up finishing, its that much fun. Above the kitchen is a sign in Chinese that hints at both the restaurants discipline and sense of humor. In English, it says, Talk does not cook the rice. 1 of 16 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad A waterside dream kitchen built for a family View Photos Designer Erin Paige Pitts created the kitchen for function and style with iridescent tiles and an 11-foot marble island. Caption Designer Erin Paige Pitts created the kitchen for function and style with iridescent tiles and an 11-foot marble island. Just about any spot in the Todorov kitchen offers spectacular views of the St. Martin River on Marylands Eastern Shore. Read more here John McDonnell/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue. BISHOPVILLE, MD. When Mario and Katerina Todorov are making their kids Belgian waffles with fresh berries, they can look out any window in their kitchen and see water rippling by. Whether Im washing dishes, cooking or just sitting, its an easygoing feeling in this space. Its relaxing, Katerina says of her spacious all-white kitchen and adjoining blue and white family room. This kitchen is the heart of her familys dramatic, custom-built home, which sits on a skinny peninsula in the St. Martin River on Marylands Eastern Shore. The 13-foot coffered ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows offer a changing vista. Its all different from the sunrise to the sunset, Katerina says. It was a dark and dated kitchen in their old house in Salisbury that spurred the Todorovs to move a half-hour east. In 2012, the Todorovs, both doctors, hired designer Erin Paige Pitts to renovate the Salisbury houses builder-grade kitchen and first floor. Pitts spent five months coming up with a plan to open up the rooms and create a better flow with more light. But in the process, the Todorovs realized the logistics of such a large-scale renovation were messier than they were willing to bear. Says Mario, 51, I dreaded the whole renovation process of people coming in and out of our home for months. [A white kitchen doesnt have to be boring] Considering they were not that in love with their house or its location, they thought about building a place near the water that would accommodate their family and friends with a large kitchen/family room as its hub. They stumbled onto a listing for a narrow piece of land with a road down one side and water all around. A view of the Todorov family kitchen from the family room. The marble island took 10 movers to carry in. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post) Telling her about their change of heart, the Todorovs asked Pitts, known for her designs for coastal homes, to incorporate the work she had already done into the design for an entire house. Pitts collaborated with Salisbury architect Christopher Pattey of Becker Morgan Group on the new house, providing input on architectural detailing, finishes, millwork, and all the furnishings and lighting. The hub of the new five-bedroom, 5,400-square-foot house would be the kitchen in a very big way. Says Katerina, 46, I wanted it to be light and spacious. I like to be near the kids while Im cooking. The Todorov family enjoys having breakfast at the island. Since its so wide, it has storage on both sides. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post) [How millennial homeowners are changing the look of kitchens] The 25-by-12-foot kitchen was designed to open into an airy family room. It would be a bright, cheerful place with crisp white millwork and light, soft blue tones throughout, Pitts says. They both like a clean aesthetic, but he is more modern and she is a little less so. But I tried to please them both. The result is a space that leaves lots of room for several people to cook at once and entertain their family at traditional European-style meals. Mario and Katerina, both originally from Bulgaria, enjoy having family gatherings. Mario does a lot of the cooking, sometimes Bulgarian specialties such as stuffed grape leaves, moussaka or banitsa: eggs and cheese baked in phyllo pastry. They can relax in the adjoining family room and hang out with their kids, Ellie, 14, and Christopher, 11, while food is being prepared. And an all-glass breakfast room allows the family to dine more formally than at the counter, while enjoying the water view. The house also has a separate dining room. The focal point is the Calacatta gold marble island (a massive 134 inches by 64 inches), which took a crane and 10 installers to move into place. Pitts designed deep drawers on the island so that the kids could get their own bowls and plates. Because the island is so deep, she also had room for cabinets under the bar stools to hold bulky equipment such as a blender and rice cooker. Pitts, who has offices on Gibson Island, Md., and in Delray Beach, Fla., filled the kitchen with details to make it both stylish and convenient. She put in a number of outlet strips (Plugmold multi-outlet systems) on the underside of upper cabinets and ends of the island to accommodate small appliances and phone and laptop chargers. There are lots of discreet places to plug in your tech essentials. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post) The blue pantry has an elegant feel and plenty of storage, including a place on the top shelf to display the familys Bulgarian ceramic soup bowls. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post) The butlers pantry was designed as an elegant little room. Pantries dont have to look utilitarian to be functional, Pitts says. Blue cabinet doors (Indigo Batik by Sherwin-Williams) are embellished with polished-nickel hardware. Because of all the kitchens windows, there arent a lot of upper cabinets, making the organization of the butlers pantry crucial. Pitts used Rev-A-Shelf inserts to help organize drinks, foods and supplies. A small refrigerator holds beverages at easy reach. I wanted the look to be like a Manhattan kitchen, small but all dressed up, Pitts said. [A Colonial home marries high-end design with laid-back style] Pitts was careful not to make the kitchen seem cavernous. Its large, but you still want it to feel intimate, she says. The cabinets purposely dont go all the way to the ceiling. If they did, the room would become very grand and would lose proportion to the human scale. The Todorov family, from left: Katerina, Christopher, Mario and Ellie. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post) The Todorovs are drawn to the kitchen at all times of the day. We wanted the space to be calming, and it is, Katerina says. When we come home and come in here, it feels like we are away from everything. But because of all the nature around, we dont feel isolated. On weekends especially, the family likes to hang out in the morning and make crepes with Nutella or oatmeal with honey. We can all be together while we are cooking, Mario says. Its great. We can see all the eagles and herons and lots of boat traffic around us. Sometimes, it feels like we are living on a cruise ship. Three Indochinese tigers roam the forest in eastern Thailand last year. Conservationists on Tuesday hailed the discovery of a new breeding population of tigers in Thailand as a victory for a subspecies nearly wiped out by poaching. (Ho/Dnp-Freeland/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images) Conservationists say they have evidence that the critically endangered Indochinese tiger is breeding in a Thai jungle, giving hope for the survival of an animal whose total population may be less than 300. Thailands Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation along with two private organizations announced Tuesday they have photos showing new tiger cubs in eastern Thailand, supporting a scientific survey that confirmed the existence of the worlds second breeding population of the tigers. The other breeding ground is in the Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary in western Thailand. The Thai agency, along with Freeland, an organization that fights the selling of humans and animals, and Panthera, a wild cat conservation group, said only 221 Indochinese tigers are estimated to remain in two Asian countries, Thailand and Myanmar. It is feared that tigers, which once ranged across much of Asia, are now all but extinct in southern China, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and much of Myanmar, the groups said in a joint statement. Indochinese tigers are smaller than the better-known Bengal and Siberian tigers. Poaching for the illegal wildlife trade stands as the gravest threat to the survival of the tiger, whose numbers in the wild have dwindled from 100,000 a century ago to 3,900 today, it said. The statement noted the tigers remarkable resilience given wildlife poaching and illegal rosewood logging in the eastern jungle. The Thai forestry department proved that with protection you cannot only bring tigers back, but now the western forest complex, specifically Huai Kha Khaeng, is a global model of tiger conservation, Alan Rabinowitz, chief executive of Panthera said in a video call from New York. It is one of the best protected and best tiger areas left in the world. Pvt. Harry K. Tye, who was 21 and from Orinoco, Ky., was killed during the Battle of Tarawa in the Pacific. His remains were recovered in 2015. March 28, 2017 With relatives following, the remains of Marine Pvt. Harry K. Tye are borne to his grave at Arlington National Cemetery. It had been 74 years since he was killed in the Battle of Tarawa in the central Pacific during World War II. John McDonnell/The Washington Post The remains of Marine Pvt. Harry K. Tye are borne to his grave at Arlington National Cemetery on March 28, 2017. He died 74 years ago in the Battle of Tarawa, one of the bloodiest clashes between U.S. forces and Japan in World War II. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post) David Tincher never knew his great-uncle Harry Tye, but he had vivid memories of his grandmother gazing at the picture on her mantel of the big brother who never came home from the war. Every year at Christmas and his birthday, she would cry about him and say, If they ever find him, bring him home and take him to Arlington. Thats where we want him to be. More than 70 years after Marine Pvt. Harry K. Tye was killed in one of the bloodiest battles of World War II, Tincher on Tuesday honored his grandmothers wishes and saw his uncle buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Tincher, 50, with his wife, Lori, and daughter, Morgan, the only members of the family able to make the journey, traveled from their home in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Under drizzling skies and barren trees, they watched as Tye received a funeral with full military honors. Soldiers handed Tincher a folded American flag and, according to Marine custom, casings from the 21 rounds fired during the service. And two of the nations top Marines, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly, both retired generals, helped honor the man Tincher knew only from family stories. I think my grandma would be unbelievably and eternally grateful for this, said Tincher, who served for 14 years in the Air National Guard. This was one of the things that really shaped her life, and the entire history of the family. Secretary Kelly attended the service because he feels a bond to Marines from all eras, said a spokesman from his office. He also appreciates the dedicated effort underway by DoD and its partners to locate, identify and return to the U.S. those servicemen and women killed in overseas theaters. He repeated to me the slogan of the POW/MIA community Never Forget and said hell personally never forget them, said David Lapan, acting deputy assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Securitys office of public affairs. [Lt. Gen. John F. Kelly, who lost son to war, says U.S. largely unaware of sacrifice] The Battle of Tarawa, one of the most brutal waged in the Pacific theater, was fought in the Gilbert Islands around Thanksgiving of 1943. It is believed to be the first amphibious landing in which U.S. forces encountered strong beachhead resistance from Japanese soldiers, and heavy losses built up on both sides. But most families of killed or missing U.S. soldiers were not notified until weeks later most, by telegram and most, such as Tyes family, around Christmas. The family lived in the small town of Gallagher in West Virginia. Family lore has it that Tye was a bit of a hell-raiser, Tincher said. Marine Pvt. Harry K. Tye (History Flight) He was just 21 when he died, killed on the first day of the battle, Nov. 20, 1943, according to History Flight, a nonprofit group that works to recover the remains of missing military members. Many of those who died in battle were buried on the beach where they had fallen. The military returned at the end of the war to reclaim the dead, but Tye was never found, and in 1949, a military review board declared his remains unrecoverable. Tyes father, Fred, refused to accept the news, Tincher said. Later, he would fight to bring his son home himself. He first tried to join the military but was unable to do so. He then traveled to Japan and spent three years traveling throughout the southeast Pacific as often as possible in search of his son, Tincher said. Fred Tye died in 1973. Two years ago, Tincher and other family members received phone calls from History Flight saying that the group thought Tyes remains had been located. We were all pretty shocked. We had kind of over the years given up hope, said Tincher, who, along with other relatives, provided DNA samples to confirm the identification. [Remains of sailor killed at Pearl Harbor finally make their way home] More than 82,000 service members remain missing, nearly 90 percent lost during World War II, according to the Defense Department. But Mark Noah, who founded History Flight 14 years ago, said time is running out to make those identifications. Only 620,000 of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II were alive in 2016, according to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs statistics, reducing the likelihood, as time progresses, of returning remains to family members who have any real knowledge of the missing service members. Whats important to realize is that a lot of families still dont know that this is going on, that the mission still continues to bring their loved ones home, said Jennifer Morrison, an electrical engineer and History Flight volunteer who helped find Tyes living relatives. For Tincher, Tuesdays ceremony was far more emotional than he had expected. There was the presence of Mattis and Kelly. It shows the commitment the Marines have to their own, Tincher said. It gives me hope that they can align with this administration to bring every American soldier home, whether theyre from World War II or Korea or Vietnam or Iraq or Afghanistan. It doesnt matter, he said. They all should come home. An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Fred Tye joined the Peace Corps and traveled to Japan. Tye traveled to Japan with another service organization. THE DISTRICT An eaglet hatches at arboretum Barely 24 hours after the first crack, or pip, an eaglet from one of two bald eagle eggs has emerged in a nest in a poplar tree on the grounds of the U.S. National Arboretum in Northeast Washington. In a statement, the American Eagle Foundation said, Bald Eaglet DC4 officially just hatched at approximately 7:21 a.m. EDT, and now Mr. President and The First Lady are proud new parents! It typically takes about 35 days for a bald eagle egg to incubate and hatch. The first egg, which hatched Wednesday, was laid on Feb. 19. The second one was laid Feb. 23. Another egg in that nest is expected to hatch any day now, foundation spokeswoman Julia Cecere said in an email. These are the fourth and fifth eaglets raised by Mr. President and the First Lady at the arboretum. The public will be invited to name the eaglets in the coming weeks in what will probably be an online voting process. Dana Hedgpeth Son is charged in fathers death A man was arrested Tuesday in the fatal shooting of his father earlier in the month, D.C. police said. About 8:55 a.m. on March 17, officers responded to the 4000 block of Cole Boulevard SE after a report of an unconscious person inside a residence, D.C. police said. They found Bernard Coleman, 43, of Southeast dead with gunshot wounds. Police arrested Bernard Coleman III, 23, of Southeast, a police spokesman said. He was charged with second-degree murder while armed and theft in connection with the shooting. According to an arrest affidavit, Coleman III confessed to shooting his father and said the shooting was accidental. Justin Wm. Moyer Two men shot in BMW; one man is killed Two men who were shot one fatally on Tuesday afternoon at an intersection in Congress Heights were sitting inside a BMW, according to D.C. police. The shootings occurred about 3:50 p.m. at Alabama Avenue and Stanton Road SE, in front of a carryout restaurant and near Turner Elementary School. Police identified the man who was killed as Antwan Jones, 31, of Arlington. The name of the other victim, whose injuries were described as non-life-threatening, was not released. The police report says the men were in a BMW 525i. They were taken to a hospital. Jones died at 4:23 p.m. No arrests have been made. The District has recorded 29 homicides so far this year, up from three at this time in 2016. Peter Hermann Head constable arrested for robbery A police head constable has been arrested in accusation of robbing a businessman here in Dhanusha. A man who attended a Know Your Rights seminar on March 22 at William Ramsay Elementary in Alexandria, Va., holds up an information sheet on immigration. (Moriah Balingit/TWP) In a school cafeteria adorned with whimsical childrens artwork, the men and women hunched over thick packets of paper one recent night, fiddling with pen caps and rubbing their foreheads as they confronted a challenge: preparing for what happens if immigration agents show up at the door. Some at this clinic in Northern Virginia were undocumented, and others had relatives in that situation. Some had legal status but were not permanent residents, and they wondered what shifts in federal immigration policy would mean for them and their relatives. Juan Torres, a carpenter from Honduras and father of four, has temporary protected status, but he has family members who are undocumented. Of course, I was very worried, because the majority of my family doesnt have documents, and at any moment they could be arrested or detained, Torres said. He was one of about two dozen people who came to William Ramsay Elementary School in Alexandria to learn about their rights while President Trump moves to tighten immigration enforcement and speed up deportations. Recent arrests in Alexandria and elsewhere have heightened stress. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sensitive location policy restricts enforcement actions at schools and churches. But agents last month arrested homeless men who had just left a church warming shelter in nearby Fairfax County and a father in Los Angeles who had just dropped his daughter off at school. [Federal immigration raids net many without criminal records, sowing fear] With anxiety rising in immigrant communities, educators and parents are taking steps to allay fears. The PTA at Ramsay Elementary sponsored the March 22 clinic, supplying pizza and providing volunteers to care for children of those who came to hear from immigration lawyers and other experts. [Your child is safe: Schools address deportation fears among immigrant families] About a quarter of Alexandrias residents in 2010 were foreign-born, census data shows. Hundreds of unaccompanied minors, many of whom fled violence in Central America, have entered the United States in recent years without parents and landed in the citys schools. Students in Alexandria hail from more than 130 countries. Hallways at Ramsay Elementary display dozens of flags to show international spirit. Alexandria schools have given resources to counselors and social workers to help immigrant students who may face increasing stress at home. They have also posted information about the citys position on immigration policy in school hallways in four languages. The city emphasizes that police officers do not check immigration status during routine patrols and that schools provide education to all children, regardless of status. At the clinic, participants who checked in were given numbers that they wore on colored name tags so they could ask questions and meet with lawyers without others knowing their identities. They received packets on topics such as What to do in the event of a raid. Lawyer Amy Cheung showed a short video portraying encounters between undocumented immigrants and immigration authorities at a clothing factory, in a home and during a traffic stop. At the factory, a seamstress tearfully admitted that she entered the country illegally, and she was taken away. Another man tried to run. A third displayed a bright card indicating that he intended to not answer any questions until he spoke to his attorney. Its more important to be silent to maintain silence than to respond to their questions about what kind of documents you have, Cheung said. Cheung and paralegal Chelsea Naylor also explored possible strategies for an encounter with immigration authorities. Cheung advised not answering the door if ICE agents come knocking. She also advised training family members, including children, to do the same. If ICE officers knock on the door, and you just dont open the door you maintain silence, you dont say anything whats going to happen to you? asked one man. Theyre not going to break the door, nothing like that? They would have to have a warrant, Cheung said. Another man asked what happens if parents are deported. Does the government take their children? Or do they get to go with the parents? The question underscored the dilemma facing mixed-status families, where parents might be undocumented but their children born in the United States are citizens. You as a parent have the right to decide whats going to happen to your kid, Cheung replied. If the kids are U.S. citizens, you have the choice to let them stay here if theres someone to take care of them, or to take them with you. That is why, Cheung said, it is important for immigrant families with U.S. citizen children to ensure that those children have passports. David Wynne, a social worker at nearby T.C. Williams High School, sought to reassure families that their children are safe at school. But he urged them to update emergency contact information in case they are detained. I want to live in a city like Alexandria, where the whole world lives. I want to live in a city where everyone is welcome, Wynne said in Spanish. He then gestured to parent volunteers in the back. Every person here wants you to be here and wants you to be safe and wants your children to be safe. Many remain frightened. Mario Arevalo, who arrived in the United States from El Salvador as a 10-year-old in 2003, qualifies for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era program that shields certain immigrants from deportation if they came to the country before their 16th birthday. He has family members who are undocumented, including a preschooler. Its scary to think that at any time, anything could happen, Arevalo said. Right now, nobody is safe. Fairfax County These were among incidents reported by the Fairfax County Police Department. For information, call 703-246-2253. Fair Oaks District THEFTS/BREAK-INS Clifton Rd., 5600 block, 7:21 p.m. March 19. Coins were stolen from a residence. Fair Oaks Shopping Center, 11700 block, March 21. A backpack was stolen from a vehicle. Foxcroft Way, 2800 block, 6:02 p.m. March 19. Power tools were stolen from a residences unlocked garage. Grand Commons Ave., 11900 block, March 20. Cash was stolen from a business. Jermantown Rd., 3100 block, March 21. A wallet was stolen from a park. Lee Jackson Memorial Hwy., 12000 block, March 19. Cash was stolen from a business. Mansarde Ave., 13900 block, March 19. A package was stolen from a residence. Saintsbury Plaza, 2900 block, March 19. An air bag was stolen from a vehicle. VEHICLE THEFT Shawn Leigh Dr., 2700 block, March 19. A 2014 Audi S4. Franconia District THEFTS/BREAK-INS Bradlick Shopping Center, 6900 block, March 19. Merchandise was stolen from a business. Haystack Rd., 6500 block, March 20. Property was stolen from a residence. Hilltop Village Center Dr., 7900 block, March 19. Liquor was stolen from a business. Kingstowne Towne Center, 5900 block, March 19. Cash was stolen from a business. Kingstowne Towne Center, 5900 block, March 21. A wallet was stolen from a business. Kingstowne Towne Center, 5900 block, March 22. A wallet was stolen from a business. Kingstowne Blvd., 5800 block, March 21. Electronics were stolen from a business. Kingstowne Blvd., 5800 block, March 21. Merchandise was stolen from a business. Lockport Pl., 7300 block, March 20. Tools were stolen from a vehicle. Loisdale Ct., 6500 block, March 21. Tags were stolen from a vehicle. Rose Hill Dr., 6100 block, March 19. Liquor was stolen from a business. Springfield Towne Center, 6500 block, March 20. Merchandise was stolen from a business. Telegraph Rd., 8800 block, March 20. Tools were stolen from a vehicle. VEHICLE THEFT Backlick Rd., 6800 block, March 21. A white 2000 Ford F-250 Econoline van. Mason District ROBBERY Glenmore and Vista drives, March 21. Strong-arm robbery. THEFTS/BREAK-INS Alger Rd., 7100 block, March 21. Bicycles were stolen from a house. Arlington Blvd., 6100 block, March 21. A CD was stolen from a vehicle. Brad St., 7300 block, March 21. A jewelry was stolen from a vehicle. Columbia Pike, 6500 block, March 19. A purse was stolen from a business. Gallows Rd., 3300 block, March 21. A phone was stolen from a hospital. George Mason Dr. S., 3800 block, March 22. A laptop was stolen from a business. Hillcrest Rd., 8200 block, March 19. A package was stolen from a residence. Jefferson St. S., 3500 block, March 22. Liquor was stolen from a business. John Marr, 4200 block, March 22. Merchandise was stolen from a business. Leesburg Pike, 6100 block, March 20. An air bag was stolen from a vehicle. Leesburg Pike, 6100 block, March 21. An air bag was stolen from a vehicle. Little River Tpk., 7400 block, March 19. Beer was stolen from a business. McLean District THEFTS/BREAK-INS Balls Hill Rd., 1400 block, March 19. A wallet was stolen from a business. Capital One Dr., 1600 block, March 22. Tools were stolen from a construction. Chain Bridge Rd., 1900 block, March 21. Merchandise was stolen from a business. Emma Lee St., 2800 block, March 19. Property was stolen from a residence. Kincaid Ave., 6800 block, March 21. Property was stolen from a residence. Kirby Rd., 1400 block, 2:52 p.m. March 17. Property was stolen from a residence. Little River Tpk., 6500 block, March 20. Merchandise was stolen from a business. Little River Tpk., 7400 block, March 20. Beer was stolen from a business. Mount Vernon District ROBBERY Mint Pl., 7100 block, 8:44 p.m. March 20. THEFTS/BREAK-INS Huntington Ave., 2200 block, 5:03 p.m. March 18. A witness said two men broke a front glass door of a business. The witness went to a nearby business to call police. The suspects fled in what is believed to be a red Dodge Durango. Huntington Ave., 2300 block, March 19. Groceries were stolen from a business. Richmond Hwy., 5800 block, March 21. Rims were stolen from a vehicle. Richmond Hwy., 5900 block, March 22. A purse was stolen from a business. Richmond Hwy., 6200 block, March 19. A cellphone was stolen from a business. Richmond Hwy., 6300 block, March 19. Clothing was stolen from a business. Richmond Hwy., 6600 block, March 19. Property was stolen from a residence. Richmond Hwy., 7700 block, March 19. Merchandise was stolen from a business. Richmond Hwy., 7700 block, March 19. Tools were stolen from a business. Richmond Hwy., 7900 block, March 19. Merchandise was stolen from a business. Richmond Hwy., 8400 block, March 21. Cash was stolen from a wallet. Russell Rd., 8200 block, March 21. Beer was stolen from a business. Reston District THEFTS/BREAK-INS Cameron Glen Dr., 1800 block, March 22. Property was stolen from a vehicle. Centreville Rd., 2500 block, March 19. A wallet was stolen from a vehicle. Congreve Ct., 2500 block, March 21. A wallet was stolen from a business. Freetown Ct., 2300 block, March 19. Medication was stolen from a residence. Georgetown Pike, 9900 block, March 19. Beer was stolen from a business. Port Pl., 1700 block, March 19. Jewelry was stolen from a residence. Soapstone Dr., 2300 block, March 19. Beer was stolen from a business. Stoneview Sq., 11600 block, March 20. A bag was stolen from a vehicle. Town Sq., 12000 block, March 19. A purse was stolen from a residence. Sully District THEFTS/BREAK-INS Autumn Vale Ct., 13700 block, March 22. Property was stolen from a vehicle. Lee Jackson Memorial Hwy., 13900 block, March 21. Cash was stolen from a vehicle. Main St., 7100 block, March 19. Liquor was stolen from a business. Stonecroft Blvd., 4900 block, March 19. A package was stolen from a residence. Sunset View Trail, 16200 block, March 21. Shingles were stolen from a construction site. Valley Country Dr., 13900 block, March 22. Cash was stolen from a residence. Westfields Blvd., 5100 block, March 19. Merchandise was stolen from a business. West Springfield District ROBBERY Burke Center Pkwy., 5700 block, 8:56 p.m. March 20. Attempted armed robbery. THEFTS/BREAK-INS Barsky Ct., 6300 block, March 20. A backpack was stolen from a vehicle. Bayshire Rd., 5900 block, March 22. Shoes were stolen from a residence. Burke Lake Rd., 8900 block, March 20. Jewelry was stolen from a vehicle. Old Keene Mill Rd., 8300 block, March 19. Cash was stolen from a business. Patriot Dr., 7900 block, March 19. A headlight was stolen from a vehicle. Roslyn Rd., 5000 block, March 20. Cash was stolen from a vehicle. Silverbrook Rd., 8500 block, March 21. A bicycle was stolen from a school. Wedgewood Dr., 4300 block, March 19. A computer was stolen from a residence. Whitacre Rd., 4100 block, March 22. A package was stolen from a business. Fairfax City These were among incidents reported by the Fairfax City Police Department. For information, call 703-273-2889. THEFTS/BREAK-INS Courthouse Dr., 10400 block, 12:56 p.m. March 22. Electronics and other items were stolen from a rented room. Fairfax Blvd., 9900 block, 9:43 p.m. March 21. Credit card theft. Main St., 9600 block, 9:47 p.m. March 18. Larceny. VANDALISM Fairfax Blvd., 9700 block, 9:32 p.m. March 17. Hill St., 3800 block, 10:24 a.m. March 23. Jermantown Rd., 3900 block, 9:05 p.m. March 23. Main St., 9400 block, 4:57 p.m. March 18. Falls Church No incident report was received from the Falls Church Police Department. For information, call 703-248-5056. Herndon These were among incidents reported by the Herndon Police Department. For information, call 703-435-6846. ASSAULT Elden St., 700 block, 12:21 a.m. March 13. Simple assault. THEFTS/BREAK-INS Elden St., 400 block, 9:48 a.m. March 15. Shoplifting. Elden St., 400 block, 1:19 p.m. March 17. Pickpocketing. Elden St., 1100 block, 4:50 p.m. March 15. Purse snatching. Elden St., 1200 block, 10:35 a.m. March 16. Shoplifting. Vienna These were among incidents reported by the Vienna Police Department. For information, call 703-255-6396. THEFTS/BREAK-INS Lawyers Rd. NW, 200 block, 5 p.m. March 17. Petty theft. Maple Ave. East, 200 block, 4:02 p.m. March 17. Trespassing. VANDALISM Maple Ave. West, 400 block, 2:19 a.m. March 18. Vinnie Magliano, president of EastCoast Bailbonds, returns to his office after bail review hearings at the Baltimore County courthouse on Feb. 27. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post) The posts on Facebook are ominous: A suspected domestic abuser, released without bond, is accused of killing his girlfriend while awaiting his court date. Criminal suspects, who once would have had to put up money before getting out of jail, are now walking free, with no guarantee they will show up for trial. The bail-bond industry is pulling out all the stops, Maryland lawmakers say, trying to revoke what bondsmen are calling the get-out-of-jail-free card given to some defendants by the states highest court. With less than two weeks remaining in the legislative session, months of activity aimed at preserving Marylands bail system have reached a crescendo. Lawmakers say they are under heavy pressure from lobbyists to support a pro-bail bill that passed the Senate last week and is awaiting action in the more liberal House of Delegates. The legislation would overturn a landmark rule change by the Maryland Court of Appeals that tells judges not to impose bail on poor defendants who are not a danger or a flight risk. The court based its decision on legal opinions that say it is unconstitutional to keep people jailed before trial simply because they cannot come up with enough cash to get out. If the court rule is overturned, Maryland, long considered progressive on criminal-justice issues, will stand in opposition to other states that have taken up bail-system overhauls. Its a regressive move, said Cherise Fanno Burdeen, chief executive of the Pretrial Justice Institute. And its pretty simple politics. . . . Money talks. Although the change doesnt formally take effect until July, statistics show that slightly more people already are being held without bond or freed on personal recognizance, and longtime bail bondsmen such as Vinnie Magliano say their business has dropped by as much as 70 percent. Theyre trying to kill us, said Magliano, owner of EastCoast Bailbonds in Essex, Md. We have to do whatever we can to make sure that doesnt happen. Vinnie Magliano, president of EastCoast Bailbonds in Essex, says business has fallen sharply since a Court of Appeals rules change that sharply limits the use of bail in Maryland. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post) The bail industry threw two lavish dinners for lawmakers at Ruths Chris Steak House in Annapolis last month and donated tens of thousands of dollars to politicians ahead of this years legislative session. Last week, lawmakers say, they began hearing from constituents who had received scripted phone calls, encouraging them to call their representatives and demand that they take action to preserve the option of bail. Del. Curtis S. Anderson (D-Baltimore) likened the fervor over the bill to the push in 2012 for expanded gambling. They seem to be desperate, he said. And, unlike the industrys bruising defeats in New Jersey and New Mexico, where legislative efforts resulted in limits on bail, the last-ditch push in Maryland may be having some effect. The powerful Legislative Black Caucus is meeting Thursday to consider whether to support or oppose the bill that passed the Senate last week, allowing judges to impose bail without regard to a defendants economic status. The caucus, which includes 40 of the 91 Democrats in the House, had been a supporter of the court rule limiting bail. But several members appear to have shifted their position. Del. Jay Walker (D), chairman of the Prince Georges County delegation, said he has been torn about the bill but was persuaded to vote yes by the bill sponsor, Sen. C. Anthony Muse (D-Prince Georges), who is also a caucus member. I normally try to be supportive of the Black Caucus, said Walker, who said he has been told by bail-industry lobbyists that the court rule will lead to more defendants jailed until trial or not returning to court for trial. But not having bail I dont know if that makes the public safer. Sen C. Anthony Muse (D-Prince Georges) in Annapolis last week. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post) Muse says his bill will help poor defendants by allowing judges to use bail instead of other pretrial release conditions that could be more onerous. For example, he said, when judges order ankle monitors as a condition of release, defendants have to pay about $400 a month to cover the costs. There should not be a one size fits all in the justice system, Muse said. Del. Erek L. Barron (D-Prince Georges), who has been encouraging colleagues to vote against Muses bill, said the purpose of the court rule is not to eliminate bail but to avoid penalizing poor defendants more than others who have the ability to pay. The goal is to ensure that there is an individualized assessment of every defendant, he said. Del. Cheryl D. Glenn (D-Baltimore), the head of the Black Caucus, said this week that she had not made a decision on whether to support Muses bill. But she said it has some merit, given the support it has received from some in the legal community, including J. Wyndal Gordon, a Baltimore City lawyer. Anti-bail advocates have fought for a decade in Maryland to keep judges from setting bond at levels defendants cannot afford, potentially leaving them behind bars for days or weeks before trial. Such situations can lead to jobs lost and children uncared for, advocates say, and also drive up jail costs for taxpayers. Marylands bail system has constitutional problems, Barron said, adding that the Muse bill doesnt take us back to where we were. It takes us even further back. Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D) ( Jonathan Newton /The Washington Post) Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D), who sought the court rule change, said other states that have taken similar actions have not seen drastic increases in defendants failing to show up for trial. The purpose of the rule is to let people out when theyre not a threat. Why do you need a bill to fix that? said Frosh, a former state senator. He said Muses bill will only result in lining the pockets of bondsmen. Nicholas J. Wachinski, the chief executive of Lexington National Insurance Corp., a bond surety company that is heading the campaign for the bail bill, did not return calls seeking comment. The industry has hired some of the states top lobbyists, including Gerard Evans, who got his start in Annapolis 40 years ago working as an intern to now-Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert), then a freshman senator. It poured $87,000 into the campaign coffers of state politicians, with nearly a quarter of the contributions $21,000 going to Sen. Robert A. Zirkin (D-Baltimore County), the chairman of the Judicial Proceedings Committee, which first approved Muses bill in early March. Just days before the start of the session, Lexington National gave $5,000 to Muse and $3,000 each to Miller and House Majority Whip Talmadge Branch (D-Baltimore). Miller helped shepherd Muses bill through the full Senate after a companion bill was pulled in the House, and he says that he believes bail bondsmen have a role to play. Bail bondsmen charge defendants 10 percent of the secured bond set by judges and guarantee the full bond to the court if a defendant does not return for trial. Defendants who are found innocent or have charges dismissed must still pay the 10 percent to the bondsmen. These days, the phones are not ringing as often as they once did at companies such as EastCoast Bailbonds, Maglianos storefront in a working-class neighborhood in Baltimore County. This system could have been tweaked and fixed, Magliano said on a recent day, arguing that it would make better sense for judges to set more-moderate bails than to do away with the concept altogether. He said he gets frustrated hearing people such as Frosh who know nothing about what is going on in places like Baltimore. They think we take the money and dont do nothing. We are so close to the people that were with. Vinnie Magliano, president of East Coast Bailbonds, reads a thank-you note from a client. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post) During a visit last month to the Baltimore County courthouse in Towson, Magliano watched Judge Norman Stone III deny bail to several defendants, including a man charged with first-degree assault, another with a criminal record who was charged with first- and second-degree assault, and a drug addict accused of stealing. The judge released on her own recognizance a woman who had no criminal record and had argued with her boyfriend while drinking and tried to hit him with a car. No more contact with the boyfriend, Stone told her. Magliano found no new customers that day. But he ran into an old one, a repeat drunk-driving offender, as soon as he stepped out of his shiny black Cadillac Escalade in the courthouse parking lot. Hey, Vinnie, the man shouted. What are you doing here? the bail bondsman yelled back. Im on my fourth, the man said. Ill be okay or Ill hit you up. Magliano had bailed the man out three times before. He didnt hear from him this time, though. Since the legislative session began Jan. 11, Magliano and other bondsmen have spent plenty of time at committee hearings in Annapolis. Some attended the dinners at Ruths Chris that the industry hosted for key lawmakers. The industry also started a Facebook page, Marylanders for Public Safety, where posters list examples of defendants released on their own recognizance instead of paying bail. Last week, the phone calls to legislators offices began. Sen. William Smith (D-Montgomery), who voted against Muses bill, said his Annapolis staff was inundated with calls from constituents who wrongly accused him of being against bail reform and wanting to keep people locked up. Those who called said they had received phone calls themselves, from a person who denounced Smiths position, offered up the lawmakers office phone number and urged the constituents to register a complaint. I cant say for certain who paid for it, Smith said. But there is only one industry that benefits from this bill. A Maryland bill to limit police cooperation with federal immigration authorities, criticized this week by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, will not pass the state Senate unless it is revised, the head of that chamber said Wednesday. The Trust Act, as the legislation is known, would prohibit local and state police from assisting with federal immigration-enforcement efforts by stopping or questioning individuals about their country of origin or immigration status. It would also bar most Maryland jurisdictions from detaining undocumented prisoners past their release date, unless federal agents who want to deport them have a warrant or court order describing probable cause. The House passed the legislation last week. But Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) said the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, which is deciding whether to advance the measure, will not approve it in its current form. Maryland is not going to become a sanctuary state, Miller told reporters, using a loosely defined term for a jurisdiction that in some way limits cooperation between local and federal authorities on immigration issues. The Trump administration has said it will withhold federal funding from sanctuary jurisdictions, but it has not clearly defined what rules would have to be in place for a jurisdiction to qualify for such a sanction. Our churches are not sanctuaries, our colleges are not sanctuaries, our cities are not sanctuaries, and our state is not going to become a sanctuary state, Miller said. I havent lobbied anybody in the committee, but I definitely will tell you the committee is not going to vote to allow Maryland to become a sanctuary state. Millers comments come just over a week after the reported rape of a Rockville High School student, allegedly by two students who are undocumented immigrants. The case has become embroiled in the national debate over immigration policy; when asked about it last week, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the incident shows why it is important for local police to assist federal authorities with immigration enforcement. Proponents of the Trust Act have dismissed such comments about the bill, saying that nothing in it would preclude federal-local cooperation in connection with that type of serious crime. Del. Kathleen M. Dumais (D-Montgomery), who co-sponsored the Trust Act and defended it during floor debates, said this week that the legislation certainly does not make Maryland more at risk for crime and violence and that anyone who commits a crime or violence in Maryland should be and is prosecuted to the full extent of the law, regardless of immigration status. The measure would allow Frederick and Harford counties to continue their participation in a special federal program that uses local police to help with immigration enforcement. Advocates say the legislation would protect undocumented immigrants who pose no threat to communities and ensure that they can report crimes to police without fear of deportation. Miller expressed sympathy with that point of view but also echoed some of the concerns raised by Trump officials about whether the legislation would hinder law enforcement efforts. I want our citizens to be free to walk the streets of our state without getting questions in terms of where theyre from. I want them to be able to go to church. I want them to be able to go to school. I want them to be able to report crimes without fear of being arrested, he said. But in terms of hampering law enforcement, in terms of hampering the judicial system, Maryland is not going to become a sanctuary state. Gov. Larry Hogan (R) has vowed to veto the Trust Act if it reaches his desk, describing the measure as an outrageously irresponsible bill that would endanger our citizens. A Washington Post-University of Maryland poll this month found that 71 percent of Marylanders say immigration enforcement should be left to federal authorities, while 25 percent say local police should take an active role in such matters. Seventy-five percent of respondents said people in the country illegally would be reluctant to inform police of crimes if local law enforcement became more active in identifying individuals for deportation. The poll was conducted March 16 to 19 among a random sample of 914 Maryland residents and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points. In a timely effort to counteract President Trumps anti-Washington rhetoric, a local business and civic coalition wants to raise $3 million to $5 million for an unusual marketing campaign to rebrand the region to improve its reputation and self-image. The fundraising drive, which is to begin Thursday at a downtown conference, is the latest step in an initiative to expand greater Washingtons identity beyond being just the federal city. The endeavor began more than a year ago but has acquired greater urgency since Trumps election. During the campaign, he repeatedly belittled Washington with calls to drain the swamp. His initial budget proposed sharp cuts in federal spending projected to cost the region at least 15,000 jobs in the first year. Its become a little tricky lately to recraft Washingtons image, said Barry Silverman, a brand consultant hired to assist in the project. Given the current climate, its certainly challenging for the area. The principal quandary is finding the right approach to the federal government itself. On one hand, the region wants to distance itself from official Washingtons ugly reputation for corruption, bureaucracy and partisan gridlock. It wants to emphasize its assets: a growing private sector, racial and cultural diversity, a highly educated workforce, a hip urban scene and rich cultural offerings. [How do you rebrand DC when the public thinks its corrupt and arrogant?] The short game is to try and deal with the misrepresentation or at least misunderstanding of the many fine qualities of this region, which are more than just the federal government and drain the swamp, said Matt Klein, president of the Akridge commercial real estate company and a member of the Branding Greater Washington Task Force. But the region cant reject the federal government altogether. Its still the areas largest employer, as well as a magnet for people seeking proximity to power. That was the double-edged sword we were working with, said Silverman, of the New York firm Interbrand. The branding task force includes representatives of Akridge, the 2030 Group, the Urban Land Institute and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. It is part of a broader project called the Roadmap for Washington Regions Economic Future. The Roadmap promotes greater regional cooperation on issues including transportation and housing. [Trumps budget would mean double whammy for Washington region.] About 150 business executives and other local leaders were expected to attend a Roadmap conference Thursday morning, hosted by the 2030 Group, where the fundraising campaign was to launch. They were set to see a video emphasizing positive things about the region that people seem to forget when they see Washington portrayed as a hotbed of crime and political sleaze on the TV series House of Cards. Since Interbrand was hired in May, it has helped oversee a research effort that has included an attitude survey, three workshops with Washington-area leaders, and interviews with business executives. Silverman said a genuine uniqueness about the Washington area is the degree to which people here are driven by a sense of purpose. They were people who are committed to something, who are mission-driven. You dont really find that in other places, he said. Interbrand boiled down that idea to what it calls a positioning statement for the marketing campaign. It reads: Greater Washington is a diverse community of purpose-driven people who, together, forge a better future through their commitment to ideas and action. [Why the D.C. area risks losing its allure to millennials.] The challenge is to find a way to package that abstraction in an appealing way in advertisements on television, radio, print and social media. It doesnt necessarily have to lead to a slogan such as Virginia is for lovers or Keep Austin weird, Silverman said. Taglines are nice, theyre helpful, but theyre not necessarily critical, he said. Washingtons effort is different from most because it aims to build an identity among people from two states and a federal district. Most campaigns of this sort are done on behalf of a single state or city. In addition, the region wants to do more than attract tourists or business investment. It wants to promote pride in the area and attract talented people to come live here. Cary Hatch, project manager of the task force, noted that Upstate New York and Florida have launched well-funded marketing campaigns aimed at luring qualified workers, especially millennials. Were in kind of an arms race for people were trying to attract, said Hatch, who also is chief executive of MDB Communications. Your vibe attracts your tribe. Especially with Trump in the White House, Washington desires a different vibe. Veronica Spencer holds a photo of her great-grandmother Henrietta Lacks whose cancer cells helped revolutionize medicine and whose life is the subject of a best-selling book and upcoming Oprah Winfrey movie. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post) The email from her sister said Read Now! so Veronica Spencer sat right down to open it. Maybe it was about the soon-to-be released Oprah Winfrey/HBO movie about Spencers great-grandmother Henrietta Lacks, the Baltimore cancer patient whose cells were collected by Johns Hopkins researchers without her knowledge. Or about Spencers upcoming speech in Indiana, where she would talk to medical students about Henriettas role in revolutionizing medicine. Instead, she learned that her close-knit and increasingly famous family was at war with itself. The March 2 email contained a link to a college newspaper story about her grandfather and uncle. Lawrence Lacks Henriettas oldest child and his son, Ron Lacks, had long been unhappy with the familys portrayal in the best-selling book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and the way some of their relatives continue to profit from it by giving speeches around the country. Now they were leveling a series of very public charges at the books author and publisher, and at Winfrey, HBO executives, officials at Johns Hopkins Hospital, the National Institutes of Health and other family members, accusing them variously of misrepresentation, exploitation and fraud. The most explosive allegation was that some family members arent family members at all. Her Pop-pop, whom Spencer worshiped from childhood, and her Uncle Ron, who used to give her pony rides on his back, were saying that Veronica and her sister were not really their kin and that they had the DNA tests to prove it. Ron was quoted in the story saying: Theyre not blood-related to Henrietta. . . . Theyre not family. Spencer, 30, read through tears. It was like an uppercut to the stomach, she said. I just fell to the floor. Within minutes, the Lacks texts were flying: Whos available for an emergency family meeting? The head of the family How do long-standing family tensions get weaponized? At what should be the familys moment of triumph the eve of a Hollywood portrayal of Henrietta Lackses on both sides are trying to understand how their rift grew so ugly and public. Lawrence Lacks, 82, and Ron Lacks, 58, the son and grandson of Henrietta Lacks, look at family photos at Rons home in Baltimore County. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post) Last month, Lawrence and Ron Lacks with the help of a Baltimore publicist willing to make incendiary charges began a campaign to assert near-total control over the growing endeavors surrounding Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta died in 1951, but her tumor cells have been cultivated to this day. Researchers had tried many times to keep cell lines alive outside the body, but the cells always died. These didnt. The HeLa cell line has been central to the development of vaccines, cloning, gene mapping and billions of dollars in medical breakthroughs. The story had been largely unknown until Rebecca Skloot, a science writer, and Henriettas youngest daughter, Deborah Lacks, spent more than a decade prying the tale from hospital archives. Skloots 2010 book was a commercial and critical smash, selling more than 2.5 million copies. A page-turning lesson in ethics, race and family fealty, the book is now assigned reading at hundreds of colleges and medical schools. Winfrey secured the movie rights within months and will star as Deborah Lacks when the film airs on HBO on April 22. A cottage family industry has grown up around Henrietta, with multiple Lacks descendants giving speeches and starting foundations of their own. Five served as paid consultants to the movie. Spencer and her cousin, David Lacks Jr., were selected by other family members to serve on an NIH working group that reviews requests from researchers to use the HeLa cells. [Family of Henrietta Lacks gains some control over her cells] None of that has sat well with Lawrence, 82, and Ron, 58, who participated in the endeavors early on but said they are now excluded. In scores of emails and news releases sent on their behalf by publicist Karen Campbell, they demanded that the Henrietta Lacks Foundation, established and largely funded by Skloot, be transferred to their control; that HBO and Winfreys Harpo Films donate $10 million each to a new foundation started in Lawrences name, and that a speakers agency stop booking other family members for appearances without Lawrences approval. They urged NIH to let Lawrence decide which Lacks family members would serve on the HeLa advisory group and to suspend all research funding to Johns Hopkins. They asked Penguin Random House for an advance to write their own book. (HBO) The claims are largely based on Lawrences role as Henriettas oldest child and the only living executor of her estate. Hes the head of the family, said Ron, although he has his fathers power of attorney. NIH responded that it wasnt getting involved in a family dispute. The corporations said no to the donations and the book advance. And lawyers for Skloot pointed to ample case law saying Lawrence and Ron had no authority over others speaking about Henrietta at public forums. In an interview at Rons Baltimore County home, Ron and Lawrence laughed a bit about the $10 million ask. Kind of a stretch, huh? Ron said. But both said the continued snubbing of Lawrence is heartbreaking. They dont even consult my dad, Ron said. We want everybody to stop and regroup and let the head of the family decide how were going to do things. Lawrence nodded. It used to be in this family, he said, that people listened to their elders. Whats fair about that? Lawrence Lacks is a gentle, genial octogenarian who drove Amtrak trains for 25 years. He still goes to the gym and mounted the front steps of his sons small brick house with a firm tread. Hey, Pop, Ron greeted him, a cellphone pressed to his ear. Cmon in. As Ron bustled between the kitchen and the small bedroom where he cares full-time for his bedridden mother, Bobbette Lacks, Lawrence sat on the couch, hands on knees, ready to talk about Henrietta, who died when he was 17. She was a loving, freehearted woman, he said, remembering the family members Henrietta had helped and her deathbed directions. She told me to keep the family together. I try. Im the oldest, but I dont have no say in anything. The book, Lawrence said, fails to capture his mothers grace, as does her growing fame as a medical phenomenon. More and more, she seems not like a wife and mother of five but just a cell, he said. Skloot also made the Lackses seem poor and uneducated, he said, although he also acknowledges that he has not read the book. Ron brought up one of the examples repeated in news releases: that Henrietta is portrayed as being unable to sign her name. Skloot, however, cited two separate pages depicting Henrietta signing and writing her name. A battered copy of the best-selling book sits on a table in Rons Lackss home. He and his father have long harbored grievances about the way Henrietta Lacks and their family are portrayed in the book. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post) She made us stereotypes, Ron maintained. People think were dirt poor. He also resents all the money being made in Henriettas name, from the earnings of multibillion-dollar medical research industry to Skloots royalties to the speaker fees his cousins collect. Theyre getting $5,000 a speech, and my mother is in there needing care? Ron asked. Whats fair about that? Jeri Lacks Whye, one of Henriettas granddaughters, said she found the book accurate and positive overall. She is at the center of a shifting list of seven or eight Lackses who have appeared at more than 100 colleges and medical schools since 2011. But when Ron used his one outing to air complaints about the book, he wasnt invited to join them again. Were trying to create something positive around my grandmothers legacy, Whye said. Ron and Lawrence contend that the others have sold out to Skloot, HBO and Winfrey, signing agreements that restrict what they can say. Lawrence said he turned down HBOs offer of a $16,000 consultant fee and, later, the chance to see the film at a private screening because he was asked to sign my rights away. I wouldnt be allowed to talk about my mother anymore. An HBO representative said the consulting contract was an industry standard and that the screening nondisclosure form applied only to discussing the movies content before its official release, not speaking publicly about Henrietta Lacks. Len Amato, president of HBO Films, said those involved in the production tried to include Lawrence throughout the process. He remembered a pleasant meeting with him at a lunch Winfrey threw for the family at Baltimores Four Seasons Hotel last summer, the last time the extended clan was all together. But the tone of the relationship shifted, he and others said, with Karen Campbells work publicizing Lawrence and Rons grievances. To be honest with you, we have no idea how much [she] is representing their point of view, Amato said. Since that representative came into the picture, weve been barraged by an incredible amount of email that I dont think is helpful in getting anything productive done. Skloot said she, too, has been inundated with communications from Campbell. And the charges and demands in the emails and news releases have grown more serious. A March 20 news release accused Skloot of not sharing her book profits through the Henrietta Lacks Foundation, which Skloot started with a portion of her first royalty check. But several members of the Lacks family said they have gotten direct benefits from the foundation, including college tuition, cataract surgery and other medical procedures. Ron acknowledged that he had dental work paid for by the foundation, which in each of the past five years had donations below $50,000, the threshold for public disclosure. Individual donations and the 56 grants of up to $10,000 each made to Lacks family members are confidential, Skloot said. She noted that she negotiated a significant HBO contribution this year as part of the movie deal. And she maintained she has been extremely devoted to fulfilling my promise to Deborah that I would help the Lacks family after the book was published . . . and its infuriating and hurtful that someone is suggesting otherwise. Oprah Winfrey with the extended Lacks family at a luncheon before production on the film The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which debuts on HBO on April 22. (HBO) The March 20 news release also described Spencer and her sister, Victoria Baptiste, as imposters and said they were posing as Lacks family members to make money. Appalled, Spencer said she and other family members began questioning Campbells role and her financial motive in driving a wedge through their family. Is my grandfather really saying all of these things? Veronica wondered. This entity came into our life claiming to speak for the entire Lacks family. Asked to respond, Campbell issued a statement accusing The Washington Post of writing a sensationalized story focusing on the backgrounds and personal lives of volunteers discouraging them from helping the Lacks family. Ron said he met Campbell through a lawyer he contacted to help with their claims, including a possible lawsuit against Johns Hopkins. Campbell had an agreement with the lawyer for a percentage of any money they gained, he said, but the lawyer no longer represents them, and Campbell has continued to work at no charge. Ron and his father said they are pleased with her efforts. Shes the first one to get us any attention, he said. He looked over at his father with a smile. We need somebody to push. My dad, he aint got no fight in him. But asked specifically about the decision to release the DNA testing, which was done five years ago during a different dispute and was a closely held family secret, they hesitated. Lawrence said he didnt like the idea of the clans dirty laundry being out there. Ron shook his head. What other choice did we have? he asked. We asked them to stop doing these speeches, and they didnt. The fallout isnt finished. While the DNA testing showed that Lawrence is not Spencers grandfather, a second test suggested that another Lacks man might be, something family gossip had hinted at for years. A geneticist who reviewed both test results this week at the familys request said additional testing would be needed to establish whether Spencer and her sister are Lacks descendants. Its really close either way, said Goncalo Abecasis, chair of the biostatistics department at the University of Michigan. Wed need a little more data. But no one needs more data to recognize the damage thats been done. I let all this stuff get out of hand, Ron acknowledged this week. I just hope my family can get back together. His father had already reached the same conclusion. Those girls are family, Lawrence said. I love them as much as I love all my grandchildren. His goal, he said, had been to unite the family, not divide it. Jennifer Jenkins contributed to this report. House panel says immigration officials involved A parliamentary committee says it has found involvement of employees of the Department of Immigration (DoI), an agency under the Ministry of Home Affairs, in sending Nepali women to foreign countries as domestic help through the illegal channel. PRINCE GEORGES COUNTY These were among cases received recently by the Prince Georges County Animal Management Division. Call 301-780-7200 for directions to the county animal shelter, hours of operation, and adoption and licensing procedures. The department website is princegeorgespets4us.com. Irish terrier found: Thistle Blossom Way, Upper Marlboro, March 13. A man found a stray dog while he was on his way home. An animal control officer picked up the 2-year-old red-colored male Irish terrier. The dog was returned to its owner the same day. Security check: Branch Ave., 3000 block, Temple Hills, March 13. An animal control officer removed a 5-year-old black male Yorkshire terrier mix that was found running loose and was held in a security booth for pickup. When not claimed, the dog was adopted to a new home March 21. Injured Maltese found: Breezewood Ct., 6100 block, Greenbelt, March 14. A woman said her children found a small stray dog that appeared to have a broken leg. An animal control officer picked up the 4-year-old white female Maltese. The dog was reunited with its owner March 17. Charge!: Fisher Rd., 5800 block, Temple Hills, March 13. A woman saw a large stray dog defecating at the top of some stairs. She said that every time she opened her residences door, the dog would charge down the steps at her. An animal control officer removed the 2-year-old white female American bulldog. The dogs owner was located, and it was returned home March 15. Dog in traffic: Woodmore Rd., 12500 block, Bowie, March 16. An animal control officer picked up a 10-year-old white male cavalier spaniel that someone found running through traffic. The dog was reunited with its owner March 17. LOW-COST SHOW CLINiC SPCA/Humane Society of Prince Georges County is sponsoring a low-cost shot clinic for dogs and cats 1-3 p.m. Sunday at 8210 DArcy Rd., Forestville. Rabies and distemper shots are $10. Microchip IDs are $25. Only cash and credit cards are accepted as payment. All animals must be on a leash or in a carrier. Owners should bring an up-to-date rabies certificate. For information, call 301-262-5625 or visit pgspca.org. VOLUNTEER NEEDS SPCA/Humane Society of Prince Georges County, an all-volunteer organization, needs volunteers 18 and older to assist in a variety of tasks. Opportunities include photography and videography, social-media outreach, adoption show assistance, administration, and pet fostering. Call 301-262-5625 or visit pgspca.org/get-involved/volunteer. County Animal Management Division seeks volunteers to assist animals in need by joining the pet foster-family program. Foster families provide a safe, loving home to animals that are injured, very young, recovering from surgery or in need of other special care until they are adoptable. Call 301-780-7219 or visit princegeorgespets4us.com. Partnership for Animal Welfare needs volunteers to foster homeless dogs and cats, provide transportation to veterinary appointments, and handle animals at adoption shows. For information, go to paw-rescue.org or call 301-572-4729. A 53-year-old man had sex with a 14-year-old girl he met on the website SeekingArrangement.com and then tried to pay her friend to watch them, prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia say. Fielding Smith Daniel of Culpeper, Va., who was arrested and charged last fall in Stafford County, was charged this week in federal court with child sex trafficking. Seeking Arrangement advertises itself as a place for sugar babies to meet sugar daddies who are expected to shower them with gifts and financial support. The company says that an arrangement is not about sex but mutually beneficial relationships. The website also warns that having an arrangement with a minor is considered illegal. If you suspect a member to be underage, please ask for a photo ID, or report such members to Customer Support, and we will verify their age for you. The 14-year-old girl claimed to be 18 on the website when she began talking to Daniel in August, according to an affidavit filed in federal court. But the girl looked like a minor, FBI agent Steven K. Hall wrote, and Daniel did not ask her age when he picked her up at her grandmothers house. He drove her to a motel where he had unprotected sex with her, according to the affidavit, and paid her $100. About 10 days later, the girl said she wanted to meet again because she needed money, according to the affidavit. Daniel is alleged to have asked whether the friend she was with, who identified herself as 14, would watch them for $300, but the friend refused. He again had sex with the girl, according to the affidavit, and paid her $140. She then told her grandmother she had met a man and had sex for money, according to Hall. Her actions came to police attention because she ran away from home a day after the second meeting. At around the same time, Daniel met another girl on Seeking Arrangement, according to Hall, and that girl told him she was 17. She said she could not get out of her house to meet but allegedly sent him pornographic images of herself. In a statement, a spokeswoman for Seeking Arrangement said the site has reached out to Hall to see whether they can be helpful to the investigation. Seeking Arrangement is not in the business of connecting people with children, Alexis Germany said. We do not allow any kind of pay-per-meet scenario as described in the affidavit, nor had we any knowledge that this was occurring. Daniels family declined to comment. A Muslim familys home in Fairfax County was broken into and vandalized over the weekend, authorities said. The vandalism included an anti-Muslim statement written on a wall, the county police said. Along with the obscene statement scrawled on a wall in the family apartment in the Huntington area of the county, the vandalism included damage to Islamic materials, such as prayer books, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a statement. The council describes itself as the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, and called for the incident to be investigated as a hate crime. The organization said a copy of the Koran was ripped up. The Koran is the holy text of Islam. Police said the incident was reported in the 5900 block of Grand Pavilion Way. The address is south of Alexandria and about half way between Route 1 and the Huntington Metro station. The victims told police that the break in occurred between March 24 and March 27. The disarray in the apartment was discovered by a maintenance employee who went in to do work, the police said. In addition to the vandalism, police said property was stolen. As of Tuesday no information was available about a suspect. A man was arrested Tuesday in the fatal shooting of his father earlier in the month, D.C. police said. About 8:55 a.m. March 17, officers responded to the 4000 block of Cole Boulevard SE after a report of an unconscious person in a residence, D.C. police said. They found Bernard Coleman, 43, of Southeast dead with gunshot wounds. [Two homicides in D.C. break a lull possibly linked to cold snap] Police arrested Bernard Coleman III, 23, of Southeast, a police spokesman said. He was charged with second-degree murder while armed and theft in connection with the shooting. According to an arrest affidavit, Coleman III confessed to shooting his father and said the shooting was accidental. Peter Hermann contributed to this report. A babysitter in Maryland frustrated with a crying infant put the childs feet to a frying pan, causing blisters, burns and swelling, according to local police. Ismelda Ramos-Mendoza, 36, of Bladensburg has been charged with child abuse, assault and reckless endangerment in connection with the babys injuries. Bladensburg police were called Saturday to Childrens National Medical Center in the District, where hospital staff reported a 6-month-old child with severe burns to her feet, according to Detective Cpl. Charles Earle. The childs parents told police that they suspected their daughter may have been injured when she was under the supervision of Ramos-Mendoza, Earle said. [A crying baby woke up a napping nanny. So she force-fed her until the child died, police say.] During an interview with investigators Monday, Ramos-Mendoza initially said that the childs feet may have rubbed across a tortilla, Earle said. Ramos-Mendoza repeated that explanation several times before saying that she became frustrated because the baby was crying too much, Earle said. Out of frustration, she placed the babys feet on the grill or pan she was cooking tortillas on, Earle said. Ramos-Mendoza was arrested and initially ordered held without bond, Earle said. Online court records did not list an attorney for Ramos-Mendoza. The incident was first reported by WRC-TV (NBC4). Blisters covered the babys feet, which also swelled from the burns, Earle said. Other seasoned police officers and investigators that have seen the pictures say its heart-wrenching, Earle said. [Day-care worker slammed babys head on a table, police say] Ramos-Mendoza has been a local babysitter for about a year or two, Earle said, adding that the department is investigating whether other children under her supervision have been harmed. My concern is that she portrayed this as an accident, Earle said. He urged families that think their children might have been hurt to contact him at 301-864-6080. Federal prosecutors accuse a veteran U.S. State Department employee with obstructing justice and lying about repeated contacts with foreign intelligence agents for China as she and people close to her accepted cash and gifts for years, according to charges unsealed Wednesday. Candace Marie Claiborne, 60, has worked in office management at State since 1999 and held a top-secret security clearance, prosecutors said. She currently works at the Office of Caucasus Affairs and Regional Conflicts but previously had postings in China, Iraq, Sudan and several other countries, court filings show. The Justice Department said that between 2011 and 2016, agents for the Peoples Republic of China gave Claibornes family tens of thousands of dollars in gifts over five years, including cash, electronics, trips, an apartment and tuition at a Chinese fashion school. She faces a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison if convicted, U.S. officials said. Claiborne, of Northwest Washington, was not required to enter a plea at a court appearance Wednesday and said little before U.S. Magistrate Robin M. Meriweather of the District ordered Claiborne held on home confinement and set a preliminary hearing pending indictment for April 18. Prosecutors notified the court that they intended to use evidence collected under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Claiborne allegedly confided to an unidentified co-conspirator, who lived with her in China, that the agents were spies, prosecutors said, and wrote in her journal that she could Generate 20k in 1 year working with them. Prosecutors charge that one of the agents asked her to provide internal U.S. analyses of economic talks in 2011 between the two countries and wired her bank account nearly $2,500. In a 59-page affidavit filed Tuesday in support of an arrest warrant, FBI Special Agent Kellie OBrien with the Washington Field Offices counterintelligence division said Claiborne misled investigators for State and the FBI, including by allegedly instructing the Chinese agents and her live-in co-conspirator to delete evidence of the contacts and gifts. OBrien did not name the Chinese nationals but said one is an importer and exporter who runs a spa and restaurant in Shanghai and has known Claiborne since at least 2007 and the other has communicated with Claiborne since 2012. U.S. authorities contend that both work for the Shanghai State Security Bureau, court filings show. Claiborne used her position and her access to sensitive diplomatic data for personal profit. Pursuing those who imperil our national security for personal gain will remain a key priority of the National Security Division, Mary B. McCord, acting assistant attorney general for national security, said in a statement. Claibornes attorney argued that she did not pose a flight risk or public-safety threat. This is a 60-year-old woman who has never been involved in the criminal justice system, said Assistant Federal Defender David Bos, who is representing Claiborne until she hires a private lawyer. She does have family. Theres no indication she has tried to avoid these allegations. Assistant U.S. Attorney John L. Hill said that Claibornes knowledge of several foreign languages and countries warrant closer monitoring. Based on her contacts, her background, the information she knows in her mind, we do have to make sure she stays put, Hill said in asking for the home confinement. OBriens affidavit redacted identifying information about the co-conspirator who lived with Claiborne in China, but it stated that Claiborne wanted him to pursue educational and career goals he had set overseas and that she sought financial help from the foreign agents who, along with Claiborne and Conspirator A, were well aware, Claibornes goals were unobtainable on her State Department salary. The agents allegedly paid for the co-conspirators college tuition in China, housing, travel and a monthly stipend and intervened to stop a Chinese criminal investigation into him and helped pay for his last-minute travel back to the United States, OBrien alleged. Rachel Weiner, Carol Morello and Julie Tate contributed to this report. Army veteran Ricardo Pineda wore his uniform to a meeting with Congressional Hispanic Caucus members in February. His undocumented wife, Veronica Castro, sits behind him with their disabled son, Juan. (Griselda San Martin/For The Washington Post) Ricardo Pineda was hesitant to wear his uniform. Two years had passed since he had served in the Army. Then again, so much was at stake, and the disabled veteran knew the uniform would leave no confusion about who he was: a man who had been willing to die for this country and now needed help to keep his family living in it. Pineda straightened the nameplate on his dress blues one day last month and entered a room in the Rayburn House Office Building, where he took a seat at a wooden table with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. His wife, Veronica Castro, stood behind him in a red blouse, and next to her, with his hair buzzed military short like his fathers, sat their son Juan, a 17-year-old who suffered brain damage during heart surgery as a toddler. When Pinedas turn came to speak, he told the lawmakers about his familys precarious situation. On April 4, Castro will walk into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Baltimore, and she doesnt know if she will be allowed to return home to her husband and their four children, who are all U.S. citizens. Castro, who twice entered the country illegally from Mexico, has faced these check-ins since 2011. But this one is different, she said. This is the 38-year-olds first appointment with ICE since the inauguration of President Trump, whose aggressive stance on illegal immigration has widened the pool of those vulnerable to deportation, making the routine check-ins that thousands of immigrants face each year feel more fraught even for a military veterans wife. I totally depend on my wife, 100 percent, Pineda, 47, told the lawmakers. My son totally depends on her. After the meeting, some of the caucuss members posted support for military families on social media. Several, including Reps. Raul M. Grijalva and Ruben Gallego, both Arizona Democrats, haveintroduced legislation in the House that would help prevent the deportation of service members convicted of certain crimes and permit some to return to the United States. But none of the proposals would help their relatives. Although her husband and four children are U.S. citizens, Veronica Castro fears being deported when she checks in with immigration authorities on April 4. She twice entered the United States from Mexico illegally. (Griselda San Martin/For The Washington Post) Pineda left the meeting with little hope, he said. Although he had been a soldier for six years and had dressed the part that day, he didnt know whether this was a fight he could win. Really bad dudes It is unclear how many veterans or their relatives have been deported or are in deportation proceedings. ICE officials said they dont keep track. But one deported veteran, Hector Barajas-Varela, runs a small shelter called The Bunker in Tijuana, Mexico, for others who have lost the right to live in the United States because of drug convictions or other crimes. Although he has housed 20 deported veterans since 2013, Barajas said he has made contact with a total of 311 who have been returned to 36 countries. Emma Lozano, a Chicago church pastor, began helping service members and their families with deportation cases three years ago after she noticed men in U.S. military uniforms during a trip to Mexico. She attended the Congressional Hispanic Caucus meeting on Feb. 7 and plans to return to Washington on April 4 for Castros ICE check-in. Its just so blatantly wrong, Lozano said. Everywhere you go, theyre talking about we have to honor our veterans. Then they are doing this to veterans and military families. [In Trumps capital, undocumented immigrants live and work in the shadow of the White House] Lozano has fought to keep Miguel Perez Jr., who served two tours of duty in Afghanistan and suffered a brain injury in an explosion there, from being deported. In 2010, Perez was convicted of selling more than two pounds of cocaine. This month, an immigration judge in Chicago ordered the father of two U.S.-born children to be removed to Mexico, the country he left when he was 8. Perez is appealing the deportation order. Sarah Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for ICE, said the agency respects the service and sacrifice of those in military service, and is very deliberate in its review of cases involving veterans. At the same time, she said, the law requires ICE to detain and deport anyone convicted of aggravated felonies. Trump has vowed to ramp up deportations, especially of people convicted of crimes: Were getting really bad dudes out of this country, and at a rate that nobodys ever seen before. Castros attorney, Joshua Doherty, who works for the nonprofit group Ayuda, said the enforcement changes under Trump have made it much more ambiguous whether an immigration officer will take into consideration Castros role as a military wife and the mother of two children with disabilities. In addition to Juan, the couples 14-year-old son Kevin has cerebral palsy. Doherty said on the day of her appointment, Castro could be sent on her way and told to call if she moves; she could be given her next check-in date; she could be ordered to come back later with her bags packed for Mexico; or she could be detained on the spot. Asked about Castros situation, ICE officials said deportation decisions are made on a case-by-case basis. (McKenna Ewen,Griselda San Martin/The Washington Post) If his wife gets deported, Pineda said he has decided to move the entire family to Mexico, even as he worries about the consequences. He knows Juan will need more heart surgeries as he grows and wouldnt receive the same medical services there. The couples other children, who dont speak fluent Spanish and know little about Mexico, are showing signs of depression. Ivan, 19, and Emily, 11, barely speak. Kevin recently asked his parents to renew his expired passport in case someone tries to kick him out. I think there should be some humanity, Pineda said. I swore to protect this nation and asking for a little bit of protection for my family, I dont think that is too much to ask for. Ineligible for any relief Pineda apologizes before guests walk through the front door of the familys mobile home in Lothian, Md. When he received an honorable discharge for medical reasons in 2014, the family had to leave its five-bedroom house on the Fort Belvoir base in Northern Virginia. The trailer and lot is all they can afford on Pinedas $2,250-a-month veterans benefits, he said. Their three sons share a bedroom, the fire detector goes off every time the dryer is on, and each room is filled with reminders of repairs Pineda can no longer easily make: a curtain standing in for a bathroom door, a broken shower, bowed floorboards outside the front door. Pineda was a carpenter before he was a soldier. Now, he cant wield a hammer without pain. He cracked the bone at the base of his thumb during a combat training exercise in Richmond and a surgery left him with limited ability to move that finger. This is the most important finger of all, Pineda said, pointing his thumb upward. This is what makes us different from monkeys. The Pineda family eat dinner together in the kitchen of their mobile homes kitchen in Lothian, Md. The family moved to the area when Ricardo Pineda was discharged from the Army in 2014. (Griselda San Martin/For The Washington Post) Pineda was 39 when he joined the army, older than most recruits but healthy enough to pass all the medical tests and compete with men half his age in boot camp. Now, he takes a half-dozen medications a day and has appointments at VA medical centers twice a week. Sometimes for his hand. Other times for diabetes and depression. He was stationed in South Korea for more than a year and said the stress wore on his health. He not only had to worry about the threat in front of him but also what could go wrong back home. Juan landed in the hospital four times during his fathers deployment. Castro, unable to get a Virginia drivers license because of her immigration status, pushed their sons wheelchair about 30 minutes each way from their home to the grocery store. I kept thinking if my husband is carrying a backpack with a rifle, I can do this, she said in Spanish. Ret. Sgt. Maj. Gabriel Berhane, who was Pinedas commanding officer at Fort Belvoir, said he was disappointed to see Pineda leave the Army. I cant say enough good things about him, he said. Always, you could count on him, regardless what the task, what the mission was, hed give it 100 percent plus. Berhane, who works at the Pentagon, said he knows other soldiers who were not U.S. citizens. He was one of them. Born in Ethiopia, he had a green card when he enlisted and was a staff sergeant when he gained his citizenship. Immigrants with permanent residency are eligible to join the military, and about 18,700 on average were serving on active duty between 2010 and 2016, according to the Defense Department. Pineda gained his green card in 1986 and became a U.S. citizen two months after enlisting. While serving, he applied for his wife and their two oldest children, who were born in Mexico, to receive parole in place, which allows relatives of military members to apply for legal status while remaining in the country. He thought their approval would be automatic, but he was wrong. His sons requests were granted, and they eventually gained citizenship. Pineda and Castro stand outside a VA hospital in Washington just before an appointment in March. Pineda left the Army because of medical problems after serving for six years. (Griselda San Martin/For The Washington Post) His wifes was denied. A 2011 letter from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services stated the reason: a fraudulently obtained Border Crossing Card. It also informed her that the order of removal originally entered against her was being reinstated and that she was ineligible for any relief under the immigration laws. [This company is making millions from Americas broken immigration system] Castro said she was given the border crossing card, which allows Mexican citizens limited travel in the United States, by a woman she paid to help her enter the country in 1998. Pineda was living in California at the time, and Castro had hoped to join him with their 1-year-old son, Ivan. After she was caught by Border Patrol agents and sent back to Guadalajara, Castro said she planned to stay there permanently and see her husband whenever he came to visit. Then two years later, Juan was born. My family would be destroyed Juan was 3 months old when Castro looked at him one night and noticed his eyes crossing and his mouth turning purple. She took him to doctors and eventually learned that he had a transposition of the great arteries in his heart and needed surgery. The doctor said if you have the ability to take him to the United States, take him, Pineda said. It was life or death. Pineda, then a member of the carpenters union, had insurance to pay for the surgery. So the family handed Juan to strangers who took him across the border using another childs birth certificate, and Castro walked with Ivan, then 3, nearly 20 hours, drinking at one point from an animal trough when they ran out of water. At 3, Juan received his first surgery at a Northern Virginia hospital. Pineda doesnt like to talk about those months his son spent in a hospital bed. He said the toddler could talk and walk before the surgery, but after an allergic reaction to the anesthesia he was left with brain damage, unable to speak or move much of his body. Castro caresses her disabled son, Juan, in the bedroom he shares with his two brothers. (Griselda San Martin/For The Washington Post) Castro helps Juan, 17, brush his teeth. A heart surgery when he was 3 left him brain-damaged. (Griselda San Martin/For The Washington Post) He was 8 when he began taking steps on his own again and nowuses a walker at times to get around. On a recent afternoon, he pushed it down the hallway of his private school, the Linwood Center, which took him in 2015 after his public high school said it no longer could meet his needs. At the time, he would hurt others and himself, take off his clothes at inappropriate times and could communicate only by spelling out letters with his fingers, Linwood behavior analyst Erika Greszler said. Now, his challenging behavior has decreased and hes a talker, she said. He uses an electronic tablet to communicate, calling it his voice by forming a V with his fingers and pointing to his throat. Greszler said she thinks that if his mother is deported it would be devastating to his progress. Castro is the parent who calls the school when he is sick or to check on his development. Shes also the one who helps him shower, brushes his teeth and meets him each afternoon at the bus stop. Juan sat next to her on a March afternoon outside a Washington church, pressing his shoulder into hers. Theyd come to an immigration rights rally being staged by people from more than 60 different congregations. Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders spoke about the need for solidarity, and when Castros turn at the microphone came she explained why she needed their support. My family would be destroyed if Im not here to take care of them, she said. Afterward, she and Pineda, along with two of their children, marched with the crowd toward the White House, comforted in part by a promise made to them. Members of those congregations plan to go to Baltimore on April 4 and wait alongside the family to learn Castros fate. The Maryland Public Service Commission has ordered the water and sewer utility for the Washington suburbs to change its pricing system after upholding a judges ruling that the current rate structure discriminates against larger households. The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, which serves nearly 2 million people in Montgomery and Prince Georges counties, has said changing its long-standing consumption-based rate structure would result in higher bills for most residential customers. In a ruling Tuesday, the four members of the Public Service Commission upheld a utility-law judges finding in September that WSSCs unusual pricing system is unduly discriminatory and unreasonable because it results in some customers paying more per gallon. While many utilities charge based on the amount of water used, industry experts say WSSC is unique in charging the highest rate for the entire bill, back to the first drop. Other utilities charge higher rates only for the number of gallons in each higher-priced tier. Beyond leading to higher per-gallon rates for larger households, critics say, the system can cause big jumps in water and sewer bills when a customer bumps up, even slightly, into a pricier tier. This is a complete victory for customers in WSSCs service area who have been discriminated against by having to pay higher rates, said Richard Boltuck, a Bethesda resident and retired economist who filed the complaint about the pricing system with the Public Service Commission in 2015. [Meet the Maryland man who took on one of the largest U.S. water utilities] As a two-person household, Boltuck said, he and his wife will probably face higher water bills as a result of his legal win, because people who use more water will no longer subsidize the lower rates that he and others in smaller households pay. Even so, Boltuck said, thats what it means to end discrimination. It always generates winners and losers. The losers are the ones who have been benefiting from the discrimination, but we still eliminate it because its unfair. Under the current pricing structure, homes with three or more people can be charged nearly twice as much per 1,000 gallons as people who live alone, Boltuck said. A seven-person household, he said, can end up paying $1,314 more over a year for water than if those seven people each lived alone. WSSC spokesman Chuck Brown said Wednesday that the utility is reviewing the Public Service Commissions order and is examining all options. [Why a utility-law judge called WSSCs rate structure discriminatory] Even as WSSC continued the legal fight, the utility, at the direction of the Montgomery and Prince Georges county councils, recently hired a consultant and formed a bi-county work group to study alternative rate structures. Any changes would have to be approved by both county councils and would take effect in the fiscal year beginning in July 2018. The challenge, WSSC officials have said, is how to maintain a reliable revenue stream based on water usage. Like other U.S. water utilities, WSSC is trying to cover mounting costs, particularly to repair and replace its aging pipes and other infrastructure, as federally mandated water-saving toilets and other appliances eat into water consumption. Water consumption has generally held steady even as the population has grown, utility officials have said. The Public Service Commission rejected WSSCs appeal that the tiered rate structure, in place since 1978, encourages conservation. Commissioners said Chief Public Utility Law Judge Terry J. Romine ruled correctly that the utility had provided no studies to show that it actually led people to use less water. The Public Service Commission also rejected WSSCs argument that the commission didnt have the authority to order a change in its pricing system. While the commission doesnt regulate WSSCs rates as it does for other utilities, such as electric and gas companies, it can decide whether WSSCs rates are reasonable under state law, commissioners said. Fresh off her long-running and high-profile feud with the president of the United States, comedian and actress Rosie ODonnell is wading into a more obscure political battle: the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor of Virginia. ODonnell penned a letter Wednesday backing Susan Platt, a consultant who lobbied for Altria and former campaign manager for Democratic candidates, saying Virginia is long overdue to elect a woman to help run the state. Platt welcomed the support from a chief antagonist to President Trump, who has called ODonnell a real loser and criticized her weight. We need strong candidates like Susan who will stand up to Donald Trump and his cronies as they try to take away health insurance from millions of Americans and cut off funding for Planned Parenthood, ODonnell wrote in a letter distributed by Platts campaign. I have had my share of spats with Donald Trump over the years, and hes had a lot of lame tweets and bad jokes about me, wrote ODonnell, who led a protest against Trump outside the White House last month. Trump would prefer if women like Susan and I didnt speak our minds and stand up to men like him. But thats just not our style. The office Platt is seeking is fairly limited in Virginia: The lieutenant governor presides over the state Senate during the legislative session and breaks tie votes. And in case the governor is incapacitated, the lieutenant governor steps in. Platt is competing in the June 13 Democratic primary against former federal prosecutors Justin Fairfax and Gene Rossi. In a recent poll, Platt was in the lead, although six in 10 voters were undecided. On the Republican side, state Del. Glenn R. Davis Jr. (Virginia Beach) and state Sens. Bryce E. Reeves (Spotsylvania) and Jill Holtzman Vogel (Fauquier) are competing for their partys nomination. How did an obscure Virginia race get on the radar of ODonnell, who does not live in Virginia? Apparently through Twitter. A Platt spokesman said ODonnell stumbled across Platt and then tweeted about the candidate last week, a move that left some in the world of Virginia politics scratching their heads. Count the chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia as someone unmoved by the endorsement of ODonnell, who quit her job as a co-host of the TV talk show The View in 2015. Sadly it isnt shocking that a Dem candidate would follow marching orders from a D-lister from New York, said John Whitbeck. We wait with bated breath to see if Rosie sticks with her endorsement or if it turns out to be more like her relationship with The View. Republican Ed Gillespie would tie with either of the Democrats vying for their partys nomination in this years gubernatorial contest, according to new survey results released Wednesday. Gillespie, a longtime GOP strategist and former counselor to George W. Bush, drew 40 percent of registered voters to Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northams 39 percent in the poll by the Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University. In a head to head matchup with former congressman Tom Perriello, who is competing with Northam for the Democratic nomination, Gillespie and Perriello tied at 39 percent each. A fifth of voters were undecided in both match-ups. The poll found that Gillespie performed best against either Democrat compared with his two rivals for the GOP nomination, Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart and state Sen. Frank W. Wagner (Virginia Beach). Both parties will select their nominees in a June 13 primary. Results from the same Wason Center poll that were released Tuesday showed a tied race for the Democratic nomination and Gillespie far ahead in the Republican primary. Gillespie is backed by 38 percent of Republican-leaning voters, compared to Stewarts 11 percent and Wagners 10 percent. The early polling suggests President Trumps deep unpopularity in the commonwealth isnt necessarily boosting Democrats in the governors race. Just 37 percent of voters polled approve of the presidents performance while 59 percent disapprove. [McAuliffe blasts Trump budget as the craziest] I cant see evidence yet that voters views on Trump are dragging Gillespie down, said Quentin Kidd, director of the Wason Center. Voters can have a really negative view of Donald Trump right now and not be leaking their views to gubernatorial races that are months and months down the line. Kidd said that can quickly change as Democratic groups start airing ads tying Gillespie to Trump. The national parties are expected to pour resources into Virginia, one of just two states holding gubernatorial contests this year in what is shaping up to be a first test of electoral politics in the Trump era. Virginia and New Jersey are the only states with gubernatorial contests this year, and Virginia doesnt cap campaign contributions or spending. Gillespie is the best known of the five gubernatorial candidates, coming off a statewide campaign in 2014 when he nearly unseated U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (D). He is favored by nearly a quarter of voters, aiding him in head-to-head match-ups against Democrats. The Wason Center poll also found Gillespie benefits in the general election from an edge among independent voters and a statistical tie with Democrats in voter-rich northern Virginia. Gillespie is ahead of both Northam and Perriello among independents by a margin of 40 percent to 30 percent, according to the survey. Northam showed more strength in his home region of Hampton Roads, with a 14 point lead over Gillespie. In head to head match-ups, each Democrat beats Stewart, Northam by eight points and Perriello by six. The two Democrats also beat Wagner, Northam by six points and Perriello by three. In addition to the governors race, all 100 House of Delegates seats are on Novembers ballot. In an attempt to regain control of that chamber, Democrats are fielding candidates in all 17 districts that Hillary Clinton won in the presidential election but are currently held by Republicans. The Wason Center poll found that 48 percent of voters preferred a generic Democratic candidate for their district, compared to 41 percent who preferred a Republican. Pollsters surveyed 831 registered Virginia voters between March 16 and Sunday, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points. A February poll by Quinnipiac University found either Democratic gubernatorial candidate beating any of the Republicans in head to head match-ups. India likely to increase power export to Nepal soon by 145MW India is expected to increase export of power to Nepal by around 145 MW shortly from Katiya-Kusaha and Raxual-Parwanipur cross-border transmission lines. CONGO Authorities say bodies of 2 U.N. experts found Villagers in Congo discovered the remains of two U.N. investigators and a Congolese interpreter who disappeared this month in an area engulfed in a violent uprising, a government spokesman said Tuesday. Michael Sharp, an American, and Zaida Catalan, a Swede, were monitoring a sanctions regime imposed on Congo by the U.N. Security Council when they disappeared in Kasai Central province. Villagers found three bodies two Caucasians and one Congolese not far from where the U.N. experts vanished, according to the government. A team was sent to identify the bodies. Its now a certainty. It is the two investigators. We identified the third body in the grave with them as their Congolese interpreter, Communications Minister Lambert Mende said. The United Nations said it was still examining the remains. We cannot, at this moment, confirm that they are the bodies of the experts. We hope to be able to provide more information on this soon, a U.N. spokesman said. The Kasai Central region is the epicenter of the Kamuina Nsapu insurgency. Kamuina Nsapu militants pose an increasing threat to President Joseph Kabila, whose decision to stay past the end of his term last December has sent ripples of unrest across the country. Reuters FRANCE Police killing spurs protest from China Chinese immigrants and Chinas government are protesting a police killing in Paris that prompted street clashes and exposed the fears and frustrations of Frances Asian community. Protesters gathered Tuesday in northeast Paris for a second day of demonstrations over the fatal shooting of a Chinese man in his apartment, and police launched an internal investigation. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said China had summoned a representative of the French Embassy in Beijing on Tuesday and urged French officials to get to the bottom of the incident as soon as possible. Police said an officer fired in self-defense during a raid on Sunday after 56-year-old Shaoyo Liu wounded him with a bladed weapon. Rumors circulated among Chinese immigrants that Liu was killed in front of his children while cutting up fish with scissors and had not hurt anyone. Protesters outraged by the killing and baton-wielding police clashed for several hours on Monday night. Demonstrators broke barricades, threw projectiles and set fire to cars. Three officers were injured and 35 protesters were arrested, authorities said Tuesday. France has Europes largest population of ethnic Chinese. Associated Press MALAYSIA Kim Jong Nams body still said to be at morgue Malaysias health minister said Tuesday that the body of Kim Jong Nam is still in the country, six weeks after the exiled half brother of North Koreas leader was poisoned in Kuala Lumpur. Subramaniam Sathasivam made the announcement as rumors swirled that Kims body was about to be flown out of the country as part of diplomatic negotiations. Custody of the body has been a flash point in the case as ties between Malaysia and North Korea have deteriorated. Kim was poisoned Feb. 13 at an airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia has never directly accused North Korea of a role in the attack, but many speculate that it orchestrated the killing. North Korea has denied any role. It does not even acknowledge that the victim is Kim Jong Nam, referring to him instead as Kim Chol, the name on the passport he was carrying when he died. North Korea has demanded custody of the body. But Malaysia has refused to hand it over. Conflicting reports in local media Monday said that Kims body was to be cremated and flown to North Korea, or that the body was about to be sent to Macau, where his family is thought to be. But Sathasivam said it is still at the morgue. As far as we are concerned, there has been no change, he said. Associated Press Former Taiwanese president acquitted in leaks case: Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwans China-friendly former president, was found not guilty of libel and leaking confidential information in a case involving suspected influence peddling by a powerful lawmaker. The charges stemmed from a 2013 lawsuit alleging that the then-president leaked information from a wiretapped conversation. Ma was credited with substantially improving Taiwans ties with China during his two terms in office. From news services DID THE former chief of the FBIs Washington field office pander to terrorist sympathizers? How about former members of Congress of both parties from Northern Virginia, or the current chairman of Virginias Republican Party? Absurd, right? Yet that is the charge leveled by Virginia Republicans against the commonwealths attorney general, Mark R. Herring (D), for having done just what those other panderers did: visit a mosque. In an online petition the other day dripping with hypocrisy and phony indignation, the state GOP did its best to whip up anti-Muslim bigotry by inciting party loyalists to protest Mr. Herrings visit to a town hall at Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church. Tell Herring to apologize! said the petition. Stop Pandering to Terrorist Sympathizers. The email featured the attorney generals photograph alongside those of Anwar al-Awlaki, an al- Qaeda-linked extremist who was the mosques head imam from 2001 to 2002; he subsequently left the country and was killed in Yemen by a U.S. drone strike in 2011. Where to begin with the inanity of the Republican accusation? In January, the then-head of the FBIs Washington field office, Paul Abbate, also visited the mosque, where he and other agents were introduced to the congregation by an imam after Friday prayer services and referred to as friends. Former U.S. representatives Tom Davis, a Republican whose congressional district included Falls Church, and James Moran, a Democrat from Virginia, both attended an event to mark the mosques 30th anniversary in 2013. Not a peep from the state GOP after any of those events. Then theres the current state GOP chairman, John Whitbeck, who visited a Northern Virginia mosque last year, albeit a different one, in Sterling, where he told congregants that the state GOP is the party of religious liberty and opposed President Trumps campaign proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States. Naturally, it was fine for Mr. Whitbeck to visit a mosque, just as it is for Mr. Herring. But this is an election year in Virginia, and Mr. Herring is running to keep his job. Republicans seem to think that grants them license to wallow in prejudice, no matter how ridiculous the charges they level. The problem is that emails such as the one denouncing Mr. Herring feed a wave of hatred washing over the nation, targeting Muslims, Jews and others who may strike some as different. The most recent FBI statistics, from 2015, show an increase in hate crimes generally with a sharp spike in anti-Muslim hate crimes; groups and scholars monitoring the problem believe that it has only gotten worse since then. Cheap shots such as the one taken by Virginia Republicans will land only a glancing blow on Mr. Herring. At the same time, they will encourage and enable bigots and others inclined to violence. Nine months after its dramatic referendum, Britain is finally demanding formal negotiations on exiting the European Union. Much has changed in the interim. At the time of the June vote, the cohesion of the West appeared to be in jeopardy; Britain seemed doomed to political instability; and the economy seemed at risk of a Lehman Brothers-style convulsion. Today, in contrast, Brexit feels about as electrifying as reading the telecoms annex in the WTO treaty. And yet, on the other hand, this change is deceptive. Anticlimax should not be mistaken for a permanent dodging of the populist bullet. Where the United States is led by a flamboyant caudillo, a populist perhaps more in style than in his consequences, Britain is experiencing the reverse phenomenon. Theresa May, the po-faced prime minister, is earnest, methodical, cautious and unimaginative: She is the anti-Trump. But the referendum mandate, hardened by her ploddingly literal interpretation of it, is populism undiluted. Britain will take back control of its borders in order, presumably, to clamp down on foreigners. It will largely reject the authority of the European Court of Justice, even though some form of cross-border dispute settlement is an inevitable feature of an interdependent world. It will probably leave the European Single Market, one of the deepest and most successful experiments in globalization. If the shock factor has worn off since last summers referendum, that is partly because May has masked Britains radical direction with her soporific style. When Germany signals a tough approach in the forthcoming Brexit talks, or when members of the European Parliament accuse the Brexit camp of lying, there is no indignant counterpunch from May or her lieutenants. Michel Barnier, the European Unions Brexit negotiator, recently went so far as to threaten Britain with disrupted air traffic, chaotic ports and suspended delivery of nuclear materials. The prime ministers office barely responded. During last years campaign, Brexit campaigners promised millions in savings on contributions to the E.U. budget. Inverting that premise, the E.U. recently demanded that Britain agree to a stiff exit bill before other negotiations start. The bill would reflect E.U. spending projects to which Britain previously committed, plus pension promises to E.U. bureaucrats; the amount remains unknown, but the most frequently cited estimate is about $60 billion roughly what Britain spends annually on defense. Even this extraordinary price tag has failed to ruffle the prime minister as she has trundled serenely toward this weeks announcement. Leaving the European Union after more than four decades involves excruciating trade-offs. But, rather than confront these, Mays government offers anesthetic waffle. How might the British economy function without millions of E.U. workers? David Davis, the Brexit minister, explained this week that from time to time well need more, from time to time well need less migrants, adding that youve got industry dependent on migrants. Youve got social welfare, the National Health Service you have to make sure they continue to work. But if Britain really means to remain open, why sacrifice Single Market membership on the altar of border control? The same obfuscation applies to the deep questions concerning Britains internal cohesion. Mays government simultaneously promises a rigorously hard border with Europe and a friendly soft border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland; this is a bit like walling off Mexico while furnishing comfortable tunnel facilities between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso. Meanwhile, May is stalling Scotlands loud demands for another independence referendum. But the Scots, who voted to remain in the European Union, will not be reconciled to Brexit if they are denied a say in whether it applies to them. Mays tactic of prevarication has been assisted by several lucky breaks. A surprise recovery in the world economy has concealed the economic cost of Brexit; for the moment, British industry benefits from the post-referendum collapse in the exchange rate but has yet to pay the price of lost Single Market access. President Trumps election has given geo-strategists something bigger to worry about: If the Wests cohesion is indeed unraveling, the chief culprit is in Washington. And May is in the extraordinary position of not facing a coherent domestic opponent. The Labour Party is under the sway of hang-dog neo-Marxist Jeremy Corbyn. (The Washington Post) But, with this weeks initiation of the Brexit talks, May will face a harder time. Trade-offs that could be pushed aside, on the argument that they were matters for future negotiation, will come more clearly into focus. The foolish bravado of the Brexiteers, who assured voters that negotiating with 27 other countries would be a simple challenge, will be relentlessly exposed. British businesses, which for the past nine months have been implementing earlier investment commitments, will freeze plans for new expansion. The moment of truth for British populism has come a bit nearer. The "House on Fire" ruins in Mule Canyon, near Blanding, Utah, are part of the Bears Ears National Monument. (Rick Bowmer/Associated Press) Robert D. Rosenbaum is a retired partner of the law firm of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP and is chairman of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of the National Parks Conservation Association. Critics of national monuments created by President Obama particularly the Bears Ears monument in Utah have long argued that President Trump should revoke Obamas orders establishing them. Meanwhile, the House Natural Resources Committee declared this month that it plans to work with the Trump administration to identify which declared monuments should be rescinded or diminished in size. On March 8, Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (Ariz.) the ranking Democrat on the committee wrote a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke asking for his opinion on the presidents power to take such actions. But regardless of what opponents of the monuments think about the matter, the president has no unilateral power to revoke a national monument. The Antiquities Act of 1906 empowers the president to establish national monuments to protect federal land containing historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest. Many U.S. national parks began as national monuments established under the act, including the Grand Canyon, Acadia, Zion and Olympic. Thanks to the important additions to our national park system over the past eight years under the Antiquities Act, visitors can now explore pivotal moments in the fight for racial equality at Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument; experience the vast Joshua tree forests and rich cultural history of the West at Castle Mountains National Monument; and reflect on the long struggle for civil rights at Stonewall National Monument in New York. The Antiquities Act does not say the president may rescind such designations, but proponents of revocation argue that the president has the implied power to do so. They argue that the Constitutions grant of executive authority to the president is broad and that this is merely one of the unstated powers encompassed within that broad grant. The problem with that argument is that we are not here dealing with any power granted the president under the Constitution, but instead with the management of federal lands. The Constitutions property clause grants that power not to the president, but exclusively to Congress. In the Antiquities Act, Congress chose to delegate a portion of this power to the president to designate national monuments. Therefore, the issue is not whether the Constitutions grant of executive power conveys the power to revoke national monuments, but whether Congress has given that power to the president. In 1938, when asked by President Franklin D. Roosevelt whether he could abolish a national monument, Attorney General Homer Cummings opined that the president had no such power. That conclusion was the basis on which Congress reorganized the relevant parts of the laws relating to federal land management in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976. Here is what the 1976 House of Representatives committee report said: The act would also specifically reserve to the Congress the authority to modify and revoke withdrawals for national monuments created under the Antiquities Act. In effect, under principles long established by the Supreme Court, Congress adopted the 1938 opinion of the attorney general in 1976. And since 1938, no president has attempted to revoke a national monument unilaterally. Members on the Natural Resources Committee say that a president may nevertheless diminish the size of a national monument. Any attempts by the president to remove land or features that would undermine the purposes and values for which the monument was originally created, however, would be a partial revocation of the monument. The president does not have the power to do in part what he cannot do in full. President Barack Obama used his authority under the 1906 Antiquities Act to create national monuments 34 times, more than any other president. Now Trump's order to review National Monument designations has been completed. Will those monuments continue to stand? The Post's Juliet Eilperin explains. (Daron Taylor/The Washington Post) For more than 100 years, presidents of both parties have used their executive power to establish national monuments to preserve places of national historic significance and natural beauty for the enjoyment of all Americans and future generations. No president acting alone has the power to undo those protections. Indian Army Chief Rawat conferred honorary NA General President Bidya Devi Bhandari conferred the rank of honorary General of the Nepal Army (NA) on visiting Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat amidst a special ceremony at Sheetal Niwas on Wednesday. Michael A. Needham is chief executive officer of Heritage Action for America. President Trumps young administration is not yet at a crossroads, but finger-pointing over the now-tabled Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act also known as Obamacare will only help the Democrats presidential nominee in 2020. Instead, conservatives should relish the opportunity to reset the debate. Last weeks episode offers a few lessons for the Republican Party: Conservative commentator Reihan Salam suggested the mad dash to draft the GOP health-care bill wound up alienating Freedom Caucus members who wanted to play an active role in shaping it. And despite the bills multitude of problems Trump said there were things he didnt particularly like in the bill conservative health-care expert Avik Roy noted that the GOPs right wing came to a surprisingly pragmatic realization and reoriented their efforts toward repealing most, if not all, of Obamacares insurance regulations. It was that pragmatic push that nearly resulted in a last-minute deal between congressional conservatives and the bills supporters. That the deal was so close suggests that House leaders could move quickly to bring the bill back to the floor with the inclusion of language that repeals more of Obamacares insurance regulations, such as federal mandates to cover comprehensive health benefits; actuarial values denoting different tiers of coverage; and community rating requirements preventing insurers from charging lower premiums for younger, healthier consumers. Two questions loom large. First, why was repeal of Obamacares insurance industry mandates so controversial within the Republican Party? And second, why are congressional leaders and the president so eager to move on to tax reform? Republican leaders insisted for weeks that the only roadblocks to deregulation were procedural, not political. But this claim came under scrutiny at the last minute, forcing Republicans to try to negotiate an overhaul of the essential benefits mandated under Obamacare. Moderates such as Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) in turn complained that party leaders had pushed this bill too far to the right. Clearly, there is a policy divide that needs to be debated and negotiated. But theres no reason to think Republicans wouldnt be able to bridge that divide in the coming weeks so long as they forgo their ultimatums for true deliberation. We all want to ensure that citizens with preexisting conditions and other needs are cared for. That can be done far better, however, outside of Obamacares regulatory architecture. A deregulated insurance market would allow Americans to buy inexpensive insurance when they are young and carry it with them throughout their lives. Indeed, repeal and replace became a rallying cry that transformed into electoral victory in November because 10 million Americans in the individual market who dont get Obamacare subsidies will see their premiums skyrocket. The same is true for 15 million in the small-group market. In that light, deregulating insurance markets should not be viewed as a political minefield, but rather as an opportunity to provide citizens with coverage that makes far more sense for them than what government bureaucrats mandate. The hard work of coalition-building, consensus-finding and implementing a legislative agenda to make America great again is exactly what our urgent times call for. It is also a far easier path to completing Trumps ambitious legislative agenda than moving on to other priorities. Some characterize an immediate pivot to tax reform as easy. But if party leaders move on before resolving the Obamacare dispute, they will find that there is a massive trust deficit on all sides that will make the path harrowing. And the policy itself will be less ambitious because the revenue baseline will remain roughly $1 trillion higher with Obamacare as the law of the land, giving Republicans less room to work with under congressional budgeting rules. Already, concerns are emerging that unified Republican control of Washington will result in a permanent state of paralysis. That does not have to be the case, but progress requires a coherent governing vision that combines three elements: conservative principles, Trumps brand of economic nationalism, and an understanding of the partys significant and often intransigent moderate wing. There is too much at stake to jettison that vision for the expediency of moving on to other governing priorities that seem less daunting. If Trump and congressional Republicans aspire to do more than recite campaign slogans, they should rally around policies that will actually drive down the cost of health insurance in America. That would be both great policy and good politics. Hillary Clinton campaign aide Jennifer Palmieris March 26 Outlook essay, We tried to warn you about Russia. No one listened, was off the mark. Change the We in the headline to Mitt Romney, and it would be an entirely different article. The Obama administration and much of the media mocked Mr. Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts and the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, for focusing on Russia in the 2012 campaign. The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back became a chant of scorn. I wonder how different things would be today had Mr. Romney won in 2012. Years of Russian intelligence-gathering might have been averted. Democrats should stop pointing fingers and talking about Russia nonstop, and instead begin to responsibly work with Republicans to protect the interests of our nation. Its time to come together on this. Jill Devine, Sterling This, Mr. Speaker, is what you get for embracing Donald Trump. When Paul D. Ryan , after a long Hamlet routine, decided to get behind Trump last year, he took a calculated risk that the erratic presidential candidate could become a vessel for the conservative policies the House speaker long aspired to implement. Instead, Ryan has become an enabler of Trumps chaotic and ethically challenged governance. Trump gave Ryan little help in the House GOPs effort to replace Obamacare, and when that project collapsed Friday in the biggest legislative failure in more than a decade, Trump included Ryan in those he blamed. Trump tweeted a plug for a Fox News show hours before the host made an on-air call for Ryan to resign. Ryan, meanwhile, finds himself shielding Trump from an investigation into Trumps and his top advisers ties to Russia. Ryan stands by the House Intelligence Committee chairman, Devin Nunes, who canceled a public hearing that could have embarrassed Trump after the White House stated its objection; went on a secret trip to the White House to gather what he considered exculpatory material and then released it publicly while keeping fellow committee members in the dark; and quarreled with the FBI for investigating Trumps Russia ties. [Now we know why Trump panicked about Russia probe] Ryan now finds himself tethered to a president with a 36 percent approval rating, while the Houses legislative and investigative functions have collapsed. And Trump is now talking about bypassing House conservatives and working with Democrats. I have talked about the need to go from being an opposition party to being a proposition party and a governing party, Ryan told reporters after the House GOP caucuss health-bill postmortem Tuesday morning, which lasted nearly two hours. Chuckling, he added: It may take a little bit more time. Ryan approached the microphones with exaggerated good cheer, voicing a hearty Hey, guys! and attempting to josh with photographers about the days of Polaroid cameras. Ryan assured everybody the GOP meeting was very, very good, and his deputies dutifully echoed him. Caucus Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers pronounced herself very optimistic, Majority Whip Steve Scalise found matters very encouraging, and Kevin McCarthy , the perpetually tongue-tied majority leader, declared: We had a very good conference, a conference that from a microcosm, people on all sides. But this, er, microcosm of confidence could not withstand scrutiny. NBCs Kasie Hunt asked if Nunes should recuse himself and whether Ryan knows the source Nunes met at the White House. No, and no, Ryan replied, without elaborating. PBSs Lisa Desjardins asked when Ryan expected to return to health-care legislation. Im not going to put a timeline on it, he answered. And that was about all the exposure Ryans aides were willing for him to risk. Last question! one of them shouted from the back of the room. You can see why Ryan would be inclined to go to ground. A self-styled policy wonk and anti-poverty conservative in the model of Jack Kemp, Ryan put his name behind a bill that would have denied 24 million people health insurance and given tax cuts to the rich. Even conservative Avik Roy of Forbes said it would make health insurance unaffordable for millions of Americans, and trap millions more in poverty. GOP lawmakers emerging from the caucus meeting didnt quite share their leaders buoyancy. This was more of a listening session, shall we say, than a progress session, reported Greg Walden (Ore.), one of the authors of the failed bill. Trent Franks (Ariz.) said the caucus faced a tremendous conundrum, stuck between what his colleagues want and what can get through the Senate. And Brian Mast (Fla.) put things in perspective with a funereal reference: Another day over the dirt thats how you do it. [Trump is now the CEO of a very public company. He should start acting like it.] Suddenly, there was a commotion in the Capitol basement. Here comes Nunes! And there he was: the Trump ally and member of Trumps transition leadership who is using his chairmanship of the intelligence panel, which had enjoyed a reputation for bipartisanship, to shield the president. He has even tried to justify Trumps groundless claim that President Barack Obama put a wiretap on Trump Tower. Journalists pursued him through the Capitols bowels and then through the tunnel underneath Independence Avenue, pressing him on the canceled hearing and clandestine White House meeting. Nunes kept complaining: You guys always interview me. How many questions are you going to ask? Theres like 20 questions every day. Are you just going to keep asking the same question? (Answer: Yes, until they get answers.) And, while questions are being asked, heres one the speaker might pose to himself: If he knew back then what his embrace of Trump would get him a legislative shipwreck, a caucus in disarray and congressional oversight reduced to farce would he have made the same choice? Twitter: @Milbank Read more from Dana Milbanks archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. David Fuller III holds a portrait of his mother as a 16-year-old last month in Portageville, Mo. Catherine Fuller was killed in Washington in 1984. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post) The justices of the Supreme Court more closely resembled jurors in a murder trial Wednesday, absorbed in the details of a horrific killing that shocked Washington three decades ago. They were considering whether federal prosecutors withheld crucial evidence in the case of Catherine Fuller, who was killed inside a garage tucked into an alley near Eighth and H streets NE on Oct. 1, 1984. She had set out for the store with $50 in a change purse tucked in her bra, and her nearly naked body was found severely beaten and sodomized with a metal pipe. The Supreme Court usually takes cases to advance broader principles of the law. But the questions Wednesday were detailed inquires about recanted testimony and trial strategy, and Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Sonia Sotomayor seemed to return to their former roles trying crimes. Sixteen boys and young men, and one teenage girl, were arrested for the murder. They ranged in age from 16 to 26 and were known as the Eighth and H Street Crew. Each of the 13 ultimately charged initially claimed innocence. Eight of the male defendants were convicted, and seven were sentenced to 35 years to life in prison. [32 years after murder, one man wants justice. Another just wants an ending.] Fullers death helped cement the image of the nations capital as a violent and dangerous place in the minds of Washingtonians and others across the country. The killing drew notoriety not only for its brutality but because police linked it to the rise of crews, or violent gangs of youths. The hour of oral arguments recalled a different era in Washington, when H Street was known for its latest murder rather than its most recent restaurant opening. The community here was basically under siege, said the governments lawyer in the case, Deputy Solicitor General Michael R. Dreeben. Interest in the case was revived by stories in The Washington Post and changes in the testimony of some witnesses, and the revelation that prosecutors had information about another man who some had seen at the crime scene. Those convicted said prosecutors should have told their attorneys about then-19-year-old James McMillan, who had committed robberies in the neighborhood, including an attack on D.C. Council member Nadine Winter. The lead prosecutor on the case at the time said he investigated the tip and dismissed the information as not relevant enough to turn over to defense attorneys. Lower courts have agreed. The question for the Supreme Court is whether there is a reasonable chance that the withheld information would have made a difference. But questions about whether the lower courts made a mistake the usual fare for a Supreme Court hearing did not come until the 57th minute of the hour-long arguments. Instead, justices asked detailed questions about trial strategy, recanted testimony and the extended jury deliberations that came after the sensational six-week trial. Sotomayor questioned whether defense lawyers could have turned McMillan into a believable alternative for the crime when two of the attackers admitted their guilt. Washington lawyer John S. Williams said the men had other crimes pending and made deals with the government to lessen their culpability. The argument would be McMillan is the most likely alternative perpetrator, Williams said, explaining the defense strategy. He is the reason that you should have doubt about this prosecutions case. These witnesses are flawed. These witnesses had motivations to give testimony. There are reasons to doubt them, and McMillan is the obvious reason why they are all lying. McMillan, now 51, is serving a life sentence for the 1992 beating death of a woman in the same neighborhood as Fullers murder. He has repeatedly denied his involvement in the Fuller case. Alito was skeptical the information about McMillan would be enough to shake the accumulated testimony, which featured confessions and the eyewitness testimony of a 14-year-old who saw the beginning of the attack. Cases about whether prosecutors have turned over evidence that might be material and favorable to the defense, required under the courts 1963 decision in Brady v. Maryland, are fact-specific. And the justices displayed such familiarity with the case that Dreeben sounded more like a prosecutor as he described the moments before the gang spotted Fuller and attacked her. Theyre standing in the park, he said. Theyre singing the Chuck Brown song. Catlett is singing it. Steve Webb is banging out the beat. . . . Someone points across the street . . . says, Lets go get that one. (Timothy Catlett and Steven Webb are two of the convicted.) Justice Elena Kagan said she was not sure of Dreebens argument that the information about McMillan would have made no difference. Without an alternative theory, the accused became a circular firing squad, accusing one another, she said. It would have been a completely different trial if there were a way to blame someone else, she said. Dreeben noted that while prosecutors were under no obligation to turn over to the defense the information it had on McMillan, the Justice Department now operates under different rules than it did then. Under current policy, the department goes beyond the standards set by the Supreme Court, he said. Among those in the crowded courtroom was one of the men convicted in the case, Christopher Turner. He was released on parole from prison in 2010 after serving nearly 26 years. He watched the proceedings from the second row, and he and his attorneys declined comment afterward. President Trumps company is actively seeking to open a second Washington hotel as part of a planned nationwide expansion, potentially creating another venue where he stands to benefit financially from customers doing business in the nations capital. Representatives of the Trump Organization, now run by the presidents adult sons, have inquired in recent months about converting one of several boutique, medium-sized hotels in upscale neighborhoods in and near downtown and reopening it under the companys new Scion brand. Unlike the luxurious Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue NW, which Trump and his family own, the more affordable Scion hotels would be owned by other developers who would pay the Trumps company for licensing rights and management. Theyre trying hard to do Scion in this market, and theyre trying hard in other markets also, said developer Brian Friedman, who owns the Carlyle Hotel in Dupont Circle and Kimpton Glover Park. Friedman, managing partner of D.C.-based Foxhall Partners, said Trump representatives had toured both properties in recent months and had previously inquired about a hotel Foxhall is developing in Adams Morgan. Friedman said he also occasionally receives inquiries from buyers who say they have a licensing agreement with Trump for a Scion and wanted to buy one of his hotels and convert it. Definitely there are groups that say they are going to do a Trump Scion hotel, he said. These are just people running around saying I have money and the brand is Scion. While some of the inquiries predate the election, the company has continued to look for a Washington partner. Eric Danziger, chief executive of the Trump Organizations hotel division, more recently toured the 199-room Beacon Hotel, at 1615 Rhode Island Ave. NW, with an interest in converting the property to a Scion, according to a real estate executive who was not authorized to discuss the Trump Organizations interest and spoke on the condition of anonymity. No agreement was reached. I think he liked it, the executive said. He said it was perfect. It just didnt work out. Danziger said in a statement issued by the company that he wouldnt disclose new properties until he has firm agreements in place but that he has signed over 30 letters of intent preliminary agreements with developers to open Scions in cities across the country. Trump International Hotel, which opened in the fall, has become a touchstone in the controversy over the presidents decision to retain ownership of his business. By hosting political groups and foreign embassies as clients, the luxury property has prompted protests, lawsuits and criticism from ethics experts who think Trump has the potential to profit from the prestige and power of the presidency. Trump has dined there multiple times with family and administration officials, including this past Saturday night when he was joined by his daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, who both work in the White House. The addition of a more informal Scion Hotel in the District would provide a chance for less well-heeled groups to do business with the presidents company albeit at a property that would not bear his name. The process of opening a new hotel could take years. The company relies on a Washington attorney, Bobby R. Burchfield, to review proposed deals for ethical minefields. We do not discuss hotel projects that have not been finalized as we have a rigorous review-and-approval process, Danziger said. It is also very common in the hospitality business that some projects do not come to fruition. So, we prefer to be sure that all potential deals are appropriately vetted and also completely negotiated before any announcement. Described in marketing materials as a lifestyle brand, Scion is designed for customers who are loyal to the Trump brand but who want to spend less money or, in some cases, stay in places where there is no luxury, five-star Trump hotel. Im not surprised that they would look to do their new brand in D.C. It makes all the sense in the world, said R. Donahue Peebles, a developer and political fundraiser who met with Trump during the transition. Peebles said he would be looking for chances to do a deal with Danziger himself. I am sure we will find something or other to work on, he said. To insulate himself from the company, Trump has resigned from positions there, leaving control of the firm to sons Donald Jr. and Eric. Donald Trump Jr. said in an interview recently that he familiarized himself with other markets and potential partners while on the campaign trail for his father. The sons have said they are minimizing contact with their father except to provide basic updates on the business. Will I ever ask for anything that could otherwise benefit the business? Absolutely, emphatically not, Eric Trump said recently. But two lawsuits, one from advocates at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and another from owners of D.C. wine bar Cork, cite the D.C. hotel business in taking aim at the presidents continued ownership of his company. Congressional Democrats have repeatedly asked the General Services Administration, which leases the existing hotel to Trumps firm because it is in the federally owned Old Post Office Pavilion, to address the conflicts. But so far the agency has declined, ruling last week that the Trump Organization remained in compliance with the deal by agreeing not to disburse profits to Trump until he is out of office. The agencys inspector general, Carol F. Ochoa, has thus far declined to launch her own investigation, writing to congressional Democrats on March 17 that she will continue to monitor the GSAs management of the lease and will remain alert to any irregularities, but saying nothing about an investigation. Another federal watchdog, the Government Accountability Office, told Democrats on Friday that it would review the companys practice of hosting the president at its properties and Trumps promise to donate profits from foreign governments to the U.S. Treasury. As it expands into new markets, the Trump Organization is sometimes encountering stiff opposition from local elected officials although mayors and city council members are sometimes powerless to keep a Trump brand off their skyline. Officials in Vancouver, B.C., declined to attend the opening of the Trump-branded tower there last month, and officials in San Francisco, St. Louis and other U.S. cities rumored to be Scion targets have spoken against the idea of a Trump hotel in their communities. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) declined to attend the opening celebration of Trump International Hotel and informed Ivanka Trump, before the election, of her displeasure at the Trump Organization suing chef Jose Andres after the restaurateur pulled out of plans to open a restaurant there. Bowsers chief of staff, John Falcicchio, declined to take a position on the possibility of another Trump-branded hotel in the city. This is the first Ive heard of it, he said. Other than deals for ground-up developments that require zoning changes, local officials may have little control over where the Trump Organization opens Scions. And with investors paying top dollar for D.C. hotels, it could provide the Trump Organization with more opportunities. Andy Wimsatt, managing director of hotel brokerage and sales in the Washington office of CBRE, said he wasnt surprised to see the company trying to unveil a less-expensive line. Its not unusual for any sort of luxury brand thats getting some traction to spin off a more accessible, more affordable sub-brand, he said. Its not a bad time to be a hotel owner in D.C. (Kirill Kallinikov/Sputnik via AP) Editors Note The original version of this article published on March 29, 2017, said that Sergei Millian was a source for parts of a dossier of unverified allegations against Donald Trump. That account has been contradicted by allegations contained in a federal indictment filed in November 2021 and undermined by further reporting by The Washington Post. As a result, portions of the story and an accompanying video have been removed and the headline has been changed. The original account was based on two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide sensitive information. One of those people now says the new information puts in grave doubt that Millian was a source for parts of the dossier. The other declined to comment. By his own evolving statements, Sergei Millian is either a shrewd businessman with high-level access to both Donald Trumps inner circle and the Kremlin, or a bystander unwittingly caught up in a global controversy. An examination of Millians career shows he is a little of both. His case lays bare the challenge facing the FBI as it investigates Russias alleged attempts to manipulate the American political system and whether Trump associates participated. Millian told several people that during the campaign and presidential transition he was in touch with George Papadopoulos, a campaign foreign policy adviser, according to a person familiar with the matter. Millian is among Papadopouloss nearly 240 Facebook friends. Trump aides vehemently reject Millians claims to have had close contact with Trump or high-level access to the presidents company. Millian did not answer a list of detailed questions about his interactions with Trump, instead responding by email with lengthy general defenses of Trumps election as Gods will. Any falsifications, deceit and baseless allegations directed against any US President is damaging to the national security interests of the United States, he wrote in one email. Some of those who know Millian described him as more of a big-talking schmoozer than a globe-trotting interlocutor. They say hes a self-promoter with a knack for getting himself on television like the time he appeared on a 2013 episode of the Bravo reality show Million Dollar Listing, where he attempted to broker a sale with a Russian-speaking client who agreed to pay $7 million in cash for a luxury New York unit. Hes an opportunist. If he sees an opportunity, he would go after it, said Tatiana Osipova, who was a neighbor of Millians when he lived in Atlanta and who in 2006 helped him found a trade group, the Russian American Chamber of Commerce in the USA. Osipova now lives in St. Petersburg but has remained in touch with Millian. Hes a fun guy, a smart guy. But always talking. He talks so much s---. Millians original name was Siarhei Kukuts, but those who know him say he changed it because he wanted something that sounded more elegant. He told ABC News in July that he changed his name to honor his grandmother, whose last name he said was Millianovich. He has also at times gone by the name Sergio Millian. My general impression of him was that he just wanted to be important. Nobody really knew what he or the chamber were doing, but he presented himself with grandeur, said Nadia Diskavets, a New York photographer who was also a founding member of the Russian American Chamber of Commerce but has not been in touch with Millian recently. So I always took everything he said with a grain of salt. Another acquaintance referred to him in a similar way, saying he exaggerated his connections with Trump and with the Russians. Hes too small of a fish to deal with Russian people, she said. They will smell his smallness from miles away. Born in Belarus, Millian, 38, attended a university in Minsk. A Russian-language version of his biography that was posted on the Russian American Chamber of Commerces website says he studied to be a military translator. He arrived in the early 2000s as a young, single professional in Atlanta, which has a large Russian-speaking community. Friends there said he worked in real estate, and, according to one resume posted online, he opened a translating business whose clients included the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Friends said that Millian founded the Russian American Chamber of Commerce as a way to forge business ties between the United States and Russia and as a personal networking opportunity. Millians affiliation with the group also appears to have boosted his profile in Russia. He hosted events in the United States and abroad on the chambers behalf and, after moving to New York, began being interviewed repeatedly by Russian-language news outlets as an expert on U.S.- Russia relations. He traveled to Moscow in 2011 courtesy of a Russian government cultural group later investigated by the FBI for allegedly recruiting spies, though there is no evidence that the inquiry involved Millian. Millians account of his relationship with Trump has shifted over time. As the Republican candidate was rising in the spring of 2016, a time before there was close scrutiny of Trumps ties to Russia, Millian used his media appearances to describe deep connections with the New York real estate mogul. He told the Russian state- operated news agency RIA Novosti last April, for instance, that he met Trump at a Miami horse-racing track after mutual associates had organized a trip for Trump to Moscow in 2007. From there, Millian said, he entered into a business arrangement in which he says he helped market a Trump-branded condominium complex in Hollywood, Fla., to international investors, including Russians. Millians description of the Miami event appears to match up with a picture he posted on Facebook that appears to show him posing with Trump and the projects developer, Jorge Perez the only evidence that Millian ever met Trump. A spokesman for Perez said his company has no record of paying Millian in connection with the project, and Perez declined to comment further. A White House spokeswoman said, Sergei Millian is one of hundreds of thousands of people the president has had his picture made with, but they do not know one another. Millian, however, promoted ties he claimed to hold with Trumps company. A 2009 newsletter posted to the website of the Russian American Chamber of Commerce reported that the group had signed formal agreements with the Trump Organization and Perezs company to jointly service the Russian clients commercial, residential and industrial real estate needs. In the interview with RIA Novosti, Millian boasted that when he was in New York, Trump introduced him to his right-hand man, Michael Cohen, a longtime Trump adviser a claim that Cohen has denied. He is the chief attorney of Trump, through whom all contracts have to go, Millian told the Russian news outlet, adding, I was involved in the signing of a contract to promote Trumps real estate projects in Russia. You can say that I was their exclusive broker, Millian continued in Russian. Back then, in 2007-2008, Russians by the dozens were buying apartments in Trumps buildings in the U.S.A. Asked in the April interview how often he spoke to Trump or his associates, Millian responded: The last time was several days ago. Millian told people last year that he was in touch with Papadopoulos, whom Trump had described in a March 2016 Washington Post editorial board interview as a member of his foreign policy team and an excellent guy. Papadopoulos received attention during the campaign largely because of reports that he had exaggerated his resume and cited among his accomplishments that he had participated in a Model United Nations program for college and graduate students. But, according to foreign news reports and officials, he conducted a number of high-level meetings last year and presented himself as a representative of the Trump campaign. He told a group of researchers in Israel that Trump saw Putin as a responsible actor and potential partner, according to a column in the Jerusalem Post, while later he met with a British Foreign Office representative in London, an embassy spokesman said. He also criticized U.S. sanctions on Russia in an interview with the Russian news outlet Interfax. Papadopoulos did not respond to questions about contacts with Millian. But Papadopoulos said by email that his public comments during the campaign reflected his own opinions and that some of his energy policy views run counter to Russian interests. No one from the campaign ever directed me to discuss talking points, he said. In a separate email, he accused The Post of relying on innuendo and unsubstantiated claims by irrelevant sources. Neither Millian nor a White House spokeswoman responded to questions about Papadopoulos. The person familiar with the contacts, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, did not provide details. Over the summer, as Trump prepared to accept the Republican presidential nomination, Millian traveled to Russia. He posted pictures on his Facebook page showing that he attended a Russian government-sponsored summit in St. Petersburg in June. One photograph shows him with Russias minister for energy. Another shows him chatting with Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, who is close to Putin. A spokeswoman for Deripaska declined to comment. A spokesman for the Russian Embassy did not respond to questions about Millian. Later in the summer, Millian continued boasting of his Trump connections. He told ABC News that he had been the official broker for the Trump-branded condo building and described Trumps affinity for working with Russians. He pointed to hundreds of millions of dollars that [Trump] received from interactions with Russian businessmen. Millian added that Trump likes Russia because he likes beautiful Russian ladies talking to them, of course. And he likes to be able to make lots of money with Russians. Millian told ABC that he was absolutely not involved with Russian intelligence. But when asked whether he had heard rumors to that effect, Millian replied, Yes, of course. Millian also said that, at times, he talked about U.S. politics with top Russian officials. Usually if I meet top people in the Russian government, they invite me, say, to the Kremlin for the reception, of course I have a chance to talk to some presidential advisers and some top people, Millian said. While Cohen has said he has never met Millian, the two did interact last year over Twitter. Millian was, for a time, one of about 100 people that Cohen followed and they tweeted at each other on one occasion in August after Cohen appeared on television. Cohen later unfollowed Millian, telling The Post that he had mistakenly thought Millian was related to a Trump Organization employee with a similar last name. He is a total phony, Cohen said in an interview. Anything coming out of this individuals mouth is inaccurate and purely part of some deranged interest in having his name in the newspaper. Cohen said he did not believe Trump was in Russia in 2007, as Millian claimed in April. Cohen said it was possible that, like other brokers in Florida, Millian might have attempted to sell units at Trump Hollywood. But, he said, Millian never held an exclusive deal at the project or any contract with the Trump Organization. Speaking with The Post over the phone from his New York office in a January interview, Cohen also read aloud from a lengthy email he said Millian had sent him shortly before the election that contradicted his earlier public statements. I met Mr. Trump once, long time ago, in 2008, pretty much for a photo opportunity and a brief talk as part of my marketing work for Trump Hollywood, after my brokering service was signed. Now, to say that I have substantial ties is total nonsense, Cohen said, reading from an email he said Millian wrote after media coverage that mentioned him. In the email, Millian suggested holding a news conference to clear up the matter, Cohen said. Cohen said he rejected the idea, accusing Millian via email of seeking media attention off of this false narrative of a Trump-Russia alliance despite having met Trump only one time, for a 10 second photo op. Cohen, who left his job at the Trump Organization in January to become Trumps personal attorney, said this month that he could not release a copy of Millians email because he no longer has access to the companys email system. In South Florida, where Millian claimed to have had a contract to sell units at Trump Hollywood, there is little evidence that he played a major role. Daniel Lebensohn, whose company BH3 took over for the Related Group in 2010 after Perezs company struggled to complete the project, said his companys records show no sign that Millian sold any units in the building. Two Florida-based real estate brokers who specialize in the Russian market and have sold units in Trump Hollywood were equally mystified. Ive never heard of him, said Olga Mirer, who has traveled back and forth to Russia over the past decade brokering deals at Trump Hollywood and other Florida buildings. Despite the Trump teams efforts to distance the president from Millian, he nevertheless attended Trumps inauguration in January. He posted photos of himself on Facebook attending VIP events for supporters, including one in which he posed in front of the podium at a reception for Trump chief of staff Reince Priebus at Trumps Washington hotel. A White House official did not address a question about Millians attendance. Alice Crites in Washington and David Filipov in Moscow contributed to this report. Indian Army gifts 7 horses to Nepal Army Visiting Indian Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat handed over seven horses to his Nepali counterpart Rajendra Chhetri on Wednesday. The House Intelligence Committees probe of alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 elections, including potential ties between the Trump team and the Kremlin, is effectively on hold, after its chairman said the panel would not interview more witnesses until two intelligence chiefs return to Capitol Hill for a still-unscheduled private briefing. Committee Chairman Devin Nuness declaration Tuesday that until [FBI Director James B.] Comey comes forward, its hard for us to move forward with interviews and depositions comes as an indefinite stop order on a roster of expected interviews and testimony, from top Trump campaign surrogates to top intelligence and law enforcement officials serving during the election and transition period. Late last week, Nunes (R-Calif.) canceled an open hearing scheduled for Tuesday that would have featured testimony from former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., former CIA director John Brennan, and former acting attorney general Sally Yates. He did so, he said, in order to make time available for Comey and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers to brief the panel on additional information that came up during an open hearing with the same spy chiefs last Monday. But the closed-door meeting was never scheduled. According to several Democrats on the committee, Nunes also canceled two regular panel meetings this week, without giving them a reason. Such hot spots meetings, which normally take place on Mondays and Thursdays according to Democrats on the panel, are not solely dedicated to the Russia investigation, but cover any matters that come under the committees purview. Effectively what has happened is the committees oversight, oversight of our national intelligence apparatus, has come to a halt because of this particular issue, said committee member Jim Himes (D-Conn.). In my three years here, Ive never seen us have a full week without a hearing, committee member Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) said. Weve made no progress since last Mondays open hearing, and that is intentional. A spokesman for Nunes said the hot spots meetings were never scheduled and will resume next week. The effective freeze in the committees Russia investigation comes as Democrats are calling for Nunes, who was part of Trumps transition team, to recuse himself from the probe. Their demand was inspired by Nuness announcement that he went to the White House last week to meet a secret source who provided him with information suggesting identities of either President Trump or his transition team surrogates may have been improperly revealed after being picked up in surveillance of foreign targets. The next day, Nunes briefed the news media, then the president and then the news media again before taking that information to his colleagues on the Intelligence Committee, enraging Democrats, who have accused him of coordinating with the White House to draw attention away from the Russia investigation. Nunes has since apologized for what he said was a judgment call but not admitted to any wrongdoing and refused calls for him to step down. But although Democrats want Nunes to step aside on the Russia investigation, they are raising a far more urgent cry for him to schedule the outstanding hearings and quickly, so they can get the House investigation back on track. Schedule them both, and I think we can move forward, committee member Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) said, referring to both the expected closed briefing with Comey and Rogers, and the canceled open hearing with Clapper, Brennan and Yates. You see the unraveling of this committee happening overnight for no good reason. We have a responsibility to do this investigation. (Jayne Orenstein,Ashleigh Joplin/The Washington Post) A committee aide said Democrats on the panel offered to schedule both hearings next week but have not heard back from Nunes. The aide said that the holdup for Nunes appears to be that he did not want Yates, in particular, to testify. The Trump administration tried to block Yates from testifying this month, according to a Washington Post report. The administration denied Tuesday that it had tried to block Yatess testimony. Nunes told reporters Tuesday that he intended to reschedule Yates, Clapper and Brennan for an open hearing as soon as we can get the questions answered from the FBI director. That would be a logical first step, Nunes added. But he did not say when he expected Comey to return to the committee or whether he believed the FBI director could answer all his questions in one more closed-door meeting. Nunes and Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, are also waiting on information from the FBI, NSA and CIA in response to a letter they sent the three agency directors this month, asking for a full list of names of U.S. persons whose identities had been exposed after popping up in surveillance reports directed at other targets. Nunes, who has refused to reveal his source or the full substance of what he has seen, told reporters that the information he viewed at the White House suggesting that even the presidents identity may have been revealed would be part of those documents. Nunes said Tuesday that he expected the NSA to turn over the information about such unmasked names to the committee by Wednesday or Thursday of this week. He did not say when the committee would receive similar information from the CIA and FBI, which also have legal procedures to reveal incidentally collected names internally when doing so is important to understand a surveillance reports intelligence value. Read more at PowerPost The daunting effort to salvage the Republican Partys governing agenda has fallen suddenly and squarely on the shoulders of one man: Mitch McConnell. After the GOPs humiliating health-care defeat in the House last week, the Senate majority leader is under heavy pressure to put President Trumps to-do list back on track by confirming his Supreme Court nominee and averting a late-April federal government shutdown all in the face of intensifying Democratic resistance. While House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) struggled as the chief advocate for the health-care bill primarily because of Republican recalcitrance, McConnells challenge is different yet no less difficult: persuading enough Democrats not to obstruct the plans of an increasingly unpopular president. Weve got a lot of work to do, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said. And one of the things we need to do and its going to be harder now because we just failed is theres got to be bipartisanship. Hunger for a victory and the belief that ambitious goals are still achievable are fueling McConnell (R-Ky.) and his team. But dim prospects for cooperation in the Senate, where Republicans hold 52 seats, have forced him to ponder extreme measures, including a rule change known by insiders as the nuclear option that would allow Judge Neil Gorsuch to overcome a Democratic barricade and be seated on the Supreme Court with a simple majority vote. (The Washington Post) [Neil Gorsuchs Supreme Court nomination is on track to change the Senate and further divide the country.] Such a move is likely to enrage Democrats heading into a fight over funding the government, in which McConnell will once again need the support of his Democratic colleagues to avert a government shutdown that would begin April 29 if Congress fails to pass a stopgap bill. Democrats have already threatened to thwart the measure again by requiring a 60-vote procedural hurdle to be cleared if it includes any money for a U.S.-Mexico border wall. Do they really think history books or the American people will look kindly on them for filibustering this amazingly well-qualified and widely respected nominee? McConnell asked in a floor speech Wednesday. The minority party has considerably more leverage in the Senate than in the House, making McConnells task as critical as it is challenging. It also creates a moment of reckoning for the six-term senators leadership and national profile. McConnell, 75, has struck major agreements with Democrats in the past, notably in 2012 with Vice President Joe Biden, a longtime Senate colleague with whom he negotiated a deal to avert deep cuts and tax increases known as the fiscal cliff. But McConnell has also been blamed for leading Republican obstruction on many occasions, including last year, when he blocked hearings for Judge Merrick Garland, President Barack Obamas choice for the current Supreme Court vacancy. Now, suddenly, McConnells task is to bring the chamber together. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post) McConnell can often be spotted making the short walk from his office suite to the Senate chamber with the same calm demeanor he presents in all of his public appearances. He is soft-spoken and studiously on message, parrying reporters questions without ever appearing flummoxed. During an interview with The Washington Post last month, McConnell addressed a question about border wall funding by turning to an aide to ask whether White House officials had sent over their spending proposal. They hadnt, the aide responded. The following day during a news conference, McConnell addressed a similar question precisely the same way asking a different aide and receiving the same response. Aides and allies say McConnell does not like to expend energy on matters beyond his control or use more words than necessary to make his point. He is known as a blunt negotiator who is inclined to court Democrats over brief chats rather than long, drawn-out conversations. Hes very direct, to the point, said Josh Holmes, his former chief of staff. He doesnt try to, shall we say, underestimate the intelligence of his opposition. In McConnells inner circle, there is a sense that Senate Democrats are largely operating as a coherent unit, even as some red-state moderates facing reelection may stray on some votes, including the one on Gorsuch. But these Republicans believe that such moments will be anticipated by Democrats and factored into a larger strategy to oppose Trump and Republicans while also protecting their own vulnerable members. Although some believe that sweeping aims including a tax overhaul were dealt a devastating blow by the health-care fiasco, Republicans are also under pressure to achieve major legislative accomplishments heading into the 2018 midterm elections, a factor that McConnells inner circle believes could spur legislative action. McConnells most immediate priority is Gorsuch, whose fate will be decided solely by the Senate. The majority leader has made clear that he is deeply invested in that battle, publicly guaranteeing that the federal appeals judge who has won large-scale praise in the GOP will be confirmed by the end of next week. [As Gorsuch nomination proceeds, this man is taking credit: Mitch McConnell] Gorsuch will come out of committee, will be on the floor of the Senate next week and confirmed on Friday, McConnell told reporters Tuesday. He added that it will be up to his Democratic colleagues how the process to confirm Judge Gorsuch goes forward. Left unsaid is the increasingly likely prospect that McConnell will have to go nuclear. Democrats have said they intend to use Senate rules to force Gorsuch to clear a 60-vote threshold. If McConnell cant find at least eight crossover votes and his list of targets is shrinking his only remaining option will probably be a deeply divisive one: to persuade a majority of senators to back the rules change. The ripest targets are the handful of Democratic senators up for reelection next year in states won by Trump. But some say there has been little direct outreach. I was invited to the White House right after Gorsuch was nominated with other red state Democrats, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said. I had a conflict that night. But other than that, thats the only reach-out Ive had from the administration or from Republicans in Congress. McCaskill also attended a bipartisan reception at the White House for senators and their spouses on Tuesday night, but she characterized it as a mostly social gathering. McConnell and other veteran GOP senators have seemed uncomfortable discussing the nuclear option in public, although Trump has casually encouraged the Republican leader not to think twice about using it if needed. The maneuver would eliminate the Senates empowerment of the minority party, rendering its methods much closer to those in the more partisan House. Republicans have instead focused their public comments on how Democrats are the ones upending Senate norms with their Gorsuch blockade and their hopes on the few Democrats they think might help them vote down a filibuster. A single-party filibuster has never successfully blocked a Supreme Court nomination; however, a bipartisan coalition used the procedural vote to defeat Abe Fortass 1968 nomination to be chief justice. The Democratic resistance to Gorsuch is heavily rooted in broader concerns about Trump, whose approval rating fell to 36 percent this week, according to Gallup. Democrats cite concerns about the presidents controversial travel ban, his criticism of the federal judiciary and questions about his ties to Russia. Democrats are also under pressure from a restive base of activists who have demanded obstruction of Trumps agenda. Were worried that this president is more susceptible to overreach than any other, and Judge Gorsuch has not shown any independence, said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). A similar pattern has emerged in negotiations over a must-pass, stopgap funding bill to fund the government beyond April 28. Democrats have signaled they will block any attempts to include money for a wall along the Mexican border, one of Trumps key campaign promises and now a top administration priority. [Trump wants to add wall spending to stopgap budget bill, potentially forcing shutdown showdown] In part because of Democratic opposition, Senate Republicans have signaled that they will reject wall money in the temporary funding bill to avoid a shutdown. Many in the GOP conference also reject the idea of marshaling funds for a wall on its merits. I think we need border security funding. But I think building a 2,220-mile wall is a waste of money, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said. On funding the government, McConnell said: We fully anticipate getting an outcome before the end of April. We have to, actually. McConnells relationship with Trump will also be key in the coming weeks. The Senate leader has said he is not a fan of the presidents antagonistic tweets, arguing that they distract from the GOP agenda. Asked recently whether Trump would be able to live up to his promise to eventually make Mexico pay for the wall, the senator responded with characteristic dryness: Uh, no. It remains to be seen how effective a dealmaker McConnell can be in the current Senate, with Democrats firmly united against Trump. Some Democrats argue that McConnell, through his resistance of Obamas agenda, is partly culpable for the toxic relations in the chamber. I felt that if the Republicans had followed the Constitution . . . Chief Judge Merrick Garland would be on the Supreme Court today, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said during Gorsuchs confirmation hearing. There are a lot of issues where we can work together, if they are willing to truly be open to Democratic proposals, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said. Robert Costa contributed to this report. Read more at PowerPost Facing international criticism for military corruption and domestic anger over a deadly insurgent attack on a military hospital here, Afghan defense officials announced this week that 1,394 army personnel, including several generals, have been fired in connection with corruption charges in the past year. The officials said Maj. Gen. Mohammad Moeen Faqir, the former commander of an Afghan army corps in the volatile south, was arrested recently on charges of embezzlement and abuse of authority. More than 300 people have been prosecuted, including military officers and civilian administrators, the officials added. Lt. Gen. Helaluddin Helal, a deputy defense minister, told a news conference that the ministry has taken significant steps to tackle corruption and is trying to bring changes and reform to the security forces, which have been heavily criticized for graft, resale of supplies meant for troops and other financial abuses. The top military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Dawlat Waziri, said eight generals, 11 commanders of detachments and 296 other officers are among those suspected of crimes, including bribery, theft and murder. The officials did not describe any cases in detail. The announcement of these actions came shortly after the U.S. special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, John F. Sopko, sharply criticized widespread corruption in the Afghan military in speeches and comments in the United States. Sopko said that despite U.S. appropriations totaling $115 billion for reconstruction, much of it used to train Afghan security forces and support the civilian government, the effort remains tenuous and incomplete. In a speech at Duke University, Sopko said corruption and mismanagement are the main factors behind military failure in the country. He said that some Afghan military commanders are selling military fuel to the Taliban and stealing food supplies and forcing troops to buy them back. A new report issued by the inspector general found that the questionable capabilities of Afghan security forces and pervasive corruption are the two most critical problems. Without capable security forces, Afghanistan will never be able to stand on its own, he said. If these two risk areas are not addressed, I fear that our reconstruction efforts could ultimately fail. An editorial in the Afghanistan Times newspaper Wednesday called such massive corruption a deadly disease that has turned into a cultural practice and mocks the bravery of Afghan troops. Meanwhile, domestic concern over corruption and ineffective protection by the security forces led the Afghan parliament to summon the defense minister, interior minister and national intelligence chief this week. They were grilled about a terrorist attack on Kabuls military hospital two weeks ago that left more than 60 people dead and several hundred wounded, after attackers disguised as medical staff invaded the facility. Despite the criticism, all three officials received votes of confidence and kept their jobs, but demonstrators gathered outside the parliament complex, protesting the decision and alleging that legislators had made private deals with the security officials. One banner held up by the protesters said, Summoning ministers appears to be an act of seeking explanation, but in reality the members want dollars. A critical legislator, Hafiz Mansour, charged that the official campaign against corruption is mostly propaganda. In practice, he said, no serious steps are taken against it, and millions of dollars have been deposited in private accounts at home and abroad. But another defense official, Lt. Gen. Ghulam Sakhi Ahmadzai, insisted that the army has implemented a good system of reforms and has saved millions of dollars in the past year by tightening the food procurement process and other changes. Read more Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news Arab leaders reaffirmed their support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Wednesday at their annual meeting, a move seen as a unified message to President Trump ahead of visits by three Arab leaders to Washington next month. In a communique, the Arab League called for a fresh series of peace talks and renewed an offer of reconciliation with the Jewish state, if Israel returns Arab lands it has occupied. That would pave the way for the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel. The agreement comes weeks after Trump tossed a diplomatic wrench into the Middle East peace process by seemingly stepping back from a decades-long U.S. commitment to eventual Palestinian statehood. By focusing on the Palestinian plight, Arab leaders are hoping to bring renewed attention to a conflict that has been overshadowed by the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings and the wars that have followed in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen. A central cause of the Arab world, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict also offered an opportunity for Arab governments to show unity at a time when they are deeply divided over how to solve the regions multiple crises. There can be no peace nor stability in the region without a just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian cause, the core issue of the Middle East, based on the two-state solution, said the summits host, King Abdullah of Jordan. While none of the Arab leaders specifically mentioned Trump in their addresses, it was clear they intended to inform the White House in coming days that they are willing to restart the peace process if the Trump administration wants to broker a wider Middle East peace. Abdullah and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas will convey a unified message to the White House, said Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the Arab Leagues secretary general. Wednesdays communique reaffirmed a 15-year-old Saudi-led peace plan, known as the Arab Peace Initiative, that calls for Israel to pull out of lands captured in 1967 in exchange for full relations with moderate Arab and Muslim countries. That would allow the creation of a Palestinian state encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Israels intelligence minister, Israel Katz, said that although the Palestinian issue cannot be ignored, it is important to address the regions many other challenges, including the Islamic State, the increasing threat posed by Iran through its proxies, and the ongoing conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya. A positive regional climate change could lead in the future to peace, Katz said. His comments echoed recent suggestions by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that arriving at peace with the Palestinian first needs a regional initiative. But Abbas expressed concern at the summit that more negotiations could weaken the Palestinian position. The Israeli government has since 2009 worked on wrecking the two-state solution by accelerating the tempo of settlements and the confiscation of land, said Abbas, who met with Trumps Middle East envoy, Jason Greenblatt, this week. In speech after speech, nearly all of 21 Arab leaders in attendance expressed support for an independent Palestinian state. Trumps campaign promise to relocate the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is widely opposed by Arabs. Many fear that such a move could ignite violence in the region. Abdullah, whose family has long held custodianship over Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, warned that any move by Israel to alter the religious character of the city could have dire consequences and anger Muslims everywhere. European leaders at the summit also expressed support for an independent Palestinian state. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said a two-state solution was the only path to ensure that Palestinians and Israelis can realize their national aspirations and live in peace, security and dignity. Guterres also denounced the rise of populist political leaders in the West who for shortsighted and cynical reasons distort Islam to spread anti-Muslim hatred, playing into the hands of terrorist and extremist groups. He also spoke against the growing Western attitude against refugees, particularly Muslims. It breaks my heart to see developed countries closing their borders to refugees fleeing this region, and worse, sometimes invoking religion as a reason to keep them out, he said. The Arab leaders pledged to address the conflicts in Syria, Libya and Yemen but did not offer specific plans on how they would move forward. All three conflicts have fractured Arab governments and deepened tensions among them. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has not been invited to the summit since Syria was suspended from the Arab League during the 2011 populist revolts and the government crackdown that plunged the country into civil war. But Sudans President Omar Hassan al-Bashir did attend and addressed the gathering, despite his indictment by the International Criminal Court. Human rights groups had urged Jordanian authorities to arrest Bashir, who is wanted on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. There were also indications that recent tensions between Egypt and Saudi Arabia were easing. Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi and Saudi Arabias King Salman appeared together and met face to face. The two nations are divided over solutions to the Syrian conflict, as well as Egypts role in the Saudi-led coalitions military campaign in Yemen. Ruth Eglash in Jerusalem and Heba Mahfouz in Cairo contributed to this report. Read more: Trump says he really wants Israeli-Palestinian peace deal Senate confirms David Friedman as U.S. ambassador to Israel, with little Democratic support Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news The end came not with a bang but a letter. Over six crisp and unsentimental pages, Britain said goodbye to the European Union on Wednesday, spelling out its hopes, wishes, threats and demands for divorce talks that will strain alliances, roil economies and consume attention across the continent over the next two years. Coming a little over nine months after British voters stunned the world by choosing to withdraw from the E.U., the hand-delivery of the letter in Brussels officially triggered Article 50, the blocs never-before-used escape hatch. It also erased any lingering doubts that Britain is ending a partnership that has bound the country to the continent for nearly half a century. This is a historic moment from which there can be no turning back, Prime Minister Theresa May confidently announced to a momentarily hushed House of Commons before debate turned rowdy. In Brussels, a visibly upset European Council President Donald Tusk said there was no reason to pretend that this is a happy day. After all, Tusk said, most Europeans, including nearly half the British voters, wish that we would stay together, not drift apart. [Europe looks at its own challenges with Brexit talks ahead] The move instantly plunged Britain and the 27 other E.U. nations into what will almost certainly be messy and acrimonious negotiations. The talks will encompass a dizzying array of subjects, including trade terms, immigration rules, financial regulations and, of course, money. Britain joined the group that became the European Union in 1973, so decades of ties, pacts and arrangements are part of the complex unraveling. For both sides, the stakes are enormous. Britain could be forced to reorient its economy the worlds fifth largest if it loses favorable terms with its biggest trade partner. It also may not survive the departure in one piece, with Scotland threatening to bolt. [Scotland looks toward independence vote, round two] The European Union, which for decades has only expanded its integrative reach, faces perhaps an even greater existential threat. If Britain is able to secure an attractive deal, other countries contemplating their own departures could speed toward the exits. The formal declaration of Britains intention came in the form of a letter from May to Tusk. The letter, which opened with the handwritten salutation Dear President Tusk and ended with a scrawled prime-ministerial signature, was delivered by Britains ambassador to the E.U., Tim Barrow. Tusk later tweeted a photo of the moment he received the letter as the men stood in front of E.U. flags and Union Jacks. Barrow appeared to be grinning; Tusk was grimacing. From both sides of the English Channel on Wednesday, there were attempts to take the heat out of what had become a grievance-filled split even before it officially got underway. The top diplomat for the European Unions most powerful member, Germany, said he wished Britain well. The stale-sounding sentence used in private life after a divorce, Lets remain friends, is right in this case, said German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel. Mays letter, meanwhile, ratcheted down earlier threats to walk away from talks and leave with no deal an option popularly known as dirty Brexit if the E.U. offers are not to her liking. The letter urged the European Union to let Britain go in a fair and orderly manner, and with as little disruption as possible on each side. May has said Britain will prioritize regaining control over immigration and exempting itself from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. She has also acknowledged that Britain will be leaving Europes common market and its customs union. Instead, she has sought a new trade deal that reflects, as the letter described it, Britains deep and special partnership with the European Union. Mays largely conciliatory tone appeared to soften European concerns that British demands were destined for a head-on collision with their own. Nonetheless, the letter also unleashed some implicit threats. It raised, for instance, the specter that Britain could reduce its contributions to European intelligence and security if London does not get what it wants in a trade deal. In security terms a failure to reach agreement would mean our cooperation in the fight against crime and terrorism would be weakened, she wrote in a passage that drew scorn from European officials who accused her of using security as a bargaining chip. [The full text of Britains Article 50 letter] The British public defied predictions in June by opting to leave, voting 52 percent to 48 percent in a referendum. Polls show that voters who backed leave were driven by concerns that immigration was out of control under the E.U.s free-movement laws and that Britain needed to exit the bloc to restore its sovereignty. Advocates for remain have forecast grievous economic harm and a weaker British role in global affairs. As Britain prepares to exit, it continues to be deeply divided. Opinion polls show the country is split almost as evenly today as it was in June. The still-raw divisions were on vivid display Wednesday when May made her case to members of Parliament. She was cheered by Brexit backers and jeered by its opponents as she announced that Britons are going to make our own decisions and our own laws. We are going to take control of the things that matter most to us. After May ticked off the potential benefits of Brexit, the opposition leader, Labour Party head Jeremy Corbyn, enumerated the possible pitfalls, calling the prime ministers Brexit strategy reckless and damaging. Although some legal experts say that an Article 50 declaration is technically reversible, British and E.U. officials have both said they believe it is not. The delivery of the letter was a victory for May, who stepped into the vacuum left in July when her predecessor, David Cameron, abruptly resigned after the public disregarded his call to stay in the E.U. Although May was herself quietly in favor of remain during the campaign, she pivoted quickly in the aftermath of the vote and adamantly maintained that she would make good on the public will. Brexit means Brexit, she repeatedly declared. It was not until January, however, that May gave true shape to what Brexit might mean. In a speech at Londons Lancaster House, May made the case for a clean break from the European Union, saying she did not want a deal that would leave Britain half-in, half-out. But Mays pitch has done little to bring the country together. [Trump and May: a geopolitical odd couple] Of the four nations that make up the United Kingdom, only two England and Wales voted for Brexit. The other two, Scotland and Northern Ireland, came down against it. Scotlands semiautonomous Parliament voted Tuesday to seek another independence referendum. Advocates argue that an E.U. departure against the will of Scottish voters has sufficiently changed the calculus since the last independence vote, in 2014, that a new one is justified. Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland have also used Brexit to renew their decades-long efforts to break away from Britain. Amid British divisions, Europe has taken an unusually united stand in asserting that Britain will not get a better deal than the one it has today. If it does, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other stalwart defenders of the E.U. fear that Britains departure could be just the start of a broader splintering. Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, said his side would hold firm in negotiations over the coming two years and that the interests of the blocs remaining 440 million citizens would take priority over concessions to Britain. A first statement of the E.U.s bargaining positions is expected Friday. Our goal is clear, Tusk said. To minimize the costs for the E.U. citizens, businesses and member states. Because of French elections this spring and then German elections in the fall, Britains E.U. divorce talks are likely to get off to a slow start. Once the negotiations begin in earnest, there will be little time to finish. The talks are capped at two years, meaning they must be completed by March 2019. The real deadline is likely to be sooner, given that all E.U. parliaments will have to approve any new trade agreement. Despite the risks, Britains impending exit was celebrated Wednesday by the countrys staunchly pro-Brexit tabloids. Freedom! exulted the front page of the Daily Mail. The mood was far more somber among E.U. advocates. Before walking away from the podium Wednesday, Tusk had a poignant final message for Britain: We already miss you. Birnbaum reported from Brussels. Karla Adam in London and Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report. Read more In Shakespeares home town, a house divided as the U.K. plunges unto the Brexit breach As attacks continue, Brexit could hamper European counterterrorism efforts Article 50: A guide to Britains untested plan for Brexit Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news In a rare public appearance, first lady Melania Trump took part in a ceremony Wednesday to give the State Departments International Women of Courage Award to 13 recipients who are political and social activists in their countries. Among the women recognized were a human rights activist from Yemen and a Salesian nun from Syria, two nations whose citizens would not get U.S. visas under President Trumps revised executive order on immigration. Another recipient was an activist from Iraq a country that was dropped from a list of seven Muslim-majority countries affected by the original executive order. As leaders of our shared global community, we must continue to work toward gender empowerment, and respect for people from all backgrounds and ethnicities, remembering always that we are all ultimately members of one race the human race, the first lady said before the awards were announced by Thomas Shannon, the undersecretary of state for political affairs. [Video: Melania Trump honors women at State Department] 1 of 67 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad See what Melania Trump has been doing since becoming first lady View Photos She is not living in the White House yet and has said little about what she intends to do with her prominent position. Caption She recently moved to the White House from New York and has Washington waiting to see what she intends to do with her prominent position. July 14, 2017 First lady Melania Trump arrives for the traditional Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysees in Paris. Yves Herman/Reuters Wait 1 second to continue. The Women of Courage Awards were established in 2007 by then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. They recognize women who have shown courage and leadership advocating for womens rights and advancement. The 13 women honored Wednesday come from Bangladesh, Botswana, Colombia, Congo, Iraq, Niger, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Sri Lanka, Syria, Turkey, Vietnam and Yemen. Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, an environmental activist from Vietnam, was the only recipient who did not attend. The recipients include the deputy director of a group in Iraq that helps shelter women fleeing domestic violence; a woman who tries to prevent children in Yemen from being radicalized; a nun who runs a nursery school in Damascus; and a Colombian who after being attacked by a stalker with sulfuric acid lobbied to penalize such assailants. Their stories of individual bravery remind us that there is always hope whenever the human spirit is brought to bear in the service of others, Melania Trump said, and that healing and personal empowerment are often born from such deeds. Her appearance Wednesday marked one of her few public forays since becoming first lady. She continues to live in New York City with her son, Barron, and visits Washington periodically. Jajarkot remains shut in protest of NC leaders murder The Nepali Congress (NC) cadres called a general strike in Jajarkot district on Wednesday in protest of NC student leader Rabindra Shah's murder on Tuesday. Fiona Hill, a Russia expert and frequent critic of President Vladimir Putin, will join the White House National Security Council as senior director for Europe and Russia, officials said Tuesday. Hill, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former member of the National Intelligence Council, was first recruited for the NSC job under Michael Flynn, President Trumps now-former national security adviser. Flynn was forced to resign after barely three weeks in office after the White House said he had misled Vice President Pence about contacts he had with Sergey Kislyak, Russias U.S. ambassador, before Trumps inauguration. Russian efforts to influence the U.S. election and contacts between Flynn and other Trump associates and Russian operatives during the campaign have since become the subject of FBI and congressional investigations. Flynns departure and upheaval over the Russia contacts left Hills appointment in limbo for a time. The job offer was subsequently renewed by H.R. McMaster, Flynns replacement. Trump spoke admiringly of Putin during the campaign and said that the United States should collaborate with Russia on the counterterrorism fight against the Islamic State, views that were criticized by senior Republican lawmakers and dismissed even by some of Trumps senior national security aides. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, calling Russia a threat, ruled out any military cooperation with Moscow. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is expected to engage in the Trump administrations first high-level diplomatic contact with Russia in a visit there next month. Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has met twice this year with his Russian counterpart. The NSC will combine Russia and Europe under one directorate under Hill, after the two were separated by the Obama administration. A deputy is expected to concentrate on European issues. In her book Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin, published with co-author Clifford Gaddy in 2013 and updated in 2015, Hill described Putin as a survivalist on foreign policy, willing to use forms of blackmail, intimidation, punishment, and blatant distortion of the truth to defend Russia and his position. Quoted in a November article in the Atlantic, Hill expressed doubts about Trumps plans to normalize relations with Russia. While Trumps presidency might bring a stylistic rhetorical change in the relationship, she said, I think it will come down to what its always been where the Russians will get all giddy with expectations, and then theyll be dashed, like, five minutes into the relationship because the U.S. and Russia just have a very hard time . . . being on the same page. Were going to have an awful lot of friction, Hill said. And Trump isnt exactly the most diplomatic of people. So I imagine hell fall out with his new friend Vladimir pretty quickly. Hill holds a masters degree in Soviet studies and a doctorate in history from Harvard University. British-born, she started at Brookings in 2000, taking a three-year break to serve on the National Intelligence Council under the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. Officers on the council are senior experts on a range of issues drawn from government, academia and the private sector to provide long-term strategic analysis for the director of national intelligence. Polls As gas and diesel prices continue to soar, are you or your family having to economize on 'Miraculous' discovery of rare tigers in eastern Thailand A new breeding population of the critically endangered Indochinese tiger has been found in a national park in eastern Thailand, conservationists say. Menstruation is a debilitating time for many women, and now Italy may offer monthly leave. (Photo: Getty Images) Italys parliament has begun discussing a possible new law that would provide an official menstrual leave policy, granting women three paid days off each month. And while one side has hailed the possibility as a progressive move that finally acknowledges the fact that some women have painful periods, the other side believes it would cement stereotypes of female weakness, and be a step backwards for feminism. On Twitter, it seemed to be mainly the latter group that was making noise. Oh good, now every month male Italians can do the work for which their female colleagues are paid because they pms https://t.co/GuJGauSm9m Douglas Walton (@douglas_walton) March 28, 2017 Paid menstrual leave? ????I thought feminists wanted equal treatment? ???? https://t.co/69wRySw5wC Amy (@breetallyhonest) March 27, 2017 Menstrual leave? Talk about bleeding heart Liberals! https://t.co/Y5TrfsYTLj Maya Maquis (@MaquisMaya) March 28, 2017 @theblaze if we are genderless then there should be no menstrual leave, feminists, or equal pay rules Kirk Reeves, R.T. (@radiographicman) March 28, 2017 Still others rejoiced https://t.co/qWsW2g0Qzu CAN THE U.S. ADOPT THIS TOO? THESE CRAMPS AINT NO JOKE ???? #MenstrualLeave La Jolie (@officiallajolie) March 28, 2017 or responded with snarky excitement: Story continues @scandalwomen @suleikhasnyder If men had periods thered be paid menstrual leave, free BC pills in bathroom, & Tampon Hut on every corner. Deanna Raybourn (@deannaraybourn) March 16, 2017 Dysmenorrhea painful periods is very common, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians, and it can be severe enough to interfere with daily activities of up to 20 percent of women. Thats why, in 2014, U.K. company Coexist announced it created a period policy, while several other countries including Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Zambia, and China have versions of menstrual leave policies. Italy would be the first Western nation to have such a law. And for those who experience disabling pain during their periods, such acknowledgement though a law would be very welcome news. In the past when Ive called in sick because of debilitating cramps and crippling lower back pain, Ive felt pressure to say I have a cold or something contagious so my boss wouldnt think I was slacking, a Manhattan office worker who does not want her name used tells Yahoo Beauty. Such a law, she says, would make her feel less guilty about taking care of herself during that time. Plenty of women take issue with the idea, though, including Claire Zillman, writing for Fortune. By all means, lets eliminate the taboo surrounding menstruation in the workplace and in society at large, she says. But asking employers to specifically accommodate womens most mundane biological attribute while helpful to those who suffer severe pain seems overall like a retrograde request, especially considering how far women have come without it. Plus, these kinds of policies threaten to undermine womens long-standing battle to discourage the notion that their natural cycle makes them weak or in any way less able. And Lorenza Pleuteri, writing for Italian publication Donna Moderna, is concerned that if women are granted extra days of paid leave, then employers could become even more oriented to hire men rather than women. And while the Italian edition of womens magazine Marie Claire described the proposal as a standard-bearer of progress and social sustainability, feminist writer Mirian Goi shared her concern in Vice Italy that it could end up reinforcing stereotypes about women being more emotional during their periods. The bill, was presented in early March by four female Democratic Party lawmakers, could reportedly be approved in the next few months. What are your thoughts on the possible new law? Tell Yahoo Beauty in the comments section below. Read more in Yahoo Beauty + Style: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyle and @YahooBeauty. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt attend the premiere of By the Sea at the 2015 AFI Fest. (Photo: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic) It seems that the tension between Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt has eased at least a bit. It turns out that while Jolie was in Cambodia filming First They Killed My Father with her brood in tow Pitt was reportedly traveling there regularly as well to hang out with the kids. A source recently revealed to E! that 53-year-old Pitt was in Cambodia most of the time except when it conflicted with his own shoot schedule. While Brad wasnt in Cambodia the entire time they filmed, he made multiple trips there to spend time with the kids. Though Pitts visits happened in secret, he was around all through production and filming. Overall, the children were with Angelina for probably 75 percent of the time when Brad was in the country, and theyd go back and forth between her and Brad. That means that the former loves figured out a way to work out a visitation schedule so that Shiloh, Maddox, Knox, Vivienne, Zahara, and Pax could get quality time with each of them. Whats more, the parents made sure to fill the kids days with culture. A second source reported that the six children took turns sightseeing with each parent separately. Some of the children even reportedly flew back and forth between Cambodia and Los Angeles to spend additional time with Pitt. Jolie, Vivienne, and Knox try some local cuisine. BBC This marks a major change from the fiery kickoff of their divorce last September. Things have calmed settled between Brad and Angelina. Its not as tense as it had been, a source explained. They are focused on the kids and working to do whats best for them. Over the last six months, Brad has been able to spend more time with the kids. Hes doing well and is focused on healthy, clean living. Hes in a good place. In addition to hanging with his kids, Pitt has been getting in touch with his artistic side, working on a sculpture at Thomas Houseagos studio. Pitt and Sting make music together at the EBMRF Benefit on Jan. 14, 2017. (Photo: Randy Shropshire/Getty Images for EBMRF) Meanwhile, 41-year-old Jolie has thrown herself into her humanitarian efforts. She has no issues getting her hands dirty and was never a prima donna about doing anything less than glamorous, the source added. She is all about the cause. She embraced the country, and the country genuinely loves her back. She also is very easy to talk to and not intimidating. During downtime, shed just casually hang out with the crew there with her, and was always polite and nice to people. Story continues Last month, while addressing her relationship with Pitt during an appearance on Good Morning America, Jolie said, We will always be a family. Always. Based on Pitts recent stint in Cambodia, they are making progress on the task of figuring out just what that new family looks like. Read more from Yahoo Celebrity: Photo credit: Getty From Cosmopolitan After acting Attorney General Sally Yates told the Department of Justice not to defend President Donald Trump's immigration and refugee ban Monday, she was promptly "relieved" of her duties and replaced - but not before everyone in the country immediately memorized her name. Here are just a few things you should know about the former Deputy Attorney General. 1. She served in the Justice Department for over 27 years. In 1989, Yates was hired by Bob Barr as the assistant U.S. attorney for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia. She quickly rose through the ranks over the years, before her career was abruptly cut short Monday evening by the Trump administration. Photo credit: Getty 2. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Georgia School of Law. After getting her law degree, Yates worked for the Atlanta law firm King & Spalding from 1985 to 1989. She also attended the University of Georgia for undergrad. 3. She was the lead prosecutor against the Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph. Domestic terrorist Eric Rudolph is currently serving four consecutive life sentences for multiple fatal bombings between 1996 and 1998, including at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympics, at a woman's clinic in January 1998, and an LGBT night club a month later. Photo credit: Getty 4. She was the first woman to "lead the office" as United States attorney. In 2010, then-President Barack Obama appointed Yates to run the local U.S. Attorney's office, which CNN reports was " the first time a woman had reached the position there." 5. She became deputy attorney general in 2015. Former President Obama nominated Yates for the position in January 2015 and she was formally sworn in that May. As deputy attorney general, Yates was in charge of the day-to-day for 113,000 Justice Department employees. Photo credit: Getty 6. She oversaw former President Obama's clemency initiative. During his final days in office, former President Obama granted hundreds of commutations for nonviolent drug offenders, which first required the Justice Department to review thousands of clemency petitions in order to determine who they should recommend to the president. Yates was in charge of all of it. Story continues "Sally deserves a lot of credit," former Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. told the Washington Post. "She set this goal of looking at every drug-clemency petition, and they accomplished that. 7. She is known for standing by the law regardless of the sitting president's political party. Despite the Trump administration's insistence that Yates had "betrayed" them by refusing to protest the president's immigration ban, the former deputy attorney general has always had a reputation for standing her ground and sticking by the law, regardless of who's in office. Related: For more news videos visit Yahoo View, available now on iOS and Android. "For nearly three decades, acting Attorney General Sally Yates has served presidents of both parties, defending the Constitution and holding terrorists and other criminals accountable, former Labor Secretary Tom Perez told the Washington Post. "Acting Attorney General Yatess record is simply beyond reproach." "She advocated very strongly as a one-woman show for law enforcement and made the Obama administration pause on policies she thought would be harmful," former Justice Department spokesperson Emily Pierce added. Photo credit: Getty 8. She's a mom. Yates has two children with her husband, Comer Yates - son James and daughter Kelley. 9. The Trump administration asked her to stay on as acting attorney general. According to CNN, the Trump administration asked Yates to stay on and act as attorney general in the interim before Trump's nominee Jeff Sessions could possibly take over - despite the president's complaints on Twitter that she was an Obama nominee. While Sessions likely would have let Trump's immigration ban slide and ordered the Justice Department to defend it, Yates instead chose to stick to the letter of the law, writing to her colleagues that she did not see proof the executive order was "lawful." 10. She warned the Trump administration about Michael Flynn weeks before his resignation. Weeks prior to former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn announcing his resignation, Yates and the Justice Department had warned the White House he might be vulnerable to Russian blackmail, the Washington Post reports. The publication went on to report that Yates and another senior career national security official personally delivered the message to the White House counsel, which stated their belief that Flynn had misled Vice President Mike Pence and other senior officials about his communications with Russia. It is not clear at this time what, if anything, the White House did with this information - but in his resignation letter, Flynn did concede he had provided Pence and other senior officials with "incomplete information." 11. The Trump administration tried to block her testimony about Russia. Yates was supposed to testify before the House Intelligence Committee on March 28, 2017. But according to the Washington Post, the Trump administration informed her earlier in the month that parts of her testimony wouldnt be allowed because of a presidential communication privilege. Yatess attorney, David A. ONeil, disputes this position. We believe that the departments position in this regard is overbroad, incorrect, and inconsistent with the departments historical approach to the congressional testimony of current and former officials, he wrote in a letter to Acting Assistant Attorney General Samuel Ramer. In particular, we believe that Ms. Yates should not be obligated to refuse to provide non-classified facts about the departments notification to the White House of concerns about the conduct of a senior official. Requiring Ms. Yates to refuse to provide such information is particularly untenable given that multiple senior administration officials have publicly described the same events. He also wrote to White House counsel Donald McGahn, informing him of Ms. Yates intention to provide information. But the hearing didnt happen because the congressional panels chairman, Devin Nunes, abruptly canceled it. NBC obtains letter from Yates lawyers to WH stating her intent to testify despite attempt to block her Same day: Nunes canceled her hearing pic.twitter.com/AsfrLSEuEe - Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) March 28, 2017 Follow Gina on Twitter. You Might Also Like 4DX, the cinema motion technology developed by Koreas CJ 4DPlex, is to be installed in multiplexes in Australia and Africa. The installations mean that the equipment is now operational on six continents. CJ 4DPlex struck a deal with Australias Village Cinemas to equip one theater in Century City, Melbourne. The location was selected because of its past success with blockbuster movies. 4DX includes motion seats and environmental effects such as wind, rain, lightning, snow, and a variety of scents. It is currently installed in some 370 auditoriums across 47 countries. The company also unveiled a deal with Cinemax, the leading cinema exhibitor in Angola. Cinemax plans to open three 4DX locations in the countrys capital city, Luanda, by the end of 2020, beginning with Cinemax Talatona this year. 4DX was first installed in Africa in 2015 in through Nu Metro Cinemas in South Africa. Watch trailers, movies and more on Yahoo View, available now on iOS and Android. Al Gore presented a new trailer for An Inconvenient Sequel during CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Tuesday, a decade after he promoted the original An Inconvenient Truth. (Watch above.) The former vice revealed the trailer during the Paramount presentation. Reminiscent of the original, An Inconvenient Sequel depicted the dire consequences of a warming earth from flooding in Miami and the Philippines, to the worst drought on record in Syria bringing human suffering there that predated the ongoing civil war to air pollution so bad in some parts of China that life expectancy has declined by six years. The documentary kicked off this years Sundance Film Festival, where it was met with overwhelmingly positive reviews. The trailer starts with then-candidate Donald Trump joking about global warming. Later in the trailer, a hopeful Gore says there are positive developments, such as solar panels and other renewable energy sources. It also documents his trip to 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. His message is in direct opposition to that of President Trump, who called to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency and cancel billions of dollars in climate-change spending. The timing of the trailer couldnt be more perfect; President Trump issued a sweeping executive order on Tuesday rescinding many of the climate change regulations introduced by President Barack Obama, including reducing carbon emissions and lifting the moratorium of mining coal on federal lands. Mixing religion and politics We are witnessing a kind of reverse trend in progressive development in politics and society, which is clearly against the tenets of modernisation theories. Donald Trump is making a big legal move that may shape his presidency over the next four years. In New York Supreme Court, his longtime lawyer Marc Kasowitz looks to throw up a roadblock to a defamation lawsuit filed by Summer Zervos, who appeared on season five of The Apprentice. Zervos, represented by Gloria Allred, claims that Trump tarnished her reputation by denying acts like those he boasted about to Access Hollywood's Billy Bush. The Apprentice alum accuses Trump of kissing her twice in 2007 and attacking her in a hotel room. In response to this, Trump put out a statement that he "never met [Ms. Zervos] at a hotel or greeted her inappropriately," along with tweets how his accuser "made up events THAT NEVER HAPPENED." Now, Trump is looking to bifurcate the litigation so that "the threshold issue of whether the United States Constitution bars this Court from adjudicating this action against President Trump during his Presidency" can be briefed and resolved first. Kasowitz writes that Trump intends to file a motion to dismiss arguing that the Supremacy Clause immunizes the President from being sued in state court while in office. The attorney adds the "crucial threshold issue was raised, but not decided, by the U.S. Supreme Court in Clinton v. Jones." That refers to a lawsuit that Paula Jones filed against Bill Clinton in 1994, while he was serving his first term in the White House. Jones alleged that Clinton sexually harassed her while serving as Governor of Arkansas. Clinton's attorneys argued that in all but the most exceptional cases, any litigation against the president should be deferred until he left office. In 1997, the high court came back with its answer that a president can't escape private litigation. "Indeed, if the Framers of the Constitution had thought it necessary to protect the President from the burdens of private litigation, we think it far more likely that they would have adopted a categorical rule than a rule that required the President to litigate the question whether a specific case belonged in the 'exceptional case' subcategory," wrote Justice John Paul Stevens at the time. "In all events, the question whether a specific case should receive exceptional treatment is more appropriately the subject of the exercise of judicial discretion than an interpretation of the Constitution." Story continues But Trump's lawyer seizes on another aspect of the decision. Stevens also wrote that "immunity questions should be decided at the earliest possible stage of the litigation" in recognition of the "singular importance of the President's duties." "Moreover, as in Clinton v. Jones, the public interest mandates that the immunity issue be resolved before proceeding further," writes Kasowitz. "The 'singular importance of the President's duties' warrants a stay where civil actions, such as this one, 'frequently could distract a President from his public duties, to the detriment of not only the President and his office but also the Nation that the President was designed to serve.' Requiring President Trump to litigate the merits on a motion to dismiss the complaint, in addition to moving to dismiss on grounds of Presidential immunity, would negate the very interests that that immunity is designed to protect." According to Trump's court papers, Zervos' lawyer initially agreed to a 30-day extension, but wouldn't agree to a more expansive time table without an agreement to accept service of Zervos' subpoena. Without a deal, a judge is now being asked to intervene in a constitutional showdown. (NOTE: This story has been updated by Yahoo TV.) By Jessica McKinney Unfortunately, Flint, Michigan still doesnt have clean water. But finally, after years of drawing national attention to the crisis, campaigning, and state funding, the city is making concrete efforts to correct the problem, starting with the underground piping systems. As part of an agreed settlement, Michigan will reportedly replace 18,000 aging and lead-contaminated pipes by 2020, The Washington Post reports. The settlement, which was reportedly filed on Monday, (Mar. 27) will require the state to fund Flints replacement program over the next three years. Under that agreement, the state will reportedly pay $87 million for the reconstruction. An estimated $30 million of that money will come from the $100 million that Congress approved to help Flint last year, according to the Post. A Detroit federal judge will reportedly decide on Tuesday, (Mar. 28) whether to approve the remainder of the fund. The proposed agreement is a significant step forward for the Flint community, covering a number of critical issues related to water safety, Dimple Chaudhary, senior attorney with one of the environmental and civil rights groups behind the lawsuit, said. It provides a comprehensive framework to address lead contamination in Flints tap water. Other terms under the settlement include provisions to help Flint residents, including free bottled water distribution centers and water delivery for housebound residents. Flint has been without clean water since 2014, when the city switched its water source from Detroit River to Flint River. Many locals have reportedly been poisoned by the lead that has seeped into their water supply. While the crisis is far from over, the latest settlement is definitely a step in the right direction. This post Flint, Michigan To Replace 18,000 Contaminated Pipes In Next Three Years first appeared on Vibe. Rome (AFP) - About 146 migrants are feared missing after their boat capsized after leaving Libya, according to a Gambian youth who was rescued following the disaster, the UN refugee agency said Wednesday. The 16-year-old was barely conscious when he was spotted by the Iuventa, a ship belonging to the German organisation Jugend Rettet. He was then brought onto a Spanish military ship participating in the EU's "Operation Sophia" to crack down on smugglers, before being taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa. The vessel left on Sunday or Monday from Sabratha, northwestern Libya, with five children and several pregnant women among those on board, the teenager told a member of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees who met him at a hospital in Lampedusa. Most of the passengers were from Nigeria, Mali and The Gambia, he said. He said that the boat began taking on water a few hours after setting off, and that he survived by holding on to a fuel can. "It shows that there may very well be shipwrecks we don't know about, because the boats sink without a trace," Flavio de Giacomo, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), told AFP. UNHCR said in a statement that it was "deeply saddened" by this latest tragedy, which "comes as a stark reminder of the vital importance of robust research and rescue capacities." Since the beginning of this year, at least 590 migrants have died or gone missing along the Libyan coast, excluding this latest capsizing, the IOM estimates. "Saving lives at sea must remain the key priority for all and UNHCR commends the action of the Italian Coast Guard in coordination with Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency," UNHCR's Volker Turk said. - Migrants keep coming - Last week, the Spanish group Pro-Activa Open Arms discovered two empty and partially capsized dinghies, raising fears that hundreds of migrants could be missing, since smugglers often pack 120 to 140 people on such vessels, and sometimes many more. Story continues But these incidents are not included in the IOM's estimates, in particular as one of the vessels may have been one that capsized in Libyan waters shortly before then, in which 54 people were rescued but 66 were missing. The dangers have not slowed the surge in arrivals this year, however: The Italian coastguard says it orchestrated the rescue of more than 1,100 migrants off Libya between Tuesday and Wednesday morning. The coastguard is taking them to Sicily, which will bring the total number of arrivals to Italy this year to more than 24,000, a sharp increase from the same period last year. Nongovernmental organisations say the increase reflects worsening living conditions in Libya as well as fears, whipped up by smugglers, that Europe will soon block off the Mediterranean passage for good. Italy has been trying to bolster its cooperation with Libya to halt the people-smuggling operations by building camps to house migrants who are intercepted trying to reach Europe, and send them back to their countries. The plan has riled rights groups, who see the potential for abuse in Libya and note that 40 percent of sub-Saharan migrants who apply for asylum in Italy are currently being accepted. Rome (AFP) - About 146 migrants are feared missing after their boat capsized after leaving Libya, according to a Gambian man who was rescued following the disaster, the United Nations' refugee agency said Wednesday. The man was rescued by a Spanish military ship participating in the EU's "Operation Sophia" to crack down on smugglers, and then brought to the Italian island of Lampedusa. The vessel left on Sunday or Monday from Sabratha, western Libya, with five children and several pregnant women among those on board, the Gambian told a member of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees who met him at a hospital in Lampedusa. Most of the passengers were from Nigeria, Mali and The Gambia, he said. He said that the boat began taking on water a few hours after setting off, and that he survived by holding on to a fuel can. According to information gathered by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the man was spotted almost by accident by the Spanish ship, which then transferred him to the Italian coastguard. Since the beginning of this year, at least 590 migrants have died or gone missing along the Libyan coast, excluding this latest capsizing, the IOM estimates. The Italian authorities say more than 23,000 migrant arrivals have been registered on their coasts this year. BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) Two advocates for dairy farm workers were released on bond Tuesday following their arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement about two weeks ago. Zully Palacios and Enrique Balcazar, who are in the United States illegally, said they were still fighting for the release of a third activist, who remained behind bars. Palacios and Balcazar, leaders of immigrant rights group Migrant Justice, were arrested by plainclothes ICE officers over immigration violations. They don't have criminal records and weren't charged with criminal offenses. They said they believe ICE targeted them because they are activists. The third activist, Cesar Alexis Carrillo Sanchez, was taken into custody when he arrived at a courthouse to face a now-dismissed drunken-driving charge. A judge denied Sanchez bond, and Migrant Justice organizers said they believe he remains in a New Hampshire detention center. ICE said Sanchez told them he entered the United States illegally and is facing deportation. President Donald Trump, a Republican, has pushed to expand ICE's role and has called for thousands of new border patrol and ICE agents. He has said his immigration and deportation policies are necessary and are meant to keep the United States safe. Palacios is from Peru, and Balcazar and Sanchez are from Mexico. Balcazar spoke Tuesday about Trump's policies through a Spanish-English interpreter. "We, as an immigrant community, are facing very difficult times with the executive orders from the Trump administration," Balcazar said in Spanish. At the news conference at which Balcazar spoke, the National Education Association awarded Migrant Justice the Cesar Chavez Human and Civil Rights Award, one of its most prestigious awards. The NEA said it gave the award before it usually does in June to call attention to Migrant Justice and the nationwide arrests of immigrants. "We denounce in the strongest terms possible the arrest of these activists and call for the immediate release of the detained Migrant Justice leaders," NEA president Lily Eskelsen Garcia said. Story continues U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders, an independent, and Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, also a Democrat, said in a statement they have expressed serious concerns to ICE officials over the arrests. They also are asking about the potential impact in Vermont of Trump's executive order calling for increased immigration enforcement. "Instead of focusing on removing those people who pose a threat to public safety or national security, the Trump Administration is targeting all undocumented persons, including the people that help keep our dairy farms and rural economy afloat," their statement said. ANCHORAGE, Ky. (AP) Two people killed in an officer-involved shooting in a wealthy Kentucky suburb are suspects in the homicide of an elderly widower in another city 60 miles away, officials said Wednesday. Investigators from three jurisdictions are still piecing together the series of events Tuesday night that left three dead, including a 74-year-old man fatally stabbed in his home in Hardin County and two people police believe are connected to that homicide a man and a woman later killed in a confrontation with police. Hardin County Chief Deputy David Lee said police officers in Anchorage, Kentucky, a suburb of Louisville, called his county's dispatchers about 7 p.m. Tuesday to report a car abandoned near a field. A deputy was dispatched to check on the registered owner of that car. The deputy peered through the window of the home, where 74-year-old Lewis Hoskinson lives alone since his wife passed away. The deputy saw signs of foul play and called in backup. "The house was ransacked, everything was in disarray," Lee said. The deputies entered and discovered Hoskinson dead. He had been stabbed with a very large knife, Lee said. Meanwhile, officers with the Anchorage Police Department investigated around the stolen car, abandoned near a gravel drive that leads to a field behind the back lawns of stately houses. At some point, they encountered the two suspects. Both were killed in the confrontation. The Jefferson County Coroner's Office identified them late Wednesday as 18-year-old Destiny A. Moneyhun and 25-year-old Bradley James Sheets. Chief Deputy Coroner Jo-Ann Farmer said both were white and from Barren County, 50 miles from the stabbing victim and more than 100 miles from where they were shot and killed. Sheets was arrested earlier this year after police found him passed out behind the wheel of his truck at an intersection, according to local media reports at the time. He was booked with driving under the influence, possession of synthetic drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia. Story continues Both Sheets and Moneyhun were pronounced dead at the scene. Autopsies will be conducted Thursday. The two Anchorage police officers involved in the shooting were not injured. City attorney John T. McGarvey said one was a uniformed officer who was wearing a body camera. The second was in plain clothes and was not wearing a body camera. Louisville Metro Police Department spokeswoman Alicia Smiley said the Anchorage Police Department asked Louisville police to investigate the incident. Police have released few details on the shooting. McGarvey said the video and other evidence have been turned over to Louisville investigators. Lee said it remains unclear whether the suspects knew Hoskinson or if anything other than the car was stolen. He said deputies are working with the man's relatives to piece together what might have happened and what might be missing from his home. In Anchorage, a half-dozen police cars remained at the shooting scene Wednesday, along with forensic crews who cordoned off the overgrown field behind suburban homes. The bodies of two people remained uncovered at the scene. A pile of belongings, including a notebook and a teddy bear, lay near the woman's feet. Anchorage, a bedroom community of 2,300 people, is one of Kentucky's most expensive cities, with a median household income of $160,000, four times higher than the state. Crime is rare. There were no violent crimes reported in 2015, the most recent year of complete statistics published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Anchorage Police Chief H. Dean Hayes referred questions to the Louisville police. He leads a small department that consists of nine other officers. McGarvey has lived in town for 38 years, and he believes this is the first time any Anchorage officer has fired a weapon in a hostile situation while on duty. Many people heard the shots, he said, and saw dozens of police cars from the surrounding county come barreling into the sleepy town. "It traumatized folks a little bit," he said. The same day as the shooting, a Louisville police officer was fatally injured in a car crash while chasing a man suspected of domestic violence. He died Wednesday at the hospital. McGarvey said his Anchorage neighbors have tied blue ribbons on their mailboxes and lowered their flags, both in honor of the slain Louisville officer and in support of their small-town department. "The lesson is that we all live in a larger world; we're all connected by roads," he said. "Even in Anchorage, when a police officer comes up on a car, they don't know what they're going to confront." WHAT WE LIKE: Who says you need all-wheel drive to survive winter? As winter snow gives way to early spring rain, we can report that our rear-wheel-drive 740i sailed through the cold months and never struggled to find traction. It helps that we fitted our 7-series with Pirelli Sottozero Serie II winter tires, at a cost of $1556, but another factor is that BMW engineered an easily modulated, progressive throttle for dispatching torque. With redundancies on top of redundancies (such as gesture controls, steering-wheel-mounted audio controls, and standard audio controls), the iDrive infotainment system easily could have become irritatingly complicated. But we find the core interfacesa large rotary knob and function buttons that allow jumps directly to navigation, audio, and phone menusto be so intuitive that this is one of the easier systems to learn. Online copy chief Rusty Blackwell lauded the system for how quickly it processes commands. The system also has garnered praise for its ability to have two phones paired simultaneously via Bluetooth. And once again, the logbook contains fresh accolades for just how blissful the 740i is. This car soaks up miles like a sponge, noted senior technical editor K.C. Colwell. It rides almost as well as a Rolls-Royce and is nearly as quiet to my ear. WHAT WE DONT LIKE: But Colwell was aggravated that gentle freeway curves require constant corrections. It seems as though BMW focused only on quietness and ride comfort, because the steering, not to mention the handling, is among the worst of any car costing more than $50,000, he said. We also offer a word of warning to anyone considering ordering the $250 display key, a high-tech fob with a tiny touchscreen that can display information such as the projected range and whether the windows are open or closed. It also allows the driver to precondition the cabin, but only if youre within a few hundred feet of the car. While the smart key is no thicker than the average key fob, it is taller and wider, making it a bit bulky for carrying in a pocket. The biggest annoyance, though, is that you have to keep the fob charged either by plugging it into a wall socket or by slipping it into a wireless charging sleeve inside the center console. Pulling the key from a pocket or purse negates the convenience of a proximity key, passive entry, and push-button start. Its telling that we leave the display key behind most days and use the standard fob. Story continues WHAT WENT WRONG: On three consecutive mornings, Colwell observed the engine misfiring shortly after starting the car, although the problem always sorted itself out and the car never displayed a check-engine light. The 12-volt outlet near the front cupholders also went dead, sending Colwell on a hunt to locate the fuse. The owners manual directed him to a piece of paper in the right-rear fuse box, which uses pictograms, rather than words, to convey which circuit correlates with each fuse. It was only after finding an online forum with service-manual diagrams that he located the proper fuse beneath the glovebox. In the bigger picture, the 740i continues to perform flawlessly without a single warranty repair to date. And the car hasnt requested a maintenance visit in the 6700 miles since our last update. WHERE WE WENT: One of our drivers stopped for gas in the shadow of that I-75 icon, the red-and-white circus-tent water tower that reads FLORENCE YALL. Built on land that was donated to the city by a mall developer, the water tower originally read FLORENCE MALL until the wrong person at the Kentucky Bureau of Highways caught a glimpse of it. As painted, the water tower violated state laws for height restrictions on signage. Rather than pay to repaint the entire tower, Florence officials directed painters to turn the M into a Y and to add an apostrophe, providing the perfect non sequitur for a BMW 7-series review. Florence was merely a refueling stop on a round trip to Franklin, Tennessee, the farthest afield the 740i has ventured lately. Months in Fleet: 10 months Current Mileage: 34,669 miles Average Fuel Economy: 26 mpg Fuel Tank Size: 20.6 gal Fuel Range: 550 miles Service: $0 Normal Wear: $0 Repair: $0 Damage and Destruction: $1360 Specifications > VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan PRICE AS TESTED: $96,095 (base price: $82,295) ENGINE TYPE: turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 24-valve inline-6, aluminum block and head, direct fuel injection Displacement: 183 cu in, 2998 cc Power: 320 hp @ 6500 rpm Torque: 330 lb-ft @ 1380 rpm TRANSMISSION: 8-speed automatic with manual shifting mode DIMENSIONS: Wheelbase: 126.4 in Length: 206.6 in Width: 74.9 in Height: 58.2 in Passenger volume: 115 cu ft Cargo volume: 18 cu ft Curb weight: 4385 lb PERFORMANCE: NEW Zero to 60 mph: 4.8 sec Zero to 100 mph: 11.9 sec Zero to 130 mph: 21.6 sec Rolling start, 560 mph: 5.6 sec Top gear, 3050 mph: 2.9 sec Top gear, 5070 mph: 3.5 sec Standing -mile: 13.4 sec @ 105 mph Top speed (mfr's est.): 155 mph Braking, 700 mph: 159 ft Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.86 g FUEL ECONOMY: EPA city/highway driving: 21/29 mpg C/D observed: 26 mpg Unscheduled oil additions: 0 qt WARRANTY: 4 years/50,000 miles bumper to bumper; 12 years/unlimited miles corrosion protection; 4 years/unlimited miles roadside assistance; 4 years/50,000 miles scheduled maintenance After 120,000 miles divided among a 2012 BMW 328i sedan, a 2014 BMW 328d xDrive wagon, and a 2015 BMW M3, were ready for a respite from the sixth-generation 3-series. Each one of those recent long-termers left us cold: too disconnected, too expensive, or too flinty, but most of all, just short of totally satisfying. BMWs quest to adapt the 3-series for mass-market appeal has watered down our decades-long love for the car that once combined control, practicality, and fun like no other. Instead of hunting for the ghosts of BMW past with yet another long-term 3-series, weve redirected our focus toward a 2016 BMW 740i. Well spend 40,000 miles determining if BMWs apparent new prioritiesluxury and comfort before sporthave been perfected in the companys flagship. The 7-series is less about driving and more about riding, and these days, that means a car packed with electronics. The sixth-generation 7-series takes the first baby steps toward automated highway driving with optional adaptive cruise control and brief stints of self-steering lane keeping. We assume that BMW designers also are fans of Minority Report, because the latest iteration of iDrive allows passengers to wave a hand or twirl a finger in front of the 10.2-inch touchscreen to accept an incoming call or to adjust the audio volume. Yes, the gesture controls are every bit as gimmicky and imperfect as they sound. Looking beyond the silicon and semiconductors, this new G11 chassis blends high-strength steel, cast and extruded aluminum, carbon fiber, and magnesium for a lighter unitized structure. Expensive, But Not That Expensive Weve been conditioned to think of the 7-series as a six-figure car, so we impressed ourselves when we ordered our long-termer with a $96,095 price tag. It helped to start with the least expensive 7-series, an $82,295 rear-wheel-drive, six-cylinder 740i, because from there we positively splurged on indulgences. The $3900 Luxury Seating package with Cold Weather brings heated, ventilated, and massaging power rear seats; a heated steering wheel; heated front and rear armrests; and a 7.0-inch Samsung tablet in the rear console that allows control of just about everything in the car except for the steering wheel and pedals. The $4100 Executive package adds power side-window shades, ventilated 20-way adjustable front seats, a head-up display, and ceramic trim for the shifter, the iDrive controller, and the radio. We went for the $1900 Driver Assistance Plus package, which includes front-collision mitigation, lane-departure warning, speed-limit display, automatic parking, and blind-spot detection but is most notable for the included surround-view camera system with a 3D view. BMW uses four cameras to stitch together an image that looks as if your personal cinematographer is filming the car from 10 feet away, and you can pinch the air and wiggle your wrist to rotate around the car for different angles. The jury is still out on whether this is more useful than the birds-eye or traditional vantages (these are also selectable views in the 7-series), but this bit of tech feels less like a gimmick and more like something truly innovative. Notably, we skipped the Driver Assistance Plus II package that adds adaptive cruise control and active lane-keeping for $1700. We dont expect to miss either feature much. Our drivers typically prefer traditional cruise control, and, based on experience, we know that the BMWs steering assistant is merely a lane-keeping aid rather than a stand-in for two human hands. Sundries include $2600 for 20-inch wheels and $900 for a larger panoramic glass roof with LED accent lighting. We also spent $250 for what weve taken to calling a key foblet. It features a tiny touchscreen that allows you to precondition the cabin and to check the status of the door locks or the windows. It was probably money we shouldnt have spent. Theres a phone app that accomplishes the same thing, and the key is merely one more electronic gizmo to keep charged. Finally, we dropped $150 for a space-saver spare, which adds some additional security against being stranded, over and above the standard run-flat tires, but comes with the penalty of raising the trunk floor by about six inches. Driving the Thing We werent expecting sports-car moves, so we were surprised when the 320-hp six-cylinder made such light work of the burden it carries. At the track, the 4385-pound 740i reached 60 mph in only 4.8 seconds, and a panic stop from 70 mph required just 159 feet of roadway. The skidpad figure of 0.86 g qualifies as respectable, although not exactly impressive. Several logbook commenters have noted how soft the ride is, particularly in the cars Comfort Plus mode. One staffer even compared the 740i to a Kia K900, a recent and unloved long-termer in our fleet. Bizarrely, that plush suspension tune doesnt mean the ride is entirely comfortable. Our 7-series seems to be affected by a paradoxical chassis tuning in which the suspension doesnt provide enough body control, but the wheel impacts are too harsh. Over sharp lateral features such as expansion joints, the 740i pounds and smacks the pavement. The run-flat tires likely dont help, but weve never had this problem with a Mercedes-Benz S-class on run-flat rubber. Despite the persistent drumbeat of complaints about the stiff tires, the 740i is still a wonderful way to cover big mileage. Assistant buyers guide editor Annie White logged almost 2000 miles driving from Ann Arbor to Indiana, Virginia, North Carolina, Washington, D.C., and back to Michigan. By far the most comfortable car I have ever road-tripped in, she wrote. I had no back pain at allwhich is not normal for methanks to the truly excellent seats with seemingly endless adjustability. The small-displacement engine also is delivering on its end of the bargain: In addition to the impressive track-test performance, were averaging 26 mpg through the first two months. Months in Fleet: 2 months Current Mileage: 7160 miles Average Fuel Economy: 26 mpg Fuel Tank Size: 20.6 gal Fuel Range: 530 miles Service: $0 Normal Wear: $0 Repair: $0 Specifications > VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan PRICE AS TESTED: $96,095 (base price: $82,295) ENGINE TYPE: turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 24-valve inline-6, aluminum block and head, direct fuel injection Displacement: 183 cu in, 2998 cc Power: 320 hp @ 6500 rpm Torque: 330 lb-ft @ 1380 rpm TRANSMISSION: 8-speed automatic with manual shifting mode DIMENSIONS: Wheelbase: 126.4 in Length: 206.6 in Width: 74.9 in Height: 58.2 in Passenger volume: 115 cu ft Cargo volume: 18 cu ft Curb weight: 4385 lb PERFORMANCE: NEW Zero to 60 mph: 4.8 sec Zero to 100 mph: 11.9 sec Zero to 130 mph: 21.6 sec Rolling start, 560 mph: 5.6 sec Top gear, 3050 mph: 2.9 sec Top gear, 5070 mph: 3.5 sec Standing -mile: 13.4 sec @ 105 mph Top speed (mfr's est.): 155 mph Braking, 700 mph: 159 ft Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.86 g FUEL ECONOMY: EPA city/highway driving: 21/29 mpg C/D observed: 26 mpg Unscheduled oil additions: 0 qt WARRANTY: 4 years/50,000 miles bumper to bumper; 12 years/unlimited miles corrosion protection; 4 years/unlimited miles roadside assistance; 4 years/50,000 miles scheduled maintenance WHAT WE LIKE: Commutes during Michigans construction season are just a little bit easier when cocooned inside a BMW 740i. The cabin mutes jackhammers, the numb steering neutralizes rumble strips, the suspension floats over milled pavement, and the seatsmy word, the seats. If you cant get comfortable in these thrones, you are probably a giraffe. The optional 20-way seats, part of the $4100 Executive package, include power-adjustable headrests, power thigh extensions, four-way lumbar, andwhat really sets them apartpower shoulder articulation. The latter allows the angle of the upper seatback to be adjusted relative to the lower portion, accommodating all forms of posture from the rigidly perfect to the appallingly hunched. The seats have garnered only a single complaint to date: The drivers seat provides essentially no lateral butt/thigh support on entrance ramps, wrote one hard-charging driver using said on-ramp en route to discovering that the 740i cruises nicely at 100 with no show of effort. That staffer wasnt the only one smitten with the 740is silky speed. Deputy online editor Dave VanderWerp noted that the 740i makes 100 mph feel like 70 and associate online editor Joey Capparella wrote in the logbook, I cannot imagine wanting more power in this car. That comment almost disqualifies Capparella from working at Car and Driver, except that he has a valid point. The single-turbo 3.0-liter inline-six has impressive low-end response and strong top-end pull, and it continues to deliver 26 mpg. WHAT WE DONT LIKE: The driving dynamics have taken a back seat to, uh, the back seat. We werent expecting the 7-series to move like an M3, or even a 3-series for that matter. We were expecting our 740i to have more steering feel than a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe and more body control than a middle-aged dad at a trampoline park. BMW seems headed toward the old Cadillac paradigm, VanderWerp assessed, noting the 7-series increasingly buoyant body control and increasingly ostentatious bright bits found on the interior and exterior. Those interior adornments are just one small reason our long-term 740i feels more opulent than its $96,095 price to almost anyone who passes through its doors. However, we have noticed a few whiffs of cost-cutting. For example, the doors no longer open with an infinite number of checks to hold them in place. Instead, its on the occupants to find one of the detents that keep the doors from swinging closed on their own, just like commoners in their Toyota Camrys. Also, the side glass isnt acoustically laminatedeven hoi polloi in the Honda Pilot can get quieting dual-pane side glass, and weve noted higher-than-expected wind-rush noise at highway speeds in our 7. Other niggles reported in the logbook include a steering wheel that doesnt tilt down far enough. Some think the ceramic coating for some controls, also part of the Executive package, make the volume and iDrive knobs slick and difficult to use, and one driver caught the nav system displaying mislabeled roads, including major interstates. WHAT WENT WRONG: The fuel door began to separate from its hinged inner plate around 6800 miles and departed the car entirely by 8600 miles. Our dealer replaced it just days before the 740i went in for its first service at 10,000 miles. We didnt pay a dime for either visit. The fuel door was covered under the warranty and the service was paid for under BMWs four-year/50,000-mile included maintenance. We lost the drivers-side front tire to a pothole on a 35-mph Chicago side street. The driver, who had criticized the run-flat tires for compromising the ride quality a couple of months earlier, drove 20 miles on the deflated tire. I didnt even bother swapping for the compact spare, figuring it was a waste of time to change one tire rated for 50 mph for another one with the same restriction. We replaced the tire at a suburban Chicago BMW dealer at a cost of $501. WHERE WE WENT: Other than the jaunt to Chicago and a quick run to Pennsylvania, our 740i has spent most of these past few months in and around Michigan. The 2000-mile East Coast trip mentioned in our 740is long-term intro story remains the longest trip to date. Months in Fleet: 4 months Current Mileage: 13,569 miles Average Fuel Economy: 26 mpg Fuel Tank Size: 20.6 gal Fuel Range: 530 miles Service: $0 Normal Wear: $0 Repair: $0 Damage and Destruction: $501 Specifications > VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan PRICE AS TESTED: $96,095 (base price: $82,295) ENGINE TYPE: turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 24-valve inline-6, aluminum block and head, direct fuel injection Displacement: 183 cu in, 2998 cc Power: 320 hp @ 6500 rpm Torque: 330 lb-ft @ 1380 rpm TRANSMISSION: 8-speed automatic with manual shifting mode DIMENSIONS: Wheelbase: 126.4 in Length: 206.6 in Width: 74.9 in Height: 58.2 in Passenger volume: 115 cu ft Cargo volume: 18 cu ft Curb weight: 4385 lb PERFORMANCE: NEW Zero to 60 mph: 4.8 sec Zero to 100 mph: 11.9 sec Zero to 130 mph: 21.6 sec Rolling start, 560 mph: 5.6 sec Top gear, 3050 mph: 2.9 sec Top gear, 5070 mph: 3.5 sec Standing -mile: 13.4 sec @ 105 mph Top speed (mfr's est.): 155 mph Braking, 700 mph: 159 ft Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.86 g FUEL ECONOMY: EPA city/highway driving: 21/29 mpg C/D observed: 26 mpg Unscheduled oil additions: 0 qt WARRANTY: 4 years/50,000 miles bumper to bumper; 12 years/unlimited miles corrosion protection; 4 years/unlimited miles roadside assistance; 4 years/50,000 miles scheduled maintenance WHAT WE LIKE: Our staff has made a habit of griping that we didnt order our long-term BMW 740i with adaptive cruise control. We normally wouldnt include this under the heading What We Like except that, in the cars logbook, this comment is always framed with the context that our 7-series is such a gifted long-distance runner. We love that long distances shrink and tired muscles actually relax when were behind the wheel. Online editor Alexander Stoklosa contributed one of the typical notes when he wrote, This car is adaptive cruise control and a massaging drivers seat away from road-trip perfection. We relish the quiet cabin, the comfortable front seats, the spacious accommodations in the rear, and that theres a high-tech convenience feature for every needsave for adjusting our speed to traffic. The one defense of our $96,095 configuration came from associate online editor Joey Capparella on a drive from Michigan to Tennessee: I never really missed adaptive cruise because the standard system is so good. Its easy to adjust in both 1- and 5-mph increments and very smooth. I also was never bothered by the lane-keeping assist or forward-collision warning. Theyre both unobtrusive but still helpful. Time has done nothing to blunt our enthusiasm for the turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six. This six is still magic, and its a joy to have it work a bit harder in one of its heaviest applications, senior editor Tony Quiroga noted. I wouldnt need any more power in a 7. And even though we do work the engine hard, our average fuel economy has climbed from 26 to 27 mpg since the last update. Were now exceeding the EPA combined rating by 3 mpg. WHAT WE DONT LIKE: In the words of features editor Jeff Sabatini: God forbid it ever drive anywhere not on the freeway. In our jobs were constantly swatting down marketing pitches in which automakers claim theyve built a no-compromise, do-everything vehicle. This 7-series seems the exact antithesis of that (usually wishful) notion. It possesses a singular focus on luxurious comfort to the detriment of the handling. Theres a weird, nonlinear heft added to the steering in Sport mode and there is a good deal of float in the chassis on the highway in Comfort. I suppose I should just forget about having a sporty BMW, wrote Quiroga. Quirogain chorus with the majority of the staffalso dismissed the Gesture Control system that debuted with the 7-series. It allows the driver or front passenger to twirl a finger to raise or lower the volume, wave a hand to ignore an incoming phone call, or slide a pinched thumb and forefinger to rotate the view from the exterior cameras. Gesture Control is the dumbest gimmick I can recall. How about a volume knob next to the iDrive controller instead? Hes right. At best, Gesture Control adds another level of redundancy that we almost never use, except to show off to easily impressed friends and family members. WHAT WENT WRONG: A freakishly large raccoon crossed the 740is path in October, and while the encounter ended much worse for the trash burglar than for our driver, we shelled out $486 to have the dealer replace a damaged fog-lamp cover and side grille. Also, the right-front tire suffered impact damage and developed a bubble in the sidewall, necessitating our second tire replacement to date. The new Bridgestone Potenza S001 RFT cost us $373. Our pseudo-sentient 7-series also requested dealer visits at 21,000 and 25,000 miles. While the latter stop was only supposed to be an inspection, the service department changed the oil anyway. Both visits were covered under BMWs four-year, 50,000-mile no-charge maintenance scheme. WHERE WE WENT: The 7-series is locked in a battle with our long-term diesel Range Rover Td6. Both sip frugally from large fuel tanks, delivering big range in addition to excellent comfort with plenty of luxury trappings. Since our last update, Capparella drove the BMW 520 miles to Nashville in a single shot. Stoklosa ran from Ann Arbor to Boston and logged more than 700 miles on one tank. Technology and mobility editor Pete Bigelow used the BMW to cover an assignment in Pittsburgh, and copy editor Jennifer Harrington used the 740i for a trip to Richmond, Virginia. Testing director Don Sherman returned to his Iowa alma mater to see the Hawkeyes defeat the Michigan Wolverines. Months in Fleet: 8 months Current Mileage: 27,999 miles Average Fuel Economy: 27 mpg Fuel Tank Size: 20.6 gal Fuel Range: 550 miles Service: $0 Normal Wear: $0 Repair: $0 Damage and Destruction: $1360 Specifications > VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan PRICE AS TESTED: $96,095 (base price: $82,295) ENGINE TYPE: turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 24-valve inline-6, aluminum block and head, direct fuel injection Displacement: 183 cu in, 2998 cc Power: 320 hp @ 6500 rpm Torque: 330 lb-ft @ 1380 rpm TRANSMISSION: 8-speed automatic with manual shifting mode DIMENSIONS: Wheelbase: 126.4 in Length: 206.6 in Width: 74.9 in Height: 58.2 in Passenger volume: 115 cu ft Cargo volume: 18 cu ft Curb weight: 4385 lb PERFORMANCE: NEW Zero to 60 mph: 4.8 sec Zero to 100 mph: 11.9 sec Zero to 130 mph: 21.6 sec Rolling start, 560 mph: 5.6 sec Top gear, 3050 mph: 2.9 sec Top gear, 5070 mph: 3.5 sec Standing -mile: 13.4 sec @ 105 mph Top speed (mfr's est.): 155 mph Braking, 700 mph: 159 ft Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.86 g FUEL ECONOMY: EPA city/highway driving: 21/29 mpg C/D observed: 27 mpg Unscheduled oil additions: 0 qt WARRANTY: 4 years/50,000 miles bumper to bumper; 12 years/unlimited miles corrosion protection; 4 years/unlimited miles roadside assistance; 4 years/50,000 miles scheduled maintenance From Popular Mechanics Sometimes one or two rockets just won't do, and you need 239 or 240. That's the thinking behind the Jobari Defense Systems Multiple Cradle Launcher (MCL). Developed in the United Arab Emirates, MCL can ripple fire more than two hundred rockets at some unfortunate target, saturating an area with tens of thousands of lethal steel balls. The MCL consists of an Oshkosh Defense 66 Heavy Equipment Transporter-known in the US Army as the M1070 HET. The M1070 is used by the Army to haul Abrams tanks, and towards that end has eight wheels and a 700 horsepower Caterpillar six cylinder turbocharged diesel engine. The rest of the MCL is a 5 x 5 trailer with four rocket launcher cradles, each holding sixty 122-millimeter rockets. Once in position, the trailer lowers ten hydraulic stabilizers into place, securing the MCL against the recoil of firing. The fire control system is fully computerized, with the gunner able to select the number of rockets to launch. An internal navigation system and global positioning system for each of the four cradles aids in accuracy. The MCL apparently uses TRB-122 122-millimeter rockets manufactured by Turkish defense contractor Rocketsan. A high explosive version has a point detonating fuse, while another version uses a proximity fuze to saturate the target area with lethal steel balls. Both rockets have a range of up to 22 miles at sea level. The MCL can ripple fire all 240 rounds in less than two minutes, or 8,640 pounds of high explosive and steel. The MCL packs a lot of rockets into a single vehicle, up to six times more than other mobile rocket launchers. Placing all that firepower under the command of a single gunner simplifies command and control, and allows the gunner to plot the destruction of a very wide area. But there are some downsides. The small warhead 122-millimeter warhead makes for a fairly small rocket with a short range and smaller payload-likely about 36 pounds of high explosive. The enormous size of the MCL, trailer and all, would make it hard to transport to distant battlefields. Based on a wheeled semi tractor trailer, the MCL probably has limited offroad capability, making it mostly road-bound. Story continues Last month, Jobaria introduced the Twin Cradle Launcher (TCL), which carries two cradles each with four 300-millimeter rockets. These larger rockets, probably the Rocketsan TR-300 rockets, have both high explosive and steel ball warheads and a range of more than sixty miles. Source: USArmy4Lyfe You Might Also Like It was an adorable moment caught on video as a 3-year-old girl in Massachusetts sat down to dine with a police officer who was eating alone. In the cute video shared by the Hingham Police Department, the girl, named Lillian, engages the officer girl at a local Panera. Read: Santa Claus Is Coming to Dinner: Little Girl Meets Cop Whose Beard Makes Her Think He's St. Nick The officer, Sgt. Steven Dearth, described Lillian as a "very outgoing" girl who approached his table to talk to him while out eating with her parents and a younger sibling. "I was working an evening shift and I stopped to have dinner at Panera bread. I was waiting for my food to get ready and I saw this little girl and she looked at me and smiled and I smiled," Sgt. Dearth told InsideEdition.com. "Her dad carried her over and then I gave her a high five and a 'Jr. Police Officer' sticker." Dearth said he then went to sit down and eat his meal when Lillian sauntered over to his table with her parents watching. He motioned for her to sit down. "We talked. She asked if I had a police car and toward the end of the dinner she said, 'We should have a playdate in a few days.'" Dearth said. "The whole time she never turned around to look at her parents. It was amazing to see a child that was that comfortable around a uniform police officer." The pair snapped a photo together before parting ways. Read: Rescue Dog Saves 3-Year-Old Girl's Life, Finds Her Curled Up in a Ditch Dearth says Lillians mom, Nicole, plans to bring her to the police station to show her around later in the week. Its not exactly a playdate but it will do. Watch: Little Boy Calls 911 to Invite Sheriff's Deputies to Thanksgiving Dinner Related Articles: NEW ORLEANS (AP) It's 30 days and counting until nearly 600 performers converge on the New Orleans Fair Grounds Race Course for the annual celebration of music known as Jazz Fest. The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival will be held over two weekends, April 28-30 and May 4-7 featuring such names as Stevie Wonder, Maroon 5, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Harry Connick Jr., Aaron Neville, Snoop Dogg, Nas, Meghan Trainor, Herb Alpert, Alabama Shakes and Darius Rucker. Organizers Tuesday released the festival's coveted "cubes," which detail what days, what stages and exact times for each performance over the festival's seven days. Full details can be found at www.nojazzfest.com . "That one city could have all of this great talent, is just incredible in my opinion," festival producer Quint Davis said during a news conference. "I don't think you could find this kind of talent anywhere else. There are buried treasures everywhere on this schedule and I encourage you to look at those cubes, make plans and dig deep for them." The festival's international spotlight this year shines on Cuba. "Getting Cuba has been two years in the making," Davis said. "This is the largest and most important cultural connection we've made yet. It's going to be Cuban food and art and music all day, every day." Among the 14 musical artists scheduled are reggaeton group Gente de Zona, jazz pianist Chucho Valdes, timba kings Los Van Van, rapper Pitbull, "street poet" Telmary and Afro-Cuban band Adonis y Osain del Monte. The artists' performance times are included, for the first time, on the festival's cubes. In addition to the music, the Cuban cultural exchange will include opportunities to taste the country's food. Congreso Cuban catering company will serve frijoles negros (black beans) with rice; tostones (fried green plantains), ropa vieja (braised steak) and paleta de cafe con leche (coffee ice pop). Story continues With four weeks to go, Davis said festival organizers are definitely in "go mode." "On Monday, we began laying out the configuration for the stages and all. We're just waiting for the horses to leave before we move all the tractor-trailers into place." The festival, in its 48th year, is presented by Shell. New trekking routes identified at Dhaulagiri and Kanjirowa A total of thirteen new trekking routes along Dhaulagiri and Kanjirowa mountain ranges have been identified. London (AFP) - It is a fitting quirk of history that the 264 words shaping Britain's divorce from the EU were brought to life by British representatives over the objections of federalist colleagues who warned of trouble ahead. The now-infamous Article 50 triggered by Prime Minister Theresa May came about as part of a grand convention, undertaken between 2002 and 2003, to write an overarching constitution for the EU as it prepared to enlarge deep into eastern Europe. Looking back today, delegates to the convention recall the rancour that surrounded the very idea of an "exit clause", which was unprecedented in EU law. "Most people thought the notion that you might ever want to leave was an utter insult," said British lawmaker Gisela Stuart, who was part of the convention's 13-strong executive "praesidium". The Labour MP fought hard for the exit clause at the convention, noting that it was touch and go whether it would be retained when delegates held their final negotiating session in July 2003. The convention ended, to the sounds of champagne corks popping and Beethoven's "Ode to Joy", with the clause intact. Stuart did not share in the joy. She went on to take a starring role in the pro-Brexit campaign that culminated in last year's referendum decision by voters to make Britain the first country to take advantage of Article 50. Her revulsion at the EU grew out of what she felt was the elitist spirit of the convention, but was fuelled particularly by later events. The EU's enlargement did take place, in 2004, but the proposed constitution was then thrown out by French and Dutch voters in referendums. - A punishment clause - Despite that stinging electoral rebuff, EU leaders regrouped and bundled much of the legal revamp into a new treaty, signed in Lisbon. The initial text's "Article 60" lived on in the form of Article 50. Still, few involved in its evolution thought it would ever be invoked. Story continues Originally, the idea was to encourage adoption of the constitution as quickly as possible by creating a mechanism to kick out a member state if it failed to ratify the text within two years. "Everyone assumed it would be the British who would have a problem with ratifying the constitution, not the French or the Dutch. So at first it was an expulsion clause," Stuart told AFP in a phone interview. "But neither at its inception nor in its final stage, when it became the Lisbon treaty's Article 50, did any of its draftsmen consider that it would be needed." The two-year timeframe for withdrawal lived on in the revamped treaty, but the article's designers did not spell out whether the process can be stopped once it begins. That ambiguity could become a flashpoint as opponents to Brexit fight a rearguard action to retain Britain's membership, or at least access to the EU's common market. British diplomat John Kerr, who as secretary-general to the convention was Article 50's draftsman-in-chief, insists that the process is indeed reversible if the member state changes its mind. - One-way ticket - In a BBC interview in November, Kerr, a member of the House of Lords, conceded that he had very different circumstances in mind when crafting the article. "I thought the circumstances in which it would be used, if ever, would be when there was a coup in a member state and the EU suspended that country's membership," he said. "I thought that at that point the dictator in question might be so cross that he'd say 'right, I'm off' and it would be good to have a procedure under which he could leave." However, others at the convention predicted that the new clause would be exploited by eurosceptics to make endless mischief. "At the time the EU's opponents framed the EU as a one-way ticket to an unknown destination in a locked carriage," Dutch representative Gijs de Vries told AFP. Some of the EU's defenders felt that inserting an exit clause would refute such arguments. But de Vries said that "the introduction of an exit clause was unlikely to satisfy the populists; on the contrary, I expected it to embolden them. a"I fear the British referendum debate rather proved my point." House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes is under fire over his handling of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The California Republican acknowledged Monday that he met an unnamed source and reviewed intelligence reports at the White House complex before making public statements that associates of President Trump were caught up in incidental surveillance. The intelligence committees ranking Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff, and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate have called on Nunes to recuse himself from the Russia probe, though he and Speaker Paul Ryan have dismissed the idea. Here are seven things you need to know about Devin Nunes. His name is pronounced NEW-ness. TV pundits keep pronouncing Nunes last name, which is of Portuguese origin, as noon-YEZ. But a pronunciation guide for Congress from CQ Roll Call notes it is pronounced NEW-ness. He was not a vocal Trump supporter during the election. Nunes stayed neutral during the Republican presidential primary. After Trump became the nominee, he said that he supported his partys nominee without using his name. But according to Politico, he made a standing offer to brief Republican hopefuls on national security issues which the Trump campaign took up in March of 2016. In that role, grew close with retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who later was tapped as Trumps first national security adviser, Politico reported. Trump later fired Flynn for misleading Vice President Mike Pence about whether he discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador. But he was part of the Trump transition team. After the election, Nunes was named to the executive committee leading Trumps transition team, giving recommendations on national security picks, including then-Rep. Mike Pompeo as CIA director. Now that Im on the executive committee, my phone is ringing off the hook from all over the country - people who know me are sending their resumes, Nunes said. Story continues He went to the White House grounds under mysterious circumstances. In early March, Trump tweeted without evidence that former President Obama had my wires tapped in Trump Tower before the election, drawing weeks of criticism. On March 20, FBI Director James Comey testified before the House Intelligence Committee that the FBI and the Department of Justice have no information to support Trumps tweets. The next day, Nunes went to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House to meet with an unnamed source who showed him documents related to U.S. intelligence surveillance. The day after that, Nunes held a press conference to announce that the intelligence community had inadvertently surveilled people involved in the transition, then went to the White House to brief Trump on his findings. He later said it was simply a convenient location. In an interview with Bloomberg columnist Eli Lake this week, Nunes said he met with his source on the White House grounds because he needed a secure location with a computer that can access the system that stores the reports. We dont have networked access to these kinds of reports in Congress, he said. He also said that his source was an intelligence official and not a White House staffer. Nunes told CNN that neither the President nor his team knew he was there, although a former White House official said he would have needed to be cleared and escorted into the building by a staffer. Nunes says the surveillance was legal, but he has concerns. Intelligence agencies often spy on foreign nationals who talk with U.S. citizens. When this so-called incidental surveillance involves a U.S. citizen, intelligence officials are supposed to mask their identities in government reports. Nunes told CNN most of the names in the documents he viewed were masked but he has concerns about the ones that were unmasked, as well as how widely the surveillance findings were later shared within the government. Trump felt vindicated, though Nunes still contradicts him. After Nunes press conference, Trump said he felt somewhat vindicated about his wiretapping tweets. But Nunes has long said that he does not think that Obama had Trumps wires tapped, a view he repeated even after reviewing the documents at the Eisenhower office building. That never happened, he said. This article was originally published on TIME.com A firefighter touches the names of firefighters carved into the south pool during 15th anniversary ceremony of the attacks on the World Trade Center at the Sept. 11 memorial in New York City. (Photo: Mary Altaffer/AP) A group of families of Sept. 11 victims is asking the Justice Department to investigate an unprecedented foreign influence campaign by Saudi Arabia including all-expenses paid trips to Washington, D.C., with stays at the new Trump International Hotel for veterans willing to lobby to weaken a new law permitting the Saudi government to be sued for complicity in the 2001 terror attacks. Lawyers for the families charge that Saudi operatives duped hundreds of veterans into lobbying on the issue warning them that under the new law they could be subjected to retaliatory lawsuits in foreign countries without disclosing the effort was being bankrolled by the Saudi government. In service of this dangerous effort to influence Congress into passing legislative text promoted by a foreign power, the Kingdom and its foreign agents have targeted U.S. veterans nationwide and deceived them into serving as unwitting advocates for the Saudi government, according to a letter sent Wednesday to Attorney General Jeff Sessions by lawyers for the 9/11 Families and Survivors United for Justice Against Terrorism, a group that represents thousands of 9/11 family victims. The letter, a copy of which was provided to Yahoo News, opens up a new front in the battle over JASTA, the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act a controversial, recently enacted law that gives the 9/11 families new powers to press lawsuits against the Saudi government in U.S. courts. The families contend that the Saudis unparalleled campaign to weaken the measure including hiring an army of 100 lobbyists and spending at least $1.3 million a month violated the statute known as the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, which requires full disclosure of foreign sponsored lobbying activities. But in making their case in the letter, the families also include as exhibits internal Saudi lobbying memos and emails that could reopen a thorny legal issue for the Trump Organization and the White House: whether a foreign government and its U.S. agents are steering business to the Trump Hotel, still owned by President Trump, in what critics charge is a violation of the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution. The clause bars government officials from receiving payments or gifts of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State. Story continues The Trump International Hotel lobby and restaurant area has become a very known place for politicos and others to gather, Jason Johns, a registered lobbyist for Saudi Arabia who lives in Wisconsin, wrote in a memo to a group of veterans who were flown to Washington and booked rooms at the hotel for a three-day trip starting on Jan. 23, three days after President Trumps inauguration. Fara Complaint 20170329 The memo notes that during previous fly-ins we have run into Senators, Congressman, Agency Officials, Ambassadors and lobbyists, members of the press, etc. Of course, utilize the opportunity to speak with these individuals regarding the law the veterans were told to oppose, which would allow the Saudis to be sued. Johns, who serves as deputy national commander of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, a veterans group, did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday night. He had previously referred questions about his role to other veterans who helped organize the trip. This is a very unsavory combination of foreign government cash in a Trump business along with foreign influence buying, said Norm Eisen, a former White House ethics advisor under President Obama, who in January helped file a lawsuit against the president over foreign payments to the Trump Organization, which owns the Trump Hotel. If it is proven that Saudi government funds were being used to pay for stays at the Trump Hotel, that is a facial violation of the emoluments clause, Eisen added. Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC. (Photo: Alex Brandon/AP) Hope Hicks, a White House spokeswoman, referred all questions about the Saudi sponsorship of the Trump Hotel stays to the Trump Organization. Sheri Dillon, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, who in January pledged that all profits received by the business from foreign governments would be remitted to the U.S. Treasury, did not respond to a request for comment. But Michael Petruzzello, managing director for Qorvis MSLGroup, the Washington, D.C., lobbying firm that has long represented the Saudi government and arranged and paid for the veterans trips to the Trump Hotel, dismissed the idea that there was anything improper about the arrangements. Petruzzello acknowledged that hundreds of veterans had gone on the trips and that they were booked rooms at a discounted rate of about $300 a night. They were staying [at the Trump Hotel] because thats where they were getting a good rate, he said. The insinuation that this was going to influence the administration, by staying at the hotel, thats just silly. As for the letters allegations that the lobbying effort may have violated the provisions of FARA, Petruzzello said: We take compliance with FARA very seriously and we report everything accurately. The allegation by the lawyers for the 9/11 families that the veterans had been deceived rings hollow to me, he added. I find it hard to believe anyone would feel they didnt know why they were in Washington, he said. No one has come to me or come to us and complained about the trips, he said. The existence of the Saudi lobbying campaign including the bookings for veterans at the Trump Hotel was initially reported in January by Daily Caller and Politico. But the extent of the effort appears to have been much larger than previously known. By tracking Facebook and other social media postings by the participants, Brian McGlinchey, who writes a blog called 28pages.org, has identified seven separate visits by groups of between 20 and 50 veterans who booked rooms at the Trump Hotel, starting on Nov. 14, the week after the election. Two of those visits, one from Jan. 23 to 26 and another in mid-February, occurred after Trump became president. About 300 veterans are estimated to have gone on the trips in response to email invitations such as one written by Shelbi Lewark, a Denver based political consultant and another Saudi lobbyist, last December. You dont have to know anything about JASTA, wrote Lewark to a group of veterans she was trying to recruit for the effort. It is all expenses paid (flight, dinner, hotel, transportation). They will be putting you in the Trump hotel, which is incredibly nice. Its an awesome trip and basically like a 5 star vacation. Asked about the email Tuesday night, Lewark acknowledged the wording was a little foolish but said that the reference to the free rooms at the Trump hotel was included because I didnt want to make it seem like they were going to be spending the whole time stuck in a room in a Motel 6. Email Fr: Shelbi Lewark Subject: JASTA JASTA, the new law that is the target of the lobbying campaign, was overwhelmingly passed by Congress last fall over the veto of President Obama. It permits victims of terrorism to sue foreign governments in U.S. courts if they can show that those governments provided material support, either directly or indirectly to terrorist groups. Previously, U.S. terror victims had been allowed to file lawsuits only against foreign countries that are formally labeled by the U.S. government as state sponsors of terrorism a designation that has never been applied to Saudi Arabia. The Saudi role in the 9/11 attacks has long been a matter of conjecture and debate. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, and Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader who dispatched them, came from a wealthy Saudi family. But the families believe their case gained a new impetus with last years release of 28 previously classified pages from a congressional report pointing to possible Saudi funding of several associates of the hijackers, although the precise connection remains murky. The Obama administration had warned that the law could endanger U.S. relations with the Saudis, who remain a key U.S. ally in the Mideast. The Saudis, for their part, had mounted a fierce lobbying campaign against the bill, at one point even threatening to sell off hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. assets if it was enacted, out of concern those holdings might be frozen by the U.S. courts as part of a judgment in a suit growing out of the 9/11 attacks. After the law was passed, lobbying records show, the Saudis, in an effort spearheaded by Qorvis MSL Group, ramped up their efforts with a new tactic: recruiting veterans to lobby Congress to amend the law and weakening its provisions. The veterans were told they, themselves, could become the subject of retaliatory lawsuits that might be filed in foreign countries, such as in Iraq, where they could be charged with war crimes. The argument was based in part on letters written by Obama administration officials last fall, such as one by then Secretary of Defense Ash Carter warning that JASTA is likely to increase our countrys vulnerability to lawsuits overseas that could target U.S. service members over military operations in foreign countries. The narrative pretty much went like this JASTA is a great law. Were for the the 9/11 families but the wording makes veterans vulnerable, said David Casler, a Marine who served during the Iraq War and agreed to go on the Jan. 23 trip, spending two nights at the Trump Hotel. Casler said Saudi lobbyists who provided talking points for veterans for meetings with members of Congress told them that, because of cyberattacks on the Office of Personnel Management in which hackers accessed personal information of U.S. service members foreign governments might detain even our family members if we were flying through the Mideast. But what Casler said he was not told, until he arrived at the Trump Hotel and questioned some of those participating, was that the Saudi government was financing the effort a discovery that he says made him livid. I definitely believe we were all used, Casler said. We were definitely misled. The lobbyists who recruited him for the effort were agents for a foreign government trying to implement their will which goes against the 9/11 victims and justice. Its almost like treason. Smoke and flames billow from the towers of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Family members of those harmed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks are on a fresh quest to hold Saudi Arabia responsible. (Photo: Chao Soi Cheong/AP) Another veteran who went on the same trip, Tim Cord, said he learned of the Saudi role only when, during an opening night dinner at the Trump Hotel, Johns, the Saudi lobbyist from Wisconsin, told the group at a meeting, there are a lot of rumors that the Saudis are lobbying to kill this bill. I can assure you thats not what our group is about. The reference to the Saudis raised his suspicions and led him to confront another organizer of the trip about who was paying the bill at the Trump Hotel. Dude, its the Kingdom, Cord said he was told. He said he was outraged. Youre telling me the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is paying for us all to be here? he said he responded. I was pretty dumbfounded. The last thing I wanted was to be in the pocketbook of Saudi Arabia. If I had been told that, I would never have flown in. But other veterans who helped organize the trip insisted there was no deception involved, and that the Saudi role wasnt as large as Casler has portrayed it. At no point have we ever been told what to say, said Cole Azare, a U.S. Navy veteran and lobbyist from Nevada who also helped organize the trips. At no point have any of us met with a member of the royal family. We have done our own research. But the lawyers for the families say that the Saudi role was hidden in at least some of the lobbying material provided to the veterans to hand out to members of Congress. One such flier, under the letterhead of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, the veterans group in which lobbyist Johns is a deputy national commander, warns that JASTA could lead to lawsuits against other U.S. allies such as Israel. But the flier never mentions the Saudi role in helping to circulate it. In an email to Yahoo News late Monday night, Terry Strada, chair of the 9/11 families group, said her organization expects a full investigation into what we see as continuous efforts by the Saudis to influence our legislative process, mislead our veterans and deceive our U.S. Congress. Read more from Yahoo News: There is now a cottage industry of short-term-rental start-ups, whether started before or after Airbnb. The category includes dozens of other companies: Roomorama, Love Home Swap, Stay Alfred, and many more. Some were scooped up by the travel industrys giants-TripAdvisors FlipKey and HouseTrip, Pricelines Booking.com - and in the fall of 2015, Expedia paid $3.9 billion for industry veteran HomeAway and its 1.2 millionplus properties listed. Some new entrants are starting to offer their own twist on the concept, evidence of the kind of segmentation that starts to happen when a bold new idea becomes more established. Onefinestay was the first to get significant traction. Founded in 2009 by three friends with backgrounds in tech and business, the company created its own niche in high-end, high-touch short-term rentals (its often described as the posh Airbnb). Would-be hosts have to apply to have their residences accepted (and need to meet certain standards, like a certain number of wineglasses on hand and a certain thickness of the mattress). Each of the properties in its collection is visited by the companys staff in advance of any booking and given a luxury makeover: its cleaned and de-cluttered, the bed linens are replaced and appropriately anonymized and staged with fluffy duvets and high-end bed linens, and shampoo and soap are provided. The company, which bills itself as the unhotel, deploys employees to greet customers at check-in and offers white-glove treatment on the ground, including a personal iPhone to use during their stay, a 24-hour remote concierge, and room service delivered by a network of providers. This high-service model isnt as scalable, since every property needs to be approved and then given its luxury patina, so for now its 2,500 listings are available in only five cities; but, like Airbnb, it has grown largely by word of mouth. In 2006, Parker Stanberry was living in New York City and had just been laid off from Miramax Films in the wake of its split from Disney. He decided to move to Buenos Aries for three months and needed to find a place to stay. After going through a clunky process involving real estate brokers and Craigslist, he found a place, but once on the ground there, he found himself missing a level of service, in particular the personalized touches and lively bar and social scene that a boutique hotel provided. He came up with the idea for Oasis, a business that would bring the elements of a boutique hotel to the world of short-term apartment rentals. Airbnb didnt exist at the time, but Stanberrys approach was different; it was smaller, did not involve peer-to-peer hosting, and was more service-oriented, with a staffer on-site to check guests in and out, member clubs accessible nearby, and free passes to SoulCycle and the like. He calls the model a deconstructed boutique hotel (or, as he describes it in comparison to Airbnb, removing some of the uncertainty with great stuff layered on top). Oasis now has two thousand listings in twenty-five cities - its prices start at around $120, so it offers more of a broad range than onefinestay - with a goal of reaching one hundred cities. (It lists many of its properties on other sites as well, including Airbnb and HomeAway.) Oasis has had some successes: during the Summer Olympics in Rio in 2016, the company housed groups from Nike, Visa, and the BBC. They can come to us and say to one central point of contact, We need thirty midlevel units for staff, fifty high-end for VIP retailers, and a few villas for athletes and CEOs, Stanberry says. And we can do that. He acknowledges that there is a gold rush for shortterm-rental sites in the wake of Airbnbs success. Its pretty easy to raise $1 to $3 million in a Series A and give it a whirl in San Francisco or London, he says. But to actually build something thats differentiated enough and scale it is harder. Another just-launched hybrid: Sonder, the relaunch of a previous company, Flatbook, which bills itself as a hometel, a short-term rental with the touches of a hotel. Like the others, it takes aim at what it sees as a flaw of inconsistency with larger short-term-rental sites (i.e., Airbnb). It recently raised $10 million in funding. New twists on hotels, too, are emerging, companies like Common, a model of flexible, shared housing with outposts primarily in Brooklyn; and Arlo, a new hotel brand that calls itself homebase for urban explorers. Its all part of the rapid mainstreaming of the fast-growing category of alternative accommodations, and plenty of players in the hospitality industry want in on it. There are many ways to slice it, and in a curious number of these cases, the websites designs, friendly voices, and review systems all bear an uncanny resemblance to Airbnb. But the idea of something thats not your fathers hotel room has taken hold. Its a really relevant and growing space in the accommodations pie, says Stanberry of Oasis. And theres no question it continues to grow. Of course, there will always be a market for hotels, even a robust one. Many people would never be caught dead staying in someone elses home or apartment, no matter how high-end the service. Marriotts Arne Sorenson observes that one reason Uber has taken off is that the level of quality it offers is dramatically higher than that of a taxi, which can be awful and, in many cities, hard to find. In the hotel business, he told Surface magazine, I still think we can deliver better service, so we dont have quite the same risk. David Kong, CEO of Best Western, points out the many things hotels provide that Airbnb cant: the lobby, a social gathering space; a staff member to greet you; the ability to call the front desk and request an extra blanket or have something fixed if its not working. You can only find that in a hotel, he says. A former colleague of mine for whom travel has been a lifelong passion swears off anything related to staying in someones home. I want a place thats bigger than my own apartment, with crisp white sheets, a big TV, and really good air conditioning, she says. And she adores room service: I love how they roll in the cart, the vase with flowers, everything. If she has a noisy neighbor or something doesnt work, she likes knowing she can call the front desk and they will send someone to fix it or give her a new room. I can see her point: when I can afford the splurge or when my company is paying the bill, I love staying in upscale hotels; theres a reason the Airbnb host I stayed with in Georgetown referred to me as the Four Seasons lady. And while Nike used Oasis for some of its travel needs during the Olympics, Stanberry points out that the company also booked plenty of hotel rooms, essentially commandeering one of the citys hotels for its workers. Theres no question the hospitality landscape is changing before our eyes. One former hotel-industry top executive who says he, too, was initially dismissive of the threat posed by Airbnb and its ilk, says in hindsight he now understands why. I superimposed my own forty-something personal preferences, he says. What about the sheets, the mattress? How would I get the key? I had all the fears of an older person. The younger generation, he says, has grown up without the fears and biases that he had - and has known only a world with Airbnb in it. Young people are Airbnb native in the same way they are digital native; for many in this group, staying in a chain hotel room is as foreign as talking on a landline, walking into a bank branch, or watching a television show at the actual time it airs. Airbnb educated an entire generation, the executive says. And the companys hand becomes even stronger, he says, the more its able to use its data to accurately predict and deliver exactly what its consumers want. I would not bet a cent against Uber or Airbnb, he says. Leigh Gallagher is an assistant managing editor at Fortune, co-chair of the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit and the author of The Airbnb Story and The End of the Suburbs. Excerpted from The Airbnb Story: How Three Ordinary Guys Disrupted an Industry, Made Billions . . . and Created Plenty of Controversy by Leigh Gallagher. Copyright 2017 by Leigh Gallagher. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved. This article was originally published on TIME.com As a child of the 1960s, I observed the ebb and flow of the counterculture and experimentation with recreational drugs, and the indelible effects these social movements left on American society. As a medical student in the 1970s, I became intimately acquainted with the promise and perils of the psychoactive agents in those drugs. During my psychiatric training in the 1980s, I cared for PCP-crazed patients, students having bad trips, youths strung-out on speed and coke-heads and pot heads in the emergency room, inpatient psychiatric units, state mental hospitals, on the streets and in homeless shelters. [See: 9 Phobias That Are Surprisingly Common.] Through it all, despite their harmful and hedonistic effects, the aspiring researcher in me told me that these forbidden substances held great promise as probes that could reveal the neurobiology underlying the mental functions they so powerfully affected, and lead to new and potentially more effective treatments. Consequently, I was disheartened when laws were enacted that restricted the use of psychedelic substances for scientific and medical purposes -- another casualty of the political controversy and turmoil at the time. The term "psychedelic" derives from the ancient Greek and means "mind revealing." It was coined by the British psychiatrist Humphrey Osmond, who was an early researcher, along with Aldous Huxley, of the medical uses of these compounds. Psychedelic substances alter cognition and perception through their effects on brain chemistry and induce altered states of consciousness that resemble trance, religious ecstatic, dream-like and near-death experiences. In this way, they are distinct from other psychoactive drugs, such as stimulants and opiates that induce other qualitative effects on the mind and behavior. In short, stimulants and opiates are a more about euphoria and pleasure, while psychedelics affect thought and perspective. Prior to their national and international prohibition, psychedelic drugs had showed promise in the treatment of addictions, personality disorders, psychogenic sexual dysfunction and end-of- life care. However, it was their promiscuous recreational use and nefarious application in interrogation methods by government intelligence agencies that led to their ban. Story continues See: 8 Ways Meditation Can Improve Your Life.] Now, almost 50 years later, there are increasing signs of the reemergence of psychedelic substances. I recently wrote an editorial for the Journal of Psychopharmacology on two studies that reported therapeutic psychological effects in cancer patients who were treated with psilocybin -- a psychedelic substance found in peyote mushrooms -- for terminal cancer. There have been similar such studies with LSD and mescaline. Other agents that have been resurrected for medical use include 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine ("ecstasy" or MDMA) for the treatment of PTSD; ketamine (a pharmacologic cousin to PCP ["angel dust"] called "special K") for treatment-resistant depression; and cannabis for a burgeoning number of medical indications including, first and foremost, pain and nausea. While adventurous researchers at select universities, both in the U.S. and abroad, have conducted sporadic clinical studies with these notorious substances, these are superseded by use patterns and practices outside of the medical realm. Silicon Valley has adopted the practice of micro-dosing LSD to stimulate creativity in workers. Ayelet Waldman's 2017 book, "A Really Good Day," extols the virtues of this practice on a daily basis as life-changing. Ayahuasca is a psychedelic substance derived from plants whose active ingredient is dimethyl tryptamine and has been used ritualistically by indigenous South American people for centuries. More recently, drinking a tea brewed with ayahuasca has been a popular underground activity of people seeking self-help or actualization. Shaman and practitioners operating outside of the medical and scientific communities conduct sessions for an increasing number of people seeking help or enlightenment. While I clearly recognize the reasons that impel so many people to seek alternative remedies for various ailments that are inaccessible within the mainstream health care system, I cannot overstate the risks involved. The legalization of cannabis is perhaps the largest of these phenomena. Today, 26 states and the District of Columbia currently have laws legalizing marijuana in some form. It's hard to keep up with the various forms and potencies in which cannabis products are produced and marketed. And while it's true that you cannot credibly say cannabis is more harmful than other recreational intoxicants like alcohol, tobacco and caffeine, we certainly don't know the range of possible harmful effects that these products might produce in the diverse populations that will use them in the years to come. Consequently, we are conducting a great unplanned social experiment in the U.S. without knowing the potential consequences. This is akin to our past experiences with lead as a standard additive to gasoline and paint, asbestos to building insulation, cocaine to cola, alcohol and opiates to tonics and remedies. [See: 11 Simple, Proven Ways to Optimize Your Mental Health.] Indeed, the same fate could await the resurgent use of recreational drugs for ostensibly therapeutic purposes. That is not to say that we should sustain their prohibition but that their prospective reprieve must be orchestrated in a careful and responsible way. That is, to truly determine the value that this previously outlawed class of substances holds for science, medicine and humanity, we must subject them to rigorous research. This will take time and require funding from the federal government through the National Institutes of Health, a willingness of the Food and Drug Administration to entertain their consideration as "new chemical entities" for development and possible approval, and the pharmaceutical industry to see their development as feasible and profitable. If we do not heed this warning, we risk repeating the mistakes of the 1960s, and we will continue on using psychedelic substances with limited knowledge as to efficacy and safety, and at our own risk. Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, is a nationally-renowned psychiatrist at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he is the Lawrence E. Kolb professor and chairman of the Department of Psychiatry -- the largest department of psychiatry in the United States. He also directs the New York State Psychiatric Institute and is psychiatrist-in-chief of the New York Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Lieberman is a past president of the American Psychiatric Association and is a member of numerous scientific organizations. In 2000, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine. He is the author of "Shrinks: The Untold Story of Psychiatry" (Little Brown & Company, March 2015). The opinions expressed here are his own. DUBAI (Reuters) - Rights group Amnesty International said a court in the United Arab Emirates had sentenced a dissident professor to 10 years in prison for online activism on Wednesday, calling the move a violation of free speech. State news agency WAM reported that an appeals court in the capital Abu Dhabi had sentenced an Emirati national, referred to only by the initials N.A.G., for social media activity. It quoted the court as saying the sentence was for "communicating with secret organizations linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, by creating accounts on social media and publishing photos and articles that are offensive to the states symbols and values, its internal and foreign policies and its relations with an Arab state". Amnesty International identified the sentenced man as prominent dissident Nasser bin Ghaith. "By imposing this ludicrous sentence in response to his peaceful tweets, the authorities have left no room for doubt: those who dare to speak their minds freely in the UAE today risk grave punishment," Amnesty's statement quoted its Middle East research deputy director Lynn Maalouf as saying. It was not immediately clear which posts by bin Ghaith, who frequently posted on his Twitter account before his arrest in August 2015, had led to his conviction. A tourism and trade hub, the UAE brooks little public criticism of its monarchy or policies and is especially opposed to the Islamist ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood. (Reporting by Noah Browning; editing by Andrew Roche) Nidhi seeks Indias support for polls Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Bimalendra Nidhi has sought Indias support, particularly with vehicles and logistics, for the upcoming local level elections. (LOS ANGELES) - California prosecutors on Tuesday charged two anti-abortion activists who made undercover videos of themselves trying to buy fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood with 15 felonies, saying they invaded the privacy of medical providers by filming without consent. The charges against David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt of the Center for Medical Progress come eight months after similar charges were dropped in Texas. State Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a longtime Congressional Democrat who took over the investigation in January, said in a statement that the state will not tolerate the criminal recording of conversations. Prosecutors say Daleiden, of Davis, California, and Merritt, of San Jose, filmed 14 people without permission between October 2013 and July 2015 in Los Angeles, San Francisco and El Dorado counties. One felony count was filed for each person. The 15th was for criminal conspiracy to invade privacy. Daleiden said in an email to The Associated Press that the bogus charges are coming from Planned Parenthoods political cronies. The public knows the real criminals are Planned Parenthood and their business partners, Daleiden said. The conversations included officials from Planned Parenthood and StemExpress, a California company that provides blood, tissue and other biological material for medical research and had received fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood. In one of the pairs videos, Daleiden poses as Robert Sarkis of the phony Biomax Procurement Services and is shown discussing liver tissue with the chief executive of StemExpress at a Northern California restaurant. Abortion opponents said the recordings showed Planned Parenthood was illegally harvesting and selling the organs. Planned Parenthood said the videos were deceptively edited to support extremists false claims. As we have said from the beginning, and as more than a dozen different state investigations have made clear: Planned Parenthood has done nothing wrong, and the only people who broke the law are those behind the fraudulent tapes, said Mary Alice Carter, interim vice president of communications for Planned Parenthood, in a statement. Story continues In April of last year, Daleiden said in a Facebook post that California Department of Justice agents raided his home, seizing all of his video footage along with personal information. Since then the case had gone largely quiet, with virtually no revelations about the investigation and no indication that the charges were coming before they were filed Tuesday in San Francisco Superior Court. The case is one of the first of high-profile prosecutions for Becerra, who left the U.S. House to take over for Kamala Harris after she became a U.S. Senator. Daleiden and Merritt had previously been indicted in Texas on similar charges in January of 2016, but all of the charges were eventually dropped by July as prosecutors said a grand jury had overstepped its authority. The grand jury had originally been convened to investigate Planned Parenthood, but after finding no wrongdoing turned around and indicted Daleiden and Merritt instead. The videos reignited the American abortion debate when they were released in 2015, and increased Congressional heat against Planned Parenthood that has yet to subside. This article was originally published on TIME.com WASHINGTON (AP) The question of collusion between Russian interests and Donald Trump's campaign is far from answered, despite repeated assertions by the president's spokesman that it's case closed. Sean Spicer angrily dismissed inquiries about the matter Tuesday, declaring that "every single person who's been briefed on this, as I've said ad nauseam from this podium ... have been very clear that there is no connection between the president or the staff here and anyone doing anything with Russia." That goes for "Republican, Democrat, Obama appointee" and career civil servants, he added. They "have all come to the same conclusion." THE FACTS: The matter is being investigated by the FBI and two congressional committees, so no conclusions have been reached at all. According to a report published at the end of the Obama administration by the outgoing director of intelligence, James Clapper, no coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia had been established. But investigations are continuing into that very question. FBI Director James Comey said last week: "I have been authorized by the Department of Justice to confirm that the FBI, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia's efforts." He said that "as with any counterintelligence investigation, this will also include an assessment of whether any crimes were committed." As for Clapper's report, his spokesman Shawn Turner said last week that the findings "could not account for intelligence or evidence that may have been gathered since the inauguration on January 20th." Spicer's claim that even Democrats who have been briefed on the matter agree there was no collusion is at odds with statements from Democrats. Rep. Adam Schiff of California, top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and a recipient of classified briefings, has said "there is more than circumstantial evidence now" of a relationship between Russian interests and Trump associates. Story continues Michael Flynn was fired as national security adviser when his pre-inauguration contacts with Russia's ambassador to the U.S. emerged. As for "staff here" being in the clear, as Spicer put it, they have neither been identified as targets of the investigations nor ruled out. A close adviser to Trump, son-in-law Jared Kushner, has agreed to talk to lawmakers about his business dealings with Russians. Other Trump associates have volunteered to be interviewed by the House and Senate intelligence committees as well. ___ AP White House Correspondent Julie Pace contributed to this report. ___ Find all AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd EDITOR'S NOTE _ A look at the veracity of claims by political figures BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) A Colombian court has sentenced a man to 51 years in prison for the sexual assault and murder of a 7-year-old girl, a crime that caused outrage in the country. Thirty-eight-year-old architect Rafael Uribe Noguera was found guilty of aggravated homicide, kidnapping and carnal knowledge. He had confessed to the attack on the child, who had been kidnapped in front of her house in a poor neighborhood on Nov. 4 and was found strangled in an upper-class Bogota apartment. Hundreds of angry Colombians took to the streets to protest the attack. As many as 40 children are raped every day in Colombia. But this killing especially resonated because of the huge class divide separating the girl and the alleged perpetrator, an architect from one of Bogota's wealthiest neighborhoods. An Argentine college junior was targeted by supporters of President Trump after taking to social media to dispel the myth that undocumented immigrants leech off the country. Belen Sisa, 23, who attends Arizona State University, posted her IRS 1040 to Facebook and received a ton of backlash after people read the note she wrote to accompany the photo. Read: Husband of Woman Who Voted For Trump Faces Deportation to Mexico After 19 Years In U.S. "MYTH BUSTER: I, an undocumented immigrant, just filed my taxes and PAID $300 to the state of Arizona. I cannot receive financial aid from the state or federal government for school, I cannot benefit from unemployment, a reduced healthcare plan or a retirement fund," Sisa wrote. "I think Im a pretty good citizen. Oh and there are MILLIONS just like me who pay into a system they will never receive anything from. Wanna tell me again how I should be deported, contribute nothing and only leech off this country while the 1% wealthiest people in this country steal from you everyday? How about you show me yours Donald J. Trump? #HereToStay." Sisa has lived in the U.S. since she was 6 years old. Her parents overstayed their visas, but she is protected by President Obamas Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), which allows her to live, study, and work in the country free from the threat of deportation for a renewable period of time, despite not having a green card or visa. Sisa's post has been shared more than 5,000 times, but shes received numerous hateful messages from strangers, calling her a criminal and telling her she should be deported. "Its on every level of disgusting and horrendous the amount of hate that I received," Sisa told KPHO. "There was one where it was a character of Trump holding a head. They Photoshopped my head in it, throwing me over the wall that he is going to build on the border of Mexico and the U.S." Story continues Dozens of others reportedly screenshotted themselves reporting Sisa, who has been paying taxes for the past four years, to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to reports. Reported you to ICE and Homeland security. Crime doesnt pay lady," one message read. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, undocumented immigrants "collectively contribute an estimated $11.74 billion to state and local coffers" through their payments of sales, excise, personal income and property taxes. Read: Mother of 4 Threatened in Deportation Raids Has Taken Refuge in a Church Sisa said she posted the photo to try to educate people "Millions of other people who came here legally or illegally! are paying taxes and we dont leech off the system," Sisa told Cosmopolitan. "We dont receive unemployment. We cant go and get a reduced health care plan, we cant get financial aid, but thats all [Trump supporters] are ever saying. Didnt you say you like good immigrants? But at the same time, nothing is ever good enough for you. Its a very good showing that racism, xenophobia in this country is still very well and alive." Watch: Instead of Tip This Latina Server Got a Note Saying 'We Only Tip Citizens' Related Articles: Washington (AFP) - Death row inmates in Arkansas filed a lawsuit Tuesday to contest the US state's plan to end their lives over a shortened period of just 10 days. The state's Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson has stirred intense controversy since announcing the executions of eight men in 10 days, citing shortages of a drug used in lethal injections. The inmates said the accelerated schedule did not give them enough time to prepare their appeals, adding that the shortened timeframe violated Arkansas rules. "Each plaintiff named in this suit has suffered irreparable injury on account of the frantic execution schedule sought by the state," six of the eight men concerned wrote in their complaint. "Not only has Arkansas's rush to execute eight plaintiffs over the course of ten days forced the state to violate its own mandatory procedures for clemency review, but it has necessarily undermined each plaintiff's individual opportunity to advocate for mercy." The eighth amendment of the US Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. Death penalty critics have condemned the executions, noting that Arkansas has not conducted a single execution since 2005. The accelerated schedule comes amid a shortage of death penalty drugs across the United States, with Arkansas's stock of midazolam, a sedative used to anesthetize inmates, nearing its expiration date. The inmates also complained about the state's drug protocol, saying midazolam does not make recipients sufficiently unconscious, meaning they suffer extreme pain. Under the governor's plan, two of the inmates would be put to death on April 17, two on April 20, two on April 24 and another pair on April 27. No single US state has held eight executions in 10 days since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. By Tom Westbrook and Benjamin Weir SYDNEY (Reuters) - Cyclone Debbie wrought widespread but moderate damage in Australia's northeast, authorities said on Wednesday, as flooding rain and fallen trees slowed troops and emergency workers reaching the worst-hit areas. No deaths were reported a day after Debbie smashed tourist resorts, flattened canefields and shut down coal mines in tropical Queensland state as a category four storm, one rung below the most dangerous wind speed level. "It's looking promising in terms of being able to rebuild promptly with most of the major infrastructure intact," Queensland state police deputy commissioner Steve Gollschewski told Australian Broadcasting Corporation television. "We're still struggling to get in there, however," he said, adding planes and boats were being used to bring army personnel and emergency workers to places cut-off by road. And as poor weather persisted and several Bowen Basin collieries stayed shut, analysts said Debbie could push coking coal prices higher - while tourism operators, even in unaffected regions, reported canceled bookings. Resorts along the world-famous Great Barrier Reef and coastal areas bore the brunt of the storm with wind gusts stronger than 260 kph (160 mph). One family near Airlie Beach, over which the eye of the storm passed, had a particularly dramatic night. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the family welcomed a baby girl who was born inside the Whitsunday Ambulance Station as the storm raged outside. Pictures from Hamilton Island and Airlie Beach showed streets stacked with snapped trees, roof tiles and furniture, with wrecked yachts washed ashore. "Nature has flung her worst at the people of Queensland," Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told reporters at the Crisis Coordination Centre in Canberra. Electricity was cut for more than 63,000 people, and Wilmar said its sugar mills were stilled at Proserpine and Sarina. Hundreds of hectares of sugarcane crops had been flattened, Dan Galligan, chief executive of industry body Canegrowers, said in a statement. In the Bowen Basin, the world's single-largest source of coal used to make steel, BHP Billiton, Glencore, and Stanmore Coal all said work at mines there was halted until further notice. But Glencore added its Collinsville and Newlands mines were not damaged and it anticipated production would resume within 48 hours, with no impact on annual targets. Prices lifted, but other factors also contributed. Ports operator North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation also said it had no reports of significant damage. Whitsunday Islands resorts were battered, running short on fresh water and closed to bookings until at least next week, but mostly intact. Hoteliers hundreds of kilometers away at Cairns and Rockhampton were seeing cancellations for upcoming Easter holidays and operators worried that bad press would prolong the recovery, Queensland Tourism Industry Council chief executive Daniel Gschwind said. "These are places that are entirely unaffected by these circumstances and that's the kind of collateral damage we suffer sometimes in our industry," he said. Townsville Airport reopened, although airlines Qantas and Virgin said flights to Hamilton Island, Proserpine and Mackay were canceled. Only two injuries were reported, police said. (Reporting by Tom Westbrook; Writing by Jane Wardell; Editing by Toni Reinhold, Paul Tait and Michael Perry) Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders clashed many times last year, but theyre united in their opposition to President Trumps latest executive order rolling back environmental protections. By signing the Energy Independence executive order at the Environmental Protection Agencys (EPA) headquarters Wednesday, Trump followed through on a campaign promise to start dismantling the Clean Power Plan the centerpiece of former President Barack Obamas climate legacy. The former rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination were outraged that Trump effectively made climate skepticism U.S. national policy and forfeited the countrys role as a world leader in the fight against climate change. These are more than statistics, theyre American lives at risk because this administration willfully ignores the science, Clinton tweeted overnight. She also shared sample scripts, prepared by environmentalist group NextGen Climate, for citizens to voice their displeasure with Trumps climate policy to their respective governors. Sanders, a U.S. senator representing Vermont, took to Twitter to denounce Trumps order, and he vowed to challenge it at every step. Mr. Trump: You are threatening the lives of our children and grandchildren. We will fight you every step of the way, he wrote. The Clean Power Plan was central to the Obama administrations strategy for complying with the groundbreaking Paris Agreement of December 2015, in which 194 nations vowed to reduce carbon emissions to limit the increase in average temperature worldwide to below 2 degrees Celsius. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders. (Photos: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) The largest concentrated source of carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. is power plants. According to the EPA, by 2030 the Clean Power Plan would have cut carbon pollution from power plants by roughly 30 percent from 2005 levels. In addition, by reducing emissions of particulates and other pollutants, it would have prevented 140,000 to 150,000 childhood asthma attacks and averted 2,700 to 6,600 premature deaths. Story continues Sanders also recorded a short video in which he chastises Trump for claiming that Obama decimated the coal industry. He pointed out that coal-mining jobs have been declining for decades since long before Obama took office, reflecting economic factors including falling prices for natural gas. The senator, who has a 91 percent lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters, called for a move toward clean and sustainable energy sources, such as wind, solar and geothermal, rather than a push back toward fossil fuels. President Trumps anti-environmental executive orders are a disaster. They are a threat to the future of this country and to the future of the world, Sanders said. It is beyond belief that we have the leader of the most powerful country on earth not believing in science. Trump presented the controversial executive order as his latest action in a series intended to stimulate the economy and create jobs. Flanked by coal miners and industry executives, Trump criticized what he called the war on coal, complete with job-killing regulations and government intrusion. The speech conformed with Trumps overall America First message. We will unlock job-producing natural gas, oil and shale energy, Trump said. We will produce American coal to power American industry. We will transport American energy through American pipelines, made with American steel. Shortly after the executive order was signed, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) released a statement affirming that the scientific evidence regarding climate change is clear: Climate change primarily driven by human activities is already happening and affecting people and our environment. Rush Holt, the chief executive officer of the AAAS, emphasized that scientific research helps guide informed responses to climate change by communities, businesses and governmental agencies. There is much our nation can do to address the risks that climate change poses to human health and safety, but disregarding scientific evidence puts our communities in danger, Holt said. We encourage the White House and Congress to support the evidence on climate change, and welcome opportunities to bring scientists to meet with policymakers to discuss the state of the science, the degree of scientific understanding on climate change, and other areas of concern and interest. Read more from Yahoo News: By Colin Packham SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's foreign minister held an emergency meeting with the Chinese ambassador in the wake of Canberra's failure to ratify an extradition treaty with China, a source familiar with the situation said on Wednesday. Australia cancelled a parliamentary vote on Tuesday to finally ratify an extradition treaty with China, 10 years after it was signed, with the government set for an embarrassing defeat amid opposition on the grounds of China's humanitarian record. Eager to head-off any possible diplomatic fallout, Bishop met with China's ambassador to Australia, Cheng Jingye, on Tuesday, the source said. The Australian newspaper reported that the ambassador expressed "disappointment" at the cancelled vote. The meeting came just hours after China's Foreign Ministry called on Australia to approve the treaty. In Beijing, ministry spokesman Lu Kang did not answer a question about the meeting between Bishop and Cheng, but repeated that approving the treaty would help both countries fight cross-border crime and was in their joint interests. "We hope that Australia keeps in mind the broader picture of bilateral relations and both countries' interests and can continue to promote the relevant domestic process so this treaty can go into enforcement as soon as possible," Lu told a daily news briefing. If Australia had ratified the pact, it would have become one of the few Western countries besides France and Spain to enter into an extradition treaty with China. The failure to enact the treaty is a rare dent to Sino-Australia relations, which have soared in recent months, culminating in the spate of trade agreements signed last week following the five-day visit of Chinese China Premier Li Keqiang. Beyond the diplomatic blow, it is also a setback in China's overseas hunt for corrupt officials and business executives who have fled abroad with their assets, dubbed Operation Fox Hunt. And it comes at a time when Australia is seeking closer cooperation with Chinese law enforcement to stem a rising tide of synthetic drugs trafficked from southern China, and when three Australian employees of casino operator Crown Resorts Ltd remain in Chinese custody following their arrest in November 2016 for alleged gambling offences. (Reporting by Colin Packham; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Michael Perry and Clarence Fernandez) As Britain's divorce from the European Union begins Wednesday, Australia's meat industry is licking its lips at the prospect of a boost in exports as London scrambles to sign free-trade deals across the globe. Pro-leave politicians promised before last year's referendum that an exit would allow them to hammer out a series of pacts around the world, free from what they called the shackles of EU quotas and giving the country better deals. Now, as they prepare for two years of divorce talks that could see Britain completely cut off from Europe's gigantic free-trade bloc, officials in Westminster are keen to start work on agreements elsewhere. And that, says Josh Anderson of industry research group Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), could be a big benefit to the meat industry Down Under, while a rotten meat crisis in Brazil might also provide an opening. "Brexit provides a unique opportunity for Australia to enhance its trading relationship with the UK," he said. Australia and Britain will have to redefine their commercial relationship outside of the EU, with Canberra saying shortly after the Brexit referendum that it wanted a free-trade agreement with London. The biggest buyers of Australian beef are Japan, the United States, South Korea and China, with Europe trailing far behind with exports limited by quotas and taxes. Sales of beef and mutton to the EU account for just two percent of its overseas shipments -- but in 2015, more than half the of those sales headed for Britain. "We have a very limited EU access," said Geoff Pearson of the Cattle Council, which represents breeders. "If quotas and tariffs are changed, then yes, potentially, this market will be more attractive," he said, adding that it could be particularly beneficial for high-end products. - Huge potential - "Australia and the UK have a rich trading history," the MLA said in a note after June's Brexit vote. In the 1950s, between 50 and 80 percent of Australian beef and veal headed to Britain but this dropped off significantly when Britain become joined the EU's forerunner in 1973, it said. Story continues After Brexit, London vowed to boost its trade ties with the Commonwealth. However, Australia is also hoping for better access to Britain's former European partners. "EU market potential is extremely positive," with 500 million inhabitants, said the MLA's Anderson. The European Union is a small market in terms of volume but it buys quality meat from Australia, meaning the price per tonne is nearly double that of other markets, the MLA says. A free-trade agreement is therefore "a priority" for the organisation, with Canberra and Brussels having already signed an accord agreeing to initiate a process, and with negotiations set to begin this year. Meanwhile, the huge scandal over tainted meat exports from Brazil -- the main seller of beef to Europe outside European producers -- has come at the right time for Australia. The scandal broke when an investigation revealed that some packers had paid crooked inspectors to pass off rotten and adulterated meat as safe. About 20 countries, including the EU, have since fully or partially closed their doors to Brazilian meat imports. While negotiations with Britain and Brussels will likely take years, Australia is making great strides in China where a free-trade deal has been in place since 2015. Last week, Canberra and Beijing signed an agreement to extend access for Australian meat producers to China. "Australia's beef exports to China have grown from less than $100 million in 2011 to exceed $600 million in 2016," according to Australian minister of commerce Steven Ciobo. Over 45k sign up for temporary cops in 4 days More than 45,000 people have applied in the past four days for temporary police posts created to aid security management during the upcoming local level elections. The American online retailer's VOD platform is attracting an increasing number of big names from the movie world, ready to branch out into TV. After Woody Allen got the ball rolling last fall, Barry Jenkins, Nicolas Winding Refn, David O. Russell and Yorgos Lanthimos will soon follow suit with projects for the Amazon platform. Movie directors are increasingly being tempted into the world of TV series, in particular with projects for major streaming sites. And, many of the recently reported projects have made headlines for Amazon's VOD service. The latest to date comes from Barry Jenkins, who directed this year's Oscar-winning movie "Moonlight." The filmmaker is switching to series format with an adaptation of Colson Whitehead's novel "The Underground Railroad," with Brad Pitt on the production team. The series tells the story of a network of secret routes and safe houses in 18th-century America, used by African-American slaves to escape. In fact, since Woody Allen brought "Crisis in Six Scenes" to Amazon Prime back in September, the service has announced one prestigious project after another. For example, Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn ("Drive") is working on "Too Old to Die Young," a cop show starring Miles Teller. David O. Russell ("Silver Linings Playbook," "American Hustle") has signed up Robert De Niro and Julianne Moore to star in a series with an as yet undisclosed plot. Greek filmmaker Yorghos Lanthimos is reteaming with Colin Farrell -- who starred in his movie "The Lobster" -- for a miniseries on the Iran-Contra affair. David Fincher, Spike Lee and Gary Fukunaga for Netflix Little by little, Amazon is catching up with its key rival Netflix, slowly leveling out the playing field. Since joining the VOD market, Netflix has largely hogged the limelight thanks to collaborations with the likes of Baz Luhrmann ("The Get Down"), Lana and Lilly Wachowski ("Sense8") -- the sisters behind global box-office hit "The Matrix" -- and Judd Apatow ("Love"). And Netflix won't be stopping there. The service has once again signed up David Fincher, who previously worked on the platform's hit show "House of Cards." This time, the "Seven" director is prepping "Mindhunter," a story of FBI agents and serial killers in 1979. Spike Lee is to adapt his 1980s movie "She's Gotta Have It" into a TV series and Brazilian director Jose Padilha, who previously worked on "Narcos," is readying a series about corruption in Brazil. This summer, Cary Fukunaga, known for HBO show "True Detective," will film "Maniac," a dark comedy based on a Norwegian show format, starring Jonah Hill and Emma Stone. Brussels (AFP) - Minutes after Britain fired the Brexit starting gun, the battle lines were already drawn for two years of tough negotiations with the EU, analysts said Wednesday. Britain immediately clashed with Germany, the most powerful EU state, and Brussels when it called for talks on the terms of the divorce to run in parallel with those on the future relationship between Britain and the bloc. The main issues in the divorce are Britain's multi-billion-euro exit bill, the rights of European citizens living in Britain and vice versa, and the fate of the border in troubled Northern Ireland. In another potential flashpoint down the road, British Prime Minister Theresa May said that security cooperation with the European Union was partly dependent on getting a good Brexit deal. "There is a good likelihood that the road could be very bumpy," Janis Emmanouilidis, an analyst with the European Policy Centre think tank in Brussels, told AFP. Emmanouilidis said it is impossible for Britain to both disentangle itself from the 28-nation bloc and then establish a new relationship with the EU within two years. "What they're asking for is wishful thinking," Emmanouilidis said. - 'A serious problem' - Brexit quickly got off to a rocky start. In her letter to EU president Donald Tusk notifying him of Britain's intention to leave, May pushed for parallel talks. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted the negotiations first determine Britain's exit before talks on a new relationship can begin. The remaining 27 EU leaders issued a statement calling for an "orderly" divorce first. "If the British say they do not intend to close the exit deal without having tied up an agreement on a future relationship, it is a serious problem," Ignacio Molina from the Real Instituto Elcano in Madrid told AFP. Analysts said however that it bode well that May had taken a conciliatory stance on many of the key divorce issues. Story continues Catherine Barnard, professor of EU law at the University of Cambridge, said it was "striking" that May insisted on reaching an early agreement about the rights of the three million EU citizens in Britain and the one million British citizens across the Channel. May meanwhile barely mentioned the 60 billion euro bill that the EU says Britain must pay for outstanding financial commitments, apparently playing down a toxic issue. Emmanouilidis however predicted this would still be difficult. "It could even function as a catalyst to push the process even quicker, closer to the cliff edge," he said. - 'Expect many more dramas' - All this is before the EU and Britain move on to their future relationship. Despite warm words on both sides about how Britain is leaving the EU but not leaving Europe, Barnard said the post-divorce deal would be even harder than arrangements for the actual split. If Britain and the EU cannot agree on a trade deal, or at least a transitional arrangement as it leaves the bloc's single market, they will go back to costly and tariff-heavy World Trade Organisation rules. May set many in Europe on edge when she warned that Britain, the biggest military power in the EU and a nuclear-armed NATO member, might hold back on security cooperation if it can't get a good deal. "In security terms a failure to reach agreement would mean our cooperation in the fight against crime and terrorism would be weakened," she wrote in her letter to Tusk. EU trade deals with other countries, for example Canada, have taken many years to finalise, in a sign of things to come. Complicating things, while only a large majority of EU states need to approve the terms of divorce, there must be a unanimous agreement of all 27 remaining countries plus national and regional parliaments for the future relationship deal. "You will have a lot of veto players on different sides. The potential for disruption is rather big," Emmanouilidis said. Jonathan Eyal, an analyst with the London-based Royal United Services Institute, said the one sure thing was more of the endless summits that the EU specialises in. "Expect many more dramas and diplomats walking down red carpets in Brussels," he said. From Road & Track The quest to drive the fastest car in the world has hit yet another slowdown: The Bloodhound SSC team has announced that its attempt to break the 1000-mph barrier will be delayed until 2018. In a message posted to The Bloodhound Project website, the team explained that the summer of 2018 is the new target window for the 1000-mph attempt. Flooding on the Hakskeen Pan, the mud-and-salt-flat in South Africa where the attempt will take place, had a part to play in the delay, as did gaps in funding as new corporate sponsors sign on. "It is frustrating to change our schedule again-we know everyone is excited about seeing the car run," Project Director Richard Noble said in a statement. "We want that too but our pace of development has to be pegged to the flow of funding." Between now and the summer of 2018, the Bloodhound SSC team plans to run a series of static "tie-down" tests, firing the Rolls-Royce EJ200 jet engine after it's installed in the car. Later this year, the team hopes to conduct rolling testing on the runway at Newquay Aerohub. The Bloodhound SSC, we'll remind you, is powered by both jet and rocket engines. The jet, cribbed from a Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet and fed by a fuel pump powered by a Jaguar V8 engine, will take the car to around 300 mph. At that time, a series of rocket engines will fire, hopefully taking the car past the current land-speed record velocity of 763 mph and all the way into four digits. Fighter pilot Andy Green, who holds the current record, will be at the wheel for the 1000-mph attempt set for 2018. via MotorAuthority You Might Also Like By Joe Bavier ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Villagers in Democratic Republic of Congo discovered the remains of two U.N. investigators and their Congolese interpreter who went missing this month in an area engulfed in a violent uprising, a government spokesman said on Tuesday. Michael Sharp, a U.S. citizen, and Zaida Catalan, a Swedish national, had been in a group of experts monitoring a sanctions regime imposed on Congo by the U.N. Security Council when they disappeared in Kasai Central province. In a statement issued in New York, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres confirmed that the remains of the two investigators missing since March 12 had been found in Congo and said the world body would conduct an inquiry. Villagers found the bodies of two Caucasians and one Congolese not far from where the experts group vanished, according to the government. Police informed the authorities in the capital Kinshasa on Monday and a team including the provincial police commissioner was sent to the scene to identify the bodies. "It's now a certainty. It is the two investigators. We identified the third body in the grave with them as their Congolese interpreter," Communications Minister Lambert Mende told Reuters. John Sharp, the father of Michael, posted on his Facebook page that the bodies of two Caucasians had been found in a shallow grave, saying that there was a "high probability" that it was the U.N. officials. "This is a message I hoped never to write," he wrote, adding that DNA tests and dental records would be used to confirm the identities of the bodies. Guterres said the United Nations would cooperate with Congolese authorities in searching for the four Congolese nationals who accompanied the U.N. officials. "In case of criminal acts, the United Nations will do everything possible to ensure that justice is done," the U.N. chief said. The Swedish Foreign Ministry said it would not comment on the incident as it was being handled by the United Nations. Congo's Kasai Central region is the epicentre of the Kamuina Nsapu insurgency that has now spread to five provinces in the loosely governed Central African country. The Kinshasa government said earlier this month the two U.N. officials had fallen into the hands of unidentified "negative forces" along with four Congolese who were with them near the village of Ngombe in Kasai Central. "Going to places where few people go, asking questions that few people ask, finding out the truth, this is the work of United Nations experts," said Emilie Serralta, a former coordinator of the U.N. Congo group. "This is how the reports and recommendations (guiding) the Security Council are written." Kamuina Nsapu militants pose an increasingly serious threat to President Joseph Kabila, whose decision to stay on beyond the end of his elected mandate last December has sent ripples of unrest across the vast mining powerhouse. U.N. figures indicate that over 400 people have been killed in violence in which militants have been blamed for atrocities and government forces are accused of targeting civilians. Local officials said on Saturday militiamen decapitated about 40 police officers in the deadliest attack on the security forces since the uprising began last year. (Additional reporting by Aaron Ross in Kinshasa, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations and Johan Ahlander in Stockholm; Editing by Edward McAllister, Mark Heinrich, Toni Reinhold) Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are doing their best for their children. The Maleficent star even gave her estranged husband a chance to be with their kids during their trip to Cambodia last month. In February, Pitt reportedly made multiple trips to Cambodia to be with his six children. At the time, Jolie was in the country filming First They Killed My Father. In order to spend more time with his family, the Allied star was also in Cambodia most of the time except when it conflicted with his own shoot schedule, one source told E! News. All through production and filming, and on her most recent press trip, Brad came to Cambodia in secret to spend time with the kids, another source added. They were with Angelina for probably 75 percent of the time when Brad was in the country and they'd go back and forth between her and Brad. READ: Brad Pitt not in a hurry to move on from Angelina Jolie after their split The source added that Pitt was not in Cambodia all the time. In some instances, a few or all of the kids would fly to Los Angeles and be with their dad. While Pitt and Jolies messy split seems to have turned amicable, this does not mean the two are hoping to get back together. In fact, Pitt seems to be enjoying being single. In an earlier report, a source told People that the Fury star is not yet ready to start dating. Pitt is apparently enjoying a low-key social life and has rekindled his connection with his old friends. According to a separate report from E! News, Pitt and Jolie have decided to talk to each other again at the recommendation of their childrens therapist and on their own accord. They are focused on the kids and working to do what's best for them, one source said. They both have agreed to put the kids first, added another source close to Pitt. Are you rooting for Pitt and Jolies reconciliation or are they better off just co-parenting their kids? Drop a comment below. Brad Pitt Photo: Getty Images/Paul Drinkwater Related Articles By Estelle Shirbon LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's most senior judges have denounced as abusive a barrage of criticism leveled at them over a ruling that displeased the pro-Brexit press, culminating in a front page branding them "Enemies of the People". The vitriolic coverage, which included personal attacks on individual judges, was in response to a High Court ruling last November that the government could not trigger the process of leaving the European Union without parliamentary assent. "The judiciary of England and Wales felt attacked personally," said David Neuberger, president of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, during an appearance on Wednesday before a parliamentary committee. He was echoing comments last week by John Thomas, who as Lord Chief Justice is the most senior judge in England and Wales and who was one of three judges who made the Brexit ruling. "Criticism is very healthy. If you have got something wrong, fine, but there is a difference between criticism and abuse," Thomas told the same committee a week ago. "It's the only time in the whole of my judicial career that I've had to ask for the police to give us a measure of advice and protection in relation to the emotions that were being stirred up," he said. He added that he had worked on many very serious cases, including terrorism trials involving Al Qaeda, and had never had that problem before. Thomas also said that other, less senior judges had written to Liz Truss, the Secretary of State for Justice, to express concerns because "litigants in person were coming and saying 'you're an enemy of the people.'" That was a reference to a controversial headline that appeared on the front page of the Daily Mail, Britain's second-biggest selling newspaper, highlighting the levels of passion and anger surrounding the Brexit issue. Both Neuberger and Thomas criticized Truss for not speaking out in defense of judges at the time of the furor. Truss initially said nothing about it. Under pressure, she eventually commented, stressing the importance of both an independent judiciary and a free press. She has refused to criticize the Daily Mail headline and other similar ones. Thomas said her attitude was "completely and utterly wrong" and both he and Neuberger said she had failed to recognize her constitutional duty to uphold the independence of the judiciary. (Editing by Stephen Addison) Up until the very last minute, people simply still wouldnt believe it. Even after the British people voted for Brexit; even after parliament reaffirmed their decision; even as recently as this month, with the country on the brink of triggering Article 50 to begin exiting the European Union, numerous observers whether commentators, politicians, or business leaders continued to think that a way would be found to get around it. Brexit might be softened, they say. Voters could change their minds. This, even though the signs that not only did Brexit mean Brexit, it meant hard Brexit, were there all along. After Prime Minister Theresa Mays speech to the Conservative Party conference last October, when she made it clear that, post-Brexit, she expected Britain to be able to control its own borders and to be free from the jurisdiction of the European Unions court, there remained those who insisted that this was a political strategy that she couldnt mean what she said. Then, after her speech in January, in which she declared her desire to end freedom of movement between Britain and Europe, and that she would forsake Britains membership in the EUs single market to achieve that end, still, political elites in Britain and elsewhere insisted that it was a bluff. Why has this been this so difficult to accept? Why do financial markets seem to react as if slapped with every new sign that May has remained entirely consistent in her intentions? Because conventional wisdom is a stubborn thing. And conventional wisdom says politics isnt supposed to work this way. By opting for a clean break with the European Union and all its accompanying economic mechanisms and institutions, the British government is embarking on a course that will, in all likelihood, hit voters in their wallets. On the long-term effects of Brexit, theres no clear consensus. Most economists predict significant permanent impacts; others disagree. But even Brexiters at least the more honest ones concede that leaving the single market and the customs union is likely to have a significant negative effect on the British economy in the short term, as it adjusts to new trade patterns. Story continues That the denials of the coming hard Brexit lasted so long, and remained so steadfast, demonstrates how fixed the notion has become, in the minds of the commentariat at least, that good economics is good politics. We are used to a politics sensitive to the arguments of big business and to aggregate economic data. It is an article of faith for a wide swath of the British elite not just those who work in or near financial markets that the rational self-interest of voters dictates an overriding concern not just with economics, but with the health of the national economy. The occupant of No. 10 Downing Street is not meant to ignore lobbying from the city, or complaints from businesses concerned about losing access to their major export market. Nor is the wider public supposed to be so sanguine about potential costs to the economy. When Bill Clintons strategist summed up the rules of the political game as Its the economy, stupid, for most politicians of that generation, that meant the economy writ large gross domestic product and its growth was the ultimate goal. That, however, was then. Politics, as it turns out, works differently now. This shift has occurred for two reasons, not all directly connected to Brexit, and not all confined to the United Kingdom, where the absence of a credible opposition makes the prime minister uniquely powerful and essentially able to anticipate electoral victory, come what may. The first reason is the publics loss of trust in aggregate economics. It is not so much that they do not believe the experts who say that a particular course of action might harm commercial interests and damage the GDP. Rather and particularly since the financial crisis they do not see a connection between these figures and their own lives and thus dont care. Years of listening to officials trot out positive economic data while their incomes have fallen and their living costs have risen have led to this; this is as true of many supporters of President Donald Trump as it is of some Brexiters. Many in the Rust Belt simply do not believe that browbeating manufacturers to produce in America, even at the cost of driving some companies away, will necessarily spell economic disaster for the country or themselves. Many hear economists warn that outside the single market, the attractiveness of London as a base for financial services firms is likely to decline markedly, and that many of these might choose to relocate to preserve their EU presence and see nothing thats relevant to them. The second reason, however, reflects a more radical shift. People, it turns out, might be more willing than anyone expected to be less well-off both collectively and individually to live in what they see as a better society. Better, of course, means many different things to different people. In the case of Brexit voters, it might mean prioritizing the needs of co-nationals, or reducing inequality between the rich and poor, at the expense of economic growth. This isnt an irrational choice, nor will the politicians responsible for carrying out these policies necessarily be punished in future elections. Brexit might mean the economy takes a hit, as immigration slows, and that the City of London, financial powerhouse, loses business and clout. Yet in many of the Labour Partys historic heartlands, this combination of outcomes is a vote-winner, not a vote-loser. Similarly, there are those who believe that even if Trumps America First program results in the United States falling down the international wealth rankings, and even if it does not turn back the clock to some manufacturing golden age, it will have worked if it derails the current course toward a globalized, post-modern, politically correct future devoid of community and identity. For elites in denial, these beliefs are both anathema and erroneous. It is impossible for employment to increase if national wealth decreases, for instance, or for rational behavior to include the acceptance of less security and wealth. As a result, there is a widespread assumption that once people who have been hoodwinked by nationalists and populist politicians start to feel economic reality bite, they will revert to the political center and normal service will be restored. Concerns about identity will be replaced by anxiety about cash. Its a comforting thought, but not a compelling one. For the ultimate irony is that, should these doomsayers be proved right, it might weaken, rather than strengthen, their political influence. Even if Brexit leads to economic crisis, even if America First leads to job losses and Social Security cuts, their cheerleaders are not the kind to hold up their hands with a meek mea culpa. Rather, the cry will be sabotage: It was the establishment, or the foreigners, or indeed both who deliberately worked to make the new project fail. If it was the failure of the policies espoused by the establishment that created the conditions for the current political insurgency, the failure of these anti-establishment policies might nurture it still further. Photo credit: Mary Turner/Getty Images London (AFP) - Britain's relationship with the European Union was always an awkward marriage of convenience rather than a case of love at first sight. And after 44 years -- during which trade ties always took precedence for Britain over closer integration -- London has filed for divorce. Anand Menon, a professor of European politics at King's College London university, said the relationship was always "transactional" and therefore the break-up is "pretty logical". "It's been a utilitarian relationship since 1973 and the emphasis was always on the economic dimension, not on the political one," said Pauline Schnapper, professor of contemporary British history at the Sorbonne University in Paris. "The sentimental dimension is near non-existent," she said. The path towards today's European Union began after World War II as the shattered continent tried to rebuild and deepen integration as a way of bolstering the peace. The project did not immediately appeal to Britain. "I think we didn't feel vulnerable enough to join, quite simply," Menon said. Britain preferred to focus on its special relationship with the United States and the remains of its empire. London nevertheless supported the push for closer integration on the European continent: wartime prime minister Winston Churchill called for the creation of a "United States of Europe" in a 1946 Zurich speech. But in the early 1960s, Britain's fortunes changed for the worse. Its economic growth started lagging behind that of France and Germany, making the European single market on its doorstep seem an appealing option. - Club of 'others' - Britain on Wednesday began what is expected to be two years of difficult divorce negotiations with a formal notification by letter to EU President Donald Tusk. Joining the European fray in the first place was not an easy task. In 1961, France's then-president Charles de Gaulle vetoed Britain's first application, seeing it as a "Trojan Horse" for the United States and doubting Britain's European spirit. Story continues Another French veto followed in 1967 and the UK was only finally welcomed into the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973. Unfortunately for Britain, the first oil crisis struck that same year and so the much-hoped-for economic boost failed to materialise. Nevertheless, 67 percent of the British people voted to remain in the EEC in a 1975 referendum. "The fact that we joined late is one of the reasons there are suspicions because obviously there is a sense that we joined a club that others had set up to suit themselves," Menon said. Britain and the EEC soon locked horns and London began opting out of the major attempts to step up European integration. In 1979, London refused to participate in the European monetary system, defending its national and fiscal sovereignty. Six years later, it refused to ratify the Schengen Agreement -- abolishing internal border checks -- and in 1993, it opted out of the European single currency. Britain's anti-federalist approach was spelled out by prime minister Margaret Thatcher during a 1988 speech at the College of Europe in Bruges. In it, she rejected the idea of a "European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels". Conservative MP Bill Cash, a prominent eurosceptic, said earlier this month of the Brexit trigger: "This is an historic moment for which I and my colleagues have fought for 30 years. This is the moment." "This is a vindication of the battles we fought," he said. - Not mutually beneficial - In the 1990s, Britain's defiance towards Brussels accelerated further with the creation of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), which campaigned for the country's exit from the EU. The opposition party's successes, particularly in the 2014 European Parliament elections when it topped the polls, pushed the government to harden its rhetoric. The eurozone crisis, large-scale immigration from the EU and the refugee crisis of the past few years stoked the discontent, pushing prime minister David Cameron to call the June 2016 referendum. Patricia Hogwood, a reader in European politics at the University of Westminster, said the referendum campaign failed to show the positive side of EU membership. "This is an island mentality," she told AFP. "We were always so scared of losing our control, losing our grip, our sovereignty," Hogwood added. In the end, 52 percent of voters opted for Brexit. Neither side is likely to end up the happier after the divorce, said John Springford, director of research at the Centre for European Reform in London. "I am not convinced that Britain leaving the EU will help Britain or help the EU." London (AFP) - As British Prime Minister Theresa May fired the starting gun on leaving the European Union on Wednesday, here is an outline of what we know: - Timing - Britons voted by 52 percent to 48 percent to leave the EU in a referendum in June 2016. May implemented that decision on Wednesday by triggering Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty, which opens a two-year window for negotiations with Brussels to leave the 28-member bloc. The EU has said it will issue an initial outline for Brexit talks on Friday, before finalising its strategy at a summit of EU leaders on April 29. Formal talks between London and Brussels are not expected to start for at least three weeks after that, and may not get down to detailed discussions until after elections in Germany, due in September. The European Commission's Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, has said the talks must be wrapped up by October 2018 to give the EU Parliament time to ratify the deal. Other parliaments at national level may also need to approve it. - Immigration - May will prioritise reducing the hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the rest of the bloc who move to Britain each year, after the issue dominated the referendum campaign. Brexit minister David Davis has said there would be no sudden drop in numbers, as it would take years to fill low-skilled jobs in hospitality, health and agriculture currently done by immigrants. "From time to time we will need more, from time to time we will need less," he said on the BBC this week. Both sides have said they would like early resolution of the status of more than three million Europeans living in Britain, and more than one million Britons living elsewhere in the EU. - Trade - May acknowledges this will mean leaving Europe's single market, of which freedom of movement is a key principle, and probably also the customs union. Amid fears of the impact on jobs and growth of leaving the single market, May is pushing for "maximum possible access" for British companies. Story continues The government has indicated that Britain could make contributions to the EU budget to ensure trade access. Continued full membership of the customs union is unlikely as it would prevent Britain striking its own trade deals with non-EU countries. - Huge exit bill - Britain believes it can negotiate the exit agreement and a deal on future relations within the two years, but diplomats are sceptical. Some in the EU argue that the divorce must be finalised first -- including the contentious issue of Britain's outstanding bills, which EU officials have estimated at around 60 billion euros ($65 billion). European leaders have also warned that Britain cannot get a better deal with Europe when it is outside the EU than when it was inside, amid fears Brexit could encourage other nations to leave the bloc. - No deal? - May has said she wants a new relationship that is good for Britain and the EU, but would rather walk away than accept a bad deal, although a growing number of business leaders have warned against this. Without a new trade agreement, Britain would fall back on World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, which could mean higher export tariffs and other barriers. In addition, failure to strike a deal would weaken cooperation in the fight against terrorism and crime, May said in her letter Wednesday. "In this kind of scenario, both the United Kingdom and the European Union would of course cope with the change, but it is not the outcome that either side should seek. "We must therefore work hard to avoid that outcome." - Parliament - May has promised parliament a vote on the final Brexit deal, but warned that rejecting it meant Britain would leave without any agreement. Other battles lie ahead, particularly over a so-called Great Repeal Bill. To be introduced later this year, the bill will repeal the 1972 European Communities Act under which the Britain joined the EU, and subsume more than four decades of European law into British law. MPs would then decide which laws to reject, adopt or amend. The government is due to publish a paper outlining its plans for this bill on Thursday. PM in Lhasa, returning today Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is returning home on Wednesday after completing his weeklong visit to China. Associated Press Concerns over the Buffalo Bills troubling loss to the New York Jets were quickly overshadowed by even bigger worries regarding the status of Josh Allens throwing elbow on Monday. Suddenly, the entirety of the organization and its fanbase is holding its collective breath while awaiting the results of medical tests to determine the severity of Allens injury sustained in the final minutes of a 20-17 loss to the Jets and what impact it will have on the second half of the season and the franchises Super Bowl aspirations. The reality, however, is bracing for the potential of having to turn over a very Allen-centric offense to journeyman backup Case Keenum to keep the AFC-leading Bills (6-2) afloat in the interim. The end of the Brexit beginning is here. On Wednesday, British Prime Minister Theresa May officially sent the European Union her countrys divorce papers, thus beginning the formal process of unmooring the United Kingdom from the European Union. Britains surprise decision to leave the EU during a referendum in June, 2016 rattled the EU to its core. After nearly seven decades of forging the continents institutional unity, it finally showed signs of cracking. It has also presented both Brussels and London with a sharp legal and political headache. The EU has over 40,000 EU regulations, 15,000 EU court verdicts, and 60,000 international standards that Britain will somehow have to entangle itself from, on issues ranging from immigration to healthcare to commerce to foreign policy to trade one of the most important issues given Britains reliance on the Eurozone market. And theyll be negotiating against the clock: Brussels and London have two years from Wednesdays formal notification to sort out their divorce based on the so-called exit clause of the EUs Treaty of Lisbon. If they dont reach a final agreement on Britains withdrawal terms, all EU rules will suddenly no longer apply to Britain. This could pit the country in political and financial uncertainty. Some British lawmakers fear they wont be able to meet the deadline. The EU can extend negotiations, but only if all 27 members agree, which isnt guaranteed. (But dont worry, chief Brexiteer Nigel Farage said hed just leave Britain if the Brexit he orchestrated is a disaster, so at least hell be okay.) The UKs ambassador to the EU, Tim Barrow, had the distinctly awkward honors of handing Mays official Brexit letter to European Council President Donald Tusk in Brussels Wednesday: May struck a lets still be friends tone in the letter. We are leaving the European Union, but we are not leaving Europe and we want to remain committed partners and allies to our friends across the continent, she wrote. Story continues She followed the letter with a speech before parliament, taking on a resolved tone to compensate for the sea of uncertainty shes mired in. Today the government acts on the democratic will of the British people, May said in a speech to Parliament after Barrow handed in her letter. This is an historic moment from which there can be no turning back. Britain is leaving the European Union, she said. But while the United Kingdom breaks from the EU, its grappling to keep its own kingdom united. On Tuesday, Scotland demanded a new referendum on independence from London once the terms of Brexit became clearer. The British government rejected Scotlands bid. In Brussels, the initial shock of the June, 2016 Brexit referendum wore off well before Wednesday. As one Politico Europe story puts it: the mood in the European capital has largely shifted to dont let the door hit you on the way out. But Tusk was clearly still hurt. There is no reason to pretend that this is a happy day, neither in Brussels, nor in London. After all, most Europeans, including almost half the British voters wish that we would stay together, not drift apart. As for me I will not pretend that I am happy today, he said. What can I add? We already miss you, he said. Photo credit: YVES HERMAN/AFP/Getty Images London (AFP) - Britain launched the historic process of leaving the EU on Wednesday, saying there was "no turning back", but its European partners were quick to warn of the difficult path ahead. Nine months after the stunning vote for Brexit, Prime Minister Theresa May gave EU President Donald Tusk formal notification of Britain's intention to withdraw from the 28-nation bloc. The unprecedented move, just days after the EU celebrated its 60th birthday, leaves Britain deeply divided and has thrown a question mark over the future of the alliance. "This is an historic moment from which there can be no turning back," May told MPs, to cheers from members of her ruling Conservative party. British ambassador Tim Barrow delivered the letter to Tusk triggering Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty, starting the two-year countdown to Brexit. "We already miss you," Tusk said in Brussels. But French President Francois Hollande struck a tough tone, warning that Brexit would be "economically painful" for Britain, the first country to leave the alliance. German Chancellor Angela Merkel also rebuffed May's call for negotiations on Britain's withdrawal to run alongside talks on a future trade agreement. Britain intends to leave Europe's single market in order to control migration, but is hopeful a new trade deal can be struck before it leaves the EU by the latest at midnight on March 29, 2019. Merkel said however that the divorce must come first -- including tough talks on Britain's financial contributions, as well as immigration. "Only when this question is dealt with, can we, hopefully soon after, begin talking about our future relationship," she said in Berlin. The EU, which was forged from the ashes of World War II, is determined the Brexit deal will not encourage other countries to follow Britain out of the door. May's six-page letter struck a conciliatory tone and called for a "deep and special partnership" with the bloc, which Britain joined in 1973. Story continues But some commentators saw a threat in her emphasis on the importance of Britain's security ties. She warned that failure to reach a new trade agreement would mean "cooperation in the fight against crime and terrorism would be weakened". - 'Damage control' - Tusk is expected to issue draft guidelines for the negotiations on Friday, but the leaders of the other 27 EU nations will not meet until April 29 to confirm their joint approach. The bloc's priority is to maintain unity as it faces the departure of one of its largest members, against a backdrop of crises involving migration, terrorism and the rise of populism. A spokesman for US President Donald Trump, who has described the Brexit vote as "smart", said: "We want the UK to remain a strong leader in Europe." But May is battling to keep her divided nation together. The Brexit vote was only won by a narrow 52-48 margin and Scotland's nationalist government is now calling for a fresh referendum on independence. May has said "now is not the time", even if Scotland -- and Northern Ireland -- voted overwhelmingly to stay in the EU, but were outvoted by England and Wales. In Edinburgh, 44-year-old computer consultant Mark Murphy said he had voted for Scotland to stay a part of Britain in a 2014 referendum but might now change his mind. Brexit was "probably the daftest thing we've done as a nation for my entire life", he said. - 'Implementation periods' - As with many divorces, negotiations with the EU could rapidly turn nasty over money. The priority for Brussels is settling Britain's outstanding bills, estimated at between 55 and 60 billion euros ($59-65 billion) -- an early battle that could set the tone for the rest of the talks. Both sides are also keen to see a reduction in tensions in Northern Ireland, which will have the UK's only hard border with the EU. Many business leaders are deeply concerned about May's decision to leave Europe's single market, a free trade area of 500 million people that represents Britain's largest trading partner. The Brexit vote sent the pound plunging and there are fears of what will happen if negotiations end without a new trade agreement in place. The European Parliament's chief negotiator, Guy Verhofstadt, said any transitional deal to work out the details of a trade agreement should be limited. "We propose three years," he said. - 'Dream come true' - Both sides have said they want an early agreement over the post-Brexit status of more than three million European nationals living in Britain. May has said this will be conditional on a deal for the status of one million British expats in the EU. Nicolas Hatton, a Frenchman with a British wife who leads a grassroots campaign for EU expatriates, said he wanted a deal "so that we can get on with our lives". Tens of thousands marched through London on Saturday demanding Britain stay in the EU, with one banner urging politicians to "stop this madness". But others were elated that Brexit was finally under way. In Sunderland, a bastion of Brexit support in northeast England, former miner Tom Curras said: "I don't believe that we should be dominated by other countries." Nigel Farage, the founder of the anti-immigration UK Independence Party (UKIP) and a key player in the Brexit campaign, celebrated in a pub near parliament. "Today's the day for me after 25 years of campaigning that the impossible dream came true," he said -- before a passerby heckled him as "a disgrace". burs-ar/dt/cw Brussels (AFP) - If Sir Tim Barrow was feeling any nerves on the day he would personally trigger Britain's historic exit from the EU, he wasn't showing them. The 53-year-old British ambassador to the EU, bearded and wearing a waistcoat and dark suit, grinned at the media as he strolled in early to work at the British embassy on Wednesday. An hour later Barrow, who has only been in the job since his predecessor quit in January, emerged holding a worn leather briefcase and hopped into a waiting Jaguar limousine for the five-minute drive to the European Council headquarters. Inside the black briefcase was a ticking political timebomb -- the Article 50 notification letter signed the day before by Prime Minister Theresa May and delivered to Brussels on a Eurostar train from London. On the short drive, Barrow could not have missed the monumental banner alongside the EU Commission's Berlaymont headquarters celebrating the 60 years since the Treaty of Rome, the EU's founding document. "Good morning," the former British ambassador to Moscow then said cheerily to another pack of journalists as he strode through the VIP entrance of the council. They were the only words he would speak in public all day. A few hours later, Barrow would make history by handing the letter to European Council President Donald Tusk and formally beginning two years of tough negotiations in which he would play a key role. - Just a Wednesday in Brussels - This being a Wednesday in Brussels, his first stop was not history but a regular scheduled meeting with fellow EU ambassadors, for a debate on the effects of psychoactive drugs among other topics. In the hallways of the EU council there were none of the tears and shock that marked the morning after the June 23 referendum when Britain chose to break away from the EU. "Aren't you going to offer me your condolences? I'm British," said one EU official dressed in blue. The headlines on newspapers, scattered here and there, were the only other reminders of what was taking place. Story continues Still in the Council HQ, Barrow eventually found his way to the eleventh floor of the giant egg-shaped building dubbed Tusk Tower, where its most senior occupant's office is located. Holding the pearly white envelope, marked from "The Prime Minister" to "his excellency" Tusk, he entered the EU president's office, decorated on this occasion with Britain's Union Jack and the blue and yellow starred flag of the EU. After about 30 seconds of chat, Barrow finally handed over the letter, which former Polish premier Tusk received with two hands. A few extra moments for the photographers and Barrow was gone. Mission accomplished. Later, Tusk would add a touch of emotion to the day. "We already miss you," he said to Britain, after waving the six-page letter in the air at a short press conference. - Cake at the pub - A stone's throw away victorious Brexiteers swigged beers and ate cake at the Old Hack, the Brussels pub favoured by Nigel Farage, that sits in the shadow of the commission's Berlaymont headquarters. Across the road EU flags flapped in the chilly March wind. "It's a great day," said UK Independence Party MEP David Coburn as colleagues cut into an "Article 50" cake -- referring to Britain's desire to "have its cake and eat it" in the negotiations -- and poured out Cava, a Spanish sparkling wine. "I hope our revolution or the 'British disease' as they called it, spreads across Europe." "It's a start of a long journey. Hopefully we lead the way for the rest of Europe," said his MEP colleague Raymond Finch, a row of toppled dominoes arrayed symbolically on the pub table. Brussels (AFP) - The British ambassador to the European Union arrived at the bloc's headquarters Wednesday ahead of the formal handover of a historic letter announcing Britain's intention to leave. Tim Barrow, wearing a waistcoat and dark suit and carrying a leather briefcase, left Britain's EU embassy in Brussels and stepped into a dark Jaguar car, AFP reporters said. Minutes later he arrived at the Europa building less than a quarter of a mile (300 metres) away where he is due to deliver by hand the letter to EU President Donald Tusk at around 1120 GMT. "Good morning," the bearded diplomat, who took up the post in January after his predecessor Ivan Rogers resigned, said to waiting reporters. Barrow will first take part in a scheduled meeting with ambassadors from the other 27 European Union nations before the meeting with Tusk. "At 13:20 today, UK #Brexit notification letter (article 50) will be handed to me by Ambassador Tim Barrow," Tusk said. British Prime Minister Theresa May signed the letter on Tuesday, a photo released by her office showed. Officials declined to say how the letter was being conveyed to Brussels, citing security reasons. May is due to formally announce that she has triggered the Brexit process to parliament at 1130 GMT. "We are one great union of people and nations with a proud history and a bright future. And, now that the decision has been made to leave the EU, it is time to come together," she will say, according to the speech published in advance by Downing Street. A bunch of people dressed as Albert Einstein broke the Guinness World Record for the "largest gathering of people dressed as Albert Einstein." SEE ALSO: Ripples in space and time carry the future of space science A lot of Einsteins here at the #TheNextEinstein @TheNxt_Einstein record breaking attempt. The smartest building in Toronto! pic.twitter.com/x3QIOJK200 Chris Boddy (@TPSChrisBoddy) March 28, 2017 There is nothing much to add to this article, except that 404 people turned up and smashed the previous record of 99. The next Einstein competition happening @MaRSDD - will they break world record and come up with world changing idea? pic.twitter.com/09iPJWUPQc Joanne Thomsen (@joannethomsen) March 28, 2017 That means other people already had the brilliant idea of dressing up as the most famous scientist of all time to break a world record. Which is genius, to say the least. We beat the Guinness world record for the most Einsteins in one place!! Just another day at @MaRSDD pic.twitter.com/qEsZTdHo3M Claire Bure (@ClaireBure) March 28, 2017 Participants at the gathering, which took place at the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto and was organised by the Next Einstein initiative, were provided big white wigs and moustaches. Our @TheNxt_Einstein friends broke the @GWR Guinness World Record this AM - largest gathering of Einsteins! @CdnFriendsHU pic.twitter.com/p9pebHfjdn Tori Avey (@toriavey) March 28, 2017 However, the convention wasn't just to break a world record. It also kicked off this year's Next Einstein competition, which offers $10,000 in cash for an idea that will make the world a better place. Story continues Congratulations on the new Guinness World Record @TheNxt_Einstein, it was a pleasure to be there. pic.twitter.com/6II5c20wKJ Odris Koco PFP (@OdrisK) March 28, 2017 Were living in a world where people are not revealing their ideas, they are too afraid to share them, Rami Kleinmann, president of the Einstein Legacy Project, said. What were creating here is a way to encourage people to use their imaginations, share their ideas and improve the world. WATCH: This gigantic snow maze is set to crack a Guinness World Record BEIRUT (Reuters) - A bomb blast hit a passenger bus in the government-held city of Homs at noon on Wednesday, killing five people and wounding six, the Syrian state news agency SANA reported. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitor, also said that at least five people were killed in the attack. SANA's correspondent in Homs said the bombing, which it said was carried out by terrorists, targeted a small passenger bus which was in a street in al-Zahra neighborhood. The agency quoted the Homs health director as saying the bombing killed 5 people and wounded 6. Government-held cities have been hit by a series of bombings in recent weeks, including in Homs, where an attack that included blasts and shooting killed dozens of people in February including a senior security official. Scores of people were killed in suicide attacks in the capital Damascus earlier this month, including twin bombings on March 15 at a central courthouse and a restaurant, and a blast days earlier near an important Shi'ite Muslim shrine. After some of the attacks in recent weeks the jihadist rebel group Tahrir al-Sham, whose main component is al Qaeda's former Syrian branch Nusra Front, said it had been behind the blasts. Analysts have predicted that as jihadist rebels fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad suffer military reverses, they will increasingly turn to guerrilla-style attacks in territory controlled by the government. (Reporting by Angus McDowall, Editing by Catherine Evans and Angus MacSwan) Damascus (AFP) - A bomb attack on a bus in Syria's third city Homs killed five people and wounded at least seven on Wednesday, state media reported. The blast hit a small bus carrying passengers in the Al-Zahraa neighbourhood, which has repeatedly been targeted in bombings. Most of the neighbourhood's residents belong to the same Alawite religious sect as President Bashar al-Assad. In December, four people were killed in a blast at a Red Crescent centre in the neighbourhood, and in February a double bomb attack claimed by the Islamic State group killed 57 people. Interviewed on state television, Homs governor Talal Barazi said four of those killed were female students heading to university on the bus. Most of Homs is held by the government, with the exception of the Waer district, where the last phase of an evacuation is under way under a deal between the government and rebels. Three waves of rebels and their families had already left Waer under an agreement first reached in December 2015, but subsequent evacuations stalled before a new deal was reached earlier this month. The neighbourhood has been subject to a siege and bombardment by the army. Rebel groups criticise so-called "reconciliation" deals like that agreed in Waer, saying they are forced into them by siege tactics. But the government has touted the deals, which grant safe passage to rebels and their families in exchange for surrender of territory, as the best way to end the six-year civil war. Homs was once dubbed the "capital of the revolution" because of the large-scale protests held in the city when the uprising began in March 2011. More than 320,000 people have been killed in the conflict and millions driven from their homes. A former U.S. intelligence chief who served a Republican president warned President Donald Trump was engaged in an unprecedented campaign to delegitimize facts and by extension the intelligence community that delivers them. What Im seeing is a straight-out attempt to delegitimize the bearers of the facts, Gen. Michael Hayden, who was head of both the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency under President George W. Bush said Wednesday. Its a de-legitimization of those presenting you with something youd rather not be presented with, he said, adding that hed never experienced it before. Hayden spoke at an event in Washington, The Future of Truth, co-hosted by Foreign Policy and PEN America. Concerns over the credibility of officials and the press escalated dramatically since Trump took office. The president has repeatedly attacked the media for producing fake news. Meanwhile, foreign governments, journalists, and even the ranks of the U.S. government struggle to decipher the Trump administrations fast and loose relationship with the truth. A large chunk of the administrations unverifiable statements stem from the scandal over Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election. The scandal has dogged Trumps White House from day one, felled his first national security advisor, and fueled multiple federal and Congressional probes. Truth in national security is a unique beast, argued David Rothkopf, CEO and editor of the FP Group. Unlike other public policy debates such as on health or science, he said the public cant refer to the underlying facts because many are classified. The climate in Washington undercuts Americans confidence in their national security, argued Vikram Singh, a former senior Pentagon official under President Barack Obama now with Washington-based think tank Center for American Progress. Its not new to have a public skeptical of governments talking points, Singh said, but todays level of distrust is unprecedented. Were facing a crisis in confidence that is rather unparalleled, he said. Story continues Hayden said the distrust Trump was sowing would come back to bite him at a time when he needs Americans to rally around him. He predicted that Trump will eventually face that moment during a national emergency when he gives a prime time address asking Americans to make sacrifices. The erosion of confidence in his own word and in the words of his government can only only come back to harm him and his presidency, Hayden said. When asked if Trumps actions were endangering national security, Hayden pointedly said, yes. Experts speaking at the event also voiced concerns over Trump stacking his top administration posts with generals, which could lead to military groupthink, and leaving key middle management posts vacant. By his second month in office, the Trump administration hadnt filled 2,000 vacancies in the administration, including 197 in the State Department and 63 in the Department of Defense. Many dont require Senate approval. We are a government of vacancies, Hayden said. The empty seats will leave the administration struggling to enact its own policies, experts warned. We have heads of agencies but no next to connect them to the bodies, said Susan Hennessey, fellow at Brookings Institution and managing editor of Lawfare. Decisions are pushed lower and lower down the chain, people are doing the bosss jobs, and their bosss bosss jobs. Or, as the New York Times David Sangers quipped: One way theyve gotten around groupthink in this administration is they dont have any groups. Photo credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images Revise Criminal Code Bill to ensure accountability for grave rights violations, ICJ urges Nepal The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has urged Nepal to revise its draft Criminal Code Bill in line with international human rights standards to ensure justice for victims of serious human rights violations. Protesters gather across the Chicago River from Trump Tower last Friday to rally against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. (Photo: Charles Rex Arbogast/AP) VICTORY LAPS. With the American Health Care Act apparently in the rearview mirror and the Affordable Care Act the law of the land for the foreseeable future, progressive and activist groups that helped fight the GOP Obamacare repeal effort are tallying up their contributions to the fight and reporting in. Five of the groups are responsible for facilitating more than 389,000 calls to Congress opposing the Ryan-Trump health coverage law, according to figures provided to Yahoo News. Thats a huge number, but one that pales in comparison to the deluge of calls received by the Capitol switchboard during the confirmation hearings for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. But where the fight against DeVos saw calls going to Democratic senators from some of the most populous U.S. states, the progressive anti-AHCA effort was concentrated on Republican members of the House. Daily Action: Daily Action reports that it was responsible for more than 67,000 calls to Congress in defense of the Affordable Care Act a total of 222,181 minutes, or 154 days, worth of conversations with staffers who picked up the phones. The American people are not going to sit back, flip on The Apprentice, and let President Trump and Republican leaders dismantle all the progress of the last eight years, said founder Laura Moser in a statement. The phones in congressional offices are ringing off the hook, and we are not going to let up. Daily Action is a daily text-messaging call-to-action service launched after the election to connect subscribers to members of Congress, using technology developed by Obama and Bernie Sanders campaign alumni. Those who received the most call time included key Republican members of the House who rejected the ACA repeal bill, such as New Jersey Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, 293 calls, 953 minutes of calls and Floridas Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen 209 calls, 823 minutes of calls. MoveOn: MoveOn members made over 40,000 calls to Congress just today! the group announced last Friday, the final day of the progressive stalwart groups push to kill the AHCA bill. Founded in 1998, MoveOn.org now has nearly two decades of experience in pushing back on a district-by-district basis against Republican efforts to undo entitlement programs, a technique the group used to great effect during the 2005 fight over George W. Bushs Social Security privatization proposals. In addition to sending members to town halls throughout the year in 2017, MoveOn organized two days of stakeouts outside Republican congressional offices to oppose the AHCA the weekend before the bill died. Story continues The Washington Post reported that phone calls opposing the bill ran 50 to 1 against calls supporting it, according to the offices of 13 members of Congress who were willing to provide figures. Critics of the GOP health care proposal included both progressives and many conservatives, many of whom argued that it didnt go far enough in repealing Obamacare. Organizing for Action: The group organized by former President Barack Obama and his supporters that helped push for the Affordable Care Act in the first place says it held more than 1,000 events opposing its repeal in 43 states. It also claimed credit for more than 40,000 calls to members of Congress, along with more than 812,000 petition signatures. Its no accident that the House backed down from voting on the bill to repeal Obamacare its because people like you got organized, the group told its members after the AHCA bill was pulled. Planned Parenthood: The group touted more than 122,000 phone calls made to members of Congress, more than 1,000 events held across the country, and 712,000 petition signatures submitted in opposition to the AHCA, which also would have denied people who use public insurance programs, such as Medicaid, the ability to use their insurance for visits to Planned Parenthood. Last week alone, Planned Parenthood supporters, patients and advocates rallied in opposition to the bill in 60 events, the group said in a statement. On Wednesday, April 29, the group plans to hold #PinkOut Day 2017 to rally supporters online and on Capitol Hill as part of its continuing fight against Republican efforts to cut off federal payments for patient visits to Planned Parenthood doctors. 5 Calls: Another call-connecting service, 5 Calls, told Yahoo News that more than 120,000 calls on the ACA have been placed through 5 Calls since we launched Jan 17. The group is not as narrowly focused as Daily Action, and provides subscribers with multiple daily topics to choose from. Though people might follow a link to us to call about the ACA, they tend to find another topic that theyre also interested in and call on that as well, said Nick ONeill, a San Francisco-based mobile developer who co-founded the open-source code, volunteer-created group along with his wife. On Tuesday, 5 Calls passed the million-call mark overall since launching. Indivisible: We dont track number of calls made, but I can tell you that our 5,800 groups around the country made a huge impact in the fight to save the ACA, Indivisibles Sarah Dohl told Yahoo News. The ACA was a major theme during the February recess where us and some of our partners estimate over 100,000 people took part in nearly 300 nationwide events. The groups congressional district-level ACA data was accessed more than 75,000 times online, and its Save the ACA toolkit was accessed about 25,000 times. Local Indivisible chapters targeted key Republicans who went on to oppose or raise questions about the House ACA repeal bill. In New Jersey, NJ 11th for Change went after Frelinghuysen the powerful House Appropriations Committee chairman also targeted by Daily Action repeatedly. For two months, the group organized a series of weekly Fridays with Frelinghuysen visits to oppose ACA repeal, and it also held four empty chair town halls during the last congressional recess. Frelinghuysen, a longtime critic of the ACA, broke with the president and announced he would not support the AHCA. "I was a Republican. If @USRepRodney doesn't have what it takes to be what it used to mean to be a Republican, then he has to step aside." pic.twitter.com/EMKoRogBWl NJ11forchange (@nj11forchange) March 23, 2017 Last Friday, nearly 200 constituents came to @USRepRodney office to share their thoughts about #ACHA. Here are some of their stories. pic.twitter.com/E3vULeo69T NJ11forchange (@nj11forchange) March 23, 2017 In Virginia, Indivisible VA-10 went after Rep. Barbara Comstock a woman whose suburban Washington, D.C., seat has been a target of the Swing Left group seeking to unseat Republicans in swing districts, and the MoveOn stakeouts, as well. Indivisible VA-10 did several office visits, mass call drives and a constituent town hall, according to Dohl. This was the scene at @RepComstock's Sterling, VA office a few minutes before she announced her "No" vote. pic.twitter.com/yuPjaoHGB9 Indivisible Guide (@IndivisibleTeam) March 24, 2017 And in Arkansas, Ozark Indivisible organized a huge showing at the Sen. [Tom] Cotton town hall where many constituents shared personal stories about what the ACA means to them, said Dohl. Ozark Indivisibles first project when they formed was to push their [members of Congress] to have a town hall. After repeated pressure, Sen. Cotton finally planned a town hall and personally notified the group about it. He even called up Caitlynn Moses, the group leader of Ozark Indivisible, onto the stage to ask the first question at the town hall she passed the question to another audience member. Her question brought tears to our eyes! Standing ovation! First question about immigration. #CottonTownHall #arpx pic.twitter.com/mMXNMMJQhm Ozark Indivisible (@OZRKIndivisible) February 22, 2017 The Town Hall Project: The Town Hall Project has researched and posted more than 400 town hall events hosted by over 170 members of Congress nationwide, the group announced Tuesday. The volunteer-created directory of town halls has been a critical asset used by the other progressive groups to find and mobilize people to attend town halls, and it has worked closely with Indivisible and MoveOn. From the beginning of this process, the American people have been clear that they want an opportunity to be heard by their elected leaders before any votes on the AHCA, Town Hall Project founder Jimmy Dahman said in a statement. Across the country, the members of Congress who held town halls heard from constituents that would lose access to the critical care they need to keep themselves and their families healthy. This decision by Republican leadership to cancel the vote on the AHCA demonstrates the true power of citizens when they make their voice heard. Read more from Yahoo News: SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) California's attorney general will continue to seek the death penalty for a man who killed eight people in a shooting rampage at a hair salon and whose sentencing has been delayed by a long-running scandal over the use of jailhouse informants. Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced the decision Wednesday, saying the murders in the tight-knit seaside town of Seal Beach in 2011 "caused so much harm to far too many families." Scott Dekraai pleaded guilty to the killings. The now-47-year-old former tugboat operator who killed his hairstylist ex-wife and seven others during the onslaught is due to appear in court Thursday. Orange County's district attorney had been seeking the death penalty for Dekraai but was yanked from the case after Dekraai's attorney learned that a jailhouse snitch had been chatting with his client even though he had a lawyer. The discovery led to a broader probe of Orange County's use of jailhouse informants and a federal investigation. It also delayed the sentencing of Dekraai even though he pleaded guilty in 2014. Dekraai's lawyer Scott Sanders has long argued that his client shouldn't face the death penalty due to the misuse of informants and prosecutors' failure to turn over required evidence. On Wednesday, he said he was disappointed in the state's decision and would fight it. "We will be bringing additional motions that based upon the egregious misconduct the death penalty must be dismissed," Sanders said. Dekraai had been locked in a bitter custody dispute with ex-wife Michelle Fournier over their 8-year-old son when he entered Salon Meritage in Seal Beach in October 2011 wearing a bulletproof vest and armed with three weapons. He shot and killed Fournier before turning his guns on the salon owner, stylists and customers and a man who was sitting in his car in the parking lot. Police arrested Dekraai within minutes of the rampage that killed eight and wounded one. PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia's interior ministry on Wednesday told the main opposition party its leader had been elected illegally and it must change its campaign slogan ahead of local elections. Rivals and human rights groups accuse Prime Minister Hun Sen of unfair maneuvering to keep his three-decade-old grip on power at a general election next year for which the local ballot in June will be a springboard. The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) chose Kem Sokha as its new leader this month after his predecessor, Sam Rainsy, resigned in the face of a possible ban on the party if he had stayed on. An interior ministry official told the opposition party that its leadership election had breached an internal party rule which required an 18-month waiting period. "The congress was illegal," Prak Sam Oeun told reporters following the meeting with CNRP's representatives on Wednesday. He did not say what action it would take if the party leader is not changed. The party's deputy president, Eng Chhay Eang, rejected any suggestion of a change and said "this is a private matter". But the party agreed to stop using a local election slogan that the interior ministry branded unconstitutional. It had promised to "replace commune chiefs who serve the political party with ones who serve the people." (Reporting by Prak Chan Thul; Editing by Matthew Tostevin) Camden Mayor Dana Redd announced Wednesday that she wouldn't seek a third term and offered an enthusiastic endorsement for city Council president Frank Moran, who is seeking to replace her. "I kept my promise to our residents," said Redd, standing before City Hall surrounded by officials and speaking to a crowd of residents. "I kept my promise to our beloved Camden. Now it is time for me to keep my promise to my family." Redd said she was proud of having returned accountability to City Hall following years of financial disarray, and of improvements to the city's schools and public safety. She did not say what she plans to do after finishing her term at end of the year, but said she wants to spend more time with her grandmother, brother and nephew, and indicated she is likely to continue working in some capacity to further the city. "I love Camden now, and I will love Camden always," she said. Redd described Moran, a council member for 20 years, as her "rock-steady partner." A Camden native, the 48-year-old Moran said he would seek to build on Redd's accomplishments. "I've held titles like 'laborer'," Moran said. "I know what it is to work hard and do what you have to do to make our city shine." Three city council seats are also up for election. The primary is in June. A Camden native, the 49-year-old Redd was orphaned at age 8 and raised by her grandparents. She started working for the Camden County board of freeholders in her 20s, and went on to serve as vice-president of the City Council. She was a state senator from 2008 through 2010 and has held seats on a number of Democratic committees. Elected mayor of the heavily Democratic city of 77,000 in November 2009, Redd took office just as an eight-year state takeover ended in January 2010. She oversaw the tumultuous dissolution of the Camden Police Department, which resulted in the creation in 2013 of a county regional force that patrols only Camden. Officials have lauded the changes, though the city remains one of the most crime-ridden in the state. She also has overseen a takeover of the school system, which came under state control in 2013. Story continues Redd has presided over the start of a development boom following the passage of the Grow New Jersey law, which has used the promise of state tax incentives to draw corporations including Subaru of America, Lockheed-Martin, Holtec and the Philadelphia 76ers to Camden, and led to plans for a major mixed-use development on the waterfront. The program rewards employers that invest in struggling cities as part of the 2013 Economic Opportunity Act. U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross, a South Jersey Democrat, championed the law as a state senator, saying tax incentives would lure employers to Camden. The state Economic Development Authority (EDA) has since promised more than $1.5 billion in credits to companies that agree to relocate to the city. Redd has been an advocate for the incentives, which she and others say will strangthen the local economy. Some critics have complained that the deals largely involve the relocation of high-paying jobs from elsewhere in South Jersey and include no strategies aimed at addressing Camden's chronic unemployment, though some job-training programs have been formed. Redd has also cultivated relationships with some of South Jersey's most prominent politicians and leaders, including Democratic power broker George E. Norcross III, the millionaire insurance executive that Redd often describes as "the greatest friend Camden has ever had." In recent years Norcross, brother to Donald Norcross and head of Camden's Cooper University Health Care, has leveraged his influence to push for the creation of the police force and pave the way for new charter-public hybrid schools in Camden. The waterfront project was put forth by companies with ties to Norcross, who this month announced plans to move his insurance firm there. Following Redd's announcement, a number of county and state leaders responded with effusive public comments. "America's greatest mayor transformed Camden from a municipality in dire straits with some of the nation's largest challenges to a city fulfilling its promise of improved public safety, enhanced educational opportunities and better access to economic prosperity," said Lou Cappelli, director of the Camden County board of chosen freeholders. "Every story of resurgence starts with a strong leader, and Mayor Redd has faithfully served that role in Camden' rising," Sen. Cory Booker said. Most Popular on Philly.com Washington (AFP) - At their store selling camping gear in southern Tennessee, the Honeycutt brothers pretended not to notice when profits soared from the sale of a water purifier -- a product also used to cook up the drug methamphetamine. Their unusual tale, which calls to mind the tale of amateur chemists in the hit television series "Breaking Bad," was examined Wednesday by the US Supreme Court. It all began in 2008, in an all-American setting: a military surplus outlet, sandwiched between a garage and a fast-food joint, on a road busy with pick-up trucks. The "Brainerd Army Store" in the city of Chattanooga is a family business, owned by the Honeycutt father as well as Tony, one of his sons. Terry, the second son, is an employee, in charge of the cash register and inventory. In the shop you can find all you might need for the outdoors life, from tents and duvets to walking boots, backpacks and hurricane lamps. - Popular purifier - Also on its shelves was "Polar Pure," a useful iodine-based product for purifying water. Knowing that a small vial of the purifier could decontaminate 2,000 liters of water, Terry was surprised when he saw unusual-looking customers beginning to buy up to 12 of them. He went as far as to speak to the police one day in 2008. The officers confirmed that the iodine crystals in Polar Pure could be used to make methamphetamine, and advised him to stop selling. But, smelling a profitable venture, the Honeycutts turned a deaf ear. Sales continued to rise to the point that Polar Pure became the shop's leading source of revenue. The Honeycutts had clearly become suppliers to clandestine laboratories throughout the region. When police checked the store's accounts book, they discovered that Polar Pure had generated profits just shy of $270,000 in three years. - Problem of penalties - The two brothers were indicted for conspiring to and distributing iodine, while knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that it would be used to make meth. Story continues Tony pleaded guilty and as part of the plea bargain he forfeited $200,000 of the money made from selling Polar Pure. His brother Terry went to trial and was convicted, but here a legal issue arose that has brought the case to the attention of the country's highest court. The US government wants him to forfeit the remaining Polar Pure profits -- nearly $70,000 -- but Terry argues against this, saying that as a salaried employee of the "Brainerd Army Store" he did not benefit from the bumper sales. "The defendant obtained nothing!" insisted Adam Unikowsky, Terry's attorney, to the Supreme Court. The government does not dispute this, but maintains that Terry is indebted for the dishonestly-earned profits as an accomplice of his brother. "That position by the government has no textual basis at all," said Unikowsky. Will Terry have to pay up? The top court is set to rule on the case by the end of June. Ottawa (AFP) - Canada will want to bolster trade with Britain after it secedes from the European Union, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau assured Wednesday. "The United Kingdom remains a friend and ally and economic partner and we will, of course, work with them as they go through the transition that they're embarking upon," Trudeau said. "We'll continue to look for ways to create closer trade ties and opportunities for better jobs and economic growth that benefits both of our countries and we will continue to engage as friends and allies." Britain is Canada's fourth-biggest trading partner, but would be excluded from a Canada-EU trade pact once it leaves the EU in two years -- a deadline prompted when British Prime Minister Theresa May earlier Wednesday triggered formal divorce proceedings. Parliament members in both London and Ottawa have called for swift negotiations on a separate bilateral trade deal in order to mitigate any trade disruptions. Officials have suggested that the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) would be a good base for negotiations. But Canadian Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne poured cold water on that idea, saying last week that it was "premature" to discuss a trade agreement with Britain at the same time as Britain was in EU exit talks. Officially Britain cannot enter into trade talks until it has left the EU. Until the divorce is finalized, however, Britain will benefit from CETA, which will provisionally come into force in a few weeks. Paris (AFP) - The official poster for this year's Cannes film festival sparked an outcry Wednesday over claims that Italian actress Claudia Cardinale's thighs had been airbrushed to make them thinner. French media poured scorn on the festival for seemingly tampering with a photograph of Cardinale swirling her skirt on a Rome roof in 1959. "Claudia Cardinale dropped a dress size in one swirl," said the left-leaning Liberation, while the culture magazine Telerama questioned why it was necessary to retouch the famously sexy star when she was in her heyday. "While the poster is magnificent, the photograph has clearly and deplorably been airbrushed to thin the actress's thighs. What a pity," it said. There was a similarly hostile reaction on social media, with one Twitter user saying, "If even Claudia Cardinale cannot represent beauty without being retouched, we really are in trouble." Others bemoaned the "dictatorship of thinness" or claimed that "Cardinale wasn't thin enough for Cannes". ' Dream character' - The actress, now 78, was unimpressed by watched she called a "fake row". "This image has been retouched to accentuate this effect of lightness and transpose me into a dream character," she told Huffington Post. "This concern for realism has no place here and, as a committed feminist, I see no affront to the female body. There are many more important things to discuss in our world. It's only cinema." Cardinale said in a statement released by the festival that she was honoured to feature on the poster for its 70th anniversary year. "That dance on a roof in Rome... reminds me of a time when I could never have imagined climbing up the red-carpeted steps of the most celebrated" film festival in the world. But Claire Serre-Combe, of the French women's group Osez le feminisme! ("Dare to be Feminist"), said it was a scandal that Cardinale who was "thin and magnificent in the original photo", should have to "lose kilos" for the poster. Story continues The festival's director Thierry Fremaux told AFP that the poster had been "very well received". Tunisian-born Cardinale starred in some of the greatest European films of the 1960s and 1970s including Federico Fellini's "8" and Luchino Visconti's "The Leopard". The furore comes as Fremaux is whittling down the line-up for the festival, which will run from May 17 to 28. Sofia Coppola's US Civil War story "The Beguiled", starring Colin Farrell as a wounded soldier who is given refuge in a girl's boarding school, is hotly tipped to make the main competition. Coppola's previous hits "Virgin Suicides" and "Marie Antoinette" also premiered on the Croisette, and her new film comes with the starry trio of Nicole Kidman, Elle Fanning and Kirsten Dunst. - Brad Pitt, Matt Damon - Fellow US indie director Todd Haynes is also among those thought to have made the cut with "Wonderstruck" his time-shift story of two deaf children starring Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams. Speculation is also swirling around "War Machine", the big-budget Afghan war story starring Brad Pitt. Matt Damon could end up being in two films at the festival, Alexander Payne's sci-fi comedy "Downsizing" and George Clooney's new family drama "Suburbicon". There has been much talk too of a special screening of Cannes favourite David Lynch's revival of his cult television series "Twin Peaks". There is also likely to be films from Palme d'Or winners Roman Polanski -- "After a True Story" starring Eva Green -- and the unsparing Austrian director Michael Haneke tackling the migrant issue in "Happy End", which reunites him with French actress Isabelle Huppert. Another winner of the festival's top prize, the Franco-Tunisian Abdellatif Kechiche ("Blue is the Warmest Colour") is expected to return with "Mektoub is Mektoub" (Fate is Fate). French Oscar winner Michel Hazanavicius ("The Artist"), whose film on the cinema revolutionary Jean-Luc Godard is called "Redoutable", is also likely to be back this year. Sunderland (United Kingdom) (AFP) - At a pub in the Brexit bastion of Sunderland, voters cheered Prime Minister Theresa May as she started the departure process on Wednesday and branded the few pro-Remain protesters in the city as "traitors". The city of 275,000 people on England's northeast coast, battered by decades of industrial decline, was the epicentre of last year's Brexit referendum earthquake. Some 61 percent voted to quit the EU in the first pro-Leave result of the referendum night, which showed which way the vote was swinging and saw footage of partying locals beamed around the world. Nine months later, the desire to get out of the EU is just as strong. "I don't believe that we should be dominated by other countries, which we were," said Tom Curras, who spent 40 years as a miner before his local colliery closed in the 1980s. Drinking in the Wheatsheaf pub, Curras said he voted to leave the European Union for greater British sovereignty and democratic accountability in the face of creeping EU federalism. "The EU was created as a trade alliance but it turned into a political alliance with people domineering us," he told AFP. After serving notice of its intention to quit the EU, Britain and Brussels now face two years of exit negotiations. "Why don't we tell them what we're going to do? It's us that's leaving. It should be on our terms," Curras said. "We should just tell them, 'we're coming out, we're going to trade with the world -- like it or lump it'." - 'Traitors' - In Sunderland city centre, a small group of pro-EU demonstrators waved placards and EU flags and chanted: "Europeans welcome here." "I don't accept that Brexit is going to happen. I think it's reversible," said protester Paul Austin, 72, from Carlisle, northwest England. "As the terms of what the government is planning for Brexit come true, there's going to be a big resistance to us leaving the EU," he predicted. Story continues "It has its faults but they can be corrected from inside. "We will get a second referendum and the result of that will be clearly that the people want to stay in the EU." Fellow demonstrator David Hardman, 49, said Brexit would damage Britain's jobs and social infrastructure and make foreigners feel unwelcome. "This Brexit is about being a small country, about looking inwards," the design consultant said. "We can already do everything that all the Brexiteers keep talking about." But in the Wheatsheaf, Sunderland resident Colin Haworth had harsh words for the demonstrators. "Why is there people standing in Sunderland city centre now waving European flags around on the day that our prime minister signed us out?" he asked. "They're traitors. Every single one of them is a traitor. "If they don't want to live in England, why don't they get themselves under the tunnel and bugger off to Europe? "We won... and we're out. Simple as that." - Respect for May - Japanese carmaker Nissan helped save Sunderland from economic oblivion following the closure of the shipyards and coal mines in the 1980s, when it built what is now Britain's biggest-ever car factory in the city. More than 7,000 workers will this year assemble half a million vehicles, of which more than half are exported to the rest of the EU. Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn visited the prime minister in October, seeking assurances about the car industry post-Brexit. "Where that will go I'm not sure because that employs a lot of people round here. Hopefully it stays the same," said Wheatsheaf customer Wayne Teller. Sunderland is heartland territory for the opposition Labour Party, but there was even backing for the Conservative prime minister over Brexit. "Theresa May has shot up in my estimation," said Curras. "Even though she was against Brexit from the beginning, once the people had voted, she's carrying out the people's wishes, which is what she's there for, so I've got to admire her for that." Security arrangements complete for local polls: Home Ministry The Ministry of Home Affairs has stated that security arrangements for the local level elections slated for May 14 have been completed. By Ben Blanchard and Alister Doyle BEIJING/OSLO (Reuters) - Nations led by China and the European Union rallied around a global plan to slow climate change on Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump began undoing Obama-era plans for deep cuts in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Trump's order on Tuesday, keeping a campaign promise to bolster the U.S. coal industry, strikes at the heart of an international Paris Agreement in 2015 to curb world temperatures that hit record highs in 2016 for the third year in a row. Many nations reacted to Trump's plan with dismay and defiance, saying a vast investment shift from fossil fuels to clean energy such as wind and solar power is underway with benefits ranging from less air pollution to more jobs. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang, whose government cooperated closely with former U.S. President Barack Obama's administration on climate change, said all countries should "move with the times". "No matter how other countries' policies on climate change, as a responsible large developing country China's resolve, aims and policy moves in dealing with climate change will not change," he said. European Climate Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete said the EU saw the Paris agreement as a "growth engine" for creating jobs and new investment opportunities. "Donald Trump's attempt to turn the U.S. into a Jurassic Park run by dinosaur energy will eventually fail," said Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. CLEAN POWER Trump's main target is Obama's Clean Power Plan, which required states to slash carbon emissions from power plants and was key to the U.S. pledge under Paris to cut emissions by between 26 and 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. Trump did not say whether he would pull out of the Paris Agreement, agreed by almost 200 nations and which seeks a shift from fossil fuels this century as the cornerstone of efforts to limit heat waves, floods, droughts and rising sea levels. The fear is that less action by the United States, the number two greenhouse gas emitter behind China, will cause other nations to roll back their own goals. The pact has been ratified so far by 141 nations ranging from Pacific island states to OPEC oil producers. The Paris Agreement lets each country set domestic targets for restricting greenhouse gases and foresees no sanctions for non-compliance. Trump has sometimes called global warming a hoax but has also said he has an open mind about Paris. Still, Trump's rowback is likely to undercut a core principle of the Paris Agreement that all national plans, due to be submitted every five years this century, have to be ever stronger and reflect the "highest possible ambition". A formal withdrawal from the Paris Agreement could trigger far wider criticisms, perhaps calls for import taxes on U.S. goods. Laurent Fabius, the former French foreign minister who was an architect of the Paris agreement, denounced Trump's moves as "a very serious step backwards". German Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks warned Washington it could lose out. "A shift into "reverse (gear) now will only hurt themselves in terms of international competitiveness," she told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily. In many sectors, a shift from coal is underway. A report by the U.S. Department of Energy in January said 43 percent of the workforce in electric power generation, or about 374,000 workers, were employed in the solar sector. Fossil fuels accounted for just 22 percent of jobs in the sector. In Paris, governments promised to limit a rise in average surface temperatures to "well below" two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, ideally 1.5. U.S. greenhouse gas emissions fell 11 percent from 2005-15. Bill Hare, head of the Climate Analytics think-tank, said they may remain at current levels by 2030 with Trump's policies. Trump's policies could in turn nudge up the global rise in temperatures by about 0.1 degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit) from a projected 2.8 degrees (5.0F) by 2100, based on existing government pledges for action, he said. (Reporting By Alister Doyle, Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen, Tom Miles in Geneva, Madeline Chambers in Berlin, Ben Blanchard and David Stanway in Beijing, Nina Chestney and Susanne Twidale in London, Alissa de Carbonnel and Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels, Sudip Kar-Gupta in Paris; Editing by Gareth Jones) By J.R. Wu and Ben Blanchard TAIPEI/BEIJING (Reuters) - China must specify the charges against a detained Taiwan human rights activist or release him, his wife, ruling party lawmakers and rights groups in Taiwan said on Wednesday, the latest dispute between China and an island it considers its own. China confirmed that Li Ming-che, previously identified by the family name of "Lee", was in custody and being investigated on suspicion of harming national security, its first response since Li disappeared in China on March 19. Activists in Taiwan linked Li's detention to a new law targeting foreign non-governmental organizations in China, which grants broad powers to police to question NGO workers, monitor their finances and regulate their work. China's behavior was "completely detrimental to the future of exchanges between the two sides", said Chiu E-ling, an official with the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, adding that the detention would have a "chilling effect" on ties. China must disclose Li's whereabouts, release him if it cannot explain the charges, allow his family and lawyer to visit and ensure he is not abused, she said during a joint news briefing with Li's wife, Li Ching-yu, other rights watchdogs and lawmakers from the ruling, independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The case further strains ties between Taipei and Beijing, which have cooled since President Tsai Ing-wen took power in Taiwan last year because she refuses to concede that the self-ruled island is part of China. Beijing has never renounced the use of force to take what it regards as a breakaway province, while proudly democratic Taiwan has shown no interest in being run by Communist Party rulers in Beijing. The DPP at the weekend slammed Beijing for causing "anxiety and panic" for the family by withholding information about Li. Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, told reporters Li's case was being handling in accordance with the law. "According to what is understood, Taiwan resident Li Ming-che is suspected of engaging in activities endangering national security and is being investigated by the relevant authority," Ma said. "At present his health is good." Ma said Taiwanese people coming to China for "normal" activities did not have anything to worry about and their rights would be protected. Li, a community college worker known for supporting human rights in China, disappeared after entering China's Zhuhai city via the Chinese territory of Macau. Li traveled to China about once a year to see friends and regularly discussed Taiwan's democratic process, Li Ching-yu said, adding that her husband regularly mailed books to China. But in August last year, one package was confiscated and his chat account in China was shut down, she said. "This (Li's) kind of behavior - based on standards of civilized countries - is innocent," Li Ching-yu said. (Editing by Nick Macfie) PARIS/BEIJING (Reuters) - French police said on Tuesday they opened an inquiry after a Chinese man was shot dead by police at his Paris home, triggering rioting in the French capital by members of the Chinese community and a sharp reaction from Beijing. The shooting on Sunday, which led China's foreign ministry to call in a French diplomat, brought about a 100 members of the French-Chinese community on to the streets in Paris's main Chinatown district on Monday night. Some protesters threw projectiles outside the district's police headquarters and a number of vehicles were torched in a confrontation with riot police. Media reports said a 56-year-old man of Chinese origin was shot dead at his home on Sunday night in front of his family after police were called to investigate an altercation with a neighbor. Police said the man attacked police with scissors, adding that an inquiry had been opened. The man's family, according to media reports, denied this and some media said he was holding scissors because he had been cutting fish. Police said they questioned 35 people after Monday's street protests and three members of the police were treated for slight injuries, they said. In Beijing, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday it had summoned a French diplomat to explain events. It also sought a thorough investigation by French authorities and steps to be ensure the safety of Chinese citizens in France. The French foreign ministry said in a statement that an inquiry was under way into the shooting and added that the security of Chinese citizens in France was a priority for the national authorities. "Additional (security) measures have been taken in recent months and everything has been done to provide them with the best conditions for living here and for their security," it said. (This version of the story was refiled to adjust headline) (Reporting by Ben Blanchard, Simon Carraud and John Irish; Writing by Richard Balmforth; Editing by Julia Glover) Chinese smartphone maker Oppo has come under fire in India after a company official allegedly tore and threw the national flag on the factory premises. SEE ALSO: India threatens to expel Amazon employees for selling Indian flag doormats Workers at the Chinese companys Noida office protested for hours on Tuesday, accusing a China-born executive of insulting the Indian flag. Some workers reportedly went to a hotel where the Chinese executive was staying. The hotel authorities, however, removed them from the premise. Police have registered a case against the official, who is said to assume production manager role, for allegedly showing disrespect to the national flag. Police officer Gaurav Grover said they are in the process of retrieving the CCTV footage and will accordingly charge the offender with Flag Acts. Oppo has apologised for the incident, and said it will take actions against the staff who insulted the national flag. "We are cooperating with the authorities concerned and will be taking appropriate actions," the company said in an official statement. The company assured that it has "deep respect" for India, and is a "responsible employer." As we have seen in the past, Indians care a lot about the national flag, and the domestic government is quick to take action if such incidents are brought to its attention. Last year, Amazon was thrown under the bus after its Canadian store was found to be selling doormats depicting India's national flag. Minutes after somebody let India's external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj know of the incident, the 62-year old outspoken minister lambasted the company, threatening to expel all foreign employees of Amazon from the country. Amazon was quick to issue an apology and fix the problem. WATCH: Indulge your fear of heights with China's latest glass bridge (PARIS) - Chinese immigrants and Chinas government are protesting a police killing in Paris that prompted violent street clashes and exposed the fears and frustrations of Frances large Asian community. Protesters gathered Tuesday in northeast Paris for a second day of demonstrations over the fatal shooting of a Chinese man in his apartment, and police launched an internal investigation into a death that took on diplomatic implications. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China had summoned a representative of the French embassy in Beijing Tuesday and urged French officials to get to the bottom of the incident as soon as possible. Chinese authorities hope that Chinese nationals in France can express their wishes and demands in a reasonable way, Hua said. Residents and police gave conflicting accounts of what happened before the man was shot to death by police on Sunday evening. Police said an officer fired in self-defense during a raid after the man wounded an officer with a bladed weapon. Rumors circulated among Chinese immigrants that 56-year-old Shaoyo Liu was in front of his children while cutting up fish with scissors and had not hurt anyone. Protesters outraged by the killing and baton-wielding police clashed for several hours on Monday night. Three police officers were injured and 35 protesters arrested, authorities said Tuesday. With chants of murderers and candles that spelled opposition to violence lining the road, scores of demonstrators broke down barricades, threw projectiles and set fire to cars. Authorities said 26 demonstrators were held for participating in a group planning violence, six for throwing projectiles, and three others for violence against police that saw a police car damaged by arson. Witnesses said that one man of Chinese origin was injured in the clashes, according to Chinas state-run Xinhua News Agency. Frances Foreign Ministry responded Tuesday by calling the security of Chinese in France a priority. Story continues The ministry confirmed that an inquiry has started to shed light on the circumstances of the shooting. The move did not calm some 100 people from Paris Asian community who gathered at the police station on Tuesday afternoon, including families and friends of people detained the night before. Justice must be done, the killer must be punished! the protesters shouted. A meeting of the Chinese community in Paris was planned to discuss possible further actions. France is home to Europes largest population of ethnic Chinese, a community that routinely accuses police of not doing enough to protect it from racism. In September, 15,000 people rallied in the French capital to urge an end to violence against the Asian community after the beating death of Chinese tailor Chaolin Zhangh called attention to ethnic tensions in Paris immigrant suburbs. The victims lawyer said the August 2016 attack was ethnically motivated. Chinese are victims of racist attitudes in France, especially from other ethnic groups, Pierre Picquart, an expert on China at the University of Paris VIII, said. They are targets for crime because they often carry cash and many dont have residence permits, so can be threatened easily. Theyre angry with police for not protecting them enough. Chinese people do not like to protest or express themselves publicly, so when we see them like this, it means they are very, very angry. Theyve had enough of discrimination, Picquart added. He estimated that there are 2 million people of Chinese origin living in France, a country with a population of about 66 million. The recent killing and clashes came after thousands of people marched in Paris to condemn the alleged rape in February of a young black man by police. The alleged incident in the Paris suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois turned the 22-year-old, identified only as Theo, into a symbol for minorities standing up to police violence. Associated Press writer Louise Watt in Beijing and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report. This article was originally published on TIME.com BEIJING (AP) China has conducted military exercises near its border with Myanmar, where fighting between the Myanmar army and ethnic rebels has flared in recent months. The annual training exercise on Tuesday involved the Chinese army and air force and tested troops' rapid response and joint strike capabilities, the defense ministry said in a statement. China's government said earlier this month that more than 20,000 people from Myanmar have fled into China amid renewed fighting. At least 30 people were killed this month in a single day in a Myanmar town in a Chinese-speaking region near the border. China has called for a cease-fire and says authorities in the border area have offered shelter and assistance to the refugees. Col. Fang Xin of the Joint Staff Department of Southern Theater Command was quoted as saying the exercises demonstrated the determination of the People's Liberation Army to defend national security and protect lives and property along the border. The ministry said China informed Myanmar in advance of the drills. WASHINGTON To fulfill his audacious pledge to end Americas opioid crisis, President Trump is turning to Chris Christie. The New Jersey governor, who is leading Trumps commission to tackle the problem nationwide, has seen the worst of the crisis in his state. Nearly 1,500 people died from overdoses in New Jersey in 2015, as the state saw one of the biggest spikes in deaths of any state in the nation. Christie has been lauded for his heartfelt response to addiction issues and his commitment to treating drug abuse as a public health problem. The crisis was a plank of his failed bid for Republican presidential nomination, and he devoted his last State of the State speech in January to the issue. Our friends are dying, Christie said in that address. Our neighbors are dying. Our coworkers are dying. Our children are dying, every day, in numbers we can no longer afford to ignore. Read more: Executive order lays out blueprint for Trump opioid commission His agenda, however, has not been without controversy, with some critics arguing he has used blunt-instrument policies to address nuanced problems. The commission is Trumps first major move on opioids since he became president. He has otherwise left key administration posts that would work on the crisis unfilled, and his proposed budget would slash funding for the agencies that oversee those efforts. Advocates welcomed the appointment of Christie, who has cited the overdose death of an old friend in explaining his outlook on the issue. He has been at the forefront, he has signed legislation, he has put it at the center of the agenda, said Andrew Kessler, a consultant who focuses on addiction. Hes been one of the best. Heres what you should know about Christies record on opioids. Cracking down on prescription painkillers Some of Christies most ambitious and controversial policies have sought to limit access to prescription painkillers. Last month, he signed a bill that limits painkiller prescriptions for acute pain like pain experienced after surgery or dental work to just five days at first, as opposed to the usual 30. It is perhaps the most restrictive law in the country, though some other states have winnowed the length of those initial prescriptions to seven days. Story continues Christie portrayed it as an aggressive step to stem the black market for opioids. Lengthy prescriptions, the governor said, are dangerous, ill-advised, and absolutely unnecessary. We know addiction to opioids can occur within days. But the bill faced some backlash from doctors, who said it interfered with their ability to care for their patients. This is a legal medication, said Mishael Azam, a top official at the leading New Jersey doctors association. The people who need it and use it legitimately it is not fair to cut them off. The governor has also explored having New Jerseys prescription-monitoring program coordinate with New Yorks, again in an attempt to stop opioids from being diverted from their prescribed use. Christie also signed a bill in 2015 to expand the states program that allows people to drop off their unused medications. Expanding insurance coverage and treatment options First and foremost, Christie expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. That extended health coverage to half a million low-income New Jerseyans. Christie, one of several Republican governors who bucked his party and accepted the laws expansion, has directly connected that decision to the opioid crisis. Through our efforts over the last three years, we have eliminated many of the barriers for the poor to receive treatment as well, he said in his State of the State speech earlier this year. When I expanded Medicaid eligibility it created a sea change in the availability of drug treatment for the poor in New Jersey. Christie also approved new rules for private health insurance in New Jersey, requiring plans to provide up to six months of inpatient and outpatient addiction treatment and prohibiting requirements for prior authorization. New Jersey has had some trouble making treatment available, however. A 2013 report found that the state had about 6,000 beds available for inpatient treatment, while more than 70,000 people were expected to seek either inpatient or outpatient treatment that year. More recently, Christie signed legislation to expand access to overdose medications to emergency responders and non-professionals, and his office has also set up a hotline for people seeking treatment. Read more: Drug addiction is overwhelming Trumps America. Whats he going to do? Overhauling the criminal justice approach to addiction Christie, a former prosecutor, said in 2014 that the so-called war on drugs had failed. Much of his work has also focused on the criminal justice side of the opioid crisis. As governor, he has pushed for the expanded use of drug courts, which direct nonviolent offenders to addiction treatment instead of prison. He has also sought to encourage businesses to hire people in recovery, while, at the same time, upping the criminal penalties for the production of illicit versions of powerful opioids like fentanyl. Most controversial, however, was his opposition to a bill to provide some criminal immunity for people who have overdosed and for witnesses to an overdose who call for medical help. The bills supporters said it would encourage people to seek aid when an overdose occurred, by removing their fear of prosecution. Christie, however, vetoed the initial version of the bill in late 2012. He argued that it did not account for the need to deter more widespread drug abuse and asked for an 18-month study of the concept. The governor and the state Legislature reached a compromise the next year, after some minor adjustments were made, and Christie signed a bill granting such limited immunity. New Jersey Gov. Christie acknowledged in a series of Wednesday morning television appearances that he would be named chairman of a new Trump administration commission to combat opioid abuse, while reaffirming his intention to serve out the remainder of his term in Trenton. This is an epidemic in our country, Christie said on Fox News Channels Fox and Friends, referring to addiction to opioid painkillers and heroin. The commission also will look at prevention and law enforcement but Christie stressed the importance of treatment. Addiction is a disease, and we need to get people the help that they need to renew their lives and help become productive members of society and our families, Christie said. He is scheduled to meet with Trump and other members of the opioid panel for its first meeting in the White House cabinet room at 11 a.m. Christie has made fighting the drug problem the top priority of his last days as governor. In interviews on NBCs Today show, Fox and Friends, and ABCs Good Morning America, Christie tiptoed around questions about the congressional investigation into ties between the Russian government and the Trump campaign, the failure of the GOP bill to replace Obamacare and early missteps by the administration. On Today, host Matt Lauer pressed Christie to give President Trump and his team a letter grade for the first 70 days. You know, Matt I dont want to turn over my college transcript or yours either, so Im not going to start giving out letter grades, the governor said. Its an Incomplete. Its nine weeks down and 199 weeks to go in the first term of this administration. Id suggest that everybody take a breath. Ive never seen such breathlessness over nine weeks of work. Christie declined to say Rep. Devin Nunes (R.,Calif.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, needs to recuse himself from a leadership role in the Russia investigation because of close ties to Trump and his team. Nunes was a transition adviser and recently visited the White House to review some intelligence and brief Trump on the investigation. Story continues Thats a judgment for him to make, Christie said. What I will tell you is, these intelligence committees, on both the House and Senate side, have been set up to be bipartisan, and they are bipartisan and I think theyve done a great job over the years investigating matters and overseeing the intelligence community. After dropping out of the presidential race after the New Hampshire primary last year, Christie was the first major Republican figure to endorse Trump. He was considered for vice president and attorney general, but was passed over. Christie has said he turned down other job offers because his wife did not want to move to Washington. Most Popular on Philly.com WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump is vowing to step up efforts to combat the nation's opioid addiction crisis, and he's tapped New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to lead the fight. Trump convened an emotional roundtable Wednesday with Christie, members of his Cabinet, law enforcement chiefs, recovering addicts and advocates. It was the first public event tied to the launch of a new addiction commission that Christie, a longtime Trump friend and formal rival, will chair. Trump listened intently as Vanessa Vitolo and AJ Solomon, two recovering addicts from New Jersey, described their harrowing battles with substance abuse. Both became hooked on prescription pain killers, and quickly transitioned to heroin. Trump also heard from a mother whose son died from an overdose after a long battle with addition. Her son, Trump told the mother, hadn't died in vain. "We want to help those who have become so badly addicted. Drug abuse has become a crippling problem throughout the United States," said Trump, citing statistics that show drug overdose is now the leading cause of accidental death in the country. "This is a total epidemic and I think it's probably, almost un-talked about compared to the severity that we're witnessing." Christie, a longtime friend of the president, headed Trump's presidential transition before he was unceremoniously replaced by incoming Vice President Mike Pence in the days after the election due to disagreements over its direction. While the governor has long maintained that he plans to complete his last year in office before moving to the private sector, speculation remains that he is eyeing a top job in the administration, and people close to him have said he is open to potentially joining it one day. Christie told The Associated Press earlier Wednesday that while he has "no interest in having a permanent role" in the Trump administration at this time, he was happy to spearhead the anti-drug effort at Trump's request. Story continues "He asked me to help with this and I'm going to," Christie said. "It's an issue that I care about a lot in New Jersey and for the country and so the president asked me to do this and I was happy to." Christie has made the issue of addiction a centerpiece of his administration and spoke extensively about it during his own presidential bid. He has dedicated his final year in office to addressing the drug crisis. Last month, he signed legislation that limits first-time opioid prescriptions to five days' worth of drugs and requires state-regulated health insurers to cover at least six months of substance abuse treatment. "This issue causes enormous pain and destruction to everyday families in every state in this country," said Christie, who has been working behind the scenes with White House officials since shortly after Trump's inauguration. Trump promised during his campaign to stop drugs from "pouring" into the country, and said the new group would work with local officials, law enforcement, medical professionals and addicts to improve treatment options, prevent people from getting hooked in the first place and stop the flow of drugs across the border. He signed an executive order formally establishing the commission later Thursday. "Drug cartels have spread their deadly industry across our nation, and the availability of cheap narcotics some of it comes in cheaper than candy has devastated our communities," he said. But critics say that Trump's actions as president so far undermine his rhetoric. The failed GOP "Obamacare" replacement bill that Trump pushed to pass sought to end the Medicaid expansion, which provides substance abuse and mental health treatment. It also would have stripped requirements that insurance plans provide the services as "essential" benefits. "There is a massive gulf between President Trump's promises to tackle this crisis and the policies this administration has proposed during his first two months in office," said New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, who also called on the commission to reevaluate other budget cuts the administration has proposed. The commission was rolled out as part of a new office led by Trump's son-in-law and top adviser Jared Kushner, whose father Christie prosecuted in his former role as U.S. attorney. Christie, who had lunch with Kushner Tuesday, downplayed reports of tensions between the two, calling it "ancient history." Christie's history with drug policy dates to his first elected position in county government more than 20 years ago. The issue became personal more than a decade later, when one of Christie's best friends from law school developed an addiction to prescription drugs and died of an overdose in a New Jersey motel. The focus also gives Christie a chance to try to move past negative headlines that have helped fuel his unpopularity in New Jersey. As Christie was appearing at the White House, two former aides were sentenced for their roles in the 2013 George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal. Bill Baroni was sentenced to two years in prison, while co-defendant Bridget Kelly was sentenced to 18 months after they were convicted last November on counts including wire fraud, conspiracy and misusing the bridge for improper purposes. The scandal derailed Christie's presidential aspirations and may have cost him a chance to be then-GOP nominee Trump's running mate a role Christie openly courted. Several of Christie's former aides now work in the Trump administration. __ Associated press writers Vivian Salama in Washington and Josh Cornfield in Trenton, New Jersey, contributed to this report. Visitor figures have been revealed for the world's art museums, exhibitions and other art happenings throughout 2016, with strong showings for Christo's large-scale installation in Italy and the new Whitney Museum of American Art in New York among notable findings. The Art Newspaper has published its annual list of figures for the most-visited museums, shows and works of art over the previous year. Topping the Big Ticket category -- used to cover events that cannot be compared to regular exhibitions and ranked based on visitors per day -- is Christo's "Floating Piers," a vast installation that consisted of 3 kilometers of walkways linking the islands of Lake Iseo. According to the publication, 1.2 million visited the work over the 16 days it was on display -- that's an average of 75,000 visitors per day. In second and third place on the Big Tickets list are the annual ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which drew nearly 27,000 visitors a day in September and October, and Olafur Eliasson's installations at the Chateau de Versailles, which drew 2.86 million visitors over nearly 5 months -- 22,809 per day. Other top-15 events included the biennials of Liverpool, Sao Paulo and Sydney as well as the Aichi Triennale. Also of note in 2016 was the success of the reopened Whitney Museum in Manhattan. The Renzo Piano-designed venue was the site of 5 of the year's 10 most-visited New York exhibitions -- a list often dominated by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The latter two institutions both made the list of the top exhibitions worldwide -- MoMA with shows devoted to Jerome Bel and Picasso sculptures, and the Met with its annual fashion exhibition, this year called "Manus x Machina." Three free exhibitions at the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil in Rio de Janeiro took the top three spots. The Louvre retained its spot as the most-visited museum of 2016, followed by the New York Met, which moved up a place, and the British Museum, which moved from second to third. SLMM supporters stage anti-poll protests in several Tarai districts The supporters of Samyukta Loktantrik Madhesi Morcha (SLMM) padlocked the Siraha district election office and picketed the district election offices in Dhanusha, Saptari and Rautahat on Tuesday. On the 227th birthday of John Tyler, Constitution Daily looks back at the legacy of a most unusual President who established the concept of presidential succession and eventually was elected to the Confederate Congress. johntyler Perhaps Tylers greatest contribution to the Constitution and history in general were his actions after the death of newly inaugurated President William Henry Harrison in April 1841. Vice President Tyler quickly settled a debate about who replaced the President in what capacity. But soon after assuming his role in the White House, Tyler so offended his own party members that he was outcast from the Whig Party while still in office. In general, historians dont hold Tyler in high regard as a President. In surveys since World War II, Tyler isnt ranked as the worst President, but he is always in the bottom 10 of historians rankings. Born on March 29, 1790 in Virginia, Tyler served as a member of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and as Virginias governor. He was also a Southern states-rights advocate who became attracted to the Whig Party that opposed Andrew Jackson. Tyler seemed an afterthought on the 1840 Whig ticket that featured the slogan, The slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too." But on April 4, 1841, President Harrison died just 30 days after taking the office. What happened next was a constitutional crisis that ended with a bold move taken by Tyler. Tyler didnt take the oath then as President because no one in Washington knew what to do next. The Constitution was very unclear about the concept of presidential succession- a fact that party leaders like Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and Tyler soon realized. When Tyler met with Harrisons cabinet soon after the event, many members called him the Vice President acting as President. He was also informed by Webster that the cabinet decided administration issues by a vote, with the President only having one vote in the process Tyler quickly ended that practice and established the Tyler Precedent that made it clear that a Vice President assuming office had the full powers and title of the President. Story continues Tylers decision in 1841 to assume the full role of President upon the death of his predecessor was used eight times to assure that the office of President was held legally, until the 25th Amendment made the practice officially part of the Constitution. Tylers reluctance to be a caretaker President soon led to criticisms and a new popular nickname, His Accidency. For the rest of his presidency, Tyler battled with the rest of the Whigs (the party that got him elected), was kicked out of the party, and used the veto 10 times. In 1842, after Tyler vetoed a tariff bill, the first impeachment resolution against a President was introduced in the House, but the resolution failed. Tyler was also the first President to have a veto overridden. Despite being outcast from the Whigs and the Democrats, Tyler sought re-election in 1844 against overwhelming odds. He pushed for the annexation of Texas to help his chances, but dropped from the campaign after an appeal from Jackson. Late in his life, Tyler tried to broker a solution to Southern secession, but when that failed, Tyler was named to the Confederate Congress in 1861 as a delegate from Virginia. Tyler died in 1862 before assuming his seat and he received a state funeral from Confederate president Jefferson Davis. President Abraham Lincoln and the federal government didnt acknowledge his death. The Brooklyn (N.Y.) Daily Eagle did report Tylers death, noting that Union troops now occupied his former estate and Virginia was ravaged by war. John Tyler did perhaps as little as any man to prevent these evils, the newspaper said. Crayola is about to rock your childhood memory world. On Friday, the Easton-based company will retire one of the iconic colors from its 24-count box, a ubiquitous fixture in classrooms, playrooms, bedrooms, and backpacks that dates to 1905, according to Wikipedia. Which color will go and which will survive is a closely-guarded secret. Vote in our poll on which color you think will go. The company has a special countdown on its website and will broadcast the "One Will Say Goodbye" announcement in a Facebook Live event from Times Square in New York City. "Something BIG is happening at Crayola. On March 31st we'll retire one of our iconic colors. Will it be one of your favorites? #WhosLeaving," the company posted. The current 24-count box contains red, yellow, blue, brown, orange, green, violet, black, carnation pink, yellow orange, blue green, red violet, red orange, yellow green, blue violet, white, violet red, dandelion, cerulean, apricot, scarlet, green yellow, indigo and gray, ABC reported. Once the color is retired, the company says it will not produce any additional crayons in that shade, the station reported. who gave crayola the power to eliminate colors from existence pic.twitter.com/jaSBR1BgrY nina braca ~ (@oreokitty_) March 28, 2017 You were everyone's best friend when you had this box of Crayola crayons. #MyChildhoodInAMeme pic.twitter.com/J0Ci4GJFop Michelle (@michellelavita_) March 25, 2017 Most Popular on Philly.com Kevin Kwan's 'Crazy Rich Asians' picked up a devoted following upon its 2013 publication. Malaysian-English actor Henry Golding will play opposite Constance Wu of "Fresh Off the Boat" in his feature film debut, Jon M. Chu's Singaporean-set comedy "Crazy Rich Asians." Golding is to play Nick, boyfriend of Wu's Rachel who, upon attending a wedding in Singapore, discovers that his family is actually unimaginably wealthy, and everyone else wants to marry him instead. Among those previously cast is Malaysian-born Michelle Yeoh ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "Tomorrow Never Dies") who, as Nick's mother, will make it plain that Rachel does not meet her standards. Golding, who lives in Singapore himself, has worked as a host for TV travel shows, writes The Hollywood Reporter. Warner Bros. is backing the production, which is based on the bestselling Kevin Kwan novel of the same name. Jon M. Chu is known for his work on the dance-oriented "Step Up 2," "Step Up 3D" and "The LXD," as well as two Justin Bieber documentaries, toy license action film "G.I. Joe: Retaliation," 80s revival "Jem and the Holograms" and action comedy "Now You See Me 2." By Deisy Buitrago and Marianna Parraga CARACAS/HOUSTON (Reuters) - Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA on Wednesday confirmed reports of a crude spill from a pipeline connecting its main oil-exporting complex with a tanker loading facility, but said shipments have not been affected. PDVSA said the spill occurred late on Tuesday due to a break in the line running from a crude terminal to a single buoy mooring (SBM) near the eastern Jose port. "PDVSA on Tuesday activated a contingency plan to address a crude leak ... A temporary staple was installed in the pipeline to stop the leak," the company said in a statement. It added it was expeditiously cleaning up the area. Union sources and shippers had reported the leak on Tuesday evening, but its magnitude was still unknown. There were no vessels mooring at the SBM at the time of the incident, they said. "Operations of production and shipment of crudes from the Hugo Chavez Orinoco Belt were not compromised and continue with absolute normality," PDVSA added in the statement. The 36-inch-diameter line can carry up to 32,000 barrels per day of crude to the SBM facility, which is used by tankers to load oil for exports and also to discharge imports of products used to dilute Venezuela's extra heavy oil. A growing number of tankers have accumulated around Jose in recent days after unplanned maintenance work halted shipping operations at one of its three docks. The work finished during the weekend. Upgraded and diluted crude from Venezuela's main producing region, the Orinoco Belt, is shipped from the SBM facility. The setback comes as PDVSA deals with a shortage of gasoline that generated queues at service stations in some cities in the country last week, also creating a backlog of tankers bringing imports and others waiting to load for exports. Since then, the company has focused on restarting units to produce fuels at three of its refineries in Venezuela and the Caribbean: El Palito, Puerto la Cruz and Isla in Curacao. PDVSA also launched tenders to import vacuum gasoil (VGO) cargoes to feed its deep conversion units, while buying cutter stock to produce fuel oil for exports, traders said on Wednesday. (Reporting by Marianna Parraga in Houston, Alexandra Ulmer and Deisy Buitrago in Caracas and Mircely Guanipa in Punto Fijo, Venezuela; Editing by W Simon) HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban President Raul Castro participated in an "intimate and simple family ceremony" on Tuesday interring the ashes of his sister Agustina del Carmen Castro Ruz, according to state television. Agustina was the youngest of the seven Castro siblings, including Raul and Fidel, who together have run the island nation for nearly 60 years. Agustina, who kept a low public profile, died on Sunday in Havana at the age of 78, according to Cuba's state television. Her death came four months after that of Fidel, who led Cuba's 1959 revolution and built a communist state on the doorstep of the United States. Her cremated remains were interred at the cemetery of the family home in Biran in eastern Cuba, the broadcaster said. Raul Castro, 85, has vowed to step down as president in 2018 at the end of his second five-year term. However he will remain first secretary of the Communist Party for three years after he steps down as president, retaining significant power. (Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Editing by Bill Trott) COLOMBO, Sri Lanka When Mohamed Nasheed was a political prisoner, his captors either deprived him of food and water or fed him glass. But last month, at a country club here in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo, the first democratically elected president of the Maldives, who has been out of office since 2012, was all smiles over mid-morning tea. I will contest the partys primaries, Nasheed told Foreign Policy, not long after meeting with leaders of his Maldivian Democratic Party to discuss next years presidential elections. For Nasheed, the decision to once again run for office has guaranteed a game-changing year not only for his own political career but also for the future of democracy in the South Asian island country of about 400,000 people, which has become paralyzed under the administration of the current president, Abdulla Yameen. In 2012, after more than three years governing the Maldives, Nasheed was forced to resign from office in what his supporters described as a coup orchestrated by members of the opposition party in parliament loyal to another former president, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who is the half-brother of Yameen. At issue was Nasheeds arrest of the chief judge of the countrys criminal court, who he believed was acting favorably toward Gayoom. Following weeks of protests in the capital of Male, police officers eventually refused to obey orders to break up the crowds, and calls for Nasheed to step down intensified. In the power vacuum that followed, Yameen rose to power the next year, and in 2015 Nasheed was sentenced to 13 years in prison on terrorism charges related to the judges detention. Last May, he was granted political refugee status in Britain after exiting the Maldives under medical leave negotiated by his lawyers. Among the charges leveled against Yameen are allegations that his administration has underplayed the threat of Islamic extremism in the country and curtailed freedom of expression and assembly, both enshrined in the Maldivian Constitution, through a series of repressive measures, including the passage of a bill criminalizing defamation. Story continues Also at play is the fallout from the release, last September, of a documentary produced by Al Jazeera featuring intercepted WhatsApp messages appearing to show involvement by the Maldivian government in a $1.5 billion money-laundering scheme. Maldivian participants have since left the country in fear for their safety, and foreign journalists have been largely barred from receiving press credentials to investigate the matter any further. An archipelago in the Indian Ocean, the Maldives was, for much of its history, a sultanate. In 1953, after a period as a British protectorate, the Maldives temporarily abolished the sultanate under the leadership of the countrys first president, Mohamed Amin Didi, who paved the way for advancements in access to education and womens rights. But these transitional years were not always peaceful. Following the election of President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, the sole candidate, in 1978, the country spent three decades under dictatorship, with political dissenters subjugated to torture a short distance away from well-heeled tourists lounging at high-end resorts. In 2008, with enormous international support, the countrys first multiparty parliamentary elections were held. Nasheed, a historian and journalist who had already spent years in jail for speaking out against Gayoom, was sworn in at the end of the year. During his time leading the Maldives, Nasheed liberalized the tourism industry by allowing locals to open their own small-scale guesthouses catering to budget-conscious travelers, and climate change awareness programs were expanded. In 2009, Nasheed hosted a legendary underwater cabinet meeting signing a declaration calling for global cuts to carbon emissions. In the years that followed the coup, most of which have been under the purview of President Yameen, rights activists say freedom of speech and assembly in the Maldives has steadily deteriorated. The government has been quick to repress any criticism involving China and Saudi Arabia, both of which have growing economic and diplomatic influence in the country, and questions about its distribution of funds earmarked for climate change initiatives. Yameens government has also proved sensitive about the role of Islam in the country. The Maldives is officially 100 percent Sunni Muslim, but with the advent of democracy, and the loosening of previous restrictions on religious expression, conservative ideologies like Salafism were imported from Saudi Arabia, and radical Islamic cells began to develop. Over the last decade, over two hundred people have traveled to places like Syria and Iraq to join extremist outfits affiliated with the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, a development that Nasheed and international experts on terrorism have accused Yameen and his administration of downplaying. Nasheed insists his administration did everything it could to curb the spread of extremism during his time in office. But he acknowledged that the pendulum of what is considered moderate Islam in the Maldives swung to the right during that time. When we were younger, Sufism was the mainstream, he said. A very liberal Islam was the mainstream in the Maldives. Weve now accepted Wahhabism as the mainstream and ISIS as the extreme. We will soon accept ISIS as the mainstream, and God help us where the extreme would be. In one high-profile case from 2014, Ahmed Rilwan Abdulla, a prominent Maldivian journalist who had been writing about secularism and religious extremism, disappeared. There was reason to suspect he had been abducted by members of Kuda Henveiru, a powerful gang, but the government has been reticent about commenting on the case, which some feel was a state-sponsored attempt to silence those who openly criticize radical Islam in the country. In December 2016, the journalists family filed a right to information request against the police, alleging that information was purposely withheld from them. A WhatsApp message featured in the Al Jazeera documentary in which Yameen writes to the Maldivess former home minister not to worry about the case has only fueled suspicions of a cover-up. In a tweet, the home minister denied having received the message. During an interview in Male, the family said they have been the target of harassment, including attempts by police officers to spray Abdullas mother with a chili-based irritant during an event to mark 500 days since her sons disappearance last year. Recent efforts to obtain information from the police, they said, have been mostly met with silence. I argued with the police, said Aminath Easa, 68, Abdullas mother. I told them, You know what happened. The police said that this might take a lot of time. I told them, Youre right. You can tell me what happened right now, or you can drag it out however long you want to. But what I am saying is I wont stop asking questions. Rilwan is a very good son, she added, wiping tears from her face. He loved everyone, and everyone loved him. Across town, at a smoky coffee bar, a group of journalists from Raajje TV, a local network, gathered to list off their own grievances from last year, including a steady stream of death threats, stalking of reporters, and acts of violence. I was threatened with a knife, said Azmoon Ahmed, 22, a senior video journalist who had been covering the murder of lawmaker at the time. I filed a case to the police, and they told me they couldnt find any evidence. They dropped it. In February, journalists from Raajje TV and another media outlet, the Maldives Independent, were harassed by police while reporting on preparations for the state-sponsored visit of King Salman of Saudi Arabia. This was amid concerns that the government planned to sell an atoll to the Saudis, which Yameen has publicly denied. This month, Thayyib Shaheem, a journalist and active critic of Yameen, was arrested on misdemeanor charges for raising a false alarm on Twitter about an outbreak of swine flu in the Maldives ahead of the Saudi kings visit. Shaheems arrest came less than two hours after he leaked audio in which Ahmed Nihan, a member of parliament, told a group of people that the Maldivian Constitution had been amended to facilitate sale of the atoll. A few days after the arrest, the kings high-profile trip was cancelled because of concerns about the swine flu outbreak, the government said in a statement. But others suspected that the king may have gotten cold feet as protests swelled in the Maldives. Currently, Raajje TV is juggling criminal cases against several members of its staff, two of whom were recently convicted of obstructing police officers while reporting on a bomb scare in the capital in 2015. They are the first Maldivian journalists to be convicted of a crime related to reporting in more than a decade. At Transparency Maldives, a Male-based nonprofit that investigates corruption, Mariyam Shiuna, the executive director, said her group has lost access to many members of the current administration, including the countrys elections commission. Of concern to her, she said, is a trend toward political polarization in the Maldives, which has meant greater surveillance of media and rights organizations. You could say legalized corruption takes place here, Shiuna said. Thats been one of our struggles. We try to build trust with institutions. Its not been easy. Ibrahim Hussain Shihab, a spokesman for the president, defended the countrys record of freedom of speech in an emailed response to questions. He claimed that the measures in question were designed to stop trafficking in rumors and false information and attacked the credibility and professionalism of journalists whose claims, he said, border beyond belief. Jared Genser, a member of Nasheeds legal team based in Washington, D.C., said his clients arrest, trial, and conviction were arbitrary and in violation of the Maldivess treaty obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Last year, he filed a complaint with the United Nations Human Rights Committee, requesting that terrorism charges against Nasheed be dropped and that his client be allowed to participate in the countrys upcoming elections. A judgment on the case is expected this year, but Genser conceded that there was no guarantee the Maldivian government would abide by the ruling. Genser, who had also called on governments around the world to impose economic sanctions and travel bans on the Maldives until Nasheed was released from prison last year, said international pressure will be important in pushing President Yameen to accept the opposition partys candidate of choice when the primary season ends. We need to make sure that the conduct of free and fair elections in the Maldives rises to that level of importance for Yameen and that the costs of excluding Nasheed from running and from not conducting a free and fair election are dramatically higher than the benefits, he said. In Colombo, Nasheed said his party was committed to pushing the elections forward, regardless of whether he is the candidate or not. But he added that there was a high chance the process will be rigged or voting delayed, and Yameen, flush with funds from China and Saudi Arabia, could broker back-room deals. The difficulties are there, he said. Everyone must understand that this is how the new world order is working in the Indian Ocean. Its not through guerrilla warfare. Its not through propagation of an ideology. Its not through propagation of communism. Its not through propagation of Islam. Its not through any damn thing but corruption. Mohamed Junayd contributed reporting for this article, which was facilitated through the support of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Photo credit: EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images On March 19, during his first trip to Asia as U.S. Secretary of State, and amidst rising tensions with North Korea, Rex Tillerson met with Chinas Communist Party Secretary Xi Jinping. The day before, Tillerson released a statement describing the bilateral relationship as one built on non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect, and win-win cooperation. Tillersons statement echoed language that Xi has used to describe a new type of great power relations, his preferred descriptor of the bilateral relationship. After the visit, the Washington Post published an article headlined, In China Debut, Tillerson Appeared to Hand Beijing a Diplomatic Victory. Did Beijing win out on the optics of the trip? What about the substance? The ChinaFile Editors Scott Kennedy, Deputy Director of the Freeman Chair in China Studies, CSIS: Secretary of State Rex Tillersons strategy on the trip was to be nice in public but tough in private. He apparently delivered a stern message on North Korea, and its possible that China will come around. But Tillerson definitely lost the public relations battle and perhaps a lot more by parroting the components of a new type of great power relations. He assumed that uttering this string of principles was a mere formality that gives Xi some face, creates conditions for China to compromise on big issues, and actually costs the United States little. He likely did not arrive at this conclusion by consulting China experts within the State Department and other agencies, because they would have explained how this term is far more than token symbolism. It is, in fact, a coded message that essentially says the United States accepts China as a co-equal that is not an enemy nor a rival. Moreover, it implies that the burden falls primarily on the United States to ensure that peace and cooperation between the two is maintained because China is already doing its part. Even if the United States doesnt accept this interpretation, the Chinese are sure to educate their public and other countries that the United States has certified China as a full-fledged superpower. The Obama administration learned the hard way. In 2013, Vice President Joseph Biden seemed to endorse the new type of great power relations when visiting Beijing right after China declared an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) for the East China Sea. Its possible other administration officials also used the term in private until they realized the wrong signal it sent. There were other factors at play, but China seemed to operate on the assumption that the Obama administration would never forcefully challenge Beijing on major areas of strategic disagreement. The first step to escaping this box is for Secretary Tillerson and other U.S. officials to desist from endorsing any of Beijings official rhetoric. Second, the administration should openly challenge the assumptions of the phrase a new type of great power relations by telling their counterparts that to date China is not living up to these principles, and that achieving a new type of great power relations requires that China first become a new type of great power. This means jettisoning 19th century views of international politics and becoming a stronger supporter of the current international order. This would require constraining the aggressive components of their security strategy, liberalizing their economy, creating a much more solid foundation for the rule of law and civil society domestically, and playing a larger and more constructive role in global governance. The final part of the solution is for the Trump administration to develop its own overarching framework to describe the relationship and Chinas role in the world. To my mind, the Bush Administrations admonition of China to become a responsible stakeholder was an effective framework because it accurately described the present while setting forth an important aspirational goal for China. The Obama administration, after dabbling with Chinese rhetoric, settled on a modified formula used by every American President since normalization to describe China, when President Obama said in November 2014: The United States welcomes the continuing rise of a China that is peaceful, prosperous, and stable and that plays a responsible role in the world. President Trump will certainly want to develop his own framework, but it would be better to use as a starting point language that emerges from American principles, not official Chinese ideology. Shen Dingli, Associate Dean, Fudan University Institute of International Studies: Tillersons statements echoed President Xi Jinpings desire for the sound direction of China-U.S. relations. This should not be viewed merely as a Chinese success. Rather, it is a good indicator of the health of the two countries ties for years to come. President Xi wishes to build bilateral relations on the basis of non-confrontation, no conflict, mutual respect, mutual benefit, and win-win. There is no reason to argue that relations should be confrontational, conflicting, disrespectful, without benefit, or beneficial only to one party and zero-sum. However, there are ample challenges to following the desired direction. First, China has some thinking to do. For instance, the U.S. preemptive war against Iraq was viewed by Washington as a vital interest at its start. Should China respect every interest the United States brands as vital? Can a cordial China-U.S. relationship be built upon such con-confrontational, non-conflict recipe, if the United States seeks a vote to seek support from the United Nations Security Council? And, should China take a firm position against the United States, as Russia, France, and Germany did in 2003? Would that not certainly lead to a confrontational relationship? At present, it is inconceivable that the United States will act in accordance with the aforementioned formula. The United States has positioned itself as a City Upon a Hill, a savior of the world, and has freedom of operation around the world, either to sell weapons to Taiwan or launch a war on Iraq without proper justification and international approval. In addition, any effort by China to achieve national integration across the Taiwan Strait through coercive fashion, or to conduct land reclamation in the South China Sea, is viewed by Washington as confrontational and in conflict with American interests and therefore deemed unacceptable. In order for the two sides to agree upon a future modus vivendi for bilateral relations, Beijing and Washington need to know, specifically, what such a relationship would mean. Without clarity both will suffer from more apprehension and a distrust of the others strategic intention could develop. Whats most important is to understand the substance of Tillersons statements in Beijing and to figure out how both sides will draw their obligation therefrom. Lintao Zhang/Getty Images Stocks take off as local level polls look more likely Investors laughed all the way to the stock market on Tuesday as local elections looked like a strong possibility. Nicosia (AFP) - Dozens of migrants were rescued off the coast of Cyprus on Wednesday after their small fishing boat ran aground near the holiday resort of Paphos, the island's authorities said. Police said 92 migrants including 18 women and 46 children were safely brought to shore after arriving by boat, most probably from Turkey. A police official said the migrants were still being processed and it was not immediately clear from where they originated, although most who make the sea journey to Cyprus are usually Syrian refugees. Search and rescue services were radioed by fishermen in the Paphos area, off the resort island's west coast, alerting them to a small boat carrying dozens of people that was in trouble due to rough seas. The boat ran aground before the migrants were safely brought to shore, authorities said. Local media reported that the migrants told police they had travelled from Turkey and paid smugglers up to $4,000 (3,700 euros) for the journey. Arrangements were being made to take them to a reception centre outside the capital Nicosia. EU member Cyprus lies just 100 kilometres (60 miles) off Syria but has so far avoided a mass influx of refugees from that country's conflict. However, the Paphos area has been a frequent hotspot for traffickers from Turkey. In September and November, 83 and 128 Syrian migrants respectively were rescued there under similar circumstances. And last month 93 people were rescued from a vessel off the island's western coast. MANILA, Philippines (AP) Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Wednesday he has asked the U.S. ambassador why America did not deploy an armada of warships to pressure China to stop constructing man-made islands that are now at the heart of regional concerns in the disputed South China Sea. Duterte said in a speech that U.S. Ambassador Sung Kim was unable to reply to the question when they met Monday in southern Davao city, where the president had a separate meeting with the Chinese ambassador. While criticizing the U.S., Duterte did not berate China's behavior in his speech. Duterte said he told Kim that he was surprised by what he described as U.S. inaction when newspapers were publishing pictures of China's construction of runways and other structures on the newly built islands in the disputed waters. "Had America really wanted to avoid trouble, early on ... why did you not send the armada of the 7th Fleet which is stationed there in the Pacific, you just make a U-turn and go there and tell them right on their face, stop it?" Duterte said he asked Kim, referring to the U.S. naval fleet based in Japan. Kim, who arrived in Manila last year as American ambassador, replied that he was assigned elsewhere at the time and could not give an answer, Duterte said. Duterte spoke in a visit to Oriental Mindoro province a day after concerns were raised over a report by a U.S. think tank that China has nearly completed construction work on three man-made islands that will allow it to deploy combat aircraft and surface-to-air missiles. The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies analyzed recent satellite photos and concluded that runways, aircraft hangers, radar sites and hardened surface-to-air missile shelters have either been finished or are nearing completion. One of the islands mentioned in the report, Philippine-claimed Mischief Reef, was seized by China in 1995, drawing protests from Manila then. Another island, Subi, is very close to a Philippine-occupied island in the Spratly chain, which is claimed in whole or in part by China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei. Story continues Duterte repeated that he would not go to war with militarily superior China over the territorial conflict. "The first thing that will be blasted away from this planet Earth will be Palawan," Duterte said, referring to the western Philippine island province facing the disputed waters. "All of the deposits of armaments of the Americans, including ours, are there." When Duterte took office in June, he reached out to China to mend relations strained under his predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, over the territorial dispute. While taking a friendly stance toward Beijing, he lashed out at the United States for criticizing his brutal campaign against illegal drugs. Duterte thanked President Xi Jinping over the renewed friendship and return of normal trade relations, praising the Chinese leader as "very kind." Duterte, however, said he will invoke an international arbitration ruling that declared China has no historic title to the disputed waters if Beijing drills for oil or gas in a shoal contested by China and the Philippines. Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said in Manila that China and the Philippines have agreed to hold a bilateral consultation on the South China Sea disputes and Beijing has offered to host an initial meeting in May. "The purpose of this bilateral consultation mechanism is to have a platform where issues about the South China Sea can be discussed," Jose told reporters. Photo credit: Alex Wong / Getty From ELLE Earlier this month, Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts turned viral sensation, and Ilyse Hogue, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, hand delivered over one million petitions to all 100 Senate offices on Capitol Hill opposing Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch. You were supposed to hear about it. You probably didn't. Under "normal" circumstances, Hogue insists, the demonstration would have gotten "a massive amount of attention." But of course, these aren't normal circumstances. While Warren and Hogue (backed by The People's Defense, a speedily assembled coalition formed solely to voice opposition to Neil Gorsuch) collected a seven-figure expression of civilian alarm, the Trump administration tried to fend off the latest round of allegations over its association with Russian officials during the election, witnessed the failure of its first (and maybe last) attempt to clock a serious legislative accomplishment within its first 100 days, and combated the now-weekly slate of stories about in-fighting in the White House. There's been a lot to process. But Warren, Hogue, and the People's Defense are ready to do everything in their collective power to keep Gorsuch off the bench. And Warren, especially, has considerable muscle. The U.S. senator can trigger a filibuster that would require Gorsuch to meet a 60-vote threshold in order to take his seat on the court. And oh, is she prepared to do it. Assuming she or any one of her peers decides to make that crucial move, Senate Republicans, who control the chamber, have the option to "go nuclear;" that is to manipulate congressional rules so that Gorsuch would need only a simple majority vote to win his appointment, breaking with all historical precedent for Supreme Court nominees. We reached Hogue and Warren by phone to discuss why all eyes should be on Gorsuch, the most "well groomed" nominee ever to come for your reproductive freedom. Story continues For a Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch seems to have gotten a little lost in the melee over the past few weeks. With everything else that's going on, why are you so focused on him? Elizabeth Warren: In [a] normal time, the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to be a Supreme Court justice would be talked about everywhere because his views are so out of the mainstream with most people in this country. But these are not normal times; there is so much going on in so many places that this hasn't gotten the attention it needs to get. Ilyse Hogue: Now that the healthcare battle [is over], we certainly expect all eyes to turn toward the Supreme Court both for the obvious reasons, like the fact that justices serve lifetime appointments, and for political reasons: Trump and the GOP need a win. The [healthcare loss] will make them all the more desperate to get this through. His approval ratings are in the tank. They're terrified this Russia investigation is going to get worse and worse. Photo credit: Courtesy NARAL Pro-Choice America How do you respond to people who feel like, fine, you might not like him, but Gorsuch has the credentials; he's well educated; he has experience? Hogue: Make no mistake: There was an absolute strategy by the Trump administration to pitch this guy as a "nice guy." Given all these cabinet nominees who were so supremely unqualified for their positions and the potential nominees that were floated for this Supreme Court seat who were just so unacceptable, when Gorsuch was picked it was like, "Oh, he's a judge nominated for a judge's position. That makes sense." I really do appreciate the fact that people want to able to just find some relief in something, but the problem is that not only are we falling into a trap that was set for us by the Trump administration, but also that just seeming like a nice guy who likes puppies is a really irresponsibly low bar by which to evaluate someone who is going to have control over our lives for a lifetime. Warren: Gorsuch has been well groomed for his media moment. But what matters are the legal opinions that Gorsuch has written. He has had chances-over and over and over-to choose between the rights of giant corporations and the rights of individuals, the rights of women, the rights of employees, the rights of consumers. Time after time, Neil Gorsuch has chosen the corporations, and I hope we're going to talk about the Hobby Lobby [decision]. Let's talk about it right now. Warren: I bring it up every chance I get, because, in that case, Neil Gorsuch decided that a corporation's religious liberty rights were more important than women employees' rights to have access to birth control. That's disqualifying. I am done. Right there. That's all I need to know. But I have to be clear: It's not the only time he has sided with corporations over real people. He has done it again and again and again, but that's one that should make people all across this country realize that he cannot have a lifetime position on the United States Supreme Court. No one reviews the decisions of the Supreme Court. Gorsuch decided that a corporation's religious liberty rights were more important than women employees' rights to have access to birth control. That's disqualifying. I am done. How could someone like Gorsuch make or swing decisions that would benefit corporations? Warren: We have to remember that corporations and a handful of shadowy millionaires and billionaires gave millions of dollars [to Republicans in Congress] to keep this Supreme Court seat open. Why did they do that? They wanted a Supreme Court justice who would favor their interests-not the interests of women, of employees, of consumers. They made a list of who they said would be acceptable Supreme Court nominees for them, and Donald Trump promised to pick somebody off that list. This is one promise he followed through on! And now those same people [have] poured million of dollars into an ad campaign to sell Neil Gorsuch to the American people. Why? Because they expect a return on their investment. Because they expect he will be a reliable vote in the Supreme Court for corporate interests, not for individual interests. Hogue: Hobby Lobby gave corporations control over women's rights. But that was just one case. And there are a number of ways that can play out in the future, particularly now that most women are by necessity in the workforce for their entire reproductive lives. Corporations have control over our contraception, healthcare, prenatal care, over whether we are able to pump at work, and I say this as someone who did, and even in a good workplace, it's hard. All this is in corporate control. And when corporations deny us those rights, it doesn't just affect us. It affects our families. But what we also need to remember about Hobby Lobby in the context of the Trump administration, and it's so important that it actually sends a chill down my spine, is that it was done under the guise of religious freedom. That can be expanded in a lot of frightening new ways. I really believe the framers [of the Constitution] didn't mean by "religious freedom," the freedom to persecute others. Beyond 'Hobby Lobby', one of the cases that's been most discussed is 'Roe v. Wade'. What's at stake? How likely is it that we could see that decision overturned? Warren: Women's rights are all up for grabs. That's it. Photo credit: AUL LOEB/AFP / Getty Hogue: Like many of these judges, he doesn't have many explicit rulings on abortion, but he does have three points that he has definitely decided on that draw a really clear picture to us when you connect the dots. One is Hobby Lobby, which we've already covered. The second is the decision he made in which he sided with the government of Utah in defunding Planned Parenthood. [Editor's note: An earlier ruling had mandated that Utah. Gov. Gary Herbert restore funding he'd stripped from Planned Parenthood after videos were released that seemed to show Planned Parenthood officials engaged in the sale of fetal tissue from abortions. Herbert had accepted that ruling. But Gorsuch later wrote an opinion in which he claimed the earlier ruling was flawed and that Herbert was "free as a matter of law to suspend the funding in question."] And the third one is his work on right-to-die legislation. For those of us who have been doing work for a while, we know that opposing the right to die is really about defining personhood, holding a position that life begins at conception and once life is in this world you can't do anything to take it out. If the nominee can't get 60 votes, then get another nominee. Those three issues combined with the fact that the president has said his litmus test for potential Supreme Court justices was that they would overturn Roe v. Wade. The preponderance of evidence is way too significant to overlook. It's going to be up to the Democratic senators, presumably, to filibuster this nominee. Sen. Warren, you've said you'd back a filibuster. Why? Warren: I truly support filibusters on Gorsuch. The reason there is a 60-vote threshold on a Supreme Court nominee is precisely because there will be no further review on this person. That means we need someone who can gain enough bi-partisan support that the American people can have confidence that this person will put the people's interests first, not [any one party's]. That is what this is all about. This is not about obstruction. But you've said you're not even sure a vote should occur, yes? You're prepared to hold off until the FBI concludes its Russia investigation? Warren: Yes; just keep in mind what's happening now. Just this week, the FBI announced that there's an active investigation into the connection between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Now, one of two things will happen at the conclusion of that investigation; either there is nothing there and it all goes away, or there is a serious problem and that could mean criminal indictment and prosecution. If that's the case, it's likely to be appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. It would not be appropriate for Donald Trump's nominee to cast the deciding vote in a case involving Donald Trump, his campaign, and collusion with the Russian government. So, now what? You've made your case and at least one million people agree with you. What can people who feel the same way do to make their voices heard? Hogue: Call you senators. I don't care if you live in a red state or a blue state. Your senators need to hear about this. We know that call volume is picking up, and they're taking notice. On April 1st, which is when the hearings and the vote would take place, we're having days of action nationwide. We would love everyone to participate. It's that important. You can find all the information on PeoplesDefense.org. This, this issue, is the true test. For Democratic leadership, it's whether they're going to listen to the voices of the people and do everything that is required of them. But it's a test for Republicans as well. They know this is wrong. Are they callous and malicious enough to erode our democracy just because they want to get someone on the court who will do their extreme conservative and corporate bidding? If they are, nothing less than our democracy is at stake. This interview has been edited for concision and clarity. You Might Also Like Photo credit: Elon Musk / Getty From Popular Mechanics Elon Musk has made a habit of embarking on wild new endeavors. He wants to colonize Mars. He started work to bore a tunnel underneath the highways of Los Angeles on a whim. And now he wants to connect people's brains to computers. According to the Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk is launching a new company called Neuralink to use "neural lace" technology to embed electrodes in people's brains. A neural implant device could allow humans to issue direct commands to computers just by thinking-firing neural signals and stimulating the device. Nerualink was registered as a "medical research" company in California last July, and according to the Journal, Musk plans on financing the company almost entirely by himself. Long Neuralink piece coming out on @waitbutwhy in about a week. Difficult to dedicate the time, but existential risk is too high not to. - Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 28, 2017 As the Guardian points out, the move to start developing brain implant technology is likely in accordance with Musk's argument that humans will need to augment their abilities with machine technology to survive in a future dominated by artificial intelligence. At the World Government Summit in Dubai last month, Musk said that for humans to contribute to the future economy they will need to expand their capabilities through a "merger of biological intelligence and machine intelligence." Neurological implants have been successfully used to allow amputees to control robotic prosthetics. There are some indications that Musk's Neuralink will attempt to expand the technology so that the human brain can receive inputs from a computing system as well, heightening intelligence or capability. More information should be available next week, and then Musk can start his masterplan to become a cyborg in earnest. Story continues Source: The Wall Street Journal You Might Also Like Tabqa Dam (Syria) (AFP) - Syrian engineers were expected to carry out urgent maintenance Wednesday on the country's largest dam, where US-backed fighters have been battling Islamist State group jihadists who still control most of it. The maintenance work, which entails opening a spillway to relieve the pressure of water on the dam, will involve the engineers entering areas held by IS, a technician inside the complex told AFP. The fighting between the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces and IS has raised fears for the integrity of Tabqa Dam, which holds back a vast reservoir in the Euphrates Valley that could cause catastrophic flooding if it burst. The technician inside the complex said that rising water levels in recent days had submerged some equipment in its lower levels. "Because the dam has been out of service for three straight days, the technical equipment in the lower levels of the dam is under water," the technician said. "This rise in the level of the reservoir means that one of the spillways must be opened to drain the water so it doesn't build up, which would pose a growing threat to the dam." Both the SDF and its US-led coalition backers have denied any kind of "structural damage" to the dam. But the technician inside the complex and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the dam's main control room had been knocked out. The technician said engineers had arrived from SDF-controlled territory and would "try to enter the dam and carry out the necessary maintenance as quickly as possible, if they are allowed." The SDF paused fighting for four hours on Monday to allow technicians to enter the complex and carry out maintenance. Earlier this year, the United Nations raised concern about the risks of damage to the dam in fighting, warning that water levels in the reservoir were already high. IS has accused the US-led coalition of bringing the dam to near-collapse with its air strikes, and on Tuesday it charged that a US strike had killed the dam's top technicians. Story continues An AFP correspondent at the dam's northern entrance saw engineers examining part of the structure on Tuesday accompanied by members of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent. "The explosions and the clashes are threatening the dam, and we ask for all sides to distance themselves from it," said Ismail Jassem, an engineer from the SDF-controlled Tishreen Dam upstream. "The water levels are acceptable now. We came to open up one of the gates to relieve the pressure," he told AFP. The SDF assault on the dam is part of a wider US-backed offensive to capture IS's de facto capital of Raqa downstream. SDF fighters have advanced to within eight kilometres (five miles) of the city at their closest point but are between 18 and 29 kilometres (11 and 18 miles) away on other fronts. United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Britain's ambassador to the United Nations vowed Wednesday that the launch of European Union exit negotiations would not hurt his country's role on the world stage. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said Britain would continue to align itself with shared EU positions on issues before the Security Council while Brexit talks are continuing. And he promised that, even after London and Brussels have completed their divorce, Britain would retain its powerful permanent seat on the UN council. "The United Kingdom continues to be a full member of the European Union until the end of the two-year process that the prime minister triggered today," Rycroft said. "Whenever there are positions of the European Union we will faithfully represent them on the Security Council," he told reporters, after chairing a meeting of the body. "We were a permanent member of the Security Council before we joined the EU. We were a permanent member as a member of the EU. And we will continue to be a permanent member of the Security Council after we leave the EU." Asked whether British positions might diverge from those of its partners after Brexit is complete, Rycroft said: "That will depend on how the negotiation goes." But he added: "I suspect you will not see a sudden change in the British interest, you will not be seeing a sudden change of British values." Along with France, Britain is one of two EU states to hold one of the five permanent, veto-wielding seats on the UN Security Council. Opponents of the Brexit decision have argued that it will dilute Britain's influence, at a time when powers like India are seeking a seat on the UN council. LONDON (AP) Britain will go it alone turning its back on decades of integration to control its own borders and free itself from the European Union's spider web of rules and regulations. It is a bold and risky move for this proud island nation. Few countries have walked away from such a large, prosperous and peaceful alliance in favor of a solo path. The impact on Europe will be momentous and won't be clear for several years at least. Britain's action comes at a time of maximum peril for the EU, which finds its liberal founding principles under pressure as never before. With one brisk step, Britain has ended the EU's growth phase and, perhaps, started it on a path of decay and possible dissolution. It's impossible to know if Britain will be the only disgruntled nation to walk away, or if it has set in motion a process that others will follow, leaving the European dream of an "ever closer union" nothing more than a quaint catchphrase from an era gone by. Until the last few years, which have been marked by financial and immigration crises, there seemed to be a certain historical inevitability to the expansion of the European Union. It grew from the rubble of World War II, binding together former enemies whose common history was marred by centuries of bloody warfare. Most importantly, it represented a triumphant vision: The countries that beat back Nazism and fascism would extend a hand to Germany and Italy, where those ideologies had flourished, and pull them into the modern world while the destroyed continent was rebuilt. United against a common Soviet enemy, and backed by the considerable firepower of the United States via the NATO alliance, the Western European nations that formed the EU first as an economic bloc called the European Economic Community prospered under remarkably liberal trade and immigration policies. Symbols of union abounded: The British and French cooperated to build a formidable Channel Tunnel that forever linked the two nations. Most countries jettisoned their national currency (and a bit of their sovereignty) in favor of the euro, and physical border crossings were dismantled. National boundaries, once so bitterly contested, seemed like hypothetical lines drawn on a quaint, obsolete map. Story continues When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and its Eastern European satellites were finally set free from Kremlin control, it seemed only natural that the leaders of the newly liberated countries would look to France, Germany, Britain and other Western powers for inspiration. They had endured stifling dictatorship, brutal secret police abuses and precious few political rights. The allure of the prosperous West, with its free press, open markets and expanding economies, seemed irresistible. So the union grew, moving beyond its core in Western Europe to the edge of the Black Sea. Hearty, triumphalist figures like Germany's Helmut Kohl and France's Francois Mitterrand helped engineer the unification of East and West Germany and welcomed Eastern European newcomers, setting in motion policies that eventually led the EU to expand to an unwieldy bloc of 28 nations. It was a magnanimous vision possible perhaps only in a time of sustained economic growth and it tied wealthy countries like Britain and the Netherlands to distant, poorer lands that shared little in terms of common language or traditions. The optimistic mid-1990s blueprint, backed by handsome subsidies for the newer members, was based on the belief that countries like Poland and Slovakia would develop into democracies like Germany and France with free trade and the free movement of people helping to bring about this profound transformation. The situation today is dramatically different. The single currency known as the euro never adopted by Britain has faltered badly, emphasizing the splits between wealthy countries and indebted nations like Greece. Europe has been taxed by the unplanned arrival of well over 1 million immigrants fleeing warfare and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, and Islamic communities have come under rhetorical fire in some countries following major extremist terror attacks in Paris, Brussels, London and Madrid. The chaos has led to a reversal of sorts in Eastern Europe, with some leaders rejecting the free movement of people, and to well-grounded fears in Western Europe that right-wing leaders hostile to the EU are gaining ground in France, Germany and other countries as well. Now Scotland, unwilling to be dragged out of the EU without a fight, is setting in motion a second independence referendum that would split it off from the United Kingdom. Britain's withdrawal must be seen in this context. Prime Minister Theresa May's invocation of the brief Article 50 clause which its architects believed would likely never be used curtails the Utopian vision that 28 disparate countries can find common cause that trumps nationalistic concerns. It comes as the EU's liberal principles are quickly falling out of vogue. The tests will come quickly now. There will be a presidential vote in April in France, where far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, strongly opposed to the EU and its currency, looks formidable. Vital German elections are set for September. The external situation facing the EU has changed beyond all recognition. The friendly Russia that took baby steps toward democratic freedoms after the Soviet era has vanished, replaced by President Vladimir Putin's hard-line approach. And the United States, long the rich, benevolent uncle in this relationship, is now led by President Donald Trump, who as a candidate urged Britons to break free of the EU and its rules. The future is impossible to know, but the start of Article 50 proceedings puts a merciful end to Britain's ambivalent relations with the EU bloc after decades of indecision. Now Britain no longer imperial, and perhaps to be shorn of Scotland as well will stand apart once more. By Lisa Rapaport (Reuters Health) - - After menopause, women who take estrogen therapy may be less likely to develop severe oral health problems than peers who dont take hormones or other treatments for age-related bone damage, a recent study suggests. During menopause and afterward, the body slows production of new bone tissue and women face an increased risk of osteoporosis. Falling levels of the hormone estrogen around menopause can contribute to fragile, brittle bones associated with both osteoporosis and periodontal disease, or infections around the teeth and gums. For the current study, researchers examined data on 492 women in Bahia, Brazil, who had gone through menopause and had bone density scans between 2009 and 2011. The group included 113 women treating osteoporosis with calcium and vitamin D supplements, or with estrogen alone or in combination with the hormone progestin. Overall, the rate of severe periodontitis - when the inner layer of gums pull away from the teeth - was 44 percent lower among the women taking estrogen for osteoporosis, the study found. I imagine that a patient who forgoes osteoporosis treatment with estrogen because of its risks is unlikely to change her mind after learning there is a potential connection to periodontal disease, said Natalia Chalmers, director of analytics at the DentaQuest Institute in Westborough, Massachusetts. But if she is already predisposed to severe periodontitis, it is important for her to know how osteoporosis may make her condition worse, Chalmers, who wasnt involved in the study, said by email. Risks of estrogen therapy can include increased odds of heart disease and breast cancer, Johelle de S. Passos-Soares of the Federal University of Bahia in Brazil and colleagues note in the Journal Menopause. Passos-Soares didnt respond to requests for comment on the study. Periodontitis is a leading cause of tooth loss in older adults. As gums pull away from the teeth, debris collects in the mouth that can become infected and plaque can spread below the gum line. In severe cases so much gum tissue and bone are destroyed that teeth become loose and fall out. Women in the study were 61 years old on average, and ranged in age from 50 to 87. They typically when through menopause when they were around 47 years old. Women treating osteoporosis averaged about 9 missing teeth, 8 decayed teeth and 2 teeth with fillings or restorations. They were also more likely than women not treating osteoporosis to have visited a dentist within the past two years. With estrogen treatments, fewer women had periodontal disease, which researchers defined as gaps at least 5 millimeters deep between the gums and the jaw around at least 30 percent of teeth. But the difference from women not using estrogen was too small to rule out the possibility that it was due to chance. However, osteoporosis treatment was associated with fewer cases of severe periodontitis and significantly fewer teeth that had gaps at least 4 millimeters deep between the gums and the teeth. The study isnt a controlled experiment designed to show whether estrogen treatment after menopause directly prevents gum disease or severe periodontitis. Limitations of the study include the fact that researchers looked at women at a single point in time, so they couldnt determine when the women developed oral health problems relative to when they went through menopause or started estrogen treatments. Women in the study were also recruited from a health center, making it possible the findings might be different in a broader population of patients, researchers note. Its also possible that women who seek routine care for one aspect of their health may be more likely to get treatment for other health issues, Chalmers said. That means the connection between osteoporosis treatment and women seeking more preventive care in general might explain a lower risk of periodontal disease. The link between osteoporosis and periodontal disease is not clear, and more studies are needed to fully assess this connection, Chalmers said. However, we can say that patients affected by each condition share risk factors such as age, smoking, hormonal change and genetics, as well as calcium and vitamin D deficiency. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2oykoJb Menopause, online February 22, 2017. Independent ethics watchdogs urged members of Congress this week to probe why President Trumps Air Force secretary nominee, former Rep. Heather Wilson, was paid by nuclear weapon contractors to do consulting work for which she refused to provide a detailed accounting. Wilson, a Republican who represented New Mexico in Congress from 1998 until 2009, faces potentially robust questioning on Thursday March 30 at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, chaired by Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona. In separate letters to McCain and Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the ranking Democrat on the committee, the public-interest nonprofit Project on Government Oversight [POGO] and a consortium of three ethics organizations from across the political spectrum the National Legal and Policy Center, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and Public Citizen encouraged the committee to question Wilson about her contracts with the weapons firms shell help oversee if confirmed. Both letters cited a series of reports published in February by the Center for Public Integrity as a basis for their questions about Wilsons nomination. The Centers reports were based on federal records, many obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, that detail internal Department of Energy concerns about Wilsons refusal to report in writing to three nuclear weapons laboratories how she was spending her time in return for payments totaling $20,000 a month. Related story: Trump pick for Air Force boss frustrated auditors with lucrative, murky consulting for nuclear weapons labs This story is part of Up in Arms. National security-related events, reports and findings that deserve more attention. Click here to read more stories in this series. Don't miss another National Security investigation: Sign up for the Center for Public Integrity's Watchdog email. The documents obtained by the Center also detail Wilsons role in helping a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin the Sandia Corporation try to win to win a new seven-year Energy Department contract worth more than $16 billion without the competition ordinarily called for by federal regulations. Your message to these people is that competition is not in the best interest of the government, she told Sandia officials in a July 2009 email. Story continues Sandia Corp., the Lockheed Martin subsidiary in Albuquerque that operates Sandia National Laboratories, where nuclear weapons are engineered, wound up billing the federal government for the $226,378 in fees that it paid to Wilson. But after an investigation by the Justice Department, it agreed in August 2015 to repay what it spent on Wilson and also give the government $4.7 million to settle the departments claims that it had violated federal law by using federal funds to lobby for more federal money. Wilson hasnt said much in public about her work. But in a 2015 email to the Center for Public Integrity, she denied contacting federal officials directly to lobby for Sandia. Three other nuclear weapon contractors the firms operating the Nevada National Security Site, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory repaid the government $216,499 they had paid Wilson, also without obtaining a detailed accounting of the actual work Wilson provided. In interviews with investigators for the departments inspector generals office, employees of the National Nuclear Security Administration described Wilsons work for the weapon contractors as a money grab and a soft landing, after she left Congress following an election defeat. She failed to produce any actual reports, one of the investigators noted. Related: POGO letter In one of the letters to the Senate Armed Services Committee, POGO Executive Director Danielle Brian questioned whether Wilson could objectively oversee the massive amount of work Lockheed Martin does for the Air Force, considering her past work for the companys subsidiary at Sandia. Lockheed holds more contracts than any other Air Force contractor. Brian also urged leaders of the committee to seek assurances from Wilson that shed be more forthcoming with oversight agencies as Air Force secretary than she was as a paid consultant, when she insisted on withholding details of her work from the entities paying for it at taxpayer expense. POGO believes Ms. Wilson should be questioned about her past employment and that the Committee should ensure she commits to an open and transparent relationship with oversight bodies, Brian wrote. She suggested that the committee ask Wilson why she engaged in business development for Sandia when her contract explicitly forbade it, why she insisted on keeping secret what she was doing, and whether she was aware that government funds were the source of her paychecks. Why should taxpayers trust you with their money? Brian said the lawmakers should ask. Ms. Wilson should not be confirmed until she has adequately provided the answers to these questions and proven that she does not have a conflict of interest. The ethics consortium's letter drew a harder line. As leading organizations promoting ethics and accountability, we strongly urge you to vote against the nomination of Heather Wilson to be Secretary of the Air Force, the letter said, citing Wilsons questionable actions on behalf of the largest contractor for the Air Force as a compelling case for not approving her nomination. When President Trump announced Wilson as his choice to head the Air Force on Jan. 23, he said, Her distinguished military service, high level of knowledge, and success in so many different fields gives me great confidence that she will lead our nations Air Force with the greatest competence and integrity. Related: Heather Wilson CREW letter Don't miss another National Security investigation: Sign up for the Center for Public Integrity's Watchdog email. Wilson graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1982, and then earned masters and doctoral degrees as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in England. After serving with the Air Force in Europe, she became a member of President George H.W. Bushs National Security Council staff. After leaving Congress and eventually halting her consulting work, she became president of South Dakota School of Mines, which pays her an annual salary of $373,000. In Aug. 2013, she also joined the board of directors of Peabody Energy, the largest private-sector coal company in the U.S.; its currently in bankruptcy, but her financial disclosure said shes been paid $200,333 for serving on its board. Wilson received roughly that amount annually, according to company shareholder reports. Since February 2016 shes also been paid $46,000 for serving on the board of directors of Raven Industries, a South Dakota-based defense contractor thats done $17.5 million in business with the Air Force, according to federal procurement records. In a March 22 letter to the Office of Government Ethics, Wilson said she would resign from her college presidency and her seats on the boards of Peabody Energy and Raven Industries, and shed her stocks in those companies within 90 days. Wilson also pledged to divest stock she or her husband hold in 16 other contractors that work for the Department of Defense including several of the Air Forces most active contractors, such as Raytheon and Honeywell. But she is not restricted from making decisions related to the Lockheed Martin Corporation, her former client, because that work didnt occur in the past two years. Related story: Air Force Secretary nominee helped a major defense contractor lobby for more federal funds This story is part of Up in Arms. National security-related events, reports and findings that deserve more attention. Click here to read more stories in this series. Related stories Copyright 2017 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C. VALLETTA (Reuters) - The EU's chief negotiator in the talks on Britain's exit from the European Union said on Wednesday that "today is day one of a very difficult road". Michel Barnier was in Malta on the day British Prime Minister Theresa May was due to formally trigger two years of exit talks under the EU's Article 50 divorce process. Barnier, who held talks with Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat, told reporters this was a "key moment" for the EU, and it was important to achieve a "fair agreement" not only on the Brexit issue but also for the long-term future of the EU itself. Muscat said any deal for Britain had nevertheless to be inferior to membership. He said Malta, which holds the rotating presidency of the council of the European Union, would deliver official guidelines for the Brexit talks to Barnier within 48 hours. "We will rely on your good judgment. This is a sad day for the EU," Muscat told Barnier. (Editing by Crispian Balmer and Catherine Evans) UML reports EC about threats, code violation The main opposition CPN-UML has drawn the attention of the Election Commission to increased intimidation of its leaders and cadres in the Tarai while also complaining about the violation of the election code of conduct by the government. Brussels (AFP) - The European Parliament insisted Wednesday there can be no discussion of future ties with Britain until the divorce conditions are finalised, rejecting a key demand of British Prime Minister Theresa May. MEPs added their voice to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who rebuffed May's call for negotiations for Britain's withdrawal to run alongside talks on a trade relationship after Brexit. "An orderly exit is an absolute requirement and a precondition for any potential future EU-UK partnership. This is not negotiable," European Parliament chief Antonio Tajani told a press conference. May triggered the historic two-year process of Brexit talks on Wednesday, following Britain's shock June 2016 referendum vote to leave the European Union. In a resolution to be approved next week, lawmakers said there "should substantial progress be made towards a withdrawal agreement then talks could start on possible transitional arrangements". Any transitional period to work out a trade deal after Britain formally leaves the European Union in March 2019 should be limited to three years. "We don't exclude a transitional period, which from our point of view should be limited in time. We propose three years," the European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt. The resolution also calls for Britain to quickly settle uncertainties over the rights of EU citizens living in Britain, and over the bill that the EU says it must pay to withdraw. The European Parliament will have the final say on any Brexit deal in a vote expected at the end of 2018 or in early 2019. Beirut (AFP) - Four Syrian towns that have been under crippling siege for more than two years are to be evacuated under a deal reached late on Tuesday, a monitoring group said. Residents of Zabadani and Madaya, two towns near Damascus under siege by government forces, will leave their homes in return for the evacuation of Fuaa and Kafraya, two mainly Shiite towns in the northwest besieged by the rebels, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said the deal was brokered by rebel supporter Qatar and government ally Iran and that Islamist rebels in the northwestern province of Idlib had already signed on. "The evacuations are not expected to begin until April 4 but, as a goodwill measure, a ceasefire for the towns came into effect overnight," Abdel Rahman said. "It is calm there now," he added. The four towns are part of an existing deal reached in 2015 that has seen aid deliveries and evacuations. Relief convoys to the four towns are always simultaneous and equal, with the same number of trucks entering at the same time. A similar stipulation has applied for those being evacuated. More than 320,000 people have been killed and millions more displaced since the Syrian conflict erupted with protests against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011. Multiple attempts to secure a nationwide ceasefire have faltered. In December, rebel backer Turkey and government ally Russia brokered a cessation of hostilities that aimed to pave the way for more aid deliveries and peace talks, but fighting has continued across swathes of the country. Photo credit: Facebook From Woman's Day Right after newlyweds Jessica and Tyler Brown said "I do" in Jacksonville, Florida last weekend, they headed straight to the nearest hospital... for a special family reunion. Dressed in their wedding finery and holding flowers from the ceremony, the pair shared an emotional moment with the bride's grandmother, who had to miss the big day after suffering a heart attack the night before. The sweet scene was captured in an image that's now going viral after their wedding photographer shared it on Facebook. Wanting to include Jessica's 70-year-old "granny," Margaret Harris, in the festivities despite her health scare, the bride's sister suggested a post-wedding hospital visit. "My sister said that if I went up there in my dress it would make us both feel better and make her night," Jessica told ABC News. "I needed no convincing." The bride, who says she is incredibly close with her grandmother, said it was hard to fathom the idea of celebrating without her. "It was the equivalent of not having a parent there,"Jessica said. "This woman helped raise me and become who I am. She's been there for everything." When the couple, their photographer, and six other family members and friends arrived at the hospital, Jessica immediately climbed into her grandmother's hospital bed to give her a hug. "I think everybody was crying," photographer Amanda Brown told ABC News. "It was a total surprise [to Margaret]." (h/t ABC News) You Might Also Like FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) President Donald Trump's $25 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit that alleged fraud at his now-defunct Trump University may be put on hold because a former student in Florida wants a full refund plus interest and an apology. A federal judge in San Diego will decide Thursday whether to let Sherri Simpson opt out of the settlement and sue the president individually. Simpson, a Fort Lauderdale bankruptcy and consumer rights attorney, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that she thinks Trump should acknowledge wrongdoing and apologize. Simpson and a partner paid $35,000 in 2010 to enroll in Trump University's "Gold Elite" program, where they were supposed to be paired with a mentor who would teach them Trump's secret real estate investment strategies. Like other members of the lawsuit, Simpson said they got little for their money the videos were 5 years old, the materials covered information that could be found free on the internet and her mentor didn't return calls or emails. Under terms of the settlement, Trump admitted no wrongdoing and the students will get back 80 percent of their enrollment fees about $28,000 for Simpson and her partner. Simpson said that's not enough, financially or morally. She doesn't want U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel to scuttle the entire settlement she just wants the right to sue Trump individually. "I would like an admission that he was wrong, an admission that, 'Oops, maybe I didn't handle it as well as I should have, I didn't set it up as well as I should have, that I didn't maintain it or oversee it as well as I should have,'" said Simpson, who appeared in two anti-Trump ads made by political action committees last year. Trump's lead attorney Daniel M. Petrocelli didn't immediately return a phone message or email. But attorneys representing both the former students and the president have told the judge they oppose Simpson's request and want him to give final approval to the settlement. They say Simpson and the other former students were informed in writing that they had to opt out of the lawsuit by Nov. 16, 2015, if they wanted to pursue individual lawsuits. They say she filed a claim form on Feb. 1 to receive her share of the settlement, but then filed her objection three weeks ago. Story continues "The 2015 notices were crystal clear," wrote Rachel L. Jensen, an attorney for the students, in a court filing. "If Simpson had any questions or concerns, she could have brought it up with counsel for the class on any one of their many calls. She did not." Simpson argues that the written notice also said that if the students obtained money, they would be notified how to receive their share or "how to ask to be excluded from any settlement." Of the 3,730 members of the class, attorneys said only Simpson and a man who wants triple his money back have objected. Thirteen former students opted out before the 2015 deadline, but none have sued Trump individually. Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond Law School professor who has been following the lawsuit, thinks the judge will approve the settlement but could let Simpson pursue her own lawsuit. If she does, it would raise the question of whether Simpson's attorneys could depose a sitting president, and the case could be delayed until Trump leaves office. The lawsuit became campaign fodder last year as supporters for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton said it showed Trump University was a scam and that Trump lied in its advertising. Trump told prospective students that he "hand-picked" the teachers and had helped devise the curriculum, which he said would be "Ivy League quality." But in a 2012 deposition, Trump told lawyers that he had no direct role in hiring teachers or designing courses. Trump University, which opened in 2005, changed its name to "The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative" in 2010 after New York officials said it was not an accredited school. It mostly ceased operations later that year. During the campaign, Trump blasted Curiel's rulings on the lawsuit and insinuated that the Indiana-born judge's Mexican ancestry influenced his decisions. Trump has proposed building a wall between Mexico and the United States as a curb to illegal immigration. Curiel was appointed to the bench in 2012 by President Barack Obama. Trump vowed never to settle the case. But less than two weeks after the election, the settlement was announced. Trump tweeted shortly after, "The ONLY bad thing about winning the Presidency is that I did not have the time to go through a long but winning trial on Trump U. Too bad!" Residents carry the bodies of people killed during fights between Iraq security forces and ISIS in Mosul on March 17. (Photo: Felipe Dana/AP) MOSUL In the West Emergency Hospital in Irbil, 30-year-old Lina described the sound and the smell after an airstrike hit a house in the west Mosul neighborhood of Jadida. I heard the sound of fire, I could smell the burnt meat of people. The place got hotter and hotter I just wanted to escape. I screamed for help, she said. The airstrike happened on March 17 during an intense battle between Islamic State snipers and Iraqi forces. Iraqi officials and eyewitnesses believe as many as 240 people were killed. Civil defense rescue workers say theyve pulled at least 140 bodies from the rubble. Other humanitarian groups have cited numbers as high as 300, but no official tally has been offered. Linas voice shook as she described the events to Yahoo News. She was in a house that was struck from the air, she estimated at around 4 oclock in the afternoon. I was standing in front of the window, and the airstrike came toward me. I jumped into a hole [in the floor] to protect myself. All the glass struck me. I couldnt see anything after that. Her face is marred with scratches, and her right eye is nearly sealed shut. We were about 150 people in the house, I wasnt alone. The house collapsed on the people and it became one floor. I realized I was injured; there was a lot of blood. Lina said it took four days for rescuers to get her out of Jadida and to a hospital. She lost her son and her husband. Her two other children have been taken to other hospitals. She doesnt know their fate. Lina tells about seeing an airstrike come for her and being buried in the rubble. (Photo: Ash Gallagher for Yahoo News) The details about what actually happened at Jadida remain murky. While the United States military admitted carrying out an airstrike on March 17, the Iraqi military released a statement saying it called for one at 8:25 a.m., but not in the afternoon. It blamed the destruction and deaths on the detonation of ISIS explosives. Journalists have been banned from the site since the weekend, and further investigation of the scene has not been possible. A military commander, not authorized to speak to the media, let it slip that the order to ban journalists came from the Iraqi prime minister. Yahoo News has not been able to independently verify the information. Story continues But eyewitness accounts from the neighborhood confirm that the strike on the housing units took place in the afternoon, and they say the Iraqi military knew there were many civilians. A man from the neighborhood, Ali, was at the hospital with his brother, who was suffering from injuries and awaiting surgery. He told Yahoo News his house was near the area where the strike hit and he saw Iraqi forces. They were hiding in houses, about 30 meters away. They knew [we were there]. They were next to our neighborhood, he said. Ali also said there were only a few ISIS fighters moving in and out of the houses, and the snipers were on the rooftops. There were a lot of foreign fighters with ISIS, he said, We realized that once the [foreign] fighters were killed, the others [Iraqi fighters] would run away. A 26-year-old father, Alla, was waiting at the hospital to see his surviving daughter. He lost his wife in the attack. His house was near the attack site. He said that two days before the attack, during heavy fighting, he used a phone that he hid from ISIS in his shoe to call for help. I called an emergency number, theres a number to call for help to the Iraqi forces, but no one came. A man is helped after identifying the body of a relative who died in a house that was destroyed during fights between Iraq security forces and the Islamic State. (Photo: Felipe Dana/AP) During the airstrike, Alla saw many people running, but he was trapped. I was terrified, he told Yahoo news. The airstrike hit my house. I couldnt get my wife, but I pulled out my daughter [from rubble]. According to a Human Rights Watch report, protocol for the Iraqi military to call for air support has recently changed. Under previous rules, all requests for coalition air support had to be approved and made through an authorized strike cell unit in Baghdad, but now HRW reports the current policy may allow brigade commanders on the ground to request the coalition to carry out air-strikes without an additional layer of authorization. Iraqi journalists who have been with military divisions have said it is common to see a commander call for a coalition air support and usually it only takes a few minutes for the strike to hit. U.S. Army spokesperson Col. Joe Scrocca told Yahoo News, All of our strikes are cleared both by the Iraqi government and a coalition officer. He added, We vet [the locations] and make sure theres no friendly forces around the area. He said the investigation into the airstrike is ongoing, but that American officials only learned of the allegations six days after the strike. When the story first broke, I believe on the 23rd, was when we saw it via social media, he said. We had to go back, based on the grid coordinates that were given to us and other media sources. But Scrocca also admitted that the U.S. doesnt necessarily rely on American investigators to conduct assessments. We take any evidence the Iraqi army or the government can provide us. Well take any information; we analyze social media posts, photos, interviews with witnesses, as well as our own strike logs. In many cases were not able to send a team on the ground. Firefighters carry the body of a victim of the airstrike in Mosul. (Reuters) He hopes in this case they will be able to do an on-the-ground investigation, as Jadida has been declared a liberated area. But since February, when the push to retake west Mosul began, airstrikes have come under heavy criticism. After an investigation, an Amnesty International report said it is concerned the Iraqi military is not allowing civilians to flee and pressuring them to stay in their homes, endangering them further. The shocking spike in civilian casualties from both US-led coalition airstrikes and ground fighting between the Iraqi military and IS fighters in recent months has also raised serious questions about the lawfulness of these attacks, the report said. According to the coalition media team, 479 strikes hit near Mosul from Oct. 17 to Jan. 31 during the Iraqi militarys operation to take back the eastern part of the city. In West Mosul, a more densely populated area, in the last 53 days there have be 255 airstrikes logged. Survivors of the attacks say that ISIS fighters forced residents to move from house to house, making civilian casualties more likely. Outside the hospital, Ali said, I was living in the neighborhood next to Jadida, but they [ISIS] forced us to move there. ISIS then came to my house [in Jadida] and used my house as a base. They used one of the rooms for injured [fighters]. They used it like a clinic. They used our fuels without permission. Another man from Jadida, Khalid, spoke to Yahoo News over the phone. He said his family was also moved: ISIS forced us to leave our house, and so we went to another house where there were a lot of people. It was a small house and we couldnt sleep. He believes the fighters were using the civilians as shields. On the day of the attack, Khalid said, he was able to move to another house down the road from the attack site. There was some fighting near us. We knew the Iraqi army was nearby and thought They will liberate us, he said, When the airstrikes started, they hit [several] houses one by one. It was loud, like drums, I know the sound of the aircraft. Relatives with the bodies of civilians killed in the airstrike in west Mosul. (Photo: Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters) Khalid lost his brother in the attack. When he went out to the rubble, he saw his brothers body. I recognized him, but I couldnt get him out, so I put an ID on his body for the [rescuers]. It was a terrifying situation. Reports emerged that there was a truck filled with explosives at the strike site, but none of the eyewitness who spoke with Yahoo News were able to confirm this. The Iraqi military said the houses may have been booby-trapped, but none of the witnesses saw the explosives or trip wires. Ultimately, they all agree that amid the heavy exchange of fire between the Iraqi forces and ISIS, an airstrike caused chaos, killing their relatives and friends a horror none of them can forget. Ash Gallagher is a journalist covering the Mideast for Yahoo News. Read more from Yahoo News: London (AFP) - Leading Brexit supporter Nigel Farage celebrated the start of Britain's departure from the EU on Wednesday with a pint in a pub near parliament, saying it was a vindication for him after long years of campaigning. Wearing Union Jack socks, the 52-year-old Farage sat outside the Marquis of Granby pub after Prime Minister Theresa May made the historic announcement. "Today's the day for me after 25 years of campaigning that the impossible dream came true," he told SkyNews. Farage, a member of the European Parliament, is the former leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) whose rise pushed then prime minister David Cameron into calling an EU membership referendum in 2013. He said that advocating Britain's departure from the EU was "a minority sport" for many years. "We were laughed at, abused.. and hey here we are," said Farage, a former commodities trader who resigned as UKIP leader following last year's Brexit referendum, saying he had achieved his lifelong dream. Farage co-funded UKIP in 1993 and raised the party's profile. In Britain's last general election in 2015, the party got four million votes and it won European Parliament elections in 2014. But despite the party's political successes and repeated attempts, Farage was never elected to parliament. Following the resignation of UKIP's only MP over the weekend, it now has no representation in the legislature. There are now questions over the party's future because of months of bitter infighting. Farage has said he will continue to monitor the British government's progress in negotiations but will not return to a frontline political role. Apart from negotiating with Brussels, he said on Wednesday that Britain should also set out its case to major exporters in France and Germany "to get them to put pressure on their own politicians". "There may be politicians in Europe who are prepared to sacrifice their own workers' interests to keep this crumbling union together," he said. "I want us to have a have a sensible free trade deal," he said, holding a copy of the europhobic Daily Express newspaper which carried a front page headline reading: "Dear EU, We're Leaving You". LONDON (AP) British Prime Minister Theresa May says Brexit is an opportunity to build an "independent, self-governing, global Britain." European Parliament chief negotiator Guy Verhofstadt says it's "a tragedy, a disaster, a catastrophe." Britain and the EU see the U.K.'s looming exit from the European Union rather differently. As Britain officially starts the two-year exit process with Wednesday's triggering of Article 50, here's a look at some of the feuds and fault-lines that lie ahead: MONEY, MONEY, MONEY The EU says Britain can't leave without settling its bill, paying up for the U.K.'s share of staff pensions and projects it has already agreed to fund. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has put the figure at around 50 billion euros ($63 billion). Britain doesn't deny that it will have to pay something, but is sure to quibble over the size of the tab. Brexit Secretary David Davis said this week that Britain will no longer be "paying enormous sums to the EU." "We will, of course, meet our international obligations but we expect also our rights to be respected too," he said. "I don't think we are going to be seeing that sort of money change hands." WHAT DO WE TALK ABOUT FIRST? Substantive talks are unlikely to start until May at the earliest after an April 29 summit of 27 EU leaders to settle their negotiating stance, and after France holds a May 7 presidential election. When Davis and chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier finally sit down face to face, their first decision will be: What do we talk about? Britain and the bloc have very different ideas about how the next two years will unfold. EU officials insist the divorce terms must be settled before talks on a new relationship can begin. That means agreeing on the bill, and ending the uncertainty about the future status of 3 million EU citizens living in the U.K., and 1 million Britons who reside elsewhere in the bloc. Story continues Britain hopes the two tracks divorce terms and future relationship can run in parallel. "The first part (is) how are we going to part?" Sweden's EU Minister, Ann Linde, said last month. "And then we are going to start to see what will our future relations be. I know the U.K. wants this to happen more or less at the same time. And that will be the first discussion that will come up." WHAT ARE THE RED LINES? One central contradiction looms at the heart of negotiations. The EU says it will not compromise on its core "four freedoms": free movement of goods, capital, services and workers. The last of those means citizens of EU nations may live and work in other member states. Britain insists that it must regain the right to control immigration and end free movement from the bloc. Concern over the large number of EU nationals who have moved to Britain in recent years was a major factor for many Britons who voted "leave" in last year's referendum. May says Britain will leave the EU's single market in goods and services and its tariff-free customs union, but nonetheless wants "frictionless" free trade. It is hard to see how the U.K. can impose immigration restrictions without incurring some barriers. DEAL OR NO DEAL? Britain has invoked Article 50 of the EU's key treaty, setting a countdown clock ticking: In two years, the U.K. will cease to be a member of the bloc. Officials on both sides hope by 2019 either to have a deal, or an agreement to keep talking during a transitional period. But there is a third possibility, in which Britain crashes out of the EU without a deal. Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee has accused the British government of not doing enough to prepare for talks breaking down, ending in no deal and "mutually assured damage" to both Britain and the EU. For Britain, it would almost certainly mean steep tariffs on trade with the bloc. The British government has sent mixed signals. May has said Britain will walk away rather than accept a bad deal, but Davis, the Brexit secretary, says he considers that outcome highly unlikely. The final deal will have to be approved by both the British and European parliaments and neither is guaranteed. "We vote no that is possible," Verhofstadt told the BBC recently. "It has happened in a number of other cases that a big international multilateral agreement was voted down by the European Parliament after it was concluded." Follow Jill Lawless on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless By Costas Pitas LONDON (Reuters) - Carmakers and airlines easyJet and Ryanair demanded Britain secure a Brexit deal which preserves their access to Europe, warning any barriers to trade could risk the future of car plants and ground flights between the UK and the continent. No-deal in Brexit talks is not an option, Britain's car industry body said on Wednesday after Theresa May formally launched divorce proceedings from the European Union, saying tariffs would raise costs and hit consumers. Ford
Child Abuse Statistics in Utah The Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) has 1,100 employees statewide working from 36 offices. A call to DCFS is made in Utah every 8 minutes. Over the past year, there were 9,993 child abuse victims statewide (451 in Cache and Rich counties), with seven fatalities. Seventy-three percent of the perpetrators were parents or guardians. On average, 27 cases of child abuse were substantiated per day, or the equivalent of an entire elementary school classroom. Twenty-two Childrens Justice Centers serve abused children in 28 of Utahs 29 counties. They are tasked with helping victims of abuse make disclosures to law enforcement in a safe and supportive environment. Sources: Brent Platt, Department of Human Services; Tracey Tabets, Utah Attorney Generals Office; The Family Place |