May 2017
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May 30, 2017
A new stem cell study reveals the impact of cigarette harm to unborn babies.
A new stem cell study reveals the impact of cigarette harm to unborn babies.
Scientists discovered that the mixture of chemicals in cigarettes is especially harmful to developing liver cells.

They developed a method of studying the consequences of maternal smoking on liver tissue using embryonic stem cells.

The team, led by the University of Edinburgh, also discovered that the cigarette chemicals affect fetuses differently depending on their gender.

Throughout their research they used pluripotent stem cells - cells which have the ability to transform into other cell types - to build fetal liver tissue.

Liver cells were exposed to the noxious chemicals found in cigarettes, including specific substances known to flow in fetuses when mothers smoke.

The study revealed that a chemical cocktail - similar to that found in cigarettes - harmed fetal liver health more than individual components.
Lasting harm

Dr David Hay from the University of Edinburgh's centre for regenerative medicine, said that cigarette smoke is known to have damaging effects on the fetus, but appropriate tools to study this in a very detailed way are lacking.

This new approach means that there are now sources of renewable tissue that will allow us to understand the cellular effect of cigarettes on the unborn fetus.

The liver is essential in clearing dangerous substances and plays a major role in regulating metabolism.

Smoking cigarettes, which contain around 7,000 chemicals, can harm fetal organs and may do lasting harm.

Male tissue demonstrated liver scarring while female tissue showed more damage to cell metabolism.
This work is part of an ongoing project to understand how cigarette smoking by pregnant mothers has harmful effects on the developing feetus. - Prof Paul Fowler, director of the institute of medical sciences at the University of Aberdeen
These discoveries shed light on fundamental differences in damage between male and female fetuses.
The study is published in the journal Archives of Toxicology.
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May 23, 2017
Major cholera outbreak feared in Yemen
A huge cholera epidemic is feared in Yemen, according to charity Save the Children.
This month alone almost 250 people have died of the disease, with hundreds of suspected cases being reported every day, it says.

The World Health Organization said the water-borne illness is spreading at a startling rate in the war-ravaged country.

Sanaa has been the worst affected area and last week a state of emergency was declared in the in the rebel-held capital last week.

Save the Children believes thousands of people could die of the easily treatable disease, and said more than two million malnourished children are particularly at risk.

Cholera is transmitted through contaminated water and food.

Symptoms include acute diarrhoea and vomiting. Those who are ill with cholera can become very sick and, when it is left untreated, death can occur within hours.

Charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which has set up cholera treatment centres in the country, also fears the outbreak will spiral out of control.
Before the outbreak, the health system was already overstretched and people's health needs were already huge.
To bring the outbreak under control, it won't be enough simply to treat those people who reach medical facilities. We also need to address the source of the disease, by improving water and sanitation and working in communities to prevent new cases. - Ghassan Abou Chaar, MSF's head of mission in Yemen.
According to the WHO fewer than 45% of health facilities are fully functioning in Yemen, with almost 300 damaged or destroyed in fighting between forces loyal to President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi - who is backed by a Saudi-led multinational coalition - and those allied to the Houthi rebel movement.

Save the Children urged all the sides in the conflict to end restrictions on the import of aid immediately.

More than eight million people lack access to drinking water and sanitation in the nation.

Over 8,000 people - mostly civilians - have been killed and close to 44,500 others injured since the conflict in Yemen escalated in March 2015, as stated by the UN.

The fighting has also left almost 19 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.
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May 22, 2017 ,
Donald Trump arrives in Israel today to try to revive the moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process but his trip begins under the shadow of unexpected tensions with the Right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Donald Trump is arriving in Israel after a two-day trip to Saudi Arabia
Donald Trump arrives in Israel today to try to revive the moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process but his trip begins under the shadow of unexpected tensions with the Right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
While the Israeli Right openly cheered Mr Trump’s election, many have been surprised by his enthusiastic pursuit of the “the ultimate deal” - an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty - and his calls for Israel to hold off on expanding settlements while the president tries to broker talks.

The US and Israeli sides have clashed in recent days over the status of Jerusalem, after the White House refused to say whether it considered the Western Wall, one of Judaism’s holiest sites, to be part of Israel.

The flare-up forced Mr Netanyahu to declare on Sunday that the Western Wall will “always be under Israeli sovereignty” and would never be given up during any peace talks.
Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel would always have sovereignty over the Western Wall
Mr Trump will become the first sitting US president ever to go to the Western Wall today, but the White House pointedly refused to let Mr Netanyahu join on the visit, fearing that the Israeli prime minister’s presence would make it look like the US was acknowledging Israeli sovereignty.

Mr Netanyahu struck an upbeat note at a cabinet meeting on Sunday, telling Mr Trump that Israel will “receive you with open arms”.

“I will discuss with President Trump ways to strengthen even further the first and strongest alliance with the US. We will strengthen security ties, which are strengthening daily, and we will also discuss ways to advance peace,” Mr Netanyahu said.

But behind the scenes the prime minister spent the weekend in a series of bruising confrontations with his own ministers ahead of the trip. 

Many Israeli ministers reportedly decided not to attend the welcoming ceremony for Mr Trump at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport because of the onerous security and because they would not get a chance to shake the president’s hand.

After learning that only a few of his ministers planned to show up, a furious Mr Netanyahu ordered all his cabinet members to make an appearance, according to Haaretz.

Israel was reportedly concerned that its welcome might seem small compared to the lavish ceremony put on by Saudi Arabia, complete with horse guards and a military flyover, when Mr Trump arrived in the Arab state.

In a gesture of goodwill towards Mr Trump’s peacemaking efforts, Mr Netanyahu also forced through a series of measures designed to improve life for the roughly 2.5 million Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank.

The package, which will allow for thousands of Palestinians homes to be built and some easing of checkpoint restrictions, was opposed by ministers from the Right. 
Mr Trump will also meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas

The Palestinians appear to have attempted a goodwill gesture of their own with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, reportedly prepared to offer greater land swaps as part of a peace deal than the Palestinian side has previously agreed to.

Mr Trump has so far shown little interest in the fiendishly complex details of Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking but has said he is bullish on the chances for peace. “I think we have a very, very good chance of making a deal,” he told the Israel Hayom newspaper.

No breakthroughs are expected during Mr Trump’s 28-hour visit but the US hopes it will lay the groundwork for renewed talks supported by the Arab world. 

Mr Trump will urge Israel to hold off on settlement expansion and encourage the Palestinians to stop incitement of violence towards Israel, a US official said.

The US president will meet be greeted at the airport by Mr Netanyahu and then meet with Reuven Rivlin, Israel’s figurehead president who has few formal powers.

From there he will head to Jerusalem’s Old City, where he will visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre - built on what is believed to be the site of Jesus’ crucifixion - and the Western Wall. In the evening he will meet with Mr Netanyahu.

On Tuesday, Mr Trump will head to Bethlehem to meet with Mr Abbas and then visit Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust memorial. He will end the visit with a speech at the Israel Museum, where is expected to lay out his broad vision of a peace deal.

The visit is taking place amid an huge security operation, nicknamed “Blue Shield” by Israel’s security forces. Around 5,000 police officers are on the streets of Jerusalem and many of the roads around the King David hotel have been closed for Mr Trump’s security.

His entourage has taken up 1,100 hotel rooms across the city and hotels that normally accommodate tourists to the Holy Land have been turned into command centres for the White House and the Secret Service.

“While the president is here, we’re both the White House and Fort Knox,” said Sheldon Ritz, the director of operations at the King David.

Some residents of the Old City have been forced to stay in their homes in the hours ahead of Mr Trump’s visit while security preparations are put in place.  
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May 20, 2017 ,
Richard Rojas told police he had been smoking marijuana laced with the hallucinogenic drug PCP, a court heard
Richard Rojas told police he had been smoking marijuana laced with the hallucinogenic drug PCP, a court heard
A man with a history of drunken driving has been charged with murder after police say he barreled a car through the crowded sidewalks in Manhattan's Time Square, leaving one person dead and 20 injured.
Moments after barreling his car through the crowded sidewalks in Manhattan's Times Square, Richard Rojas told a traffic agent, "I wanted to kill them all," according to a criminal complaint.

A troubled man with a history of drunken driving, Rojas bolted from his maroon Honda Accord after his deadly midday rampage on Thursday that left one person dead and 20 others injured.

Rojas moved unsteadily, his eyes were glassy and his speech slurred after his car crashed to a fiery stop, the complaint said.

"I smoked," Rojas allegedly told an officer after . He later told another officer, "I smoked marijuana. I laced the marijuana with PCP," according to the complaint.

One day after allegedly making a U-turn and steering the car onto packed sidewalks for a three-block stretch, the 26-year-old suspect was arraigned on murder and other charges Friday. He did not enter a plea, and his lawyer later declined comment.

One surveillance video showed the car jump the curb and slam into a group of people, sending bodies tumbling over the hood of the speeding car.

Alyssa Elsman, an 18-year-old resident of Portage, Michigan, who was visiting the city, was killed. Authorities reported another 22 people were injured, but police revised the total to 20 on Friday.

Rojas, a Bronx resident who had served in the Navy, tested positive for PCP and told police that God made him do it, a law enforcement source said.

The suspect, who suffered from "psychological issues," also told police he expected officers to shoot him, according to the source.

A history of mental health issues

Investigators are looking into the suspect's state of mind and psychological history in an attempt to determine a motive, the NYPD chief of Manhattan South Detectives William Aubry said.

"We're now hearing from family members [that Rojas] has had demonstrated mental health issues going back to childhood that ... went unaddressed even during the time he was in the U.S. military," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told WNYC Radio Friday.

De Blasio added, "It appears to be intentional in the sense that he was troubled and lashing out. At the root of this ... is an untreated mental health issue going back probably decades."

In addition to the murder charge, Rojas also faces 20 counts of attempted murder, one count of aggravated vehicular homicide and a count of attempted murder in the second degree, according to the criminal complaint.

Three victims were in critical condition Friday, including a 38-year-old Canadian woman whom Aubry described "very critical."

The injured included Elsman's 13-year-old sister, Ava, according to Michelle Karpinski of Portage Public Schools. 

Alyssa Elsman, 18, was was killed when a speeding car plowed into pedestrians in Times Square.
Elsman was a 2016 graduate of Portage Central High School.


"Alyssa was the type of person who seemed very shy and reserved when you first met her, but once you started talking to her you realized she was smart, funny and engaging," principal Eric Alburtus said in a statement. "She will be deeply missed by the staff and students here." 


Rojas has been arrested twice in New York -- in 2015 and 2008 -- for drunken driving, New York Police Commissioner James O'Neill said.

In 2013, Rojas -- while in the Navy in Florida-- pleaded guilty to drunken driving, failure to pay a just debt, drunk and disorderly conduct and communicating a threat.

As he was arrested at the Mayport Naval Base, Rojas told officers, "My life is over," and threatened to kill police and military police, according to CNN affiliate WJXT. A military judge sentenced him to three months confinement.

Last Friday, Rojas was charged with menacing in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the Bronx after he threatened a person with a knife, according to a criminal complaint. He accused the person of trying to steal his identity.
He pleaded guilty at arraignment to second-degree harassment, a violation, and was given a conditional discharge, said Bronx district attorney spokeswoman Melanie Dostis.

There is no indication that the incident in Times Square, which unfolded just before noon, was an act of terrorism, de Blasio and other officials said.

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Harrowing scene in popular tourist area

Before striking pedestrians, the 2009 Honda Accord was "out of control," an emergency management official said. 
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The speeding car jumped the sidewalk on the west side of 7th Avenue at 42nd Street and struck several pedestrians before crashing at the northwest corner of 45th Street, police said.

Witnesses described a harrowing scene that started with screeching tires and ended with screams, chaos and a fiery crash at one of the world's most visited sites.

Elizabeth Long, of Dayton, Ohio, was walking to the Hard Rock Cafe when she saw a maroon car heading toward her on the sidewalk. Hearing screams and fearing that the car would hit her, she ran to a nearby building's revolving door.

"I wasn't even all the way in when the car sped by" about 10 feet away, said Long, a 54-year-old who was in town to see a musical.

When Long went outside, she saw at least six people lying on the ground, including a woman lying face-down with blood pouring from her head.
"I'm shaken," said Long, who wasn't injured. "Two of the people I saw that were really hurt, people were beside them ... we were trying to tell (police) they were hurt."
"I felt so bad ... standing there," not being able to do anything more to help, she said.
A tourist from Argentina said that he was shocked to see the car that "was like bowling, hitting people." 

Witness: Driver was screaming and flailing his arms

Annette Proehl of Pennsylvania was in Times Square with children on a field trip when she heard the screeching tires of the vehicle and people screaming. She watched the car slam into a steel divider and catch fire, she said. 

"It was more of a surreal thing," she said. "We initially thought they were filming something." 

A wrecked car sits in the intersection of 45th and Broadway in Times Square.
A wrecked car sits in the intersection of 45th and Broadway in Times Square.
The car was lodged on a steel bollard -- of which there are more than 200 on Times Square sidewalks to stop vehicles from coming through.
The car's windshield was shattered and flames billowed from the hood.

That's when Planet Hollywood employee Kenya Brandix spotted the driver fleeing from the car. Bradix tackled Rojas to the ground.

"The person just got out of the car," Brandix told HLN. "He ran across the street, flailing his arms and screaming. No words but just screaming." 

Brandix and others have since been hailed as heroes for helping to restrain the driver.
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May 18, 2017
Ebola will cost 10 million dollars in the DRC, according to the WHO
According to the World Health Organisation a new outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will cost $10 million to fight, and it could take months because the victims are in a very remote and disrupted part of the country.
At least 20 people are sick with the virus and three have been killed, WHO officials said. They are the first deadly case — a 39-year-old man — a person who cared for him and a man who drove him on a motorcycle to seek help.

Dr. Peter Salama of the WHO told a news conference that the area has only 20 kilometres (12 miles) of paved roads and virtually no functioning telecommunications.

As of now the full extent of the outbreak remains unkown.

The WHO needs governments to help it and the Democratic Republic of the Congo fix airstrips, roads and set up clinics — and all that just to even get a grip on how bad the outbreak is, Salama said. Work is ongoing to get approval and facilities in place to use an experimental Ebola vaccine in the region.

There have been sporadic outbreaks of Ebola in various parts of Africa since 1976.
The first and only epidemic was in 2014-2016 in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — a part of the continent where Ebola had never been seen before. It infected at least 28,000 people and killed more than 11,000 before it was brought under control.
The DRC is now experiencing its eighth Ebola outbreak.
We believe that the DRC's government has strong experience … and a proven track record of handling Ebola outbreaks -Dr. Peter Salama.
An new vaccine developed to fight Ebola was tried out in West Africa but the cases were not enough to show its efficacy. That vaccine has not yet been approved by any government authority but Salama said it could be used under compassionate use circumstances if the DRC government agrees.
But it will be hard to get it to the affected area in the north of the country because of the lack of roads and electricity. The vaccine must be kept at -80 degrees C.
Salama recognises that this will be a huge challenge.
Of important notice the christian terrorist group, Lord's Resistance Army, has been operating in the area, WHO added.

In spite of the problems, Médecins Sans Frontières, a nonprofit aid group, has already set up a treatment center, said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa.
I have been very encouraged by this rapid reponse -Moeti told a news conference.
She said, polio vaccination teams were already in place, giving everyone a head start. Moeti said that they have been the people who are leading surveillance in the country. 
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May 18, 2017
Robert Mueller Appointed Special Counsel Investigating Trump's Russia Ties
Robert S. Mueller III, a former F.B.I. director under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, was chosen to oversee the inquiry amid escalating pressure.
The decision came after a cascade of damaging developments for President Trump in the wake of his abrupt firing of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey.
The Justice Department appointed Robert S. Mueller III, a former F.B.I. director, as special counsel on Wednesday to oversee the investigation into ties between President Trump’s campaign and Russian officials, dramatically raising the legal and political stakes in an affair that has threatened to engulf Mr. Trump’s four-month-old presidency.

 The decision by the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, came after a cascade of damaging developments for Mr. Trump in recent days, including his abrupt dismissal of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, and the subsequent disclosure that Mr. Trump asked Mr. Comey to drop the investigation of his former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn.

 Mr. Rosenstein had been under escalating pressure from Democrats, and even some Republicans, to appoint a special counsel after he wrote a memo that the White House initially cited as the rationale for Mr. Comey’s dismissal.

 By appointing Mr. Mueller, a former federal prosecutor with an unblemished reputation, Mr. Rosenstein could alleviate uncertainty about the government’s ability to investigate the questions surrounding the Trump campaign and the Russians.

 Mr. Rosenstein said in a statement that he concluded that “it is in the public interest for me to exercise my authorities and appoint a special counsel to assume responsibility for this matter.”

 “My decision is not a finding that crimes have been committed or that any prosecution is warranted,” Mr. Rosenstein added. “I have made no such determination.”

 In a statement, Mr. Trump said, “As I have stated many times, a thorough investigation will confirm what we already know — there was no collusion between my campaign and any foreign entity. I look forward to this matter concluding quickly. In the meantime, I will never stop fighting for the people and the issues that matter most to the future of our country.”

 Mr. Mueller’s appointment capped a day in which a sense of deepening crisis swept over Republicans in Washington. Republican congressional leaders, normally reluctant to publicly discuss White House political drama or the Russia investigation, joined calls for Mr. Comey to share more about his encounters with Mr. Trump.

 The Republican chairmen of the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence committees and the House Oversight Committee all asked Mr. Comey to testify before their panels. They also requested that the F.B.I. turn over documentation of Mr. Comey’s interactions with his superiors in both the Obama and Trump administrations, including a memo Mr. Comey is said to have written about Mr. Trump’s request that he quash the investigation into Mr. Flynn.

 While Mr. Mueller remains answerable to Mr. Rosenstein — and by extension, the president — he will have greater autonomy to run an investigation than other federal prosecutors.

 As a special counsel, Mr. Mueller can choose whether to consult with or inform the Justice Department about his investigation. He is authorized to investigate “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump,” according to Mr. Rosenstein’s order naming him to the post, as well as other matters that “may arise directly from the investigation.” He is empowered to press criminal charges, and he can request additional resources subject to the review of an assistant attorney general.

 Mr. Trump was notified only after Mr. Rosenstein signed the order, when the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, walked into the Oval Office around 5:35 p.m. to tell him. Mr. Trump reacted calmly but defiantly, according to two people familiar with the situation, saying he wanted to “fight back.”

 He quickly summoned his top advisers, most of whom recommended that he adopt a conciliatory stance. But his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who had pushed Mr. Trump to fire Mr. Comey, urged the president to counterattack, according to two senior administration officials.

 After a brief discussion, however, the majority prevailed. Aides huddled over a computer just outside the Oval Office to draft the statement accepting Mr. Rosenstein’s decision and asserting the president’s innocence.

 By the end, Mr. Trump was uncharacteristically noncombative, according to people close to him.

 Mr. Rosenstein, who until recently was United States attorney in Maryland, took control of the investigation because Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself after acknowledging he had failed to disclose meetings he had with the Russian ambassador to Washington, Sergey I. Kislyak, when Mr. Sessions was an adviser to the Trump campaign.

 As the announcement was being made, Mr. Rosenstein and the acting director of the F.B.I., Andrew G. McCabe, were briefing the leaders of the Senate and the House and the heads of the congressional intelligence committees. The lawmakers said nothing afterward.

 It was only the second time that the Justice Department has named a special counsel. The first was in 1999, the year the law creating the position took effect. Attorney General Janet Reno appointed John Danforth, a former Republican senator from Missouri, to investigate the botched federal raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Tex., in 1993 that killed 76 people.

 Mr. Mueller’s appointment was hailed by Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, who view him as one of the most credible law enforcement officials in the country.

 Senator Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican and a member of the Judiciary Committee, said Mr. Mueller’s “record, character, and trustworthiness have been lauded for decades by Republicans and Democrats alike.”

 Senator Ben Cardin, Democrat of Maryland and the ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said Mr. Rosenstein “has taken an important step toward restoring the credibility of the D.O.J. and F.B.I. in this most serious matter.”

 Mr. Mueller served both Democratic and Republican presidents. President Barack Obama asked him to stay two years beyond the 10-year term until he appointed Mr. Comey in 2013, the only time a modern-day F.B.I. director’s tenure has been extended.

 Mr. Mueller and Mr. Comey are close — a relationship forged while standing up to President George W. Bush’s use of executive power. Mr. Mueller backed up Mr. Comey, then the deputy attorney general, in March 2004 after he threatened to resign when the White House overruled the Justice Department finding that domestic wiretapping without a court order was unconstitutional.

 Mr. Mueller is expected to announce his resignation from the law firm WilmerHale. The firm employs lawyers for Mr. Kushner and for Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.

 The appointment is certain to soothe nerves at the F.B.I., where agents have felt under siege since Mr. Comey’s firing and amid Mr. Trump’s repeated criticism of the Russia investigation.

 Mr. Mueller is known for his gruff, exacting management style — and for saving the F.B.I. after the Sept. 11 attacks, when there were calls to break it up and create a separate domestic intelligence agency. Mr. Mueller, who came to the agency just one week before the attacks, beat back those efforts and is credited with building the modern F.B.I. He led inquiries into Al Qaeda while transforming the bureau into a key part of the national security infrastructure.

 Mr. Mueller is renowned inside the Justice Department for being a senior prosecutor under the elder President George Bush, and then returning years later as a working-level prosecutor in Washington.

 “He came in as a line assistant and he was legendary. He was the first guy there every single day,” said Preston Burton, a Washington defense lawyer who served in the United States attorney’s office with Mr. Mueller. “All of a sudden he’s doing street crime? Literal street crime. He’s inexhaustible. He’s the embodiment of integrity.”
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May 16, 2017
colorful condoms
Two compounds usually found in wild plants could create good alternatives to emergency contraceptives - if scientists find out where to get them in large amounts.
Chemicals from dandelion root and the "thunder god vine" plant have been used in traditional medicines for a long time.

Now, Californian researchers have found they can also be used to block fertilisation.

However the compounds existed at such low levels in plants that the cost of extraction was too high, the US team said.

In tests, chemicals called pristimerin and lupeol stopped fertilisation by stopping human sperm from whipping its tail and propelling itself into the woman's egg.

The chemicals acted like "molecular condoms", the study authors wrote in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

That is, they successfully blocked progesterone - which triggers the sperm's forceful swimming - but didn't damage the sperm.

It doesn't kill sperm basal motility. It is not toxic to sperm cells; they still can move

Said Polina Lishko, assistant professor of molecular and cell biology from the University of California, Berkeley.

"But they cannot develop this powerful stroke, because this whole activation pathway is shut down."

Lupeol is found in plants such as dandelion root, mango and aloe vera, while pristimerin is from the tripterygium wilfordii plant (also known as "thunder god vine") and is used in traditional Chinese medicine.

The researchers discovered that the chemicals worked at very low doses and had no side-effects either, unlike hormone-based contraceptives.

They reached the conclusion that the compounds could possibly be used as an emergency contraceptive, before or after intercourse, or as a permanent contraceptive via a skin patch or vaginal ring.

Prof Lishko and her colleagues will now begin to test how well these chemicals work in primates, whose sperm cells work in a similar way to humans.

However further studies will be needed, and it might take years before this new contraceptive becomes available to humans.
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May 15, 2017
A combination of file photos showing Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attending a news conference in Moscow, Russia, November 18, 2015, and U.S. President Donald Trump posing for a photo in New York City, U.S., May 17, 2016.
U.S. President Donald Trump disclosed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister during their meeting last week, potentially jeopardizing a source of intelligence about Islamic State, The Washington Post reported on Monday, citing current and former U.S. officials.
Reacting to the newspaper's report, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin, called Trump's conduct "dangerous" and reckless," while the Republican head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Corker, called the allegations "very, very troubling" if true.

 The newspaper said the information Trump relayed to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak had been provided by a U.S. partner through a highly sensitive intelligence-sharing arrangement.

 The partner had not given Washington permission to share the material with Moscow, and Trump's decision to do so risks cooperation from an ally that has access to the inner workings of the Islamic State militant group, the Post said, citing the unnamed officials.

 During his Oval Office meeting with Lavrov and Kislyak, Trump went off-script and began describing details about an Islamic State threat related to the use of laptop computers on aircraft, the officials told the Post.

 In his conversations with the Russian officials, Trump appeared to be boasting about his knowledge of the looming threats, telling them he was briefed on "great intel every day," an official with knowledge of the exchange said, according to the Post.

 While discussing classified matters with an adversary would be illegal for most people, the president has broad authority to declassify government secrets, making it unlikely that Trump's disclosures broke the law, the Post said.

 Trump's meeting with Lavrov and Kislyak at the White House came a day after he fired FBI Director James Comey, who was leading the agency's investigation into possible links between Trump's presidential campaign and Moscow.

 Asked about the disclosures, Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, who participated in the meeting, said no intelligence sources or methods were discussed that were not already known publicly, the Post reported. Asked by Reuters about the Post story, McMaster declined comment.

 U.S. officials have told Reuters that U.S. agencies are in the process of drawing up plans to expand a ban on passengers carrying laptop computers onto U.S.-bound flights from several countries on conflict zones due to new intelligence about how militant groups are refining techniques for installing bombs in laptops.

 So serious are assessments of the increased threat that Washington is considering banning passengers from several European countries, including Britain, from carrying laptops in a cabin on U.S.-bound flights. The United States has consulted about the intelligence with allied governments and airlines.

 One source familiar with the matter told Reuters at least some of the intelligence that went into the planned laptop ban expansion came from a U.S. commando raid on an al Qaeda camp in Yemen in which a U.S. special operator was killed.

 The source said one of the most troubling aspects of the new intelligence was that it showed that Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula had figured out how to produce sheets of explosives so thin they could be concealed in the insides of a laptop and would be very hard to detect.
Read also :
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May 13, 2017 ,
The “ransomware” attacks across continents raised fears that people would not be able to meet ransom demands before their data are destroyed.
A sign outside the Royal London Hospital, in Central London. The hospital was one of a number of hospitals and institutions operated by Britain’s National Health Service hit Friday by a large-scale ransomware cyber attack.
The “ransomware” attacks across continents raised fears that people would not be able to meet ransom demands before their data are destroyed.
Governments, companies and security experts from China to the United Kingdom on Saturday raced to contain the fallout from an audacious cyberattack that spread quickly across the globe, raising fears that people would not be able to meet ransom demands before their data are destroyed.

 The global efforts come less than a day after malicious software, transmitted via email and stolen from the National Security Agency, exposed vulnerabilities in computer systems in almost 100 countries in one of the largest “ransomware” attacks on record.

 The cyberattackers took over the computers, encrypted the information on them and then demanded payment of $300 or more from users to unlock the devices. Some of the world’s largest institutions and government agencies were affected, including the Russian Interior Ministry, FedEx in the United States and Britain’s National Health Service.

 As people fretted over whether to pay the digital ransom or lose data from their computers, experts said the attackers might pocket more than $1 billion worldwide before the deadline ran out to unlock the machines.
Continue reading the main story

 The coordinated attack was first reported in the United Kingdom and spread globally. It has set off fears that the effects of the continuing threat will be felt for months, if not years. It also raised questions about the intentions of the hackers: Did they carry out the attack for mere financial gain or for other unknown reasons?

 “Ransomware attacks happen every day — but what makes this different is the size and boldness of the attack,” said Robert Pritchard, a cybersecurity expert at the Royal United Services Institute, a think tank, in London. “Despite people’s best efforts, this vulnerability still exists, and people will look to exploit it.”

 While most cyberattacks are inherently global, the current one, experts say, is more virulent than most. Security firms said the attacks had spread to all corners of the globe, with Russia hit the worst, followed by Ukraine, India and Taiwan, said Kaspersky Lab, a Russian cybersecurity firm.

 The attack is believed to be the first in which such a cyberweapon developed by the N.S.A. has been used by cybercriminals against computer users around the globe.

 Across Asia, several universities and organizations said they had been affected. In China, the virus hit the computer networks of both companies and universities, according to the state-run news media. News about the attack began trending on Chinese social media on Saturday, though most attention was focused on university networks, where there were concerns about students losing access to their academic work.

 The attack also spread like wildfire in Europe. Companies like Deutsche Bahn, the German transport giant; Telefónica, a Spanish telecommunications firm, though no major service problems had been reported across the region’s transportation or telecom networks.

 Renault, the European automaker, said on Saturday that its French operations had been hit by the attack, while one of its plants in Slovakia was shut down because of the digital virus. Nissan, the Japanese auto giant, said that its manufacturing center in Sunderland in the north of England had been affected, though a spokesman declined to comment on whether the company’s production had been stopped.

 The British National Health Service said that 45 of its hospitals, doctors’ offices and ambulance companies had been crippled — making it perhaps one of the largest institutions affected worldwide. Surgical procedures were canceled and some hospital operations shut down as government officials struggled to respond to the attack.

 “We are not able to tell you who is behind that attack,” Amber Rudd, Britain’s home secretary, told the British Broadcasting Corporation on Saturday. “That work is still ongoing.”

 While American companies like FedEx said they had also been hit, experts said that computer users in the United States had so far been less affected than others after a British cybersecurity researcher inadvertently stopped the ransomware attack from spreading more widely.

 As part of the digital attack, the hackers, who have yet to be identified, had included a way of disabling the malware in case they wanted to shut down their activities. To do so, the assailants included code in the ransomware that would stop it from spreading if the virus sent an online request to a website created by the attackers.

This so-called kill switch would stop the malware from spreading as soon as the website went online and communicated with the spreading digital virus.

When the 22-year-old British researcher, whose Twitter handle is @MalwareTechBlog, confirmed his involvement but insisted on anonymity because he did not want the public scrutiny, saw that the kill switch’s domain name — a long and complicated set of letters — had yet to be registered, he bought it himself. By making the site go live, the researcher shut down the hacking attack before it could fully spread to the United States.

“The kill switch is why the U.S. hasn’t been touched so far,” said Matthieu Suiche, founder of Comae Technologies, a cybersecurity company in the United Arab Emirates. “But it’s only temporary. All the attackers would have to do is create a variant of the hack with a different domain name. I would expect them to do that.”

The ability of the cyberattack to spread so quickly was partly because of its high level of sophistication.

The malware, experts said, was based on a method that the N.S.A. is believed to have developed as part of its arsenal of cyberweapons. Last summer, a group calling itself the “Shadow Brokers” posted online digital tools that it had stolen from the United States government’s stockpile of hacking weapons.


The connection to the N.S.A. is likely to draw further criticism from privacy advocates who have repeatedly called for a clampdown on how the agency collects information online.

As the fallout from the attack continued, industry officials said law enforcement would find it difficult to catch the ringleaders, mostly because such cyberattacks are borderless crimes in which the attackers hide behind complex technologies that mask their identities. At the same time, national legal systems were not created to handle such global crimes.

Brian Lord, a former deputy director for intelligence and cyberoperations at Government Communications Headquarters, Britain’s equivalent to the N.S.A., said that any investigation, which would include the F.B.I. and the National Crime Agency of Britain, would take months to identify the attackers, if it ever does.

By focusing the attacks on large institutions with a track record of not keeping their technology systems up-to-date, global criminal organizations can cherry-pick easy targets that are highly susceptible to such hacks, according to Mr. Lord.

“Serious organized crime is looking to these new technologies to the maximum effect,” Mr. Lord said. “With cybercrime, you can operate globally without leaving where you already are.”

Of the current attack, he said: “It was well thought-out, well timed and well coordinated. But, fundamentally, there is nothing unusual about its delivery. It is still fundamentally robbery and extortion.”

As part of the efforts to combat the attack, Microsoft, whose Windows software lies at the heart of the potential hacking vulnerability, released a software update available to those affected by the attack and others that could be potential targets.

Yet, security experts said the software upgrade, while laudable, came too late for many of the tens of thousands of machines that were locked and whose data could be erased.

Government officials and industry watchers also warned on Saturday that other hackers might now try to use the global ransomware attack for their own means, potentially tweaking the code and developing their own targets for new cyberattacks.

“As with everything in cyber, we’re now waiting for the next type of attack,” said Paul Bantick, a cyber security expert at Beazley, a global insurance underwriter, who has handled similar ransomware attacks for clients around the world.

“Ransomware like this has been on the rise over the last 18 months,” he said. “This represents the next step that people were expecting.”
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May 11, 2017
Trump meets Russia foreign minister amid Comey controversy
Russia's top diplomat met President Donald Trump on Wednesday and praised the U.S. administration as problem solvers, just as the White House drew criticism over the firing of the FBI director who was leading a probe into Moscow's alleged interference in U.S. politics.
The talks with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov were the highest-level public contact between Trump and the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin since the Republican took office on Jan. 20.

 While not unprecedented, it is a rare privilege for a foreign minister to be received by a U.S. president for a bilateral meeting in the White House.

 In a stunning development, Trump on Tuesday fired FBI Director James Comey, whose agency is investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the possibility Trump associates may have colluded with Moscow. Democrats accused Trump of trying to slow down the investigation by firing the FBI chief.

 Trump described his talks with Lavrov as "very, very good." When asked whether the Comey dismissal had affected his meeting, Trump said, "not at all." He and Lavrov said they discussed the civil war in Syria, where Russia backs President Bashar al-Assad.

 "We want to see the killing, the horrible killing, stopped in Syria as soon as possible and everyone is working toward that end," Trump told reporters.

 Lavrov, who earlier met with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, said his discussions with members of the Trump administration had convinced him they were people who wanted to cut deals and solve problems.

 "The Trump administration, and the president himself, and the secretary of state, I was persuaded of this once again today, are people of action," Lavrov said.

 U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in a January report that Putin had ordered an effort to disrupt the 2016 election that included hacking into Democratic Party emails and leaking them, with the aim of helping Trump.

'FAKE INFORMATION'

 Russia denies the allegations. Blaming "fake information," Lavrov said:

 "I believe that politicians are damaging the political system of the U.S., trying to pretend that someone is controlling America from the outside."

 The Trump administration denies claims of collusion with Russia.

 Earlier, as Tillerson and Lavrov posed for photographs, the Russian sarcastically deflected a reporter's question about Comey's dismissal.

 Asked if the firing would cast a shadow over his talks, Lavrov replied: "Was he fired? You're kidding. You're kidding."

 The Russian embassy in Washington tweeted a picture from the Lavrov meeting of Trump shaking hands with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak, a man at the center of the controversy on Russian contacts with associates of Trump.

 Former U.S. National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was forced to resign for failing to disclose the content of his talks with Kislyak and then misleading Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations.

 Senior Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said the Oval Office encounter was a photo opportunity for Russia. "President Trump in these pictures, is shaking hands with Russians, and the Kremlin is gleefully tweeting these pictures around the world," Durbin said on the Senate floor.

 Wednesday's meetings followed talks Tillerson held with Putin last month in Moscow.

 Tensions in the relationship grew following U.S. air strikes against a Syrian airfield in April in response to a chemical weapons attack that Washington blamed on Assad.

 Both Trump and Lavrov appeared to strike a more conciliatory tone after both capitals had presented souring views of the relationship recently.

 The White House said Trump "raised the possibility of broader cooperation on resolving conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere" and still sought to build a better relationship between the two countries.

 Lavrov said that despite difficulties "our countries can and should contribute jointly to the settlement of the most urgent issues in international affairs".

 Trump underscored "the need for Russia to rein in the Assad regime, Iran and Iranian proxies," the White House said. Lavrov said the meeting mainly focused on ideas of de-escalation zones in Syria.

 Russia brokered a deal for de-escalation zones with backing from Iran and Syrian opposition supporter Turkey during ceasefire talks in the Kazakh capital Astana last week.
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May 11, 2017
Comey had pushed for more resources for Russia probe before being fired by Trump

A combination photo shows U.S. President Donald Trump (L) in the House of Representatives in Washington, U.S., on February 28, 2017 and FBI Director James Comey in Washington U.S.
FBI Director James Comey, days before President Donald Trump fired him, told lawmakers he sought more resources for his agency's probe into possible collusion between Trump's presidential campaign and Russia to sway the 2016 U.S. election, a congressional source said on Wednesday.
With the Republican president facing a storm of criticism from many Democratic lawmakers and some in his own party, the Trump administration accused Comey of "atrocities" on the job and denied his firing was related to the FBI's Russia investigation.

 Trump, who met Russia's foreign minister at the White House on Wednesday, lashed out at critics, calling Democrats "phony hypocrites," and defended his decision to abruptly oust Comey on Tuesday from the law enforcement post he held since 2013.

 In a farewell letter to staff seen by CNN, Comey, who was appointed by Trump's predecessor, Democratic President Barack Obama, said he had "long believed that a president can fire an FBI director for any reason, or for no reason at all."

 Comey added he would not spend time dwelling on Trump's decision "or the way it was executed."

 But Democrats ramped up accusations that Comey's removal was intended to undermine the Federal Bureau of Investigation probe and demanded an independent investigation into the alleged Russian meddling, with some calling the firing an attempt to cover up wrongdoing related to Russia.

 A congressional source with knowledge of the matter said Comey told lawmakers within the past few days he had asked the Justice Department to make additional resources available - mainly more staffing - for the Russia probe.

 Comey informed lawmakers of that request after the Senate Intelligence Committee, conducting its own investigation, had asked the FBI to speed up its Russia inquiry, the source said.

 Democrat Dianne Feinstein, the Senate Judiciary Committee's top Democrat, told reporters she understood Comey was seeking more resources for the FBI investigation.

 Responding to media reports that Comey had asked Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein last week for a significant boost in resources for the agency's probe, Justice Department spokesman Ian Prior said in an email: "Totally false."

 U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in a January report that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered an effort to disrupt the 2016 election that included hacking into Democratic Party emails and leaking them, with the aim of helping Trump.
Russia has denied any such meddling. The Trump administration denies allegations of collusion with Russia.

 'WASN'T DOING A GOOD JOB'

 Top U.S. Republicans rallied to Trump's defense, but some called the action troubling. Republican House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz said in a statement on Wednesday he had requested a review by the Department of Justice's inspector general of Trump's decision to fire Comey, who had more than six years left in his 10-year post.

 Comey's dismissal stunned Washington and plunged Trump deeper into a controversy over his campaign's alleged ties with Russia that has dogged the early days of his presidency, while also threatening to hinder his policy goals.

 "He wasn't doing a good job, very simply," the Republican president said of Comey during a meeting with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the White House Oval Office.

 The administration said on Tuesday that Comey's firing stemmed from his handling of an election-year FBI probe into Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state.
White House officials said Trump's anger at Comey had been building for months but a turning point came when the FBI chief refused to preview for top Trump aides his planned testimony to a May 3 Senate hearing on the Clinton email issue, an act Trump and his aides took it as an act of insubordination.

 Trump had been considering letting Comey go "since the day he was elected" in November, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. She referred to what she called Comey's "atrocities in circumventing the chain of command" at the Justice Department.

 Many Democrats have criticized Comey's management of the Clinton investigation, but they questioned the timing of his dismissal, given that Trump could have acted soon after taking office on Jan. 20 and that he has repeatedly criticized the FBI and congressional probes into Russia's role in the election.

 In a flurry of Twitter posts, Trump said Comey had "lost the confidence of almost everyone in Washington, Republican and Democrat alike." He added, "Dems have been complaining for months & months about Dir. Comey. Now that he has been fired they PRETEND to be aggrieved. Phony hypocrites!"

 The Senate minority leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer, said Rosenstein should appoint a special prosecutor. Schumer called on Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to hold closed and potentially classified briefings with all senators to question the top Justice Department officials, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Rosenstein.

 "We know Director Comey was leading an investigation (into) whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians, a serious offense. Were those investigations getting too close to home for the president?" Schumer said.
PANEL SEEKS COMEY TESTIMONY

 McConnell accused Democrats of "complaining about the removal of an FBI director who they themselves repeatedly and sharply criticized" and said a special prosecutor would impede existing probes like one under way in the Senate Intelligence Committee.

 Paul Ryan, the Republican leader of the House of Representatives, told Fox News in an interview it was "entirely within the president’s role and authority" to remove Comey and that a special prosecutor was unnecessary.

 Mark Warner, the intelligence committee's top Democrat, said he and the panel's Republican chairman, Richard Burr, had asked Comey to testify before the panel in private next Tuesday.

 On Wednesday evening, the intelligence panel said it had issued a subpoena requesting documents from Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, in relation to its Russia probe. The committee said it had first requested the documents in a letter to Flynn on April 28.

 Flynn was forced to resign in February for failing to disclose the content of his talks with Sergei Kislyak, Russia's ambassador to the United States, and then misleading Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations.

 Trump said he had "a very, very good meeting" with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and they discussed Syria's civil war. Their meeting was the highest-level public contact between Trump and Putin's government since Trump took office.

 During an earlier appearance at the State Department, Lavrov responded in a sarcastic tone when asked about Comey's dismissal, saying: "Was he fired? You're kidding. You're kidding."

 In the Russian city of Sochi, Putin said Comey's firing would not have an impact on U.S.-Russian relations.

 Trump's nominee as the new FBI director would need to win Senate confirmation. Trump's possible choices to head the FBI on an interim basis, according to a White House official, include acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, Assistant Director Paul Abbate, Chicago FBI agent Michael Anderson and Richmond, Virginia, agent Adam Lee.

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