Latest News Clips 2017.02.13

                       

1.      Court Refuses to Reinstate Travel Ban, Dealing Trump Another Legal Loss

The New York Times   2017.Feb.

From left, Abdulmajeed and his wife, Baraa, Syrian refugees, were greeted by her father at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago on Tuesday. They were allowed to enter the country after a federal judge blocked key parts of President Trump’s immigration ban. CreditAlyssa Schukar for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals panel on Thursday unanimously rejected President Trump’s bid to reinstate his ban on travel into the United States from seven largely Muslim nations, a sweeping rebuke of the administration’s claim that the courts have no role as a check on the president.

The three-judge panel, suggesting that the ban did not advance national security, said the administration had shown “no evidence” that anyone from the seven nations — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — had committed terrorist acts in the United States.

The ruling also rejected Mr. Trump’s claim that courts are powerless to review a president’s national security assessments. Judges have a crucial role to play in a constitutional democracy, the court said.

“It is beyond question,” the decision said, “that the federal judiciary retains the authority to adjudicate constitutional challenges to executive action.”

The decision was handed down by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco. It upheld a ruling last Friday by a federal district judge, James L. Robart, who blocked key parts of the travel ban, allowing thousands of foreigners to enter the country.

The appeals court acknowledged that Mr. Trump was owed deference on his immigration and national security policies. But it said he was claiming something more — that “national security concerns are unreviewable, even if those actions potentially contravene constitutional rights and protections.”

Within minutes of the ruling, Mr. Trump angrily vowed to fight it, presumably in an appeal to the Supreme Court.

“SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter.

At the White House, the president told reporters that the ruling was “a political decision” and predicted that his administration would win an appeal “in my opinion, very easily.” He said he had not yet conferred with his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, on the matter.

The Supreme Court remains short-handed and could deadlock. A 4-to-4 tie there would leave the appeals court’s ruling in place. The administration has moved fast in the case so far, and it is likely to file an emergency application to the Supreme Court in a day or two. The court typically asks for a prompt response from the other side, and it could rule soon after it received one. A decision next week, either to reinstate the ban or to continue to block it, is possible.

The travel ban, one of the first executive orders Mr. Trump issued after taking office, suspended worldwide refugee entry into the United States. It also barred visitors from seven Muslim-majority nations for up to 90 days to give federal security agencies time to impose stricter vetting processes.

Immediately after it was issued, the ban spurred chaos at airports and protests nationwide as foreign travelers found themselves stranded at immigration checkpoints by a policy that critics derided as un-American. The State Department said up to 60,000 foreigners’ visas were canceled in the days immediately after the ban was imposed.

2.      Trump Tells Xi Jinping U.S. Will Honor ‘One China’ Policy

The New York Times   FEB. 9, 2017

President Xi Jinping of China in Lima, Peru, last year. The fact that President Trump and Mr. Xi had not talked since Mr. Trump took office in January had drawn increasing scrutiny.CreditCris Bouroncle/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

WASHINGTON — President Trump told President Xi Jinping of China on Thursday evening that the United States would honor the “One China” policy, reversing his earlier expressions of doubt about the longtime diplomatic understanding and removing a major source of tension between the United States and China since shortly after he was elected.

In a statement, the White House said Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi “discussed numerous topics, and President Trump agreed, at the request of President Xi, to honor our One China policy.” It described the call as “extremely cordial” and said the leaders had invited each other to visit.

The concession was clearly designed to put an end to an extended chill in the relationship between China and the United States. Mr. Xi, stung by Mr. Trump’s unorthodox telephone call with the president of Taiwan in December and his subsequent assertion that the United States might no longer abide by the One China policy, had not spoken to Mr. Trump since Nov. 14, the week after he was elected.

Administration officials concluded that Mr. Xi would take a call only if Mr. Trump publicly committed to upholding the 44-year-old policy, under which the United States recognized a single Chinese government in Beijing and severed its diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

Given the domestic political stakes of this issue for Mr. Xi, the fact that both sides went ahead with a call – and that the White House statement afterward acknowledged Mr. Trump’s acquiescence – suggested that the agreement on “one China” had been worked out beforehand.

The Chinese state news media, in its readout of the call, said Mr. Trump had “stressed that he fully understood the great importance for the U.S. government to respect the One China policy,” and that “the U.S. government adheres to the One China policy.”

It also said the two leaders had agreed on the “necessity and urgency of strengthening cooperation between China and the United States” and noted that Beijing wants to work with Washington on a range of issues, including the economy and trade, science, energy, communications and global stability.

The timing of the conversation was significant, as Mr. Trump is about to welcome Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, for an extravagant three-day visit that will include a weekend of golf in Florida — a visit that will be closely monitored in China.

Among the issues Mr. Trump is expected to discuss with Mr. Abe, is the president’s commitment to a mutual defense treaty with Japan, which surfaced during the campaign. At the time, Mr. Trump said he was prepared to pull back from the pact unless Tokyo did more to reimburse the United States for defending Japanese territory.

On Thursday, Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson met with officials at the White House to discuss issuing a statement about relations with China. His involvement was noteworthy because he had pledged, in written answers to questions after his Senate confirmation hearing, to uphold the One China policy.

Mr. Tillerson specifically rejected the idea, advanced by Mr. Trump, that Taiwan be used as a bargaining chip in a broader negotiation with China on trade, security and other issues.

On Wednesday, the White House sent a letter from Mr. Trump to Mr. Xi wishing him a happy Chinese New Year, which administration officials described as an effort to keep the relationship from unraveling further while they sought to resolve the tensions.

Relations between Washington and Beijing had been frozen since December, when Mr. Trump took a congratulatory phone call from Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen. The United States has not had diplomatic relations with Taiwan since 1979, and Mr. Trump defended the call by saying he did not know why the United States should be bound by the One China policy.

To lay the groundwork for a better relationship, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, spoke last Friday with China’s top foreign policy official, Yang Jiechi. That call produced only a vague commitment to “reinforce high-level exchanges,” suggesting that Mr. Trump’s statements on China sill precluded a direct leader-to-leader exchange.

As a gesture of conciliation, Mr. Flynn and his deputy, K. T. McFarland, hand-delivered Mr. Trump’s letter to China’s ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai. Mr. Trump wrote that he wished “the Chinese people a happy Lantern Festival and prosperous Year of the Rooster.” He also said he “looks forward to working with President Xi to develop a constructive relationship that benefits both the United States and China.”

3.      Microbes, a Love Story

The New York Times      FEB. 10, 2017

This Valentine’s Day, as you bask in the beauty of your beloved, don’t just thank his or her genes and your good fortune; thank microbes.

Research on the microbes that inhabit our bodies has progressed rapidly in recent years. Scientists think that these communities, most of which live in the gut, shape our health in myriad ways, affecting our vulnerability to allergic diseases like hay fever, how much weight we put on, our susceptibility to infection and maybe even our moods.

They can also, it seems, make us sexy.

Susan Erdman, a microbiologist at M.I.T., calls it the “glow of health.” The microbes you harbor, she argues, can make your skin smooth and your hair shiny; they may even put a spring in your step. She stumbled on the possibility some years ago when, after feeding mice a probiotic microbe originally isolated from human breast milk, a technician in her lab noticed that the animals grew unusually lustrous fur. Further observation of males revealed thick skin bristling with active follicles, elevated testosterone levels and oversize testicles, which the animals liked showing off.

Microbes had transformed these animals into rodent heartthrobs.

When given to females, the probiotic also prompted deeper changes. Levels of a protein called interleukin 10, which helps to prevent inflammatory disease and ensure successful pregnancy, went up, as did an important hormone called oxytocin.

Oxytocin, often called the love hormone, helps mammals bond with one another. Our bodies may release it when we kiss (and mean it), when women breast-feed, even when people hang out with good friends. And the elevated oxytocin Dr. Erdman saw had important effects during motherhood. Some of the mice in her studies were eating a high-fat, high-sugar diet — junk-foody fare that’s known to shift the microbiome into an unhealthy state. Not surprisingly perhaps, mothers that didn’t imbibe the probiotics were less caring and tended to neglect their pups. But mothers that had high oxytocin thanks to the probiotic were nurturing and reared their pups more successfully.

What Dr. Erdman’s research suggests is that the microbes we carry, the same ones that make us attractive to potential mates, also directly influence our reproductive success. So when mammals choose mates based on the glow of health, they’re choosing not just an attractive set of genes, but also perhaps a microbial community that might facilitate reproduction.

Another way to look at it: By making their hosts sexy, and by increasing hormones that bring mammals together, microbes help to ensure their own continued existence — the creation of another host. “Everyone wins,” Dr. Erdman told me.

Latest News Clips 2017.02.06

                      

1.      5 to 10 years between China and the United States must have a war?

DW.COM     Feb.3 2017

Trump's several high-profile confidants on different occasions in China have said the smell of gunpowder is very strong, even five to 10 years will go to war. But some scholars believe that the possibility of Sino-US war is almost zero.

Steve Baron

Trump's nominee US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, was passed in the Senate on Wednesday, with 56 votes in favor and 43 votes against it. The vote reflects his appointment in the United States political controversy, when Kerry Obama was nominated by the Secretary of State in the Senate is 93 to 3 votes, Hillary Clinton to 94 to 2 votes a smooth clearance. Senator Tillerson's distrust is mainly based on his close contacts with Russia in recent years, in 2013 Russian President Vladimir Putin has personally awarded Tillerson "Friendship Medal."

For China, the former chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil Group has aroused strong words to the attention of people. "We have to send a clear signal to China," Tillerson said in response to a question on China's South China Sea. "First, stop building the island; second, do not allow China to land," Tillerson said in a Senate hearing on Jan. 11 this year. "These are artificial islands," he said, adding that "building islands and setting up military posts is no different than Russian annexation of the Crimea."

But at the hearing Tillerson did not say what the United States would use to prevent China from landing above the island. "Global Times" published the next day, "Tillerson to prevent China to enter the Nansha Islands reef," the editorial, the article states that "the United States to implement the requirements of effective methods and means simply does not exist, unless Washington is prepared in the South China Sea A large-scale war, and other attempts to prevent China's access to those islands are the children of the plan. "The mouthpiece of this party officially referred to the word" war ". Western observers also believe that Tillerson's conversation is full of provocative color, Australian retired political science professor Seyier (Carlyle A. Thayer) on the "New York Times" said, "Tillerson's speech will lead to serious confrontation, this confrontation Will soon evolve into a military conflict. "

Baron also said to play

Some analysts believe that Tillerson because of anxious to erase a close tie with Putin, the Senate passed, it was issued to the Chinese side, "relentless." But there are plenty of people in Trump's cabinet who advocate a tough policy toward China. Steve Bannon, who was appointed to the National Security Council last week, spoke of his stance on China as early as he ran for Trump. His remarks did not attract much attention. "In five to 10 years, we will fight a war in the South China Sea, is not it? There should be no doubt about it," he continued, "they will be reefs in the islands," he said. Into a fixed aircraft carrier and where the missile is placed.There they come to you, you know how important face, tell you this is their ancient territorial waters.

Bannon for Trump win the election made a contribution, was a campaign in the soul of the group. Later Trump appointed him as assistant to the president and director of strategic affairs. In the new National Security Council, Bannon will play an important role in the formulation of national foreign policy. Trump's "American priority" inaugural address was written by Bannon.

"I think the possibility of war between China and the United States is almost zero, the reason is very simple, Trump do not want to fight." Bannon said the war about the recent stir-fried, the University of Bonn, director of Global Research Center, Professor Gu Xuewu said. Once the war, his 'great American re - grand' goal immediately ashes; China does not want to fight, once the war, Xi Jinping 'China Dream' will go into thin air.

But do not war, does not mean that there will not be low-level wiped out the fire, Professor Gu Xuewu that China and the United States will not give up, or even tense situation to the edge of the fire tension. "But the day of the fire, it is the time when China and the United States to shake hands to avoid the double-fat do not want a full-scale war."

China is ready to meet

On the other hand, according to the South China Morning Post, China is preparing for an increased risk of hostility between the two countries during Trump's administration, particularly in the naval defense field. For the development of the Navy, China has invested billions of dollars. The Chinese navy frequently away from their waters in the exercise, in an attempt to strengthen the combat capability. No matter how much Tillerson's "verbal bombs" on speech in the South China Sea, the People's Daily said a few days ago would not prevent Chinese troops from carrying out normal training.

2.      Not ‘Lone Wolves’ After All: How ISIS Guides World’s Terror Plots From Afar

The New York Times   FEB. 4, 2017

The authorities in India say a group of men plotting a terrorist attack in Hyderabad were instructed by an Islamic State handler to collect explosives material from this spot on the outskirts of the city.CreditAtul Loke for The New York Times

HYDERABAD, India — When the Islamic State identified a promising young recruit willing to carry out an attack in one of India’s major tech hubs, the group made sure to arrange everything down to the bullets he needed to kill victims.

For 17 months, terrorist operatives guided the recruit, a young engineer named Mohammed Ibrahim Yazdani, through every step of what they planned to be the Islamic State’s first strike on Indian soil.

Mohammed Ibrahim Yazdani, left, and his younger brother Ilyas, whom he recruited to participate in the Hyderabad plot.

They vetted each new member of the cell as Mr. Yazdani recruited helpers. They taught him how to pledge allegiance to the terrorist group and securely send the statement.

And from Syria, investigators believe, the group’s virtual plotters organized for the delivery of weapons as well as the precursor chemicals used to make explosives, directing the Indian men to hidden pickup spots.

Until just moments before the arrest of the Indian cell, here last June, the Islamic State’s cyberplanners kept in near-constant touch with the men, according to the interrogation records of three of the eight suspects obtained by The New York Times.

As officials around the world have faced a confusing barrage of attacks dedicated to the Islamic State, cases like Mr. Yazdani’s offer troubling examples of what counterterrorism experts are calling enabled or remote-controlled attacks: violence conceived and guided by operatives in areas controlled by the Islamic State whose only connection to the would-be attacker is the internet.

In the most basic enabled attacks, Islamic State handlers acted as confidants and coaches, coaxing recruits to embrace violence. In the Hyderabad plot, among the most involved found so far, the terrorist group reached deep into a country with strict gun laws to arrange for pistols and ammunition to be left in a bag swinging from the branches of a tree.

For the most part, the operatives who are conceiving and guiding such attacks are doing so from behind a wall of anonymity. When the Hyderabad plotters were arrested last summer, they could not so much as confirm the nationalities of their interlocutors in the Islamic State, let alone describe what they looked like. Because the recruits are instructed to use encrypted messaging applications, the guiding role played by the terrorist group often remains obscured.

As a result, remotely guided plots in Europe, Asia and the United States in recent years, including the attack on a community center in Garland, Tex., were initially labeled the work of “lone wolves,” with no operational ties to the Islamic State, and only later was direct communication with the group discovered.

ISIS Attacks, Outside of Its Self-proclaimed Caliphate

In at least 10 executed attacks, officials have found that the assailant was in direct communication with planners from the Islamic State.

The Islamic State has declared its caliphate to include parts of Syria, Iraq and about a dozen other countries where it has affiliates.

3.      Snapchat owner worth up to $25bn despite making losses

BBC  3 February 2017 

Snap, owner of the Snapchat messaging app popular with teenagers, is to sell its shares on the US stock market.

    

The California-based tech firm, which allows users to send images and messages that vanish within seconds, is set to be one of the major US share listings of recent years.

The flotation is expected to value the business at between $20bn and $25bn, although Snap has never made a profit.

It will turn the company's founders into multi-billionaires.

Snap wants to raise $3bn through the share sale, a small percentage but one that will set the market price for the rest of the company.

Snap's formal announcement to regulators of its plans revealed that the company made sales of $404m last year, but a loss of $515m.

The documents also disclose that the shares being sold will, unusually, not carry voting rights, enabling Snap's founders to retain control.

The company began in 2011 when co-founder and chief executive, 26-year-old Evan Spiegel, was still at university.

Mr Spiegel and fellow founder Bobby Murphy, 28, have stakes in Snap that would be worth about $5bn.

Snap now has nearly 160 million daily users and last year revenues grew by nearly 600%, the listing documents revealed.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionEvan Spiegel, seen here with his fiance Miranda Kerr, would remain a major shareholder in the company

Heavy costs, including from marketing and research, dragged Snap into even deeper losses than the $373m it lost in 2015.

'Facebook story'

Snap said in the filing that it expected "to incur operating losses in the future, and may never achieve or maintain profitability".

Despite the losses - and that warning - some investors see Snapchat as the next potential Facebook, said CCS Insights analyst Martin Garner.

"If it can repeat the Facebook story to some extent, it's going to be hugely profitable," he said.

Most of Snapchat's revenue comes from advertising, and it is seen as an appealing way for companies to reach young people, with over half of its users aged between 13 and 24.

Analysts predicted its US stock market listing would be the biggest since the launch of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in 2014, and before that Facebook's $81bn valuation in 2012.

It would also mean a big payout for Mr Spiegel, who is set to remain a major shareholder.

Just over three years ago, he turned down an offer from Facebook's co-founder Mark Zuckerberg to buy Snapchat for $3bn.

The company is now seeking to raise $3bn from the share sale, according to reports, valuing the company at much more.