Angela Merkel has moved closer to a fourth term as German chancellor after her CDU party voted overwhelmingly in favour of renewing a coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD).At a special party conference in Berlin on Monday, Merkel also introduced her choice of new cabinet members, demonstrating a younger, more female team than at any time during 12 years in office. CDU delegates elected Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, tipped as Merkel’s successor, as CDU general secretary.They also voted 975 to 27 in favour of a grand coalition deal that was shaped last month. Before the vote, Merkel had appealed to delegates to recognise the urgent need to “pave the way for a stable, capable government” five months on from the general election. The party’s vote could be rendered null and void, however, should a postal vote of the SPD’s 464,000 members go against the deal. The results are scheduled to be announced on Sunday.Merkel was given a five-minute standing ovation on Monday after a near hour-long speech in which she called for solidarity and new beginnings, and examined the reasons for the CDU’s worst general election results since 1949. She sought to win back delegates’ support after threats of a rightwing rebellion within the party over her leadership, which many blame for the poor electoral performance. There has also been considerable disgruntlement that key posts such as finance minister will go to the SPD and interior minister to the CDU’s Bavarian sister party, the CSU.Merkel surprised her critics by appointing Jens Spahn, one of her most outspoken critics, to her cabinet, having in the past seen off male rivals by sacking them. Her decision to bring Spahn, who at 37 is by far the youngest cabinet member, into the fold has been seen as a tactical move. A conservative who has been withering in his attacks on Merkel for what he has called her “social democratisation” of the party, Spahn will run the health ministry, a tricky role because of the demands that will be placed on him to cut costs while keeping the powerful medical lobby on side. A commentary in the newspaper Mitteldeutsche Zeitung called Merkel’s decision to embrace her opponent her best opportunity to tame someone who has “repeatedly sought to saw at the legs of her throne”.The leftwing newspaper TAZ asked whether her most dangerous opponent would succeed in his mission “end up as fish food in the shark pool”.Other newcomers to Merkel’s cabinet include Julia Klöckner as agricultural minister and Anja Karliczek, an unknown politician, as education minister. Ursula von der Leyen and Monika Grütters retain their posts in defence and culture respectively. In a nod to those who have called for new blood in an effort to revive the CDU’s fortunes, the 63-year-old Merkel noted that she will be the oldest member of her government. Helge Braun, who has a reputation as a loyal civil servant, is to become Merkel’s chief of staff, arguably the most influential post of all. He replaces Peter Altmaier, who will move to the economic affairs post.Commentators have suggested that Merkel will increasingly take a back seat over the future direction of her party as she continues as chancellor for the next four year, though it is unclear whether she will see through a full term. There is an expectation that party factions might form around either Spahn or Kramp-Karrenbauer.Spahn has made little secret of his ambitions to become chancellor and would like to return the party to its rightwing roots in an effort to claw back the more than million CDU voters lost to the anti-immigrant populist Alternative für Deutschland in the general election. Kramp-Karrenbauer has indicated that she wants to continue on Merkel’s central course. Topics Germany Angela Merkel Europe Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer news

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Major world stock markets climbed on Tuesday on hopes of more stimulus for China’s economy, while sterling rebounded from the day’s lows after British lawmakers defeated Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal on withdrawing from the European Union. Sterling rallied more than a cent to stand above $1.28 after the vote. It GBP= was last trading at $1.2875, up 0.09 percent on the day. May’s crushing loss, the first British parliamentary defeat of a treaty since 1864, marks the collapse of her two-year strategy of forging an amicable divorce maintaining close ties to the EU after the March 29 exit. “After the big defeat, which was even larger than what the market had expected, we might getting closer to a no-Brexit scenario. The pound has retraced some of its losses after that vote, which was not unexpected. It may also simply be short-covering,” said Eric Stein, co-director of global income group at Eaton Vance in Boston. “There is still a massive amount of uncertainty for U.K. assets,” he said. U.S. Treasury yields edged higher in choppy trading on expectations for some kind of resolution on Brexit despite the parliament’s rejection of May’s deal. Helping sentiment on Wall Street, U.S. President Trump talked up chances of a China trade deal and Chinese officials hinted at more stimulus for their slowing economy. Data on Monday showed China’s exports unexpectedly fell the most in two years in December, while imports also contracted sharply. “Any move to stabilize the global economy by the Chinese should be viewed positively by the U.S. as well,” said Chris Zaccarelli, Chief Investment Officer, Independent Advisor Alliance in Charlotte, North Carolina. A 6.5 percent gain in shares of Netflix (NFLX.O) after it said it was raising rates for its U.S. subscribers also lifted stocks. JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N)’s shares ended up slightly despite reporting a lower-than-expected rise in quarterly profit and revenue, hurt by weakness in bond trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 155.75 points, or 0.65 percent, to 24,065.59, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 27.69 points, or 1.07 percent, to 2,610.3 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 117.92 points, or 1.71 percent, to 7,023.83. The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.35 percent and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS gained 0.82 percent. Germany reported its weakest growth in five years, causing the euro to decline against the dollar. FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., January 10, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermidThe euro EUR= was last down 0.57 percent, at $1.1409, while Europe's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 added 0.47 percent, to 1,373.38. In commodities, oil prices rose about 3 percent supported by China’s plan to introduce policies to stabilize a slowing economy. Brent crude LCOc1 rose $1.65, or 2.8 percent, to settle at $60.64 a barrel. U.S. crude futures CLc1 ended $1.60, or 3.2 percent, higher at $52.11 a barrel. In the Treasury market, benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last fell 1/32 in price to yield 2.713 percent, from 2.71 percent late on Monday. Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak, Richard Leong and Sinead Carew in New York, Marc Jones in London and Medha Singh; Editing by James Dalgleish and Sonya HepinstallOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

FRANKFURT—Germany’s economic growth accelerated in the second quarter, ensuring the eurozone as a whole avoided a slowdown, but economists said global trade tensions and a currency crisis in Turkey are clouding the outlook for businesses.Germany’s gross domestic product grew at a quarterly rate of 0.5%, or 1.8% in annualized terms, the Federal Statistical Office said Tuesday. It also raised its first-quarter growth estimate to an annualized 1.5% from 1.2% growth reported in May....

CANDEIAS DO JAMARI, Brazil—No one knows for sure how the fire started here off a two-lane highway called BR-364.It could have been a farmer burning scrub grass to prepare his field for planting manioc roots. Or it might have been a rancher torching trees to open space for more pasture.Whatever the cause, the result was yet another roaring...

Apple is expecting Intel to supply 70% of the modem chips inside the new iPhone models, which will debut this fall, and–if all goes well–plans to rely on the company for 100% of the modems in next year’s iPhones, a source with knowledge of Apple’s plans says.The chip giant got its foot in the door with Apple when it provided some of the modems in Apple’s iPhone 7 line. Until then, Qualcomm had provided all the modems in Apple’s phones since 2011. However, Apple’s relationship with Qualcomm has become increasingly contentious during the past two years amid a legal dispute over the patent licensing fees paid to Qualcomm by Apple suppliers. And the iPhone maker seems poised to get Qualcomm modems out of its phones completely.Intel had hoped to provide an even higher percentage of the modems in this fall’s new iPhones, and some reports speculated it would get all of the business. But 2018 is the first year Intel will be fabricating its own modem chips using its 14 nanometer process.Given that technological transition, Apple is apparently waiting to see how well Intel fulfills this year’s order. If Intel underdelivers, Qualcomm will make up the balance on top of the 30% it’s already planning to provide. There’s also a chance that if Intel can produce enough chips on time and on budget it could get more than the planned 70%, our source says.As of now, our source says, the modem-chip yield rates are not what Intel expected. Only just more than half of the chips being produced are keepers. The Intel engineers are confident they can work the bugs out and push up the yield rates before production ramps into high gear in June and July.Until this year, TSMC had fabricated Intel’s modem chips (using its 28 nanometer process). Intel originally acquired its modem-chip business when it bought Infineon in 2010. TSMC had been Infineon’s fabricator, and Intel kept the arrangement going after it acquired the modem.Until that acquisition, Infineon had provided the modems in iPhones dating back to the very first one in 2007. But Apple dropped the modem from its phones when Intel acquired it. Later, in 2014 or 2015, Apple and Intel engineers began working together again, and soon Intel had thousands of employees working hard to get the company’s modem back into the iPhone. This occured with the iPhone 7 line in September 2016, and Intel has won more of the modem business with Apple–at the expense of Qualcomm–in each phone cycle since then.In the past Apple had used Intel modems in phones for AT&T’s and T-Mobile’s 3G GSM networks, and Qualcomm modems for Verizon and Sprint’s CDMA networks. But Intel’s 7560 modem supports both CDMA and GSM. And 3G networks are on the way out anyway, as carriers convert their networks to full LTE. Verizon no longer requires CDMA support, but Sprint, U.S. Cellular, KDDI in Japan, China Telecom, and a few small operators still do.And the next generation of wireless, 5G, is on the way. As we reported earlier, Intel is expected to provide all of the modems in future iPhones based on 5G technology–due in the fall of 2019 at the earliest–at the exclusion of Qualcomm.For Intel, the Apple modem business is valuable because the volumes are very high. Intel has a keen interest in keeping its fab (which probably cost in the neighborhood of $20 billion) as busy as possible.We reached out to Apple, Intel, and Qualcomm late Wednesday afternoon for comment, but so far none have responded. We will update the story with statements as they come in.Update: Qualcomm apparently has removed any projection of future Apple revenues from its Q1 earnings report. This is not intended to mean Qualcomm will do no business with Apple in the coming quarters. It is a suggestion that analysts not include revenue from Apple in their models.

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort breached his plea agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office by lying to prosecutors about matters which are material to its Russia probe, a judge ruled on Wednesday. The ruling concludes weeks of wrangling between Manafort’s lawyers and the special counsel over whether he had intentionally lied to prosecutors, impeding their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is overseeing the Manafort case in a Washington court, found there was a “preponderance” of evidence that Manafort lied on three different topics, including his communications with his former business partner Konstantin Kilimnik, whom prosecutors say has ties to Russian intelligence. Kilimnik has denied such ties. Jackson cleared Manafort of allegations that he intentionally lied on two other subjects - Kilimnik’s role in an obstruction of justice charge and statements Manafort made about his contacts with members of the Trump administration. Nevertheless, the ruling will almost certainly dash Manafort’s hopes of avoiding significant time in prison, as Mueller’s prosecutors are now released from their obligation to support a lighter sentence. Sentencing experts have said Manafort, 69, could face a decade in prison. Michael Zeldin, a former federal prosecutor, said one possible reason Manafort chose to lie was because he was hoping for a presidential pardon — echoing speculation raised by one of Mueller’s prosecutors at a court hearing last week. “Why he lied is a great mystery unless he is covering up something of significance,” Zeldin said. “Unless he is pardoned he is going to spend the rest of his life in prison.” The judge found that Manafort lied about his interactions with Kilimnik including about the sharing of polling data on the Trump campaign and their discussions over a “Ukrainian peace plan,” a proposal that envisioned ending U.S. sanctions on Russia - long an important objective of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government. A court transcript released last week showed that Mueller’s team believed those lies to be “at the heart” of their investigation into potential collusion, which Trump and Russia have both denied. In a court filing ahead of Wednesday’s ruling, Manafort’s lawyers repeated their argument that their client never intentionally lied to prosecutors and stressed that he corrected any mistakes once they were pointed out to him. Manafort struck the deal with Mueller in September when he pleaded guilty in Jackson’s court to conspiracy against the United States, a charge that includes a range of conduct from money laundering to failing to register as a lobbyist for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine, as well as conspiracy to obstruct justice for his attempts to tamper with witnesses in his case. Manafort also faces sentencing in a separate case in Virginia where a jury in August convicted him of financial crimes including failing to pay taxes on some $16 million he pocketed for his political work in Ukraine. Slideshow (2 Images)Manafort lawyers have said he is suffering from depression, anxiety and gout while in detention awaiting sentencing. Given his age and health issues. Manafort had been in a position to receive some leniency prior to Jackson’s ruling, said sentencing expert Mark Allenbaugh. “That is gone now,” he said. “Manafort will serve a minimum of 10 years’ imprisonment, maybe more, for both cases.” Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Nathan Layne; editing by Tom Brown and Sonya HepinstallOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.)Good morning. A covert U.S. effort to undermine Iran, Spain’s government teeters and suspicious transfers to a Bulgarian bank. Here’s the latest: ImageIran’s long-range missiles on display in Tehran in an exhibition tied to the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.CreditArash Khamooshi for The New York TimesU.S. revives secret mission to sabotage Iran’s missilesThe Trump administration has accelerated efforts to impair Iran’s missiles and rockets as part of an expanding campaign to isolate the country, according to current and former officials.The efforts, initiated under former President George W. Bush and then eased under President Barack Obama, covertly slip faulty parts and materials into Iran’s aerospace supply chains. The Trump administration maintains that the country’s space program is merely a cover for developing powerful ballistic missiles that could deliver nuclear warheads.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is in Warsaw this week for an international meeting focused on Iran, is expected to push European and Arab countries to expand economic sanctions against Tehran.Accused of spying: A former U.S. Air Force counterintelligence agent was charged with espionage after she defected to Iran to help the country’s elite Revolutionary Guards target her former American colleagues.An attack in Iran: A suicide bomber killed 27 Islamic Revolutionary Guards in one of the deadliest attacks in Iran in years, for which the paramilitary force quickly blamed the U.S. Spain’s government is on the brink of fallingThe fragile minority government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, one of the few Socialist leaders left standing in Europe, could go down after Parliament rejected his budget in a fight over the restive northeastern region of Catalonia. New national elections look almost certain before the summer.What happened: Mr. Sánchez was hoping to pass a national budget to address inequalities that have come with Spain’s economic recovery. But Catalan lawmakers, infuriated that Mr. Sánchez had rejected holding a second referendum on Catalan independence after the first, in 2017, was ruled unconstitutional, pulled their support. It was the first defeat for a Spanish government’s budget since 1995. What’s next? With Spain’s two-party system becoming more of a mélange of parties and the Catalan question superheating, new elections could be politically unsettling and unpredictable. Recent polls suggest enough votes for a right-wing coalition government, which would be expected to take a much harder line on Catalonia. But Mr. Sánchez’s survival instincts can’t be counted out. Three Syrians charged in Europe with crimes against humanityEyad A. allegedly operated a checkpoint on the outskirts of Damascus where, typically, 100 people were arrested every day. They were taken to a prison run by Anwar R., a high-ranking Syrian intelligence officer who directed “the use of systematic and brutal torture” on inmates. Those are the accusations against two men arrested in Germany. They were charged with crimes against humanity in Syria dating to between 2011 and 2012, and a third suspect was detained in France. Officials declined to give their full names. Evidence: French and German prosecutors working together on the case interviewed survivors of torture in a Syrian detention center. They also have access to an archive assembled by a nonprofit organization of hundreds of thousands of documents detailing the activities of the Syrian government.Ahead: A former war crimes prosecutor told us that Anwar R. “is the most serious regime perpetrator detained so far by some distance.” This case could portend more like it, and if it comes to trial, it would be a milestone in holding the regime of President Bashar al-Assad accountable for horrors in Syria’s eight-year civil war.Bulgarian bank may have laundered Venezuelan moneyTipped off by the U.S., the Bulgarian authorities froze the accounts of a small bank that they did not name and said they were investigating other institutions after finding suspicious money transfers from Venezuela’s oil company, the state-run Petróleos de Venezuela, or Pdvsa. The money: Sent 6,000 miles to Bulgaria, much of the Pdvsa funds then vanished to accounts in other countries for listed purposes that the authorities said were bogus. A Bulgarian official said of the amounts involved, “We can’t be exact, but millions of euros.”In Venezuela: Once a crux of global oil production, Pdvsa is now a wheezing giant suspected of overwhelming corruption. In the past five years, Venezuela’s crude oil production has about halved, and opposition politicians contend that as much as $30 billion of the company’s money has gone missing in recent years.Recent U.S. sanctions could inflict a further beating, and they are hurting already strapped Venezuelans. The battle over who is the legitimate leader of Venezuela now revolves around a single shipment of humanitarian aid that the government of President Nicolás Maduro is blocking from Colombia. The opposition, led by Juan Guaidó, seems unsure how to respond. Here’s what else is happeningBelgium: A national strike over pay and working conditions led to the cancellation of all flights and halted public transport. Russia investigation: Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, repeatedly lied to prosecutors after he agreed to cooperate with the special counsel, a federal judge ruled.A black panther: Scientists spotted the rare animal in Africa, the first such sighting in almost 100 years.Airbus: Production of its mammoth A380 passenger jet will cease. The double-decker engineering marvel couldn’t keep up with shifts in the way people fly, the European aircraft maker said.U.S. border deal: President Trump inched toward embracing a bipartisan border deal that fell far short of his demands for funding for a wall. Our Washington correspondents write that it is a “punishing defeat” for Mr. Trump, whose aides have tried to tamp down criticism on the right.Yemen: The U.S. House voted to end military support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, a rare move to limit presidential war powers that turns up pressure on the Senate to do the same. France: A private Facebook group that included many male journalists was behind waves of online humiliation aimed at women in journalism.Apple: A former senior lawyer at the tech giant who oversaw its insider trading policies was himself accused of insider trading. Separately, the company is under pressure, along with Google, to pull an app in Saudi Arabia that allows men to track female relatives. China: A film by the prominent director Zhang Yimou that is set during the Cultural Revolution was abruptly withdrawn from the Berlin Film Festival for “technical reasons” — a term often used as a euphemism for Chinese government censorship.Indonesia: An Instagram account that featured a comic strip with gay Muslim characters disappeared days after Indonesian officials derided it as pornographic and threatened to block the entire social media platform — underscoring the rise of the country’s hard-line Islamic movement.Opportunity: NASA’s Mars rover is dead after exploring the planet’s red plains for 14 years. It was the longest-lived roving robot ever sent to another planet.Plastic is forever: More than 20,000 people in Britain have purchased a plastic engagement ring that costs about a pound. Perfect for Valentine’s Day, maybe? Some women welcome them as placeholders for a ring they can pick out. Smarter Living Tips for a more fulfilling life.Recipe of the day: Make this Valentine’s Day special with a chocolate lava cake for two.If you’ve received a bouquet, here’s how to keep the flowers fresh.Brokenhearted? Here are some books that will help you escape.Back Story For Valentine’s Day, we have a special display of affection.Julia Child and her husband, Paul, sent Valentine’s Day cards to their friends every year. Your Back Story writer’s grandparents were the recipients of some of those handmade notes.But one encounter left much to be desired.My grandfather was on a Fulbright scholarship in Oslo in 1960 when he met Mr. Child, who was stationed there. One night, he returned from a visit to the Childs’ raving about the most extraordinary dish — quiche.My grandmother waited, impatiently, to also be invited for a bite. But when the invitation finally came, Mrs. Child served a tray of reindeer salami, not the quiche. My grandmother still feels the letdown.Mrs. Child went on to publish “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” and corresponded with my grandparents occasionally, most notably on Valentine’s Day. (Here are two of their Valentines.)As for the salami? “I do not recommend it,” my grandmother said.Remy Tumin, on the briefings team, wrote today’s Back Story. Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings.Check out this page to find a Morning Briefing for your region. (In addition to our European edition, we have Australian, Asian and U.S. editions.)Sign up here to receive an Evening Briefing on U.S. weeknights, and here’s our full range of free newsletters.What would you like to see here? Contact us at [email protected].

Trump, 72, stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 243 pounds, making him overweight, according the memorandum. The president’s weight was reported as 239 pounds last year, and he was advised to watch his diet, exercise more and lose weight.In the past year, doctors increased Trump’s dose of rovusastatin, a drug used to lower the president’s cardiac risk.Trump received the Pneumovax 23 and Shingrix immunizations, Conley wrote”.

Donald Trump's former election campaign chief Paul Manafort breached his plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller by lying to prosecutors, a US judge says.US District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that Manafort "made multiple false statements" to the FBI, Mr Mueller's office and a grand jury.Mr Mueller leads a probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 US election.Manafort has pleaded guilty to some charges, avoiding a separate trial. He was convicted of financial fraud in August, relating to his work as a political consultant in Ukraine.He then accepted a plea deal on other charges in return for co-operating with Mr Mueller's investigation. Winners and losers from Manafort's plea deal Manafort: The man who helped Trump win Russia-Trump: Who's who in the drama to end all dramas? In her ruling on Wednesday, Judge Berman Jackson said there was evidence that showed Manafort had lied about three different topics, including his contacts with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian political consultant. Prosecutors claim Mr Kilimnik had ties to Russian intelligence.However, the judge cleared Manafort, 69, of allegations that he lied on two other subjects.The verdict means that Manafort - who has been held in a detention centre in Virginia since June - could now potentially face harsher sentences or have charges against him re-filed.Last year, Mr Mueller said that Manafort lied "on a variety of subject matters" after signing the plea deal.Last August, Manafort was convicted on eight counts of fraud, bank fraud and failing to disclose bank accounts.A month later he pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy against the US and one charge of conspiracy to obstruct justice in a plea bargain with Mr Mueller. The agreement avoided a second trial on money laundering and other charges.The plea deal meant Manafort would face up to 10 years in prison and would forfeit four of his properties and the contents of several bank accounts - but deadlocked charges from the previous trial would be dismissed.It was the first criminal trial arising from the Department of Justice's investigation into alleged Russian interference in the presidential election.However, the charges related only to Manafort's political consulting with pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine, largely pre-dating his role with the Trump campaign.Manafort worked for the Trump presidential campaign for five months in 2016 and was in charge when Mr Trump clinched the Republican party nomination.President Trump has branded the Mueller investigation a "witch hunt" and insisted there was no collusion between his team and Russia.Manafort was charged by Mr Mueller last October and during the trial he was accused of using 31 foreign bank accounts in three different countries to evade taxes on millions of dollars.Prosecutors presented evidence of Manafort's luxurious lifestyle, saying it was only possible because of his bank and tax fraud.

Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.It is a year to the day since the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida, which revitalised the national movement to prevent gun violence. And while the prospect of new federal gun control laws were negligible under Donald Trump and a Republican-led Congress, campaigners can point to signs of progress, including the Democrats’ recent introduction of House bill HR 8, which would expand federal background check requirements on gun transfers and sales. Students remember. As they prepare to mark Thursday’s anniversary, Parkland students have written about the shooting and its aftermath in these personal reflections first published by the Eagle Eye, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school newspaper. A federal judge in Washington DC has found that Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, lied to Robert Mueller’s Russia inquiry about several issues, including his interactions with a former Russian intelligence agent, even after agreeing to cooperate with the special prosecutor. The Wednesday ruling by Judge Amy Berman Jackson means Mueller’s team is no longer obliged to honour its plea deal with Manafort, who could therefore spend many more years behind bars than he previously expected. Mystery Russian. Manafort was accused of lying to Mueller about having shared polling data on the 2016 election with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian political operative with ties to Moscow’s intelligence services. Democrats hope to shed new light on the influence of “dark money” in US politics on Thursday, at the first congressional hearing on their sweeping new anti-corruption measure, HR1. The House Administration committee will examine the bill, which aims to combat the corrosive power of undisclosed political donations from big corporations and wealthy individuals. John Doe files. In 2016 the Guardian published the John Doe files, documents revealing previously undisclosed political donations, intended to support candidates including then-Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. AOC video. A clip of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez playing a “corruption game” to explain the lack of current campaign finance controls this week became the most-watched video of any politician on Twitter, ever. Brazilian police killed 13 people during a deadly operation against a drug gang in Rio’s Fallet/Fogueteiro favela last Friday, raising fears that the “shoot-to-kill” policy promised by the new governor of Rio de Janeiro state has already come into effect. Fallet/Fogueteiro residents and relatives of the dead said two of those killed had been tortured, including a teenager with no gang links, while even those who were drug gang members had surrendered their weapons to police before being summarily executed. Rio governor. Wilson Witzel, an ally of Brazil’s new far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, became governor of Rio state in January after campaigning on an anti-corruption platform, which included the promise of shoot-to-kill tactics to combat drug gangs. The House of Representatives has approved a resolution that would force an end to US involvement in Yemen, an implicit rebuke to the Trump administration for its continuing close alliance with Saudi Arabia. Nasa has confirmed its Mars rover Opportunity is finally dead after 15 years, the longest ever mission to the planet’s surface. When it landed in January 2004, the robot was expected to survive for only around 90 Martian days. The FBI has released sketches by the serial killer Samuel Little of his alleged victims, along with other information that the agency hopes could help solve dozens of unsolved homicides. Multiple women have accused the musician Ryan Adams of “[dangling] career opportunities while simultaneously pursuing female artists for sex,” according to a report by the New York Times. Adams tweeted that the article was “upsettingly inaccurate” and contained details that were “outright false”. How fashion has redefined sex appeal in the #MeToo eraIt’s 18 months since the start of the MeToo movement. That’s three seasons in which fashion’s centre of gravity has shifted steadily away from sex, says Jess Cartner-Morley – long enough for the trend to trickle down to date night outfits this Valentine’s weekend.Could a neo-Nazi be Slovakia’s next president?Marian Kotleba, the leader of the far-right Our Slovakia party, is widely regarded as a neo-Fascist. In 2013, he won a shock victory in regional elections. Voted out four years later, his party turned its focus to the Slovak national legislature, taking 14 of its 150 seats. Next month, Kotleba will run for president. Shaun Walker reports.From US intelligence officer to alleged Iranian spyMonica Witt, a former intelligence officer with the US airforce, who converted to Islam and defected to Iran in 2013, has been charged with espionage. Julian Borger asks how the 39-year-old became so enthusiastic about turning her back on her homeland.Life in the shadow of al-ShabaabGiven the enduring influence of the extremist group al-Shabaab, Mogadishu remains a dangerous place to live and work, especially for journalists, aid workers, government employees or youth leaders. Moulid Hujale reports from the Somali capital.The 2011 protests in Tahrir Square represented a radical democratic movement that wanted to restore people’s dignity. But now, rightwing populists around the world have reduced that need for dignity to a vindictive clamour for pride, writes Ece Temelkaran. It is dangerous and unfortunate that so much public anger is being organised and mobilised by rightwing populists and ruthless autocrats such as Donald Trump, Viktor Orbán, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. The Ricketts family helped to turn the Chicago Cubs from “lovable losers” into World Series champions, ending the team’s 108-year drought. But now fans could be forgiven for wondering whether they made a deal with the devil, says Parker Molloy.Son Heung-min and Jan Vertonghen both found the net as they spurred Tottenham to a 3-0 Champions League win over Borussia Dortmund at Wembley on Wednesday, the first leg of their last-16 tie.The US morning briefing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now. Topics US news US morning briefing Parkland, Florida school shooting US gun control news

The murder of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich in the summer of 2016 remains unsolved, still under investigation by police in Washington, D.C. It is the inspiration for round after round of baseless speculation about the cause of his death, linking it to the leak of thousands of Democratic Party emails that year. And those theories are generating yet another lawsuit. This week, Aaron Rich, Seth Rich's brother, sued Dallas financial adviser Ed Butowsky, a pivotal figure in early coverage of the case, along with a conservative conspiracy theorist and the The Washington Times. The suit alleges that the trio promoted groundless accusations about Aaron Rich's involvement in the leaks of those emails to Wikileaks.There is no publicly known factual basis for making those accusations. U.S. intelligence and national security officials under both the Obama and Trump administrations concluded that hackers acting at the behest of the Russian government had illegally hacked the Democratic National Committee emails.Aaron Rich's lawsuit is the third related to politically motivated conspiracy theories about Seth Rich's death filed against Butowsky, a sometime Fox News contributor.The claims about Seth Rich were the core of a Fox News story last May — retracted a week later and the subject of a lawsuit filed by Rich's parents against Fox News filed earlier this year. Butowsky had allegedly been a key figure in orchestrating that story, according to material contained in a lawsuit filed last August against Fox News, Butowsky and a Fox News reporter stemming from that same discredited Fox News story. (Fox News said the story had not been subjected to sufficiently rigorous editing and scrutiny but did not apologize to the Riches.) Media Seth Rich's Parents Sue Fox News Over Baseless Story Aaron Rich's attorneys point to additional public statements from Butowsky and an online conservative activist named Matt Couch (along with Couch's company, America First Media) that they claim strongly imply Aaron Rich engineered the mechanics of getting the Democratic Party emails to WikiLeaks and that he accepted money from the shadowy outfit."Aaron wants to clear his name," Rich's attorney, Michael Gottlieb, told NPR. "The accusation is that he's conspired with a hostile foreign intelligence service to steal documents from an American political organization in exchange for money. ... It's completely and utterly fabricated and baseless."As a candidate, President Trump hailed Wikileaks for publicizing the Democratic emails, which showed dissension within the Democratic Party over Hillary Clinton's primary battle with Bernie Sanders. Trump's CIA chief, Mike Pompeo, has called WikiLeaks a hostile intelligence service.According to the lawsuit, filed this week in federal court in Washington D.C., Aaron Rich holds security clearance for the work he does for a defense contractor. Gottlieb says his client views the accusation of helping WikiLeaks as tantamount to an accusation of treason. Media Behind Fox News' Baseless Seth Rich Story: The Untold Tale In commenting on the lawsuit, Butowsky told NPR he was merely repeating what Rich's parents told him about Aaron Rich during his first call to the couple, back in December 2016. Butowsky claims that Joel Rich said he knew his sons had been involved in downloading those documents for WikiLeaks in exchange for payment — a contention that a spokesman for Aaron Rich's family and his attorneys heatedly deny.On March 18, The Washington Times published an opinion piece by a retired commander in chief of the Pacific fleet, James A. Lyons, titled, "More Cover Up Questions." It linked Seth Rich's death to the leaked emails and cited Butowsky as a source. (Lyons and Butowsky had served together on an unofficial "citizens' commission" on the deadly attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, a touchstone for conservative critics of the Obama administration.)Senior executives at The Washington Times did not return NPR's calls seeking comment.The lawsuit documents what it says is coordination between Butowsky and Couch; it presents evidence that Butowsky is seen weighing in during one of Couch's live streaming Periscope video commentaries to say that WikiLeaks payments to Aaron Rich were "confirmed" by his parents. In remarks this week to NPR, Butowsky affirmed the exchange. He told NPR it was the only public online discussion he had with Couch. Butowsky further distanced himself from Couch in speaking to NPR: "I don't really know Matt at all. I have talked to him from time to time," Butowsky said. "But I don't really know what's credible or who's credible." He pointed back to what he alleged are the December 2016 remarks from Aaron Rich's parents (which they reject). National The Man Behind The Scenes In Fox News' Discredited Seth Rich Story Butowsky told NPR that he is currently representing himself in the case because, he said, he considered it ridiculous.In another Periscope streaming video posted after the lawsuit was filed, Matt Couch said he would not be deterred in his search for the truth. Couch cited Butowsky for his claims. Couch has raised money off his theories, asking for donations through PayPal. He claims the donations will help him solve Seth Rich's murder and show the connection between the killing and the WikiLeaks postings.Couch and Butowsky each said they could take advantage of the legal process to gain insight into Aaron Rich's actions. Rich's attorney, Gottlieb, said his client was aware of that — and had nothing to hide.

Conspiracy theories flourish all over the world but in some countries they appear to be more popular than in others. And in Afghanistan, says the BBC's Auliya Atrafi, they often feature sinister foreign powers - first and foremost, the British...I grew up with conspiracy theories. Some of them very bizarre.Bruce Lee was poisoned by his wife, I was told, and when he sensed what she'd done, he tore her apart with his bare hands. I was also told that he could fly. And that Hitler was still alive - having escaped the Allies in a Jeep that transformed into a plane then a boat then a submarine, from which he was still sending the occasional message, declaring: "I will be back!"One theory, however, was particularly persistent - that the hand of the British was behind every evil in Afghanistan. As a child I wondered why this was, but after I moved to the UK in my 20s, I learned there were some good reasons for the suspicion. For centuries Afghanistan had been a buffer zone between the Russian and British empires. The two superpowers played out their Great Game of espionage and intrigue in this no man's land. When the map of modern Afghanistan was drawn, it is said, the Afghan King's opinion was hardly a consideration. Three Anglo-Afghan wars were fought before Afghanistan announced its independence in 1919 and the British left for good.Or did they? In the Afghan psyche, the British were still lurking in the shadows, spying on them, plotting, and still managing to manipulate their affairs for the worse. There were tales of secret agents disguised as imams misleading the pious, others posing as fortune tellers, of treasures hidden in shrines and guarded by men pretending to be beggars. This national obsession with conspiracy theories is not unique. A Kurdish friend told me that his mother would blame the British if a wall collapsed in their neighbourhood after a rainy night. Iranians had a character in a long-running soap opera, always paranoid that the British were plotting something. If you act too shrewdly in Bangladesh, my friends told me, people will call you English. In Kabul, we have a word for that too: Chucha E englis - malign English blood. However, since the beginning of the Afghan civil war in the 1980s our list of conspirators has expanded, and now includes Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI, and of course the Americans. Repeated foreign interventions only made us more inventive. From Our Own Correspondent has insight and analysis from BBC journalists, correspondents and writers from around the world Listen on iPlayer, get the podcast or listen on the BBC World Service, or on Radio 4 on Saturdays at 11:30 BST An Afghan taxi driver in London once complained that foreigners wanted to steal our oil and smuggle it out on passenger planes. For others it's uranium the foreigners are after. A judge in Afghanistan told me that Bin Laden was an American spy and was eventually killed because he knew too much. Others believe he is still alive on an idyllic island somewhere in America. Afghan generals talk of Nato supporting the Taliban with cash and guns - even claiming that translators who dare to talk of this are thrown from helicopters. There are tales of Nato forces buying drugs from Afghan smugglers and transporting them to the West in the bellies of dead soldiers - apparently a lucrative business for whole range of Western profiteers, including the British royal family.Last year I went to see a friend. His father is an old khan, a tribal chief from the east. After we drank green tea and exchanged pleasantries, I made the mistake of asking him about the presence of the so-called Islamic State group in their area. The khan recited a long speech, which I'd heard a million times before: "It's all a game between the ISI, the Americans and the British. And Afghans are paying the price," he asserted confidently. Rather puzzled, I asked: "But what will they gain from it all?""They plan 50 years ahead, and we are not meant to understand," he insisted."If it was that simple, then they would be stupid. We see signs of it, nonetheless, you know - the new blocs forming between Russia, Pakistan and China."Think about it. In one week, the Americans were able to destroy the Taliban government - how is it that they can't get rid of the few insurgents hiding in the mountains?"Obviously thinking the argument was won, he looked away towards Mecca and started praying. There's always some outsider to blame. Recently, I was finishing my Friday prayers in Kabul with some other reporters when we got a message that a suicide bomber had targeted a Shia mosque. "Is it the work of IS?" I asked."Or perhaps the work of Jews and Christians," another journalist suggested. I knew it was futile, but I asked anyway: "What good would that bring them?""Two things," he said, this time sounding more assured. "Such acts would distance the believers from the places of worship… And also divide the Muslims."As we walked the badly paved roads inside the green zone, with our trousers rolled up after prayers and our prayer mats tucked under our arms, I was hit by a thought. That for a country so divided by languages, ethnicities and ideologies, there is still one thing that unites all Afghans - distrust of foreigners. Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.

LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin’s share of the cryptocurrency market is sliding, with a host of alternative digital coins gaining ground as developers race to create digital cash that can gain a footing in mainstream commerce and finance. FILE PHOTO: The Monero cryptocurrency logo is seen in this illustration photo January 8, 2018. REUTERS/Thomas White/File PhotoAs these “altcoins” grow in prominence, Reuters is publishing a series of stories that examines the features and characteristics of some of the alternatives to bitcoin that have grabbed the attention of developers, investors and regulators. The first in this series looks at Monero - referred to as a privacy coin because it allows users to conceal nearly all details of transactions. It has become increasingly used for illegal purposes. Since its launch in 2014, Monero has grown to be the 12th biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization with around $1.4 billion-worth in circulation. Every transaction involving Monero obscures the digital addresses of the senders and receivers, as well as the value of the transaction. That offers users near-total anonymity, allowing them to instantaneously send digital cash without leaving any clues. Bitcoin was initially seen as opaque, as the identity of the owners of digital wallets used to send and receive bitcoin is not public. But details recorded permanently on the blockchain after bitcoin is sent and received can, in fact, give up clues that can be used to pinpoint those identities. This has become increasingly easy with the advent of firms that specialize in analyzing blockchain transactions. WHY’S IT GAINING ATTENTION? When Norwegian police earlier this year gave details of the kidnapping of the wife of a wealthy businessman, they said the family had demanded a ransom in cryptocurrencies. Local press reported that the suspects wanted to be paid in Monero. The unusual request underlined a growing trend for criminals to seek alternatives to bitcoin, which through its first decade has become the cryptocurrency of choice for illicit activities from buying contraband to laundering money, cyber security experts and law enforcement agencies say. Bitcoin proponents say that traditional cash is also widely used for criminal activities. Monero’s use on darknet marketplaces - sites used for buying illicit goods from drugs to stolen credit cars - is on the rise, said Tom Robinson, chief data officer of Elliptic, a London-based firm that provides blockchain-tracking software to law enforcement agencies and private companies. Three of the biggest five darknet markets now accept Monero, Robinson said, though he added the caveat that bitcoin is still the most widely used cryptocurrency for darknet payments. One of Monero’s developer team said Monero enables crime no more than cash. Its developers should stay out of debates on its traceability or risk undermining its decentralized nature, Francisco Cabanas told Reuters. “It doesn’t selectively encourage crime, it encourages commerce,” said Cabanas, who goes by the nickname “ArcticMine,” in an interview via Skype from Vancouver. “In that respect, it’s no different to cash.” Monero is also widely used for “cryptojacking,” or illicit cryptocurrency mining, where hackers infect computers and steal their power to mine new coins - a highly lucrative endeavor. Nevertheless, over 4 percent of the 17 million Monero in circulation were mined using malware, said Guillermo Suarez de Tangil, a cybersecurity lecturer at King’s College London who has researched Monero. “There is a clear phenomenon of the underground using Monero, and selling malware that will contribute to Monero mining,” he said. Monero’s developers say its characteristics make it a useful tool for companies looking to maintain commercial secrecy. Users in repressive countries looking to avoid censorship or surveillance can also safely move money in the form of Monero, they say. Cryptocurrencies are mostly unregulated. Though countries from Britain to the United States are looking at how to deal with the phenomenon, few have set out comprehensive strategies for dealing with digital coins. Asked about Monero, Borja Pastor de la Morena, an official at Europol in The Hague who oversees the agency’s work on money laundering said: “This kind of alternative cryptocurrency is more opaque and better at concealing the activity of the users.” He said: “It’s a phenomenon that we are paying attention to” And though aware of the propensity for cryptocurrencies to be used for money laundering, few financial national-level regulators have specifically addressed privacy coins. Britain’s finance ministry, which leads a task force that is looking at if and how Britain will regulate cryptocurrencies, said it was aware of the potential for Monero to be used for criminal ends. “We recognize the risks with cryptoassets like ‘privacy coins’ being used for illicit activity,” a spokesperson said, adding that it would “soon” launch a consultation on bringing crypto-related companies under anti-money laundering regulation. Japan’s financial watchdog, sensitive to money laundering potential of privacy coins, last year asked a Tokyo-based exchange to review its listings. The exchange later ceased trading Monero. Like bitcoin, Monero is governed by a virtual community of hundreds of developers that lacks any centralized authority. Cabanas is one of only two publicly-known members of its seven-person core developer team, who act as stewards for updates to its code. Mitchell Krawiec-Thayer, a San Francisco-based blockchain developer who is part of Monero Research Labs, said Monero is designed so it can be easily mined by individuals rather than powerful groups that team up to mine coins in industrial quantities. “This lowers the barrier of entry to everyone,” he said. “The downside is that criminals have started using that. Stealing other people’s resources, putting strain on their equipment – it’s a straight-up threat.” Monero has recently launched a response group, where those infected by malware can seek help, Krawiec-Thayer said. Data on who uses Monero, and why, is scarce. That’s a challenge for understanding the usage of any cryptocurrency, even more so for one designed to obscure its tracks. Daily transactions for Monero - one proxy for how widely the cryptocurrency is used - have hovered around 8,000 this month, data from website CoinMetrics shows. The number of active digital wallet addresses for Monero has hung around 5,000. By comparison, bitcoin sees around 320,000 transactions a day, with about 785,000 active addresses. Monero is not the only privacy coin. Others, such as ZCash, have grown popular with investors, often for speculative reasons but also because of interest in their privacy features. Grayscale, the world’s biggest crypto asset manager with around $1.3 billion under management, allows investors like hedge funds to invest in ZCash. Amid growing acceptance of privacy coins, a number of major exchanges list Monero. For example, Malta-based Binance, one of the world’s largest exchanges, allows users to trade the coin. Binance declined to comment on Monero, but said it has a comprehensive review process for evaluating coins and tokens for listing, and that it carries out periodic reviews on projects. Editing by Anna WillardOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Enlarge this image Authorities intercepted a woman using this drug kit in preparation for shooting up a mix of heroin and fentanyl inside a Walmart bathroom last month in Manchester, N.H. Fentanyl offers a particularly potent high but also can shut down breathing in under a minute. Salwan Georges/Washington Post/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Salwan Georges/Washington Post/Getty Images Authorities intercepted a woman using this drug kit in preparation for shooting up a mix of heroin and fentanyl inside a Walmart bathroom last month in Manchester, N.H. Fentanyl offers a particularly potent high but also can shut down breathing in under a minute. Salwan Georges/Washington Post/Getty Images Men are dying after opioid overdoses at nearly three times the rate of women in the United States. Overdose deaths are increasing faster among black and Latino Americans than among whites. And there's an especially steep rise in the number of young adults ages 25 to 34 whose death certificates include some version of the drug fentanyl.These findings, published Thursday in a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, highlight the start of the third wave of the nation's opioid epidemic. The first was prescription pain medications, such as OxyContin; then heroin, which replaced pills when they became too expensive; and now fentanyl.Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid that can shut down breathing in less than a minute, and its popularity in the U.S. began to surge at the end of 2013. For each of the next three years, fatal overdoses involving fentanyl doubled, "rising at an exponential rate," says Merianne Rose Spencer, a statistician at the CDC and one of the study's authors.Spencer's research shows a 113 percent average annual increase from 2013 to 2016 (when adjusted for age). That total was first reported late in 2018, but Spencer looked deeper with this report into the demographic characteristics of those people dying from fentanyl overdoses. Loading... Don't see the graphic above? Click here.Increased trafficking of the drug and increased use are both fueling the spike in fentanyl deaths. For drug dealers, fentanyl is easier to produce than some other opioids. Unlike the poppies needed for heroin, which can be spoiled by weather or a bad harvest, fentanyl's ingredients are easily supplied; it's a synthetic combination of chemicals, often produced in China and packaged in Mexico, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. And because fentanyl can be 50 times more powerful than heroin, smaller amounts translate to bigger profits. Shots - Health News Fentanyl Surpasses Heroin As Drug Most Often Involved In Deadly Overdoses Jon DeLena, associate special agent in charge of the DEA's New England Field Division, says one kilogram of fentanyl, driven across the southern U.S. border, can be mixed with fillers or other drugs to create six or eight kilograms for sale."I mean, imagine that business model," DeLena says. "If you went to any small-business owner and said, 'Hey, I have a way to make your product eight times the product that you have now,' there's a tremendous windfall in there."For drug users, fentanyl is more likely to cause an overdose than heroin because it is so potent and because the high fades more quickly than with heroin. Drug users say they inject more frequently with fentanyl because the high doesn't last as long — and more frequent injecting adds to their risk of overdose. Shots - Health News Fentanyl-Laced Cocaine Becoming A Deadly Problem Among Drug Users Fentanyl is also showing up in some supplies of cocaine and methamphetamines, which means that some people who don't even know they need to worry about a fentanyl overdose are dying.There are several ways fentanyl can wind up in a dose of some other drug. The mixing may be intentional, as a person seeks a more intense or different kind of high. It may happen as an accidental contamination, as dealers package their fentanyl and other drugs in the same place.Or dealers may be adding fentanyl to cocaine and meth on purpose, in an effort to expand their clientele of users hooked on fentanyl."That's something we have to consider," says David Kelley, referring to the intentional addition of fentanyl to cocaine, heroin or other drugs by dealers. Kelley is deputy director of the New England High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. "The fact that we've had instances where it's been present with different drugs leads one to believe that could be a possibility."The picture gets more complicated, says Kelley, as dealers develop new forms of fentanyl that are even more deadly. The new CDC report shows dozens of varieties of the drug now on the streets.The highest rates of fentanyl-involved overdose deaths were found in New England, according to the study, followed by states in the Mid-Atlantic and Upper Midwest. But fentanyl deaths had barely increased in the West — including in Hawaii and Alaska — as of the end of 2016.Researchers have no firm explanations for these geographic differences, but some people watching the trends have theories. One is that it's easier to mix a few white fentanyl crystals into the powdered form of heroin that is more common in eastern states than into the black tar heroin that is sold more routinely in the West. Another hypothesis holds that drug cartels used New England as a test market for fentanyl because the region has a strong, long-standing market for opioids.Spencer, the study's main author, hopes that some of the other characteristics of the wave of fentanyl highlighted in this report will help shape the public response. Why, for example, did the influx of fentanyl increase the overdose death rate among men to nearly three times the rate of overdose deaths among women?Some research points to one particular factor: Men are more likely to use drugs alone. In the era of fentanyl, that increases a man's chances of an overdose and death, says Ricky Bluthenthal, a professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine."You have stigma around your drug use, so you hide it," Bluthenthal says. "You use by yourself in an unsupervised setting. [If] there's fentanyl in it, then you die."Traci Green, deputy director of Boston Medical Center's Injury Prevention Center, offers some other reasons. Women are more likely to buy and use drugs with a partner, Green says. And women are more likely to call for help — including 911 — and to seek help, including treatment."Women go to the doctor more," she says. "We have health issues that take us to the doctor more. So we have more opportunities to help."Green notes that every interaction with a health care provider is a chance to bring someone into treatment. So this finding should encourage more outreach, she says, and encourage health care providers to find more ways to connect with active drug users.As to why fentanyl seems to be hitting blacks and Latinos disproportionately as compared with whites, Green mentions the higher incarceration rates for blacks and Latinos. Those who formerly used opioids heavily face a particularly high risk of overdose when they leave jail or prison and inject fentanyl, she notes; they've lost their tolerance to high levels of the drugs.There are also reports that African-Americans and Latinos are less likely to call 911 because they don't trust first responders, and medication-based treatment may not be as available to racial minorities. Many Latinos say bilingual treatment programs are hard to find. National 1 Dead And 12 Hospitalized After Mass Drug Overdose In California Spencer says the deaths attributed to fentanyl in her study should be seen as a minimum number — there are likely more that weren't counted. Coroners in some states don't test for the drug or don't have equipment that can detect one of the dozens of new variations of fentanyl that would appear if sophisticated tests were more widely available.There are signs the fentanyl surge continues. Kelley, with the New England High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, notes that fentanyl seizures are rising. And in Massachusetts, one of the hardest-hit areas, state data show fentanyl present in more than 89 percent of fatal overdoses through October 2018.Still, in one glimmer of hope, even as the number of overdoses in Massachusetts continues to rise, associated deaths dropped 4 percent last year. Many public health specialists attribute the decrease in deaths to the spreading availability of naloxone, a drug that can reverse an opioid overdose.This story is part of NPR's reporting partnership with WBUR and Kaiser Health News.

The UK’s living donor scheme allows six people to enter a chain, and three of them will get a new kidney from a stranger. Such chains are anonymous but, for the first time, the Guardian’s Rachel Williams has brought together six participants. In today’s episode, we hear from those giving and receiving a kidney, and Williams explains how the matches are made possible. Also: the writer and spoken-word poet Cecilia Knapp reflects on the moments that make Christmas special.

It is now down to the prosecution to establish whether these claims are founded or whether they are just boasts by a "psychopath" or "serial killer," according to Gomez."He described it in a completely natural way ... I would say he actually seemed happy to have done this," Gomez told Mexican radio network Formula, AFP reported. "He wants people to see his picture, to know his name ... I would obviously classify this person as a murderer, a serial killer." The suspect also admitted to selling the two-month-old baby of one of their victims, Reuters reported.The grim case has sent anger and shock through Mexico. Hundreds of people protested in Ecatepec on Sunday, AFP reported. Demonstrators carried candles and white flowers to demand action by authorities on deadly violence against women and girls.In 2016, seven women and girls were killed in Mexico every day, according to UN Women figures.A 2017 report from Mexico's Interior Department, the National Women's Institute and UN Women found that 52,210 killings of women were recorded between 1985 and 2017. Nearly a third occurred in the last six years of that 32-year period.

YouTube has long had a reputation as a hive of conspiracy theories, misinformation, and pseudoscience. All these accusations are, more or less, true — if you’re vulnerable to the wooing of Flat Earthers, anti-vaxxers, 9/11 truthers, the alt-right, and every other sort of lunatic fringe flourishing in 2018, they’re all there, waiting for you on YouTube.But as with all the other “platforms” that dominate the internet — Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc — YouTube is more than a morass of anti-scientific nutters. The site is also home to much of the web’s best and most compelling popular science content.Like pretty much everyone, I studied science and maths for the first few years of high school and eventually pursued chemistry and maths right through year 12. I found the concepts involved fascinating, but I was never much good at the actual work. I was less interested in learning how to solve quadratic equations than I was in why quadratic equations could be solved. What I wanted, I guess, was popular science. And one day a couple of years ago, tooling around on the internet while I should have been working, I found it on Youtube.My YouTube rabbit hole started with Numberphile, the maths-based channel that forms part of Australian videographer Brady Haran’s YouTube empire. (Haran also has channels on chemistry — hosted by the splendidly coiffed Sir Martyn Poliakoff — physics, computer science, food science, and many other subjects.) Suddenly, I’d found something I never knew I wanted: a channel that explained fascinating mathematical concepts in a way that was accessible and entertaining, and didn’t require me to complete two hours of tedious homework.From there I found the channel that I think perhaps best exemplifies the virtues of YouTube pedagogy: Grant Sanderson’s maths channel 3Blue1Brown. Sanderson’s soothing voice and the lovely self-penned music that accompanies his narrations are appealing enough, but the real draw of his channel lies in its animations. Sanderson codes them all himself in Python, and the result are images that are beautifully intuitive, providing visual explanations for concepts that in high school were just abstract symbols on a yellowing page.On his website’s “about” page, Sanderson says that what really excites him is “finding that little nugget of explanation that really clarifies why something is true, not in the sense of a proof, but in the sense that you come away feeling that you could have discovered the fact yourself.” For himself, he says, “the best way to force yourself into such an understanding ... is to try explaining ideas to others”. For me, it’s seeing how and why those ideas work — quite a revelation in itself, because I never considered myself a visual learner at school. (Not coincidentally, I think, I’ve also been recently diagnosed with adult ADHD.)It’s not just mathematics that benefits from the possibilities for visual illustration that YouTube allows. If you search, you’ll find people who take similar approaches to physics, chemistry, biology, electronics, along with a heap of generalists who address all these topics and more.Some of the channels are pleasantly DIY, like Looking Glass Universe, presented by a nameless Australian physics doyenne who illustrates heavy-duty quantum mechanical concepts with hand-drawn stop-motion animations. Some are one- or two-person operations, like astrophysicist Nick Lucid’s The Science Asylum, which uses an ongoing storyline about a mad scientist and his army of clones to provide entertaining and remarkably concise explanations of a variety of physics-related subjects. Others have the backing of big studios: American TV channel PBS, for instance, funds several science-related web series, including astrophysics favourite SpaceTime, Eons (about biology and palaeontology), and Infinite Series (about maths, but sadly discontinued).And just like everywhere else on the internet, there are some true weirdos — take StyroPyro, for instance, a channel run by youthful-looking 25-year-old chemistry graduate Drake Anthony, whose hobby is building terrifyingly powerful laser contraptions in his garage. (When most people say, “Don’t try this at home”, they’re covering themselves against litigation; when Anthony says it, he means it, because his creations can and will kill you.) It’s kind of remarkable that he’s somehow still on YouTube — they’ve warned him multiple times and banned several of his videos, but he’s still there! — because he’s probably on every single FBI watchlist in existence.All these channels — most of them funded by Patreon or just paid for out of pocket by their creators — add up to a remarkable ecosystem of knowledge, all available for free. It remains very much open to question whether YouTube is, on balance, a force for good or not. But it’s really heartening to know that there are so many new and engaging resources out there for kids like me, who wanted desperately to understand science, but for whom the way it was taught at school never, for whatever reason, quite clicked.• Tom Hawking is a freelance writer based in Melbourne Topics Science How I fell in love with ... YouTube Australian education comment

A US official has warned that the UK’s leaked proposal to adopt Huawei technology for 5G mobile phone networks risks affecting intelligence cooperation with the US, prompting further criticism from Conservatives opposed to the plan.Robert Strayer, a deputy assistant secretary at the US state department, said on Monday that Huawei “was not a trusted vendor” and any use of its technology in 5G networks was a risk, contradicting the British stance.The official said if an “untrusted vendor” was used by the UK or another western country, the US would “have to reassess the ability for us to share information and be interconnected” – implying that intelligence-sharing arrangements could be at risk.Last week, a tense UK national security council (NSC) meeting narrowly approved in principle allowing Huawei to supply “non-core” 5G technology, despite objections from five of the cabinet ministers present and months of US lobbying.The decision was leaked to the Daily Telegraph, prompting an inquiry in which ministers, advisers and officials will be interviewed, and which will probably lead to calls for the leaker to be sacked, regardless of their seniority.Westminster has been dominated by speculation about the identity of the leaker, with the focus on the five ministers who raised concerns about Huawei, including the foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, the home secretary, Sajid Javid, and the defence secretary, Gavin Williamson.One Conservative MP opposed to letting Huawei supply technology praised the US intervention. Bob Seely said: “Robert Strayer’s remarks are common sense. Huawei cannot, by definition, be a trusted vendor. It is required by law to cooperate with Chinese secret services. It is close to, if not part of, the Chinese state.”The remarks echo remarks made by Hunt, who reiterated his concerns about Huawei on Monday as he embarked on a week-long official visit to Africa.Hunt, widely considered to be a Conservative leadership candidate, said there should be “a degree of caution” because of a 2017 Chinese law that “requires all Chinese companies, whatever their ownership, to cooperate with Chinese intelligence services on any occasion”.Downing Street responded on Monday by saying it had taken concerns about Huawei seriously. Theresa May’s spokesman said: “Our position has always been that where national security concerns arise in any foreign investment, the government will assess the risks and consider what course of action to take.”Huawei says it is a privately held company, independent of the Chinese state, owned largely by its employees, and has worked supplying phone technology in the UK for a decade and a half without problems.Britain’s intelligence agencies generally believe Huawei needs to be monitored – a task delegated to a unit of GCHQ known as “the cell”, which examines the software it uses to see if there are any covert backdoors or other weaknesses that could be exploited by China.But confidence in that monitoring is not shared by the Trump administration. Repeating rhetoric used by US intelligence agencies last week, Strayer said countries that adopted Huawei technology risked handing China “a loaded gun”, amid fears the technology could be used for mass surveillance.In a special briefing for journalists organised by the US state department, Strayer said such decisions were something that “western democracies who are concerned about human rights need to think carefully about”.Although Strayer was simply restating the US position on Chinese telecoms equipment, the briefing was clearly a calculated intervention after the leak of the Huawei decision in the UK.Earlier on Monday, the Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg said he thought the leak inquiry was a distraction from what he described as “a fundamental issue of national security”. “Whether somebody mentioned it in passing and leaked it is trivial in comparison,” he added.The official attempt to find the leaker comes after months of leaks from cabinet, and is widely seen as a final attempt by the prime minister to reassert control after months of Brexit infighting.With a sacking expected at the least, some special advisers at Westminster have expressed relief that their bosses were not members of the NSC. One said: “Well my minister told me, ‘I bet you are relieved I wasn’t at that meeting’.”Australia, which also shares intelligence with the UK, has already moved to ban Huawei as a supplier for its future 5G network. Strayer said US telecoms carriers had agreed to do the same.A final decision about Huawei is due to be announced by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport – the lead department – later in the spring, after further work on safeguards has been completed. Topics Huawei UK security and counter-terrorism China US foreign policy Foreign policy Asia Pacific news

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain, the United States, Germany and France jointly called on Russia on Thursday to explain a military-grade nerve toxin attack in England on a former Russian double agent, which they said threatened Western security. After the first known offensive use of such a weapon on European soil since World War Two, Britain has pinned the blame on Moscow and given 23 Russians who it said were spies working under diplomatic cover at the London embassy a week to leave. Moscow has denied any involvement in the poisoning. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused London of behaving in a “boorish” way and suggested this was partly because of problems Britain faces over its planned exit from the European Union next year. Russia has refused Britain’s demands to explain how Novichok, a nerve agent first developed by the Soviet military, was used against Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, who were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping centre on March 4 in the southern English city of Salisbury. “We call on Russia to address all questions related to the attack,” U.S. President Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Theresa May said in their joint statement. “It is an assault on UK sovereignty,” the leaders said. “It threatens the security of us all.” While the statement signals a more coordinated response from Britain’s closest allies, it lacked any details about specific measures the West would take if Russia failed to comply. Related CoverageUK PM May visits city where Russian double agent was poisonedAfter nerve agent attack, NATO sees pattern of Russian interferenceThe Western leaders said the use of the toxin was a clear breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention and international law. They called on Russia to provide a complete disclosure of the Novichok programme to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague. Russia has repeatedly asked Britain to supply a sample of the nerve agent. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said neither Russia nor the Soviet Union had run a programme to develop Novichok. Separately, Washington on Thursday slapped sanctions on two of Russia’s biggest intelligence agencies, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the GRU military intelligence service, in response to Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and malicious cyber attacks. Skripal, a former colonel in the GRU who betrayed dozens of Russian agents to British intelligence, and his daughter are critically ill. A British policeman who was also poisoned when he went to help them is in a serious but stable condition. May has directly accused President Vladimir Putin, poised to win a fourth term in an election on Sunday, of being behind the attack. In Washington, Trump said: “It looks like the Russians were behind it.” Security cameras are seen, and a flag flies outside the consular section of Russia's embassy in London, Britain, March 15, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKayPutin, who took over as Kremlin chief from Boris Yeltsin on the last day of 1999, has tried to claw back some of the clout that Moscow lost when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. He says the West has repeatedly tried to undermine Russia. Lavrov said Russia would respond “very soon” to Britain’s decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats. Putin discussed relations with Britain at a meeting of Russia’s Security Council. Skripal, who was turned by Britain’s MI6 agency while serving in Spain, was arrested in Moscow in 2004 and convicted in 2006 of treason. But in 2010 he was given refuge in Britain after being exchanged for Russian spies. May on Thursday visited Salisbury, a normally sedate city where police investigators in chemical protection suits and the army have been collecting evidence of the poisoning. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Britain could count on NATO’s solidarity, but that it had not invoked the alliance’s mutual defence clause. U.S. Army General Curtis Scaparrotti, head of U.S. forces in Europe, said the incident highlighted how far Russia was willing to go to achieve its goals. “As we determine the responsibility here, and it is likely that it is Russia, I think it underscores what they are willing to do,” Scaparrotti told reporters. “This is a government that is violating all the standard norms and international rules and laws to bring violence onto other nations’ soil to reach their objectives. Amazing, frankly,” Scaparrotti added. In London, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson defended the government’s response and suggested the authorities might also go after assets held in Britain by Russians close to Putin, though he gave no specific details. Slideshow (10 Images)Lavrov suggested that the poisoning might have been motivated by a desire to complicate Russia’s hosting of the 2018 soccer World Cup. In a sign of just how tense relations have become, British Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said: “Russia should go away, it should shut up.” Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper, Michael Holden, Elisabeth O'Leary and Costas Pitas in London and Edinburgh, William James in Salisbury, England; Robin Emmott in Brussels; Denis Pinchuk and Andrew Osborn in Moscow; and Steve Holland, James Oliphant, Doina Chiacu and Idrees Ali in Washington; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Gareth Jones and Grant McCoolOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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