The full extent of the damage caused to artefacts by the devastating fire at the Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro will take some time to emerge. A spokesman for the fire brigade told Globo News: “We were able to remove a lot of things from inside with the help of workers of the museum,” leading to hopes that at least some of the collection may have survived. Pictures surfaced on social media showing people carrying small items out of the burning building.Below are some of the scientific and historical highlights of a collection of over 20m items, whose loss was described as “incalculable” by Brazil’s president, Michel Temer.Luzia Woman is an upper paleolithic period skeleton that was found in a cave in Brazil in 1975 by the French archaeologist Annette Laming-Emperaire. At about 11,500 years old, she was believed to be the oldest human skeleton found in the Americas.Debate has raged about her origins, with some anthropologists suggesting the skull showed signs that Luzia’s ancestors had come to the continent from south-east Asia. She would have stood at just under five feet tall.In 2010, scientists reconstructed how her face may have looked in real life.Donated to Emperor Dom Pedro II, the second and last monarch of the Empire of Brazil, the museum’s collection included a rare Brazilian example of mummified bodies, belonging to a woman and two children. The woman, found in Goianá, was aged about 25, and died 600 years before Europeans arrived on the continent.The museum also held mummified or shrunken heads produced in the Ecuadorian Amazon basin by the Shuar people. In the heavily ritualised processes, the skull was removed while leaving the skin and hair intact.From further afield, the museum was also home to 700 items from Egypt, including the coffin of Sha-Amun-em-su, an unopened wooden painted coffin from Thebes, dated to around 750BC. X-rays of the item show that as well as the body, there are amulets still intact inside the casket. Other Egyptian relics in the museum included the 3,000-year-old coffin of the priest Hori and a mummified cat.Established in 1818, the museum’s collection preserved irreplaceable art and objects from Brazil’s indigenous peoples. They tell the tale not just of the people who lived on the continent, but of how they were encountered and occupied by European colonists.Some of the items in the museum were collected when Marshal Rondon was driving telegraph lines and roads through the Amazon basin in the early 20th century. As well as collecting weapons, the Rondon Commission also collected musical instruments, and in 1912 the anthropologist Edgar Roquette-Pinto, who accompanied them, made the first recordings of indigenous music on wax cylinders.From contemporary native populations the museum held striking feather art by the Karajás people, as well as examples of their ceramics. Only about 3,000 of the Karajás survive, living in a few dozen villages in central Brazil.The collection included a total of about 1,800 artefacts from the pre-Colombian era, including pieces from Andean cultures such as the Inca, Chancay and Nazca civilisations that illustrated textile and ceramic manufacture, and evidence of trading behaviour. A mummy of a Chilean man estimated to be at least 3,500 years old gave an insight into how people were buried – in this case in a seated position with the knees raised up to the chin.The museum’s director, Alexander Kellner, said of the fire: “It is a pitiful tragedy. Inside it there are delicate and inflammable pieces, a fabulous library. The collection of the museum is not for the history of Rio de Janeiro or Brazil, it is fundamental to world history.”The Bendegó meteorite, at 5,260kg, was the biggest iron meteorite found on Brazilian soil, and at one point the second largest ever found in the world. It was discovered in 1784 in Monte Santo, Bahia by a boy, and is one of the largest such items ever to be transported.Frescoes that survived the eruption of Mount Vesuvius were also in the museum’s collection, including one depicting two peacocks perched on stylised chandeliers, and two others featuring seahorses, a dragon, and dolphins, which originally adorned the Temple of Isis in Pompeii. With 750 pieces from Mediterranean culture in the collection, it was the largest grouping of such artefacts in Latin America.Described as “a palaeontological paradise of international significance”, the Sertão region of Brazil has been particularly rich in fossils, enriching the museum with a large collection. Fossilised turtles from 110m years ago that were in the collection are the oldest found in the country.The Angaturama limai dinosaur in the collection was also discovered in Brazil. The name is derived from the indigenous Tupi language, and is a tribute to the Brazilian palaeontologist Murilo Rodolfo de Lima, although there is some debate as to whether the fossil belongs to a previously identified species, the Irritator challengeri.The creature was a fish-eating type of carnivore with a “sail” along their back. These fossils have close relatives in African fossil deposits, supporting the theory the continents of South America and Africa were linked. The specimen was the first large Brazilian carnivorous dinosaur to be displayed.Also on display was a replica of a Maxakalisaurus topai dinosaur skeleton – the largest scientifically identified sauropod found in Brazil. The palaeontologist Alexander Kellner had said at the time of the discovery: “We have found the bones of what appear to be larger dinosaurs, but we still haven’t been able to put them together for scientific descriptions.”The museum’s fossil collection was not just a record of the natural history of the continent, but also of the study of natural history in the South Americas in general. The museum, for example, housed Brachiopods, the first fossils of the Devonian period – approximately 390m years ago – that were collected and studied in Brazil in the 1870s.The museum was home to a scientific library that contained nearly half a million volumes, including 2,400 described as rare works. Social media reports suggested that people were finding burnt pages in the streets around the museum. This article has been amended to clarify that the director of the museum is Alexander Kellner. Topics Brazil Museums Americas news

Delhi police have arrested a teenager who posed as a doctor for at least five months at one of India’s most prestigious medical institutions.Adnan Khurram, 19, was friends with doctors and medical students at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi, where he was active in hospital politics and posted pictures of himself to his Instagram page – @Dr.Adnan_Khurram – wearing a stethoscope and face mask.Police, however, say Khurram was not enrolled in any medical training, had no qualifications and was receiving no salary from the hospital. He was arrested at the weekend after coming into the hospital to take part in a staff marathon.Doctors said they had first become suspicious because Khurram, from Bihar state, seemed to have more free time than most junior doctors, who typically work shifts of up to 20 hours. “We were surprised that he could make it to all the events at AIIMS and even those organised by other medical organisations,” Dr Harjit Singh Bhatti, the president of the hospital’s resident doctor’s association, told the Hindustan Times. “He used to hang out near the coffee shop or the doctors’ hostel every evening. We started wondering how he had so much time.”Police said Khurram had given different reasons for the fraud, including that he was trying to help an ill family member get faster treatment and that he hoped to be a doctor one day and in the meantime simply enjoyed pretending.“He would roam around wearing the lab coat and stethoscope all the time,” Bhatti said. “We found out that he had made different claims to different doctors. To some, he would claim that he was a junior resident doctor, while to junior resident doctors, he would introduce himself as an undergraduate medical student. He had even made his way to the WhatsApp groups.”There are about 2,000 doctors in the institution with new intakes twice a year, so keeping track was difficult, Bhatti added. Khurram has been charged with impersonation and forgery.Medical skills shortages across India have encouraged the proliferation of “quack” doctors. A 2016 study by the World Health Organization found that less than 20% of purported doctors in rural India had any medical qualifications.The study found there were about 36 qualified doctors for every 100,000 Indians, compared with 130 in China and 2,710 in the UK. Topics India South and Central Asia news

ORLANDO, Florida/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said he had a “good talk” on Monday with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the Justice Department official in charge of the federal investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, and has no plans to fire him. There has been widespread speculation that Trump might oust Rosenstein, a frequent target of Trump’s tweeted criticism, after a New York Times report that he had made remarks about Trump’s fitness for office and offered to record conversations with him. Rosenstein traveled with Trump on Air Force One to Orlando on Monday, where the president gave a speech to police chiefs. Upon landing, Rosenstein was seen smiling and appeared at ease as he walked down the front stairs of Air Force One alongside Trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly. It was not immediately clear whether Trump and Rosenstein talked about the controversy during their 45-minute-long conversation on the flight, where Kelly and another Department of Justice official, Ed O’Callaghan, were also present. They talked about support for law enforcement officials, border security, crime in Chicago and “general DOJ business,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said. “The press wants to know, ‘What did you talk about?’” Trump said at the start of his speech after he thanked Rosenstein for being there and noted the intense media interest. “We had a very good talk, I will say. That became a very big story, actually. We had a good talk,” Trump said. Rosenstein has denied the Sept. 21 New York Times report as “inaccurate and factually incorrect.” The article said that while Rosenstein had made the suggestions over concern about chaos in the administration, none of them actually came to fruition. As he left the White House for Orlando, Trump was asked by a reporter if he had any plans to fire Rosenstein. “No I don’t, no,” he said. Rosenstein oversees Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Russia denies interfering and Trump says there was no collusion between his campaign and Moscow. Slideshow (7 Images)Firing Rosenstein before the Nov. 6 congressional elections could have political consequences. Democrats believe it would raise questions about whether Trump would shut down the Mueller probe, which could energize their voters in House and Senate races. Trump told reporters earlier on Monday that he has a “good relationship” with Rosenstein. “I didn’t know Rod before, but I’ve gotten to know him, and I get along very well with him,” he said. Reporting by Roberta Rampton and Steve Holland; Additional reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Dan Grebler and Cynthia OstermanOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

PARIS (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson may have taken a month to embark on his first trip abroad, but he was quick to make himself at home in President Emmanuel Macron’s gilded palace, putting his feet up on the furniture. Never shy to play the clown during his political career, Johnson was filmed joking to the cameras and briefly resting his foot on a coffee table at the Elysee palace, before waving at photographers in the room. Macron watched on, looking amused. The scene took place after Johnson and Macron addressed journalists in the Elysee courtyard, during which Macron warned there was not enough time to wholly rewrite Britain’s Brexit divorce deal before an Oct. 31 deadline. The Elysee later said the talks had been “constructive” and “thorough.” Reporting by Michel Rose; Editing by Richard LoughOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

A group of scientists is challenging an FDA report released this week warning against the use of kratom, based in part on an FDA analysis that emphasized the substance’s similarity to traditional opioids like morphine and heroin.“Taken in total, the scientific evidence we’ve evaluated about kratom provides a clear picture of the biologic effect of this substance,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement. “Kratom should not be used to treat medical conditions, nor should it be used as an alternative to prescription opioids. There is no evidence to indicate that kratom is safe or effective for any medical use.”FDA officials have recommended kratom be categorized as a Schedule 1 drug, which would effectively mean that scientists would not be able to study its effects. Advocates of kratom have long said that the plant-derived substance can be safer than opioid drugs sold at a pharmacy or on the street, fighting pain and treating symptoms of opioid withdrawal without the same, potentially deadly effects on respiration.Federal officials have occasionally seized imported shipments of kratom on behalf of the FDA, saying it’s a new, untested dietary ingredient. But it’s still widely available, and in most states is readily sold as a dietary supplement in convenience stores, head shops, kratom specialty stores, and online.“The available science is clear that kratom, although having effects on opioid receptors in the brain, is distinct from classical opioids (e.g. morphine, heroin, oxycodone, etc.) in its chemistry, biological effects, and origin (kratom is a tree in the coffee family, not the opium poppy family),” the scientists wrote, in an open latter to Gottlieb and White House advisor Kellyanne Conway, and circulated by the American Kratom Association, an industry group.“Importantly, as commonly used in raw plant form, it does not appear to produce the highly addictive euphoria or lethal respiratory depressing effects of classical opioids,” the group, including scientists from Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University and the University of Rochester, wrote. Conway has been overseeing White House efforts to combat the national opioid crisis.Questions About The FDA’s “Novel” Analysis, Death EstimateScientists have known since the ’90s that kratom contains alkaloid compounds that exhibit mild opioid activity. That made the FDA’s warning puzzling–and frustrating–for some researchers.“I don’t really see what this adds to this field or adds to the body of knowledge around kratom,” Andrew Kruegel, a Columbia University pharmacologist who has extensively studied kratom and signed the letter, told Tonic. “The problem with saying it’s ‘an opioid’ without qualification is that it just paints everything with this broad brush, and obviously carries a negative connotation given what’s going on in the country right now,” Kruegel says.He also questioned the technique used by the agency, a process known as molecular modeling or molecular docking that attempts to match a computer model of a compound with its receptors in the body. In its warning, the FDA calls it “a novel scientific analysis using a computational model developed by agency scientists, which provided even stronger evidence of kratom compounds’ opioid properties.” But the process tends to be used in the early stages of drug development. “You would not be very confident in the results of that assay,” Kruegel said. “It’s all done virtually in a computer.”In his analysis, the FDA’s Gottlieb–in addition to comparing kratom to other opioids–also pointed to reports of 44 deaths “associated with the use of kratom.” Skeptics say the deaths can’t be conclusively attributed to kratom and point out that many of the people who died also had other drugs in their systems, from alcohol to morphine.“They are claiming that 44 people died from a range of causes–including just being completely unexplainable–while also using kratom,” said American Kratom Association chairman Dave Herman in a statement. “Those people who died likely also drank water, a soda, or used hair shampoo in the shower that day.”Still, the FDA says at least one death report involved someone who reportedly never used any opioids besides kratom, and cautioned against mixing kratom with other drugs.“Cases of mixing kratom, other opioids, and other types of medication is extremely troubling because the activity of kratom at opioid receptors indicates there may be similar risks of combining kratom with certain drugs, just as there are with FDA-approved opioids,” according to the agency.The DEA Is Weighing Kratom’s Abuse PotentialIn 2014 the FDA issued an import alert that allows U.S. officials to detain imported dietary supplements and bulk dietary ingredients that are, or contain, kratom. But in 2016 the DEA backed away from a plan to ban kratom, amid public and legislative skepticism, and said it would wait for input from the FDA and the public before regulating the drug.Late last year, the FDA issued a report to the DEA indicating that kratom has no accepted medical use, and the DEA is in the midst of evaluating the drug’s potential for abuse. When that’s done, the agency will determine whether kratom will be restricted, says DEA spokesman Melvin Patterson. The timetable for that decision is still uncertain, he says.The debate echoes arguments around legal marijuana, especially as the Trump administration reportedly plans to roll back a permissive policy toward states that allow cannabis sales for medicinal or recreational purposes. As with kratom, marijuana proponents and some researchers say that drug is a safe alternative to opioids for some pain patients.Read more: Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx Has Hard-Earned Ideas For Battling The Opioid Crisis Can This Silicon Valley Startup Bioengineer A Less Addictive Opioid? Can This Opioid Alternative Treat Pain Without The Risk Of Addiction?

Some of Epstein’s donations have been much more recent and seemed to have hardly raised any eyebrows. In 2013, he was described by Forbes as the “financial guru” behind an effort by OpenCog, an ambitious open-source software project, to develop “emotional software” for the gaming industry. Describing the effort as a virtual platform to test the project’s hypothesis about the mind, Epstein told Forbes: “It’s somewhat like building a car, with no instructions, but our impression of what a car can do.” (His EpsteinScience.com website highlighting his investments has been taken offline, but there are some archived pages out there.)OpenCog’s founder, Ben Goertzel, who has thanked Epstein for his “visionary funding of my AGI research,” teamed up with roboticist David Hanson to create the world’s smartest robot. As Goertzel put it, they were pursuing robots “with basic common sense understanding of the everyday human world.” Sophia, a robot parodied on Silicon Valley a few years ago, is powered by OpenCog’s code, which “lets her respond and react to users’ emotional states.” In an episode of the HBO comedy, an actor with a strong resemblance to Goertzel played Sophia’s creepy creator. Goertzel did not return a request for comment from Fast Company. But Hanson, in a statement, asserted that none of Epstein’s funds “were used towards Sophia or to the benefit of Hanson Robotics,” adding “Dr. Goertzel confirms that none of Epstein’s funds contributed directly or indirectly towards Hanson robots or software.”Hanson added: “We value the rights and lives of children, and we find the reported allegations disturbing. We hope our robots and research can help make the world a better, safer and more inspiring place for children and all people, opening numerous opportunities for creativity, education, and innovation that enables AI to bring good to all people.”Other scientists funded by Epstein have vigorously defended him, even as the shocking details of his crimes came to light. When Lawrence Krauss, a famed physicist and the author of The Physics of Star Trek, was asked about Epstein in 2011 by The Daily Beast, these words came out of his brilliant mouth:Jeffrey has surrounded himself with beautiful women and young women but they’re not as young as the ones that were claimed. As a scientist I always judge things on empirical evidence and he always has women ages 19 to 23 around him, but I’ve never seen anything else, so as a scientist, my presumption is that whatever the problems were I would believe him over other people. . . . I don’t feel tarnished in any way by my relationship with Jeffrey; I feel raised by it.Krauss, who himself faced allegations of sexual misconduct (which he strongly denies) outlined in a BuzzFeed story last year, returned a request for comment but did not address his statements on Epstein.Evolutionary psychologist Robert Trivers defended Epstein—who donated $40,000 to the Rutgers scientist to study the link between knee symmetry and sprinting ability—by telling Reuters in 2015: “By the time [girls are] 14 or 15, they’re like grown women were 60 years ago, so I don’t see these acts as so heinous.”

The strongest cyclone to hit India in five years killed at least 15 people in the eastern state of Odisha, before swinging north-eastwards into Bangladesh on Saturday, where more than a million people have been moved to safety.After hitting land, Cyclone Fani lost some of its power and was downgraded to a deep depression by the India Meteorological Department.A storm surge still breached embankments to submerge dozens of villages on Bangladesh’s low-lying coast, a disaster ministry official in Dhaka said.About 1.2 million people living in the most vulnerable districts in Bangladesh had been moved to 4,000 shelters. The storm destroyed several houses in the Noakhali district, where a two-year-old child was killed and about 30 people were injured, a local official told Reuters.In India, authorities were assessing the casualties and damage caused by Fani, which had spent days building power over the northern reaches of the Bay of Bengal before tearing into Odisha.Indian media reported that at least 12 people died across the state, most as a result of falling trees. A mass evacuation of more than a million people in the 24 hours before the tropical cyclone made landfall is likely to have averted a greater loss of life.The seaside temple town of Puri, which lay directly in the path of Fani, sustained extensive damage as winds gusting up to 124 mph (200 km/h) tore off tin roofs, snapped power lines and uprooted trees on Friday.“Destruction is unimaginable. Puri is devastated,” Odisha’s special relief commissioner, Bishnupada Sethi, told Reuters, adding that 116 people were reported injured across the state.Video footage taken from an Indian navy aircraft showed extensive inundation in areas around Puri, with wide swathes of land submerged.At least six people died in Bhubaneswar, Odisha’s state capital, where fallen trees blocked roads and the electricity supply is still to be fully restored.Ashok Pattnaik, the director of Capital hospital, one of the largest state-run hospitals in Bhubaneswar, said four people were pronounced dead on arrival on Friday and two on Saturday. “All are cyclone-related,” he said.Bhubaneswar airport sustained considerable damage, but India’s aviation ministry said it would reopen on Saturday afternoon.Shelters were set up in schools and other safe buildings to accommodate the evacuees, who included scores of tourists.Neighbouring West Bengal state escaped substantial damage. Authorities moved nearly 45,000 people to safer locations.The cyclone season in the Bay of Bengal can last from April to December. In 1999 a super-cyclone battered the coast of Odisha for 30 hours, killing more than 10,000 people. But since then, technology advances have helped weather forecasters track the cyclones more accurately, giving authorities more time to prepare, and a mass evacuation of nearly a million people saved thousands of lives in 2013. Topics Natural disasters and extreme weather India Bangladesh South and Central Asia news

At least 14 people have been killed and 40 wounded when car suicide bombers and gunmen tried to storm the headquarters of a Yemeni counter-terrorism unit in Aden on Saturday, security and medical sources said. Islamic State, in a statement carried by its Aamaq news agency, claimed responsibility for what it described as two “martyrdom operations” targeting the camp in Tawahi district in south-western Aden. The agency provided no immediate evidence for the claim. Security sources said two suicide bombers detonated two cars laden with explosives at the camp’s entrance while six gunmen tried to storm the facility. They were all killed by guards and their bodies taken to a military hospital, a medical source told Reuters.Aden police said in a statement on Facebook that security forces had foiled a major attack. “All the ... terrorists were liquidated immediately before they could reach the outer gate of the anti-terrorism headquarters,” it said. Security sources and medics said at least three security men, a woman and two children died in the attack, while 40 other people, many of them civilians, were wounded. The attack was the first of its kind in southern Yemen since gun battles erupted in January between southern separatists and President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s government over control of the city. Aden is the temporary capital of Yemen’s internationally recognised Hadi government, which is now operating out of Saudi Arabia. Backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition, Hadi’s government has been battling the Iran-aligned Houthi movement since 2015 in a war that has driven the country to the verge of famine. In a statement carried by the state-run Saba news agency, Hadi described the attack as a “cowardly act aimed to destabilise security in the temporary capital ... but it will not dissuade people from their will to achieve security, safety and decent living.” Al Qaeda and Islamic State have exploited the war in Yemen to carry out assassinations and bombings, mostly in lawless southern Yemeni areas nominally controlled by the government. Topics Yemen Middle East and North Africa news

The Department of Justice's special counsel Robert Mueller and his office have interviewed at least one member of Facebook's team that was associated with President Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, according to a person familiar with the matter.The interview was part of Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and what role, if any, the Trump campaign played in that interference. Facebook and other social platforms have emerged as a key part of that investigation, not only because the company embedded staff with the San Antonio–based digital team working on Trump's campaign but also because it sold more than 3,000 Facebook and Instagram ads to fake accounts linked to the Russian propaganda group Internet Research Agency. All in, content shared by those accounts reached 126 million Facebook users, including more than 62,000 of whom signed up to attend events organized by those fake accounts.A spokesperson for the special counsel's office declined WIRED's request for comment.Mueller's team speaking with a Facebook employee does not necessarily implicate Facebook in any wrongdoing. It's natural that a company not only close to the campaign but also directly impacted by Russian active members would be on Mueller's radar.Since Facebook began sharing details last fall about the extent of Russian influence on the platform, speculation has swirled about whether the Trump campaign seeded information to those trolls that may have helped them better target their ads. Facebook has repeatedly stated the Internet Research Agency ads used "rudimentary" targeting, and did not target specific lists of voters. In newly released written responses to questions asked during a congressional hearing in November, Facebook said, "We have seen only what appears to be insignificant overlap between the targeting and content used by the IRA and that used by the Trump campaign."It's natural that a company not only close to the campaign, but also directly impacted by Russian active members, would be on Mueller's radar.The Mueller investigation has scrutinized more tech companies than just Facebook. The special counsel asked Cambridge Analytica, a company that provided data analytics for the Trump campaign and also embedded staff in San Antonio, to provide email records. Among the curiosities of Cambridge Analytica's involvement in the campaign is that its CEO, Alexander Nix, reportedly contacted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during the election in hopes of collaborating on the organization and release of hacked emails related to Hillary Clinton. US intelligence agencies say that Russian actors stole those emails, creating a link between Mueller's investigation and Nix's actions. According to a Cambridge spokesperson, the company did reach out to the speakers bureau that represents Assange, after he claimed to possess leaked material related to the election on television. The speakers bureau denied the request, according to the spokesperson. "No one from Cambridge Analytica has ever been in ​direct ​contact with ​​Wikileaks," the spokesperson said.1 Cambridge declined to comment on Mueller's investigation.Both Twitter and Google deployed staff to San Antonio to work with the Trump campaign as well. (Google, Facebook, and Twitter all worked with the Clinton campaign, but did not embed with that team.) They also both sold ads to the Internet Research Agency. Last week, Twitter reported that it is alerting 677,775 people that they followed, retweeted, or liked tweets by fake Russian accounts—tweets that collectively received roughly 288 million views. Twitter declined to comment on whether Mueller has interviewed anyone from its staff.Google also did not immediately respond to WIRED's request for comment. The company has said that it found 18 YouTube channels that were likely associated with Internet Research Agency. Accounts linked to the agency purchased $4,700 worth of ads. YouTube also included the Russian media outlet Russia Today, or RT, as part of its preferred lineup of YouTube channels, which are bundled and presented to advertisers as attractive outlets. Youtube has since removed RT as a preferred channel, but still permits the company, which has now registered as a foreign agent, to purchase Google ads. In its written response to questions from Congress, Google's general counsel Kent Walker wrote, "We’ve seen no evidence that they are violating these policies."

I think that’s desperation on the part of the Republicans.In The New Yorker story on Sunday, it said that Senate Republicans had renewed calls to accelerate the timing of the committee vote even after senior Republican staffers learned of the new allegations. What do you make of this?It’s their total intention on getting Judge Kavanaugh on the court before the October term. And they are just stonewalling. I think they think that there may be some other shoes that will drop, and therefore, they want to continue their acceleration of getting him on the court.Are you expecting other shoes to drop?If there are other people who have had this kind of experience, I hope that they will come forward. But we certainly have not created an environment where their voices are going to be welcomed, definitely not by the Republicans. You are uncharacteristically blunt for a senator. Have you always been like this? I think it is really important for me to speak out. And I do hear from a lot of people who appreciate the fact that I am speaking out. I am a woman, I am a minority person, and I speak in a very plain way. And I think that reaches people.I’m so glad you could make some time for me in what I’m sure is an extremely busy day in an extremely busy week. So thank you very much.I just want to mention one more thing. For these two women who have come forward, their lives are upended and they have basically invited maximum scrutiny. I think that is very telling. And at the same time, Judge Kavanaugh continues to stonewall any kind of independent investigation.It seems like you think that suggests something more about him.Yes. He said that he wants to get to the truth. Well, when will you get to the truth better than to have an independent investigation?

FILE PHOTO: Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort departs from U.S. District Court in Washington, U.S., February 28, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/File PhotoWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Evidence from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation indicates President Donald Trump intended to encourage his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, “not to cooperate with the government,” according to Mueller’s report. Writing by Bill Trott, Editing by Franklin PaulOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

In the US, political advertising is often laced with venom.From the Nixon-Kennedy attack ads of 1960 to the Romney-Obama clashes of 2012 this unique, aggressive form of campaigning has a long history, protected by the first amendment. But rarely, if ever, has a president endorsed advertising as nakedly divisive and overtly prejudiced as has been seen this year.This week, Donald Trump tweeted an incendiary video that stoked panic about migrants and falsely claimed Democrats were responsible for the murder of two police officers in California.The 53-second video was produced by a consultancy firm in Washington responsible for other rightwing ads. It depicts Luis Bracamontes, who was in the US illegally when he murdered the officers in Sacramento in 2014. Over courtroom footage in which the perpetrator brags about the murders, the video states: “Illegal immigrant Luis Bracamontes killed our people! ... Democrats let him into our country ... Democrats let him stay.”Though news organisations were quick to point out that the ad was inaccurate, it was not new to say the president had endorsed false and racist comments about immigration. The billionaire launched his political career in 2015 by calling Mexicans migrants rapists and criminals. The 2018 midterm elections have revealed an extraordinary proliferation in the sort of extremist rhetoric that now passes for political campaigning.“The fact that the leader of the free world is the liar of the free world is having an effect,” said Republican strategist and media consultant Rick Wilson.“The difference we’re experiencing right now is twofold. One, we live in a post-truth environment because of Trump, so there is zero concern or consideration whether or not any of these things that [the adverts] are actually saying or not are actually true …“[Secondly,] there’s been a long, slow collapse of trust in public institutions, in particular political institutions, and that is something that poisoned the atmosphere for a long time before Donald Trump came along.”In the Senate race in Tennessee, Tea Party Republican and longtime Trump supporter Marsha Blackburn faces Democrat Phil Bredesen, a former governor. Last week, Blackburn released an attack ad littered with false information about a group of migrants who are slowly approaching the US-Mexico border.Echoing Trump, the ad said the group was full of “gang members … known criminals … people from the Middle East … possibly terrorists”. It accused Bredesen of endangering national security.In Georgia, a closely-fought gubernatorial race pits Republican Brian Kemp against Democrat Stacey Abrams, who would become the first African American female governor in US history. Kemp, a staunch Trump supporter, has released videos in which he poses with his pickup truck and claims: “I’ve got a big truck just in case I need to round-up criminal illegals and take them home myself.”Pro-Kemp ads have falsely accused Abrams of trying to get undocumented migrants to vote.Other ads have gone after candidates on grounds of race or religion. In New York, the National Republican Congressional Committee released an ad attacking the Democrat Antonio Delgado, an African American Rhodes scholar who released a rap album in 2007. Referred to as a “big city rapper”, Delgado was described as “not like us”.Other ads are more direct. In California, Ammar Campa-Najjar, a Latino-Arab American who is Christian, has been falsely accused of having ties with the Muslim Brotherhood. One Republican ad called him a “security risk”.Wilson knows of what he speaks, having been responsible for a number of highly charged Republican ads himself. In 2002, as media adviser for Saxby Chambliss’s successful Senate run in Georgia, he released an ad that attacked the Democratic candidate’s national security record while showing images of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. The video caused significant controversy. Wilson defended it.“Those ads were based in facts and it made them more powerful rather than less,” he said. “They were part of a contextual moment of the time on a national issue. They were also designed to break off voters in the middle to come in your direction.”Recent research into attack ads used in US elections in 2010 and 2012 indicates they continued to be an effective tool in persuading undecided voters and driving turnout. But experts like Wilson – the author of the book Everything Trump Touches Dies – remain unconvinced that a proliferation of demonstrably false and prejudiced attacks will do much to convince those still on the fence.“All the Trump adverts now are just meant to stoke his base, and his base only,” he said. “There’s no persuasion outside of the base now for him. It’s all about the cadre, the core voter.”Tuesday’s midterms are sure to put that theory to the test. Topics US midterms 2018 US politics Democrats Republicans Donald Trump features

“It was really trailblazing,” Mr. Zeidman said.But last year Mr. Cuomo commuted only two sentences for people still in prison. “It’s a weighty decision, but I’ve met hundreds of people who deserve it,” Mr. Zeidman said. He recommended legislation requiring a “second look” at every sentence after a person served 15 years.And this summer Mr. Cuomo was criticized after some of the people who received conditional pardons were arrested for new crimes.Those pardoned on Monday range in age from 33 to 75, and were mostly convicted on nonviolent drug crimes. The youngest, Kerrone Kay-Marie Parks, was convicted of possession of a controlled substance in Queens in 2013.The recipients of Mr. Cuomo’s commutations included Roy Bolus, 49, who was sentenced to 75 years to life for his secondary role in a drug deal that ended in the deaths of two men. Mr. Bolus is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in prison.Mr. Zeidman, who helped Mr. Bolus and two others with their successful applications, said of Mr. Bolus, “You meet him and say, ‘Why is this man in prison after 30 years for a crime he committed when he was 18?’”He added, “It’s a good way to start the year. These are wonderful people. There are more people who will be productive on the outside.”

And in Northern Ireland, which faces the gravest consequences of no deal -- the erection of a hard border with the Republic of Ireland and the terrifying reality of a return to the dark days of sectarian violence -- Johnson was greeted by protesters holding up signs saying that "Brexit means borders."He is also personally unpopular in the province after comparing crossing the border to traveling between London boroughs -- glibly dismissing the decades-long conflict in which more than 3,000 people died. His cavalier attitude to the Northern Irish peace process continued during his leadership election campaign when he seemed ill informed about the intricacies of reviving suspended power-sharing arrangements. This is a problem for a prime minister who is staking his premiership on two things: delivering Brexit, come what may, on October 31 and uniting his country.Preserving the Union is critical to the party that Johnson now leads, formally called the Conservative and Unionist Party. However, Unionism isn't as fashionable as it once was among the UK's electorate -- and that's become especially true after the Brexit referendum. "I wouldn't be at all surprised if no deal (Brexit) ends being looked at by historians as the event that breaks up the UK," says Rob Ford, professor of politics at the University of Manchester. Ford explains that the strongest support for Brexit comes from English nationalist voters, who don't care much for the Union. "They regard it as not very interesting. And when they view it as an obstacle to Brexit, they will see it as something to throw under the bus."So, in England, the most populous and powerful part of the UK, Brexit is more closely aligned to a England-first/Britain-first cause. This is where things get interesting.Across the Irish Sea, things look very different. The most vocal pro-Brexit support in Northern Ireland comes from Unionists, who see any kind of separation from the UK mainland as unthinkable. If it comes down to the choice of a border between the Republic of Ireland or a sea border with Britain, it's going to be the former, every time.JUST WATCHEDHere's what you need to know about BrexitReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHHere's what you need to know about Brexit 03:23On the flipside of Unionism is Irish republicanism, which prioritizes no border between the two Irelands at any cost. The most hardline Irish republicans would ultimately like to see Northern Ireland reunited with the rest of Ireland.A recent Northern Ireland Life and Times surveyconfirmed that, in the context of Brexit, people who identify as Irish are still in favor of a united Ireland, while those who feel more British have hardened their opposition to unification. However, the survey also revealed that over the past 20 years, more Northern Irish citizens than ever have come to identify as neither unionist nor republican.And while this group might not be active cheerleaders for a united Ireland, they are starting to see it as an inevitable consequence of a no-deal Brexit.Put simply, "people who are already sympathetic to Irish unity say Brexit is making them increasingly in favour of it, while those who already oppose Irish unity say that Brexit is making them opposed," explains Katy Hayward, a senior fellow at the think tank UK in a Changing Europe.In Scotland, "opposition to independence now lines up with support for Brexit," says Rob Ford. He explains that when the SNP embraced a second independence vote in order to join the EU, Euroskeptic Scots will have thought, "why would we trade rule from London for rule from Brussels?"This left the field wide open for Nicola Sturgeon and her SNP to become the party of remain in Scotland.Scotland had a vote on independence back in 2014. It voted to stick with the UK by a margin of 55% to 45%. It was at the time described as a "once-in-a-generation" referendum. Then Brexit happened.When you consider that 62% of Scotland voted to remain in the EU and that Johnson's Conservative Party is now agitating for the hardest form of Brexit, you start to see why Scottish nationalists are feeling optimistic about a second independence vote.So, in Northern Ireland and Scotland, the pro-remain majorities (56% and 62% respectively) could well be pulling away from Johnson's unionist embrace. The picture is slightly different in Wales, which voted to leave the EU and doesn't have a strong independence movement.The UK auto industry is facing a slow deathBut what Wales does have is a strong nationalist movement that historically dislikes the Conservative Party and loathes Johnson's no-deal rhetoric. Johnson's biggest problem here is alienating these voters and effectively handing more Welsh parliamentary seats to opposition parties. A case in point was Thursday's byelection in the Welsh region of Brecon and Radnorshire, when one of his own lawmakers was robbed of their parliamentary seat. Despite a surge for his Conservative party in opinion polls, breathless reports of a "Boris bounce" appear to have been premature.The Boris Johnson premiership could ultimately be defined then by a fight between nationalist movements. If the early days of his time in power are anything to go by, that means doubling down on the English vote. And as Rob Ford explains, "relative to any other group of nationalists, they're the 600-pound gorilla in the fight between all the UK's nationalists. They can throw anyone else out the ring."It seems unlikely that Johnson's "do or die" politics can smooth over all four corners of the UK, at least before Brexit is delivered. If an election were to suddenly be called -- something most observers in the UK are expecting -- then appealing to the whole Union might not be a wise electoral strategy.And if the English gorilla does throw the rest of the UK out of the ring, its smaller siblings might decide not to climb back in. And there's a very good chance that England's voters won't particularly care.This story has been updated.

What WAS Said23% of Federal inmates are illegal immigrants. Border arrests are up 240%. In the Great State of Texas, between 2011 & 2018, there were a total of 292,000 crimes by illegal aliens, 539 murders, 32,000 assaults, 3,426 sexual assaults and 3000 weapons charges. Democrats come back!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2019 This needs context.Twenty-two days into the longest government shutdown ever, President Trump continued to press his case for a border wall. His tweet on Saturday was crammed with statistics that were either exaggerated or omitted important context. Immigrant prison populationMr. Trump’s figure for the percentage of unauthorized immigrants in federal prisons is exaggerated.Out of the Bureau of Prisons’ total inmate population of 183,058 in the first quarter of the 2018 fiscal year, 21 percent were immigrants, both legal and undocumented, according to a government report. At least 13 percent of the total population, or 23,826 inmates, were in the country unlawfully. The immigration status of another 11,698 inmates was under investigation, while 2,608 inmates were lawful immigrants or had received relief from deportation.The most common crimes committed by these immigrants were drug-related offenses (46 percent) and immigration offenses (29 percent). It’s worth noting, too, that about half of the arrests made by the federal government are for immigration-related offenses, perhaps explaining the high proportion of immigrants in federal prisons. The report acknowledges that it does not include data from state and local prisons, which house 90 percent of all inmates in the United States.Border arrestsMr. Trump did not give a time frame for his 240 percent figure, nor did he specify what the number referred to, which may give the misleading impression that border crossings overall have increased threefold. Overall, illegal border crossings have been declining for nearly two decades, and in the 2017 fiscal year, border crossing apprehensions were at their lowest point since 1971. In the 2018 fiscal year, however, annual apprehensions did increase by 30 percent from the previous fiscal year.Immigrant criminals in TexasMr. Trump’s figures are accurate, but they need context. The Texas Department of Public Safety did report that the 186,000 unauthorized immigrants booked into local jails from 2011 to 2018 faced 292,000 charges.The caveats: These offenses did not necessarily occur during that eight-year time frame. More than half of these charges were uncategorized. And the charges Mr. Trump singled out did not always result in convictions (238 for homicide, 13,559 for assault, 1,689 for sexual assault and 1,280 for weapons).For comparison, data from the Texas Department of Public Safety shows that some 7.5 million arrests were made from 2010 to 2017 (data for 2018 was not yet available), including 6,161 for murder, 177,000 for aggravated assault, 14,000 for rape and nearly 89,000 for weapons charges. A 2018 study from the libertarian Cato Institute found that in Texas, conviction and arrest rates for illegal immigrants were lower than those for native-born Americans for most crimes.

A friend of an Islamic State terrorist who plotted to assassinate Theresa May has been found guilty of preparing to join terrorists abroad.Mohammed Aqib Imran, 22, made arrangements to travel for jihad around the time Naa’imur Zakariyah Rahman, 21, was set on a suicide attack against the prime minister.Rahman, from Finchley, north London, recorded an Isis sponsorship video for Imran, the Old Bailey in central London heard.The pair were caught by a network of online role players from the Metropolitan police, MI5 and the FBI. Rahman’s plan to kill May was scuppered when undercover officers handed him a jacket and a rucksack packed with fake explosives.Following a trial in July, Rahman was convicted of preparing acts of terrorism and Imran was found guilty of possessing a terrorist handbook. Rahman also pleaded guilty during his trial to assisting Imran in the preparation of terrorist acts by recording a sponsorship video.Following a retrial, Imran, a former student, was also found guilty of preparing acts of terrorism abroad on or before 28 November 2017.Mark Heywood QC, prosecuting, told jurors: “At the heart of this case is a developing radicalisation in the minds of two men who came to know each other online, and afterwards met and began to collaborate.“Both thought about travelling abroad to further their cause, going to a conflict zone such as Syria to lend support to violence. Each also contemplated carrying out terrorist acts of violence here in the UK.“Mohammed Imran elected to travel and set about assembling money, acquiring a fake passport, engaging in research and otherwise equipping himself with the information and means to travel abroad for violence for terrorist purposes.”The court heard how Imran’s preferred destination was Libya or possibly Jordan, with a view to onward travel to Syria. He had saved money to pay for a fake passport and researched travel options, the court heard.He downloaded the manual How to Survive in the West – a Mujahid’s Guide 2015, with a view to joining Isis, the jury was told.Imran, from Sparkhill in Birmingham, denied the charge against him, claiming he only wanted to get married to a woman in Denmark he had met online. The jury deliberated for just under 18 hours before finding him guilty of preparing to engage in acts of terrorism.In August, Rahman, who is originally from Birmingham, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 30 years.The judge, Nicholas Hilliard QC, the recorder of London, requested a report from the probation service before sentencing on any potential future risk from Imran, as it was “a really important question, the safety of the public”.Jenny Hopkins from the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Mohammad Imran was desperate to join Daesh [Isis] rather than remain in the UK. He was ready to give up everything to kill in the name of a warped worldview.”Imran is due to be sentenced on 25 January. Topics Crime Islamic State London Birmingham news

Subscribe now to receive the morning briefing by email.Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.Donald Trump has heaped praise on Boris Johnson, who will be appointed the UK’s new prime minister on Wednesday, calling him “Britain Trump”. It’s a moniker that Cas Mudde says may be all too apt. Europe was less positive about the arch-Brexiter’s ascendance, with the continent’s newspapers describing him as a “clown” known for his “narcissism” and “lies”. Johnson has said the pain of a no-deal Brexit will be alleviated by a series of “side deals” that the UK has already done with Brussels – a claim the EU swiftly dismissed as “pure rubbish”. Conservative party. Johnson becomes prime minister after winning the leadership of the ruling Conservative party, with 92,153 of its members’ votes: less than 0.14% of the total UK population. Special relationship. It remains unclear whether Johnson will find common policy ground with the White House, but Suzanne Maloney suggests the new PM could use his affinity with Trump to calm tensions with Iran. Democrats in Congress have insisted Robert Mueller can “pretty much say anything he wants” when he testifies before two House committees on Wednesday, despite a letter from the Department of Justice warning him to “remain within the boundaries” of his Trump-Russia report. Jerrold Nadler, the chair of the House judiciary committee, said on Tuesday the former special prosecutor no longer worked for the administration and “does not have to comply with that letter”. Defense secretary. The army veteran and former weapons industry lobbyist Mark Esper has been sworn in as the new US secretary of defense, after the post sat vacant for a record seven months. The US justice department is opening a broad antitrust review of tech firms such as Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple, to determine whether they unlawfully stifle competition. The investigation comes as politicians, including the presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, have called for the break-up of large technology firms, while a House subcommittee recently questioned Silicon Valley bosses about their monopolistic hold over markets. Privacy settlement. Facebook has reportedly agreed to pay the $5bn settlement demanded by the Federal Trade Commission over allegations that it mishandled user privacy. Snapchat results. Snapchat has rebounded from a disastrous 2018, increasing its user numbers by 8% since this time last year to a total of 203 million. China has blamed the US for the ongoing unrest in Hong Kong, as the political crisis in the former British colony threatens to open a new front in the economic conflict between the two superpowers. A spokesperson for China’s ministry of foreign affairs on Tuesday warned “the US to withdraw their black hands”, adding that the semi-autonomous territory “is China’s Hong Kong and we do not allow any foreign interference”. Protesters defiant. Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong have vowed to stand up to thugs who attacked demonstrators at a subway station over the weekend, leaving at least 45 people in hospital and train carriages “full of the smell of blood”. The family of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, were paid $6m by a hospital in Ohio to settle allegations that post-surgical complications led to his death seven years ago, court documents have revealed. Two teenagers, initially feared missing, are now considered suspects in the murders of a young American and her Australian boyfriend, as well as another, as-yet-unidentified man on a remote stretch of the Alaska Highway in Canada. Police have arrested 17 climate protesters from the group Extinction Rebellion after they superglued themselves to doorways in the Capitol building in Washington DC. More than half of America’s beaches had potentially dangerous levels of fecal bacteria from run-off and sewage overflows in 2018, according to a report. Samantha Mathis on River Phoenix: ‘It was too much loss’The actor Samantha Mathis was just 23 when her boyfriend River Phoenix died of an overdose outside a Los Angeles nightclub. As she prepares to appear in a new play, she tells Lucia Graves why it took her so long to speak publicly about the loss: “I can’t imagine a 23-year-old going through that today.”On the frontline of the abortion warsSince 1993, anti-abortion extremists in the US have killed 11 people, including four doctors. That’s partly why Rachel, a doctor who volunteers at a besieged clinic in Montgomery, Alabama, commutes all the way from New England. Vegas Tenold and Glenna Gordon spend a day with her on the frontline of women’s healthcare.Castro brothers unite against Trump’s race-baitingOne of them is the chair of the Congressional Hispanic caucus, the other is running for president. But twins Joaquin and Julián Castro are united in taking a stand against Trump’s anti-immigration policies and racist rhetoric. They spoke to Ed Pilkington.The couple who retired as millionaires – aged 31Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung saved ruthlessly so they could retire in their early 30s and live like millionaires. They are part of a growing movement known as Fire: financial independence retire early – and their new book encourages others do the same. Miranda Bryant reports.Under pressure from colleagues, Al Franken resigned his Senate seat in December 2017 after a spate of #MeToo accusations. But new reporting by the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer suggests his critics ought to have been more circumspect, argues Laura Kipnis. Those who think no sexual accusation made by a woman can possibly be untrue, even those by birthers targeting Democrats, will probably remain unimpressed by the new information Mayer reveals. When the Guardian reported just how small World Cup bonuses for the US women’s soccer team were compared with their male counterparts, many responded that women’s soccer generates less revenue than men’s. Caitlin Murray looks at whether that argument can really explain the discrepancy.The organisers of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo say the IOC is “very satisfied” with the progress of preparations, while a statistical forecaster has predicted that the USA will top the medal table and win the most golds.The US morning briefing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now. Topics US morning briefing news

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin, U.S., October 24, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File PhotoWASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump received a briefing on Thursday morning from CIA Director Gina Haspel on the investigation into the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement. Haspel had just returned from a trip to Turkey. Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Mohammad ZarghamOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Control and consent are intimately related. Where consent exists and is freely given, statements of control are unnecessary.The government is determined to deliver on Vote Leave’s promise to “take back control” – to assert sovereignty on behalf of leave voters. But the complicated consent structures of the UK’s most complicated corner, Northern Ireland, are once again getting in the way. On the evidence of the prime minister’s letter to Donald Tusk on Monday, the government is not minded to let that stop them.This perhaps should not come as a surprise. In one of his blogposts railing against Theresa May’s approach to Brexit negotiations, Dominic Cummings said the last administration had “aided and abetted bullshit invented by Irish nationalists and remain campaigners that the Belfast agreement prevents reasonable customs checks on trade between Northern Ireland and the Republic. It does no such thing.” The senior Brexit strategist went on to describe arguments about the complexity of the Irish question as “babble”. He may not like the rest of this article.“Be advised, my passport’s green. No glass of ours was ever raised to toast the Queen.” So wrote Seamus Heaney 50 years ago. It remains the most famous statement of sullen Irish nationalist alienation from the British state. But it is also a historical artefact, because in 2011, Heaney did exactly that. He raised a glass to toast Queen Elizabeth while sitting between the Duke of Edinburgh and David Cameron at a state dinner in her honour at Dublin Castle.What changed? After the squalor of the Troubles and the decades of political turmoil, Northern Ireland found a structure capable – for a while at least – of accommodating its contradictions. That structure was the Good Friday agreement, which was itself contradictory in that it was designed to enshrine the consent of two groups with opposing aspirations. Unionists were reassured that Northern Ireland would remain in the United Kingdom until a majority voted otherwise. Dublin would remove its territorial claim on Northern Ireland and acknowledge UK sovereignty – but with Irish consultation written into the governance of the place.Nationalists, whose alienation was in large measure derived from the fact that their consent was never asked for in either the partition of Ireland or the character of Northern Ireland, were given a guaranteed stake in the government via power sharing. The agreement also contained a specific route to future Irish unity via a border poll and permanent citizenship rights – the right to identify as British, Irish or both.It was, on several levels, a loss of control. But it was rewarded with a strengthening of consent. In a small way, I was an example. I wouldn’t describe myself as a nationalist (or unionist), but I am certainly Irish and carry a passport accordingly – and did so when working for two different prime ministers. I had a British one, too. I didn’t feel British in a conventional way, but I certainly felt huge respect for the way the British state was able to accommodate people like me.I left the government a while ago now, in part because the contradictions involved – at least in Brexit policy – became too stark. For many moderates in Northern Ireland, accepting contradiction has not just been about pragmatism, but ethical choice in the context of a divided society and grim history.By loosening its control of Northern Ireland, the UK solidified the consent of people there for the status quo. Quite an achievement, but one which seems to belong to a different political age, which of course it does. In his letter to Tusk requesting the complete removal of the backstop, Boris Johnson correctly says that the Good Friday agreement and broader settlement are founded on a “delicate balance” between two traditions and the principle of consent. But in asserting hard UK sovereignty in Northern Ireland – as the letter also does – the government is at risk of undermining the hard-won consent of people who do not rally to the flag in the unambiguous way of the Tories’ Democratic Unionist partners.Most intriguingly, the letter argues that the Good Friday agreement is founded on the protection of “minority rights”. This is a phrase that never appears in the agreement. It implies a decades-old view of Northern Ireland being constructed of a unionist majority and nationalist minority. This is simply no longer true. Unionist parties have not won a majority of votes cast in a Northern Ireland election since 2005. While there is likely still a majority for Northern Ireland remaining in the United Kingdom, this is not the same thing as a “unionist majority”. Both unionism and nationalism are minorities now, with the balance being held by an unaligned, liberal middle.Where there is a majority is for the backstop. Successive polls and the European election results indicate nearly 60% consistently voting in favour of special arrangements to accommodate Northern Ireland’s strangeness. We have come to quite the historical pass when a government in Dublin finds itself pointing out that the will of the majority of partitioned Northern Ireland should be respected. Wherever Éamon de Valera and Edward Carson are now, we can only hope they are able to enjoy the irony together.Another irony: that less control can mean more consent seems tragically to have been forgotten, at least in London.• Matthew O’Toole is a former No 10 Brexit spokesperson Topics Northern Ireland Opinion Ireland Europe Brexit European Union Foreign policy Boris Johnson comment

Updated 3:21 p.m. ETOne U.S. soldier was killed and another American was wounded in an overnight roadside bomb explosion in Manbij, Syria.They were in a convoy. One other coalition fighter, confirmed now to be from the U.K., was also killed in action. Five others were wounded. They were not local fighters, but part of the coalition.Prior to Thursday night, there had been three U.S. coalition members killed in Syria.Manbij had been relatively safe. ISIS was pushed out of there many months ago.A statement from the coalition said an improvised explosive device was the cause.The military said those wounded were evacuated for medical treatment after receiving preliminary immediate care.The statement did not detail the nationality of the personnel involved or the location in Syria where it occurred. The Two-Way Syrian War Enters 8th Year, Trailing Smoke And Suffering In Its Wake "Our prayers are with their families, friends and fellow service members," coalition spokesperson Army Col. Ryan Dillon wrote on Twitter.The Associated Press reported that "a roadside bomb exploded in the mixed Arab-Kurdish town of Manbij. Mohammed Abu Adel, the head of the Manbij Military Council, an Arab-Kurdish U.S.-backed group in the town, says the bomb went off hundreds of meters away from a security headquarters that houses the council just before midnight on Thursday."The coalition statement says the names of those killed will be released "at the discretion of the pertinent national authorities" and it is holding off releasing more details while it investigates. Parallels Yazidis Remain In Fear On Iraq's Mount Sinjar After Attempted Genocide Reuters notes, "Islamic State militants continue to carry out attacks including bombings, ambushes and assassinations in Syria and Iraq despite the collapse last year of the cross-border 'caliphate' declared in 2014 by their leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi."The coalition's Combined Joint Task Force claims to have driven ISIS forces from 98 percent of the area the group once controlled.The two deaths come two weeks after seven people died when a U.S. military helicopter crashed after hitting a power line in Iraq.