UNITED NATIONS—The United Nations Security Council, in a bitter standoff between U.S. and Russia, failed on Thursday to renew the mandate of an independent committee investigating chemical-weapon use in Syria.The Council didn’t pass either of two competing resolutions, one each drafted by the U.S. and Russia, to extend the operations of the committee, known as the U.N.’s Joint Investigative Mechanism, or JIM. Its mandate, created by the Council in 2015, was set to expire at midnight Thursday....

Senate confirmation hearings for Donald Trump’s conservative nominee for the supreme court once again descended into chaos on Thursday, as Democrats insisted documents exposing Brett Kavanaugh’s opinions on contentious issues were being withheld from the public.Just minutes before the judiciary committee gaveled into session for the third day of hearings, the New York Times printed leaked confidential documents from Kavanaugh’s stint in the George W Bush White House, in which he questioned whether the Roe v Wade decision on abortion was the “settled law of the land”.In an email, Kavanaugh blanched at that description of Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 supreme court decision that effectively legalized abortion in the US. He wrote: “I am not sure that all legal scholars refer to Roe as the settled law of the land at the Supreme Court level since Court can always overrule its precedent, and three current Justices on the Court would do so.”Kavanaugh later insisted under questioning that Roe v Wade is “important precedent” and insisted that his concern was about the use of the phrase “all legal scholars” which he viewed as too broad.Even before the story was mentioned inside the hearing room on Thursday, the New Jersey Democrat Cory Booker announced he would leak a confidential document containing Kavanaugh’s thoughts on racial profiling and noted that the potential penalty for doing so could be “ouster from the Senate”. John Cornyn, his Republican counterpart, responded with a dig at Booker, saying that “running for president is no excuse” for leaking information.Dick Durbin, the number two Democrat in the Senate, immediately spoke in solidarity with Booker. “I completely agree with you. I concur with what you’re doing,” he said. “Let’s jump into the pit together. If there is going to be some retribution against the senator from New Jersey, count me in.” After his statement, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii announced she would release confidential documents as well.However, Republicans insisted that the documents in question had already been cleared for publication. In a statement, a spokesman for Senator Chuck Grassley, the chair of the committee, said “restrictions were waived before 4am” and “senators were notified of this before speaking began this morning”. It added that Democrats just wanted to “break the rules and make a scene”.In a statement, Booker did not deny that the documents had already been cleared for release when he made his demand. “Cory and Senate Democrats were able to shame the committee into agreeing to make last night’s documents publicly available, and Cory publicly released those documents as well as other committee confidential documents today,” said Booker’s spokeswoman, Kristin Lynch.The documents, consisting of emails from Kavanaugh’s time in the Bush White House, were blasted out mid-morning on Thursday. Booker published several emails in which Kavanaugh said that while he favored “race neutral” security measures in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, he said there was an “interim question of what to do before a truly effective and comprehensive race-neutral system is developed and implemented”.Hirono published an email in which Kavanaugh wrote: “Any program targeting Native Hawaiians as a group is subject to strict scrutiny and of questionable validity under the Constitution.”Booker later shared other “committee confidential” information throughout the day on Thursday.The fight focused on information turned over from the George W Bush Library about Kavanaugh’s service in the Bush White House. The documents were labeled “committee confidential” which meant that they could not be made public or discussed in public.Bill Burck, a lawyer representing Bush, made the determination for which documents would receive that label. Burck also represents the White House counsel, Don McGahn, former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and former White House strategist Steve Bannon in the Mueller investigation.The documents leaked to the New York Times also included Kavanaugh dealing with issues such as warrantless surveillance, affirmative action and a controversial appellate court nomination.Kavanaugh played coy when asked about other issues on Thursday. He refused to weigh in on Trump’s attacks on the judiciary, under questioning from Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut.When Blumenthal cited Trump’s 2016 attacks on federal judge Gonzalo Curiel over his Mexican-American heritage and tweets where Trump said Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s “mind was shot”, Kavanaugh dodged, saying he did not want to get “within three zip codes of a political debate”. In contrast, Justice Neil Gorsuch called Trump’s attacks on the judiciary “disheartening” and “demoralizing” during his confirmation process.Kavanaugh also insisted that “I’ve had no inappropriate discussions with anyone” when asked about conversations he may have had about the Mueller investigation. Democrats have long been concerned with how Kavanaugh might rule in potential litigation relating to the Russia investigation if elevated to the supreme court. Topics Brett Kavanaugh US politics Cory Booker US supreme court Law (US) news

A man has been arrested over the rape and murder of the journalist Victoria Marinova, Bulgarian authorities have said, adding that they do not believe the attack was linked to Marinova’s work.The body of Marinova, 30, was found by a passerby on Saturday, after she had gone running along the Danube in Ruse, Bulgaria’s fifth biggest city. She presented a programme on TVN, a local channel.The man, named as 21-year-old Bulgarian citizen Severin Krasimirov, was detained by German police near Hamburg on Tuesday, at the request of Bulgarian authorities.“We have enough proof linking this person to the scene of the crime,” said Bulgaria’s interior minister, Mladen Marinov, on Wednesday. Krasimirov, a resident of Ruse, has a criminal record for scrap metal theft, he said. The minister said investigators had spoken to the journalist’s family and friends and added: “There is no apparent link to her work.”The chief prosecutor, Sotir Tsatsarov, said Krasimirov was already wanted by police over another rape and murder, and added that he did not believe the killing of Marinova was connected to her work, suggesting it was a “spontaneous” attack.The attack marked the third death of a journalist in an EU country in the space of a year, prompting fears Marinova could have been targeted for her work, especially given that her final broadcast involved an interview with two investigative journalists who were looking into high-level corruption.On Wednesday morning, however, Bulgaria’s prime minister, Boyko Borisov, launched an attack on journalists and his political opponents, criticising them for speculating that Marinova had been killed because of her journalism.“I read monstrous things about Bulgaria in the past three days and nothing was true,” he said. “We, as a country, did not deserve to be smeared like this.”Many European figures tweeted their concern after the killing, including the European commission’s vice-president, Frans Timmermans. He wrote on Twitter: “Shocked by the horrendous murder of Victoria Marinova. Again a courageous journalist falls in the fight for truth and against corruption.”On Wednesday, Antonio Tajani, the rightwing Italian president of the European parliament, congratulated Bulgarian authorities on Twitter, commending the arrest and stating without evidence that the motive for her murder “was not related to her work as a journalist”.Borisov lashed out at political opponents for “sending emails to Brussels and the United States, as if this is not something that happens in other countries and is an isolated case”.The prime minister later invited foreign ambassadors stationed in Sofia to hear a report on the investigation so far. He told the reporters present at the press conference: “You have freedom to write, to talk, to broadcast on every subject.”Bulgaria has been ranked the 111th country in the world when it comes to press freedom, lower than any other EU state.Some Bulgarian journalists were less than convinced that the killing was pure coincidence and criticised authorities for appearing to discount the possibility of a contract killing from the outset.“Viktoria Marinova was not a professional investigator but she dared to speak about this and give others the possibility to discuss it,” said Atanas Chobanov of the investigative organisation Bivol, whose journalists were interviewed by Marinova in her final broadcast. He said the portal had received “credible threats” over the report.However, many of Marinova’s friends and colleagues have also played down the possibility that she could have been targeted for her work. Her ex-husband Svilen Maksimov, the director of TVN, told Bulgaria’s Nova TV that “all evidence points at absurd, awful coincidence”. Topics Bulgaria Germany Journalist safety Europe news

We need to change our minds about toilets. A woman from a small village in rural India, Anita Narre, shocked the nation when she left her husband two days after her wedding. But it wasn’t the speed of her decision that caused the astonishment; it was the reason. Outraged that her new home lacked a toilet, Narre refused to return until her husband built her one. Her story, which inspired my latest film, cuts to the very heart of one of the biggest crises facing my country today.The threat of violence and the leers of men mean that most women wait until nightfall before trudging out into the open. Many hold their bladders for up to 13 hours at a time, exposing them to urinary tract infections and other health problems.This isn’t the only awful consequence of India’s lack of toilets. Defecating in the open spreads disease and pollutes drinking water, damaging the health of millions of my countrymen and women. Of the 1.7 million people worldwide who die every year because of poor sanitation and unsafe water, more than 600,000 die in India. Poor sanitation kills more Indian children under the age of five than anything else. Those who survive often grow up malnourished and stunted from diarrhoea, typhoid and worm infections.That’s why I was so keen to attach my name to Toilet: Ek Prem Katha. The film tells the tale of a wife who refuses to return to her husband until he builds her a toilet. By bringing the issue of open defecation to Bollywood’s silver screen, I hope to inspire millions of people to tackle a problem that blights so many lives and deprives women and men of their safety, basic dignity and privacy.The government already understands the scale of the issue. Our country is spending about $29bn (£24bn) on building millions of toilets, in a drive to get rid of open defecation by 2019. The problem is that many people still believe building toilets inside homes – where we wash, cook and worship – is dirty. Changing our minds will be essential if we are to stand a chance of tackling the sanitation crisis. Simply put, there is no point in building millions of toilets unless we use them.This means the Indian government, NGOs and local leaders need to work with people to explain the dangers of open defecation and the benefits that toilets bring. But even that won’t be enough to change people’s minds. The toilets we build need to be connected to proper sewer lines, to avoid contaminating water sources. The waste needs to be properly treated or recycled. And our toilets must have sinks that work, so we can wash our hands and avoid spreading disease. We really need to show people that toilets are cleaner and healthier. Only then can we learn to love the toilet.This isn’t just a problem that plagues my country. About one in three people worldwide lacks access to a toilet that provides safely managed sanitation. This puts all of us in danger. The lakes, rivers and groundwater that we depend on for our food and water are more polluted than ever. Most of the world’s wastewater is being dumped, untreated, into our rivers, spreading life-threatening diseases, killing fish and destroying ecosystems. As a result, an estimated 2 billion people are exposed to drinking water contaminated with faeces.In December, world leaders will meet in Kenya at the UN environment assembly to find ways to combat water pollution. Water-borne diseases like diarrhoea are a major cause of death, especially in developing countries. The UN estimates that up to a third of rivers are contaminated with pathogens from poor sanitation, and that 3.4 million people, mostly children, die each year because of contaminated water.In Kenya, countries will outline how they plan to tackle this deadly form of pollution. The cornerstone of life on our planet, water affects so much more than just our health. A lack of water increases poverty, inequality and hunger. It damages a child’s right to receive a decent education, often hitting society’s most vulnerable the hardest.If we want to create a world that is healthier and fairer, it is essential that we work together to provide everyone with access to clean water and better sanitation. That is exactly what global leaders will do at the assembly when they commit to beating the pollution that plagues the water, soil and air that all of us share. But it is not just governments that need to step up. The people I met as I worked on my latest film prove that individuals can effect immense change. Women like Anita Narre are transforming communities by demanding their right to live healthier, cleaner lives. These women are writing scripts for roles that all of us can play. Each one of us has the power to change the minds of our friends, families and neighbours by educating them about the benefits of toilets and better sanitation. If we want the story to end happily – if we want a clean India where people live the healthy lives they deserve – then we must all learn to love the toilet. Akshay Kumar is an actor, producer and activist Topics Sanitation India South and Central Asia Bollywood Access to water comment

The day that Jimmy Iovine’s Apple stock options vest, he’s heading for the exits, according to a report yesterday in Billboard.Apple hasn’t confirmed the Beats cofounder’s departure, but it sounds accurate and not even very surprising. Iovine started Beats in 2008 with Dr. Dre. Iovine was also friends with Steve Jobs, and has helped Apple navigate the rocky waters of the music industry since before Apple bought Beats in 2014 for $3 billion.By the time of the acquisition, Beats had itself expanded from headphones and small speakers into a subscription music service (on the strength of its MOG service acquisition). Some of that technology was used in Apple’s own subscription music service, Apple Music, which launched in 2015 and now has more than 30 million paid subscribers.In theory, Iovine could have ongoing value to Apple in securing exclusive releases from high-profile artists for Apple Music. But labels aren’t wild about such arrangements (as Iovine has acknowledged), preferring to make major releases available on as many platforms as possible. Nor have exclusives proved to be a major factor in Apple Music’s growth. Moreover, Iovine may be able to help Apple with industry relationships whether he’s an employee or not. Apple Music has already had limited-time exclusives with Chance the Rapper, Drake, and Taylor Swift.Iovine has been a very public face for Apple, but he has not emerged as a key influencer within Apple on hardware product direction–at least not publicly. Apple has continued selling Beats gear under its own brand, and, as far as we know, has not integrated much of the core Beats audio technology in other Apple products.Apple has, however, baked its home-developed W1 audio chip into the Beats Studio 3 over-ear headphones. The chip is used to automatically pair the headphones with Apple devices and to enable better power efficiency.Meanwhile Apple’s major challenge of making iTunes and Apple Music into one cohesive and easy-to-use software product remains undone. Apple is marketing its forthcoming HomePod smart speaker primarily as a premium home audio device, but Iovine’s role in shaping that device is unknown.The next news item on Iovine will likely be a confirmation from Apple that he’s moving on, then another update on what the music exec is going to do next.

In recent months, as supplies of aid, money and weapons to Syria’s opposition have dwindled, it had clung to the hope that ongoing international political support would prevent an outright victory for Bashar al-Assad and his backers. Not any more.An announcement earlier this week by Jordan – one of the opposition’s most robust supporters – that “bilateral ties with Damascus are going in the right direction” has, for many, marked a death knell for the opposition cause.Within the ranks of the political opposition, and regional allies, the statement was the opening act of something that all had dreaded: normalisation with a bitter foe. And without anything much to show for it.Emphasising his words, Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani said: “This is a very important message that everyone should hear.” And indeed, the about-face in Amman was quickly noted in Ankara, Doha, and Riyadh, where – after seven and a-half years of war – states that were committed to toppling the Syrian leader are now resigned to him staying.Returning from a summit in the Saudi capital last week, opposition leaders say they were told directly by the foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, that Riyadh was disengaging. “The Saudis don’t care about Syria anymore,” said a senior western diplomat. “It’s all Qatar for them. Syria is lost.”In Britain too, rhetoric that had demanded Assad leave the Presidential Palace, as a first step towards peace, has been replaced by what Whitehall calls “pragmatic realism”. The foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, last week couched Assad’s departure as “not a precondition. But part of a transition.”Rex Tillerson, the US secretary of state, has openly delegated finding a solution to Syria to Russia. Donald Trump, meanwhile, has pledged to close a CIA-run programme, which had sent weapons from Jordan and Turkey to vetted Syrian rebel groups for much of the past four years. Washington has adopted a secondary role in twin, ailing, peace processes in Geneva and Astana and has focused its energies on fighting Isis, not Assad.Where such a change of direction leaves up to 6 million refugees who had fled the war for Jordan, Turkey and Europe is a question that many of the exiles are now starting to grapple with. Many, like Ghassan Moussa, say that near certain defeat is more a result of international fatigue than the opposition’s shortcomings.“I ran away from Bashar, because if I stayed he would have killed me and all those I love,” said Moussa, who fled the Damascus suburb of Ghouta in mid-2013. “All of those who came with me did so because we believed that the countries that were backing the opposition would stay with us.”Robert Ford, former US ambassador to Damascus and senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, said: “Opposition backers quit on the opposition for different reasons. First, the constant squabbling, pettiness and inability to agree on a common leadership and strategy always made donors leery of the rebels and the political [arm]. Moreover, their coordination and eventual integration with an al-Qaida affiliate made the Americans and Jordanians uncomfortable.“Jordan is unwilling to take any more refugees and wants the fighting in the south to stop and only accepts continued anti-Isis [operations], as per American preference.” The consequences of Assad clawing back control – assisted by the staunch support of Iran and Russia – are also increasingly being felt in opposition areas inside Syria, where international aid donors have been having second thoughts.Officials in Whitehall are examining whether Britain will continue to honour up to £200m in aid for local populations in Idlib and communities exiled from elsewhere in Syria.The officials fear that the al-Qaida inspired affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, has increasingly imposed itself on how local institutions are run, meaning aid deliveries cannot credibly be kept away from a prescribed terror group. Germany is also considering suspending its aid program to Idlib province. If both countries pull out, the US is expected to follow.“The fact that this has become a self-fulfilling prophecy has been particularly troubling,” said one diplomat. “It did not have to be this way.”Another senior regional diplomat said: “There are tremendous consequences for the millions of IDPs [internally displaced people] and exiles as well as for families seeking justice. How do you get reconciliation out of this? This will feed impunity and revenge. Fatigue is not an excuse for what will follow.”Three other diplomats contacted by the Guardian refused to put their names to their thoughts on the next phase of the conflict, which they collectively believed would be marked by the continued re-imposition of authority by Damascus, with heavy input from Iran and Russia, both of which are vying for a decisive role in postwar Syria.“Once the Russians realise that Iran – not Syria – has actually won this, they will put Assad on the table,” said one of the diplomats. That is their trump card; being able to say to the international community that they have delivered what they want. It is also their exit strategy.“But they have told us that he won’t be shot outside the gates. It will be a comfortable exile.”In Turkey, one of the first of the opposition’s backers to divest from a common approach of arming an anti-Assad opposition to a more narrow interest of curbing the ambitions of Syrian Kurds, there is a broad recognition that the war it backed more than any other state can no longer be won.“That started around a year ago,” said Haji Saud, a prominent leader of a rebel faction, now in exile in Turkey. The Russians told them they will stop the Kurds from controlling the border in April last year. After that, it became difficult to get here. Now Syria will descend further into territories run by warlords. When everyone looks away, it will be hell. And we never thought it could get worse than this.” Topics Syria Bashar al-Assad Turkey US foreign policy Foreign policy Middle East and North Africa analysis

There’s been a great deal written about the film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and how Sam Rockwell’s character’s path from violent racist to sympathetic good guy seems phony or unearned. There will be fewer complaints about Burden, based on the true story of a South Carolina Klansman who turned his back on bigotry in the 1990s. There is, however, a catch. This movie is about as subtle as a sledgehammer, with no shortage of cringeworthy moments and an uninteresting lead performance.When we first meet Garrett Hedlund’s Mike Burden he hardly comes across as a Mensa candidate, but clearly has a good heart. He works with a tight group at a repossession company, led by father figure Tom (Tom Wilkinson). They take their meals together, have a car in a local drag race and are reconstructing the old theater in the small downtown area of Laurens. When Mike has to take a television away from Judy, a struggling working mother with a deadbeat husband, he does what he’s not supposed to do and lets her hold on to the item.We see Mike as Judy does through her timid eyes beneath a giant mop of red hair (I’ll confess I didn’t recognize Andrea Riseborough until the final credits). Mike may be simple, prone to nervously swaying his head around like a goose when he talks, but he’s a kind soul, right? Well, maybe. Turns out that old theater is about to make its debut as something called The Redneck Store, which sells vulgar racist trinkets. In the back is the KKK Museum, glorifying the murderous American hate group.The main stretch of Burden is an exercise in cognitive dissonance. One moment Mike is the only man who has ever loved and supported Judy and her cute son Franklin. The next minute he’s using the N word, wearing white sheets and prepping for the inevitable violence that Tom’s shop will bring.Also in the mix is the local preacher, Reverend Kennedy (Forest Whitaker) whose uncle was lynched by the KKK. He’s ready to protest and publicize (and even bring down Reverend Jesse Jackson for a rally) but more than anything he’s prepped to pray. Reverend Kennedy is defiant, but devoted to non-violence. Then he gets his lucky break.Judy, now Mike’s girlfriend, is not pro-Klan (as the old saying goes, some of her best friends are black, but in this case it’s true) and she urges Mike to quit the group. After a skirmish that nearly turns deadly he does, and they soon learn the power the Klan has over a small town – they get booted from their home and lose their jobs. Penniless and hungry, the only one who will take them in is Reverend Kennedy.Mike’s long path to enlightenment starts out as one of necessity. He hates having to depend on a black man, but he realizes his ex-friends do not have his interests at heart. After a few drunken montages and flashes of memory, it looks like he’s about to come out the other side, he can still be triggered into his default antagonism.Riseborough and especially Whitaker both get room for some striking, emotional moments. Hedlund just gets to look gross and mumble. Director Andrew Heckler doesn’t have a natural way of staging scenes (peripheral characters chime in with lines as if it’s a high school play) and there’s no consistent visual sense. The main shtick is to make sure that all the white people look as dirty and grungy as possible. Poor people may not have much, but they do have showers. No one except the Reverend’s family looks like they’ve bathed in a month. (When Mike gives Judy his gross stained sweatshirt what’s meant to be romantic may actually make you hurl.)Burden does not have enough working for it to achieve escape velocity from that horrible fate: a movie that can be called “important”, but actually offers little entertainment value. A quick peek at Wikipedia shows that the uplifting ending didn’t quite go the way it’s shown in the movie, either. The good secondary performances aren’t enough to overcome what is ultimately guilt cinema, and that’s a burden to us all. Burden is showing at the Sundance film festival Topics Sundance 2018 Sundance film festival Race Festivals Andrea Riseborough Drama films reviews

Trevor Noah addressed Donald Trump’s controversial pardon of Joe Arpaio, the Arizona sheriff who once referred to his notorious Tent City prison as a concentration camp and was held in contempt of court in a case linked to racial profiling.“Let’s move on from Hurricane Harvey to the storm that is battering the entire country: Donald Trump,” Trevor Noah began during The Daily Show. “He’s been president for seven months and, like a teenage boy with a locked bedroom door, he’s been exploring his new powers. And this weekend, Trump confirmed that he could get someone off all by himself.”Noah discussed Trump’s decision to pardon Arpaio on Friday night, in a move that had been speculated on for weeks. Members of the GOP, like speaker of the house Paul Ryan and senator John McCain, spoke out against the president’s use of the pardon power.“To understand why both Democrats and many Republicans have condemned this pardon, you need to understand the man who Trump gave the pardon to,” Noah explained. “Ladies and gentleman, meet Joe Arpaio. He was elected sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona in 1993 and quickly developed a reputation as an intense opponent of illegal immigration. Which you can kind of get. He’s in law enforcement, he’s cracking down on something illegal. It’s like how Smokey the Bear brutally mauls anyone who starts a forrest fire.”“But as much as Sheriff Arpaio presented himself as anti-illegal immigrants, it turns out he was really just anti- being a decent human being,” the host continued, summarizing the dreadful treatment of inmates at Arpaio’s prisons, particularly in Tent City, where their shoes often melted as they were made to sleep outside in triple-digit temperatures, as well as the $142m in legal fees, settlements, and compliance costs Arpaio cost taxpayers because of wrongful deaths and civil rights infractions. “Yes, the man Trump pardoned was one of the worst sheriffs in America,” Noah said. “Worse than Sheriff Clarke, worse than Sheriff Rosco P Coltrane, worse than the sheriff Bob Marley shot in his song. Think about all the other things that that money could have bought: schools or roads, or they could’ve just paid Conor McGregor and Floyd Maywetaher to punch Arpaio in the face.”Noah continued: “And here’s what may surprise you. All that shit that Arpaio did, that’s not why he needed a pardon. Those were just his extracurriculars. It turns out his full-time job is racism.”Noah then detailed Arpaio’s July conviction for contempt of court due to his violation of a federal court order to stop profiling Latinos in his district.“Now, contempt of court may not seem like a big deal,” Noah said. “But this wasn’t some night-in-jail offense. This was a federal court ruling that Sheriff Arpaio was routinely violating Americans’ constitutional rights and ordered him to stop immediately.”“And here’s why Trump’s pardon is an even bigger deal than merely condoning Arpaio’s illegal actions. Remember how the three branches of government are supposed to be equal? Well, convicting someone of contempt is the one and only way the judicial branch can put muscle behind its decisions. So when the president of the United States steps in and pardons someone’s contempt conviction, he’s essentially rendering the courts powerless.”“For a guy who’s not racist, Donald Trump sure has a lot of racist friends,” Noah concluded. Topics Late-night TV roundup Trevor Noah US television Television Donald Trump TV comedy Comedy blogposts

Two British special forces soldiers have been seriously injured in a missile attack by Islamic State in eastern Syria while fighting alongside Kurdish forces, according to reports.The casualties are the first known injuries to coalition soldiers from the west in Syria since the US president, Donald Trump, said Isis had been defeated in the country and that American troops would be withdrawn.The British soldiers were airlifted by US forces for medical treatment following the incident, which is thought to have happened on Saturday morning. One Kurdish fighter was also killed in the attack, according to reports.Meanwhile, an Irish man is understood to be among five jihadists captured by coalition and Kurdish forces in Syria for fighting for Isis. A spokesman said they also included two US citizens and two Pakistanis and were captured in the east of the country. The Irishman is 45 years old and from Dublin, according to reports. Kurdish forces are believed to be holding hundreds of foreign Isis fighters in detention centres in the north of the country as well as their families.Rudaw, a Kurdish news outlet, reported that the British soldiers had been hurt and the Kurdish fighter from the Syrian Democratic Forces had died in an attack on an SDF base in the town of Deir ez-Zor, in the east of the country.An SDF official told the news agency: “Due to a smart missile attack by Isis, a fighter of the YPG [Kurdish militia] was killed and another wounded, in addition to two British soldiers.”British special forces are believed to be on the ground in Syria. The Ministry of Defence said in a statement: “We do not comment on special forces.”The UK has formed part of the US-led coalition carrying out airstrikes against Isis in Syria, where there are approximately 2,000 US troops.In December, Trump said he was withdrawing US troops from Syria, claiming Isis had been defeated, although on Saturday a Trump official hinted that some troops might remain.Trump said: “We have defeated Isis in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump presidency.”The announcement shocked US allies and American defence officials alike. The US defence secretary, Jim Mattis, and a top US official in the fight against Isis, Brett McGurk, resigned soon after.Analysts and military experts, who disagree with Trump, have said the threat posed by Isis still remains in Syria and northern Iraq.In March, a British soldier, Sgt Matt Tonroe of 3rd Battalion the Parachute Regiment, was killed by an IED while embedded with US forces during an operation in Manbij, Syria. Topics Syria Islamic State British army Military news

The rumoured internet challenge known as Blue Whale, which has recently been allegedly linked to several suicides by teenagers and young men in India, has set off near panic in the country. Police have not confirmed any link with the deaths or even that "Blue Whale" exists, even though it has been mentioned in investigations into teenage suicides in a number of countries. The parents of some Indian children who killed themselves have since told reporters that they did so under its influence - also a charge that remains unconfirmed by police. Some internet experts even suspect that it is a hoax. The UK Safer Internet Centre has called it a "sensationalised fake news story". But Indian media have widely reported on the alleged links, leaving authorities scrambling to cope and many people increasingly alarmed.Now the Supreme Court has even stepped in and is hearing a petition that calls for it be banned, if that's possible.Multiple high courts, state governments and authorities have already issued similar calls but they have not explained how they plan to enforce a ban. Meanwhile, the federal government has asked Facebook, Google, Instagram and Whatsapp to remove alleged "links" that reportedly lead to alleged Blue Whale groups or sites. But it is unclear how that can be done too. Schools have begun issuing warnings to students about its dangers, raising alarm among many parents - and feeding into the sense of hysteria. In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh authorities have banned smartphones in schools, and one school in Punjab has asked its students to wear short-sleeved shirts so they can check for whale-shaped tattoos - alleged proof of participation.There is some confusion about the origins, but the title is believed to be a reference to an act carried out by some blue whales, who appear to beach themselves on purpose, causing them to die.The name is apparently being used by an alleged online pressure group, which is said to assign a curator to individual participants who then encourages them to complete tests over the course of 50 days. These assigned tasks reportedly escalate from straightforward demands such as watching a macabre video or horror film to something more sinister - even leading to suicide.Unfortunately it is not unusual for teenagers to be drawn to social media groups that ultimately have a detrimental effect on their mental health.The online group associated with the reports is said to have thousands of members and subscribers on Facebook and YouTube.The name has cropped up in countries including Russia, Ukraine, Spain, Portugal, France and the UK.The first news reports linking it to suicides, which appeared in Russian media, have been discredited. Vkontakte, the Russian social network where it allegedly originated, said it had traced Blue Whale hashtags to "tens of thousands of bots". Blue Whale: Should you be worried about online pressure groups? Why are young Indians killing themselves? But with reports of alleged Blue Whale-related suicides appearing every day in the local media, Indian schools are taking no chances."My own notion about this is that it's just like drugs where even the first step is not to be taken," principal Rajiv Sharma told a roomful of 16-year-olds at his Spring Dale school in the northern state of Punjab. "Remember just one mantra: nothing is more precious than life," he added. "I got very scared... because something that can do this to you, you should not even try it, you should not try searching for it, you should try not even thinking about it," Shivram Rai Luthra, a student who attended Mr Sharma's talk, told BBC Hindi.But not everyone thinks that this is the best approach."Schools doing Blue Whale sessions are advertising for Blue Whale," Sunil Abraham, an internet researcher, told the BBC. Why single it out, he asked, instead of talking about every internet-related concern from bullying online to sexting. "We are going through a moral panic," he added. "And the response seems to be moral education. It discounts the root cause of why people are suicidal." A 2012 study shows that suicide is the second most common cause of death among India's youth. Added to that, very little is known about the suicides that have been linked to Blue Whale. The supposed links often boil down to alleged mentions of it on their Whatsapp chat groups and rumours of them having been glued to their phones in the weeks before they took their own lives. "Nobody has looked at the histories of these kids," technology writer Mala Bhargava told the BBC. "All we can really do is speculate away." Dr Achal Bhagat, a psychiatrist in Delhi, told the BBC he had not encountered a single Blue Whale case, although he speaks to young people every day. "People join narratives to explain their experiences," said Dr Bhagat, adding that is possibly why some children have said they participated in the rumoured challenge despite there being no proof of its existence. Mental health in children, according to Dr Bhagat, is "extremely neglected" because India has no national programme to prevent suicide or even guidelines for improving mental health in schools. When you don't know how to talk to children every day, he added, how will you know how to communicate in a crisis?"We all need to listen to children rather than telling them what not to do," Dr Bhagat said. Rather than obsessing about something that might not even exist, experts like Dr Bhagat wish the media and others would focus more on real mental health issues in young people.He advises parents that if they are concerned a teenager they know may be influenced by the alleged Blue Whale internet challenge or may require emotional support they should contact a mental health professional. Additional reporting by Ravinder Singh Robin. If you are feeling emotionally distressed and would like details of organisations in the UK which offer advice and support, go to bbc.co.uk/actionline.

Donald Trump denied on Friday that he used the phrase “shithole countries” to describe Central American and African nations during talks with US lawmakers the day before. But one of the senators present contradicted Trump and called the remarks he had heard “hate-filled, vile and racist”.Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat who was in the meeting, contradicted him to local Chicago press on Friday morning. He said Trump “in the course of his comments said things which were hate-filled, vile and racist”.Durbin said: “He said these hate-filled things, and he said them repeatedly.”A few hours later, at an event to honor Martin Luther King Jr, Trump ignored questions from reporters, including one who asked: “Mr President, are you a racist?”On Thursday, Trump reportedly grew angry during a meeting about protections for immigrants from several countries, and asked: “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?”“Why do we need more Haitians?” he reportedly added. “Take them out.” He also reportedly suggested the US bring in more people from Norway.Early on Friday, he denied using the derogatory language. “The language used by me at the Daca meeting was tough, but this was not the language used,” he tweeted, using an acronym for a program to protect young undocumented immigrants. “What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made – a big setback for Daca!”Trump later added: “Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said ‘take them out.’ Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings – unfortunately, no trust!”But Durbin said: “I cannot believe that in the history of the White House and the Oval Office, any president has ever spoken the words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday. I’ve seen the comments in the press and I’ve not read one of them that’s inaccurate.”Leaders around the world spoke out in anger on Friday. Haiti summoned the American envoy to the country, El Salvador’s president lodged a diplomatic protest, and the UN’s spokesman on human rights told reporters “there is no other word one can use but racist.”The Republican senator Jeff Flake also contradicted the president, tweeting: “The words used by the President, as related to me directly following the meeting by those in attendance, were not ‘tough,’ they were abhorrent and repulsive.”Two of the president’s closest allies in the Senate, Republicans Tom Cotton and David Perdue, said in a statement: “we do not recall the president saying these comments specifically.”The Thursday remarks was first reported by the Washington Post, citing aides briefed on the meeting, and White House spokesman Raj Shah did not deny that the president had used profanity to describe the nations.“Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people,” Shah said Thursday. He added that the president wanted “merit-based immigration” of people who can “grow our economy and assimilate into our great nation”.The president harped on those themes Friday morning, saying that the proposals he saw Thursday were inadequate and even “a big step backwards”. He claimed without specifics or evidence that the deal would force the US “to take large numbers of people from high crime countries which are doing badly”.“I want a merit-based system of immigration and people who will help take our country to the next level. I want safety and security for our people. I want to stop the massive inflow of drugs,” he said.That tweet and reported remarks echo Trump’s long history of inflammatory comments about race, including years of spreading a false conspiracy about Barack Obama’s birth, a campaign announcement calling Mexicans “rapists”, and a refusal to condemn white supremacists last summer.At the midday event to honor King, Trump decried racism. “No matter what the color of our skin or the place of our birth, we are all created equal,” he said. The president left the event without answering reporters’ questions, mostly about his views of people from Central America and Africa. Topics Donald Trump US immigration US politics Haiti Americas news

India’s supreme court has refused to grant any interim relief to cryptocurrency exchanges against the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) crackdown on them.On April 05, the RBI had directed all banks to wind up within three months any existing banking relationships with virtual currency exchanges and traders. The ban kicks in from July 06.Jolted by the central bank’s diktat, a number of cryptocurrency exchanges had dragged the central bank to the supreme court in April. In May, the court had set the next date for the hearing of the case on July 20, two weeks after the ban would come into force. But the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), which counts bitcoin exchanges as its members, subsequently approached the court for an early hearing, which took place today (July 03).“This a win for the RBI and a big blow to virtual currency exchanges and traders. In our earlier request to the RBI as well, we had asked it to extend the deadline by a month after the July 20 hearing,” said Rashmi Deshpande, associate partner at Khaitan & Co, a law firm representing Kali Digital Eco-Systems, an Indian exchange planning to begin operations later this year.“However, now that the ban will continue, the banking route for the exchanges and its users will be completely choked,” Deshpande added.In the previous hearing on May 17, the apex court had asked these exchanges to submit their representation against the central bank. The firms had engaged with the RBI during the last week of May and early June.“We had submitted a detailed presentation that could have given RBI a clearer picture on what is blockchain, how the exchanges work, etc. But we hadn’t heard back from them yet,” said Nischal Shetty, founder and CEO of WazirX, another Indian cryptocurrency exchange that has challenged the ban. “Today, the supreme court has also directed the RBI to respond to those representations made by the firms in the next seven days.”Despite the court upholding the ban, the exchanges are hopeful. The Narendra Modi government is in the final stages of finalising the draft regulation on bitcoin and other currencies, according to a senior government official.“We have prepared a draft (on virtual currencies) that entails what parts of this businesses should be banned and what should be preserved. This should be discussed by the first week of July and we should wrap this up within in the first fortnight of July,” Subhash Chandra Garg, secretary in the department of economic affairs, who is heading a committee on cryptocurrency regulation, told television news channel ET Now last month.Now, all eyes are on the government and the next supreme court hearing on July 20.

The United States has announced it will revoke or deny visas to members of the International Criminal Court involved in investigating the actions of US troops in Afghanistan or other countries.The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said Washington was prepared to take further steps, including economic sanctions, if the war crimes court goes ahead with any investigations of US or allied personnel.“The ICC is attacking America’s rule of law,” Pompeo told reporters. “It’s not too late for the court to change course and we urge that it do so immediately.”The United States has never joined the ICC, where a prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, asked judges in November 2017 for authorization to open an investigation into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.Pompeo’s announcement of visa restrictions was the first concrete action taken by the US against the ICC since the White House threatened reprisals against the Hague-based body in September.“I’m announcing a policy of US visa restrictions on those individuals directly responsible for any ICC investigation of US personnel,” he said.This would include anyone who takes, or has taken, action to request or further an investigation, he told reporters.“If you’re responsible for the proposed ICC investigation of US personnel in connection with the situation in Afghanistan you should not assume that you still have, or will get, a visa or that you will permitted to enter the United States,” Pompeo added.The secretary of state said visas could also be withheld from ICC personnel involved in conducting probes of US allies, specifically Israel.Pompeo said “implementation” of the policy has already begun but he did not provide any details, citing confidentiality surrounding visa applications.“These visa restrictions will not be the end of our efforts,” Pompeo said. “We’re prepared to take additional steps, including economic sanctions, if the ICC does not change its course.”The secretary of state said the US had declined to join the ICC “because of its broad unaccountable prosecutorial powers” and the threat it proposes to American national sovereignty.“We are determined to protect American and allied civilian personnel from living in fear of unjust prosecution for actions taken to defend our great nation,” he said.Pompeo said the US government was obliged to protect its citizens and procedures were already in place to deal with members of the US armed forces who engage in misconduct.“The US government, where possible, takes legal action against those responsible for international crimes,” he added, noting that it has supported prosecution of war crimes in Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere.The ICC and human rights groups reacted swiftly to Pompeo’s remarks.“The ICC, as a court of law, will continue to do its independent work, undeterred, in accordance with its mandate and the overarching principle of the rule of law,” the ICC said.Richard Dicker, the international justice director at Human Rights Watch, said the US move “is a naked attempt to bully judges and impede justice for victims in Afghanistan” and “blatant contempt for the rule of law”.James Goldston, the executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative, said Pompeo’s remarks reflected the administration’s view that international law matters “only when it is aligned with US national interests”.“Attacking international judicial actors for doing their jobs undermines global efforts to hold to account those most responsible for atrocity crimes such as torture and mass murder,” Goldston said.The ICC was established in 2002 under the Rome Statute and joined by 123 countries.But ICC membership was never ratified by the US Senate and the “America First” administration of Donald Trump has been a particularly virulent opponent. Topics US politics International criminal court Trump administration War crimes Mike Pompeo Afghanistan International criminal justice news

India’s biggest airline is flying through some serious turbulence this month. For IndiGo airlines, the trial began on Nov. 04, after badminton ace P V Sindhu took to Twitter to rate her experience with the carrier. Her verdict: “Very bad.”The Olympic silver medalist explained that the airline’s ground staff had “behaved very badly and rudely” with her. Quick to the defence, IndiGo insisted that Sindhu boarded the flight late, carrying an over-sized bag that could not fit into the overhead bin. It was the ensuing confusion that apparently led to the incident.BSE-listed IndiGo which controls 38.2% of the market share, as per the latest report, probably had little idea that its November nightmare had just begun.In less than a decade after its launch in 2006, IndiGo has emerged as the leader in Indian aviation, riding high on punctuality, reliability, and standout customer service. Its won the Skytrax world airline award eight consecutive times for being the best low-cost airline in central Asia and India. In the last few weeks, though, some of these award-winning attributes have come under scrutiny, as the airline has lurched from one public relations disaster to another. The company has also run into a legal tussle with the Delhi International Airport (DIAL), while one of its aircraft had an encounter with errant wildlife on a runway in southern Indian. The airline’s stock has taken a beating amidst all this chaos.IndiGo’s belated apology, three weeks after the assault, added fuel to the fire. For two days #boycottIndiGo trended on Twitter even as jokes and memes about the airline, which has made a name for itself for its smart branding and slick advertisements, were widely circulated.Barely had it recovered from this row when another one kicked off. The airline was pulled up for negligence after one of its passengers fell off a wheelchair while being assisted by the ground staff at the Lucknow airport on Nov. 13. The state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI), which manages over 100 airports, squarely blamed IndiGo. The carrier argued that the accident was caused by a crack on the tarmac floor and dim lighting on the path, a claim rubbished by AAI.A day later, on Nov. 14, an IndiGo flight carrying 150 passengers averted a mishap at the Visakhapatnam airport after a wild boar wandered onto the runway and came under the aircraft. Though it only led to a three hour delay IndiGo once again hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons.Then, early on Nov. 16, its Doha-bound flight hit a bird soon after take-off from Chennai. The plane with 134 on board was forced to return.Meanwhile, DIAL has dragged IndiGo to court. The airport authorities have directed airlines operating from Terminal-1 to partially shift their operations to Terminal-2 owing to expansion work. IndiGo, however, believes it will lead to chaos and confusion among its customers.The airline’s brand image is sullied. “There has been a cascade of bad occurrences one after the other and the airline needs to be careful,” said brand consultant Harish Bijoor. “There have been compromises in its services and offerings. Even though public memory is short, the airline needs to rectify this and be more careful in (the) future.” IndiGo declined to comment.Not surprisingly, the markets aren’t pleased with IndiGo’s shenanigans. After rising through October, its stock has lost around 7% of its value on BSE between Nov. 01 and Nov. 15.An unforgettable month for IndiGo, but for all the wrong reasons.

“The Syrian government does this fairly often,” said Robert S. Ford, the former American ambassador to Syria. “They have moved a lot of rebel fighters through these truce agreements, into Idlib, for instance, or Deir al-Zour. They’re just kicking the can down the road, figuring there may be other ways to reduce Idlib or Deir al-Zour later.”But deals between factions that are trying to kill one another depend not so much on good will as on a belief that keeping their word now will mean that future deals will be honored. It also assumes that the other side will have something to offer in the future.The Islamic State faction, seemingly on its heels, held a weak hand. Mostly all it had to trade were some dead bodies.When Lebanese Army and Hezbollah militiamen, along with the Syrian Army forces, surrounded them on the border near Arsal, Lebanon, they negotiated their freedom and safe passage to the town of Abu Kamal, on the eastern Syrian border with Iraq.By the time the convoy was on the road across the Syrian desert toward Abu Kamal, the American Air Force had been alerted. “So we decided to go look for these buses and we found them,” said Lt. Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, the American coalition commander. “And so we watched, and when ISIS came out to link up with them, we started striking ISIS. And again, we haven’t struck the convoy, but we have struck every ISIS fighter and/or vehicle that has tried to approach that convoy, and will continue to do that.”Even before the Americans struck though, the ISIS convoy ground to a halt, at a place called Humaimah, the last town before Deir al-Zour Province, and Islamic State territory. They were being escorted by Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia that is fighting for President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. Hezbollah is backed by Iran, which has both trainers and fighters in the country as well.

North Korea has hit back at Donald Trump after he criticised the regime for its human rights abuses in his State of the Union address, with Pyongyang describing the speech as the “screams of Trump” who was “terrified” by its power.The comments on Sunday follow months of fiery rhetoric between the two countries, with Trump drawing criticism at home for repeatedly using menacing language towards the reclusive state.In his speech on Wednesday, Trump criticised the “cruel dictatorship” of Kim Jong-un and the leader’s “reckless pursuit” of atomic weapons while vowing to wage “a campaign of maximum pressure” to derail the nuclear threat.Kim declared his country a fully fledged nuclear power last November after testing an intercontinental ballistic missile Pyongyang claimed was capable of reaching the US mainland.Trump also lashed out at widespread human rights abuses under the regime and highlighted the case of Otto Warmbier, an American student who died last year shortly after being released from a 17-month-long detention in North Korea.A spokesperson of North Korea’s foreign ministry on Sunday said the speech reflected “the height of Trump-style arrogance, arbitrariness and self-conceit”, in a statement carried by the state-run KCNA news agency. “Trump also insisted upon the ‘maximum pressure’ against our country, viciously slandering our most superior people-centred social system,” the statement said. “However, it is no less than screams of Trump terrified at the power of the DPRK that has achieved the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force and rapidly emerged as the strategic state recognised by the world.” Also in his address, Trump honoured Ji Seong-ho, a North Korean defector with one arm and one leg who made a dramatic, 6,000-mile (9,600km) journey to the South after experiencing severe discrimination and torture at home.Pyongyang claimed Trump’s comment revealed a “sinister intention to do something against us by relying on strength while talking about ‘American resolve’”.“If Trump does not get rid of his anachronistic and dogmatic way of thinking, it will only bring about the consequence of further endangering security and future of the United States,” the foreign ministry said.Relations between the two countries reached fresh lows last year with the North launching a series of missiles and staging its most powerful nuclear test to date, in a challenge to Trump who has threatened to “utterly destroy” the regime in the event of an attack.Kim and Trump have at the same time traded colourful personal barbs against each other, sparking global alarm and fears of further fighting on the peninsula that was left in ruins after the 1950-53 Korean War. But in a move that seemed aimed at easing tensions and after months of persuasion from Seoul, the North last month said it would send its athletes to the Winter Olympics, due to kick off in the South on Friday.Some have already arrived in South Korea.Analysts have described the potential momentum for peace as too fragile, saying it may not be sustainable after the Games given the North’s repeated declarations of nuclear statehood. Topics North Korea Asia Pacific Donald Trump Kim Jong-un news

But again, aesthetics don’t matter. And while most gun owners might be happy with keeping their rifles as semiautomatic, the proliferation of modification kits, books and YouTube videos demonstrates that many are eager to effectively convert them to automatics. Bump stocks are just the cheapest, simplest way to make a semiautomatic rifle act like an automatic.Open up, say, a Winchester 94, a .30-30 rifle — a so-called lever-action rifle, popular with deer hunters — and you’ll find about six mostly flat, stamped metal parts held together with springs and pins. Open up an M-16 or its AR-15 civilian cousin and you’ll find something else entirely: a tubular metal bolt, which slides back with the expulsion of gas as the bullet goes off, allowing the spring-fed magazine beneath to pop another round in place behind the chamber; the returning bolt then pushes it into place.The only real difference between the military and civilian versions is that the M-16 bolt is longer, and the stamped-metal components lock when set to automatic fire, allowing it to fire scores of bullets in several seconds. (Some claim the M-16 can fire up to 700 rounds a minute, but that’s true only in theory; in practice, the rate is limited by magazine size, among other things.)Or take the hottest new rifle, the HK416, originally designed for the German military. A semiautomatic version of the original, the MR556, is available to civilians for a cool $2,800 and up. I know someone who spent $10,000 on two of them. To sell to civilians, the manufacturer, Heckler & Koch, made fairly minor modifications. Its receiver — where bullet, trigger, bolt and barrel meet — is the same as the military version’s. But the trigger mechanisms inside, known as the trigger group, are attached differently in the civilian version, and a U-shaped metal ledge is removed.

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FILE PHOTO: A firefighter knocks down hotspots to slow the spread of the River Fire (Mendocino Complex) in Lakeport, California, U.S. July 31, 2018. REUTERS/Fred Greaves/File PhotoSYDNEY (Reuters) - Firefighters from Australia and New Zealand flew out of Sydney on Friday on a mission to relieve exhausted crews battling deadly wildfires sweeping the northwest of the United States. Australian fire authorities said the contingent of about 100 firefighters set off as conditions turned gusty in the mountains north of Sacramento, where fierce fires were among 100 burning across 13 western U.S. states. The 11-day-old Carr Fire, stoked by drought-parched vegetation and triple-digit temperatures, is the most fearsome. It has killed six people, reduced 1,555 structures to smoldering ruins and ranks as the sixth most destructive wildfire on record in California. Reporting by Tom Westbrook; Editing by Paul TaitOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Enlarge this image The University Of Louisville has put men's head basketball coach Rick Pitino on unpaid leave, after the program was mentioned in a wide-ranging federal fraud investigation. Joe Robbins/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Joe Robbins/Getty Images The University Of Louisville has put men's head basketball coach Rick Pitino on unpaid leave, after the program was mentioned in a wide-ranging federal fraud investigation. Joe Robbins/Getty Images The University Of Louisville has placed men's head basketball coach Rick Pitino on unpaid administrative leave, with his employment to be reviewed. The school's interim president, Gregory Postel, called it "a dark day" for the university.The move comes after Pitino's program was implicated in a wide-ranging federal fraud investigation that was unveiled on Tuesday. The FBI says it caught coaches, Adidas employees and players in a network of bribes.Postel said Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich is being placed on paid administrative leave.Member station WFPL reports about the allegations that touch on Louisville in the FBI's bribery case: "In one instance, an Adidas employee arranged for $100,000 and ongoing monthly payments allegedly funneled through a third-party company for a high school player, who is currently a freshman athlete at the school. That athlete is widely believed to be star recruit Brian Bowen." Announcing Pitino's reduced status Tuesday, Postel also said that one athlete on the basketball team won't be allowed to practice or play with the team — an apparent reference to Bowen.Pitino was put on leave after intense speculation that the coach would be fired Wednesday, after federal officials said bribes were paid to steer top high school recruits toward certain schools — and by extension, toward Adidas, the sports apparel company that sponsors those schools' teams.None of the four assistant coaches who were arrested over the federal charges work under Pitino at Louisville. But in addition to being implicated through court documents, the school's athletics teams are sponsored by Adidas — whose director of global sports marketing for basketball, James Gatto, was among 10 people who were arrested in the federal investigation.As member station WFPL — which is based in Louisville but is not affiliated with the university — reports, "Adidas paid Pitino $2.25 million in 2015 in athletically related income."The school will name an interim head basketball coach and interim athletic director, Postel said.In court documents, investigators alleged universities had agreed to "provide athletic scholarships to student-athletes who, in truth and in fact, were ineligible to compete as a result of the bribe payments."Charges in the case range from wire fraud and bribery to money-laundering, conspiracy and other offenses.After news of Louisville's implication in the case emerged Tuesday, the school's interim leader, Postel, issued a statement reading in part, "U of L is committed to ethical behavior and adherence to NCAA rules; any violations will not be tolerated. We will cooperate fully with any law enforcement or NCAA investigation into the matter."Pitino, 65, has coached at Louisville since 2001. He has won two national titles — one at Louisville in 2013 and another at the University of Kentucky in 1996.In his own statement, Pitino said on Tuesday:"These allegations come as a complete shock to me. If true, I agree with the U.S. Attorneys Office that these third-party schemes, initiated by a few bad actors, operated to commit a fraud on the impacted universities and their basketball programs, including the University of Louisville."The announcement of the university's response comes as Louisville and other colleges are preparing for the upcoming new season. Many schools have resumed practice this week.