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In setting out his new Iran policy, President Trump painted a stark picture of Iran as a brutal and manichean power, driven by a revolutionary ideology and eager to confront the US and its allies at almost every turn. In contrast to what he clearly sees as the lax approach of the Obama administration, Mr Trump wants to double-down on Iran - enforcing the nuclear deal more effectively and countering its growing regional influence.But beyond the tough rhetoric intended to please his own political base, what actually is new about Trump's new Iran policy? To what extent is it a departure from the Obama years? And what might its likely consequences be?Given Mr Trump's vehement opposition to the Iran nuclear deal - the JCPOA as it is known - it is surprising that, for now at least, the US is not walking away from the agreement. The president could so easily have restored nuclear-related sanctions without having recourse to Capitol Hill.Instead he has placed the fate of the nuclear agreement in the hands of Congress. He is clearly seeking - and key Congressional leaders are already working on - amendments to US law that would automatically restore sanctions if Iran took specific actions known as trigger points. There is even a strong suggestion that he wants Congress to make the expiry of certain restrictions under the agreement - the so-called sunset clauses - irrelevant by again using trigger points to automatically restore sanctions should Iran re-start activities once the JCPOA restrictions have been lifted. Full story: Trump vows not to recertify agreement Iran nuclear deal: Key details Europe ‘concerned’ by Trump Iran threat What do Trump's words on Iran mean for US/UK relations? What if anything may be agreed in terms of US legislation is a future story. But just how extraordinary such a step would be needs to be noted now. The US would effectively be using its domestic law to try to re-write a multilateral agreement. There could be diplomatic difficulties ahead. It could create a potential rift between the US and its allies, and further tensions between Washington on the one hand, and Moscow and Beijing on the other. It also raises questions about how far a US administration's word can be trusted when it concludes an international agreement. What sort of signal does it send to a country like North Korea that is being encouraged to return to the negotiating table by Mr Trump's own secretary of state? Mr Trump painted a bleak picture of the nuclear deal's value, asserting at one point that it was enacted, and nuclear-related sanctions were lifted, "just before what would have been the total collapse of the Iranian regime". Few will recognise this situation as reality. Instead the deal was negotiated at a time when there was a very real possibility of a war between Israel, and possibly the US, on one side and Iran on the other. The nuclear deal averted this and placed constraints on Iran's nuclear activities.Certainly Mr Trump was fair to cite the agreements shortcomings. Ballistic missiles were not covered and Iran's missile programme continues apace. Many of the agreement's restrictions will indeed expire in time. Several countries hoped to address some of these problems at a later date but it is far from clear that this moment should be now.Mr Trump cited violations of the agreement by Iran but failed to mention that when concerns have been raised under the JCPOA's dispute mechanisms Iran has pulled back on its questionable actions. The decision to keep the nuclear deal in place for the time being raises a question over whether Mr Trump is creating an opportunity to strengthen the deal or weakening it.Of course, nuclear matters are only one of the problems between the US and Iran. Many of the advocates of the nuclear deal would agree with Mr Trump about Iran's wider activities in the region.Mr Trump speaks as though the Obama administration had not sought to impose sanctions against Iran for a variety of misbehaviours - support for terrorism, infringement of its own people's human rights and so on. He says that sanctions will be stepped up, especially against Iran's ideological and military elite, the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). But the newness of the Trump policy seems to be a matter of rhetoric and degree, rather than substance.Mr Trump seeks to make an explicit link between what he sees as the failing nuclear deal's relaxation of restrictions on Tehran and its wider activities in the region. It certainly has more money at its disposal. And here too he has a point.Just before Mr Trump's speech a former state department official, Jon B. Alterman - now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies - explained to me the previous administration's thinking: "They focused on what they saw as the most strategically threatening piece, the nuclear one. This is in part because they had other tools to deal with other aspects of Iranian behaviour, and in part because they thought that a gradual opening to Iran would empower domestic constituencies there that wanted Iran to act like a more normal state in the region." That didn't really happen. Some would argue that Iran does indeed have a more moderate government today, in part due to the economic benefits of the nuclear deal. But few would say that the hard-line elements of the IRGC have significantly moderated their behaviour abroad. And this brings me to a more fundamental issue, the changing role of Iran in the region. The US inadvertently set this process in motion by removing Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, which had always been a strategic counter-weight to Tehran. Since then, Iran has taken every advantage of the chaos in the region to further its own ends. Was this all malign intent on the part of Tehran or simply the furtherance of its strategic goals? Where is the line to be drawn?This matters, because the region is now entering a critical and even more dangerous phase. With the so-called Islamic State close to defeat, a battle is under way in Iraq and Syria for a distribution of the spoils. In Iraq, Iran has significant influence over the Shia-dominated government and many militia forces loyal to its point of view. In Syria, it is among the chief backers of the Assad regime, which puts it and its proxies in direct opposition to US-backed groups. Is this really the time to be provoking even greater tension between Washington and Tehran? Or is it a moment to combine firmness with at least the opportunity of dialogue? Diplomacy - in the much over-used phrase - is the art of the possible. The nuclear deal, with all its imperfections, was the only one that was possible at the time. The deal limps on, perhaps weakened but not yet fundamentally undermined. The parameters of Mr Trump's wider effort to contain Iran are yet to be spelt out in detail. His speech represents above all an uneasy compromise between the views of the president and those of his most senior officials and military advisers - all of whom want to see a tougher stance towards Tehran, but who, equally - to a man - have backed the nuclear accord despite all its imperfections.

India’s biggest festival season may not be all that cheerful this year for shoppers of imported goods.Looking to lower its current account deficit (CAD)—the difference between the value of a country’s imports and exports—and manage a depreciating rupee, the Indian government has hiked import duties on 19 non-essential items. The new duties are applicable with immediate effect.Air conditioners, household refrigerators, washing machines, footwear, speakers, tableware, kitchenware, and cut & polished diamonds are some of the goods that have come under the radar for a hike in import duties, a Sept. 26 statement from the finance ministry said. In the financial year 2017-2018, imports of these goods were valued at Rs86,000 crore ($11.8 billion).Some items will now attract almost double the import duty than before. The rates for air conditioners, washing machines, and refrigerators (under 10 kg), for instance, have been raised to 20% from the previous 10%. Those on other categories like tyres, speakers, suitcases, and travel bags, too, have been hiked.The government’s move is in line with its efforts to curb capital outflows.Thanks to a rising import bill, India’s CAD widened to 2.4% of GDP in the June quarter of the current financial year. The move is also aimed at curtailing a depreciating rupee that has slipped over 11% since the beginning of the year.The hike, especially on consumer durables, comes ahead of India’s key shopping season marked by major festivals like Navratri, Dussera, and Diwali. This is the time when shoppers stack up on essential goods and upgrade electronics.The move has already prompted talks of price hikes by companies that rely on imports for high-end products.A price hike across its range of air conditioners and high-end refrigerators is inevitable going forward, South Korea-based LG electronics told the Press Trust of India. The German shoemaker Puma, too, may increase prices 5% on a range of its imported footwear. After all, imported footwear now attracts a 25% duty, up from the earlier 20%.

For many years, Somalia was a forgotten front among the various campaigns against violent extremist Islamists around the world.The massive bombing of the centre of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, will bring the international spotlight back on to the battered country – at least for a few days.Al-Shabaab, the Islamist group based in the country, is almost certainly responsible for the huge truck bomb that killed as many as 300 people in Mogadishu on Saturday.The attack proves once more it is among the most capable and tenacious militant organisations anywhere. Al-Shabaab’s roots run back through a series of violent – and sometimes non-violent – revivalist Islamist movements in Somalia over the past 40 years. In the past decade, it has been fighting local, regional and international forces, and has survived significant strategic setbacks primarily by exploiting the weaknesses and failings of central government in the shattered state.One reason for the relative lack of attention devoted to al-Shabaab in recent years in Washington, London and other western capitals is that the group has ruthlessly purged anyone who wanted to swear allegiance to Islamic State in Iraq and Syria from its ranks.That al-Shabaab – the name means “the youth” – is not seen as particularly dangerous beyond its immediate region is another reason.Though the group has been a formal affiliate of al-Qaida since 2011, it has not engaged in terrorist planning against European or US targets. Though it has attracted militants from the west, it has not sent many back the other way.Al-Shabaab has, however, launched a series of bloody attacks in east Africa, such as the assault on an upscale shopping mall in Kenya in 2013 in which 67 people were killed.It has been regional powers, including Kenya, that have done the heavy lifting in terms of military deployments in Somalia in recent years. More than 20,000 troops have been deployed by the African Union there. But they have been much criticised, accused of being arrogant and sometimes brutal toward local populations, corruption and military incompetence.A series of assaults by al-Shabaab on African Union bases have undermined political will to continue this commitment among regional states – as the extremist strategists intended it would. The bombing in Mogadishu may now intensify a growing US commitment to pursuing a more active role in Somalia. Earlier this year, the US president, Donald Trump, designated Somalia a “zone of active hostilities”, allowing commanders greater authority when launching airstrikes, broadening the range of possible targets and relaxing restrictions designed to prevent civilian casualties. He also authorised the deployment of regular US forces to Somalia for the first time since 1994. The US in effect pulled out of Somalia after the “Black Hawk Down” episode of 1993, when two helicopters were shot down in Mogadishu and the bodies of American soldiers were dragged through the streets. In May a US special forces soldier was killed in a skirmish with al-Shabaab, the first US casualty in Somalia since then. Any deeper involvement in Somalia would come against a background of greater involvement across Africa. Earlier this month, four US servicemen were killed in a firefight in Niger with militants there.Yet the same challenges experienced in conflict zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan face any counter-insurgency effort in Somalia. Somalia is suffering its worst drought in 40 years, with the effects of climatic catastrophe compounded by war and poor governance. Al-Shabaab’s control over populations in rural areas in much of the south and central Somalia is such that the group was able to impose a ban on humanitarian assistance in areas they control, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to choose between death from starvation and disease or brutal punishment. Topics Al-Shabaab Somalia Middle East and North Africa Africa analysis

Other issues mentioned in the Justice Department letter include Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email server, which was investigated by the F.B.I. until the bureau’s director at the time, James B. Comey, declared last year that no prosecutor would press charges based on the evidence. The letter said the department was also examining Mr. Comey for leaking details of his conversations with Mr. Trump after the president fired him.To the extent that there may be legitimate questions about Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Comey, however, the credibility of any investigation presumably would be called into question should one be authorized by Mr. Sessions or his deputy, Rod J. Rosenstein, because of the way it came about under pressure from Mr. Trump.Of 10 former attorneys general contacted Tuesday, only one responded to a question about what they would do in Mr. Sessions’s situation.“There is nothing inherently wrong about a president calling for an investigation,” said William P. Barr, who ran the Justice Department under President George Bush. “Although an investigation shouldn’t be launched just because a president wants it, the ultimate question is whether the matter warrants investigation.”Mr. Barr said he sees more basis for investigating the uranium deal than any supposed collusion between Mr. Trump and Russia. “To the extent it is not pursuing these matters, the department is abdicating its responsibility,” he said.Mr. Trump promised last year that if elected, he would instruct his attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Mrs. Clinton. But he backed off that shortly after the election, saying, “I don’t want to hurt the Clintons.”By last summer, with Mr. Mueller’s investigation bearing down, he had changed his mind. To Mr. Trump, the inquiry was a “witch hunt” based on a “hoax” perpetrated by Democrats. It was all the more galling, advisers said, because Mrs. Clinton had not been prosecuted, a frustration exacerbated by recent reports about how her campaign helped finance the salacious dossier.

A senior politician from India's Congress party has been jailed for life in the most significant conviction to date over the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.Sajjan Kumar, who was an MP at the time, was found guilty of inciting crowds to kill Sikhs.In a scathing verdict, the Delhi high court judges said the accused evaded justice due to "political patronage".More than 3,000 Sikhs were killed following the assassination of then PM Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards.They were angry at her decision to send the army into the Golden Temple - Sikhism's holiest shrine - to flush out militants earlier in the year. The killing of Mrs Gandhi, who belonged to the Congress - now India's main opposition party- saw mobs attack and murder members of the Sikh community across the country. The worst violence took place in the capital, Delhi, where more than 2,700 Sikhs are believed to have died.For 34 years, high-profile politicians accused of involvement in the anti-Sikh riots had evaded justice - on Monday this changed with Sajjan Kumar's conviction. However his lawyer told journalists that he would appeal against the verdict in the Supreme Court.There are a number of cases against Kumar relating to the riots - Monday's verdict is specifically over the killing of a family of five in Delhi. Congress still struggling to escape the past Congress leader 'incited' 1984 anti-Sikh riots Delhi 1984: Memories of a massacre Kumar, 73, had been previously acquitted by a lower court for his role in the riots, but the verdict was challenged by the country's top investigative agency which said he had been involved in a conspiracy of "terrifying proportions" with the police.Jagdish Kaur, whose son and husband were among five family members brutally killed, described the verdict as "a little balm applied after a long time to our scars"."At least one high-profile accused will now go to jail," she said. Nirpreet Kaur, another victim whose father was burnt alive by mobs before her eyes, wept as she thanked the court for delivering justice after 34 years. Her case remains in the court system.Ms Kaur told BBC Punjabi's Sarbjit Dhaliwal she was happy that Kumar had received a life sentence because a "death penalty would have meant he would have died in a moment, but now he will suffer".Kumar was convicted after several eyewitnesses testified against him for inciting mobs in Delhi's Sultanpuri area.One witness said she had seen him addressing a crowd, telling them that Sikhs had killed "his mother" - a reference to Mrs Gandhi.Delhi high court Judges S Muralidhar and Vinod Goel found Kumar guilty of "criminal conspiracy, promoting enmity and acts against communal harmony" and ordered him not to leave the city and surrender by 31 December."In the summer of 1947, hundreds of thousands of civilians were massacred during the Partition of India... Thirty seven years later, India was witness to another enormous human tragedy... A majority of the perpetrators of these horrific mass crimes, enjoyed political patronage and escaped trial," the judges said."This court is of the view that the mass killings of Sikhs in Delhi and elsewhere in November 1984 were, in fact, 'crimes against humanity'. They will continue to shock the collective conscience of society for a long time to come," they added. Finance minister Arun Jaitley welcomed the verdict. However, opposition leader and Congress party president Rahul Gandhi is yet to make a statement.Following the verdict, Sajjan Kumar, Delhi high court and #1984SikhGenocide were trending on Twitter in India with thousands of people tweeting about the case, including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.Apart from Kumar, several other high-profile Congress politicians are accused of involvement in the violence.Among them is Kamal Nath, who was sworn in as the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh state on Monday. Jagdish Tytler, who was the minister of state for overseas Indian affairs at the time, is also one of the main accused in a number of cases. Both deny any involvement.Sikhs are a religious minority in India and at 21 million, they make up close to 2% of the population. There are significant Sikh communities in Canada, the UK, US and Australia.Atul Sangar, Editor, BBC PunjabiThe conviction and life imprisonment awarded to Kumar, along with jail terms awarded to five others, comes as some solace to the Sikh community, but will not act as a closure on that dark chapter. Thousands of Sikhs, whose family members were killed by rampaging mobs in November 1984, have welcomed this judgement. However, their deep sense of anguish and hurt over the massacre and then this long fight for justice is unlikely to go away easily. There are other cases pending in the courts, including one against former Congress minister Jagdish Tytler, who denies any hand in anti-Sikh violence. Though more than 400 accused have been sentenced by courts in these cases, victims have repeatedly complained that adequate steps were never taken to bring high-profile Congress leaders to justice.

Google, the world’s biggest web search engine, is up to something in India.In an ambiguously-worded media invite for a press conference, the tech giant said it would, on Sept. 18, announce, “the launch of a new product developed grounds-up for India.”It refused to reveal anything more. To an email query from Quartz, company officials had a tantalising GIF response: According to a news report on The Ken (paywall), though, the Mountain View, California-based company is set to unveil its mobile payment service application, Tez (fast in Hindi). Google is expected to partner with large private banks and use the government-backed Unified Payment Interface (UPI) that allows inter-bank payments, The Ken said.Tez, likely to be available for both desktops and Android phones, may integrate other e-wallet players like Paytm and MobiKwik with its platform, the report said.Indications are also that the internet company doesn’t want to lose out on India’s e-payments pie which, according to the Boston Consulting Group, could grow exponentially to touch $500 billion, contributing 15% to India’s GDP by 2020. Other international players like Facebook-owned WhatsApp, too, have shown interest in the space.However, they all may be stepping into an overcrowded segment. Apart from the 55 non-banking players like Paytm and Mobikwik, most Indian banks, too, already have e-wallet services. Online retailers and entertainment companies like Bigbasket.in and Bookmyshow.com also have launched similar products. Then there are the government-backed UPI and BHIM apps. Some tech companies like messaging app Hike have even sought to piggyback on UPI. But Google may still make it.“There are lots of new players coming in but the ones that are likely to succeed are the ones where they already have some sort of an engagement built in with the customers. They can then use this to promote the payment channel as an additional move,” explained Vivek Belgavi, leader, financial services technology at PwC India. “And this is very clear in Google’s case.”Another reason Google would establish itself is the interoperabilty of the UPI platform. Unlike, other e-wallets, it allows users to transfer money across banks.Moreover, Google, through its Android Pay, has already been in the arena for over two years. Tez is now expected to be modeled around its earlier wallet offering, according to The Ken report.Nevertheless, whatever it is that Google does on Monday, India will be all eyes and ears.

A week of analysing a leak from Apple has revealed many details about what the company’s next iPhone will be like: from facial recognition to a smart camera system and a screen that fills the front.Two developers, Steve Troughton-Smith and Guilherme Rambo, spotted that Apple had made what appears to be an internal software update for employees testing Apple’s upcoming HomePod smart speaker available on the public internet. The update was meant to only be distributed inside Apple and so contained many elements concerning the next version of the iPhone, codenamed D22, which could end up being the iPhone 8, “iPhone X” or “iPhone Pro”.The most obvious change will be a complete redesign of the front of the iPhone. Files associated with Apple Pay within the HomePod firmware revealed a silhouette of the design, which shows a screen that reaches from the top to the bottom of the device, with small bezels all the way around and a notch in the top of the screen likely for the earpiece speaker, front-facing cameras and sensors.Further digging suggests that the status bar, instead of being a black bar all the way across the top of the screen integrating the cut-out for the sensors, will likely be white or mimic the colour of the rest of the screen, making it stand out at the top of the device.Rambo discovered code that appears to confirm that Apple’s long-standing physical home button, which has been in place since the iPhone’s launch in 2007 and gained a fingerprint sensor underneath it with the iPhone 5S in 2013, will no longer feature – at least not for the D22 iPhone.Instead it appears the new iPhone will have a virtual home button, possibly called the home indicator, which will be hidden during some activities. Google’s Android uses a similar system for its home, back and overview buttons, which sit in a navigation bar at the bottom of the screen and are hidden when viewing full-screen content such as videos, photos and games.Apple’s iOS already supports a virtual home button as part of its accessibility features, which replicates the function of the home button and is used as a replacement by those worried that the physical button would wear out, or for those phones where the home button becomes non-functional.Apple has long been rumoured to be working on a version of its Touch ID fingerprint sensor that works from underneath the screen, as revealed by patent applications. Until now it has has been embedded in the home button, but a screen-embedded fingerprint scanner would make a spot on the screen read fingerprints for authenticating payments and unlocking the device.Samsung was also expected to integrate a similar technology into the Galaxy S8, which ditched the firm’s traditional physical home button with fingerprint scanner for a virtual home button and a fingerprint scanner on the back of the phone. Technology firm Qualcomm, which produces processors, modems and other chips uses extensively throughout the smartphone and tablet ecosystem, including most of the top smartphones with Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, recently announced it had an “ultrasonic” fingerprint scanner capable of working through a display, thick glass, metal or even under water.Troughton-Smith, however, says that such a device in the next version of the iPhone is highly unlikely. Maybe next year.It appears that the D22 iPhone will not have Touch ID, at least on the front of the device. Instead it seems Apple will install facial recognition in the top notch of the device.Codenamed “Pearl ID”, the face recognition feature will be part of the new “BiometricKit” system and will likely use an infrared-based system similar to Microsoft’s Windows Hello facial recognition in its Surface computers. Apple’s chief rival Samsung used an IR-based system for its iris-scanning technology, which was first introduced with the ill-fated Note 7 and continued in the popular Galaxy S8.Further digging revealed some code that seems to suggest that “Face ID”, or whatever Pearl ID eventually ends up being called, will even be used to confirm purchases with the company’s contactless smartphone payment system, Apple Pay.Computational photography is the next stage in camera development – where advanced algorithms take the input of one or more physical camera lens and use it to create an image that looks better than what could be achieved with a raw, unprocessed image.For instance, Google’s highly rated HDR+ for the Pixel takes between two and 10 under-exposed shots and combines them into one photo for brilliant results. Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus combines photos from the two cameras with different focal lengths on the back to create a lossless zoom as well as using depth information to artificially create out-of-focus background or bokeh effects for portrait shots.For the next version of the iPhone, and possibly for iOS 11 as a whole as it is rolled out to older devices, Rambo found mentions of a SmartCam system, which will likely tune camera settings based on the scene it detects. Previous versions of iOS have included apparently more basic versions of the same thing for automatic exposure.Some of the scenes mentioned include “baby”, “bright stage”, “document”, “fireworks”, “foliage”, “pet”, “sky”, “snow”, “sport”, “sun rise and sunset” and “point light source”.The HomePod firmware also reveals some features and functions of Apple’s big push into augmented reality, which the company announced during its World Wide Developers Conference this year, for the D22 iPhone.References to a depth-sensing front-facing camera were found, likely part of the sensing system used for face recognition, which will enable new camera effects and tricks, including something called “ARFaceAnchor”. Snapchat and many other programs, including the camera apps of Sony smartphones, have long provided masks and other augmented-reality features that can be applied to faces. It appears Apple will ship a system that recognises the face in a selfie and can apply AR effects.Further digging also revealed a series of lines of code that appear to reference expression detection, tracking the position and shape of the mouth, among other things. Alternatively they could reference AR modifications that can be applied to faces, such as big lips or massive comedy eyes.Despite rumours of a delay, Apple is expected to announce new iPhones at its yearly September event, with chief executive Tim Cook hinting during an earnings call that everything was on track. We’ll find out exactly what it looks like then.Apple declined to comment. 13 things Apple should automate after driverless cars Topics iPhone Apple Smartphones Mobile phones Computing Telecoms iPhone X news

The largest anti-sexual assault organization in the US has revealed that its national helpline has been inundated with 21% more calls than usual since the Harvey Weinstein allegations became public.“We have seen a record increase in people reaching out to our hotline,” said Jodi Omear, the vice-president of communications at Rainn (the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network).Something similar happened every time there was a high-profile accusation of sexual assault, Omear told the Guardian: ordinary people, moved to finally share their own stories or prompted to relive past attacks, make a surge of phone calls and reports to support groups, loved ones and law enforcement.But this time, driven by the Weinstein news and the #MeToo campaign on social media, the outpouring may top all others. Omear said: “The coverage of this story, and the many courageous voices that have spoken out, have helped survivors [of sexual abuse] feel that they are not alone.”The increase in calls is happening amid a conversation about powerful abusers that is burgeoning rather than dying down. Although other high-profile accusations of sexual misconduct – against Bill Cosby, or the former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes – have inspired many people to tell their own stories, the allegations against Weinstein have reverberated differently. Weinstein’s alleged victims and other women in the media and entertainment industry have increasingly called out how powerful people protected the film mogul, and others like him. Assertions that Weinstein’s misconduct was an “open secret” in Hollywood have reached a fever pitch. Weinstein has apologized for causing pain, but has said he denies many of the claims of harassment and “unequivocally” denies allegations of “non-consensual sex”.On social media in the aftermath of the Weinstein stories, the #MeToo campaign has emboldened thousands of women and men across countless industries to share their own experiences with workplace harassment, sexual assault and sexual abuse.As droves of people publicly discuss their experiences with sexual harassment and abuse, others are exploring how to dismantle the forces that previously kept them silent.At least two groups are examining the use of technology to supplant the “whisper networks” that women often use to alert one another to men in their circles, professional or personal, who pose a threat. “Most sexual assault victims assume that they’re alone,” said Rob Etropolsky, a veteran of the fashion and tech industry. “Statistically speaking, that’s not true.”Etropolsky is attempting to develop technology that would connect people who have experienced harassment or abuse at the hands of the same perpetrator. He hopes the project, called the Silent Choir Project, will begin taking confidential submissions before the end of this year. Separately, Callisto, an app that connects people on college campuses to people who have been assaulted by the same perpetrator, is exploring the possibility of making its technology available in professional industries. The app works by allowing people to make a confidential report naming their abusers, and then holding the information in escrow for other survivors with the same assailant. Survivors can then decide to report their abuser together.Fifteen per cent of people who report through Callisto are matched with another survivor, its makers say. Ian Ayres, a Yale law school professor who serves on Callisto’s board, says the technology helps survivors overcome the risks that attend being the first person to make a report against a repeat assailant.Both technologies face challenges. Etropolsky doesn’t want a database to supplant reports made to law enforcement officials, or to cause problems for survivors who want to press charges or take legal action. Having two or more survivors compare notes could complicate their ability to later testify in court.But the technology could be a powerful tool, Etropolsky hopes, for people whose abusers or harassers are not famous, or for diffuse groups of survivors, who don’t come together in a common office, on a college campus, or in a single neighborhood.“The thing is, it’s already happening. These networks already exist. I’m hoping to formalize the process of these networks that are already in action.” Topics US news Rape and sexual assault Harvey Weinstein Sexual harassment #MeToo movement news

Amid the fallout from the firing of Mr. Comey, Mr. Trump asked Mr. Rosenstein to hold a news conference and falsely take responsibility for the dismissal. Mr. Rosenstein refused.Mr. Rosenstein, who has risen to prominence in what is usually a relatively obscure post, began his speech by joking that guests at the reception beforehand told him that he was “taller” and “better looking” than he was on television.He later strayed from his scripted remarks to discuss Mr. Barr’s news conference ahead of the release of the Mueller report. Mr. Rosenstein stood silently behind Mr. Barr, and his deadpan facial expression drew widespread notice. “I was thinking, ‘My job is to stand here with a deadpan expression,’ ” Mr. Rosenstein said. “Can you imagine if I did anything other than a deadpan reaction?”Mr. Rosenstein also alluded to revelations about his at times emotional behavior in the chaotic days following Mr. Comey’s firing. “One silly question that I get from reporters is, ‘Is it true that you got angry and emotional a few times over the past few years?’ Heck yes! Didn’t you?”He also reaffirmed that he would be leaving the post next month, after nearly 29 years as a Justice Department lawyer. His replacement, Jeffrey A. Rosen, is expected to be confirmed around mid-May.Near the end of his speech, Mr. Rosenstein said that, like Mr. Adams, he preferred integrity to acclaim. “Adams wrote that in theaters, ‘the applause of the audience is of more importance to the actors than their own approbation. But upon the stage of life, while conscience claps, let the world hiss.’ ”

But Republicans have been mostly enraged with Mr. Trump since the Oval Office meeting last week, where he sided with the Democratic leadership over his own party and his own Treasury secretary in favor of a December debt-ceiling vote. Mr. Ryan, who preferred a longer-term deal, had called such a three-month plan ridiculous.Some Republicans have been concerned that the president, who has been pursuing more of a bipartisan patina as he struggles to secure major legislative achievements and his poll numbers sink over his handling of the racially charged violence in Charlottesville, Va., will go along with Democratic priorities.A White House aide insisted that Mr. Trump had always left open the possibility of passing a DACA fix without funding for a border wall, and insisted that he had not moved away from the wall as a priority. During the Wednesday dinner, it was John F. Kelly, Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, who made the more detailed case for the wall, according to a person briefed on the discussion.The wall was a key campaign pledge by Mr. Trump, but Democrats are vehemently against it.Mr. Trump recently began to wind down DACA, which has provided protection from deportation for roughly 800,000 young undocumented immigrants. But he has been torn about it.The president has sent conflicting signals about his intentions regarding the program, saying he would end it but urging Congress to come up with a legislative solution during the six-month wind-down period. But he has also told people he would revisit the issue after the six-month period if Congress did not act.That would be a difficult task, since his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, has declared DACA unconstitutional and an overreach of authority. It is not clear what mechanism Mr. Trump thinks he might have to put the program back in place through the executive branch.At the White House earlier on Wednesday, Mr. Trump’s anti-immigration national policy adviser, Stephen Miller, told people that the administration would never allow a version of the replacement legislation, known as the Dream Act, to pass.

Rohingya children, some of them under 10 years old, are receiving treatment for rape in camps on the Bangladesh border, according to medics who say that young refugees account for half of those sexually assaulted while fleeing violence in Myanmar.Médecins Sans Frontières says dozens of Rohingya girls have been given medical and psychological support at its Kutupalong health facility’s sexual and reproductive health unit – a specialist clinic for survivors of sexual assault based in the largest refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar.Of those fleeing Rakhine state who come to the clinic for treatment relating to rape, “about 50% are aged 18 or under, including one girl who was nine years old and several others under the age of 10”, an MSF spokesperson said.The organisation stressed this was just a fraction of those believed to have been sexually assaulted and raped since military operations began on 25 August, as most survivors faced practical and cultural barriers to accessing treatment.“Women and girls often don’t seek medical care for sexual violence due to the stigma, shame and fear of being blamed for what’s happened to them,” said Aerlyn Pfeil, an MSF midwife focusing on support for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in Cox’s Bazar.In the last week a nine-year-old girl was among the new arrivals who received medical treatment after being raped, as military violence against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine continues.Rohingya refugees have repeatedly described incidents of gang rape and sexual assaults by the Myanmar army during military operations the UN has said amount to ethnic cleansing, but this is the first timeevidence of a large number of children being targeted has emerged.According to another SGBV medical specialist working in the camps, who asked not to be named because of patient privacy, most cases she has dealt with involve the army gathering all the women and girls in a village in one place and picking “the most beautiful” to be taken away and raped, either by individual soldiers or groups.“A lot of them are just 12 or 13 years old,” she said.One recent case she dealt with involved a child under 10 with severe bleeding who had been raped by three soldiers, she said.Her account backs the stories of numerous refugees who describe similar incidents of mass rape, with many saying some victims were subsequently killed.After speaking to psychological experts in the camps who warned such interviews could increase trauma for victims, the Guardian did not seek to speak directly to child rape survivors.However, during an interview with a 27-year-old woman from the Buthidaung area of Rakhine, who said her husband and father were rounded up and killed by the Myanmar military shortly after 25 August, it emerged the woman’s 14-year-old sister had been raped during the attack.“The military put all the male people to one side and took all the female people into the jungle,” she said, adding that the soldiers then selected some girls and women.“I cried when they took away my little sister, but I couldn’t stop them.“They tortured and raped many girls and women. When they stopped and left I went looking for my sister and saw many bodies on the ground. When I found my sister I didn’t know if she was alive or dead, but she was breathing.“She was bleeding a lot so I carried her to a little river and washed her. Then I took her on my shoulders till I found a small medical clinic [in Rakhine] and got some medicine for her.”The woman said her sister had later told her she had been raped by two soldiers and by one of the ethnic Rakhine Buddhist civilians who had been involved in the attack on their village.She said she had not heard about the specialist clinics in the camp and that her sister had not received any support or medical care since reaching Bangladesh.“What I’m finding is that many of the survivors I’ve met are recent arrivals from Myanmar and have not previously been aware that there are specific medical services, or any medical services at all, available to them,” said Pfeil. “When I’ve been speaking to survivors of sexual violence, one of the more heartbreaking and common requests I’ve had is for new cloth skirts, because [weeks] later, they’re still wearing the same clothes they were raped or assaulted in.”More than 600,000 people have fled from Myanmar into Bangladesh since 25 August and are now struggling to survive in terrible conditions in sprawling makeshift camps.Human Rights Watch said last week: “The Burmese military has clearly used rape as one of a range of horrific methods of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya.” Topics Myanmar Bangladesh South and Central Asia Rape and sexual assault Rohingya news

A court in India has heard testimony from government archaeologists that the Taj Mahal is a Muslim mausoleum built by a Mughal emperor to honour his dead wife – delivering an official riposte to claims it is a Hindu temple.The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which protects monuments of national importance, had been ordered to give its view in response to a petition filed by six lawyers stating that the Unesco world heritage site in the city of Agra had originally been a temple called Tejo Mahalaya dedicated to the Hindu deity Shiva.The petition also demanded that Hindus be allowed to worship in it. Only Muslims are permitted to offer prayers at the 17th-century monument.Dr Bhuvan Vikrama, the ASI’s superintending archaeologist in Agra, said he rejected the claims: “Our written statement called the claims concocted and we asked the court to dismiss the petition. It’s up to the judge to decide what happens.” Claims that the Taj Mahal is a Hindu temple have surfaced periodically, either from lone Hindu mavericks, revisionists, or extremist Hindu groups ever since PN Oak, an Indian writer, published his 1989 book Taj Mahal: the True Story, in which he claimed it was built before Muslim invaders came to India. Proponents of this theory resent that its glory belongs to India’s Muslim heritage and argue that since some of the Mughal invaders destroyed Hindu temples or converted them into mosques, it follows that the Taj Mahal must have originally been a Hindu structure.“History shows conquerors all over the world converting existing monuments to suit their own ideas,” said Parsa Venkateshwar Rao, an author and columnist. “But this claim about the Taj is absurd because features such as the dome and minaret cannot be found in earlier periods and it is silly for the judge to have even allowed the petition.” Oak, who died in 2007, took his claim as far as the supreme court in 2000 where it was thrown out as no more than a “bee in his bonnet”.Hari Shankar Jain, one of the lawyers who took the case to the Agra court, had said he was looking forward to winning the case and performing Hindu prayers at the Taj Mahal. Asked if he would disinter the body of Mumtaz Mahal, the Mughal empress buried inside, he replied: “Of course not because there is no body inside. It’s built on a Hindu temple so there is no question of anyone being buried in it.” Topics India South and Central Asia Islam Hinduism Religion news

Jeremy Corbyn has declined an invitation to attend a state dinner with Donald Trump when the US president visits the UK in June.Trump has accepted an invitation to a long-delayed state visit, including a formal white-tie dinner hosted by the Queen.In a statement, the Labour leader said he disagreed with the prime minister’s decision to offer a formal visit to the US leader and confirmed he would not attend any state dinner.“Theresa May should not be rolling out the red carpet for a state visit to honour a president who rips up vital international treaties, backs climate change denial and uses racist and misogynist rhetoric,” said Corbyn.“Maintaining an important relationship with the United States does not require the pomp and ceremony of a state visit. It is disappointing that the prime minister has again opted to kowtow to this US administration.” However, Corbyn reiterated his invitation to hold discussions with Trump – an offer that is unlikely to be taken up. “I would welcome a meeting with President Trump to discuss all matters of interest,” he said.His statement follows similar refusals from the Commons Speaker, John Bercow, and the Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Vince Cable. As leader of the opposition, Corbyn is invited to formal state dinners and attended a banquet in honour of the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, shortly after becoming Labour leader in 2015. During the last state visit of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, he was represented by the shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry.The White House has already confirmed the president will meet the Queen and hold talks with May during the state visit. The prime minister and the president will then attend D-Day events in Portsmouth’s Southsea Common before going to Normandy for further commemorative events.Such occasions can include the visiting head of state addressing both Houses of Parliament, but Bercow said in 2017 that Trump should not be allowed to make a formal address. The Speaker cited the president’s controversial ban on migrants from certain Muslim countries.Norman Fowler, Bercow’s counterpart in the House of Lords, has said there is a “strong case” for the US president being extended an invitation to speak.The decision will lie with the Commons authorities. More than 80 MPs from opposition parties have signed a bid to block the visit by a president accused of “misogynism, racism and xenophobia”.Protesters are expected to gather for the president’s visit and are considering launching a hot air balloon five times the size of the Donald Trump baby blimp that became the focal point of protests when he visited last July. Topics Jeremy Corbyn Donald Trump Labour news

Apple Inc. is betting on acclaimed director and producer Steven Spielberg for its first major foray into creating original video content.The tech giant has struck a deal with Mr. Spielberg’s Amblin Television and Universal Television, a unit of Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal, to make new episodes of “Amazing Stories,” a science fiction and horror anthology series that ran on NBC in the 1980s.The...

Media player Media playback is unsupported on your device Video Ukraine's Roma living on fringes of society The Roma community faces discrimination in many countries. The UN has described them as being "among Europe's most excluded groups." Zhanna Bezpiatchuk has been to Ukraine, where there has been a spike in the number of violent attacks on Roma camps. Producer: Camelia Sadeghzadeh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former FBI Director James Comey on Monday accused U.S. President Donald Trump of undermining the rule of law in the United States by lying about the FBI, and he urged Republican lawmakers to “stand up and speak the truth” about Trump’s behavior. Comey, who was fired by Trump in May 2017 while he was leading an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and possible Trump campaign collusion, made his remarks after his second appearance this month before two House of Representatives committees. Comey said lawmakers had again asked about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails and a dossier that Republicans claim was used to justify a warrant to conduct secret surveillance of a Trump presidential campaign aide. “This while the president of the United States is lying about the FBI, attacking the FBI and attacking the rule of law in this country. How does that make any sense at all?” Comey told reporters after spending more than five hours being interviewed behind closed doors by the House Judiciary and House Oversight committees. “Republicans used to understand that the actions of a president matter, the words of a president matter, the rule of law matters and the truth matters. Where are those Republicans today?” Comey asked. Republican Trump has called the Russia investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller a “witch hunt” and on Sunday on Twitter labeled his own former personal lawyer Michael Cohen a “rat” for cooperating with prosecutors. Trump also accused Federal Bureau of Investigation agents of breaking into Cohen’s office when they were in fact acting with a search warrant. Cohen was sentenced to three years’ prison last Wednesday for crimes including orchestrating hush payments to women in violation of campaign laws before the 2016 election. Cohen said he was directed by Trump. U.S. former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey arrives to give closed-door testimony to the House Oversight and House Judiciary committees, as part of their probes into Comey's 2016 handling of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's email use, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. December 17, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst“The FBI’s reputation has taken a big hit because the president of the United States, with his acolytes, has lied about it constantly,” Comey said when asked whether he bore any responsibility for damaging the FBI’s reputation. Comey said “at some point someone has to ... stand up for the values of this country and not slink away in retirement, but stand up and speak the truth.” Asked about the president calling Cohen a “rat,” Comey said it undermined the rule of law. Reporting by David Alexander and Eric Beech; editing by Grant McCoolOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

LONDON (Reuters) - A black model who appeared in a Dove advert denounced as racist by many social media users has defended the clip, saying that far from belittling black women it celebrated ethnic diversity. Two bottles of Dove's Deep Moisture body wash are displayed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, October 8, 2017. REUTERS/Chris HelgrenLola Ogunyemi unwittingly found herself at the center of an international furor over a 3-second video posted on Dove’s U.S. Facebook page which showed her removing her t-shirt to reveal a white woman, who then took hers off to reveal an Asian woman. “I don’t feel it was racist,” she said in an interview with the BBC on Wednesday. Many Facebook and Twitter users said the clip signaled that white people were cleaner or more beautiful than black people and likened it to 19th century soap adverts that showed black people scrubbing themselves to become white. But Ogunyemi said the stills from the clip that shot around the internet over the weekend - which mostly showed only her and the white woman, leaving out the Asian woman - gave the wrong impression. She said there was a 30-second, made-for-TV version that had other images and a slogan that made it much clearer that the intention was to say that all women deserved quality products. “The screenshots that have taken the media by storm paint a slightly different picture,” she said. Dove apologized for the Facebook clip, saying it had “missed the mark in representing women of colour thoughtfully”. Ogunyemi, who is Nigerian, born in Britain and raised in the United States, said in an article in the Guardian that she had “grown up very aware of society’s opinion that dark-skinned people, especially women, would look better if our skin were lighter”. Far from fitting into this narrative, she wrote, her participation in the Dove advert was a chance to “represent my dark-skinned sisters in a global beauty brand”. She said Dove could have defended itself by better explaining the concept behind the clip. However, she also said that Dove should have spotted the risk that the sequence of images could be interpreted as racist given that it had run into trouble over similar content in the past. “They should have strong teams there that can point this kind of thing out before it goes to air,” she told the BBC. Dove, a Unilever brand, was criticized in 2011 over an ad which showed three women side by side in front of a before-and-after image of cracked and smooth skin, with a black woman on the “before” side and a white woman on the “after” side. Another point of contention was a label on a Dove product that said it was for “normal to dark skin”. Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Alison WilliamsOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

SAN FRANCISCO — Missouri’s attorney general has opened an investigation into whether Google’s business practices violate its consumer protection and antitrust laws amid growing concern over the influence of powerful technology companies.Josh Hawley, Missouri’s attorney general, said on Monday that his office had issued a subpoena to Google to seek information into the collection and use of users’ private information, the use of other content providers’ information on its sites and potential bias in search engine results.Missouri’s investigation demonstrates how states and Europe have begun to take the lead on examining Google, which has avoided antitrust scrutiny from federal regulators. In June, the European Commission levied the largest-ever antitrust fine against the company for unfairly favoring its own shopping services over others.Mr. Hawley, a Republican who is running for Senate in 2018, said that the Federal Trade Commission had given Google a “free pass” and that it was critical for consumers to understand what was happening with their personal information.“No entity in the history of the world has collected as much information on individual consumers as Google,” he said in a news conference. “We should not just accept the word of these corporate giants that they have our best interests at heart. We need to make sure that they are actually following the law, we need to make sure that consumers are protected, and we need to hold them accountable.”The investigation comes as once overwhelmingly positive public opinion about tech companies has started to shift. As technology encroaches on more industries and profits pile up at the biggest technology companies, critics increasingly say these firms are too powerful and need regulatory oversight.Mr. Hawley said the state’s preliminary investigation had found that Google may be collecting more information from users than the company was telling consumers and that users didn’t have a “meaningful option” to opt out of Google’s data collection. Google has said it provides consumers with the option to control their privacy settings and does not provide third parties with personally identifiable information like names, email addresses and billing information.Patrick Lenihan, a Google spokesman, declined to say how the company intended to respond to the subpoena because it had not received it yet. He said, however, that Google had “strong privacy protections in place for our users” and that it continued “to operate in a highly competitive and dynamic environment.”In 2012, the F.T.C. voted unanimously to close an investigation into Google’s business practices without bringing charges. As part of the settlement to end the investigation, Google agreed to stop using photos or user reviews from third-party sites that asked that their content not be “scraped” by Google’s computers.In September, the online review site Yelp said it had found evidence that Google was breaking its promise and had lifted its content. In a letter to the F.T.C., Yelp urged the commission to reopen its investigation into Google. Mr. Hawley said scraping of content was a concern because it hurt potential competitors and ultimately harmed consumers.

When the bombs start falling, two dozen adults and children gather in one room in Bayan Wehan’s home in besieged eastern Ghouta, Syria. They hold hands, hug each other and try to find hope. “I put my brother’s daughter in my lap, she is five-years-old, and I try to make her forget the shelling noises. I tell her stories about beautiful things,” says Wehan, who has endured half a decade under siege. “When the bombardment stops, for a little bit, we just go to prepare food, enough to stop ourselves starving,” she says. “Difficult as it is, I am better than thousands of other families. I have some wheat, and tomato sauce, which is one of the most luxurious foods in Ghouta.” A human rights activist and women’s officer at a local council, Wehan is one of the women who have been keeping eastern Ghouta going and are now playing a prominent role in efforts to share news of a brutal bombing campaign by forces loyal to the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. “Women are the sources for most of the stories we are hearing or reading,” says Zaina Erhaim, an exiled Syrian journalist. “I can name eight women in Ghouta I am following to get the daily news and only two men activists. Women are even the faces for the misery and the massacres.” As an estimated 400,000 people trapped in the former breadbasket of Damascus face one of the most intense assaults of a long and bitter war, more women are telling their stories on camera and behind it. “They are doing videos speaking to the audience, publishing their personal and others’ stories on daily bases, speaking to media and giving their eyewitness accounts,” Erhaim says. In other rebel-held areas, even during crises like the siege of Aleppo, women’s voices have been marginalised, sometimes by conservatives within their own communities and sometimes by the influence of hardline extremists from abroad. “In Aleppo you saw films, sometimes an hour long, where no woman even passed in front of the camera,” Erhaim adds. Women’s prominence in eastern Ghouta may be partly because so many men are missing, having been killed or detained by forces loyal to the regime in the early years of the war, killed fighting or still serving on the front line. Many of their peacetime roles are now filled by women. The area’s location on the outskirts of Damascus may also have made it easier for women to step into public roles, despite a relatively conservative community. It was easy for women to travel into the capital for work and education in the years before the war, and many did. “Women in Ghouta are the majority, their numbers exceed those of men. They sacrificed and suffered more than men for the revolution,” says the paediatrician Amani Ballour in a video made shortly before the latest assault began. In many areas, a revolution begun by men and women morphed into a war dominated by hardline Islamists with extremely conservative values who created extra challenges and risks for women. “Gender roles were very much emphasised by the war and patriarchal armed groups,” says Erhaim.And while everyone in eastern Ghouta is suffering after years under siege, for women there are extra challenges.“During menstruation, I wouldn’t know what to do, because there were no sanitary pads,” says the activist Lubna Al Kanawati in a video about life in the area. “This was just a small thing compared to all the other troubles, but it was huge for me as a woman living alone.“After a while they started making homemade pads and diapers, and selling them on market stalls. They were knitted and covered with a layer of plastic. You couldn’t possibly use them.”Al Kanawati has since left Ghouta, forced out in part by her worries about extremists moving into the area and crackdowns on female activists, but she works for an organisation that supports other women on the ground. Syrian feminists are campaigning to challenge gender stereotypes even during the war, and women like Wehan and Ballour refuse to be cowed.“I hear a lot of criticism from people here – for example, why is a woman in charge of the hospital? Don’t we have male doctors? They say this openly,” Ballour says. “In my opinion, we can change this reality.“Our society sees things from a particular perspective and it will always be this way if we remain scared, staying home and subject to the decisions made by our society.” Topics Syria Middle East and North Africa Women features