China clears way for Xi Jinping to rule for life

China's largely ceremonial parliament on Sunday overwhelmingly endorsed a controversial change to the country's constitution, paving the way for President Xi Jinping to stay in power indefinitely.

Inside Beijing's Great Hall of the People, nearly 3,000 delegates to the National People's Congress (NPC) cast their ballots on a series of proposed amendments -- including removing the restriction that had limited the presidency to two consecutive five-year terms.

Out of 2,964 ballots, just two delegates voted against the move and three abstained, suggesting minimal opposition to Xi's push to rule for life. The amendments' passage required two thirds of the vote, which was a largely symbolic exercise.

The ruling Communist Party announced the proposals on February 25 and, amid a backlash in some quarters, has justified the change as a necessity to align the presidency with Xi's two other, more powerful, posts -- heads of the party and the military -- that have no term limits.

The English-language China Daily newspaper lashed out at Western criticism of the term-limit move, calling detractors malicious "naysayers."

"They revel in their ignorance of China's reality and hold fast to their mean, even malicious predisposition toward China's political system out of their irrational, subjective and unprofessional ideological bias," the paper said in an editorial published late Sunday.

The 64-year-old Xi, already hailed as the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong, last week gave a ringing endorsement to the proposed constitutional changes, calling them a reflection of the "common will of the party and the people."

But some critics say the move is not only against the public interest but also makes Xi politically vulnerable in the long run.

"He just dug a huge hole for himself," said Li Datong, a former editor of the state-run China Youth Daily newspaper and one of the few voices of open opposition.

"The top leader's term limits are the biggest common denominator shared by all political forces in China," he said. "Its removal could trigger political infighting -- that's why this move is dangerous."

However, when asked about a potential power struggle, Shen Chunyao, a senior NPC official, dismissed such concerns.

"I don't think this issue exists," he said at a post-vote press conference.

Brazen step

Since the amendment to scrap presidential term limits also applies to the vice presidency, many analysts see growing signs of the hitherto ceremonial position going to one of Xi's most trusted lieutenants.

Wang Qishan, China's fearsome former anti-corruption czar, is likely to become the new vice president later this week and be given major responsibilities, allowing the two men to join hands again to rule China for years to come.

China watchers say the brazen step toward life-long tenure for Xi demonstrates his character.

"He's a bit of bulldozer -- and there's no other senior politician who could or want to stand up to him," said Duncan Innes-Ker, regional director for Asia at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

"The trouble with being the clear leader of everything is that everyone knows where the buck stops if something goes wrong."

Another major constitutional change approved Sunday was the creation of an all-powerful national anti-corruption agency, regarded by many as equally significant as the removal of term limits in its impact on Chinese politics.

White House proposes arming teachers, backpedals on raising age to buy guns

The Trump administration on Sunday night proposed providing some school personnel with "rigorous" firearms training and backed a bill to improve criminal background checks on gun buyers, but backpedaled on the idea of increasing the minimum age to buy certain firearms -- a policy President Donald Trump had said he would support.

The proposals, which come more than three weeks after the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, also include a plan to establish a commission chaired by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos that will recommend policy and funding proposals for school violence prevention, including possible age restrictions on some firearms purchases. The commission does not have a set timeline of when it will report its findings, although an official said it would be within one year.

"Today we are announcing meaningful actions, steps that can be taken right away to help protect students," DeVos said Sunday.

"Far too often the focus has been only on the most contentious fights -- the things that have divided people and sent them into their entrenched corners," she continued. "But the plan that we're going to advance and talk about is a pragmatic plan to dramatically increase school safety and to take steps to do so right away."

The announcement of the commission comes less than a day after Trump criticized blue-ribbon committees at a rally in Pennsylvania, saying, "We can't just keep setting up blue-ribbon committees," adding that they do nothing but "talk, talk, talk."

Administration officials stressed the necessity of the new commission when asked why Trump said such committees were ineffective, saying there is "very cogent argument for having a commission."

Hardening school security

Officials announced that the administration will work with states on what they called "rigorous" firearms training for "specially qualified" school personnel on a voluntary basis, including leveraging Department of Justice assistance to give school personnel firearm training from state and local law enforcement agencies, the administration announced.

Trump first floated the idea of arming teachers and school officials after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last month -- an idea that was met with immediate criticism.

The administration also plans to support the transition of military veterans and retired law enforcement into new careers in education and will encourage state attorneys general to audit school districts for compliance with state emergency preparedness activities.

Federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, also will partner with states and local governments to support a public awareness campaign modeled on the department's "see something, say something" anti-terrorism campaign to encourage the awareness and reporting of suspicious activity, the administration announced.

Background checks and prevention measures

The administration is backing the "Fix NICS" bill introduced by Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, and Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, which intends to improve the information going into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System by offering financial incentives to federal and state authorities to comply with existing law to report criminal history records.

The bill would hold federal agencies accountable if they fail to upload records to the background check system.

Further, the administration voiced support for legislation dubbed the "STOP School Violence Act," which would provide states with funding for training, technology and other assistance to help schools identify and prevent violent acts.

The Trump administration also called on states to adopt "extreme risk protection orders," with technical assistance from the Department of Justice. The orders would allow law enforcement officers, with approval from a court, to remove firearms from those who pose a threat to themselves or others and temporarily to prevent individuals from purchasing new firearms.

Trump will direct the Justice Department to provide assistance to states, only at their request, on establishing and implementing the orders, officials said.

Mental health measures

Trump is proposing an expansion and overhaul of mental health programs, including those that help identify and treat those who may be a threat to themselves or others, the administration announced.

The President is proposing increased integration of mental health, primary care, and family services, as well as support for programs that utilize court-ordered treatment.

Trump is also calling for a review of the statutory and regulatory privacy protections to determine if any changes or clarifications are needed to improve coordination between mental health and other health care professionals, school officials, and law enforcement personnel.

Commission on school violence

Trump's proposed Federal Commission on School Safety aims to develop a process to evaluate and make recommendations on school safety, the administration said.

The commission plans to focus on several areas, including age restrictions for certain firearm purchases; current entertainment rating systems; youth consumption of violent entertainment; best practices for school building and campus security and threat assessment and violence prevention; plans for integration and coordination of federal resources to help prevent and mitigate shootings at schools; and opportunities to improve access to mental health treatment, including through efforts to raise awareness of mental illness and the effectiveness of treatment.

The Wall Street Journal previously reported some of the details of the expected announcement, citing White House officials who had been briefed on the proposal.

The administration is already moving ahead with a proposal to ban bump fire stocks, devices that allow semiautomatic weapons to fire at a more rapid rate, as Attorney General Jeff Sessions has vowed to do. The Justice Department has submitted a proposed regulation to the Office of Management and Budget for review to prohibit their sale by classifying them as machine guns under federal law.

A Republican congressman with a high ranking from the National Rifle Association, who declined to be named to avoid alienating various constituencies, said the administration's proposals are "a missed opportunity and fails to honor the victims and survivors of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School."

The lawmaker, who strongly favors increasing the minimum age to buy assault-style weapons, said he thinks Trump "has abandoned his instincts on the issue of gun safety policies," adding that he thinks the proposal is "weak."

While the congressman says the recommendations for congressional actions would be "a small, positive first step," he said he believes they are "insufficient."

Five dead, pilot is sole survivor of helicopter crash in NYC's East River

The pilot of a helicopter that went down in New York's East River Sunday is the sole survivor of the crash, after all five passengers died, authorities say.

Three of the passengers had been taken to hospital with critical injuries after surviving the crash, but the New York City Fire Department confirmed their deaths early Monday.

The sixth person on the helicopter, the pilot, was able to free himself and was rescued, FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said earlier. He was taken to the hospital for observation.

"One of the most difficult parts of the rescue were that five people were tightly harnessed," Nigro said. "People had to be cut out."

Nigro and NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill spoke to reporters Sunday evening.

In an audio recording of a mayday call to LaGuardia Airport, the pilot can be heard saying that the helicopter was experiencing engine failure.

The Liberty Helicopters chopper had been chartered for a private photo shoot, authorities said.

Liberty Helicopters

Liberty Helicopters describes itself on its website as "the largest and most experienced helicopter sightseeing and charter service in New York City."

The company has "a fleet of 10 state-of-the-art Airbus helicopters (formerly American Eurcopter)," according to the website. "We have been in business and flying safely for over 30 years," the website says.

This is the company's third crash in 11 years, according to CNN affiliate WABC-TV. In August 2009, nine people were killed after a helicopter and a small, private plane crashed into each other over the Hudson river. Investigators said the helicopter was flying too high.

Two years before that, in July 2007, a Liberty sightseeing chopper carrying eight people dropped into the Hudson river. An off-duty paramedic on board helped everyone escape, WABC reports.

The Federal Aviation Administration said earlier Sunday on Twitter that the helicopter went down in the river near Roosevelt Island at 7 p.m. ET. The FAA identified it as a Eurocopter AS350.

The helicopter was upside-down and submerged when emergency responders reached it, authorities said.

Police said the chopper was in the water around 23rd Street and called for a barge with a crane to pull it out.

Crash investigation

The National Transportation Safety Board will determine probable cause of the incident, the FAA said. The NTSB said on Twitter that an investigation team would be arriving in New York Monday morning.

When they begin their investigation, said Gary C. Robb, an aviation attorney based in Kansas City, Missouri, the NTSB will likely look at three things: the pilot's training, experience and immediate response during the crash; what, if anything, on the helicopter caused the crash; and what environmental factors may have contributed to the crash.

Robb says the NTSB would then release a preliminary report, and a probable cause accident report would follow later detailing what happened during the crash.

John J. Magers filmed the crash as it took place and posted the video on Twitter. He said he thought something was strange when he saw the helicopter flying low before it crashed into the East River, so he started shooting video.

"I saw it coming down toward the water. Thought it was unusual, but didn't expect it to crash," Magers told CNN over Instagram. "My thoughts are with those killed."

5 Things to know

North Korea   Well, here's a sentence we'd never thought we'd write: President Trump plans to meet with Kim Jong Un. That shocking announcement -- delivered in the White House driveway by a South Korean official -- means Trump could be the first sitting American President to meet with the leader of North Korea. The meeting would happen by May, but we don't know exactly when or where. And Kim reportedly is willing to talk about denuclearization and pledged that his regime would suspend testing of his missiles and nukes. Getting North Korea to curb or even shut down its nuclear program would be a massive foreign policy victory for Trump, who maintains that only the sanctions his administration has pushed for (and his tough talk) can bring the North to the negotiating table. But the North has a history of making agreements and then backing away from them, so lots of people are skeptical that all this will lead to anything substantive.

Tariffs

Before the North Korea meeting bombshell, the President followed through on his promise to impose tariffs on steel (25%) and aluminum (10%) imports. There are exemptions for Mexico and Canada (as the NAFTA talks continue), and other US allies can petition to get exemptions of their own. The move's set up a weird political realignment. Most of Trump's GOP allies hate the idea and fear it'll set off a trade war that'll wreck the economy. Jeff Flake -- Arizona senator and Trump nemesis -- says he'll introduce a bill to stop the tariffs. But Democrats in districts in Pennsylvania and other steel-producing areas actually applauded Trump's action. Our allies are miffed about it, though. China called the tariffs "a serious attack," while South Korea called them "unjust."  Meanwhile, just hours before the tariff announcement, several US allies signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the sweeping trade deal that Trump pulled the US out of right after taking office.

Abortion   Mississippi's just a step away from having one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation. State lawmakers passed a bill that would bar women from getting abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Republican Gov. Phil Bryant says he'll sign it next week. Women who violate the measure would face criminal charges. Doctors who violate it could lose their medical licenses and face civil penalties. Some abortion rights groups are already prepping lawsuits.

Colombia   A former Colombian rebel group leader won't be running for president of the country after all. Rodrigo Londoño, a former leader of FARC, has ended his presidential bid because of health issues. He had led Colombia's most powerful guerrilla force through negotiations with the government that resulted in a historic peace deal. Colombia and FARC's agreement in 2016 ended a 52-year civil war that left more than 200,000 people dead.

Mexico & spring break   Plan on frolicking on Mexican beaches in Playa del Carmen this spring break? Don't do it, says the State Department, which warned Americans not to travel to Playa del Carmen after an explosive device was found on a tourist ferry there. A device on another ferry detonated about a week earlier, injuring several people. Playa del Carmen is a popular destination for American college students during spring break.

Will Egypt’s Strongman Make It Official?

Egyptians head to the polls later this month. But with President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi seemingly assured of victory, it’s already clear that the big story for Egypt is not the election, but what comes next – an effort to extend presidential terms and formalize the country’s autocracy, writes Michael Wahid Hanna in the Washington Post.
 
Sisi’s regime “has sought to squelch any potential opposition activity before it becomes an emerging or credible threat. This repression has gone beyond obvious political targets and has produced a stultifying environment in which prosecutors have initiated outlandish legal actions, shocking even staunch regime supporters,” Hanna writes.
 
“Such an environment does not set the stage for a convincing renewal of the Sisi regime’s legitimacy. But that is not the purpose of this month’s electoral exercise. Rather, it is a procedural hurdle to clear before the much more consequential effort of constitutional change.”

The Al Capone Playbook for America’s Guns Crisis

Despite the outcry after the Florida school shooting last month – and the broad public support for tougher gun laws – it’s hard to imagine Congress introducing an outright ban on assault rifles. But lawmakers looking for a Second Amendment-friendly solution could try another approach to discouraging their use, tapping a playbook from the 1930s, suggests Stephen Mihm for Bloomberg View.
 
“Many reformers [in the 1930s] wanted an outright ban on machine guns, silencers, sawed-off shotguns, and other weapons in the gangster arsenal. But [then-Attorney General Homer] Cummings knew that could easily invite a constitutional challenge,” Mihm writes.
 
“So Cummings looked to another piece of federal legislation for inspiration: the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914, which imposed taxes on the production, distribution, and sale of opiates. Understanding full well that the power to tax was the power to destroy, Cummings proposed that Congress impose a $200 transfer tax each time someone bought or sold a machine gun -- or approximately $3,700 in today’s money.
 
“As gun control historian Adam Winkler has observed, this strategy was akin to the one used by the feds to take down Capone: tax evasion charges. And like that strategy, the gun tax worked. The popularity of these weapons effectively collapsed.”
 
“None of this amounted to a ban on machine guns: It was still possible to buy them even if almost no one did. And that’s the lesson for today. If Congress is leery about trampling on gun rights but wants to do something about assault rifles, perhaps they should take some inspiration from Homer Cummings.”

The Lesson from Italy? Europe is “Nearly Ungovernable”

The populist success in Italy’s election Sunday was about more than Italian politics, writes Helen Thompson in The New York Times. It proved that the political center is as good as dead in Europe.

“Since the Maastricht Treaty was signed in 1992, establishing the European Union and laying the groundwork for the creation of the euro, policy on a range of issues from budgets to asylum have been taken beyond the control of democratically elected national governments,” Thompson says.

“At the same time, participation in the eurozone has required governments to forsake policy tools that their predecessors had used during times of economic crisis. Since 2010, eurozone membership can also demand acquiescence to the European Central Bank, which can essentially ask for and veto national economic legislation.”

“The result? Much of Europe has become nearly ungovernable. As voters across the Continent see their ability to influence policy taken away, they have lashed out, neutering the traditional center and giving rise to disruptive populists. Italy’s election, in other words, says much about everything that’s wrong with the European Union.”