Tillerson And I Disagreed On Some Things, Says Trump

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday spoke of his disagreements with the ousted secretary of state Rex Tillerson.

Some of this disagreement according to Trump include the Iran nuclear deal.

He explained this as his decision to replace Tillerson with Mike Pompeo.

“We got along actually quite well but we disagreed on things,” Trump told reporters.

“When you look at the Iran deal, I thought it was terrible, he thought it was okay. I wanted to either break it or do something, he felt a little differently. So we were not really thinking the same.

ALS: The Disease That Stephen Hawking Defied For Decades

British physicist Stephen Hawking was one of the most famous sufferers of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the fatal neurological disease that paralysed his body but did nothing to curb his contribution to science.

The rare condition normally claims the lives of those who have it within two to three years of diagnosis, making Hawking’s five-decade fight to overcome the disease an extraordinary exception.

The neurodegenerative condition attacks the motor nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, hampering their ability to communicate with muscles and control voluntary movements, leading to eventual paralysis.

Early symptoms of stiffness and muscle weakness worsen over time as victims gradually lose the ability to walk, speak and breathe.

The deadly condition is very rare, occurring on average among two new cases per 100,000 people every year, most typically among individuals aged between 55 and 65.

It became something of a household name in 2014 after the viral “Ice Bucket Challenge”, which saw people upload videos of themselves pouring cold water over their heads in a bid to raise awareness about the disease.

There is currently no cure or treatment that halts or reverses ALS, though there are some options to can help manage symptoms.

The disease takes two main forms, according to the US-based ALS Association.

The vast majority of people suffer from a “sporadic” version that can affect anyone while up to ten percent of cases in the US are inherited.

Military veterans are up to twice as likely to be diagnosed as the general public, for unknown reasons.

The average survival time for those affected by ALS is three years, according to the ALS Association.

Only five percent of patients live for 20 years or more.

Researchers have said Hawking’s exceptional longevity remains a mystery, though some have noted that the diseases’ progression varies by patient and could be governed by genetics.

Other famous victims of the disease include playwright Sam Shepard, who died in August 2017, “Sesame Street” co-creator Jon Stone and jazz musician Charles Mingus.

ALS is commonly referred to as “Lou Gehrig’s disease” in a nod to the baseball legend who is believed to have died from the illness in 1941.

Millions In China Mourn ‘Giant Star’ Hawking

Millions of Chinese mourned Stephen Hawking on Wednesday, bidding farewell to a “giant star” admired in China for stoically rising above physical disability and posting heartfelt messages to his Chinese fans on social media.

Already well-known in China, the British cosmologist two years ago further endeared himself to fans in the country when he opened an account on the Twitter-like Weibo platform, posting in both Chinese and English.

The account garnered one million fans within its first few hours and now has nearly five million, with his infrequent posts typically generating tens of thousands of admiring comments and earning him the affectionate nickname “Hawking Dada”, or “Uncle Hawking.”

News of Hawking’s death at 76 quickly became the top-trending Weibo topic, with the hashtag #Hawking passed# generating more than 300 million reads and nearly 200,000 comments within a few hours after his death was announced.

Many said his passing was “the falling of a giant star.”

“The deterioration of his body did not trap him. Today this superhuman brain has left this world, and his next journey, death, remains a mystery,” one user said.

“I hope he has the strength to send us information from the next world.”

Another user wrote: “Even though I can’t understand Hawking Dada’s books… he is the one who knows the secret of this world.”

Most of Hawking’s life was spent in a wheelchair, crippled by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a form of motor neuron disease. He died at his home in England on Wednesday, his family announced.

Hawking, who had travelled to China previously, even visiting the Great Wall in 2002, posted on Weibo about black holes and other phenomena, and wrote in one message that being on China’s leading social media platform was “a source of great inspiration”.

One of his more popular postings was a June 2016 message of encouragement to tens of millions of Chinese students preparing for annual national college-entrance exams, a stressful, make-or-break ordeal that can determine one’s future.

“Whether you aim to be a doctor, teacher, scientist, musician, engineer, or a writer, be fearless in the pursuit of your aspirations. You are the next generation of big thinkers and thought leaders that will shape the future for generations to come – SH,” he wrote.

Stephen Hawking: A Brief History Of Genius

Stephen Hawking, who has died aged 76, was Britain’s most famous modern-day scientist, a genius who dedicated his life to unlocking the secrets of the Universe.

Born on January 8, 1942 — 300 years to the day after the death of the father of modern science, Galileo Galilei — he believed science was his destiny.

But fate also dealt Hawking a cruel hand.

Most of his life was spent in a wheelchair crippled by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a form of motor neurone disease that attacks the nerves controlling voluntary movement.

Remarkably, Hawking defied predictions he would only live for a few years, overcoming its debilitating effects on his mobility and speech that left him paralysed and able to communicate only via a computer speech synthesiser.

“I am quite often asked: how do you feel about having ALS?” he once wrote. “The answer is, not a lot.

“I try to lead as normal a life as possible, and not think about my condition, or regret the things it prevents me from doing, which are not that many.”

Stephen William Hawking, though, was far from normal.

Inside the shell of his increasingly useless body was a razor-sharp mind, fascinated by the nature of the Universe, how it was formed and how it might end.

“My goal is simple,” he once said. “It is complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.”

Much of that work centred on bringing together relativity — the nature of space and time — and quantum theory — how the smallest particles in the Universe behave — to explain the creation of the Universe and how it is governed.

– Life on Earth at risk –

In 1974, he became one of the youngest fellows of Britain’s most prestigious scientific body, the Royal Society, at the age of 32.

In 1979 he was appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, where he had moved from Oxford University to study theoretical astronomy and cosmology.

A previous holder of the prestigious post was the 17th-century British scientist Isaac Newton.

Hawking eventually put Newton’s gravitational theories to the test in 2007 when, aged 65, he went on a weightless flight in the United States as a prelude to a hoped-for sub-orbital spaceflight.

Characteristically, he did not see the trip as a mere birthday present.

Instead, he said he wanted to show that disability was no bar to achievement and to encourage interest in space, where he believed humankind’s destiny lay.

“I think the human race has no future if it doesn’t go into space,” he said.

“I believe life on Earth is at an ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers.”

More recently he said artificial intelligence (AI) could contribute to the eradication of disease and poverty while warning of its potential dangers.

“In short, success in creating AI could be the biggest event in the history of our civilisation.

“Alongside the benefits, AI will also bring dangers, like powerful autonomous weapons, or new ways for the few to oppress the many,” Hawking said in 2016, at the opening of a new AI research centre at Cambridge University.

– Pop culture and politics –

Hawking’s genius brought him global fame and he became known as a witty communicator dedicated to bringing science to a wider audience.

His 1988 book “A Brief History of Time” sought to explain to non-scientists the fundamental theories of the universe and it became an international bestseller, bringing him global acclaim.

It was followed in 2001 by “The Universe in a Nutshell”.

In 2007, Hawking published a children’s book, “George’s Secret Key to the Universe”, with his daughter, Lucy, seeking to explain the workings of the solar system, asteroids, his pet subject of black holes and other celestial bodies.

Hawking also moved into popular culture, with cameos in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “The Simpsons”, while his voice appeared in Pink Floyd songs.

Beyond scientific debate Hawking also weighed into politics, describing Donald Trump as “a demagogue who seems to appeal to the lowest common denominator” ahead of his election as US president.

Hawking also warned Britain ahead of the Brexit referendum in 2016 against leaving the European Union: “Gone are the days when we could stand on our own against the world.”

– Making the most of ‘every minute’ –

Hawking first married Jane Wilde in 1965 and had three children. The couple split after 25 years and he married his former nurse, Elaine Mason, but the union broke down amid allegations, denied by him, of abuse.

The love story between Hawking and Wilde was retold in the 2014 film “The Theory of Everything”, which won Britain’s Eddie Redmayne the best actor Oscar for his portrayal of the scientist.

The Oscar triumph was celebrated by Hawking, who has reportedly said there were moments watching the film when he thought he was watching himself.

He was also the subject of a 2013 documentary, “Hawking”, in which he reflected on his life: “Because every day could be my last, I have the desire to make the most of each and every minute.”

UN Slams ‘Monstrous Indifference’ To Children’s Suffering In Syria

Flouting demands for Syria ceasefires shows a “monstrous indifference” to the suffering of millions of children needing a respite from violence, a top UN rights official said Tuesday.

A resolution adopted by the United Nations Security Council two weeks ago calling for a 30-day ceasefire across Syria has been broadly ignored, with attacks increasing on the rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta.

Kate Gilmore, the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, called for immediate action to help children caught in the fighting.

In an address to the UN Human Rights Council, she voiced particular concern for the some 125,000 children trapped in Eastern Ghouta, “many acutely malnourished, most profoundly traumatised.”

“What is happening to those children is too graphic for our TV screens, but not graphic enough it seems to motivate those who can stop the senseless violence to do so,” she said.
“Is it not tantamount to a monstrous indifference to the suffering of children that Security Council resolutions for ceasefires are flouted?” she asked.

More than 350,000 people have been killed in Syria’s devastating seven-year conflict, according to fresh figures released from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Monday.

Panos Moumtzis, the UN’s top humanitarian official for Syria, said Tuesday that 2017 was “the deadliest year of the Syrian war for children.”

“Sadly, 2018 started really in a terrible way as well,” he told reporters, adding that in the first two months of the year, “more than 1,000 children were either reported killed or injured through the violence in multiple locations.”

A full two-thirds of Syria’s 8.4 million children need humanitarian assistance, while one million of them live in areas that are difficult to reach by aid convoys and 170,000 in besieged areas, according to UN figures.

“The scope, the scale, the gravity of the crimes against the children of Syria are just shocking,” Gilmore told reporters, lamenting that the international community had “failed by every known measure and that should shake us to the core of our humanity.”

Asked what hope there was the situation in Syria would improve, she answered with a shaking voice that “hope has long left.”

“This is a story no longer of hope. This is a story now of accountability and responsibility,” she said.

“Those responsible should know that we do not stand idly by, only wringing passive hands,” she said, stressing that “those responsible for these war crimes and crimes against humanity are being identified, the chain of evidence is being preserved, dossiers are being built up for their prosecution.”

US and China Could Be Closer to a Hot War Than You Think

US-China relations suffered a double blow over the past week in the shape ofPresident Trump’s steel tariffs and China’s lurch to one-man rule. The growing danger? A trade war could turn into a real one, Gideon Rachman argues in the Financial Times.

“As the two countries slide towards confrontation over trade, territory and ideology, so the sense of grievance on both sides is likely to increase. The Chinese and American presidents are both nationalists who frequently stoke feelings of wounded national pride. Mr Trump has claimed the world is laughing at America and that China has raped the US. [Xi Jinping] has promised to preside over a ‘great rejuvenation’ of the Chinese people — that will finally bury the ‘century of humiliation’ that began in 1839, when the country was invaded and partially colonized,” Rachman writes.

“In the pre-Xi era, Chinese leaders and academics liked to stress the mutual dependence between their country and the US. The conventional argument was that China’s rapid development was taking place in the context of a US-dominated world — and therefore there was little point in challenging America. But this Chinese version of liberal internationalism is no longer common in Beijing. More recently, Chinese intellectuals have begun to argue that ‘the US-led world order is a suit that no longer fits…’”

Team Trump Tried a New Diplomatic Trick. It Worked

The Trump administration did something unusual with its North Korea diplomacy, and isn’t getting the credit it deserves for doing so, argues Kori Schake in The Atlantic. It got out of the way.
 
“[F]or an administration that has not distinguished itself in supporting America’s allies, it has let South Korea take the lead and have the limelight. The administration allowed South Korea to determine whether scheduled US-South Korea military exercises would occur around the time of the Olympics. It was South Korea who brokered the deal with North Korea. It was South Korea standing in front of cameras at the White House announcing the president’s acceptance,” Schake writes.
 
“It would certainly have been a stronger message had the president or the national-security adviser been standing next to America’s South Korean allies when they made the announcement, but it still merits notice that an administration often tin-eared to allied concerns allowed itself to be guided by an ally’s initiative.”

• Iran’s leaders won’t be the only ones interested in whether President Trump tears up the nuclear deal. Kim Jong Un will be watching closely, too, writes Daniel Larison in The American Conservative.

“The post-deal treatment of Iran is hardly a ringing endorsement of the benefits of making an agreement with the US and its allies. Trump wants to renege on the deal anyway because it did not force Iran’s complete surrender. That bodes ill for what Trump thinks a ‘good deal’ with North Korea would look like. Once the US reneges on the JCPOA, North Korea will have another very big reason not to trust any US promises made during negotiations with them.”

May Needs to Take Away the Welcome Mat

British Prime Minister Theresa May told the country’s Parliament on Monday that Russia was “highly likely” behind the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal. Oliver Bullough writes for The Guardian that it’s time for Britain to get Moscow’s attention. That means hitting wealthy Russians where it hurts.   “Poisoning one ex-spy in Britain might be a one-off, an exceptional act of retribution. But if the Kremlin has poisoned a second ex-spy in Britain, that looks like a policy,” Bullough writes.   “If US assistance is not forthcoming, the government needs to work with our European allies. It is a shame that so much of our diplomatic capital has been squandered on Brexit, instead of being held back for something important.   “But acting alone is still possible. South-east England is a favorite playground of rich Russians. They keep their houses here, their children here, they float their companies on our stock exchange and they don’t make a secret of it. You’re not rich in Russia without being friends with Putin – in fact, there is a remarkably close correlation between the two groups – so if May’s government wants to send a message to the Russian president, it could cancel the visas of the members of his inner circle and, perhaps, try out the potency of its new ‘unexplained wealth orders,’ by freezing their property. Then it should dismantle the mechanisms with which they launder their money.”

It’s Getting Hot Up There

The Arctic is one of the least regulated places on the planet – and one of the richest in untapped natural resources. As the climate heats up, so is the great power race to exploit those resources, notes Kristina Spohr in the New Statesman.   “There is an enormous amount at stake. In 2008, the US Geological Survey estimated that the Arctic holds 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil, and 30 per cent of its natural gas. That is worth about £12 trillion (about $17 trillion) in today’s prices, roughly equivalent to the entire US economy. In other words, the prospect of an unfrozen Arctic Ocean opens up the remarkable riches of the North Pole,” Spohr writes.   Leading the charge? China and Russia. “As the climate changes, its ice-scape will become a seascape. And a region that did not belong to anybody will be divvied up – through co-operation or conflict, or perhaps a mixture of both. What may prove to be the new world order – a new multipolar system of international politics – is taking shape there, as Russia and China seek to challenge an American hegemony that, in their view, has lasted for too long. “Both think big. But Xi’s China has far deeper pockets and operates with much greater diplomatic shrewdness than Putin’s Russia. This combination of vision, money and finesse is nowhere to be seen in the Western world – certainly not in Trump’s Washington.”

Sorry, That Username Is Taken. Please Try Again…

France’s far-right National Front is rebranding. The problem? Its new name,Rassemblement National (National Rally), “carries echoes of a dark past,” James McAuley reports for the Washington Post. A Nazi past, to be precise.   “Like other Nazi-allied parties during World War II, the ‘Rassemblement National Populaire’ saw the war — and the experience of occupation — as a chance to cleanse and purify France from within. It was no stranger to overt anti-Semitism and open admiration for Nazi Germany. “The party used a logo featuring elements of the Nazi swastika, displayed on a similar red backdrop. One of the earliest members of the ‘Populaire,’ Roland Gaucher, went on to co-found the National Front with Jean-Marie Le Pen.”

House Republicans break with intelligence community on Russia

Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee reached an opposite conclusion Monday from the intelligence community they oversee, announcing that Russian President Vladimir Putin was not trying to help Donald Trump win the 2016 election.

The Republicans also said they found no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia and that they are shutting down their yearlong investigation.

Their viewpoint -- which perfectly aligns with Trump's view on election meddling -- will be met with sharp disagreement by Democrats and is bound to inflame partisan tensions on a committee that's been beleaguered by partisanship throughout its Russia probe.

Trump seized on the news Monday evening, tweeting about it in all capital letters.

"THE HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE HAS, AFTER A 14 MONTH LONG IN-DEPTH INVESTIGATION, FOUND NO EVIDENCE OF COLLUSION OR COORDINATION BETWEEN THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN AND RUSSIA TO INFLUENCE THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION," he said.

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

THE HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE HAS, AFTER A 14 MONTH LONG IN-DEPTH INVESTIGATION, FOUND NO EVIDENCE OF COLLUSION OR COORDINATION BETWEEN THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN AND RUSSIA TO INFLUENCE THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

1:49 AM - Mar 13, 2018

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The Republican decision to end the House Russia investigation comes as special counsel Robert Mueller's probe appears to be accelerating.

Rep. Mike Conaway, the Texas Republican leading the Russia investigation, said Monday that the committee had concluded its interviews for the Russia investigation, and the Republican staff had prepared a 150-page draft report that they would give to Democrats to review on Tuesday morning.

The committee Republicans said Russians did meddle in the elections to sow chaos, but they disagreed with the intelligence community's assessment that they sought to help Trump.

"We found no evidence of collusion, and so we found perhaps some bad judgment, inappropriate meetings," Conaway said. "We found no evidence of any collusion of anything people were actually doing other than taking a meeting they shouldn't have taken or just inadvertently being in the same building."

Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the committee, slammed the Republican decision to end the investigation.

"While the majority members of our committee have indicated for some time that they have been under great pressure to end the investigation, it is nonetheless another tragic milestone for this Congress, and represents yet another capitulation to the executive branch," Schiff said in a statement. "By ending its oversight role in the only authorized investigation in the House, the Majority has placed the interests of protecting the President over protecting the country, and history will judge its actions harshly."

The Senate Intelligence Committee is forging ahead with its investigation into Russian election meddling. But Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr told CNN on Monday that he had not yet seen any evidence of collusion or to substantiate the intelligence community's assessment that Putin was trying to help Trump win, though he said the committee was still investigating and had not reached conclusions on either matter.

"I've read a lot about it, but I haven't seen any" evidence of collusion, Burr said.

Asked about repeated efforts by Russians to coordinate with the Trump campaign, Burr said: "It's collusion on part of the Russians, I guess, but not the Trump campaign."

Burr would not say if he agreed with the Intelligence Community's assessment that Putin tried to help Trump, calling it simply "a 30-day snapshot."

"I don't think we've seen anything that would substantiate that to this point," Burr said.

In the House, Democrats say there are still scores of witnesses the committee should call, and argue that Republicans have failed to use subpoenas to obtain documents and require witnesses to answer questions that are central to the investigation.

Conaway told reporters that he feels the committee has investigated all avenues it needed to probe, and he argued that the panel would not have been able to obtain the information Democrats were seeking had they gone the route of subpoenaing witnesses or trying to hold them in contempt.

Conaway, for instance, said the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between senior campaign officials and a Russian lawyer where dirt on Clinton was promised was "ill-advised." But he said that the committee did not turn up any evidence of collusion, arguing the promoter who organized the meeting had exaggerated what the Russians would provide.

The committee's report will conclude that they agree with 98% of the intelligence community's January 2017 assessment that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, according to a committee aide.

But the panel's Republicans take issue with the key finding that Putin was trying get Trump elected.

"Bottom line: Russians did commit active measures against our elections in '16, and we think they'll do that in the future," Conaway said. "It's clear they sowed discord in our elections. ... But we couldn't establish the same conclusions the CIA did that they specifically wanted to help Trump."

A summary of the committee's initial findings states that the committee found "concurrence with the Intelligence Community Assessment's judgments, except with respect to Putin's supposed preference for candidate Trump."

James Clapper, who was Director of National Intelligence in the Obama administration when the assessment was released, said he disagreed, noting that US intelligence found Putin had deep animus toward Clinton and saw Trump as more friendly toward Russia.

"I obviously disagree. The four intelligence chiefs all agreed with the assessment, which was based on highly classified intelligence," Clapper told CNN. "This is a case of people living in their own reality bubbles when we can't agree on basic facts."

The committee's Russia investigation included interviews with 73 witnesses and a review of roughly 300,000 pages of documents, Conaway said. They included key figures like Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon, but Democrats have argued that those witnesses failed to fully provide documents or answer important questions.

But Conaway said that Republicans would not hold Bannon in contempt of Congress for failing to answer questions beyond what was authorized by the White House, despite threats to do so just several days ago. Conaway said such efforts -- and issuing subpoenas to other witnesses as Democrats demanded -- would be a fruitless endeavor.

"You use subpoenas when you think you can actually get something from them," Conaway said. "We're not too confident that the subpoena process would get us any more information than we have."

Conaway said he hopes that Democrats can work with Republicans on the draft report, and he wants to take their feedback as they shape the final report. He declined to put a timeline on when the report would be made public, as the committee intends to submit it to the intelligence community for declassification beforehand.

Conaway said Democrats will agree with some elements of the report, such as the social media interference, but he acknowledged they'd take issue with others.

It's widely expected Democrats will draft their own report that argues a case for collusion, as well as spells out all the avenues the committee did not investigate.

In addition to subpoenas and witnesses, Democrats have long raised issues about looking into Trump's finances, something the committee had not probed. Conaway said he saw no "link" between Trump's finances and the committee's investigation, and he did not want to go on a fishing expedition.

The Republican report will also say how "anti-Trump research" made its way from Russian sources to the Clinton campaign through the opposition research dossier on Trump and Russia. Conaway, however, stopped short of saying there was "collusion" between Clinton's campaign and the Russians, something the President has alleged.

The end of the Russia interviews is only the latest battleground on the House Intelligence Committee, which has been consumed by partisan fights for the better part of a year, from Chairman Devin Nunes' role in the investigation and more recently over competing memos about alleged surveillance abuses at the FBI during the Obama administration.

Several Republicans on the panel have been signaling for several weeks now that they're ready for the Russia investigation to wrap up, arguing that Democrats are trying to extend the probe into the campaign season.

"To me, I don't see anything else that's out there that hasn't been explored," Rep. Pete King, a New York Republican, told CNN last week.

But Democrats say the committee has raced through its final interviews, while allowing witnesses to pick and choose which questions they answer.

The committee issued a subpoena to former White House chief strategist Bannon in January, but in his return testimony he still did not answer questions about his time in the White House.

Democrats also sought subpoenas for the committee's last two witnesses, outgoing White House communications director Hope Hicks and former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, but Republicans did not issue them.

"There are a number of steps that I think any credible investigator would say, 'These need to be done,' and we still hope that they will be," Schiff said following Lewandowski's interview last week.

Conaway downplayed the partisan tensions on the committee, saying he and Schiff have "powered through" the issues. He noted that since he took over the Russia probe for Nunes in April 2017, he has not visited the White House or spoken to the President.

In the Senate, the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees are still investigating Russia's alleged 2016 election meddling.

There are still two committees in the Senate that are investigating Russia's 2016 election meddling: the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary committees.

Still, only the Senate Intelligence Committee appears to be pushing forward at full speed on its probe, as Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley is preparing to release transcripts of the committee's interviews with participants of the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting -- a potential sign the committee is done investigating that matter.

The Senate Intelligence Committee is preparing to put out recommendations and hold a hearing on election security this month. Burr has said he's separating out the election security issues for the 2018 primary season while the committee continues to investigate questions about collusion and the 2016 election.