March 6, 2018


News and Views


NORTH AND SOUTH ARE “PLAYING NICE” TOGETHER. THAT’S ENCOURAGING. IT WOULD BE GREAT IF THEY COULD REUNITE THEIR PEOPLES, UNLESS THEY THEN TURNED AGAINST THE USA IN WAR. I DO HOPE FOR THE BEST, THOUGH.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-43296671
North Korea is willing to discuss disarmament, says South
March 6, 2018
Video -- Kim Jong-un welcomes South Korean officials

North Korea is willing to talk about getting rid of its nuclear weapons but only if its own safety can be guaranteed, South Korea says.

The South says the subject was raised when its officials met with the North's leader, Kim Jong-un, in Pyongyang on Monday, during a rare visit.

They said Mr Kim is also open to US talks, and would pause weapons testing.

In previous programmes to halt its nuclear ambitions, the North has failed to keep its promises.

The leaders of North and South Korea have also agreed to meet at a summit next month, Seoul's envoy says.

It will be the first such meeting for more than a decade and the first since Kim Jong-un took power in North Korea.

Mr Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in will meet on the heavily fortified border next month, at the truce village of Panmunjom. The countries also agreed to open a hotline between the leaders.

RELATED -- North Korea crisis in 300 words
Have the Winter Olympics repaired North-South Korea relations?
Fast-closing window for diplomacy post-Olympics

Throughout February's Winter Olympics in South Korea, the two countries struck a friendly tone, sending athletes to compete in a joint team and holding talks.

But the US maintained that North Korean gestures of rapprochement would carry little weight without a commitment on nuclear weapons - particularly following last year's nuclear and missile tests carried out by the North.

The South Korean delegation is expected to visit Washington later this week to brief US officials on their talks in the North.

What is North Korea reported to have said?

A statement from the South Korea president's office said: "The North showed willingness on denuclearisation in the Korean Peninsula. If military threats to the North Korea decrease and regime safety is guaranteed, the North showed that it has no reason to retain nukes."

Image copyrightREUTERS
Image caption
Kim Jong-un was pictured welcoming delegates from the South to a dinner on Monday

The North's KCNA news agency said Mr Kim had "warmly welcomed" the delegates and held an "openhearted talk" with them.

This is a huge turnaround for North Korea's young leader, the BBC's Laura Bicker reports from Seoul.

Where does the US stand?

The United States has said it will only go in to formal talks with North Korea if Pyongyang is ready to give up its nuclear weapons.

After the news from the South Korean officials was made public, President Donald Trump tweeted: "The World is watching and waiting!"

"May be false hope, but the U.S. is ready to go hard in either direction!"

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Donald J. Trump
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Possible progress being made in talks with North Korea. For the first time in many years, a serious effort is being made by all parties concerned. The World is watching and waiting! May be false hope, but the U.S. is ready to go hard in either direction!

9:11 AM - Mar 6, 2018
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End of Twitter post by @realDonaldTrump

Meanwhile, China's foreign ministry said it hopes the Koreas can continue with efforts to advance reconciliation, Reuters news agency reported.

RELATED: What next?
Analysis by Jonathan Marcus, BBC defence correspondent

This is, of course, South Korea's take on what North Korea is offering.

Some of the suggestions are, at face value, encouraging - not least North Korea's apparent willingness to discuss the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. However, its conditions - that the military threat to North Korea is reduced and regime safety is guaranteed - raise all sorts of questions.

The North also says that it is willing to talk to the US with the goal of normalising relations with Washington.

The most positive element is the most immediate; that the period of calm initiated by the Winter Olympics looks set to continue.

"While the dialogues continue," the South says, "the North will not conduct any nuclear tests, missile launches or other provocations." (Surely not Pyongyang's words!)

The two Koreas appear willing to create diplomatic space to try to improve relations across the board. Much will now depend upon how Washington reacts.

What happened at the Pyongyang dinner?

South Korean officials had a four-hour dinner with Kim Jong-un on Monday. Among the delegation were intelligence chief Suh Hoon and National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong.

Pictures showed Mr Kim and visitors from the South smiling broadly around a dinner table.

Also present was Mr Kim's wife, Ri Sol-ju, who rarely appears at official events, and his sister Kim Yo-jong, who was part of a North Korean delegation to the Pyeongchang Olympics.

Kim's sister and North Korea's secret weapon
North Korea baby rumours fascinate South

The two sides appear to be aiming to capitalise on the reduced tensions after the Games, which saw the Koreas march together under one flag.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
During their visit, the South's officials passed on a letter from South Korean President Moon Jae-in, in which he invited Mr Kim to attend further talks.

KCNA said Mr Kim had "exchanged views and made a satisfactory agreement" on the letter and gave orders for it to be acted on.

The South's delegates returned to Seoul on Tuesday morning, the South Korean news agency Yonhap said.

Has this ever happened before?

These were the first officials from Seoul to meet Mr Kim since he came to power.

Kim Jong-un has met very few foreign officials since he became leader in 2011 and the last time envoys from the South visited Pyongyang was in 2007.

Two previous summits were held in 2000 and 2007, under South Korean presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun who met Kim's father, Kim Jong-il.

The South's officials have stressed the talks were only preliminary, but the parties had "somewhat shared" views on some issues.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
The visiting envoys (left) held talks with their North Korean counterparts before the dinner hosted by Kim Jong-un



THE 500 POUND GORILLA APPROACH

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/03/06/trumps-madman-approach-to-north-korea-is-getting-real-credit/
The Fix Analysis
Trump’s ‘madman’ approach to North Korea is getting real credit
By Aaron Blake March 6 at 11:58 AM

Photographs -- A man watches a TV screen in Seoul showing President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. (Ahn Young-joon/AP)

One of President Trump's biggest foreign policy wins as president — and biggest wins, period — came back in August. That was when the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously, including frequent holdouts China and Russia, to impose new sanctions on North Korea.

And now comes news of another possible win — albeit an incremental and uncertain one.

North Korea is now open to talks with the United States about scaling back its nuclear program, according to South Korean officials who met with their northern neighbors. The Post's Anna Fifield reports:

North Korea said it was prepared to hold “candid talks” with the United States about denuclearization and normalizing relations, and “made it clear” that it would not resume provocations while engaged in dialogue, the officials said upon returning to Seoul.

North Korea did not confirm South Korea’s version of events, saying simply that the two sides “made a satisfactory agreement” during the meeting between the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, and envoys sent by the South’s president, Moon Jae-in.

The White House has been somewhat quiet about this. Even Trump has been uncharacteristically understated in his reaction, tweeting that he merely hoped for the best from the situation and acknowledging that it “may be false hope.”

We will see what happens! https://t.co/Y1qxoAUfd9


— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 6, 2018
Possible progress being made in talks with North Korea. For the first time in many years, a serious effort is being made by all parties concerned. The World is watching and waiting! May be false hope, but the U.S. is ready to go hard in either direction!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 6, 2018


And as Fifield notes, there is reason for skepticism, including the fact that “North Korea has previously reneged on every deal it has ever signed.”

But some foreign policy experts say Trump has helped move the needle — however temporarily or tentatively — because of his 'madman' approach to North Korea and/or the sanctions spurred by the Trump administration's efforts.

“He does deserve credit,” said Ian Bremmer, the head of the Eurasia Group and a Trump critic who nonetheless sees some hope in his North Korea strategy. “I think North Korea’s openness in the Olympics and summitry with South Korea, as well as potentially direct talks with the U.S., are the result of Trump's approach.”

Before the Olympics, Moon credited Trump for helping open the door to North Korean participation — and eventually a joint North Korea-South Korea women's hockey team. The credit, perhaps unsurprisingly, was solicited by Trump himself, as The Post has reported. But that doesn't mean it hasn't been deserved, say experts like Bremmer.

At the same time, Bremmer and others noted that Trump's approach is both high-reward and high-risk — as tends to be the case with the madman strategy. Richard Nixon popularized this approach, which essentially involves making your opponents believe you are capable of anything. Trump has spoken publicly about annihilating North Korea and inflicting “fire and fury” upon it. He has even derided Kim as “Little Rocket Man.”

Scott Snyder, a Korea scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the shifting tone toward Pyongyang has clearly been noticed.

“Certainly, Trump should have introduced uncertainty and challenged North Korean assumptions about what they can expect and whether the U.S. will simply accept vulnerability to a North Korean nuclear threat,” Snyder said. “That could be why North Korea has claimed victory while stopping short of developing a full capability to threaten the U.S.”

Charles K. Armstrong, a Korea expert at Columbia University, differed somewhat. He said his sources suggest North Korea never took Trump's threatening behavior seriously and that it always believed Trump's generals would prevent him from launching preemptive attacks. But Armstrong said economic pressure almost certainly helped.

“More likely it was the increasingly severe and intrusive economic sanctions that persuaded the North Koreans to come around,” Armstrong said. “So I think Trump deserves some credit, but not for his threats of 'fire and fury.'”

Snyder said it's “premature” to judge whether Trump should get more credit than for what happened with the Olympics, because much has yet to play out. Bremmer also noted that the whole thing could fall apart rather easily.

“It’s a risky strategy,” Bremmer said, with a “greater chance of breakthrough but also greater chance of war — and also one that the Trump administration isn’t well-staffed to execute on.”

That has always been the potentially catastrophic downside of Trump's approach. For now, though, experts are seeing the upside.


WHAT CHARACTERISTICS DO THESE DEPARTURES FROM THE TRUMP TEAM SHARE, I WONDER? AND, WERE THEY PUSHED OUT? EVEN IF THESE MAY NOT BE VERY GOOD STAFF MEMBERS, THIS MUCH CHANGE SEEMS UNSTABLE TO ME. DOES IT MAKE OTHER NATIONS SEEK TO CHALLENGE US? I HOPE FOR A BETTER FUTURE.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gary-cohn-resigning-from-white-house-post/
By KATHRYN WATSON CBS NEWS March 6, 2018, 5:44 PM
Gary Cohn resigning from White House post

Top White House economic adviser Gary Cohn is resigning from the White House, after speculation that he might depart after a losing battle to keep President Trump from announcing new trade tariffs. Cohn had urged the president against imposing steep tariffs on steel and aluminum, which the president announced last week.

The news was first reported by New York Times.

Mr. Trump, in a statement to the New York Times, seemed to confirm the impending departure. Cohn's exact departure date is unclear. His reported resignation comes only a week after the announced departure of Hope Hicks, the president's trusted communications director.

"Gary has been my chief economic adviser and did a superb job in driving our agenda, helping to deliver historic tax cuts and reforms and unleashing the American economy once again," the president said in a statement to Times. "He is a rare talent, and I thank him for his dedicated service to the American people."

Gary Cohn answers question about future at White House: "I'm here today"

Speculation over Cohn's tenure in the White House ramped up last week after Mr. Trump announced the 25 percent tariff on imported steel and 10 percent tariff on imported aluminum.

Cohn was key in guiding tax reform efforts last year.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


WHAT IS PUTIN’S FAVORITE WAY OF GETTING REVENGE? POISON.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43303651
Russian spy: Boris Johnson warns Kremlin over Salisbury incident
March 6, 2018 1:27 PM, 8 minutes ago


Photo montage of aerial and close up shots of the area
Photograph -- Image copyrightYULIA SKRIPAL/FACEBOOK
Image caption -- Yulia Skripal and her father Sergei are critically ill in hospital
Video -- "He was doing strange hand movements, looking up to the sky": What we know so far
Video -- CCTV footage shows a man and woman walking near the bench where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found
Photograph -- ASSOCIATED PRESS
Image caption
Sergei Skripal, pictured here on the day of his sentencing in August 2006, was jailed for 13 years


The UK would respond "robustly" to any evidence of Russian involvement in the collapse of former spy Sergei Skripal, Boris Johnson has said.

Mr Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, are critically ill in hospital after being found unconscious in Salisbury, Wiltshire.

The foreign secretary said he was not pointing fingers at this stage, but described Russia as "a malign and disruptive force".

Russia has denied any involvement.

Counter Terrorism Police have taken over the investigation from Wiltshire Police.

But in a statement, the unit said the inquiry had not been declared a terrorist incident and there was no risk to the wider public.

Family deaths

Mr Skripal's relatives have told the BBC Russian Service that the former spy believed the Russian special services might come after him at any time.

His wife, elder brother and his son have died in the past two years, some in mysterious circumstances, the family believe.

Ms Skripal is based in Moscow and has visited her father in the UK regularly, especially over the past two years.

How will experts know if ex-spy was poisoned?
The 'quintessentially English' home of a Russian spy
Skripal case highlights UK's Russia dilemma
Mr Skripal - a former Russian agent convicted of spying for Britain - and his daughter were found slumped on a bench outside a shopping centre on Sunday afternoon.

Earlier they were seen walking through an alley leading from a Zizzi restaurant, which has now been "secured" by police. The Bishop's Mill pub has also been cordoned off as a precaution.

Scientists at Porton Down - the UK's secret weapons research facility in Wiltshire - are studying the "unknown substance" that is thought to have made the pair ill.


Media caption"He was doing strange hand movements, looking up to the sky": What we know so far
Mr Johnson told MPs: "Honourable members will note the echoes of the death of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.

"I say to governments around the world that no attempt to take innocent life on UK soil will go unsanctioned or unpunished."

Mr Johnson said that if it emerged Russia was linked to the incident in Salisbury "it would be very difficult to imagine" that UK representation at this summer's football World Cup could go ahead in the "normal way".

Aides to Mr Johnson say he was referring to "officials" - and not the England team.

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Media captionBoris Johnson: UK would respond "appropriately and robustly" to Russian spy incident.
Mr Johnson said the UK was "in the lead across the world" in trying to counteract a "host of malign activity" by Russia.

In a statement, the Russian embassy in London said: "Media reports create an impression of a planned operation by the Russian special services, which is completely untrue."

Responding to Mr Johnson's comments, the Russian embassy added: "We regret that instead of a proper official clarification on the issue the Foreign Secretary chose to threaten Russia with retribution.

"Looks like the script of yet another anti-Russian campaign has been already written."

Analysis
By Norman Smith, BBC assistant political editor

Although Boris Johnson was careful to stress this was still an ongoing investigation - it's absolutely clear he, and others in government, believe it's highly likely this was a Russian state-sponsored attack.

The big question now - how does the government respond?

A question made more pressing by accusations that ministers were guilty of appeasement in the wake of Alexander Litvinenko's killing.

Mr Johnson suggested there could be targeted sanctions against those close to President Putin.

And, perhaps most significantly, in an indication the government could seek to rally international support to make a stand against Russia, Mr Johnson said there could be a co-ordinated response with Nato allies.

Whatever measures are eventually decided upon - if Russian involvement is proven - it's clear relations between London and Moscow have plunged to new depths.

Andrei Lugovoi, the former Russian agent accused of poisoning ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006, told the BBC that Russia would have considered the matter closed when Mr Skripal was flown to the UK as part of a spy swap in 2010.

Mr Skripal was pardoned by the Russian President and so the incident was over, Mr Lugovoi said.

Igor Sutyagin, who was one of four agents released by Moscow in the exchange, is now a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).

He told the BBC's World Tonight programme that he was not yet concerned for his safety and added: "I don't think that he (Mr Skripal) would be targeted, because he was pardoned."

Russia has insisted it has "no information" about what could have led to the incident, but says it is open to co-operating with British police if requested.


Media captionCCTV footage shows a man and woman walking near the bench where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found
Police are currently examining CCTV footage, filmed by a Salisbury gym, showing an unidentified man and woman - thought to be Mr Skripal and his daughter - walking near the location where they were found.

Wiltshire Police has said two officers caught up in the suspected contamination have been treated in hospital for minor symptoms, before they were given the all clear. It is understood their symptoms included itchy eyes and wheezing.

A third member of the emergency services remains in hospital.

In Salisbury, some residents have told the BBC of their surprise at the incident happening in the small city, while others are seemingly unruffled.

"I'm not nervous for my own safety," says Sue Doe, smoking a cigarette a stone's throw from Zizzi's.

"I'm just interested to know what's happened."

Who is Sergei Skripal?
Image copyrightASSOCIATED PRESS
Image caption
Sergei Skripal, pictured here on the day of his sentencing in August 2006, was jailed for 13 years
Colonel Skripal, a retired Russian military intelligence officer, was jailed for 13 years by Russia in 2006.

He was convicted of passing the identities of Russian intelligence agents working undercover in Europe to the UK's Secret Intelligence Service, MI6.

In July 2010, he was one of four prisoners released by Moscow in exchange for 10 Russian spies arrested by the FBI as part of a swap. He was later flown to the UK.

According to BBC Newsnight's diplomatic editor Mark Urban, in recent years Col Skripal gave lectures at military academies offering insight into Russia's foreign military intelligence agency, the GRU.

RELATED: Read more about Sergei Skripal's background here.
Putin, power and poison: Russia’s elite FSB spy club

The possibility of an unexplained substance being involved has drawn comparisons with the 2006 poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko.

The Russian dissident and former intelligence officer died in London after drinking tea laced with a radioactive substance.

A public inquiry concluded that his killing had probably been carried out with the approval of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin.

Mr Litvinenko's widow, Marina Litvinenko, told BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight that the latest incident felt like "deja vu" - and called for those receiving political asylum to be protected by the UK.


PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL INFO ABOUT THE CURRENT VICTIMS:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43291394
Who is former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal?
March 6, 2018 12:58 PM

Photographs -- Image copyrightMOSCOW DISTRICT MILITARY COURT/TASS
Image caption
Col Skripal was convicted of "high treason in the form of espionage" by Moscow's military court in August 2006

Sergei Skripal is a retired Russian military intelligence colonel who was sentenced in 2006 to 13 years in prison, accused of spying for Britain.

He was convicted, and later pardoned, for passing the identities of Russian secret agents in Europe to the UK's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6).

Russia claimed MI6 had paid him $100,000 for the information, which he had been supplying since the 1990s.

But he was one of four prisoners Moscow swapped for spies in the US in 2010.

Col Skripal, now believed to be 66, was later flown to the UK.

He was found on Sunday slumped on a shopping centre bench in Salisbury, alongside his unconscious daughter Yulia Skripal.

The pair are critically ill in intensive care, and local authorities are investigating their exposure to "an unknown substance".

A police source told the BBC that two officers dealing with the suspected poisoning in Salisbury were admitted to hospital on Monday after suffering 'minor symptoms', including itchy eyes and wheezing.

They were later released and Public Health England says there is no outstanding health risk.

What were the charges against him?
Col Skripal was well regarded during his career in Russia's military intelligence (GRU).

He was arrested near his home in 2004 and convicted two years later of "high treason in the form of espionage" by Moscow's military court. He was stripped of all his titles and awards.

He was alleged by the Russian security service (FSB) to have been recruited in 1995 for the British secret services while serving in the army.

He exchanged information classified as Russian state secrets with MI6 for money to be transferred to a Spanish bank account, the FSB claimed.

The data on "several dozen" Russian undercover operatives, according to pro-Kremlin daily Izvestiya, was eventually used to put FSB agents under surveillance and then later expel them from multiple European countries.

Even after his retirement in 1999, the FSB claimed Col Skripal continued to pass on state secrets.

Col Skripal pleaded guilty at his trial and allegedly confessed while co-operating with investigators, reports said at the time.

Russian media - both government-controlled and not - gave a lot of air time to Col Skripal's trial and sentencing. They noted that his punishment of 13 years was a light sentence considering the "substantial damage" he caused to Russian intelligence services.

The daily newspaper Komosolskaya Pravda opined that Col Skripal "got off lightly" and that in Soviet times he would have been shot.

What about the prisoner swap?
In July 2010, Col Skripal was pardoned by Russia's then-President Dmitry Medvedev.

He was later released together with three other individuals serving time in Russian prisons in exchange for 10 Russian spies arrested by the FBI.

Among those released by the US was Anna Chapman, who had previously lived in the UK and gained citizenship.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
Anna Chapman went on to work on Russian TV

Dubbed by the media as "Russia's most glamorous secret agent", she went on to present a weekly show on Russian TV, worked as a model and was employed by the Russian government as head of a youth council.

Deaths in the family
After a Cold War-style spy swap at Austria's Vienna airport, Col Skripal moved to Wiltshire in the UK, where he kept a low profile for eight years.

His wife Liudmila died of cancer in 2012, a year after they had bought a semi-detached home in Salisbury.

Two years ago, Col Skripal's older brother died in Russia, and last year, his 43-year-old son Alex died while on holiday with his girlfriend in the Russian city of St Petersburg. He had been rushed to hospital with liver failure.

Family members were suspicious at the time and still believe some of the deaths were under mysterious circumstances.

Col Skripal's daughter Yulia, who was found unconscious next to her father, was visiting from Moscow, relatives told the BBC.

The 35-year-old, according to relatives in Yaroslavl, lived with her parents and brother in Salisbury after 2010 for several years before returning to the Russian capital.

She has regularly visited her father since her brother Alex's death, but after relatives could not reach her two days ago they became worried.

Col Skripal last called his mother, who is very ill, two weeks ago. He reportedly sounded optimistic, though his family say after the 2010 spy swap, he was always very vigilant because he believed the Russian special services could come after him at any time.

Sergei Skripal's family strongly deny that he was an agent of MI6, insisting he was a big patriot and the case against him was fabricated.



THE SPY WHO MADE ENGLAND HOME. MUCH OF THE ESPIONAGE RELATED INFORMATION HERE WILL BE REPETITIVE, BUT THE PICTURE OF BEAUTIFUL ENGLAND IS WORTH READING. A LOCAL’S COMMENT IS, “WELL, IT'S DEFINITELY PUT SALISBURY ON THE MAP," QUIPS DORIS BRIGHT, BEFORE GOING ABOUT HER DAY.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-43305405
The 'quintessentially English' home of a Russian spy
By Sue Paz
BBC News
March 6, 2018 12:46 PM 1 hour ago

Photograph -- A tent has been erected around the bench where the pair was found unconscious

It is a city known mostly for its cathedral and proximity to Stonehenge. But as it finds itself at the centre of a modern-day mystery, what do the residents of Salisbury make of its new-found fame?

Quiet. Normal. Quintessentially English.

Words like these make medieval Salisbury seem an unlikely home for a former Russian spy.

And yet on Sunday, this small city in Wiltshire found itself the topic of global conversation when current resident Sergei Skripal became ill near the main shopping centre.

It would probably not have been newsworthy in itself, except it transpired he was once a military intelligence colonel who was convicted, and later pardoned, for passing the identities of Russian secret agents in Europe to the UK's intelligence service, MI6.

When the 66-year-old and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia Skripa were found unconscious on a bench near The Maltings, police soon revealed they believed the pair had been exposed to an "unknown substance".

Now, around the seat where they were found, a tent has been erected.

The nearby branch of Zizzi is closed - a tight-lipped police officer guarding the door. The Mill pub, about 200m from the restaurant, is also shut.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
Salisbury is home to about 40,000 people

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
The city is typically known for its cathedral and proximity to Stonehenge

But far from perturbed by the activity unfolding around them, residents and workers simply zigzag around the cordons.

People are more worried about the local pie shop being closed, says Leuene Jackman, peering over the police tape at the forensics team.

"Quite a few shops have been closed, it won't be good for business," she remarks.

"You just think this sort of thing happens in other parts of the country.

"This is such a quiet city."

Image caption
Stall holder Amanda Barlow says it's "business as usual"

Typically known for its cathedral and proximity to Stonehenge, the city is one of the UK's smallest with a population of about 40,000 people.

It has been home to many celebrities with Sting, Madonna and Guy Ritchie among those living in nearby villages.

The late author Terry Pratchett and former prime minster Edward Heath also called Salisbury home.

Now a far less famous resident has given the city the dubious honour of making it an unwitting backdrop to an unfolding mystery that has the hallmarks of a spy novel.

"It's just weird," says Janice Parks on of the main shopping thoroughfares.

"Salisbury is just so quintessentially English."

Image caption
Salisbury's market was bustling despite the drama

She hurries on, rejoining the other shoppers navigating the narrow alleys and busy marketplace.

"It's business as usual really," says stall holder, Amanda Barlow.

"People have been looking up into the sky a bit more than normal, watching the circling helicopter.

"It's such a sleepy, tight-knit place. We were quite surprised but it hasn't put people off visiting."

The hot topic of conversation in the cafes and shops has certainly been about "that Russian spy" - who despite the close-knit community cliché, seems relatively unknown to those milling around the streets.

"It goes to show we don't know who we live next door to," muses Penny Muxworthy, who lives just outside the city.

"People have jobs that might necessitate them [keeping from] people what it is that they do.

"It could happen anywhere."

Image caption
The world's media has camped out around the police cordons

Image caption
Penny Muxworthy said "it goes to show we don't know who we live next door to"
Outside the Mill pub, Frank Carter, agrees.

"Salisbury is out of the way isn't it," says the 87-year-old, who has lived there his whole life. "You wouldn't expect it here."

But many remain seemingly unruffled by the news.

"I'm not nervous for my own safety," says Sue Doe, smoking a cigarette a stone's throw from the closed Zizzi restaurant.

"I'm just interested to know what's happened."

Others are less keen about the attention it has attracted.

"You're not from the telly are you? I don't want to be on the telly," said a man who did not want to be named.

"There's cameramen and [media] on every street corner, you can't move for them."

For others, the publicity is a welcome moment in the spotlight.

"Well, it's definitely put Salisbury on the map," quips Doris Bright, before going about her day.

Related Topics


HERE IS A RAY OF HOPE ON CHILD LABOR IN COBALT MINES, WHICH SHOWS HOW USEFUL SOME INQUISITIVE, DEDICATED AND ASSERTIVE NEWS SOURCES ARE. THE INCENTIVE IS CLEAR, THOUGH. COBALT SELLS FOR $80,000 A TON.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kids-cobalt-cbsnews-investigation-bobby-ghosh-mining-alternative-congo/
By PETER MARTINEZ CBS NEWS March 5, 2018, 9:40 PM
Finding alternatives to kids mining cobalt in wake of CBS News investigation

Bobby Ghosh, foreign affairs columnist and commentator, joined CBSN's Elaine Quijano on Monday to describe how some companies are finding alternatives to mining an important and expensive metal that's used in 21st century tech gadgets and products around the world. Ghosh explained the significance of cobalt in the wake of a CBS News investigation that found children mining cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

"Lithium batteries are everywhere -- they are in our cars, our phones, our laptops ... there are three or four different kinds of lithium batteries ... one kind has about 50 percent cobalt ... a very, very important component," he said. "It's very hard to think about lithium batteries without cobalt."

"Maybe 15 years ago cobalt was worth nothing," he added. "There were cobalt mines in Idaho ... in Canada ... that shut down because nobody wanted it. Now with all our new tech batteries ... cobalt is a very big deal ... $80,000 a ton."

About 60 percent of cobalt originates from the DRC, while 6 percent comes from Canada.

Apple is reportedly planning to buy cobalt directly from mines, removing the middleman processes. Ghosh agreed with that plan.

"That would be a good thing," he said. "You have a greater control over who is producing the cobalt and how it's bringing brought back. There are environmentally sustainable ways and avoiding child labor ... you're paying a fair price. The prices listed on that factory were ridiculous."

180305-cbsn-bobby-ghosh.jpg
Bobby Ghosh CBS NEWS

Ghosh also suggested that it would be better if the mining of this material would be moved closer to the places where they are being produced.

"Right now, Congo -- like a lot of places -- are exporting most of this raw material and the refining, where the real value addition is done, is done outside," Ghosh explained. "The government of Congo would like people to come do that refining in the Congo, that would probably be a good thing."

Ghosh touched on the topic of Tesla and its plan to mine cobalt in North America for its batteries that power the company's electric cars. It's expected that electric cars will double the world's demand for cobalt by 2025.

"The place they're looking for is ironically called 'Cobalt' ... it's in Ontario, Canada ... there are deposits of cobalt there, but I'm not sure how much," Ghosh said. "The fact that Tesla thinks it can get enough cobalt from there to produce its battery is a good sign. But it will be much more expensive ... but we can be sure that it will be mined under strict controls ... there will not be child labor."

img-2174.jpg
Children are seen washing cobalt in a lake at a mine in the southern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. CBS NEWS

Ghosh pointed out that that plan wouldn't eradicate child labor in DRC, as some buyers won't care when they purchase it from that region.

"We may feel better about ourselves, but those kids will still be working those mines, unless a larger effort is made to save them from that," he added.

Watch more of CBSN's interview with Bobby Ghosh in the video player at the top of the page, or by clicking here. On Tuesday, watch "CBS This Morning" for more reporting on this investigation.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


HERE IS A RAY OF HOPE ON ADULT LABOR IN THE US OF A. THIS IS A TENTATIVE AGREEMENT, SO THEY MAY BE BACK ON STRIKE AGAIN.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/03/06/tentative-deal-reached-end-west-virginia-teacher-strike-governor-says/398850002/?csp=chromepush
West Virginia teacher strike ends, some schools to reopen Wednesday
John Bacon, USA TODAY Published 10:57 a.m. ET March 6, 2018 | Updated 3:57 p.m. ET March 6, 2018

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed legislation Tuesday authorizing a contract agreement with the state's 20,000 teachers that will return 275,000 public school students to class as early as Wednesday.

"Today is a new day in education, no more looking back," Justice said at a signing ceremony for the deal, which includes a 5% pay raise and ends the nine-day strike.

The contract also covers more than 10,000 support staff. Justice said money will be found elsewhere in the budget to allow the state to provide a 5% pay hike to all state employees. Some of those pay increases, however, must wait for passage of a budget bill.

"I’m an educator, I believe in your purpose," Justice told hundreds of roaring teachers and supporters gathered earlier at the Capitol in Charleston. "I believe in you, and I love our kids."

The state House and Senate approved the deal a short time later, sending it to Justice for his signature.

"It was a very positive, emotional celebration for teachers at the Capitol," said Jennifer Wood, spokeswoman for the state American Federation of Teachers (AFT).

More: West Virginia teachers packed lunches for their needy students

More: No end in sight for strike of 20,000 West Virginia teachers

Carrena Rouse, who has taught at Scott High School in Madison for 28 years, was among the celebrating teachers. Her district was among those immediately announcing their schools would open Wednesday.

"I love my students, I love my fellow teachers," Rouse said. "And I'm glad we don't have to be hanging around here (the Capitol) anymore."

West Virginia teachers are among the lowest paid in the nation and went years without a raise. Randi Weingarten, AFT national president, said the state's teachers had been saddled with shrinking salaries due to fast-rising health care costs.

"The unwritten story here is that when you strip people’s voice for so long and you take so much from them, there is a point at which people will stand up," Weingarten told USA TODAY. "And that is the story of what happened in West Virginia.”

Massive rallies have taken place at the Capitol almost daily, and it had to close Monday after thousands packed the building.

Justice had announced a similar deal a week ago, and union leaders accepted the proposal. But rank-and-file teachers balked at returning to schools until the pay hike won legislative approval. The state Assembly immediately passed the plan, but the state Senate pressed for a 4% pay hike and the strike dragged on.

Senate leaders, however, announced support for the latest plan Tuesday, promising to find money in the budget to fund all the pay hikes.

Many districts planned to reopen schools Wednesday. But Wood said it was not immediately clear if all schools could open that fast, citing logistical issues such as stocking kitchens with food for school lunches. Those details were being worked out, she said.

"These are some of the best kids you will ever see in your life," Rouse said of her students. "I'm just so excited."

Contributing: Greg Toppo


NEW INFORMATION FROM A FRENCH ARTICLE ON THE “BERNIE SANDERS DYNASTY” – CARINA DRISCOLL CHALLENGES HER OLD BOSS AS AN INDEPENDENT.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/bernie-sanders-stepdaughter-runs-mayor-vermont/
Bernie Sanders’ stepdaughter runs for mayor in Vermont
Agence France-Presse AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE*
06 MAR 2018 AT 17:36 ET

Photograph -- Carina Driscoll (Twitter)

The Bernie Sanders political dynasty is expanding. First son Levi announced a run for Congress and now stepdaughter Carina is running for his old job as mayor of Burlington.

Vermont’s largest city of 42,000 went to the polls Tuesday to elect a mayor in a three-way race between independent Carina Driscoll, Democratic incumbant Miro Weinberger and fellow independent challenger Infinite Culcleasure.

Driscoll’s mother is Jane O’Meara, who had three children from a previous relationship when she married the now independent senator from Vermont in 1988.

Driscoll is running on a progressive platform similar that of her well-known stepfather.

“I’m asking for your vote because City Hall is not listening to us, and is catering to private interests instead of working for the people who live here,” she says on her website, promising economic opportunities, green businesses and affordable housing.

Driscoll grew up in Burlington, graduated from the University of Montana and moved back to Burlington with her husband. The mother of two set up the Vermont Woodworking School in 2007, which now has 40 full-time students.

Driscoll served previously in the Vermont state legislature, the Burlington city council, and as assistant to mayor Weinberger. She also worked on Sanders’ Congress re-election campaign in 2000.

Sanders, who electrified populists and left-leaners in the 2016 US presidential race before losing the Democratic Party nomination to Hillary Clinton, got his political start as mayor of Burlington from 1981-89.

Son Levi Sanders announced last month that he was running for Congress in the state of New Hampshire, also pushing a platform similar to that of his father.


[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agence_France-Presse* --
Agence France-Presse
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Agence France-Presse (AFP) is an international news agency headquartered in Paris, France.

Founded in 1835,[2][3] AFP is the third largest news agency in the world, after the Associated Press (AP) and Reuters. Journalists of the French Resistance established the AFP in the headquarters of the former Office français d'information, a Vichy news agency, following the liberation of Paris.


IF I COULD HAVE ONE WISH, I MIGHT CHOOSE TO HAVE MANY LIVES, AND IN ONE OF THEM I WOULD LIKE TO BE A MAN. THAT'S NOT BECAUSE I'M UNHAPPY WITH THE FEMALE BODY, BUT BECAUSE I'M UNHAPPY WITH THE SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL RESTRICTIONS OF BEING WEAKER AND MORE TIMID. I WOULD LIKE TO BE A SKIN DIVER AND EXPLORE THIS SHIP. THERE'S A VIDEO THAT I HAVE IN MY RATHER LARGE VIDEO COLLECTION, WHICH IS OF SKIN DIVERS ON THE DECK OF THE TITANIC. IT'S PROBABLY AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE. HAVE A LOOK, IF YOU'RE CURIOUS.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/uss-lexington-aircraft-carrier-world-war-ii-japan-wreckage-found-australia/
AP March 6, 2018, 7:40 AM
Wreckage of U.S. aircraft carrier sunk in WWII found

BANGKOK -- A piece of prized World War II U.S. naval history, the wreckage of the aircraft carrier USS Lexington, which was sunk by the Japanese in a crucial sea battle, has been discovered by an expedition funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. The expedition team announced that the wreckage of the Lexington, crippled by the enemy and then scuttled on May 8, 1942, in the Battle of the Coral Sea, was found Sunday on the seabed in waters about 2 miles deep, more than 500 miles off Australia's east coast.

"To pay tribute to the USS Lexington and the brave men that served on her is an honor," Allen said on his web page. "As Americans, all of us owe a debt of gratitude to everyone who served and who continue to serve our country for their courage, persistence and sacrifice."

The battle helped stop a Japanese advance that could have cut off Australia and New Guinea from Allied sea supply routes and crippled two Japanese carriers, leading to a more conclusive U.S. victory at sea a month later at the Battle of Midway.

The sea battle is also famous for being the first in which the opposing ships did not come in sight of each other, carrying out their attacks with carrier-launched aircraft.

US-JAPAN-MILITARY-EXPLORATION-SCIENCE
This handout photograph photo obtained March 5, 2018 courtesy of Paul G. Allen shows wreckage from the USS Lexington, a US aircraft carrier which sank during World War II, that has been found in the Coral Sea, a search team led by Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen announced March 5, 2018. GETTY/PAUL G. ALLEN

Allen's teams have made several previous important shipwreck discoveries, including three other U.S. Navy vessels, an Italian destroyer, and the Japanese battleship Musashi.

The ship that found the Lexington, the Research Vessel Petral, has equipment capable of diving to 6,000 meters (about three and a half miles). It was deployed in early 2017 in the Philippine Sea before moving to the Coral Sea off the Australian Coast.

The Lexington, which had been affectionately dubbed "Lady Lex," was badly damaged by bombs and torpedoes, but the order to abandon ship was given only after a secondary explosion set off an uncontrollable fire. Some 216 crew members lost their lives, but 2,770 others were safely evacuated before its sister ship, the destroyer USS Phelps, fired torpedoes to send it to the bottom of the ocean. Allen said on his Twitter account that the ship went down with 35 planes, 11 of which had been found so far by his expedition.

Allen has said he undertakes such ventures in part to honor his father, who served in World War II, by finding and preserving the artifacts of that conflict.

News of the discovery evoked another father-son relationship, as the current commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet offered his congratulations on Twitter.

"As the son of a survivor of the USS Lexington, I offer my congratulations to PaulGAllen and the expedition crew of Research Vessel (R/V) Petrel for locating the 'Lady Lex,' sunk nearly 76 years ago at the Battle of the Coral Sea," Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr. said. "We honor the valor and sacrifice of the Lady Lex's Sailors - all those Americans who fought in #WorldWarII - by continuing to secure the freedoms they won for all of us."

Harris linked the history to current U.S. interests in the Pacific, where China in recent years has begun to challenge traditional American naval hegemony, aggressively staking maritime territorial claims in waters also claimed by other nations, including Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines. U.S. Navy aircraft carriers are strong symbols of America's force projection, and one this week is making a friendly visit to Vietnam, the first since the Vietnam War ended more than four decades ago with a Communist victory.

"Alongside our allies, friends and partners, bound together by shared values, the United States is committed to maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific, which has brought security and economic prosperity to all who live in this critical region," said Harris, currently visiting Australia.

© 2018 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.



“THE HOLE IN THE SOUL” IS THE KEY. OPRAH IS BASICALLY TALKING ABOUT TREATING THE INNER INJURY ALONGSIDE THE BEHAVIOR, AND SHE IS 100% RIGHT. MUCH OF PSYCHOLOGY IS ABOUT BEHAVIOR, BECAUSE IT’S SO OBVIOUS, WHEREAS THE INNER SELF IS HIDDEN. IT IS THE INNER INJURY THAT IS THE SOURCE OF CURRENT “MISBEHAVIOR,” HOWEVER. FROM MY OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, I PREFER A COMBINATION OF GROUP THERAPY AND INDIVIDUAL, AND FOR DEPRESSION OR PSYCHIATRIC SYMPTOMS, MEDICATION AS WELL.

EVERYBODY WHO GREW UP IN THE USA BEFORE 1960, VERY LIKELY HAD PHYSICALLY AND EMOTIONALLY TORTURED RELATIONSHIPS WITH THEIR PARENTS AND OFTEN THE SIBLINGS. THAT WAS BEFORE PEOPLE ACKNOWLEDGED THAT SWEARING OR SEXUAL BEHAVIOR WERE NOT THE WORST OF ALL SINS. CRUELTY IS THE WORST SIN, AND THAT IS SOMETIMES PHYSICAL, BUT MORE OFTEN IT’S EMOTIONAL. PEOPLE DO IT OUT OF SICKNESS, BUT THE RESULTS OF IT ARE PURE EVIL. THAT’S WHERE MASS SHOOTINGS ARISE FROM. THE WARS THAT ARE WAGED DAILY IN TOO MANY AMERICAN HOMES ARE THE CENTER OF MOST PROBLEMS. INTELLECTUAL OR PSYCHIATRIC DEFICIENCIES ARE ONLY PART OF THE PROBLEM. WE SHOULD INDEED HAVE “PTSD,” BECAUSE WE GREW UP IN A WAR ZONE.

THE WORST THING, THOUGH, IS WHEN A PARENT IS NOT WARM. LOVE IS NOT A PHILOSOPHICAL POSITION, BUT AN EMOTION, AND THAT’S WHAT YOUNG CHILDREN UNDERSTAND AND NEED. SOME PEOPLE ARE VERY “CLOSED” PSYCHOLOGICALLY, WHICH IS DUE TO THEIR OWN PERSONAL ILLNESS; BUT CRUEL AS IT SOUNDS, THOSE PEOPLE SHOULD NOT BE BRINGING UP CHILDREN ALONE, OR EVEN AT ALL. EXTREME? I DON’T THINK SO. DR. SPOCK CONVINCED SOME PARENTS TO CHANGE THEIR PARENTING METHODS, BUT MOST JUST COMPLAINED THAT IT WAS UNFAIR TO THEM. MANY POINTED TO PASSAGES IN THE OLD TESTAMENT ABOUT THE EVILS OF “SPARING THE ROD,” AND CURSED DR. SPOCK. RELIGION AS I UNDERSTAND IT, WOULDN’T CONDONE BEATING CHILDREN – OR DOGS OR HORSES OR ANY OTHER CREATURE.

I THINK THAT PROGRESS ON THE PATH TO GOOD MENTAL HEALTH IN THIS COUNTRY IS STILL OCCURRING; AND THE SITUATION HAS DEFINITELY IMPROVED SINCE I WAS YOUNG. IN MY DAY, MANY PARENTS DIDN’T “PLAN” BABIES, SO THEY WERE MORE OR LESS OVERWHELMED WHEN IT HAPPENED. THEY JUST HAD THEM AS A RESULT OF INADEQUATE BIRTH CONTROL. I FAULT THE CHURCH FOR THAT. I HAVE NO DOUBT THAT AS THE MORE POSITIVE, EMPATHETIC, SOCIALLY PROGRESSIVE, AND SIMPLY WARM METHODS OF UPBRINGING GROW IN POPULARITY, THERE WILL BE FEWER HOMICIDAL EVENTS, SUICIDES AND RAPES. A HUG A DAY WILL KEEP THE DOCTOR AWAY.

WHAT WE NEED IS REQUIRED PARENTING COURSEWORK IN HIGH SCHOOL AND BEFORE THE BIRTH OF EVERY FIRST BABY, WHICH WILL DEAL BOTH WITH THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE CHILD AND ALSO OF THE PARENT. IN EVERY SICK RELATIONSHIP, THERE IS A NEGATIVE INTERACTION THAT MOVES BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN THE PEOPLE. SOMETIMES THAT AFFECTS JUST TWO PEOPLE, AND MORE OFTEN IT AFFECTS THE WHOLE FAMILY.

INSTEAD OF CHILD THERAPY, WE SHOULD BE HAVING FAMILY THERAPY. THAT IS SOMETIMES DONE, BUT IT NEEDS TO HAPPEN MORE OFTEN. JUST LOOKING THROUGH THE NET HERE IN JACKSONVILLE I FOUND FIFTEEN OR SO BUSINESSES THAT OFFER FAMILY THERAPY, BUT OFTEN IT IS IN THE FORM OF MARRIAGE COUNSELING. THAT’S PART OF THE PROBLEM IN NEARLY EVERY CASE, BUT IT NEEDS TO INCLUDE SIT DOWN TALK SESSIONS WITH ALL FAMILY MEMBERS WHO ARE OLD ENOUGH TO UNDERSTAND IT; MAYBE THEY SHOULD FIRST TEACH LESSONS IN HOW TO APOLOGIZE WHEN WE’VE BEEN CRUEL.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/oprah-winfrey-childhood-trauma-ptsd-60-minutes-report/
CBS NEWS March 6, 2018, 11:58 AM
Oprah Winfrey explores revolutionary approach to childhood trauma for "60 Minutes"

Oprah Winfrey is shifting her perspective on how childhood trauma impacts people's lives. For Sunday's "60 Minutes," Winfrey traveled to Milwaukee, where she grew up, to learn about a revolutionary approach in the city to early trauma. She spoke to Dr. Bruce Perry, a world-renowned expert in the field who has treated survivors of high-profile events like the Columbine shooting. He said a child's brain gets wired "differently" when they're raised in a chaotic or violent environment.

"If you have developmental trauma, the truth is you're going to be at risk for almost any kind of physical health, mental health, social health problem that you can think of," Perry told Winfrey.

Winfrey said she believes the conversation could be a "game changer."

"This story is so important to me and I believe to our culture that if I could dance on the tabletops right now to get people to pay attention to it, I would. It is definitively changed the way I see people in the world, and it has definitively changed the way I will now be operating my school in South Africa and going forward any philanthropic efforts that I'm engaged in," she said Tuesday on "CBS This Morning."

"What I recognize is is that a lot of NGOs, a lot of people working in philanthropic world, who are trying to help disadvantaged, challenged people from backgrounds that have been disenfranchised, are working on the wrong thing," Winfrey added.

Oprah channeled Maya Angelou and Glinda the Good Witch for her "A Wrinkle in Time" role

While there have been plenty of job and training programs to help the disadvantaged, Winfrey said, "If you don't fix the hole in the soul, the thing that is where the wounds started, you're working at the wrong thing."

The shift in perspective comes down to what Winfrey calls a "life-changing question."

"See, we go through life and we see kids who are misbehaving. 'You juvenile delinquents,' we label them. And really the question that we should be asking is not 'what's wrong with that child' but 'what happened to that child?' And then having the resources to be able to address what happened to you. The most important question you can ask of anybody which is what I now say even for the Parkland [school] shooting – instead of what's the matter with that kid, I say what happened to that child?"

As a result of her reporting, she said she went back to her school board and said, "Hey, we've been doing it all wrong. We need to be a trauma-informed care institution."

"CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King pointed out that this was a personal story for Winfrey herself.

"Number one, it's in Milwaukee where you were raised. You certainly suffered trauma there. You weren't physically abused in your home, but you talk very candidly about –" King started.

"I got enough whippings to call it – we just didn't call it physical abuse at the time," Winfrey said. "Today I would have to report my mama."

"Today it would be. But you've certainly been very candid about the sexual abuse. And a lot of these kids suffer from PTSD. I marvel, Oprah, that the environment you grew up in, that you don't seem to have suffered from PTSD. Are you rethinking that?" King asked.

"No, I – I definitely do not have PTSD," Winfrey responded. She said she asked Perry why some people like herself, "raised in chaotic environments," turned out OK.

"It's directly proportional to the relationships. So he was saying for me, for instance, it was school. I found my refuge in school," Winfrey said. "I found my place in school from teachers. So everybody needs somebody growing up that says, 'I believe in you, you're OK, things are going to be all right.' And that can be a teacher, that can be a coach, that can be somebody in Sunday school."

Watch Winfrey's story on the next edition of "60 Minutes," Sunday, March 11 at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


THIS DASHCAM RECORDING IS A BIT STRANGE, BUT IT ISN’T CLEAR TO ME THAT HE DID EXACTLY WHAT SHE DESCRIBED. OF COURSE, IF HE STOPPED HER AGAIN THREE HOURS LATER AND SAID, “WE’VE GOT TO STOP MEETING LIKE THIS,” THE FLIRTATION IN THAT IS OBVIOUS. DA SAYS THAT HIS BEHAVIOR IS “INCONSISTENT WITH HIS TRAINING.” I CERTAINLY HOPE SO. SOME PSYCHOTHERAPY FOR HIM MIGHT HELP.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tennessee-trooper-accused-of-groping-woman-during-traffic-stop/
CBS NEWS March 6, 2018, 10:32 AM
DA weighs in after Tennessee trooper is accused of groping woman during traffic stop

Photograph -- Isaiah Lloyd CBS AFFILIATE WVLT

A district attorney's office in Tennessee says the actions of a trooper who allegedly groped a woman during a traffic stop and pulled her over again three hours later were "inconsistent with his training," CBS Knoxville affiliate WVLT reports. "Our review of this matter revealed that Trooper Lloyd's actions were inconsistent with his training and Tennessee Department of Safety General Orders," said a release late last week from the Office of the Eighth Judicial District Attorney General's office.

It also said, however, it does not believe the trooper's actions during the encounter with the woman "form the basis for any criminal charge against him."

The woman, Patricia Wilson, says the trooper, Isaiah Lloyd, pulled her over for not wearing a seat belt in August last year, according to a lawsuit filed several weeks ago, in late January. Wilson said Lloyd asked her to get out of her car and lift up her camisole and shirt, then felt around her waistline, WVLT reports. Wilson said Lloyd put his hands in her underwear and touched her buttock and pubic area.

Lloyd ticketed Wilson for not wearing a seat belt -- a pending violation the DA's office later dismissed -- and she continued on to work, according to the lawsuit. Three hours later, Lloyd pulled her over again, as Wilson's children -- 3 and 8 years old -- were in the vehicle.

"We have to stop meeting like this," Lloyd allegedly said. He also said he would not give her a ticket for having tinted windows and asked her where she was going, according to the lawsuit, WVLT reports. Wilson said she was going to her the home of her children's father then back to her own house.

The Knoxville News Sentinel reports that dashcam video shows the two traffic stops.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


OUTER AND INNER SPACE

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chinese-space-lab-might-fall-back-to-earth-this-month/
CBS NEWS March 6, 2018, 1:22 PM
Chinese space lab might fall back to Earth this month

Photograph -- China's Long March 2F rocket carrying the Tiangong-1 module, or "Heavenly Palace," blasts off from the Jiuquan launch centre in Gansu province on September 29, 2011. STR/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The European Space Agency (ESA) says it estimates that a Chinese spacecraft will fall back into Earth's atmosphere sometime between March 29 and April 9. It says, however, "this is highly variable."

"Reentry will take place anywhere between 43ºN and 43ºS (e.g. Spain, France, Portugal, Greece, etc.)," the ESA said in a Tuesday update on the reentry. "Areas outside of these latitudes can be excluded."

The ESA said a precise location and time for reentry will never be possible to predict.

China reportedly lost control of the unmanned space lab Tiangong-1 nearly two years ago, in June 2016. The Chinese government later released an estimate that predicted Tiangong-1 would come down at some point in late 2017. The vague guess has led experts to conclude that the country's space agency has lost all ability to direct the crashing station's course or know where it will land.

"Even a couple of days before it re-enters we probably won't know better than six or seven hours, plus or minus, when it's going to come down," Harvard astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell told The Guardian in 2016. "Not knowing when it's going to come down translates as not knowing where its going to come down."

While much of the spacecraft would likely burn up in the atmosphere, ESA experts say portions could survive and reach Earth's surface.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


THIS IS THE QUESTION THAT INTERESTS ALL OF US “TREKKIES,” AND IT ISN’T CHILD’S PLAY. IT’S IMPORTANT SCIENCE. FOR ONE PLANET TO BE FILLED WITH LIFE OF LITERALLY THOUSANDS OF TYPES, IN THE PRESENT AND IN THE PAST, AND ALL THOSE OTHERS – WHICH DO HAVE WATER AND AN ENERGY SOURCE – TO HAVE NO LIFE? THE LIKELIHOOD OF THAT IS VERY LOW. “ASTROSOCIOLOGY,” ANYONE?

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/are-alien-civilizations-technologically-advanced/
Are Alien Civilizations Technologically Advanced?
The answer may depend on exoplanet sociology
By Abraham Loeb on January 8, 2018

Photograph -- Artist's rendering of the interstellar object `Oumuamua, whose unusual shape had some wondering if it could be artificial. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser


As we discover numerous habitable planets around other stars in the Milky Way galaxy, including the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, one cannot help but wonder why we have not yet detected evidence for an alien civilization. As the physicist Enrico Fermi asked, “Where is everybody?” Even though the first interstellar object to be discovered in the solar system, 'Oumuamua, had an unusually elongated shape as might be expected from an alien probe, it does not appear to maneuver and is radio-quiet below the level of a single cell phone.

True, a signal from an alien civilization might be subtle or sophisticated, but the disappointing silence of the sky may also indicate that long-lasting extrastellar civilizations do not use technologies that would make them visible to our telescopes.

Based on our own experience, we expect that civilizations much older than ours will be scientifically savvy and hence technologically advanced. But it is also possible that a simpler lifestyle rather than scientific prosperity has dominated the political landscape on other planets, leading to old civilizations that are nevertheless technologically primitive.

Could exoplanet politics explain Fermi’s paradox?

Human history allows us to imagine the possibility that under a different political scenario, our planet could have remained dominated by the anti-scientific mindsets of the middle ages. Such a scenario is imaginable over the timescale of thousands of years, although the likelihood that it would prevail over millions or billions of years is unclear. Perhaps Earth was lucky to see technology arise (in the spirit of the novel Origin by Dan Brown). Environmental or political disasters could have easily reset the evolutionary clock.

Or perhaps the ultimate lifetime of civilization on Earth will turn out to be shorter than it would have been if humans remained technologically primitive. Technology poses long-term risks to our future in the form of climate change and nonconventional (nuclear, biological or chemical) wars. In this case, the surfaces of other planets will show either relics of technologically advanced civilizations that destroyed themselves in self-inflicted catastrophes or living civilizations that are technologically primitive.

We could search for the remnants of technological civilizations from afar. But if we detect nothing through our telescopes, the only way to find out whether long-lived civilizations are technologically primitive is to visit their planets. Astrosociology could become a particularly exciting frontier of exploration as we venture into space.

Traditional astronomers would argue that it is much less expensive to remotely observe distant planets than to launch a probe that will visit them. But remote observing can only detect civilizations that transmit electromagnetic signals, change the planet’s atmosphere through industrial pollution, or leave artifacts on the planet’s surface such as photovoltaic cells, industrial infrastructure, artificial heating or artificial illumination. If the aliens do not dramatically modify their natural habitat or transmit artificial signals, we will be forced to visit their home planets in order to uncover their existence.

Civilizations on other worlds might mesh seamlessly with their natural environment for a variety of reasons. At a minimum, camouflage is a natural survival tactic, so alien civilizations might prefer to appear indistinguishable from other forms of life, such as vegetation. One could also imagine a civilization so intelligent that it deliberately keeps a low-key technological profile to sustain its biosphere, maintaining a lifestyle reminiscent of Henry Thoreau on Walden Pond. The only way to find these extraterrestrials would be to send probes that visit their planets and report back.

The first significantly funded project to visit another planetary system, Breakthrough Starshot, was inaugurated in 2016. Starshot aims to reach the nearest stars within a couple of decades. Since even Proxima Centauri is 4.24 light years away, this necessitates a technology capable of accelerating a spacecraft to at least a fifth of the speed of light. The only suitable concept involves a lightweight sail (to which the payload is attached) pushed by a powerful beam of light. The downside of reaching such a high speed with this design is that braking near the target planet is not feasible without a similar light-beamer there.

Visiting the surface of another planet therefore requires slower speeds and longer travel times. For example, conventional rockets would bring us to the nearest stars within hundreds of thousands of years. This might still be appealing from a theoretical perspective, since this timescale is tens of thousands times shorter than the age of the Universe. Over the billions of years available to our technological civilization to explore the Milky Way, we could compile a sociological census of billions of exoplanets. And even if we find mostly faith-based alien cultures instead of advanced infrastructure that would accelerate our own technological development, it would be fascinating to explore the diversity of galactic interpretations of the concept of God.



MADDOW NEWS – EVERY ONE OF THESE IS A DOOZY. WATCH THEM ALL.

THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 3/5/18
Follow-the-money stories plague Trump team with scandals
Rachel Maddow reviews the many and diverse follow-the-money stories about Donald Trump and his associates in recent news, from a sketch stock sale by Carl Icahn, to new questions about payments to a porn star, to Jared Kushner's solicitation of investments in his family business. Duration: 10:44


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 3/5/18
Report: Russia vetoed Romney, favored Tillerson for State Dept.
Rachel Maddow highlights new revelations in a lengthy New Yorker profile by Jane Mayer of Christopher Steele and his work on the Trump Russia dossier. Duration: 6:48


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 3/5/18
Report raises specter of a Trump Russia dossier-related death
Jane Mayer, staff writer for The New Yorker, talks with Rachel Maddow about the reporting behind her lengthy profile of Trump Russia dossier author Christopher Steele. Duration: 7:33


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 3/5/18
Why didn't Democrats use the dossier during the 2016 campaign?
Jane Mayer, staff writer for The New Yorker, talks with Rachel Maddow about why the Clinton campaign didn't use material from the dossier they had paid for, and when the Obama White House found out that Donald Trump and his campaign were THE SUBJECT OF A COUNTERINTELLIGENCE INVESTIGATION. Duration: 3:23


HELP THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 3/5/18
Tillerson spends $0 to counter Russia despite millions set aside
Gardiner Harris, State Department correspondent for The New York Times, talks with Rachel Maddow about new reporting that Rex Tillerson has not utilized tens of millions of dollars allocated for countering Russian intrusion. Duration: 5:55