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Can Animals Be Creative? Pigcasso the Painting Pig is Making Her Case | Nat Geo Wild

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Is it only giant pandas etc. that should be conserved? What about other forms of life? 

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Is it only giant pandas etc. that should be conserved? What about other forms of life? 

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Tons of plastic floats in the oceans, and it's covered in microscopic life. But a new study reveals plastic-loving species that have never been seen before, and ecosystems entirely new to science. Say hello to life in the 'plastisphere.'

For the study, which now appears in Environmental Science and Technology, researchers Tracy Mincer from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and Linda Amaral-Zettler of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, used fine mesh nets to collect pieces of plastic ranging in size from 1-5 mm in diameter from multiple locations in the North Atlantic Ocean.
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After analyzing the microbes with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and next-generation genetic sequencing, the researchers discovered a diverse community of heterotrophs (organisms that feed off of complex organic substances), autotrophs (organisms that feed off simple inorganic substances like carbon dioxide), predators, and symbionts. It's a a rich and dynamic ecosystem they're now calling the plastisphere.

And in fact, the plastic communities were more diverse - and isolated - from those in other seawater samples (which are typically dominated by only a few species). Over 1,000 species were discovered, including plants, algae, and bacteria (some of which are still unidentified).

The researchers say that the plastic is acting as a veritable reef onto which the microbes are clinging. These "microbial reefs" are offering a distinct place that selects for and supports advantageous microbes to settle, succeed - and evolve.

Fascinatingly, the researchers discovered so-called "pit formers" in the microbial mix - organisms that were found on certain types of resins that are actually breaking down (i.e. eating) the plastic. So it's possible that some of this plastic - which has a longer half-life than most natural floating marine substrates - is actually being degraded at a rate faster than we thought.

Read the entire study at Environmental Science and Technology: " Life in the "Plastisphere": Microbial Communities on Plastic Marine Debris."

Image: Zettler et al/Environmental Science and Technology.

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New life found on plastic waste gives rise to the 'plastisphere'

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Tons of plastic floats in the oceans, and it's covered in microscopic life. But a new study reveals plastic-loving species that have never been seen before, and ecosystems entirely new to science. Say hello to life in the 'plastisphere.'

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http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-40494909

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Meet Erica, the world's most human-like autonomous android - video

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With his robot Erica, Hiroshi Ishiguro, the so-called bad boy of Japanese robotics, aims to redefine what it means to be human

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The 16 Year Old Killer: Cyntoia's Story (Documentary)

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The 16 Year Old Killer: Cyntoia's Story - Documentary Erika Jones The 16 Year Old Killer: Cyntoia's Story - Documentary Erika Jones The 16 Year Old Killer: . The 16 Year Old Killer Cyntoia's Story full documentary The 16 Year Old Killer Cyntoia's Story full documentary The 16 Year Old Killer Cyntoia's Story full .

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Angola's president, João Lourenço, has sacked his predecessor's daughter as head of the state oil company as part of a drive to assert his authority.

Lourenco swept to power as the ruling party's candidate in August elections after pledging to clean up Angola's endemic graft, tackle nepotism and revive its economy.

During the campaign he vowed to distance himself from his predecessor José Eduardo dos Santos, who governed for 38 years and who remains head of the ruling People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA).

"Under the powers vested in him by the constitution, the president ... has decided to relieve the following directors who make up the board of Sonangol," said a statement on Wednesday, which named the former president's daughter Isabel.

Known derisively as "the princess", Isabel dos Santos became the public face of the family's business empire during her father's presidency.

She describes herself on her Twitter account as an entrepreneur, and Forbes magazine claims she is Africa's richest woman. It estimates that her personal fortune could be as much as $3.3bn (£2.5bn).

She controls Unitel, Angola's leading mobile phone operator, as well as the satellite TV network Zap. She also holds 25% of the Portuguese media giant NOS and has invested heavily in the banking sector.

Her removal from Sonangol's top job comes as a surprise as she had often stated that she wanted to remain in the post. "The job of Sonangol is not dependent on the electoral process ... I want to continue," she said before the August election.

The opposition accuses the MPLA of suppressing dissent and the Dos Santos family of bleeding the country dry through corruption and decades of mismanagement.

Oil provides 70% of Angola's revenues and almost all of its hard currency, while many of the country's citizens are mired in poverty.

Angola, which along with Nigeria is one of Africa's top oil producers, has been in the grip of an economic crisis since 2014 as the global price of oil has remained flat.

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Angolan president sacks predecessor's daughter as state oil chief

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Angola's president, João Lourenço, has sacked his predecessor's daughter as head of the state oil company as part of a drive to assert his authority. Lourenco swept to power as the ruling party's candidate in August elections after pledging to clean up Angola's endemic graft, tackle nepotism and revive its economy.

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The president of Angola, Joao Lourenco, has fired the daughter of his predecessor as head of the country's state oil company Sonangol.

Isabel Dos Santos, the billionaire daughter of former President José Eduardo dos Santos, is Africa's richest woman.

Mr Dos Santos was Africa's second longest-serving leader until he stepped down in September after 37 years.

President Lourenco, known as JLo, has promised to tackle corruption

Correspondents say he wants to weaken the influence of the Dos Santos family.

The country is under increased scrutiny since it was revealed, in the Paradise Papers leak, that its national sovereign wealth state has paid tens of millions in fees to a businessman, who works closely with Isabel's brother Jose Filomeno.

Angola is Africa's second-biggest oil producer but its economy has been hit by a drop in oil prices.

Isabel Dos Santos dismissed criticism of her appointment to the head of Sonangol in 2016, later telling the BBC she had faced prejudice:

"The key reason for my appointment is because I come from the business sector and I've had a track record of building business," she told BBC Focus on Africa radio.

Earlier this month, she was the only African woman named in Forbes' list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women in 2017.

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The president of Angola, Joao Lourenco, has fired the daughter of his predecessor as head of the country's state oil company Sonangol. Isabel Dos Santos, the billionaire daughter of former President José Eduardo dos Santos, is Africa's richest woman. Mr Dos Santos was Africa's second longest-serving leader until he stepped down in September after 37 years.

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LUANDA (Reuters) - Angola's new President João Lourenço is making swift moves to wrest power from his predecessor Jose Eduardo dos Santos, pushing out some of his key allies and vowing to combat monopolies controlled by a family that has run Angola for four decades.

Dos Santos, 75, handpicked Lourenço, 63, to succeed him when he stepped down last month after 38 years in power, prompting critics to suggest the little-known newcomer would be a puppet of the dominant dos Santos family.

But analysts, diplomats and politicians have been surprised by the speed at which Lourenço has tried to take on some of the entrenched vested interests that control sub-Saharan Africa's third largest economy and second biggest oil exporter.

Heavyweights from the previous administration, such as Vice President Manuel Vicente and Minister of State Manuel "Kopelipa" Hélder Vieira Dias Jr, have found themselves out of a job.

Dos Santos still retains significant power as the head of the ruling MPLA party, and key posts such as the finance minister and central bank governor have not yet been touched.

But in the vital oil sector, responsible for 75 percent of government revenue, Lourenço curbed the control of dos Santos' daughter, Isabel, who runs national oil company Sonangol.

This month Lourenço appointed Carlos Saturnino, who was sacked by Isabel dos Santos last year, as Secretary of State for Oil, a technically more senior role than that of his old boss.

"It was unexpected at this early stage," said Marcolino Moco, a former Angolan prime minister and critic of Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

"It's very early still, but Lourenço is sending a sign that the excesses of the dos Santos era will not continue."

Isabel dos Santos, Africa's richest woman, denied any tension with Lourenço, telling Reuters last week that their views were in "full alignment".

MONOPOLIES

In his state of the nation address on October 16, Lourenço vowed to break up monopolies in the economy, directly mentioning the cement industry in which Isabel and her husband have large holdings.

He also abolished government communications department GRECIMA, with which a company co-owned by another dos Santos daughter, Welwitschia, had lucrative contracts. The company, Semba Comunicação, could not be reached for comment.

"Breaking the monopolies enjoyed by the dos Santos family would be going for the jugular," said Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, an author and expert on Angola who teaches at Oxford University.

"But there is a danger of confusing a vendetta against dos Santos with a true reform agenda," Oliveira said.

Major reform is desperately needed. Although an oil boom has made Angola one of Africa's richest countries per capita, it is also one of the world's most unequal, with the vast majority of the population sharing little of its wealth.

Angola's economy fell into recession last year and unemployment is at least 25 percent. A lack of foreign currency has forced companies, such as airlines and oil services, to pull back operations. A dollar fetches three times the official rate on the black market.

Ratings agency Moody's downgraded Angola's credit rating last week, saying the economy remained constrained by foreign currency shortages, high inflation, low public spending and a weak banking system.

There are early indications Lourenço may be placing capable technocrats into roles to fix some of these problems.

Ricardo Viegas de Abreu, a banking executive and former deputy governor of the central bank, was appointed last week Presidential Secretary for Economic Affairs.

José Massano, a former central bank governor popular with international investors, could return to his old job, local media reported Wednesday. A spokesperson for the central bank declined to comment.

For Lourenço's opponents the jury is still out.

"We're still in the phase of promises... action hasn't brought us anything yet," Adalberto Costa Júnior, parliamentary head of main opposition party Unita, told Reuters.

Reporting by Stephen Eisenhammer; editing by Joe Brock and Peter Graff

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Angola's new president takes surprise steps to rein in dos Santos

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Angola's new President João Lourenço is making swift moves to wrest power from his predecessor Jose Eduardo dos Santos, pushing out some of his key allies and vowing to combat monopolies controlled by a family that has run Angola for four decades.

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By Quentin Sommerville and Riam Dalati

Lorry driver Abu Fawzi thought it was going to be just another job.

He drives an 18-wheeler across some of the most dangerous territory in northern Syria. Bombed-out bridges, deep desert sand, even government forces and so-called Islamic State fighters don't stand in the way of a delivery.

But this time, his load was to be human cargo. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters opposed to IS, wanted him to lead a convoy that would take hundreds of families displaced by fighting from the town of Tabqa on the Euphrates river to a camp further north.

The job would take six hours, maximum - or at least that's what he was told.

But when he and his fellow drivers assembled their convoy early on 12 October, they realised they had been lied to.

Instead, it would take three days of hard driving, carrying a deadly cargo - hundreds of IS fighters, their families and tonnes of weapons and ammunition.

Abu Fawzi and dozens of other drivers were promised thousands of dollars for the task but it had to remain secret.

The deal to let IS fighters escape from Raqqa - de facto capital of their self-declared caliphate - had been arranged by local officials. It came after four months of fighting that left the city obliterated and almost devoid of people. It would spare lives and bring fighting to an end. The lives of the Arab, Kurdish and other fighters opposing IS would be spared.

But it also enabled many hundreds of IS fighters to escape from the city. At the time, neither the US and British-led coalition, nor the SDF, which it backs, wanted to admit their part.

Has the pact, which stood as Raqqa's dirty secret, unleashed a threat to the outside world - one that has enabled militants to spread far and wide across Syria and beyond?

Great pains were taken to hide it from the world. But the BBC has spoken to dozens of people who were either on the convoy, or observed it, and to the men who negotiated the deal.

Shopkeeper Mahmoud doesn't get intimidated by much.

It was about four in the afternoon when an SDF convoy drove through his town, Shanine, and everyone was told to go indoors.

"We were here and an SDF vehicle stopped by to say there was a truce agreement between them and IS," he says. "They wanted us to clear the area."

He is no fan of IS, but he couldn't miss a business opportunity - even if some of the 4,000 surprise customers driving through his village were armed to the teeth.

A small bridge in the village created a bottleneck so the IS fighters got out and went shopping. After months of fighting and taking cover in bunkers, they were pale and hungry. They filed into his shop and, he says, they cleared his shelves.

"A one-eyed Tunisian fighter told me to fear God," he says. "In a very calm voice, he asked why I had shaved. He said they would come back and enforce Sharia once again. I told him we have no problem with Sharia laws. We're all Muslims."

Instant noodles, biscuits and snacks - they bought everything they could get their hands on.

They left their weapons outside the shop. The only trouble he had was when three of the fighters spied some cigarettes - contraband in their eyes - and tore up the boxes.

"They didn't appropriate anything, nothing at all," he says.

"Only three of them went rogue. Other IS fighters even chastised them."

He says IS paid for what they took.

"They hoovered up the shop. I got overwhelmed by their numbers. Many asked me for prices, but I couldn't answer them because I was busy serving other people. So they left money for me on my desk without me asking."

Despite the abuse they suffered, the lorry drivers agreed - when it came to money, IS settled its bills.

IS may have been homicidal psychopaths, but they're always correct with the money."

Says Abu Fawzi with a smile.

North of the village, it's a different landscape. A lonely tractor ploughs a field, sending a plume of dust and sand into the air that can be seen for miles. There are fewer villages, and it's here that the convoy sought to disappear.

The Smugglers

French fighter

Abu Basir al-Faransy, a young Frenchman, left before the going got really tough in Raqqa. He's now in Idlib, where he says he wants to stay.

The fighting in Raqqa was intense, even back then, he says.

"We were front-line fighters, waging war almost constantly [against the Kurds], living a hard life. We didn't know Raqqa was about to be besieged."

Disillusioned, weary of the constant fighting and fearing for his life, Abu Basir decided to leave for the safety of Idlib. He now lives in the city.

He was part of an almost exclusively French group within IS, and before he left some of his fellow fighters were given a new mission.

There are some French brothers from our group who left for France to carry out attacks in what would be called a 'day of reckoning.'"

Much is hidden beneath the rubble of Raqqa and the lies around this deal might easily have stayed buried there too.

The numbers leaving were much higher than local tribal elders admitted. At first the coalition refused to admit the extent of the deal.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, somewhat improbably, continue to maintain that no deal was done.

And this may not even have been about freeing civilian hostages. As far as the coalition is concerned, there was no transfer of hostages from IS to coalition or SDF hands.

And despite coalition denials, dozens of foreign fighters, according to eyewitnesses, joined the exodus.

The deal to free IS was about maintaining good relations between the Kurds leading the fight and the Arab communities who surround them.

It was also about minimising casualties. IS was well dug in at the city's hospital and stadium. Any effort to dislodge it head-on would have been bloody and prolonged.

The war against IS has a twin purpose: first to destroy the so-called caliphate by retaking territory and second, to prevent terror attacks in the world beyond Syria and Iraq.

Raqqa was effectively IS's capital but it was also a cage - fighters were trapped there.

The deal to save Raqqa may have been worth it.

But it has also meant battle-hardened militants have spread across Syria and further afield - and many of them aren't done fighting yet.

All names of the people featured in the report have been changed.

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The BBC has uncovered details of a secret deal that let hundreds of IS fighters - including foreign militants - and their families escape from Raqqa in Syria. In exchange for freeing hostages, a convoy which stretched for miles, was able to leave the city freely - under the gaze of the US and UK-led coalition and Kurdish forces who control the city.

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When North Korean hackers tried to steal $1 billion from the New York Federal Reserve last year, only a spelling error stopped them. They were digitally looting an account of the Bangladesh Central Bank, when bankers grew suspicious about a withdrawal request that had misspelled "foundation" as "fandation."

Even so, Kim Jong-un's minions still got away with $81 million in that heist.

Then only sheer luck enabled a 22-year-old British hacker to defuse the biggest North Korean cyberattack to date, a ransomware attack last May that failed to generate much cash but brought down hundreds of thousands of computers across dozens of countries - and briefly crippled Britain's National Health Service.

Their track record is mixed, but North Korea's army of more than 6,000 hackers is undeniably persistent, and undeniably improving, according to American and British security officials who have traced these attacks and others back to the North.

Amid all the attention on Pyongyang's progress in developing a nuclear weapon capable of striking the continental United States, the North Koreans have also quietly developed a cyberprogram that is stealing hundreds of millions of dollars and proving capable of unleashing global havoc.

Unlike its weapons tests, which have led to international sanctions, the North's cyberstrikes have faced almost no pushback or punishment, even as the regime is already using its hacking capabilities for actual attacks against its adversaries in the West.

And just as Western analysts once scoffed at the potential of the North's nuclear program, so did experts dismiss its cyberpotential - only to now acknowledge that hacking is an almost perfect weapon for a Pyongyang that is isolated and has little to lose.

The country's primitive infrastructure is far less vulnerable to cyberretaliation, and North Korean hackers operate outside the country, anyway. Sanctions offer no useful response, since a raft of sanctions are already imposed. And Mr. Kim's advisers are betting that no one will respond to a cyberattack with a military attack, for fear of a catastrophic escalation between North and South Korea.

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"Cyber is a tailor-made instrument of power for them," said Chris Inglis, a former deputy director of the National Security Agency, who now teaches about security at the United States Naval Academy. "There's a low cost of entry, it's largely asymmetrical, there's some degree of anonymity and stealth in its use. It can hold large swaths of nation state infrastructure and private-sector infrastructure at risk. It's a source of income."

Mr. Inglis, speaking at the Cambridge Cyber Summit this month, added: "You could argue that they have one of the most successful cyberprograms on the planet, not because it's technically sophisticated, but because it has achieved all of their aims at very low cost."

It is hardly a one-way conflict: By some measures the United States and North Korea have been engaged in an active cyberconflict for years.

Both the United States and South Korea have also placed digital "implants" in the Reconnaissance General Bureau, the North Korean equivalent of the Central Intelligence Agency, according to documents that Edward J. Snowden released several years ago. American-created cyber- and electronic warfare weapons were deployed to disable North Korean missiles, an attack that was, at best, only partially successful.

Indeed, both sides see cyber as the way to gain tactical advantage in their nuclear and missile standoff.

A South Korean lawmaker last week revealed that the North had successfully broken into the South's military networks to steal war plans, including for the "decapitation" of the North Korean leadership in the opening hours of a new Korean war.

There is evidence Pyongyang has planted so-called digital sleeper cells in the South's critical infrastructure, and its Defense Ministry, that could be activated to paralyze power supplies and military command and control networks.

But the North is not motivated solely by politics: Its most famous cyberattack came in 2014, against Sony Pictures Entertainment, in a largely successful effort to block the release of a movie that satirized Mr. Kim.

What has not been disclosed, until now, is that North Korea had also hacked into a British television network a few weeks earlier to stop it from broadcasting a drama about a nuclear scientist kidnapped in Pyongyang.

Once North Korea counterfeited crude $100 bills to try to generate hard cash. Now intelligence officials estimate that North Korea reaps hundreds of millions of dollars a year from ransomware, digital bank heists, online video game cracking, and more recently, hacks of South Korean Bitcoin exchanges.

One former British intelligence chief estimates the take from its cyberheists may bring the North as much as $1 billion a year, or a third of the value of the nation's exports.

The North Korean cyberthreat "crept up on us," said Robert Hannigan, the former director of Britain's Government Communications Headquarters, which handles electronic surveillance and cybersecurity.

"Because they are such a mix of the weird and absurd and medieval and highly sophisticated, people didn't take it seriously," he said. "How can such an isolated, backward country have this capability? Well, how can such an isolated backward country have this nuclear ability?"

From Minor Leaguers to Serious Hackers

Kim Jong-il, the father of the current dictator and the initiator of North Korea's cyberoperations, was a movie lover who became an internet enthusiast, a luxury reserved for the country's elite. When Mr. Kim died in 2011, the country was estimated to have 1,024 IP addresses, fewer than on most New York City blocks.

Mr. Kim, like the Chinese, initially saw the internet as a threat to his regime's ironclad control over information. But his attitude began to change in the early 1990s, after a group of North Korean computer scientists returned from travel abroad proposing to use the web to spy on and attack enemies like the United States and South Korea, according to defectors.

North Korea began identifying promising students at an early age for special training, sending many to China's top computer science programs. In the late 1990s, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's counterintelligence division noticed that North Koreans assigned to work at the United Nations were also quietly enrolling in university computer programming courses in New York.

"The F.B.I. called me and said, 'What should we do?' " recalled James A. Lewis, at the time in charge of cybersecurity at the Commerce Department. "I told them, 'Don't do anything. Follow them and see what they are up to.'"

The North's cyberwarfare unit gained priority after the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States. After watching the American "shock and awe" campaign on CNN, Kim Jong-il issued a warning to his military: "If warfare was about bullets and oil until now," he told top commanders, according to a prominent defector, Kim Heung-kwang, "warfare in the 21st century is about information."

The unit was marked initially by mishaps and bluster.

"There was an enormous growth in capability from 2009 or so, when they were a joke," said Ben Buchanan, the author of "The Cybersecurity Dilemma" and a fellow at the Cyber Security Project at Harvard. "They would execute a very basic attack against a minor web page put up by the White House or an American intelligence agency, and then their sympathizers would claim they'd hacked the U.S. government. But since then, their hackers have gotten a lot better."

A National Intelligence Estimate in 2009 wrote off the North's hacking prowess, much as it underestimated its long-range missile program. It would be years before it could mount a meaningful threat, it claimed.

But the regime was building that threat.

When Kim Jong-un succeeded his father, in 2011, he expanded the cybermission beyond serving as just a weapon of war, focusing also on theft, harassment and political-score settling.

"Cyberwarfare, along with nuclear weapons and missiles, is an 'all-purpose sword' that guarantees our military's capability to strike relentlessly," Kim Jong-un reportedly declared, according to the testimony of a South Korean intelligence chief.

And the array of United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang only incentivized Mr. Kim's embrace.

"We're already sanctioning anything and everything we can," said Robert P. Silvers, the former assistant secretary for cyberpolicy at the Department of Homeland Security during the Obama administration. "They're already the most isolated nation in the world."

By 2012, government officials and private researchers say North Korea had dispersed its hacking teams abroad, relying principally on China's internet infrastructure. This allowed the North to exploit largely nonsecure internet connections and maintain a degree of plausible deniability.

A recent analysis by the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future found heavy North Korean internet activity in India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nepal, Kenya, Mozambique, and Indonesia. In some cases, like that of New Zealand, North Korean hackers were simply routing their attacks through the country's computers from abroad. In others, researchers believe they are now physically stationed in countries like India, where nearly one-fifth of Pyongyang's cyberattacks now originate.

Intelligence agencies are now trying to track the North Korean hackers in these countries the way they have previously tracked terrorist sleeper cells or nuclear proliferators: looking for their favorite hotels, lurking in online forums they may inhabit, attempting to feed them bad computer code and counterattacking their own servers.

Learning From Iran, Growing Bolder

For decades Iran and North Korea have shared missile technology, and American intelligence agencies have long sought evidence of secret cooperation in the nuclear arena. In cyber, the Iranians taught the North Koreans something important: When confronting an enemy that has internet-connected banks, trading systems, oil and water pipelines, dams, hospitals, and entire cities, the opportunities to wreak havoc are endless.

By midsummer 2012, Iran's hackers, still recovering from an American and Israeli-led cyberattack on Iran's nuclear enrichment operations, found an easy target in Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company and the world's most valuable company.

That August, Iranian hackers flipped a kill switch at precisely 11:08 a.m., unleashing a simple wiper virus onto 30,000 Aramco computers and 10,000 servers that would destroy data, and replace it with a partial image of a burning American flag. The damage was tremendous.

Seven months later, during joint military exercises between American and South Korean forces, North Korean hackers, operating from computers inside China, deployed a very similar cyberweapon against computer networks at three major South Korean banks and South Korea's two largest broadcasters. Like Iran's Aramco attacks, the North Korean attacks on South Korean targets used wiping malware to eradicate data and paralyze their business operations.

It may have been a copycat operation, but Mr. Hannigan, the former British official, said recently: "We have to assume they are getting help from the Iranians."

And inside the National Security Agency, just a few years after analysts had written off Pyongyang as a low grade threat, there was suddenly a new appreciation that the country was figuring out cyber just as it had figured out nuclear weapons: test by test.

"North Korea showed that to achieve its political objectives, it will take down any company - period," Mr. Silvers said.

Protecting Kim's Image

A chief political objective of the cyberprogram is to preserve the image of the North's 33-year-old leader, Kim Jong-un. In August 2014, North Korean hackers went after a British broadcaster, Channel Four, which had announced plans for a television series about a British nuclear scientist kidnapped in Pyongyang.

First, the North Koreans protested to the British government. "A scandalous farce," North Korea called the series. When that was ignored, British authorities found that the North had hacked into the television network's computer system. The attack was stopped before inflicting any damage, and David Abraham, the chief executive of Channel Four, initially vowed to continue the production.

That attack, however, was just a prelude. When Sony Pictures Entertainment released a trailer for "The Interview," a comedy about two journalists dispatched to Pyongyang to assassinate North Korea's young new dictator, Pyongyang wrote a letter of complaint to the secretary general of the United Nations to stop the production. Then came threats to Sony.

Michael Lynton, then Sony's chief executive, said when Sony officials called the State Department, they were told it was just more "bluster," he said.

"At that point in time, Kim Jong-un was relatively new in the job, and I don't think it was clear yet how he was different from his father," Mr. Lynton said in an interview. "Nobody ever mentioned anything about their cyber capabilities."

In September 2014, while still attempting to crack Channel 4, North Korean hackers buried deep into Sony's networks, lurking patiently for the next three months, as both Sony and American intelligence completely missed their presence.

The director of national intelligence, James Clapper, was even in Pyongyang at the time, trying to win the release of a detained American, and had dinner with the then-chief of the Reconnaissance General Bureau.

On Nov. 24, the attack on Sony began: Employees arriving at work that day found their computer screens taken over by a picture of a red skeleton with a message signed "GOP," for "Guardians of Peace."

"We've obtained all your internal data including your secrets and top secrets," the message said. "If you don't obey us, we'll release data shown below to the world."

That was actually a diversion: The code destroyed 70 percent of Sony Pictures' laptops and computers. Sony employees were reduced to communicating via pen, paper and phone.

Mr. Lynton said the F.B.I. told him that nothing could have been done to prevent the attack, since it was waged by a sovereign state. "We learned that you really have no way of protecting yourself in any meaningful way," he said of such nation-state attacks.

Sony struggled to distribute the film as theaters were intimidated. (Ultimately it was distributed for download, and may have done better than it would have.) In London, outside investors in Channel Four's North Korea project suddenly dried up, and the project effectively died.

The Obama White House responded to the Sony hack with sanctions that the North barely noticed, but with no other retaliation. "A cyberbattle would be a lot more risky for the United States and its allies than for North Korea," said Mr. Silvers.

Robbing Banks, Pyongyang Style

Beyond respect, and retribution, the North wanted hard currency from its cyberprogram.

So soon the digital bank heists began - an attack in the Philippines in October 2015; then the Tien Phong Bank in Vietnam at the end of the same year; and then the Bangladesh Central Bank. Researchers at Symantec said it was the first time a state had used a cyberattack not for espionage or war, but to finance the country's operations.

Now, the attacks are increasingly cunning. Security experts noticed in February that the website of Poland's financial regulator was unintentionally infecting visitors with malware.

It turned out that visitors to the Polish regulator's website - employees from Polish banks, from the central banks of Brazil, Chile, Estonia, Mexico, Venezuela, and even from prominent Western banks like Bank of America - had been targeted with a so-called watering hole attack, in which North Korean hackers waited for their victims to visit the site, then installed malware in their machines. Forensics showed that the hackers had put together a list of internet addresses from 103 organizations, most of them banks, and designed their malware to specifically infect visitors from those banks, in what researchers said appeared to be an effort to move around stolen currency.

More recently, North Koreans seemed to have changed tack once again. North Korean hackers' fingerprints showed up in a series of attempted attacks on so-called cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea, and were successful in at least one case, according to researchers at FireEye.

The attacks on Bitcoin exchanges, which see hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin exchanged a day, offered Pyongyang a potentially very lucrative source of new funds. And, researchers say, there is evidence they have been exchanging Bitcoin gathered from their heists for Monero, a highly anonymous version of cryptocurrency that is far harder for global authorities to trace.

The most widespread hack was WannaCry, a global ransomware attack that used a program that cripples a computer and demands a ransom payment in exchange for unlocking the computer, or its data. In a twist the North Koreans surely enjoyed, their hackers based the attack on a secret tool, called "Eternal Blue," stolen from the National Security Agency.

In the late afternoon of May 12, panicked phone calls flooded in from around Britain and the world. The computer systems of several major British hospital systems were shut down, forcing diversions of ambulances and the deferral of nonemergency surgeries. Banks and transportation systems across dozens of countries were affected.

Britain's National Cyber Security Center had picked up no warning of the attack, said Paul Chichester, its director of operations. Investigators now think the WannaCry attack may have been an early misfire of a weapon that was still under development - or a test of tactics and vulnerabilities.

"This was part of an evolving effort to find ways to disable key industries," said Brian Lord, a former deputy director for intelligence and cyber operations at the Government Communications Headquarters in Britain. "All I have to do is create a moderately disabling attack on a key part of the social infrastructure, and then watch the media sensationalize it and panic the public."

It ended thanks to Marcus Hutchins, a college dropout and self-taught hacker living with his parents in the southwest of England. He spotted a web address somewhere in the software and, on a lark, paid $10.69 to register it as a domain name. The activation of the domain name turned out to act as a kill switch causing the malware to stop spreading.

British officials privately acknowledge that they know North Korea perpetrated the attack, but the government has taken no retaliatory action, uncertain what they can do.

A Cyber Arms Race

While American and South Korean officials often express outrage about North Korea's cyberactivities, they rarely talk about their own - and whether that helps fuel the cyber arms race.

Yet both Seoul and Washington target the North's Reconnaissance General Bureau, its nuclear program and its missile program. Hundreds, if not thousands, of American cyberwarriors spend each day mapping the North's few networks, looking for vulnerabilities that could be activated in time of crisis.

At a recent meeting of American strategists to evaluate North Korea's capabilities, some participants expressed concerns that the escalating cyberwar could actually tempt the North to use its weapons - both nuclear and cyber - very quickly in any conflict, for fear that the United States has secret ways to shut the country down.

The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo, said last week that the United States is trying to compile a better picture of the leadership around Kim Jong-un, for a report to President Trump. Figuring out who oversees cyber and special operations is a central mystery. The Japanese press recently speculated it could be an official named Jang Kil-su. Others are curious about Gen. No Kwang-chol, who was elevated to the Central Committee of the North's ruling party in May 2016, and is one of the only members whose portfolio is undisclosed.

The big question is whether Mr. Kim, fearful that his nuclear program is becoming too large and obvious a target, is focusing instead on how to shut down the United States without ever lighting off a missile. "Everyone is focused on mushroom clouds," Mr. Silvers said, "but there is far more potential for another kind of disastrous escalation."

Choe Sang-Hun contributed reporting from Seoul.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: North Korea Deploys Corps Of Hackers Bent on Chaos. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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The World Once Laughed at North Korean Cyberpower. No More.

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When North Korean hackers tried to steal $1 billion from the New York Federal Reserve last year, only a spelling error stopped them. They were digitally looting an account of the Bangladesh Central Bank, when bankers grew suspicious about a withdrawal request that had misspelled "foundation" as "fandation."

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The debate on campus free speech was rekindled last week as Jo Johnson, the universities minister, announced that the newly created Office for Students will be given powers to fine, suspend or register universities which do not uphold "freedom of speech" on campus. The proposal would entail a clampdown on "safe spaces" and no platform policies. But what do students think about it?

'No platforming is only a threat to hate speech'
Lucas North studies at the University of York

The announcement has been dressed in the usual language around no platforming - that this is a free speech issue. And as usual, that's not actually the case. No platforming is not a threat to free speech, it is only a threat to hate speech. No trans person feels free to speak against a celebrity transphobe. No Muslim student feels free to speak at an event led by someone whose only claim to fame comes from Islamophobia. Free speech is not under threat in our universities - our students are.

'No platforming limits the intellectual lives of students'

David Troy is a PhD student at the University of Bristol

I agree with the spirit of the new regulations, though ideally I would prefer a relentless student movement demanding our right to free speech and the freedom to hear controversial speech on our campuses. By restricting the speech that students can hear at university via no platforming, we are being restricted from developing our moral and debating muscles that we need to argue against and defeat racist, sexist, and discriminatory views.

By no platforming, universities are limiting the intellectual lives of students and patronising them, suggesting that they don't have the intellectual and moral rigour to hear controversial ideas and be able to judge their value in the marketplace of free ideas. With the exception of incitement to violence (which I think should hold criminal sanction), I believe any problems that arise from free speech can be countered by other free speech.

'There is no intellectual gain in platforming bigoted speakers'

Guo Sheng Liu studies Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Oxford

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A society with laws against defamation and discrimination should know certain kinds of speech are harmful and intolerable. There is no intellectual gain in platforming and rewarding speakers for bigotry that is already debunked. And why should the principle of free speech trump the rights of oppressed groups?

Allowing bigots to freely denounce our humanity is part of the reason why we trans people, for example, suffer from high rates of depression and suicidal attempts. Our lives matter. Given the national rise in hate crimes in recent years, Jo Johnson has his priorities all wrong. There is no need to "test" ideas that encourage discrimination, nor "expose" transparent prejudices.
Josh Salisbury is an MA history and politics student at the University of York
'Columnists are peddling a myth that students are uniquely sensitive'

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In the free-speech-on-campus culture wars, there are two camps. The first will deny there is a problem of censorship on campus. The second will proclaim the death of free thought at university. The truth is somewhere in the middle. No platform policies have the potential to silence speakers without good reason, and have on occasion done so. We should recognise that, and challenge it. But there certainly isn't the rampant censorship claimed by many columnists, peddling a myth that students are uniquely sensitive.

Ironically, commentators often lump together many separate issues - no platform, trigger warnings, safe spaces - as if they were all equally censorious, stifling proper debate about their place. The government has also jumped on this "snowflake students" narrative, while demanding that universities uphold debate and simultaneously asking them to undermine free speech with the Prevent agenda. We ought to defend free speech on campus - but let's be clear about what the genuine threats are, and their scale.
Clare Patterson studies English literature at the University of Glasgow
'Free speech is ephemeral'

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Enforcing this ephemeral idea of "free speech" through legislation, against the will of students, is exactly the kind of government intervention that free speech activists should seek to prevent.
Students, what do you think? Tell us in the comments or tweet us @GdnStudents
The furore around this topic largely comes from white, male, well-off public figures who would have been students themselves at a time when most students also fit this description. The university landscape has changed since then; movements such as no platforming largely come from LGBT+, working class, disabled and BME students asking to be treated with respect, and I suspect that those in power feel uncomfortable seeing that students from marginalised backgrounds can actually have power.

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Do 'no platform' policies threaten free speech at uni? Students share their views

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The debate on campus free speech was rekindled last week as Jo Johnson, the universities minister, announced that the newly created Office for Students will be given powers to fine, suspend or register universities which do not uphold "freedom of speech" on campus. The proposal would entail a clampdown on "safe spaces" and no platform policies.

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The Criminal, Underground World of Dogfighting

Dogfighting is a type of blood sport in which dogs are forced to fight one another for the entertainment and/or profit of spectators.

Dogfighting is one of the most heinous forms of animal cruelty. Dogs used for fighting are typically raised in isolation, so they spend most of their lives on short, heavy chains. They are regularly conditioned for fighting through the use of drugs, including anabolic steroids to enhance muscle mass and encourage aggressiveness. Dogfighting victims may have their ears cropped and tails docked close to their bodies to minimize the animal's normal body language cues and to limit areas that another dog can grab during a fight. Fighters usually perform this cropping/docking themselves using crude and inhumane techniques.

Although dogfighting is a felony in all 50 states, it continues to occur in every part of the country and in every type of community. Fights can happen in a variety of locations ranging from back alleys to carefully-staged enterprises. Fights typically take place in a 14-20 square-foot pit designed to contain the animals. Fights can last just a few minutes or several hours, and both animals may suffer injuries including puncture wounds, lacerations, blood loss, crushing injuries and broken bones. Although fights are not usually to the death, many dogs succumb to their injuries later, and losing dogs are often discarded, killed or brutally executed as part of the "sport."

Dogfighting is often associated with other forms of criminal activity including illegal gambling and possession of drugs and firearms. By our estimate, there are tens of thousands of dogfighters in the U.S., forcing hundreds of thousands of dogs to train, fight, and suffer every year.

To learn more, visit A Closer Look at Dogfighting.
Help Us End Dogfighting Today
If you suspect dogfighting or other animal abuse is happening in your community, please speak up. Find out how to report animal cruelty.

How to Spot Signs of Dogfighting

It is important to be able to recognize the signs identified with dogfighting so that you can report any suspected dogfighting activity to your local authorities.

If you witness the following signs in your community and suspect dogfighting activity, you should consider contacting your local authorities immediately:

1. Dogs with multiple scars, possibly with lips or ears ripped off

2. Pit bull-mix-type dogs weighing approximately 40-50 pounds

3. Dogs on heavy chains, tethered to a tire axle or dog house/barrel

4. Dirt ring around the dog

5. Dogs chained inches apart from one another

6. Dogs chained or penned in a secluded area intentionally kept out of the public's view

Keep in mind that in urban communities like New York City, dogs used for fighting are often found living in secluded, indoor areas such as basements, where they are hidden from public view. Their ears may also be cropped.

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Dogfighting is a type of blood sport in which dogs are forced to fight one another for the entertainment and/or profit of spectators. Dogfighting is one of the most heinous forms of animal cruelty. Dogs used for fighting are typically raised in isolation, so they spend most of their lives on short, heavy chains.

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A Facebook page has been set up to help identify the victims of Somalia's deadliest terror attack in a decade as well as those still missing.

A lorry full of explosives destroyed hotels, government offices and restaurants at a busy junction in the capital, Mogadishu, killing at least 281 people and injuring another 300.

Somali authorities are struggling to identify the dead - leaving relatives helplessly searching for news.

A group of young people have been raising money for relatives and posting pictures of the missing under the Facebook banner, Gurmad252. Gurmad means "Come and help each other" while 252 refers to Somalia's telephone code,

Photos are accompanied by brief information about where the person was last seen with a number to call should anyone have information.

The team, which has the backing of the government, is also posting the names of those who are being treated in hospital.

It is unlikely we will ever know the identities of everyone who died in the 14 October Mogadishu attack. But this is what we know so far.

Maryam Abdullahi

A medical student at Benadir University in Mogadishu, Maryam Abduallahi, 25, was preparing to graduate on Sunday.

Her father, who lives in the UK, had travelled especially to Somalia for her graduation, but ended up attending her funeral.

Maryam's sister Anfa'a Abdullahi Mohamed told the BBC Somali Service that she had tried to reach her sister after the explosion.

"I called her number after the explosion, no-one answered.

"I called back and a young man answered and said, 'Your sister is dead and her body is at Safari Hotel. May Allah have mercy on you.'

"Our family is saddened. My parents are most distressed. May God make their hearts strong," she said.

Her older sister had been a role model who liked helping people at the hospital where she worked and at the university, she added.

"She was planning to start training at a mother and baby clinic after her university graduation. She had ambition."

Fa'iso Hassan Ali: Missing

Fa'iso Hassan Ali, 24, had a shop next to Safari Hotel, which was destroyed in the explosion.

Called "Mama Halima", the shop was totally demolished.

Her family have been looking for her since Saturday.

Omar Haji Mohamed's son and daughter: Missing

Omar Haji Mohamed has appealed for information about two of his children, a son and daughter, who are thought to have died in the explosion.

They were at the family's shop in Soobe, the area where the attack happened, and have not been seen since.

Mr Mohamed has been moving between hospitals and help centres, but has not found them amongst the injured.

Suleiman Nuur Ali: Missing

A public transport conductor, Suleiman Nuur Ali, 29, had been at work on Saturday in Soobe.

He has not been seen since the attack.

"Please if you get him dead or injured, contact us," a message from his family says.

Bureeqo Abdullahi Adan: Missing

Bureeqo Abdullahi Adan, 17, was known to be travelling on a bus when the blast happened.

Her relatives are asking for any information.

Asad Abdi Abiid: Missing

Abdi Abiid was also last seen in Soobe. The area is near Somalia's CID headquarters and foreign ministry.

His family have not heard from him since Saturday.

Fifteen school children: Missing

According to the director of a Mogadishu ambulance service, 15 primary school children were among those who died.

Abdulkadir Adam told the Associated Press news agency that they had been on a school bus when the lorry exploded.

Reunited

Amid all the sorrow and despair, Gurmad252 has found some good news to share. A young woman who had been reported missing has been found alive.

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Somali bomb victims: Searching for clues

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A Facebook page has been set up to help identify the victims of Somalia's deadliest terror attack in a decade as well as those still missing. A lorry full of explosives destroyed hotels, government offices and restaurants at a busy junction in the capital, Mogadishu, killing at least 281 people and injuring another 300.

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US Senator John McCain has pilloried "half-baked, spurious nationalism" in an impassioned speech seen as an attack on President Donald Trump.

The Arizona senator warned against the US surrendering its leadership in the international community.

Mr McCain - who was diagnosed with brain cancer in July - spoke in Philadelphia as he accepted the Liberty Medal.

The senator has sparred with Mr Trump a number of times.

The Liberty Medal is an award recognising leadership in pursuit of freedom whose previous recipients have included Hillary Clinton, Steven Spielberg, Muhammad Ali and Tony Blair.

Mr McCain was applauded as he said on Monday at the National Constitution Center: "To fear the world we have organised and led for three-quarters of a century, to abandon the ideals we have advanced around the globe, to refuse the obligations of international leadership and our duty to remain the last best hope of earth for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems is as unpatriotic as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past that Americans consigned to the ash heap of history.

"We live in a land made of ideals, not blood and soil," he continued.

"We have done great good in the world. That leadership has had its costs, but we have become incomparably powerful and wealthy as we did."

He added: "We have a moral obligation to continue in our just cause, and we would bring more than shame on ourselves if we don't.

"We will not thrive in a world where our leadership and ideals are absent. We wouldn't deserve to."

Mr McCain was presented with the medal by former US Vice-President Joe Biden, chairman of the Constitution Center, a non-profit institution devoted to the US founding charter.

Mr Biden praised Mr McCain - a former Navy pilot who was tortured in a North Vietnamese prison - for his "courage and loyalty".

The Arizona senator has previously been at odds with Mr Trump after he opposed his own Republican party's attempts to repeal and replace Obamacare.

According to political website Axios, Mr Trump mocked Mr McCain's thumbs-down gesture as he rejected one of the bills.

Mr McCain has limited mobility of his arms as a result of his injuries from being shot down and held as a prisoner of war.

During his presidential campaign, Mr Trump was criticised when he said Mr McCain was not a war hero, adding: "I like people who weren't captured."

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US Senator John McCain has pilloried "half-baked, spurious nationalism" in an impassioned speech seen as an attack on President Donald Trump. The Arizona senator warned against the US surrendering its leadership in the international community. Mr McCain - who was diagnosed with brain cancer in July - spoke in Philadelphia as he accepted the Liberty Medal.

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One of the most dramatic stories from the night of the Grenfell Tower blaze - that a baby was thrown from a window and caught - probably never happened, a BBC investigation has concluded.

The news was reported in the media right across the UK and the world.

But neither the police nor ambulance service have a record of the event, and experts have questioned whether it is scientifically possible.

No witnesses quoted at the time were willing to be interviewed on camera.

The report, by BBC Newsnight, found the first reference to the story can be traced back to 10:08 on 14 June while firefighters were still battling the blaze.

The Press Association tweeted an interview with a woman named Samira Lamrani.

She told them that she had witnessed a woman on the "ninth or 10th floor" throwing a baby from a window and that the child was caught by a man below.

The quotes were picked up by news organisations across the UK, including by the BBC.

Newsnight contacted Ms Lamrani but she declined to be interviewed. "My memory of that night is fading... I don't want to talk about it," she said.

Another witness quoted at the time was the broadcaster and architect George Clarke who told Newsnight on the day of the fire that he saw a man catch "a kid" thrown out of the window from the eighth floor.

When we contacted him for this report, he told us he did not wish to make any comment on the matter at all. "It's such a contentious issue and I think it's so hurtful to so many people," he said.

On the 16 June, two days after the fire, a dramatic account of a similar sounding incident appeared in The Sun newspaper. It was subsequently picked up by many other news organisations.

The story features photographs of a man holding a young girl. The Sun names him as "Pat" and says the picture was taken just after he had caught the girl, aged 4, who the newspaper said had been dropped from the fourth floor.

However, we tracked down the man in the picture. His name is Oluwaseun Talabi, and the girl he is holding in the picture is actually his own daughter. The pair had escaped the fire by walking down from the 14th floor.

Inside the 21st floor of Grenfell Tower

Messages from the Tower

What happened at Grenfell Tower?

Belief in this miracle doesn't seem to have diminished in the streets around the burned-out tower. If you ask local residents some will tell you that they are certain the story is true, although they didn't see it themselves.

Newsnight has attempted to contact every person quoted as saying they did see the baby thrown and caught. Some told us that they had been misquoted. For some supposed witnesses, we found no evidence that they actually exist at all. None of those we could track down were willing to go on the record and give us an on-camera interview.

One local resident, Jody Martin, has a theory about where the baby story originated. He arrived at the scene of the fire at about the same time as the first fire crews, just after 01:00.

He says his attention was drawn to activity on the third or fourth floor.

"There was an African-Caribbean lady with her baby and she was leaning out the window," he says. "It was more like a toddler. And there was smoke just billowing out behind us, so obviously she was just trying to get oxygen. So she was at the lowest point of the ledge, you know right down low, top half of her torso hanging out, but her infant at arm's length."

Jody is clear that the woman was only minutes away from being rescued by fire crews and wasn't throwing the baby, just trying to make sure it had enough air.

According to psychologists it is common in fast moving situations for witnesses to see part of an event and then assume what happened next. There is nothing dishonest about this. It is just how we formulate memories.

As experts told us, human memory isn't a video tape - it is a best guess assembly of often incomplete or even contradictory information.

There is another reason we should perhaps be sceptical of this story. The physics of such a fall would make serious injury to any child and anyone who tried to catch it a probability according to medical experts.

Even dropped from five storeys or 15m, an object would be travelling at 17.15m per second or 61.73km per hour (38mph).

Double the height to the 10th floor, or 30m, and an object is travelling at 24.25m per second or 87.3kmh (54.2mph).

Any fall from above one storey would likely result in serious injury, irrespective of whether someone tries to catch the child or not, according to Dr Dan Magnus, Consultant in Paediatric Emergency Medicine at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children.

"I would be sceptical of a baby falling from a very high height and someone catching that baby would somehow make the fall benign. I think that is difficult to understand," he said.

If this event had happened you would think that there would be some official record of it, but Newsnight has established that neither the police, nor the ambulance service know anything about it, and no children from Grenfell were treated at hospital for the serious physical injuries likely to have resulted from such a fall.

The Metropolitan Police could not have been clearer in their statement: "We have no record of this incident."

It is often not possible to definitively say something didn't happen. All we can do is search for the witnesses and scrutinise the evidence.

We have done that and haven't turned up anything that suggests this amazing event actually happened. Indeed all the available evidence points to the opposite conclusion.
David Grossman was reporting for BBC Newsnight. Watch his full report here.

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Grenfell baby story probably never happened

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One of the most dramatic stories from the night of the Grenfell Tower blaze - that a baby was thrown from a window and caught - probably never happened, a BBC investigation has concluded. The news was reported in the media right across the UK and the world.

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What's a 'lone wolf'? It's the special name we give white terrorists | Moustafa Bayoumi

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Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock seems to fit every definition of a terrorist - apart from being Muslim

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Are we selective in when we believe Isis' claims?

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Are we selective in when we believe Isis' claims?

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Isis has claimed responsibility for the shooting attack that has left at least 50 dead in Las Vegas.

A statement published by the group's Amaq propaganda agency claimed the attacker was a "soldier of the Islamic State".

More follows...

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Isis just claimed the deadliest shooting in US history

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Isis has claimed responsibility for the shooting attack that has left at least 50 dead in Las Vegas. A statement published by the group's Amaq propaganda agency claimed the attacker was a "soldier of the Islamic State". More follows... Reuse content

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A political symbol?

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Scotland manager Gordon Strachan and his Northern Ireland counterpart Michael O'Neill want "common sense" to prevail over the ban on teams displaying poppies.

Last year, Fifa fined all four home nations for their use of the poppy to commemorate Armistice Day, deeming it to be a political symbol.

But the ban is now set to be lifted by world football's governing body.

"If it gets ratified, that's just common sense," said Strachan.

England and Scotland wore the emblem on black armbands during their World Cup qualifier at Wembley last November.

Wales and Northern Ireland were fined for displaying it in their stadiums.

Who, What, Why: Which countries wear poppies?

Is the poppy a political symbol?

The row drew criticism from UK Prime Minister Theresa May, who called Fifa's stance "utterly outrageous".

Last week, Fifa is understood to have sent out a draft proposal to its member nations with revised provisions that could see the poppy permitted if opposing teams and the competition organiser for the relevant match both accept its use in advance.

The new law is expected to be in place for November's international games, a period that incorporates Remembrance weekend.

Northern Ireland will face Germany on 5 October and Norway three days later in World Cup qualifiers, and O'Neill said of the poppy row: "I don't get involved in the politics of the whole thing. It's a decision for the Irish Football Association.

"Whatever decision the IFA makes I just want it to be something that doesn't attract the level of media interest that it did last time."

When asked if common sense should prevail, he replied: "I would hope so, yeah."

The Football Association and the Football Association of Wales have declined to comment until the decision has been ratified by Fifa.

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Fifa poppy ban: Gordon Strachan and Michael O'Neill want 'common sense'

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Scotland manager Gordon Strachan and his Northern Ireland counterpart Michael O'Neill want "common sense" to prevail over the ban on teams displaying poppies. Last year, Fifa fined all four home nations for their use of the poppy to commemorate Armistice Day, deeming it to be a political symbol.

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All Colin Kaepernick ever asked was for his country to have a conversation about race.

This, he warned, would not be easy. Such talks are awkward and often end in a flurry of spittle, pointed fingers and bruised feelings. But from the moment the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback first spoke about his decision to kneel or sit during the national anthem, he said was willing to give up his career to make the nation talk.

In one speech on Friday night, Donald Trump gave Kaepernick exactly what he wanted. With a fiery blast at protesting NFL players that seemingly came from nowhere, the president bonded black and white football players with wealthy white owners in a way nobody could have imagined. By saying any player who didn't stand for the anthem was a "son of a bitch" and should be fired by his team's owner, Trump crossed a line from which no one could look away.

Come Sunday afternoon, players who wanted nothing of a racial dialogue stood before giant flags, linking arms in protest. Owners who once wished their kneeling players would just stop offending fans fired off statements in their support. Networks who have avoided showing the raised fists of dissent had no choice but show the rows of players standing strong against Trump's rage.

Whether anyone wanted it or not, Trump has forced the US to have the conversation Kaepernick has been requesting.

You could see it in the words of New York Giants owner John Mara, who once said many of his team's fans would "never (come) to another Giants game" if one of his players refused to stand for the anthem. This weekend he and co-owner Steve Tisch said Trump's remarks were "inappropriate, offensive and divisive".

"We are proud of our players," they said, "the vast majority of whom use their NFL platform to make a positive difference in our society."

You could hear it in the voice of London Fletcher, a player so tough he never missed a game in his 16-year career but also a strong Christian who dodged controversial topics during his playing days. On Sunday, he told CBS Sports he was angered by Trump's words "because there is a racial undertone to his comments and the way I heard it is 'you black SOB get off the field'."

You could even feel it in the tweets of people like former ESPN reporter turned conservative commentator Britt McHenry, who announced she was not watching the NFL because of the anthem protests or Baltimore Ravens fan Bobby Blivins who put his season tickets up for sale on Twitter after many of the team's players kneeled at Wembley Stadium.

You could feel it, of course, in Trump's own words. On Sunday afternoon, as the president headed back to Washington from his New Jersey golf club, a reporter asked: "Are you inflaming racial tensions, sir?"

"This has nothing to do with race," Trump said, talking, of course, about race. "I never said anything about race. This has nothing to do with race or anything else. This has to do with respect for our country and respect for our flag."

All of them were having some form of the talk Kaepernick so desperately wants to have. Their outrage was real and their words loaded with phrases that often throw America on to the third rail of public debate but their anger - regardless of the meaning behind it - represented the beginnings of an essential dialogue that often we are too polite to initiate.

"I think this is something that can unify this country," Kaepernick said in the summer of 2016, at his first press conference about his protest. "If we can have the real conversations that are uncomfortable for a lot of people - if we can have this conversation there's a better understanding where both sides are coming from. (And) if we can reach common ground and can understand what everyone's going through, we can really affect change."

Earlier this year, the sociologist and civil rights activist Harry Edwards, who has worked with the 49ers, told the NFL Network Kaepernick had achieved something that Barack Obama and all the nation's activists and prominent black voices had not. He had ignited a discussion that had been missing for generations.

When Kaepernick's proclamation that he might be sacrificing his career turned out to be prophetic and no team signed him after his release from the 49ers the conversation simmered over the players who continued his protest. Nothing has given Kaepernick's protest fuel like Trump's words. Instead of dissecting another football Sunday, much of America is asking why the Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks didn't take the field for the anthem.

The discourse might not be civil. It probably isn't reasoned or rational. But it's discourse. And, really, that's the reason Kaepernick took his knee. Just when his absence got lost in reports of who kneeled for the anthem or who did not, Donald Trump stood behind a lectern in Alabama and gave the NFL a big old megaphone.

Everyone who sat in front of football on Sunday was forced to have Colin Kaepernick's great national conversation. That might be the biggest victory of the career he has given up.

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Colin Kaepernick has won: he wanted a conversation and Trump started it

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All Colin Kaepernick ever asked was for his country to have a conversation about race. This, he warned, would not be easy. Such talks are awkward and often end in a flurry of spittle, pointed fingers and bruised feelings.

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Social media platform Snapchat has blocked access to Al Jazeera content in Saudi Arabia.

Snapchat said it was asked by the Saudi authorities to remove the Qatari-backed broadcaster's Discover Publisher Channel because it violated local laws.

Qatar is in an ongoing dispute with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the UAE.

The four countries cut ties with Qatar earlier this year, accusing the country of supporting terrorism.

Saudi Arabia has one of the world's most restrictive media environments, according to human rights groups and media freedom advocates.

But the Saudi authorities have a particular dislike for Al Jazeera. At one point they had demanded Qatar's government shut it down altogether as one of 13 conditions to remove sanctions against the country.

Those conditions were later withdrawn.

Saudi Arabia is one of the largest social media markets in the Middle East, boosted by a high rate of smart phone ownership.

That can sometimes place US-listed companies like Snapchat's parent Snap Inc in an awkward position, as local laws are far more restrictive than in many other markets.

"We make an effort to comply with local laws in the countries where we operate," a Snapchat spokesperson said in a statement.

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Snapchat blocks Al Jazeera in Saudi Arabia

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Social media platform Snapchat has blocked access to Al Jazeera content in Saudi Arabia. Snapchat said it was asked by the Saudi authorities to remove the Qatari-backed broadcaster's Discover Publisher Channel because it violated local laws. Qatar is in an ongoing dispute with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the UAE.

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I can see the tube platform at Parsons Green from my window where I live. As I was taking my son to school I opened my front door and suddenly heard lots of passengers screaming on the tube platform, which is above ground.

My entire street filled with people leaving the station in a panic.

Lots of people were running, some were crying and others were just walking really fast. They were all pouring out and I was worried something serious going on.

I took my son back into the house to keep him safe and then went outside to find out more about what was happening. There was just so much confusion, some rumours were being spread about a knife man on the loose but I don't think that was true. I live near the back end of tube so I am guessing most people were leaving via the front entrance.

I have no idea how many people would have been injured but someone came out and said someone had been burned. There was one woman in floods of tears walking toward me and guy behind her on bike, and he was saying "it's just an accident don't worry".

No one knew what was happening and even though many people were leaving, some were still on the platforms. I don't know whether they were hurt or witnesses but they were wandering up and down.

Our street is now cordoned off and the police have told us to leave the house. My children are at school and we believe this is the safest place for them in the meantime.

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Parsons Green explosion: video shows burning device as police launch terrorism inquiry - latest

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I can see the tube platform at Parsons Green from my window where I live. As I was taking my son to school I opened my front door and suddenly heard lots of passengers screaming on the tube platform, which is above ground. My entire street filled with people leaving the station in a panic.

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RSPCA animal cruelty caseload rises to almost 150,000 investigations

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Calls to cruelty hotline rose by nearly 5% in 2016, but charity says increase reflects more sharing of abuse footage on social media

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The trial of two teachers on terror-related charges has opened in Turkey - marked by the absence of the accused.

Nuriye Gulmen, a university lecturer, and Semih Ozakca, a primary school teacher, deny having links to a left-wing militant group.

They have been on hunger strike for six months in protest at their dismissal from their jobs.

Authorities prevented them from appearing in court in Ankara, saying they could attempt to escape.

But supporters said the government did not want them to be seen in their emaciated state.

Relatives say they cannot walk and are suffering ailments including heart rhythm problems, pain and sensitivity to light, as a result of being on a diet of only liquids and supplements since March.

The pair went on hunger strike after losing their jobs in the crackdown following a coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan 14 months ago.

They were then detained in May over alleged links to the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) group, banned as a terrorist organisation by Turkey.
Turkey's trauma after night of the tanks Turkey crowd taunts coup suspects at mass trial near Ankara
This week, their lawyers were also detained on terrorism charges, prompting criticism that the pair have been left defenceless, although dozens more lawyers stepped in.

Their absence from court was described as "an open breach of their right to defend" themselves, according to Baris Yarkadas, a deputy from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP).

Of the 150,000 people sacked or suspended since last year's failed coup, this pair have become the most iconic, reports the BBC's Turkey correspondent Mark Lowen.

Crowds of supporters turned up for the court hearing, including at least 100 lawyers. Many protested outside.

Riot police used batons to maintain order. At least 20 people were dragged along the ground and detained, reported Reuters news agency.

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The trial of two teachers on terror-related charges has opened in Turkey - marked by the absence of the accused. Nuriye Gulmen, a university lecturer, and Semih Ozakca, a primary school teacher, deny having links to a left-wing militant group. They have been on hunger strike for six months in protest at their dismissal from their jobs.

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Who? What? Where? When? Why? Why significant? Questions arising?

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Is personality determined by nature or nurture? New research suggests environment is stronger than genes

Personality traits are inherited through observed behaviour, not genetics

Foster parents have greater influence on personality development than birth parents in zebra finches

Study raises questions about the inheritance of personality in humans

The debate over whether nature or nurture defines personality has taken a further twist after scientists found foster parents have a greater impact on personality than directly inherited genes from parents.

Researchers at the University of Exeter and the University of Hamburg used the zebra finches to investigate how personality is transferred between generations.

They found that foster parents have a greater influence on the personalities of fostered offspring than the genes inherited from birth parents.

' 'This research shows that personality variation can be more rapidly transmitted across generations than previously thought' - Dr Nick Royle

The research measured personality by placing the zebra finches in a new environment and counting the number of features they visited.

Some were shy, staying mainly in one place while others explored widely demonstrating a more outgoing personality. Male and female birds were then paired up and allowed to breed.

Each clutch of eggs was fostered by another pair just prior to hatching. Offspring personality was measured once they were adults.

Offspring size was also measured and was found to be primarily genetically inherited and not significantly influenced by foster parent size.

Dr Nick Royle from the University of Exeter said: 'This is one of the first experiments to show that behaviour can be non-genetically transmitted from parents to offspring.

NATURE OR NURTURE - WHAT IS IT?

Our study shows that in zebra finches, personality traits can be transmitted from one generation to another through behaviour, not just genetics.'

Speaking to MailOnline, Dr. Royle said, 'It's important to understand more about the mechanisms underlying the inheritance of personality.

'Most previous studies have found personality to be genetically heritable, but few studies have looked at the potential for personality to be non-genetically transmitted.

'Our research findings are therefore surprising because they show that, for zebra finches, personality is primarily determined by the environment they experience after hatching.

'We know this because we cross-fostered eggs just before hatching, so any genetic parent effects on personality were limited to the time before hatching.'

He added: 'Although this study considers personality inheritance in zebra finches, it raises questions about the inheritance of personality in other species, including humans.

'Do adopted children inherit the personality characteristics of their birth parents or their adoptive parents? Is the environment more important than genetic inheritance in the development of personality? '

The research was published in the journal Biology Letters.

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Is personality determined by nature or nurture? New research suggests environment is stronger than genes

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Personality traits are inherited through observed behaviour, not genetics Foster parents have greater influence on personality development than birth parents in zebra finches Study raises questions about the inheritance of personality in humans The debate over whether nature or nurture defines personality has taken a further twist after scientists found foster parents have a greater impact on personality than directly inherited genes from parents.

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A protester holds a sign in Northern Ireland in 2012. A judge's ruling this week could ease the country's abortion's restrictions, which are among the strictest in Europe.

The abortion wars in America are typically cast as a battle between choice and life, with one side arguing that a woman's decision about her own body is paramount, and the other, that a developing baby's life trumps all.

But in Northern Ireland - where abortion laws are among the strictest in Europe - a judge has attached new rhetoric to the procedure: human rights. And Amnesty International, which argued for the change in policy, hopes the limited ruling issued earlier this week will lead to a new approach to the issue in the law and in public opinion. Women's rights, says Tarah Demant, senior director of the Identity and Discrimination Unit for Amnesty International USA, ought to be seen as human rights.

"It's a sad statement that human rights have not become extremely politicized," with both political parties in the U.S. working to advance human rights around the world. Instead, "women's rights have been politicized. That's an indictment of our political climate here," she says.

The British parliament passed a law in 1967, The Abortion Act, which made the procedure legal up to 28 weeks' gestation. But the law did not extend to Northern Ireland, even though it is part of the United Kingdom. Until the decision this week by a Belfast judge, abortion in Northern Ireland was legal only to save the life and health (including the mental health) of the pregnant woman or girl. Those who perform illegal abortions face up to life in prison, while the patients can be sentenced to 14 years behind bars.

In his ruling this week, judge Mark Horner bemoaned the lack of action by Northern Ireland legislators, and said denying abortions to female who are victims of rape or incest - or who are carrying fetuses with fatal abnormalities - represented a "gross interference with her personal autonomy." Further, he said, the law violated the European Convention on Human Rights, which stipulates baseline rights for signatory nations.

"In the case of a [fatal fetal abnormality], there is no life to protect. When the fetus leaves the womb, it cannot survive independently. It is doomed. There is no life to protect," Horner ruled.

Ann Scheidler, vice president of the Chicago-based antiabortion group Pro-Life Action League, says the notion of human rights has been terribly twisted in the Northern Ireland case, ignoring, she says, the rights of the child-to-be.

"It is a sad fact that courts in both the United States and in European countries do not consider the unborn child a human being worthy of protection under the Human Rights provisions of the various nations," Scheidler remarks. "The courts have chosen to take these children's dignity away by rulings that permit the killing of the child either because he does not reach a particular bar of health or development or because his father is a criminal. This is grossly unfair. The life of a child in the womb should be protected by laws aimed at preserving human rights."

The Republic of Ireland has its own ban on abortion, with the procedure allowed only when the female's life is threatened (including being at risk of suicide). That has led at least 163,514 women and girls, between January 1980 and December 2014, to travel to another country to get an abortion, according to the Irish Family Planning Association. Those numbers are likely underreported, the group says, since patients may claim UK residence to get the procedure paid for by the National Health Service, or may hide their Irish addresses for privacy reasons.

The Belfast ruling does not ease the law in neighboring Republic of Ireland, but theoretically might make it less onerous for an Irish woman to travel for an abortion, says Gemma Murphy of the Royal College of Midwives. But "it's a huge cultural and professional change for midwives and women in Northern Ireland," Murphy says. "Midwives in Northern Ireland have said they will now be able to treat pregnant women with the 'appropriate care and support' without fear of prosecution, following this landmark ruling."

Amnesty International clarified its position on abortion in 2007, Demant says, to say that the procedure should be decriminalized and allowed when a female's health or human rights are in danger. The group did not endorse universal access to abortion. That announcement drew a rebuke from the Vatican, which urged followers not to contribute to Amnesty International anymore.

In the United States, pro-abortion rights activists have not pushed the "human rights" moniker, largely because all American states, while having varying abortion laws, meet the base standard advocates want for abortion rights.

But abortion rights supporters are asking for another politically loaded phrase to be added to the debate: domestic terrorism. Several reproductive rights groups have asked the Department of Justice to conduct a "domestic terrorism" investigation of the recent incident in Colorado springs, where a man is accused of opening fire in a Planned Parenthood clinic, killing three and wounding nine people.

"We're hoping the investigation will not only bring justice [in] this specific shooting .. but also reframe the way we talk about these atrocities in our society," Ilyse Hogue, President of NARAL Pro-Choice America, told reporters in a conference call.

Planned Parenthood is under fire on Capitol Hill, where mostly Republican lawmakers are seeking to deprive the family planning clinic of federal funds after videos - highly edited, Planned Parenthood says - show a group official discussing the price for the transport of fetal tissue to research centers. Under existing law, no federal funds can be used for abortions, but critics say the videos show criminal activity - selling human body parts - by Planned Parenthood, a charge the group vehemently denies.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court agreed last month to hear its first major abortion case since 2007, a challenge to a Texas law that requires, among other things, that doctors performing abortions have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. Foes of the law say it places too onerous a burden on doctors, greatly limiting access to abortion.

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A protester holds a sign in Northern Ireland in 2012. A judge's ruling this week could ease the country's abortion's restrictions, which are among the strictest in Europe. The abortion wars in America are typically cast as a battle between choice and life, with one side arguing that a woman's decision about her own body is paramount, and the other, that a developing baby's life trumps all.

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Has the chilling threat of extinction worn off at last for the long-endangered snow leopard?

Not exactly - but the iconic big cats' conservation status has been improved from "endangered" to "vulnerable".

The decision was announced by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) - the global standard for assessing extinction risk.

Experts have warned that the species still faces serious threats from poaching and habitat destruction.

The elegant yet elusive creatures, which live in the mountains of central Asia, were first listed as endangered by the IUCN in 1972.

Snow leopard decline due to 'retaliation' killings

Scientists split over snow leopard status

Snow leopards face new climate threat

The status change followed a three-year assessment process by five international experts.

Dr Tom McCarthy, who runs the Snow Leopard Programme at big cat charity Panthera, was one of them.

"To be considered 'endangered,' there must be fewer than 2,500 mature snow leopards and they must be experiencing a high rate of decline," he explained.

"Both are now considered extremely unlikely, which is the good news, but it does not mean that snow leopards are 'safe' or that now is a time to celebrate.

"The species still faces 'a high risk of extinction in the wild', and is likely still declining - just not at the rate previously thought."

Being classed as "vulnerable" means a species has under 10,000 breeding animals left, with a population decline of at least 10% over three generations.

The Snow Leopard Trust, which aims to protect the big cat through community projects, strongly opposes the status change. It plans to challenge the decision with the IUCN.

"We believe it could have serious consequences for the species," it wrote in a blog post.

Snow leopard researchers believe the species' decline may have been slowed by conservation projects - including some to protect farm animals from the predators, which are sometimes killed in revenge for livestock losses.

The number of protected areas within the snow leopards' habitat has also increased significantly in recent decades.

Snow leopard stats

The rarely-sighted cats live in the craggy peaks of central Asia - including the Himalayas, and Russia's remote Altai mountains

Their habitat covers more than 1.8 million sq km / 694,980 sq miles, across 12 countries

Scientists say they are threatened by poaching for their fur, infrastructure developments, and climate change

Usually found at elevations of 3,000-4,500m (11,480-14,760ft)

Solitary creatures, they usually hunt at dawn and dusk and are able to kill prey up to three times their own weight

Mostly feed on wild animals, but will also prey on livestock

Their spotted coats change with the seasons - from a thick, white fur to keep them warm and camouflaged in winter, to a fine yellow-grey coat in summer

Retaliatory killings by farmers are not uncommon, but are rarely reported

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Has the chilling threat of extinction worn off at last for the long-endangered snow leopard? Not exactly - but the iconic big cats' conservation status has been improved from "endangered" to "vulnerable". The decision was announced by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) - the global standard for assessing extinction risk.

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If someone were to accuse you of being "snout-fair" would you be pleased or offended?

What about being described as "dowsabel" or as a "percher"?

These are among 30 lost English words uncovered by experts at the University of York that they believe still have a use today.

Dominic Watt, senior lecturer in Language and Linguistic Science at the university, said he hoped people would re-engage with the language of old.

The researchers have drawn up the list in an effort to persuade people that these defunct words can still have a relevance.

The team spent three months searching through old books and dictionaries to create the list.

Mr Watt wants to bring these words back into modern conversations.

"We've identified lost words that are both interesting and thought-provoking, in the hope of helping people re-engage with language of old," he said.

"Snout-fair", for example, means "having a fair countenance; fair-faced, comely, handsome", while "sillytonian" refers to "a silly or gullible person, esp one considered as belonging to a notional sect of such people".

"Dowsabel" is "applied generically to a sweetheart, 'lady-love'".

Margot Leadbetter, the snobby neighbour from 1970s BBC sitcom, The Good Life, could be seen as an arch example of a "percher" - someone "who aspires to a higher rank or status; an ambitious or self-assertive person".

The BBC series Trust Me is the story of a "quacksalver" - a person who "dishonestly claims knowledge of, or skill in, medicine; a pedlar of false cures".

The list of 30 "lost words" are grouped into three areas the researchers feel are relevant to modern life: post-truth (deception); appearance, personality and behaviour; and emotions.

The final list also includes the words "ear-rent" - described as "the figurative cost to a person of listening to trivial or incessant talk", "slug-a-bed" - meaning "a person who lies in late", and "merry-go-sorry" - a phrase used to describe "a mixture of joy and sorrow".

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University uncovers 'lost' English words

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If someone were to accuse you of being "snout-fair" would you be pleased or offended? What about being described as "dowsabel" or as a "percher"? These are among 30 lost English words uncovered by experts at the University of York that they believe still have a use today.

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One month ago, a mudslide devastated parts of Freetown, Sierra Leone. Estimates suggest about 800 people were killed and at least 7,000 are now displaced. After weeks of heavy rain, the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain collapsed and smothered the community below it. Water pushed mud and heavy boulders down the valley, sweeping away houses in two other areas, Kamayama and Kaningo.

For the past month, thousands of displaced families have been sleeping in temporary refuges. While some people are staying with friends or relatives, others are on the floors of school classrooms, at a local chief's house and in a church. More than 200 families are staying in a damp, half-built house opposite the mudslide site.

The government has now erected two official camps, in Juba and Hill Station, supported by UN agencies and non-governmental organisations. Those who have been verified as victims, and have nowhere else to go, are gradually being moved there. Low-cost houses are being built in Six Mile, a far suburb of Freetown. People from the affected communities are expected to move there within the next three to six months.

Though aid has flooded into the country and benefited many, some people say that they've been left out and are still lacking in food, medicine and adequate bedding.

Since the mudslide, Kadi Kamara and her one-year-old daughter, Esme, have been sleeping in a windowless, half-built house without mattresses or bedding.

"I heard that they were going to move us out to one of the official camps," says Kadi, "but we're still here. I think they've forgotten about us. We haven't had anything to eat since yesterday morning. Many people are getting sick."

When asked if she has registered in order to receive help from the government, UN and NGOs, she says: "There are so many registrations from all the different organisations. In the morning, evening and night time, people are registering. I have registered a few times, but I don't know if it was the right one. Getting help is chaotic. For example, some people have three mattresses and others - like us - have none."

At one of the official camps, in Juba, a woman worries that she will have to leave as she does not have the yellow card issued after the registration process.

"I was with many others at a school that day, we were told to go there to receive food. When we came back to Kamayama, they said that people had been registering all day but we had missed it," she says.

Twelve-year-old Mariatu Bangura has packed her bag and is waiting to be transferred to the camp in Juba. She stands in the spot where her house once was, alongside her aunt. She was staying with her granny on the morning of the mudslide, but both her parents were killed.

"I am looking after seven children now," says her aunt, Mariah. "It's very hard because I can barely afford to feed my own family. I know that there are problems with fake victims signing up for aid, but we are the real victims and we need more help".

Mariatu was not relocated that day, and returned to her aunt's house in the evening.

Esta and Ibrahim Kargbo live in the same area of Kamayama. Their parents were also killed.

Esta was staying with a relative at the time of the mudslide, but Ibrahim was in the house with his family. He got wedged under a collapsed tin roof and was rescued by a neighbour. Now, the children are living with their uncle, who has little money and is worried about supporting them. School has just reopened, so he needs to buy them books and provide money for their lunches.

"Many of these women have lost their homes, husbands and children. Some of them have not passed the verification process because the chief and chairman in the area said they did not recognise them. This means they won't be able to get help," says pastor John.

When asked about moving to the relocation village in Six Mile, he says: "As long as they have schools, churches, mosques and livelihood options, then I think people will be happy to go".

Construction is under way at Six Mile.

Presidential spokesman Abdulai Baytayray says: "In the first phase of building, we are creating 53 houses. We will also build an orphanage, clinic and school. We have set aside a further 200 acres (0.8 sq km) in this area to build on so we can relocate not only those affected by the mudslide, but all those living in dangerous parts of Freetown".

All photographs by Olivia Acland.

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One month ago, a mudslide devastated parts of Freetown, Sierra Leone. Estimates suggest about 800 people were killed and at least 7,000 are now displaced. After weeks of heavy rain, the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain collapsed and smothered the community below it.

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North Korea v the media

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Here's what the media isn't telling you about North Korea's recent missile tests.

Last Monday, the DPRK fired a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile over Japan's Hokkaido Island. The missile landed in the waters beyond the island harming neither people nor property.

The media immediately condemned the test as a "bold and provocative act" that showed the North's defiance of UN resolutions and "contempt for its neighbors." President Trump sharply criticized the missile test saying:

"Threatening and destabilizing actions only increase the North Korean regime's isolation in the region and among all nations of the world. All options are on the table."

What the media failed to mention was that, for the last three weeks, Japan, South Korea and the US have been engaged in large-scale joint-military drills on Hokkaido Island and in South Korea. These needlessly provocative war games are designed to simulate an invasion of North Korea and a "decapitation" operation to remove (Re: Kill) the regime. North Korea's supreme leader, Kim Jong-un has asked the US repeatedly to end these military exercises, but the US has stubbornly refused. The US reserves the right to threaten anyone, anytime and anywhere even right on their doorstep. It's part of what makes the US exceptional. Check out this excerpt from an article at Fox News:

"More than 3,500 American and Japanese troops kicked off a weeks-long joint military exercise Thursday against the backdrop of an increasingly belligerent North Korean regime. The exercise, known as Northern Viper 17, will take place on Hokkaido - Japan's northern-most main island - and will last until Aug. 28....

"We are improving our readiness not only in the air, but as a logistical support team," Col. R. Scott Jobe, the 35th Fighter Wing commander, said in a statement. "We are in a prime location for contingency purposes and this exercise will only build upon our readiness in the case a real-world scenario occurs." (US, Japanese troops begin joint military exercise amid North Korea threat", Fox News)

Monday's missile test (which flew over Hokkaido Island) was conducted just hours after the war games ended. The message was clear: The North is not going to be publicly humiliated and slapped around without responding. Rather than show weakness, the North demonstrated that it was prepared to defend itself against foreign aggression. In other words, the test was NOT a "bold and provocative act" (as the media stated) but a modest and well thought-out response by a country that has experienced 64 years of relentless hectoring, sanctions, demonization and saber rattling by Washington. The North responded because the Washington's incitements required a response. End of story.

And the same is true of the three short-range ballistic missiles the North tested last week. (two of which apparently fizzled out shortly after launching.) These tests were a response to the 3 week-long joint-military drills in South Korea which involved 75,000 combat troops accompanied by hundreds of tanks, armored vehicles, landing craft, heavy artillery, a full naval flotilla and flyovers by squadrons of state of the art fighters and strategic bombers. Was the North supposed to sit on its hands while this menacing display of brute military force took place right under its nose???

Of course not. Imagine if Russia engaged in a similar operation over the border in Mexico while the Russian fleet conducted "live fire" drills three miles outside of San Francisco Bay. What do you think Trump's reaction would be?

He'd blow those boats out of the water faster than you could say "Jackie Robinson", right?

So why the double standard when it comes to North Korea? Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

North Korea should be applauded for showing that it won't be intimidated by the schoolyard bully. Kim knows that any confrontation with the US will end badly for the North, even so, he hasn't caved in or allowed himself to be pushed around by the blustering, browbeating thugs in the White House. Booyah, Kim.

By the way, Trump's response to Monday's missile test was barely covered in the mainstream media, and for good reason. Here's what happened two days later:

On Wednesday, a US-led flight-group of F-35B fighters, F-15 fighters and B-1B bombers conducted military operations over a training range east of Seoul. The B-1B's, which are low-altitude nuclear bombers, dropped their dummy-bombs on the site and then returned to their home base. The show of force was intended to send a message to Pyongyang that Washington is unhappy with the North's ballistic missile testing project and is prepared to use nuclear weapons against the North if it fails to heed Washington's diktats.

So Washington is prepared to nuke the North if they don't straighten up and do as they are told?

It sure looks that way, but who really knows? In any event, Kim has no choice but to stand firm. If he shows any sign of weakness, he knows he's going to end up like Saddam and Gaddafi. And that, of course, is what's driving the hyperbolic rhetoric; the North wants to avoid the Gaddafi scenario at all cost. (BTW, the reason Kim has threatened to fire missiles at the waters surrounding Guam is because Guam is the home of Anderson Airforce Base which is the point-of-origin for the B-1B nuclear-capable bombers that have been making threatening flyovers on the Korean Peninsula for some time now. The North feels like it has to respond to that existential threat.

Wouldn't it help if the media mentioned that fact or does it better serve their agenda to make it look like Kim is barking mad by lashing out against the 'totally innocent' United States, a country that only seeks to preserve the peace wherever it goes?

Give me a break!

It is so hard to find anything in the media that doesn't reflect Washington's bias and hostility. Surprisingly, there was pretty decent article at CBS News last week written by a former Western intelligence officer with decades of experience in Asia. It's the only article I've found that accurately explains what's really going on beyond the propaganda. Check it out:

"Prior to President Trump's inauguration, North Korea made it clear it was prepared to give the new U.S. administration time to review the policy and come up with something better than President Obama's. The only wrinkle was that if the U.S. went full-steam ahead with its annual joint exercises with South Korea (especially if that were accompanied by more talk of "decapitation" and more flights of strategic bombers over the Korean peninsula), the North would react strongly.

In short, the U.S. did, and the North reacted.

Behind-the-scenes contacts went up and down, but couldn't get traction. In April, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un paraded new missiles as a warning, to no effect. The regime launched the new systems, one after another. Still, Washington's approach didn't change." (Analysis: Pyongyang's view of the North Korea-U.S. crisis", CBS News)

Okay, so now we know the truth: The North gave it their best shot and came up snakeeyes, mainly because Washington doesn't want to negotiate, they'd rather twist arms (Russia and China), tighten the embargo and threaten war. That's Trump's solution. Here's more from the same piece:

"On July 4, after North Korea's first successful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch, Kim sent a public signal that the North could put the nuclear and missile programs "on the table" if the U.S. changed its approach.

The U.S. did not, so the North launched another ICBM, very deliberately deeming it a warning to the U.S. that they were to be taken seriously. Still, more B-1 bombers flew over the Peninsula, and the U.N. Security Council passed new sanctions." (CBS News)

So, the North was ready to do some serious horse-trading, but the US balked. Kim probably heard what a wheeler dealer Trump was and figured they could work something out. But it hasn't happen. Trump has turned out to be a bigger bust than Obama, which is pretty bad. He not only refuses to negotiate but he also delivers bellicose threats almost every day. This isn't what the North was expecting. They were expecting a "non interventionist" leader who might be receptive to a trade-off.

The current situation has left Kim with no good options. He can either cave in and terminate his missile program altogether or increase the frequency of the tests and hope that they pave the way for negotiations. Kim chose the latter.

Did he make a bad choice?

Maybe.

Is it a rational choice?

Yes.

The North is betting that its nuclear weapons programs will be valuable bargaining chits in future negotiations with the United States. The North has no plan to nuke the west coast of the United States. That's ridiculous! That doesn't accomplish anything. What they want is to preserve their regime, procure security guarantees from Washington, lift the embargo, normalize relations with the South, extricate the US from the political affairs of the peninsula, and (hopefully) end the irritating and endlessly provocative 64 year US occupation. Yankee go home. Please.

Bottom line: The North is ready to deal. They want negotiations. They want to end the war. They want to put this whole nightmare behind them and get on with their lives. But Washington won't let them because Washington likes the status quo. Washington wants to be a permanent feature in South Korea so it can encircle Russia and China with lethal missile systems and expand its geopolitical grip bringing the world closer to nuclear Armageddon.

That's what Washington wants, and that's why the crisis on the peninsula will continue to boil.

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What the Media isn't Telling You About North Korea's Missile Tests

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For the last three weeks, Japan, South Korea and the US have been engaged in large-scale joint-military drills on Hokkaido Island and in South Korea. These needlessly provocative war games are designed to simulate an invasion of North Korea and a "decapitation" operation to remove (Re: Kill) the regime.