Dozens dead after school bus carrying children hit by airstrike - CNN

Dozens dead after school bus carrying children hit by airstrike
By Hakim Almasmari and Sarah El Sirgany, CNN

Updated 1107 GMT (1907 HKT) August 9, 2018
The school bus was driving through a market when the strike occurred.
The school bus was driving through a market when the strike occurred.
(CNN)Dozens are dead and wounded after an airstrike hit a bus carrying children in northern Yemen Thursday, according to the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) and eyewitnesses.

The school bus was hit as it was driving through a market in the rebel-held province of Saada, according to the Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV.
"Scores killed, even more injured, most under the age of ten. @ICRC_ye sending additional supplies to hospitals to cope with the influx," Johannes Bruwer, the head of the ICRC delegation in Yemen wrote on Twitter.
The Saudi-led Coalition, which has been conducting a military campaign to oust the Houthi rebels, didn't immediately respond to CNN questions.
Houthi media broadcast gruesome footage appearing to show the dead bodies of children. Other footage showed a young boy carrying a UNICEF backpacks being escorted to a hospital, his face bloodied as medical staff tried to treat his injuries.
Witnesses that CNN spoke to said the attack could be heard from neighboring districts.
Yahya Shaem, head of the Houthi-held health office in Saada, told CNN that the children in the bus were on their way to their summer camps.

Trump administration to hit Russia with new sanctions for Skripal poisoning - NBC News

Trump administration to hit Russia with new sanctions for Skripal poisoning
The administration has signed off on a determination that Russia violated international law, triggering new U.S. sanctions.
by Josh Lederman / Aug.09.2018 / 5:00 AM ET

President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington on July 30.Susan Walsh / AP file
The Trump administration is hitting Russia with new sanctions punishing President Vladimir Putin's government for using a chemical weapon against an ex-spy in Britain, U.S. officials told NBC News Wednesday.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo signed off on a determination that Russia violated international law by poisoning the former spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter in March, officials said, a decision that was announced Wednesday afternoon by State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert.

Although the United States joined European countries in publicly blaming Moscow within days of the attack, the Trump administration had never issued the formal determination that triggers automatic sanctions under a decades-old U.S. law on chemical weapons.

The decision could bolster President Donald Trump's claim that — despite the noise of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged Russian election meddling, which Trump has called a "witch hunt" — his administration has been tough on Moscow in practice and has hit hard when needed.

But Trump had to be nudged by Congress into unleashing the penalties after blowing more than a month past a statutory deadline. The government had two months after a formal congressional request in March for Trump to determine whether Russia had violated international law. After the deadline came and went with no response, Trump was called out in late July by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., NBC News first reported.


Aug. 2: Sen. Cardin: It'd be nice if Trump endorsed new Russia sanctions
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It was a rare instance of friendly fire from a fellow Republican, as members of Trump's party grew increasingly frustrated with his handling of Russia after his Helsinki summit with Putin in June. Royce, who faulted Trump for failing to make use of existing sanctions authorities on Russia, had urged Trump to comply by midday Wednesday.

Senior U.S. officials said making the formal determination is a complicated and technical process that can take more time than the deadline allows, particularly to ensure that sanctions don't have unintended consequences for U.S. businesses. Previous administrations also frequently missed the deadline.

Royce responded to the move Wednesday by saying Trump's administration was "rightly acting to uphold international bans" on chemical weapons and to put more pressure on Moscow. He said in a statement that Putin "must know that we will not tolerate his deadly acts, or his ongoing attacks on our democratic process."

The sanctions are structured in two tranches, laid out in a 1991 law, the Chemical and Biological Weapons and Warfare Elimination Act. An initial, immediate round limits exports and financing but may have limited impact, because it largely overlaps with other restrictions already in place, such as on selling arms to Russia.

The biggest impact from the initial sanctions is expected to come from a ban on granting licenses to export sensitive national security goods to Russia, which in the past have included items like electronic devices and components, along with test and calibration equipment for avionics. Before the sanctions, such exports were allowed on a case-by-case basis.

The new prohibition could cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in future exports to Russia, a senior State Department official said.

A second, more painful round kicks in three months later unless Russia provides "reliable assurances" that it won't use chemical weapons in the future and agrees to "on-site inspections" by the United Nations — conditions unlikely to be met. The second round of sanctions could include downgrading diplomatic relations, suspending the state airline Aeroflot's ability to fly to the United States and cutting off nearly all exports and imports.

Trump admin sanctions Russia for poisoning of ex-spy and his daughter

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The chemical weapons law was most recently used in March when the Trump administration determined that North Korea had used the chemical agent VX to kill leader Kim Jong Un's half-brother in a Malaysian airport. The sanctions on Russia will take effect in 15 days, when they will be published in the Federal Register.

The sanctions come as Trump's national security team is working to counter the persistent perception that the president is unwilling to challenge Putin or acknowledge the egregiousness of Moscow's actions. Trump has insisted repeatedly that "no one has been tougher" on Moscow than him, but Russia hawks in both parties remain alarmed by his continual downplaying of the threat to the United States and his eagerness for a positive relationship with the Russian leader.

Last week, just hours after Trump's top national security officials warned of "pervasive" attempts to interfere in the 2018 election, the president said he had a "great meeting with Putin" in Helsinki and again referred to "the Russian hoax." Still, his administration has slapped sanctions on Russian oligarchs and officials, including for election meddling and human rights violations, and has pushed back on the Kremlin in other ways in Syria and Ukraine.

Skripal, a former Russian military officer convicted of spying for Britain, was poisoned with his daughter, Yulia, in March in Salisbury, England, with the nerve agent Novichok, developed in the former Soviet Union; they survived. In late June, two people miles away were exposed to the same nerve agent in an incident that police believe is linked. One of them died. Moscow has adamantly denied involvement in either incident.

Shortly after the Skripal poisoning, the United States joined Britain, Germany and France in saying it was "highly likely that Russia was responsible" for the Skripal attack. The Trump administration also kicked out dozens of Russian diplomats who it said were spies to punish Moscow for its "use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom."

The Russian Embassy in Washington repeated that the United States has refused to provide information to substantiate its conclusion.

"We confirmed that we continue to strongly stand for an open and transparent investigation of the crime committed in Salisbury and for bringing the culprits to justice," it said in a statement.

Although Trump is largely allowing the sanctions to move forward, his administration is using waivers to exempt a few activities that would otherwise be banned, officials said. That includes space flight, in which the United States and Russia cooperate closely and in which U.S. astronauts could run into problems without a waiver.

Russian-based entities that are wholly owned subsidiaries of U.S. companies will also be exempt, so as not to unduly punish U.S. businesses. U.S. foreign assistance for Russia — already extremely limited — may still be allowed because it goes not to the Russian government but to nongovernmental groups, such as those that support human rights and the rule of law, officials said.

Woman tells police she's 'very clean, thoroughbred, white girl' during drunk driving arrest - NBC News ( source : Associated Press )

Woman tells police she's 'very clean, thoroughbred, white girl' during drunk driving arrest
“I asked what that had to do with anything?” wrote the officer, who also is white. She replied, “You’re a cop, you should know what that means."
by Associated Press / Aug.09.2018 / 8:48 PM ET
A woman seen speeding through a stop sign at 60 mph told officers they shouldn’t arrest her because she’s a “very clean, thoroughbred, white girl,” police said.

Her eyes glassy and bloodshot, Lauren Elizabeth Cutshaw was slurring her words and a Breathalyzer showed her blood-alcohol level at 0.18 percent, according to police in Bluffton, South Carolina.

Cutshaw, 32, told the arresting officer she shouldn’t be jailed because she was a cheerleader, a dancer and a sorority girl who graduated from a “high accredited university.”

Taken to the police station in handcuffs, she described herself as a white “thoroughbred” and “went on to say ‘I’m a white, clean girl,’” the officer wrote in his report.

“I asked what that had to do with anything?” wrote the officer, who also is white.

Image: Lauren Elizabeth CutshawLauren Elizabeth Cutshaw. Beaufort County Detention Center / AP
She replied, “You’re a cop, you should know what that means,” and, “You’re a cop, you should know based on the people that come in this room.”

Also, “she repeatedly stated, 'my partner is a cop,’” and said she’d been trying to get to her boyfriend’s house when she was pulled over early Saturday.

Cutshaw, a real estate agent, told the officer that she’d had two glasses of wine at an upscale restaurant.

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How full were the wine glasses? “I mean I was celebrating my birthday,” she replied.

After another officer found marijuana and rolling papers in her Ford Fusion, she said she “may have” smoked pot earlier that evening as well, the report said.

Cutshaw was jailed on charges including drunken driving, speeding and marijuana possession, based in part on her own statements.

“Making statements such as these as a means to justify not being arrested are unusual in my experience as a law enforcement officer and I believe further demonstrate the suspect’s level of intoxication,” the officer wrote.

Messages left at the real estate firm she lists as her employer were not immediately returned.

Bluffton is a town of about 21,000 residents about 20 miles northeast of Savannah, Georgia, and near South Carolina’s Hilton Head Island.

Raising white kids to be racially sensitive -- and proactive - CNN

Raising white kids to be racially sensitive -- and proactive
By Jennifer Harvey

Updated 0749 GMT (1549 HKT) August 9, 2018
Race relations through a child's eyes

Family dialogues about race are crucial to help children process what they're seeing and hearing
White parents must actively work to desegregate our lives
Jennifer Harvey is a writer, speaker and professor at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Her most recent book is "Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America."

(CNN)Parenting in the current political climate isn't for the faint of heart. Recently, my 9-year old daughter asked me, "Mama, I know it's really bad they're putting people in jail, but do those people think, 'Well, at least I'm safe from war?' "

My 7-year old daughter quickly followed up with, "Why would someone say Donald Trump is keeping us safe?" Clearly, my two white kids, like all children in the United States, are absorbing the racialized rhetoric about immigration and "others" that's everywhere right now.
Numerous studies have shown the early and negative impact society's racism has on children's development. By the ages of 3 and 4, American children internalize racist stereotypes of self and others. By age 5, they recognize that different groups are treated differently and understand something about the racial social status. Children will never just "unlearn" these things on their own.
These studies were pre-2016. Public displays of racial hostility have since amplified, showing up in such topics as talk about kneeling NFL players, black families' attempts to enjoy a summer swim interrupted by white neighbors calling the police or immigration debates implying that people from south of the border are uniquely dangerous. We can only speculate how much worse the damage will be to children's long-term notions of self and others, and to what a just and peaceful society looks like.
Family dialogues about race are crucial to help children process what they're seeing and hearing and, over time, to develop a strong anti-racist racial identity. Families of color have long engaged in precisely these kinds of conversations, but a strong majority of white families do not.
If white parents want to raise children and youth who play a role in creating a just, inclusive society, we've got to start talking.
Break the silence
White children are growing up in a country in which they can clearly see that race matters but are regularly told by white adults that they're not supposed to notice this (so-called color-blindness). Left to their own devices, children draw their own ill-informed conclusions. They need to know that race is something we should notice and parents want to talk about it.
Parents need to initiate such talk. With young kids, this might mean constantly going out of our way to name differences. With older kids, it means asking about how racial groups get along at school or what they're hearing in the news.
Tell the whole truth
Consider this real-life scenario: A white child at school let classmates smell his bag of Doritos, until a black classmate tried, at which point he snapped the bag shut and said, "You can't smell them! You're black!"
Sharing incidents like this one and asking your child questions like, "How would you handle this?" is as important as working on spelling and math. And we need to tell our kids the whole truth. Vague moral messages like "be kind to everyone" are tempting, but white children must learn explicitly what racism is and means if we expect them to become capable of antiracist behaviors.
Go beyond diversity
It's good to tell our kids that difference is something to celebrate. But they also need to learn about the people -- historical and contemporary -- who have challenged injustice. Kids need to be taught about so many more people of color freedom fighters than the few they hear about at school. Meanwhile, white kids have fewer role models of those who have acted in solidarity with people of color and who are doing so today.
Do an inventory of your life
White parents must actively work to desegregate our lives. What parks and libraries do you go to? At which community centers do you participate? Even young kids who have racially diverse friendship pools tend to self-segregate by middle school. This reflects adult modeling.
If we want white youth to break these larger social dynamics, they need to regularly experience spaces where they aren't in the overwhelming racial majority. In a society as segregated as ours, this requires an active commitment by parents.
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Last week, my heart ached as I responded to my children's questions. But I called it like it is. For many, many years, some people have insisted that people with dark skin, like those coming across the border, are dangerous. I also told them that this is a lie. And I told them we have to tell people that it's a lie based on racism whenever we hear people say it.
These strategies won't change things overnight. We have multigenerational work ahead of us to build a racially just United States. But, as white parents, we can and must commit to joining parents of color -- and their kids -- in creating a society where all of our children can flourish.

Johnson facing Tory probe over burka comments - BBC News

August 9, 2018.

Johnson facing Tory probe over burka comments

Boris Johnson is facing a possible investigation into breaches of the Conservative Party code of conduct.

The party has received dozens of complaints about the former foreign secretary's comments about women wearing burkas, who he said looked like letter boxes.

The complaints will be looked at by an independent panel.

A Conservative Party spokesman said: "The code of conduct process is strictly confidential."

Mr Johnson has rejected calls to apologise for his remarks, in a Daily Telegraph column in which he also argued against a ban on full-face veils.

Critics have accused him of stoking Islamophobia to boost his Tory leadership ambitions but his supporters have said he was speaking up for "liberal values".

The Conservative Party has also been accused of not doing enough to tackle anti-Muslim prejudice in its ranks, despite an initiative to boost tolerance and diversity.

The party's code of conduct states that Tory officials and elected representatives must "lead by example to encourage and foster respect and tolerance" and not "use their position to bully, abuse, victimise, harass or unlawfully discriminate against others".

The independent panel will decide whether to refer Mr Johnson to the party's board. Possible action includes suspension of membership or expulsion from the party among other things.