HOUSTON — U.S. authorities on Friday released a 10-year-old immigrant girl with cerebral palsy who had been detained by border agents after surgery because she is in the U.S. without legal permission.

The ACLU and U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro said that Rosa Maria Hernandez was returned Friday afternoon to her family. Her parents brought her into the U.S. from Mexico in 2007, when she was a toddler, and they live in the Texas border city of Laredo.

A cousin who is an American citizen took Rosa Maria from Laredo to a children’s hospital in Corpus Christi on Oct. 24, where she was scheduled to have emergency gallbladder surgery. To get to Corpus Christi, about 150 miles away, she had to pass through an interior checkpoint in South Texas operated by the Border Patrol.

Border Patrol agents followed Rosa Maria and the cousin to the hospital, then took the girl into custody after the surgery and transported her to a facility in San Antonio for unaccompanied immigrant minors, under the custody of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The Border Patrol has said it had no choice but to detain Rosa Maria, arguing that she was considered an unaccompanied minor under federal law, the same as a child who crosses into the United States alone without legal permission.

The ACLU sued the government on Rosa Maria’s behalf Tuesday, argued that the U.S. government violated federal law on unaccompanied minors and endangered Rosa Maria’s health by not sending her home.

“She never should have been in this situation in the first place,” ACLU lawyer Michael Tan said Friday. “There is no reason Border Patrol had to target a child.”

While Rosa Maria has been reunited with her family, she still faces the threat of deportation. Tan said Friday that Border Patrol agents had issued Rosa Maria a notice to appear in immigration court, but that the case had yet to move forward.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the Border Patrol, declined to comment. HHS declined to comment on Rosa Maria’s case, but said the agency’s focus was “on the safety and best interest of each child.”

Leticia Gonzalez, an attorney for Rosa Maria’s family, said the 10-year-old had the mental capacity of a child closer to 4 or 5 years old due to her cerebral palsy. Priscila Martinez, an activist at the Workers Defense Action Fund, said the child had started to show signs of socially withdrawing while in detention and refusing to eat her favorite kind of bread.

Federal immigration authorities have faced strong criticism from advocates and some Texas Democratic congressmen over their handling of the case.

Castro, a San Antonio Democrat, said Friday that he had tried to see Rosa Maria earlier in the day and had spoken to federal officials about her case. He said Border Patrol agents could have chosen to let Rosa Maria pass through the checkpoint without following or detaining her.

“Staking out the hospital room of a young, sick girl and keeping her away from her family is not a humane treatment for her,” Castro said.

But U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a previous statement after she was detained that “there is no discretion with regard to the law whether or not the agents should enforce the law.”

Gabriel Acosta, assistant chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol’s Laredo sector, said Tuesday that his agents moved quickly to get her through the checkpoint and “acted professionally and compassionately to get this child the medical attention she needed.”

As Kevin Spacey seeks treatment amid multiple allegations that he has made unwanted sexual advances toward young men, Netflix executives have decided the streaming network won’t air new episodes of House of Cards if the actor remains involved in the series.

“Netflix will not be involved with any further production of House of Cards that includes Kevin Spacey,” a rep for the network says in a statement to PEOPLE. “We will continue to work with [production company] MRC during this hiatus time to evaluate our path forward as it relates to the show . ​ We have also decided we will not be moving forward with the release of the film Gore, which was in post-production, starring and produced by Kevin Spacey.”

After Netflix issued the ultimatum, they released a new statement to PEOPLE saying the actor had been suspended.

“While we continue the ongoing investigation into the serious allegations concerning Kevin Spacey’s behavior on the set of HOUSE OF CARDS, he has been suspended, effective immediately,” the statement read. “MRC, in partnership with Netflix, will continue to evaluate a creative path forward for the program during the hiatus.”

This development comes hours after Variety reported that producers are considering killing off Spacey’s House of Cards character in the show’s sixth and final season. Spacey is also an executive producer on the series.

Production was indefinitely suspended on House of Cards earlier this week.

Star Trek: Discovery and Rent star Anthony Rapp, 46, claimed in a Buzzfeed News report published Sunday that Spacey, 58, made inappropriate sexual advances toward him at a private party in New York City in 1986. Spacey was 26 at the time, and Rapp was 14.

“I came forward with my story, standing on the shoulders of the many courageous women and men who have been speaking out, to shine a light and hopefully make a difference, as they have done for me,” Rapp said in a statement to PEOPLE.

As a response to the report, Spacey tweeted a statement saying he didn’t remember Rapp’s alleged incident and apologizing “for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.” He also publicly came out as gay, which was met with criticism from prominent LGBTQ celebrities.

Actor Roberto Cavazos later claimed he “had a couple of unpleasant encounters with Spacey that were on the edge of being considered assault” while working at London’s Old Vic Theatre.(A representative for Spacey told PEOPLE he had no comment.)

Late Friday, three more men accused the actor of sexual misconduct in an article by Buzzfeed.

In a CNN article published Thursday, eight anonymous House of Cards employees accused Spacey of creating a “toxic” work environment and displaying “predatory” behavior, allegedly touching staffers without consent and making lewd comments.

PEOPLE reached out to representatives for the actor, Netflix and House of Cards production company MRC in regards to the allegations made to CNN but did not receive any immediate response.

The actor’s agency CAA and his publicist have since announced they have parted ways with the actor.

Last year, Mr. Trump made denunciations of Sergeant Bergdahl a staple of his campaign speeches, repeatedly calling for him to be executed.

Ironically, Mr. Trump’s comments may have contributed to the decision not to sentence him to prison. After Mr. Trump seemed last month to endorse his harsh criticism from the campaign trail, Colonel Nance ruled that he would consider the comments as mitigating evidence at sentencing.

With the sentence still facing review by General Abrams and military appellate judges, Mr. Trump’s post-verdict comments on Twitter seemed to bolster efforts by the defense to have the sentence thrown out on appeal, some military law experts said, on the grounds that the president had unlawfully influenced the case.

“Trump just exponentially increased Bergdahl’s chances of getting this whole case tossed on appeal,” said Rachel VanLandingham, a professor at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles and a retired Air Force lawyer.

The tweet could be interpreted as an effort to pressure officers who still have some control over the sergeant’s fate not to reconsider his sentence, military law experts said.

Sergeant Bergdahl’s chief defense lawyer, Eugene R. Fidell, called the sentence “a tremendous relief” and said his client was still absorbing it.

Standing outside the military courthouse here, Mr. Fidell, who teaches military justice at Yale Law School, then took sharp aim at the commander in chief.

Advertisement

Continue reading the main story

“President Trump’s unprincipled effort to stoke a lynch-mob atmosphere while seeking our nation’s highest office has cast a dark cloud over the case,” he said. “Every American should be offended by his assault on the fair administration of justice and disdain for basic constitutional rights.”

Even though the defense had told the judge that a dishonorable discharge would be appropriate, Mr. Fidell said he hoped that it would be overturned. He noted that such a discharge would deprive his client of health care services and other “benefits he badly needs” from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Sergeant Bergdahl is expected to return to an Army base as the case winds through the appeals process.

Sergeant Bergdahl was 23 and a private first class when he left his base in eastern Afghanistan in June 2009. Army investigators would later characterize his departure as a delusional effort to hike to a larger base and cause enough of a stir that he would get an audience with a senior officer to report what he felt were problems in his unit.

But the soldier, who is now 31, was captured by the Taliban within hours and spent five years as a prisoner, his treatment worsening after every attempt to escape. He was beaten with copper cables and held in isolation in a metal cage less than seven feet square. He suffered dysentery for most of his captivity, and cleaned feces off his hands with his own urine so that he could eat enough bread to survive.

Newsletter Sign Up

Continue reading the main story

Thank you for subscribing.

An error has occurred. Please try again later.

You are already subscribed to this email.

View all New York Times newsletters.

• See Sample
• Manage Email Preferences
• Not you?
• Privacy Policy
• Opt out or contact us anytime

The military searched for him, and several troops were wounded during those missions. One of them, Sgt. First Class Mark Allen, was shot through the head and lost the ability to walk, talk or take care of himself, and now has minimal consciousness. His wife, Shannon, testified that he is not even able to hold hands with her anymore. On a separate rescue mission, Senior Chief Petty Officer Jimmy Hatch, a Navy SEAL, suffered a leg wound that required 18 surgical procedures and ended his long career in special operations.

Army investigators quickly dismissed claims that troops had died searching for Sergeant Bergdahl — who was promoted during captivity — or that he had intended to defect to the Taliban. They suggested that he could be prosecuted for desertion and for some lesser crimes. But in March 2015, the Army raised the stakes, accusing him not only of desertion but also of misbehavior before the enemy, an ancient but rarely charged crime punishable by up to life in prison. In this case, the misbehavior was endangering the troops sent to search for him.

Even so, the sergeant’s defense seemed to have some momentum. The Army’s chief investigator on the case testified at Sergeant Bergdahl’s preliminary hearing that he did not believe any jail time was warranted, and the preliminary hearing officer suggested the whole episode might have been avoided “had concerns about Sergeant Bergdahl’s mental health been properly followed up.”

But at Fort Bragg, General Abrams ordered that Sergeant Bergdahl face a general court-martial on both charges.

Advertisement

Continue reading the main story

Once Mr. Trump was inaugurated, Sergeant Bergdahl’s defense team demanded that the case be dismissed. There was no way the sergeant could receive a fair trial, his lawyers said, since everyone in the military justice system now reported to President Trump as commander in chief.

Colonel Nance labeled Mr. Trump’s comments about Sergeant Bergdahl “disturbing,” but declined to throw out the case. Then, last month, Mr. Trump seemed to endorse his earlier sentiments about Sergeant Bergdahl, saying, “I think people have heard my comments in the past.”

After another protest by the defense, Colonel Nance ruled that he would consider the president’s comments as mitigation evidence.

During the sentencing hearing, Sergeant Bergdahl apologized for his misconduct, saying he never intended for anyone to get hurt, and that he grieved “for those who have suffered and their families.”

He added, “I’m admitting I made a horrible mistake.”

The lead Army prosecutor, Maj. Justin Oshana, drew a comparison between Sergeant Bergdahl and those who were hurt through his actions.

“It wasn’t a mistake,” Major Oshana said of the sergeant’s decision to walk off his base. “It was a crime.”

Responding to testimony about how captivity had left Sergeant Bergdahl with physical pain, Major Oshana noted that at least the sergeant was able to talk about it. Sergeant Allen was constantly in pain, too, he said, but no longer possessed the ability to describe it.

“Sergeant Bergdahl does not have a monopoly on suffering as a result of his choices,” Major Oshana added.

Advertisement

Continue reading the main story

The defense argued that Sergeant Bergdahl had already suffered a severe penalty for his crimes by being tortured during five years in captivity.

“It is undisputed that Sergeant Bergdahl paid a bitter price for the decision he made,” one of his lawyers, Capt. Nina Banks, told Colonel Nance. She said that a dishonorable discharge was appropriate, but asked that he be spared prison.

The defense argued that Sergeant Bergdahl’s decision to walk away was influenced by a then-undiagnosed severe personality disorder.

Captain Banks also told the judge that the harsh comments by Mr. Trump meant that the sergeant’s persecution did not stop when he was freed.

“Sergeant Bergdahl has been punished enough,” she said.

Correction: November 3, 2017

Because of a production error, an earlier headline with this article misstated Bowe Bergdahl’s sentence. It was a dishonorable, not an honorable, discharge.

Continue reading the main story

“He went into the pitch right away,” said J. D. Gordon, a campaign adviser who attended the meeting. “He said he had a friend in London, the Russian ambassador, who could help set up a meeting with Putin.”

Mr. Trump listened with interest. Mr. Sessions vehemently opposed the idea, Mr. Gordon recalled. “And he said that no one should talk about it,” because Mr. Sessions thought it was a bad idea that he did not want associated with the campaign, he said.

Several of Mr. Trump’s campaign advisers attended the March 2016 meeting, and at least two of those advisers are now in the White House: Hope Hicks, the communications director, and Stephen Miller, a senior policy adviser.

After Mr. Trump was sworn in, he could not escape questions about Russia. At a Feb. 16, 2017, White House news conference, a reporter asked Mr. Trump, “Can you say whether you are aware that anyone who advised your campaign had contacts with Russia during the course of the election?”

“No,” Mr. Trump said. “Nobody that I know of. Nobody.”

The White House has sought to portray Mr. Papadopoulos as an insignificant figure in the campaign.

Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer dealing with matters related to Mr. Mueller’s investigation, said the White House stood behind the president’s comments.

“The media’s willingness to inflate Papadopoulos, a young unpaid volunteer and supposed energy expert, into an important thought leader in the campaign or Russian operative is ludicrous,” Mr. Cobb said. “The evidence so far suggests he attended one meeting, said something about Russia and was immediately shut down by everyone in the room. It’s very important to remember that he is not a criminal now because of anything he did for the campaign — he is a criminal because he initially lied to the F.B.I.”

Advertisement

Continue reading the main story

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.

Another member of the foreign policy team, Carter Page, said on Thursday that he told Mr. Sessions in passing in June 2016 that he planned to travel to Russia for a trip “completely unrelated” to his volunteer role in the campaign. “Understandably, it was as irrelevant then as it is now,” Mr. Page said. Mr. Page traveled twice to Russia in 2016.

Democrats in the Senate said on Thursday that they would push to have Mr. Sessions return to the Judiciary Committee for further questioning.

“He now needs to come back before the committee, in person, under oath, to explain why he cannot seem to provide truthful, complete answers to these important and relevant questions,” said Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, who is on the Judiciary Committee.

Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, another Democrat on the committee, pointed out that Mr. Sessions’s testimony was under oath and “wasn’t just some random comment he made in passing on the street.”

Mr. Sessions faced similar questions in January before the Senate Judiciary Committee, when Senator Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, asked him about contacts between the campaign and Russia. “I’m not aware of any of those activities,” Mr. Sessions said. He denied having any such contacts himself.

Democrats condemned those remarks as misleading when it was revealed that Mr. Sessions held meetings with the Russian ambassador during the campaign. Last month, Mr. Franken renewed his questioning.

“You don’t believe that surrogates from the Trump campaign had communications with the Russians?” he asked.

Newsletter Sign Up

Continue reading the main story

Thank you for subscribing.

An error has occurred. Please try again later.

You are already subscribed to this email.

View all New York Times newsletters.

• See Sample
• Manage Email Preferences
• Not you?
• Privacy Policy
• Opt out or contact us anytime

“I did not, and I’m not aware of anyone else that did,” Mr. Sessions replied. “And I don’t believe it happened.”

He did not make any reference to Mr. Papadopoulos. Mr. Sessions has said he answered honestly because he was being questioned in the context of Russian officials continuously exchanging information with campaign advisers.

Advertisement

Continue reading the main story

Mr. Gordon said that while the March 2016 meeting technically contradicted Mr. Sessions’s testimony, he defended the attorney general.

“This is something he heard way back in March from some young man who was not authorized to speak for the campaign,” he said. “I don’t blame Senator Sessions for not remembering that.” He said that only in the political “gotcha game” could the matter be considered significant.

The court documents in the Papadopoulos case represent the most explicit evidence yet that Mr. Trump’s campaign was eager to coordinate with Russian officials to undermine his rival, Hillary Clinton. Federal investigators suspected that Russian intelligence services used intermediaries to contact Mr. Papadopoulos to gain influence with the campaign, offering “dirt” on Mrs. Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails.” Mr. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying about those contacts and is cooperating with the F.B.I.

On Thursday, as news of Mr. Papadopoulos’s Russian ties continued to ripple through Washington, Mr. Franken sent a stern letter to Mr. Sessions. “This is another example in an alarming pattern in which you, the nation’s top law enforcement official, apparently failed to tell the truth, under oath,” he wrote.

The case against Mr. Papadopoulos was unsealed at the same time as an unrelated indictment against two other former campaign advisers, Paul J. Manafort and Rick Gates. Taken together, the three charges sent a foreboding message to a fourth adviser to Mr. Trump’s campaign, Michael T. Flynn.

White House officials and others in the case are bracing for charges against Mr. Flynn, a retired three-star general who had a short and tumultuous tenure as national security adviser. Mr. Mueller is investigating Mr. Flynn for not disclosing his Russian contacts or his foreign lobbying work.

Mr. Manafort was indicted on seldom-used charges of concealing foreign lobbying, as well as for lying on federal documents — the same activities for which Mr. Flynn is being investigated.

“It’s a bad sign,” said Paul Krieger, who until recently was the top federal fraud prosecutor in Manhattan. “It shows that the special counsel’s office will not hesitate to charge individuals connected to the administration or campaign with obstruction-like offenses.”

Advertisement

Continue reading the main story

Mr. Flynn, one of the architects of Mr. Trump’s “America first” foreign policy, did not disclose payments from Russia-linked entities on financial disclosure documents. He did not mention a paid speech he gave in Moscow, and he belatedly disclosed, after leaving the White House, that the Turkish government had paid him more than $500,000 for lobbying services.

Charging people for not disclosing their foreign lobbying is extremely rare, a point that Mr. Manafort’s lawyers made in documents filed in court on Thursday. Since 1966, his lawyers wrote, only six such cases have been filed and only one person has been convicted. Such violations are typically handled administratively.

“It is far from clear what activity triggers a requirement to file a report as a foreign agent,” said Kevin M. Downing, Mr. Manafort’s lawyer.

Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates appeared in court briefly on Thursday. Lawyers discussed the conditions of their house arrest and the possibility of a trial in April.

White House officials have long been anticipating the indictments of Mr. Manafort and Mr. Flynn, and have tried to distance themselves from both men. They were caught by surprise, however, by Mr. Papadopoulos’s guilty plea and the fact that he had been cooperating with the F.B.I. since July.

That cooperation agreement fueled speculation that Mr. Papadopoulos had secretly recorded his conversations with White House officials this summer. But Mr. Cobb said he had seen no evidence that Mr. Papadopoulos had visited the White House or had recent conversations with staff members.

“We have no indication that this George Papadopoulos came to this White House,” Mr. Cobb said, adding that a different person with the same name had entered the White House this year.

Court documents do not explain the extent of Mr. Papadopoulos’s cooperation with Mr. Mueller’s investigation, but prosecutors said they showed him emails, chat transcripts, text messages and other records “in an attempt to refresh his recollection” about his contacts with Russians and with members of the Trump campaign.

Continue reading the main story

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

Want smart analysis of the most important news in your inbox every weekday along with other global reads, interesting ideas and opinions to know? Sign up for the Today’s WorldView newsletter.

Set aside the various political battles convulsing Washington and the grim fallout of the terrorism attack in New York City. Starting this weekend, President Trump will, in theory, put domestic issues on the back burner as he embarks upon an important series of state visits in Asia.

Trump’s tour will begin in Japan with a golf outing with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday, followed by meetings in Tokyo and then further stops in South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. It will be the longest trip taken by any U.S. president since George H.W. Bush traveled through Asia in 1991 — and ended the journey by vomiting in the Japanese prime minister’s lap during dinner. Officials in the White House are surely hoping for no such messes this time.

In each country, Trump will have a fair amount of work to do. In Vietnam and the Philippines, he’ll attend two key regional summits, where America’s many allies in the region are hoping to hear the reassuring words of a traditional American president, rather than Trump’s campaign-trail barking, questioning Washington’s long-standing overseas commitments.

A Chinese woman dressed in a Qing Dynasty costume takes a selfie with a wax figure of President Trump on display at a fair in northeast China’s Liaoning province on March 8. (Chinatopix via Associated Press)

Trump’s advisers have outlined three guiding themes to the trip: a tough line on North Korea’s nuclear threat; a commitment to an “open and free” Indo-Pacific region (or rather, a check on Chinese maritime pushiness); and a reckoning with Asian partners over what Trump sees as unfair trade deficits. Meanwhile, here’s what the world is wondering about Trump’s journey:

Is Trump going to embarrass himself and offend others?

Given Trump’s propensity for abrasive tweets and unscripted rants, the first concern for some of his protocol team would be the risk of causing offense in a part of the world attuned to etiquette and decorum. President Barack Obama once courted controversy by merely chewing gum while arriving at a 2014 summit in Beijing. Trump’s planned audience with Japan’s emperor may come under particular scrutiny.

“The president will use whatever language he wants to use,” said national security adviser H.R. McMaster at a Thursday press briefing when asked whether Trump would curb his sometimes incendiary rhetoric.

Trump seems to be at least aware of such worries. “I don’t want to embarrass anybody four days before I land in China,” Trump said at a Cabinet meeting this weekend, after he again complained about “bad” trade deals with certain countries.

Can Trump translate good personal relationships into policy wins?

Trump has hosted Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and boasted of cultivating a good rapport with both leaders. But it remains to be seen whether such bonhomie can pay dividends on a grander scale.

In Japan, Trump has a much easier mission. Abe, a notably hawkish nationalist, is happy with Trump’s eagerness to sell more arms to American allies in the region. Trump’s arrival will be preceded by his daughter Ivanka’s star turn Friday, when she’ll address the Japanese government’s “World Assembly of Women” conference.

In China, though, Trump may face a more complicated showdown. The American president is expected to lean heavily on his Chinese counterpart to get Beijing to economically and politically isolate North Korea, while he’s also likely to clash with Xi over their differences on trade.

“I think the sense that one gets is that privately, most likely … [Trump] will effectively tell Xi Jinping, ‘I’m coming after you on trade especially,’ ” said Christopher Johnson of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “And I think the Chinese, because of that concern, are very eager to use the summit meeting to try to press the reset button on the relationship between the two presidents.”

President Trump and Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago on April 7. (Alex Brandon/Associated Press)

What can Trump really achieve on North Korea?

Pyongyang’s nuclear threat will loom over most of Trump’s deliberations in East Asia. But the question remains: What will he actually do about it? So far, despite Trump’s saber-rattling tweets, U.S. actions have been more or less a continuation of Obama-era policies — that is, pursuing a tough regime of international sanctions that may compel the North Koreans to come to the table.

But any diplomatic effort will require a united front with a host of countries with varying interests. Trump’s main job may be to figure out what the next steps might be.

“Beyond pushing China to implement the sanctions already in place and perhaps getting them to introduce a few more, one option would be to bring Korea, Japan, and Russia back into the conversation,” Elizabeth Economy of the Council on Foreign Relations suggests. “In this case, five heads may well be better than two.”

Other analysts are more skeptical. Michael Auslin of the Hoover Institute thinks that North Koreans will never surrender their nuclear weapons program and, after successive presidents have failed to stop Pyogyang’s nuclear buildup, that this White House needs to learn how to live with that.

“What the president should do is simple, if radical,” Auslin wrote this year. “He should admit the failure of America’s North Korea policy since the 1990s and abandon the fantasy of ‘complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization.’ Instead, he should acknowledge that North Korea is a nuclear weapons-capable state, and that the United States will treat it as such. That means revamping U.S. policy toward explicit containment and deterrence of a nuclear North Korea.”

How will Trump articulate America’s role in Asia?

Perhaps the biggest question looming over Trump’s trip is what role the “America First” president will play not only in bilateral meetings with leaders such as Abe and Xi, but at regional summits such as the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Vietnam and the ASEAN meetings in the Philippines. Trump and a coterie of his advisers have lambasted the multilateralism pursued by American presidents and questioned the United States’ commitment to the prevailing order, underwritten by decades of U.S. military might, that brought half a century of relative stability and prosperity to East Asia. Trump can either assuage Asian partners that he’s sticking to the long-established script, or take a radical turn.

His recent praise for the political successes of both the Chinese president and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte seem to confirm something else: the absence of any real interest on his part in even rhetorically defending human rights and democracy on the global stage.

Want smart analysis of the most important news in your inbox every weekday along with other global reads, interesting ideas and opinions to know? Sign up for the Today’s WorldView newsletter.

Washington (CNN)Ten months removed from the White House, former first lady Michelle Obama took a subtle swipe at her old home’s current occupant without even using his name. She didn’t need to.

‘);$vidEndSlate.removeClass(‘video__end-slate–inactive’).addClass(‘video__end-slate–active’);}};CNN.autoPlayVideoExist = (CNN.autoPlayVideoExist === true) ? true : false;var configObj = {thumb: ‘none’,video: ‘tv/2017/10/21/michelle-obama-white-house-photographer-amanda-lucidon-ac.cnn’,width: ‘100%’,height: ‘100%’,section: ‘domestic’,profile: ‘expansion’,network: ‘cnn’,markupId: ‘body-text_13’,adsection: ‘const-article-inpage’,frameWidth: ‘100%’,frameHeight: ‘100%’,posterImageOverride: {“mini”:{“height”:124,”width”:220,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/171021003653-michelle-obama-white-house-photographer-amanda-lucidon-ac-00013804-small-169.jpg”},”xsmall”:{“height”:173,”width”:307,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/171021003653-michelle-obama-white-house-photographer-amanda-lucidon-ac-00013804-medium-plus-169.jpg”},”small”:{“height”:259,”width”:460,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/171021003653-michelle-obama-white-house-photographer-amanda-lucidon-ac-00013804-large-169.jpg”},”medium”:{“height”:438,”width”:780,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/171021003653-michelle-obama-white-house-photographer-amanda-lucidon-ac-00013804-exlarge-169.jpg”},”large”:{“height”:619,”width”:1100,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/171021003653-michelle-obama-white-house-photographer-amanda-lucidon-ac-00013804-super-169.jpg”},”full16x9″:{“height”:900,”width”:1600,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/171021003653-michelle-obama-white-house-photographer-amanda-lucidon-ac-00013804-full-169.jpg”},”mini1x1″:{“height”:120,”width”:120,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/171021003653-michelle-obama-white-house-photographer-amanda-lucidon-ac-00013804-small-11.jpg”}}},autoStartVideo = false,callbackObj,containerEl,currentVideoCollection = [],currentVideoCollectionId = ”,isLivePlayer = false,moveToNextTimeout,mutePlayerEnabled = false,nextVideoId = ”,nextVideoUrl = ”,turnOnFlashMessaging = false,videoPinner,videoEndSlateImpl;if (CNN.autoPlayVideoExist === false) {autoStartVideo = false;if (autoStartVideo === true) {if (turnOnFlashMessaging === true) {autoStartVideo = false;containerEl = jQuery(document.getElementById(configObj.markupId));CNN.VideoPlayer.showFlashSlate(containerEl);} else {CNN.autoPlayVideoExist = true;}}}configObj.autostart = autoStartVideo;CNN.VideoPlayer.setPlayerProperties(configObj.markupId, autoStartVideo, isLivePlayer, mutePlayerEnabled);CNN.VideoPlayer.setFirstVideoInCollection(currentVideoCollection, configObj.markupId);videoEndSlateImpl = new CNN.VideoEndSlate(‘body-text_13’);/*** Finds the next video ID and URL in the current collection, if available.* @param currentVideoId The video that is currently playing* @param containerId The parent container Id of the video element*/function findNextVideo(currentVideoId) {var i,vidObj;if (currentVideoId jQuery.isArray(currentVideoCollection) currentVideoCollection.length 0) {for (i = 0; i 0) {videoEndSlateImpl.showEndSlateForContainer();}}}callbackObj = {onPlayerReady: function (containerId) {CNN.VideoPlayer.reportLoadTime(containerId);CNN.VideoPlayer.handleInitialExpandableVideoState(containerId);CNN.VideoPlayer.handleAdOnCVPVisibilityChange(containerId, CNN.pageVis.isDocumentVisible());if (Modernizr !Modernizr.phone !Modernizr.mobile !Modernizr.tablet) {var containerClassId = ‘#’ + containerId;if (jQuery(containerClassId).parents(‘.js-pg-rail-tall__head’).length) {videoPinner = new CNN.VideoPinner(containerClassId);videoPinner.init();} else {CNN.VideoPlayer.hideThumbnail(containerId);}}},/** Listen to the metadata event which fires right after the ad ends and the actual video playback begins*/onContentEntryLoad: function(containerId, playerId, contentid, isQueue) {CNN.VideoPlayer.showSpinner(containerId);},onContentMetadata: function (containerId, playerId, metadata, contentId, duration, width, height) {var endSlateLen = jQuery(document.getElementById(containerId)).parent().find(‘.js-video__end-slate’).eq(0).length;CNN.VideoSourceUtils.updateSource(containerId, metadata);if (endSlateLen 0) {videoEndSlateImpl.fetchAndShowRecommendedVideos(metadata);}},onAdPlay: function (containerId, cvpId, token, mode, id, duration, blockId, adType) {clearTimeout(moveToNextTimeout);CNN.VideoPlayer.hideSpinner(containerId);if (Modernizr !Modernizr.phone !Modernizr.mobile !Modernizr.tablet) {if (typeof videoPinner !== ‘undefined’ videoPinner !== null) {videoPinner.setIsPlaying(true);videoPinner.animateDown();}}},onTrackingFullscreen: function (containerId, PlayerId, dataObj) {CNN.VideoPlayer.handleFullscreenChange(containerId, dataObj);},onContentPlay: function (containerId, cvpId, event) {var playerInstance,prevVideoId;/** When the video content starts playing, inject analytics data* for Aspen (if enabled) and the companion ad layout* (if it was set when the ad played) should switch back to* epic ad layout. onContentPlay calls updateCompanionLayout* with the ‘restoreEpicAds’ layout to make this switch*/if (CNN.companion typeof CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout === ‘function’) {CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout(‘restoreEpicAds’);}clearTimeout(moveToNextTimeout);CNN.VideoPlayer.hideSpinner(containerId);if (CNN.VideoPlayer.getLibraryName(containerId) === ‘fave’) {playerInstance = FAVE.player.getInstance(containerId) || null;} else {playerInstance = containerId window.cnnVideoManager.getPlayerByContainer(containerId).videoInstance.cvp || null;}prevVideoId = (window.jsmd window.jsmd.v (window.jsmd.v.eVar18 || window.jsmd.v.eVar4)) || ”;if (playerInstance typeof playerInstance.reportAnalytics === ‘function’) {if (prevVideoId.length === 0 document.referrer document.referrer.search(//videos//) = 0) {prevVideoId = document.referrer.replace(/^(?:http|https)://[^/]/videos/(.+.w+)(?:/video/playlists/.*)?$/, ‘/video/$1’);if (prevVideoId === document.referrer) {prevVideoId = ”;}}playerInstance.reportAnalytics(‘videoPageData’, {videoCollection: currentVideoCollectionId,videoBranding: CNN.omniture.branding_content_page,templateType: CNN.omniture.template_type,nextVideo: nextVideoId,previousVideo: prevVideoId,referrerType: ”,referrerUrl: document.referrer});}if (Modernizr !Modernizr.phone !Modernizr.mobile !Modernizr.tablet) {if (typeof videoPinner !== ‘undefined’ videoPinner !== null) {videoPinner.setIsPlaying(true);videoPinner.animateDown();}}},onContentReplayRequest: function (containerId, cvpId, contentId) {if (Modernizr !Modernizr.phone !Modernizr.mobile !Modernizr.tablet) {if (typeof videoPinner !== ‘undefined’ videoPinner !== null) {videoPinner.setIsPlaying(true);var $endSlate = jQuery(document.getElementById(containerId)).parent().find(‘.js-video__end-slate’).eq(0);if ($endSlate.length 0) {$endSlate.removeClass(‘video__end-slate–active’).addClass(‘video__end-slate–inactive’);}}}},onContentBegin: function (containerId, cvpId, contentId) {CNN.VideoPlayer.mutePlayer(containerId);if (CNN.companion typeof CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout === ‘function’) {CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout(‘removeEpicAds’);}CNN.VideoPlayer.hideSpinner(containerId);clearTimeout(moveToNextTimeout);CNN.VideoSourceUtils.clearSource(containerId);jQuery(document).triggerVideoContentStarted();},onContentComplete: function (containerId, cvpId, contentId) {if (CNN.companion typeof CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout === ‘function’) {CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout(‘restoreFreewheel’);}navigateToNextVideo(contentId, containerId);},onContentEnd: function (containerId, cvpId, contentId) {if (Modernizr !Modernizr.phone !Modernizr.mobile !Modernizr.tablet) {if (typeof videoPinner !== ‘undefined’ videoPinner !== null) {videoPinner.setIsPlaying(false);}}},onCVPVisibilityChange: function (containerId, cvpId, visible) {CNN.VideoPlayer.handleAdOnCVPVisibilityChange(containerId, visible);}};if (typeof configObj.context !== ‘string’ || configObj.context.length 0) {configObj.adsection = window.ssid;}CNN.autoPlayVideoExist = (CNN.autoPlayVideoExist === true) ? true : false;CNN.VideoPlayer.getLibrary(configObj, callbackObj, isLivePlayer);});/* videodemanddust is a default feature of the injector */CNN.INJECTOR.scriptComplete(‘videodemanddust’);

MUST WATCH

“I’m disappointed that you’re here, and not your C.E.O.s,” said Senator Angus King, independent of Maine.

Lawmakers also complained that the companies had taken months to acknowledge Russia’s interference on their sites.

“I have more than a little bit of frustration that many of us on this committee have been raising this issue since the beginning of this year, and our claims were, frankly, blown off by the leadership of your companies,” said Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, and chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, spent Wednesday at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., talking to investors and analysts as they reported blockbuster quarterly earnings. The stocks of both Google and Facebook, which faced the most criticism in the hearings, are at record highs.

During the earnings call, Mr. Zuckerberg was unequivocal in his stance on the issue of Russian meddling in the election.

“I’ve expressed how upset I am that the Russians used our tools to sow mistrust,” Mr. Zuckerberg said, noting that Facebook’s profits will probably be affected by the amount of money the company will spend fighting abuse of its platform. Facebook said it plans to double the number of content reviewers it employs, to 20,000, and will try to add a greater degree of transparency into its advertising system.

“What they did is wrong, and we’re not going to stand for it,” Mr. Zuckerberg said.

The tech companies also provided new numbers on the reach of Russia’s influence campaign. Facebook said an estimated 150 million users of its main site and its subsidiary, Instagram, were exposed to the posts, a larger figure than it provided even as recently as Monday.

Advertisement

Continue reading the main story

During the last of the three hearings, members of the House Intelligence Committee spoke in front of posters displaying the content, complaining that it was divisive.

Representative André Carson, Democrat of Indiana, said an account called Being Patriotic, which amassed 200,000 followers, pushed out content that “cynically exploits grieving officers and their loved ones in order to pit Americans concerned about our law enforcement personnel against Americans concerned about African-American lives lost during police encounters.”

Photo

The account was created by the Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency.

“My concern is that a dictator like Vladimir Putin abused flaws in our social media platforms to inject the worst kind of identity politics into the voting decisions of at least 100 million Americans,” Mr. Carson said, referring to the Russian president.

Facebook has found a particularly vocal set of critics on the Congressional Black Caucus, of which Mr. Carson is a member along with Representative Terri A. Sewell, Democrat of Alabama. Together, they pressed Facebook to grapple with its role in promoting racial animus.

Newsletter Sign Up

Continue reading the main story

Thank you for subscribing.

An error has occurred. Please try again later.

You are already subscribed to this email.

View all New York Times newsletters.

• See Sample
• Manage Email Preferences
• Not you?
• Privacy Policy
• Opt out or contact us anytime

Ms. Sewell cited figures showing few blacks in Facebook’s work force and its leadership — a lack of diversity that she said made it hard to believe that those reviewing socially divisive ads could spot problematic posts.

The hearings exposed a growing rift between Silicon Valley and Washington, where sentiment toward big tech companies has drastically shifted.

While the lawyers showed humility and promised to beef up security and improve technology to prevent foreign interference in elections, they admitted they could not guarantee they would prevent future intrusions. Google’s general counsel, Kent Walker, said the company would work on creating new technologies to detect foreign actors and misinformation on its site. All three said they would build artificial intelligence tools to combat fake and problematic content.

Some lawmakers used the hearings to stake a position on the influence of the Kremlin’s social media use in the election. The conclusions, particularly among senators, split along political lines. Republicans offered an implicit defense of the legitimacy of President Trump’s victory and dismissed the effect of Russian meddling.

“A lot of folks, including many in the media, have tried to reduce this entire conversation down to one premise: Foreign actors conducted a surgically executed covert operation to help elect a United States president,” said Senator Richard M. Burr, Republican of North Carolina and the chairman of the Intelligence Committee. “I’m here to tell you this story does not simplify that easily.”

Advertisement

Continue reading the main story

Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, emphasized that the real intent of Russian propaganda was to broadly spread misinformation and create chaos.

“These operations — while we’re talking about the 2016 presidential race — they’re not limited to 2016, and they were not limited to the presidential race, and they continue to this day,” he said. “They are much more widespread than one election.”

Such comments offered a rare view into the Senate committee’s investigation, which has largely played out over the past nine months in secured briefing rooms. Publicly and in private, Mr. Burr and Mr. Warner have taken pains to preserve bipartisan comity, and their success has set the committee apart from the other panels investigating Russia’s efforts.

But the difference in their emphasis on Wednesday also underscored the political realities buffeting their work. In advancing an investigation tied to Mr. Trump, Mr. Burr has been careful to make clear that the committee’s work is larger than an individual candidate, and he has repeatedly tried to tamp down expectations about what it might find.

Democrats did not have such reticence.

“Whether the Russians and the campaign coordinated these efforts, we do not yet know, but it is true that the Russians mounted what could be described as an independent expenditure campaign on Mr. Trump’s behalf,” said Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.

Senator Martin Heinrich, Democrat of New Mexico, also took aim at Mr. Trump’s dismissal of the role of Russia-linked social media in his win. Mr. Heinrich challenged Colin Stretch, Facebook’s general counsel, to acknowledge such content and the role that fake accounts linked to Russia and other misinformation had in the election.

“Last month, President Trump called Russian-purchased Facebook ads a ‘hoax,’” Mr. Heinrich said. “I’ve looked at those Russian-sponsored Facebook ads. I certainly hope you’ve had a chance to review them. Are they, in fact, a hoax?”

Mr. Stretch said no. “The existence of those ads were on Facebook,” he said, “and it was not a hoax.”

Continue reading the main story

Former University of Hartford student Brianna Brochu, 18. (West Hartford Police Department/AP)

A former student at the University of Hartford has been charged with criminal mischief and breach of peace after bragging online about contaminating her roommate’s belongings with bodily fluids, including rubbing dirty tampons on her backpack and putting her toothbrush “places where the sun doesn’t shine.”

Eighteen-year-old Brianna Brochu appeared in court Wednesday. A judge banned her from the campus in central Connecticut and ordered her not to have any contact with her former dormitory roommate, Chennel Rowe, pending the conclusion of the case, according to the Hartford Courant.

Authorities told the Courant that Brochu, who is white, also faces a hate-crime charge stemming from the alleged actions against her roommate, who is black.

Last month, Brochu allegedly wrote on Instagram that she finally “got rid of her roommate,” whom she referred to as “Jamaican Barbie.”

“After 1½ month of spitting in her coconut oil, putting moldy clam dip in her lotions, rubbing used tampons [on] her backpack, putting her toothbrush places where the sun doesn’t shine, and so much more, I can finally say goodbye Jamaican Barbie,” the post read, according to court records obtained by Heavy.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit, Brochu posted pictures, including one of a bag stained with a “reddish brown substance” that she later acknowledged was “period blood,” one of a food container filled with a milky substance and one of hair extensions with the caption, “This b—- legit bought a box of f—ing hair.”

[Three Dartmouth professors accused of sexual misconduct]

University of Hartford President Greg Woodward said in a letter Wednesday to the campus community that following the “deeply disturbing situation,” Brochu is no longer a student at the school. He said the university took immediate action once it learned about the allegations, notifying campus authorities and the West Hartford Police Department, which opened an investigation on Oct. 18.

Police did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Brochu was arrested Saturday after telling police that she started to lash out at Rowe after she posted videos of Brochu sleeping and teasing her for snoring, according to court documents.

She told police that she did lick Rowe’s “plate, fork and spoon,” rub a used tampon on her backpack and mix Rowe’s lotions together, but she said that everything else she bragged about online was not true, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.

Brochu had not yet been assigned an attorney in the case.

Rowe recounted the ordeal Monday in a Facebook Live video, saying that she had been experiencing throat pain for weeks and did not know why. She told police earlier this month that a nurse had advised her she had a “bacteria present in her throat” and Rowe suspected it was caused by “Brochu tampering with her personal items,” according to the arrest warrant affidavit.

Rowe said in the Facebook video that she learned about Brochu’s social media post when she was approached by a former neighbor and two resident assistants as she was switching dorm rooms.

As a young African American woman I don’t want to become another statistic. When it comes to college incidents/crimes…

Posted by Jazzy Rowe on Monday, October 30, 2017

The university president called the incident “deeply upsetting.”

“One of our students was the alleged victim of bullying and her story was shared across social media,” Woodward said Tuesday in a letter to the campus.

“The incident has brought about accusations of racism, and I want you to know that I hear and share your anger and frustration,” he said. “Acts of racism, bias, bullying, or other abusive behaviors will not be tolerated on this campus. I pledge to do everything in my power to work with our community to address related concerns together.”

Woodward said the University of Hartford “is not exempt from issues facing our society and world” and encouraged others to come forward with concerns.

“We must strive every day to practice understanding, tolerance, inclusion, and grace,” he said. “I know that you will join me in this critical mission.”

Read more:

Why this professor is wearing a bulletproof vest to class

A black Cornell student said he was beaten and called the n-word, roiling the Ivy League campus

A university president held a dinner for black students — and set the table with cotton stalks and collard greens

President Moon Jae-in told lawmakers Wednesday that South Korea would not seek to have nuclear weapons and said that Seoul would never accept its neighbor North Korea as a nuclear-armed state.

“According to the joint agreement by the two Koreas on denuclearization, North Korea’s nuclear state cannot be accepted or tolerated. We will not develop or possess nuclear weapons either,” the president said in his second state of the nation address at the National Assembly, South Korea’s parliament.

Recent tests by North Korea have led to a renewed debate about nuclear weapons in South Korea. Although the country once sought its own nuclear weapons in the 1970s during the presidency of Park Chung-hee, leaders were persuaded by the United States to abandon such ambitions.

The United States stationed nuclear-armed weapons in South Korea during the Cold War until 1991, when President George H.W. Bush withdrew all tactical nuclear weapons deployed abroad, though the country remains protected from North Korean nuclear weapons under the U.S. nuclear umbrella.

After North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test on Sept. 3, a number of politicians suggested that the South should reconsider its own nuclear weapons program. In the weeks after that test, a group of lawmakers from South Korea’s opposition party, the Liberty Korea Party, came to Washington to ask for the redeployment of U.S. nuclear weapons to the country.

The debate has also taken place within Moon’s own ruling party, the Democratic Party. “The redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons is an alternative worth a full review,” Defense Minister Song Young-moo said in early September, before North Korea’s latest nuclear test.

Before he was elected, President Trump also suggested he was open to the possibility of countries such as South Korea and Japan acquiring their own nuclear weapons to deal with the threat of North Korea.

However, Moon has remained adamantly against nuclear weapons in South Korea and has repeatedly said he would not consider redeployment due to the possibility of raising tensions with North Korea unnecessarily. During a recent visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to Seoul, both Mattis and Song dismissed the idea of redeploying nuclear weapons.

“When considering national interest, it’s much better not to deploy them,” Song said. Mattis said U.S. strategic assets already provide the necessary deterrence. 

Despite Moon’s strong opposition to nuclear weapons, recent polls have shown that a majority of South Koreans favor them. A poll conducted by Gallup Korea in September found that 60 percent of South Koreans supported nuclear weapons for their country in theory, a number consistent with other polls conducted recently.

Speaking to the National Assembly on Wednesday, Moon said other options were preferable to military action with North Korea. “Sanctions and pressure are means to bring North Korea to the negotiating table and to make the right choice,” Moon said.

“There can never be a military conflict on the Korean Peninsula or military operations without the South Korean government’s prior consent,” the president added.

Yoonjung Seo contributed to this report.

Read more:

More than ever, South Koreans want their own nuclear weapons

A South Korean delegation asks Washington for nuclear weapons

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news