The sudden death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s half-brother was murder, South Korean officials announced Wednesday.
Kim Jong Nam died Monday soon after becoming ill at Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) before an outbound flight to Macau.
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Lee Cheol Woo, chairman of South Korea’s National Assembly Intelligence Committee, told a press briefing Wednesday that Kim had been poisoned, and the suspects were “presumed to be two Asian females.”
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It’s not clear how he obtained that information or how Kim was poisoned.
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South Korea’s Unification Ministry told CNN they were working with Malaysian authorities to get additional information.
The Defense Department might propose that the US send conventional ground combat forces into northern Syria for the first time to speed up the fight against ISIS, CNN has learned.
“It’s possible that you may see conventional forces hit the ground in Syria for some period of time,” one defense official told CNN.
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But the official emphasized that any decision is ultimately up to President Donald Trump, who has ordered his defense secretary to come up with a proposal to combat ISIS before the end of the month.
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The move would significantly alter US military operations in Syria if approved and could put troops on the ground within weeks.
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Until now, only small teams made up largely of Special Operations forces have operated in Syria, providing training and assistance to anti-ISIS opposition groups on the ground.
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Conventional units operate in larger numbers and would require a more significant footprint of security protection both on the ground and in the air.
Embattled White House national security adviser Michael Flynn resigned Monday night, an abrupt end to a brief tenure.
His departure came just after reports surfaced that the Justice Department warned the Trump administration last month that Flynn misled administration officials regarding his communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States and was potentially vulnerable to blackmail by the Russians.
“I inadvertently briefed the Vice President-elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian ambassador. I have sincerely apologized to the President and the Vice President, and they have accepted my apology,” Flynn wrote, according to a copy of his resignation letter obtained by CNN.
Just three weeks in, the Trump administration has tested the limits of executive power, violated the separation of powers and shaken the very roots of the Constitution. A particular theme of President Trump’s first days in office has been contempt for the judicial branch as a check on his authority: He criticized individual judges, preemptively blamed them for all future terrorist attacks and ridiculed the court system as “disgraceful.”
Given the administration’s disdain for the judiciary, any nominee to the Supreme Court, particularly by this president, must be able to demonstrate independence from this president. The bar is always high to achieve a seat on the Supreme Court, but in these unusual times — when there is unprecedented stress on our system of checks and balances — the bar is even higher for Judge Neil M. Gorsuch to demonstrate independence. In order to clear it, he will have to convince 60 of my colleagues that he will not be influenced by politics, parties or the president. The judiciary is the last and most important check on an overreaching president with little respect for the rule of law.
The only way to demonstrate the independence necessary is for Judge Gorsuch to answer specific questions about the judiciary and his judicial philosophy. Of course, a judicial nominee should not prejudge how he or she would rule in a specific case to come before the court, but that does not preclude the nominee from answering basic and specific questions about judicial philosophy or how he would have decided past cases. Doing so would make the nominee no more biased than any of the justices who now sit on the court and issued opinions in those cases.
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Neil Gorsuch with President Trump in the White House in January.Credit Alex Wong/Getty Images
Mexico warned its citizens living in the United States on Friday to “take precautions” and remain in contact with consular officials a day after the deportation of an undocumented mother following a routine visit with US immigration authorities.
Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos, 35, was deported Thursday after she checked in with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Phoenix a day earlier. The action sparked protests by supporters of Garcia de Rayos and drew praise from proponents of stricter enforcement of immigration laws.
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“The case involving Mrs. Garcia de Rayos illustrates a new reality for the Mexican community living in the United States, facing the most severe implementation of immigration control measures,” Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday.
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Mexican consulates “have intensified their work of protecting fellow nationals, foreseeing more severe immigration measures to be implemented by the authorities of this country, and possible violations to constitutional precepts during such operations and problems with due process,” the statement said.
Protesters briefly blocked Education Secretary Betsy DeVos as she tried to enter a public school on Friday morning.
Demonstrators holding signs greeted DeVos when she arrived at Jefferson Middle School Academy in southwest Washington, not far from the Department of Education building.
When she headed toward the school’s entrance, the protesters stood in front of her, video from CNN affiliate WJLA showed.
The video showed DeVos then turned around and walked away, with one protester walking beside her shouting, “Go back! Shame, shame” as she got into an SUV and drove off.
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Protesters block Betsy DeVos from entering public school
The White House said Thursday that Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser to President Trump, has been “counseled” after she promoted Ivanka Trump’s fashion line in a television interview.
But some thought that didn’t go far enough. In a remarkable rebuke to the White House, a bipartisan letter was sent to the Office of Government Ethics Thursday, to determine whether she should receive a stronger disciplinary response, including suspension, demotion or dismissal.
The letter was authored by Representative Elijah Cummings, a Democrat, and Jason Chaffetz, Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee.
The letter warned, “In this case, there is an additional challenge, which is that the President, as the ultimate disciplinary authority for the White House employees, has an inherent conflict of interest since Conway’s statements relate to his daughter’s private business.”
Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch told a US senator Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s tweets about the judiciary are “demoralizing” and “disheartening.”
In a meeting with Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Gorsuch, who’s largely been silent since Trump nominated him last week, took exception to Trump calling a federal judge in Seattle a “so-called judge” after blocking the President’s travel ban.
“He said very specifically that they were demoralizing and disheartening and he characterized them very specifically that way,” Blumenthal said of Gorsuch. “I said they were more than disheartening and I said to him that he has an obligation to make his views clear to the American people, so they understand how abhorrent or unacceptable President Trump’s attacks on the judiciary are.”
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Supreme Court nominee Gorsuch( on right), Sen. Sen. Richard Blumenthal urges Gorsuch to make public remarks
In a stunning moment on the Senate floor, Sen. Elizabeth Warren clashed with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Tuesday night after McConnell determined the Massachusetts Democrat had violated a Senate rule against impugning another senator.
In an extremely rare rebuke, she was instructed by the presiding officer to take her seat.
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Tuesday night’s rule means Warren will be barred from speaking on the floor until Sessions’ debate ends, McConnell’s office confirmed. The debate is expected to conclude Wednesday night.
“She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.
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The emotional exchange occurred during debate on the nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, to be attorney general. Warren was reading from a 1986 letter Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr., had written to Sen. Strom Thurmond critical of Sessions who was then a nominee to be a federal judge.
Vice President Mike Pence cast a historic tie-breaking vote Tuesday to confirm Betsy DeVos as the next education secretary after the Senate was evenly divided over the controversial pick.
The 51-50 vote ends Trump’s toughest confirmation battle yet. Senate Democrats debated through the night and into Tuesday morning in a last-ditch attempt to derail DeVos, buoyed by support from Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine.
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DeVos was sworn into office shortly after 6 p.m. ET. Pence administered the oath of office and said his confirmation vote earlier in the day was “the easiest vote I ever cast.”
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Throughout the fight, Democrats argued they needed “Just one more!” to lure away another Republican vote. But Senate Republican leaders succeeded in delivering a victory to Trump in a confirmation fight that very few expected to become as tough as it did.
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
Kim Jong Un’s half-brother killed
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Protesters block Betsy DeVos from entering public school
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Supreme Court nominee Gorsuch( on right), 
Betsy DeVos confirmed
James' World 2 