By Hadi Azmi

The lawyer for a Vietnamese woman accused of killing the North Korean leader’s estranged half-brother last year accused Malaysian authorities of prejudice toward his client, while questioning the prosecution’s star witness on Wednesday.

Hisyam Teh Pok Teik, who represents suspect Doan Thi Huong, said he received a letter from the Malaysian attorney general dated Dec. 4, 2017, declining his request to assist the defense in bringing a witness from Vietnam to appear at the Shah Alam High Court.

Doan is standing trial with Siti Aisyah of Indonesia on charges that they murdered Kim Jong Nam in a chemical attack at a Kuala Lumpur area airport on Feb. 17, 2017. Both could face the death penalty if convicted.

Siti’s attorney, Gooi Soon Seng, had finished his questioning of lead police investigator Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz earlier in the day. Before wrapping up, Gooi took his own shot at the government’s case against his client by alleging that CCTV footage presented during the prosecution phase was edited to hurt the defendants.

Request declined

Hisyam had asked the attorney general’s office in November for assistance in convincing Vietnamese citizen Nguyen Vich Thuy to travel to Malaysia to testify about her role in introducing Doan to a North Korean man who allegedly duped her into participating in the killing.

“It’s unfortunate that the AG declined to exercise his power to do this and in doing that deprived us of having the opportunity for police to go to Vietnam and investigate,” said Salim Bashir, another attorney representing Doan.

Hisyam told the court that Nguyen’s testimony was crucial because she introduced Doan to Ri Ji Hyon (alias Mr. Y), one of four North Korean men who fled Kuala Lumpur hours after the murder, according to testimony from Wan Azirul.

Hisyam also criticized Wan Azirul for failing to take the necessary steps to get Nguyen’s statements.

“In doing an investigation you are supposed to look for the truth, but your investigation is only focused on the CCTV footage,” Hisyam said. “There truth is there (in Vietnam) but no one in Malaysia is interested.”

Nguyen, according to Hisyam, turned down efforts by Vietnamese police and defense lawyers to travel to Malaysia to testify for Doan, citing her responsibility in running her bar with her husband and taking care of her young child.

Affidavits introduced

The defense attorney presented two declarations made by Nguyen at the Malaysian embassy in Hanoi outlining her involvement with the incident.

In one affidavit, Nguyen who worked with Doan at a bar in Hanoi until 2016, said she suggested her co-worker to Ri Ji Hyon when he came to her bar two months before the murder. The man who identified himself as Lee spoke fluent Vietnamese and said he was a child of Vietnamese and Korean parents.

He said he was working for a South Korean production company looking for candidates to participate in prank videos for YouTube.

“Nguyen herself was offered the role and declined because she had to take care of her small child,” Hisyam said, adding that Nguyen then reached out to Doan.

The affidavit corroborates Doan’s statement to the Malaysian police that she was an actress who was in Malaysia to do prank videos, the defense argued.

Nguyen also said Ri Ji Hyon told Doan that the pranks would be done at airports and involve pouring water on people’s heads. The job required flying to cities in the region, including Kuala Lumpur.

Nguyen’s affidavit and Doan’s statement to police are consistent with Siti’s statement that she believed she was participating in a prank show.

Before finishing his questioning of Wan Azirul, Gooi slammed Malaysian investigators for not allowing him to meet with Siti during her 14-day remand and for releasing portions of the video linked to the attack on the estranged brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

“I put it to you that your failure to copy all the footage from the CCTV server from the KLIA airport compromised the defense of Siti,” Gooi told Wan Azirul.

He added that police failed to investigate crucial evidence such as Siti’s jeans and glasses that were not sent for lab tests.

“Even the chemistry department tests showed that Siti’s finger nail cuttings, nail swabs and blood had no traces of VX,” the attorney said, referring to an internationally banned nerve agent used in the attack.

Gooi said he might have more questions for Wan Azriul after Doan’s lawyers finished their cross examination.

State Department statement

During the court session, Hisyam and Gooi asked Judge Azmi Ariffin to allow a statement by the U.S. State Department confirming that the North Korea government used VX to kill Kim. It was the first official statement from the U.S. government linking North Korean government directly to his death.

“The United States strongly condemns the use of chemical weapons to conduct an assassination,” spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in the statement dated March 6.

Azmi said he would decide at some point in the trial whether to admit the statement.

The 2015 Paris climate agreement sought to stabilize global temperatures by limiting warming to well below 2.0 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue limiting warming even further, to 1.5 C.

To quantify what that would mean for people living in coastal areas, a group of researchers employed a global network of tide gauges and a local sea level projection framework to explore differences in the frequency of storm surges and other extreme sea-level events across three scenarios: global temperature increases of 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 C.

They concluded that by 2150, the seemingly small difference between an increase of 1.5 and 2.0 C would mean the permanent inundation of lands currently home to about 5 million people, including 60,000 who live on small island nations.

The study, conducted by researchers at Princeton University and colleagues at Rutgers and Tufts Universities, the independent scientific organization Climate Central, and ICF International, was published in the journal Environmental Research Letters on March 15, 2018.

“People think the Paris Agreement is going to save us from harm from climate change, but we show that even under the best-case climate policy being considered today, many places will still have to deal with rising seas and more frequent coastal floods,” said DJ Rasmussen, a graduate student in Princeton’s Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and first author of the study.

The researchers found that higher temperatures will make extreme sea level events much more common. They used long-term hourly tide gauge records and extreme value theory to estimate present and future return periods of extreme sea-level events through the 22nd century. Under the 1.5 C scenario, the frequency of extreme sea level events is still expected to increase. For example, by the end of the 21st century, New York City is expected to experience one Hurricane Sandy-like flood event every five years.

Extreme sea levels can arise from high tides or storm surge or a combination of surge and tide (sometimes called the storm tide). When driven by hurricanes or other large storms, extreme sea levels flood coastal areas, threatening life and property. Rising mean sea levels are already magnifying the frequency and severity of extreme sea levels, and experts predict that by the end of the century, coastal flooding may be among the costliest impacts of climate change in some regions.

Future extreme events will be exacerbated by the rising global sea level, which in turn depends on the trajectory of global mean surface temperature. Even if global temperatures are stabilized, sea levels are expected to continue to rise for centuries, due to the fact that carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere for a long time and the ice sheets are slow to respond to warming.

Overall, the researchers predicted that by the end of the century, a 1.5 C temperature increase could drive the global mean sea level up by roughly 1.6 feet (48 cm) while a 2.0 C increase will raise oceans by about 1.8 feet (56 cm) and a 2.5 C increase will raise sea level by an estimated 1.9 feet (58 cm).

In a breakthrough that could lead to a new class of materials with functions found only in living systems, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have figured out a way to keep certain proteins active outside of the cell. The researchers used this technology to create mats that can soak up and trap chemical pollution.

Despite years of effort to stabilize proteins outside of their native environments, scientists have made limited progress in combining proteins with synthetic components without compromising protein activity.

The new study shows a path toward exploiting the power of proteins outside of the cell by demonstrating a unique way to keep proteins active in synthetic environments. The materials presented in the study could enable on-demand biochemical reactions where they were once not feasible.

“We think we’ve cracked the code for interfacing natural and synthetic systems,” said study author Ting Xu, a Berkeley professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Chemistry, whose lab led the work.

The study will be published in the March 16 issue of the journal Science. The research was supported by grants from the U.S. Department of Defense. Collaborators at Northwestern University were supported by the Department of Energy and the Sherman Fairchild Foundation. Collaborators at the University of Lyon and the Air Force Laboratory received support from the Fulbright program and the Miller institute.

The problem with proteins is that they are finicky. Remove them from their native environments and they will likely fall apart. To function properly, proteins must fold into a specific structure, often with the help of other proteins. To overcome this challenge, Xu’s lab analyzed trends in protein sequences and surfaces to see if they could develop a synthetic polymer that provides all the things that a protein would need to keep its structure and function.

“Proteins have very well-defined statistical pattern, so if you can mimic that pattern, then you can marry the synthetic and natural systems, which allows us to make these materials,” Xu said.

Xu’s lab then created random heteropolymers, which they call RHPs. RHPs are composed of four types of monomer subunits, each with chemical properties designed to interact with chemical patches on the surface of proteins of interest. The monomers are connected to mimic a natural protein to maximize the flexibility of their interactions with protein surfaces. The RHPs act as unstructured proteins, commonly seen inside cells. They increased membrane protein folding in water during protein translation and preserved water-soluble protein activity in organic solvents.

The researchers at Northwestern University ran extensive molecular simulations to show that the RHP would interact favorably with protein surfaces, wrap around protein surfaces in organic solvents and weakly in water, leading to correct protein folding and stability in a non-native environment.

The researchers then tested whether they can use an RHP to create protein-based materials for bioremediation of toxic chemicals, which they were funded to do by the Department of Defense. The researchers mixed RHP with a protein called organophosphorus hydrolase (OPH), which degrades the toxic organophosphates found in insecticides and chemical warfare agents.

The researchers used the RHP/OPH combination to make fiber mats, submersed the mats in a well-known insecticide and found that the mats degraded an amount of insecticide weighing approximately one-tenth of the total fiber mat in just a few minutes. This opens the door to the creation of larger mats that could soak up toxic chemicals in places like war zones.

“Our study indicated that the approach should be applicable to other enzymes,” Xu said. “This may make it possible to have a portable chemistry lab in different materials.”

By Joe Torres

President Rodrigo Duterte has announced the Philippines’ immediate withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC) following “outrageous attacks” by the court and United Nations officials.

Duterte, who is under scrutiny by the international court over his deadly war on drugs, claimed that there is a “concerted effort” to undermine his administration.

He accused U.N. special rapporteurs and ICC investigators of painting him as a “ruthless and heartless violator of human rights who allegedly caused thousands of extrajudicial killings.”

The president complained about what he said were “baseless, unprecedented and outrageous attacks on my person and against my administration, engineered by officials of the United Nations.”

He also said there is an “attempt by the [ICC] special prosecutor to place my person within the jurisdiction of the [international court].”

“All these acts are in violation of due process and constitutional presumption of innocence,” said the president.

He said the treaty, also known as the Rome Statute, which the Philippines signed on Aug. 23, 2011, is not “effective nor enforceable” because it was not published in the Official Gazette.

The Rome Statute established the ICC when it was adopted at a diplomatic conference in Rome in 1998. It entered into force on July 1, 2002.

As of October 2017, 123 countries, including the Philippines, were party to the treaty, which established four core international crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.

Under the statute, the ICC can only investigate and prosecute the crimes in situations where states are “unable” or “unwilling” to do so themselves.

“An international law cannot supplant, prevail, or diminish a domestic law,” said Duterte, who is also a lawyer.

He also claimed that the drug-related killings under his administration were not genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity, but a result of legitimate police operations.

Is Duterte afraid of the ICC?

A day after the president’s announcement, the country’s Catholic bishops said Duterte cannot just set aside the Philippines’ commitment to human rights.

“The Philippines is not Duterte,” said Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo, head of the Episcopal Commission on the Laity.

The prelate said the president’s decision only showed that there might be basis for the allegations leveled against him.

“[He] is afraid of accountability. Duterte should be investigated,” said the prelate.

Bishop Arturo Bastes of Sorsogon said the president might be “simply afraid” of a possible conviction for his “crimes against humanity … [that] will shame him throughout the world for all times.”

“His withdrawal from the Rome Statute is an act of cowardice that makes his name more infamous,” added the prelate.

Franciscan priest Pete Montallana said only the truth can set Duterte free. “Let him be courageous enough to face investigation to prove that he has nothing to hide,” he said.

Sister Mary John Mananzan, a Benedictine nun who helped organize the Movement Against Tyranny opposition group, said Duterte’s withdrawal from the ICC was “cowardly.”

Activist priest Robert Reyes said the president’s decision is “clearly an act of open defiance not only against the ICC but what it represents.”

Bishop Ruperto Santos of Balanga, however, said the Philippines is sovereign and independent and whoever commits a crime “should be tried here with our people.”

The ICC, through prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, announced last month that she would look into the drug-related killings.

The prosecutor’s analysis of “drug war” crimes could result in a formal ICC investigation if there is proof violations amount to crimes against humanity, and the absence of justice in national courts.

Human Rights Watch has claimed that about 12,000 suspected drug users and peddlers have been killed in Duterte’s “all-out war” against narcotics that started in mid-2016.

Mark Saludes contributed to this report.

Malaria parasites multiply asexually in the human bloodstream, thereby causing chronic infection and all the complications associated with this devastating disease. During each round of multiplication, a small proportion of parasites develop into non-dividing gametocytes instead.

Gametocytes are infectious to mosquitoes and are therefore the catalyst for transmitting malaria to other humans. Understanding how malaria parasites control the switch to gametocyte production is central to support the development of therapeutic interventions that could block malaria transmission.

How malaria parasites turn the switch

Whether a parasite continues to multiply or develops into a gametocyte is controlled by a molecular switch. A recent publication in Cell demonstrated that this switch responds to a lipid molecule present in human blood: lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC). Under high LPC concentrations, parasites multiply, consuming LPC to build new membranes. When LPC concentrations drop, as they do during acute infections, parasites convert into gametocytes to secure their transmission to the next human host.

Researchers at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) have now identified a parasite protein (GDV1) that plays a crucial role in activating the gametocyte conversion switch. “GDV1 basically ignites a process that reprograms gene expression in the parasite such that gametocyte development occurs”, said Till Voss, corresponding author of the study and Head of the Malaria Gene Regulation Unit at Swiss TPH.

The study in Science further shows that GDV1 is only produced in parasites destined to develop into gametocytes. In multiplying parasites, an inhibitory molecule prevents expression of GDV1. “We were amazed to observe that after targeted disruption of this inhibitory molecule using CRISPR-Cas9 technology, all parasites expressed the GDV1 protein”, said Michael Filarsky, first author of the study and scientist at Swiss TPH. Another important finding of this study is that GDV1 production is likewise inhibited by LPC. “This is exiting. We are onto the molecular pathway that transports an environmental stimulus into the parasite to activate gametocyte development”, concludes Voss.

“Fundamental knowledge and a new tool for future research”

Drugs and vaccines that target gametocytes are urgently needed to reach the declared aim of eliminating and eradicating malaria. “Although our study does not offer immediate solutions for novel therapies, it sheds new light on the mechanisms responsible for the production of gametocytes,” said Till Voss. “If we can block this mechanism or eliminate gametocytes altogether, we might get an important step closer to interrupting malaria transmission.”

The new knowledge also allows Swiss TPH scientists to produce high quantities of gametocytes in the laboratory. “Research on gametocytes is hampered by the fact that they usually only arise in very small numbers”, said Michael Filarsky. “We are now able to engineer genetically-modified parasites that deliver enormous quantities of gametocytes. We predict that these parasites will be useful not only for future basic research, but also for applied research in this area”.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has subpoenaed the Trump Organization for documents, including some related to Russia, according to a new report.

It marks the first time that Mueller, who is investigating alleged collusion between Trump and Russia, has demanded documents directly related to President Donald Trump’s business. According to the NYT report, the subpoena was delivered in “recent weeks” and Mueller asked the organization to “hand over all documents related to Russia and other topics” that he is investigating.

The Trump Organization is the umbrella company which oversees Trump’s business ventures. Trump’s lawyers are in talks with Mueller’s office about how investigators could potentially interview Trump himself. His attorneys are reportedly advising him to decline an interview.

In January, Trump said he was “looking forward” to meeting personally with Mueller, but his lawyers later walked back his comments, saying he was “speaking hurriedly.”

A senior congressional source has told MSNBC that Mueller’s decision to subpoena the organization rather than issue a more typical request for documents indicates that he is putting the organization’s staff members “on alert not to destroy evidence.”

In an interview with the New York Times in July, Trump said that if Mueller began looking into his business and family finances unrelated to Russia, he would be crossing a red line.

Of possible interest to Mueller is a “letter of intent” Trump signed in 2015 to build a Trump Tower in Moscow — a deal that never materialized. Trump has insisted that he does not own buildings in Russia and does not make money from Russia.

The latest subpoena suggests the investigation which Trump had hope would be cleared up months ago will drag on indefinitely.

Medicinal cannabis is safe and effective in pain relief, and researchers are calling for the treatment to be properly established in our modern medical arsenal. A new special issue of the European Journal of Internal Medicine provides a comprehensive overview of current evidence for the use of cannabis and derived products in medicine, and calls for more research to improve the evidence base for its use.

“We feel it is absolutely imperative to not only present the current state of affairs, but also propose the development of the scientific research program within the paradigm of evidence-based medicine,” said Prof. Victor Novack, guest editor of the special issue and a professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. “Our ultimate aim should be to scientifically establish the actual place of medical cannabis derived products in the modern medical arsenal.”

Cannabis has been used for centuries in pain relief, as a sleep aid and for many other purposes, yet there is little evidence on its safety and effectiveness. This is in part due to relatively recent legal restrictions on its use, which have hampered research efforts and resulted in doctors having little to no understanding of its use.

However, there has been an explosion in the number of studies published since 2012. The new special issue provides two major studies on the use of cannabis in cancer patients and the elderly, as well as a comprehensive overview of the evidence, regulations, ethics and practical use. The authors and editors call for more research to improve the evidence base.

In a study led by Prof. Novack, a team of researchers from Israel analyzed data collected during the medicinal cannabis treatment of 2,970 cancer patients between 2015 and 2017. The two main problems patients were hoping to overcome were sleep problems and pain, and cannabis has been shown to be effective in alleviating both. 95.9 percent of the patients reported an improvement in their condition.

The same team also analyzed the effectiveness of medical cannabis in elderly patients who were being treated in 2015-2017 for a variety of issues, including pain and cancer. The researchers conclude in their paper: “Our study finds that the therapeutic use of cannabis is safe and efficacious in the elderly population. Cannabis use may decrease the use of other prescription medicines, including opioids. Gathering more evidence-based data, including data from double-blind randomized-controlled trials, in this special population is imperative.”

In a review in the special issue, Prof. Donald Abrams at University of California San Francisco Ward in the US covers the recent review conducted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids. The report, which considered 10,000 scientific abstracts, “concluded that there was conclusive or substantial evidence that Cannabis or cannabinoids are effective for the treatment of pain in adults; chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis.”

Yet the report also highlighted the barriers to research in the US, which may explain the lack of strong evidence for the therapeutic use of cannabis. This dearth of research has also led to numerous ethical issues in prescribing cannabis, not least because many doctors do not understand the treatment enough to advise dosage and use. An article by researchers at the University of British Columbia, Canada and International Cannabis and Cannabinoids Institute, Prague, Czech Republic provides practical guidance for doctors, with data on cannabis pharmacology.

“This Medical Cannabis special issue covers everything you wanted to know about medical cannabis,” said Prof. Novack. “We hope that it will provide physicians with a contemporary summary of different aspects related to the medical cannabis and guide the choice of an appropriate for the indications where the evidence is sufficient to initiate the treatment. We also hope the articles will facilitate the conversation on the future of medical cannabis research and its accommodation into mainstream medicine.”

By Mike Eckel

(RFE/RL) — U.S. authorities announced new financial sanctions against Russia’s top intelligence agencies, more than a dozen Russian citizens, and the company known as the Russian “troll factory” in the latest U.S. push to punish Moscow.

The measures, announced by the White House and the Treasury Department on March 15, were specifically in response to Russian efforts to interfere with U.S. elections systems, including the 2016 presidential campaign.

It also was in response to what officials said was a wide range of “malicious cyberactivity,” including Russian efforts to hack into the U.S. energy grid and other parts of the U.S. infrastructure, including dams.

The sanctions, which U.S. officials had hinted would be announced this week, were not directly linked to the poisoning in Britain of a retired Russian military intelligence officer and his daughter, though Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin cited the case as an example of what he called was Russia’s reckless actions.

“Treasury continues to pressure Russia for its ongoing efforts to destabilize Ukraine, occupy Crimea, meddle in elections, as well as for its endemic corruption and human rights abuses,” he said in a statement. “The recent use of a military-grade nerve agent in an attempt to murder two U.K. citizens further demonstrates the reckless and irresponsible conduct of its government.”

In Moscow, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Interfax news agency that Moscow was preparing retaliatory measures against Washington.

It’s unclear how much effect the new U.S. measures will have in influencing Russian actions in the United States or Europe. Many of the agencies, individuals, and entities had either been sanctioned previously or had been publicly accused in U.S. statements, including in the indictment released last month by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

But the measures will further ratchet up tensions with Moscow.

The new penalties were the first to be utilized under a law that Congress passed last year to punish Russia for election meddling.

The Treasury Department accused the Russian military intelligence agency, the GRU, and Russia’s military of interfering in the 2016 election. It also said they were directly responsible for the NotPetya cyberattack, which caused billions of dollars in damages across Europe in June.

U.S. national security officials also told reporters that the FBI, along with the Homeland Security Department and intelligence agencies, have concluded that Russian intelligence and other agencies were behind attacks on some parts of the U.S. energy sector, including grids, dams, and factories.

The Russians “conducted network reconnaissance” of industrial-control systems that run U.S. factories and the electricity grid, said the officials, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.

The Treasury Department announcement named the Internet Research Agency, a St. Petersburg company known informally as the “Russian troll factory” for its efforts to create fake accounts on Facebook and other social-media platforms.

The company, and the man believed to be its financier, Yevgeny Prigozhin, were indicted by Mueller last month on conspiracy and other charges.

Earlier, the United States joined Britain, France, and Germany in a strongly worded statement that accused Russia of responsibility for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter, who remain hospitalized in Britain after being exposed to a powerful nerve agent.

“This use of a military-grade nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia, constitutes the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War,” leaders of the four countries said.

President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, was holding a meeting with his Security Council, amid sharply rising tensions with London over the poisoning incident.

Members of European Parliament (MEPs) have approved a new EU corporate tax pan in which firms would be taxed where they earn their profits under a proposed harmonized corporate tax system which uses the online activities of digital firms to calculate their tax bills.

The “Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base” (CCCTB) – part of a wide-ranging proposal to create a single, clear and fair EU corporate tax regime – was backed by MEPs on Thursday by 438 votes to 145 votes, with 69 abstentions.

A separate, complementary measure that creates the basis for the harmonized corporate tax system – the Common Corporate Tax Base – was approved by 451 votes to 141, with 59 abstentions.

“This is a fabulous opportunity to make a giant leap in the field of corporate taxation; not only would this legislation create a model that is more suitable to today’s economies through the taxing of the digital economy, but it would also halt unfettered competition between corporate tax systems within the single market, by targeting profits where they are made,” said rapporteur on CCCTB, Alain Lamassoure (EPP, FR)

“Digital presence” in a country to determine taxable profits

“National and EU leaders understand that the current corporate tax system is outdated and leaves citizens and small companies worse off. International action is needed to turn the tide. The EU is our best chance to make our tax system more just and more modern,” said rapporteur on CCTB, Paul Tang (S&D, NL)

Together, the two measures are aimed at plugging the gaps which have allowed some digital and global companies to drastically reduce their tax bills or avoid paying taxes where they create their profits. This would partly be achieved through proposed benchmarks which would identify whether a firm has a “digital presence” within an EU member state, and is therefore liable for tax.

Parliament also wants the EU Commission to set those benchmarks (such as the number of users or the volume of digital content collected) to produce a clearer picture of where a company generates its profits. Personal data is a highly valuable asset mined by companies like Facebook, Amazon and Google to create their wealth, but it is currently not considered when calculating their tax liabilities.

One-stop shop for tax

Companies would calculate their tax bills by adding up the profits and losses of their constituent companies in all EU member states. The resulting tax would then be shared between member states depending on where the profits were generated. The aim is to stamp out the current practice of firms moving their tax base to low-tax jurisdictions.

Once the proposals take effect, a single set of tax rules would apply in all member states. Firms would no longer have to deal with 28 different sets of national rules, and would only be accountable to a single tax administration (a one-stop shop).

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has called on the European Commission to fight violent and discriminatory online content more effectively

The EESC acknowledges the Commission’s Communication Tackling Illegal Content Online – Towards and enhanced responsibility of online platforms as a first and useful step but is not satisfied with its scope. It therefore calls on the Commission to establish programmes and effective measures to provide a stable and consistent legal framework for the efficient removal of illegal content.

The EESC also considers the cases of illegal content mentioned in the Communication as too narrow and proposes to review and catalogue them in order to achieve greater inclusiveness rather than limit them to the explicitly mentioned ones (terrorism, xenophobic speech, child sexual abuse material). For instance, malicious defamation and dissemination of material that violates human dignity or contributes to gender violence should also be included.

“Spreading illegal content must be nipped in the bud”, said Bernardo Hernández Bataller when presenting his opinion on Illegal content/online platforms, adopted at the EESC plenary on 14 March 2018.

This is why the EESC also proposes to pay special attention to the development, processing and dissemination of purely informative content which appears – at a first glance – legal but is hiding illegal.

The focus should also be extended to anything that relates to mega data and the benefits that online platforms obtain by exploiting this data.

Illegal content is a complex and cross-cutting issue that needs to be tackled form a range of perspectives:

“Firstly, it is important to assess the impact of illegal online content and secondly, we need to harmonize the way it is dealt with in the legal framework of the Member States. When we talk about the adoption of criteria and measures, the starting point must be that what is forbidden in the real world must also be forbidden in the virtual world. We need to put a stop to illegal and inhuman content,” explained the rapporteur.

“Publishing illegal content, hate speech or incitement to terrorism is not a peccadillo. In order to avoid, combat and remove such material, we need to strengthen the measures. This is also important in order to protect minors”, said Mr Bataller.

Given the impact that digital platforms already have on our daily life and the risks they pose, it is essential to have clear and harmonised legislation all over Europe. “We need a healthy mix between regulatory measures and self-regulatory measures”, emphasised Mr Bataller.

The EESC believes that online platforms themselves should provide users with the tools to display fake news and thus make other users aware that the veracity of the content has been put into question.

Due to the potential consequences of too much concentration of economic power, the economic growth of some digital platforms also deserves increased vigilance.

Last but not least, the EESC believes that for a more coherent approach the E-Commerce Directive, the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and the Directive on Misleading and Comparative Advertising should be revised.

By Sibilla Bondolfi

The trial of a quadruple murderer has reignited the debate on lifelong imprisonment in Switzerland, where ‘life’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘until death’, and dangerous repeat offenders sometimes walk free.

In the United States, courts can pass prison sentences of more than 100 years. Regardless of the age of the defendant at the time of the crime, he or she may be placed behind bars and prevented from harming anyone outside of the prison.

It’s different in Switzerland. Yes, the criminal code provides for a “punishment of lifelong deprivation of liberty” for especially serious crimes such as murder, rape, hostage-taking or genocide. But that doesn’t mean the defendant will remain in prison until the end of his or her days. Conditional release can occur after 15 years, and in certain cases, even after ten years.

The problem is that even if the defendant carries out the sentence for the crime, paid his or her debt to society and regained the right to live freely, he or she can still represent a danger to society.

The example of Erich Hauert is still remembered. in 1983, he was condemned to life for 11 rapes and two murders. But after several years, his sentence was softened, and during an unaccompanied leave in 1993, he raped and murdered a young woman.

The people vote for life imprisonment

In February 1996, another recidivist raped a young girl of 13, strangled her and abandoned her in an icy creek. She was only able to survive by pretending to be dead.

The victim’s mother and godmother launched a popular initiative calling for especially dangerous offenders who commit sexual crimes to be imprisoned for life, for reasons of public safety.

In 2004, against the recommendation of the government, parliament and judicial experts, the Swiss people accepted the initiative, entitled “For Life Imprisonment”.

Other European countries have also reintroduced life imprisonment in recent years. After the Second World War, many had abolished it out of respect for the rule of law.

Two types of imprisonment

Today, there are in theory two ways to keep dangerous criminals in prison for security reasons in Switzerland, even if they have carried out their sentences.

– Normal imprisonment. If a court considers the person to be dangerous, they can be kept in prison for an indeterminate period. But the case will be regularly re-examined and the perpetrator can still be released conditionally as soon as it is determined that they no longer present a threat.

– Life imprisonment. For those having committed particularly serious acts, who represent a high risk of re-offending and who are considered to be untreatable, the court can pass a life sentence. The case is not re-examined and the condemned can only be released if new scientific information makes therapy possible, such that the individual no longer presents a danger to society.

The Federal Court cancels all life sentences

But in practice, only normal imprisonment is applied. Until now, the Swiss Federal Court, the highest court in the country, has lifted all life sentences. Currently, only one criminal in Switzerland is imprisoned for life in accordance with the initiative, and he had not appealed his sentence.

The authorities have nevertheless become more prudent with “normal” imprisonment releases. In the past 14 years, they have released each year on average 2% of prisoners. Extreme criminals with a high risk of recidivism remain effectively behind bars.

Translated from French by Celia Luterbacher

Efforts to sustainably manage fisheries will also reduce bycatch, a new study suggests. The study further highlights key species that will benefit from more sustainable fishing approaches.

Recent studies suggest that more than half of the world’s fisheries are being overfished, and that rebuilding these fisheries could increase global fishing yields by roughly 15%, increasing associated profits by as much as 80%.

Fisheries also affect many protected, non-target species that are incidentally caught (a phenomenon known as “bycatch”); among bycatch species are megafauna such as marine mammals, sea turtles, seabirds, and sharks.

Matthew Burgess and colleagues sought to explore how reducing the extent of current fisheries might affect species that are typically caught as bycatch.

They looked at estimates of the changes in fishing pressure needed to maximize long-term profits (termed “maximum economic yield,” or MEY), comparing the data to the changes in bycatch mortality needed to reverse ongoing declines in several bycatch populations.

These species included nine marine mammal, six sea turtle, and three seabird populations that are considered endangered and are particularly threatened by the possibility of becoming bycatch.

Results by Burgess et al. suggest that managing fish stocks sustainably – in a way that still meets the fisheries’ economic objectives – will in turn halt the declines of seven to 13 of the bycatch populations (or roughly half of the populations evaluated in this study).

However, eliminating bycatch completely is insufficient to halt declines of one turtle and one bird population across much of the world, due to other factors, the authors found.

U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., this week asked the Department of Justice to clarify whether they believe that an individual’s emails are protected from warrantless government searches under the Fourth Amendment.

The Fourth Amendment protects Americans against warrantless search and seizure by the government. The Department of Justice has long taken the position that these protections do not extend to electronic communications stored in the cloud, leaving Americans’ emails vulnerable to warrantless searches.

“The American people deserve to know if the Justice Department is going to defend and enforce protections under the Fourth Amendment that unquestionably apply to their online communications,” Wyden said. “It’s time for the government to provide answers about whether they will continue to prioritize their political agenda over the constitutional rights of Americans.”

“The Fourth Amendment stands as a shield that protects Americans from the government invading their private lives,” Paul said. “Americans deserve for these protections to extend to their emails and information stored in the cloud, and we are simply asking the Department of Justice in this letter to confirm what they have alluded to in court: that Americans have a reasonable expectation of privacy in this content, and it is protected by the Fourth Amendment.”

Since 2013, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook have all insisted on a warrant before disclosing the contents of their customers’ email communications. The Department of Justice has yet to challenge the position taken by these companies, and at an oral argument before the Supreme Court last November, a senior Department of Justice official seemed to acknowledge that the Fourth Amendment does in fact apply to email communications, indicating that the Department has adopted a new position on this issue.

Specifically, Wyden and Paul asked: Is it now the policy of the Department of Justice that email content is protected by the Fourth Amendment even when an internet service provider or email provider would be able to access that content while providing communications service? If that is not the policy of the Department, do you intend to correct the record for the Supreme Court?

The senators also asked: If the Department takes the position that the Fourth Amendment protects the content of emails, does it also believe this protection extends to other data stored in the cloud, such as photographs, personal documents, and other records? If not, why?

“NEOM is a dreamland for whomever may possess the ability and fortitude to innovate for all mankind.” With these simple words, a new era was ushered in the Arabian Peninsula at the official launch of NEOM by Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.

The acronym NEOM is composed of two parts: The first is derived from the Latin word neo (new), and, the second, letter m, represents the Arabic word for future: mostaqbal. Collectively, NEOM spells “New Future!” A place where innovative technologies call home, it’s where dreams come true. A place where ambitious and creative minds come together and compete in a knowledge-based society to bring about prosperity for all. A utopia on Earth, if you will. One of its many aspects, and there are quite a few, is to export innovation and secure a leading position for the country among technologically advanced and self-sufficient nations of the world. Through integration of national pride and scientific exploration into the fabric of an ancient society anchored deep in tradition and values, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia is entering a new era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) with gusto.

One such innovative approach is Project CODE. Project CODE is a Saudi strategic project based on the localization of current and future technology, where there are multiple ways used as neural computation and where quantum physics supports the development of visualization technique to present new definitions of future technology. That approach helps to create a framework technology on a strategic level, making Saudi Arabia in the ranks of owner states of cutting-edge technology strategy.

Through an accelerator dubbed Project CODE, NEOM shall impact developing technologies in an unprecedented way, based on a unique philosophy to introduce new paradigms and attain necessary capabilities to explore advanced technologies in the quantum realms. This path may very well exceed known limits of industry, trade, security, and defense. Think of it as a strategic initiative to ensure the necessary social and political transition for the kingdom.

To make this plan a reality the government has earmarked a colossal sum of more than $500B through its sovereign wealth fund, Public Investment Fund (PIF), in addition to domestic and foreign investors. The Project CODE vision for all funds are partly derived through intellectual property valuation of Project CODE. World renowned academic institutes, advanced research labs, and progressive think tanks will have an important role in the development of NEOM over an area estimated to be square 10,000 square miles in northwestern Saudi Arabia. This “civilizational leap for humanity” would not be imagined if it were not for Mohammed bin Salman’s ambitious vision, nor would it be possible without the support and guidance of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz. Today’s Saudi leadership is the most timely and progressive in the country’s history.

Project CODE aims to produce electronic coins (E Coins) to serve the supporting companies projects in Saudi Arabia, particularly in NEOM. E coins will be the lead off technology added and marketing control system, all requiring Intellectual Property (IP) rights and patents. The estimates of the IP value and patents will create 17 times the revenue required. Intellectually, Project Code will be able to form the Project Code Think Tank that will house the greatest thinkers on financial exchange and commerce with increasing rights to IP. To be sure, Project CODE’s future involves mathematical models. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is to prepare forward-leaning technologies in health and food, medicine, education, and energy formulas. In addition, Project CODE is also focusing on how restructuring the creative thinking necessary to function in a technological future. Clearly, intellectual property rights and patents are necessary and are occurring now.

Project CODE cannot thank Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman enough. He deserves credit for the forward-thinking vision of NEOM. His Highness is making important strides to making Project CODE is one of but many savvy components of NEOM’s future and is relevance to further development of a 4IR.

The author is the CEO of Project Code, part of the NEOM effort

During the leadership of the President of Azerbaijan, Mr. Ilham Aliyev and Mr. Vasif Talibov, Chairman of the Supreme Assembly in Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, the preservation of religious monuments has acquired a special priority and a constant attention.

The westernmost region of Azerbaijan, Autonomous Republic of Nakhchivan has a wealth of unique religious monuments that have resisted, prevailed over the brutal destruction taking place under the Soviet Union regime. Some of these religious monuments represent a global significance and have been restored only recently; they are located in the regions of Sharur and Babek.

The international community knows very little about the Heydar Mosque of Ashaghi Aralig Village, built in a territory of 419 square meters and inaugurated in 1996. The structure of the mosque is in a modern style that embodies Eastern architectural elements and has two floors. The yard of this mosque is surrounded with iron patterns decorated with botanical and geometrical designs as well as religious symbols. The ground floor is well equipped and destined for men to pray and the first floor is subsequently for women.

In the Heydar Mosque of Ashaghi Aralig Village, there are separate entrances assigned to men and women that lead to the main praying halls. Males use the southern door which is the main entrance to the Mosque, while women use the door in the western side of this red brick unique religious monument.

It must be emphasized that the mosque is a square shaped building with two thin minarets that generate a special architectural feature, sensation in the Village of Ashaghi Aralig, Sharur Region, and the thickness of its main walls reaches over 50 cm. The words “Heydar Mosque” are written with green glazed tiles in the dome and an inscription of the Koran is placed over the main entrance door. The walls of Heydar Mosque are painted with a red brick color from outside therefore scintillating a special appearance, while the trimming sides of doors and windows are painted with a bright white color.

The Village of Cheshmabasar, Babek Region is home of Heydar Mosque – a XX Century religious monument that adds special components to the collection of Nakhchivan’s religious architecture. This square shaped structure has 110 square meters of prayer halls, an opened site joining the hall from the western and northern sides, a combined room and an astonishing minaret.

The Mosque of Cheshmabasar has four stone columns in the center of its prayer hall were they grow narrower from the bottom towards their heights. The diameter of its round shaped dome is 9.5 meters. The porches built inside the mosque are designed especially for women to pray. Entering the inside porches will unravel to the visitors a rare opportunity to appreciate religious architecture that is astounding in Nakhchivan – Azerbaijan.

The big entrance doors of the Heydar Mosque have been constructed in the Northern and Western directions. In the southern wall of the praying hall there is an altar recess that looks like a mild extension; furthermore the main praying hall is enlightened thanks to large beautiful windows.
Another principal religious monument is the Heydarkhanli Mosque, located in the Village of Jahri, Babek Region. This architectural monument is built with square shaped bricks; its main entrance is adorned with burned beige rocks. This Mosque has been damaged during the Soviet Union period; it served as a warehouse where grain, wheat and corn commodities were stored for years. This is the reason why its restoration process has encountered difficulties that are inherited up to the present. The entrance from the southern side, in the Heydarkhanli Mosque has been divided by columns that furnish a special feature in the internal formation of the building. It must be noted that to the Northern and Eastern walls of the mosque there is a wide shaped pavement built by bricks; this is indeed a section assigned to women.

The altar of the Mosque consists of two extended and vast alcoves as well as spanned ornaments that join each other. The roof of this mosque is covered by wooden poles. The old structure, while having special architecture values is under construction and will introduce tourists with special architectural features that have been adopted originally in Azerbaijan and in other parts of Europe, in the later stages.

This XV century mosque has played an important role towards preserving the religious identity in Nakhchivan and provides international scholars with valuable information about the advent of Islamic Faith in the Caucasus and Europe. The Heydarkhanli Mosque was fully repaired in the 19th century and until today represents architectural features that ethnologists would highly appreciate; at a time when Nakhchivan has been selected as the 2018 Capital of Islamic Culture in the Asian Region, by the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Visitors, tourists are always welcomed in Nakhchivan – Azerbaijan, a country with a diversity of ecosystems, awesome culinary tradition, outstanding religious architecture and constantly enriched by highly talented people. With its innovative urban design and religious architecture, Nakhchivan has a unique metropolitan sensation and charm.

By Jim Garamone

Russia has not lived up to its promises on Syria, a senior Pentagon official said here Thursday.

Chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana W. White said Russia bears responsibility for the massive casualties of innocent civilians in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta.

White and Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the director of the Joint Staff, briefed reporters during a weekly news conference.

Forces loyal to Syrian strongman Bashar Assad have carpet-bombed the neighborhood, causing thousands of casualties since mid-February, according to the United Nations. Reports from the beleaguered area say the Assad forces may have used chlorine bombs in some of the attacks.

White stressed that Russia could stop the fighting in the area. “Russia and Syria are partners,” White said. “Russia enables the Assad regime. The situation in east Ghouta mirrors that we witnessed elsewhere during the Civil War. Russia agrees to a cease-fire, but supports a regime that continues bombing innocent civilians.” She quoted Defense Secretary James N. Mattis’ statement earlier this month that “Russia is either incompetent, committing illegal acts, or both.”

The Syrian civil war will end through only negotiations, and the United States wants all parties to work together to bring the warring factions to the table in Geneva, White said, but Russia is standing in the way of negotiations.

“The Russians made a deliberate … choice not to restrain the Assad regime,” she said. “Thus, the carnage in east Ghouta continues. Russia is morally complicit and responsible for Assad’s atrocities.”

The ISIS Fight

The fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has slowed in the Middle Euphrates River Valley, McKenzie said.

Some Syrian Democratic Forces have moved from the battle in the south to Afrin, where Turkish forces have surrounded Kurdish SDF forces. “That has had an effect on our ability to finish off ISIS in the lower Euphrates River Valley,” the general said. “It has slowed the pace of our advance.”

ISIS is not gaining momentum from the slowdown, but it has delayed “the inevitable conclusion” of the campaign, the general said. It is not so much the rank and file who have marched off to Afrin, he explained, but some of the senior leaders of the SDF. “We’re still engaged down there, fighting is still occurring, we’re still pressing them,” McKenzie said. “But it’s not going as fast as it would were all the leadership still down there to be able to assist in that effort.”

(EurActiv) — Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar resigned late on Wednesday (14 March), hours after a key investment project hit a legal obstacle, saying he had also had enough of obstruction from his coalition partners and pressure from trade unions.

The move comes less than three months ahead of general election which was expected in June. It was not clear whether Cerar’s resignation would bring the election forward.

In pre-election opinion polls Cerar’s centre-left Party of Modern Centre is trailing behind three other parties with a centre-left List of Marjan Sarec, which has never before run for parliament, being in the lead ahead of the opposition centre-right Slovenian Democratic Party.

Cerar said he would step down in the wake of a Supreme Court decision to annul the result of a September referendum that approved a 1-billion-euro railway project, the centre-left government’s biggest investment programme.

“The (railway project) took a new blow from those who want to stop the positive development of Slovenia,” he said. “I don’t want to be part of such stories.”

Earlier on Wednesday, teachers held their second one-day strike for higher wages. A number of other public sector employees are also demanding hefty pay hikes.

“Demands and suggestions have been becoming less and less feasible and even damaging to the state,” Cerar said.

He told a news conference that coalition partners had been trying for a long time to undermine projects, without naming specific parties or programmes. He said he would keep the post until a new government was formed.

The government coalition, which took power in September 2014, includes Cerar’s Party of Modern Centre, the Social Democrats and pensioners’ party Desus.

Croatian spat

The outgoing government urged the European Commission on Thursday to act against Croatia, which it accuses of breaching EU law, after Zagreb refused to accept an international arbitration ruling over a bitter border row.

Ljubljana accuses Zagreb of not implementing a June ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which allocated Slovenia more than two-thirds of picturesque Piran Bay.

Zagreb has refused to recognise the decision and urged Slovenia to start fresh negotiations on the border spat, which has raged since they both declared independence from former Yugoslavia in 1991.

The court gave both parties six months to implement its decision, but after the deadline expired in December, police patrols from both countries started fining fishermen from the opposite side over border and fishing violations.

“If the European Commission does not initiate a procedure against Croatia in the time framework (three months) set by the Treaty on the functioning of the EU, the government will itself hand the case to the EU Court,” the Slovenian government said in a statement issued late on Wednesday.

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker in January said the bloc was ready to step in to help resolve the dispute.

Juncker insisted the Piran Bay row was “not a big problem”, but he warned that other Balkan countries hoping to join the EU would have to solve their border disputes before doing so.

Girls who start puberty earlier are more likely to be overweight as adults, finds new research from Imperial College London.

The researchers say their findings, published today in the International Journal of Obesity, strengthen existing evidence of a link between the onset of puberty and a woman’s body mass in adulthood.

Previous studies have established a link between obesity and puberty, with increased bodyweight known to be a risk factor for girls starting puberty earlier.

However, these observational findings can be influenced by situational factors, such as ethnicity, economic background, education level, and diet, making it difficult to determine whether early puberty or these other factors are the cause.

But now this latest research shows that early puberty is itself a risk factor for being overweight, with girls who have their first period earlier more likely to have a higher Body Mass Index (BMI).

According to the authors of the study, their findings help to untangle these complex external factors and add insight into an underlying causal link, showing that early puberty has a significant impact on a woman’s risk of obesity.

Dr Dipender Gill, a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Fellow in the School of Public Health and first author of the study, said: “Previous studies have shown there is an association, but we didn’t know whether early puberty caused obesity in adulthood, or was simply associated with it. In our latest study we’ve generated evidence to support that it is a causal effect.”

In order to get around the effects of confounding factors, the Imperial team used genetic variants as a tool to look at the effect of the onset of puberty (known as age at menarche), measured as the age of a girl’s first period.

The genes in every cell of our bodies are randomly gifted to us from our parents when their sperm and egg cells fuse, with the outcome of this random jumble being the genetic basis of the embryo – influencing everything from hair colour to risk of disease for the rest of your life.

But single ‘letter’ changes to the DNA sequence of a gene can alter its function. In terms of disease risk, these single letter variants (called single-nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs) can result in a small increase or decrease in risk. The combination of variants of more than 20,000 genes contribute towards our cumulative genetic risk.

In the latest study, researchers employed a statistical technique called Mendelian Randomization which uses these genetic variants as a tool to show the causal relationship between earlier puberty and increased BMI.

Using data from 182,416 women they identified 122 genetic variants that were strongly associated with the onset of puberty – with the women’s age at first period obtained via questionnaire.

The team then looked at data from the UK Biobank, which holds biomedical information on hundreds of thousands of people, incorporating physiological measurement data with genetic sequence data and questionnaire responses. Specifically, they looked for the effect of the genetic variants related to age at menarche with BMI in a second set of 80,465 women from the UK Biobank, for whom they also had measurements for BMI.

Initial analysis revealed a link between these genetic variants and BMI, with those women who had variants associated with earlier puberty having an increased BMI. The researchers then tested for this same association in a third group 70,962 women, finding the same association.

Dr Gill, added: “Some of these genetic variants are associated with earlier puberty and some with later onset, so by taking advantage of this we were able to investigate any association of age at menarche with BMI in adulthood.

“We’re not saying that it’s a genetic effect, but rather that by using these genetic variants as a proxy for earlier puberty, we are able to show the effect of earlier puberty without the impact of external factors that might confound our analysis. We performed a range of statistical sensitivity analyses to test the robustness of our findings and they remained strong through this, so within the limitations of the study design, we are confident of findings.”

Previous research from the group has used the same technique to show that low iron levels are associated with an increased risk of heart disease, as well as showing that girls who start puberty earlier are likely to spend less time in education.

Future studies will use the same Mendelian Randomization approach to look at genetic variants in relation to drug targets for cardiovascular disease and stroke.

The technique is not without its limitations, and it is possible that these genetic variants could be influencing bodyweight independently of age at menarche, such as through altering metabolism or fat production. However, even after the team had removed any genetic variants that were also associated with childhood obesity (12 in total), they came to the same finding.

According to the researchers, it remains unclear how maturing earlier has a direct impact on bodyweight, but they indicate that differences between physical and emotional maturity may play a role. It could be that young women who mature earlier than their peers are treated differently or have different societal pressures than girls of the same age who have not started puberty.

Another explanation could be the physical effects of hormonal changes during puberty, such as increased fat deposition in breast tissue, which when established earlier may move them to a higher risk profile for higher BMI or obesity in later life.

“It is difficult to say that changing someone’s age of puberty will affect their adult risk of obesity and whether it is something that we can clinically apply – as it would unlikely be ethically appropriate to accelerate or delay the rate of puberty to affect BMI,” added Dr Gill. “But it is useful for us to be aware that it’s a causal factor- girls who reach puberty earlier may be more likely to be overweight when they are older.”

By James Reinl

President Donald Trump’s choice for director of the CIA has led some former spies to warn that the US could go back to deploying the controversial tactics it used to interrogate terrorist suspects in the decade after 9/11.

The US president chose Gina Haspel, a veteran undercover CIA officer, for the role this week despite a checkered past in which she has been accused of overseeing a notorious secret prison in Thailand. Senators and ex-CIA members have said that under her watch detainees at the site were subjected to waterboarding, a technique that involves water being poured into the mouth to simulate the effect of drowning.

Former CIA staffers told Arab News that Haspel’s rise could herald a return to the kind of detention methods that were a feature of the post-9/11 era, when suspected militants were held indefinitely at clandestine “black sites” and forced to endure everything from “rectal rehydration” and sexual humiliation to punching, slapping and prolonged isolation.

“She didn’t just follow orders, she was a cheerleader who ran a secret prison in Thailand where people were water-boarded,” Melvin Goodman, a former CIA agent-turned- whistleblower, told Arab News. “It was a terrible period in American history that we should put behind us.”

Trump courted controversy when campaigning for the presidency in 2016 by announcing plans to “load up” Guantanamo Bay detention center with “bad dudes” and reintroduce waterboarding. His decision to pick Haspel has inevitably led to speculation that he may now follow through on some of these pledges.

Haspel joined the CIA in 1985 and has previously served as chief of the CIA’s station in London and New York. She has many admirers among colleagues at the CIA, where she has been working as deputy director under Mike Pompeo, whom Trump nominated to be the next secretary of state on Tuesday after sacking Rex Tillerson.

But agents who served alongside her, and congressional officials, say that in 2002 during President George W. Bush’s administration she was responsible for a secret CIA prison in Thailand, code-named “Cat’s Eye.”

Two suspected Al-Qaeda militants — Saudi citizen Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri and Abu Zubaydah, a Palestinian who grew up in Riyadh — endured waterboarding and other harsh “enhanced interrogation techniques” at the facility in Southeast Asia, which was better known as Detention Site Green.

In 2005, also during Bush’s presidency, Haspel drafted a cable ordering the destruction of video footage showing Al-Nashiri’s and Zubaydah’s interrogations at the Thai site. The outcry over this eventually helped lead to a landmark investigation into US detentions and interrogations by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

In 2014 the select committee reported that waterboarding was “physically harmful, inducing convulsions and vomiting.” Zubaydah and Al-Nashiri are now being held at Guantanamo Bay.

Ivan Eland, a defense analyst who spent 15 years working for Congress on national security issues and for NATO and the CIA, told Arab News that Haspel was “unsuitable” for the role of CIA chief and warned that her appointment could mark a return to the “lawlessness of the Bush administration.”

He said that Trump and Haspel could work without oversight to relaunch Bush-era black sites and the so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” that were outlawed under President Barack Obama, who also described waterboarding as “torture.”

“They could do that under Trump’s unilateral power as commander-in-chief,” Eland said.

Other former CIA agents are less anxious about Haspel’s appointment. Paul Pillar, who had a 28-year career in US intelligence with postings in the Middle East and South Asia, said America was not heading back to the anti-terror hysteria that followed the 9/11 attacks.

“We didn’t use torture because we had a particular person in the job, we had torture because of an angry, scared national mood after 9/11 and different standards about how to properly handle suspected terrorists,” he told Arab News.

“Years have passed. There hasn’t been another big terrorist attack in the US. Our standards have changed, our laws have changed.”

Others noted that Trump has toned down his torture talk and done little to expand the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba.

Jeffrey Kaye, a psychologist and writer, remains concerned. Hagel and other Bush-era agents were never prosecuted and US forces still use “isolation and sleep and sensory deprivation in interrogation,” which amounts to torture, Kaye told Arab News.

Haspel does not have the job yet. She must be confirmed by the US Senate, where she will doubtless be grilled by Democratic lawmakers about her role at the black sites.

Her nomination faces an uncertain fate in the chamber, which Trump’s fellow Republicans control 51-49. She could be opposed by all the Democrats, including their top man on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner, who spoke of “a lot of questions” for Haspel.

Some Republicans object, too, including Rand Paul and John McCain, who was himself tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam and has said that Haspel must “explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIA’s interrogation program.”