Tuesday, 9 May 2017

Billy Gilmour: Everything you need to know about the Chelsea-bound starlet


Chelsea have won the race for one of the most sought-after talents in Europe, Rangers starlet Billy Gilmour.
Arsenal, Manchester United, Barcelona and Bayern Munich were all reported to be chasing Gilmour, but the 15-year-old has agreed to join Chelsea.
A “significant fee” has been agreed for Gilmour to move to Stamford Bridge when he turns 16 in June, but what do we know about Gilmour?

– Just to make you feel incredibly old, Gilmour was born on June 11, 2001, when Shaggy’s Angel was in the middle of a three-week spell at the top of the UK’s singles chart.
– Having captained Scotland’s Under-15s, Gilmour has already trained with Rangers’ first-team squad.
– Barcelona scouted the attacking midfielder while he played for Scotland Under-16s last year.
– He has already represented Scotland at Under-17 level, making his debut for the side last February.
– Gilmour is among the likes of Lionel Messi, Mesut Ozil and Paul Pogba in being sponsored by Adidas.
– While he is yet to appear for Rangers’ first team, caretaker boss Graeme Murty included Gilmour in the matchday squads for Scottish Cup clashes with Morton and Hamilton.
– Both Arsenal and Chelsea are understood to have given Gilmour the VIP treatment, but a trip to the Blues’ training ground convinced the teenager Stamford Bridge is his preferred destination.
Rangers boss Pedro Caixinha had spoken to Gilmour’s parents in an attempt to convince the player to remain at the Scottish club.
He said: “Billy is not only going to have a bright future in this club, but he’s going to have a bright future in football.
“I do believe that for Billy, the family, ourselves or even Chelsea or another club later in the future to receive a player on another level, better ready to go on this adventure, it is better for him to stay here.”
However, after the move was confirmed on Tuesday, Rangers released a statement which read: “The club’s preference would have been for Billy to stay at Rangers but when he made clear his desire to move to the Premier League it was important that we maximised the commercial value for him. We believe we have done this.
“The agreement will provide Rangers with a significant sum for a young player who has yet to play first-team football, and further significant amounts could be due based on milestones being reached. We are pleased with this outcome and believe this deal represents good value for Rangers.
That he was sought after by many Premiership clubs, and indeed a number of the largest clubs in Europe, further demonstrates the quality of player now being produced by the Academy. Everyone at Rangers wishes Billy well for his future.”

SOURCE: planetfootball.com

Obama warned Trump about hiring Flynn

By Jim Acosta and Jeremy Diamond, CNN

                  Spicer: It's true, Obama wasn't a fan of Flynn 00:51


Washington (CNN)Then-President Barack Obama warned President-elect Donald Trump in November against hiring retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as his national security adviser, former Obama administration officials confirmed to CNN Monday.
Obama warned Trump about Flynn during their Oval Office meeting on November 10, days after Trump was elected president.
    "Given the importance of the job, the President through there were better people for it, and that Flynn wasn't up for the job," a former senior Obama administration official told CNN Monday.
    Other former Obama administration officials said then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper didn't think highly of Flynn, and in fact was the person who recommended Flynn's firing as DNI in 2014. Flynn's focus was generally limited to terrorism and didn't know much about many other issues important for the national security adviser job, such as China, the officials said.
    But at least one former Obama official disputed that, saying Obama's concerns were not related to the firing of Flynn from the Defense Intelligence Agency but rather in the course of the investigation into Russian interference into the 2016 election.
    "Flynn's name kept popping up," according to a senior Obama administration source.
    The White House confirmed later Monday that Obama raised concerns about Flynn during his Oval Office sitdown with Trump in November.
    "It's true President Obama made it known he wasn't exactly a fan of Gen. Flynn's," press secretary Sean Spicer said.
    He said the concerns shouldn't have come as a surprise, since Flynn was an "outspoken critic" of the Obama administration's shortcomings on foreign policy.
    Spicer said if the Obama administration was "truly concerned" about Flynn, there are steps it could have taken, including suspending his security clearance.
    Flynn previously served as the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency under Obama until he was reportedly forced out of the post 2014 over internal disagreements over policy and management.
    Trump did not heed Obama's counsel on Flynn, bringing aboard the former military intelligence officer who supported Trump during his campaign as his national security adviser. Trump fired Flynn 24 days later when news broke of Flynn's conversations with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak.
    News of the warning comes as former acting Attorney General Sally Yates is set to testify before Congress on Monday about the concerns she expressed to Trump administration officials about Flynn's contacts with Russian officials, namely with Kislyak.
    Yates, in her role as acting attorney general, warned White House counsel Don McGahn on January 26 that Flynn was lying when he denied -- both publicly and privately -- that he discussed US sanctions on Russia with Kislyak. It wasn't until weeks later that Trump asked for Flynn's resignation, only after news surfaced that Flynn had misled Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with Kislyak.

    Trump: I feel badly for Michael Flynn 01:31

    According to five current and former intelligence officials, their concern started around the time Flynn went to Moscow for the 10th anniversary gala of the state-sponsored news agency Russia Today. At that dinner, the former high-ranking intelligence official was seated right next to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He also had contact with Kislyak after the trip.
    Former US officials were highly suspicious of Kislyak and his motives, and there were concerns Flynn didn't seem to understand the dangers in the conversations, the officials said. As was reported over the weekend, even Trump's own team was concerned enough to request a CIA profile of the Russian ambassador to help illustrate to Flynn he was taking a big chance in his interactions with Kislyak.
    Yates' testimony on Monday will be the first time she speaks publicly about her warnings to the White House about Flynn.
    The Senate and House intelligence committees are continuing to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election, including potential coordination between Russian officials and the Trump campaign or people close to the campaign.
    Congressional investigators have so far homed in on Flynn, Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, and Roger Stone, who informally advised Trump during his presidential run.
    While Trump asked for Flynn's resignation, he has not abandoned his former national security adviser altogether.
    Trump on Monday morning sought to get ahead of Yates' testimony, taking to Twitter to deflect criticism that he or his administration should have kept Flynn out of the top national security post from the outset.
    General Flynn was given the highest security clearance by the Obama Administration - but the Fake News seldom likes talking about that.
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2017
    "General Flynn was given the highest security clearance by the Obama administration -- but the Fake News seldom likes talking about that," Trump said in his first missive.
    "Ask Sally Yates, under oath, if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers soon after she explained it to W.H. Counsel," he tweeted.
    Flynn began advising Trump on national security in early 2016 and soon became a constant presence by Trump's side as he crisscrossed the country from rally to rally.
    He frequently introduced Trump on the campaign trail, delivering introductory remarks rife with criticism of the Obama administration's foreign policy and of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Flynn often led Trump supporters in chants of "Lock her up!" as he accused her of corruption and negligence in her use of a private email server.
    Trump came to value Flynn not only for his like-minded view of global affairs but for his loyalty throughout the campaign.
    CNN's Jake Tapper, Kevin Liptak, Pamela Brown and Gloria Borger contributed to this report.

    SOURCE: edition.cnn.com

    Nigeria Chibok abductions: What we know


    The girls freed in May were taken to the capital, Abuja, to meet President Muhammadu Buhari

    More than 100 girls are still missing after they were abducted from their school in the north-east Nigerian town of Chibok in 2014 by militant Islamist group Boko Haram.
    Originally, 276 were kidnapped, sparking one of the biggest global social media campaigns, with tweeters using the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.
    Some managed to escape shortly after they were seized, while about 100 have been freed in exchange for Boko Haram militants, in negotiations brokered by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

    How were they kidnapped?

    On 14 April 2014, Boko Haram militants attacked a government secondary boarding school in Chibok, Borno state, where girls from surrounding areas had gone to take exams.

    Inside school where girls were seized

    Many schools in the region had shut down. Boko Haram was targeting them because of their opposition to Western education, which the militants believe corrupts the values of Muslims.

    But Chibok had not been attacked before, so it was felt safe to use the school for the important final year exams. Many of the pupils were Christians.
    The gunmen arrived in the town late at night in a blaze of gunfire and headed for the school where they raided the dormitories and loaded 276 girls on to lorries.
    Some managed to escape within hours of their kidnapping, mostly by jumping off the lorries and running off into the bushes.
    In total 219 girls were taken away.

    Why were they taken?

    One of those who did escape told the BBC Hausa service the militants had said: "You're only coming to school for prostitution. Boko [Western education] is haram [forbidden] so what are you doing in school?"
    Three years on, parents are still desperate for news about their daughters

    The abduction and the blaze of publicity that followed came as Boko Haram was growing in strength and capturing territory.
    Captives from the villages they were taking over were generally put to work, the boys as fighters while women and girls were often forced to become wives of men in the group.

    How many have been released?

    For two years, little was heard of the 219 girls. Then in May 2016, an army-backed vigilante group in the Sambisa Forest, a Boko Haram stronghold close to the border with Cameroon, found one of the girlswith a child.
    Two other girls managed to escape in September 2016 and January 2017.
    The release of the 82 girls in May was a result of negotiations brokered by the ICRC


    October 2016 saw the first mass release with 21 girls being freedfollowing negotiations between the government and Boko Haram, brokered by the ICRC.
    It is believed that Boko Haram prisoners were freed in exchange.
    Then in May 2017, another 82 girls were freed, once again with the help of the ICRC.
    This leaves 113 girls who are still unaccounted for. It is believed that they are still being held by Boko Haram, although there are reports that some may have died.

    What has happened to those who have been freed?

    Some of the group of 57 who managed to escape on the night of the abduction in April 2014 went to the US to continue their education.
    But there was some criticism that those in the US were asked to tell and retell their stories "to the detriment of their mental, physical, academic and emotional wellbeing," psychologist Somiari Demm told the BBC.

    Zara John: "They gave us a choice to be married or to be a slave - I decided to marry"

    Another group of girls received scholarships to study at the American University of Nigeria. Eighteen are studying on the foundation programme there, while six are now on the degree programme, PRI reports.
    None of the 21 girls who were released in October have been able to move back home, and nearly seven months later they are still being held on a military re-integration programme.
    They did go back to Chibok at Christmas time last year, but they were held in the house of a local politician and the families had to go there to see them.
    The 82 released in May were sent to a secret location in Abuja after meeting the president.
    There are also concerns that those girls who go back to their communities may have trouble reintegrating.
    One girl, Zara, who was kidnapped by Boko Haram, though not from Chibok, told the BBC how she was stigmatised on her return because she was pregnant. She was called a Boko Haram bride and was shunned.

    When have the girls been seen?

    Three videos have been released to date. On 14 August 2016, a Boko Haram tape showed about 50 of the girls and contained a demand for the release of imprisoned militants in exchange for them.
    The group also said some girls had been killed or injured in government air strikes.
    In April 2016 a video was broadcast by CNN, which appeared to show some of the kidnapped schoolgirls alive. In May 2014, Boko Haram released a video of around 130 girls gathered together reciting the Koran.
    Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has said all the girls have converted to Islam and had been "married off".
    Last year, three women who claim they were held in the same camps as some of the Chibok girls told the BBC some of them had become fighters - though this testimony has never been verified.

    So what is being done to find them?

    In February 2015, the Nigerian military launched a major offensive against Boko Haram which had controlled large parts of the north-east of Nigeria.
    Nigeria was backed by a regional forces and has also had help from the US, UK and France.
    The militants have now lost nearly all their territory and have switched tactics to carrying out suicide bombings against the military and civilians.
    But if the remaining girls are still being held in one place, that has not been found.
    President Muhammadu Buhari said that the government "will spare no effort to see that they and all other Nigerians who have been abducted safely regain their freedom".

    How many other people is Boko Haram holding?

    The girls kidnapped in Chibok in 2014 represent a small fraction of the number of people taken by Boko Haram.
    Exact figures are hard to come by, but in 2015 Amnesty International said at least 2,000 women and girls had been taken since 2014, with many of them being forced into sexual slavery.
    But some of those have been freed.
    Amnesty Nigeria's spokesperson Isa Sanusi said that since 2014 his organisation has recorded 14 mass abductions and that it still gets reports of kidnappings on a regular basis.
    "Almost all towns and villages in Borno state have a long list of missing persons, mostly women, girls and young men," he told the BBC in an email.

    SOURCE: bbc.com

    US report: Building in Mosul airstrike contained explosives

    By  Barbara Starr , CNN Pentagon Correspondent                      Cmdr: Fair chance US airstrike hit civilians   01:57 (CNN) The ...