U.S. to Restore Full Relations With Cuba, Erasing a Last Trace of Cold War Hostility

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Wednesday ordered the restoration of full diplomatic relations with Cuba and the opening of an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half-century as he vowed to “cut loose the shackles of the past” and sweep aside one of the last vestiges of the Cold War.

The surprise announcement came at the end of 18 months of secret talks that produced a prisoner swap negotiated with the help of Pope Francis and concluded by a telephone call between Mr. Obama and President Raúl Castro. The historic deal broke an enduring stalemate between two countries divided by just 90 miles of water but oceans of mistrust and hostility dating from the days of Theodore Roosevelt’s charge up San Juan Hill and the nuclear brinkmanship of the Cuban missile crisis

“We will end an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our interests, and instead we will begin to normalize relations between our two countries,” Mr. Obama said in a nationally televised statement from the White House. The deal, he added, will “begin a new chapter among the nations of the Americas” and move beyond a “rigid policy that is rooted in events that took place before most of us were born.”

READ MORE HERE

Analyst: We underestimated North Korea

(CNN) -- As the United States gets ready to blame the Sony hack on North Korea, a troublesome question is emerging: Just what is North Korea capable of?

Experts say the nation has spent scarce resources on building up a unit called "Bureau 121" to carry out cyberattacks.

North Korea has been blamed in the past for attacks in South Korea, but the Sony hack -- if indeed North Korea is behind it -- would seem to represent an escalation of tactics.

"I think we underestimated North Korea's cybercapabilities," said Victor Cha, director of Asian Studies at Georgetown University. "They certainly didn't evidence this sort of capability in the previous attacks."

Cha was referring to attacks on South Korean broadcasters and banks last year.

In March 2013, South Korean police said they were investigating a widespread computer outage that struck systems at leading television broadcasters and banks, prompting the military to step up its cyberalert level.

The South Korean communications regulator reportedly linked the computer failures to hacking that used malicious code, or malware.

An investigation found that many of the malignant codes employed in the attacks were similar to ones used by the North previously, said Lee Seung-won, an official at the South Korean Ministry of Science.

North Korea denied responsibility.

A spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People's Army labeled the allegations "groundless" and "a deliberate provocation to push the situation on the Korean Peninsula to an extreme phase," according to KCNA, the North Korean state news agency.

North Korea has similarly denied the massive hack of Sony Pictures, which has been forced to cancel next week's planned release of "The Interview," a comedy about an assassination attempt on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
READ MORE HERE

Cuba-U.S. relations change: Bells ring in Havana, anger erupts in Miami

Havana (CNN) -- Church bells rang out Wednesday afternoon in Havana, marking a major moment in history -- Cuba and the United States are renewing diplomatic relations after decades of ice-cold tension.

Word of the massive change was met with passionate opinions and some protests in the United States. And tearful celebrations erupted in the streets of the island after President Raul Castro announced the news in a televised address.

But there was uncertainty and some anger amid the joy.

Dissident Cuban blogger Yusnaby Perez tweeted that his neighbor asked him whether a change in U.S.-Cuban trade relations would mean that he could finally afford to buy meat.

Other dissidents worried that their concerns will now be overlooked.

Yoani Sanchez, a well-known Cuban blogger, decried what she described as a carefully plotted victory for the Castro regime in the swap of detained U.S. contractor Alan Gross for Cuban spies imprisoned in America.

"With the main obstacle for the re-establishment of diplomatic relations eliminated, the only unknown is the next step," she wrote in a column for 14ymedio.com. "Is the Cuban government planning another move to return to a position of force vis-a-vis the U.S. government? Or are all the cards on the table this time, before the weary eyes of a population that anticipates that the Castro regime will also win the next move."

Even with the next steps unclear, happiness spread quickly through a market in the heart of Cuba's capital, where crowds watched speeches from Castro and U.S. President Barack Obama announcing the news on TV screens. "In the audience," 14ymedio reported, "many threw kisses to Obama and hugged each other."

READ MORE HERE

What’s in the spending bill?

The $1.01 trillion spending bill unveiled late Tuesday will keep most of the federal government funded through next September -- and it's packed with hundreds of policy instructions, known on Capitol Hill as "riders," that will upset or excite Democrats, Republicans and various special interest groups.

So, what's in the bill? We've sifted through the legislation, consulted supporting documents from Democratic and Republican aides, and called out some of the more notable and controversial elements below. (If you want to review detailed reports on all 12 parts of the spending bill, click here.)

READ MORE HERE

Congress squabbles over policy but reaches spending deal

Washington (CNN) -- Top lawmakers agreed to $1.1 trillion government funding bill late Tuesday, just two days before federal agencies are due to run out of money. The negotiating breakthrough likely means the government will stay open as usual, avoiding a potential shutdown.

The release of the bill was held up until late Tuesday night as negotiators haggled over a series of controversial policy provisions.

"This bill fulfills our constitutional duty to fund the government, preventing damage from shutdown politics that are bad for the economy, cost jobs and hurt middle class families," said Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski, a Democrat, and Kentucky Rep. Hal Rogers, a Republican, in a joint statement.

"While not everyone got everything they wanted, such compromises must be made in a divided government," they said.

The measure bars the District of Columbia from using any money to implement a law the city recently passed to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Many Democrats on Capitol Hill maintain that Washington city leaders should be able to carry out a policy voters supported, but Congress has authority over the city's finances.

One of the provisions will allow for increased political donations, specifically the amount donors can give to national parties to help fund conventions, building funds and legal proceedings, such as recounts. Rather just giving the current cap of $32,400, donors would be able to give up to $97,200 for each of those actions -- for a total of $324,000 annually, according to Adam Smith, communications director for Public Campaign, a nonpartisan group that supports campaign finance reform.

The talks also yielded a compromise on a school lunch program championed by first lady Michelle Obama. The spending bill includes a measure that gives local school districts some flexibility on how they enforce nutrition standards for whole grain items on menus.

Some Democrats are already expressing opposition to a provision that repeals what they view as a key financial regulation that was part of a package of reforms for Wall Street banks. The spending bill does away with a rule that prevented banks from using funds backed by taxpayers to trade derivatives, which they argue contributed to the financial collapse in 2008.

READ MORE HERE

Senate report: CIA misled public on torture

Washington (CNN) -- The CIA's harsh interrogations of terrorist detainees during the Bush era didn't work, were more brutal than previously revealed and delivered no "ticking time bomb" information that prevented an attack, according to an explosive Senate report released Tuesday.

The majority report issued by the Senate Intelligence Committee is a damning condemnation of the tactics -- branded by critics as torture -- the George W. Bush administration deployed in the fear-laden days after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The techniques, according to the report, were "deeply flawed" and often resulted in "fabricated" information.

The report is reigniting the partisan divide over combating terrorism that dominated Washington a decade ago. Democrats argue the tactics conflict with American values while leading members of the Bush administration insist they were vital to preventing another attack.

READ MORE HERE

Court declares Virginia’s congressional map unconstitutional

A panel of federal judges on Tuesday declared Virginia’s congressional maps unconstitutional because they concentrate African American voters into a single district at the expense of their influence elsewhere.

The decision, handed down in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, orders the Virginia General Assembly to draw up new congressional maps by April — potentially launching a frenzied and highly political battle for survival within Virginia’s congressional delegation.

The order delivered another victory for Democratic plaintiffs hoping to break up black-majority districts, which they say have been drawn by Republicans who have used the Voting Rights Act to dilute the influence of minority voters.

A similar case in Alabama in which Republicans prevailed will be heard by the Supreme Court this term.

“We’re obviously thrilled with the results,” said Marc Elias, a lawyer on the Virginia case who represented two voters from the district where the unconstitutional redistricting took place. “The Republicans engaged in impermissible racial gerrymandering in a cynical effort to gain seats. . . . We look forward to the state doing a new redistricting to comply with the court’s orders.”

READ MORE HERE

Eric Garner Case: 5 Things You Need to Know About the Grand Jury

A grand jury in New York City is close to announcing a decision on whether to indict a white police officer in the case of Eric Garner, a black man who died after being put in a choke hold by the cop this summer.

Eric Garner: How the NYPD Is Preparing for the Grand Jury Decision

Here are five things you need to know:

Location:

The case is being heard by a grand jury on Staten Island, officially known as Richmond County.

The District Attorney's office is well-regarded, but remains the smallest of the five D.A.’s offices in New York City. It is also the only office headed by a Republican, Daniel Donovan. Staten Island is the only borough of New York City where the Republican Party has any real presence whatsoever.

Historically, police officers from nearby boroughs such as Brooklyn and Queens live or have lived on Staten Island.

READ MORE HERE

What We See In The Eric Garner Video, And What We Don't

The rough grooves of the Eric Garner story probably feel familiar to lots of folks by now: an unarmed black man dies after an encounter with the police, agitating old tensions between residents and the officers who patrol their neighborhoods.

The Garner case is already rippling out into broader political conversations, like the value of the "broken windows" strategy which targets low-level offenses that have made arrests climb in the city even as crime is near record lows. (Garner was initially approached by the police because he was suspected of selling untaxed cigarettes on the street.)

READ MORE HERE