Harvard Nutritionist: I've Always Lived By These 6 Food Rules For A Stronger, Happier Brain

BY DR. UMA NAIDOO

If you're burdened with constant brain fog and anxiety, you're not alone.

As a Harvard nutritionist and psychiatrist, I've spent decades researching how anxiety affects many aspects of physical health, including immunity, inflammation, diet and metabolism.

I always tell people that food and nutrition are invaluable tools that can help us relieve anxiety, boost focus and improve overall mental health.

Here are six rules I live by for a calmer, stronger and happier brain:

1. Eat whole to be whole

I use ingredients that are unprocessed, or as minimally processed, as possible.

Vegetables, berries, unprocessed grains and legumes, for example, are great sources of fiber, which is crucial for gut health and creating environments where good bacteria can thrive.

And complex carbs, like those found in vegetables, are processed more slowly by your body. This means that eating them can help you avoid spikes in your blood sugar. A healthy metabolism is a key factor in keeping anxiety at bay.

2. Consume a variety of colors

From the dark green of broccoli and spinach to the bright yellow of carrots and peppers, eating a wide range of colors delivers a steady supply of nutrients that are essential for proper brain function — and a calm mind.

But it's not just fruits and veggies. Herbs and spices like saffron, rosemary, turmeric, black pepper and basil also bring color, flavor and anxiety-fighting properties — in the form complex substances called bioactives — to your meals.

For example, curcumin, the bioactive found in turmeric, can help manage inflammation and high cholesterol.

3. Magnify micronutrients

Vitamins B-complex, C, D and E, and minerals like calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc are all important micronutrients that can help reduce anxiety.

Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency, so one of my favorite pairings is extra dark natural chocolate and a piece of orange or clementine. Cacao is a source of iron, but since it's from a plant, the vitamin C helps for maximum absorption. That's why it's such a powerful combination.

Many micronutrients have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that can protect your brain from long-term decline. They also help produce and regulate mood chemicals like dopamine and serotonin.

4. Prioritize healthy fats

Your brain is made up of 60% fat, and a steady supply of healthy fats is one of the most important factors in keeping it healthy and free of anxiety.

Olive and avocado oils are anti-inflammatory and promote good gut and metabolic health. They should be your main oils for food preparation and make up the majority of your fat intake. I avoid safflower, soybean and sunflower oils, which often contain unhealthy omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAS).

But healthy Omega-3 PUFAs (the fats found in seafood, nuts, and seeds) are crucial for reducing anxiety, preventing neuroinflammation, and protecting against neurodegeneration.

5. Avoid foods that spike your blood sugar

The glycemic index (GI) measures how quickly foods affect our blood glucose levels.

So high-GI carbs like refined wheat flour, white rice and other starches can spike your blood sugar, which can mean a burst of energy followed by a crash. This boom-and-bust cycle is correlated with anxiety.

You get natural sugars from fruits and vegetables, so added sugars — which are also high-GI foods and have little to no nutritional benefit — should be kept to a minimum.

6. Find consistency and balance

To create a nutrition plan that is right for you, pursue healthy foods that fit the flavor profiles and ways of eating that you already love.

Lastly, listen to your body. If you feel cranky, irritable, hungry, or jumpy after eating certain foods, try cutting them out of your diet. If something doesn't make you feel good after eating it, it's probably not good for you.

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A First-Time Author Lost A Book Deal After She Was Accused Of Trying To Sabotage Reviews Of Other Authors

Cait Corrain. Image via Penguin Ran dom House Canada

BY ANGELA YANG

NBC NEWS

A first-time author has been dropped by her U.S. publisher and her agent after readers and fellow authors accused her of posting fake negative reviews to a popular book recommendation website.

Many within the book community last week appeared to publicly turn against Cait Corrain, the author of the coming sci-fi fantasy novel "Crown of Starlight," after allegations surfaced that she made fake accounts on the Amazon-owned book review platform Goodreads to post negative user reviews online about fellow authors — a practice known as review-bombing.

Del Rey Books, owned by Penguin Random House, said Monday on X that it was "aware of the ongoing discussion" around Corrain, who goes by she/they pronouns, and that her book, originally scheduled for publication on May 14, is no longer on its 2024 publishing schedule.

Corrain's book agent, Rebecca Podos, also said she has cut ties with Corrain.

"Cait and I will not be continuing our partnership moving forward," Podos wrote on X. "I deeply appreciate the patience of those directly impacted by last week's events as I worked through a difficult situation."

The controversy, which has been discussed by book lovers across platforms, has put a fresh spotlight on the book industry’s ongoing challenges with Goodreads, which has taken on outsize importance in the publishing world for its ability to make or break new authors. Its importance has been complicated by the prevalence of review-bombing, a problem the website has struggled to contain, even going as far as to ask its users in October to report the "authenticity of ratings and reviews" on the platform.

Suspicion around Corrain's alleged anonymous review-bombing first emerged when writers noticed several of the same accounts leaving scathing one-star reviews on unreleased books from other authors. Many of them were also debut titles to be released in the first half of next year. Internet users also noted that the vast majority of targeted books were written by people of color.

Those accounts, which appeared to "like" one another’s reviews, seemed to be further connected when people discovered they all rated “Crown of Starlight” five stars and upvoted it across dozens of Goodreads book lists.

Corrain has made many of her social media accounts private, including those on Instagram and X. On TikTok, just one video from Nov. 30, featuring the U.K. cover art for the book, was up Monday.

Before she made her X account private, Corrain had written a post addressing the rumors. She reportedly claimed a friend had been behind the review-bombing and shared screenshots of Discord conversations between her and the alleged culprit, “Lilly.” But observers were not convinced — many pointed out disparities in the timestamps that make the screenshot conversations appear edited.

NBC News was unable to reach Corrain directly for comment through message requests on Tumblr and Instagram, which her website lists as among the platforms to reach her.

Podos did not immediately respond to requests for comment by email. A spokesperson for Penguin Random House also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A spokesperson for Goodreads, which has not issued a public statement on the matter, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment by email.

The platform, which launched in January 2007 as a website for readers to post their book recommendations, said in a blog post that it “welcomes a wide variety of reviews—whether positive or negative—but prohibits reviews that are not relevant to the book, harass readers or authors, or attempt to artificially deflate or inflate the overall rating of the book.”

Though the activity stretches back months, the allegations did not go viral until last week, when Canadian author and internet personality Xiran Jay Zhao blasted the situation on X, later sharing a 31-page Google Doc of screenshots capturing the alleged fake reviews and a now-deleted X post from Corrain.

Bethany Baptiste was among the authors who appeared to be targets of the review-bombing. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a lengthy post on X about Podos' dropping Corrain, she said that "it’s good to see Cait face the consequences of her own actions."

However, she added: "There was plenty of time for a private apology to be issued before a public announcement. I’ve spent days defending my name & reputation while Cait had the privilege to hide. Dropping her doesn’t absolve you."

Corrain continues to face professional repercussions.

Illumicrate, a subscription box for books, announced Monday that “Crown of Starlight” will no longer be included in its May box. Its specialty small press arm, Daphne Press, has also said it is investigating how best to proceed in light of the allegations.

Corrain's Goodreads author page is still public, and some people have already started review-bombing her title. “Crown of Starlight” currently has a 3.94 rating. A Goodreads user updated an existing review, writing: "Yeah, no. I definitely can’t support an author who review-bombs their fellow (mostly BIPOC) 2024 debuts. This is just embarrassing."

I Drank Diet Coke Daily For 25 years—Then Stopped: A Harvard Nutritionist Says I Did My Brain ‘A Favor'

A bobblehead of the author on a tower of Diet Coke. (Via NBC Los Angeles)

BY ESTHER BLOOM, CNBC

For decades, drinking a Diet Coke every day gave me a burst of caffeine and satisfaction.

I started popping cans of the stuff in the late 1990s, when I was a teenager. It made me feel like an adult. Once I was a proper adult, refusing to quit — no matter how many people told me I should — made me feel young.

I was a married, employed mom who practiced yoga, gave to charity, and voted in every election. Wasn't I allowed one relatively harmless vice?

Then I turned 40 and started thinking about my choices. That's common, I suppose, when you're caught in the tractor beam of Middle Age. I decided to make three changes at once: walk more, tweet less and, after 25 years, put down the Diet Coke.

A year later, I was three for three. I hadn't tweeted or scrolled since well before the bird app became X, though I "liked" various posts that crossed my path. My daily average step count was at 10,000 or more, up from 7,000. I got my buzz from coffee and tea.

And I didn't feel any different.

Nothing significant about my health, mind or appearance seemed to have changed. Had all this effort been a waste?

I decided to ask the pros — and was surprised to find them unanimous.
'You did your body a favor, and your brain'

"Your body is very happy," Michiko Tomioka, a certified nutritionist and longevity expert, told me in a firm and cheerful voice. "I am sure it is. Naturally, you are improving."

I got the sense that she wanted to supplement my lack of certainty with an excess of her own. But then, Dr. Uma Naidoo — a nutritional psychiatrist and faculty member at Harvard Medical School — agreed.

"You did your body a favor, and your brain," said Naidoo. "I think it's fantastic."

My sense of taste is no longer "tricked" by chemical surges of fake sugar, Naidoo said. Since diet soda is "hyper-sweetened," just a little bit of it can set off your taste buds and trigger a cascade of deleterious effects like cravings and crashes.

"This trickery that happens is just not good for the body," she said. Or the mind, for that matter: "Anxiety is also associated with sweeteners," which can disrupt the gut microbiome. (The Coca-Cola Company didn't immediately respond to CNBC Make It's request for comment.)

It was true, now that I thought about it, that I had fewer panic attacks over the past year. But why would a fizzy drink have that kind of an effect?

"The health of your gut is related to the health of your brain," Naidoo explained. "Once the gut is disrupted, the brain is affected as well."

Based on the research she's seen — which she laid out in her bestselling first book, "This is Your Brain on Food" — it's smart to avoid artificial sweeteners altogether. Instead, use small amounts of honey or dates, which at least have "some nutrition," said Naidoo. "It's food."
Health effects don't have to be visible to be serious

Other benefits of my new, more abstemious life may not be apparent — but they exist, the experts told me.

For one, I probably used to be dehydrated. "After you quit, you are drinking more coffee and more water," said Tomioka. That's a superior choice. "Water is the best beverage in the world."

Water helps with metabolism, for example, while Diet Coke can actively hurt it. People who regularly drink any kind of soda tend to gain weight, Tomioka said. Not just any weight, either: Long-term use of aspartame, the sweetener in Diet Coke, can lead you to collect "visceral fat," which is the "much more dangerous kind," Naidoo noted.

It can affect your insulin resistance, putting you at greater risk of diabetes, said Tomioka. Considering my father was pre-diabetic before he died, this one hits home.

Quitting bolsters my 10,000-step goal, too. The specific number of steps may be arbitrary, but walking more improves bone density while drinking diet soda can erode it, said Tomioka. That's due to the presence of phosphoric acid, which can also damage your tooth enamel.

The women in my family tend to stoop as they develop osteoporosis. I'm not exactly tall to start with. The last thing I need is a hunch.
My No. 1 takeaway isn't about bone density or diabetes

All in all, I was sobered by the long list of health effects both experts rattled off, which didn't even include a possible aspartame-cancer connection. I knew Diet Coke wasn't exactly barley tea or a turmeric latte. I hadn't thought it was like wine laced with iocane powder, either.

I'm happy to hear that my body is probably better off now. But honestly, I'm most proud of myself for another reason: I've shown that I can do something difficult and rewire my brain after 25 years.

Here I am, able to walk past a vending machine and not think about scrounging up quarters. It's good to know I can alter deeply ingrained habits. That alone helps foster a sense of relaxation and confidence, Tomioka pointed out.

Knowing that I can change, even or especially now that I'm in my 40s, brings satisfaction. As much as a crisp, cold Diet Coke at lunchtime? Maybe not — but satisfaction all the same.

A Latina Will Lead The Nation’s Largest Four-Year University System For The First Time

Mildred Garcia. Image via WIHE

BY EDWIN FLORES

NBC NEWS

The nation’s largest four-year university system has selected a Latina to oversee its 23 campuses for the first time.

The California State University system has selected Mildred García, who is Puerto Rican and a recognized longtime higher education leader, to be its 11th chancellor.

“I am honored, humbled and excited for this opportunity to serve the nation’s largest four-year university system and work alongside its dedicated leaders, faculty and staff, and its talented and diverse students to further student achievement, close equity gaps and continue to drive California’s economic prosperity,” García said in a statement about her announcement as chancellor.

The CSU system, whose institutions rank among the most diverse in the country, enrolled more than 457,000 students in fall 2022 and has nearly 130,000 annual graduates; it's the state’s largest producer of bachelor’s degrees.

García has been serving as president of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.

She was president of Cal State Fullerton from 2012 to 2018 and was recognized for improving graduation rates to record numbers and nearly tripling philanthropic gift commitments, according to CSU's statement. She was also the first Latina president of CSU Dominguez Hills, from 2007 to 2012, where she was credited with increasing retention rates for freshman and transfer students and eliminating a structural deficit of $2.8 million.

“Dr. García is a highly-skilled, dynamic and principled leader who has championed student success—especially for those students from underrepresented communities,” Wenda Fong, chair of the CSU board of trustees, said in a statement.

García was raised in New York City as a first-generation student; her parents came from Puerto Rico and she was the first in her family to earn a college degree. She earned an associate degree from New York City Community College, a bachelor’s in business education from Baruch College and a master’s in business education from New York University. At Teachers College, Columbia University, she earned a master’s and a doctorate in higher education administration.

She was part of the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics under President Barack Obama.

García will succeed interim Chancellor Jolene Koester, who’s led the university since May 2022, following a public scandal regarding former CSU Chancellor Joseph Castro.

García will begin her tenure as chancellor in October.

California Lawmakers Agree To Health Benefits For Immigrants

File Photo: People march on May Day, also known as International Workers Day, on May 1, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. Thousands are participating in multiple May Day marches and rallies around Los Angeles, calling for support of labor and immigrant concerns such as wage improvement, immigration reform and a citizenship question in the upcoming national census.(Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

BY ADAM BEAM

SACRAMENTO (NBC LOS ANGELES) -- The agreement means low-income adults between the ages of 19 and 25 living in California illegally would be eligible for California's Medicaid program.

California will become the first state in the country to pay for some adults living in the country illegally to have full health benefits as the solidly liberal state continues to distance itself from President Donald Trump's administration.

Democrats in the state Legislature reached an agreement Sunday afternoon as part of a broader plan to spend $213 billion of state and federal tax money over the next year. The agreement means low-income adults between the ages of 19 and 25 living in California illegally would be eligible for California's Medicaid program, the joint state and federal health insurance program for the poor and disabled.

The legislature also rejected a new tax on residential water bills that Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom had proposed to make improvements to drinking water systems across the state. Lawmakers instead agreed to use $130 million of existing tax revenue.

Security Experts Say Houses Of Worship Vulnerable To Attacks

Police officers guard the Tree of Life synagogue following shooting at the synagogue in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Image: John Altodorfer


BY ELIZABETH CHUCKH, DENNIS ROMERO

PITTSBURG (NBC NEWS)--After a massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue Saturday, President Donald Trump suggested armed guards belong at houses of worship — a safety measure the Jewish community has deployed for at least two decades, security experts said.

"If they had protection inside, the results would have been far better," Trump said after the shooting that left 11 dead and six injured, two critically.

Many security experts consider houses of worship "soft targets" — places that are especially vulnerable to potential attacks, and Jewish institutions often view beefed-up security as a necessity in a world that presents constant threats.

Deadly shootings across denominations in recent years include 26 killed at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, in 2017; nine at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015; six at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, in 2012; and three at a Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, Kansas, in 2014.

Last year, a firearms training school in Corona, California, added a "synagogue security" class to its list of courses. Previous private training sessions for synagogues were popular enough to offer a full course, said William Murphy, co-owner of Firearms Training Associates.

The synagogue security class includes how to use a handgun to stop an attacker, he said.

"We believe in an armed response," Murphy said. "There's no way to stop a crazy guy with a gun if there isn't a gun on site."

Chuck Diamond, a former rabbi at the synagogue who retired more than a year ago, said off-duty police are hired to work security during the high holidays in the fall, but otherwisethere are no guards, and the entrance is open during sabbath.

"It's a nice community," he said.

Jewish institutions have long been targets for domestic terrorists and often deploy armed security, said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, social action director at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.

It's a policy that gained new urgency after the 1999 shooting at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles that wounded five, including three young children. Many Jewish institutions beefed up security, and the Los Angeles Police Department increased patrols of houses of worship.

"The wake-up call back then definitely had an impact on Jewish institutions," Cooper said.

But, he added, there probably will always be softer targets.

In 1999, white supremacist Buford O. Furrow Jr. drove from Tacoma, Washington, to Los Angeles in search of victims but bypassed the Simon Wiesenthal Center because tight security there "sent him looking for an easier target," according to an account posted online by the center.

Cooper said high-profile security at two other Jewish institutions in Los Angeles prevented Furrow, now serving life at a federal penitentiary, from attacking them.

That's the point of good security, but it also means a determined attacker will eventually find victims, Cooper said.

"You have serious security on your perimeter, chances are, as with Buford Furrow, the individual might look somewhere else," he said.

Safdar Khwaja, president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, said his organization advised all area mosques to increase security after the synagogue shooting.

In the past few years, Khwaja said, "a lot" of mosques have reached out to ask for guidance on how to keep their attendees safe, with many asking if they should have an armed guard.

"It's a very sad state of affairs," Khwaja said. "Some feel that they're secure, but they may not be."

Cool Runnings: Nigeria

BY SETH RUBINROIT

TEXAS (NBC OLYMPICS) -- Crazy: an adjective Seun Adigun hears every day.

Crazy for trying to become the first Olympic bobsled driver from an African nation. Crazy for training for the Winter Olympics—in Texas of all places—while pursuing a Doctor of Chiropractic degree.

“Sometimes even I think I’m crazy for putting myself in these situations,” Adigun said. “But I remind myself that I’m not crazy, I’m just trying to maximize my opportunities.”

Like many millennials, Adigun discovered bobsled by watching the movie “Cool Runnings” as a child. But she did not see the sport on television until the 2014 Winter Olympics.

She tuned in because she knew all three push athletes on the U.S. women’s bobsled team—Aja Evans, Lolo Jones and Lauryn Williams—from track meets. Adigun and Jones both competed in 100m hurdles at the 2012 Summer Olympics, while Williams won a 4x100m gold medal in London and Evans attended a rival high school in the Chicago metropolitan area.

Inspired by the track-to-bobsled converts, Adigun decided to try bobsled for herself.

She earned a spot on the U.S. national team in 2015, with just three months of training. She had success during the 2015-16 season, claiming a gold medal on the lower-level North American Cup circuit and an invitation to compete on the top-level World Cup circuit.

Unlike most of her teammates, Adigun did not reside full-time at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid. She lived in Texas while pursuing both a Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Texas Chiropractic College, on a full ride from the FICS/Atlanta 1996 Olympian Scholarship Program, as well as a Master of Science in Exercise and Health Sciences from the University of Houston-Clear Lake.

Proudly describing herself as the “coolest nerd you’ll ever meet,” the aspiring chiropractor and exercise physiologist often delighted teammates with spontaneous singing and dancing routines.

“Seun is like a one-woman show,” said 2014 Olympic bronze medalist Jamie Greubel Poser. “Be prepared to be entertained anytime you’re near her.”

To stay active in Texas, Adigun built herself a makeshift wooden bobsled. She calls it the “Maeflower” in honor of her stepsister Amezee, nicknamed “Mae Mae,” who died in a car accident in 2009. With no blueprint, the “Maeflower” came together after numerous rounds of trial and error.

“It’s now a nearly perfect simulation of what we actually do on ice,” said Adigun, who pushes the “Maeflower” on a running track, often in front of an audience of perplexed onlookers.

She occasionally fantasized about competing in bobsled for Nigeria, the country she represented in track at the 2012 Olympics. She was born in Chicago, but both of her parents were born and raised in Nigeria, where she estimates that 75 percent of her family still lives. She fell in love with the country by visiting every year or two.

But Nigeria did not have an active bobsled program, and had never even sent an athlete to the Winter Olympics.

Then one day in summer 2016, Adigun was listening to the radio and heard “Arise,” a song by The Mavins that pulled at her patriotic heartstrings for the country:

Arise oh compatriots
Nigeria’s call obey
To serve our father land
With love and strength and faith
Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder
I love my father land
Nigeria

Adigun decided then that she would accept the ambitious challenge of creating a Nigerian bobsled program from scratch.

“My heart and my brain were in a war,” Adigun said. “My heart was saying I had to do this, that it is so much bigger than you. My brain was saying this doesn’t make sense, why are you even considering this.”

She first reached out to her U.S. coaches. She explained that she felt loyal to the U.S. program, but believed she could empower a nation by competing for Nigeria.

U.S. head coach Brian Shimer outlined the monumental obstacles, but provided his full support.

“I told her, ‘If anyone is going to be able to do it, it’s you,’” said Shimer, citing the out-of-the-box thinking of building the “Maeflower” to train in Texas. “She certainly has the determination.”

Adigun then recruited her push athletes: Akuoma Omeoga and Ngozi Onwumere. Adigun met Omeoga, who sprinted for the University of Minnesota, through a mutual friend. Onwumere was a sprinter at the University of Houston, where Adigun served as an assistant track and field coach.

Omeoga and Onwumere agreed to try the unfamiliar sport after just one meeting with Adigun.

“There wasn’t much convincing,” Adigun said. “I don’t know if they knew what they were getting themselves into at that point.”

As three recent college graduates with minimal savings, they desperately needed money to fund their training. They started a crowdfunding campaign with the slogan, “We proudly welcome winter to Nigeria,” a country with an average temperature of 77 degrees Fahrenheit in its coldest month.

“There are no winters in Nigeria,” Adigun said. “Nigerians only know winter from TV.”

The crowdfunding campaign received attention from international media outlets. Even John Boyega, the actor best known for playing Finn in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” shared a picture of the Nigerian bobsledders with his millions of followers on Instagram.

Money started rolling in, but not enough to initially afford a new sled and runners, which can cost upwards of $50,000. Instead they continued practicing on a running track with the “Maeflower,” and competed with a rented sled.

They made their competitive debut in a North American Cup race in Park City on Jan. 9, 2017, less than six months after forming the Nigerian team. They finished last, a distant 12.26 seconds behind the first-place team. The next day, 6.68 seconds separated them from first place.

“All the girls on the Nigerian bobsled team were eager to learn and carried a very positive energy to the track,” said U.S. driver Katie Eberling, who finished sixth in Nigeria’s debut race and claimed bronze the next day. “The more reps down the track, the more you learn and Seun made the most of her learning opportunities.”

Adigun, who has fulfilled her Olympic eligibility requirements and is expected to qualify for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics via the quota spot reserved for a country from a non-represented continent, is realistic about her expectations.

In her first five lower-level races, she was either the last or next-to-last finisher.

She hopes to have completed 100 career bobsled runs as a driver before arriving in PyeongChang. By comparison, U.S. driver Elana Meyers Taylor estimates that she tallies 150-200 runs per year.

“I am one of the most novice drivers on the track,” admitted Adigun, who will be 31 during the 2018 Games.

Her main goal is for the Nigerian bobsled program to survive so that future bobsledders will not be described as, well, crazy.

“This is my gift for my country,” Adigun said. “Success would be a legacy that would allow others to emulate my path.”

Pentagon Sends Team To Niger To Find Out What Went Wrong

BY ROBERT WINDREM AND COURTNEY KUBE

Chadian troops and Nigerian special forces participate in the Flintlock exercises with the U.S. military and its Western partners in Mao, Chad on March 7, 2015. American and French forces have spent years providing training and support to the militaries of Mali, Niger and other vulnerable countries in this corner of Africa where Islamic extremism has become entrenched over the past decade. Image: Jerome Delay/AP

NIGER (NBC NEWS) -- The U.S. military is still searching for answers on what happened in Niger two weeks ago when four U.S. soldiers were killed during an ambush, apparently by a branch of ISIS.

Now the Pentagon's Africa Command (AFRICOM) has sent a team to the African nation to conduct a "review of the facts," according to two U.S. defense officials. The officials are careful not to call the inquiry an investigation, but admit they simply don't know what happened on Oct. 5.

"We need to collect some very basic raw facts," one defense official said.

In addition to the Pentagon, a top Senate Republican wants answers. Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain of Arizona told reporters this week that the Trump administration was not being forthcoming about what happened in Niger.

"I want the information that the Senate Armed Services Committee deserves and needs," he said.

Some of the facts the AFRICOM team needs to collect, said one defense official, are: Where were U.S. forces when the attack occurred? Did they have adequate personal protective equipment and were they prepared for the attack? Was there adequate intelligence in advance of the mission and adequate response to the attack?

The official said the level of confusion during and after the mission was "tremendous." The fourth soldier's body wasn't found until nearly two days after the ambush.

Pentagon officials say operations in the region have already "tightened up" and there's been an operational "pause" while AFRICOM assesses the situation.

U.S. officials say the ambush was likely carried out by an ISIS affiliate called ISIS in the Greater Sahara. ISIS-GS is just one of several ISIS affiliates operating in the region.

The attack "has not been claimed by a terrorist group, but a group claiming association with ISIS, ISIS in the Greater Sahara, is likely responsible," said a US official. A second U.S. official called the group more ISIS "wannabe" than a direct affiliate of the Syrian-based terror group. However, said the official, it would be wrong to suggest ISIS-GS is unsophisticated.

The attack and its aftermath have become a political issue in recent days with President Trump under criticism for not initially calling the families of the four killed, for suggesting that prior presidents had not called the families of the fallen, and then for the alleged content of his call to the widow of one of the four soldiers.

The four Americans were killed Oct. 4 when a 12-man team of soldiers from the 3rd Special Forces Group was operating with approximately 30 Forces Armees Nigeriennes (FAN) on a train-and-advise mission near Tongo Tongo, Niger, just miles from the Mali border. The patrol was seen as routine and in fact had been carried out 29 times in the six months before the ambush, the Pentagon has reported.

Militants, both Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and ISIS, have been using a nearby route to travel back and forth into Mali and back to a base camp in Niger, the official said. The partner forces were working to disrupt the so-called rat line and interdict the militants.

The 12 U.S. soldiers went to the village to get supplies — food and water. As part of the mission, they visited village elders. Special Forces soldiers often conduct "key leader engagements," making contact with local leaders.

The team was split up, with eight in the key leader engagement and the other four with the vehicles.

At the conclusion of the meeting, as the Americans were leaving, they were attacked by 40-50 militants with RPGs and AK-47s. The attackers were "well-equipped and trained," one Pentagon official said.

The U.S. returned fire but the officials still do not know how many militants may have been wounded or killed in the firefight. There was a platoon of Niger soldiers nearby but U.S. defense officials cannot confirm reports that any of them were wounded or killed.

Armed French Mirage fighter-bombers arrived on scene within about 30 minutes. The planes didn't drop any bombs or fire on the attackers, but U.S. defense officials believe their presence helped break up the firefight.

One indication of the level of confusion after the attack is that the U.S. military has provided three different answers for who flew the medevac helicopter – first U.S. military officials said it was French military, then that it was the U.S. military. Now, they're saying it could have been a U.S. contractor.

If, as officials believe, ISIS-GS carried out the attack, it would be the group's first against American forces. In the past, they have carried out attacks on French counterterrorism forces.

ISIS-GS was established in 2015 after the group's current leader, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, broke from al-Murabitun (an al Qaeda-associated group) and pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and ISIS. U.S. officials said the group usually uses small arms and mortars to conduct ambushes and complex attacks.

ISIS-GS has not been formally recognized as an official branch of ISIS but its pledge of allegiance to the terror group was acknowledged by ISIS leadership in Syria in October 2016.

The U.S. has five outposts in Niger as well as a military presence at the international airport in the capital of Niamey, which is in the far west of the country. The U.S. also has a drone base in Agadez in Central Niger from which the U.S. can monitor militant activity as far north as Libya and as far south as Nigeria.

Million Man Snip: Men In Africa Flock To Get Circumcised To Protect Against AIDS

Maggle Fox, NBC News

A man waits to undergo a circumcision procedure at a donor-funded clinic in Kisumu, Kenya. Image: Tony Karumb/afp/gETTY

Nearly two million men have volunteered to be circumcised using U.S. funding in 14 African countries to protect themselves against the AIDS virus, health officials said Wednesday.

It’s a small step forward in the fight against the deadly virus, which infects 35 million people globally and has killed another 36 million people, according to the United Nations.

The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) said in 2011 it would help pay for 4.7 million or more voluntary circumcisions over the next two years.

Mpho Dorothy Seretse of Botswana’s health ministry, Jonathan Grund of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and colleagues in nine African countries reported on circumcisions in PEPFAR-funded clinics between 2010 and 2012.

“During 2010–2012, approximately 1,020,424 males were circumcised at CDC-supported sites in the nine countries,” they wrote in the CDC’s weekly report on death and illness. It takes a while to gather this kind of information and the report doesn’t say how many men were circumcised in 2013. But it notes the numbers jumped every year, from 137,000 circumcisions in 2010 to more than 500,000 last year.

Several studies have shown that circumcising heterosexual men reduce their infection rate by at least 60 percent and some studies show it’s by 65 percent or more. Africa bears the brunt of the AIDS pandemic; 70 percent of all people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus live in Africa.

And most new infections there are through heterosexual intercourse.

The United Nations calculates that if 20 million high-risk men were circumcised by 2015, 20 percent of HIV infections would be prevented over the next 10 years. That could save $16.6 billion in future medical costs.

Circumcision protects men for a number of reasons. The foreskin is full of the immune system cells that are the most vulnerable to the virus. The tender tissue can also get tiny tears and scratches during sex that give the virus an easier entry point. And men with foreskins are far more likely to get other sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea and syphilis, which, in turn, raise the likelihood of HIV infection.

So PEPFAR made agreements with 14 countries to focus on getting men circumcised. “During October 2009 –September 2012, a total of 1,924,792 (voluntary circumcisions) were performed in 14 countries using PEPFAR funding provided through U.S. government agencies,” the report reads.

Grund’s team focused on the results from 1,600 clinics getting PEPFAR money in Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. They found fewer than 1 percent had adverse reactions.

The nine countries have scaled up efforts to try to get to the PEPFAR goal of 4.7 million circumcisions by next month.

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Woman found living 'normal life' in Australia 19 years after abduction as an infant in SC

Photo courtesy of Exploited and Missing children

(NBC NEWS - November 23, 2013) An infant girl who was abducted in South Carolina 19 years ago has been found living a "normal life" in Australia, authorities said, and her mother faces federal kidnapping and other charges.

Savanna Catherine Todd, now 20, of Isle of Palms, S.C., disappeared in April 1994 as her parents were in the middle of a bitter divorce battle. Until earlier this month, she hadn't been seen since, William Nettles, the U.S. attorney for South Carolina, said in a statement.

The statement gave few details, saying only that Todd "has been located and found to be safe, healthy and otherwise living a normal life" and that her mother, Dorothy Lee Barnett, was arrested Nov. 4 in Australia.
Barnett — who is now 53 and had been living in Queensland under the aliases Alexandria Maria Canton and Alexandria Maria Geldenhuys — was denied bond Wednesday and was ordered extradited to the United States. No hearing date was entered.

A grand jury indictment unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Charleston charges Barnett with one count of international parental kidnapping and two counts of making false statements in passport applications when she sought to return to the U.S. in 2003 and 2004. She faces up to 23 years in prison if convicted.
According to police and missing persons records from the original investigation, Savanna was 9 months old when she vanished on April 24, 1994. Her father, Harris Todd, a prominent developer in Kentucky and South Carolina, had custody, but Barnett was allowed supervised weekends of visitation.

During one of those visits, Barnett persuaded the visitation supervisor to let her take Savanna to a birthday party unescorted, according to case records. The two never returned.

In court documents filed in the divorce proceedings, Todd alleged that Barnett drank heavily while she was pregnant with Savanna and that she had a bipolar disorder for which she refused to seek treatment.

Over the years, Barnett had been reported spotted in Texas, Australia, Switzerland, South Africa, Belize and Mexico. Nettles' statement gave no details about how Barnett was eventually found, but it specifically thanked the Australian Federal Police for its assistance.

Feds charge 89 people, including doctors, nurses, with Medicare fraud

By Jeff Black, Staff writer, NBC News

Attorney General Eric Holder speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington on Tuesday.

In a major crackdown on healthcare fraud across the country, 89 people, including 14 doctors and nurses, were charged for their roles in various Medicare scams that bilked taxpayers of some $223 million through bogus charges, federal officials said Tuesday.

Some people allegedly posed as doctors and wrote bogus prescriptions for drugs and psychotherapy therapy and then billed the government $12 million.

Others are accused of bribing Medicare patients for their ID numbers, then using those numbers to bill $20 million in home health care never performed or not medically necessary.

The lead suspect in that case used the money to buy luxury cars, including two Lamborghinis and a Ferrari, officials said.

About 400 federal agents were involved in Tuesday's arrests, raiding businesses, seizing documents and charging suspects in Miami, Los Angeles, Houston, New York City, Detroit, Chicago, Tampa, Fla., and Baton Rouge, La.

The dragnet was announced by Attorney General Eric Holder and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius as the latest in a series of busts over the past four years to crack down on fraud that is believed to annually cost Medicare billions of  dollars.

In all the schemes, profit was a driving force, officials said.

“Today's takedown is the latest sign we are beginning to turn the tide on Medicare fraud,” Sebelius said in a news conference.

Holder said during the four-year crackdown by a federal strike force that 1,500 people have been arrested in connection to schemes involving nearly $2 billion in fraudulent billings.

He claimed that $8 dollars are returned to the U.S. Treasury for every dollar spent on the investigations.

Still, he said the battle against health care fraud is being affected by the across-the-board budget cuts called sequestration, which have trimmed $1.6 billion in funding from the Justice Department in the current fiscal year ending Sept. 30.

"Unless Congress adopts a balanced deficit reduction plan and stops the reductions currently slated for 2014, I fear our capacity to protect the American people from healthcare fraud ... will be further reduced," Holder said.

Sebelius said the Affordable Care Act, widely known as Obamacare, gives the government more tools to combat fraud.

“By expanding our authority to suspend Medicare payments and reimbursements when fraud is suspected, the law allows us to better preserve the system and save taxpayer dollars.” Sebelius said. “Today we’re sending a strong, clear message to anyone seeking to defraud Medicare: You will get caught and you will pay the price. We will protect a sacred trust and an earned guarantee.”

In Miami, where 25 people were charged for their role in various fraudulent schemes totaling $44 million, federal officials allege that in one scheme three suspects bribed Medicare patients for their identification numbers, then used the information to bill the government $20 million for medically unnecessary home health care services.

“The lead defendant spent much of the money from the scheme and purchased multiple luxury vehicles including two Lamborhinis, a Ferrari and a Bentley,” according to a statement from Health and Human Services and the Justice Department.

In Detroit, 18 people, including two doctors, a physician's assistant and two therapists, were charged in various scams totaling some $49 million in false claims for medically unnecessary services, including home health, psychotherapy and infusion therapy.

In one Detroit case, three people allegedly posed as licensed physicians and wrote bogus prescriptions for drugs and psychotherapy services totaling $12 million, according to the HHS-DOJ statement. 

Tuesday’s announcement on the Medicare-fraud sweep was overshadowed by reporters inquiring about two other scandals involving Holder’s Justice Department: That the attorney general’s office seized Associated Press phone records in a probe of a national security leak and a DOJ probe into reports that the IRS gave extra scrutiny to some conservative groups when auditing nonprofit organizations.