Obama Orders Review of Visa Program That Admitted California Shooter

President Barack Obama ordered officials Sunday night to review the "fiancée" visa program under which one of the San Bernardino, California, terrorists entered the country.In an address to the nation, Obama said the terrorist threat to the United States is evolving to one that makes use of home-grown terrorists radicalized by jihadi propaganda and persuasion."It is this type of attack that we saw at Fort Hood in 2009, in Chattanooga earlier this year and now in San Bernardino," he said — referring to the November 2009 assault on Fort Hood, Texas, in which a U.S. Army psychiatrist killed 12 people and the attack in July on military facilities in Tennessee, which killed four people.Tashfeen Malik, the Pakistani wife of Syed Farook, was admitted to the United States through what's called a K-1 visa for foreigners engaged to U.S. citizens — sometimes called the fiancée visa.In the two years since they married, Farook and Malik began plotting their deadly attack, authorities said.In his address, Obama said he has ordered the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security to review the visa program — as several of the leading presidential candidates have demanded.Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton — Obama's first secretary of state — called for a "hard look" at the program in a speech Friday in Des Moines, Iowa."It's a calculated balance between wanting to keep our country open for people coming and going and reciprocity with other countries, and being sure that we are being vigilant in protecting ourselves," Clinton said. "I think we have to make sure we do more to get the balance right."

Obama to Nation: Terrorist Threat to U.S. Is 'Evolving' but Beatable

In only his third address to the nation from the Oval Office, President Barack Obama reassured Americans on Sunday night that the United States is equipped to meet the dangerous and "evolving" threat of terrorism.

As U.S. and other Western responses have gained ground against organized, wide-scale terrorist attacks, "growing efforts by terrorists to poison the minds" of home-grown attackers are evolving, the president said.

"As a father to two young daughters who are the most precious part of my life, I know that we see ourselves with friends and co-workers at a holiday party like the one in San Bernardino. I know we see our kids in the faces of the young people killed in Paris," Obama said.

"And I know that after so much war, many Americans are asking whether we are confronted by a cancer that has no immediate cure," he said, before answering: "The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it."

Full Transcript: President Barack Obama's Address to the Nation

The president offered no new details on the investigation into the San Bernardino attack, saying that "so far, we have no evidence that the killers were directed by a terrorist organization overseas or that they were part of a broader conspiracy here at home."

Instead, Obama compared the mass killing to attacks in Chattanooga, Tennessee; Fort Hood, Texas; and Boston, where, he said, "terrorists turned to less complicated acts of violence" and where the Internet erased "the distance between countries."

Outlining the U.S. strategy against ISIS, which Obama described as a "cult of death" that "does not speak for Islam," the president cautioned against a "costly ground war," which he said would serve only as a recruitment tool.

"That's what groups like [ISIS] want," he said.

Obama said the United States and its allies would continue disrupting plots, targeting terrorist infrastructure and finances, and providing training and equipment to Iraqi and Syrian fighters. He said he would also pursue a cease-fire agreement in Syria, which would allow for a "common goal" between the United States and Russia to pursue ISIS.

At home, Obama said, the State and Homeland Security departments will review the visa program that allowed Tashfeen Malik — who with her husband carried out the San Bernardino attack — into the country to determine whether stronger screening is needed.

Obama also made a pitch for gun control, saying it "should be more difficult" to buy high-powered assault-style rifles — like those used in last week's attack — and that people on no-fly lists shouldn't be allowed to buy guns.

"What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terrorist suspect to buy a semi-automatic weapon?" he said. "This is a matter of national security."

Obama's remarks came amid an acrimonious political campaign that has seen Republican presidential contenders blast him over his handling of groups like ISIS.

On NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, Lindsey Graham said the president had been "overwhelmed by radical Islam," while Donald Trump suggested to the Republican Jewish Coalition Presidential Candidates Forum in Washington last week that "there was something going on" with Obama because he refused to use the term "radical Islamic terrorism," according to The Hill newspaper.

Obama's address appeared to do little to persuade his Republican critics. On Twitter, Trump grumbled that the president still "refused to say (he just can't say it), that we are at WAR with RADICAL ISLAMIC TERRORISTS."

n a statement, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus was a little more measured, saying:

"The path laid out by President Obama and supported by Hillary Clinton has not worked, and ISIS has only gained in strength. The attacks in San Bernardino should serve as a wake-up call for Obama and Clinton that the way to victory is not through the status quo but refocusing our efforts to defeat ISIS.

Obama has rarely used the Oval Office — the most symbolic representation of his authority — to speak to the nation. He announced the end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq from there in August 2010, and two months before that, he laid out his plans to secure American energy after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

A senior administration official said that after the Paris terrorist attacks last month, followed by numerous thwarted ISIS plots and then the San Bernardino shootings, Obama decided he needed to address "the significant concerns and very real and legitimate fears in the United States and around the world."

The choice of the Oval Office for Sunday night's address reflected "the seriousness with which we are taking the issue," the official said. At the same time, the address was meant to "step back and provide context for people," not to announce new policies or strategies, the official said.

Obama referred to history in reinforcing the message Sunday night:

"Let's not forget that freedom is more powerful than fear, that we have always met challenges — whether war or depression, natural disasters or terrorist attacks — by coming together around our common ideals as one nation, as one people," he said. "So long as we stay true to that tradition, I have no doubt America will prevail."

Loss to Pelicans shows LeBron James in need of more help

LeBron James sized up Anthony Davis and drove straight at him. He got Davis on his hip, and with two dribbles made it from beyond the 3-point line to the middle of the paint. But when you're 6-10 with the athleticism of a guard, you tend to make up ground pretty quickly.

With Davis back in front of him, James used the athleticism of the New Orleans Pelicans' young star against him. He came to a halt with a jump stop and got Davis to bite on a head fake, giving James just enough room to angle to the hoop for a left-handed layup to put the Cleveland Cavaliers up by three with 1:15 to go on Friday.

It was supposed to be James putting the finishing touches on a masterful performance. Cleveland trailed by 13 points with 6:52 remaining in the fourth. Five and a half ridiculous minutes out of James later and the Cavs were going to steal one on the road.

All told, James had 23 points, four rebounds, an assist and a steal in the final period, going toe-to-toe with the guy that 86.2 percent of NBA general managers said they would rather have over him to start their franchise.

It was poetic, almost. There was Davis on the court, the player the league seems so eager to anoint as its next best player. There was Ben Simmons in the stands, the college freshman whom some say has the potential to be even better than Davis. And there was James looking as defiant as ever with his play: You want the league to be yours? You're going to have to take it from me.

Again, it was almost poetic.

But the Cavs ended up losing in overtime 114-108, with Davis scoring six points in the extra period to James' zero.

It was the Cavs' second-straight loss to a sub-.500 opponent, with the 5-16 Pelicans accomplishing the same thing the 8-9 Washington Wizards did on Tuesday. And the loss dropped Cleveland behind Chicago for the top spot in the Eastern Conference for the first time in weeks. Which is why that for as epic as it might have felt to see James put up 37 points, eight assists and seven rebounds to Davis' 31 points, 12 rebounds and four steals, the bigger story is just how much the Cavs still need to do if they are going to come close to realizing their championship goal this season.

And it's why after the battle between the basketball gods was over, James evoked the son of God to make his point about why his team can't simply wait for Kyrie Irving and Iman Shumpert to come back to make everything better.

"I hope we don't think that way," James said. "It's never that way. When you get your guys back, you prepare just as you prepare before. It's only one guy in the world, ever, where everything will be all right when he comes back, and that's Jesus Christ. Other than that, you can't bank on nobody ... ."

If you think about it, Cleveland's 13-6 record would look even more pedestrian if James hadn't bailed the Cavs out of a handful of games already, like he tried to do in New Orleans. While the defending champion Golden State Warriors continue to rip through the competition at 20-0, the Cavs increasingly look like James and four dudes unable to reach his level.

"We needed to give him a little bit more help," said Cavs coach David Blatt.

Sure, Irving will provide that just by his gravitational pull on defenders based on his scoring acumen. Shumpert will provide it too, as Cleveland's best perimeter defender other than James.

But as James has emphasized all season, especially considering the way the shorthanded Cavs wilted in Games 4, 5 and 6 of the Finals, Cleveland has to start believing it has enough whenever it steps on the court. And it has to start playing that way too. Kevin Love was 6-for-16 on Friday and went 1-for-3 in overtime. J.R. Smith scored 15 points on eight shots in the first quarter, but during the remainder of the game, he had three points on six shots. Matthew Dellavedova, promoted into the starting lineup in place of Mo Williams because of his defense and ball-distribution abilities, had three turnovers against just four assists and let Jrue Holiday elude him for a game-tying 3 with eight seconds left in the fourth that erased the lead that James worked the entire quarter to build.

After it was over, James was asked why he felt the need to impose his will to get the Cavs back in it late.

"Who else was gonna do it?" James asked.

Until James has reason to answer that question differently, the Cavs will be in the same boat as Davis and Simmons: pretenders to the throne.

Hanson: Erdogan's Turkey is a dubious ally

Turkey often appeals to the West for support, given its longtime membership in NATO. Now, Turkish leadership is in a shouting match with Russia’s provocative president, Vladimir Putin, over Turkey’s downing of a Russian jet in probable Turkish airspace. Each country has accused the other of helping terrorists in Syria.

The problem with Turkey and the West, however, is that their relationship is decades out of date. What was once an alliance is now nothing special at all.

Barack Obama used to lecture reluctant Europeans about why they should accept Turkey into the European Union as its first Islamic member. Obama boasted of a “special friendship” with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. As president, Obama suddenly forgot the promise he made as a senator to formally acknowledge the Armenian genocide committed by the Turks in the early 1900s.

Turkey has become a favorite stop abroad for Obama to lecture his fellow Americans about their ethical shortcomings, from past treatment of Native Americans to their present supposed xenophobia over not accepting Syrian refugees en masse.

Yet the more Obama has appeased Erdogan, the more anti-Western and anti-American Turkey has become.

Erdogan has insidiously eroded Turkish democracy, free speech and human rights. He is turning the once-secular state into an Islamic nation. Thousands of Turkish soccer fans recently shouted “Allahu Akbar” when asked for a moment of silence to honor the victims of the Paris terrorist attacks. So much for NATO solidarity.

Under Erdogan, the new Turkish model is not the secular modern state of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Instead, Erdogan praises the ancient Ottoman caliphate, whose theocratic empire once ranged from the Persian Gulf to southern Europe.

When the Muslim Brotherhood tried to dismantle secular government in Egypt, Erdogan egged them on and was instrumental in persuading the Obama administration to adopt a disastrous policy of support for the Brotherhood.

Erdogan used to visit Europe and chide its leaders over their supposed mistreatment of Islamic immigrants. But at home, he has increasingly marginalized the few Turks who are not Muslims.

Small, vulnerable nations and peoples of the region — Armenians, Greeks and Kurds — used to be terrified of Turkish aggression. They are starting to become afraid again under Erdogan’s new Islamic militancy.

Erdogan demanded that the United States remove Bashar al-Assad’s tottering pro-Iranian, pro-Russian dictatorship. But not long ago, Erdogan did all he could to cultivate Assad, who was fueling terrorist violence against Americans in Iraq during the surge.

Turkey used to be a friend to Israel. Both countries were worried about Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism. The radical Islamic world hated secular Turkey for its past Ottoman colonialism almost as much as it despised Israel.

Yet since Obama took office, Erdogan has sought to provoke tensions between the two countries. Some of Erdogan’s diatribes against Israel have been laced with anti-Semitic disparagement.

Turkey now demands justice from Russia for violating Turkish airspace. But no country in the world violates foreign airspace as often as Turkey. A Greek defense analyst counted 2,244 times that Turkey violated Greek airspace in 2014 — an average of more than six violations per day.

The Erdogan government believes that the way to solve disagreement with fellow NATO member Greece over a few disputed Aegean islands and oil finds is to send up its much larger air force to bully the Greeks — especially after their recent financial meltdown.

Erdogan publicly boasts of his critical NATO role in curbing Islamic State terrorism. But privately, Islamic State terrorists have received a wink and nod from Turkish border authorities, given their shared hatred of Russia, Syria and Iran.

The Islamic State may be a primordial death cult, but Erdogan apparently believes that it is at least a Sunni, not a Shiite, killing machine, and is occasionally useful in fighting common enemies, especially the Kurds.

It is hard to envision any international crisis in which Erdogan’s Turkey would come to the defense of the United States. During the Cold War, Turkey was terrified about Soviet ships passing near its shores on the Black Sea, and about communist takeovers on its borders. In exchange for U.S. support, it often backed American efforts like the U.N. coalition that saved South Korea.

That’s now ancient history.

All that can be said for Obama’s current “model relationship” is that Turkey is strategically located, with a large and powerful military, and hosts NATO bases. Those facts make it wise to keep Turkey neutral rather than hostile.

Otherwise, Erdogan’s Turkey is an ally in name only. In reality, it is becoming a de facto enemy.

Suddenly, Turkey’s NATO membership is important to Erdogan in his dispute with Putin. But the real irony is that the autocratic Erdogan is the dictatorial Putin’s mirror image.

No two leaders deserve each other more.

NASA Takes New Photos of Pluto

NASA has taken the clearest close-ups of yet of the once-planet Pluto. The black-and-white images, which were taken by the spacecraft New Horizons, show craters, mountains, and glacial terrain along a 50-mile-wide strip. NASA says these are likely to be the best photos we see for decades.

Triple suicide blasts kill 27,says the security sources in Lake Chad

Three suicide attacks have hit an island on Lake Chad, killing at least 27 people, security sources have said. 

The region is under a state of emergency after a series of attacks by militants from the Islamist group Boko Haram. 

Chad has played a key role helping Nigeria recapture areas seized by the group in northern Nigeria. 

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

John Terry believes Jose Mourinho is the right man to lead Chelsea out of its current poor form, but the captain is uncertain about his own future.

John Terry acknowledges he is yet to decide whether he will remain at Chelsea beyond the end of his contract but has backed manager Jose Mourinho to reverse the club's dismal early-season form.

Stamford Bridge skipper Terry's current deal expires at the end of the season and the emergence of Kurt Zouma means his place in Mourinho's starting XI is far from guaranteed.

Speaking to former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher in an interview for the Daily Mail, Terry revealed he was happy to wait to determine his next career move.

"I think I'll wait, yeah. I don't know at the minute," he said. "As you get older, you start to look down that route. I'm doing my coaching badges at the minute. I'm looking at TV. I've done some bits for Sky and BT. I have never known [how] players can go week after week not playing. This is the first time in my career where I have not been a regular in the team. I couldn't see myself doing that for a year or two years.

"But, at the same time, I couldn't even begin to think about being somewhere else or playing for someone else. Chelsea is my club. I've been here 20 years. I've looked into coaching. Playing-wise, [if I went to another club] it certainly wouldn't be here [in England]. America, maybe. But physically I feel like I can still play. Do I want to play? Of course I do. But then decisions come in to it with your family. What if you go somewhere and it doesn't work out? Everything else comes into play, doesn't it?"

Defending Premier League champion Chelsea sits 14th after a poor start to the season, but Terry supports the club's decision to stand by Mourinho.

"If you look for stuff [that is wrong] you will find it," he added. "You could sit there after a game and find a million things. I'd prefer to say, 'S**t result, let's just move on.' I've had some managers who overanalyze things but nothing is there. Some will see that you have conceded goals at set pieces, so they will practice 20 corners. It does nothing. If anything, it does the opposite. It highlights things and makes people worry. So the manager has just been like, 'Let's get on with it.' The quality is there, everything is there.

"Listen, [Mourinho's] stability is massive for the club going forward. What the club have done is set a precedent and said he's the man to take us forward. He will do. This squad of players won the league last season. There is no difference. It's a bad run of form. Really bad. When you have been at the top for so long, it's horrible. You don't want to go out after games, you don't want to show your face in public. It's that level."

One Group of People Is Acquiring HIV in Record Numbers, But We Don't Talk About Them

World AIDS Day recognizes the everyday lives and particular struggles of people around the world living with AIDS and HIV, but one population has been long overlooked. According to recent findings from the World Health Organization that analyzed data from 15 countries, transgender women are nearly 49 times more likely than the general population to contract HIV. This means that, just for being who they are, they are part of the population at highest risk for acquiring HIV.

But according to advocates, the transgender community's HIV problem remains an "invisible" epidemic, as trans women are too often ignored in health advocacy, stigmatized for their diagnosis or criminalized.

Mic spoke to the Human Rights Campaign's Noël Gordon, a senior specialist for HIV prevention and health equity, who argued that transgender women "find themselves at the eye of a perfect storm" when it comes to contracting HIV. "A number of factors are largely out of their control that push them into situations where they're more likely to encounter HIV and less likely to be able to treat it," Gordon told Mic. These factors include transphobia and poverty, as trans people are nearly four times more likely to earn less than $10,000 a year.

Employment and housing discrimination are major factors that push transgender women below the poverty level. According to statistics from the National Center for Transgender Equality, trans people face widespread bigotry both in the workplace and from landlords, as its survey indicates "26% of trans people lost a job due to bias, 50% were harassed on the job [and] 20% were evicted or denied housing." In many states in the U.S., it's still legal to fire or evict someone on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Gordon explained that without employment and housing protections, many trans women engage in survival sex work in order to support themselves. "Through no fault of her own," Gordon said, "she's been pushed into a situation where in order to support herself, she effectively has to put herself at risk for contracting HIV."

Sheeneneh Smith, a transgender activists, speaks at a Boston rally held in honor of slain transgender community members. Source: Julie Jacobson/AP

Cecilia Chung, a senior strategist for the Transgender Law Center, argued the issue isn't sex work itself but the ways in which trans women's limited options continue to be criminalized. Prostitution is outlawed in all 50 states in the U.S., except for some counties in Nevada, and in over 30 states, people living with HIV can be imprisoned for nondisclosure, according to Chung. "That means that if someone has engaged in sex work and hasn't disclosed their HIV status, they can potentially be charged with a felony," Chung told Mic.

This sends a shameful message to transgender women about what it means to be HIV positive. "The law tells us that HIV is a weapon," Chung argued. According to her, this reinforces the idea that contracting the virus is a punishment for people's behavior. Instead of recognizing the structural factors that force people into difficult situations, Chung said that we too often engage in further "shaming and blaming," furthering widespread stigma.

These damaging ideas often silence transgender women, keeping them in the closet about their status. "If I'm a transgender woman living with HIV, I [might not] want my partner to know because I fear prosecution from the police," Gordon, of the Human Rights Commission, said. "I might withhold that information or withhold it from a doctor."

But as Morgan M. Page, a trans activist working on sex work and HIV issues, explained, the threat of imprisonment isn't the only reason trans women living with HIV might not be receiving the care they need. It begins with the lack of information and resources available to trans women. "There are almost no HIV prevention materials directed at trans women, and the ones that are might not be in the right language for people who need them," Page told Mic. "There are very few available in Spanish and only two or three available in English."

According to Page, the health care system is still struggling with how to treat trans patients. "Unfortunately, a lot of physicians working today treat trans women as though we're someone else's problem," Page argued. "They don't know what to do with a trans person." According to Page, this happens because medical schools lack comprehensive education or training for trans-affirming care, which leads to a "lot of misinformation ... because doctors refuse to educate themselves."

Due to the lack of supportive doctors and health providers in too many areas of the country, "trans people have to be our own doctors and our own experts," Morgan explained. "While we do share a lot of important and valid information with each other, sometimes we perpetuate ideas that have no scientific basis, simply because there aren't any doctors there telling us that it's not true."

One of the most pervasive myths, both within the medical community and among trans women, is that you can't take hormones and HIV medication at the same time. "That's scientifically untrue," Page said. "There are only about two HIV medications you can't take hormones with, of about 30 or more that are on the market. What ends up happening is that a lot of trans women have to choose what's most important to them. And at the end of the day, many trans women are going to choose hormones over HIV medication."

But as Chung explained, many health care providers, medical professionals and researchers continue to ignore these lived realities of trans women; even the census has yet to include transgender women in the survey. "It continues to tell us that we are second class, that our lives don't matter," Chung said. "It's easy to understand why we would feel angry to be in a room where nobody acknowledges us."