PoliticsReutersTurn in your smartphones! How Mueller kept a lid on Trump-Russia probe
Operating in secrecy in a nondescript glass-and-concrete office, the team of prosecutors and investigators since May 2017 has unearthed secrets that have led to bombshell charges against several of President Donald Trump's aides, including his former national security adviser, campaign chairman and personal lawyer, who have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury. To protect those secrets from prying ears, the whole of the office suite in southwest Washington has been designated a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), U.S. spy speak for an area that has restrictions to ensure secret information stays secure. The restrictions, while not surprising given the team was investigating whether a hostile foreign power tried to help Trump win the 2016 election and whether his campaign conspired in the effort, have not been previously reported.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Firearm deaths of US school-age children at 'epidemic' levels, study says
Calling it an "epidemic," scientists in a new study Thursday announced an alarming increase in the number of firearm deaths of school-age children in the United States: 38,942 in those 5 to 18 years old from 1999 to 2017. "It is sobering that in 2017, there were 144 police officers who died in the line of duty and about 1,000 active-duty military throughout the world who died, whereas 2,462 school-age children were killed by firearms," said Charles H. Hennekens, M.D., the study lead author from Florida Atlantic University's Schmidt College of Medicine. The study lands on the same day New Zealand announced it was banning all assault rifles, high-capacity magazines and military-style semi-automatic rifles in response to the nation's deadliest massacre last week.
NewsAssociated PressEx-cop says he thought he saw a gun when he shot black teen
A white former police officer said Thursday he thought a weapon was pointed at him when he shot and killed an unarmed black teenager outside Pittsburgh last summer. Former East Pittsburgh Police Officer Michael Rosfeld took the stand at his homicide trial and insisted he was in fear for his life when he gunned down 17-year-old Antwon Rose II. Rosfeld, 30, got choked up and dabbed away tears as he recounted finding the mortally wounded Rose on the ground.
BusinessConsumer ReportsSome Pickups Lag in Passenger Crash Protection
Because of the results, CR's Overall Score for the Toyota Tundra fell below the threshhold for the vehicle to be recommended, leaving only the Ford F-150 as a CR recommended truck in the full-size category. Pickup trucks are becoming increasingly popular for hauling families as well as cargo,” says Jennifer Stockburger, director of operations at CR's Auto Test Center. That means assessments like this one—that look at passenger safety as well as driver safety—are just as important for pickups as they are for cars and SUVs.
WorldAFPPompeo to visit Western Wall with Netanyahu in break with diplomatic practice
US top diplomat Mike Pompeo planned to visit Jerusalem's Western Wall alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday in what would be a break with longstanding diplomatic practice. Two former US diplomats could not recall such a high-ranking US official visiting the site with an Israeli premier, which could be taken as tacit approval of Israel's sovereignty over the location in annexed east Jerusalem. The visit comes less than three weeks before Israeli elections in which Netanyahu is facing a tough challenge from a centrist alliance led by a former military chief of staff.
WorldReutersCitigroup to sell Venezuelan gold in setback to President Maduro: sources
Maduro's government has since 2014 used financial operations known as gold swaps to use its international reserves to gain access to cash after a slump in oil revenues left it struggling to obtain hard currency. Under the terms of the 2015 deal with Citigroup's Citibank, Venezuela was due to repay $1.1 billion of the loan on March 11, according to four sources familiar with the situation. Citibank plans to sell the gold held as a guarantee - which has a market value of roughly $1.358 billion - to recover the first tranche of the loan and will deposit the excess of roughly $258 million in a bank account in New York, two of the sources said.
- BusinessThe National Interest
Bringing the Sting: The U.S. Navy Is Getting New F/A-18E/F Super Hornets
David Axe Security, The Super Hornets would be the first new-build examples of the Block III variant of the F/A-18E/F. The Block III flies farther and carries more weapons than an older F/A-18E/F can do and also is stealthier than earlier Super Hornet models are. The U.S. Navy in mid-March 2019 awarded Chicago plane-maker Boeing a $4-billion contract to build 78 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets for the U.S. Navy. The Super Hornets would be the first new-build examples of the Block III variant of the F/A-18E/F. The Block III flies farther and carries more weapons than an older F/A-18E/F can do and also is stealthier than earlier Super Hornet models are.
NewsUSA TODAYHarvard University sued over allegedly profiting from what are believed to be the earliest photos of American slaves
Among the photographed: an African man named Renty and his daughter, Delia. Former professor Louis Agassiz, a biologist, had the photos taken to support an erroneous theory called polygenism that he and others used to argue that African-Americans were inferior to white people. Now, a woman who says she is a direct descendant of that father and child – Tamara Lanier, the great-great-great granddaughter of Renty – is suing Harvard over the photos.
- NewsThe Independent
JetBlue pilots who drugged and raped flight attendants continued working for airline without repercussion, lawsuit says
Three female flight attendants claim they were drugged and two of them raped by two JetBlue pilots during a layover in Puerto Rico, a new lawsuit filed this week in New York federal court has claimed. At least one of the female flight attendants said she was forced to work with one of the accused pilots after the alleged rape. After making their way to a beach in Puerto Rico near the hotel they were staying during their layover in May of last year, the women were offered sips from one of the flight attendant's alcoholic beverages.
PoliticsYahoo News VideoTrump signs executive order promoting free speech in higher ed. after complaints from conservatives
President Trump signed an executive order to “improve Transparency and Promote Free Speech In Higher Ed. The order comes after complaints from conservatives that college campuses are against right-leaning views and speakers.
WorldReutersDruze on Golan Heights reject Trump backing for Israeli sovereignty
Druze Arabs and Israeli settlers on opposite sides of the dispute over U.S. President Donald Trump's support for Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights agree on one thing - it won't change matters on the ground. The fertile hillsides of the Israeli-occupied Golan are scattered with villages inhabited by 22,000 Druze, an Arab minority who practice an offshoot of Islam. Many still have relatives on the Syrian side of the fortified boundary.
WorldAssociated PressEx-President Temer to give testimony in Brazil after arrest
Brazilian federal police expect to take testimony from ex-President Michel Temer and his former Cabinet minister Wellington Moreira Franco on Friday, a day after both were arrested as part of the country's sprawling Car Wash corruption probe. The probe has ensnared several top politicians and businessmen in the South American country, including former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is currently serving a 12-year sentence. Temer, 78, was arrested on corruption charges Thursday, with prosecutors saying that construction company Engevix paid him bribes in exchange for a contract to build a nuclear power plant in the city of Angra dos Reis in the southern part of Rio de Janeiro state.
BusinessAFPIndonesia's Garuda says to cancel 49-jet Boeing 737 deal after crashes
Indonesia's national carrier Garuda has told Boeing it will cancel a multi-billion-dollar order for 49 Boeing 737 Max 8 jets after the model was involved in two fatal crashes. The move could spark more cancellations from other major carriers, an aviation analyst said, as Boeing and US federal regulators get set to face their first public grilling by Congress since the deadly incidents. "We have sent a letter to Boeing requesting that the order be cancelled," Garuda spokesman Ikhsan Rosan said.
- BusinessCar and Driver
See Photos of the New 2020 Porsche Cayenne Coupe
Porsche joins competitors Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz with a coupe version of its Cayenne SUV at a modest price premium over the standard Cayenne and Cayenne Turbo. From Car and Driver
WorldAFPVenezuela arrests Guaido aide for 'terrorism' in defiance of US
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's regime defied the US on Thursday to arrest a top aide of opposition leader Juan Guaido, whom Washington recognizes as the crisis-hit country's interim leader. Interior Minister Nestor Reverol accused the aide, Roberto Marrero, a 49-year-old lawyer who serves as Guaido's chief of staff, of leading a "terrorist cell" bent on attacking the government's leadership with the help of Colombian and Central American mercenaries as well as "acts of sabotage on public services to create chaos." He said weapons and foreign cash were found in a predawn raid on Marrero's home.
- WorldMashable
Giant inland sea created by the disastrous Mozambique cyclone
Cyclone Idai left death, destruction, and a sprawling inland sea in its wake. The powerful tropical cyclone — which struck Mozambique last Thursday as the equivalent of a Category 2 or 3 hurricane with winds of around 100 mph — has left at least 150 dead and 600,000 in need of help in the flooded nation said the EU, though the Associated Press reports over 300 fatalities as of March 21 when accounting for deaths in neighboring Zimbabwe. The cyclone's widespread flooding — in part overshadowed by simultaneous and historic flooding in the Midwest — has left behind an inundated area some 200 square miles in size (518 square kilometers), with the inland sea reaching up to 15 miles wide, accordin...
- BusinessUSA TODAY
Fight against robocalls continues as AT&T, Comcast complete test of verified call
Using AT&T's Phone digital home phone service and Comcast's Xfinity Voice home phone service, the companies successfully tested the feature over regular consumer networks and not in a lab, the companies said. The system, which uses a method developed in recent years, verifies that a legitimate call is being made instead of a one that has been spoofed by spammers, scammers or robocallers with a "digital signature." The recipient network then confirms the signature on its side.
- BusinessBloomberg
Facebook Stopped Bangladeshi Ad Farm Targeting Utah in Midterms
The message: Facebook will be more prepared to take on misinformation and meddling in this year's elections -- in India, the Philippines, Ukraine, Thailand and other countries -- as well as the U.S. presidential race in 2020. The presentation details how Facebook has come to understand how networks of impostor accounts use the social network to amplify divisive ideas on immigration, guns and race relations. Since Russia used this strategy in 2016, the company says, it has built detection algorithms and involved more humans in the process, especially in cases where it needs to decide whether a user account is real or fake.
PoliticsThe IndependentTrump complains he 'didn't get a thank you' for agreeing to John McCain's state funeral, in latest attack on recently deceased war hero
Donald Trump has again attacked John McCain during a speech in which he complained he “didn't get thank you'd” for approving the late senator's state funeral. McCain, whom millions of Americans consider a war hero, died of brain cancer last summer, aged 81. Reportedly at the late Republican's request, Mr Trump was not invited to his funeral service at Washington National Cathedral.
- LifestyleArchitectural Digest
See How Snøhetta's Architecture Brought the Best of Scandinavian Design to the World
A new book surveys the AD100 firm, which has designed such high-profile structures as the National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion to lesser-known buildings like the Norwegian Wild Reindeer Pavilion
WorldReutersNew Zealand marks one week since mosque attack with prayers, headscarves
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will lead thousands of mourners expected to gather at Hagley Park in front of the Al Noor mosque, where most of the victims died. Ardern, who has labelled the attack as terrorism, announced a ban on military-style semi-automatic and assault rifles under tough new gun laws on Thursday. The prime minister is expected to be accompanied in the Christchurch prayers with community leaders and other foreign dignitaries.
WorldAssociated PressAnalysis: Victory over Islamic State may be short-lived
In a campaign that spanned five years and two U.S. presidencies, unleashed more than 100,000 bombs and killed untold numbers of civilians, the U.S. military engineered the destruction of the Islamic State group's self-proclaimed empire in Iraq and Syria. The Islamic State group is down, but it is not done. President Donald Trump on Wednesday flashed a color-coded map to illustrate what he called the imminent demise of IS in its last speck of Syrian territory.
- SportsTime
USC Just Named a New President. Here's What She Said About the Admissions Scandal
As the University of Southern California (USC) grapples with the fallout from a sweeping college admissions scandal, officials announced the appointment of a new president who vowed to bring lasting change to a campus that has been plagued by controversy. Carol Folt, who stepped down in January as chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), will take over as USC president on July 1, becoming the first permanent female president at the school. USC was one of several schools named in last week's indictment of wealthy parents who are accused of bribing athletic coaches and facilitating cheating on standardized tests to get their children into elite colleges, including Georgetown, Yale, Stanford and USC.
WorldAFPPound rises on Brexit delay; economic gloom hits European stocks
Sterling rose further Friday after Brussels gave Britain a Brexit deadline extension, but stocks dived as fresh economic gloom gripped trading floors. European equities tanked and the euro sank under $1.13 as poor eurozone manufacturing data rekindled fears over the state of the world economy, dealers said. The pound however pushed higher one day after European Union leaders agreed at a crucial summit to delay Brexit following a request from Prime Minister Theresa May.
- BusinessUSA TODAY
'It looked like an ocean': Severe Midwest flooding could last all spring
In neighboring Nebraska, 88 cities and 74 counties have issued emergency declarations. Vice President Mike Pence visited the state Tuesday and promised expedited recovery help through a federal disaster declaration. At Offutt Air Force Base, Col. Michael Manion, commander of the 55th Wing base there, said the base was recovering but that it was "obvious it will be some time" before the it returned to normal operations.
