Reaction to AG William Barr's summary of Mueller report

Reaction to Attorney General William Barr's summary of special counsel Robert Mueller's report on the investigation of Donald Trump's campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. "While this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him," Special counsel Robert Mueller, quoted by Attorney General William Barr in a summary of the Russia investigation report. "No Collusion, No Obstruction, Complete and Total EXONERATION.

• 
  Mueller report summary: Trump campaign did not coordinate with Russia in 2016, no obstruction conclusion

  KGO – San Francisco
• 
  Mueller report: Trump claims Russia probe was 'illegal takedown' and suggests Democrats should now be investigated

  The Independent

Harsh rules, violent punishments under IS rule

For the millions forced to endure the Islamic State group's brutal rule, life in the "caliphate" was a living hell where girls were enslaved, music was banned and homosexuality was punishable by death. The jihadists applied an ultra-conservative interpretation of Islamic law across the swathes of Syria and Iraq that they captured in 2014, torturing or executing anyone who disobeyed. The fall of the last sliver of IS territory in eastern Syria marks the end of their proto-state, once the size of the United Kingdom and home to more than seven million people.

• 
  Declaration of victory marks end of 'caliphate'

  Associated Press Videos
• 
  Isis caliphate defeated: How did it happen, are they really finished, are they still a threat and more

  The Independent

Kamala Harris Calls for U.S. Spending Hike to Boost Teacher Pay

The California senator will tell the Texas Southern University College Democrats in Houston that she'd seek to fully close the pay gap for public school teachers in her first term as president, according to a campaign aide who wasn't authorized to discuss the plan publicly. Harris's campaign cited a study by the progressive-leaning Economic Policy Institute that found that elementary, middle, and secondary public school teachers earn 11.1 percent less than similar college graduates, even after accounting for benefits, according to 2017 data. The candidate's call comes amid a flurry of policy ideas from a large Democratic presidential field aimed at mitigating rising inequality and expanding the safety net.

• 
  How black women could give Kamala Harris a financial boost in 2020

  Yahoo Finance
• 
  Kamala Harris Tells Texas She'd Give Teachers A Big Raise

  HuffPost

Christchurch mosques reopen after attacks as New Zealand 'marches for love'

Smelling of fresh paint, the two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch where a gunman killed 50 worshippers last week reopened their doors on Saturday, with many survivors among the first to walk in and pray for those who died. At the Al Noor mosque, where more than 40 of the victims were killed by a suspected white supremacist, prayers resumed with armed police on site, but no graphic reminders of the mass shooting, New Zealand's worst. Aden Diriye, who lost his 3-year-old son, Mucad Ibrahim, in the attack, came back to the mosque with his friends.

Thailand's pro-army party leads in election; results delayed

A pro-military party was leading in Thailand's first election since a 2014 coup, with the unofficial result delayed until Monday afternoon likely to indicate whether junta chief Prayuth Chan-ocha can gain enough seats to remain prime minister. The Election Commission had been scheduled to announce the unofficial results Sunday night for the 500-seat lower House of Representatives but later said it was delayed until Monday, without giving a reason. But with Prayuth's Palang Pracharat party all but guaranteed the support of the junta-appointed upper house, the Senate, under new electoral rules the junta drafted, it looked in a good position to keep Prayuth in office five years after he...

• 
  Thai Military Party Leads Vote, With Prayuth Set to Keep Power

  Bloomberg
• 
  Military-backed party heading for surprise win in first Thai election since 2014 coup

  The Telegraph

Experts warn Midwest flood risk may persist for months

Even as floodwaters receded in hard-hit places in in the Midwest, experts warned Saturday that with plenty of snow still left to melt in northern states, the relief may only be temporary. Rainfall and some snowmelt spurred flooding in recent weeks that's blamed in three deaths so far, with two men in Nebraska missing for more than a week. Thousands were forced from their homes in Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri, as water broke through or poured over levees in the region.

Want to see the poppy super bloom in California? Brace yourself for large crowds, long lines

Poppy fever has returned to Lake Elsinore, California. After tens of thousands descended on the town last weekend and caused major traffic headaches, city officials and law enforcement responded with a plan to require all weekend Walker Canyon visitors to ride a $10 shuttle from the Nichols Road exit. Hundreds gathered inside a vacant store to wait for the shuttles, which started ferrying super bloom fanatics at 6:30 a.m. The parking lot was already starting to fill up around 8:15 a.m. as drivers searched for empty spaces.

• 
  'It was like Woodstock': inside the town hit by super bloom mania

  The Guardian
• 
  Lake Elsinore super bloom draws thousands amid new regulations

  KABC – Los Angeles

Local officials applaud Gov. Newsom's wildfire emergency declaration

By declaring a state of emergency, Governor Gavin Newsom is able to forego a lot of the legal and environmental requirements to get things moving.

IRS Loosens Tax Penalty for Millions

In more typical tax years, most taxpayers must pay at least 90 percent of their federal taxes for a given year, or 100 percent of what they owed the year before, in order to avoid an underpayment penalty. The change comes in response to public outcry. As the tax season progressed this year, reports of taxpayer outrage at lower refunds and higher-than-expected tax bills suggested far more people than expected were caught unawares.

• 
  Tax Refunds Are Up This Year, But That's Not Necessarily a Good Thing

  Motley Fool
• 
  Behind on Your Taxes? An Extension May Not Be the Solution

  Motley Fool

Key players in the Trump-Russia investigation

The former chairman of Trump's campaign has been convicted in Washington and Virginia of crimes related to years of Ukrainian political consulting work, including allegations he concealed his foreign government work from the United States and failed to pay taxes on it. The White House said Flynn had misled administration officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, about the conversation and ousted him weeks later. Trump's longtime lawyer and fixer is at the center of not only Mueller's investigation but also a separate, and rapidly mushrooming, investigation into hush-money payments.

• 
  Awaiting Mueller Report, Republicans Have A Change Of Heart On DOJ Transparency

  HuffPost
• 
  Rep. Jerry Nadler on whether Democrats plan to keep investigating Trump no matter what's in the Mueller report

  FOX News Videos

Eichmann's captor, Israeli ex-spy Rafi Eitan dead at 92: media

Former Mossad spy Rafi Eitan, who commanded the audacious 1960 capture of top Nazi Adolf Eichmann, died on Saturday aged 92, Israeli public radio announced. Eitan, the handler for Jonathan Pollard, a US Navy analyst who passed Israel thousands of top secret documents, was himself wanted by American authorities for a time. "Rafi was one of the heroes of the state of Israel's intelligence service in countless acts for Israel's security," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

• 
  Legendary Israeli Mossad agent Rafi Eitan dies at 92

  Associated Press
• 
  Rafi Eitan: Israeli spy who led operation to capture Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann dies aged 92

  The Independent

New Zealand reopens mosques that were attacked; many 'march for love'

Smelling of fresh paint, the two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch where a gunman killed 50 worshippers last week reopened their doors on Saturday, with many survivors among the first to walk in and pray for those who died. At the Al Noor mosque, where more than 40 of the victims were killed by a suspected white supremacist, prayers resumed with armed police on site, but no graphic reminders of the mass shooting, New Zealand's worst. Aden Diriye, who lost his 3-year-old son, Mucad Ibrahim, in the attack, came back to the mosque with his friends.

• 
  New Zealand Mosques Re-open More Than A Week After Deadly Shootings

  Yahoo View
• 
  Muslims return to Christchurch mosque as NZ works to move on

  AFP

A Retired Brigadier General's Lessons from the War in Afghanistan

For the last several months, U.S. special representative Zalmay Khalilzad has been deeply involved in a negotiation with the Taliban—an effort that may or may not lead to a comprehensive political resolution of the seventeen-year-long Afghan conflict. For the sake of peace in Afghanistan, we should all hope that Khalilzad—a man of eminent experience who has worked on the Afghan portfolio for decades—can pull a rabbit out of his hat and close the book on this latest bloody chapter in Afghanistan's history.

Billionaire Tshuva May Herald Next Step in Israel-Egypt Ties

Delek Drilling LP, the Israeli energy explorer controlled by billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva, is considering buying a stake in an Egyptian liquefied natural gas plant to broaden its export footprint. Acquiring a piece of either the Idku or Damietta facilities, operated by Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Spain's Union Fenosa SA, respectively, is among the various routes possible for the Egyptian deal, the company said in its annual report on Sunday. Other options are buying capacity at the plants rather than equity stakes, or enrolling their gas liquefaction services.

Cruise ship from Norway reaches port with remaining passengers after mayday, air rescues

The Viking Sky ship airlifted more than half its 900 passengers to safety before authorities opted Sunday to allow the ship to limp into the nearby port of Molde with the aid of a towboat. "All passengers and crew are safe, and passengers will be flying home starting tonight," the cruise line said in a statement on its website Sunday. "Throughout all of this, our first priority was for the safety and well-being of our passengers and our crew.

• 
  Hundreds evacuated from cruise ship in Norway

  CBS News Videos
• 
  Viking Cruises engine failure off Norway coast prompts rescue operation for 1,300 people on board

  ABC News

2019 BMW X7 Is Luxurious, Large, and In Charge

Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site. The new 2019 BMW X7 is the German automaker's first large three-row luxury SUV. Until now, the only BMW that offered three rows was the X5, which has a very small optional seat that's barely fit for kids.

Why Donald Trump shouldn't celebrate the Robert Mueller report

Special counsel Robert Mueller's report has been delivered to Attorney General William Barr and an unnamed Department of Justice official has said Mueller is not recommending any additional indictments related to his investigation. A Mueller decision to decline any new indictments does not, by itself, mean that Mueller concluded President Donald Trump committed no crimes. It only means that Mueller followed DOJ protocol that prohibits the department from indicting a sitting president.

• 
  Democrats Will 'Absolutely' Go to Supreme Court Over Mueller Report, Judiciary Chair Says

  Rolling Stone
• 
  Robert Mueller report: One last job for the man who took on the Mob

  The Independent

Some remains of Guatemala volcano victims unidentified: official

Guatemalan investigators have been unable to identify about 110 pieces of remains from victims of a volcanic eruption that killed 202 people and left 229 missing last June, a forensic official said Saturday. After months of testing, which included sending some samples abroad, about 110 remains cannot be identified, said the head of the National Forensic Sciences Office, Fanuel Garcia. "We have all of them and we are holding on to them, awaiting a time to carry out a collective burial," he said of the unidentified remains.

Timeline of the rise and fall of the Islamic State group

Its territorial rule, which at its height in 2014 stretched across nearly a third of both Syria and Iraq, ended with a last stand by several hundred of its militants at a tiny Syrian village on the banks of the Euphrates near the border with Syria. April 2013 — Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of al-Qaida's branch in Iraq, announces the merger of his group with al-Qaida's franchise in Syria, forming the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and expanding his reach into neighboring Syria.

• 
  Security tops agenda as Iraqi PM visits Egypt in first foreign trip

  Reuters
• 
  Isil's caliphate may be defeated but cells' guerrilla tactics point to new deadly threat

  The Telegraph

Turkey Probes JPMorgan After Lira's Worst Slide Since 2018 Crash

Turkey started an investigation into JPMorgan Chase & Co. and another probe of unspecified banks that the regulator reproached for stoking the lira's biggest plunge since last year's crash. The Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency, known as BDDK, on Saturday said a research note a day earlier by two JPMorgan analysts that recommended selling the lira against the dollar had “misguiding and manipulative” content that resulted in volatility in markets and hurt the reputation of Turkish banks. The Capital Markets Board began its own investigation on similar grounds, according to a statement on its website.