| At rally, Trump says Russia probe backers tried to steal power illegally Posted: 28 Mar 2019 06:25 PM PDT  Declaring the country "hurt" by the probe, Trump called his opponents "losers" and celebrated the fact the investigation had come to a close. "After three years of lies and smears and slander, the Russia hoax is finally dead. "The Russia witch hunt was a plan by those who lost the election to try and illegally regain power by framing innocent Americans – many of them, they suffered – with an elaborate hoax," he said.
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| Autopsy: Migrant child who died in US custody had infection Posted: 29 Mar 2019 05:11 PM PDT  HOUSTON (AP) — A 7-year-old girl from Guatemala died of a bacterial infection while detained by the U.S. Border Patrol, according to an autopsy released Friday, in a case that drew worldwide attention to the plight of migrant families at the southern U.S. border.
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| Mueller report: How Trump avoided interview with special counsel during Russia investigation Posted: 29 Mar 2019 03:32 AM PDT  It was March 2018, nearly 10 months into his Russia investigation, when special counsel Robert Mueller III, a man of few words, raised the stakes dramatically in a meeting with Donald Trump's lawyers: If the president did not sit down voluntarily for an interview, he could face a subpoena.In the months that followed, Mr Mueller never explicitly threatened to issue a subpoena as his office pursued a presidential interview, a sit-down for which the special counsel was pushing as late as December.But with that prospect hanging over them, Mr Trump's legal team conducted a quiet, multi-pronged pressure campaign to avert such an action and keep the president from coming face-to-face with federal investigators - fearful he would perjure himself.At one point last summer, when a lull in talks had the president's attorneys worried that Mr Mueller was seriously contemplating a subpoena, White House lawyer Emmet Flood wrote a memo laying out the legal arguments for protecting the president's executive privilege. He sent the document to Mr Mueller's office and to the deputy for top Justice Department official Rod Rosenstein, who oversaw the probe, according to two people familiar with Mr Flood's outreach.Meanwhile, the Trump lawyers sent a steady stream of documents and witnesses to the special counsel, chipping away at Mr Mueller's justification for needing an interview with the president.[[gallery-0]] In the end, the decision not to subpoena the president is one of the lingering mysteries of Mr Mueller's 22-month investigation, which concluded last week when he filed a report numbering more than 300 pages.The special counsel did not find a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, but - in an unusual move - failed to come to a decision about whether Mr Trump obstructed justice, according to a summary of the Mueller report released by attorney general William Barr. An interview with the president would have been pivotal to helping assess whether the president had corrupt intent, a key element of such a charge, legal experts said.It is an open question whether a subpoena would have survived the court challenge Mr Trump's lawyers say they would have waged. The Supreme Court has never issued definitive guidance on issuing a subpoena to a president, but had Mr Mueller pursued one, the courts could have established a precedent for future presidents.In assessing whether to pursue such a high-stakes move, the special counsel was not operating with complete autonomy. That was a contrast with predecessors such as Kenneth Starr, who investigated President Bill Clinton and had broad leeway under the now-expired independent counsel statute.But Mr Mueller was supervised by Mr Rosenstein, a Trump appointee. The special counsel, Mr Rosenstein noted in one letter to a Republican senator, "remains accountable like every other subordinate."Mr Rosenstein himself was under intense political pressure: Mr Trump mused about firing the one-time George W Bush appointee and former US attorney for Maryland, whom he derided at one point as "the Democrat from Baltimore." And House conservatives threatened to impeach Mr Rosenstein, accusing him of withholding information about the Russia probe.Internal Justice Department discussions about whether to subpoena the president - including Mr Rosenstein's views on such an action - remain tightly held.In the final months of the probe, there was upheaval in the department's leadership. Mr Trump ousted attorney general Jeff Sessions, who had recused himself from the investigation. He was replaced temporarily by his former chief of staff, Matthew Whitaker, who was publicly critical of the special counsel before joining the department.A month before Mr Mueller submitted his report, Mr Barr was confirmed as attorney general. He had questioned Mr Mueller's obstruction-of-justice inquiry in a June 2018 memo to Mr Rosenstein months before his appointment, writing that "Mueller should not be permitted to demand that the President submit to interrogation about alleged obstruction."If Mr Mueller wanted to push for a subpoena, he did not force the issue with Justice Department leaders. Mr Barr told lawmakers last week that no decision the special counsel wanted to take was vetoed during the investigation.The Justice Department and the special counsel's office declined to comment.More answers could be revealed in Mr Mueller's full report, which House Democrats are pushing Mr Barr to release.What is known is that the president's lawyers now believe keeping their client from sitting down with investigators was their greatest victory."The president would not have helped his case had he gone in," said Mark Corallo, a former spokesperson for Mr Trump's legal team. "No lawyer worth his salt would let that happen."The president was initially inclined to sit for an interview with Mr Mueller. He thought he could deliver a convincing performance and put a swift end to the probe.Negotiations between the sides began around Thanksgiving 2017, and an interview was scheduled for January 2018, according to a person close to the legal team and a former senior administration official.But John Dowd, then the president's lead attorney, cancelled the session. He had argued against it because he feared Mr Trump could misspeak or even lie. And a practice session with the president further convinced Mr Dowd that the president could be a problematic interviewee, these people said.White House officials declined to comment.Over the next 12 months, Mr Mueller tried repeatedly to reschedule the interview, to no avail.Mr Trump continued to state publicly that he would be glad to sit for an interview - he believed being seen as willing to talk with prosecutors showed "strength," according to a former administration official with direct knowledge of his thinking. But the president came to agree with his lawyers that doing so would be too risky, especially after former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in December 2017, current and former White House aides said.Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said that some of what Mr Trump's legal advisers were hearing from Mr Mueller "raised our suspicion that this is a trap, rather than a search for more information."As the standoff continued, Mr Mueller's team discussed at length the idea of issuing a subpoena, if necessary, to compel Mr Trump to sit for an interview, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal conversations.The discussions - which included Mr Mueller, his top deputy James Quarles, and prosecutors Michael Dreeben and Aaron Zebley - centred both on whether a subpoena was legally feasible and what the costs of such a move might be to the overall investigation, the person said.A fight over a presidential subpoena would have been likely to set legal precedent.Under President Richard Nixon, the US Supreme Court ruled that investigators could subpoena evidence from a sitting president and ordered Nixon to turn over materials including secret recordings made in the Oval Office. That ruling did not, however, address testimony by the president.When Mr Starr was independent counsel, he issued a subpoena to Mr Clinton ordering the president to testify before a grand jury about his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Mr Clinton's team considered challenging the subpoena in court but instead decided that it would be politically damaging to be seen as fighting the investigation. Mr Clinton's lawyers agreed that he would voluntarily sit for an interview, and Mr Starr withdrew the subpoena - leaving open the question of whether a president can be compelled to give testimony.Robert Ray, a former independent counsel now in private practice at Thompson & Knight, said Mr Mueller's team would have had to weigh whether a subpoena could survive the court challenge that was all but certain to come from the Trump White House.The Supreme Court has never issued definitive guidance on the question, but in a previous independent counsel investigation, of Mike Espy, an agriculture secretary in the Clinton administration, an appellate court offered some clarity on the bounds of how the White House could fight a subpoena by citing presidential privilege.On the basis of the precedent from that case - which was focused on documents, rather than an interview – Mr Mueller would have had to demonstrate both a need to subpoena Mr Trump to advance his investigation and show that he could not get the information he sought in any other way, Mr Ray said.Another major factor was time: Mr Mueller had to consider the likelihood that such a move would bog the investigation down in a lengthy legal battle."That's a major fight, and you have to decide whether, in the country's best interests, it's worth it," Mr Ray said.Mr Mueller broached the topic during a tense meeting on 5 March 2018, at the special counsel offices in Southwest Washington, as Mr Trump's attorneys maintained that the president had no obligation to talk to investigators.The special counsel noted there was an option if Mr Trump declined: He could be subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury, as The Washington Post previously reported.Mr Dowd erupted angrily."You're screwing with the work of the president of the United States," he told Mr Mueller, according to two people briefed on the discussion.After that meeting, the special counsel team changed its approach: trying to coax Mr Trump to sit for an interview voluntarily.Prosecutors hoped the president would agree to meet, mindful that they could not explicitly threaten a subpoena unless they were prepared to issue one, according to a person familiar with the matter.Still, Mr Trump's legal advisers felt after the March meeting that a subpoena threat hung over the president."The whole exercise was premised on the idea that that was a legal option they could pursue, and we were never absolutely sure until the end that they would not," said one Trump adviser familiar with the legal negotiations.That threat governed the president's legal strategy in the months that would follow.Mr Trump's lawyers left the distinct public impression that they were not an equal match for Mr Mueller, a venerated former FBI director. Mr Dowd and Ty Cobb, another legal adviser to Mr Trump, were overheard by a reporter discussing over lunch at a popular Washington steakhouse how much they would cooperate with Mr Mueller. Mr Giuliani developed a habit of misspeaking in meandering television interviews.But behind the scenes, Mr Trump's legal advisers had a quiet weapon: a husband-and-wife pair of criminal lawyers, Jane and Martin Raskin, who brought rigor and regimen to the team when they came aboard in April 2018.While Mr Giuliani and attorney Jay Sekulow managed the public relations strategy, the Raskins did most of the lawyering from a temporary office they set up in Washington. They declined to comment.Mr Giuliani said that roughly 80 per cent of the Trump team's interactions with the special counsel's office were handled by Jane Raskin, who has known both Mr Mueller and Mr Quarles for years. She knew Mr Mueller from her time as a federal prosecutor in Boston, while her husband had worked with Mr Quarles.She communicated mostly by email, developing a written record that Mr Trump's attorneys intended to use as evidence of their cooperation and responsiveness if they ended up in court fighting a subpoena.Martin Raskin, meanwhile, did a great deal of the writing and editing of legal arguments, including a "counter report" defending the president that Mr Giuliani said has been prepared but may never be released.Central to the Trump strategy - developed first by Mr Cobb and Mr Dowd and later carried out by Mr Giuliani, Mr Sekulow and the Raskins, as well as Mr Flood, who from his White House perch represented the office of the presidency - was to cooperate fully with every request for documents and witnesses from Mr Mueller, including Mr Trump's written answers to some questions.Their goal: to satisfy Mr Mueller's hunt for information to the extent that the special counsel would not have legal standing to subpoena the president's oral testimony."We allowed them to question everybody, and they turned over every document they were asked for: 1.4 million documents," Mr Giuliani said. "We had what you would call unprecedented cooperation."Mr Trump's lawyers, citing the independent counsel investigation of Mr Espy, argued that to justify a subpoena of Mr Trump, Mr Mueller needed to prove he could not get the information in any way other than by asking the president."No matter what question they would say they wanted to ask, I felt confident we could turn it over and say, 'You already have the answer to it,'" Mr Giuliani said. "If they said, 'Why did you fire Comey?' I'd give them five interviews, and particularly the Lester Holt tape, where he goes into great detail as to his reasons."Mr Giuliani was referring to Mr Trump's May 2017 interview with the NBC Nightly News anchor in which the president said he was thinking about "this Russia thing" when he fired James Comey as FBI director, one of the actions Mr Mueller was investigating as possible obstruction of justice.All the while, Mr Giuliani said, the legal team was not convinced that it would have prevailed in court. "Honestly, I don't know who would have won," he said. "I think our argument got better as time went on. But I don't know if we would have won."As Mr Mueller's lawyers quietly laboured, a political storm was raging around them.Mr Trump, his lawyers and his allies in Congress routinely attacked Mr Mueller and his investigators as compromised and corrupt. The president repeatedly urged an end to the probe, which he condemned as a "witch hunt," a "fraud" and a "hoax" that was wasting taxpayer money.Mr Rosenstein urged lawmakers to respect the confidential work of the special counsel, saying in a June 2018 letter to senator Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, then the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, that the probe would comply with all laws and Justice Department policies.But Mr Rosenstein also noted that Mr Mueller was not an entirely independent actor - and that his work was being closely supervised."Under the terms of his appointment, both by statute and by regulation, special counsel Mueller remains accountable like every other subordinate Department official," Mr Rosenstein wrote.A few months later, Mr Flood sent his memo on the scope of executive privilege. While it made broad arguments, the document could have been construed to pertain to Mr Mueller's push to interview the president, according to someone with knowledge of the contents.Notably, Mr Flood sent the memo not just to Mr Mueller's office, but also to Mr Rosenstein by way of his top deputy, Edward O'Callaghan.Mr Flood declined to comment.As each month passed without a subpoena, the president's attorneys increasingly doubted that Mr Mueller would seek to obtain one, according to people with knowledge of internal discussions.Mr Mueller's team kept insisting it needed to interview the president - but never followed through with an actual demand.Mr Mueller and Mr Quarles would stress that they needed to know Mr Trump's intentions when he fired Mr Comey and took other actions that could have thwarted the Russia investigation. Jane Raskin would respond by pressing them for a legal justification for seeking to interview the president, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.The president's team asked, "What evidence have you obtained that justifies you interviewing the president?" according the person, who added that Mr Mueller's office was "never able to articulate a compelling case. They never gave up asking, but they had no good answer for that question."In the absence of an interview, Mr Trump's attorneys offered Mr Mueller a substitute: The president would provide answers to a set of questions about Russia and the campaign, submitted in writing. But, citing executive privilege, they refused to provide answers to questions pertaining to the president's time in office - questions that went to the heart of the special counsel's inquiry into possible obstruction of justice.However, the process of compiling answers dragged. Mr Trump's lawyers found it difficult to get the president to focus on drafting the submission, according to people familiar with the sessions. Mr Trump's meetings with his lawyers were frequently interrupted by phone calls and other White House business.Finally, in late November 2018, the lawyers sent Mr Trump's answers to Mr Mueller.In December, Mr Mueller's team made one more request for an interview with the president.And in January, the special counsel's office contacted Mr Trump's lawyers to ask some follow-up questions, according to people familiar with the request.But Mr Trump's lawyers again declined. They neither agreed to an interview nor answered the additional questions.Two months later, Mr Mueller submitted his report without having spoken to the president. The investigation was over.The Washington Post
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| Southwest flight cancellations to drag into May due to Boeing Max 8 grounding Posted: 29 Mar 2019 07:46 PM PDT  The airline says it is removing its Boeing 737 Max 8 from its flight schedule through May, up from April 20 previously.
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| Corporations are endangering Americans. Trump doesn't care Posted: 30 Mar 2019 03:00 AM PDT  From Boeing to Monsanto and beyond: this week has revealed the tip of the iceberg of regulatory neglect 'Trump and his appointees have unambiguously signaled to corporations they can now do as they please.' Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images Why didn't Boeing do it right? Why isn't Facebook protecting user passwords? Why is Phillip Morris allowed to promote vaping? Why hasn't Wells Fargo reformed itself? Why hasn't Monsanto (now owned by Bayer) recalled its Roundup weedkiller? Answer: corporate greed coupled with inept and corrupt regulators. These are just a few of the examples in the news these days of corporate harms inflicted on innocent people. To be sure, some began before the Trump administration. But Trump and his appointees have unambiguously signaled to corporations they can now do as they please. Boeing wanted to get its 737 Max 8 out quickly because airlines want to pack in more passengers at lower fuel costs (hence the "max"). But neither Boeing nor the airlines shelled out money to adequately train pilots on the new software made necessary by the new design. Nonetheless, Trump's FAA certified the plane in March 2017. And after two subsequent deadly crashes, the US was slower to ground them than other countries. Last week Facebook admitted to storing hundreds of millions of Facebook users' passwords in plain text that could be searched by more than 20,000 Facebook employees. The admission came just a year after the Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed that Facebook shared the personal data of as many as 87 million users with a political data firm. In reality, Facebook's business model is based on giving personal data to advertisers so they can tailor their pitches precisely to potential customers. So despite repeated reassurances by Mark Zuckerberg, the firm will continue to do what it wants with personal information. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has the power to force Facebook to better guard users' privacy. But so far Trump's FTC has done nothing – not even to enforce a 2011 agreement in which Facebook promised to do just that. Altria (Phillip Morris) was losing ground on its sales of cigarettes, but the firm has recently found a future in vaping. Because inhaling nicotine in any form poses a health hazard, the FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb wanted to curb advertising of vaping products to teenagers. Gottlieb thought he had Altria's agreement, but then the firm bought the vaping company Juul. Its stock has already gained 14% this year. What happened to Gottlieb? He's out at the FDA, after barely a year on the job. Wells Fargo has publicly apologized for having deceived customers with fake bank accounts, unwarranted fees and unwanted products. Its top executives say they have eliminated the aggressive sales targets that were responsible for the fraud. But Wells Fargo employees told the New York Times recently that they're still under heavy pressure to squeeze extra money out of customers. Some have witnessed colleagues bending or breaking internal rules to meet ambitious performance goals. What has Trump's Consumer Financial Protection Agency done about this? Nothing. It's been defanged. This week, a federal jury awarded $80m in damages to a California man who blamed Monsanto's (now Bayer's) Roundup weedkiller for his cancer, after finding that Roundup was defectively designed, that Monsanto failed to warn of the herbicide's cancer risk, and that the company acted negligently. It was the second jury in eight months to reach the same conclusion about Roundup. Roundup contains glyphosate, a suspected carcinogen. Cases from more than 1,000 farmers and other agricultural workers stricken with non-Hodgkin lymphoma are already pending in federal and state courts. What has Trump's Environmental Protection Agency done about glyphosate? In December 2017 its office of pesticide programs concluded that glyphosate wasn't likely to cause cancer – although eight of the 15 experts on whom the agency relied expressed significant concerns about that conclusion, and three more expressed concerns about the data. These are just tips of a vast iceberg of regulatory neglect, frozen into place by Trump's appointees, of which at least 187 were lobbyists before they joined the administration. This is trickle-down economics of a different sort than Trump's corporate tax cuts. The major beneficiaries of this are the same big corporations, including their top executives and major investors. But these burdens are trickling down as unsafe products, fraudulent services, loss of privacy, even loss of life. Big money has had an inhibiting effect on regulators in several previous administrations. What's unique under Trump is the blatancy of it all, and the shameless willingness of Trump appointees to turn a blind eye to corporate wrongdoing. Trump and his Republican enablers in Congress yell "socialism!" at proposals for better balancing private greed with the common good. Yet unless a better balance is achieved, capitalism as we know it is in deep trouble. Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. He is also a columnist for Guardian US
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| Boeing MCAS anti-stall system was activated in Ethiopia crash: source Posted: 29 Mar 2019 07:37 AM PDT  Boeing's MCAS anti-stall system, which was implicated in the October crash of a 737 MAX 8 in Indonesia, was also activated shortly before a recent accident in Ethiopia, a source with knowledge of the investigation said Friday. The information is part of preliminary findings from the analysis of black boxes from Ethiopian Airlines flight 302, which crashed southeast of Addis Ababa killing 157 people on March 10, the source told AFP on condition of anonymity. The information was presented Thursday to US authorities, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the source said.
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| Southeast Asia should be aware of Iran's tactics to evade oil sanctions: U.S. Posted: 28 Mar 2019 08:50 PM PDT  The United States is keen to see that Malaysia, Singapore and others are fully aware of illicit Iranian oil shipments and the tactics Iran uses to evade sanctions, a top U.S. sanctions official said on Friday. Sigal Mandelker, under-secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, told reporters in Singapore the United States had placed additional "intense pressure" on Iran this week.
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| Pet zebra shot and killed by owner in Florida after escaping Posted: 29 Mar 2019 06:47 AM PDT  A man has shot and killed his pet zebra after it escaped from his ranch in Callahan, a town in Florida.The animal, reportedly named Shadow, broke free from Cottonwood Ranch and ran down a main road, chased by several vehicles.Witnesses said the zebra was eventually cornered in a cul-de-sac around two miles from the ranch, where the owner shot and killed it.Bill Leeper, the local sheriff, said he understood that Shadow was injured during the escape and that the owner chose to euthanise the zebra while police officers were at the scene.Witnesses told WJXT-TV that the animal did not appear injured but the decision was made to kill it so that it could not hurt anyone."I had to stop and think a minute," Jenee Watkins told the news outlet."It's not every day you see a zebra trotting through your neighbourhood."Officials have confirmed that the owner did not have a valid license to keep a zebra on his ranch.A state permit is required to own and keep a zebra in Florida.It is unclear whether he will face charges over the lack of permit.Officials said the investigation into the animal's escape and death was ongoing.
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| O'Rourke to rally in his native Texas, where tough 2020 presidential primary awaits Posted: 29 Mar 2019 03:52 AM PDT  O'Rourke's campaign hopes the former congressman's personal ties to delegate-rich Texas give him a critical early boost in the large Democratic field fighting for the party's nomination to challenge Republican President Donald Trump. In the unexpectedly close race against incumbent Republican Senator Ted Cruz that earned O'Rourke national prominence last year, he was the lone Democrat competing against a Republican figure reviled by Democrats nationally. Now, O'Rourke, 46, faces a diverse slate of accomplished and well-funded rivals hunting for the same votes, especially among the state's African-American and Hispanic communities.
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| The Latest: Police standoff on Atlanta-area freeway ends Posted: 29 Mar 2019 08:52 AM PDT  ATLANTA (AP) — The Latest on a freeway standoff outside Atlanta (all times local):
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| 'Hoarder' pleads guilty to potentially largest theft of classified information in history Posted: 29 Mar 2019 08:11 AM PDT  A former US National Security Agency contractor, portrayed as an eccentric hoarder by his lawyers, pleaded guilty on Thursday to stealing classified documents in a deal likely to put him in prison for nine years. Harold Martin, 54, who worked for several private firms and had clearances to access top secret information, was arrested over two years ago for what may have been the biggest breach of classified information in history. When Federal Bureau of Investigation agents raided his home south of Baltimore in 2016 they found stacks of documents and electronic storage devices amounting to 50 terabytes of files, including classified ones, prosecutors said. US Department of Justice prosecutors said in a statement that Mr Martin's actions risked the disclosure of top secret information to America's "enemies." One of their allegations was that Mr Martin talked online with people in Russian and other languages but they never found proof he shared stolen information with anyone. His lawyers said he was a hoarder who liked to take work home with him. "His actions were the product of mental illness. Not treason," lawyers Deborah Boardman and James Wyda said in a statement. Mr Martin and the government agreed that if the federal court in Baltimore accepted the plea agreement, he would be sentenced to nine years in prison on the charge of willful retention of national defense information, prosecutors said.
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| Trump threatens to shut border with Mexico next week Posted: 29 Mar 2019 09:57 AM PDT  The president returns to a familiar threat as Democrats continue to deny him funding for construction of a border wall.
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| Who is paying for Monsanto's crimes? We are Posted: 30 Mar 2019 03:00 AM PDT  A US court ordered Monsanto to pay $80m in damages because it hid cancer risks. That's a small consolation for victims 'And while Bayer may dole out a few billion dollars in damages, who is really being made to pay?' Photograph: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images The chickens are coming home to roost, as they say in farm country. For the second time in less than eight months a US jury has found that decades of scientific evidence demonstrates a clear cancer connection to Monsanto's line of top-selling Roundup herbicides, which are used widely by consumers and farmers. Twice now jurors have additionally determined that the company's own internal records show Monsanto has intentionally manipulated the public record to hide the cancer risks. Both juries found punitive damages were warranted because the company's cover-up of cancer risks was so egregious. The juries saw evidence that Monsanto has ghost-written scientific papers, tried to silence scientists, scuttled independent government testing and cozied up to regulators for favorable safety reviews of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup. Even the US district judge Vince Chhabria, who oversaw the San Francisco trial that concluded Wednesday with an $80.2m damage award, had harsh words for Monsanto. Chhabria said there were "large swaths of evidence" showing that the company's herbicides could cause cancer. He also said there was "a great deal of evidence that Monsanto has not taken a responsible, objective approach to the safety of its product … and does not particularly care whether its product is in fact giving people cancer, focusing instead on manipulating public opinion and undermining anyone who raises genuine and legitimate concerns about the issue." Monsanto's new owner, the German pharmaceutical company Bayer, asserts that the juries and judges are wrong; the evidence of a cancer risk is invalid; the evidence of bad corporate conduct is misunderstood and out of context; and that the company will ultimately prevail. Meanwhile, Monsanto critics are celebrating the wins and counting on more as a third trial got underway this week and 11,000 additional plaintiffs await their turn. As well, a growing number of communities and businesses are backing away from use of Monsanto's herbicides. And investors are punishing Bayer, pushing share prices to a seven-year low on Thursday. Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Tom Claps has warned shareholders to brace for a global settlement of between $2.5bn and $4.5bn. "We don't believe [Monsanto] will lose every single trial, but we do believe that they could lose a significant majority," he told the Guardian. Following the recent courtroom victories, some have cheered the notion that Monsanto is finally being made to pay for alleged wrongdoing. But by selling to Bayer last summer for $63bn just before the Roundup cancer lawsuits started going to trial, Monsanto executives were able to walk away from the legal mess with riches. The Monsanto chairman Hugh Grant's exit package allowed him to pocket $32m, for instance. Amid the uproar of the courtroom scuffles, a larger issue looms: Monsanto's push to make use of glyphosate herbicides so pervasive that traces are commonly found in our food and even our bodily fluids, is just one example of how several corporate giants are creating lasting human health and environmental woes around the world. Monsanto and its brethren have targeted farmers in particular as a critical market for their herbicides, fungicides and insecticides, and now many farmers around the world believe they cannot farm without them. Studies show that along with promoting illness and disease in people, these pesticides pushed by Bayer and Monsanto, DowDuPont and other corporate players, are endangering wildlife, soil health, water quality and the long-term sustainability of food production. Yet regulators have allowed these corporations to combine forces, making them ever more powerful and more able to direct public policies that favor their interests. The Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren this week called for taking back some of that power. She announced on Wednesday a plan to break up big agribusinesses and work against the type of corporate capture of Washington we have seen in recent years. It's a solid step in the right direction. But it cannot undo the suffering of cancer victims, nor easily transform a deeply contaminated landscape to create a healthier future and unleash us from the chains of a pesticide-dependent agricultural system. And while Bayer may dole out a few billion dollars in damages, who is really being made to pay? We all are. Carey Gillam is a journalist and author, and a public interest researcher for US Right to Know, a not-for-profit food industry research group
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| IKEA's New Eco-Friendly Collection Is Our Summer Aesthetic Posted: 29 Mar 2019 09:10 AM PDT |
| New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez compares the impact of climate change to 9/11 Posted: 30 Mar 2019 06:22 AM PDT  AOC faces major backlash after making comments comparing 9/11 to the impact of climate change.
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| New Australian laws could see social media execs jailed over terror images Posted: 29 Mar 2019 10:41 PM PDT  Australia pledged Saturday to introduce new laws that could see social media executives jailed and tech giants fined billions for failing to remove extremist material from their platforms. The tough new legislation will be brought to parliament next week as Canberra pushes for social media companies to prevent their platforms from being "weaponised" by terrorists in the wake of the Christchurch mosque attacks. Facebook said it "quickly" removed a staggering 1.5 million videos of the white supremacist massacre livestreamed on the social media platform.
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| UK's May should quit as prime minister soon: Telegraph Posted: 29 Mar 2019 04:07 PM PDT  British Prime Minister Theresa May should step down immediately after negotiating a temporary extension to Britain's European Union membership, the Daily Telegraph newspaper said in its Saturday edition. Lawmakers rejected May's Brexit plans for a third time on Friday, leaving Britain's withdrawal from the EU in turmoil on the very day it had been supposed to quit the bloc. "She must now see - or must be told - that while she can meet with the EU to negotiate an extension for Brexit, that is the natural end of the road.
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| Police standoff on an Atlanta-area freeway halts traffic Posted: 29 Mar 2019 03:06 PM PDT  ATLANTA (AP) — A police standoff brought traffic to a standstill Friday on an Atlanta-area freeway as officers confronted a motorist who they believed was armed and matched the description of a robbery suspect.
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| 'Russia hoax is finally dead': Trump touts end of Mueller investigation to supporters in Michigan Posted: 28 Mar 2019 05:58 PM PDT  Trump used a raucous rally in Michigan Thursday to take a victory lap following the conclusion of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation
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| Pope signs law to prevent child abuse in Vatican and its embassies Posted: 29 Mar 2019 06:20 PM PDT  Although the city state within Rome is tiny, and very few children live there, the sweeping legal changes reflect a desire to show that the Catholic Church is finally acting against clerical child abuse after decades of scandals around the world. It is the first time a unified and detailed policy for the protection of children has been compiled for the Vatican and its embassies and universities outside the city state. The law sets up procedures for reporting suspected abuse, imposes more screening of prospective employees, and sets strict guidelines for adult interaction with children and the use of social media.
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| Singapore airport still ranked best in the world Posted: 29 Mar 2019 09:56 AM PDT  Singapore's Changi Airport was voted world's best airport for the seventh consecutive year according to the Skytrax ranking, which is determined by around 13.73 million travellers voting in a global customer satisfaction survey.
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| A year of Gaza border protests - key facts Posted: 30 Mar 2019 04:57 AM PDT  Thousands of Palestinian protesters gathered along the Gaza-Israel border on Saturday to mark the first anniversary of mass demonstrations for the right of return for Palestinian refugees. The first day, March 30, 2018, saw 20 Palestinians killed across the Gaza Strip. Since then dozens more have been killed during the at least weekly protests.
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| US woman kidnapped in Afghanistan says husband's abuse was just like captors' Posted: 29 Mar 2019 12:32 PM PDT  Caitlan Coleman says her Canadian husband, Joshua Boyle, was violent towards her before, during and after their kidnapping Caitlin Coleman leaves the Ottawa court house in Ottawa, Ontario, on Wednesday. Photograph: Lars Hagberg/AFP/Getty Images A Canadian man who was kidnapped with his wife in Afghanistan was controlling and violent towards her before, during and after their five-year hostage ordeal, she told a Canadian court on Friday. Caitlan Coleman, 33, gave testimony for a second day at the trial of Joshua Boyle, 35 who faces 19 criminal charges, including sexual assault, unlawful confinement and uttering death threats. Coleman was pregnant when she and Boyle were kidnapped by a Taliban-linked group while backpacking in Afghanistan in 2011. They spent five years as hostages, and had three children together before they were rescued by the Pakistani military. Coleman testified that during their captivity in the hands of the militant Haqqani network, Boyle dictated all aspects of her life. His behaviour "was just like my captors'", she told the court. "I was never to disagree with him, even on small things," she told the court. "In the past, he made it clear he didn't feel any guilt hurting me." Coleman, dressed in a white blazer, black dress and black headscarf, spoke through video link in an adjoining room in order to avoid being in the same room as Boyle. She had travelled from Pennsylvania, where she currently lives with her family, to testify. Boyle, wearing a navy blazer and maroon pants, sat at the front row of the courtroom, frequently taking notes on a yellow legal pad. He was briefly joined by his parents. Coleman described a pattern of abusive behaviour that culminated in a vicious assault after the couple had returned to Canada, in which Boyle demanded sex then hit her when she refused. She told the court she felt "very, very frightened" during the 27 November incident. "Josh told me to get on the bed. He took ropes he kept in a bag … and he started to tie my hands and legs." Boyle sexually assaulted her, then refused to release her, Coleman told the court. "He said he couldn't trust me, so he wasn't going to untie me," she said. She was only able to free herself after Boyle fell asleep, she told the court. "Looking back, I should have tried to leave," she said. "But I didn't." In her previous testimony, Coleman had described a "rollercoaster" relationship with Boyle, whom she met at age 16 in a Star Wars-themed online chatroom. "He was my first kiss," she told the court on Wednesday. Coleman quickly fell in love with Boyle, but she told the court that he became an emotionally and physically abusive partner, critiquing her drinking and interactions she had with men. Coleman told the court that the abuse continued in Afghanistan, where the final two years of captivity were the worst. He would choke, bite and spank her as punishment, she said. While in captivity, Boyle demanded she remain in a bathroom stall for extended periods of time – telling his wife he couldn't stand the sight of her. Coleman testified that Boyle also joked about killing her by lighting her on fire or spilling cooking oil on her. "This was probably the darkest period of my life," she told the court. During their five years as prisoners in Afghanistan, the couple and their small children are believed to have been shuttled between more than 20 locations. The court had previously heard that Boyle's violence continued after the couple returned to Canada. Coleman testified that he would often hit her and demand sex; on one occasion, he forced her to swallow powerful sleeping medication, she testified. "He stood in the bathroom and watched me take them that time … I took them because I knew that if I didn't he would hit me harder," she told the court on Wednesday. On Friday Coleman told the court that when the couple was back in Ottawa, Boyle gave her a detailed list of rules dictating her diet, weight, appearance and frequency of sex. "I would be punished if I did not follow this list," she testified, adding that Boyle withheld meals from her, and threatened corporal punishment if she did not comply. Coleman told the court that the rules required her to address her children as "Sir" and "Madam", "so I could understand I was beneath everyone." During her testimony, Coleman also said her former husband was paranoid about reports of the family in the media. "He was so focused on the fact that world's eyes were on us … he said we have to look like a happy family," she said. Coleman told the court that during interviews, Boyle – once an aspiring journalist – attempted to control the narrative of the couple's time in Afghanistan. "He would give verbal or physical instructions about what could be answered … what story we could tell or what part of captivity we could talk about," said Coleman. The 19 charges against Boyle are all related to alleged events after the family returned to Canada. Coleman was the alleged victim in 17 of the offences; a publication ban protects the identity of a second alleged victim. The trial is expected to last eight weeks.
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| 10 Things to Know for Today Posted: 29 Mar 2019 02:59 AM PDT  Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:
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| California lawmakers propose sweeping reforms to counter college admissions scandal Posted: 28 Mar 2019 08:50 PM PDT  The package includes measures seeking to phase out the SAT and ban preferential admissions for students related to a college's donors or alumni.
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| May Risks Fresh Defeat on Day U.K. Meant to Leave: Brexit Update Posted: 29 Mar 2019 04:39 AM PDT  Key Developments:May's Northern Irish allies, the DUP, confirm they won't back the Withdrawal Agreement in Friday's voteVote expected at 2:30 p.m.Read our guide to the parliamentary numbers hereSNP lawmakers suspect Labour MPs will back the deal. The Labour Party is confident of beating the government's motion on Friday, an official familiar with the matter said, adding that any rebellion among its members is likely to be fewer than 10 MPs. Meanwhile one of the lawmakers thought to have been a potential rebel, Lisa Nandy, said in an interview that while the government is moving in the right direction on assurances regarding the U.K.'s future relationship with the European Union, it isn't enough to win her vote.
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| Tens of thousands protest at Gaza-Israel border as truce holds Posted: 30 Mar 2019 08:16 AM PDT  Tens of thousands of Gazans gathered at the Israeli border Saturday to mark a year since protests and clashes erupted there, but fears of mass bloodshed were averted after late Egyptian-led negotiations. Israel deployed several thousand troops along the border, with the anniversary coming at a sensitive time ahead of its April 9 elections. Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, one during an overnight demonstration and a 17-year-old in clashes later Saturday, the health ministry in Gaza City said.
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| Alex Jones: Instagram refuses to remove right-wing conspiracy theorists' anti-semitic post Posted: 29 Mar 2019 01:14 PM PDT  Infamous conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was expected to have his Instagram account shut down, or at least have a recently posted photo deleted, after he recently posted an image of an art piece called "False Profits" on his Instagram story.The image depicts six white men with hooked noses playing monopoly on the backs of other humans, surrounded by gold, skulls, money, medicine, and a globe. In the background appears to be the city of Manhattan in nuclear fall-out, and the men sit in front of the pyramid of the Great Seal of the United States.The pyramid with the all-seeing eye has been co-opted by conspiracy theorists as evidence of an evil "new world order". The globe on the table also may potentially represent "globalists", two heavily used anti-semitic tropes.Despite this, Instagram claims that the post did not violate their community standards.There seems to be disagreement at parent-company Facebook among high level executives, if Jones is a hate figure or not, as seen in leaked emails.The post has since been removed, although not by Instagram.This is not the first time Jones has been criticised for posting controversial conspiracy material. Jones is known for claiming that the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting was a false flag hoax and for his claims that in fluoride treated water turns frogs gay.
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| Oil posts biggest quarterly rise since 2009 on OPEC cuts, sanctions Posted: 29 Mar 2019 12:55 PM PDT ![Oil posts biggest quarterly rise since 2009 on OPEC cuts, sanctions]( "Oil posts biggest quarterly rise since 2009 on OPEC cuts, sanctions") The May Brent crude oil futures contract, which expired Friday, gained 57 cents, or 0.8 percent, to settle at $68.39 a barrel, marking a first-quarter gain of 27 percent. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures rose 84 cents, or 1.42 percent, to $60.14 a barrel, and posted a rise of 32 percent in the January-March period. GRAPHIC: Crude futures quarterly performance - https://tmsnrt.rs/2HSqli7 U.S. sanctions on Iran and Venezuela have boosted prices this year.
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| Woman with YouTube channel pleads not guilty to abusing kids Posted: 29 Mar 2019 02:57 PM PDT  PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona woman who had a popular YouTube channel featuring children pleaded not guilty Friday to charges she abused some of her seven adopted children by pepper-spraying them, striking them with a clothes hanger and making them take ice baths.
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| Instant Pot Duo60 7-in-1 vs. Instant Pot Max Posted: 28 Mar 2019 06:48 PM PDT  Face-Off: Instant Pot Duo60 7-in-1 vs. Instant Pot Max Following its December 2013 release, the Instant Pot Duo60 7-in-1 multi-cooker became an internet sensation and an Amazon best seller, insp...
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| Ben Shapiro responds to being called 'alt-right' and 'radical' by media Posted: 30 Mar 2019 05:01 AM PDT  The Daily Wire editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro reacts to the media's attacks against him on 'Fox & Friends.'
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| Trump: Pulitzers awarded to NYT, Washington Post should be revoked for 'fake' Russia coverage Posted: 30 Mar 2019 02:40 PM PDT  President Donald Trump called for the Pulitzer Board to revoke the prizes awarded to the New York Times and Washington Post.
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| Tunisia detains UN Libya arms embargo official Posted: 29 Mar 2019 06:43 AM PDT  A UN official charged with investigating alleged violations of a UN arms embargo on Libya, has been detained in neighbouring Tunisia on suspicion of spying, Tunisian and UN officials said Friday. Moncef Kartas, a member of the panel of experts of the Libya sanctions committee, was arrested on his arrival in Tunis on Tuesday, a UN spokesman told AFP. "We are in contact with the Tunisian authorities to know why he has been held for questioning," a UN statement said, adding that as a UN expert Kartas was entitled to diplomatic immunity.
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| Venezuelans rally to protest chronic power outages Posted: 30 Mar 2019 11:31 AM PDT  Electricity has slowly been restored following a blackout on Monday that left most of Venezuela's 24 states without power. President Nicolas Maduro has said the situation was caused by "terrorist attacks" on the Guri hydroelectric dam that powers much of the country. Critics including opposition leader Juan Guaido, who is recognized by most Western nations as Venezuela's legitimate head of state, blame the electricity problems on corruption and mismanagement.
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| Is This The Perfect Chevrolet Corvette C2 Restomod? Posted: 29 Mar 2019 07:08 AM PDT  The C2 generation of the 1960s Chevrolet Corvette has to be one of the most charismatic incarnations of America's favorite sports car. This custom 1967 model heading to auction with Barrett-Jackson blends old and new together.
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| Upsides, downsides for Smollett, city in looming fines fight Posted: 29 Mar 2019 11:02 PM PDT  CHICAGO (AP) — A brewing battle over Chicago's demand that Jussie Smollett recoup the city more than $130,000 for an investigation into his report of a racist, anti-gay attack and the "Empire" actor's apparent determination not to pay it could ultimately land in a civil court, where a jury could have to answer the question that was supposed to be answered in criminal court: Was the attack staged or not?
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| There's a self-destructing asteroid zooming through the solar system Posted: 29 Mar 2019 10:27 AM PDT  Asteroid Gault is self-destructing. Images shot by the Hubble Space Telescope show the space rock — some 2.5 to 5.5 miles wide — has left telltale streaks of debris as it hurtles through our solar system. It's gradually breaking apart. Why? Sunlight heats up the surface of asteroids, and when enough heat radiates off the rocky body's surface, this can propel the asteroid and force it to spin. With enough motion, shifting rubble and landslides on the massive rock can tumble into space. Basically, the asteroid is shedding. Today, telescopes on Earth and in space (like the 29-year-old Hubble) can combine their observations to detect these rarely-seen events. "Active and unstable asteroids such as Gault are only now being detected by means of new survey telescopes that scan the entire sky, which means asteroids such as Gault that are misbehaving cannot escape detection any more," Olivier Hainaut, a European Southern Observatory astronomer, said in a statement. Each of the streaks in the above photo are from separate disintegration events, wherein chunks, soil, and dust from Gault plunged into the solar system. SEE ALSO: Opportunity rover's last picture is as grim as it is dark Astronomers suspect the first mass tumbled into space on Oct. 28, 2018, followed by another release of space rock on December 30th. Gault, one of some 800,000 known-asteroids in the solar system's asteroid belt, completes a spin every two hours. That's enough to destabilize it and make the asteroid prone to landslides. All it needs is just a little nudge. "Even a tiny disturbance, like a small impact from a pebble, might have triggered the recent outbursts," University of Hawaii astronomer Jan Kleyna said in a statement. WATCH: Ever wonder how the universe might end?
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| 3 Tips for Saving Money on Medical Expenses Posted: 30 Mar 2019 04:36 AM PDT  Inside Edition teamed up with RxSaver by RetailMeNot and its medical expert, Dr. Holly Phillips, for tips on how to save on medical expenses during this time of year.
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