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The news that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has closed his investigation without recommending criminal charges against President Trump is a relief. It is not a surprise.Nor is it a surprise that the news has Trump antagonists clamoring for full disclosure of the special counsel’s final report. Mind you, when skeptics of the Trump-Russia investigation asked what the criminal predicate for it was, and on what basis the Obama administration had decided to monitor the opposition party’s presidential campaign, we were admonished about the wages of disclosure -- the compromise of precious defense secrets, of deep-cover intelligence sources and methods. Why, to ask for such information was to be an insurrectionist seeking to destroy the FBI, the Justice Department, and the rule of law itself. Now, though, it’s only the uncharged president of the United States at issue, so disclose away!Well, if we’re going to have disclosure, fine. But let’s have full disclosure: Mueller’s report in addition to the FISA applications; the memoranda pertinent to the opening and continuation of the investigation; the testimony in secret hearings; the scope memorandum Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein issued on August 2, 2017, after failing to cite a crime when he appointed Mueller -- let’s have all of it.As far as the special counsel’s report goes, because of the way the regulations work (at least when the Justice Department deigns to follow them), we now have Mueller’s bottom line, but not his reasoning and the underlying facts. It is the opposite of the Trump opposition’s preferred Roger Stone and George Papadopoulos scenario, where Mueller’s team spins pages and pages of “Gee, sure seems like a lot of almost-collusion here” before you flip to the end and find that there’s no case -- just a campaign hanger-on who lied to an investigator long after the imaginary espionage conspiracy occurred. At the moment, we just have Mueller’s conclusion: There is no basis to indict the president for a crime -- not collusion, not obstruction, not false statements. The collusion-peddlers, who took great umbrage at the suggestion that “VERIFIED” FISA surveillance-warrant applications should be disclosed, now demand Mueller’s full report so they can get to the familiar work of obscuring the bottom line and spinning the spin.As we’ve noted before, unlike Mueller, who needs a crime to indict, Congress does not need a crime to impeach. The media-Democrat alliance does not need a crime to inflate Mueller’s not-quite-so stories into treason. To keep this carnival rolling on for another year and a half, they just need fodder for the narrative -- which is so predictably morphing from the collusion narrative to the impeachment narrative to the campaign narrative.Since before Robert Mueller was appointed, I have been contending that there was no legal basis for the appointment of a special counsel because there was no evidence that the president had committed a crime. For nearly a year and a half, I’ve maintained that Mueller had nothing close to an actionable “collusion” case, that he had no prosecutable obstruction case, and that this exercise was an impeachment investigation geared more toward rendering Trump unelectable in 2020 than toward actually removing him from office.This was not to dismiss Russia’s provocations (which Democrats spent most of the Obama years ignoring, and -- when it comes to hacking -- which Obama himself spent the 2016 campaign mostly ignoring). It was always essential that the FBI use its counterintelligence authorities for their proper purpose -- to monitor and undermine foreign powers. It still is.But investigations targeting Americans for violating the law have to be premised on crime. Even FISA, which allows a court to authorize spying on an American citizen suspected of being an agent of a foreign power, requires the Justice Department and the FBI to show probable cause that the American is knowingly engaged in clandestine activity on behalf of the foreign power -- and that this clandestine activity is a probable violation of American criminal law. (See FISA, section 1801(b)(2) of Title 50, U.S. Code -- the definition of “agent of a foreign power” that applies to American citizens.)That is why, as we have repeatedly pointed out, “collusion” is a weasel word. “Collusion” is just association -- concerted activity that could be benign, sinister, or somewhere in between. It is not a crime to have relationships, even troubling ones, with Russians. Fortunately for the Clinton campaign, it is not a crime to attempt to gather opposition research from foreign sources -- even former British spies who purport to have Kremlin-connected sources. When Americans are involved, the only collusion that federal criminal and counterintelligence law trouble themselves over involves conspiracy (or its close cousin, aiding and abetting). There must be knowing complicity in a crime. If you don’t have a good-faith basis to believe a crime has been committed, you don’t have an investigation.Again, we were pointing that out before Mueller was appointed. In order to justify a special-counsel appointment, the regulations require two things: (1) the attorney general (or the deputy AG when, as here, the AG is recused) must be able to articulate the factual basis for a criminal investigation or prosecution; (2) that investigation or prosecution must create a conflict of interest so profound that the Justice Department cannot ethically conduct the investigation -- a lawyer must be brought in from outside the government. It is the alleged crime that determines what is to be investigated and whether there is a conflict.Here, the issue was solely the president. The Justice Department and FBI did not need a special counsel to conduct a counterintelligence investigation of Russia, or a criminal investigation of, say, Michael Flynn or Paul Manafort. Indeed, such investigations were underway before Mueller’s appointment. A special counsel would have been needed only for the president, on the rationale that the president cannot credibly be investigated by his own Justice Department. That is fine: The president is not above the law, and if there is evidence that he committed a crime, he should be investigated. But there has to be evidence that he committed a crime.There wasn’t. Even in his shocking public announcement that the FBI was investigating the Trump campaign for possible “coordination” in Russia’s election interference, former FBI director James Comey never actually accused the president of a crime. While privately assuring Trump that he was not a suspect, Comey publicly stated that the FBI was conducting a counterintelligence probe. You can believe, as I do, that this was a pretext for a criminal investigation that lacked a crime; but for present purposes, that’s irrelevant. The point is: There was no crime.In May 2017, in the wake of Trump’s firing of Comey (which acting FBI director Andrew McCabe wrongly concluded could be the basis for an obstruction investigation), Rosenstein appointed Mueller. But, again, no crime was cited (Rosenstein obviously knew better than McCabe). Perforce, there was no need for a special counsel. In the Justice Department, the FBI -- not a prosecutor -- conducts counterintelligence investigations. And there was palpably no conflict of interest requiring an outside lawyer. How could there be? There was no factual basis for a crime, and you can’t know whether there is a conflict unless you know what the suspected crime is. Plus, Mueller recruited his staff from the Justice Department’s top echelon, and later transferred cases he brought to Justice Department components; these actions would have been inappropriate if the Justice Department had actually been conflicted.There was no need for a special counsel. And there was no case -- again, obviously. Mueller never charged any Trump associate with any kind of espionage conspiracy. As we’ve pointed out repeatedly, when prosecutors have a conspiracy case, they induce the cooperating accomplice witnesses to plead guilty to the conspiracy and implicate the other conspirators at the time of the plea. Mueller, instead, pled his putative accomplices to process crimes of lying to investigators, and to massive fraud crimes that had nothing to do with Trump or Russia. No competent prosecutor builds a case that way -- and Mueller is an exceptionally competent prosecutor.Moreover, wholly apart from Mueller’s evidence-based decision not to accuse Trump associates of complicity in Russia’s election interference, there are also Mueller’s two indictments of Russian operatives -- the hacking and troll-farm cases. These charges not only fail to suggest a conspiratorial link to the Trump campaign; they positively indicate that the Russian operatives neither needed nor wanted American partners. They wanted deniability. Their operations predated Trump’s entry into the campaign, and some of them were anti-Trump in nature.Did Putin want Trump to win the election? Who knows? But there is no reason to think Putin (unlike any other informed observer) believed Trump would win the election. What Russia was aiming for is what Russia is always aiming for: to sow discord in American society and make it more difficult for the American government to pursue American interests. In any event, Mueller’s Russia indictments, like his charges against Trump associates, appeared to preclude the possibility of a Trump-Kremlin conspiracy. If Mueller had suddenly found Trump guilty of “collusion,” his prior prosecutions would have been incomprehensible.And, to reiterate another oft-made point, a federal prosecutor cannot properly charge an obstruction case against the president based on lawful exercises of the chief executive’s constitutional prerogatives. To be sure, a president may be cited for obstruction based on acts that the Constitution does not endorse and that corruptly tamper with evidence or witnesses. But because prosecutorial power is executive in nature, a president -- like a prosecutor -- is permitted by the Constitution to take actions that negatively affect an investigation. A president is permitted to weigh in on the merits of an investigation; he may fire the investigators (including the FBI director); he may issue pardons.Clearly, these powers can be abused, and if they are, Congress may impeach the president. But it is not the place of a prosecutor, an inferior federal officer, to second-guess the chief executive’s exercise of executive discretion just because the inferior officer suspects improper motivation. The president should suffer politically for inappropriately insinuating himself in law-enforcement activities; but it is not a crime for him to do so.Finally, unlike criminal investigations, which are conducted to vindicate the rule of law in judicial proceedings and which should be insulated from politics, counterintelligence investigations are done strictly for the president -- to assist him in carrying out his national-security duties. If a president were to shut down a counterintelligence investigation -- which Trump has never done in connection with Russia, even after the FBI director publicly portrayed Trump’s campaign as a suspected collaborator -- that could not be an obstruction crime, even if it were a reckless decision. It is the politically accountable president, not the administrative state, who determines the nation’s intelligence needs.In sum, we have endured a two-year ordeal in which the president of the United States was forced to govern under a cloud of suspicion -- suspicion of being a traitor, of scheming with a foreign adversary to steal an election. This happened because the Obama administration -- which opened the probe of the Trump campaign, and which opted to use foreign counterintelligence spying powers rather than give Trump a defensive briefing about suspected Russian infiltration of his campaign -- methodically forced its suspicions about Trump into the public domain.It is not just that FISA warrants were sought on the basis of the Steele dossier, an uncorroborated Clinton-campaign opposition-research screed that the Obama Justice Department and FBI well knew was being peddled to the media at the same time. There was a patently premeditated stream of intelligence leaks depicting a corrupt Trump-Russia arrangement.After Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election, Obama, after doing virtually nothing about Russian aggression for most of eight years, suddenly made a show of issuing sanctions, seizing Russian assets, and expelling Russian operatives. He then rushed the completion of an intelligence assessment that would ordinarily have taken months to complete, so that it would be issued on his watch; and presto: The public was told not only that Russia interfered in the campaign, but that Russia did so because Putin was trying to get Trump elected. (Of course, the public was not told that Obama had known what Russia was doing during the campaign, but concluded it was too trivial to warrant a response; and the public was not reminded that, just days before the election -- when Russia’s perfidy was well known to the Obama administration -- both Obama and Hillary Clinton chastised Trump for daring to suggest that an American presidential election could be rigged.)The intelligence assessment provided Obama’s intelligence agencies with a pretext to brief President-elect Trump on the Steele dossier. That, in turn, gave the media -- previously skittish about the dossier’s sensational, unverified allegations -- exactly the news hook they needed to publish it. Weeks later, as the FBI continued relying on the unverified Steele dossier in FISA-warrant applications, the FBI director, in public testimony, not only disclosed the existence of a classified counterintelligence investigation but gratuitously added that Trump’s campaign was a subject of the probe and that an assessment would be made of whether any crimes were committed -- signaling to the world that Trump was a suspect in what would be, if proved, one of the most heinous crimes in American history. Then, finally, more leaks to the media triggered the appointment of a special counsel in the absence of actual evidence that the president had committed a crime.You want disclosure? Me too. But let’s see all of it. Not just Mueller’s report. Let’s see everything: all of the memoranda relevant to the opening of the investigation, all of the testimony at closed hearings, all of the FISA-warrant applications, all of Rosenstein’s scope memo. (A year ago, I surmised that scope memo is redacted because it relies on the Steele dossier -- as did the FISA-warrant application Rosenstein had approved just a few weeks earlier; anyone want to bet me on that?)If a victorious Democratic nominee had been subjected to such an investigation, there would never have been a special counsel, but we would already have chapter and verse on every investigative action. If we’re going to have accountability, let’s have complete accountability.
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Some 200 million people across the U.S. are at risk of experiencing spring flooding, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned
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Reports say Sydney Aiello was 19 and was at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during the Parkland school shooting.
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![Afghan suicide bomber hits family, kills one, injures four]( "Afghan suicide bomber hits family, kills one, injures four")
A suicide bomber on Friday killed one person and injured four, all members of the same family, in an attack in Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar, police said. The explosion in the village of Chinar took place during celebrations of the new year festival, Nowruz, with media saying the family were on their way to a party. Friday's attack comes after six people were killed and 23 wounded in several explosions the previous day during Nowruz celebrations in Kabul, the capital.
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New York (AFP) - Worries about economic growth prospects hit global stock markets on Friday, causing sharp price drops on both sides of the Atlantic.
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The mother of an unarmed black teenager fatally shot by a white police officer as he fled a traffic stop has expressed her anger and devastation over a jury’s decision to acquit the officer. Former East Pittsburgh police officer Michael Rosfeld was charged with homicide for shooting Antwon Rose II last June in one of the many high-profile killings of black people by white police officers. The deadly confrontation, captured on video, led to weeks of unrest and angry protests in the Pittsburgh last year, including a late-night march that shut down a major motorway.
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CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AP) — As soon as vascular surgeon Adib Khanafer received the call March 15, he started running toward the operating theater at Christchurch Hospital. At that point, he had no idea a white supremacist had slaughtered 50 people. But he could hear an urgency in the request for help.
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![JetBlue lawsuit claims pilots drugged three crew members and raped two]( "JetBlue lawsuit claims pilots drugged three crew members and raped two")
A lawsuit claims that two JetBlue pilots drugged three crew members during a Puerto Rico layover, with one pilot allegedly raping two crew members.
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Boeing and the FAA are under global regulatory scrutiny over software and training on the signature aircraft. Boeing risked losing a $6 billion order for the jet on Friday, its first since the world's entire fleet was grounded last week. American Airlines pilots were preparing to test Boeing's planned software upgrade for an anti-stall system on MAX simulators this weekend, saying they want their own safety guarantees on the software fix.
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Democrats running for president want Attorney General William Barr to swiftly release Robert Mueller's full report.
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![Tour the 2019 AD Apartment]( "Tour the 2019 AD Apartment")
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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Latest on flooding in the Midwest (all times local):
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On Saturday we marked a turning point in our fight against the Daesh fanatics with the liberation of the last vestiges of land held under their brutal rule. At one point these barbaric extremists controlled territory roughly the size of the United Kingdom and had advanced to within a few miles of the gates of Baghdad. But in the last few days they have been rooted out of their last enclave along the Euphrates and their so-called caliphate destroyed. I pay tribute to all our Armed Forces and allies who have helped fight Daesh. They have hunted down this nihilistic death-cult night and day. Our RAF Tornados, Typhoons, and Reaper have struck almost 2,000 times – eliminating terrorists, overwhelming their headquarters and cutting off their supplies. It is fitting that Tornado is ending its illustrious career with this achievement. There is the work of others which should not go unrecognised. The crews who tirelessly flew our Reaper drones. Last month I announced they will now receive the Operation Shader medal, without clasp. This is the first time our Reaper crews have received such recognition. Our troops on the ground have – as part of the Coalition – also helped train some 90,000 Iraqis in everything from bridge-building to defusing bombs. We also pay tribute to the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Peshmerga and the Iraqi security forces who sustained heavy casualties to liberate 7.7 million people from Daesh’s tyranny. Those British nationals who turned their back on our country to fight for Daesh made a fatal mistake. They should expect to bear the full force of the law for their actions in the country where they have committed crimes. So today we mark a major milestone but we also count the cost. Mercifully, there have been very few deaths of British and allied personnel and hostages. But we feel each one of those very keenly. Our sympathies go to their families and friends for their loss. They did not die in vain. Their bravery is to be commended for ensuring the UK’s national security by tackling this threat. No-one will ever forget the damage and destruction wrought by Daesh’s barbarism. Their frenzy of violence has left behind a trail of destruction: innocents sold into slavery, thousands dead, millions displaced and some of the world’s greatest cultural treasures sacked. It was imperative that we acted. But we cannot say this fight is over. The terrorists are as much an evil ideology as a geographical entity. We’ve always known that cutting off one head of the snake could lead to others springing up elsewhere. We’re painfully aware of the threat these extremists still pose whether to Iraq, the wider region or to our own shores. That’s why the next phase of our campaign is well underway. The UK is helping the Iraqis rebuild their homeland so they can remain free from Daesh. It is continuing to provide vital humanitarian aid in Syria where we have already committed more than £2.7 billion. And it is continuing to champion a political settlement which, ultimately, will be the only way to achieve lasting peace in the region But, above all, it means continuing to do everything in our power, alongside the Global Coalition against Daesh, to check the spread of insurgency and draw the sting from its poisonous ideology. As I said to RUSI recently, a Global Britain must to be ready to intervene, using all the hard power at our disposal to defend the international rules-based system. And we are well placed to do that. Our Armed Forces will remain deployed in the region, to provide continuing assistance to the Syrian Democratic Forces and the Iraqi security forces against any attempt by Daesh to re-establish an active presence. We have world-class F35 stealth fighters, we have an aircraft carrier that is the most powerful surface vessel ever to leave our shores and new sophisticated equipment coming into play. Not only will we fight this evil ideology on land but in the cyber sphere where the UK heads the Global Coalition Communications Cell, working to reduce the impact of Daesh’s ability to use propaganda to recruit, inspire and incite supporters. None of this will be easy. Daesh is the evil of our generation and we must be prepared to stay the course. In the past five years, our Armed Forces, alongside our allies have turned the tide. Daesh no longer has land to call their own. But we will not rest until the danger they pose to our people is ended once and for all.
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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.
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Police say no one attempted to help the 78-year-old woman, but several recorded the attack on their smartphones.
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In a 2014 interview, Lori Loughlin, now embroiled in the college admissions scandal, explained how she didn't want her kids to suffer for her choices.
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![Lakers G Ball fires family friend after $1.5M goes missing]( "Lakers G Ball fires family friend after $1.5M goes missing")
Los Angeles Lakers guard Lonzo Ball said he no longer is working with a family friend after $1.5 million from Ball's personal and business bank accounts apparently remains missing. The second-year player told ESPN that the man, Alan Foster, "used his access to my business and personal finances to enrich himself. Foster owns 16.3 percent of the family's Big Baller Brand and also has managed the family companies.
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![Strengthen Your Retirement Security in 7 Steps]( "Strengthen Your Retirement Security in 7 Steps")
Retirement security is the ability to live a comfortable retirement without the burden of financial stress. Early planning is the best way to ensure a financially secure retirement, but not everyone has the luxury of time to prepare. The financial decisions you make in the years approaching retirement will have a significant impact on your retirement security.
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The biggest news to start your day.
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President Donald Trump tweeted Friday that he has reversed his administration's decision to slap new sanctions on North Korea, with his press secretary explaining that the president "likes" leader Kim Jong Un and doesn't think they're necessary. "It was announced today by the US Treasury that additional large scale Sanctions would be added to those already existing Sanctions on North Korea," Trump wrote from his private club in Palm Beach, Florida. The White House did not immediately respond to questions about which sanctions Trump was referring to, or what large-scale sanctions were poised to be added to existing ones already imposed on North Korea.
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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said Friday that recent flooding in the state has caused an estimated $1.6 billion in damage, pushing the total costs from the devastating Midwest flooding to at least $3 billion.
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The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office has released video showing a 2017 high-wire accident that left five members of the famous Wallenda family injured. The performers were practicing an eight-person pyramid when they lost theIr balance. The accident is reportedly the subject of litigation by one of those who fell. Rough cut (no reporter narration).
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More than 130 people were killed in an attack on a Fulani village in central Mali on Saturday, the United Nations said, as a delegation visited the country. Survivors accused traditional Dogon hunters of carrying out the deadly raid in Ogossagou, according to Boubacar Kane, the governor of Bankass district which covers the village. "The Secretary-General is shocked and outraged by reports that at least 134 civilians, including women and children, have been killed," Antonio Guterres's spokesman said in a statement, adding he called on Malian authorities "to swiftly investigate it and bring the perpetrators to justice".
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PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Latest on the homicide trial of a white Pennsylvania police officer in the shooting of an unarmed black 17-year-old (all times local):
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As the former vice president bides his time, current Democratic candidates stake out policy positions.
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![Goldman Sachs raises chances of no-deal Brexit after UK PM's late reprieve]( "Goldman Sachs raises chances of no-deal Brexit after UK PM's late reprieve")
Goldman Sachs on Friday lowered its expectations of UK Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal getting ratified, and hiked its estimate of the chances of a "no-deal" exit from the European Union. The changes to the bank's previous predictions came after the EU agreed to grant the UK a short reprieve, until April 12, before Britain could lurch out of the EU if May fails to persuade lawmakers to back her withdrawal treaty.
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The chief of the UN children's emergency agency on Friday warned that humanitarian efforts were running late for the tens of thousands of Mozambicans affected by last week's monster tropical cyclone ldai. "We are running out of time, it is at a critical point here," UNICEF executive director Henrietta Fore told AFP shortly after she flew into the devastated Mozambican port city of Beira from New York to assess the situation first hand. The United Nations has launched an appeal for assistance as it awaits enough information to give an accurate estimate of the needs while search and rescue operations are ongoing.
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The IRS said today that because of changes and confusion caused by the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, it will penalize fewer taxpayers who didn't withhold enough federal taxes in 2018. Before the rul...
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was asked whether Trump was raised to "save the Jewish people." He answered, "I certainly believe that's possible."
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![View Photos of the 2019 Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 Bison]( "View Photos of the 2019 Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 Bison")
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Record floodwaters that submerged vast stretches of Nebraska and Iowa farmland along America's longest river reached a new crest on Friday at the waterfront city of St. Joseph, Missouri, forcing chaotic evacuations of thousands from low-lying areas. With emergency sirens blaring as the Missouri River rose to the top of the three-story-high levee wall in St. Joseph, about 55 miles (88 km) north of Kansas City, Missouri, sheriff's deputies rushed door-to-door urging residents to flee to higher ground.
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What is the Golan Heights and what is its current status? The Golan Heights is a narrow strip of mountainous land, roughly 1,800sq km, bordering Syria, Israel, Jordan and Lebanon. It has officially been recognised as part of Syria since 1944 – when the country was recognised as an independent republic – but was captured by Israeli forces in the 1967 Six-Day War, thereafter becoming Israeli-occupied territory.
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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Former Brazilian President Michel Temer remained silent when questioned by investigators Friday, a day after he was arrested as part of the country's sprawling Car Wash corruption probe.
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NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft first arrived at the large space rock known as Bennu late last year, and it's spent the first few months of 2019 observing its new space companion and teaching NASA more about the rock's surface. Unfortunately for NASA engineers, the asteroid's surface is nothing like what they assumed it would be, and that poses a serious challenge going forward.The OSIRIS-REx mission includes multiple objectives, with the first being the successful insertion of the spacecraft into orbit around the rock itself. NASA nailed it and things seemed to be great, or at least until scientists got a good look at Bennu's surface. As Sky & Telescope reports, it has complicated matters greatly.With limited capability to observe the asteroid from Earth or in-flight towards the rock, scientists believed the asteroid would be fairly smooth. A smooth surface would make the spacecraft's final maneuver -- and up-close-and-personal sample retrieval -- a lot less risky, but that's not what Bennu had in store.Bennu is, to put it simply, an absolute mess. The asteroid is covered in debris of all sizes, ranging from dust and small rocks to massive boulders and everything in between. This poses a massive challenge for sample collection since the spacecraft will have to avoid obstacles as it inches its way towards the space rock's surface.The plan has always been for OSIRIS-REx to remain in orbit around Bennu for around a year, making observations of its surface and relaying data and images back to its handlers on Earth. However, with its rubble-covered surface now posing a threat to its most anticipated action, NASA will need to work diligently to find a safe place on the asteroid for the spacecraft to gather a sample before leaving Bennu and returning home. It they can pull it off, it'll be a monumental achievement.
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Apple chief executive Tim Cook on Saturday urged China to keep opening up its economy as local rivals bit into the profits of the US tech giant caught in the crosshairs of a trade spat between Beijing and Washington. "We have seen China continue to change and evolve... We encourage China to continue to open up," he said during a speech at the annual China Development Forum in Beijing on Saturday. Apple in January revealed that it took a hit in the "Greater China" region, where revenue plunged almost 27 percent in the most recent quarter.
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A fix to the anti-stall system suspected in the crash of a Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet that killed 189 people in Indonesia is ready, industry sources said Saturday, as the company tries to avoid a lengthy grounding of its planes. Boeing was due to present the patch to officials and pilots of US airlines -- American, Southwest and United -- in Renton, Washington state, where the plane is assembled, other sources said. "Boeing has already finalized the necessary corrective measures for the MAX," an aviation sector source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
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![FTSE 100 off multi-month highs as sterling gains on Brexit relief]( "FTSE 100 off multi-month highs as sterling gains on Brexit relief")
London's main stock index retreated from its five-and-a-half month high as exporter stocks took a hit from a stronger pound, after the European Union granted Theresa May a short extension to get lawmakers behind her proposed Brexit agreement. The FTSE 100, whose constituents derive much of their revenue in U.S. dollars, dipped 0.2 percent by 0814 GMT. The more domestically exposed FTSE 250 added 0.2 percent.
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"I'm sure there is a wry smile on John's face today knowing he's as relevant now as he was when he was still with us," McCain friend Rick Davis said.
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Looks like the Ford F-150 Raptor isn't going to have the sandbox to itself anymore.
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Talk radio host Tony Katz says Democrats want to have President Trump under investigation through the 2020 election.
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![Israeli ex-spy who helped capture Nazi mastermind Eichmann dies at 92]( "Israeli ex-spy who helped capture Nazi mastermind Eichmann dies at 92")
Rafi Eitan, a former Israeli minister and veteran spy who led the operation to capture fugitive Nazi mastermind Adolf Eichmann, died on Saturday at the age of 92. "We have lost a brave fighter whose contribution to Israel's security will be taught for generations to come," President Reuven Rivlin said. Eitan died after being hospitalized in Tel Aviv, YNET news website and other Israeli media reported.
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Potentially exposing the victims to identity fraud and theft
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration hit Iran with new sanctions on Friday while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was denouncing Iran's growing influence on a visit to Lebanon.
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As flood waters started to recede in Mozambique yesterday, fears were growing about the spread of disease and the distribution of food and clean water. The UN and the International Red Cross said humanitarian efforts were struggling to keep pace with the scale of the disaster and warned many more deaths were likely in the days and weeks ahead. The official death toll rose to 550 on Friday, with 259 deaths reported in the eastern highlands of Zimbabwe, 242 in Mozambique and 56 more in Malawi. But the number of dead in Mozambique is likely to surge as so much of the center of the country is still under water. "We are running out of time, it is at a critical point here," said UNICEF executive director Henrietta Fore after touring the devastated port city of Beira. "The next stage is getting clean safe drinking water because disease is what will be next... We are worried about cholera [and] about malaria because of the stagnant water." Survivors listen to a volunteer from Mozambique Red Cross, after arriving at an evacuation centre Credit: REUTERS Elhadj As Sy, secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said humanitarian efforts were faltering. "They are nowhere near the scale and magnitude of the problem. And I fear we will be seeing more [deaths] in the weeks and months ahead, and we should brace ourselves." Thousands from the countryside have been making their way toward Beira, which although largely destroyed has become a centre for rescue efforts and aid. Helicopters clattered overhead in search of people still clinging to rooftops. Hundreds of others were on Friday still being plucked from small islands and ferried to safety by local fishermen. Etelvina Faz Bem, a primary school teacher from a rural Catholic mission, closed her eyes before grabbing onto a 10 meter high rope which spans part of a damaged bridge over the swollen River Munhinga in Sussundenga, central Mozambique. Behind her, dozens of others waited in line to do the same, carrying suitcases, bags, chickens and other items. With the rope tense, Ms Bem braved the crossing. "I had to take a chance," she said. "There is no water or bread and also a lot of malaria [at the mission].” “It is better to risk crossing this bridge than dying without help in the interior,'' agreed Feliciano Abreu, a local man who followed her. In and around Beira conditions were grim. "The situation is simply horrendous, there is no other way to describe it," said As Sy who had been visiting a school being used for shelter. "Three thousand people who are living in a school that has 15 classrooms and six, only six, toilets... we are sitting on a water and sanitation ticking bomb." Cyclone Idai | Clinging to life What moved him the most was the number of children without their parents, separated in the chaos or newly orphaned, he added. Anastácia José, a lone parent of six from Beira, came within a whisker of losing her children when the cyclone hit. She received no advance warning of the storm and was huddled in a small house with the children when one of its supporting adobe walls started to crumble. “I put the baby in my lap, grabbed the toddler’s hand and told the older ones to leave the house,” she said. “I screamed ‘run away, run away’ and they ran as fast as they could." The house collapsed just a few moments later. The family wandered for hours in the storm, trying to get to high ground, miraculously avoiding the flying debris which killed and injured many. A young girl stares into the distance as people from the town of Buzi unload at Beira Port after being rescued yesterday Credit: Andrew Renneisen/ Getty Ms Jose said she tried to get the children into trees as the waters rose but they were “already full.” In the end they made it to a high point above the water. The family is now in Chimoio, a makeshift camp, over 100 kilometres from Beira. It is basic but there is food and fresh water. The younger children are quiet and start to cry if asked about the storm. “We were lucky because no one got hurt… thank goodness,” says a neighbor. Additional reporting: Luís Fonseca, Márcio Resende, Lusa news agency Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security
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A toxicologist from Roundup weedkiller manufacturer Monsanto denied Friday that she had influenced scientific studies to hide the dangers of the product, in the damages phase of a trial in California. One of the lawyers for the plaintiff -- a 70-year-old retiree with cancer -- asked Dr Donna Farmer to explain internal documents from Monsanto made public in 2017. Among other documents, a February 2015 email sent to Farmer by another senior Monsanto scientist refers to the technique of writing scientific articles and then paying recognized scientists -- presented as independent -- to sign them.
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![UPDATE 1-U.S. adds criminal charges against ex-Autonomy CEO Lynch]( "UPDATE 1-U.S. adds criminal charges against ex-Autonomy CEO Lynch")
U.S. prosecutors on Friday added three new criminal charges to their indictment against British entrepreneur Mike Lynch related to the $11.1 billion sale of his software company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in 2011. Lynch faces a new charge of securities fraud, which carries a maximum prison term of 25 years, as well as additional charges of wire fraud and conspiracy in the 17-count indictment filed with the federal court in San Francisco.
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After two years, more than 30 indictments or guilty pleas and close to 200 individual charges – special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation is expected to be wound up within a few more days. It is up to Mr Barr as to what Congress, and by extension the US public, see of the report. Mr Barr has pledged transparency over a report that at least one US official is said to have called “comprehensive”.
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The photos of Renty and his daughter Delia, taken in nude in 1850 against their will for a Harvard University professor, are now the subject of a lawsuit that Tamara Lanier has filed this week.
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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 ...
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![Explainer: Does Islamic State still pose a threat?]( "Explainer: Does Islamic State still pose a threat?")
U.S.-backed fighters say they have captured Islamic State's last shred of ground in eastern Syria - but while its era of territorial rule may be over for now, there is near universal agreement that IS remains a threat. Islamic State's possession of land in Iraq and Syria set it apart from other like-minded groups such as al Qaeda and became central to its mission when it declared a caliphate in 2014, claiming sovereignty over all Muslim lands and peoples.
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