Amarillo

In a gift to Netanyahu, Trump tweets U.S. support for Israel annexing Golan

President Trump on Thursday reversed a long-standing American policy that treated Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights as temporary.

New Zealand broadcasts Muslim call to prayer on day of mourning for mosque shooting victims

At 1.32pm, exactly a week after a gunman began shooting people at two mosques in Christchurch, the nation of New Zealand observed a two-minute silence to remember the 50 victims.  Brenton Tarrant, a 28-year-old suspected white supremacist from Australia, had launched the attack to try to repel “invaders” from New Zealand, he wrote in a manifesto.  Yet, the nation came together on Friday to observe the Muslim call to prayer, which was sounded around the country — including on national radio and television — before ceremonies were attended by tens of thousands of people who paid tribute to the dead and heard calls for unity.  Addressing a crowd of thousands standing quietly at Hagley Park, near the Al Noor mosque where 42 people were killed, Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s prime minister, said: “New Zealand mourns with you. We are one.” Jacinda Ardern announced a swift national crackdown on guns Credit: REUTERS/Jorge Silva Imam Gamal Fouda, from the mosque, told the crowd: “We are broken-hearted, but we are not broken. We are alive, we are together, we are determined to not let anyone divide us.”  He added:  “To the people of New Zealand, thank you for your peace. Thank you for your haka. Thank you for your flowers. Thank you for your love and compassion.” Many women wore headscarves to demonstrate solidarity with the grieving community. Across New Zealand, small ceremonies and prayers were conducted at mosques, schools, cafes and offices.  New Zealand mosque massacre - In pictures The nation’s The Press newspaper carried a front page simply saying “Salam, peace” in English and Arabic, and The Dominion Post listed the names of the victims, alongside the words: “1.32pm — Today we remember”. Following the ceremony, mourners gathered at a cemetery to attend a burial service for 26 of the victims, including three-year-old Mucaad Ibrahim, the youngest of the dead. Despite Islamic custom requiring speedy burials, the funerals had been delayed due to the painstaking effort by authorities to identify the victims.  The first to be buried on Friday was Naeem Rashid, a 50-year-old who died trying to tackle the gunman near the entrance of the Al Noor mosque. His 21-year-old son Talha Rashid was also killed. His wife, Ambreen Naeem Rashid, 44, told The Courier Mail of the murderer: “I feel really sorry for him. I feel sorry for all the people who hate in their hearts. They can never have satisfaction.” New Zealand’s terror alert level remains high, despite authorities being confident that the attack was conducted by a lone gunman. Fifty people were killed, and dozens were injured in Christchurch Credit: Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images Ms Ardern has announced a ban on military-style semiautomatic weapons and on the parts and ammunition used in the attack, ahead of a wider overhaul of gun laws over the coming weeks. She and Australian prime minister Scott Morrison have called for an international effort to force technology firms to prevent the spread of online hate speech. The gunman livestreamed his attack on Facebook, which, along with other sites such as YouTube and Twitter, has struggled to prevent the footage being republished online. About one per cent of New Zealand’s 4.8 million residents are Muslim. Imam Fouda said the attack “did not come overnight” and urged the global community to combat Islamophobia. “[The attack] was the result of the anti-Muslim rhetoric of some political leaders, media agencies and others,” he said. “The rise of white supremacy and right-wing extremism is a great global threat to mankind and this must end now.”

JetBlue pilots who drugged and raped flight attendants continued working for airline without repercussion, lawsuit says

Three female flight attendants claim they were drugged and two of them raped by two JetBlue pilots during a layover in Puerto Rico, a new lawsuit filed this week in New York federal court has claimed. At least one of the female flight attendants said she was forced to work with one of the accused pilots after the alleged rape. After making their way to a beach in Puerto Rico near the hotel they were staying during their layover in May of last year, the women were offered sips from one of the flight attendant’s alcoholic beverages.

Democratic Socialists of America back Bernie: 'The best chance to beat Trump'

The group helped leftwing candidates Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib win long-shot elections to Congress in 2018Bernie Sanders waves to workers at a rally at the University of California Los Angeles, on Wednesday 20 March 2019. Photograph: Richard Vogel/APThe Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has officially endorsed Bernie Sanders for president, with the organization throwing its growing political clout behind the Vermont senator ahead of the 2020 election.The DSA’s National Political Committee leadership team voted to back Sanders during a meeting on Thursday night, after the rank-and-file membership had earlier overwhelmingly pledged their support.The backing of the DSA will provide a further fillip to Sanders, who quickly outraised most of his rivals for the Democratic nomination. The DSA endorsed Sanders in 2016 and helped the leftwing candidates Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib win long-shot elections to Congress in 2018.“He has the best possible chance of the Democratic field to beat Trump,” said Jeremy Gong, a member of the NPC who voted to endorse Sanders.“Specifically because he has a working-class political agenda, as opposed to an elite, or moderate, or corporate-friendly agenda that is not exciting to anyone electorally – except a very small number of either Democratic party diehards or upper middle class or wealthy people.”Sanders announced his run for president on 19 February and raised $5.9m in the first 24 hours of his campaign, second only to Texas’s Beto O’Rourke among Democratic candidates. Sanders is running second, behind Joe Biden, in most polling of Democratic candidates – although the pair are probably benefitting from superior name recognition at this point in the election cycle.The DSA has seen a dramatic increase in membership since the 2016 election, rising from 5,000 members to more than 55,000. Ocasio-Cortez is the highest-profile beneficiary of the DSA’s political heft, her victory in New York’s 14th congressional district aided by the wealth of volunteers DSA can offer access to.Gong said the DSA was still working on its strategy to support Sanders, who is advocating for Medicare for All, a $15 minimum wage and a Green New Deal climate policy. There are more than 100 chapters in the US and each will decide how to promote Sanders. But Gong said the DSA was looking beyond just electing Sanders as president.“Sanders alone, once in office, is not capable of pushing through these reforms,” Gong said.“We need to have a mass movement of ordinary people building organizations like the DSA, building their union, going on strike, demonstrating in the streets, pushing for his radical reform agenda.”The DSA also aims to elect progressive candidates to local government across the country. Six democratic socialists are running for election to the Chicago city council this year, and despite Republicans seeking to use the term “democratic socialist” to denigrate Democrats, the DSA is continuing to grow.Sanders, 77, has been criticized in some quarters for entering what promises to be the most diverse race for the Democratic nomination in history, but Gong pointed to some polling which shows Sanders is popular among black and Latino voters, and said there is “not a deep bench” of candidates who have the politics and reach of the veteran senator.“It’d be better and preferable if Sanders was not an old white man, and that there be someone who has the same track record, and the same politics and the same potential to transform our society that Sanders does,” Gong said.“[But] there is no one else who is advancing the Sanders agenda and building a movement in the way that Sanders is who could also be elected president.”

North Korea Abruptly Withdrew Its Staff From an Inter-Korea Liaison Office, Seoul Says

North Korea abruptly withdrew its staff from an inter-Korean liaison office in the North on Friday, Seoul officials said.

Economic gloom hits world stock markets

New York (AFP) - Worries about economic growth prospects hit global stock markets on Friday, causing sharp price drops on both sides of the Atlantic.

Bringing the Sting: The U.S. Navy Is Getting New F/A-18E/F Super Hornets

The Super Hornets would be the first new-build examples of the Block III variant of the F/A-18E/F. The Block III flies farther and carries more weapons than an older F/A-18E/F can do and also is stealthier than earlier Super Hornet models are.

After Mueller’s Exoneration of Trump, Full Disclosure

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.

IRS Loosens Tax Penalty for Millions

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...

Correction: Southern Flood Threat story

In a story March 21 about the U.S. flooding outlook, The Associated Press misspelled the last name of a weather forecaster. He is Kevin Low, not Lao.

Reports: Boeing will add warning light to aid pilots after Ethiopian 737 Max crash

The warning light will become standard equipment. Previously, it was an option

2020 Vision: Is Biden-Abrams the ticket for Democrats?

As the former vice president bides his time, current Democratic candidates stake out policy positions.

'Warrior.' Lena Headey Shares Emotional Response to Emilia Clarke's Survival Story

What Lena Headey said after Emilia Clarke wrote about her aneurysms will convince you they have an unbreakable Game of Thrones alliance.

School shooting survivor stricken by 'survivor's guilt' takes own life

A teenager who survived the Parkland school shooting in Florida has killed herself while struggling with survivors' guilt, local media reported Friday. Sydney Aiello, 19, was a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas last February 14 when a former student opened fire with a semiautomatic weapon, killing 14 students and three staff members. Among the dead were two of Aiello's best friends, Meadow Pollack and Joaquin Oliver.

The fight is not over, but Daesh no longer has land to call their own

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.

Ex-cop says he thought he saw a gun when he shot black teen

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A white former police officer said Thursday he thought a weapon was pointed at him when he shot and killed an unarmed black teenager outside Pittsburgh last summer.

Democrats push for assault weapons ban following New Zealand terror attack

New Zealand pushes ban on assault weapons; should America follow suit? Reaction and analysis from House Minority Whip Steve Scalise.

Climate change's fingerprints are on U.S. Midwest floods: scientists

The "bomb cyclone" that dumped rain on Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri and killed at least four people now threatens a wider region downstream of swollen rivers and smashed levees. "The atmosphere is pretty close to fully saturated, it's got all the water it can take," said Michael Wehner, a senior scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Big storms like the bomb cyclone and Hurricane Harvey, which smacked Houston in 2017 with record downpours, are where the impact of climate change can most clearly be seen, he said, adding that climate change's fingerprints were all over the recent storm.

The Latest: Ethiopian airline defends pilots' training

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The Latest on the Ethiopian plane crash (all times local):

More Misconceptions about College

Now that we’ve all had a good airing of grievances about elite colleges and their attendant injustices, let’s get some perspective.While the numbers of high-school graduates heading off to college have increased in recent years, the percentages graduating with a four-year degree have not increased much. Many students, especially those who are the first in their families to attend college, drop out before receiving a degree. (They cannot drop out of student-loan payments, though.)Data from the Lumina Foundation show that among Americans aged 25–64, 52.4 percent have no more than a high-school diploma (though 15.4 percent of them attended college for a while). An additional 5.2 percent received a certificate of some kind, and 9.2 percent obtained an associate’s degree. What most people think of when you say “college” is a four-year institution. Only 21.1 percent received bachelor’s degrees, and another 12.2 percent also earned graduate degrees. Adding the last two categories brings the fraction of Americans with college or graduate degrees to just over one-third.While most of the conversation in the past week has focused on highly selective colleges such as Yale and Penn, it’s important to remember that only a small number of America’s colleges are selective. As FiveThirtyEight has reported, more than 75 percent of undergrads attend colleges that accept at least half of all applicants. The number who attend selective colleges -- i.e., schools that accept 25 percent or fewer — is just 4 percent. And the number who attend schools in the very top tier, colleges that reject 90 percent or more, can be counted on your fingers and toes. You can probably guess most of them. (Though not all. On this U.S. News list, Pomona College came in at No. 11, and the Minerva Schools at Keck Graduate Institute came in first.) Less than 1 percent of college students attend these elite schools.Most students attend commuter schools, which tend to be community colleges. Even among those at four-year institutions, almost 25 percent attend part-time. Half of college students are also working, not getting plastered at frat parties.There’s a healthy debate in policy circles about whether our current cultural preoccupation with college for all is a good thing. Some people who are funneled toward college might be a better fit for vocational training, apprenticeships, or other life paths; and while there is no doubt about the association between college completion and higher income, there is uncertainty about the causal relationship.Rather than gnash our collective teeth about whether Jason or Jessica can get into MIT, we might want to focus on all students, those who are headed for college and those who are not. Every student in elementary and high school should be learning about the “success sequence.” The phrase was introduced by Isabel Sawhill and Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institution and has lately been reinforced with a study by W. Bradford Wilcox and Wendy Wang of the Institute for Family Studies.What they’ve found is that students have it within their power to virtually guarantee a middle- or upper-class income if they follow three steps. Those three basics are 1) finish high school, 2) get a full-time job, and 3) get married before having children. Young people who follow all three steps have only a 3 percent likelihood of living in poverty when they reach young adulthood. Eighty-six percent of Millennials who put marriage first had incomes in the middle or upper third, compared with 53 percent who had children before marriage. The success sequence works for those born into poverty, too. Seventy-one percent of Millennials who grew up in the bottom third of the income distribution were in the middle or upper third by young adulthood if they followed the three steps. Among African Americans, 76 percent who followed the success sequence achieved the middle class or above, and among Hispanics, the percentage was 81 percent.With all of the emphasis on a tiny sliver of the top 1 percent of students, most young people can get the impression that they are doomed to a lesser life. In fact, avoiding a few pitfalls like dropping out of high school, having a baby out of wedlock, and failing to find employment is a ticket to success.There’s a bias among writer types to pay attention to Princeton and Columbia. But that’s not really where the action is in helping most Americans.© 2019 Creators.com

Two US soldiers killed in Afghanistan: NATO

Two US service members were killed in Afghanistan Friday, NATO said, in the latest casualties to hit the international coalition amid ongoing peace talks between Washington and the Taliban. NATO's Resolute Support mission would not immediately release any details about the soldiers but said they had been killed during an unspecified "operation" in the country. "In accordance with U.S. Department of Defense policy, the name of the service members killed in action are being withheld until 24 hours after notification of next of kin is complete," said NATO.

Jared Kushner 'used WhatsApp to contact foreign leaders,' Democrats claim

Jared Kushnerused WhatsApp to communicate with foreign leaders, Democrats have claimed. Using the encrypted messaging service for government duties could violate a law banning White House officials from employing non-official electronic messaging accounts. Elijah Cummings, Democrat chairman of the House oversight committee, asked the White House to provide information on whether Mr Kushner, a senior adviser to the president, had used WhatsApp to communicate sensitive or classified details. Mr Cummings suggestions were based on comments made to the committee by Abbe Lowell, Mr Kushner's lawyer. However, Mr Lowell later said the committee chairman's characterisation of what he said was "not completely accurate". Mr Lowell denied saying that Mr Kushner had been communicating with foreign "leaders" or "officials". He said Mr Kushner had many friends abroad and that he only used the messaging service to talk to "some people". Mr Cummings also suggested that Ivanka Trump - the president's daughter and Mr Kushner's wife - had continued to use a personal email account while a White House adviser, which would violate the Presidential Records Act. But Mr Lowell denied having told the committee that the president's daughter was doing that. He indicated that she "always forwards official business to her White House account". Donald Trump said he knew nothing about Mr Kushner's use of WhatsApp. He said: "I know nothing about it. I've never heard that, I've never heard about it." In the 2016 presidential campaign Mr Trump railed against Hillary Clinton, his Democrat opponent, over her use of a private email server while she was serving as secretary of state. Mr Kushner's communications, particularly with foreign leaders, have been under scrutiny and officials have previously raised questions over whether he should be given a top-secret security clearance.

Report claims Boeing has been forced to delay first Starliner launch by months

NASA needs a way to get astronauts to the International Space Station that doesn't involve paying Russia heaps of money, so it struck deals with both SpaceX and Boeing to build crew capsules capable of fulfilling that need. Earlier this month, SpaceX successfully sent its Crew Dragon capsule to the International Space Station, paving the way for crew tests to be conducted within months, but what about Boeing?A new report from Reuters suggests that Boeing is having a much, much harder time getting its Starliner spacecraft ready for its first big test. Boeing, which analysts thought would beat SpaceX's Crew Dragon to delivery by a significant margin, has now reportedly pushed back its maiden flight to the space station by several months, and the first crewed flights won't happen until close to the end of the year, if they happen in 2019 at all.The report, which cites unnamed sources, claims that the first unmanned test flight of Starliner has been delayed by three months. Adjusting the timeline based on that new information, Boeing's first crewed flight of the spacecraft wouldn't be ready until November, and that's assuming everything goes perfectly from here on out.Both Crew Dragon and Starliner have been plagued by delays over the past couple of years, forcing NASA to strike new deals with Russian space agency Roscosmos to fly NASA crew members to the ISS and back. The clock is ticking, and right now it's clear that SpaceX is much closer to delivering NASA much-needed crew-capable spacecraft than Boeing is.In the meantime, NASA is doing its best to prepare for a worst-case scenario in which one or potentially both programs fail to deliver before the end of 2019. The agency is mulling the decision to throw more money at Russia to ensure its astronauts can make it to the ISS throughout 2019 and into 2020, but no decisions have been finalized as of yet.

Brazilian ex-president remains silent under questioning

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.

Autonomy founder Lynch set for $5 billion Hewlett-Packard court showdown

HP is seeking damages of around $5 billion from Lynch and his former colleague Sushovan Hussain, alleging that they inflated the value of Autonomy before selling the big data firm, whose software searches and organises unstructured information, such as telephone conversations. Autonomy was supposed to be the centrepiece of a plan to transform HP from a PC and printer maker into a software-focused enterprise services firm, a shift successfully undertaken by IBM in the previous two decades.

The Latest: Flood levels reached record in 3 towns

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Latest on flooding in the Midwest (all times local):

'Humiliated and ashamed': Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign chairman, sentenced to nearly 4 years in prison

Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman, must pay more than $24 million in fines and restitution. He faces more prison time next week.

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

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

Toxicologist denies manipulating studies in Monsanto damages proceedings

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.

U.S. cautions Venezuela's Maduro over detained Citgo workers, others

The Trump administration on Friday warned the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro over the detention of Americans, including six executives from Houston-based oil company Citgo Petroleum who have been jailed since 2017. "We will hold Maduro and his prison officials to account for their safety and well-being," the U.S. State Department said in a statement, adding that the Citgo employees include five individuals with dual U.S. citizenship and one U.S. legal permanent resident. The United States is concerned about reports of prison officials preventing attorneys and families of detained U.S. citizens from delivering food and denying communication, the statement said.

China's Worst Nightmare: A U.S. Military Presence on Taiwan?

Could it happen?

Nobody knows if NASA’s OSIRIS-REx can pull off its daring asteroid-sampling maneuver

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.

Easter 2019: Forbidden eggs, Eostre and how the date is decided

Easter weekend is fast approaching with all the fondant-filled Creme Eggs, sticky hot cross buns and sugar-coated Mini Eggs our stretchiest waistbands can withstand.  Of course, the  Christian festival is far more than its associated confectionery. Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ who, according to the New Testament, died on the cross on Good Friday and came back to life three days later. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Sunday, which also marks the end of Lent's 40-day period of fasting. From the origins of the Easter bunny to the celebrations' ever-changing dates, here is your essential guide to the holiday. Jump to it, bunny: Your complete guide to Easter decorations When is Easter 2019? This year, Good Friday falls on April 19, Easter Sunday on April 21 and Easter Monday on April 22 - three weeks later than they did last year.  While the holiday is a movable feast, it always falls somewhere between March 21 and April 25 every year. It is calculated as the first Sunday after the first full moon following the first day of spring. The full moon is known as the Paschal (Passover) Full Moon. Methods for calculating Easter are fiendishly complicated and a uniquely baffling synthesis of mathematics, astronomy and theology.  As Christians believe Jesus was crucified during the Jewish Passover festival, Easter is celebrated around the same time. Nonetheless, different Christian groups were already marking it on separate dates by the end of the 2nd Century. Q&A; | Maundy Thursday These date-led disagreements even set the course of history for the British Isles at the Synod of Whitby in 664AD when the preferred date of the Roman - rather than the Celtic - church became the standard. The decision is said to have catapulted Britain into the European sphere of influence. Though disputes over Easter's exact timing have been used as proxies for deeper power struggles for centuries, most now accept that it falls on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox - which the Church approximated as March 21. This year, Easter Sunday falls on April 21, the longest stretch following March 21's full moon – which falls on a Sunday. In 2016, the Archbishop of Canterbury suggested Easter should fall on the same Sunday every year and the Most Rev Justin Welby said Anglican leaders would join discussions with other church leaders to fix the date for the first time, theoretically putting an end to almost 2,000 years of controversy. The 10 best destinations for Easter sun What do eggs have to do with Easter? Eggs illustrate new life, just as Jesus began his new life on Easter Sunday after the miracle of his resurrection. When eggs are cracked open they are said to symbolise an empty tomb. Originally, eating eggs was forbidden in the week leading up to Easter (known as Holy Week). They were saved and decorated in the run-up to the celebration and given to children as gifts. Sometimes they were coloured red, in recognition of the blood sacrificed by Jesus when he was crucified. Green was also used to symbolise spring re-growth after the winter. The first chocolate eggs appeared in France and Germany during the 19th century. As chocolate-making techniques improved, the Easter egg as we know it was popularised. Where does the Easter Bunny fit in to all of this? Rabbits and hares have been associated with spring for hundreds of years. It is thought that the Anglo-Saxon Goddess of Spring, Eostre – who many believe the Christian event is named after – had a hare as her companion, symbolising fertility and rebirth. It’s hardly surprising that rabbits and hares have become associated with fertility as they are both prolific breeders and regularly give birth to large litters in early spring. The legend of the Easter Bunny is thought to have originated among German Lutherans, where the ‘Easter Hare’ judged whether children had been good or bad in the run-up to Easter. Easter bunnies and eggs are symbols of spring and fertility.  Over time it has been incorporated into Christian celebrations, becoming especially popular in Britain during the 19th century. Many children believe that the Easter Bunny lays and hides baskets of coloured eggs, sweets and toys in their homes or around the garden the night before Easter Sunday – much like Father Christmas delivering gifts on Christmas Eve. This has given rise to the tradition of the Easter egg hunt which is still popular among children today. Why do we eat hot cross buns? A hot cross bun is a spiced, sweet bun marked with a cross on top. They are traditionally eaten on Good Friday as the cross represents the crucifixion of Jesus, while the spices are said to remind Christians of the spices put on his body. Hot cross buns appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1733 but they are believed to have existed long before. Enriched, sweetened bread dough dates back to the Romans. Long before Christianity, loaves and buns were baked with symbols on them, one of which was a cross. Small, spiced cakes were also baked to honour the Saxon goddess Eoestre and celebrate spring, but it was the Tudors who began to link the spiced currant buns we know today with feast days, celebrations and - eventually - Lent. Delicious recipes to cook this Easter Wild garlic and parsley soup Jose Pizarro's roast rack of lamb with braised peas and lemon-thyme salsa Hot cross bun panna cotta Paul Hollywood's Easter simnel cake How is Easter celebrated around the world? In many central and eastern European countries decorating eggs with beautiful patterns is especially popular. In Switzerland, Easter eggs are delivered by a cuckoo and, in some areas of Germany, a fox. The egg-giving tradition arrived in the United States in the 18th century via protestant German immigrants in the Pennsylvania Dutch area. Traditional Easter foods from around the world On Easter Monday, the President of the United States holds an annual Easter egg roll on the lawn of the White House for young children. In the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland it is a day of remembrance for the men and women who died in the Easter Rising which began on Easter Monday 1916.

Ram Rebel TRX Pickup Spied, Likely to Get the Supercharged Hellcat V-8

Looks like the Ford F-150 Raptor isn't going to have the sandbox to itself anymore.

The Latest: Nebraska puts flood damage at more than $640 mln

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Latest on flooding in the Midwest (all times local):

Mueller investigation timeline: From James Comey to the report, every major step of the probe into Donald Trump

After nearly two years, special counsel Robert Mueller’s team has finished the much-anticipated report on Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election that could lay bare the truth behind the foreign nation’s efforts to impact American democracy, and those who helped along the way. The conclusion of Mr Mueller’s probe comes amid a particularly polarising period in American politics, with the nation enraptured with the slow drip of details that have emerged from the investigation and painted an alarming portrait of a vast network of individuals connected to Donald Trump and implicated in a range of crimes. 17 May 2017 — Mr Mueller is appointed to as special counsel by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Tax refunds are $3 smaller on average versus last year after seventh week of filing season

After three weeks of rising tax refunds, the average tax refund is $3 less than a year ago.

Norway airlifting 1,300 off cruise ship in rough seas

Emergency services on Saturday launched an air rescue for 1,300 passengers and crew stranded aboard a cruise ship after it got into difficulty in rough seas along a notorious stretch of Norwegian coast. The Viking Sky lost power and started drifting mid-afternoon, two kilometres (1.2 miles) off More og Romsdal, prompting the captain to send out a distress call. "I have never seen anything so frightening," said one of the passengers who was rescued, Janet Jacob.

Save up to 30% off bed and bath must-haves during The Home Depot’s Spring Savings

It's been a loong winter with way too much time spent binge-watching in bed. All the more reason to strip those stale sheets, replace your threadbare towels, and hit up The Home Depot's online-only Spring Savings.  Think high-quality basics: super-soft sheets, bath mats, and towels that aren't adorned with weird bleach stains. In other words: bedding and bath essentials that make you feel like a grown-up. Below, find a look to match your style and then shop The Home Depot's Spring Savings. Image: The Home Depot Save up to 30% on bed and bath essentials at The Home Depot through April 3rd See Details Grown up neutralsImage: The Home DepotA neutral color palette opens up even the smallest studio in a big way. You can play with pops of color, experiment with textures, or layer crisp whites with neutrals for a sophisticated Instagram backdrop. To get this dressed-to-impress look, start with a crisp white duvet and pair with some sweet flax sheets. Breezy bohoImage: The Home DepotThis laid-back look is a breeze to create. For bedding, opt for cool blues in a breathable fabric like this linen duvet set. Add some throw pillows in sunset tones that remind you of the Pacific Ocean, then bring cabana vibes to your bathroom with aqua towels, a bathmat, and shower curtain. And of course, the more houseplants the better! Pattern playerImage: the home depotWhether you're a graphic designer or an Insta-artist, adding bold patterns to your space screams creative genius. Go bold with a chevron duvet set, then add some contrasting geometric sheets. Next, hang some funky towels in your bathroom. The trick is to mix hues and shapes that seem like they shouldn't work together -- but somehow do. It's all part of your mystery. Image: The Home Depot Save up to 30% on bed and bath at The Home Depot through April 3rd See Details

1969 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 428 Cobra Jet

With 355-horsepower from a 428 cubic-inch, 7.0-liter V8, a four-on-the-floor manual transmission, and this brilliant red paint with gold side stripes, this 1969 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 is a must-have car for any die-hard American muscle collector. The 1969 Ford Mustang was the third and final evolution of the original pony car.

2019 BMW X7 Is Luxurious, Large, and In Charge

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 ...

It Looks Like the Dodge Charger Is Getting a Widebody Variant

Dodge shows off a "concept" version of its muscle sedan with a widebody setup like its Challenger sibling.

Wallenda high-wire plunge video released

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).