Amazonseller center: March 2019

Your pictures on the theme of 'sparkle'

Each week, we publish a gallery of readers' pictures on a set theme. This week it is "sparkle".

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The male body positive Instagram influencer who ditched his six pack

Stevie Blaine, aka bopo.boy, struggled with an obsession over his body shape before a dramatic switch.

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US-Mexico border: Migrants held as Trump threatens closure

Migrants are forced to sleep outside as US officials struggle with a surge in asylum-seekers.

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When Drake turns up at your local club

Drake fans are delighted as the rapper plays an intimate aftershow set at small Leicester nightclub Republic.

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Hall of Fame honour for UK band who conquered the US

Keyboardist and vocalist Rod Argent and fellow singer Colin Blunstone were at the ceremony in New York.

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Papery pyramid: A new look at the Louvre

French visual artist JR and a team of volunteers plaster paper around the Louvre's glass pyramid.

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Tornado chasers face storm as lawsuit hits close to home

A lawsuit claims reckless behaviour by storm chasers before a fatal crash. Is there a wider problem?

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Minimum wage: How high could the lowest salaries go?

The UK's lowest-paid workers are getting a pay rise - helping everyone from bar staff to carers.

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US school shootings: Have drills gone too far?

One school apparently shot teachers "execution style" with pellets as part of a rehearsal for the real thing.

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Is there an Austrian link to New Zealand mosque attacks?

The main suspect in the mosque massacre was familiar with Austria's far-right scene.

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How Village People's cop Victor Willis aims to 'reboot' the group

Victor Willis, the pop group's former singer and songwriter, has overcome legal battles and rehab.

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Lyft, Uber, Pinterest: Are internet unicorns really worth billions?

Lyft is the first tech company to float this year but the $24bn business is yet to make profit.

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Brexit: Will flights be disrupted?

The EU and UK have agreed a plan to try to avoid disruption.

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Mother’s Day: From medieval brawls to cards and flowers

And other lesser-known historical facts about this weekend's celebration of mothers.

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Huddersfield captain 'empty' after relegation - how much worse can it get for Terriers?

Huddersfield captain Christopher Schindler feels "empty" after the Terriers' relegation from the Premier League was confirmed by defeat at Crystal Palace.

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New Zealand Christians Outraged as Govt Removes All References to Jesus From Parliamentary Prayer

Just barely two weeks following the mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, the government has decided to remove all references to Jesus Christ from its parliamentary prayer.

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Pope’s Trip to Morocco to Highlight Christian-Muslim Ties

Pope Francis’s weekend trip to Morocco aims to highlight the North African nation’s tradition of Christian-Muslim ties while also letting him show solidarity with migrants at Europe’s door and tend to a tiny Catholic flock on the peripheries.

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Furious Over Trump's Decision on Golan Heights, Erdogan Confirms Hagia Sophia Will Become a Mosque

After it was reported that Turkish President Recep Erdogan was considering converting Istanbul’s iconic Hagia Sophia into a functioning mosque, many Orthodox Christians hoped he was just speculating. However, in an interview given yesterday, Erdogan confirmed that the historic site, which was previously a Christian cathedral and a special place of worship for Greek Orthodox Christians, will be turned into an enormous Islamic center.

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Kenyan Teacher Who Gives His Salary to Poor Students Wins $1M, What He Plans to Do Next Is Beautiful

A Christian science teacher from a remote village in Kenya is the winner of this year's $1 Million Global Teacher Prize.

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Christian Family Who Fled Boko Haram Pulled Out of Poverty By 8-Year-Old Chess Champion Son

A young homeless boy who emigrated to the United States from Nigeria has been lifted out of poverty through the most unlikely of hobbies: chess.

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Mueller report on Trump and Russia to be made public by mid-April: Barr

"Everyone will soon be able to read it on their own," Barr wrote in the letter to the top Democrats and Republicans on the Senate and House Judiciary committees. On March 22, Mueller completed his 22-month probe and Barr on Sunday sent a four-page letter to Congress that outlined the main findings. Barr told lawmakers that the investigation did not establish that members of the election campaign of President Donald Trump conspired with Russia.

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Autopsy: Migrant child who died in US custody had infection

HOUSTON (AP) — A 7-year-old girl from Guatemala died of a bacterial infection while detained by the U.S. Border Patrol, according to an autopsy released Friday, in a case that drew worldwide attention to the plight of migrant families at the southern U.S. border.

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Venezuelans Take to the Streets After Another Round of Blackouts

“We will continue to hit the streets,” Juan Guaido, head of the National Assembly recognized as interim president by some 50 nations, told protesters Saturday in San Antonio de Los Altos. Unlike other protests since January, Guaido did not call for huge rallies in the capital of Caracas but rather urged Venezuelans to protest at key locations or in their own neighborhoods. “My food is rotting and my appliances are going haywire,¨ said Yolanda Bellorin, a retired lawyer protesting among her neighbors in Caracas’ Colinas de la California neighborhood.

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Pope issues new child abuse legislation for Vatican City

Pope Francis issued stringent child abuse legislation for Vatican City employees on Friday, as part of the Church's bid to address a wave of sex abuse allegations against priests. The legislation requires officials and employees in the Vatican City State as well the Roman Curia, the central administration of the Catholic Church, to immediately report any abuse against minors and vulnerable people or face fines or a prison sentence. Francis said in a letter released with his "motu proprio" decree that it was the duty of everyone "to generously welcome children and vulnerable persons, and to create a safe environment for them".

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Corporations are endangering Americans. Trump doesn't care

From Boeing to Monsanto and beyond: this week has revealed the tip of the iceberg of regulatory neglect ‘Trump and his appointees have unambiguously signaled to corporations they can now do as they please.’ Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images Why didn’t Boeing do it right? Why isn’t Facebook protecting user passwords? Why is Phillip Morris allowed to promote vaping? Why hasn’t Wells Fargo reformed itself? Why hasn’t Monsanto (now owned by Bayer) recalled its Roundup weedkiller? Answer: corporate greed coupled with inept and corrupt regulators. These are just a few of the examples in the news these days of corporate harms inflicted on innocent people. To be sure, some began before the Trump administration. But Trump and his appointees have unambiguously signaled to corporations they can now do as they please. Boeing wanted to get its 737 Max 8 out quickly because airlines want to pack in more passengers at lower fuel costs (hence the “max”). But neither Boeing nor the airlines shelled out money to adequately train pilots on the new software made necessary by the new design. Nonetheless, Trump’s FAA certified the plane in March 2017. And after two subsequent deadly crashes, the US was slower to ground them than other countries. Last week Facebook admitted to storing hundreds of millions of Facebook users’ passwords in plain text that could be searched by more than 20,000 Facebook employees. The admission came just a year after the Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed that Facebook shared the personal data of as many as 87 million users with a political data firm. In reality, Facebook’s business model is based on giving personal data to advertisers so they can tailor their pitches precisely to potential customers. So despite repeated reassurances by Mark Zuckerberg, the firm will continue to do what it wants with personal information. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has the power to force Facebook to better guard users’ privacy. But so far Trump’s FTC has done nothing – not even to enforce a 2011 agreement in which Facebook promised to do just that. Altria (Phillip Morris) was losing ground on its sales of cigarettes, but the firm has recently found a future in vaping. Because inhaling nicotine in any form poses a health hazard, the FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb wanted to curb advertising of vaping products to teenagers. Gottlieb thought he had Altria’s agreement, but then the firm bought the vaping company Juul. Its stock has already gained 14% this year. What happened to Gottlieb? He’s out at the FDA, after barely a year on the job. Wells Fargo has publicly apologized for having deceived customers with fake bank accounts, unwarranted fees and unwanted products. Its top executives say they have eliminated the aggressive sales targets that were responsible for the fraud. But Wells Fargo employees told the New York Times recently that they’re still under heavy pressure to squeeze extra money out of customers. Some have witnessed colleagues bending or breaking internal rules to meet ambitious performance goals. What has Trump’s Consumer Financial Protection Agency done about this? Nothing. It’s been defanged. This week, a federal jury awarded $80m in damages to a California man who blamed Monsanto’s (now Bayer’s) Roundup weedkiller for his cancer, after finding that Roundup was defectively designed, that Monsanto failed to warn of the herbicide’s cancer risk, and that the company acted negligently. It was the second jury in eight months to reach the same conclusion about Roundup. Roundup contains glyphosate, a suspected carcinogen. Cases from more than 1,000 farmers and other agricultural workers stricken with non-Hodgkin lymphoma are already pending in federal and state courts. What has Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency done about glyphosate? In December 2017 its office of pesticide programs concluded that glyphosate wasn’t likely to cause cancer – although eight of the 15 experts on whom the agency relied expressed significant concerns about that conclusion, and three more expressed concerns about the data. These are just tips of a vast iceberg of regulatory neglect, frozen into place by Trump’s appointees, of which at least 187 were lobbyists before they joined the administration. This is trickle-down economics of a different sort than Trump’s corporate tax cuts. The major beneficiaries of this are the same big corporations, including their top executives and major investors. But these burdens are trickling down as unsafe products, fraudulent services, loss of privacy, even loss of life. Big money has had an inhibiting effect on regulators in several previous administrations. What’s unique under Trump is the blatancy of it all, and the shameless willingness of Trump appointees to turn a blind eye to corporate wrongdoing. Trump and his Republican enablers in Congress yell “socialism!” at proposals for better balancing private greed with the common good. Yet unless a better balance is achieved, capitalism as we know it is in deep trouble. Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. He is also a columnist for Guardian US

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Joe Biden accused of kissing former Nevada lawmaker, an allegation he doesn't recall

Joe Biden’s spokesman said Friday that the former vice president does not recall kissing Nevada political candidate Lucy Flores on the back of her head during a 2014 event.

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The Stuff of Saturn's Rings Actually Coats Its Tiny Ravioli Moons

A new analysis of the ringed planet's inner moons shines a light on their origins.

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Singapore airport still ranked best in the world

Singapore's Changi Airport was voted world's best airport for the seventh consecutive year according to the Skytrax ranking, which is determined by around 13.73 million travellers voting in a global customer satisfaction survey.

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Pet zebra shot and killed by owner in Florida after escaping

A man has shot and killed his pet zebra after it escaped from his ranch in Callahan, a town in Florida.The animal, reportedly named Shadow, broke free from Cottonwood Ranch and ran down a main road, chased by several vehicles.Witnesses said the zebra was eventually cornered in a cul-de-sac around two miles from the ranch, where the owner shot and killed it.Bill Leeper, the local sheriff, said he understood that Shadow was injured during the escape and that the owner chose to euthanise the zebra while police officers were at the scene.Witnesses told WJXT-TV that the animal did not appear injured but the decision was made to kill it so that it could not hurt anyone.“I had to stop and think a minute,” Jenee Watkins told the news outlet.“It’s not every day you see a zebra trotting through your neighbourhood.”Officials have confirmed that the owner did not have a valid license to keep a zebra on his ranch.A state permit is required to own and keep a zebra in Florida.It is unclear whether he will face charges over the lack of permit.Officials said the investigation into the animal’s escape and death was ongoing.

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UPDATE 4-Mueller report on Trump and Russia to be made public by mid-April -Barr

U.S. Attorney General William Barr plans to make public a redacted copy of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's nearly 400-page investigative report into Russian interference in the 2016 election by mid-April, "if not sooner," he said in a letter to lawmakers on Friday. "Everyone will soon be able to read it on their own," Barr wrote in the letter to the top Democrats and Republicans on the Senate and House Judiciary committees. On March 22, Mueller completed his 22-month probe and Barr on Sunday sent a four-page letter to Congress that outlined the main findings.

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Alex Jones blames conspiracy claims on 'psychosis'

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones blamed the various claims he's made over the years, including that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was a hoax, on "psychosis," according to a deposition the "Infowars" host has given as part of a Texas lawsuit.

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What's Next in Brexit? A Cliff-Edge and a Summit: Timeline

May’s team says she’s going to keep fighting to get a deal done quickly enough to avoid a long extension that would require the U.K. to take part in European elections -- but it’s far from clear the EU will agree. April 1: Lawmakers to vote on alternatives to May’s Brexit deal. By now the U.K. has to decide if it’s holding European Parliament elections.

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Boeing anti-stall system was activated in Ethiopia crash: source

Boeing's MCAS anti-stall system, which was implicated in the October crash of a 737 MAX 8 airliner in Indonesia, was also activated shortly before a recent accident in Ethiopia, a source with knowledge of the investigation said Friday. The information is among the preliminary findings from the analysis of the "black boxes" retrieved from Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, which crashed southeast of Addis Ababa on March 10, killing 157 people, the source told AFP on condition of anonymity. The information retrieved from the plane's voice and data recorders was presented Thursday to US authorities, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the source said.

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US woman kidnapped in Afghanistan says husband's abuse was just like captors'

Caitlan Coleman says her Canadian husband, Joshua Boyle, was violent towards her before, during and after their kidnapping Caitlin Coleman leaves the Ottawa court house in Ottawa, Ontario, on Wednesday. Photograph: Lars Hagberg/AFP/Getty Images A Canadian man who was kidnapped with his wife in Afghanistan was controlling and violent towards her before, during and after their five-year hostage ordeal, she told a Canadian court on Friday. Caitlan Coleman, 33, gave testimony for a second day at the trial of Joshua Boyle, 35 who faces 19 criminal charges, including sexual assault, unlawful confinement and uttering death threats. Coleman was pregnant when she and Boyle were kidnapped by a Taliban-linked group while backpacking in Afghanistan in 2011. They spent five years as hostages, and had three children together before they were rescued by the Pakistani military. Coleman testified that during their captivity in the hands of the militant Haqqani network, Boyle dictated all aspects of her life. His behaviour “was just like my captors’”, she told the court. “I was never to disagree with him, even on small things,” she told the court. “In the past, he made it clear he didn’t feel any guilt hurting me.” Coleman, dressed in a white blazer, black dress and black headscarf, spoke through video link in an adjoining room in order to avoid being in the same room as Boyle. She had travelled from Pennsylvania, where she currently lives with her family, to testify. Boyle, wearing a navy blazer and maroon pants, sat at the front row of the courtroom, frequently taking notes on a yellow legal pad. He was briefly joined by his parents. Coleman described a pattern of abusive behaviour that culminated in a vicious assault after the couple had returned to Canada, in which Boyle demanded sex then hit her when she refused. She told the court she felt “very, very frightened” during the 27 November incident. “Josh told me to get on the bed. He took ropes he kept in a bag … and he started to tie my hands and legs.” Boyle sexually assaulted her, then refused to release her, Coleman told the court. “He said he couldn’t trust me, so he wasn’t going to untie me,” she said. She was only able to free herself after Boyle fell asleep, she told the court. “Looking back, I should have tried to leave,” she said. “But I didn’t.” In her previous testimony, Coleman had described a “rollercoaster” relationship with Boyle, whom she met at age 16 in a Star Wars-themed online chatroom. “He was my first kiss,” she told the court on Wednesday. Coleman quickly fell in love with Boyle, but she told the court that he became an emotionally and physically abusive partner, critiquing her drinking and interactions she had with men. Coleman told the court that the abuse continued in Afghanistan, where the final two years of captivity were the worst. He would choke, bite and spank her as punishment, she said. While in captivity, Boyle demanded she remain in a bathroom stall for extended periods of time – telling his wife he couldn’t stand the sight of her. Coleman testified that Boyle also joked about killing her by lighting her on fire or spilling cooking oil on her. “This was probably the darkest period of my life,” she told the court. During their five years as prisoners in Afghanistan, the couple and their small children are believed to have been shuttled between more than 20 locations. The court had previously heard that Boyle’s violence continued after the couple returned to Canada. Coleman testified that he would often hit her and demand sex; on one occasion, he forced her to swallow powerful sleeping medication, she testified. “He stood in the bathroom and watched me take them that time … I took them because I knew that if I didn’t he would hit me harder,” she told the court on Wednesday. On Friday Coleman told the court that when the couple was back in Ottawa, Boyle gave her a detailed list of rules dictating her diet, weight, appearance and frequency of sex. “I would be punished if I did not follow this list,” she testified, adding that Boyle withheld meals from her, and threatened corporal punishment if she did not comply. Coleman told the court that the rules required her to address her children as “Sir” and “Madam”, “so I could understand I was beneath everyone.” During her testimony, Coleman also said her former husband was paranoid about reports of the family in the media. “He was so focused on the fact that world’s eyes were on us … he said we have to look like a happy family,” she said. Coleman told the court that during interviews, Boyle – once an aspiring journalist – attempted to control the narrative of the couple’s time in Afghanistan. “He would give verbal or physical instructions about what could be answered … what story we could tell or what part of captivity we could talk about,” said Coleman. The 19 charges against Boyle are all related to alleged events after the family returned to Canada. Coleman was the alleged victim in 17 of the offences; a publication ban protects the identity of a second alleged victim. The trial is expected to last eight weeks.

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UPDATE 1-Israeli troops wound Palestinians, anniversary rally approaches

Israeli troops shot and wounded 10 Palestinians on the Gaza border on Friday, Gaza medical officials said, as Israeli tanks massed on the eve of a huge rally to mark the first anniversary of the start of the deadly protests. Around 200 Palestinians have been killed and thousands injured by Israeli fire at the protests, Gaza medics say, as the demonstrations turned into an often deadly standoff between Gazans hurling rocks and petrol bombs and Israel troops on the other side of the fence. Israel defends its use of lethal force, saying that its troops are defending the border and Israelis living near it.

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IKEA's New Eco-Friendly Collection Is Our Summer Aesthetic

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Ben Shapiro responds to being called 'alt-right' and 'radical' by media

The Daily Wire editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro reacts to the media's attacks against him on 'Fox & Friends.'

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Viking Sky cruise timeline: A breakdown of what we know happened

Here's a breakdown of everything we know so far about the Viking Sky cruise.

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The War Between Trump and Schiff is Just Starting

A proponent of Trump-Russia collusion theories, Rep. Adam Schiff has been enveloped by fallout from the conclusions of Mueller's investigation.

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A look at Sunday's local elections in Turkey

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey is holding local elections on Sunday that are seen as a test of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's popularity amid a sharp economic downturn. Erdogan, who has not lost a vote since his party came to power in 2002, has cast the elections as a "matter of national survival" and has been campaigning for a strong mandate that he says would come as slap to Turkey's enemies. If his party sweeps municipal seats, Erdogan's dominance would be further solidified with his grip on the presidency, parliament and local administration. But a loss in major cities could signal a crack in his party's long hold on power.

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Pope signs law to prevent child abuse in Vatican and its embassies

Although the city state within Rome is tiny, and very few children live there, the sweeping legal changes reflect a desire to show that the Catholic Church is finally acting against clerical child abuse after decades of scandals around the world. It is the first time a unified and detailed policy for the protection of children has been compiled for the Vatican and its embassies and universities outside the city state. The law sets up procedures for reporting suspected abuse, imposes more screening of prospective employees, and sets strict guidelines for adult interaction with children and the use of social media.

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Boeing MCAS anti-stall system was activated in Ethiopia crash: source

Boeing's MCAS anti-stall system, which was implicated in the October crash of a 737 MAX 8 in Indonesia, was also activated shortly before a recent accident in Ethiopia, a source with knowledge of the investigation said Friday. The information is part of preliminary findings from the analysis of black boxes from Ethiopian Airlines flight 302, which crashed southeast of Addis Ababa killing 157 people on March 10, the source told AFP on condition of anonymity. The information was presented Thursday to US authorities, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the source said.

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'Hoarder' pleads guilty to potentially largest theft of classified information in history

A former US National Security Agency contractor, portrayed as an eccentric hoarder by his lawyers, pleaded guilty on Thursday to stealing classified documents in a deal likely to put him in prison for nine years. Harold Martin, 54, who worked for several private firms and had clearances to access top secret information, was arrested over two years ago for what may have been the biggest breach of classified information in history. When Federal Bureau of Investigation agents raided his home south of Baltimore in 2016 they found stacks of documents and electronic storage devices amounting to 50 terabytes of files, including classified ones, prosecutors said. US Department of Justice prosecutors said in a statement that Mr Martin's actions risked the disclosure of top secret information to America's "enemies." One of their allegations was that Mr Martin talked online with people in Russian and other languages but they never found proof he shared stolen information with anyone. His lawyers said he was a hoarder who liked to take work home with him. "His actions were the product of mental illness. Not treason," lawyers Deborah Boardman and James Wyda said in a statement. Mr Martin and the government agreed that if the federal court in Baltimore accepted the plea agreement, he would be sentenced to nine years in prison on the charge of willful retention of national defense information, prosecutors said.

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Who is paying for Monsanto's crimes? We are

A US court ordered Monsanto to pay $80m in damages because it hid cancer risks. That’s a small consolation for victims ‘And while Bayer may dole out a few billion dollars in damages, who is really being made to pay?’ Photograph: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images The chickens are coming home to roost, as they say in farm country. For the second time in less than eight months a US jury has found that decades of scientific evidence demonstrates a clear cancer connection to Monsanto’s line of top-selling Roundup herbicides, which are used widely by consumers and farmers. Twice now jurors have additionally determined that the company’s own internal records show Monsanto has intentionally manipulated the public record to hide the cancer risks. Both juries found punitive damages were warranted because the company’s cover-up of cancer risks was so egregious. The juries saw evidence that Monsanto has ghost-written scientific papers, tried to silence scientists, scuttled independent government testing and cozied up to regulators for favorable safety reviews of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup. Even the US district judge Vince Chhabria, who oversaw the San Francisco trial that concluded Wednesday with an $80.2m damage award, had harsh words for Monsanto. Chhabria said there were “large swaths of evidence” showing that the company’s herbicides could cause cancer. He also said there was “a great deal of evidence that Monsanto has not taken a responsible, objective approach to the safety of its product … and does not particularly care whether its product is in fact giving people cancer, focusing instead on manipulating public opinion and undermining anyone who raises genuine and legitimate concerns about the issue.” Monsanto’s new owner, the German pharmaceutical company Bayer, asserts that the juries and judges are wrong; the evidence of a cancer risk is invalid; the evidence of bad corporate conduct is misunderstood and out of context; and that the company will ultimately prevail. Meanwhile, Monsanto critics are celebrating the wins and counting on more as a third trial got underway this week and 11,000 additional plaintiffs await their turn. As well, a growing number of communities and businesses are backing away from use of Monsanto’s herbicides. And investors are punishing Bayer, pushing share prices to a seven-year low on Thursday. Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Tom Claps has warned shareholders to brace for a global settlement of between $2.5bn and $4.5bn. “We don’t believe [Monsanto] will lose every single trial, but we do believe that they could lose a significant majority,” he told the Guardian. Following the recent courtroom victories, some have cheered the notion that Monsanto is finally being made to pay for alleged wrongdoing. But by selling to Bayer last summer for $63bn just before the Roundup cancer lawsuits started going to trial, Monsanto executives were able to walk away from the legal mess with riches. The Monsanto chairman Hugh Grant’s exit package allowed him to pocket $32m, for instance. Amid the uproar of the courtroom scuffles, a larger issue looms: Monsanto’s push to make use of glyphosate herbicides so pervasive that traces are commonly found in our food and even our bodily fluids, is just one example of how several corporate giants are creating lasting human health and environmental woes around the world. Monsanto and its brethren have targeted farmers in particular as a critical market for their herbicides, fungicides and insecticides, and now many farmers around the world believe they cannot farm without them. Studies show that along with promoting illness and disease in people, these pesticides pushed by Bayer and Monsanto, DowDuPont and other corporate players, are endangering wildlife, soil health, water quality and the long-term sustainability of food production. Yet regulators have allowed these corporations to combine forces, making them ever more powerful and more able to direct public policies that favor their interests. The Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren this week called for taking back some of that power. She announced on Wednesday a plan to break up big agribusinesses and work against the type of corporate capture of Washington we have seen in recent years. It’s a solid step in the right direction. But it cannot undo the suffering of cancer victims, nor easily transform a deeply contaminated landscape to create a healthier future and unleash us from the chains of a pesticide-dependent agricultural system. And while Bayer may dole out a few billion dollars in damages, who is really being made to pay? We all are. Carey Gillam is a journalist and author, and a public interest researcher for US Right to Know, a not-for-profit food industry research group

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New Australian laws could see social media execs jailed over terror images

Australia pledged Saturday to introduce new laws that could see social media executives jailed and tech giants fined billions for failing to remove extremist material from their platforms. The tough new legislation will be brought to parliament next week as Canberra pushes for social media companies to prevent their platforms from being "weaponised" by terrorists in the wake of the Christchurch mosque attacks. Facebook said it "quickly" removed a staggering 1.5 million videos of the white supremacist massacre livestreamed on the social media platform.

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UPDATE 1-U.S. drillers cut most oil rigs in a quarter in three years -Baker Hughes

U.S. energy firms this week reduced the number of oil rigs operating to their lowest in nearly a year, cutting the most rigs in a quarter in three years despite a 30 percent hike in crude prices so far in 2019. Drillers cut eight oil rigs in the week to March 29, bringing the total count down to 816, the lowest since April 2018, General Electric Co's Baker Hughes energy services firm said in its closely followed report on Friday. More than half the total U.S. oil rigs are in the Permian basin, the nation's biggest shale field, where active units fell by five this week to 454, also the lowest since April 2018.

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Who is running for president in 2020? An interactive guide

The 2020 field has become crowded in recent weeks. Here's a look at who has announced their candidacy or opened an exploratory committee in the hunt for the presidency.

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Redacted Mueller report expected to be released by mid-April

WASHINGTON (AP) — A redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's report on the Russia investigation will be sent to Congress by mid-April and will not be shared with the White House beforehand, Attorney General William Barr said Friday.

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U.K. Edges Closer to Election After May's Brexit Deal Defeat

Speaking after the result of the vote was announced Friday afternoon, the prime minister gave a veiled warning that an election could be necessary to end the stalemate in the House of Commons, which has failed to back a Brexit plan after months of trying. May said the defeat of her strategy had “grave” implications for the country, while the European Commission said an economically damaging no-deal split is now “a likely scenario.” EU leaders will meet for an emergency summit on April 10 to seek a way forward.

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