Today's News: March 21, 2019

World News
German Lawmaker, Stung by Demands Over NATO Spending, Calls for Expulsion of U.S. Ambassador
CNS News – A top German opposition parliamentarian accused U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell of “interfering” in German affairs and advocated for his expulsion from the country after the American diplomat charged that Berlin’s new budget failed to meet NATO military spending requirements.
Deutsche Welle reported that Wolfgang Kubicki, a deputy speaker in the Bundestag and vice chairman of the liberal Free Democrats Party, urged Foreign Minister Heiko Maas to punish Grenell for “interfering” in German politics by declaring him a persona non grata.
“Any U.S. diplomat who acts like a high commissioner of an occupying power must learn that our tolerance also knows its limits,” he declared.
Trump: Time for US to Fully Recognise Israel’s Sovereignty Over Golan Heights
Sputnik – Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is hosting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Jerusalem. Netanyahu himself was invited to visit the White House for a dinner with US President Donald Trump ahead of the 9 April election.
The Latest: UN calls on Venezuelan parties to lower tensions
AP – The United Nations says it learned “with concern” about reports that Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido’s chief of staff has been detained, and it renewed a call for all parties “to lower tensions and refrain from any action that could lead to further escalation.”
U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq issued the appeal Thursday at U.N. headquarters in New York after being asked about Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ reaction to the detention of Roberto Marrero, a key Guaido aide who was detained overnight by Venezuelan intelligence agents.
He noted that U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet also expressed concern at Marrero’s detention.
More Than 500 Dead in Flooding in Southern Africa
Truthdig – A week after Cyclone Idai lashed southern Africa, flooding still raged Thursday as torrential rains caused a dam to overflow in Zimbabwe, threatening riverside populations. The confirmed death toll in Zimbabwe, neighboring Mozambique and Malawi surpassed 500, with hundreds more feared dead in towns and villages that were completely submerged.
New Zealand’s PM Announces Gun Ban Following Mosque Attacks
The New American – New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a country-wide ban on Thursday on “military-style semi-automatic weapons.”
Iraqi Parliament Prepares to Evict US Troops
Antiwar.com – In the wake of the ISIS War in Iraq, Pentagon officials will tell you what they’ve been saying all along, that America’s intention is to stay in Iraq, and that there is no consideration being given to leaving. It’s not clear the US has spoken to the Iraqi government about this, however.
While many Iraqis accepted the offer of help in the more desperate moments of the ISIS War, the US military has quickly worn out its welcome. Across a number of major political blocs in Iraq, there is growing consensus that the US, and indeed all foreign military forces, need to go.
This has been brewing for months. The Iraqis saw Trump’s visit to Iraq, during which he didn’t meet the Iraqi PM, as a sign of disrespect. That the Pentagon keeps insisting they’re staying in Iraq, without asking the Iraqis, only adds to the sense that the US isn’t really an invited guest in any real sense.
Crashed jets reportedly lacked key safety features because Boeing charged extra for them
Reuters – Boeing jets in Ethiopia and Indonesia lacked two safety features in their cockpits because the company charged extra to install them.
The features could have helped pilots detect erroneous readings, which some experts believe might be connected to the planes’ failures, The New York Times reports.
Boeing to offer safety feature as standard in 737 MAX software upgrade
Boeing Co plans to offer as standard a safety feature that might have warned earlier of problems that possibly played a role in the doomed Ethiopian and Indonesian plane crashes that killed almost 350 people, two officials briefed on the matter said Thursday.
BREXIT: Military steps up preparations in case of no deal
Sky – The armed forces have activated a team in a nuclear-proof bunker under the Ministry of Defence as the government prepares next Monday to enter “very high readiness mode” for a no-deal Brexit, Sky News can reveal.
Control of overall planning for the impact of the UK leaving the European Union without a withdrawal agreement next week shifts from the Cabinet Office to the government’s emergency committee Cobra.
There will be near 24-hour manning of critical departments most at risk from Brexit disruption.
U.S. News, Politics & Government
House Democrats ask White House about Kushner use of WhatsApp messaging
Reuters – The Democratic head of a U.S. congressional investigative panel on Thursday pressed the White House for information on whether President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, used the unofficial WhatsApp messaging tool to communicate sensitive or classified information with foreign leaders.
Economy & Business
Biogen scraps two Alzheimer drug trials, wipes $18 billion from market value
Reuters – Biogen Inc and partner Eisai Co Ltd are ending two late-stage trials of their experimental Alzheimer’s disease drug aducanumab, a major setback in the quest to find a treatment for the mind-wasting disease and blow to Biogen, which lost more than $18 billion of its value on Thursday.
Energy & Environment
Central US to remain underwater for weeks to come as historic river flooding continues
Accuweather – The flooding disaster that continues to unfold over the central United States is likely to continue well into April, putting more communities and farmland at risk.
The disaster was set in motion during the second week of March, when a ‘bomb cyclone’ struck the region, dropping heavy rain and triggering massive snowmelt, which led to an excess of runoff into rivers and waterways.
The flooding has led to several deaths, the evacuation of an entire town in Missouri and over $1 billion in damage thus far.
Science & Technology
LGBT groups pressure Google to remove conversion therapy app
Fox – Google has refused to take down an app promoting gay conversion therapy from its Play Store despite pressure from LGBT rights groups.
Facebook staff had access to hundreds of millions of people’s passwords
Recode – Another week, another Facebook privacy disaster.
This time, it turns out Facebook was storing the personal passwords for hundreds of millions of Facebook users unencrypted on the company servers, according to a report from the security publication Krebs on Security. That means these passwords were readable to thousands of Facebook employees, an obvious and concerning security risk.
Facebook confirmed that, yes, this was indeed the case, and Facebook discovered it in January during a “routine security review.” The company usually encrypts passwords so they aren’t viewable to hackers or other people who might have access to the servers where they are stored.
“To be clear, these passwords were never visible to anyone outside of Facebook and we have found no evidence to date that anyone internally abused or improperly accessed them,” the company wrote in a blog post.
Law Enforcement Uses Facial Recognition To Identify Shoplifters
Activist Post – For those of you who still hold onto to the idea that America will never follow in China’s Big Brother footsteps, I give you this disturbing story.
A recent CNET article revealed how the Washington County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) in Oregon uses Amazon’s Rekognition software to identify shoplifters.
The speedy investigation was made possible by Amazon’s Rekognition, facial recognition software that let the Washington County Sheriff’s Office create its own searchable database of county jail mugshots.
An unnamed WCSO Deputy allegedly used Amazon’s Rekognition to search a 300,000-person mugshot database looking for a potential match.
A WCSO deputy watched a surveillance recording of the woman pilfering the boots, grabbed pictures of her face from the footage and imported them into the sheriff’s office’s new tool. He quickly got back a digital lineup of mugshots and found a possible match.
Health
ADHD drugs can lead to psychosis in some according to new study
AJC – A new study on the effects of medication prescribed to those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder suggests that teens and young people could face an increased risk of psychosis with certain drugs.