Source: The Guardian

At least one person has been injured after a group of hooded men armed with Kalshnikov rifles opened fire on young people near a cultural centre in Marseille, local media has reported.

The gunmen arrived in three vehicles and opened fired at the centre in the Busserine area, according to La Provence newspaper.

A local police official said the incident was not been investigated as terrorism. The paper says at least one injured person was taken to a hospital.

La Provence also reports there was an exchange of gunfire with police.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/21/marseille-france-masked-gunmen-la-busserine

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Breaking news.

Source: The Guardian

Scientists have detected a mysterious and “shocking” rise in the world’s atmospheric levels of CFCs, the gas banned since the 1980s because it attacks the Earth’s protective ozone layer.

Chlorofluorocarbons were used in making foams for furniture and buildings, in aerosols and as refrigerants. But they were banned after the discovery of the ozone hole over Antarctica. Experts at the NOAA science agency in the US say they have ruled out the expected leaks of CFC-11 from those historical sources, or other atmospheric factors, in trying to explain the sudden sharp increase. “You are left with, boy, it really looks like somebody is making it new,” said Stephen Montzka at the NOAA.

Since 2007, there has been essentially zero reported production of CFC-11. The source of the new emissions has been tracked to east Asia, but finding a more precise location requires further investigation. Failing to do so could set back the ozone layer’s recovery by 10 years or more, say experts. Hopefully, says Montzka, “somebody who was maybe doing it purposefully will realise – oh, someone is paying attention – and stop doing it”.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/17/thursday-briefing-who-is-destroying-the-ozone-layer-again

Source: Washington Post

A demented social club’: Poachers slaughtered hundreds of animals in Pacific Northwest for ‘the thrill,’ police say

It started when state officials wanted answers about the headless deer turning up in the Oregon wilderness east of Mount Hood.

“Nearly every year, it seems we have deer showing up minus their heads at the end of seasons,” Craig Gunderson, a senior trooper with the Oregon State Patrol, recently explained to the Seattle Times. Authorities believed the mutilated animals might be the work of poachers, so in November 2016 they fixed motion-triggered cameras in the national forest near The Dalles, Ore., smack on the Washington state line.

The footage troopers caught would prove to be the first clue to uncovering what officials now say was a loosely-linked poaching ring responsible for the illegal brutal slaughter of hundreds of animals in Washington and Oregon. The sheer size of the animal body count involved has shocked wildlife officials, in part because of the wantonness driving the rampant killing.

“It was kind of a demented social club,” an Oregon official told the Times.

“I consider it a killing spree,” a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife chief told Fox 12. “I’m completely disgusted.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/05/17/a-demented-social-club-poachers-slaughtered-hundreds-of-animals-in-pacific-northwest-for-the-thrill-police-say/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.bdbc4a25c4c9

Source: CBS News

Prosecutors have dropped an invasion-of-privacy charge against Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, but said they will still pursue a case against him for allegedly taking a revealing picture of a woman with whom he has confirmed having an affair. Assistant St. Louis Circuit Attorney Ronald Sullivan made the surprise announcement Monday in court after the third day of jury selection in Greitens' trial.

...

Sullivan cited the fact that Greitens' defense attorneys planned to call the St. Louis circuit attorney, Kim Gardner, as a witness and whose handling of the case has been under constant criticism by Greitens attorneys.

Greitens' defense team has particularly focused on the prosecutor's hiring of a private investigator, William Tisaby, whom Greitens' lawyers have accused of perjury.

"The court's order places the Circuit Attorney in the impossible position of being a witness, subject to cross-examination," including by her own subordinates, Gardner spokeswoman Susan Ryan said in a statement.

It "leaves the Circuit Attorney no adequate means of proceeding with this trial," Ryan said. "Therefore, the court has left the Circuit Attorney with no other legal option than to dismiss and refile this matter."

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/missouri-governor-eric-greitens-prosecutors-drop-invasion-of-privacy-charge-today-2018-05-14/

Source: Reuters

A Russian company accused by Special Counsel Robert Mueller of funding a propaganda operation to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election is asking a federal judge for access to secret information reviewed by a grand jury before it indicted the firm.

In a court filing on Monday, lawyers for Concord Management and Consulting LLC said Mueller had wrongfully accused the company of a “make-believe crime,” in a political effort by the special counsel to “justify his own existence” by indicting “a Russian-any Russian.”

...

Concord’s attorneys said Mueller’s claim that Concord conspired to defraud the United States was fatally flawed because it does not allege the company intended to do so. The lawyers also said a foreign company could not possibly have known the intricacies of U.S. federal election and foreign lobbying laws.

“A foreign corporation with no presence in the United States is indicted in an unprecedented case ... for conspiring to defraud the United States purportedly by not complying with certain regulatory requirements that are unknown even to most Americans,” the lawyers argued.



Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-concord/russian-company-charged-in-mueller-probe-seeks-grand-jury-materials-idUSKCN1IF2YW

Source: The Hill

“Melania” is one of the fastest-rising baby names in the country in terms of popularity.

The first lady’s given name came in fifth among the fastest-growing girls’ names from 2016 to 2017, according to a ranking released Friday by the Social Security Administration.

The name jumped a whopping 720 spots among the most popular girls’ names in the United States, from the 1,650 slot in 2016, to the 930th position last year.

“Melania” is of Spanish and Greek origin and means “black,” according to baby name site Nameberry.com.


The baby name news comes on the heels of a CNN/SSRS poll this week that showed Melania Trump's popularity with Americans was soaring. Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed said they had a favorable view of the 48-year-old first lady, compared to 47 percent in January.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/387283-melania-rockets-up-list-of-most-popular-baby-names

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Please just shoot me.

Having recently left a position as a federal fraud and corruption prosecutor in Washington, D.C., to return to private practice, I have marveled at the many legal experts who have spent significant time debating whether a sitting president can be indicted and even what charges special counsel Robert Mueller may bring against President Trump. While these might be interesting legal questions, they are purely hypothetical. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has a longstanding policy stating that criminally prosecuting a sitting president is "unconstitutional."

That is a massively strong, mountainous statement, and the special counsel as a DOJ entity, subject to departmental policy and supervision, cannot overcome it.

But the experts like to posit: maybe that DOJ policy position is wrong (it has not been tested in court), and so what if the special counsel went rogue? The problem there is that visible federal prosecutors do not go rogue in violation of DOJ policy. It does not happen.

...

Any prosecutor knows that reaching the top of the chain in a significant conspiracy (i.e., "collusion" case is incredibly rare and that doing so requires the equivalent of a perfect game. A cooperator, or even a series of cooperators, is nothing more than a hitless first inning, given that humans are notoriously biased and unreliable. In the best of cases, a cooperating witness is a turncoat motivated to save his own skin. In the worst of cases - with which every prosecutor has dealt at some point - the witness takes the stand and is either too scared or confused to be believable, or denies critical facts or prior statements, leaving the government to impeach its own witness in a desperate attempt to save its case.

Given that flipped criminal cooperators are not enough, a prosecutor in a fraud or corruption case will, at a minimum, want strong and consistent documentary proof of both intent/knowledge and actions taken, and strong proof that the target individual is the one behind those documents. The difficult reality in significant organized conspiracy cases is that the boss at the top naturally does not leave a trail like this. If damning documentary evidence existed, the special counsel's office undoubtedly would have found it - and likely would have taken some significant action by this time.

I doubt the special counsel would sit on incredibly clear evidence of crimes, the kind sufficient to bring criminal charges, and not at least prepare a report to Congress on an expedited basis to seek to relieve us of an active provable international conspirator on the job.

While some folks might think that this president is the rare breed who could have recklessly left behind clear, uncontroverted evidence of corruption, prosecutors know that loose-cannon defendants present an even harder challenge. Intentions become very hard to establish when the mind of the actor is a demonstrably moving target.

...

But do not just take my word for it. I have privately asked many seasoned, trustworthy prosecutors and federal agents whether they think any charges could result from this investigation. The nearly universal answer? No chance.

http://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/386160-mueller-will-not-charge-trump?amp&__twitter_impression=true

A frustrating read on the Trump case, by someone more knowledgable than I am. And this guy was a district attorney for Obama.

Source: Reuters

U.S. job openings surged to a record high in March, suggesting that a recent slowdown in hiring was probably the result of employers having difficulties finding qualified workers.

The monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, released by the Labor Department on Tuesday also showed more workers voluntarily quit their jobs in March, a sign of confidence in the labor market that economists believe will help to push up wage growth this year.

The JOLTS report bolsters expectations that inflation will accelerate and keep the Federal Reserve on track to raise interest rates at least two more times this year. The U.S. central bank hiked interest rates in March.

“The labor market is hot and getting hotter by the day so central bankers need to continue to take the punch bowl away because higher wages and greater inflation are on the way,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG in New York.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-jobs/u-s-job-openings-hit-record-high-more-workers-quitting-idUSKBN1I91YV

Source: Politico

A federal judge has rejected special counsel Robert Mueller’s request to delay the first court hearing in a criminal case charging three Russian companies and 13 Russian citizens with using social media and other means to foment strife among Americans in advance of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

In a brief order Saturday evening, U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich offered no explanation for her decision to deny a request prosecutors made Friday to put off the scheduled Wednesday arraignment for Concord Management and Consulting, one of the three firms charged in the case.

The 13 people charged in the high-profile indictment in February are considered unlikely to ever appear in a U.S. court. The three businesses accused of facilitating the alleged Russian troll farm operation — the Internet Research Agency, Concord Management, and Concord Catering — were also expected to simply ignore the American criminal proceedings.

Last month, however, a pair of Washington-area lawyers suddenly surfaced in the case, notifying the court that they represent Concord Management. POLITICO reported at the time that the move appeared to be a bid to force Mueller’s team to turn over relevant evidence to the Russian firm and perhaps even to bait prosecutors into an embarrassing dismissal in order to avoid disclosing sensitive information.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/04/mueller-russia-interference-election-case-delay-570627

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Judge is appointed by Trump.