Top Stories Today – April 4, 2019
Top Stories Today – April 4, 2019
Some foods are bigger killer than smoking
The food we eat is putting 11 million of us into an early grave each year, an influential study shows. The analysis, in the Lancet, found that our daily diet is a bigger killer than smoking and is now involved in one in five deaths around the world.
Salt – whether in bread, soy sauce or processed meals – shortened the highest number of lives. Researchers say this study is not about obesity, but “poor quality” diets damaging hearts and causing cancer. According to the Global Burden of Disease Study, too much salt caused 3 million deaths, too few whole grains caused 3 million deaths, and too little fruit caused 2 million deaths in 2017. BBC
Mueller report contains damaging evidence
Some of Robert S. Mueller III’s investigators have told associates that Attorney General William P. Barr failed to adequately portray the findings of their inquiry and that they were more troubling for President Trump than Barr indicated, according to government officials and others familiar with their simmering frustrations.
The Times and the Post say Mueller’s investigators have told associates that Barr failed to adequately portray the findings of their inquiry. The Post says the members of Mueller’s team believe the evidence they gathered on obstruction was “alarming and significant.” The Times says in its report that the investigators are concerned that because Barr’s summary was “the first narrative” of the team’s findings, the public’s views will be fixed before the final report is released. The New York Times
Ethiopian pilot followed Boeing procedures
Ethiopian Airlines pilots followed proper procedures when their Boeing MAX 8 airplane repeatedly nosedived before a March 10 crash that killed 157 people, Ethiopia’s minister of transport said Thursday as she delivered the first official report on the disaster. “The crew performed all the procedures repeatedly provided by the manufacturer but was not able to control the aircraft,” Dagmawit Moges told a news conference in the capital, Addis Ababa.
She recommended that Boeing review the aircraft control system and that aviation authorities confirm the problem had been solved before allowing that model of plane back into the air. It was grounded globally following the crash, which was the second deadly accident in six months involving the new model. The Voice of America
Kushner denied security clearance over foreign ties
The person identified as “Senior White House Official 1” in the transcript of testimony by a government whistleblower is President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, The Washington Post reports.
During her interview with House Oversight Committee staffers, Tricia Newbold from the White House’s personnel security office said she and other career officials determined that “Senior White House Official 1” had too many “significant disqualifying factors” to receive a security clearance; they were specifically concerned about his private business interests, personal conduct, and potential foreign influence, people who viewed committee documents told the Post. Newbold said they were overruled by the office’s former director, Carl Kline, a Trump appointee. The Washington Post via The Week
Australia passes tough social media law
Australia’s Parliament passed legislation Thursday that could imprison social media executives if their platforms stream real violence such as the New Zealand mosque shootings. Critics warn that some of the most restrictive laws about online communication in the democratic world could have unforeseen consequences, including media censorship and reduced investment in Australia.
The conservative government introduced the bills in response to the March 15 attacks in Christchurch in which an Australian white supremacist apparently used a helmet-mounted camera to broadcast live on Facebook as he shot worshippers in two mosques. The Voice of America
New Zealand shooter to face 89 charges
Police say the man accused of the Christchurch mosque attacks will face 50 murder charges and 39 attempted murder charges at his court appearance Friday. Fifty people were killed in the two mosques and dozens of others were shot and wounded. Australian Brenton Harrison Tarrant had been charged with one count of murder after his arrest the day of the March 15 massacre.
Media photographs won’t be allowed and reporting on the proceedings will be severely restricted by New Zealand law. The judge said he had received applications from 25 media organizations to take film, photographs or audio recordings of the hearing but he denied all of them. He said reporters could remain throughout and take notes. The Voice of America
US House seeks Trump tax returns from IRS
The Democratic head of a powerful US House committee asked the Internal Revenue Service for six years of President Donald Trump’s personal and business tax returns on Wednesday, in a long-awaited move widely expected to lead to a long court battle with the White House.
The request, in a letter from Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, is viewed by Democrats in the House of Representatives as a vital first step toward oversight of Trump’s income taxes and business network, which some lawmakers believe could be rife with conflicts of interest and potential tax law violations. Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen recently testified in Congress that he did not believe the president was being audited but may have used the audit claim to avoid scrutiny that could lead to an audit and IRS tax penalties. IRS and US Treasury officials were not immediately available for comment. Reuters