Is Zuckerberg willing to act boldly to fix Facebook crisis?
As questions mounted last year about whether Facebook had been exploited to tilt the U.S. presidential election, Mark Zuckerberg’s to-do list landed him on a fishing trawler off Alabama’s Gulf coast.
But the chatter surrounding the CEO’s arrival in port was that it signalled something bigger than just the start of a 30-state personal tour: his designs on a job even more powerful than leading the social network that links 2.2 billion people worldwide.
“It was one of the last things I asked him, thinking it would put a smile on his face — and it did,” said Dominick Ficarino, who owns a shrimp business in Bayou La Batre, Alabama, and hosted a dockside lunch for Zuckerberg that Sunday afternoon.
“I asked him if he was interested in running for president of the United States. And his answer to me was: ‘Can I answer you with a question? If you were me, would you?'”
Thirteen months later, Zuckerberg no longer has the luxury of mulling a hypothetical next act. Instead, he is grappling with a crisis that has enveloped the company synonymous with his face and name. It does not help that the most glaring reminder of Facebook’s flaws is the unabated uproar over the American presidency itself.
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US stocks rally; Dow surges 669, clawing back lost ground
News that the U.S. and China are open to negotiating to avert a trade war put investors in a buying mood Monday, giving the market its best day in more than two years and erasing about half of its huge losses last week.
Technology companies accounted for much of the broad rally, which powered the Dow Jones industrial average to a gain of nearly 670 points. Microsoft was the biggest gainer in the 30-company Dow and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, climbing nearly 8 per cent.
Banks also notched solid gains, benefiting from a pickup in bond yields. Retailers, consumer goods companies and health care stocks were among the big gainers.
The market rebound followed the worst week for U.S. stocks in two years as investors traded last week’s jitters for a more optimistic outlook on trade, and an opportunity to buy.
“Certainly nothing’s settled,” said Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. “Investors are still viewing this as a glass half-full market and a constructive economy, so it’s not surprising to see them buy on value here, buy on dips to try to rebuild their positions.”
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10 Things to Know for Tuesday
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Tuesday:
1. US, EUROPE PUNISH RUSSIA OVER SPY CASE
Western nations band together to expel more than 100 Russian diplomats they accuse of being spies, punishing Moscow for its alleged poisoning of an ex-intelligence officer in Britain.
2. CIVIL RIGHTS ICON DIES AT 76
As a young girl in Kansas, Linda Brown found herself at the centre of the 1954 Supreme Court ruling that struck down racial segregation in America’s schools.
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Kansas girl at centre of 1954 school segregation ruling dies
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Linda Brown, who as a Kansas girl was at the centre of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down racial segregation in schools, has died at age 76.
Her father, Oliver Brown, tried to enrol the family in an all-white school in Topeka, and the case was sparked when he and several black families were turned away. The NAACP’s legal arm brought the lawsuit to challenge segregation in public schools, and Oliver Brown became lead plaintiff in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision by the Supreme Court that ended school segregation.
Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel at NAACP Legal Defence and Educational Fund, Inc., said in a statement that Linda Brown is one of a band of heroic young people who, along with her family, courageously fought to end the ultimate symbol of white supremacy — racial segregation in public schools.
“She stands as an example of how ordinary schoolchildren took centre stage in transforming this country. It was not easy for her or her family, but her sacrifice broke barriers and changed the meaning of equality in this country,” Ifill said.
Peaceful Rest Funeral Chapel of Topeka confirmed that Linda Brown died Sunday afternoon. No cause of death was released. Funeral arrangements are pending.
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Sheriff: Michigan State official arrested amid Nassar probe
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan State University official who oversaw Larry Nassar was arrested Monday amid an investigation into the handling of complaints against the former sport doctor, who is in prison for sexually assaulting patients under the guise of treatment.
William Strampel was in jail pending an arraignment Tuesday, Ingham County Sheriff Scott Wriggelsworth told The Associated Press. He declined to say what charges Strampel was facing because the probe is being led by the Michigan attorney general’s office.
A spokeswoman for Attorney General Bill Schuette declined to comment. A news conference was scheduled for Tuesday, two months after Schuette appointed a special assistant attorney general to investigate.
Strampel, 70, is the first person besides Nassar to be charged in connection with the worst sexual abuse case in sports history. Nassar pleaded guilty to molesting patients and possessing child pornography. Strampel’s arrest was first reported by the Detroit Free Press, and WILX-TV earlier reported that state police were seen outside Strampel’s Lansing-area home.
Strampel was the dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine, which includes the sports medicine clinic, until he announced a leave of absence for medical reasons in December. He told police last year that he never followed up after ordering Nassar in 2014 to have a third person present when providing treatment to “anything close to a sensitive area.” He also said any skin-to-skin contact needed to be explained in detail.
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GOP-led states back Trump in California ‘sanctuary’ lawsuit
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Texas and more than a dozen other states led by Republican governors got behind the Trump administration on Monday in its lawsuit over California’s so-called sanctuary laws that protect people in the U.S. illegally.
California’s laws are designed to interfere with or block federal immigration enforcement but the state does not have that authority, the other states said in a court filing in the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit against California. The filing in federal court in Sacramento supports the Justice Department’s attempt to block the laws.
An email to the California Attorney General’s office was not immediately returned.
The Justice Department sued California in March over three state laws, including one that requires the state to review detention facilities where immigrants are held and another that limits the ability of state and local law enforcement officials to turn people over to immigration authorities.
Federal officials have said California officials have prevented them from removing dangerous people who are in the U.S. illegally. California officials have responded that their sanctuary policies increase public safety by promoting trust between immigrant communities and law enforcement.
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Spies posing as diplomats have a long history
WASHINGTON (AP) — In ordering the largest mass expulsion of Russian diplomats ever, the U.S. and its allies have upped the ante in an East-West spy game that dates to the Cold War and cast light on an unspoken but widespread practice in the cloak-and-dagger world: sending operatives abroad under diplomatic cover.
The tallies offered Monday by senior U.S. officials were striking: Far more than 100 Russian spies are on American soil masquerading as diplomats. The U.S. said it was kicking out 60, so even after they’re gone, at least 40 will ostensibly remain, free to roam Washington and other major U.S. cities under the official imprimatur of their nation’s foreign ministry.
So if they’re truly spies and the United States knows it, why not expel them all?
The answer, experts say, is that espionage, while murky, potentially distasteful and often illegal, is an accepted international practice. All countries spy and most if not all send spies overseas disguised as diplomats — including the U.S.
“Embassies and diplomatic mission for hundreds and hundreds of years have been used to spy in adversaries’ lands,” said retired Army Col. Christopher Costa, executive director of the International Spy Museum in Washington. He said even when spies are discovered, it’s often more fruitful to follow them discreetly than to expel them. “The cat-and-mouse game of counterespionage is about understanding who that officer is in touch with.”
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US, allies band together to expel Russians over spy case
WASHINGTON (AP) — From Washington to Warsaw, Western nations banded together Monday to expel more than 100 Russian diplomats they accused of being spies, punishing Moscow for its alleged poisoning of an ex-intelligence officer in Britain.
President Donald Trump, under constant political heat for his reluctance to challenge Russia, ordered 60 of its diplomats out of the U.S. — all of them spies, the White House said. The United States called it the largest expulsion of Russian spies in American history, and also shuttered Russia’s consulate in Seattle, deeming it a counterintelligence threat.
All told, at least 21 countries have ousted more than 135 Russians, including 23 kicked out earlier by the U.K.
“Together we have sent a message that we will not tolerate Russia’s continued attempts to flout international law and undermine our values,” British Prime Minister Theresa May told Parliament.
The American moves illustrated an increased willingness by Trump’s administration to push back on the Kremlin, even as the president himself steadfastly avoids challenging Russian President Vladimir Putin personally or directly. Less than a week ago, Trump congratulated Putin for his re-election but didn’t raise the March 4 spy poisoning, Russia’s alleged election-meddling in the U.S. or its own tainted voting process, prompting dismayed critiques even from Trump’s fellow Republicans.
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Experts: Prince toxicology report shows very high drug level
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A toxicology report from Prince’s autopsy, obtained Monday by The Associated Press, shows he had what multiple experts called an “exceedingly high” concentration of fentanyl in his body when he died.
Prince was 57 when he was found alone and unresponsive in an elevator at his Paisley Park estate on April 21, 2016. Public data released six weeks after his death showed he died of an accidental overdose of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times more powerful than heroin.
A confidential toxicology report obtained by the AP provides some insight into just how much fentanyl was in his system. Experts who are not connected to the Prince investigation said the numbers leave no doubt that fentanyl killed him.
“The amount in his blood is exceedingly high, even for somebody who is a chronic pain patient on fentanyl patches,” said Dr. Lewis Nelson, chairman of emergency medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. He called the fentanyl concentrations “a pretty clear smoking gun.”
The report says the concentration of fentanyl in Prince’s blood was 67.8 micrograms per litre. The report explains that fatalities have been documented in people with blood levels ranging from three to 58 micrograms per litre.
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Judge rejects call for mistrial by nightclub shooter’s widow
A judge has ruled that the revelation that the Pulse nightclub shooter’s father was an FBI informant for 11 years before the attack has little bearing on the trial of the gunman’s widow.
U.S. District Judge Paul Byron on Monday rejected a defence motion for a mistrial of Noor Salman, who is accused of helping her husband plan his June 2016 mass shooting at the gay nightclub in Orlando, where he killed 49 people.
Lawyers for Salman said that because prosecutors didn’t disclose that Mateen’s father, Seddique Mateen, was an FBI informant until halfway through the trial, her Fifth Amendment right to due process and Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial were denied.
The judge disagreed.
“This trial is not about Seddique Mateen. It’s about Noor Salman,” the judge said.
