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The Latest: Trump attends re-election fundraiser in Ohio

LIMA, Ohio (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump's visit to Ohio (all times local):

Citigroup to sell Venezuelan gold in setback to President Maduro: sources

Maduro's government has since 2014 used financial operations known as gold swaps to use its international reserves to gain access to cash after a slump in oil revenues left it struggling to obtain hard currency. Under the terms of the 2015 deal with Citigroup's Citibank, Venezuela was due to repay $1.1 billion of the loan on March 11, according to four sources familiar with the situation. Citibank plans to sell the gold held as a guarantee - which has a market value of roughly $1.358 billion - to recover the first tranche of the loan and will deposit the excess of roughly $258 million in a bank account in New York, two of the sources said.

Firearm deaths of US school-age children at 'epidemic' levels, study says

A new study announced an alarming increase in the number of firearm deaths of school-age children in the United States:  38,942 in those 5 to 18 years old from 1999 to 2017.

Did Paul Manafort outmaneuver Robert Mueller? His sentencing Wednesday will tell.

Manafort avoided a trial that would have exposed his ties to criminal elements in Ukraine and positioned himself well for future mercy from Trump.

Some Pickups Lag in Passenger Crash Protection

Crash Tests Show Some Pickup Trucks Lag in Passenger Protection Most pickup trucks fall short when it comes to protecting passengers in certain types of crashes, according to new findings from t...

Bringing the Sting: The U.S. Navy Is Getting New F/A-18E/F Super Hornets

The Super Hornets would be the first new-build examples of the Block III variant of the F/A-18E/F. The Block III flies farther and carries more weapons than an older F/A-18E/F can do and also is stealthier than earlier Super Hornet models are.

Remains of Missing WWII Pilot Returned Family in Utah

The remains of a World War II pilot who disappeared 74 years ago while flying a mission over Germany were returned to his family in Utah.

Sanders: ‘We Must Follow New Zealand’s Lead’ on Assault-Rifle Ban

Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) on Thursday praised New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern for immediately banning military-style semi-automatic weapons in response to the Christchurch mosque shootings, and suggested the executive action should serve as a blueprint for the U.S.> This is what real action to stop gun violence looks like. We must follow New Zealand's lead, take on the NRA and ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons in the United States. https://t.co/lSAisDG9Ur> > -- Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 21, 2019The ban, which applies to semi-automatic rifles and shotguns that can be equipped with detachable magazines capable of holding more than five rounds, went into immediate effect Thursday to prevent stockpiling, and legislation codifying it is expected to pass Parliament in the coming days. Once the bill passes, New Zealanders will be granted a buyback period, after which they will be fined and jailed for up to three years if found in possession of a banned weapon.“On 15 March, our history changed forever. Now, our laws will, too,” Ardern said Thursday. “We are announcing action today on behalf of all New Zealanders to strengthen our gun laws and make our country a safer place.”Gun ownership is popular in New Zealand but there is no right to self defense codified in the country's laws.The announcement comes just six days after a 28-year-old Australian man killed 50 people and injured 40 others while rampaging through two mosques in Christchurch. The second shooting, at the Linwood mosque, was interrupted after one congregant retrieved his firearm from his house and returned to confront the attacker.While the exact weapon used in the attack remains unknown, images of the weapon appear to show an AR-15, a widely available semi-automatic rifle.Prior to the attack, the shooter published an extensive manifesto online that was replete with white-nationalist propaganda and mentioned stirring controversy around the U.S. gun-control debate as one motive for the massacre.Sanders, who was criticized by Hillary Clinton during the 2016 Democratic primaries for being too moderate on the issue of gun control, has in recent years embraced the Democratic establishment's insistence on banning assault rifles outright.Senator Chris Murphy (D., Conn.), who has helped lead Democrats' gun-control efforts since the Sandy Hook massacre, also praised Ardern's swift action in a Thursday tweet.> See. It’s not that hard. https://t.co/6nTAYmHjnb> > -- Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) March 21, 2019

Ex-President Temer to give testimony in Brazil after arrest

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian federal police expect to take testimony from ex-President Michel Temer and his former Cabinet minister Wellington Moreira Franco on Friday, a day after both were arrested as part of the country's sprawling Car Wash corruption probe.

Mideast anger over Trump's Golan vow 'breaking international law'

Syria, its allies, and fellow states in the region Friday condemned US President Donald Trump's pledge to recognise Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights slamming the move as a violation of international law. Trump said Thursday it was time for Washington to recognise Israel's sovereignty over the strategic territory, which it seized from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and annexed in a move never recognised internationally. Any such move would break with UN Security Council resolutions and with more than half a century of US foreign policy, which treated the Golan as occupied territory whose future would be negotiated in talks with Syria on a comprehensive peace.

JetBlue pilots who drugged and raped flight attendants continued working for airline without repercussion, lawsuit says

Three female flight attendants claim they were drugged and two of them raped by two JetBlue pilots during a layover in Puerto Rico, a new lawsuit filed this week in New York federal court has claimed. At least one of the female flight attendants said she was forced to work with one of the accused pilots after the alleged rape. After making their way to a beach in Puerto Rico near the hotel they were staying during their layover in May of last year, the women were offered sips from one of the flight attendant’s alcoholic beverages.

Why is the Dow falling? Banks and tech stocks drag down market on Wall Street

U.S. stocks moved broadly lower on Wall Street Friday, dragged down by banks and industrial companies.

The Latest: Minnesota to help Nebraska flood fight

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Latest on Midwest flooding (all times local):

USC Just Named a New President. Here's What She Said About the Admissions Scandal

"I am not afraid about taking on challenges," Carol Folt said.

New Zealand’s swift change to gun laws highlights 25 years of US inaction

Sweeping new ban that came just six days after mass shooting in Christchurch is a stark contrast to the political stalemate in the USVigil at Forsyth Barr Stadium on Thursday in Dunedin, New Zealand for 50 people killed when a gunman opened fire at the Al Noor and Linwood mosques in Christchurch on 15 March. Photograph: Dianne Manson/Getty ImagesNew Zealand’s sweeping new ban on a range of semi-automatic rifles and large ammunition magazines, which came just six days after a mass shooting in Christchurch, has been hailed as the “fastest response ever by a government after a tragedy”.In the US, where conservative politicians have blocked even moderate gun control for 25 years, New Zealand’s swift action was greeted as a powerful inspiration – and a reminder of how far behind the country is.“Sandy Hook happened six years ago and we can’t even get the Senate to hold a vote on universal background checks,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York congresswoman, wrote on Twitter, referring to the 2012 shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, that left 20 children and six educators dead.> Sandy Hook happened 6 years ago and we can’t even get the Senate to hold a vote on universal background checks w/ HR8. > > Christchurch happened, and within days New Zealand acted to get weapons of war out of the consumer market. > > This is what leadership looks like ⬇️ https://t.co/TcdR63anBt> > — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 21, 2019“This is what leadership looks like,” David Hogg, one of the students from Parkland, Florida, who founded the March for Our Lives movement for gun control after a shooting at their school last February, tweeted, sharing a video of the announcement by New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern.Some Democratic presidential candidates have already pledged to support a ban on assault weapons – though one that would probably be much more limited that New Zealand’s.“We must follow New Zealand’s lead, take on the NRA and ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons in the United States,” tweeted the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate who has been attacked for his mixed record on gun control in the past.“We had an assault weapons ban once, and we should have it again,” Senator Kamala Harris of California, tweeted a few days after the Christchurch attacks. “These weapons of war do not belong on our streets, in our schools, or at our houses of worship. This is a fight I will take on as president.”Pro-gun activists in the United States said that New Zealand’s aggressive action to ban ownership of previously legal guns, and enact a mandatory buyback, would never be viable in the United States.“The US isn’t New Zealand,” Dana Loesch, a prominent gun rights activist and National Rifle Association spokeswoman, tweeted. “They do not have an inalienable right to bear arms and to self-defense, we do.”In another tweet, she wrote: “To ‘follow these examples’ the US would need to repeal the Second Amendment, ban all semi-auto, force gun stores to show all purchases to gov’t, and spend $200 million taxpayer dollars to confiscate firearms.”> I sure see a lot of people who like to say "nobody is coming for your guns" celebrating this confiscation effort. https://t.co/e3quZ8v7gi> > — Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) March 21, 2019Rebecca Peters, who helped lead the successful campaign to reform Australia’s gun laws in the 1990s, said she believed New Zealand’s government action was the “fastest response ever” by government officials after a mass shooting.It took the British government seven months after the massacre of 16 children in Dunblane, Scotland, in March 1996, to announce a partial ban on handguns, which parents of the children had demanded as part of the Snowdrop Campaign. It took the Australian government 10 days after the Port Arthur massacre in April 1996 to announce the National Firearms Agreement.New Zealand announced the new ban on military-style weapons – one with broad support from the prime minister and the opposition – after only six days. “It’s a small parliament. It’s a small country. And obviously, they have very high support for it,” Peters said.In a press conference on Thursday, Ardern promised increased penalties for continued ownership of the banned weapons. New Zealand’s minister of police said police were “gearing up” to enable military-style weapons to be taken out of circulation. Police will be supported by the New Zealand defense force, he said, and would consult gun licensing records.Ardern promised the country would continue to consider broader gun control measures on Monday, including issues such as licensing, registration and storage.New Zealand’s swift action is a stark contrast to the political stalemate in the US, where conservative politicians have blocked any substantial gun control laws for 25 years, despite frequent high-casualty mass shootings.The US’s last substantial action on gun control, in 1994, was a federal ban on military-style “assault weapons”. But the ban was written to expire in 10 years, and did not require Americans who already owned military-style guns to give up their weapons – it simply tried to regulate the manufacture and sale of new guns.When it expired in 2004, an in-depth evaluation of the loophole-ridden legislation found that it could not be clearly credited with any of the nation’s drop in violence. The consensus among Democratic politicians was that the ban had backfired politically against their party, and that gun control was not a winning issue for the American left. They largely abandoned the issue for more than a decade.Since the ban lifted, military-style rifles have become popular high-end acquisitions for American gun owners, and have become popular for target shooting, even as they have become infamous as the mass shooter’s weapon of choice. Some gun rights advocates argue that military-style rifles are necessary for self-defense, including self-defense in the home.While there are restrictions on “assault weapons” in some parts of the US, in many places today, Americans can buy an AR-15-style rifle before they are legally allowed to buy a beer.

Robert Kraft's plea deal offer for prostitution charges hinders real progress on sex trafficking

Those who buy sex have more power and privilege than those who sell it. There's a disgusting imbalance in every commercial sex interaction.

Who was Renty? The story of the slave whose racist photos have triggered a lawsuit against Harvard

The photos of Renty and his daughter Delia, taken in nude in 1850 against their will for a Harvard University professor, are now the subject of a lawsuit that Tamara Lanier has filed this week.

Trump’s McCain Insults Stir Republicans’ Better Angels

“I can’t understand why the President would, once again, disparage a man as exemplary as my friend John McCain: heroic, courageous, patriotic, honorable, self-effacing, self-sacrificing, empathetic, and driven by duty to family, country, and God,” Romney wondered on Twitter. Just three years ago, Romney had more clarity. “I’m far from the first to conclude that Donald Trump lacks the temperament to be president.

Economic gloom hits world stock markets

Worries about economic growth prospects hit global stock markets on Friday, causing sharp price drops on both sides of the Atlantic.

Pompeo, in Israel, says Hezbollah putting Lebanon at risk

Pompeo, who has been on a regional tour to promote the Trump administration's hard tack against Iran, received a warning from Israel, which worries it may again be in the sights of Hezbollah fighters winding down their intervention in Syria's civil war. Washington also has been increasingly voicing concern at Hezbollah power, echoing Israel, whose forces were fought to a standstill by the militia in a 2006 Lebanon war. Hosting Pompeo at his office, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri "cannot say to anyone that Lebanon is separate from Hezbollah" - a reference to the group's clout in Beirut where it has ministers in the coalition cabinet as well as lawmakers in parliament.

Indonesian airline wants to cancel Boeing order after crash

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — In a blow for Boeing, Indonesia's flag carrier is seeking the cancellation of a multibillion dollar order for 49 of the manufacturer's 737 Max 8 jets, citing a loss of confidence after two crashes within five months.

Correction: Southern Flood Threat story

In a story March 21 about the U.S. flooding outlook, The Associated Press misspelled the last name of a weather forecaster. He is Kevin Low, not Lao.

Mosque massacre funerals resume with teen laid to rest

A teenager who dreamed of playing in goal for Manchester United was among the latest victims of New Zealand's twin mosque massacre to be buried as funerals resumed Thursday. Hundreds of mourners, including many schoolchildren, gathered for an emotional farewell to Sayyad Milne, a 14-year-old football-mad youngster who was among the 50 people who died in last Friday's rampage by a white supremacist. Sayyad's father John Milne said his son was gunned down while praying at Al Noor, the first of the two mosques attacked last Friday allegedly by Australian national Brenton Tarrant.

Justice Clarence Thomas breaks three-year silence in Mississippi case about racial bias in jury selection

The Supreme Court's senior justice, who seldom speaks during oral argument, broke a three-year silence to ask questions in a race discrimination case.

Love it or Hate it?: China Is Studying Russia's New Su-57 Stealth Fighter

The Su-57's overall capability is "not bad at all," Global Times paraphrased Wang as saying.

Trump signs executive order promoting free speech in higher ed. after complaints from conservatives

President Trump signed an executive order to “improve Transparency and Promote Free Speech In Higher Ed.” The order comes after complaints from conservatives that college campuses are against right-leaning views and speakers.

Latam critics of Venezuela's Maduro meet in Chile; try to launch regional bloc

Maduro was not among the leaders invited to meet in the Chilean capital Santiago on Friday to discuss forming a new regional political group called "Prosur." Heads of state from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru will join the summit, with Chile and Colombia looking to sign countries up to the new political bloc after criticism over Unasur's lack of action on the Venezuela. Some leaders have criticized the organizers for leaving out Maduro and instead inviting Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, recognized by many countries as the interim leader.

Brexit End Likely to Be Based on a Customs Union, JPMorgan Says

(Bloomberg) -- The realities of the Brexit situation indicate that the U.K. is going to end up with “something that’s founded on a customs union” with the European Union, according to Karen Ward, chief market strategist for Europe, Middle East and Africa at JPMorgan Asset Management.

Markets Right Now: Stocks, yields drop on growth worries

NEW YORK (AP) — The latest on developments in financial markets (all times local):

Australian PM welcomes 'moderation' from Turkey's Erdogan

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday welcomed some "moderation" in President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's comments in the wake of the Christchurch massacre. Trying to take the sting out of a diplomatic row that has threatened relations between Australia, New Zealand and Turkey, Morrison pointed to a recent Erdogan column in the Washington Post as progress. "Overnight, progress has been made on this issue and overnight we've already seen a moderation of the president's views," Morrison said, citing the article in which Erdogan stepped away from direct criticism of New Zealand.

Catholic Church scandal: 395 Illinois priests, deacons accused of sexual misconduct

A report identifies 395 Catholic clergy members in Illinois who have been accused of sexual misconduct.

More Misconceptions about College

Now that we’ve all had a good airing of grievances about elite colleges and their attendant injustices, let’s get some perspective.While the numbers of high-school graduates heading off to college have increased in recent years, the percentages graduating with a four-year degree have not increased much. Many students, especially those who are the first in their families to attend college, drop out before receiving a degree. (They cannot drop out of student-loan payments, though.)Data from the Lumina Foundation show that among Americans aged 25–64, 52.4 percent have no more than a high-school diploma (though 15.4 percent of them attended college for a while). An additional 5.2 percent received a certificate of some kind, and 9.2 percent obtained an associate’s degree. What most people think of when you say “college” is a four-year institution. Only 21.1 percent received bachelor’s degrees, and another 12.2 percent also earned graduate degrees. Adding the last two categories brings the fraction of Americans with college or graduate degrees to just over one-third.While most of the conversation in the past week has focused on highly selective colleges such as Yale and Penn, it’s important to remember that only a small number of America’s colleges are selective. As FiveThirtyEight has reported, more than 75 percent of undergrads attend colleges that accept at least half of all applicants. The number who attend selective colleges -- i.e., schools that accept 25 percent or fewer — is just 4 percent. And the number who attend schools in the very top tier, colleges that reject 90 percent or more, can be counted on your fingers and toes. You can probably guess most of them. (Though not all. On this U.S. News list, Pomona College came in at No. 11, and the Minerva Schools at Keck Graduate Institute came in first.) Less than 1 percent of college students attend these elite schools.Most students attend commuter schools, which tend to be community colleges. Even among those at four-year institutions, almost 25 percent attend part-time. Half of college students are also working, not getting plastered at frat parties.There’s a healthy debate in policy circles about whether our current cultural preoccupation with college for all is a good thing. Some people who are funneled toward college might be a better fit for vocational training, apprenticeships, or other life paths; and while there is no doubt about the association between college completion and higher income, there is uncertainty about the causal relationship.Rather than gnash our collective teeth about whether Jason or Jessica can get into MIT, we might want to focus on all students, those who are headed for college and those who are not. Every student in elementary and high school should be learning about the “success sequence.” The phrase was introduced by Isabel Sawhill and Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institution and has lately been reinforced with a study by W. Bradford Wilcox and Wendy Wang of the Institute for Family Studies.What they’ve found is that students have it within their power to virtually guarantee a middle- or upper-class income if they follow three steps. Those three basics are 1) finish high school, 2) get a full-time job, and 3) get married before having children. Young people who follow all three steps have only a 3 percent likelihood of living in poverty when they reach young adulthood. Eighty-six percent of Millennials who put marriage first had incomes in the middle or upper third, compared with 53 percent who had children before marriage. The success sequence works for those born into poverty, too. Seventy-one percent of Millennials who grew up in the bottom third of the income distribution were in the middle or upper third by young adulthood if they followed the three steps. Among African Americans, 76 percent who followed the success sequence achieved the middle class or above, and among Hispanics, the percentage was 81 percent.With all of the emphasis on a tiny sliver of the top 1 percent of students, most young people can get the impression that they are doomed to a lesser life. In fact, avoiding a few pitfalls like dropping out of high school, having a baby out of wedlock, and failing to find employment is a ticket to success.There’s a bias among writer types to pay attention to Princeton and Columbia. But that’s not really where the action is in helping most Americans.© 2019 Creators.com

Dem long shot John Delaney wants to take on the 'bully' in the White House

Neither of his parents went to college, and it was a scholarship from his father’s labor union that helped fund his attendance at Columbia University.

Jury finding upends Bayer's Roundup defense strategy: experts

Bayer shares tumbled more than 12 percent on Wednesday after a unanimous jury in San Francisco federal court found Roundup to be a "substantial factor" in causing California resident Edwin Hardeman's non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The jury decision was a blow to Bayer after the judge in the Hardeman case, at the company's request, had split the trial, severely limiting evidence plaintiffs could present in the first phase. Tuesday's defeat on terms considered advantageous to Bayer sets up the second phase to be even tougher and limits the grounds on which the company could appeal any final verdict, the experts said.

Reports: Boeing will add warning light to aid pilots after Ethiopian 737 Max crash

The warning light will become standard equipment. Previously, it was an option

CNN takes over a week to report Covington lawsuit

What happened to 'facts first'? Reaction from former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino.

Energy giants spent $1bn on climate lobbying, PR since Paris: watchdog

The five largest publicly listed oil and gas majors have spent $1 billion since the 2015 Paris climate deal on public relations or lobbying that is "overwhelmingly in conflict" with the landmark accord's goals, a watchdog said Friday. Despite outwardly committing to support the Paris agreement and its aim to limit global temperature rises, ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, BP and Total spend a total of $200 million a year on efforts "to operate and expand fossil fuel operations," according to InfluenceMap, a pro-transparency monitor. Two of the companies -- Shell and Chevron -- said they rejected the watchdog's findings.

Ex-cop says he thought he saw a gun when he shot black teen

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A white former police officer said Thursday he thought a weapon was pointed at him when he shot and killed an unarmed black teenager outside Pittsburgh last summer.

Facebook Stopped Bangladeshi Ad Farm Targeting Utah in Midterms

Political news in a Utah congressional district wasn’t coming from inside the U.S. -- a mismatch Facebook had tuned its software algorithms to detect. A data scientist in the election-monitoring center at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California, inspected the activity manually and discovered, at 11:47 a.m., that the source spreading the content was an ad farm in Bangladesh. The slides, viewed by Bloomberg News, show in detail how Facebook has improved its process for rooting out bad actors using tactics similar to those Russian operatives used in 2016.

President Trump's latest executive order is a shot in the campus free speech wars

But while Trump’s order is a clear declaration he agrees with conservative concerns about America’s colleges, it’s not clear what actual effect the move will have in academia.

New Zealand bans assault weapons within days of massacre

New Zealand imposed a ban on assault weapons Thursday, moving swiftly following the Christchurch massacre and triggering renewed calls from leading American politicians for gun controls in the United States. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said assault rifles and semi-automatic weapons were now banned with immediate effect, making good on a pledge to the country of the military-style weapons used in last week's slaughter of 50 people.

Are pilots outside the U.S. getting the training needed to fly jets, including Boeing 737 Max 8?

Two Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashes in less than five months have prompted questions from aviation experts about the training of pilots for foreign airlines.