Russian investigators say plane crash death toll rises to 41

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian authorities said late on Sunday that 41 people died when a Sukhoi Superjet 100 crash-landed at Moscow Sheremetyevo airport.

“There were 78 people on board, including crew members,” the Russian Investigative Committee said in a statement on its website.

“According to updated information, 37 out of them survived.” Earlier on Sunday, the investigators said 13 people had been killed in the plane crash.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-plane/russian-investigators-say-plane-crash-death-toll-rises-to-41-idUSKCN1SB0IK

Boeing did not disclose 737 MAX alert issue to FAA for 13 months

CHICAGO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co (BA.N) did not tell U.S. regulators for more than a year that it inadvertently made an alarm alerting pilots to a mismatch of flight data optional on the 737 MAX, instead of standard as on earlier 737s, but insisted on Sunday the missing display represented no safety risk. The U.S. planemaker has been trying for weeks to dispel suggestions that it made airlines pay for safety features after it emerged that an alert designed to show discrepancies in Angle of Attack readings from two sensors was optional on the 737 MAX.

Erroneous data from a sensor responsible for measuring the angle at which the wing slices through the air - known as the Angle of Attack - is suspected of triggering a flawed piece of software that pushed the plane downward in two recent crashes. In a statement, Boeing said it only discovered once deliveries of the 737 MAX had begun in 2017 that the so-called AOA Disagree alert was optional instead of standard as it had intended, but added that was not critical safety data.

A Federal Aviation Administration official told Reuters on Sunday that Boeing waited 13 months before informing the agency in November 2018. By becoming optional, the alert had been treated in the same way as a separate indicator showing raw AOA data, which is seldom used by commercial pilots and had been an add-on for years.

“Neither the angle of attack indicator nor the AOA Disagree alert are necessary for the safe operation of the airplane,” Boeing said. “They provide supplemental information only, and have never been considered safety features on commercial jet transport airplanes.”

Boeing said a Safety Review Board convened after a fatal Lion Air crash in Indonesia last October corroborated its prior conclusion that the alert was not necessary for the safe operation of commercial aircraft and could safely be tackled in a future system update. The FAA backed that assessment but criticized Boeing for being slow to disclose the problem. Boeing briefed the FAA on the display issue in November, after the Lion Air accident, and a special panel deemed it to be “low risk,” an FAA spokesman said. “However, Boeing’s timely or earlier communication with the operators would have helped to reduce or eliminate possible confusion,” he added. Boeing attributed the error to software delivered to the company from an outside source, but did not give details.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-airplane-boeing/boeing-did-not-disclose-737-max-alert-issue-to-faa-for-13-months-idUSKCN1SB0JC?il=0

Sri Lanka police discover suspected training camp for Islamist militants

KATTANKUDY (Reuters) - Sri Lankan police on Sunday discovered a 10-acre camp in the eastern town of Kattankudy, where Islamist militants linked to the deadly Easter attacks are believed to have practiced shooting and bombmaking. The walled terrain is nestled in a poor residential area on the outskirts of the home town of Zahran Hashim, who is believed to have been a key player in plotting the April 21 attacks. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the church and hotel bombings that killed more than 250 people.

The narrow, sandy plot is dotted with a cinderblock four-storey watchtower, as well as mango trees, a chicken coop and a goat shed. “They wanted to show this place was normal. If someone comes to see, it looks like a farm. But what they were doing is terrorism,” said a senior police officer in the Batticaloa area, asking to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak to media. Police found bullet holes in the wall on one side of the grounds, as well as long tubes suspected of holding bombs, the officer said. Two owners of the plot of land have been arrested, the officer said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sri-lanka-blasts-camp/sri-lanka-police-discover-suspected-training-camp-for-islamist-militants-idUSKCN1SB0HU?il=0

Russia's Lavrov urges U.S. to cancel plans to oust Venezuela's Maduro

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday that Russia condemns what he called a campaign to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, arranged by the United States, and urged Washington to cancel its “irresponsible” plans.

Lavrov made his statements at the start of a meeting with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza in Moscow. Lavrov is traveling on Monday to Finland, where he is expected to hold rare face-to-face talks with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-venezuela/russias-lavrov-urges-u-s-to-cancel-plans-to-oust-venezuelas-maduro-idUSKCN1SB0I0?il=0

>>6423609

Indeed, this guy is downright creepy

James Comey defends FBI use of 'limited tools' in Trump-Russia investigation

Former FBI Director James Comey fiercely defended the bureau's counterintelligence investigation into President Trump's 2016 campaign after the New York Times reported on Thursday the FBI sent an undercover investigator to meet with a Trump campaign adviser. During an interview with a Los Angeles radio station, Comey argued the FBI's actions, which have come under fire by GOP investigators concerned about a politically motivated operation to undermine Trump, were restrained and even flawless.

“Really? What would you have the FBI do? We discover in the middle of June of 2016 that the Russians were engaged in a massive effort to mess with this democracy to interfere in the election. We're focused on that and at the end of July we learn that a Trump campaign adviser — two months earlier, before any of this was public — had talked to a Russian representative about the fact that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton and wanted to arrange to share it with the Trump campaign,” Comey told KNX 1070 AM on Friday. "What should the FBI do when it gets that information? It should investigate to figure out whether any Americans are hooked up with this massive interference effort," he added. "And that's what we did. And as I said earlier, we should have been fired if we didn't. And Republicans ought to breath into a paper bag. There's no way you would do other than what we did, which was use limited tools to try to understand: Is this true? And that's what the investigation was about."

Comey oversaw the FBI when the bureau began its original counterintelligence investigation, called Crossfire Hurricane, in July 2016. It was prompted by Australian diplomat Alexander Downer informing the FBI that Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos told him Russia had stolen emails related to Hillary Clinton, Trump's Democratic rival in the 2016 election. The Times report revealed that a woman who said her name was Azra Turk posed as an assistant to Stefan Halper, an American professor at Cambridge University and informant for the FBI looking into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Turk asked Papadopoulos point blank if Trump's campaign was working with the Russians at a bar in London in September 2016.

Calling the timing of the Times report "no coincidence," Rep. Mark Meadows, a lead GOP investigator, said the "leaks" show the FBI feels threatened by an investigation by Attorney General William Barr into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation. Barr, who recently said "spying did occur" on Trump's presidential team, testified last week that he is "working very closely” with Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who has been looking into possible Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuse. The FBI not only used undercover informants to keep tabs on Trump campaign officials with suspicious ties to Russia, but also electronic surveillance.

In February 2018, the House Intelligence Committee, then led by Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., released a memo asserting the so-called Trump dossier, which contained unverified claims about Trump's ties to Russia, was used by the FBI to help obtain a FISA warrant and three renewals to spy on one-time Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. But key information, including its author's anti-Trump bias and Democratic benefactors, was left out. Republicans have often cited the use of the dossier as misinformation used to improperly monitor Trump and his campaign during the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election while Democrats argued in a rebuttal memo that the FISA process was not abused and the Justice Department and FBI "met the rigor, transparency, and evidentiary basis needed to meet FISA's probable cause requirement." GOP outrage over alleged spy abuse extends all the way up to the White House. In a recent interview on Fox News, Trump said Comey, whom he fired from the FBI in May 2017, "probably was one of the people leading the effort on spying" on his 2016 campaign and hinted at a coming document release that would expose the truth. Comey has vehemently disagreed with the use of the word "spying" to describe the FBI's efforts. "When I hear that kind of language used, it’s concerning because the FBI, the Department of Justice conduct court-ordered electronic surveillance,” Comey said at the Hewlett Foundation's Verify Conference last month. “I have never thought of that as spying.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/james-comey-defends-fbi-use-of-limited-tools-in-trump-russia-investigation

Leaked Transcript of Loretta Lynch’s Testimony on Pre-Exoneration Tarmac Meeting With Bill Clinton Shows He Was ‘Strangely Eager’ to Speak to Her

Real Clear Investigation’s Eric Felten obtained a copy of the still unreleased transcript of then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s Congressional testimony about her infamous tarmac meeting with Bill Clinton. On the evening of Monday, June 27, 2016, between 7 and 8 pm, Clinton made his way onto Lynch’s private plane which had recently landed at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. Four days later, on Friday, July 1st, Hillary Clinton was interviewed by FBI agents for 3 1/2 hours about her use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State. The following Tuesday, July 5th, then-FBI Director James Comey held a press conference during which he recounted Hillary Clinton’s many violations of the law, before making the stunning announcement that he was clearing the former first lady of wrongdoing.

Testifying under oath in a closed-door hearing on December 19, 2018 before the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees, Lynch answered questions about her encounter with Clinton. Felten describes it as “both perplexing and preposterous, a story that defies innocent explanation.” The day after their meeting, a reporter questioned Lynch about what she and Bill Clinton had discussed the previous evening. She replied, “Our conversation was a great deal about his grandchildren… It was primarily social, there was no discussion of any matter pending for the [Justice] department or any matter pending for any other body.”

According to Felten, the reality was quite different than the answer she gave to the press. Although spokespeople for the Attorney General tried to characterize it as a “chance” meeting, “it was anything but.” Lynch had just touched down in Phoenix ahead of a meeting scheduled for the next day at a local police station. During her testimony, Lynch “explained there was a standard protocol for getting everyone off the plane. They would always deplane in a series, “security detail first, my staff [next], and then I would leave and go immediately to the car. Security exited, then the staff, all as per normal.” She told lawmakers that, as she and her husband “walked to the door, the head of my security detail came to me and said: ‘Ma’am, I’ve been informed that former President Clinton is also at the airfield and would like to say hello.’” Seconds later, “former President Clinton was standing in the doorway of the plane.”

https://www.redstate.com/elizabeth-vaughn/2019/05/04/leaked-transcript-loretta-lynchs-pre-exoneration-tarmac-meeting-bill-clinton-shows-anxious-speak/