Actress Felicity Huffman to plead guilty to U.S. college cheating scam

BOSTON (Reuters) - Actress Felicity Huffman is due to plead guilty on Monday to paying to have someone cheat on her daughter’s behalf on a college entrance exam, part of a wide-ranging scandal in which wealthy parents used bribery and fraud to secure their children spots at prominent U.S. universities. The onetime star of the television series “Desperate Housewives” is set to plead guilty in Boston federal court to a conspiracy charge for paying $15,000 to have someone secretly correct her daughter’s SAT college entrance exam answers.

She is among 50 people accused of taking part in a scheme that involved cheating or bribery. Wealthy parents paid $25 million to bribe coaches to help their children gain spots at universities like Yale, Georgetown and University of Southern California. William “Rick” Singer, a California college admissions consultant, pleaded guilty in March to charges that he facilitated the cheating and helped bribe coaches to present their children as fake athletic recruits. Twenty people so far have agreed to plead guilty since officials carried out a wave of arrests under the code name “Operation Varsity Blues” on March 12. Prosecutors have said the investigation is ongoing.

Huffman is scheduled to plead guilty alongside another parent charged in the case, California businessman Devin Sloane, who prosecutors said paid Singer $250,000 to help his oldest son gain admission to USC as a purported water polo recruit.

Prosecutors have charged 33 parents with participating in the scheme with Singer, including Huffman, who was nominated for an Oscar for best actress for her role in 2005’s “Transamerica,” and Lori Loughlin, who starred in the TV series “Full House.” Prosecutors said Huffman, 56, made a $15,000 contribution to Singer’s foundation in exchange for having an associate of Singer’s in 2017 secretly correct her daughter’s answers on an SAT college entrance exam at a test center Singer controlled. Huffman, who is married to the actor William H. Macy, said in an April statement her daughter “knew absolutely nothing about my actions, and in my misguided and profoundly wrong way, I have betrayed her.” Prosecutors agreed to recommend a prison term at the “low end” of the four to 10 months Huffman faces under federal sentencing guidelines. Loughlin has pleaded not guilty to charges that she and her husband agreed with Singer to pay $500,000 to have their two daughters named as recruits to USC’s crew team, even though they did not row.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-education-cheating/actress-felicity-huffman-to-plead-guilty-to-u-s-college-cheating-scam-idUSKCN1SJ0XO

Exclusive: Amazon rolls out machines that pack orders and replace jobs

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc is rolling out machines to automate a job held by thousands of its workers: boxing up customer orders. The company started adding technology to a handful of warehouses in recent years, which scans goods coming down a conveyor belt and envelopes them seconds later in boxes custom-built for each item, two people who worked on the project told Reuters.

Amazon has considered installing two machines at dozens more warehouses, removing at least 24 roles at each one, these people said. These facilities typically employ more than 2,000 people. That would amount to more than 1,300 cuts across 55 U.S. fulfillment centers for standard-sized inventory. Amazon would expect to recover the costs in under two years, at $1 million per machine plus operational expenses, they said. The plan, previously unreported, shows how Amazon is pushing to reduce labor and boost profits as automation of the most common warehouse task – picking up an item – is still beyond its reach. The changes are not finalized because vetting technology before a major deployment can take a long time.

Robot rollout Amazon is famous for its drive to automate as many parts of its business as possible, whether pricing goods or transporting items in its warehouses. But the company is in a precarious position as it considers replacing jobs that have won it subsidies and public goodwill. “We are piloting this new technology with the goal of increasing safety, speeding up delivery times and adding efficiency across our network,” an Amazon spokeswoman said in a statement. “We expect the efficiency savings will be re-invested in new services for customers, where new jobs will continue to be created.” Amazon last month downplayed its automation efforts to press visiting its Baltimore fulfillment center, saying a fully robotic future was far off. Its employee base has grown to become one of the largest in the United States, as the company opened new warehouses and raised wages to attract staff in a tight labor market.

A key to its goal of a leaner workforce is attrition, one of the sources said. Rather than lay off workers, the person said, the world’s largest online retailer will one day refrain from refilling packing roles. Those have high turnover because boxing multiple orders per minute over 10 hours is taxing work. At the same time, employees that stay with the company can be trained to take up more technical roles. The new machines, known as the CartonWrap from Italian firm CMC Srl, pack much faster than humans. They crank out 600 to 700 boxes per hour, or four to five times the rate of a human packer, the sources said. The machines require one person to load customer orders, another to stock cardboard and glue and a technician to fix jams on occasion. CMC declined to comment.

Though Amazon has announced it intends to speed up shipping across its Prime loyalty program, this latest round of automation is not focused on speed. “It’s truly about efficiency and savings,” one of the people said. Including other machines known as the “SmartPac,” which the company rolled out recently to mail items in patented envelopes, Amazon’s technology suite will be able to automate a majority of its human packers. Five rows of workers at a facility can turn into two, supplemented by two CMC machines and one SmartPac, the person said. The company describes this as an effort to “re-purpose” workers, the person said. It could not be learned where roles might disappear first and what incentives, if any, are tied to those specific jobs. But the hiring deals that Amazon has with governments are often generous. For the 1,500 jobs Amazon announced last year in Alabama, for instance, the state promised the company $48.7 million over 10 years, its department of commerce said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-automation-exclusive/exclusive-amazon-rolls-out-machines-that-pack-orders-and-replace-jobs-idUSKCN1SJ0X1

Sweden reopens Assange rape investigation, to seek extradition

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden reopened an investigation into a rape allegation against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Monday and will seek his extradition from Britain, potentially delaying efforts by the United States to bring him to its courts to face trial over a huge release of secret documents.

Deputy Chief Prosecutor Eva-Marie Persson told a news conference she would continue a preliminary investigation that was dropped in 2017 without charges being brought because Assange had taken refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in London. Assange was arrested in Britain last month after spending seven years hiding inside the embassy. The United States is also seeking his extradition on conspiracy charges relating to the public release by Wikileaks of a cache of secret documents, including assessments of foreign leaders, wars and security matters. The Swedish prosecutor said it would request Assange be detained in his absence on probable cause for an allegation of rape and that it would issue a European arrest warrant - the process under which his extradition would be sought.

The 47-year-old Australian - who denies the allegations - is currently in a London prison serving 50 weeks behind bars for jumping bail when he fled to the Ecuadorean embassy in 2012. The decision to reopen the investigation poses the question of whether Assange will be moved to Sweden or to the United States. “I am well aware of the fact that an extradition process is ongoing in the UK and that he could be extradited to the US,” Persson said.

A British judge has given the U.S. government a deadline of June 12 to outline its case against Assange. The statute of limitation for rape in Sweden is 10 years - a deadline which would be reached in mid-August next year for the alleged incident involving Assange, leaving prosecutors pressed for time should they decide to file any formal charge.

“Everything depends on how this will be handled by the British authorities and courts,” said Mark Klamberg, a professor of international law at Stockholm University. “There is a possibility, or risk depending on how you see it, that this is going to take a long time,” he said, adding that a U.S. extradition of Assange would likely rule out him being tried in Sweden due to the statute of limitation. Assange’s supporters cast him as a dissident facing the wrath of a superpower over one of the largest compromises of classified information in U.S. history.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-wikileaks-assange-sweden-prosecutor/sweden-reopens-assange-rape-investigation-to-seek-extradition-idUSKCN1SJ0UZ

>>6486883

Indeed, it is.

Bed Bath & Beyond CEO Steven Temares steps down

(Reuters) - Bed Bath & Beyond Inc said on Monday Steven Temares has stepped down as chief executive officer, effective immediately. Mary Winston, currently a board member, was named as interim CEO, the company said.

An investor group, comprising Legion Partners Asset Management LLC, Macellum Advisors GP LLC and Ancora Advisors LLC, had been urging the company since March to replace Temares.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bed-bath-ceo/bed-bath-beyond-ceo-steven-temares-steps-down-idUSKCN1SJ19C?il=0

China says will 'never surrender' on trade, Trump warns against retaliation

WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday warned Beijing not to retaliate in an escalating trade dispute after China said it “will never surrender to external pressure.” The trade war between the world’s top two economies heightened on Friday after Trump hiked tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, saying China reneged on earlier commitments made during months of negotiations.

Beijing vowed to respond to the latest U.S. tariffs. “As for the details, please continue to pay attention. Copying a U.S. expression - wait and see,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a daily news briefing on Monday. Trump warned China not to intensify the trade dispute and urged their leaders to continue working to reach a deal. “China should not retaliate-will only get worse,” he said on Twitter. “I say openly to President Xi & all of my many friends in China that China will be hurt very badly if you don’t make a deal because companies will be forced to leave China for other countries,” Trump wrote. Global equities fell on Monday as hopes of an imminent trade deal were crushed.

The Republican U.S. president last week also ordered U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to begin imposing tariffs on all remaining imports from China, a move that would affect an additional $300 billion worth of goods. Asked about the threat, Geng said: “We have said many times that adding tariffs won’t resolve any problem … We have the confidence and the ability to protect our lawful and legitimate rights.” Chinese state media kept up a steady drum beat of strongly worded commentary on Monday, reiterating that China’s door to talks was always open, but vowing to defend the country’s interests and dignity. In a commentary, state television said the effect on the Chinese economy from the U.S. tariffs was “totally controllable.” “It’s no big deal. China is bound to turn crisis to opportunity and use this to test its abilities, to make the country even stronger.”

Before high-level talks last week in Washington, China tried to delete commitments from a draft agreement that Chinese laws would be changed to enact new policies on issues from intellectual property protection to forced technology transfers. That dealt a major setback to negotiations. Trump has since defended the tariff hike and said he was in “absolutely no rush” to finalize a deal. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Sunday there was a “strong possibility” Trump will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at a G20 summit in Japan in late June.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china/china-says-will-never-surrender-on-trade-trump-warns-against-retaliation-idUSKCN1SI0B8?il=0

China to impose tariffs on $60 billion of U.S. goods

HONG KONG (Reuters) - China plans to impose tariffs on $60 billion worth of U.S. goods, the finance ministry said on Monday, after the United States escalated a bitter trade war with a tariff hike on $200 billion of Chinese products. China will impose tariffs on a total of 5,140 U.S. products from June 1, the ministry said in a statement on Monday.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china-tariffs/china-to-impose-tariffs-on-60-billion-of-u-s-goods-idUSKCN1SJ1AM?il=0

>>6486949

I say let it rip! Kek!

WikiLeaks says Swedish investigation gives Assange a chance to clear his name

LONDON (Reuters) - The reopening of a Swedish investigation into a rape allegation against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will give him a chance to clear his name, WikiLeaks said on Monday.

“Since Julian Assange was arrested on 11 April 2019, there has been considerable political pressure on Sweden to reopen their investigation, but there has always been political pressure surrounding this case,” Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks’ editor-in-chief said in a statement. “Its reopening will give Julian a chance to clear his name,” Hrafnsson said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-wikileaks-assange-sweden-prosecutor-h/wikileaks-says-swedish-investigation-gives-assange-a-chance-to-clear-his-name-idUSKCN1SJ0TI?il=0

And then there was light: Cardinal breaks law to restore power for homeless

ROME (Reuters) - A close aide to Pope Francis has drawn the ire of Italy’s anti-immigrant Interior Minister Matteo Salvini by climbing down a manhole to restore electricity to hundreds of homeless people living in an occupied building. Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, 55, whose job is to distribute the pope’s charity funds, went to the disused state-owned building near a Rome cathedral on Saturday night and broke a police seal to re-connect electrical circuit breakers.

To some, he was a hero of sorts by Monday morning as the news went viral. Rome’s left-leaning La Repubblica newspaper ran a banner headline calling him “The Pope’s Robin Hood” and praising him for doing the right thing under the circumstances. “What can I say? It was a particularly desperate situation. I repeat: I assume all the responsibility. If a fine arrives, I’ll pay it,” Krajewski said in an interview in Corriere della Sera newspaper on Monday.

The building has been occupied since 2013 by Italians who had lost their homes and migrants. It houses some 450 people, including about 100 children. It had been without power since May 6 because some 300,000 euro in electricity bills had not been paid.

“Defending illegality is never a good sign,” Salvini, who has often clashed with the pope on migration and other social issues, told reporters on Monday. “There are many Italians and even legal immigrants who pay their bills, even if with difficulty. People can do what they please but as interior minister, I guarantee the rules.”

Krajewski, who rides around Rome on a bicycle, said he would pay the building’s electricity bills from now on but that for him, the issue went beyond money. “There are children there. The first thing to ask is ‘why are they there? What is the reason? How is it possible that families are in such a situation” he told Corriere.

Krajewski, a Pole, was already a minor celebrity in Rome. Since the pope named him to the Vatican charity job in 2013, he became known for dressing down into simple layman’s clothes at night and bringing food the city’s homeless in a white van. He was also responsible for opening shelters near the Vatican were the homeless can wash, get haircuts, and receive medical care.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-homeless-cardinal/and-then-there-was-light-cardinal-breaks-law-to-restore-power-for-homeless-idUSKCN1SJ1C5?il=0